Focusing on the scholarship players, what parts of their game does each individual returnee need to improve to become a more complete player and to make this a better team?
Returnees
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Dakota and Kendall just need to be/stay healthy. Those two could have very different years if they are and are in the kind of condition that it appears most of the team is in with last summer's workouts.
I think Vince needs to be more aggressive and a bit more selfish. He could be really good this year. Reminds me a lot of Hummel.
I think Vince needs to be more aggressive and a bit more selfish. He could be really good this year. Reminds me a lot of Hummel.
Stephens needs to shoot better than he has in the past. And that is for all positions on the floor, not just at the 3-point line.
We have the luxury this year that most teams will be forced to double down the entire game. I love Mathias's game however I believe Stephens will benefit the most, and deliver big time, 3's driving and jump shots.
Since everyone is talking about Stephens, I'll start there as well. I agree with those who say that Stephens' improvement is key this season. I've got a longer list for Kendall than most of his teammates, but that's because I think that he hasn't come close to reaching his potential.
1. Stay healthy
2. Avoid mental errors
3. Improved consistency from 3
4. Become credible threat to score off the dribble
5. Use improved body to take his defense to the next level
Haas needs better recognition and faster, more decisive decision making. He can't wait to get smothered by the double team. He either needs to pass out of it or attack it before it forms. Once Haas was getting surrounded last year, he was often mugged and the refs didn't seem to do him a lot of favors. He had too many turnovers and offensive fouls, especially flagrant fouls involving his elbows. Hammons had the similar problems (without the elbows) as a freshman and sophomore, but was much better last season.
Haas also needs a lot of work on his defense. He's reportedly made great strides in terms of his mobility, which should help immensely.
Right on target. Haas suffered from that fresman syndrome of hesitation and over thinking last year. I expect most of that will be gone this year.
Those are good points regarding Haas. I don't think he hesitated with the ball as often as AJH did as an underclassmen but it happened on occasion. Also, they both brought the ball down to take a dribble in traffic too often and sometimes it would get stolen or they'd lose the open shot they would have if they'd have kept the ball higher when making their moves.
There's been some comments regarding Stephens, Mathias, Edwards, and Haas. So, if not discussing them, then what about Davis, Hammons, Smotherman, and Thompson? What do they need to improve?
There's been some comments regarding Stephens, Mathias, Edwards, and Haas. So, if not discussing them, then what about Davis, Hammons, Smotherman, and Thompson? What do they need to improve?
Related to other thread, if AJ and Isaac both could jump and release the ball a few inches higher on their post-up turnarounds, they could get to Scheffler-level FG% down there. I called Schef bank-o-matic because (in some games at least) we could just feed him down low and he would hit close in bank shots over and over again. He was a juggernaut at times like that.
With Davis, I hope he's made great strides on his ball handling (and particularly his left hand). I think back to E'Twaun Moore, who came in with a shaky handle and developed into an excellent ball handler who was a great asset against the press, and I hope that Davis can do the same. I know that he has been working hard on his ball handling.
An improved jump shot would also be nice to see.
I remember one of the Indy stations interviewing Scheffler and asking why he only practiced lay ups...that's all I shoot... Scheffler was an all time great Boilermaker.
I hope to see a quicker, faster, more explosive PJ, with and without the ball. I thought, last year, that he needed to be quicker at his height and that he had the potential to do so. It sounds like he has been working hard in these areas.
I'm hoping that Smotherman, like Davis a year before, made great strides on his defense. Purdue has had several notable, shut-down, wing defenders over the years (including Dove, Cuonzo, Lowe, Kramer, and Davis), but I see no reason that Smotherman can't join them. He certainly has the physical ability, not to mention the best name ever for a shutdown defender. If he makes the progress I hope to see, he can either be a terrific spark off the bench or he can redshirt and take over Davis' role next year.
I agree that Mathias, like Strphens, needs to stay healthy and be in better physical shape. Like Davis, I think Mathias will help a lot against the press, so ball handling improvement will help a lot. He also just needs to shoot like he's capable of.
Regarding Vince, I'm hoping that the rumors that he has made great progress with his athleticism and explosiveness are true. The sky is the limit for him.
Like most of his teammares, any improvement on his jump shot will also be very helpful. In Vince's case, it would also be nice if he reduced his release time on his three point shot.
Vince reminds me of a mix of Hummel and Moore. Smooth and skilled point-forward. He could be an all time great at Purdue when he graduates.
I'm hoping Cline is clearly the best shooter on the team and works into a starting position by the start of the Big Ten season. It would be interesting, in certain situations, that Cline, Stephens and Mathias all are on the court at the same time teamed with AJH and CS.
