tOSU Stats

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

No offense, but this makes no sense.

Sure it does. Totally different things are expected of a starting and a backup point guard. A starter is expected to be a playmaker, a scorer, a creator. A backup is supposed to not screw up for a few minutes until the starer can get back in. Duane is a better playmaker than Derrick but it comes at the cost of freshman mistakes.

[willie warrior]

Sure it does. Totally different things are expected of a starting and a backup point guard. A starter is expected to be a playmaker, a scorer, a creator. A backup is supposed to not screw up for a few minutes until the starer can get back in. Duane is a better playmaker than Derrick but it comes at the cost of freshman mistakes.

Right, which are sooo unlike senior mistakes.

[willie warrior]

Duane played only four minutes in the 1st half and then the last 12 in the 2nd. Most OSU starters were in till the end, but certainly for most of those 12 minutes. While Duane wasn't stellar, he did some nice things...one of the few who did. It was his second game ever, and in both, he did very well on the ORating in limited minutes. Stats can indeed be misleading, but let's shy away from hyperbole like above and stay with the facts. Statsheet graded him as a B- and I thnk that is about right.

As to the thread comments on his defense, he and the team were horrid. Didn't play with their feet, no communication, no rotations, tired legs....on top of a mismatch on height and athleticism. The good news, a lot of this can be fixed with time and coaching.  

Oh my---this does not go well with TAMU's narrative that Duane was awful/played poorly. But then again why let facts get in the way of a good slurp? Just out of curiosity, what grade does the stat sheet give the Elight one?

[tower912]

I'll add to it.   A year ago there was wailing and gnashing of teeth because (fill in the blank) wasn't playing more.   The common response was that they had to play better defense, because the former coach had said that minutes were earned on the defensive end.    This year, (fill in the blank) is getting more minutes, and some are shocked that they are erratic defensively.     At what point did and why did anyone start believing that the guys who were not good defensively last year would suddenly become defensive stoppers in an aggressive, stretched, man to man defense?     
I believe with every fiber of my being that each and every one of them will get better defensively.   But in the end, this is a small, not deep team with few players who have ever been considered even adequate defensively.   It is going to take time but I believe they will get there.   Just expecting it against an upper level B1G team this early in the year is unreasonable. 

Bump.    With the caveat that they can't defend quick guards, either.    The former coach wasn't joking when he said they didn't play because they didn't play defense to his standards.      Yeah, I'm bearish.   (deep cleansing breath)  (ooohhhhhmmmm)    This year it is about the process, not the results.