Our current backcourt....
- Thread starter perryhawk
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Haha...well those are about a 30% increase in scoring right? That said, I think you're right....I for see that good improvement, having the best season of their career, is what I am talking about. That's fairly common. Gatens during his senior year, was the center of our offense....and everyone we played knew it.
I don't think Kris is surprising anyone this year. He was already a stud last year. The only thing keeping him from averaging 15+ last year was minutes.
Its amazing how hes gone from incapable of any minutes to best player in the conference in 2 years.
I thought he was a little out of control last year. Pretty inconsistent from northwestern to Indiana where he was a legit star. This season is a huge improvement imo. He's unfortunately ready for the NBA after this year. I'm pretty sure he wasn't last season .
He was easily the 2nd best player on the team last year after Keegan and he was only getting 18 minutes. At 26.1 his PER was almost 8 points better than the next player on the team. He's improved that to 29.1 this year. He was already a 2nd round pick last year. He'll likely be a first round pick this year.
He's definitely going to the nba this year. He deserves it
and poor defensive habits, and foul trouble, and a lack of aggression, inconsistent shooting and...
all of which he has fixed this season and taken his game to the proverbial next level. Jarryd Cole, Eric May are a couple more that dramatically improved from junior to senior season. Eric May turned into Iowa's best defensive players of the last 30 years and one of the best in the 45 + years I've been following Iowa.
Jacob Jaacks jumped another level in his senior year. It happens all the time, all over the country. I think Ahron will probably display improvement but probably not enough to keep Desonte out of the starting lineup. I'm guessing that both Desonte and Tony P are the starting guards next season, maybe bring in Josh and start them with Payton and Riley. Ton of scoring potential in that line up.
Should have employed the old don't play defense or rebound so that you don't pick up fouls strategy.
Kris picked up quite a few dumb fouls last season. That's what kept him on the bench, although inconsistency hurt him as well. But, as almost everyone predicted, those problems are pretty much gone this season and he's a first team All Big Ten player this year, and probably an NBA player next year.
I'm going to post Jarryd Cole's junior and senior year stat lines. Tell me which one is which, it should be obvious if he dramatically improved:
1. 25.2 MPG, 56.8 FG%, 6.3 RPG, 8 PPG
2. 24.9 MPG, 56.6 FG%, 5.2 RPG, 8.1 PPG
Of course playing at the 5 and knowing that he had only limited minutes on the floor had nothing to do with it either. Two things he doesn't have to contend with this year.
Last night against Michigan he was as aggressive as I've seen taking players off the dribble and finishing.
I don't know which is which there....going purely off of memory I just know that Cole finished his career strong. It was clear that he was a very good and very important player for that team.
As you indicated earlier we are probably defining things differently here.....if we were being right on with the "blow up" their senior year then that would probably require a doubling or tripling of scoring, etc......
In my response I was thinking along the lines of a player is who they are early in their career and they don't change much. I think that most players develop and improve quite a bit during their college careers. Honestly, why I find the line about players not improving to be disagreeable; is that over the decades that I have been following Iowa basketball one of the most enjoyable parts of being a fan has been watching players grow, mature, physically and mentally/confidence/comfort, and to see those results as seniors (and often times as juniors).
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Players improve pretty often. But in the last 20 years or so, most of the time there isn't some big jump when they are seniors. I think this is largely for two reasons, one being that these kids come in to college as much more finished products since they are playing a lot more basketball at a young age, and most of the time guys either choose to transfer or get pushed out if they aren't developing fast enough.
Guys improve, and that's certainly a thing that happens. My contention is that there are very, very few players who go from spot minutes to having a huge productive role as seniors. The ones that do a memorable. But for every one of those guys there are probably 20 Joe Toussaints who are basically the same guy the whole time. Maybe slight improvement with more opportunities but it's not something even really surprising.
For the record I am a huge fan of Cole. He married in to the family of my old pastor in Ames who couldn't be more complimentary of him.
I met Cole in person once....very pleasant, personable, and seemed like a genuinely nice guy.....but I also saw him pissed off in a game (I think it was against Drake) and even through the TV it scared the crap out of me!!! lol
