Tag: Matt Mitchell

Report: Badgers hiring new special teams coordinator

Wisconsin is hiring another coach Sunday, bringing in Mike Mitchell to lead their special teams unit and outside linebackers in 2023.

The Badgers are hiring Grand Valley State head coach Matt Mitchell as their next special teams coordinator and outside linebackers coach. Mitchell has produced a 117-31 overall record as the head coach of the Lakers, finishing just one win short the program’s all-time leader Brian Kelly (118 wins).

Mitchell played collegiate football at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa, earning First-Team All-Midwest honors twice during his career with the program as a defensive lineman. He graduated from the college in 1997 and quickly launched a coaching career a few years later.

The former player started as a defensive coach with Wartburg College in 2000 before joining the Grand Valley State coaching staff in 2003. Over nearly two decades with the team, Mitchell worked his way from linebackers coach (2004-2007) to defensive coordinator (2008-2009) before spending a dozen seasons as the head coach of the Lakers (2010-2022).

Mitchell will be reuniting with Wisconsin’s new defensive coordinator Mike Tressel, who he coached alongside with at Wartburg in the early 2000’s.

Luke Fickell and the Badgers’ program will certainly benefit from bringing in such an experienced coach to lead their specials teams unit and outside linebackers in 2023.

[mm-video type=playlist id=01eqbyzzyj3n3jt6m7 player_id=01eqbvp13nn1gy6hd4 image=]

Live tracker: Here is where the top undrafted free agents have signed

The 2021 NBA draft has come and gone but the draft cycle still continues for a bit longer as the undrafted free agents find their new homes.

The 2021 NBA draft has come and gone but the draft cycle still continues for a bit longer as the undrafted free agents find their new homes.

While the following prospects didn’t get to hear their name called by the commissioner or deputy commissioner on Thursday night, they can find solace in the fact that their path to the pros is far from over. It’s not unheard of for an undrafted free agent to carve out a role for themselves in the NBA.

Some notable names, including Gonzaga’s Joel Ayayi and G League Ignite’s Daishen Nix, will join the fraternity of undrafted basketball players who hope to still make a name for themselves in the NBA.

Here is where the best remaining prospects have landed so far, according to reports:

A roundup of NBA sleepers draft analysts are higher on than others

Who owns the most real estate on Davion Mitchell Island? Who is buying stock in Sharife Cooper?

Everyone loves Cade Cunningham. It’s not a hot take for an analyst to say that Cunningham is their favorite player in the class. That’s not particularly interesting to read, either.

But what is fascinating, however, is when an analyst deviates from the norm and ranks someone significantly higher than where the prospect falls in other rankings. What does that tell us about their individual scouting process and what they value? Further, what does that tell us about the potential draftee?

Some folks call it “buying stock” in a player. Others, like ESPN’s Zach Lowe or The Ringer’s Bill Simmons, call it owning real estate on a player’s island. I like to refer to it as a “draft crush” when I wind up higher than consensus in my evaluation of a player.

My process is ridiculously tedious but the results can be fairly useful. I’ve tracked the evolution of more than sixty unique mock drafts, big boards and draft models from trusted analysts and popular accounts on Twitter.

Each placement is assigned a value based on Kevin Pelton’s draft pick trade value chart. I do this because, as Pelton notes, the difference in relative value between the No. 5 overall pick and the No. 7 overall is much more stark than, say, that of the No. 45 pick and the No. 47 pick.

After composing an aggregate score based on each ranking, I can see where each analyst strays from the pack.

I’ll leave the conclusions drawn from these results up to the reader. But if nothing else, this can eventually be used as a bragging point if one writer was higher than consensus on a draftee who eventually ends up outperforming his draft position.

2021 aggregate NBA mock draft 7.0: Ranking the full class of prospects

The 2021 NBA draft is less than a week away and we finally have an idea of who is in — and who has withdrawn — from the class.

The 2021 NBA draft is less than a week away and we finally have an idea of who is in – and who has withdrawn – from the class.

In order to get a better sense of where all of the prospects stand as of right now, we compiled mock drafts from NBADraft.net, CBS Sports, Bleacher Report, Yahoo, The Athletic, The Ringer, Yahoo, NBA Big Board and USA TODAY Sports Media Group’s For The Win to see where the prospects rank at the moment.

