RE: Jimmy Hall Jr.
Good post. Agree with everything.
I don't think it will happen but I sincerely believe Hall should be the MAC POY. In my opinion, since Campbell got hurt, there's three guys that should be in the discussion. Hall, Johnson, and Wilder. I know PER isn't an end all be all, but it's a good way of quantifying how guys are playing. If you look at their PER's Johnson is at 27.8, Hall's at 27.5, and Wilder is at 26.8. So they're all really close. With how close everyone is I would look at head-to-head match-ups particularly with Hall and Johnson because they guarded each other all game when they faced off. They had very similar numbers in their head to head match-ups. They both won one game, they both hat 17 rebounds in the two games. Hall had 34 points to Johnson's 28. The big difference, Johnson had 10 turnovers in the two games to only 3 by Hall. Looking at their season numbers, Hall edges Johnson in points, rebounds, and blocks. Johnson has slightly more assists and Hall has slightly more turnovers.. One big difference, Hall shoots 77% from the line to Johnson's 57%. And as Ax mentioned above, Hall faces a double or triple team every time he touches it, that is NOT true of Johnson because of Akron's three point shooting. Sure he still gets doubled, but not as much as Hall. Heck, you didn't see Akron leave Johnson alone on Hall as often as we left Hall alone on Johnson.
Lastly, I think if you took Hall off of Kent's team it would hurt us more than if you took Johnson off Akron's team. Now I realize none of this matters. Akron is the #1 seed so that's all the voters will care about, Johnson will win it. But I honestly believe it should be Hall.
I would really love to see us make a run in the MAC tournament and find our way into the NCAA tournament for Hall and also for Edwin. First, it would be a shame if one of the best to ever play at Kent never makes it to the tournament. Second, if he could make some noise in March it might help him get some NBA attention. His path to the NBA likely will not include being drafted, but with small ball being all the rage right now a slightly undersized post player that can dribble and pass could find a niche in the league. It's unfortunate he has never been able to add the three ball to his arsenal because that would make him really appealing. Plus, if some team bothers to measure his wingspan they might not think of him as undersized any more. I have no idea what his wingspan is, but the dude's got some crazy long arms. I remember Mike Scott was said to have a 7-foot wingspan and Hall's arms seem longer.
The one silver lining about last night is we'll get to see him and Edwin on the MACC court once more. Hopefully it's a big night for both of them and we get to make a trip to Cleveland later in the week.
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