Fun run to the sweet 16 and a difficult but ultimately pretty satisfying season came to a close on Friday and I figured it's about time to hand out some final grades. These obviously mean nothing, but it's a fun exercise and figures to start some discussion. I'm going to do it in two posts so as not to put a 5 million word post on here, so there'll be a part 2.
One item to give the grades some context as obviously this is a subjective exercise to a large degree -- the team, in my view, had the ceiling of a bubble team so I tend to view this as a pretty successful season. That will be reflected in most of the grades.
So let's work from there:
Braedon Bayer: A+++
I'll have a more involved format for most of the players, but if you told me at the beginning of the season that Bayer would come up with a huge jump ball and block and log 6 decent minutes in a do-or-die game vs. MSU in the round of 32, I would not have believed it. He'll be an answer to a trivia question 10 years from now. Pretty cool.
Geno Thorpe: ---
Seriously, dude? Neither here, nor there, but this story line is so puzzling to me. I'm fully of the belief that Thorpe on the roster probably takes us off the bubble b/c we're only discussing winning a game or two more. And why he left will never make any sense to me.
Matthew Moyer: D
The Grade: It's harsh. What else can I say. I think it's fair to reasonably have expected more of Moyer overall and while he seems like a phenomenal kid and a player that can absolutely contribute to this program down the road, it's my belief that he's got a lot of work to do.
The Good: Moyer had some nice moments. The three games he put up against UConn, Buffalo and Toledo were huge. Obviously every win we had was important and if he throws up a clunker against UB or UConn, we lose and we aren't talking about a sweet 16. Nice length, decent athleticism and a couple of flashes are not, all in all, an unusual season for a redshirt freshman.
The Bad: Injuries played a role and he obviously had to gut it out after a really bad ankle injury. So I'll give him credit for that. The bigger issue is that he seems to be extremely raw in his understanding of the game. Not terribly effective in the zone and completely lost on offense.
The Future: There was a lot of conjecture about Moyer's future on the board the last couple days. Didn't read much of that thread but it is an interesting question. My personal opinion is that there's no point in transferring given that he already redshirted for a season. Might as well put the effort in next year even if it is in very limited minutes (it likely will be) because there is likely a larger role waiting in 19/20. I'm hoping Griffin can help him see the full picture as Griff did very little as a frosh, struggled quite a bit as a soph, got buried on the bench as a junior but then put together a very respectable senior season.
Bourama Sidibe: Inc.
The Grade: There were whispers early that maybe Sidibe was going to have problems contributing early here, then he got off to a great start before (literally) limping to the finish with injuries. Obviously injuries were a huge factor, so we'll all be excited to see what a (hopefully) healthier Sidibe looks like next year.
The Good: Athletic and coordinated inside with a pretty good knack for putting the ball in the basket, especially for a freshman. Should be a scoring threat if healthy. Started the year 4-for-14 on FTs, but wound up making 15 of his last 26 (58%) from there, so hopefully he can continue a positive trend there. Should also be pretty tough blocking shots in the zone -- saw that when he was a little healthier in stretches early or after he got that shot and put up the 18 and 16 game.
The Bad: Got pushed around a bit and needs to get stronger. Could obviously improve his back to the basket game or add a jumper, but those things go without saying for a most 6'10" freshman who can do a lot of things on the court. Health is the key.
The Future: Knees are problems for lots of big guys and it's hard for me to totally buy into a surgery simply wiping that all away from Sidibe. However, if he gets healthy, look out. To me, the most valuable recruit you can have is a guy who stays 3-4 years but can hang with the athleticism of the guys who are leaving after a year. He's absolutely one of those guys. Not sure he's a future NBA guy, but he will be a nightmare for most teams we play ... if he's at least mostly healthy.
Howard Washington: Inc.
The Grade: Just didn't see much of HW, so not sure what else to give him.
The Good: I'm sure we had better options had we played recruiting a little differently, but I like what I saw from Washington in the limited minutes. Seems to be confident shooting the three, handled the ball fine, should be comfortable as a complimentary piece and, most importantly, looks like he has some basketball IQ.
The Bad: It's easier to look OK in small snippets mostly against teams who aren't at the elite level of competition. Not going to be a guy who answers the question of 'who will break his man down when we are in desperate need of a bucket?'
