Q&A with Nurger and Taylor

[ShockdaWorld]

I'm quite willing to believe that Frankamp is a heck of a shooter, given his high school reputation, and the lauding by current players and coaches.

That being said, Zach Brown has shown more of an ability to score and shoot efficiently at the D1 level than Frankamp has at this point. And he comes with some serious upside on defense. I do not mean this as a slight to Frankamp, more that I am extremely excited about both Brown's realized and unrealized potential.

I do agree that we will be a more dangerous shooting team this year, which is scary in a good way. Tekele Cotton is my all-time favorite Shocker, but he never did pull out of his shooting slump last year. Adding another above-average shooter in either Brown or Frankamp completely changes how teams have to think about guarding Ron.

I agree about D-1 showing so far. Also,I will admit, I was very skeptical about Connor until pretty recently. I was able to go back and watch some videos of the U17 teams that he was on, where he was the leading scorer with guys like Jahlil Okafor and Justice Winslow on the same team. That was when I realized Connor isn't just a great shooter, but has the talent to work himself into an AA college player.

[shockmonster]

Zach is a fine shooter from 3 point country and will score more as he learn to attack the rim. Additionally, his versatility is going a strength of his (most of Marshall's players are versatile). However with all due respect to him, he will never be a 90%+ free throw shooter nor will he have the handles of Fred, Ron, or Conner. Gregg may move Zach to the 4 spot during certain points of the game (end of a half or game), but he will definitely have those three boys in during certain times also. We have some nice shooters on our team but Conner will prove that he is one of the elite shooters in the college game this year and our best shooter. Even though Zach will not shoot as good as Conner, I do believe that a case can be made for Zach being more valuable to the team, especially if he improves as a defender as we all think that he can. He may become our new "stopper".

[wufan]

Fred, Ron, Conner, Zach, Landry, Ty...Markis and Evan? The backcourt is something to remember for a long time!

[Kung Wu]

I'm quite willing to believe that Frankamp is a heck of a shooter, given his high school reputation, and the lauding by current players and coaches.

That being said, Zach Brown has shown more of an ability to score and shoot efficiently at the D1 level than Frankamp has at this point. And he comes with some serious upside on defense. I do not mean this as a slight to Frankamp, more that I am extremely excited about both Brown's realized and unrealized potential.

Completely agree about Zach. The X factor about Conner during his D1 games is that he did not have a true PG feeding him the ball. And he darn sure didn't have FVV feeding him the ball. I didn't watch KU during his time there but I imagine he had to hunt for his own shot more often than not.

[shock]

Think about this lineup- Conner, Ron, Evan, Zach, Anton.

Anton screening for Conner, Evan and Ron on the wings, Zach down low. After the screen, if there is ANY mistake by the defense, they can count the bucket.

[ShockdaWorld]

Think about this lineup- Conner, Ron, Evan, Zach, Anton.

Anton screening for Conner, Evan and Ron on the wings, Zach down low. After the screen, if there is ANY mistake by the defense, they can count the bucket.

While I like this line up if we're giving FVV a break, there's no way he's on the bench if I'm taking my best five into battle.

[Ricardo del Rio]

I'm quite willing to believe that Frankamp is a heck of a shooter, given his high school reputation, and the lauding by current players and coaches.

That being said, Zach Brown has shown more of an ability to score and shoot efficiently at the D1 level than Frankamp has at this point. And he comes with some serious upside on defense. I do not mean this as a slight to Frankamp, more that I am extremely excited about both Brown's realized and unrealized potential.

I do agree that we will be a more dangerous shooting team this year, which is scary in a good way. Tekele Cotton is my all-time favorite Shocker, but he never did pull out of his shooting slump last year. Adding another above-average shooter in either Brown or Frankamp completely changes how teams have to think about guarding Ron.

Zach Brown is a stud. I would not be surprised, if he played some 4 this year. Imagine VV, Conner, Ron, Zach and Anton on the floor at the same time.

Bombs away.

[Stickboy46]

Zach Brown is a stud. I would not be surprised, if he played some 4 this year. Imagine VV, Conner, Ron, Zach and Anton on the floor at the same time.

