Tag: 2010-11 college basketball (Page 13 of 14)
With #9 BYU upending #4 (and undefeated) San Diego State last night, 71-58, I thought I’d take the opportunity to focus on BYU point guard Jimmer Fredette (43 points, 14-for-24 from the field) and look at him through an NBA lens. Everyone wonders what kind of professional player he’ll turn out to be, so read on to hear my take.
OFFENSE
On this end of the court, Fredette is clearly one of the most explosive scorers in the country. And it’s important to note, he’s a scorer, not just a shooter. He’s averaging 27.4 points, 4.2 assists and 3.4 rebounds per game. He shoots 48.2% from the field (which is outstanding for a guard who shoots so many threes) and 42.1% from long range. He shot 44.0% from 3PT last season, so these numbers are no fluke. He’s also outstanding from the free throw line, hitting 90.1% of his attempts this season. He was an 89.2% shooter last year.
He can score from all areas on the floor. He already has NBA range, and doesn’t need to have his feet set to get a good shot at the basket. His pull up jumper is accurate and he can hit it fading away as well. His upper body and core are strong which makes it easy for him to get his shoulders square even if his feet aren’t. He likes to use a wicked crossover going right to left and you’ll see a great example in the highlight package below. His strength also allows him to have a very quick release.
He has a good handle, but is sloppy with the ball at times even though he does a great job of splitting the double team on the pick-and-roll. With his upper body strength, he’s able to finish well at the hoop and is able to finish with either hand in a variety of ways. He also has an effective runner/floater which will be important at the next level where the defenders are going to be taller and more athletic. I’d definitely describe him as a “crafty” scorer.
He is a good passer in transition and made all the right choices on the break against SDSU. However, he is not much of an assist man in the half court. When he drives, he is typically looking to score, which makes sense given the makeup of the BYU team. In the NBA he will have to get used to setting other people up in the half court — right now, it’s a weakness. (He had zero assists against SDSU, but had a couple of “secondary” assists that led to buckets.) He has a tendency to get caught in the air and bail on his shot when a defender is in his face. At this level it usually doesn’t cost him, but in the NBA it will.
Fredette scored 47 points on the night in a 104-79 win over the Utah Utes.
Gene Wojciechowski of ESPN doesn’t think so, but he’d pay to watch:
No D-I men’s program with a roster of players on full scholly would get beat by the UConn women. But I’d pay to watch the game. I’d pay to watch Maya Moore, UConn’s electric senior forward, run through the layup line.
Adam Walsh, the head coach of Centenary — the worst D1 school based on Jeff Sagarin’s ratings, due to its transition from D1 to D3 — thinks his team (which only has four scholarship players) would be able to beat the UConn women, but admits it could be tough.
I played D3 ball from 1991-1996 at UW-Platteville for (now Wisconsin head coach) Bo Ryan. We won a National Championship in my junior year and our team consisted mostly of players who had a few D2 scholarship offers but instead elected to play in a great program under a great coach.
We wouldn’t have lost to a women’s team…any women’s team, other than maybe a team of WNBA all-stars, and even that would have been a stretch. In pickup games, I’ve played against very good female players and they’re fine as placeholders, but a team of women wouldn’t have been able to compete against us physically. We went 6-5, 6-8 and 6-8 across our front line. Defensively, we led the nation in points allowed. Our point guard was the D3 player of the year and was good enough to get a tryout with the Milwaukee Bucks. We went 31-0 that season and beat three or four scholarship D2 teams along the way, so maybe that’s not the best comparison.
Or maybe it is… If the best D3 team in the country can beat the top D1 women’s team, what does that say about the state of women’s basketball or the amount of television exposure it gets on the various ESPN channels? A hypothetical contest between UConn and Centenary (or any other men’s team, for that matter) might answer a lot of questions. Would you rather see the UConn and Duke women play in a half empty arena or a battle between two of the top D3 teams in the country in a sweaty, jam-packed 3,000-seat fieldhouse? ESPN has that choice every season, and they continue to choose the former.
Let’s file this one under “WTF?” — these guys are teammates and they’re engaging in fisticuffs in the stands.
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