this year's team

[SisyphusMiner]

Found the records finally.  In terms of percentage

3-Point Field Goal Percentage   
1.    Mark Ingles, 1995-96    .447
2.    Chris Craig, 2003-04    .424
3.    Miguel Ayala, 2005-06    .383
4.    Omar Duran, 2002-03    .380
5.    Antoine Gillespie, 1994-95    .326

[Minermojo]

That's the one, Chris Craig. I remember that we used to cringe whenever he went into the game until later when he was shooting lights out everyone was surprised. He was good. I also remember that he had problems afterwards out of school. I hope he straightened out I'm sure he had his demons to conquer and I hope he won. I didn't know Ingles had a better percentage though, that's fantastic.

[SisyphusMiner]

Current thoughts:

Bienemy -- A really really good PG.  Right now looking like he belongs in the long list of great Miner PGs.  His Assist / TO ratio slightly better than Julyan Stone

Boum -- The most consistent player we have.

BW -- Something seems not right.  Maybe it's just that the other teams double him every time he touches it.  And we have no play to get him the ball isolated one on one.  He's a team player and doesn't force things much.

Verhoeven -- much improved offensively.  Still not strong enough.  Gets called a lot for bogus fouls.  A valuable part of this team but honestly maybe wouldn't be starting if we weren't so weak at the C / PF position.

Sjolund -- Hell of a shooter.  Decent rebounder.  Not quite where he needs to be defensivly.

Kennedy -- Good defender -- put in a great effort against Draine on first night.  Good aggressive rebounder.  Total liability offensively at this point.

Agnew -- So much energy -- he will make something happen, not always good.  Takes risks defensively that sometimes pay off but sometimes hurt.  Reminds me of Johnny Melvin.


CRT -- As mentioned many times, he is what he is.  Not a great X and O guy.  We are not good against the press and obviously didn't practice it a lot.  We better start working on it because other teams will utilize it now that we've been exposed.

Would have like to see Onyema, but I understand not playing him after our collapse the first night.  He is totally lost defensively.


CRT has a problem with this team in that he has to figure out who his #5 is.   Kennedy, Sjolund, or Agnew?  Kennedy is the best defensively and rebounder, but awful offensively.  Solund by far best offensively, a bit weak defensively.  Agnew hustles the most but erratic.

I think CRT prefers to go with the best defender.  Assuming that Kennedy can shoot in practice he will give him the green light like he did with Boum, and let him shoot his way out of his slump.  Personally I think I'd go with Sjolund as my SF, but it's not an easy decision, especially again assuming that he has reason to believe Kennedy will eventually get there.

CRT's other problem is he really doesn't have a backup PF or C that he feels good about.  I think he needs to find a way to start getting Onyema minutes, even knowing it hurts us.

[Chanson]

Always love your 2 cents, Sis. I totally agree with everything. Agnew is the best back up I've seen here in El Paso for some time. The part that has me scratching my head is Kennedy's offense. The kid should be driving & not shooting. Sjoland is a good back up for Kennedy. I think they both should get the same amount of playing time. Our PG is pretty damn good. He's coming into his shooting. While I'm always happy with any win, the weak rebounding always pushes me off to no end. Positioning & blocking out is so under rated. Especially mixed with lack of hustle.

Now on to the next opponent. I just hope I can actually be at the game.
You know, the more I think about it, the more Kennedy is more of an athlete than a Bball player. He basically is replacing some of the guards we lost last year, which were athletes & not necessarily Bball players.
I'm actually OK with it as long as he is not the focal point or leader. Surrounded by Bball players allows him to be more aggressive & productive.
What I do like seeing is Agnew & Kennedy on the floor at the same time both playing great perimeter defense. Those 2 are nightmares for shooters.
Williams was compromised and he needs to figure out how to be more productive.

[SisyphusMiner]

I just ran some numbers on Kennedy, Sjolund, and Agnew on a per minute basis.  I don't have more advanced statistics available, and you can't really fully account for defensive skills based on these stats.  But it's interesting.

Here are the basic box score stats as contributions per minute.  I hope it formats OK.


Player...    MIN   FGM   FGA    FTM   FTA.    3PM.    3PA.    PTS.   OR..   DR..   REB.   AST.   TO..   STL.   BLK
Kennedy   240   0.10   0.30   0.02   0.03   0.02   0.10   0.24   0.04   0.13   0.16   0.05   0.07   0.04   0.00
Agmew .   87.   0.13   0.39   0.10   0.16   0.01   0.13   0.37   0.03   0.11   0.15   0.07   0.03   0.08   0.00
Sjolund.   130   0.15   0.30   0.02   0.02   0.09   0.23   0.40   0.01   0.11   0.12   0.01   0.03   0.01   0.02

[Chanson]

Hard to read, Sis. I'm sure it shows Kennedy doing everything else except scoring.
I think the other thing we all failed to mention was the Miners have found a way to score when Williams cant. Sjoland, Agnew, Boum, & Bieniemy. I believe they all were in dbl figures, not to mention Verho just short of 10pts.
We will be playing Rice next & that should allow the bigs to reach dbl digits in scoring. As a matter of a fact, I think Odigie matched up well against Rice as long as there are ONLY 1 or 2 bigs playing at one time. I dont really consider Sjoland a big with his style of play. He's more of a long SF.