The Future: I was thinking he would be a candidate to redshirt based on what looked like a pretty severe injury, but it sounds like he's expecting to be back on the court this summer. If he's healthy he could be a very interesting player, IMO. Can he handle the point well enough to give Frank stretches off the ball? Could he team with Carey to give frank a couple minutes on the bench at times? Not sure how likely that is with how JB uses the bench, but interesting nonetheless.
Paschal Chuckwu: B+
The Grade: If it was solely based on what we could have expected versus what we got, I'd give the dude and A+. Kid was a warrior. But I have to knock him slightly simply b/c he was so limited offensively. If you have an all-american kicker and an offense that struggles, it's still tough to make that guy your offensive MVP because there are so many facets of the game he doesn't contribute to. Same with Chuckwu mostly contributing on defense.
The Good: Dude turned himself into a pretty solid defender and rim-protector and managed to hold his own on the boards -- he grabbed nearly 7 a game, which is good (he was even better in acc play at 7.4 rpg), but also was part of team that rebounded well most of the year, something we haven't seen much the past couple years. Looked stronger with the ball rebounding and on offense as the year went on and improved significantly as an FT shooter. Ultimately simply logging the minutes he did was a MASSIVE plus for this team and playing through injuries is really admirable. Could tell he was hurting late but just kept going.
The Bad: Tends to look very mechanical out there as his athleticism is a little limited. Grabbing an offensive rebound or collecting a pass and going up in one motion is still pretty tough. Finished the oops better late in the season but struggles to catch a pass moving through traffic and going up. No back-to-the-basket game whatsoever. Does a pretty good job avoiding foul trouble for the most part but still prone to some silly fouls at times. Shouldn't be much of an issue next year if we get more from Sidibe. Could stand to add a bit of muscle.
The Future: Assuming he's back (one never knows), he'll be another intriguing guy to watch. Doubt we'll ever see too much offense from him (not all his fault, we don't enter the ball to the post with much regularity) and I'd guess his minutes would go down at least slightly but that his effectiveness should take another step forward. I'm not JB (I'm sure you're all shocked by that revelation) but if I was, I would have a very simple summer plan for Paschal -- work to get stronger and work on catching and finishing around the basket. Lobs, offensive boards, feeds in traffic -- all things having to do with strong hands and footwork. Not sure I'd be concerned with anything else.
One item to give the grades some context as obviously this is a subjective exercise to a large degree -- the team, in my view, had the ceiling of a bubble team so I tend to view this as a pretty successful season. That will be reflected in most of the grades.
So let's work from there:
Braedon Bayer: A+++
I'll have a more involved format for most of the players, but if you told me at the beginning of the season that Bayer would come up with a huge jump ball and block and log 6 decent minutes in a do-or-die game vs. MSU in the round of 32, I would not have believed it. He'll be an answer to a trivia question 10 years from now. Pretty cool.
Geno Thorpe: ---
Seriously, dude? Neither here, nor there, but this story line is so puzzling to me. I'm fully of the belief that Thorpe on the roster probably takes us off the bubble b/c we're only discussing winning a game or two more. And why he left will never make any sense to me.
Matthew Moyer: D
The Grade: It's harsh. What else can I say. I think it's fair to reasonably have expected more of Moyer overall and while he seems like a phenomenal kid and a player that can absolutely contribute to this program down the road, it's my belief that he's got a lot of work to do.
The Good: Moyer had some nice moments. The three games he put up against UConn, Buffalo and Toledo were huge. Obviously every win we had was important and if he throws up a clunker against UB or UConn, we lose and we aren't talking about a sweet 16. Nice length, decent athleticism and a couple of flashes are not, all in all, an unusual season for a redshirt freshman.
The Bad: Injuries played a role and he obviously had to gut it out after a really bad ankle injury. So I'll give him credit for that. The bigger issue is that he seems to be extremely raw in his understanding of the game. Not terribly effective in the zone and completely lost on offense.
The Future: There was a lot of conjecture about Moyer's future on the board the last couple days. Didn't read much of that thread but it is an interesting question. My personal opinion is that there's no point in transferring given that he already redshirted for a season. Might as well put the effort in next year even if it is in very limited minutes (it likely will be) because there is likely a larger role waiting in 19/20. I'm hoping Griffin can help him see the full picture as Griff did very little as a frosh, struggled quite a bit as a soph, got buried on the bench as a junior but then put together a very respectable senior season.
