Game 7: ODU

 

 ECU got up 28 threes in this game but only 6 of them dropped for 21%. You knew a game like this was going to happen at some point.  What was more disappointing is ODU only took 4 threes in the game (made 1) and still destroyed ECU via the paint. That's a point I made in the preview that ECU wouldn't have to guard the three point line very hard in this game. They knew what was coming in the paint and couldn't stop it. 

Though the first 6 games of the season ECU's three-point defense was one of its strengths. I didn't see the defense change or adapt much tonight. I would think vs this kind of team you'd want to pack the paint, dare them to shoot outside. Their announcer even made the point ECU was overplaying out on the perimeter, and much of the time they had ECU spread out and were driving to the basket. I don't understand why they were giving them that kind of space and lanes. ODU 361st out of 363 teams in three pointers taken. That's where you want them to have to beat you.

ODU's not even that big and they still got what they wanted in the paint, Ben Stanley is 6-6 and had 15 points in 20 minutes. ECU's lucky Jeff Jones benched him early in the game with 2 fouls. He had 0 fouls the rest of the game and I'll never get that logic. Bench a guy because you are scared he might foul out, yet you assure the very thing you are afraid of by putting him on the bench.  Stanley is a 5th year transfer that would certainly have looked nice on ECU's team. 

Javon Small

Most of the ECU team struggled badly and the one player that didn't was Javon Small. It wasn't a great game by his new standards, but it was decent for a player that is overdue for a stinker almost a quarter of the season in. He's still averaging right at 20, 5 and 5 with a 28 PER. I would say the majority of the schedule is vs decent top 200 teams at this point. It lightens up some the rest of the way OOC.   

Unlike most High School players ECU is signing, all the stats were available for Javon Small in high school. To highlight  how unprecedented this leap has been let's take a look beyond just last season at ECU, but also at what he was doing in high school.

ECU	PER	TS%	BPM
2.0 Pts, 0.6 Reb, 1.1 Ast	4.5	0.387	-4

High School

		GP	PPG	RPG	APG	SPG	TPG
Compass Prep	SR	13	11	2.8	3.2	1.8
Franklin Central	JR	21	16.4	5.7	4.9	2.3	3.3
Franklin Central	SO	21	8.8	3.6	2.6	1.2	2.7

		GP	3PT	3P%	FTM	FT%	2FGM	2FG%
Compass Prep	SR	13	11	33	12	80	50	66
Franklin Central	JR	21	28	34	68	68	96	57
Franklin Central	SO	21	25	34	25	68	42	49

He was solid at Compass Prep when he played, but he only played 13 games. The team was a national power and 28-2. He must have been hurt  butwhen he did play he wasn't a guy that made a lot of 3-pointers or got to the line a lot there. About 1 a game. He did make a crazy percentage of 2-point field goals I just wrote off as a small sample on a team he had little pressure on and probably got some easy layups and open shots from the team around him in a small sample. 

At Franklin Central, it was more of a real sample of a season at 21 games, and Small was more of the go-to scorer with pressure on him as a top option averaging 16ppg. There he wasn't doing anything that noteworthy. Similar low percentage on a shorter HS three-point line. Low volume 1.3 made a game. He did get to the line a good amount there and a real sample but didn't make but 68%. The 2-point percentage seemed less noisy. He turned it over a lot for only 4.9 assists and the team was 14-9 that season as well and 1716th nationally when he had his own team. Nothing really stood out as above average.

To go from that to a hair under 20, 5, 5 with top 50 efficiency while leveling up to college is insane. The next 6 games should be easier than the last 6. I'm really interested to see what this looks like after the OOC.