Summit League
The Summit League is no stranger to top talent and they are also no stranger to having the league’s best players flee for more exposure and a better chance at making the NCAA tournament. The Summit League is a one-bid league and it is always going to remain that way. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened this season if North Dakota State would have knocked off Oral Roberts in the title game. Many thought that the 30 wins were enough to get the Golden Eagles in the NCAA tournament as an at-large.
Over the next few weeks, everyone is going to compare Nelson to the best players to leave the Summit League and we will all hear conversations about what makes Nelson better or worse than the other players. These comparisons are not usually fair, and the exercise is done to spark debate. In this instance, though we can have a reasonable conversation about one other player to leave the Summit League and why Nelson is better and how he is worse and that is Baylor Scheierman.
Scheierman was one of those rare players as well. He is a guard who put up video game shooting numbers, was a great rebounder and good passer. He was underrecruited because he came from a small town in Nebraska where he didn’t get a ton of college exposure. The current Creighton guard was a player who could change the fortunes of a program when he was in the transfer portal. It all stemmed from his ability to shoot the ball from way deep and make about 50% of them. He was also the Summit League player of the year and had video game shooting numbers.
We have already discussed how good Nelson is and what he is going to bring to the table. The big man ended up at North Dakota State because he is from North Dakota and didn’t get a ton of offers out of high school because he played in North Dakota. The kid from North Dakota was going to have to earn it in college and he certainly has. He went viral and became a household name amongst the die-hard fans. The former Bison is going to change the outlook of the team he chooses to play for, and that team will likely be a favorite to make a deep run into March.
Scheierman went to Creighton and was the missing piece for a Bluejays team that desperately needed a second distributor and a guy who can take a game over down the stretch. The former South Dakota State Jackrabbit proved that he could make the jump to a power league and still be productive. He was the player that helped Creighton get over the hump and come within seconds of making their first Final Four. The guard and the big man are completely different players but the comparison is fair because both players had the same amount of fanfare coming from the same conference and being virtual unknowns before the year started.
The current Summit League player of the year Max Abmas is different than both of these players as he was already known because of the NCAA tournament run and his name appeared on the tops of national scoring leaders four seasons in a row. Nelson still has more of an impact, but Abmas is arguably the most well-known Summit League player outside of Mike Daum ever. Nelson is a player who is on an upward trajectory and seemingly has no weaknesses.
I do believe he does play in college for at least one more year and work to develop his three-point shot. If he does that while continuing to display the level of athleticism that he does on a nightly basis he has a chance to be special in college and will reach his dream of being an NBA draft pick.