In this season of college basketball lists, ESPN.com has ranked the top point guards and impact players in Division I.
Nate Wolters, the South Dakota State senior from St. Cloud Tech, is No. 10 on the point guard list and No. 20 on the list of impact players.
You might remember Wolters from the NCAA tournament in march, where he led both teams with 19 points in the Jackrabbits' first-round loss to Baylor. He was also named the MVP of the Summit Conference postseason tournament, which South Dakota State won to get its NCAA berth. Wolters scored 21.2 points per game, as well as averaging six assists and five rebounds per game.
In his point guard picks, ESPN's Jason King wrote: "It's a shame Wolters doesn't play in a bigger conference with more television exposure, because he's one of the most enjoyable players to watch in all of college basketball."
You can see his full rankings here.
And former coach Fran Fraschilla said this in his impact player rankings: "I saw him almost single-handedly destroy the Washington Huskies with a 34-point, 7-assist, 5-rebound and 0-turnover performance last December. The one knock against Wolters is that he has an inconsistent outside shot, but he has a Kirk Hinrich-like style and toughness that would make him a very good player in any league. His performances against high-level competition back that up."
And in case you were wondering, Wolters never came close to becoming a Gopher. The U didn't go after him and Wolters told Star Tribune basketball writer Amelia Rayno in January that it "never even occured" to him to dream about playing at Minnesota. (He put up 20 against the Gophers in a November loss.)
Oh, well.
