If Ray stays, who goes?
- Thread starter RebChuck
- Start date
Who has said that? I've heard them talk about his speed, his driving ability, his anticipation in the passing lanes, his quick first step.....but I haven't heard anyone talk about him as a draft pick. And the if statement.......the jump shot......I suspect hat one element has kept thousands of good athletes out of the league. It's not often that it just gets "fixed."
What's the harm in bringing in an assistant coach with the ability to develop shooting in players? We have the room. Why won't we try to help Sword become a better shooter? Bring in some help.
You've gotta admit, there's something slightly comical about the fact that a power conference basketball program is in need of bringing in an assistant to teach a roster full of scholarship players how to simply shoot the ball. Yes... I know that having a shooting specialist on staff is not abnormal, but to be a game that's sole purpose is putting a ball into a basket, we sure seem to have a hard time finding players that understand how to do that.
Hopefully our S&C coach. He was a holdover from Stans, and he deserved the door just as much or more. I watched UCLA play Washington and Wichita State play Indiana State this weekend and all I could think about is how Washington and ISU are not good basketball teams but their players are in a lot better shape than ours. Not cardio shape, like weight room shape.
We'd be slightly less terrible around the rim on both ends of the court if they all got Balis-made this off season.
We'd be slightly less terrible around the rim on both ends of the court if they all got Balis-made this off season.
I'm trying to think of an example of someone who started with Sword's shooting ability that developed it into a NBA quality skill (for a two guard) while in college.
| Gavin Ware | 31 | 25.8 | 10.0 | 7.2 | 0.2 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 1.4 | .589 | .657 | .000 |
| Trivante Bloodman | 31 | 25.0 | 6.6 | 2.1 | 2.4 | 0.9 | 0.0 | 1.7 | .484 | .733 | .300 |
| Craig Sword | 30 | 27.6 | 13.4 | 3.6 | 2.6 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 2.9 | .482 | .629 | .211 |
| Roquez Johnson | 31 | 23.9 | 9.5 | 4.6 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 1.5 | .458 | .607 | .000 |
| Andre Applewhite | 12 | 17.8 | 5.5 | 3.9 | 1.3 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.7 | .415 | .674 | .333 |
| Tyson Cunningham | 30 | 7.9 | 1.9 | 0.5 | 0.4 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.6 | .409 | .800 | .320 |
| Colin Borchert | 31 | 26.3 | 8.9 | 4.2 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 1.1 | 1.9 | .404 | .769 | .312 |
| Fred Thomas | 29 | 29.7 | 8.9 | 3.0 | 1.4 | 1.0 | 0.8 | 1.3 | .372 | .603 | .300 |
| I.J. Ready | 24 | 24.0 | 5.7 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 1.3 | 0.0 | 1.6 | .370 | .813 | .356 |
| Tevin Moore | 13 | 4.0 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.2 | .333 | .375 | .250 |
| Jacoby Davis | 26 | 11.6 | 2.3 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.3 | 0.0 | 0.6 | .270 | .800 | .321 |
| Totals | 31 | -- | 67 | 33 | 12 | 8 | 3 | 14 | .439 | .663 | .299 |
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| Wendell Lewis | 8 | 21.0 | 8.1 | 4.9 | 0.8 | 0.4 | 0.4 | 1.5 | .568 | .938 | .000 |
| Gavin Ware | 32 | 25.8 | 8.4 | 6.4 | 0.3 | 0.5 | 0.8 | 1.3 | .542 | .562 | .000 |
| Roquez Johnson | 28 | 26.1 | 8.8 | 4.5 | 0.4 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 2.5 | .425 | .596 | .278 |
| Colin Borchert | 29 | 27.0 | 9.0 | 5.0 | 1.3 | 1.1 | 1.2 | 2.3 | .413 | .659 | .337 |
| Craig Sword | 32 | 26.7 | 10.5 | 2.9 | 2.3 | 1.7 | 0.4 | 4.0 | .405 | .554 | .194 |
| Tyson Cunningham | 32 | 20.7 | 2.4 | 2.4 | 1.3 | 0.7 | 0.1 | 1.0 | .368 | .615 | .413 |
| Trivante Bloodman | 32 | 29.1 | 6.1 | 3.3 | 2.3 | 1.2 | 0.0 | 2.8 | .352 | .726 | .279 |
| Jalen Steele | 18 | 26.6 | 10.1 | 2.9 | 1.1 | 0.8 | 0.1 | 1.8 | .339 | .923 | .329 |
| Fred Thomas | 32 | 28.7 | 9.7 | 3.5 | 1.3 | 1.8 | 0.8 | 1.5 | .328 | .795 | .238 |
| Baxter Price | 21 | 4.8 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.3 | .000 | .000 | .000 |
| Totals | 32 | -- | 61 | 33 | 10 | 8 | 4 | 17 | .401 | .657 | .284 |
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Team shot 3.8% better overall this year. Got 1.5% better at 3. Got 0.6% better at the line.
