Monday, January 21, 2019

Nikola Maric - Could we be watching an all-time great?

Four years is a long time, of course. Lots of players started well, but didn't finish the course for one reason or another. However, if he should spend four years in Little Rock, Nikola Maric might just end up among the handful of all-time great players to have come through the program. Consider:

He is shooting 55.4% from the field. If he stays there, he would be among the top 12 in FG% for a single season. He has only attempted 17 three-point shots, but he has made ten of them for 58.8%.  He is averaging 10.5 points per game. All this as a true freshman, keep in mind. Add to that the fact that he has been durable, being one of only four players to have played in all 19 games so far.

Compare that to some of the members of our 1000-Point Club. Malik Dixon (#2) averaged 10.2 points per game his freshman year. Josh Hagins (#3) averaged 8.1 ppg. Fish (#4) averaged 7.2. Myron Jackson (#5) averaged 5.9. Mike Rivers (#7) averaged 5.0. Muntrelle Dobbins (#8) averaged 7.0. Derrick Hall (#9) averaged 6.8. Vaughn Williams (#10) averaged 7.0. Nick Zachery (#12) averaged 10.4. He is ahead of the pace in scoring for all of these all-time greats at Little Rock. In fact, the only 1000-point scorers who were here for four years that were ahead of his ppg pace as a freshman were all-time scoring leader James Scott (16.0) and all-time rebounding leader Larry Johnson (#6) at 13.3.

Again, four years is a long time. He has to stay healthy. He has to stay eligible. He has to avoid off-court issues. As a foreign-born player, he has to avoid any factors related to that that might cause him to return home. There are a boat load of things that could happen. But you can't get there unless you start, and he has started very well.

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