If you look at minutes played and free throw attempts; the numbers are stunning. Let's start with the 2 players that are getting the most minutes at the 3.

Crawford; 477 minutes - 15 attempts
Geron; 452 minutes - 39 attempts
TOTAL: 929 minutes; 54 attempts

King: 138 minutes; 40 attempts
Iverson: 86 minutes; 12 attempts
TOTAL: 224 minutes; 52 attempts

Nichols: 352 minutes; 31 attempts
Pellom: 214 minutes; 15 attempts
Dixon: 365 minutes; 41 attempts

Small Forward Historical
Adonis: 1,056 minutes, 113 attempts
Spoon: 526 minutes, 93 attempts
Spoon: 870 minutes, 157 attempts
Anderson: 1,269 minutes, 135 attempts
CDR: 1,147 minutes, 226 attempts
CDR: 930 minutes, 179 attempts
Carney: 1,007 minutes, 132 attempts
Carney: 1,131 minutes, 141 attempts

King Numbers Pro Rated To CDR/Carney Minutes
Carney: 291 attempts; 327 attempts
CDR: 332 attempts; 269 attempts

Disclaimer:
- King did a lot of his damage against Nichols State when he had 12 attempts
- King did a lot of his damage in 7 games
- King has played in mop up duty; but mostly plays minutes with the game in the balance
- I am sure that he would not be able to sustain these rates if he was playing 20-25 minutes per game

Many have said that King would have been a risk in games that were competitive. In almost every single game; one of either Dixon, Geron or Crawford has had a very poor game. I think at the very least it's worth a try. I also think that if King got more minutes, we might be pleasantly surprised at the results.

King's FTA/FGA stats are eye popping, but his effectiveness is dampened a bit because he's shooting below 50%, which essentially is a negative net when he goes to the free throw line. Gotta get it up to about 60%.

King has got to get that free throw rate up and not play scared to be effective. I think he can with minutes. I know most think King would have helped last night on Daniels, but I think Daniels would have still scored at will on him, whether King was getting minutes or not. With that said, King and Dom need more minutes. At least 10-12 a game if possible. If they do well, maybe more.

It would be hard to find minutes for everyone, because last night we had 7 guys with around 25 minutes or more. If you play King, Dom, Iverson 10-12 each those minutes come away from someone else, possibly to the detrement of the team.

I understand the criticism of Pastner not playing these guys and developing these guys, but at the same time, he has guys who "should" be getting the job done and just aren't. The 4 guard lineup last night was Pastner trying to spark the team, and instead Uconn hit every shot down the stretch as we missed our open looks that could have changed outcome. Prior to that though, with 2 bigs on the floor the whole second half up to that point, Uconn had missed 11 shots and got 9 offensive rebounds. So it's not like our bigs were doing much better.

Uconn just outplayed us down the stretch and hit some shots. We did the same thing a week ago at Louisville to beat them. We aren't a bad team regardless of all the negativity on here today.

(01-17-2014 10:29 AM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  King's FTA/FGA stats are eye popping, but his effectiveness is dampened a bit because he's shooting below 50%, which essentially is a negative net when he goes to the free throw line. Gotta get it up to about 60%.

Agreed, but it is a double edged sword. One; he has probably missed a few front ends; which means that he is getting to the foul line even more than a typical player. Also; he has historically been at around 80% in high school. The law of averages indicate that this number will improve drastically.

Crawford is shooting 39.5% for the year and Geron is shooting 35.9% for the year. King's free throw shooting is a liability; but if you look at total shooting percentages adjusted for 3 pointers; free throws; missed front ends, etc; I doubt that King compares negatively to either of them.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the Memphis radio guys mentioned something that I bring up a couple of times per year. Crawford has historically been awful against good competition. This year he is much better; shooting 44.4%. Geron has been awful; shooting 30.8%.

(01-17-2014 11:02 AM)Stammers Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 10:29 AM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  King's FTA/FGA stats are eye popping, but his effectiveness is dampened a bit because he's shooting below 50%, which essentially is a negative net when he goes to the free throw line. Gotta get it up to about 60%.

Agreed, but it is a double edged sword. One; he has probably missed a few front ends; which means that he is getting to the foul line even more than a typical player. Also; he has historically been at around 80% in high school. The law of averages indicate that this number will improve drastically.

Crawford is shooting 39.5% for the year and Geron is shooting 35.9% for the year. King's free throw shooting is a liability; but if you look at total shooting percentages adjusted for 3 pointers; free throws; missed front ends, etc; I doubt that King compares negatively to either of them.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the Memphis radio guys mentioned something that I bring up a couple of times per year. Crawford has historically been awful against good competition. This year he is much better; shooting 44.4%. Geron has been awful; shooting 30.8%.

