[Minnesota Ute]

Wait wait… didn’t you hear?? His defense sucks so we should get rid of him… <rolls eyes>

Ok, I’m a little salty at the other thread. I can not express how deeply f’d this situation is. KD is priority number one, and while we can’t afford to overpay anyone, of all the individuals on this roster, he is one that we need to retain if we can.

In many respects, despite the inconsistent usage, he was the best player on our roster this year. You can pick individual players to show one is better here or another there. But the sum total of his stats are great:
On a per 100 possessions basis:
#1 in eFg at 65.5%,
#3 in ft% @ 75% (in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king)
#1 in Total Reb at nearly 20
#1 in Off Reb at 6.1
#5 in steals at 1.8, and Ezra is the only non-guard ahead of him (2.1)
#4 in blocks behind Lawson, Mike, and Jake
Middle of the pack in turnovers 3.1, but the only individuals that played big minutes that had less were Jake and Hunter with 1.9 and 2.6 respectively. I get that it’s minutes based, but continuity and consistency of playing time plays a role in reducing turnovers.
#4 in points behind Ezra, Gabe, and Mason
#1 in DRtg
#1 in ORtg
Plus in Advance Stats, he had:
#1 in BPM at 8.0
Tied with Hunter for #4 in Defensive BPM behind Miro, Jake, & Mike.
#1 in Offensive win share, defensive win share, Win share, and win shares per 40 min

Again, these are all referential stats that attempt to even out the fact that his playing time was inconsistent and unpredictable. But because I’m a nerd, also graphed several parameters against his minutes played, and it was surprising how consistently productive he was. Nearly just as productive per minute at 15 minutes as he was at 25, which is uncommon.

[Minnesota Ute]

The whole latter part of this thread is patently ridiculous.
KD’s BPM for the game was 14.2, highest on the team for the day. His Game Score was 20.5, which was nearly double the next highest who were Lawson and Ezra at 11. His Defensive rating was the lowest (good) at 113, and his offensive rating was second highest at 166. He was 4 of 5 from 2 and 1 of 1 from 3, and 8 of 9 from the line. He had 11 rebounds including 3 offensive, 1 block, 1 steal, and 1 assist to 2 turnovers.

Every single one of you doubters can bag off. Dude is a cold blooded stud that is probably going to leave because Craig is a moron. Period.

[Minnesota Ute]

Is that the correct pecking order, or is the NIT still second behind the NCAA? Sounds like it could be a better field than the NIT if it high grades teams with a high NET that didn’t make the NCAA. Or when you say “left out” do you mean of both the NCAA and NIT?

[Minnesota Ute]

I feel like I’ve heard a lot about the lack of talent on this team. But I feel like I saw RM take teams with less talent than this to the tournament, and win at least one game as he always did.

While I think Craig was a better coach than Larry, and certainly better than Boylen or Giac, he was just not good enough. We’ve all carped to some degree or another about his personnel decisions, and putting the right players on the court is a big part of winning. But the measures that for me set him apart from Larry were things like creating scoring opportunities off of inbounds, or end-game scenarios where you are trying to get a decent shot. Turnovers in these situations were not uncommon under Larry, in fact they felt like the norm. I also note that this year we are among the leaders in the conf if not the country in assisted baskets, which speaks to some good coaching. We got a LOT of back-cut baskets this year, where with Larry, we would turning the ball over like crazy as opponents were overplaying the passing lanes, I’m screaming at the TV for a back-cut, but to no avail. While our turnovers were still pretty high this year, it seemed more heavily weighted to errors of commission.

So while I am glad to have Alex coming in, and was not a fan of keeping Craig, I can say that if offered the choice, I would take a 54-42 record against SOS of 8.3 (higher is better) as compared to 45-42 against SOS of 7.5. This is the last three years of Smith against the last three years of Larry. Other than his first year, which I don’t usually count (win or lose), Smith had a winning record, and I did feel like I was seeing steady improvement in the players. Would he have been able to keep any of them around? Would the boosters have support him with NIL $$? Would he take the help that was offered by guys like Andre & Josh? I’m glad we don’t have to find out and can move on.

All that said, the one thing that RM knew was that defense can be the great equalizer. If you don’t have the raw talent to overwhelm a team and score a ton of buckets, then you have to shut them down, no easy shots, no second chance points. That’s always been something of a love/hate with the fan base. I don’t mind a grind it out slug fest of a game, especially if we are controlling the tempo and give ourself a chance to win. But I think there were years where the team was good, tournament bound, but we didn’t pack the Hunty because of the style of play.

I guess the bottom line is that personally, I hope Alex starts with making us the defensive and rebounding juggernaut that we once were, as that will keep us in almost every game. Then if we can mix some good talent with good coaching on the offensive end, we could be great again.

[Minnesota Ute]

RE Dawes, I work so haven’t watched game yet, so I’ll reserve judgement on today’s performance. But on the season, his defensive rating was quite high, in fact highest on the team per 100 possessions. Couple that with his outstanding rebounding, and I don’t think you can point at that for his lack of minutes. In fact, rebounding being 75% effort and 25% technique, I would think with the right coaching, he could be an excellent defensive stopper because if his D is bad, it’s not for lack of effort.

[Minnesota Ute]

I like that Isaiah Thomas better anyway.

[Minnesota Ute]

I’m the opposite of that. I have a ton of animosity towards most of the P12 schools so from day one I struggled to root for them and feel like a part of the conf. I used to have no issue outside of BYU rooting for any MWC/WAC teams, but I just never felt it with the PAC. I’m back in the saddle now, and have even softened my stance on Kansas now that we are Big12

[Minnesota Ute]

What? You mean he doesn’t have a son that would make a good GM? 🙂

[Minnesota Ute]

Yup, I’d bet money Ezra is gone. I feel like he is going to go for the highest dollar, and I think he needs a team with so much NIL money that they can afford to pay what he is looking for even if he isn’t quite worth every penny. Assuming that to be the case, I’d like to see us put a little more NIL capital behind Dawes because he brings more to the table. He has an outside shot, he is a better rebounder, and appears to have a higher BBall IQ. He tops Ezra in almost every statistical category when looked at on a per 40 min basis, except scoring and that’s primarily because Ezra would aggressively seek his own shot even when it was often a bad shot and others were open.

[Minnesota Ute]

Yup, we’ve been the die-hards, tuning in through thick and thin. It’s been way too much thin over the last decade, so I’m really hopeful that Alex can get the job done. It’s been a long sad run. I haven’t given up yet, and maybe I never will be because I need something to occupy my time in the long dark cold evenings of the north woods. That said, it sure would be nice to be actively rooting rather than just hoping it will be a decent game any given night.

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