Bombs away.

This is the lineup I had in my head when I posted last time. I'm just imagining the possibilities. Anton backing his man down, double Screen up top for Fred with Zach rolling off towards the basket. The defense collapses and you can kick out to two of the best 3 point shooters in the country, they don't collapse and Fred can take it in, or lob it to Zach, or wrap it around to Anton. Seriously a nightmare to defend right there.

[im4wsu]

Zach is a fine shooter from 3 point country and will score more as he learn to attack the rim. Additionally, his versatility is going a strength of his (most of Marshall's players are versatile). However with all due respect to him, he will never be a 90%+ free throw shooter nor will he have the handles of Fred, Ron, or Conner. Gregg may move Zach to the 4 spot during certain points of the game (end of a half or game), but he will definitely have those three boys in during certain times also. We have some nice shooters on our team but Conner will prove that he is one of the elite shooters in the college game this year and our best shooter. Even though Zach will not shoot as good as Conner, I do believe that a case can be made for Zach being more valuable to the team, especially if he improves as a defender as we all think that he can. He may become our new "stopper".

Since in Shocker histroy, only three players have had one season of 90%+ and no player has exceeded 85.3% for a career, this is a very safe assumption.

However, if you mean that Zach will never be a good FT shooter, he was 9 of his first 11 last season over the first 16 games (in which he played in 13) and then finished with 12 of 18 for a season total of 21 of 29 = 72.4%.

If you eliminate the back-to-back home games with Drake and Loyola where he was 2 0f 5, his total would become 19 of 24, a very respectable 79.2% which doesn't compare particularly unfavorably with Ron's 80.5% and Fred's 80.1%. In fact, it would place him 18th on the career list.

Granted he has had few opportunities to base anything on and it is totally unfair to eliminate bad data points, but he did show that he had two very fine stretches, 9 of 11 and 10 of 13, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt and not minimize the potential for him to be a very fine FT shooter.

[MadaboutWu]

Since in Shocker histroy, only three players have had one season of 90%+ and no player has exceeded 85.3% for a career, this is a very safe assumption.

However, if you mean that Zach will never be a good FT shooter, he was 9 of his first 11 last season over the first 16 games (in which he played in 13) and then finished with 12 of 18 for a season total of 21 of 29 = 72.4%.

If you eliminate the back-to-back home games with Drake and Loyola where he was 2 0f 5, his total would become 19 of 24, a very respectable 79.2% which doesn't compare particularly unfavorably with Ron's 80.5% and Fred's 80.1%. In fact, it would place him 18th on the career list.

Granted he has had few opportunities to base anything on and it is totally unfair to eliminate bad data points, but he did show that he had two very fine stretches, 9 of 11 and 10 of 13, so I would give him the benefit of the doubt and not minimize the potential for him to be a very fine FT shooter.

Thanks for the information; the first line is especially informative for me.

Re: Brown I think he can be good and can build on 72%. Cherry picking all but the bad games is silly however. Eliminate FVV's and RB's worst two games and their percentages go up too.

[im4wsu]

Thanks for the information; the first line is especially informative for me.

Re: Brown I think he can be good and can build on 72%. Cherry picking all but the bad games is silly however. Eliminate FVV's and RB's worst two games and their percentages go up too.

As I said, it is unfair to eliminate two games, but he did have 81.8% prior and 76.9% after that lone two consecutive game stretch. I'm just saying that 80% is n't out of the realm of possibility.

fwiw, Baker was 82.2% and Fred 72.5% in their initial season.

[wufan]

I will be surprised if Zach doesn't have a career FT percentage that doesn't round to 80%.

[shockmonster]

I will be surprised if Zach doesn't have a career FT percentage that doesn't round to 80%.

I agree with you that he is capable of shooting 80% from the line (maybe even this year). To do it for a career is a very difficult task but he may accomplish it. However, one thing to keep an eye on is that if he becomes our "stopper", it may take a little away from his shooting.

While I think that Conner will shoot over 90% and approach it every year, I don't think that he will do it over his entire career.

[Ricardo del Rio]

Twenty-nine data points is not much.