Ware improved by 4.7%.
Roquez improved by 3.3%.
Bloodman improved by 13.2%.
Cunningham improved by 5.1%.
Thomas improved by 4.4%.
Sword improved by 7.7%.
Borchert regressed by 0.9%.
While our shooting still isn't even close to what we would like, it is improving year to year. If we show the same offensive improvement again next year, we should be a decent scoring team...our best since 09 in terms of scoring... and it really isn't far fetched to think we could take another step forward next year with added depth...
Ok but any player in America would improve over those numbers by just simply playing basketball for an entire year and not having a coach at all. The act of playing basketball for 2+ hours every day of your life will result in you naturally becoming better at basketball.
I think you are allowing scoring to mean the same as shooting. Those terms are quite different.
Sword is a scorer, but he is not a shooter. His FG% could be 70%, but that doesnt mean he is a good shooter, it just means he is a high percentage effective scorer.
Sword took 67 3pt shots last season. He has only taked 38 so far this season. His SHOOTING is still awful, even though his FG% has improved.
You are a smart guy, hopefully you can see in part why his FG% has improved...he is taking better shots for him, which are ones that are really close to the rim.
Meanwhile, FTF's SHOOTING has actually gotten better(I know, that is a massive surprise to me too). How he has done better is beyond me. He shoots it better and finishes better too.
Please dont turn this into one of your crazy *** ranting arguments where you claim it isnt hot out then claim it is hot out.
I simply thought it would help better explain your numbers if there was some more context. Shooting and FG% are very different.
DeAndre Jordan has the highest FG% in the NBA at 66.3% and nobody with half a clue would ever call him a great shooter. He isnt a good shooter. He isnt even a decent shooter. He is an awful shooter. His FG% could go up to 80% and he would still be an awful shooter.
Sword is a scorer, but he is not a shooter. His FG% could be 70%, but that doesnt mean he is a good shooter, it just means he is a high percentage effective scorer.
Sword took 67 3pt shots last season. He has only taked 38 so far this season. His SHOOTING is still awful, even though his FG% has improved.
You are a smart guy, hopefully you can see in part why his FG% has improved...he is taking better shots for him, which are ones that are really close to the rim.
Meanwhile, FTF's SHOOTING has actually gotten better(I know, that is a massive surprise to me too). How he has done better is beyond me. He shoots it better and finishes better too.
Please dont turn this into one of your crazy *** ranting arguments where you claim it isnt hot out then claim it is hot out.
I simply thought it would help better explain your numbers if there was some more context. Shooting and FG% are very different.
DeAndre Jordan has the highest FG% in the NBA at 66.3% and nobody with half a clue would ever call him a great shooter. He isnt a good shooter. He isnt even a decent shooter. He is an awful shooter. His FG% could go up to 80% and he would still be an awful shooter.
I'm not allowing "scoring" to mean "shooting". I simply gave you both metrics. I didn't seek to define them for anyone. While the metrics are imperfect, they are the best at our disposal in the college game to define something that is currently inadequately defined.
Which is improvement from year to year -- exactly what I intended to show -- and all that I intended to show. Intangible improvements are just as important as tangible ones.
He's going to be a pretty good shooter at some point before he leaves here IMO. It's like he's close to having "it" and just getting hot at times -- then he's ice cold at times. With maturity and confidence, I can see him being a 36-38% 3 point shooter in his 4th yr.
Like what? If you'll notice -- I'm very rarely the first one to derail threads and generally keep it professional on the front end. When someone throws **** against a wall, I'm just happy to throw it back.
