I think picking out conference games isn’t the best indication because those teams are ones more familiar with their games and Purdue more than non conf. Teams.
I didn't pick out conference games - my last post was for all games.
You can say they were less efficient but could it have been the addition of Lance and the improvement of Gillis from 3, more mins from TKR and the addition of Colvin and Heide being more in the mix than Morton and Furst? Therefore, they weren’t scoring as much or had the need to do as much as the first year?
Lance - ORtg: 94.3 -> 112.6 , DRtg: 95.5-> 112.6
Gillis - ORtg: 124.2-> 137.4, DRtg: 100.5->105.7
TKR - ORtg: 111.2 -> 116.9, DRtg: 99.6 -> 103.1
Heide - ORtg: 138.9, DRtg: 104.5
Colvin - ORtg: 111.3, DRtg: 104.6
And this doesn’t count the fact Zach’s ORtg was 130.2 -> 135 and DRtg 93.6 -> 97.2
Read up on how efficiency is calculated. The addition of Lance and the improvement of Gillis would help, not hinder, the ratings for our wings. The same goes for the other players.
And lastly, by your standards the following players were stagnant this year:
Kolek, Shead, Cryer, Kalkbrenner, Knecht, Dickinson, and Caitlin Clark
The point I have been making for the past 2+ years is we needed older, physical wings to complement our young guards as they developed over 4 years. We didn't have enough firepower at the position, and developing frosh/sophomores will take time. This upcoming year will be a great stable for us, but it's too late for ZE.
Citing random players - including ones who aren't wings (unless you are citing the James Madison powerhouse wing Leslie Dickinson) - is more of a shifting goalposts tactic than addressing my point.
Even so, I'll entertain it. Some, not all, of the players you cited prove my point about player development.
For example - Shead has always been a confident defender - better than our guards - but steadily improved his offensive game over 4 years. Very comparable to what E'Twaun did for us. Can you imagine a player like E'Twaun on last year's team to complement our underclassmen and Lance?
Clark went the other way - she was a defensive liability and tightened up on D, incredibly doing so as an underclassman. But she wasn't done - she then steadily improved her offense as an upperclassman while keeping the D tight. If you think Clark was stagnant from her frosh year to her senior year, I have some swamp land to sell you.
Kalkbrenner has always been a slightly above-average defender while remaining in a different stratosphere offensively. Even so, he still improved from frosh to soph seasons without slipping defensively. Our guards can't say the same.
Knecht would never play at Purdue, so not sure why he even matters - that being said, he isn't as efficient as people think he is. His comparable is Carsen - feast or famine, but good God the feasting can be delicious. Not sure if he is really what this team needed. We needed burly wings who could stop on D and help control the tempo. Hurley said it perfectly through his Cheshire cat grin at his halftime interview - UConn was controlling the tempo and, in doing so, neutralized everyone on our team (even ZE to a degree).
Dickinson is...not a wing?
