Jordon Talley in Year 2
Jordon Talley, Coach Keatts' first big recruit of his tenure, was arguably the most indispensable Seahawk in 2014-15 as just a Freshman. The floor general of a team that finished tied for first in the CAA, the Virginia product played in all 32 games and started 21 (including each of the 20 CAA games), averaging over 26 minutes per game.
Unflappable against the press, Talley had a 1.6 A/TO ratio, with most of his 63 turnovers coming on passes looking for an open teammate, almost never coming on a full court press or trap. After the season, it was unthinkable to suggest that, when healthy, he wouldn't start every single game for the rest of his career.
But Coach Keatts, after adding all the necessary pieces to run his system fully, made his message clear in Year 2 of his tenure: The whole is greater than the sum of the parts. And whereas last year we had 8 players in our typical rotation, thus far this season we have 11. And of those 8 from last season, 3 (Jackson, Spruill, Williams) are gone and 1 (C.J. Gettys) hasn't received a single minute of playing time this year. The many new faces to the squad have received immediate playing time, with each player expected to play about 15 minutes apiece, and no consistency to the starting lineup from game to game.
In the wake of this, it's easy for Talley to be viewed as simply another cog in the machine; and that's completely fair, especially when you consider that Talley has only started 1 game this season (and didn't play a single minute in 1 full game) and when we take a look at some of the numbers:
MINUTES/GAME
2014-15: 26.5
2015-16: 20.8
POINTS/GAME
2014-15: 8.8
2015-16: 8.0
SHOTS/GAME
2014-15: 6.9
2015-16: 6.0
STEALS/GAME
2014-15: 1.5
2015-16: 1.0
It speaks volumes about how well we're building on our success from last year with all these new faces that Talley's overall productivity has dropped a bit, yet we're maintaining a high level of play.
But when you look a little closer, you'll also see that this reduced action may be HELPING Talley. His A/TO ratio is an insane 4.25. His assists/game, rebounding/game and shooting percentage are actually up. He seems to be becoming a more efficient player thanks to the minutes reduction (though of course we're dealing with small sample size and a couple of non D-I schools in the analysis here).
And most importantly, his foul count is down.
Last year, Talley led the team with 115 fouls committed, a gaudy 3.6 per game. So far this season, he's only committed 7 fouls in 4 games (1.8 fouls per game). This despite foul calls going up across the board in the NCAA.
The fact that Talley is playing less minutes, and thus has less opportunities to foul, is one thing. But if he has also gotten better at AVOIDING foul calls, even better! Because as we know, the two things Talley does best at this stage of his career are: 1) Bringing the defensive intensity AND 2) breaking the press on offense. We will need both of those skillsets over the course of the season, especially late in games when trying to either come back from a deficit OR protect a lead against full court pressure/trap defense.
So what can we conclude? The team is better. Talley is even better. And Coach Keatts' plans, 1+ years into his tenure, are working. If that doesn't scare other CAA teams a little, it should.
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