Bourama Sidibe: Inc.
The Grade: There were whispers early that maybe Sidibe was going to have problems contributing early here, then he got off to a great start before (literally) limping to the finish with injuries. Obviously injuries were a huge factor, so we'll all be excited to see what a (hopefully) healthier Sidibe looks like next year.
The Good: Athletic and coordinated inside with a pretty good knack for putting the ball in the basket, especially for a freshman. Should be a scoring threat if healthy. Started the year 4-for-14 on FTs, but wound up making 15 of his last 26 (58%) from there, so hopefully he can continue a positive trend there. Should also be pretty tough blocking shots in the zone -- saw that when he was a little healthier in stretches early or after he got that shot and put up the 18 and 16 game.
The Bad: Got pushed around a bit and needs to get stronger. Could obviously improve his back to the basket game or add a jumper, but those things go without saying for a most 6'10" freshman who can do a lot of things on the court. Health is the key.
The Future: Knees are problems for lots of big guys and it's hard for me to totally buy into a surgery simply wiping that all away from Sidibe. However, if he gets healthy, look out. To me, the most valuable recruit you can have is a guy who stays 3-4 years but can hang with the athleticism of the guys who are leaving after a year. He's absolutely one of those guys. Not sure he's a future NBA guy, but he will be a nightmare for most teams we play ... if he's at least mostly healthy.
Howard Washington: Inc.
The Grade: Just didn't see much of HW, so not sure what else to give him.
The Good: I'm sure we had better options had we played recruiting a little differently, but I like what I saw from Washington in the limited minutes. Seems to be confident shooting the three, handled the ball fine, should be comfortable as a complimentary piece and, most importantly, looks like he has some basketball IQ.
The Bad: It's easier to look OK in small snippets mostly against teams who aren't at the elite level of competition. Not going to be a guy who answers the question of 'who will break his man down when we are in desperate need of a bucket?'
The Future: I was thinking he would be a candidate to redshirt based on what looked like a pretty severe injury, but it sounds like he's expecting to be back on the court this summer. If he's healthy he could be a very interesting player, IMO. Can he handle the point well enough to give Frank stretches off the ball? Could he team with Carey to give frank a couple minutes on the bench at times? Not sure how likely that is with how JB uses the bench, but interesting nonetheless.
Paschal Chuckwu: B+
The Grade: If it was solely based on what we could have expected versus what we got, I'd give the dude and A+. Kid was a warrior. But I have to knock him slightly simply b/c he was so limited offensively. If you have an all-american kicker and an offense that struggles, it's still tough to make that guy your offensive MVP because there are so many facets of the game he doesn't contribute to. Same with Chuckwu mostly contributing on defense.
The Good: Dude turned himself into a pretty solid defender and rim-protector and managed to hold his own on the boards -- he grabbed nearly 7 a game, which is good (he was even better in acc play at 7.4 rpg), but also was part of team that rebounded well most of the year, something we haven't seen much the past couple years. Looked stronger with the ball rebounding and on offense as the year went on and improved significantly as an FT shooter. Ultimately simply logging the minutes he did was a MASSIVE plus for this team and playing through injuries is really admirable. Could tell he was hurting late but just kept going.
The Bad: Tends to look very mechanical out there as his athleticism is a little limited. Grabbing an offensive rebound or collecting a pass and going up in one motion is still pretty tough. Finished the oops better late in the season but struggles to catch a pass moving through traffic and going up. No back-to-the-basket game whatsoever. Does a pretty good job avoiding foul trouble for the most part but still prone to some silly fouls at times. Shouldn't be much of an issue next year if we get more from Sidibe. Could stand to add a bit of muscle.
The Future: Assuming he's back (one never knows), he'll be another intriguing guy to watch. Doubt we'll ever see too much offense from him (not all his fault, we don't enter the ball to the post with much regularity) and I'd guess his minutes would go down at least slightly but that his effectiveness should take another step forward. I'm not JB (I'm sure you're all shocked by that revelation) but if I was, I would have a very simple summer plan for Paschal -- work to get stronger and work on catching and finishing around the basket. Lobs, offensive boards, feeds in traffic -- all things having to do with strong hands and footwork. Not sure I'd be concerned with anything else.
