Take A Knee’s 2009-10 SBC Basketball Preview

Denver Pioneers

Probable Starters:

PG. Kyle Lewis 5’10”  160 Jr.
(5.0ppg, 1.0rpg, 1.6apg)

SG. Brian Stafford 6’3” 190 Soph.
(11.4ppg, 1.9rpg, 1.5apg)

SF. Nate Rohnert 6’5”  195 Sr.
(15.3ppg, 5.4rpg, 4.7apg)

PF. Rob Lewis 6’7”  215 Jr.
(12.9ppg, 5.5rpg, 2.2apg)

C. Andrew Hooper 6’9”  200 Jr.
(9.2ppg, 2.6rpg, 1.1apg)

DU Certainties:

System.  Joe Scott is now in his third season of running his Princeton-style offense in Denver, and he is returning his top eight scorers from a season ago.

Four of those top eight scorers are entering their third season in Scott’s system.  Another year of experience will only make this offense more efficient.

DU Questions:

Sea Level. They finally broke through on the road after a 41 straight regular season road losses, but the Pioneers have yet to show consistency away from Magnus Arena.

If Denver has title aspirations, they’ll need to achieve more than a .500 record.

A Nice Luxury Would Be:

Reserve size.  Lewis and Hooper are more than solid, but they had little help up front.

Traditional posts aren’t essential in Scott’s system, but some added size off the bench could help improve Denver’s dismal rebounding numbers (23.8rpg).

There are two particularly likely candidates. One is Returnee Justin Coughlan (6’9” 195 Soph.), who actually started 27 games last season, but only played 12.5 minutes per game. The other is Air Force transfer Trevor Noonan (6’9” 225 Soph.).

This Team Is Special If…:

Rohnert’s best season is his senior season.

Nate Rohnert is the most complete player in the Sun Belt and is the catalyst of the DU offense.  If he is able to up his already impressive numbers from last season it will, by extension, improve everyone around him as well.

Email the author: jhemingway.sbc@gmail.com