JBs love affair with keita

[sandman525]

Since we know that Christmas is a much better offensive player, I decided to look at their rebounding and block rates per 40 minutes in Big East games only and here's the results:

Christmas - 8.2 rebounds and 3.2 blocks/40 mins
Keita - 6.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocks/40 mins

Obviously neither one rebounds very well for a guy his size, but Christmas is clearly superior on the boards and blocks shots at a higher rate. The most amazing stat as well is that Keita picks up a foul every 5.3 minutes he's on the floor. He's also picked up only 1 less foul than Christmas, even though he's played over 100 less minutes in conference games. Needless to say, that is horrific.

I don't mean to hate on Keita. He obviously tries very hard, and from all accounts, is a good teammate and represents the program well. But the stats seem to back up what my eyes tell me, which is that he's just not very good, and we need to see less of him on the floor if this team is going to make a deep tourney run.

 

[CuseFaninVT]

Since we know that Christmas is a much better offensive player, I decided to look at their rebounding and block rates per 40 minutes in Big East games only and here's the results:

Christmas - 8.2 rebounds and 3.2 blocks/40 mins
Keita - 6.5 rebounds and 2.9 blocks/40 mins

Obviously neither one rebounds very well for a guy his size, but Christmas is clearly superior on the boards and blocks shots at a higher rate. The most amazing stat as well is that Keita picks up a foul every 5.3 minutes he's on the floor. He's also picked up only 1 less foul than Christmas, even though he's played over 100 less minutes in conference games. Needless to say, that is horrific.

I don't mean to hate on Keita. He obviously tries very hard, and from all accounts, is a good teammate and represents the program well. But the stats seem to back up what my eyes tell me, which is that he's just not very good, and we need to see less of him on the floor if this team is going to make a deep tourney run.

The truth is that if Keita had the short leash that Rak does with JB, he'd see the floor for a minute and then he'd be back on the bench.

I have another theory about this though. JB knows that both are likely to foul out so he want's Rak to finish games and that's why he leaves Keita in there for longer than he deserves. I'm sorry, but Keita is awful. He's the reason that James got the foul on that 3 point shot from the corner - Keita rushing over actually pushed James into the shooter. It wasn't intentional, but Keita has so little control over his skinny body that he can't stop himself.

 

[Coach Orange]

Though stats can help, they often don't tell the whole story.

How do you quantify how a player's positioning leads to a good team defensive possession? Is a rebound or a block the only way to measure a post player's positive impact on a game? How do you determine the impact of solid spacing or a nicely set screen on offense? How do you quantify UConn's first four points, which were directly caused by their guards beating our guards off the dribble? Can you assign a numerical value to Rak not rotating up in support of the guards to stop the dribble quickly enough on these plays, which allowed for two easy layups? Oh wait, you can--the four points.

I'm not picking on anyone. I just think we have to be careful with stats--they can be used to argue many different points. The truth is that none of our post players are very good right now. They all don't score well, and they all have defensive lapses.

 

[realorange]

Roc or Keita. Name your poison.

As JB has said several times this year----"we'll only go as far as our big men can take us." Right now that seems to be a roll of the dice.

 

[bpo57]

Can anyone explain it?

Sent from my SCH-R720 using Tapatalk 2

The love affair with RC seems even harder to explain.

 

[KingOtis]

Most offensively inept player to get major minutes. He can't catch and can't make what should be easy layups. Help, I can't take it.

You could be talking about Keita, you could be talking about Christmas. Hard to tell.

 

[sandman525]

The love affair with RC seems even harder to explain.

I don't think anyone here has a love affair with Christmas. I think most people recognize that Christmas underperforms on most nights. With that said, on average he is still far superior to Keita, IMO.

 

[KingOtis]

I don't think anyone here has a love affair with Christmas. I think most people recognize that Christmas underperforms on most nights. With that said, on average he is still far superior to Keita, IMO.

Not if he's underperforming most nights.

 

[OrangeFoo]

The question we all should be asking is how can we get three top 5 centers in the country in a row and still be forced to play 4 on 5 on offense because our centers don't develop any offensive moves. JB needs to hire a good big man coach because we are wasting talent. I'd say lack of good center play is the primary reason we haven't had a title in this our second golden years of Syracuse hoops. Forget good, I'll take produces more than just a warm body at this point.

 

[rocklloyd]

so does DC2 come back this year? Initially, I thought I read a month. When did clock start ticking? End of January, i forget.

 

[KingOtis]

I'd say lack of a healthy/eligible center is the primary reason we haven't had a title in this our second golden years of Syracuse hoops.

Fixed it for you.

 

[KingOtis]

so does DC2 come back this year? Initially, I thought I read a month. When did clock start ticking? End of January, i forget.

I doubt he'll be back this year. It's not like he's going to be some kind of savior. Even if he recovers in time, he'll be out of shape.

 

[tbonezone]

not much of a drop off last night between keita and xmas. i'm more concerned about JB'S love affair with the 3 point shot. frankly as the numbers suggest we suck at it. and yet we engage in a heavefest with a smaller team.

 

[KingOtis]

not much of a drop off last night between keita and xmas. i'm more concerned about JB'S love affair with the 3 point shot. frankly as the numbers suggest we suck at it. and yet we engage in a heavefest with a smaller team.

JB wasn't the one settling for three-pointers, his players were.

 

[tbonezone]

sorry but the buck stops upstairs with the maestro imo. is he not coaching the game or just watching?

 

[TBCuse11]

I don't think anyone here has a love affair with Christmas. I think most people recognize that Christmas underperforms on most nights. With that said, on average he is still far superior to Keita, IMO.

