Welcome to “That’s A Wrap,” our attempt to um, wrap up the 2009-10 season. Sit back. Relax. Grab some popcorn. Get your read on.
Final Stats (19 games): 11 points, 13 rebounds, five blocks, one dunk at Hoosier Hysteria.
True story – I was cautiously optimistic before the season tipped off that Bawa Muniru could contribute as a freshman at Indiana.
I knew Bawa was extremely raw having watched him play in an AAU event in July of 2008. While he lacked the intensity needed to compete at the highest level in my limited viewing, he did possess physical attributes that led me to believe he could earn some minutes in an IU frontcourt desperate for size.
But sometimes reality fails to align with expectations.
Such was the case with Muniru, who arrived in Bloomington as the 112th best recruit in the 2009 class according to Rivals.com and finished the season with just 62 minutes logged.
That’s A Wrap: Matt Roth
Final Stats (Two games): Oh come now, is it even fair to put 2 points per game in here? I mean geez, dude only took one 3-pointer. This was a lost season for Matt Roth.
Two points in games against each Howard and USC-Upstate encompass all that Matt Roth was able to muster on the scoreboard this season before a foot injury put the kibosh on a sophomore campaign for the Illinois sharpshooter.
The injury was sort of disappointing, at least for me.
Roth was certainly an experiment in how good Tom Crean might be at identifying and employing effective rotations. (I know that’s come up here at least once or twice, hasn’t it?) At first blush, Roth isn’t much more than a shooter — an incredibly streaky but also ridiculously gifted shooter — and so the assumption was he was one who would see slackened playing time with a strong freshman class coming in.
But I was interested in Roth as a test of Crean’s developmental ability.
If he wants to be successful in the 4-to-5-year time range I think most would agree is fair, Crean is going to have to make a meal of lesser ingredients in a number of different ways, not the least of which is coaxing out of players with somewhat limited skillsets every ounce of potential they posses. Roth doesn’t have to end up filet mignon, but an apricot chicken would do nicely.
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