The post OOC (yeah, we still play Ole Miss at the end of January) _FANalysis of K-State basketball, player by player.
HopperEdwards does a little of everything for the Cats. While leading the team in minutes, he is 2nd in his rate of scoring, assists, offensive boards, and steals. He's 2nd in assists to TO ratio and 2PT%. He's been an efficient player and pretty much what we all hoped he'd bring last year after his transfer from Maine. He's likely to be an All Big 12 caliber player if these numbers continue in Big 12 play. We need him to be more of a scorer, but maybe he's not capable of that. The biggest issue is only hitting 26% from 3 when 37% of his shots are 3s. He's too good at making twos to be shooting that many 3s. Of course part of that probably is carryover from last year's Big 12 play when Edwards hit 35% from 3 and only 45% on 2s when 41% of his shots were 3s.
Westicles[Westicles is the team's best scorer, making an incredible jump in points per 100 from last year's 14.5, while playing nearly the same amount of minutes as Edwards. He's also really good on 2s and while he's not making 3s on his minimal amount of attempts, at least only 10% of his shots are behind the arc. Solid at drawing fouls while leading the team in FT attempts and is 3rd on the team in assists to TO ratio. With his size, its reasonable to expect Westicles to be a better rebounder, though he wasn't great there last year.
Claws Wade has exceeded expectations to start his career at K-State. He's 3rd on the team in scoring rate while also putting up good rebounding numbers and rarely turning the ball over. He can shoot it both inside (over 50% on 2s) and out (34% on 3s) and has been solid from the FT line while getting there at a good rate. Wade has struggled with foul trouble in a few games (though he's still played more minutes than any other big) and his production has dipped a bit lately (3 of the last 4 games scoring in single digits).
Big MeatHurt has been a great defensive rebounder and is a threat to shoot it from 3. He scored at a high rate to start the year, but has really dropped off lately. Also not much of an offensive rebounder and is only making 46% of his 2s.
DJamer Johnson has been our best offensive rebounder and has a good scoring rate in the 20s. He also leads in blocked shots and is solid on the defensive boards and on steals. He is still bothered by injury and we need him to play more minutes.
Deathbite Stokes has been really steady at PG while playing a lot of minutes with the best assist rate on the team along with hitting 33% of his 3s. He needs to be much more efficient on 2s and cut down on TOs.
The Flush Brown leads the team in 3pt% and steal rate with a decent scoring rate. Like Stokes, he's been really bad a 2s, plus his assist to TO ratio is below 1.
This team has been better than I anticipated and the 10 and 2 record while avoiding any embarrassing losses has been nice. However, while Georgia on the road is a decent win, this team hasn't beaten anyone that will likely be a tournament team, so those wins will have to come in the Big 12. Shooting is still a major problem, especially in the first half of games. Fortunately, this team has cut down TOs and has been really good on the offensive boards while the defense has also been really good. The Cats could make a push to be .500 in the Big 12 and be an NCAA tournament team, but they will have to be more consistent on offense, especially shooting better from 3, while maintaining tough defense. Against the best league in the country with 10 games against current Top 30 teams and 14 against the Top 50, that will be easier said than done.
