I’m not really into tooting my own horn (LOL) — or using the acronym LOL — but a couple of weeks ago I did a blind Marginal Win Score analysis of the Wisconsin Badgers (I say “blind” in the sense that I don’t follow the Badgers closely enough to really know the roster), and in that post which you can read here, I identified a mysterious situation. There was a player named Rob Wilson who had fabulous MWS numbers but who rarely played. I wondered why and suggested the team could survive the loss of Jon Leuer a lot better if they simply put him on the court (my brother, who follows the Badgers closely, explained that “Bo Ryan doesn’t like him” or maybe it was he didn’t play defense, I can’t actually remember).
Anyway, this afternoon I was scanning for interesting articles on JSonline and look what I found. Hello, Mr. Wilson.
By the way, I watched the Badgers DISMANTLE the Michigan Wolverines this afternoon, and that is one tough team. I’d hate to play a team with a defense like that in the NCAA tournament, especially if Jon Leuer comes back. They could be Final Four bound.
As for Michigan, they should be used as a morality tale by the NCAA rat squad. Michigan’s basketball program had absolutely everything going for it about 15 years ago. Everything you would want to be a long term top recruit magnet. Then the NCAA gave them a serious rip for some recruiting violations and they can’t seem to recover. Ditto for Nevada-Las Vegas.
February 6, 2010 at 10:03 pm |
Ty,
You are right on with Rob Wilson. You should check out my website (badgerbucco.blogspot.com), where I did a post on him before the game today.
As for why he doesn’t get more burn, I think that it isn’t as much the defense as it is the turnovers. He has a turnover rate over 20%, which just doesn’t fly on a Bo Ryan team.
February 7, 2010 at 6:57 pm |
Josh,
Why didn’t you mention that sooner?? I checked it out, and I liked it (its on the blogroll now). Nice work!
BTW, you have quite the eclectic collection of teams you root for — I was trying to come up with a common thread, but I couldn’t!! There has to be a back story there!
February 7, 2010 at 7:46 pm |
Ty,
Thanks for the comments. The teams are either geographic (Badgers), my dad’s favorite (Celtics) or the team I rooted for the first time I remember watching that sport: 1979 Super Bowl for the Cowboys and 1980 World Series for the Pirates. Admit it, Cowboys and Pirates are much cooler than Steelers and Orioles, at least to a young boy.
February 9, 2010 at 5:00 am |
Ty, it’s soon to to talk about the draft but Demarcus Cousins is worth a
mention; John wall? sure if you really need a PG but Cousins is at a whole
other level! I think he deserves a post already.
on a similar note on Friday Joey Dorsey got some PT (19 mins) and put up a
strong effort (3-5, 1-2, 12 REb, 1 AST, 1 BLK 1 STL, 0 To and 4 PF).
Following that game Morey twitted something along the lines of “proud of
you Joey blah blah blah”. Unreal: U draft the guy, never play him and when
you finally do and he produces in a very predictable way – you go out of
your way to patronize him. IMO saying “i’m Proud” is patronizing and worse it
implies that the lack of PT you have given him is was for some greater
purpose, i.e he needed to learn to… b4…. and now on Feb 6th 2010 I the
“great” Daryl Morey took out my crystal ball, did his astrological chart, and the
wind told me he was ready for some pro ball. Rubbish. Like he suddenly
morphed into a productive player and again what’s worse is the the
patronization – takes credit for this incredible morph.
Just my personal rant.
Remember our good old friend Richard Hendrix?
February 9, 2010 at 6:26 am |
I love this cat from Ohio St. Whaaa! If the Bucks had him, holy shit! Why is his name escaping me? EVAN TURNER!! He’s a long swing man who produces huge numbers. He’s the Bucks missing piece.
February 9, 2010 at 7:52 am |
Josh,
Regarding Richard Hendrix, did you see the email he sent me? Pretty cool guy.
Ty
February 9, 2010 at 10:35 am
Turner sure like a very good prospect, but Cousins projects to be worthy of a no. 1 pick IMO.
What mail r u referring to, Ty?
I’ve followed your blog rather closely for a while now, can’t say I remember any mention of an e-mail from Hendrix…?
February 9, 2010 at 1:52 pm
I can’t even remember… I put it at the very end of some post. Essentially he said something to the effect that he had read the posts I had written about him, and he hoped some NBA GM would as well!!!
February 9, 2010 at 2:07 pm
Also, give me some more info on these prospects. This looks like a rich draft.
February 9, 2010 at 2:48 pm
Palamida,
Its in “Ranking teams by effective height” at the very end.
February 9, 2010 at 4:36 pm |
Not like I have the “inside” scoop :p just browsing thru the numbers I was practically blinded:
Demarcus Cousins, Born august 1990 – a freshman at Kentucky. Listed at 6 11′, 270 lbs.
stats:
21.3 Mins ** 54.2% FG% ** 63.3% FT% ** 16.4 PTS ** 10 Reb ** 0.9 STL
0.9 AST ** 1.9 Blk ** 1.9 To ** 3.2 PF.
Sure the Turnovers are high and so are the PF but he is a freshman and he’s very likely to improve in those areas.
Per min, the core Pf\C skill set is just off the charts.
per 30 mins for example those would be : 23 PTS 14 REb and 2.67 Blks.
Not to say that’s that he’ll produce that in the NBA, but I don’t recall a recent prospect who combined scoring, rebounding and shot blocking this way in his freshman season. The only thing that could possibly concern me (had I been tasked with making a draft pick,lol) is that the 54.2 FG% isn’t stellar, however considering the high volume\usage I don’t think it’s a stop sign more like a bump in the road. Take Blake Griffin for example: consensus no 1 pick.
He did have a monumental sophomore season recording 14.4 Rebs in 33.3 MPG with an otherworldly 1.73 PPS stemming mostly from the 65.4 FG%. However while his Sophomore Rebounding came close to Cousin’s freshman effort, his STL and BLK didn’t. In his freshman season Griffin, in 28.4 MPG recorded 9.1 Reb and “only” 56.8% from the field.
Since Cousins Sophomore season will be played out as an NBA Rookie this comparison will die here, but if this holds up, i really can’t imagine passing up on Cousins who could very well be a 0.300+ WP player for years to come.
Peace, more to come later.
February 10, 2010 at 5:58 am |
Remember that whole Off. rebounds theory? No deferring on offense, etc.
I’d like to add that out of 242 Rebounds by Cousins this season, 105 were offensive – Read 43.4% – that’s…. something. :p
February 10, 2010 at 4:55 pm
Hang on, Palamida… I’ll read your whole thing when I get home and I’ll respond in full then…