by PointGuard » Thu Nov 02, 2023 11:58 pm
Omari Aura, 3rd Assistant Coach (player development/practice)
We’re 2/3 though our season and nearly half way through conference play. While overall we’ve played pretty decent ball, I don’t feel we’ve done as well as I thought we would and certainly have been less consistent than we need to be. We’re in a real dog-fight for supremacy within the Big West. We have the talent to pull away from the competition within the conference, but just haven’t do so. Here’s my assessment of how each of our players is doing:
PG Danny Preston: Has been hot and cold so needs to improve his consistency and leadership of the team. He’s a senior and has been a starter PG all 4 years but isn’t the strong leader that he could and should be. He’s averaging 9.9 ppg and 3.6 apg, both of which I feel should be higher. We’re working with him on finding the open man, but his on-court vision isn’t a strong point. In 5 out of our 20 games, his shooting has been absolutely abysmal…and he’s better than that. He needs to avoid getting into a funk during games. My dad told me that Danny broke his wrist during his freshman season and that while he came in as a highly touted recruit who produced immediately, that the injury may have stymied his progression.
PG Scotty Lee: Another senior. While I’m sure he’d like to be starting, he’s taken well to coming in off the bench. This season he’s not been the spark plug energizing our team as often as he did last year. He’s a good shooter who can give us good production from either guard position, but his shooting hasn’t been as accurate as in past seasons. He’s averaging 5.7 ppg and 2.6 apg while playing about 15 mpg. He’s a natural shooter who I think just needs to regain some confidence. I’m working with him on that.
SG Jase Carroll: He’s a freshman we knew while we were recruiting that he would be good. But he’s stepped into a starting role much more quickly and easily that we expected. He’s got a sort of wonky shooting form, but it’s been working (he’s hitting 45% of his FG’s, 34% of his 3’s, and 87% of his FT’s). He’s averaging 11.3 ppg, 3.6 rpg, and 2.4 apg. As he becomes more experienced, he’s going to be even stronger and more consistent. His personality is, let’s just say a bit different, but he’s making inroads on melding well with teammates.
SG Damien Harris: As a senior, I think he figured he was the heir apparent to becoming a starter this season. While I’m sure he’s disappointed, he’s accepted his role, although I think he wants more on-court minutes. Defense definitely is not his forte. He’s not hitting as high a percentage of his shots as he has in previous seasons, but maybe that’s because we’ve only been playing him 8.5 mpg. He’s averaging 2.4 ppg and 1.5 rpg.
SG Jon Overton: We’re were thrilled when he transferred from Clemson last summer. As a freshman there, he had been a starter and played and shot well. But he has yet to show us the level of skills that allow us to give him more than the 4.3 mpg that he’s played thus far this season. As a freshman at Clemson he knocked down 48% of his FG’s and 39% of his 3’s before he broke his arm in mid-season. While he’s recovered from that injury, maybe his shooting form was altered since he’s only hit 32% of his FG’s and 11 of his 3’s, but that’s also somewhat due to not being able to get into sync playing so little for us. We’re working hard to try to reestablish his form and production that had prior to the injury.
SF Eddie Erskin: We thought this senior would be our starter (as he was last season) and he was as this season kicked off. But he lost the starting role when he was just obviously out of sync. So he came in off the bench and mostly just looked bad. But all of a sudden things turned around for him, he began shooting extremely well and won back the starting role in 5 of our last 6 games. His shooting has been so strong of late that he’s now hitting 52% of his FG’s and 92% of his FT’s for the season. He’s not really a 3-point shooter. He’s averaging just 3.9 ppg and 2.6 rpg for the season, but that’s because we had to severely limit his playing time for the first 12 or so games. In his last 5 games he’s averaged 8.6 ppg, 3.6 rpg, and 2.8 apg.
SF Louis Taylor: This sophomore has been a pleasant surprise. He took over as a starter and was solid. While not a truly good shooter, he has averaged 6.2 ppg as well as 3.3 rpg this season while starting 14 of our 20 games. He’s so likeable that he’s been extremely good for our team chemistry as well. Now that he’s back to coming in off the bench, he’s accepted that role without reservation and has even stepped in to play some PF for us. In our last 3 games he’s averaged 7 ppg while on the court just 14 mpg.
SF Kenyon Farrell: We recruited him to provide us with depth and realized he needed a lot of development. He’s gotten into 14 of our games and played just 3.4 mpg in those games. But…he’s dropped in 57% of his FGA’s. So in our last game we gave him 10 minutes of play and he hit 2 of 3 from the field. Kenyon’s a tremendously hard worker and the freshman has already fit really well into the team. I think this guy’s going to eventually be a stronger player than we originally thought.
PF Calvis Barnes: I think this guy enjoys being obstinate. Often seemingly disgruntled, he’s still a good team player. We’ve moved him back and forth between C and PF and he does well at both positions. This season as a senior, he missed nearly half the games we’ve played with a broken finger. But he came back and stepped right back into dominating inside. For the season he’s averaging 10.8 ppg and 7.2 rpg, but has averaged almost 13 ppg and over 8 rpg after the injury in our last 7 games. While his personality can be a challenge, I’ll miss having this guy anchoring our interior next year.
PF DJ Moore: He came to us as a freshman with tremendous promise, but was much more raw than expected and we definitely thought about redshirting him. We didn’t and after Steve Hastings was injured, we were happy to have DJ available for depth. He’s averaging just 1.4 ppg and 1.1 rpg in the 8.1 mpg he’s played for us, but he’s definitely showing improvement and the experience he’s gaining will is invaluable for his future development since he has excellent potential. I’ve been hoping he breaks out this season, but reasonably it’s much more likely it will a year or more away.
C Brandon Bailey: He was a very solid backup player for us last season as a freshman, but he’s been a very good starter for us this year. He’s averaging 7.5 ppg and 5.5 rpg this season. He had 3 straight games for us early this year when he was awesomely dominant and productive for us. I’m hoping he again peaks for us as we roll into post-season play. When Steve Hastings returns, we’ll have to make a difficult decision on which 2 players (Hastings, Barnes or Bailey) start for us. But however we decide, all 3 will play a lot. Brandon’s hit 59% of his FGA’s this season.
C/PF Estell Luton: Even though he was a starter for Chicago State before transferring to us as a sophomore, he’s been a consistent sub for us at both C and PF. He’s performed well for us in that role and this season he’s averaging 8.8 ppg and 4.6 rpg. Weirdly he’s hit just 47% of his FG’s but has drilled 45% of his 49 shots this season from beyond the 3-point line. His shooting percentage within 10 feet and outside the 3 point arc are very good, but his mid-range shooting has been poor. We’re working with him on shot selection and focusing on his getting clear when he’s at midrange but he’s not very receptive.
C Steve Hastings: This junior transferred to us from North Dakota State last summer where he’d been a fantastic scorer (18.3 ppg as a freshman and 28.4 ppg as a sophomore). Man, I hated to see him go down with a broken leg a month ago. He’d been our top scorer (14.5 ppg), hit 64% of his FG’s, and was a very good rebounder (5.2 rpg). It looks like he’ll be back and ready to play by mid-February, so that will be a big shot in our arm for the end of conference play and for post-season tournament play.
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