The old Per-possession Stats home cooking

Ran my hper ratings just for kicks. I'll say this: it's not too meaningful when the level of competition has varied so wildly, from Michigan State's good-maybe-even-pretty tough slate to Northwestern's, which nabbed three of wins against Savannah State, Arkansas State, and d-II Benedictine. A lot of the 130 players in the Big Ten conference haven't played enough or in meaningful enough competition to make this tempo-free measuring mechanism reliable.

But here's some interesting stuff I found.

MSU's Goran Suton right now is the most effective player in the Big 10 conference. He's always had upside, and shown flashes of amazing potential, but he seems to put together the whole package this year: Scoring, rebounding, blocked shots, and passing without turning it over (usually). His rebounding especially has been impressive, but he's shooting 51.5% from the field as well. Advice for MSU opponents- go right at this guy and get him in foul trouble.

Goran Suton: 45.5 possessions per game (pspg), 25.5 hppg (t-#1), .5604 hpps (#1)

Some of the Big Ten freshmen are being overlooked, and are going to surprise people in 2008. No doubt, Eric Gordon and Kosta Koufos are awesome, but there are some other new names to know:

1. Michael 'Juice' Thompson, NU: This 5-11 point guard is tied with Suton for the hppg lead, and has made teammate Craig Moore better by letting him shift to the wing.

58.8 pspg, 25.5 hppg (t-#1), .4338 hpps (#17)

2. Robbie Hummel, Purdue: This battler has been the best of Purdue's frosh class to this point, and the most effective Power Forward the Big Ten has at this point.

46.9 pspg, 21.6 hppg (#11), .4598 hpps (#12)

3. Al Nolen, Minnesota: This undervalued freshman (if any Minnesota freshman was mentioned in the preseason, it was Blake Hoffarber) has done nothing but immediately take over the reins at point guard and make the Gophers a better team, while posting a per-possession efficiency rating similar to Mike Conley's. And to think that this guy was nowhere on recruiting lists.

39.5 pspg, 20.4 hppg (#14), .5168 hpps (#4)

I'll post the full Indiana run-down a little later, but overall, Gordon and DJ White look like top-5 guys in the conference in per-game production, but in per-possession efficiency the whole Hoosier team seems surprisingly mediocre.

IU takes on WCU with Gordon returning, but not Bassett and possibly not Ratliff back yet. Seriously, it *should* not be a problem.

Go Hoosiers!