Productivity from the four spot

[80RU]

Like everyone else, I had high hopes going into the season. And granted, Freeman has had some difficulty in the big ten season. But I could not believe some of the posts calling for him to be benched in favor of Sa. Just looking at the numbers, Freeman is shooting 55% and Sa 28% so far in league play. Freeman's 50% from the line is bad, but it beats 17%. Per 40 minutes, Freeman scores at 17.7 in the conference and rebounds at 9.5. Sa gets 5.6 points and 8.1 rebounds in league per 40 minutes. I am hoping for more from both of them. But right now, Freeman is clearly the guy. Jonathan Laurent was actually more productive when he played the four spot in league play last year ( as was DJ Foreman). Somehow, Sa seems to have totally lost his form on the offensive end and free-throw line. I wonder if the coach will just let him play his way out of this funk or if he will start to give some of those 20 minutes per game to someone else.

 

[TMCB]

Freeman is too small but plays hard

 

[mikefla]

Start SA instead of Freeman...?????
Bwahahahahahaha you are KIDDING me......SA gets a bucket a game....Freeman gets doubles doubles...
totally absurd!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i get it.....you people for some reason dont like Freeman....
but he is our best player

 

[RC1978]

This is very similar in football to blame the QB for everything. A lot of people expected Freeman to be the go to guy this season especially after watching him during the easy part of our schedule. He is still one of the best players we have on the floor but is undersized but the fans need to blame someone.

 

[Scarlet Shack]

This is a flawed post

The productivity on offense issues is NOT from the FOUR Spot

It s right now the THREE spot

 

[AshCatchEm]

This is a flawed post

The productivity on offense issues is NOT from the FOUR Spot

It s right now the THREE spot

Laurent looks like he forgot how to play basketball

 

[willisneverrana43]

This is a flawed post

The productivity on offense issues is NOT from the FOUR Spot

It s right now the THREE spot

It's from lots of places.

 

[Mr Magoo]

This is a flawed post

The productivity on offense issues is NOT from the FOUR Spot

It s right now the THREE spot

Correct.. We have an undersized 4 with the body of 3 and our 3 can't shoot. If Freeman had Sa's body, we'd have something at the 4....but then again, if Freeman had Sa's body, he wouldn't be playing at RU.

 

[S.W.A.I.N]

Laurent looks like he forgot how to play basketball

Thought he looked good last two games.

 

[RUChoppin]

This is a flawed post

The productivity on offense issues is NOT from the FOUR Spot

It s right now the THREE spot

Numbers bear this out.

Our top scorers are:
12.1 - Johnson (1/2)
11.6 - Freeman (4)
11.1 - Sanders (1/2)
10.8 - Williams (1/2)
7.9 - Gettys (5)
4.7 - Sa (4/5)
4.3 - Thiam (2/3)
3.9 - Laurent (3)
1.8 - Omoruyi (3/4)

You have to go down to our 7th scoring option to get someone who spends much time at the 3, and he's really more of a 2.

Edit to add: Our top 3 players at the 1/2 average 34 points (17 avg from each guard spot), and the top 3 players at the 4/5 average 24.2 points (12.1 avg from each spot). If we assume about half of Thiam's points are coming at the 2 spot and all of Omoruyi's are coming from the 3, it would work out to 18 each from the back court spots, 12 each from the front court spots, and just 7-8 from the wing.

 

[RUJMM78]

Numbers bear this out.

Our top scorers are:
12.1 - Johnson (1/2)
11.6 - Freeman (4)
11.1 - Sanders (1/2)
10.8 - Williams (1/2)
7.9 - Gettys (5)
4.7 - Sa (4/5)
4.3 - Thiam (2/3)
3.9 - Laurent (3)
1.8 - Omoruyi (3/4)

You have to go down to our 7th scoring option to get someone who spends much time at the 3, and he's really more of a 2.

Edit to add: Our top 3 players at the 1/2 average 34 points (17 avg from each guard spot), and the top 3 players at the 4/5 average 24.2 points (12.1 avg from each spot). If we assume about half of Thiam's points are coming at the 2 spot and all of Omoruyi's are coming from the 3, it would work out to 18 each from the back court spots, 12 each from the front court spots, and just 7-8 from the wing.

Total the team points and it comes to 63 points a game which won't be enough to win many league games.

 

[RUChoppin]

Total the team points and it comes to 63 points a game which won't be enough to win many league games.

It comes out to 68.2 for the guys I listed, and 69.4 overall if you include Doorson and Diallo. Still, 69.4 is 14th in the Big Ten. If we had another 4-5 points from the 3 spot (bringing the 3 up to about the average of the 4-5 spots), we'd be around 10-11th.

It's worse if you look at just conference stats, where we're averaging just 56.5 points through four games.

Conference top scorers are:
12.3 - Sanders (1/2)
10.3 - Johnson (1/2)
9.8 - Freeman (4)
9.0 - Williams (1/2)
5.5 - Gettys (5)
3.5 - Laurent (3)
2.8 - Sa (4/5)
1.5 - Diallo (5)
1.3 - Thiam (2/3)
0.8 - Omoruyi (3/4)

Of those points, 31.6 are coming from the 1/2 (15.8 ea. spot in the backcourt) and 19.6 are coming from the 4/5 spots (9.8 ea. spot in the frontcourt).... only 5.6 are coming from guys who play the wing (and some of those from Thiam and Omoruyi were probably at either the 2 or 4 spot).

If we could improve the production on the wing, it would force defenses to respect it and open up the paint some more for our bigs, our penetrating guards, and offensive rebounds. Knowing there's no outside shot coming from a kickout to the wing lets defenses cheat down more and clog up the middle.

Not sure what's going on with Thiam, either... he's been 2-17 (.118) overall and 1-9 from three (also .111) since FDU (he played just 3 min against Fordham and missed SHU due to illness). Prior to that, he was 22-59 overall (.373) and 18/51 from three (.353)

 

[mikefla]

Sure...he has some off games....Freeman is the only guy keeping us in some games
Last game the Iowa TV announcers repeatedly said RU fell behind when Freeman wasnt on the floor
He is virtually tied for the leading scorer & gets almost double the REBs per game of our 7 footer CJ
& ahead of both Sanders & Williams
yeah,,he sucks

.......Nigel Johnson 12.1 / 4.1
Deshawn Freeman 11.6 / 8.5
.......Corey Sanders 11.1 / 3.4
.......Mike Williams 10.8 / 4.5
..............C.J. Gettys 9 / 4.8

 

[RUChoppin]

To update after the NW game tonight:

Top scorers in conference play through five games:
13.4 - Sanders (1/2)
10.2 - Freeman (4)
9.8 - Johnson (1/2)
8.2 - Williams (1/2)
5.2 - Gettys (5)
3.2 - Laurent (3)
2.6 - Sa (4/5)
2.0 - Omoruyi (3/4)
1.6 - Diallo (5)
1.0 - Thiam (2/3)