The Gentlemen Fro Des Moines Game Thread

[ShockdaWorld]

I DO NOT mean for this to sound derogatory at all. It's absolutely not meant to be. I'm no different than you. We watch games, we see big picture things more often than not.

High level D1 men's basketball is a complicated thing, and Gregg's program is even more so. Eddie Fogler was a thinking man's coach, and his game plan wasn't nearly as complicated as Gregg's.

It's TOUGH and you have to be smart and locked in to GET what they are doing, and when you're doing it you better not screw up. It's a tough combination and it's easy to get flustered.

He's just not to the point yet where he can put it all together. Perhaps he will be someday, who knows? But there's a long way to go. It's not just about being in the right place at the right time. It's about reacting properly and it's about being in the right place 10 plays from now, and still being about to go full speed ahead when you get there.

Not easy at all. I couldn't do it and I think I'm at least somewhat cerebral.

This is exactly what I wondered about. I didn't know if it was an attitude thing, a learning curve thing, or a physical thing. This helps me to understand that for the most part it's a learning curve thing or a "getting it" thing, which makes perfect sense.

[dahill2424]

I was gong by sports reference.com"

Rk	Player	G	MP	FG	FGA	FG%	2P	2PA	2P%	3P	3PA	3P%	FT	FTA	FT%	TRB	AST	STL	BLK	TOV	PF	PTS
1	Eric Hamilton	16	120	6.7	12.7	0.526	5.3	9	0.593	1.3	3.7	0.364	5.7	9	0.63	8.7	0.7	0.3	1.3	2.7	3.7	20.3
2	Landry Shamet	3	53	5.3	12.1	0.438	3	4.5	0.667	2.3	7.5	0.3	6.8	9.1	0.75	6	3.8	3.8	0.8	1.5	6	19.6
3	Shaquille Morris	23	337	8.1	13.5	0.596	8.1	13.5	0.596	0	0		3.3	5.2	0.636	8.8	1.3	0.8	2.1	1.8	7.6	19.5
4	Fred VanVleet	20	548	5.6	13.9	0.405	3.4	8.5	0.393	2.3	5.3	0.425	4.9	6	0.817	4.9	8.2	2.7	0.1	2.4	2.6	18.4
5	Ron Baker	24	753	5.6	12.9	0.434	3.3	6.7	0.492	2.3	6.2	0.371	4.2	5.4	0.792	6.1	4.1	2	0.8	2.2	1.9	17.7
6	Markis McDuffie	23	416	5.8	13	0.444	3.9	8	0.494	1.8	5	0.365	3.4	4.7	0.714	7.3	2.2	1.5	0.6	2.1	3.8	16.7
7	Anton Grady	20	345	6	12.3	0.491	5.9	11.4	0.52	0.1	0.9	0.125	4.2	7.4	0.563	10.9	0.7	0.9	1.7	3.5	6.8	16.3
8	Conner Frankamp	17	298	5.2	13.2	0.398	1.9	3.6	0.519	3.4	9.5	0.352	1.7	2.1	0.813	3.2	2.6	0.9	0.1	0.4	2.4	15.6
9	Zach Brown	24	439	4.1	8.7	0.469	2.7	4.3	0.638	1.4	4.5	0.306	4.7	6.8	0.693	5.7	2.2	1.8	0.9	2.6	5.1	14.3
10	Ty Taylor II	16	145	5	17.7	0.281	3	9.9	0.306	1.9	7.7	0.25	1.9	2.2	0.875	4.4	3	1.4	0	2.8	4.7	13.8
11	John Robert Simon	18	101	3.2	7.9	0.4	1.2	2.8	0.429	2	5.1	0.385	3.2	4.8	0.667	2.4	5.1	1.2	0	2.8	4.4	11.5
12	Rashard Kelly	24	376	4.1	9.7	0.429	3.5	7.9	0.446	0.6	1.8	0.353	1.8	2.9	0.63	9.6	1.8	1.2	0.4	2	4.8	10.7
13	Rauno Nurger	17	146	3	7.1	0.423	2.7	5.2	0.526	0.3	1.9	0.143	1.6	3.3	0.5	6.3	0.3	0.5	1.6	1.4	7.7	7.9
14	Bush Wamukota	21	165	2.9	5.8	0.5	2.9	5.8	0.5	0	0		1.7	1.9	0.875	9.9	0.7	0.7	0	1.5	7.8	7.5
15	Evan Wessel	24	552	2.5	7.5	0.34	0.7	1.4	0.5	1.8	6	0.301	0.5	0.8	0.636	4.3	1.4	1	0.1	0.7	3	7.4
16	Zach Bush	13	31	1.3	7.7	0.167	1.3	3.9	0.333	0	3.9	0	3.9	5.2	0.75	5.2	3.9	2.6	0	0	5.2	6.5

How do Eric's numbers compare on a per-40 basis to Tevin Glass last year? I believe Eric is a superior player to Tevin and has a much higher ceiling, but per-40 numbers for players with limited and mop-up minutes tend to overstate ones actual ability/impact, imo.

