Monday, February 06, 2012

Comparing Bigs

Here is a quick look at a few ex and current Purdue Big men; statistically:

6'8" Jim Rowinski 1981/82 (Sophomore season)
14.6mpg  3.4ppg  3.8rpg

6'9" Steve Scheffler 1987/88 (Sophomore season)
16.6 mpg  6.8ppg  4.4rpg

6'9" Travis Carroll 2011/12 (Sophomore season)
16.7mpg  3.0ppg  3.2rpg

I'm not saying Travis Carroll can or will become an All-B1G type of guy...but I am saying you shouldn't give up on a guy during his Sophomore season.

6 comments:

Patrick said...

I agree. For some reason, this team is afraid to dish into the post. I've seen Carroll and Marcius posting up and open many many times and they get ignored. If it's a lack of confidence by the guards, then they need to realize when the team is shooting only 25% from the field that they need to look at other options. I'm not saying our bigs would do anything, but we will never know as it seems we only get them the ball in transition as opposed to within our set offense. When our inside games consists solely of 5'-9" Jackson and 6'-2" TJ, then we are going to have problems. The bigs have to get the ball. Period. As we have seen with our resent shooting ability, it seems this is the last option.

zlionsfan said...

I think the difference is that now, there are actually opportunities to be had. In the earlier situations, there were already established post players (Russell Cross in 1981-82 and Melvin McCants in 1987-88), so Rowinski and Scheffler weren't going to be anything more than backups in those seasons. Carroll could be earning significant minutes this season.

But yeah, I would guess that can be significantly restricted by what's being asked of him in the offense, and of course by what happens within the offense. It's getting to the point where you can almost argue against going to more of an inside game; as long as the free-throw shooting is terrible, their true shooting % (taking into account FTs) isn't going to be high enough to justify those extra shots. (Unfortunately Carroll is the "worst" shot of the three; kenpom has his TS% at 48.8%, and that's with 50% at the line. Lawson is 54.6% and Marcius is 61.0%.)

They definitely need someone other than Hummel as the 5, though. Even at 100%, that's not a good matchup for him, and at less than 100%, it's just going to wear him down faster.

Mark said...

Scheffler was considered a waste until his last year and a half.

He turned out awesome. They actually aren't too dissimilar.

BoilerBloodline said...

Except Scheffler was extraordinarily strong. That's not to say that Carroll is a weak man in general, but he plays weak, mentally and physically. He needs to just cut loose and play. I believe with some confidence and a little more leg and upper body strength, he can be very productive. He'll certainly have more opportunities next season with Hale and Hammons taking up more room inside. Then Lawson should be able to play PF where he should flourish as well.

BoilerBloodline said...

Rowinski was VERY strong as well...I kinda forgot that little tidbit. LOL

SJD said...

And because of Scheffler and Rowinski's strength, they looked extremely uncoordinated as Sophomores, had no touch and couldn't shoot the ball outside of about 10 feet. Carroll can legitimately shoot to 20 feet; a much better shooter than Johnson was as a Frosh.

But if strength is what you want, pick Marcius...he's extremely strong. Painter said last night that Marcius actually had more skill when he arrived on campus than did Scheffler.

I've heard Purdue fans say both were/are wastes of scholarships; I just don't think that's fair.