Point guard

You can never have too many point guards, but it appears that we are in good shape at this critical position. First off, Nowell averaged 30 minutes per game last season, and you figure he will log at least that this year. And if he is in there he likely will be playing point because he is too short to play anything else effectively. So that only leaves ten minutes to account for among the other points.

Ryan Pippins and Jaizec Lottie are both veterans who are able to play effective point, even if that might not be considered their primary position. And walk-on Terrell Curtis is always there if needed, with a season under his belt in the system. And who knows if one of the newcomers might be able to play a little point guard if needed. Probably Lottie will be the primary back-up.

The problem is that none of our point guards last season put up acceptable numbers. You want your main point guard to have at least a 2:1 assist to turnover ratio. Lottie was the best of the main three at 1.56. That is not awful for your back-up point. The problem is that our starting point guard had only a 1.24 ratio, which is not at all acceptable, even for a true freshman. A point guard just ought to take better care of the ball than that. His problem was not on the assist end of the ratio. He just had way too many turnovers.

Nowell's strength seems to be his weakness. He is fearless. However, there are times when discretion is the better part of valor, and he needs to learn that. A point guard's ultimate statistic is always the win column. His job is to make the team better - as a whole. Markquis obviously has a long way to go to play point for even a mediocre team. He won't get there by trying to BE the show. He has to run the show, and make the show run right.