Luke Winn's Top 15 Seniors

Author:
SI Staff
Publish date:
Oct 11, 2007

Luke Winn's Top 15 Seniors

Jaycee Carroll

'06-07 Stats: 21.3 points, 1.8 assists, 6.3 rebounds Since the Aggies missed the most recent NCAA tournament, Carroll comes into his senior year with a relatively low profile. He last was seen on a national stage dropping 21 points and grabbing seven boards as a sophomore in a first-round NCAA loss to Washington -- and followed up that strong showing by averaging 21.3 points and shooting 43.2 percent from long range as a junior. Carroll is probably the top mid-major gunner in the nation.

Maarty Leunen

'06-07 Stats: 10.8 points, 2.1 assists, 8.2 rebounds Leunen beat out forwards such as LSU's Tasmin Mitchell, Washington's Jon Brockman and Southern Illinois' Randal Falker for a spot on the U.S. Pan American Games team this summer. Despite his lack of national exposure, Leunen's inclusion on the American roster was no shock: He does everything that coaches love, from crashing the boards, hustling after loose balls, playing lockdown D and clawing his way for garbage buckets in the paint.

Shan Foster

'06-07 Stats: 15.6 points, 2.3 assists, 4.6 rebounds Expect Foster's scoring numbers to balloon as a senior, now that 17-points-per-game guard Derrick Byars is gone to the NBA. Foster is a swingman with the size to get his long-range looks against nearly any defender, but the knock on him is that he's too streaky of a shooter: He attempted a team-high 214 treys last season but only connected on 74, a 34.6 percent clip. Still, he was a key to the Commodores' run to the Sweet 16, where they nearly upset second-seeded Georgetown, and should be one of the SEC's top players.

Marcelus Kemp

'06-07 Stats: 18.5 points, 2.4 assists, 4.6 rebounds In terms of national perception, Nevada might as well have been Fazekas State for the past two seasons, as most coverage of the Pack focused on their stat-stuffing power forward. How many people out there knew that Kemp scored 20 or more points in 15 games as a junior, and broke the 30-point mark twice? With both Fazekas and point guard Ramon Sessions gone to the NBA, Kemp will be shouldering a massive offensive load as a senior.

Joseph Jones

'06-07 Stats: 13.4 points, 6.8 rebounds Last season Jones and Antanas Kavaliauskas teamed up to form one of the most physical front lines in the nation, putting Billy Gillispie's tough defensive ethic into action. As a senior Jones will be called on for a bigger role, plus be asked to mentor five-star freshman center DeAndre Jordan, who's perhaps the biggest recruit to ever land in College Station.

Joey Dorsey

'06-07 Stats: 8.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.2 blocks Dorsey is a volatile character -- his verbal jabs at Greg Oden in the NCAA tournament were well-publicized, as well as eventually embarrassing, and he was also listed in the police report as the alleged instigator of the incident that led to Sean Taggart and Jeff Robinson's offseason arrests -- but he's still a tenacious rebounder. Last season, he pulled down double-digit boards in 19 of Memphis' 37 games.

Randal Falker

'06-07 Stats: 12.3 points, 7.7 rebounds The well-braided Falker was the Missouri Valley's defensive player of the year in '06-07, as the Salukis earned a No. 4 seed in the NCAA tournament and nearly knocked off top-seeded Kansas in the Sweet 16. A relentless rebounder, Falker had eight double-doubles as a junior, but needs to hone his free-throw skills in order to put up big scoring numbers this season. He shot just 54.3 percent from the stripe in '06-07.

D.J. White

'06-07 Stats: 13.8 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks White has only appeared in one NCAA tournament in his first three years at Indiana -- and it was a one-win-and-out experience -- but has the chance to make a deep run as a senior. The Hoosiers now have the backcourt, particularly with super-frosh Eric Gordon, to contend, and will be relying on White for a strong farewell campaign. It was a promising sign that he was able to hold his own against the likes of Roy Hibbert and Joey Dorsey in the Pan American Games trials this summer.

Courtney Lee

'06-07 Stats: 17.3 points, 1.9 assists, 4.6 rebounds Lee is arguably the nation's best unknown player, and is projected as a second-round pick in the 2008 NBA Draft. He's a two-guard/swingman with good slashing and shooting skills, and has proven he can score against legit competition: last season, Lee dropped 23 on Southern Illinois, 17 on Tennessee, and 16 on Florida, shooting higher than 50 percent from the field in the latter two games.

Kyle Weaver

'06-07 Stats: 11.2 points, 5.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists Weaver was the unsung hero of Wazzu's run to a No. 3 seed in the NCAA tournament, overshadowed by Derrick Low but perhaps more important to the Cougars' success. The Wisconsin product had five double-doubles and was perhaps the Pac-10's most versatile guard. He was able to play -- as well as defend -- the one, two and three positions. When UCLA coach Ben Howland was asked to pick a starting five from any non-UCLA players in the nation this offseason, he selected Weaver at the wing.

Derrick Low

'06-07 Stats: 13.7 points, 2.1 assists, 2.1 rebounds The Cougars' slow-paced attack keeps Low's stats from jumping off the page, but the Hawaii product is regarded as one of the country's better combo guards. When the U.S. Pan American Games team was struggling this summer in Brazil, it was Low's shooting that sparked their turnaround. He doesn't rack up many assists, but he rarely turns the ball over, either: His turnover percentage of 12.1 was among the lowest in the nation for guards.

Sean Singletary

'06-07 Stats: 19.0 points, 4.7 assists, 4.6 rebounds Singletary played in the NBA Pre-Draft camp in Orlando, but opted to pull his name out before the June 15 deadline. Now he's back at UVA without his three-year backcourt-partner-in-crime J.R. Reynolds, who graduated. Singletary will be looking to continue an impressive trend: He has improved on his points, assists, rebounds, free-throw percentage and three-point percentage in each year as a Cav.

Drew Neitzel

'06-07 Stats: 18.1 points, 4.8 assists, 2.3 rebounds, 41.2% three-pointers Neitzel ran himself ragged as a junior, logging 35.7 minutes per game as the focal point of every opponent's defensive strategy. The arrival of freshmen Kalin Lucas, Durrell Summers and Chris Allen will give the Spartans much-needed backcourt depth -- affording Neitzel opportunities to rest as well as more open looks on the perimeter.

Roy Hibbert

'06-07 Stats: 12.9 points, 6.9 rebounds, 67.1% FGs Big Roy is the only player on this list who made a genuine sacrifice by returning to school: He passed on being a Lottery Pick in order to take another title shot with the Hoyas. He's the lone truly elite center left in college hoops, and has been an efficient scorer within John Thompson III's modified Princeton offense. On the syllabus for his senior year: learning how to stay out of early foul trouble in big games.

Chris Lofton

'06-07 Stats: 20.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 1.7 assists, 41.9% three-pointers Lofton was the most cold-blooded clutch shooter in the country last season, and he'll be tougher to double-team as a senior, now that the Vols have added frontcourt help in the form of Iowa transfer Tyler Smith. As long as Lofton's showing at this summer's Pan American Games trials was an anomaly -- he didn't look like himself, struggling to knock down threes -- he should contend for the Wooden Award.