The Best Inside-Outside Duos in College Basketball in 2015-16
Having a high-scoring guard is helpful in college basketball, and the same goes with having a productive post man. Those teams that have both have something doubly special.
The presence of go-to players in the backcourt and frontcourt makes it difficult for opponents to focus too much on one player over the other. And the best teams with strong inside-out duos know how to exploit this, drawing attention to one area only to have the other end up being wide open.
We've picked out the 10 best inside-out combinations in the country during the 2015-16 season, ranking them based on their overall and individual numbers and the success they've led their teams to this campaign.
10. Sebastian Saiz and Stefan Moody, Ole Miss
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After slipping into the NCAA tournament as one of the last at-large teams a year ago, Ole Miss doesn't appear to be able to duplicate that feat. The Rebels are 100th in the KenPom.com rankings and have a 4-5 mark in the SEC, so it will take a major run for them to go dancing again.
It's not impossible, though, not if Sebastian Saiz and Stefan Moody can somehow ramp up their already-strong play once Saiz returns from an eye injury.
Saiz, a 6'9” junior forward, was averaging 12.8 points and 9.8 rebounds while shooting 52.9 percent, but he's missed the last five games after having a partially detached retina repaired. The Rebels are 2-3 without him, including Wednesday's win at Missouri, with no one able to balance out on the inside what Moody does on the perimeter.
Moody, a 5'10” senior, is sixth in the nation in scoring at 23.5 points per game.
9. Josh Scott and George King, Colorado
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Because it doesn't have any flashy wins other than a home victory over Pac-12 leader Oregon, Colorado has managed to quietly put together a 17-5 record without much fanfare. It's also been able to develop an underrated inside-out duo between a steady veteran and a rising underclassman.
Josh Scott is a 6'10” senior forward who has risen to ninth on the school's career scoring list, with 1,570 points thanks to a career-high 17.4 points per game this season. That's come on 56.2 percent shooting, while he's also the Buffaloes' leading rebounder and shot-blocker.
George King, a 6'6” sophomore guard, is having a breakthrough season after redshirting in 2014-15. Colorado had plenty of depth on the perimeter, but after Askia Booker graduated, it needed King to step up and be a scorer.
He's responded with 14.7 points per game while shooting 48 percent from three-point range. He's made 20 of 39 threes in Pac-12 play, helping Colorado to a 6-3 start.
8. Jordan Tolbert and Nic Moore, SMU
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The NCAA isn't allowing SMU to participate in the postseason because of past infractions, which will prevent the Mustangs' talented tandem of Jordan Tolbert and Nic Moore from being able to parlay what they're doing in the regular season into a potential NCAA tourney run. That just means we'll have to savor what they're doing between now and the first week of March, after which this duo will be no more.
Tolbert, a senior forward, plays much bigger than his 6'7” frame. His raw statistics (12.0 points, 9.1 rebounds) don't stand out as much as the advanced ones, such as how no player in the country grabs a higher percentage of offensive boards (19.0) than Tolbert.
Having that interior presence allows Moore to be able to play without fear, resulting in 15.7 points and 4.9 assists per game. The 5'9” senior guard isn't a particularly strong shooter, just 41.8 percent, but with Tolbert there to grab the misses, he can afford to take some risks.
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7. Ben Simmons and Tim Quarterman, LSU
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Ben Simmons has been so impressive in his first (and almost assuredly only) season of college basketball that he could almost be his own inside-out duo. So it goes for a 6'10” forward who leads LSU in every major statistical category.
When he takes over a game, it seems like he doesn't need help from anyone, though the Tigers have been at their best since supporting players have emerged to complement Simmons' game.
There are several candidates for the Robin to Simmons' Batman, with Tim Quarterman best suited to make a great pair. That's because Quarterman has the capability to go on scoring tears when he gets hot from outside and benefits from teams overloading on Simmons.
The 6'6” junior guard showed this at times in LSU's two-point loss at Oklahoma on Saturday, draining all five of his three-pointers for 18 points.
6. Kris Dunn and Ben Bentil, Providence
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Kris Dunn's return for his junior year ensured that Providence was going to be good in 2015-16, but it was going to take another scorer to emerge—preferably on the interior—for the Friars to be great. Ben Bentil has made this happen, and if an injury he suffered on Tuesday proves to be serious, then this team could be in trouble.
Bentil, a 6'8” sophomore forward, hurt his ankle in the first half of a 77-70 loss at DePaul, and his absence in the second half was noticeable. Providence shot 39.3 percent, and Dunn needed 20 shots (making five) to get to 14 points, still below his season average of 17.2 per game.