Please note that these rankings reflect the composite score to get a feel for consensus, not our own opinion.

Since our previous update last month, some of the players with the most positive momentum include Quentin Grimes, Joe Wieskamp, Vrenz Bleijenbergh, Aaron Wiggins, Justin Champagnie, Jericho Sims, Jason Preston, Josh Primo, Neemias Queta, Trey Murphy and Bones Hyland.

Among players who ranked on our previous update who have since withdrawn from the draft include Roko Prkacin (32), Marcus Bagley (39), Terrence Shannon (48), Ariel Hukporti (50), Max Abmas (53), Johnny Juzang (54), Jordan Hall (66), Carlos Alocen (69) and Ochai Agbaji (75).

The most notable omissions who remain in this class but not these rankings are Yves Pons, Scottie Lewis, Jay Huff, Marcus Zegarowski, Aamir Simms, Dalano Banton, Matt Mitchell, Jose Alvarado, Carlik Jones, Derrick Alston Jr., Romeo Weems, Balsa Koprivica, Chaundee Brown, Isaiah Miller, Jordan Schakel and D.J. Carton.

Note that for the offensive roles, we borrowed a fun idea from Todd Whitehead (formerly of Nylon Calculus) with help from our friends at Bball-Index.com to create a slightly tweaked formula from the version they use.

The goal of that is not to explain how well a player scores but rather offer context for the way that he was used on his most recent team. This should help you predict how he might be used at the next level.

Meanwhile, you can learn the latest updates on every single prospect who has been included in recent mock drafts by scrolling below.

HoopsHype’s Alberto de Roa contributed research to this report

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 5.0: Final rankings of the Top 100 prospects

With just over a week left until the 2021 NBA draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, it’s officially the most wonderful time of the year! 

With just over a week left until the 2021 NBA draft at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, it’s officially the most wonderful time of the year!

That means that after a slew of surprising early entry withdrawals impacted the worlds of both college and international basketball, the next generation of NBA talent is getting closer to entering the league. As players finalize their place on big boards in front offices, I wanted to offer my opinion on how I think those rankings should look.

Note that our list is certainly going to look different from the lists at ESPN, The Athletic, Bleacher Report and other publications. Player evaluation is an inexact science. Part of the process is being willing to admit when you were wrong about a player.

But avoiding group-think and ending higher than consensus on a player is how an NBA team ends up selecting them in the draft. With that in mind, here is who I would target if I were running a front office.

Sixers to host San Diego State guard Matt Mitchell for a draft workout

The Philadelphia 76ers will be hosting San Diego State guard Matt Mitchell for a draft workout.

The Philadelphia 76ers are getting ready for the 2021 NBA draft on July 29 and they have two picks to prepare for. They are bringing players in to get a close and personal look at the prospects to see how they would fit with the team.

A league source tells Sixers Wire that Philadelphia will host San Diego State guard Matt Mitchell for a draft workout.

Mitchell was named the 2021 Mountain West Conference Player of the Year. He averaged 15.4 points and 5.6 rebounds while shooting 48.9% from the floor, and he shot 35.4% from deep in his career with the Aztecs, meaning he could be a great fit for the Sixers with the 50th pick in the draft.

He also plans to work out with the Toronto Raptors and the Atlanta Hawks.

Mitchell is on the rise when it comes to the draft. He has a range of somewhere between 45 and 60 in the second round. Sitting at 50, the Sixers should have an opportunity to select him and continue to develop his game within their system.

This post originally appeared on Sixers Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

[mm-video type=playlist id=01f09kz5ecxq9bp57b player_id=01f5k5xtr64thj7fw2 image=https://sixerswire.usatoday.com/wp-content/plugins/mm-video/images/playlist-icon.png]

[listicle id=48249]

[lawrence-related id=48362,48357,48332]

Report: San Diego State prospect Matt Mitchell to have pre-draft workout with Warriors

Mountain West Player of the Year Matt Mitchell is expected to have a pre-draft workout with the Golden State Warriors.

With the draft quickly approaching following the conclusion of the NBA Finals, the Golden State Warriors are doing their homework on the prospect pool.

