Oh look they hit another 3.
Remember when ECU was defending the three point shot well? It has been one of the better aspects of the defense on the year but this wasn't one of those nights. When you let a team make 14 threes at .54% it's easy to lose by 28 points.
This was bad but it's encouraging Small finally played better after the last 6 games. Unfortunately, he's the only one that did in this game. It's been evident for weeks Diboundje deserves to be in the rotation as he had fallen out of favor. He wasn't anything special in this one filling in for Walker. Still you can see the upside he brings physically and hopefully, the one thing that comes from this is more time for him. He's clearly been the 4th or 5th best player statistically, and as far as athletic ability and upside he's got to be one of the top-tier players on this team.
LaCount's PER is now down to 4.8 and his true shooting .402%. His PRPG and BPM are both negative now as well. He looked pretty good when ECU was playing low major 200+ teams early but he's been pretty much terrible since the 5th game. I can't see those numbers improving a lot now after this long and it's far more likely his impact continues to get worse vs AAC competition.
Other than punching a little above his weight in rebounding there is nothing else you can point to positive LaCount does on the court. He's getting a lot of minutes in some games and has only made 6 shots in the last 13 games from the floor. He's just not cutting it and he couldn't even help get the ball up the court vs Memphis which is the one thing he has to do to get time. This is a problem that the team has no playable back up point guard.
I think it's time he sits and Dibounje takes those minutes. I think you just got to play Small 37 minutes a game every game he's not in foul trouble and let Walker have those 3 minutes or whatever time Small can't go. Either Walker or Tabbs needs to do whatever they can at PG, because it really can't be worse than what ECU is getting. This is an obvious area of concern coming into the season that is manifesting.
I think the team is starting to become more of what was expected. We'll see if that hold true with three of the worst teams in the AAC coming up in the next 3 games. If ECU doesn't win at least 2 of the next three I think it's all but locked in. USF and Tulsa coming up at home and are must-wins. On the road at Temple is one they need as well. This is where the season will be made or lost I believe over these next three games. Any good vibes left in the fanbase or locker room start to dry up with a loss to USF or Tulsa at home. There aren't many excuses vs teams like that in Greenville.
