Kyler's 2-Point Jumpers
If you categorized our shot attempts by type & player, here's where approximately 50% of our shot volume has come from:
Holyfield, shots at the rim: 14
Ramsey, 2-pt jumpers: 11
Kyler, 2-pt jumpers: 9
Ramsey, 3-pt shots: 9
Morro, 3-pt shots: 8
Beard praised Kyler (and Morro) in a presser recently, by saying that they weren't hunting baskets, and were letting the game come to them.
That tells me that Kyler's high amount of 2-pt jumpers were within our offense and are being encouraged by Beard. Since Beard knows what he's doing, that indicates Kyler's relatively high volume of jumpers gives us the best chance of winning.
Kyler is 4/14 on all jumpers (3s included). I can expect that % to go up.
Beard has also said that Kyler had one of the best offseasons in program history. He's really put some weight on and, IMO, changed his game into a more all-around player in terms of rebounding & defending the post. I think he's sort of assumed a lot of what Corprew's role on this team would've been -- Kyler has the highest block % and second highest defensive rebounding % on the team.
Corprew undoubtedly would've contributed to this team. But I'm not that mad about merging Kyler & Corprew's roles into one player, which might've freed up a scholarship for Nadolny or NTambwe (would need to check the timeline on when these guys were offered and when Corprew left). If I'm correct on that timeline, we actually might have benefited from the Corprew departure.
Holyfield's Production
Holyfield is 15/19 from the field. However, 9 of his makes were on shots at the rim that were produced by an assist. While it's fair to assume this level of production may continue for Holyfield, our guards deserve a lot, maybe even the majority, of credit for his incredibly efficient start to the season.
Holyfield is still a game changer for this offense. His ability to run in transition, put the ball on the floor, and space defenses by being a threat from the three-point line is doing wonders for our offense. There's so much more room to operate for our guards. It's something that I might've severely underestimated going into the season.
His role in the offense will become that much more important when we start playing teams like Kansas State and Baylor.
Ramsey's Defense
This may not be a popular opinion, and it is only one idiot's opinion, but Ramsey has an overrated motor. He's explosive and has a gear that most mortals will never have. But he's not always using it. In many possessions, I would say probably 40%, he appears to be playing in "conserve mode" -- something you'd see from the best scorer at your local pickup game, the guy who needs to save energy on defense to give his team the best chance to win by focusing on scoring.
That's not really an element of college basketball, at least not in high-major conferences. And I think it's something we're actively working to correct. When asked after Bethune Cookman what part of his game he needs to work on, Ramsey replied something to the effect of... "getting more locked in on defense."
Ramsey will level up when the light turns on for him, and I'm certain that it will considering who our coach is.
Tchewa
Ready to eat crow now about him after auto assuming that he wouldn't meaningfully contribute this year because he was a post "project" from a place where two other post projects were victims of the Beard roster churn.
I was wrong. He's just so enormous that he's already a factor. I can't imagine what he's going to look like next year and the year after that.
Tchewa also gives us some MASSIVE lineups, which is something I really wasn't expecting going into the season. Tchewa, Holyfield, Shannon, and Clarke... that's some serious size. And Clarke, Morro & Kyler are incredible post-feeders (Ramsey... not so much).
I still think Tchewa only plays 7 minutes or so in Big 12 play. But he'll be a factor in his limited time.
Pace Update:
Last year, we attempted 1.12 shots in the last 5 sec of the shotclock for every attempt taken in the first 10 seconds. That's pretty incredible. So slow and methodical.
This year, we're attempting 4 shots in the first ten seconds of the shotclock for every attempt taken in the last 5 seconds. That's real fast.
Through our first two noncon games last year, approx. 25% of our shot attempts were in transition. This year, 40% of our attempts have come in transition.
We're using 15.2 seconds of the shot clock, 75th fastest in the country. Last year, we used 18.3 seconds and were 269th fastest.
We've been very efficient in transition, and I expect this up-tempo trend to continue. I only counted 6 P5 teams with a higher eFG% in transition thus far.
