Looking at last season's statistics...

[astonmartin708]

We were at or near the bottom of the conference in pretty much every statistical category except FT%. It seems that the zebras were all that was keeping us in the game at times.

Looking at individual players' stats, it seems that Haith and Co. really need to work on limiting turnovers with guys like Etou, Henderson, Korita, and Wheeler. Rebounding is also an issue for some of the guys, but I think the addition of Jeffries should really help in that regard. Birt was a piss poor rebounder for the amount of minutes he played and I'm guessing a good helping of his minutes should go to Jeffries.

 

[Gold*]

Jeffries is why I'm positive about next year. Experience teaches that with exception of Kurtz and Heard (and all the JUCO players Nolan brought), we shouldn't take JUCO players to bank. We've had a lot of Crows, Gonzalezes, and Curtises. That said, Jeffries looks really really good.

Turnovers were the biggest change this season. Some players balance that out with other good qualities (Henderson's shooting). Others need to step up next year, like Wheeler. Birt had a rough year, but Wheeler is the one who frustrates me most. He has an unusual propensity to dribble into a bad pass or shot in the paint. He's like the anti-Woodard.

I'm excited about what changes we will see on defense.

 

[nevadanatural]

I believe Birt's funk was a reason for a lot of the bad stats. You can't have a guy shooting 18% play 20+ minutes a game and it not have an effect. Also Haith was playing a lot of players and a lot of combinations to see who should stick and who should go. Everyone needs to work on turnovers, that was my number one issue last season. I still expect to see 9-10 players get significant minutes but I think adding Jeffries and Scott to replace Atson and Birt, along with maturation of our young post players, will make us a much better team next year.

 

[Gold*]

The weird thing is that our defense was so much worse without Birt in the game, from what I could tell. That's why he played. It was a damned if you do, damned if you don't situation. For as bad as some our stats were, we did pretty decent overall.

 

[astonmartin708]

Gold, I think that the FT shooting really kept us in a lot of games. Specifically from guys like Etou + Taplin.

Looking at Birt's numbers just show how subpar of a season he had. I'd be really surprised if the combination of Jeffries and Scott isn't an improvement over Birt and the production that TK got in so few minutes last season. In total I think we're losing around 45 minutes a game. Most of them from Birt and TK who combined for 41 minutes a game and 12 ppg. In their freshman years in D-1, Jeffries and Scott would have combined for 44 mpg and 17 ppg. Both sets of players would have averaged about the same number of rebounds per game, but I expect Jeffries' rebounding numbers to take a slight bump up due to the position he'll be playing in for us. He averaged close to 7 a game in JUCO at around 20 mpg.

 

[Gold*]

I agree. With the state of the game, free throw shooting is a big deal. But in games against better teams where athleticism mattered, we were usually outgunned, especially in the backcourt.

And I hate to call out any player. But Birt had an historic season, though for the wrong reasons. Hard to discuss it without mentioning him by name.

 

[TU_BLA]

Jefferies only went the JUCO route to get out of ORU and not have to sit out a year of competition. He's not your traditional JUCO who didn't have D1 opportunities or a casualty of grades in HS meaning he didn't qualify. We're getting a bona fide D1 player who got overlooked on a HS team that was stacked with talent.

 

[loca2874]

I believe Birt's funk was a reason for a lot of the bad stats. You can't have a guy shooting 18% play 20+ minutes a game and it not have an effect. Also Haith was playing a lot of players and a lot of combinations to see who should stick and who should go. Everyone needs to work on turnovers, that was my number one issue last season. I still expect to see 9-10 players get significant minutes but I think adding Jeffries and Scott to replace Atson and Birt, along with maturation of our young post players, will make us a much better team next year.

We could have the best turnover percentage in the NCAA and someone will always say we need to work on turnovers. Yeah they were unnecessary but it happens. Lol

 

[seniorgolfer]

Jeffries is why I'm positive about next year. Experience teaches that with exception of Kurtz
and Heard (and all the JUCO players Nolan brought), we shouldn't take JUCO players to bank.
We've had a lot of Crows, Gonzalezes, and Curtises. That said, Jeffries looks really really good.

Turnovers were the biggest change this season. Some players balance that out with other
good qualities (Henderson's shooting). Others need to step up next year, like Wheeler. Birt
had a rough year, but Wheeler is the one who frustrates me most. He has an unusual
propensity to dribble into a bad pass or shot in the paint. He's like the anti-Woodard.

I'm excited about what changes we will see on defense.

I might add Walls to the Kurtz-Heard duo of successful JUCOs, but if I remember correctly,
he was a qualifier that started out at WSU.....Most non-qualifing JUCOs come from programs
where the coach didn't exercise enough control to make sure his players went to class....That
same coach would have been one that didn't teach sound basics....You really take a chance
on a young man who has an undisciplined background, both in academics and BB....

