I hadn't seen Ohio State play much this season so when I found out they'd be playing in Milwaukee I was really looking forward to watching Evan Turner in person. After doing so, I have to say...I was extremely disappointed.
Yeah, he put up some good numbers and made some great plays, but he has a lot more holes in his game than I had thought. He doesn't handle the ball particularly well (especially against pressure), he takes bad shots, he hot dogs, he complains quite a bit, and he spends far too much time dribbling unproductively. He also looks like a player who has completely bought into his own hype. Against UCSB he almost looked as if he considered himself too good (or too cool?) to play hard against such an inferior opponent. He could have gotten to the basket at will against that team, but instead chose to settle for jumper after jumper, which basically allowed the Gauchos to stay in the game much longer than they should have.
The main thing I noticed was that he seemed to lack toughness. Both UCSB and GT picked him up fullcourt and bumped and rode and pressured him all game. He didn't respond particularly well to that, turned the ball over quite a bit, pushed off quite a bit, and dribbled around the court with his head down, not going anywhere. I also noticed that at halftime of the UCSB game, when the rest of the team was going through lay-up lines, he stood at halfcourt by himself and then went over and talked to the officials for a while. Not once did he even attempt a shot! Considering he went 0-for in the first half with several TOs, you'd think he'd at least want to pick up a ball at some point.
All in all, I found myself very unimpressed with the guy. He really didn't play nor act like the supposed top player in the nation.
Did anyone else find themselves less than impressed with his game?
I thought the same thing. He did turn things around at the half yesterday. He was hogging the ball in the 1st half, but shared more in the 2nd half and tOSU pulled away. He has some nice pieces around him (Lighty, Buford, Diebler), no reason to try to do it all.
tOSU is TOUGH down low. How many blocks did they have? Maybe I was shocked because MU has about 10 blocks this year!!
Put him on MU's team and we're still playing this weekend. The cat nearly had a triple double yesterday. Tough crowd here.
Quote from: 4everwarriors on March 22, 2010, 02:04:45 PM
Put him on MU's team and we're still playing this weekend. The cat nearly had a triple double yesterday. Tough crowd here.
Nearly had a quadruple double. 9 turnovers as well.
Quote from: 4everwarriors on March 22, 2010, 02:04:45 PM
Put him on MU's team and we're still playing this weekend. The cat nearly had a triple double yesterday. Tough crowd here.
He almost had a quadruple doule if you count his 9 TOs. I actually think he leads the nation in TOs with over 4 per game.
Looking at the box score and actually watching him play are two very different things. Believe me, I saw his numbers and expected to see dominant force on the basketball court. Instead I saw the guy I described in my original post.
Dude isn't tough?
Kid broke his spine earlier this season, came back and will either be #1 or #2 player of year.
tOSU has it all goin' on with Lauderdale down low and Diebler, another honky who shoots light out, banging the 3 ball.
Quote from: 4everwarriors on March 22, 2010, 02:12:07 PM
tOSU has it all goin' on with Lauderdale down low and Diebler, another honky who shoots light out, banging the 3 ball.
No spanish on the board the please
Maybe he had a discussion with Big Ten officials at halftime of the Illinois game (Big Ten Tournament) last week. I went out to the lobby at halftime, but with all the calls he got in the 2nd half and OT of that game, I could see that might have taken place.
I've gotta say, I was really excited to watch Turner live this weekend as well. Went to the games Friday and Sunday, and wasn't really blown away by him. At the same time, I remember looking up at the board during the OSU-GT game on Sunday and seeing he had 20+ points and commented to my friend that it didn't feel like he had scored at all.
The best word I could give for his game after watching it live (granted I've only seen two of his games in person) is 'effortless He moves quickly around the court without a lot of wasted movement, and gets past his man easily. He did turn it over a bunch, but I think it has less to do with his ball handling, which impressed me, and more with the decision to take on 2+ defenders on a regular basis. He dribbled into multiple defenders in the lane often, which is where I saw most of the TO's.
Although not quite the human highlight reel I'd hope to see, still an impressive player to watch. Worst part was seeing his constant chatting with the refs, he seemed to bemoan every call they made on him / OSU, something I hadn't caught on TV.
Overall, OSU seemed very balanced, with a tough interior player in Lauderdale, Turner and Bufford on the wings, and Diebler hitting threes at an amazing pace. Very tough matchup for the Yellowjackets, they just couldn't keep up, even with three tall trees inside in Favors, Peacock, and Lawal.