I've thought the same. He has Hummel's unselfishness and ability to let the game come to him, but his body control, ability to get to the rim, effective use of his length, and overall smoothness, reminds me of Moore.
When I think of a player that had a slow motion style of play I think of Troy Lewis.
AJ: just do what he has been doing, but do it consistently. No slow start, no games he fades away.
Ray: improved 3 pt shot, taking care of the ball, and staying consistent offensively. Did well to end the year with 3s, but needs to start the year at that same clip and maintain it. Also needs to stay consistent on offense. Had a game or 2 last year of 0 pts. Can't have that. He was a little TO crazy last year and really needs to shore that up. We got a lot of assists last year but also gave nearly all those back with TOs.
Vince: improved 3 pt shot, more consitent, get into attack mode, ball handling. If you look at Vince's games, he was at his best when making 3s and attacking. He is phenominal at opening things up for his teammates, but sometimes he would get passive and just rebound and pass all game and get a couple tip ins. Needs to look for his shot more and be better from 3. Started the season great from 3 then just fell off. Also needs to improve his ball handling now that he is at the 3. Basically a guard spot so he needs to tighten it up a tad.
Kendall: Stay healthy, sharpen up his slashing. Kendall was amazing before Illinois when he got re-injured. He had some pretty slick slashing moves, he just needs to sharpen them up a bit and stay consistent. Was a 43% 3 shooter and was making 2.6 a game before Illinois. If he stays healthy, I bet he has very similar numbers this year.
Haas: hang on to the ball. Haas will not need play a lot this year, but will get some major minutes. He did really well last year when getting minutes at scoring and rebounding. That's all he really needs to do this year. His size makes defending the paint pretty easy for him since he just needs to stand in the way. If Haas could just hand on to the ball, he would have had a lot more rebounds and points. The downside of having hands so big they make a basketball feel like a softball.
Mathias: stay healthy. Clearly there are a lot of things Mathias needs to improve, but really his health was the only reason he wasn't doing those things last year. If he was healthy last summer and all season, he would not have shot 32% from 3. Guaranteed! Really he just needs to be healthy and the rest will follow for him. 3 pt shooting and passing are the things he needs to do and those things are there, but we're just limited by injury last year. Won't be the case this year as long as his health stays high.
Basil: consistent energy, 3 pt shot. Basil's greatest asset is his energy and athleticism. Last year it came and went and later on the B1G season it finally clicked and he did a TON better. If he can get a 3pt shot down, he will be better for it and so will we.
PJ: 3 pt shot, lateral speed, aggressive mindset, overall speed, slashing. PJs biggest thing is his 3pt shot that he needs to improve. His passing and taking care of the ball is great. He needs to get a 3pt shot down so he can be a threat while also opening up things for our bigs. His speed, both lateral and overall, will hinder him defensively. He has great instincts in help defense and when he is aggressive he is great, but to stay infront of or get back on the PGs that are in the B1G, he will need to greatly improve those speeds and stay aggressive.
A lot of the things that I mentioned about these players have conceivably been fixed this offseason.
Will shedding weight boost the athleticism/speed of PJ and RD?
PJ is playing at 188 - quite heavy for someone 5'10. He could lose 10 pounds and probably still be able to absorb contact
RD is 217....he could go down all the way to a Bruce Bowen like 200-205
Anyone in competitive sports will tell you 10 pounds can make a huge difference in reaction times and agility
PJ is playing at 188 - quite heavy for someone 5'10. He could lose 10 pounds and probably still be able to absorb contact
RD is 217....he could go down all the way to a Bruce Bowen like 200-205
Anyone in competitive sports will tell you 10 pounds can make a huge difference in reaction times and agility
RD doesn't need to lose anything. He was skinny when he came in and wasn't any quicker. Trainers have worked hard to get him to the weight he is now. RD is fine.
PJ needs to trim down IMO. 5'10 is very generous for PJ. I would say he is closer to 5'7"-5'8". He needs to lose about 10-15 lbs IMO, or just exchange whatever he has now for some muscle. Yogi Ferrell isn't even 180 and he is taller than PJ and a lot more muscled.
As far as Hammons, I agree with Quad Boiler that he needs to be dialed in every play of every game. I think that AJ has the potential to be great and this is his last chance to make it happen. For AJ, I think that the challenge is largely mental. He needs to continue to improve his recognition and decision making when he catches the ball in the post.
I also don't think it's too late for him to develop a signature post move and counter if he has been working on one all summer. I've been waiting for him to show us that one, hard to guard move that he can go to consistently and quickly for high percentage shots. Some of the video clips that we've seen recently feature an 8-10 foot turnaround that I am hoping is that move. In the recent video against Swanigan, I was encouraged by his decisiveness.
