Early look at the numbers
Everyone caught their breath after the last 48 hours of pulse-pounding finishes at the Stan Sheriff Center?
UH fended off the hard charges of North Dakota (81-78) and Troy (72-67, OT) on Sunday and Monday, improving to 3-0 for the second time in three years under Eran Ganot.
It was the 15th Outrigger Rainbow Classic title overall for the host team (in 53 editions), and sixth in eight editions as a four-team round-robin tournament.
UH’s season statistics are interesting thus far.
Here’s some things that jump out:
>> UH has five players averaging double figures so far, with Mike Thomas leading the way at 18.7.
>> The “Big Three” of Thomas, Gibson Johnson and Jack Purchase are each averaging 7.0 rebounds.
>> 3-point shooting has been a struggle, with UH shooting 25 percent as a team. Purchase has yet to find his touch from outside at 4-for-15 (26.7 percent). No one else is picking it up significantly.
>> Purchase, however, has been a wizard passing the ball so far, with 16 assists against two turnovers. It’s probably no coincidence he’s the minutes leader through three games at 33.3. Conversely, Leland Green is looking to turn around his two assists and 11 turnovers. Green had a nice drop-off dime against Troy, though.
>> Thomas has been drastically improved at the foul line from his junior season, shooting 20-for-26 so far (76.9 percent). He shot 57.1 percent there in 2015-16. However, he’s 0-for-7 from 3 so far this year.
>> Brocke Stepteau and Sheriff Drammeh are giving great value in their minutes off the bench. Stepteau’s 8.7 ppg and 2-to-1 A/T ratio will be invaluable if he can keep that up, while Drammeh (10.0 ppg) has been all-around effective in the two games he’s played.
>> Drew Buggs (4.0 ppg, 23.3 mpg, six assists, six turnovers) is being brought along slowly as the starting point guard. He’s struggled for stretches but has also shown flashes of what he can do. He’s sniffed out the ball more than once as opponents gather in rebounds and prepare to pass out or dribble, helping him to the co-lead in steals with five.
>> Samuta Avea sat the last two games after playing 12 minutes in the opener, while Ido Flaisher was a DNP the last game after getting 8.5 minutes in the first two. Zigmars Raimo got in all three games thus far, with a 3.0 minutes average.
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UH does not play again until it hosts Nevada (2-0) on Nov. 24. The Wolf Pack play three more times before coming out this way, though. They’re coming off an impressive home win over Rhode Island, 88-81.
Why is Avea not playing some ? Out of the rotation because B Thomas is in ?
Is Stallworth going to redshirt like Hemsley ?
More observations…
Sheriff Drammeh can be a handful defensively, but make some head-scratching decisions like taking a foul late against Troy when he tried to go between two Troy players. I guess that comes with young players, you take the good with the bad.
Drew Buggs outside shot is not good. A work in progress. You can see he will be very good in time.
The free throw shooting is off in the early going. Usually reliable Jack Purchase has already missed a half-seasons worth of free throws.
It is still early and you can see flashes of their potential as a team. It will be exciting to watch the progression.
Brocke is shooting .400 for 3FG’s and .667 overall.
Sheriff .429 on 3FG’s and 1.000 on FT’s.
Buggs will be fine. He must’ve been ill because he threw up into a trash can during the game on Sunday.
I’m getting tired of people around my section ragging on Drammeh.
I see a player who plays pretty hard.
2.
Bad late foul by Green too.
Ticky-tack.
But those are the rules.
When the coach redshirts a player, does it mean he is not ready to play DI, or that his upside is so tremendous, that to play him limited minutes would be to waste his freshman season?
I recall Artie Wilson, on his radio show, lamenting that Coach Wallace didn’t sit down Alika Smith during his true freshman season.
You are overthinking it.
Simply, when a coach redshirts someone it’s because he can’t use that guy this year. i.e. he is not ready to play. Wallace played Smith as a freshman because he had no alternative that year, and forget about trying to keep him another year. Play, and coach, for today.
Surprised at all the love for Buggs, but I guess people like to imagine they see something that is not there, and ignore what he is actually showing. I see a PG who picks up his dribble too early, and ends up getting trapped often. This leads to desperation passes, rather than passes to scoring opportunities. I trust Stepteau more, but you can see he is slower than the other athletes.
I don’t question Green’s basketball abilities, but I’m on the watch for him making too many mistakes. At high levels of sport, the amazing plays don’t matter if you make mistakes on the normal stuff. He’s picked up his consistency the last 2 games…
#111 is not a bad RPI for Hawaii.
The Bows should break the top 75 if they upset Nevada, who is ranked around the low-forties.
I wish Coach Ganot would cancel the Adams State game, or downgrade it to an exhibition game. For the Grizzlies, it doesn’t count.