by Jordan Beckley
Foreign tours offer a glimpse of what is to come for the next season in college basketball. Sometimes it can provide hints for breakout players, starting lineups and even play style changes. Often the foreign tour games mean nothing! Let’s breakdown what we saw from the 7 Big Ten Teams overseas even if it was all for nothing.
Half of the Big Ten Teams were due for a foreign tour this offseason. Maryland, Purdue, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Penn State and Rutgers all went to various countries overseas to play powerhouses like Catalonia All Stars and Senegal Select.
If you get too invested in the results you might decide that all the Big Ten teams are going undefeated this season. Although it is easy to be skeptical of competition, there are plenty of useful takeaways from the foreign tours. Here are my big ones for each team.
Iowa
- Iowa’s offense is going to be awesome again
- Iowa has a streak of being a Top 5 offense on Kenpom for four straight years. The only other team to do that is Gonzaga.
- They look poised to continue that streak as they averaged 116 points in three 40 minute games. That’s nearly 3 points per minute.
- Hawkeyes will be a 3 point juggernaut
- The Hawkeyes made 38% of their threes overseas on an insane 38 attempts a game. Nearly one attempt per minute.
- Payton Sandfort, Dasonte Bowen, Josh Dix, and more looked comfortable launching them.
- McCaffery will have options at the 5
- One of the most noticeable stats in the box scores is how great incoming Freshman Owen Freeman did.
- Freeman averaged a double double on the foreign tour and apparently Iowa might think he is a starter
- Ben Krikke also played really well on the trip. I would think he starts at the 5, could Freeman start at the 4?
- It does seem like Ladji Dembele and Even Brauns will be bench players with Freeman preferred over them.
- The young guards seem ready
- Sophomores Dasonte Bowen and Josh Dix will be expected to have bigger roles this season with Connor McCaffery, Ahron Ulis, Kris Murray, etc. gone.
- Both players looked good scoring in double figures multiple times and having a good handful of assists on the trip. That secondary playmaking will be valuable next to Tony Perkins.
- Freshman Pryce Sandfort seems ready to go too and might have a starting role. Meanwhile Freshman Brock Harding will surely be loved/hated by every Big Ten household soon enough. By the way his chemistry with high school teammate Owen Freeman travels…
Purdue
- Braden Smith is ready to be a point god
- Smith started every game for the Boilers last season as a true freshman. Purdue hopes all of his experience last year will prepare him for a super sophomore leap.
- Smith seemed to be specifically trying to just dole out dimes during the tour averaging 10.5 assists a game with a 6.0 assist to turnover ratio.
- The Bigs just keep coming
- Zach Edey didn’t travel with the team on this trip as he was busy representing Team Canada.
- His absence didn’t matter as Painter has plenty of firepower from his backups.
- Trey Kaufman-Renn averaged 18 pts and 8.8 rebounds a game. Caleb Furst averaged 10.5 pts and 6 rpg.
- Kaufman-Renn is probably an All-Big Ten player in waiting. Zach Edey is the best center in the Big Ten and its possible Purdue has another top 5 one coming off the bench.
- Purdue will be deeper
- Purdue failed last year in the tournament because of a poor shooting performance, not enough bounce and often being too one-dimensional.
- Coach Painter will look to change that this season and the foreign tour suggests he could be successful
- Incoming wings Camden Heide and Myles Colvin both had great games on the trip scoring in double figures.
- Mason Gillis led the scoring in one of the games with 19 points. Brian Waddell played a pivotal role and scored 15 points in one of the tighter contests.
- New transfer Lance Jones played some of his first games in a Purdue jersey in Europe.
- Those 5 will all be factors along with last year’s starters Ethan Morton, Fletcher Loyer and Braden Smith.
- Painter will have tough decisions to make on the rotation
Penn State
- Kanye Clary ready to roar
- Perhaps the most surprising revelation of any of the tours was Kanye Clary.
- The Sophomore guard is just one of three returning players from last year’s team and apparently started next to Ace Baldwin.
- Clary averaged 17.5 points, 6 assists and 5 rebounds in the two games.
- Kanye Clary sat behind Jalen Pickett and a veteran backcourt all of last season and seems poised to breakout this season.
- UNC transfers taking bigger roles
- Penn State landed Puff Johnson and D’Marco Dunn from the Tar Heels this offseason. Both seem to be ready for bigger roles.
- Johnson averaged 14 points and 6.5 rebounds in the two games and Dunn scored 16 in one of the games
- Nick Kern popping off
- Kern transferred from VCU with Ace Baldwin to follow Coach Rhoades to Happy Valley
- He averaged 16.5 points and 6.5 boards on the trip
- Penn State definitely didn’t play great competition winning by 23 and 48 points in each game but all these players performances should still be noted, including the less talked about VCU transfer Kern.
