I watched nearly every game last season, and I've watched all of this season's games so far. I also just took a look at stats for last year vs. this year. Here are a few things I see...
Blocks & Steals. We've gone from 5 blocks per game last year to 2 this year with the loss of AJ. On the other hand, we've improved to 6 steals per game compared with 4 last year. And since a block doesn't necessarily mean taking away the other team's possession while a steal does, one could argue they sort of cancel each other out. Of course, "altered shots" caused by a shot blocker's presence are not captured easily in stats, and I think we've all seen that teams are able to penetrate and score more easily on us this year without AJ being in there.
Turnovers. Last year we averaged 12 TPG, though we averaged 13 TPG the first five games against fairly weak competition other than Florida. This year we're at a whopping 16 TPG so far, and the biggest difference is the performance of our bigs. Isaac, Biggie, and Vince each have around 3 TPG, while last year Biggie was a bit better than that (2.6) and Isaac (1.1) and Vince (1.7) were MUCH better than that. AJ had around 2 TPG last year in case anyone's interested. I'm not sure what's up with Isaac and Vince this year (other than more touches with no AJ = more turnovers), but I have to think this is an area of emphasis to clear up with those two (& the whole team for that matter). We need to be closer to 10 TPG than 15, and over 15 is just unacceptable.
Offense. Balanced scoring last year and this year, but last year the bigs just DOMinated the scoring. This year, bigs are still doing the majority of scoring, but we have Carsen, Dakota, and others by committee providing strong guard offense. We have a solid stable of shooters, and so far at least they're are performing MUCH better than last year. Plus, enough of them can ball handle that we always have at least a couple shooters on the floor. I also do think our execution of ball movement and motion looks better this year than it has since the Baby Boilers. Fun to watch.
Defense. We miss AJ's shot blocking presence as already stated, but I think our team defense is improving game by game. Quick guards are scoring blow-by layups on us more frequently than I like, but our overall performance at defensive positioning, providing help when needed, knowing when to stop helping & slide back over to one's man, etc... I think we have some experienced guys now who are executing reasonably well. Carsen's improving quickly as well, and as we hoped, Basil is a strong defender we can deploy when needed. People talk about Isaac's weak lateral speed, but I perceive he is improving game by game as well. I think by B1G we'll be a pretty solid defensive team.
Blocks & Steals. We've gone from 5 blocks per game last year to 2 this year with the loss of AJ. On the other hand, we've improved to 6 steals per game compared with 4 last year. And since a block doesn't necessarily mean taking away the other team's possession while a steal does, one could argue they sort of cancel each other out. Of course, "altered shots" caused by a shot blocker's presence are not captured easily in stats, and I think we've all seen that teams are able to penetrate and score more easily on us this year without AJ being in there.
Turnovers. Last year we averaged 12 TPG, though we averaged 13 TPG the first five games against fairly weak competition other than Florida. This year we're at a whopping 16 TPG so far, and the biggest difference is the performance of our bigs. Isaac, Biggie, and Vince each have around 3 TPG, while last year Biggie was a bit better than that (2.6) and Isaac (1.1) and Vince (1.7) were MUCH better than that. AJ had around 2 TPG last year in case anyone's interested. I'm not sure what's up with Isaac and Vince this year (other than more touches with no AJ = more turnovers), but I have to think this is an area of emphasis to clear up with those two (& the whole team for that matter). We need to be closer to 10 TPG than 15, and over 15 is just unacceptable.
Offense. Balanced scoring last year and this year, but last year the bigs just DOMinated the scoring. This year, bigs are still doing the majority of scoring, but we have Carsen, Dakota, and others by committee providing strong guard offense. We have a solid stable of shooters, and so far at least they're are performing MUCH better than last year. Plus, enough of them can ball handle that we always have at least a couple shooters on the floor. I also do think our execution of ball movement and motion looks better this year than it has since the Baby Boilers. Fun to watch.
Defense. We miss AJ's shot blocking presence as already stated, but I think our team defense is improving game by game. Quick guards are scoring blow-by layups on us more frequently than I like, but our overall performance at defensive positioning, providing help when needed, knowing when to stop helping & slide back over to one's man, etc... I think we have some experienced guys now who are executing reasonably well. Carsen's improving quickly as well, and as we hoped, Basil is a strong defender we can deploy when needed. People talk about Isaac's weak lateral speed, but I perceive he is improving game by game as well. I think by B1G we'll be a pretty solid defensive team.
