BTN Madness - POY related
Watching BT and Beyond on BTN, and they are talking about Pettaway as POY. I don't deny he's had a special season, but the idea that, if the season ended tonight, Pettaway could be considered over Stauskas is insanity, in my opinion.
We have a long way to go, but if we finish this job and Nik continues to perform, he's the POY.
I also think the Nebraska story is nice and all, but every time these clowns start waxing about how great they are, I want to scream at the TV, "Do you remember that Michigan was up FORTY on Nebraska? FORTY FREAKING POINTS."
We swept the season series from them, and the game at Crisler was like Varsity vs. Girls' JV. The final score had a ton of window dressing. I think we were up 75-34 before we called off the dogs.
Admittedly, I get shirty about just about everything, but this seems like another example of the BTN not giving us proper respect.
It also bugs me that before today OSU was only four spots below us. We punked them on their court. Come on.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:42 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:48 PM ^
See, I'm usually shirty before pantsy, and after shoesy. I'm a freak like that.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:57 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:49 PM ^
I try to avoid being pantsy whenever possible.
February 24th, 2014 at 11:50 AM ^
You definitely don't want it to be in the pantsy.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:57 PM ^
For a second you all had me wondering if I made up that word.
I'm sick, so there's always the chance I'm hallucinating.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:48 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:43 PM ^
yes, player of the year? No. Stauskus has been far more important than Pettaway.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:47 PM ^
Best player on the best team. End debate.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:10 PM ^
Petteway shouldn't get B1G POY consideration, but not because of his team's play. Rather, because people are looking at the wrong stats. Petteway scores a lot, but he's very inefficient doing it. His ORtg is a good, but not great, 105.2, and his eFG is an acceptable, but hardly stellar, 51.0% (49% on 2s, 36% on 3s). His advantage, such as it is, is in possessions used (30.9%) and percentage of shots (31.6%). Simply put, Petteway is Nebraska's offense. Still, on a per-possession basis, Stauskas (ORtg 125.9) torches him -- he's scoring almost as many points as Petteway whilst taking two-thirds as many shots.
I'm just glad to see McDermott put up a good game. For a brief, confusing period earlier today, Gary Harris was listed as Player of the Day on KenPom's fanmatch page. Admittedly, only the Michigan/Staee game was final, but how could Harris even have been the player of the game?! Dude was 4/13 from downtown with a 4:3 A/TO ratio. Maybe KenPom is starting to take grit and injuries and Izzoness into account or something. :-)
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:33 PM ^
And yet we probably need Nik to err a little on the higher volume side. Beilein talked about that after the game today - Nik's slightly less than perfect shots may be a better bet for us than, say, a GRIII shot when he's having a shooting day like he had today. No diss on Glenn, but he couldn't throw it in the ocean today. That last dunk was about as sweet as it gets, though.
February 23rd, 2014 at 10:42 PM ^
GR3 was 6-12 for 15 points....
February 24th, 2014 at 2:02 AM ^
I'd just about bet that all 6 of those were from point blank range. I can remember 4 of them (that were layups/drives/dunks) right off the top of my head. I'd bet that the furthest one out was that rebound and short bank shot from the left of the hoop. If he's 0-6 from any distance, which I'm guessing he was, my point stands.
February 24th, 2014 at 2:21 AM ^
February 24th, 2014 at 2:13 AM ^
Just checked, and my recollection is correct. 5 layups/dunks, and the 6th make is the short bank I mentioned in the post above.
(cbs sports has an interesting shot charting feature, btw)
As I said, no dig intended at Glenn, he just didn't have his shot today.
February 24th, 2014 at 8:14 AM ^
He needs to utilize his dribble much better. He is not explosive of the bounce, but is very explosive out of his triple threat position. He blew right past a couple defenders when he can use that athletisicm properly. Still needs to be more aggressive at the rim I feel too, but being in a better spot when he receives the ball would help him out a lot.
February 24th, 2014 at 9:23 AM ^
Although it also seems painfully simple with Glenn - do those first two shots fall, or do they clank. It seems to set up the rest of his game - even including the question of how aggressive he will be going to the hoop (which makes some sense - it's important for *him* to feel he presents a true triple threat when he receives the ball on the perimeter).
To his credit, he played very hard yesterday (and has been playing hard since Mitch went down, after some effort and concentration issues early in the season), and found a way to make himself useful in some key moments. He did get beat for a few problematic offensive rebounds, but some of that is just a matter of relative size of the guy he's trying to box out.
February 24th, 2014 at 9:36 AM ^
The ball didn't seem to be coming off the correct part of his hand (looked like it was almost coming off his palm instead of finger types). Even his first free throws were kind of ugly. But he did adjust after his first couple shots and didn't keep jacking up bad shots. Sometimes your shot just feels off and if you try to correct it mid-game it just makes it worse. It's like golf in that way.
February 24th, 2014 at 9:41 AM ^
It's always a matter of those first few shots for Glenn. You wish he could in-game correct, but this just is how it is. Reason to hold your breath a little when those first shots go up. It helps us so much when he's having one of those games where he can knock down the 15-18 foot jumper coming off a curl.
