Most Improved Player

[moqui]

The "most improved player" award is often a misnomer; as often as not, the winner is someone who simply got more minutes rather than actually improved his play. Of course, there is improvement, but most of the year over year change is due to increased opportunity.

That being said, Syracuse has three candidates for the award this year:

CJ Fair 8.5ppg, 5.4 rpg in 2012 to 14.3 and 7.3 in 2013
James Southerland 4.9 and 2.3 last year to 13.8 and 4.9 this year
Michael Carter-Williams 2.7ppg and 2.1apg and 1.5rpg last year to 12.7ppg 8.2apg and 4.9rpg

 

[jekelish]

It's really a case of "got more minutes," as you say. But I guess MCW is our likeliest candidate. For the most part, people knew what they were getting with CJ and Dirty. MCW was something of a wild card.

 

[edowd26]

I got most improved player my senior year in hockey for my high school team. Whats funny is I got progressively worse at the game from my sophomore year. I just played more.

 

[Cusefan0307]

It has to be cj. He went from having no outside shot, to being the second best shooter on the team. People forget at the end of last year he was not very good once he was inserted into the starting lineup.

 

[MadNY3]

It has to be cj. He went from having no outside shot, to being the second best shooter on the team. People forget at the end of last year he was not very good once he was inserted into the starting lineup.

Agree. He can legitimately hot the three, his FT % is up and he has been the most consistent player.

 

[OrangeTown]

It has to be cj. He went from having no outside shot, to being the second best shooter on the team. People forget at the end of last year he was not very good once he was inserted into the starting lineup.

I've said it before, and it's partly my mancrush talking, but CJ's improvement has been wonderful to watch. All the things you said, in addition to the little things like drastically improving his free throw shooting.

The thing with MCW is I think everyone already knew what he could do, and is now just getting the stage to show it. Same with James. It's just the available minutes are there now, as you guys stated already.

 

[NineOneSeven]

In my opinion, it's CJ 100%.

The kid is a go to scorer.

 

[moqui]

the interesting thing is, MCW has the greatest numerical improvement, but he is the only one of the three to have had his offensive efficiency go down. Now, it is common for efficiency to go down as usage rate goes up, but CJ & JS both had their usage rates increase, too, but their OE also went up:

MCW 2012 OE: 112.3; 2013OE: 105.9; -6.4 (5.7% decrease)
CJ 2012 OE: 114.6; 2013OE: 116.5; +1.9 (1.7% increase)
JS 2012 OE: 121.0; 2013OE: 125.2; +4.2 (3.5% increase)

 

[Gabjon]

Think CJ is Most Improved Player, but James has the Most Improved confidence. MCW's improvement won't in a SU uniform.

 

[themorey]

James is gonna be 6th man of the year and conf 3rd team.
CJ will be BE POY and conf 1st team.
MCW is most improved and conf 2nd team.

 

[AirForceOrange]

CJ

 

[br801]

the interesting thing is, MCW has the greatest numerical improvement, but he is the only one of the three to have had his offensive efficiency go down. Now, it is common for efficiency to go down as usage rate goes up, but CJ & JS both had their usage rates increase, too, but their OE also went up:

MCW 2012 OE: 112.3; 2013OE: 105.9; -6.4 (5.7% decrease)
CJ 2012 OE: 114.6; 2013OE: 116.5; +1.9 (1.7% increase)
JS 2012 OE: 121.0; 2013OE: 125.2; +4.2 (3.5% increase)

The drop in MCW's OE isn't too surprising. He really didn't see a lot of high leverage minutes last season, he's more turnover prone this season (as is BT) and several horrible shooting nights have left him with .380 shooting percentage. But he has been considerably more efficient of late, and seems to be figuring out how to play in the Big East.