Our offense is scoring about 1.14 pts per trip down the court. Geron's shooting is pulling that down, while Joe, Shaq, Dixon, etc are pulling it up.

Theoretically, if Nick wants to help in pulling that up, he needs to make FTs at at least a 60% clip (which you and I agree that he is capable of). Shooting below that, and essentially only converting 1 of 2 or missing the front end more often than not, nets us a loss in points.

Does anyone have post game from last night where Josh was asked about King/Iverson not playing? I'd like to see that. I'm guessing Josh knows he needs to get these guys some minutes, and we have a stretch of games coming up where it should happen. Then for the final 3 games and the tourney these guys will be playing much better and part of the rotation hopefully.

Who knows, maybe that was Josh's thought all along... play short rotation of your established guys to start conference play, then when schedule gets softer develop the young guys, and then have the young guys playing at a high level at end of conference play/tourney time to help out.

(01-17-2014 10:29 AM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  King's FTA/FGA stats are eye popping, but his effectiveness is dampened a bit because he's shooting below 50%, which essentially is a negative net when he goes to the free throw line. Gotta get it up to about 60%.

You can tell it is a head game. His facial expression changes as soon as he walks to the line. It is odd because he has a smooth stroke. He definitely needs to mentally get past this though.

Good post. Joe has made more FT (78) in 512 minutes than Geron, Chris and Dixon combined (66) in 1,294 minutes.

(01-17-2014 12:23 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  Good post. Joe has made more FT (78) in 512 minutes than Geron, Chris and Dixon combined (66) in 1,294 minutes.

Excellent post and welcome again. Appreciate your insights.

(01-17-2014 12:37 PM)k2tigers Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 12:23 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  Good post. Joe has made more FT (78) in 512 minutes than Geron, Chris and Dixon combined (66) in 1,294 minutes.

Excellent post and welcome again. Appreciate your insights.

Thanks.

(01-17-2014 11:02 AM)Stammers Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 10:29 AM)MemphisCanes Wrote:  King's FTA/FGA stats are eye popping, but his effectiveness is dampened a bit because he's shooting below 50%, which essentially is a negative net when he goes to the free throw line. Gotta get it up to about 60%.

Agreed, but it is a double edged sword. One; he has probably missed a few front ends; which means that he is getting to the foul line even more than a typical player. Also; he has historically been at around 80% in high school. The law of averages indicate that this number will improve drastically.

Crawford is shooting 39.5% for the year and Geron is shooting 35.9% for the year. King's free throw shooting is a liability; but if you look at total shooting percentages adjusted for 3 pointers; free throws; missed front ends, etc; I doubt that King compares negatively to either of them.

A couple of weeks ago, one of the Memphis radio guys mentioned something that I bring up a couple of times per year. Crawford has historically been awful against good competition. This year he is much better; shooting 44.4%. Geron has been awful; shooting 30.8%.

Those are amazing stats. Very telling on many levels.

Shows how little we drive to the basket or avoid mixing it up on the boards at the guard/small forward position.

I could go on and on.

(01-17-2014 12:38 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 12:37 PM)k2tigers Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 12:23 PM)salukiblue Wrote:  Good post. Joe has made more FT (78) in 512 minutes than Geron, Chris and Dixon combined (66) in 1,294 minutes.

Excellent post and welcome again. Appreciate your insights.

Thanks.

Welcome back.

Even more telling is when you compare them to previous Tiger teams, more fouls are being called nationwide this year.

It was supposed to be beneficial to teams with a lot of guards which makes it even more astonishing.

IMO not only do we have too many guards on the floor, we are not using them correctly on offense to benefit from the new rules.

(01-17-2014 12:54 PM)Chi-TownTiger Wrote:  Even more telling is when you compare them to previous Tiger teams, more fouls are being called nationwide this year.

It was supposed to be beneficial to teams with a lot of guards which makes it even more astonishing.

IMO not only do we have too many guards on the floor, we are not using them correctly on offense to benefit from the new rules.

It sure isn't going to be more beneficial to guards that are guarding players 2-6" taller than them across the board from point guard to power forward.

(01-17-2014 12:58 PM)Stammers Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 12:54 PM)Chi-TownTiger Wrote:  Even more telling is when you compare them to previous Tiger teams, more fouls are being called nationwide this year.

It was supposed to be beneficial to teams with a lot of guards which makes it even more astonishing.

IMO not only do we have too many guards on the floor, we are not using them correctly on offense to benefit from the new rules.

It sure isn't going to be more beneficial to guards that are guarding players 2-6" taller than them across the board from point guard to power forward.

True but I was thinking more in terms of the smaller guard beating the bigger slower player off the dribble (in theory), where the bigger slower players hand check, bump, and grab to keep them out of the paint.