The 6'3” junior guard also averages 6.9 assists, but when there's not someone else helping with the scoring, he tries to do too much. Most of the time, the scoring load goes to Bentil, who has seen his production soar from 6.4 points per game as a freshman to a team-best 19.7 this season.
5. Zach Auguste and Demetrius Jackson, Notre Dame
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To understand the importance of both halves of the inside-out pairing of Zach Auguste and Demetrius Jackson, look at how Notre Dame fared last week when Jackson missed a game because of a hamstring injury. Or, rather, how poorly the Fighting Irish fared in his absence.
Notre Dame shot 41.8 percent, its second-worst rate of the season, and lost by 15 points at Syracuse without Jackson. During a four-game win streak prior to that, it averaged 81.5 points and shot 47.2 percent, much closer to the season averages of 78.5 points and 49.5 percent.
Auguste is the man doing the dirty work inside, a 6'10” senior forward who averages a double-double at 13.9 points and 10.1 rebounds on 53.7 percent shooting. He is greatly balanced by the perimeter play of Jackson, a 6'1” junior guard averaging team highs in scoring (16.0) and assists (5.2) while shooting 48.8 percent overall and 36.0 percent from outside.
4. Jarrod Uthoff and Mike Gesell, Iowa
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Iowa reached No. 3 in the Associated Press Top 25 last week, its highest ranking since 1987, thanks to the inside-out game that Jarrod Uthoff and Mike Gesell have been able to perfect during their careers. Now both in their senior years, it's reached a level of near-perfection that ensures at least one of them will be on point—and often both will.
Uthoff, 6'9” forward, is scoring a career-best 18.4 points per game that's come from a mix of two- and three-point field goals, with his 46.0 percent outside efficiency among the best around for players his size. Not to be forgotten, though, is a defensive presence that has produced 63 blocked shots this season and 154 for his career.
Gesell, a 6'2” guard, scores 8.4 points per game but is most effective as a facilitator. His 6.3 assists per game are just a shade behind Michigan State's Denzel Valentine for the Big Ten lead.
3. Brice Johnson and Marcus Paige, North Carolina
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One-half of North Carolina's star senior tandem has been mired in a lengthy slump, while the other is in the middle of a monster year. If Marcus Paige were performing at the level we've come to expect of him, then this duo would be tops on our list, though Brice Johnson's effort in 2015-16 is almost enough to earn that rank all alone.
Paige, a 6'1” guard who missed the first six games this season with a broken hand, has seen his scoring and shooting take a major dip over the last few weeks. Going 12-of-57 from the field and 5-of-36 from three-point range has dipped his scoring average to 12.4 points per game—his worst rate in the past three seasons. The Tar Heels have managed to weather this slump for the most part, other than Monday's loss at Louisville, thanks to Johnson's rise as the go-to scorer.
The 6'9” forward is putting up career highs in scoring (16.7), rebounding (10.2) and field-goal percentage (62.4). He's averaging 17.4 points and 11.0 rebounds in ACC play, aided by a monster 39-point, 23-rebound effort in a win at Florida State on Jan. 4.
2. Egidijus Mockevicius and D.J. Balentine, Evansville
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NBA scouts aren't just monitoring the big names from the big schools when it comes to finding pro-level talent; they must also search out players at smaller schools who might have what it takes to play at the next level. Following Evansville as it traverses the Missouri Valley Conference would be a wise idea, because the Purple Aces have arguably the best pair of mid-major players around.
And they're both seniors, with forward Egidijus Mockevicius and guard D.J. Balentine having played together for more than 120 games over the past four seasons, and each is equally dominant in his own right.
The 6'10” Mockevicius leads the nation in rebounding at 14.0 per game, and he's fifth nationally in field-goal percentage at 66.7. The 6'2" Balentine is headed for his third consecutive season averaging at least 20 points per game, and with 2,262 career points, he's the active Division I scoring leader.
1. Georges Niang and Monte Morris, Iowa State
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Georges Niang is one of those players who can score from all over the court, but he's at his best when getting the ball in favorable situations. Finding teammates who are in position to score is what Monte Morris excels at, and combined, the Cyclones leaders make the most formidable inside-outside combination in college basketball.
The 6'8” Niang is scoring at the highest rate of his Iowa State career, at 19.1 points per game on 52.1 percent shooting in his senior year. This is in direct correlation to Morris' breakthrough emergence over the past two seasons as the Cyclones' floor leader.
Morris, a 6'2” guard, is shooting 51.6 percent and scoring 14.8 points per game while also dishing out 7.0 assists, sixth-best in the country. He also has a stunning 5-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio, which ranks third in Division I.
All statistics from Sports-Reference.com unless otherwise noted.
Follow Brian J. Pedersen on Twitter at @realBJP.
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