February 23rd, 2014 at 11:01 PM ^
when considering POY. Best player on the best team does not necessarily mean he's the best player of the entire conference.
For example, look at KCP at UGA last year. He won SEC POY despite playing for a shitty team. If you look at KenPom ratings, he was better than Patric Young the best player on the best team in the SEC. KCP has higher ORating while taking up more than 25% possession and 30% of the shot, higher DR%, lower TO Rate, better Steal percentage, and draw more fouls than Young. Young also has the benefit of having good teammates around him while KCP had no one to carry the load.
Not saying Pettaway should be POY (he's not), but there's more to it than being the best player on the best team.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:55 PM ^
Yes, this is exactly my feeling.
Also had to listen to Revsine say, "you can't talk about Michigan State without talking about injuries." Yes, yes you can. Payne was on that court today. Izzo told you that this is what Appling is going to be for the rest of the year. Dawson is offensively-challenged. Enough. We beat them twice.
They did give Beilein a nice thirty second segment at the end of the show, but while there are nice stories in the Big Ten this season, if the season ended today, we are THE story.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
Tom Izzo will cry until Gary Harris and Payne are named POY. Book it.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:35 PM ^
he said....
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
Tom Izzo will cry until Gary Harris and Payne are named POY. Book it.
February 23rd, 2014 at 11:50 PM ^
Izzo will cry long beyond that.
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:46 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 7:54 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:07 PM ^
Seems hard to call Stauskas POY when he kind of disappeared on us for the last few games
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:17 PM ^
Yea, the last 5 games (before today) really hurt what was a runnaway for B1G 10 POY. His PPG fell from 18.5 to 16.7 (back up to 17 after today). His FG% and 3FG% fell around 2% each. His assist and rebounding numbers fell from 3.8 to 3.5 (rpg is now 3.4) and his turnover rate got a lot higher. However his numbers are still really good for a SG.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:27 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
didn't he go 3/20 a few nights ago?
February 24th, 2014 at 10:06 AM ^
I don't even see how Gary Harris is in any discussion for POY. He dissapears for large swaths of big games. I would take Levert over Gary Harris.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:38 PM ^
If Nik can close the show, and we can close the show, I think one bad stretch won't/shouldn't matter.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:57 PM ^
..and Petteway had a 3 game stretch, starting with his 5 pt outing against UM, where he was a sub 1 ppp player.
If you were putting together a team of Big 10 players, who would be your first choice? Petteway is solidly behind Stauskas and Harris in that metric.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:13 PM ^
Efficiency (per 40) couting todays games
Petteway: 19.56
Stauskas: 19.20
So it is really close, and Petteway leads the conference in scoring. I think Nik's biggest asset is that we are B1G 10 leaders and if he can get his PPG up to like 17.5 and push his assist numbers back towards 4 (at 3.5 right now) he will have the stats to back it up as well. He leads the conference in eFG% and TS%. His offensive rating of 126.11 is also up there in the B1G 10. If he can continue his play from today and average 20 ppg and 5 assist from here on out, he will have it in the bag. But Petteway is having a great season.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:15 PM ^
Caris Levert and Coach McGary are the POY
February 24th, 2014 at 5:52 AM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:25 PM ^
They were talking about it on Nebraska radio---listened a little on XM while doing errands. He's the leading scorer in the B1G, so he gets consideration. We'll see at the end of the season.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:25 PM ^
Dakich had Nebraska at #3 in his Big 10 power rankings yesterday. We were at #4. I lol'd.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:35 PM ^
That is simply amazing. We were up by FORTY. That's forty freaking points.
February 23rd, 2014 at 10:23 PM ^
Dakich's rankings are a joke. He continually emphasizes that they are based on who is doing well RIGHT AT THAT MOMENT. Therefore, because we had lost 2 of the last 3 and Nebraska had won 5 straight - notwithstanding the fact that 4 of those came against the B1G's dredges - the rankings make sense based on HIS CRITERIA.
I actually don't think Dakich is trollung is that bad now that his son is on the team. I just think his rankings are based on a criteria that is inherently useless.
February 24th, 2014 at 2:16 AM ^
Rankings based upon the longest current winning streak?! Brilliant! Make this man an AP Top 25 voter!
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:25 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:36 PM ^
And yet that kid is still scary talented. I always worry when we face him because he could go off on any given night.
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:30 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:34 PM ^
In terms of value to his team, Pettaway deserves consideration. It seems crazy, but Nebraska has beaten every B1G team except Michigan, Iowa, and Wisconsin, who they don't play until the regular season finale. Without Pettaway, there's no way they have anything close to 8 conference wins.
However, Stauskas, as noted above, is far more efficient, and IMO he's solidly ahead of Pettaway in the POY race.
February 23rd, 2014 at 9:32 PM ^
February 23rd, 2014 at 8:46 PM ^
(LINK)
Above is the link to Brent Yarina's article from a few days ago regarding his own assessment of he Big Ten Player Of The Year rankings. As of that time, in order (summary stats in the article):
1) Devyn Marble
2) Terran Petteway
3) Gary Harris
4) Nik Stauskas
5) Yogi Ferrell