15
Battle is averaging 15 shots a game and while occasionally he's been overly aggressive and either taken an ill-advised shot or committed a charge/turnover by wildly driving into the lane, it's nice to see he's very comfortable in the lead dawg role. What's noteworthy is the last two guys to average over 15 FGs/game are Wallace (15.8 in 95/96) and Melo (17.5 in 03). To be fair, a bunch of others have been close (McNamara as a senior, Hak as a junior and senior, Nichols as a senior, Fair as a senior etc.) but it's interesting b/c Battle feels like an NBA talent who's ready to have a dominant year that is fitting of a kid with his talent. What's hurt our program the most the past few years is losing kids to the NBA despite their having good but not great years. Battle hopefully ends that trend.
32
General pointed this out in his thread but if you had asked me before the season if we'd see Chuckwu log 32 minutes in a single game I would have argued that he'd be more likely to see 32 total minutes in our first four games. I tend to feel like the jury is still out a bit on the big man but a meaningful contribution from him, even if it's more like 15 mpg, would be a significant development for this team.
.429
Both Howard and Battle are shooting at this rate from 3. That's another key factor. Brissett has struggled as has Thorpe but I was wondering if this team would have any capable shooters outside of Battle. Not sure if either can keep up that pace, but if either Thorpe gets healthy and improves his number or Brissett starts to see some fall (or both) we really should be a solid shooting team, which I'd say is a bit surprising and obviously a good sign.
+57
Our rebounding margin so far on the young season. We have been fortunate in some ways to play three teams with no size whatsoever, but that's still close to 15 rebounds/game in our favor. Obviously not a sustainable number but this team is going to be tougher on the glass than I would have expected. Teams with a ton of size still loom, but these kids are fighters and hustlers. Just don't think we'll see that many games where we just get abused on this front.
0
The points Doezaj scored (on one shot attempt) vs. Oakland, yet the dude had a big impact on that game. A constant factor defensively with blocks and deflections (3 blocks, two steals), a great pass on one of our few pretty looking fast breaks in that game and 8 boards. His hustle and basketball IQ are arguably the biggest factor outside of Battle's dominance in this team's solid start.
13
The points Thorpe scored with Battle on the bench vs. Texas Southern. It was great to see and came at a huge point for this team. What remains a bit disturbing is that outside of that stretch of 10-12 minutes, he has 18 points total and has shot poorly. Obviously we need to be patient with his ankle and he's done some other things to chip in, but it would be great to see that Thorpe -- the one with the nose for the basket -- emerge more consistently.
1 in 5 trillion
The odds that we'd have two players make a fairly decent run at a triple double through four games of the season and that those players would be Dolezaj and Chukwu.
6
Number of assists for Battle in four games. Love the aggressiveness but I think the next development for his game is being able to take advantage of some of the attention he's going to be drawing to set up his teammates for some buckets.
Battle is averaging 15 shots a game and while occasionally he's been overly aggressive and either taken an ill-advised shot or committed a charge/turnover by wildly driving into the lane, it's nice to see he's very comfortable in the lead dawg role. What's noteworthy is the last two guys to average over 15 FGs/game are Wallace (15.8 in 95/96) and Melo (17.5 in 03). To be fair, a bunch of others have been close (McNamara as a senior, Hak as a junior and senior, Nichols as a senior, Fair as a senior etc.) but it's interesting b/c Battle feels like an NBA talent who's ready to have a dominant year that is fitting of a kid with his talent. What's hurt our program the most the past few years is losing kids to the NBA despite their having good but not great years. Battle hopefully ends that trend.
32
General pointed this out in his thread but if you had asked me before the season if we'd see Chuckwu log 32 minutes in a single game I would have argued that he'd be more likely to see 32 total minutes in our first four games. I tend to feel like the jury is still out a bit on the big man but a meaningful contribution from him, even if it's more like 15 mpg, would be a significant development for this team.
.429
Both Howard and Battle are shooting at this rate from 3. That's another key factor. Brissett has struggled as has Thorpe but I was wondering if this team would have any capable shooters outside of Battle. Not sure if either can keep up that pace, but if either Thorpe gets healthy and improves his number or Brissett starts to see some fall (or both) we really should be a solid shooting team, which I'd say is a bit surprising and obviously a good sign.
+57
Our rebounding margin so far on the young season. We have been fortunate in some ways to play three teams with no size whatsoever, but that's still close to 15 rebounds/game in our favor. Obviously not a sustainable number but this team is going to be tougher on the glass than I would have expected. Teams with a ton of size still loom, but these kids are fighters and hustlers. Just don't think we'll see that many games where we just get abused on this front.
0
The points Doezaj scored (on one shot attempt) vs. Oakland, yet the dude had a big impact on that game. A constant factor defensively with blocks and deflections (3 blocks, two steals), a great pass on one of our few pretty looking fast breaks in that game and 8 boards. His hustle and basketball IQ are arguably the biggest factor outside of Battle's dominance in this team's solid start.
13
The points Thorpe scored with Battle on the bench vs. Texas Southern. It was great to see and came at a huge point for this team. What remains a bit disturbing is that outside of that stretch of 10-12 minutes, he has 18 points total and has shot poorly. Obviously we need to be patient with his ankle and he's done some other things to chip in, but it would be great to see that Thorpe -- the one with the nose for the basket -- emerge more consistently.
1 in 5 trillion
The odds that we'd have two players make a fairly decent run at a triple double through four games of the season and that those players would be Dolezaj and Chukwu.
6
Number of assists for Battle in four games. Love the aggressiveness but I think the next development for his game is being able to take advantage of some of the attention he's going to be drawing to set up his teammates for some buckets.
