First wrinkle I’ll explain here. . ..I am choosing All-American teams, sort of, eventually, after I work on the data hard enough. However, rather than choosing five-man All-American teams, as is traditional, I’m going to work with nine positions:
10 Point Guard
15 Combo Guard
20 Shooting Guard
25 Swing Man
30 Small Forward
35 Combo Forward
40 Power Forward
45 Small Post
50 Center
I sort of feel this is a more modern approach; modern teams play 8- or 9-man rotations, and most players except true point guards and 7-foot centers flip among positions to some extent. ..that, and, frankly, it makes my approach different than anyone else’s, which is valuable because if you want to find things that others have missed, you have to look at the problem in different ways.
Today’s list of players is "15". . ..combo guards.
1. C. J. Harris, Wake Forest. 6-3, 185-pound Sophomore who grew up just minutes from the Wake Forest campus. Started for Wake Forest as a freshman and is averaging 10.9 points and 4.5 assists as a Soph. The best shooter on this list, hitting 55% from the floor and 8-for-14 from three-point range. Also the leading rebounder in this group, with 33.
2. Ronnie Moss, TCU. 6-2, 210 pound Junior, averaged 10.2 as a freshman, 14.9 as a sophomore with a whopping 189 assists on the season. So far this year is at 14.9 again.
3. Jontae Sherrod, East Carolina. A senior who is a three-time All-conference player.
4. Todd Fletcher, Air Force. 6-2 Sophomore; I think he’s a Jayhawk fan. He grew up in Lee’s Summit, Missouri (Kansas City), and his favorite book is "Floor Burns", a college-experience book by former Jayhawk Jarod Haase.
5. Tamir Jackson, Rice. 6-2 Sophomore. New Jersey High School Player of the Year in 2009. Studying Engineering at Rice.
6. Mike Walker, SMU. Slender 6-1 Senior. His father, Rich Walker, coached at the University of Iowa.
7. Wes Eikmeier, Colorado State. Red-Shirt Sophomore who transferred from Iowa State. Two-time Nebraska player of the year.
8. Jordan Clarkson, Tulsa. Starting for Tulsa as an 18-year-old freshman; he leads this group of players in his ability to get to the free-throw line and shoots free throws well, but has horrific 26-12 turnover to assist ratio.
9. Francisco Cruz, Wyoming. Pudgy-looking kid who made 92 three-pointers for a Juco last year, and has continued to hit some threes against Division 1 competition.
10. Chris Hines, Utah Utes. Houston native; his athletic site bio says that he "is undecided on a major. . .majoring in Speech Communication." That was quick.