[shoxlax]

Eric is a raw talent. His year at Sunrise matured him as a person but he still has a ways to go in systematic basketball. Rebounding instincts and position, setting screens, fighting through screens, not leaving your feet, running the right plays. I like it when he is out there with the first teamers because of the on the court mentoring possibilities. He is worth taking a flyer on because even if it takes until his junior year to get it. the return on investment will be astronomical. It just boils down to everyone's, including Eric's, patience threshold.

Nobody in this league has an athlete like him. Not even close.

[Ricardo del Rio]

He's showing progress though, and he's shown a big increase in confidence to drive, which is something that sets him apart. He has some great moves and is crazy athletic. He still has 2 more years to grow here.

Plus he is strong as a bull and takes up a lot of space. Opposing folks just do not want to belly up to him. He is not afraid of contact.

Several days ago, I opined that he might be the new Wessel. Make that Wessel plus.

[im4wsu]

How do Eric's numbers compare on a per-40 basis to Tevin Glass last year? I believe Eric is a superior player to Tevin and has a much higher ceiling, but per-40 numbers for players with limited and mop-up minutes tend to overstate ones actual ability/impact, imo.

Player	Tevin Glass	Eric Hamilton
G	19	16
MP	107	120
FG	4.5	6.7
FGA	11.6	12.7
FG%	0.387	0.526
2P	3.4	5.3
2PA	9.3	9
2P%	0.36	0.593
3P	1.1	1.3
3PA	2.2	3.7
3P%	0.5	0.364
FT	4.5	5.7
FTA	5.6	9
FT%	0.8	0.63
TRB	7.9	8.7
AST	1.5	0.7
STL	0.4	0.3
BLK	1.1	1.3
TOV	1.9	2.7
PF	5.6	3.7
PTS	14.6	20.3

[Bluzrover]

Eric is a raw talent. His year at Sunrise matured him as a person but he still has a ways to go in systematic basketball. Rebounding instincts and position, setting screens, fighting through screens, not leaving your feet, running the right plays. I like it when he is out there with the first teamers because of the on the court mentoring possibilities. He is worth taking a flyer on because even if it takes until his junior year to get it. the return on investment will be astronomical. It just boils down to everyone's, including Eric's, patience threshold.

Nobody in this league has an athlete like him. Not even close.

I think about this as well. I think he was a borderline 3 star when he signed with us. Look at the difference between he and Markis who was a bona fide 4 star. I don't want to get ahead of the season but I'm looking at our front line in two years with Hamilton, Morris, Kelly, Willis, Nurger and the Kentucky transfer Isaac Humphries (okay, I'm reaching there). And with Brown and McDuffie on the wings? Good lord, there's some size with which our opponents are going to have to contend!

[Bluzrover]

I think the reason is pretty darned clear.

Now that I've read Sully's report regarding the five stitches in Fred's upper lip, a result of an elbow from Hamilton, I understand your post!

[Dan]

Eric has a motor that doesn't stop. That's something you can't teach. He also has size and athletism that can't be taught. Give him time and he'll be that 6'9" jumping jack 4 man that we all covet.

[60Shock]

Shaq is getting better with every game. Now his next step is to dramatically reduce his fouling. Don't recall the exact numbers, but I thought they said that he had won 11 out of 14 opening game jump balls. How important is this? Just consider that it is the major reason we jump out to an early lead, and often times, it is Shaq who is often the one scoring early.

Just why are Fred and Ron even participating in these so called brutal scrimmages? That's all we need is for one of them to go down in a practice game.

We talk about Conner not shooting often enough, which is true, but on the other hand he is often wide open and Fred and Ron pass the ball the other direction?

Enough has been stated on our FT shooting. I would have hoped it would have worn off on our opponets by now, but so far they absolutely shoot the lights out at the FT line.

Shame to see how far Drake, once a very talented and respected MVC member, has fallen. To have such a meager attendence against one of the top 25 ranked team in the nation (no matter who they are), even if you know your school is going to lose, is inexcusable.

[1972Shocker]

Shame to see how far Drake, once a very talented and respected MVC member, has fallen. To have such a meager attendence against one of the top 25 ranked team in the nation (no matter who they are), even if you know your school is going to lose, is inexcusable.

Agreed. That was weak. That certainly won't do anything to diminish Dr. Bardo's interest in pursuing another conference affiliation if he can make it happen.

[ShockerPhi]

On the ESPN3 broadcast they said FVV had stitches put in his lip from yesterday's practice. It sounds like it was brutal.

Since you mentioned it, I just remembered Fred posted on his snapchat a picture of his lip that looked mostly bruised and a little cut and he captioned it "Eric Hamilton, ladies and gents".

Sounds like Marshall wasn't kidding about Eric busting up some players. Ha!