I personally think he is the best player in the country w/ the most upside going pro.
not going to give any supporting evidence, just my gut
I agree that Evan Turner was "meh" to watch at the MKE regional.
On the other hand Jordan Crawford is absolutely sensational. I was like a kid at the circus watching that kid play
Quote from: 4everwarriors on March 22, 2010, 02:04:45 PM
Put him on MU's team and we're still playing this weekend. The cat nearly had a triple double yesterday. Tough crowd here.
Or put Lauderdale (Jim Chones' nephew) on our team, and we play Kentucky for a chance at the Final Four.
Quote from: wyoMUfan on March 22, 2010, 02:52:08 PM
I personally think he is the best player in the country w/ the most upside going pro.
not going to give any supporting evidence, just my gut
I agree. He's their PG.
He's not going to be playing PG in the NBA.
Turner only turns the ball over because he is the only guy on that team that handles the ball, he has to deal with so many different defensive pressures. He also makes some turner overs trying to squeeze tight passes through, very rarely do his turnovers result in fastbreaks for the other team
I like Turner a lot and he's clearly one of the best players in college. But given the choice I'd take Wes Johnson over him. That dude is silk.
I withhold my judgement of Turner until the 2013 NBA all star game. Or at least until the first weekend in April. Don't pass on all the superstars, who pimp during warmups and first halfs. Thats so old school.
Quote from: Skatastrophy on March 22, 2010, 02:57:04 PM
I agree that Evan Turner was "meh" to watch at the MKE regional.
On the other hand Jordan Crawford is absolutely sensational. I was like a kid at the circus watching that kid play
Completely agree on Crawford. He had a number of "get out of your seats" plays during the Xavier Pitt game. I personally loved the circus threes. Putting a combo of Crawford and Hazell from Seton Hall on the same court would lead to some ridiculous made shots.
tOSU can be really balanced (and dangerous) if Turner shares the ball. That was the difference between the first half and their explosion early in the 2nd half.
tOSU's main weakness is that Lauterdale isn't a threat to create any offense. But, that's offset by his defensive presence. I only watched two games, but he blocked a lot of shots w/o fouling. Very impressive.
Quote from: HaywardsHeroes32 on March 22, 2010, 03:22:46 PM
Turner only turns the ball over because he is the only guy on that team that handles the ball, he has to deal with so many different defensive pressures. He also makes some turner overs trying to squeeze tight passes through, very rarely do his turnovers result in fastbreaks for the other team
Maurice Acker was the only 1 who could handle the ball for MU. When he wasn't inthe game we STRUGGLED. All he did was lead the nation in assist:turnover ratio. Just because you're the main ballhandler on your team doesn't mean turning the ball over 9 times in a game is acceptable. I was very impressed with him, but there are holes in his game, and turnovers is one of them. I think he's overhyped, but that doesn't mean I don't think he's a good player.
And I think GT was pretty bad. In fact I think the whole college basketball landscape this year is way down. Many of the teams that made the Sweet 16 this year would've been smoked round 1 last year, IMHO
Quote from: wadesworld on March 22, 2010, 05:09:24 PM
Maurice Acker was the only 1 who could handle the ball for MU. When he wasn't inthe game we STRUGGLED. All he did was lead the nation in assist:turnover ratio. Just because you're the main ballhandler on your team doesn't mean turning the ball over 9 times in a game is acceptable. I was very impressed with him, but there are holes in his game, and turnovers is one of them. I think he's overhyped, but that doesn't mean I don't think he's a good player.
And I think GT was pretty bad. In fact I think the whole college basketball landscape this year is way down. Many of the teams that made the Sweet 16 this year would've been smoked round 1 last year, IMHO
Nice post.
Turner also turns the ball over too much because he handles it too much. I don't mean that there's no one else capable of handling the ball, I mean that he physically has the ball in his hands for far too much time. That team has a tremendous amount of talent, and Turner is clearly the most talented, but I just can't help but think that his unwillingness to move the ball around is going to come back to hurt them at some point. (Yes, I know he has a lot of assists, but if you have the ball in your hands 80% of the time, you're going to find an open man occasionally)
Just to be clear, Turner is a very talented player, but he definitely has many more holes in his game than I had anticipated.
GT has a TON of talent on their roster, but they have no heart and no concept of the game of basketball. It's really an "every man for himself" type of team.
I saw Turner Friday against UCSB & was surprised at his lack of ballhandling skills against a little pressure. It seemed like his ball control was somehow not very assured for someone contending for POY. It'd be bouncing away from him on his hand changes and he's have to recover all the time. No turnover, but surprisingly sloppy.