I wonder as I wander.....
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I’d be interested to hear everyone’s ideas about what this team would look like, with the players we have now AND a sophomore Ben McLemore.
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If Ben was still at KU he would be a Junior. Also, if he stayed one extra year, at least a couple of the current players, including Wiggins, would likely not be at KU.
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@nuleafjhawk If Ben were around, you wouldn’t have Wiggins. And I doubt we’d drop performance in any area. It may mean Wayne at 3 while Ben at 2. So we’d have Embiid, Ellis, Selden, McLemore, Tharpe starting while Black, White, Green, Traylor off the bench. I think it’d do great and probably have better record so far into the season.
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@JayHawkFanToo Just to clear things up, I said " with the players we have now " and I believe Ben left after his “freshman” year, even though he had been on campus for two years.
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Last night, as I looked at our offensive efficiency, I fantasized about this a bit as well… what if Ben were on this team!?? What if he didn’t have to take the money and run…?
As @JayHawkFanToo says, if Ben stayed, Wiggins would likely not be at KU.
So, the next question really is, do you take Ben for his (redshirt) sophomore season or Andrew for his freshmen season?
Let me start by saying I have not researched this at all… this is all based on memory… but I suspect they are scoring similar averages at this point in the season. Ben was a beautiful pure shooter, but he made his living with lower percentage shots. Andrew can get his points in a variety of ways and I think he’s getting more points from dunks and layups than Ben did. Plus he’s getting to the foul line more. But the real upside to AW is his defense. And this is not to say that Ben was lacking at D, but AW is so athletic that he’s a superb defender and getting better. I suspect he has more blocks than Ben did and, the 19 rebound night was something special. Wiggins can do it all. Ben did have the chip on his shoulder…
I hate to pick and I’m glad we didn’t have to pick. It all worked out the way it was supposed to
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@JayHawkFanToo, @bskeet and @wishawk … that’s a great point. Wiggins wouldn’t be here. I’d take McLemore because he would have a year under his belt and he’s an elite player.
Actually, I wish we had Ben during his true freshman season when we made it to the title game. On it’s face, we might assume his talent would have pushed us over the edge to a title. But you never know how he would have changed the dynamic.
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Teams would not be able to double the post as they are now, so I think we’d see a little more production out of Embiid. I don’t know that the overall record would be much different.
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During the civil war, what if the North had B52’s.
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@wrwlumpy - Love Shack Baby…
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I kept this as short as I could just for u Nu. This team with Benmac would go undefeated and win a national championship. Period. Next.
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@jaybate 1.0 lol - you don’t have to shorten up anything for me jay, but since you did - thank you! And I wholeheartedly agree with you.
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Tin roof,rusted
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As mentioned by a few others, a sophomore BMac likely means no Wiggins, but hypotheticals are no fun if you let reality get in the way!
I say we’d be undefeated up to this point. A shooter like that would have blown a hole in Florida’s zone, and would have given us at least the few extra points we needed to get past Villanova, San Diego State and Colorado. Up until a week ago, we were getting minimal production from Ben’s position, so having a player of his caliber and experience there would have made a world of difference in our non-con schedule.
Now that Selden has rounded a corner, hopefully we can play at the elite level that this imaginary team played at in my mind!
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There’d be a whole lot more people yelling NBAMac during KU games on Jesse’s live blog if BMac was still here.
There’d be a lot less announcers fawning over Wiggins on KU telecasts.
There’d be no Wilt and Wigs SI cover.
We’d not be discussing this right now.
Ben’s mom would still be waiting for her dream house, so for that, we say, good choice Ben!
