Can Brandon play himself into the draft ?

[RF2044]

Always wonder why people persist in this opinion about Scoop -- after he led the team to one of its best seasons, was close to the top of the league in assists two years in a row, and earned accolades from JB.

Same people who couldn't understand why Scoop & Dion were on the floor to close out tight games?

I'll also add that Scoop did a GREAT job of protecting the ball last year, in marked contrast to previous years. He did a very solid job of taking care of the ball, which in turn set the tone for the team to do the same. And having low turnovers won us several games last year that were close.

 

[moqui]

Purely conjecture, perhaps someone can look it up, but I would imagine Scoop's FT percentage in closing out tight games went up, and BT's went down and were fairly close overall. I'm not sure what happened late in the year, but BT was struggling with the FT's late in the game.

Scoop was, indeed, remarkably clutch at the stripe in the final two minutes of games - remarkable because his FT shooting fell off the table otherwise.

Throwing out the small sample sizes of MCW and Christmas, everyone else pretty much held form to their overall average, with the glaring exceptions of Joseph and, to a lesser degree, Fab:

 

[OttoMets]

No, what you said, exactly is this "The not-so-nice, but I think still relatively true answer is this: He's more likely to lose minutes to some combination of Cooney and potentially JS than he is to have a monster breakout season that either lands him in the draft or puts him in the same class as DNic." That's not close to what you are saying now. Probably because you realized that what you said in the first place is assinine.

I'm not going to get into a back and forth here, but I tend to disagree with most of your points, especially about Scoop. Scoop was a trainwreck waiting to happen. He had some great moments, but he was easily the most frustrating player I've watched on the SU team in a long time.

There is something asinine here, and it's not the take that bills offered.

Anyone with that opinion of Scoop loses a ton of credibility.

 

[Ghost]

Scoop was, indeed, remarkably clutch at the stripe in the final two minutes of games - remarkable because his FT shooting fell off the table otherwise.

Throwing out the small sample sizes of MCW and Christmas, everyone else pretty much held form to their overall average, with the glaring exceptions of Joseph and, to a lesser degree, Fab:

Thanks Moqui. Nice to see it confirmed - although Triche held form so I guess I was only half right.

Thanks again - what site did you pull that off of?

 

[moqui]

Thanks Moqui. Nice to see it confirmed - although Triche held form so I guess I was only half right.

Thanks again - what site did you pull that off of?

before every game, SUAD publishes a pdf file titled Game Notes with a ton of statistics, including the end of game FT numbers. The last game with a full game notes was the Wisconsin game, so I had to also add in numbers from the Wiscy and Ohio State games to make a complete chart.

I want to note that it is shocking how bad Kris was in EOG situations . . . he was the go-to guy, so he had the 2nd most number of FT opportunities, and he made barely half of them.

 

[billsin01]

before every game, SUAD publishes a pdf file titled Game Notes with a ton of statistics, including the end of game FT numbers. The last game with a full game notes was the Wisconsin game, so I had to also add in numbers from the Wiscy and Ohio State games to make a complete chart.

I want to note that it is shocking how bad Kris was in EOG situations . . . he was the go-to guy, so he had the 2nd most number of FT opportunities, and he made barely half of them.

That was great research and a really telling statistic. The part that bothered me the most about Joseph was that it seemed like a concentration thing more than a jitters thing with him. I have zero proof of this, but he was a really smooth FT shooter who not only missed a TON of FTs in crunch time but missed front ends of one-and-ones quite often as well. Frustrating player even though he had a really solid career and seems like a really good kid.

 

[orangefan13]

When I remember Scoops career here at Syracuse, I will remember his senior jump the most. The guy went to 4 camps in teh offseason, and came in and ran a offense with no high post up threat, attacking the paint confidnetly while undersized, and did not bow out with a bad game in march proving he couldn't beat his defender like the MU and Butler losses.

We have had PG's who couldn't drive by their guy in march Scoop was not the reason we lost to OSU on either end of the floor. He played as valiantly as flynn did in loosing to Oklahoma. Thank you Scoop for that.

The guy went out a warrior by giving 110%. If you feel that way about Scoop are you in the group that is expecting Rak to jump to the four this year so easily? I can only hope he gives a 110% like Scoop starting today if he is.

 

[reedny]

I can remember games (this past year) when Scoop (UConn) hit a couple of 'dagger' 3's , when KJ hit a couple (GT) and some games when BT wielded the stiletto (L'Ville and Wisconsin). Putting the Wisconsin game aside (which was a huge game, in which all three of our guards were fearless driving the ball into the lane), BT also saved our bacon at fried chicken U. At a time when neither team was able to score, he came up with a nice penetration (call it a "slash") move to the basket and a high-arching shot over Denghe to seal the win. I think CJ might have had the final bucket, but you get the idea.