I don't know the answer, but there is a lot to ponder from those stats. I had no idea how little the 1-3 positions were getting to the line.

(01-17-2014 12:54 PM)Chi-TownTiger Wrote:  Even more telling is when you compare them to previous Tiger teams, more fouls are being called nationwide this year.

It was supposed to be beneficial to teams with a lot of guards which makes it even more astonishing.

IMO not only do we have too many guards on the floor, we are not using them correctly on offense to benefit from the new rules.

I have been harping on this all year. For the life of me I cannot understand why our guards are not living at the free throw line. I understand CC's game is that of a "3 point specialist". He clearly has no desire to get to the rim. But Geron and Joe and Dixon should each be shooting 7-10 free throws per game, and that does not count free throws late in games where we are up and the other team is intentionally fouling. Even Bilas made a comment last night. It was about how aggressive we were early (posts included) and got UCONN in early foul trouble and then backed off the rest of the game. We quit attacking, started settling for jumpers, and failed to take advantage of the foul situation. The free throw line should be an absolute weapon that we are not utilizing.

(01-17-2014 01:17 PM)Tygrys Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 12:54 PM)Chi-TownTiger Wrote:  Even more telling is when you compare them to previous Tiger teams, more fouls are being called nationwide this year.

It was supposed to be beneficial to teams with a lot of guards which makes it even more astonishing.

IMO not only do we have too many guards on the floor, we are not using them correctly on offense to benefit from the new rules.

I have been harping on this all year. For the life of me I cannot understand why our guards are not living at the free throw line. I understand CC's game is that of a "3 point specialist". He clearly has no desire to get to the rim. But Geron and Joe and Dixon should each be shooting 7-10 free throws per game, and that does not count free throws late in games where we are up and the other team is intentionally fouling. Even Bilas made a comment last night. It was about how aggressive we were early (posts included) and got UCONN in early foul trouble and then backed off the rest of the game. We quit attacking, started settling for jumpers, and failed to take advantage of the foul situation. The free throw line should be an absolute weapon that we are not utilizing.

A by product of that was going 5-7 from three early. Those guys make a couple and think that it will keep up. 2-9 later...not so much.

In all reality, Chris has NEVER gotten to the line. Three of his four years he has averaged making under ONE free throw a game. His sophomore year he averaged 1.6 attempts and 1.3 makes.

Geron only averaged 2.4 attempts a game, which is surprising since he seems to have the "look" of being a slasher, yet the numbers don't belie that.

Dixon has dropped off from his Mizzou years, while his 3pt attempts have gone up.

Joe is on pace to shoot about 190 ft this year. Chris has taken 144 in his CAREER.

(01-17-2014 01:17 PM)Tygrys Wrote:  

(01-17-2014 12:54 PM)Chi-TownTiger Wrote:  Even more telling is when you compare them to previous Tiger teams, more fouls are being called nationwide this year.

It was supposed to be beneficial to teams with a lot of guards which makes it even more astonishing.

IMO not only do we have too many guards on the floor, we are not using them correctly on offense to benefit from the new rules.

I have been harping on this all year. For the life of me I cannot understand why our guards are not living at the free throw line. I understand CC's game is that of a "3 point specialist". He clearly has no desire to get to the rim. But Geron and Joe and Dixon should each be shooting 7-10 free throws per game, and that does not count free throws late in games where we are up and the other team is intentionally fouling. Even Bilas made a comment last night. It was about how aggressive we were early (posts included) and got UCONN in early foul trouble and then backed off the rest of the game. We quit attacking, started settling for jumpers, and failed to take advantage of the foul situation. The free throw line should be an absolute weapon that we are not utilizing.

Down the stretch, offensively we got what we needed almost every time.

63-66 Crawford misses wide open 3
63-66 Dixon misses wide open 3
63-68 Shaq misses layup
65-70 Nichols makes layup
67-73 Shaq makes layup
69-75 JJ makes jumper
70-75 JJ makes 2 free throws
71-75 JJ misses jumper
71-77 JJ turns the ball over on easy pass to wide open Shaq

There wasn't a bad shot in the whole bunch.

(01-17-2014 01:40 PM)Stammers Wrote:  Down the stretch, offensively we got what we needed almost every time.

63-66 Crawford misses wide open 3
63-66 Dixon misses wide open 3
63-68 Shaq misses layup
65-70 Nichols makes layup
67-73 Shaq makes layup
69-75 JJ makes jumper
70-75 JJ makes 2 free throws
71-75 JJ misses jumper
71-77 JJ turns the ball over on easy pass to wide open Shaq

There wasn't a bad shot in the whole bunch.

Yup. The bigger issue is the number on the right side. It kept moving up.

15 ft attempts by CC. He attacks the basket the same way he defends it yet coach continues to play him against bigger and tougher guards and SFs. Baffling.....