If you categorized our shot attempts by type & player, here's where approximately 50% of our shot volume has come from:
Holyfield, shots at the rim: 14
Ramsey, 2-pt jumpers: 11
Kyler, 2-pt jumpers: 9
Ramsey, 3-pt shots: 9
Morro, 3-pt shots: 8
Beard praised Kyler (and Morro) in a presser recently, by saying that they weren't hunting baskets, and were letting the game come to them.
That tells me that Kyler's high amount of 2-pt jumpers were within our offense and are being encouraged by Beard. Since Beard knows what he's doing, that indicates Kyler's relatively high volume of jumpers gives us the best chance of winning.
Kyler is 4/14 on all jumpers (3s included). I can expect that % to go up.
Beard has also said that Kyler had one of the best offseasons in program history. He's really put some weight on and, IMO, changed his game into a more all-around player in terms of rebounding & defending the post. I think he's sort of assumed a lot of what Corprew's role on this team would've been -- Kyler has the highest block % and second highest defensive rebounding % on the team.
Corprew undoubtedly would've contributed to this team. But I'm not that mad about merging Kyler & Corprew's roles into one player, which might've freed up a scholarship for Nadolny or NTambwe (would need to check the timeline on when these guys were offered and when Corprew left). If I'm correct on that timeline, we actually might have benefited from the Corprew departure.
Holyfield's Production
Holyfield is 15/19 from the field. However, 9 of his makes were on shots at the rim that were produced by an assist. While it's fair to assume this level of production may continue for Holyfield, our guards deserve a lot, maybe even the majority, of credit for his incredibly efficient start to the season.
Holyfield is still a game changer for this offense. His ability to run in transition, put the ball on the floor, and space defenses by being a threat from the three-point line is doing wonders for our offense. There's so much more room to operate for our guards. It's something that I might've severely underestimated going into the season.
His role in the offense will become that much more important when we start playing teams like Kansas State and Baylor.
Ramsey's Defense
This may not be a popular opinion, and it is only one idiot's opinion, but Ramsey has an overrated motor. He's explosive and has a gear that most mortals will never have. But he's not always using it. In many possessions, I would say probably 40%, he appears to be playing in "conserve mode" -- something you'd see from the best scorer at your local pickup game, the guy who needs to save energy on defense to give his team the best chance to win by focusing on scoring.
That's not really an element of college basketball, at least not in high-major conferences. And I think it's something we're actively working to correct. When asked after Bethune Cookman what part of his game he needs to work on, Ramsey replied something to the effect of... "getting more locked in on defense."
Ramsey will level up when the light turns on for him, and I'm certain that it will considering who our coach is.
Tchewa
Ready to eat crow now about him after auto assuming that he wouldn't meaningfully contribute this year because he was a post "project" from a place where two other post projects were victims of the Beard roster churn.
I was wrong. He's just so enormous that he's already a factor. I can't imagine what he's going to look like next year and the year after that.
Tchewa also gives us some MASSIVE lineups, which is something I really wasn't expecting going into the season. Tchewa, Holyfield, Shannon, and Clarke... that's some serious size. And Clarke, Morro & Kyler are incredible post-feeders (Ramsey... not so much).
I still think Tchewa only plays 7 minutes or so in Big 12 play. But he'll be a factor in his limited time.
Pace Update:
Last year, we attempted 1.12 shots in the last 5 sec of the shotclock for every attempt taken in the first 10 seconds. That's pretty incredible. So slow and methodical.
This year, we're attempting 4 shots in the first ten seconds of the shotclock for every attempt taken in the last 5 seconds. That's real fast.
Through our first two noncon games last year, approx. 25% of our shot attempts were in transition. This year, 40% of our attempts have come in transition.
We're using 15.2 seconds of the shot clock, 75th fastest in the country. Last year, we used 18.3 seconds and were 269th fastest.
We've been very efficient in transition, and I expect this up-tempo trend to continue. I only counted 6 P5 teams with a higher eFG% in transition thus far.
