Owens. Kid gets better every game.
Its not an accident. He works his tail off. If we don't loose anyone , I think Owens w another 20 pounds and Clark, Bash and Yakwe. , we will look much better next year w our inside game. A grad transfer will would also improve things.
Yakwe and Bash have no inside game. Bash belongs at the 3. You're not a 4 if you can't play with your back to the basket. I think we are expecting way too much from Clark. He barely contributed at Michigan State. Owens is the only one I see who is working hard all the time. His game keeps getting better.
I said the same thing a couple of weeks ago. Bench Ellison, start Owens at the five and slide the other two down one. BA is a natural three who's big and aggressive enough to create match up problems and that moves Yakwe to a more natural position - he doesn't really have a position but as the kids say it is what it is. Who cares if Owens fouls out in the first 20 minutes or the middle 20 minutes or the last 20. He has a tremendous upside. Whereas Ellison doesn't really bring anything to the table other than he's a big guard but when he plays he's essentially an undersized three anyway.
This lineup makes it very easy for opposing to teams to cheat St. John's defensively. Ellison balances other 2 guards and Bash is a matchup problem for opposing 4's.
Ellison might have nodded to you in the tunnel a couple of times, but he's awful. On a good team he wouldn't see the floor. I hope he gets better and I think he will as an upperclassman but he has a lot to overcome, being dead from the neck up.
Here we go. 1 bad game and 'he sucks' movement starts again.
Does he make some scratch your head plays? Sure but he can also do things other guards in conference can't. At 6'6 and 3rd-4th guard on this team that's a tremendous asset. Again only a sophomore.
Has been a big part of a few conference wins. Notably DePaul 2x, Marquette, and Providence
I didn't say he sucks, I said he was awful. There's a difference. That is, he's not irredeemable, he's just not presently much of a basketball player.
In three games he shot 21 of 33 from the floor. The rest of the time he's 50 for 139, that's 38 percent. 38 percent doesn't pose match up problems for anyone. If I were the other guy I'd let him shoot all day. Because two third of the time he misses and every shot he takes is a shot one of the other guys - who might make one - aren't taking.
Yes, he has size that the other guards don't have. But for his size he's a bad rebounder and an atrocious defender. He gets to the basket well but doesn't finish and is an awful free throw shooter. He's an adequate passer, but if he were passing to himself - which the other guys have to do, pass to him - he'd have fewer assists. He's also one of the dumber players I've seen in quite a while. He thinks he's the man, whereas at best he'd be a piece. Once a game he throws a lazy half court pass that leads to a lay up on the other end. He doesn't even know how big the court is, which is why once a game he catches the ball out of bounds. Yes, he's a sophomore, but on a real team he wouldn't have seen the floor as a freshman or a sophomore. That's what so maddening about the lack of personnel continuity. He plays because there's no one else who can. I don't blame him for what he is but let's not pretend that what he is is anything more than what he is.
While I value stats and data they don't tell all.
You might value shooting % and as do I but this doesn't tell you whether shots are off catch, bounce, contested, etc. Even so I'll bite and say that Ellison's % are up 78% from last year (82% from 3) and he's shooting similar or better than his peers: Carrington, Powell, Hauser, Reinhardt, DiVincenzo, McDermott, Savage, Macura, Goodin, Gage, Wood, Cyrus.
With all this said if Ellison made 1 shot a game he missed then he'd be shooting 60% instead of 45%. All of a sudden he'd be best % for a guard in college basketball.
In more mins a game this year he's shooting better, rebounding better, defending better, and turning the ball over less. I'll take that progression from Frosh to Soph. I'll stick to my guns on this one and say he's a pretty good player with very good potential. Tremendous get for a spring signee too.