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Both are a hair from #1.
-Gardner is currently the leading scorer and rebounder on the 2nd ranked team in the nation. 11.6ppg, 6.4rpg in only 23 minutes. 24.2 PER. .553 TS%. Remember scoring 12ppg there is like scoring 15 and 8 at most places as slow as they play.
-Newton is currently the starting PG on the 3rd ranked team in the nation averaging 10.0ppg, 4.4rpg, 4.4apg, 1.6spg. in 27 minutes 16.3 PER. .541 TS%. One of the most important positions to be good at for any team.
I don't know if ECU will ever have a duo like that again, especially for multiple years now with the NIL. Had there been an NIL sooner Gardner is probably gone earlier.
Many times when I pointed out that Dooley was losing with two top 10 AAC players together I got push back. One specific time I called them the best duo in the AAC returning at the end of Newton's freshman year. You can't imagine the push back I got not only from the conference board but even among the staunch Dooley defenders. The talent was apparent, still many argued Gardner was "flawed" and wasn't "that good".At the time they needed to try to justify the losing and make excuses for the program per usual. You couldn't acknowledge they were that good and also defend Dooley as doing a good job. I think this is pretty good evidence.
Statistically, it was a fact after Newton's freshman year, they were the best duo in AAC play that year returning. Both had win shares and PER's near the top of the league in AAC play (1st and 4th in PER) with ECU still finishing dead last. Even last season early on after Gardner transferred to Virginia and started out slowly some of these same posters did a victory lap about how he was "flawed" and you couldn't build around him . He ended up All ACC. It took 5 years for someone to put any shooting around him, but they finally have 39+% and look where they are.
There were many games last year where Newton was the whipping boy for having some turnovers trying to put a bad team on his back and carry them. How many times was it said Newton "wasn't a point guard". It took until January for one poster specifically to even admit he was even the best player on ECU's team last year and he's still saying he's not a PG even recently. The fact is he's the starting POINT GUARD on the 3rd best team in the nation right now.
It's comical that ECU couldn't even crack the top 180 with them together, or even with at least one playing huge in all 4 years. Unfortunately, I'm afraid these examples are going to make it harder to keep players like Small in the future. Not only will players like Small believe he can go shine in places like that with those examples. Those schools know what players like Small can do in the AAC if he keeps playing like this. It translates. Multiple examples now of players moving on and doing as well or even better like Gardner or Hughes in the ACC individually. The UConn's of the world are going to be coming for him too now I suspect with their NIL money and he will have an NIL agent calling him regardless of what he chooses.
ECU needs to be realistic and capitalize on these type of individual seasons when they have them. That's the main reason this build and develop patience model doesn't work in 2022 IMO. You need to be going for it and fielding the best possible team every year. When you do luck into a player like Gardner as a freshman or have a Javon Small unprecedented type of leap you need to be ready to capitalize because it might be the only year you get moving forward. It was an obviously good move for both Newton and Gardner even though some questioned it.
