balla45 wrote:I have seen Nik and Joe play multiple times. I have played against Nik and Joe multiple times. Hanstad is the best player in the state, quite possibly the best player in the state's history. Do not get me wrong, Nik is a very good player, but you are comparing apples to oranges.
Roundem6 said numbers don't lie. Looking at the numbers, Savageau has a 6'4'' player shooting over 50% from the field and 40% from 3, while getting 15 a game. Joe leads his team in every shooting category. Assists are not telling here, as Joe does not have the ability to get assists due to his team not having a post player or any shooters. Making a great pass to a wide open player is all he can do, it is not his fault if they do not convert. This makes your entire approach with assists pointless.
North is vastly superior to Dickinson, Joe is very superior to Nik, as much as I don't like to say it. In Nik's career he has played with Jordan May and averaged 12 a game, two 6'6'' big man and averaged 18, 5, and 5, and this season he has four players over 6'3'' to get assists to. In Joe's career he played with many good guards as a freshman and averaged 13, 5, and 3, as a sophomore he played with 2 good shooters and averaged 27, 7, and 4, and as a junior he is playing with no one taller than him and no one who can shoot the ball, yet still averaging 23 and 7, while leading his team in every shooting category, going against a box and 1 every night.
I would venture to say that every coach in North Dakota and probably 99% of coaches across the country would agree that Joe is a better player than Nik. Again, Joe was an ESPN player to watch and has received multiple division one offers while also getting interest from schools that McDonald's All Americans go to.
balla - your thoughts address the comparison and you certainly talked about his being very talented one of the best the state has produced. But how good can he be at the next level? I would asume that he will need to develop many of the skills that he isn't forced to work on today due to the type of team he is on.
Will he be an outstanding player at UND or NDSU, a darn good player at a mid-level DI school or a significant contributor at a Kansas or another Top 25 team?