Before Bob Myers and Steve Kerr decide what they’re going when the Warriors are on the clock with the No. 7 and No. 14 picks, different prospects are coming through the Bay Area for pre-draft workouts.

According to Adam Zagoria, the Warriors will be one of the teams San Diego State guard Matt Mitchell works out for.

Via @AdamZagoria on Twitter:

Mitchell spent four seasons at San Diego State, winning the Mountain West Player of the Year award in his senior season. During the 2020-21 campaign, Mitchell averaged a career-high 15.4 points on 43.6% shooting from the floor with 5.6 rebounds, two assists and 1.4 steals per contest.

After averaging 15.3 points on 36.7% shooting from the floor with 5.3 boards and 1.7 assists per contest in the Moutain West Conference tournament, the 6-foot-6 guard was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.

Mitchell will join Florida State’s Scottie Barnes, Stanford’s Ziaire Williams and Wisconsin’s Micah Potter as some of the players to have either interviewed or worked out with the Warriors during the pre-draft process.

This post originally appeared on Warriors Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 4.0: Top 100 prospects pre-combine and lottery

Now that the early entry list is officially out and combine invitations have been sent out, the 2021 NBA draft class is starting to finalize.

Now that the early entry deadline has passed and combine invitations have been sent out, the 2021 NBA draft class is starting to finalize.

Last year, the NCAA tournament and the combine were both canceled due to the pandemic. That made evaluations much tougher for scouts and front offices around the league. This year, the pre-draft process feels somewhat normal again for top basketball prospects who are set to join the pros.

As a new class of players prepares to turn professional, here is how we would currently rank this class based on what we have seen from them so far, with some of my picks that are higher than other experts have them ranked.

NBA prospect Matt Mitchell: ‘I’m that junkyard dog that gets it done’

Matt Mitchell, a lengthy 6-foot-6 wing from San Diego State, projects as one of the best potential sleepers in the 2021 NBA draft.

Matt Mitchell, a lengthy 6-foot-6 wing from San Diego State, projects as one of the best potential sleepers in the 2021 NBA draft.

Mitchell won the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year behind 15.4 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.0 assists per game in 2020-21. He had the second-best steal percentage in the conference and he earned MWC First-Team All-Defense consideration. Mitchell was honored as the MWC Tournament MVP and he helped his squad make an appearance in March Madness.

The NBA prospect recently caught up with HoopsHype to discuss where he fits in this draft class, what he learned at San Diego State and plenty more.

Please note this interview was minorly edited in its transcript for clarity.

2021 NBA Draft Big Board 3.0: Top 100 prospects pre-early entry deadline

As the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season nears its close, the league’s next wave of talent is preparing to take the great leap to become pros.

As the NBA’s 2020-21 regular season nears its close, the league’s next wave of talent is preparing to take the great leap to become pros.

Players have until the end of this month, May 30, to apply for entry into the 2021 NBA draft. They will then have until July 19 to determine whether or not they plan to stay in this class or (unless they hired an agent who does not have NCAA certification) return to school.

This is obviously an incredibly difficult decision and as the majority of early entry candidates have made their intentions public, those who are testing the waters are already weighing their options.

Fortunately, the NBA’s Undergraduate Advisory Committee (UAC) exists to help answer some of those questions.

The advisory committee, which began in 1997, offers feedback to prospects on their potential draft stock. As many prospects are facing pivotal decisions about their future, this kind of intel is incredibly important.

Players like Gonzaga’s Corey Kispert and Baylor’s Jared Butler both went through this process last season, likely were not satisfied with the results and opted to return. Now, after tremendous efforts last season, both are projected first-rounders.

These decisions have tremendous financial implications for these individuals as well. For example, even if Kispert or Butler went with the last pick in the first round in 2020, they would have likely earned a contract worth around $5 million over three years. This year, even if they went outside of the lottery at at No. 15 overall, that would be around $8.5 million.

With that in mind, for the latest version of For The Win’s 2021 NBA draft big board, I’ve provided my evaluation for the top prospects expected to be in the pre-draft process. Players excluded from this exercise were likely because the reporting suggests that they are going back to school.

Note that these decisions were fully based on where I would have each player ranked, not a projection, although various conversations with scouts as well as other talent evaluators around the league have factored into my evaluation.