Both of our transfers (Scott and Jeffries) come from the same well coached background, and
both were successful D-1 players.....This should bode well for their adjustment to our team....
Henderson improved during the year, and was mostly a good player the second semester....
Wheeler regressed during the year, and probably had the most turnovers on the team per
minutes played...Unless he shows marked improvement, he might be mostly a spectator by
the time the conference schedule comes along.......

I would think that the addition of Jeffries, Scott, Joiner, and Jackson will make us a better
team, especially adding the fact that our returners should all be improved.....Players such
as Magnay, Igbanu, Artison, and Henderson have the ability to grow substantially in their
skills by the time we kick off this coming season....

 

[Gold*]

Jefferies only went the JUCO route to get out of ORU and not have to sit out a year of competition. He's not your traditional JUCO who didn't have D1 opportunities or a casualty of grades in HS meaning he didn't qualify. We're getting a bona fide D1 player who got overlooked on a HS team that was stacked with talent.

Plus, as a bonus, it pisses off the ORU fans.

There was a thread last fall where one argued he wouldn't be eligible because he couldn't get all the hours. He graduated from JUCO in early May.

 

[astonmartin708]

Just to clarify, Wheeler did have a lot of turnovers, but he wasn't the only one. Per 100 possessions here is who committed the most turnovers....

1. Igbanu 5.5/100
2. Taplin 5.3/100
3. Etou 5.1/100
4. Wheeler 4.6/100


When comparing turnover numbers to the conference, we averaged 14.8 per game. That's good enough for second worst in the league right next to USF. More troubling is that we were second worst in our number of assists per game. The passing last year was just poor all around by every returning player except maybe Korita.

 

[Gold*]

Bigs are going to turn it over. I'm ok with Igbanu and Etou because they did things. Wheeler killed a lot of possessions by playing out of control and taking bad shots.

 

[astonmartin708]

Bigs will turn it over, but when you look at a successful team like Cincinnati, their bigs all turned it over about half as much as ours, and same for their guards.

 

[I.I.]

I'm just hoping our new coaching staff members will notice that we give up a nation-leading number of uncontested 3 pointers from the corner. If the message board can consistently notice this, surely the coaches are aware and can make adjustments. Last year's zone was horrible , which made me yell the opposite of the Woj years where a zone of any type would have helped in the Memphis type games.

 

[seniorgolfer]

Just to clarify, Wheeler did have a lot of turnovers, but he wasn't the only one. Per 100 possessions
here is who committed the most turnovers....

1. Igbanu 5.5/100
2. Taplin 5.3/100
3. Etou 5.1/100
4. Wheeler 4.6/100


When comparing turnover numbers to the conference, we averaged 14.8 per game. That's good
enough for second worst in the league right next to USF. More troubling is that we were second
worst in our number of assists per game. The passing last year was just poor all around by every
returning player except maybe Korita.

Yeah, Ugly stats all the way around....If those turnover stats were based on personal touches
instead of team possessions, I still think Wheeler would have been the biggest sinner....

Turnovers, of course, along with the open threes from the corner that I.I. talks about above, are
two areas we can really improve on with our new players plus the added maturity of our returning
cast...Jeffries and Scott will help....I think Joiner will also....Coach Danny Henderson should
be a plus also.....

We will still not be a really fast team, but will be a little faster than last year, and should be a
considerably better rebounding team....Every little bit helps!!

 

[Original TULSAFAN]

Don't turn the ball over.... make your free throws.... box out.... and get back on transition Defense to force the other team to run 1/2 court offense.

Not a terribly difficult game. Nothing terribly complex. Of course, it also helps to shoot just average from the 3.

 

[TU_BLA]

Bigs are going to turn it over. I'm ok with Igbanu and Etou because they did things. Wheeler killed a lot of possessions by playing out of control and taking bad shots.

Turnovers against bigs end up being a lot of travels and/or offensive fouls. The travel call has been so arbitrarily called at all levels of basketball, no one really knows what the rule is anymore, just common usage and call. Even Taplin's TOs were not as egregious and I certainly felt like he wasn't necessarily forcing the game which resulted in TOs. He had a couple of telegraphed passes. He also got called for a lot of travels. Wheeler's were the variety that made you want to bang your head against the wall. Driving into a packed lane and getting stripped. Driving into a packed lane and running over the big who had been parked there for 5 seconds. Driving into a crowd and taking 6 steps. Driving into a crowd and deciding to pass too late and throwing it into the 4th row (there's a pattern). Being out of control results in extra TOs. When we went on our run we had really limited the TOs to about 10-12 per game when we had been at 20 per. You'd expect this stat with everyone having an extra year under their belt to really improve this year.