My biggest hope for next year is Matthew Moyer

[pfister1]

In any event, somehow, pointing out how the rest of the team sucked over last 6-7 games was interpreted as proclaiming that Malachi was "great" over that same period. He was not. Players 4-9 on the SU roster had disappointing seasons, less than expectations. DC could be a discussion in and of itself, and I am excited he intends to return, but was hoping he was more impressive this year. Howard was close. The rest badly underperformed, relative to reasonable expectations.

Your post got me thinking about how players performed against my expectations. Interestingly, "expectations" are entirely subjective so my expectations may have been significantly higher or lower than another's so our grades of that particular player might ultimately be wildly different.

Team - Performed to expectation. Before the season I predicted 18-13 (8-10 ACC) (0-1 ACCT) & NIT. Even though I foresaw mediocrity it didn't change the fact that I was disappointed after each loss and after each missed opportunity e.g. FSU & Pitt.

Gbinije - I think he greatly exceeded my expectations. I did not expect him to to shoot as well from 3 as he did, or to be as night in night out consistent as he ended up being.
Cooney - Underperformed my expectations. I expected him to be a more reliable scorer, more consistent threat from 3 and much closer to G as a go to guy than he tuned out to be. I also expected him to play smarter and be the on court leader - if he was the leader I don't feel like he provided enough in this regard.
Coleman - Slightly Underperformed my expectations. DCII was really hard because it was never clear whether he was going to be physically ready to give us anything, but I guess I kind of expected that he would look less timid, be better able to assert his strength advantage and be able to finish offensive boards and dump downs more consistently. Even at the end of the season I don't think we were seeing him truly use his bulk and I only occasionally felt like I was confident that he was going to finish opportunities around the rim. I didn't know what to expect from him on D, and I don't think we got much. Maybe the fact the fact that he stayed in the starting lineup and seemed to be trending towards more mpg at the end of the season should be enough to grade him above expectations. I do feel like I saw flashes of promise similar to what you might see in a freshman that could mean next season he will be a much more serviceable player.
Roberson - Underperformed my expectations - I expected more consistency from him on the glass and on d. I also expected him to show a confident mid range jumper (10-15 feet) and I expected him to finish better around the basket.
Richardson - Performed to Expectations - My expectations were that he would be a freshman that could shoot the 3, but that would be inconsistent. At times he shot the 3 better than I expected, at times worse. He showed signs of being able to score off the dribble and from mid range, but also inconsistent. Defensive grade is largely irrelevant since we don't really expect him to log minutes on the bottom of the zone next year. I really liked what I saw from him especially if he stays in the program for a couple of years.
Lydon - Outperformed my expectations - I didn't expect him to get that much run this season, certainly not turn into the de facto 5th starer in terms of minutes played. I liked what I saw in every facet of his game.
Joseph - Severely underperformed expectations. Not sure what happened here at all? Nuff said.
Howard - Performed to expectations. I did not expect him to see minutes with G and Cooney in front of him. I don't feel like he established himself as a solid 6th man level performer, but was a serviceable "7.5" man in the JB scheme by the end of the season. I have no doubt he'll build on that for next season.
Obokoh - Performed to expectations. Wish he could have been good enough to provide some serviceable minutes, but going into the season I did not expect that...only hoped for it.

My overall evaluation of the season is that we performed to about what my expectations for the team were. I thought being as thin as we were upfront was going to kill us all season, and largely that was true. On a whole Lydon probably gave us a lot more that I anticipated and that may have offset underperformance from Cooney and Roberson. G's uptick on my expectations was probably enough to make Joseph's disappearance less of an impact. Had we gotten what we did from Lydon; and had Cooney and/or Roberson performed more to my expectations for them...the team would have exceeded my expectations and probably made some noise in the ACCT and NCAAT.

 

[Zelda Zonk]

Coleman and Chukwu are physical opposites with opposite skill sets. They will both play depending on the situation. Coleman will start due to seniority but actually playing time will depend on the opposition and game situations.

You've seen PC practice?

How are his hands?
Is he a finger roller or a monster masher?
Does he have a jumper?
Any kind of post moves?

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

I think both of them showed flashes. I think Lydon will struggle if he was more of a focal point on offense. Mali showed a lot some games, and not so much in others. At the end of the day Mali shot less than 38% on the year while playing bad defense. We still don't know what Lydon is capable of on defense from his natural position and if he's going to be driven around with ease from the wing.

I'll put it this way, with G and two successful freshman, I don't care who the two other guys on the floor are, if they were successful we wouldn't be at 19 wins with a nut hair of a chance of making the tournament. Great flashes doesn't = success.

Malachi averaged 13ppg and shot 35% from 3 on the season. 42% from 3 and 14 ppg in ACC play. That's an excellent season for a freshman. He's going to lead us in scoring next year and may be a 40% shooter on the season from 3 next year.

 

[AlpharettaCuse]

Where did I say he wasn't a capable player? Come on. He shot as well as coney did and he's not a P5 player. I get ones a 5 year guy and one isn't but 30% from the field, not just 3 isn't good for anybody. Freshman, senior, nba player.

He shot better than Cooney. You're cherry picking. Look at his season stats. Excellent season.