Back To Basketball - Next Years Player Potential

[Dr. Blackheart]

Just as a point of comparison, Dave Singleton played this past season at D3 Albright College in PA....and pretty much put up mediocre numbers like he did in D1.

http://albrightathletics.com/roster.aspx?rp_id=1500

Dave Singleton's numbers don't even approach Jake Thomas's, especially in terms of efficiency.  Not that this means anything, but Jake is head and shoulders ahead of Dave in terms of team impact as a walk-on.  Again, as a situational.

http://statsheet.com/mcb/players/compare?add=david-singleton&i=1&p1=jake-thomas

As an aside, see a video of Dave this past season vs. D1 Cornell.  Visually compare him to the jake Thomas video of his monster trey game.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1hQsBYhXVE

[Otule's Glass Eye]

On a positive note, we should be bringing back 5 out of our 6 top scoters the year after next. Sweet sixteen next year and elite 8 after that. The let diamond stone and burton bring us to the final 4

dont forget Looney

[mu_eyeballs]

Can someone tell me how Van becomes a better "finisher"...Love the fact he can slice and dice into the lane and get around the rim at will, but he just doesn't seem to have the "it" to finish and get the ball down...I hope I am wrong and the game slows down for him, but I see a lot of me throwing things at my tv as Van clangs another bunny.

[Markusquette]

Can someone tell me how Van becomes a better "finisher"...Love the fact he can slice and dice into the lane and get around the rim at will, but he just doesn't seem to have the "it" to finish and get the ball down...I hope I am wrong and the game slows down for him, but I see a lot of me throwing things at my tv as Van clangs another bunny.

I'm sure it will still happen but another summer of practice certainly won't hurt at all.  Vander does more than enough in all other areas for me to somewhat forgive his lapses on offense.  Granted, he shouldn't be missing those easy lay-ups but all players will have their shortcomings. 

[brewcity77]

Can someone tell me how Van becomes a better "finisher"...Love the fact he can slice and dice into the lane and get around the rim at will, but he just doesn't seem to have the "it" to finish and get the ball down...I hope I am wrong and the game slows down for him, but I see a lot of me throwing things at my tv as Van clangs another bunny.

How did he become a better free throw shooter? He shot 81.5% from the line in our last 14 games after shooting 61.4% from the line in his first 58 games. I'd say that 14 games (44/54 attempts) is definitely a significant sample size. I don't know if it was repetitions, confidence, or if it was finding a consistent release point, but it worked. I don't see any reason why he can't improve other areas of his game as well, such as finishing around the rim. Develop a softer touch, get a better sense of body control, work better to have specific go-to moves rather than going into the lane without a clear sense of what he's going to do, there are plenty of ways for him to improve. We've already seen him improve markedly over last year. I expect the same next year.

[Goose]

VB will continue to improve and will learn to finish. Really think it comes down to confidence with him. Once he made the big throws late in the game he was excellent rest of the way. Another productive off season will do him wonders. Plus next year he will not be looking over his shoulder and should be on the court a ton.

[BallBoy]

Can someone tell me how Van becomes a better "finisher"...Love the fact he can slice and dice into the lane and get around the rim at will, but he just doesn't seem to have the "it" to finish and get the ball down...I hope I am wrong and the game slows down for him, but I see a lot of me throwing things at my tv as Van clangs another bunny.

Can't tell you that he will but he needs to elevate his release point.  If you notice when he drives the lane he pushes the ball from his chest out and not up.  In my opinion he needs to work on three things:

1. Release point in the lane. It needs to be higher
2. Outside shoot.  When he jumps it is as if he is trying to get all of power out of his legs that he can.  People have commented it is like the corkscrew shot.  He needs to shoot with his legs under him and not lift them. By getting more consistent he will have a better chance to get to the rim
3.  Pull up jumper. When blue starts going to the hole he goes full throttle and either gets a shot off or gets into the air with no idea of what he wants to do.  Blue needs to realize that you don't need to get to the hole to get a shot off. Penetrate.  Stop.  Jump shot from 5 - 8 ft out.  

I think he dribbles with his head up which is good but he allows the help defender the opportunity to get into position by driving too deep.  The larger defender either blocks his shot, gets a charging call or blue realizes he is in trouble and jumps in the air to get off a bad pass.  He needs to judge whether a 5 ft jumper is better than a contested layup