Illinois
- Illinois still struggling from deep
- Illinois shot 3-25, 7-26, and 6-28 from 3 in the three games. Good for 20.5%…Yikes
- The Orange were the worst three point shooting team (30.8%) in the Big Ten last season, but still shot the 2nd most at 24.7 a game.
- The Illini seem to be continuing that inefficient, high volume shooting so far.
- Illinois doesn’t have a distributor
- Illinois only had one player have 5 assists in any of the three games they played and it was their starting power forward Coleman Hawkins.
- None of the PG candidates separated themselves as players who can “run” the offense
- Illinois still had 50 assists in the 3 exhibitions so maybe it will just be a group effort
- This Illini team will be great defensively
- Illinois averaged 13 steals a game on the trip. Just watch these highlights and see how much comes from transition off of forced turnovers.
- Justin Harmon and Terrence Shannon Jr. will terrorize backcourts in the Big Ten this year.
- When you’re doing that much damage in transition, it is easier to worry less about point guard play.
- I just wanted to mention Amani Hansberry had a solid tour (11ppg / 7rpg) and might actually force his way into the forward rotation this year which wasn’t expected. He will be battling for minutes with Dain Dainja, Coleman Hawkins and Quincy Guerrier, but his play might compel Brad Underwood to fit him in the rotation.
Maryland
- Jamie Kaiser as an impact freshman
- I predicted that Kaiser would be ready to be a day one starter with his skills and the Terps’ foreign tour proved it
- Kaiser scored 13,17 and 17 in the three games and grabbing plenty of steals and rebounds too
- Maryland’s starting 5 taking shape
- Kaiser and fellow freshman DeShawn Harris-Smith seem like locks to start next to Jahmir Young, Donta Scott and Julian Reese
- All 5 of them had double digit scoring in nearly every competition
- The 5 make too much sense a great blend of scoring, playmaking, range and size and all compliment each other
- Underestimating Caelum Swanton-Rodger
- I 100% took Swanton-Rodger for granted.
- The rising sophomore had 16 points in their third contest and reminded me that he is the true backup center behind Reese.
- There is no mention of Braden Pierce in any of the articles (and no box scores) so it definitely is CSR’s job
Nebraska
- Eli Rice impact freshman
- Rice is off to a nice start in his young career at Nebraska. The true freshman scored 12, 16 and 20 points in Nebraska’s three games, twice leading the team.
- Rice is a 6’7” guard who figures to play multiple positions in Hoiberg’s position-less playstyle. I thought he would be more of a bench role but if he keeps playing like this he might crack the starting lineup.
- Huskers have great balance
- Rice, CJ Wilcher, Brice Williams, Jamarques Lawrence, Juwan Gary, Cale Jacobsen and Ramel Lloyd all had double digit performances
- That doesn’t include Keisei Tominaga and Rienk Mast who were representing their country and didn’t go on the trip
- That’s at least 9 players who can put the ball in the hoop for Big Red
- Nebraska cut it close
- Unlike most of the other Big Ten teams, Nebraska played in close games in all their exhibitions
- Maybe the competition the Huskers faced was better, but it’s more likely that Nebraska is going to have to really battle to win games this season
Rutgers
- Aundre Hyatt as a Go-to-Guy
- Hyatt has been a complimentary player so far in his career at Rutgers but with players moving on, Aundre seems ready to be a leading man.
- Hyatt scored 30,18 and 19 in the three games overseas. He shot 20-38 (52.63%) and made 7 threes in the 30 point explosion.
- Him being able to score and stretch the floor at 4 will really help Cliff Omoruyi and the guards have space on the interior.
- Scarlet Knights actually scoring points?
- Rutgers averaged 108.33 points per game in the three scrimmages. The Scarlet Knights averaged 68 last season. The competition is definitely weak, but it is nice to see that they can get buckets.
- In their 2nd game, Rutgers shot 30+ threes for the first time in the Steve Pikiell era. The last two games Rutgers had over 30 assists as well.
- This offensive style is a welcome breath of fresh air. I’m sure Rutgers fans hope that they can bring the same energy home to New Jersey.
- The point guard battle is becoming a “good problem”
- I wrote about the battle between Noah Fernandes and Derek Simpson in my position battle article and it seems to be a good problem for Steve Pikiell.
- Both scored in double figures every game and had 5+ assists (Rutgers didn’t release Fernandes’ stats in game 1).
- If both can be playmakers like that, Coach Pikiell will be able to have a lot more lineup flexibility than what was previously expected.
- Last point is just that Gavin Griffiths is going to be good right away. He scored over 15 points in all three games.
And that’s pretty much it. The Big Ten went undefeated in all competitions, so hard to tell how much the teams were really challenged.
Still, things like Maryland’s starting 5 taking shape, Iowa shooting a comical amount of threes, Illinois’ struggles and guys like Aundre Hyatt and Kanye Clary breaking out are real notable outcomes of these tours to keep in the back of your head.
Ever so slowly, we are inching closer to real box scores and real games actually broadcast on television.