The caution toward Gipson is warranted and I understand it, but a few things about Gip this year. There were questions about how much (if any) Gip would benefit from losing weight and becoming leaner and I think its clear that this is paying off. The next step will be showing in a big game, especially against a team with really good bigs. Some things to think about.
Gip has improved on his scoring. Last year he finished scoring at a rate of 26.6 PTs per 100 for the season and 29.6 in Big 12 play, which was actually the best on the team (slightly better than Rod's 29.1). His shooting% is much improved, up from 52% to 59% and FT% is up from 62% to 75%, though FT rate is slightly down to 46.5% from 50.2%.
He was also a very good rebounder last year and still is. This year he's at 6.1 oboards per 100 and 9.8 dboards. His oboards are slightly down (last year 7.9 for the season, 6.1 in Big 12), but dboards is a little better (last year 9.0 for the season, 8.4 in Big 12). Blocks is about the same; 1.5 this year, 1.2 last year.
However, the biggest change is minutes played and fouling. This year his fouls are down to 5.9 per 100 (from 8.0 season, 10.1 Big 12 only) and he has only 2 games with 4 fouls or more (last year he had 9). As a result of fewer fouls and better condition, he's now at 63% of the available minutes played, has 5 games with over 30 minutes, and 7 with at least 26. Last year he had 1 game of 30 minutes for the season and only 8 of at least 26. As a result he only played 47% of the available minutes for the season last year.
Gip's conditioning along with smarter play has simply kept him on the floor more and because he already had proven to be an efficient scorer/rebounder when on the floor, he's becoming an impact big for K-State. We'll see if he can maintain that and stay on the floor against a very good group of KU bigs, but I think its likely he won't be as disappointing as many of you presume he'll be.