(10-08-2020 06:41 PM)zablenoise Wrote: Ok you guys need to explain your Thornton Scott love. Were one of you roommates with him or something or are the rest of the Tribe fans in my life (and me) missing something?
Also I meant to ask if you know how Torvik's talent rating accounts for ZM coming back?
Last things first -- doesn't look like ZM's on Towson's roster on Torvik. So they're probably subject to get bumped up in those talent ratings.
Now, re: Thornton... I (Brendan) did not write the post but the author (John) and I probably share the same sort of feeling about Thornton, which is, when he's healthy, he provides something to the W&M offense that is lacking when he's not on the floor/injured.
Qualitatively: I tend to think that Thornton was W&M's best passer last season. He's a relatively streaky shooter (who knows how much that has to do with his injury history) but when he's hitting, he forces the defense to come out to 24, 25 feet from the basket, opening lanes for drivers/cutters and, crucially last year, giving bigs time to work. His biggest issues are still turnovers and defense, but he cut significantly down on turnovers last year, and he's no Connor Burchfield on defense, though he's obviously not good.
Quantitatively: He led W&M in AST% (basically the percent of teammate field goals that he assisted on) and only turned the ball over a little more than Bryce, 26.4 times per 100 possessions compared to 23 for Bryce. He only shot 32.9% from three but was 16-61 during conference play, when he was mostly playing banged up.
TL;DR: he's vastly underappreciated by W&M fans for what he brings to the table, probably because he attempts a lot of high-risk plays (tough, sometimes stupid passes, long threes) that, by definition, don't work out sometimes, and his defense leaves somethings to be desired. But he brings a skillset that W&M lacks (creativity, defense-spreading, creating his own shot) and, pending health, will be important again for the Tribe in 2020-21.