my basic premise --- whatever the reasons or circumstances, MOST Junior College kids improve from 1st to 2nd year at their destination school...
Definitely agree with you about the accolades due many of the ABA stars. Dr J has always gotten publicity, and still gets his due. But I agree the rest of the ABA alumni can get overlooked. And it's interesting to hear you worked in their offices for awhile, you should definitely share any stories that come to mind.
But I can't agree with your theory that most JUCO players improve from their first to second seasons, we simply don't know that.
The stats you listed don't show that former JUCO players improve from their first to second seasons, they show that college basketball players who play more minutes score more points!
Walter Berry 33mins / 36mins
Bootsy Thornton, 30mins / 35mins
Dwight Hardy, 22mins / 34mins
Justin Brownlee, 18mins/ 30mins
I couldn't find the minutes played for everyone you listed, but for guys like Paultz and James Scott it's safe to assume they saw more minutes as well; (both saw their shot attempts increase more than 50% in their second seasons) Hatten was the only guy who played equal minutes (or less) and scored more points, thus indicating he improved from his first to second seasons in D-1. And I'll even concede that Berry's 6 points more per game in his second season weren't because he got 2 extra mins... , but I do think it could be because a 20pt scorer had just graduated.
My point is, all the guys you listed (except for Hatten) got more opportunity their second seasons. Maybe they did improve a lot from season 1 to season 2, but you can't draw that conclusion from those numbers.
And as for God's Gift, you know by now I have a different view of his skill set than you do. But what you said of him is true; he
is, by far, the most experienced college player on our roster.
What that tells me however is he's much closer to a finished product than a Dom Pointer or Amir Garrett who don't have the experience of three seasons of college basketball.
And to use Gift's numbers comparative to our team last season to prove his ability is equally intellectually dishonest; of course he was second in rebounds and the third scorer, he played on team without another big men! And, as you've pointed out in another thread- he was playing significant minutes. If anyone other than Moe had more rebounds than Gift, an investigation would be necessary, because I would think GG was throwing the games.
And finally, to say the man who takes all his shots in the paint led the team in FG%, tells me very little indeed.
All of which is to say; stats can tell us a lot of things, but they don't prove what you're trying to show in the case of JUCO players improving in their second seasons or God's Gift's production last year.