But as far as arguing against something that wasn't actually argued for -- that's exactly what you are doing to me right here -- is it not? Nitpicking a "shooting" vs "shooting percentage" issue on something that I never actually said?
Everyone already realizes this. But if you can't better define it in the numbers available in the college game -- feel free to show it to me. My point was a simple one that I thought I adequately summed up in the final paragraph of my initial reply.
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I am going to guess you are less than about 35 years old and didn't have that pleasure/curse of seeing that little bastard play college basketball.
In two years at LSU he had a slash line of 47/37/86. In the NBA, against better players and a longer three point shot, he had career numbers of 44/35/91. And he once made nearly 300 consecutive free throws when his coach offered to shave a minute off practice for every one he made.
I've seen a lot of players in my time. I can honestly say I haven't seen a better shooter than Chris Jackson.
In two years at LSU he had a slash line of 47/37/86. In the NBA, against better players and a longer three point shot, he had career numbers of 44/35/91. And he once made nearly 300 consecutive free throws when his coach offered to shave a minute off practice for every one he made.
I've seen a lot of players in my time. I can honestly say I haven't seen a better shooter than Chris Jackson.
I honestly thought he was being facetious. The only reason his percentages weren't higher was that he rarely passed up a shot.
The problem is with comparing against last year when our shooting percentages were simply abysmal. We were ranked 303 in the country last year in shooting percentage.
We are only Two 5* players away from being a good team.** Ray just needs to sign the both of them, and they will make him a better corch.
Joe Dean Jr was rambling on about how he needed to spend hours in the gym working on his jump shot. Im not sure he said anything about him being a potential draft pick though. At least I hope not.
As you said, developing a jump shot is easier said than done. Its like a baseball player saying the only thing that kept him out of the big leagues was being able to hit at the big league level. Sword can practice jumpers from now until he's 30, but he's not going to become Dell Curry.
Coach Jenkins, if you are reading this board, please forgive this guy. He really doesn't have a clue.
If Jackson developed his jumper in college, he did it pretty damn quick. He scored 48 in his third game and 53 in his fifth. And he wasn't one to score in bunches off the drive.
"If Ray stays, who goes?"
With all the thread-jacking, including me, I forgot to answer your question: The 100 or so fans that WERE showing up for the games at the Hump.**
With all the thread-jacking, including me, I forgot to answer your question: The 100 or so fans that WERE showing up for the games at the Hump.**
Normally...
Blue normally I agree with you on most everything but I don't on this point
I saw him play alot at Gulfport High (he was in the class behind me). He definitely could score off the dribble with a jump shot. He had some serious height too...for just a pure basketball fan, he was a joy to watch play.
I was annoyed that he want to LSU but as my dad said, Dale Brown pulled out all the stops in "recruiting him" and it's understandable why since his mom, who came from extremely modest means, ended up in a nicer house a few months after he signed.
Blue normally I agree with you on most everything but I don't on this point
I saw him play alot at Gulfport High (he was in the class behind me). He definitely could score off the dribble with a jump shot. He had some serious height too...for just a pure basketball fan, he was a joy to watch play.
I was annoyed that he want to LSU but as my dad said, Dale Brown pulled out all the stops in "recruiting him" and it's understandable why since his mom, who came from extremely modest means, ended up in a nicer house a few months after he signed.
That's good quality humor there
Almost as funny as Indndawgs answer. Chris Jackson.....wt17 was that?
Almost as funny as Indndawgs answer. Chris Jackson.....wt17 was that?
There's a difference in driving and hitting a jumper off the dribble. I would agree with blue that CJ was not driving deep into the lane to get his shots. I would also agree with you that he could create space with the dribble (sooooo quick) and get his own shot. He was not tall however, as you said. He was at best about 6-1.
Seriously? You mean the guy who's quite possibly the greatest shooter in college basketball history? He only played two years. 55 points in a game as a freshman. Broke most of Pistol Pete's records at LSU. Has the NBA all time highest free throw percentage in a season. If there was one thing he didn't have to develop, it was his shot. He and Sword are completely opposite types of players.
You are exactly right about him being able to score off the bounce. What I meant was he wasn't just beating his guy off the dribble and scoring at the rim. He was a great jump shooter.
And you are spot on about being a joy to watch. One of the best I've ever seen.