Men's BBall: Something to think about....

I was sparked to wondering what JJ was missing with the numerous players that have left the program recently after seeing that the University of Florida had moved up to the #2 ranking in this weeks polls. Florida of course was the destination for Dorian Finney-Smith, and what with Montrezl Harrell playing a key role off the bench last year for Louisville (Currently ranked #13) in winning their National Title it made me want to look at the stats of these Former Hokies.

I decided to pull up the stats for the players still playing that have left the program in the last two years. I know that these stats wouldn't straight correlate to how they might perform in the ACC and that its unlikely they would all be on the floor at the same time but they are pretty eye opening numbers when you take into account Tech's current statistical leaders. Its difficult to say what Allan Chaney or Manny Atkins numbers would be like considering they are at High Point and Georgia State respectively but they are playing key roles for their new teams.

Tech's Current Stat Leaders:

Tech as a Team so far this year:

How the Former Hokies are fairing statistically:

As we can see from the stats, four out of five of these players have comparable points per game to Tech's leading scorer in Eddie, and Eddie is playing 32 minutes per game, slightly more than all but Atkins. Four out of five are averaging more rebounds per game than Tech's leading rebounder in Eddie as well. Van Zegeren would still be the team leading blocker with his 1.9 per game but Harrell contributes a respectable 1.4 BPG himself.

As a group, the five former Hokies average 64.4 points per game while Tech as a team is scoring only 66 points per game. This group shoots 48.7% from the field, primarily because of Harrell and Chaney both shooting above 60% from the floor. Tech is shooting a lowly 41% from the floor. This shows a big difference in the play of our interior players and what being able to take the ball strong to the hoop from the lane can create for a team.

This group of five is pulling in 32.2 rebounds per game compared to Tech's 38 as a team. Again inside the lane play showing a consistent edge to our former players.

This group even shoots Free throws (a hot topic this season) at almost 5% better than Tech as a team, shooting just over 70% while Tech shoots a woeful 64.8%. Tech's average was heavily influenced by the fact that Devin Wilson is shooting 64.9% from the line on 96-for-148 shooting. The nearest teammate to Wilson in terms of attempts are Van Zegeren and Eddie with 61 attempts a piece. Wilson has taken almost 30% of all of Tech's free throws this season. As a group, the former Hokies are scoring 12.6 free throws on 18.4 attempts per game. As a team, Tech is only scoring 13.6 PPG from the charity stripe. I was actually surprised it was that high with how often I have heard announcers speak to how few times Tech had been to the line in a game.

Its pretty telling to me that if JJ had even two or three of these players, we likely would be much more competitive as a ball club.

All of this put out there, if JJ can manage to keep the rest of the ACC slate competitive outside of maybe the Duke game, I believe Babcock will probably give him another season unless there is some massive change in the monies available to him for coaches salaries.

What are your thoughts?