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| Photo: Mark Jones |
It’s been a pretty damn exciting season so far, has it
not? We have had the Big East fold, we
suffered our worst lost in the history of the Jay Wright era, and we are no
long guard u (although next year when we have Ennis join us we will again have
3 capable point guards). Yet it seems
that most people I talk to are semi-optimistic about this year’s team. Either there really is something to look
forward to, or we really did hate last year’s team way more than I thought was
even possible. Even though it’s a little
of column A and a little of column B, let’s stick to the former and keep this
positive.
A review of the team stats so far leads me to the following
conclusion: our optimism lies in the improvement we have seen in individual
players because at the team level we still have a lot of work to do (I’ll
tackle the team mid-season review later this week). In honor of the countdown that will happen
tonight for New Years, I am going to rank and countdown the best Nova players
so far this season. My parameters for
the rankings are based on a combination performance to date, pre-season
expectations, and my personal preference.
If I were to rank, oh let’s say, Yacoubou above Arcidiacono it does not
mean I think Yacoubou is an overall better player, nor do I want them to
swap minutes. I just think Yacoubou has
had a more impressive season so far.
I’m also throwing in Jay into the mix since that will get us to 10
spots. Here it goes.
10. Mouphtaou Yarou – You know I
think that is the first time I have ever written his first name all the way
through. Anyways, to say that Yarou’s
season has been disappointing is probably the understatement of the season so
far. It’s not as if we/I had huge hopes
for him, it’s just that I didn’t think he would be THIS bad. Here is all you need to know about Villanova
big men and about Yarou in one nice simple graph.
Free throw percentage rises while FG percentage drops as he
turns into a jump shooter instead of staying down low. This would be somewhat tolerable if it wasn’t
for the fact that his TO% and rebounding numbers all are pointing in the wrong
direction, and to clarify the graph Yarou is shooting 42.5% from 2 this year.
9. Tony Chennault – The hope was for Chennault to come in and be able to help out
with the point guard duties. While he
has shown that he is a somewhat able passer, posting the 2nd best
Assist rate on the team of 19.9, he has been a miserable shooter. Although he is shooting a respectable 78%
from the stripe and 42% from 3 (on only 14 attempts), he is shooting 33.3% from
2, yuck. He is also leading the team in
TO% at 26.1, which is not what you want from a distributor/creator. On the bright side he is one of our most
athletic players, and if he can shoot a less pathetic percent from 2, say
40-43% then this story is different.
8. Darrun Hilliard – I’m just going to put
it out there. I don’t really like
Hilliard’s game. I mean, what is his
game? He seems incapable of making a
decent pass and is currently posting an Assist rate of only 9 – that puts him
behind Arcidiacono, Chennault, JVP, Bell,
& Sutton. In other words not very
good considering he is usually the second ball handler on the floor. He is shooting a terrible 39% from 2 and only
66% from the line. Sure his TO% is the
best on the team, but when you aren’t looking to create, having a low TO%
amounts to simply not doing a whole lot.
With all that being said, we need Hilliard to score and help us on
offense, I just wish he was a little better at doing it.
7. Daniel Ochefu – I’m not sure what we
should have expected from Ochefu. I
don’t think he has really underperformed; so much as he hasn’t really stood
out, to me at least. He currently leads
the team in OR% and has a respectable DR%.
Defensively, his Blk% should be higher than 5.7% but it’s not too bad
either and he ends up getting a lot of steals for a big guy. He is besting Kennedy’s all-time awful free
throw shooting by freshman bigs last year by shooting 43% from the stripe, but
then again almost anyone can do better than Kennedy’s 1-16 – that is NOT a
typo. I’m just not sure at this point
why he is getting more minutes than Sutton, except for the fact that Sutton
will be gone next year and he is only a freshman.
6. Jay Wright – Two weeks ago, I probably
would have ranked Jay 25th on this list. I had a long back and forth with a couple of
friends and most of us agreed: it was probably time for Jay to leave,
maybe. I know the thought is crazy, but
with the underperforming and the terrible loss to Columbia I was actually agreeing with
them. Two weeks later and Jay is showing
his coaching chops. He has tinkered with
the lineups and rotations, and it seems as if most players are showing signs of
improvement. However, I feel as if time
is slowly running out for Jay, and if we fade miserably in the second half this
season and produce a mere 500 level campaign next year, he has to be out
right? Luckily, he has done enough
recently to quell the uprising for now.
5. Ryan Arcidiacono – Arcidiacono is hard
to rank for the following reasons: a) he is a freshmen b) can you imagine where
we would be without him? c) he really hasn’t played THAT well d) I have some
pretty serious doubts about his ceiling.
The good: he is our best ball handler and has the best Assist rate on
the team at 24.3. He is making 31.8% of
his 3’s (a number that should improve this year and the following) and he knows
how to get to the line where he is shooting 81% - best on the team. Crazy stat: he has almost double the number
of free throw attempts as he has 2 point attempts: 58 FTA – 30 2FGA. The bad: he might be the most unathletic
player we have ever had. His lack of athleticism not only hurts us defensively
– as he can’t stay in front of his man – but it also hurts us offensively as he
can’t beat his guy off the dribble to create his own shot. Hopefully, he gets quicker as he works on his
legs in the off season, and maybe with the addition of another point guard he
can move over to the 2, where he would be more effective.
4. Achraf Yacoubou – You know how I said I
don’t like Hilliard? Well, Yacoubou is
the exact opposite of that. I love
him. Every time he enters, the game gets
more exciting and when he leaves we look slower and less athletic. He has the second best steal% on our team,
but at 6-4 he is our second best defensive rebounder grabbing a whopping 18.6%
of defensive rebounds while he is on the court, Sutton at 24.2% is the only
player who is doing that better. Throw
in the fact that he is shooting better than 36% from 3, and it’s easy to see
that he has been a tremendous impact player off the bench. We need more Yacoubou. Say it with me Yahh-cooo-booo.
3. James Bell – Bell was a hard guy for me to place on this
list. He is not a very good offensive
rebounder at all and is an average defensive rebounder for a player of his
size. His Assist rate is decent, but I
can’t get the pictures out of my head where he puts his head and down, tries to
beat his guy off the dribble, only to put up a ridiculously contested shot
after working way too hard to get there.
That being said the guy is clearly our best one on one defender and does
a little bit of everything for us on offense.
He is posting the 2nd best eFG% at 54.1 – just slightly
behind Sutton, and he is our best 3 point shooter. Was anyone surprised when he hit that shot at
the end of the St. Joe’s game? No.
2. Mo Sutton – We also need more Mo. I just don’t understand why Sutton has never
gotten more playing time. I mean, what
else does the guy have to do? He has the
best 2 point FG% on the team, the best defensive rebounding percentage, the 2nd
best offensive rebounding percentage, and he has an assist rate that is BETTER
than Hilliard’s. Here is my favorite
stat though, if Sutton gets more playing time he would be eligible for kenpom’s
Blk% ratings. He would rank 10th
in the ENTIRE country at 14.8%! Next on
our team is Ochefu at 5.7%.
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