As an aside, I think Vt was perfectly within bounds to say that, at times even late in his career, Scoop played like a train wreck (i.e., had some What moments well below expectations for a player of his talent/experience level). Even as recently as February -- well into the season -- JB had to pull him because he was just not getting it done on offense, or would miss a simple defensive assignment (e.g.., failing to get back to prevent a fast break, which is PG 101). Even more troubling, in many EOG situations, Scoop just couldn't come up with a clutch shot to save his life and, shockingly, couldn't even hit a clutch free throw (KJ was probably worse). As the year wore on, Scoop earned more late-game minutes with ball security and his knack for setting up Dion or penetrating (rather than trying to win the game with a jumper). He figured it out.

None of this means I "hate" Scoop, or think that BT is a flawless player who can't be guarded. Quite the contrary, if you read my earlier thread post, I don't see Brandon getting drafted if he were announcing right now. Next year... who knows (and yes, I still like his slash game). As to Scoop, fantastic kid who turned himself around, gave his all to the program, and in his senior year became a reliable team leader and playmaker. The fact that he is not a clutch jump shooter doesn't mean he's not a talented player ... (hello, Rondo). Instead of forcing jumpers, he improved by cutting his TO's way down despite being the primary ball handler. He relied more on his crafty (Eidelin-like) inside moves, shot his patented elbow jumper (often with someone hanging on his elbow), and showed a capacity to finish inside that BT has yet to match.

We all love our guys but have to be realistic about their failings.

 

[Ghost]

Even more troubling, in many EOG situations, Scoop just couldn't come up with a clutch shot to save his life and, shockingly, couldn't even hit a clutch free throw (KJ was probably worse).

We all love our guys but have to be realistic about their failings.

You realize Moqui just posted end of game FT's - even if some of them were blowouts he was still 13-15 with under 2 minutes left in the game on the year.

 

[reedny]

[/quote]

You realize Moqui just posted end of game FT's - even if some of them were blowouts he was still 13-15 with under 2 minutes left in the game on the year.

True, the chart is interesting. But is "clutch" the last 3 minutes (2:00 to 2:59) or 4? Or I'd be interested to see the game note PDF stats for first half of the seaons versus the rest (he got better) and conference/NCAA games, etc). Either way, I think you get the point -- which was that Scoop (a woeful 55% FT shooter) had his failings along with Brandon. He couldn't hit a clutch shot at end-game, and BT couldn't get on the court (except to shoot FT's). To his credit, Scoop earned these minutes by playing within himself -- controlling the ball and running the offense. And he seemed to get better hitting eog FT's towards the end of the year (note: I havn't looked at the stats on this).

But back to the thread, this year, I think we see an improved BT, not only mathematically with expanded "minutes" (as Knicks predicts), but also with the quality of his game. Even if he takes modest strides, his (already respectable) 3p shooting percentage of 35% should improve (assuming we have other shooters to keep the pressure off him), and I expect to see a better finisher and playmaker. Brandon's no longer one guy in the guard rotation -- he's the ONLY guard with any significant game experience. So he'll be in the bright lights and hopefully he'll shine.

 

[Ghost]

True, the chart is interesting. But clutch can mean the 1:57 mark too (or I'd be interested to see the game note PDF stats for conference/NCAA games). Either way, I think you get the point -- which was that Scoop had his failings along with Brandon. He couldn't hit a clutch shot at end-game, and BT couldn't get on the court (except to shoot FT's). To his credit, Scoop earned these minutes by playing within himself -- controlling the ball and running the offense.

But back to the thread, this year, I think we see an improved BT, not only mathematically with expanded "minutes" (as Knicks predicts), but also with the quality of his game. Even if he takes modest strides, his (already respectable) 3p shooting percentage of 35% should improve (assuming we have other shooters to keep the pressure off him), and I expect to see a better finisher and playmaker. Brandon's no longer one guy in the guard rotation -- he's the ONLY guard with any significant game experience. So he'll be in the bright lights and hopefully he'll shine.

Dammit reedny, 1:57 is under 2:00 - it still falls in Moqui's chart!

 

[reedny]

Dammit reedny, 1:57 is under 2:00 - it still falls in Moqui's chart!

LOL, I must be dreaming that I'm on the couch watching a game . . 1 hour, 57 minutes into a 2 hour broadcast (usually with a craft ale in my hand), or 3 minutes left. But I'll edit my post to clarify what I was observing about Scoop: FT's during the last 3 minutes or so of games in the first half of the season. The numbers, of course, will be more reliable than my memory, but it seems like, despite his pitiful overall FT % -- 55, he got better at EOG foul shots toward the end of the season.