How the addition of Frankie Fidler changes next year’s lineup
Tom Izzo recently went into the transfer portal and was able to earn a commitment from Frankie Fidler from the University of Nebraska – Omaha. I admittedly was not familiar with this player as I do not follow Summit League hoops, so I had to do a little bit of research before writing this article. And by “a little bit of research” I mean typing “Frankie Fidler highlights” into Youtube and watching the first video that came up. Fortunately for me, it was a pretty informative compilation including a breakdown of his uses.
After watching this video, I came away impressed. The Spartans are adding a very versatile player who can score in a number of ways and has a respectable shooting percentage from various areas of the court. On top of that, he can effectively pass to get himself out of trouble and also into the low-post to find a cutting teammate. Fidler will raise the floor for next year’s team.
The question now is what the lineup will look like with his addition. To remind you, in my “First look” article a few weeks ago, based on the roster existing as it was at the completion of last year and assuming no 5th year seniors (which has since been proven true), I projected a starting lineup of Tre Holloman, Jeremy Fears, Jaden Akins, Xavier Booker, and Carson Cooper.
Projecting how the lineup will look next year with Fidler in it, I have two models. The first is highly influenced by many of the comments I have read from you all, both in response to my “First take” and to the news of Fidler’s commitment, though I am making one change that I do not think will be popular with you all. Many of you disagreed with my prediction that Holloman would be the starting PG, that Fears would slide into the 2-slot, and Akins would remain, effectively, a SF. For the most part, the starting front-court projection of Booker and Cooper was accepted. The majority of your comments called for Akins sliding to the second guard spot with Fears at PG (and Holloman in the sixth-man role) with an assumed portal player sliding into a wing role.
MY FIRST MODEL will go with some of this, sliding Akins to SG and plugging Fidler into the SF spot. But the tweak I will make is that it will be Holloman starting at PG and Fears being the primary backcourt substitution. I believe it would work out this way for a couple of reasons. The first is the obvious one. We still do not know how Fears will look when he returns. He lost the majority of his freshman season to an injury so there are questions as to how his rehab has gone and is going. But also, this stopped his development in Coach Izzo’s system. At the same time, Holloman became a much bigger piece of the team after Fears’ injury, and he showed a capability, in my opinion, to run Izzo’s offense. Sure, he needs improvement, but the best part of his game is his ability to push the ball up court and see his teammates getting into position ahead of him, an absolute must for an Izzo PG. I think Izzo will reward Holloman’s experience and sophomore performance, and name him the starter. Fears would have to usurp Holloman through superior game play.
So for now, my model one projection would be:
PG: Tre Holloman
SG: Jaden Akins
SF: Frankie Fidler
PF: Xavier Booker
C: Carson Cooper
Bench: Jeremy Fears, Jase Richardson, Kur Teng, Coen Carr, Gehrig Normand, Jaxon Kohler, Jesse McCullough.
MY SECOND MODEL will see me being stubborn and stick to more of my original model. Maybe Izzo does elect to pair Holloman and Fears in the starting lineup and have that usefulness of two players who can play the point guard position and orchestrate the offense on the floor together. This is what it was like with AJ Hoggard and Tyson Walker the last two seasons. If so, how would that effect the rest of the lineup? Would there be a battle between Akins and Fidler for the remaining wing role? Or could they both play in a small-ball lineup with only one big? If that’s the case, who would start in center? Booker and Cooper have much different games.
If Izzo elects to have Holloman and Fears both starting, I think he would have to make the decision between Akins and newcomer Fidler for one starting spot as we could not play that small of a lineup. A big part of that conclusion is the deficiencies in both Booker’s and Cooper’s games which forces Izzo to not be able to only have one of them out there. Cooper’s defense covers for Booker’s struggles down low while Booker’s offensive arsenal covers for Cooper’s general undependability in that end. Again, I think Izzo would go with the familiar hand here and give Akins the nod, but this would create more versatile substitution opportunities. We could see Fidler come in to relieve Akins or Fears. Or we could see Holloman go out to give Fears the floor commander role solo with Akins and Fidler on his wings. This does not even include the sub packages when Richardson and/or Teng would come on. And we still do not know where we will see Carr and Normand. Will Carr be mostly a wing or will he be a small PF? Will Normand play (if he earns minutes) a traditional SG role and hang out behind the arc or does he also have the ability to slash inside as a SF?
Personally, I do like the versatility this model provides Izzo, though admittedly it would require a lot of players being able to excel in more than one role. Model one is definitely more defined for each individual, and maybe that would benefit this roster more than model two. But for argument’s sake, the lineup for my second model, and the one I stubbornly am predicting, would look like this:
PG: Tre Holloman
SG: Jeremy Fears
SF: Jaden Akins
PF: Xavier Booker
C: Carson Cooper
Bench: Frankie Fidler, Jase Richardson, Kur Teng, Gehrig Normand, Coen Carr, Jaxon Kohler, Jesse McCullough
Have at it, TOC. Let’s hear your thoughts on this. Which of these do you predict? I predict most of you will predict the first model with a swap at PG.
As of now, MSU is not attached to any other players in the portal. There are just 3 days left for players to enter their name on that list. I imagine Izzo is done there. I just cannot envision him going into the portal twice in the same offseason, not with all his previous comments on the matter. So this probably means our roster is set for next year, and I will not have to do anymore of these pieces. But I’ve been wrong before…
Enjoy your weekend, Spartan fans.