Cumberland is more athletic than he looks. I think his stocky build can fool you. He's not the shiftiest guy, but to my eyes he is at least as quick, if not quicker than Caupain and has as good of straight-line speed as anyone on the team. Not a great leaper, but he makes up for it with brutish strength and the ability to use his body and angles to finish. You don't need to have a 40-inch vertical when you can create separation between the ball and the defender.
Agreed. Being strong as an ox is part of "athleticism". Some guys are crazy quick, but will never be that strong. I'd go as far to say that Cumberland uses his strength much more than Evan's uses his quickness or bounce.
If Cumberland or Evans gets in foul trouble and Keith Williams comes in don't expect a big drop-off. He is going to be a star player sooner than later. As always just my opinion.
If he is not far behind those two he will likely still be ahead of KJ so we should be just fine. Evans and Cumberland were both above 21 in PER (player efficiency rating) and KJ was at 11.2 last year (lowest on team outside of Q). Which, surprisingly, was BETTER than his soph and junior campaigns. As a frosh he had a higher PER (14.6) because he saw limited action (7 mpg). Williams won't be asked to do too much when he's on the court so with limited usage he could very well finish pretty decent in PER. I could see him getting around 15 mpg.
KJ played some solid D but it sounds like Williams is game on D as well. I like our chances
Going back 7 season on Sports Reference when I first can see Player Efficiency Ratings (PER)...we have had the following players over 20 in PER. Last year was the first time we had 4 guys with 19+ avg minutes per game above the 20 PER mark.
SK Sr year 26.2
Jackson Sr year 25.8
Clark Jr year 24.9
Clark So year 24.3
Washington Jr year 23.9
Gates Jr year 23.3
Ellis Jr year 23.0
Clark So year 22.9
Evans So year 22.8
SK Fr year 21.9
Cumberland Fr year 21.7
Ellis Sr year 21.4
Gates Sr year 20.7
SK Jr year 20.6
SK So year 20.4
Broome at Sacred Heart his last year there was at 20.7.
It is entirely possible to see 5 guys this year with 19+ mpg above 20 in PER considering Broome won't be asked to carry the load and be the sole focus of the defense. I don't see anyone else averaging 19+ mpg.
5 guys with a 20 PER would be some high level stuff. I can't imagine too many teams have that on their roster.
In fact last year was the first season we had more than 2 guys ranked above 20 in PER in the last 7 seasons at 19+ mpg...and we had 4.
To think we could possibly have 5 guys this year reaching that mark is why I would guess many of us are so optimistic. It should easily be the best offensive team we have ever had under Cronin...without a stinking doubt.
If we can continue to play D at a high level...it could be a special year. We could literally have 2-3 guys not shooting their best yet still have 2-3 other players carry us to a win. In the past if we had our best players going cold...we had problems. We had the defense to keep it close but a cold shooting night from our best guys could have been the difference in years past. Expecting 5 guys to go cold is another story all together. 1 or 2 going cold is a regular occurrence.
I actually would be interested to know if ANY team in the country had 5 guys who were above 20 PER in the starting lineup getting 19+ mpg. ANY!!
This is the kinda shit UC needs to be doing for its fans.
http://scout.com/college/xavier/Art...y-Wing-Eyecare-coming-up-on-Oct-20--107714113
Coach Cronin loves his Seniors. It will be interesting to see how the style of Clark and Washington compares to Caupain and Johnson. I see Clark being the lead by example guy. Mr Dependable who is there night in and night out just doing Gary Clark things. Washington will be more in the Caupain role as the emotional, vocal leader. Washington has to be the biggest cheerleader. The guy who keeps everyone up. Washington has had such a big impact on this program with his relentlessness. Both on the court and on the bench. I don't think it's a coincidence that we got better on offense when he came in. His kind of aggressiveness can rub off on the team. We need these guys, along with Evans and Jenifer, to maintain the standard that has been set for years now. Those guys have been around the longest and they know the importance of making every day count.
Mick needs to win in the tournament or be gone. Coach came to UC with a reputation of being a great recruiter. The recruiting hasn't been very good. How in the world does everyone in the country offer Jaxson Hayes except UC?
Mick needs to win in the tournament or be gone. Coach came to UC with a reputation of being a great recruiter. The recruiting hasn't been very good. How in the world does everyone in the country offer Jaxson Hayes except UC?
It would be easier to just start an i hate mick thread so you and the other 2 guys who try to derail threads can just talk about your hate for him.
Chad talked about this on The Skinny Podcast yesterday. With Brooks, Nsoseme, Diarra, and Scott all SO or younger, it's going to be hard to add a project who wants to get on the floor right away. It's more likely that we'll try to get a more traditional scoring big to compliment those other guys.
Chad also said Brooks may be the most improved player on the team. I will be interested to see how that translates to the real games.
Mick needs to win in the tournament or be gone. Coach came to UC with a reputation of being a great recruiter. The recruiting hasn't been very good. How in the world does everyone in the country offer Jaxson Hayes except UC?