I would add "improve decision-making" for Smotherman. He would try to do too much (take the ball full-court to the rim on a fast break without passing it) or more than he was capable of (making a thread-the-needle type of pass into the paint from the perimeter) at times last season.
Had the best A:TO ratio on the team and shot 47%. I think Basil did fine with his decision making.
I also think that Smotherman made pretty good decisions, overall.
The problem was that he didn't force anyone to respect his jump shot. Basil shot 74% at the rim, but under 20% on all other shots.
Where did you come up with that?
Vince Edwards, Jon Octeus, Rapheal Davis, Dakota Mathias, and P.J. Thompson all had a better A:TO ratio than Smotherman last season: http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/team/stats/_/id/2509/purdue-boilermakers
There were games I remember where he would come in for Edwards and struggle with his decision-making in his spot minutes by trying to do too much or forcing things. Hopefully, he is more poised with the ball this season.
These are the Assists to TO Ratios taken from the numbers on the Purdue Basketball homepage. These box scores are the ones used by ESPN and the like.
Smotherman: 1.82
Mathias: 1.81
Edwards: 1.8
JO: 1.78
Thompson: 1.74
Davis: 1.35
Are you thinking I meant he had the most assists? No. He had the best ration of assists/turnovers. 31 assists to 17 turnovers. 31/17 = 1.82, which is the best on the team.
No, I'm just looking at it from the simplified difference equation point of view (i.e. 2.6 APG vs. 1.9 TPG = a difference of +0.7, which is a greater difference than 0.9 APG vs. 0.5 TPG = +0.4 ) vs. the quotient equation.
At any rate, I stand by comments on Smotherman.
At any rate, I stand by comments on Smotherman.
Where is Mathboy when we need him?
Division or subtraction, which is the best equation for evaluating performance in this instance?
That is not the definition of the A:TO Ratio.
We watched different games then. I thought Smotherman was just fine. Him taking 3s was my only problem, and that is a mistake by Painter, not Basil. I thought he played very well for his role apart from him shooting 3s.
To me, I would give only 6 players on this team the green light to shoot 3s. Lots of improvement will have to be made before I would feel comfortable adding anyone else to that 3pt list
Okay boys, a "RATIO" is always expressed as a division problem such as "X over Y", or X divided by Y.
If I take 2 shots and hit one, then I have an hit to attempt ratio of 0.5 (hits/attempts), or 50%. Sometimes that ratio tells lies.
A 50% 3-point shooter might be the walk-on that hits a 3-pt shot in his first game through random chance, badly misses the next, and the coach says "Don't try that again son, if you want to stay on the team". Now the coach has handcuffed "the best 3-pt shooter on the team", right?
That's my mistake. You got me there. Even with the standard equation to get the A/TO: Ratio, I still don't think it's a definitively "better" metric than the way I was doing it when analyzing how "good" or "bad" a player is with the ball.
We probably just noticed and remember different things about Smotherman's play from different times in the past season. Every player has their ups-and-downs.
Stephens, Mathias, Cline, Edwards, Davis, Thompson: is Hill not a part of your 6 green-light shooters? If he's wide-open he should shoot it, just like Weatherford should if he plays any significant minutes this season. We've seen how Purdue's offense can bog down a bit when they're basically playing 4-on-5. They have to at least try to keep defenses honest on certain players.
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If you are going to use assist to turnover differential as the metric, I think that you at least need to adjust the numbers to account for differences in minutes played per game. Interestingly enough, Smotherman and Dakota Mathias both averaged 2.8 assists and 1.6 turnovers per 40 minutes played and Dakota is typically considered one of the best decision makers on the team.
Hill is not in there, absolutley not. He is atrocious from deep, as is Weatherford. We let guys take 3s last year that should never take a 3, it's as good as a turnover for some.
We have great bug guys and great shooters and great passers, we should be able to find the open man or make a play to open some thing up. Hill should not take 3s this year.
We have enough depth that every high-minute player should play good team defense AND be an offensive threat. Ideally, our top PG can make 3's or at least long 2's in my opinion because we've all seen what happens when the defender on our PG can sag back. It screws up the offense. I think the spacing advantage of having a 3-shooting point guard is why you see continued speculation about Mathias or Davis bringing the ball up.
In his previous two stops, Hill was 27% from three. While I wouldn't give him a green light based on that, I wouldn't call him atrocious either. Given that he'll be the fifth option most of the time he's on the court this year, it wouldn't surprise me in the least to see him shoot 32-35% from three.
Speaking of guys getting the red light, can we eliminate the obligatory 3 from AJ each game? I don't know what he shot but it had to be putrid. Possessions are precious and I hate wasting one letting the big guy show the pros he has range.
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