I am sure this has been mentioned on these boards somewhere, but why don't we ever try small ball now that James is back? Especially last night, with a putrid UConn front court, we should have played Grant at center. Kid has 9 boards in 20 minutes. Our two starting centers has 10 boards COMBINED in 40 minutes. Grant is the most energetic and exciting player we have, and he just has a knack for getting boards. Rak and Keita certainly do not.

I know Jimbo will never, ever do this... but our center duo is completely useless 80% or the time.

 

[KingOtis]

sorry but the buck stops upstairs with the maestro imo. is he not coaching the game or just watching?

I love how everyone assumes that players always listen. This goes for any team, not just 'Cuse. I've seen Phil Pressey ignore what the coaches draw up in end game situations several times this year. MCW does the same thing.

The players took UConn for granted and paid for it. They were not interested in working for shots until it was too late. You could also make the argument that feeding the post was a pointless exercise and that the constant harassment from Napier and Boatright kept our guards from penetrating more. By no means should either of those be viewed as excuses. I'm just saying that I don't think MCW and Triche were willing to put forth the extra effort for most of the game. And Southerland was trying to save the day like he did at Arkansas.

You could see what JB wanted them to do, they just weren't executing.

 

[tbonezone]

if the coach says stop jacking threes...you stop. or sit.simple. evidently the message wasn't sent.

 

[KingOtis]

if the coach says stop jacking threes...you stop. or sit.simple. evidently the message wasn't sent.

Sure, it's that easy. "Do what I say, or else!" Who is he going to play in place of MCW and Triche? Yeah, another guy who's only going to jack threes.

MCW and Triche give us our best chance to win, whether they listen to everything JB says or not. Players disagree with and in some cases ignore their coaches. This is nothing new.

P.S. It's not the same as with Waiters, who was a freshman coming off the bench. JB had other options then. He doesn't now.

 

[Czar]

So what I'm getting from this thread is that, even if it causes us to lose, people would rather Christmas be taught a lesson about apparently not hustling enough (nevermind how stupid that sounds and the fact that he ing moves around on the court just fine, but apparently not like Keita who will chase people outside his spot for no reason).

 

[baggerbob]

Guess what if our 4 year starter goes 7-15 with a couple 3's and 5-6 at the free throw line, he scores 21 points, instead we get 3-15 no 3 pointers and 3-6 at the free throw line for 9 points. That for a guy who has started 131 straight games is totally unacceptable at this stage of his career. If Scoop or Chris had done that all the talk on the board would have been about that, we didn't lose last night because of our centers, MCW and especially Triche have got to stop playing like freshmen.

 

[KingOtis]

So what I'm getting from this thread is that, even if it causes us to lose, people would rather Christmas be taught a lesson about apparently not hustling enough (nevermind how stupid that sounds and the fact that he moves around on the court just fine, but apparently not like Keita who will chase people outside his spot for no reason).

What you should be getting from the thread is that neither of them are very good.

 

[timkay99]

Though stats can help, they often don't tell the whole story.

How do you quantify how a player's positioning leads to a good team defensive possession? Is a rebound or a block the only way to measure a post player's positive impact on a game? How do you determine the impact of solid spacing or a nicely set screen on offense? How do you quantify UConn's first four points, which were directly caused by their guards beating our guards off the dribble? Can you assign a numerical value to Rak not rotating up in support of the guards to stop the dribble quickly enough on these plays, which allowed for two easy layups? Oh wait, you can--the four points.

I'm not picking on anyone. I just think we have to be careful with stats--they can be used to argue many different points. The truth is that none of our post players are very good right now. They all don't score well, and they all have defensive lapses.

Looking at purely the +/- last night (which has its issues - agreed), but this should be the best way to quantify the impact they had on the game last night when they were in.

11-10 Syracuse (Rak exits, Keita enters) - 10 UConn Points
Rak +1
22-21 Conneticut (Keita exits, Rak enters) - 12 UConn Points
Keita -1
39-37 Conneticut (Rak exits, Keita enters) - 17 UConn Points
Rak -1
57-48 Conneticut (Keita exits, Rak enters) - 18 UConn Points
Keita -5
66-58 final (Rak finishes game) - 9 UConn Points
Rak +2


Overall, Rak was +2 last night and Keita was -6.

UConn scored 36 points in the 25 minutes Christmas played. (1.44 points per minute)
UConn scored 30 points in the 15 minutes Keita played. (2 points per minute)

UConn overall shooting while players were in the game:

With Christmas (UConn 6 offensive rebounds)
Olander (2-3) - dunk, layup
Boatright (5-7, 4-4 3PA) - dunk
Calhoun (1-7, 0-2 3PA)
Napier (2-3, 0-1 3PA)
Daniels (1-4)
Giffey (0-1)
Overall (11-25, 4-7 3PA) = 44 %, 2 point defense (7-18) = 39 %

With Keita (UConn 5 offensive rebounds)
Giffey (3-7, 1-1 3PA) - dunk
Evans (1-1)
Boatright (1-3)
Nolan (0-1)
Napier (1-3, 1-3 3PA)
Calhoun (3-4, 3-4 3PA)
Daniels (1-1) - layup
Overall (10-20, 5-8 3PA) = 50 %, 2 point defense (5-12) = 42 %

Rak makes his mistakes, but he also makes up for mistakes with his blocks. Did you know Keita didn't have a single defensive rebound last night? In 15 minutes!

While they are both flawed options, Keita playing 15 minutes a night is not a solution for this team.

 

[tbonezone]

wow. that's a lot of data. some might simply argue that the missed putback dunk by rakim cost us the game.

 

[timkay99]

wow. that's a lot of data. some might simply argue that the missed putback dunk by rakim cost us the game.

Could Keita have even caught that ball?