On a side note, I read Vila is having same foot issues as Wilms did. I think he'll be out rest of year. He'll get a medical red shirt, but this foot issue may not allow him to return. I know most dont like his shooting or defense, but I think he can be a great back up. The other kid with issue is Vilikic. I actually really like the kid. He has good ball skills, can rebound, & reads the game well. His only flaw is shooting. As a 21yr old Fr, I think he'll be just fine. He'll need to work on the jumper in the offseason.

[SisyphusMiner]

Sorry.  I haven't figured out how to get XCEL data to post cleanly here.

Summary:

There is really nothing on the stat line that Kennedy is clearly better at.  I have noted my personal opinion is that he is the best defender.
Sjolund scores a little more than the others and obviously shoots 3s better.  Low turnovers.  Also lowest in rebounds, assists, and steals.
Agnew roughly the same as Kennedy in scoring and rebounding, but twice as many assists and steals as Kennedy, half as many turnovers (turnover thing surprised me).

[kyyote]

I think you have to look at how each one?s presence on the court affects the team as a single organism and how their presence affects the other individual players. For instance Sjolund is more than his three point production. His presence is a threat and the defense has to respect it. That does much in the way of opening Verhoeven and Williams. Bienemy has been the straw and is finding his shot. Everyone is better because of his play.

[SisyphusMiner]

I absolutely agree with this.  It feels like the offense stagnates with Kennedy on the court and flows better with Sjolund.  Sjolund can flat out shoot.

However, against Rice, I would play Kennedy and tell him to guard Olivari like white on rice (see what I did there?)   Olivari is shooting 49% from 3 for the season.  Shut him down like Kennedy shut Draine down and I don't care what Kennedy's offense is like.

At the same time, Olivari is only 6-2.  Maybe Sjolund at 6-8 can shut him down?

[Chanson]

Fellas,
I'm gonna try to make this evenings game. I just had spine surgery on my neck & supposed to stay home for a month. I don't care. I need to get out. So if anyone is going & U see a big guy in a neck brace, that would be me doing exactly what my doctor told me not to do. Haha

Long live sport.

Aside from that, here is what I'd like to see.
Bieniemy- keep being a leader.
Vuk- keep looking for the open man & keep shooting
Boum- no more melt downs & pass the ball inside.
Kennedy- drive to the hole & minimize shooting
Agnew- keep pushing for best 6th man in the conf.
Sjoland- pick it up on D & shoot until your arm is sore.
Williams- work through the dbl team. Make then foul you or pass out.
Verho- keep getting better. Improvements every game.
Odigie plz get better on D & drive to the hole?

[SisyphusMiner]

Take care of yourself.  If we are doing good, no high fives and no jumping up and down.  If we are doing bad, don't smack yourself in the head. It was probably hitting your head against the wall repeatedly during football season that did it to you.

[Chanson]

Never mind. Not going. Too much risk. Does anyone have a channel?

[liebestraum]

Never mind. Not going. Too much risk. Does anyone have a channel?

Probably a wise move, Chanson.  Take care.  Hope the healing process goes quickly and smoothly.

lieb

[Austintacious]

Get well Chans!

[Chanson]

OK, fellas. Not a bad night last night. Hope we can repeat. There are lots of different elements going on with this Terry team that we are not used to.
1st off, this team is up & down on rebounds. 1 night they kill it, the next they drop the ball (see how I used that?).
...Tough Crowd
Anyway, our shooting is very streaky & we just cant seem to defend against pick & roll. Terry addressed that last night at the presser. Sjolund & Odigie had off nights while Boum stilk doesn't seem to be himself at times.
Now for the fun stuff.
Bieniemy is a f...ing stud. He protects, he scores, & distributes. Not to mention he's not bad at D or rebounding. Kennedy seems to be more comfortable in his skin when he has the ball. Keeeeeeep shooting.
Our rebounding was much better, our defense needs a tweak, but our turn overs are much improved. Funny how low turn overs will win a game even with horrible rebounding.
No question Terry wants to Run & Gun. As we saw, the kids can shoot when they are in a zone.
I hope to see more of what I saw last night, except some better stops on D.

Go Miners