So, I was thinking about where guys were compared to where I thought/hoped they'd be at this point of the season and truthfully there are not a lot of guys who are at or exceeding expectations. Here are my very subjective, not well-thought-out, midseason grades for everyone. I'm not giving concessions for injuries that slowed progress, so Lively and Whitehead for example might be getting judged a little more harshly than they deserve. Also, lots of time left in the season so plenty of time to turn some of these grades around.
Let's assume a B grade is someone who has met but not exceeded expectations:
Ryan Young - A - A clear highlight with his scoring, his passing, and his effort.
Blakes - B+ - expectations weren't high for him with Roach and Proctor being ahead of him in rotation but he's had a couple of really nice games and plays good D and makes smart decisions with the ball when he gets minutes.
Flip - B - had a stretch there where he was overperforming expectations but I think has come back to earth. Being a top 5 recruit and meeting expectations, though, is nothing to scoff at.
Mitchell - B- - had a couple of great games early in the season and plays with effort, but seems to have way too many games where his stat line is like 6 points, 4 rebs, 2 assists in 25 min. That's not the level of production you want from a starter on a top 20 team.
Roach - C+ - Like Mitchell, had a couple of really nice games but overall he's not really someone we can count on consistently to score in the teens or to dish out 6-8 assists a game. Did not see the sort of improvement from year 2 to year 3 that we'd have hoped for.
Whitehead - C - he's the guy I expect most from in the second half of the season. If he doesn't average 15+ points the rest of the way and something like ten combined rebs/assts per game, we won't come close to our potential. We're seeing flashes of that now. Hope he stays in the starting lineup.
Grandison - C - expected him to shoot a bit better, to defend a bit better, to maybe avg another assist or two per game, and to earn more minutes. Still shooting 35% from 3, so definitely not bad. But a lot of his looks from 3 are wide open so you'd really hope he'd be in the low 40% range at this point.
Proctor - D+ - I swear this kid has the skills to be a top 3 guy on a team like ours, but he's not showing it. Lacking aggressiveness on offense and on the boards. Not making shots. Not really making the team better when he's on the floor. Looking for him, like whitehead, to really turn it on the second half of the season but I don't have quite as much faith in that happening as I do in Whitehead.
Lively - D - For the #1 overall recruit he has struggled mightily. I like his effort and he doesn't seem to hang his head when he only gets 12-14 min a game and that's great. But... other than rim protection he has a LOT of room to improve in all areas. And as a team our coaching staff needs to figure out how to utilize him better. I just have to believe that part of this is about us not utilizing him as we should.
Thoughts? What am I way off on here?
Let's assume a B grade is someone who has met but not exceeded expectations:
Ryan Young - A - A clear highlight with his scoring, his passing, and his effort.
Blakes - B+ - expectations weren't high for him with Roach and Proctor being ahead of him in rotation but he's had a couple of really nice games and plays good D and makes smart decisions with the ball when he gets minutes.
Flip - B - had a stretch there where he was overperforming expectations but I think has come back to earth. Being a top 5 recruit and meeting expectations, though, is nothing to scoff at.
Mitchell - B- - had a couple of great games early in the season and plays with effort, but seems to have way too many games where his stat line is like 6 points, 4 rebs, 2 assists in 25 min. That's not the level of production you want from a starter on a top 20 team.
Roach - C+ - Like Mitchell, had a couple of really nice games but overall he's not really someone we can count on consistently to score in the teens or to dish out 6-8 assists a game. Did not see the sort of improvement from year 2 to year 3 that we'd have hoped for.
Whitehead - C - he's the guy I expect most from in the second half of the season. If he doesn't average 15+ points the rest of the way and something like ten combined rebs/assts per game, we won't come close to our potential. We're seeing flashes of that now. Hope he stays in the starting lineup.
Grandison - C - expected him to shoot a bit better, to defend a bit better, to maybe avg another assist or two per game, and to earn more minutes. Still shooting 35% from 3, so definitely not bad. But a lot of his looks from 3 are wide open so you'd really hope he'd be in the low 40% range at this point.
Proctor - D+ - I swear this kid has the skills to be a top 3 guy on a team like ours, but he's not showing it. Lacking aggressiveness on offense and on the boards. Not making shots. Not really making the team better when he's on the floor. Looking for him, like whitehead, to really turn it on the second half of the season but I don't have quite as much faith in that happening as I do in Whitehead.
Lively - D - For the #1 overall recruit he has struggled mightily. I like his effort and he doesn't seem to hang his head when he only gets 12-14 min a game and that's great. But... other than rim protection he has a LOT of room to improve in all areas. And as a team our coaching staff needs to figure out how to utilize him better. I just have to believe that part of this is about us not utilizing him as we should.
Thoughts? What am I way off on here?
