Clayton vs. KJ (I apologize for beating a dead horse)
- Thread starter ThatkidfromHolland
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I think its more complicated than that.
But I'm not going to pretend I know what happened, because Clayton redshirting makes no sense whatsoever.
It was obvious to most people who follow the team that we had ballhandling issues.
Leach was stepping way up in class and Windham was a freshman combo guard coming in.
Not viewed as a point guard by anyone prior to the season.
Barnhizer isn't that great handling the ball either - especially an injured Barnhizer.
Assistant coach Brian James said publicly that Clayton had improved significantly.
So the need is pretty obvious, but Clayton redshirts anyhow.
Most of us interpreted that as Collins having no real use for him.
But it seems to me that Collins never dreamed that Leach might get hurt.
I like my source better than yours. Mine was right about the Barnhizer Freshman year nagging injuries. However the only part of the statement from my source is the KJ offseason part. I defer to guys who know ball better than me.
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Occam's Razor, man. He wasn't likely to play much with Leach and Windham ahead of him, and Coach thought it would be better for the program, and perhaps for Clayton personally, to save him a year of eligibility here or elsewhere. Why overcomplicate it?
Because Collins has never redshirted a sophomore, other than injury, and we clearly needed ballhandling.
Given that - and how the season played out - Clayton burns redshirt anyhow - I find it very strange.
Leach missed half of two seasons with injuries prior to transferring to NU.
So I find the whole thing bizarre.
A rabbit's foot or shamrock won't get you thru the season without a significant injury or three.
You’re the backup PG as a freshman, play most every game, then PG (Buie) leaves, and then you decide to redshirt? If we had a stud portal PG coming in for a year, maybe I could understand it. But we did not. Is it possible that collins told him that he was likely to not have much playing time and he decided to redshirt because of that with the thought that he would transfer after the season? That was my impression of how things played out. I have no idea if this is accurate.
Because overall this year they haven't been all that different. So far this year KJ has shot it a little better but much of that is in a couple more recent games and the difference can be explained by the fact that KJ has had 4 times the playing time (400 min vs 100)and played in a lot more games this year than Clayton has (25 vs 6). Other per game stats are pretty similar as well with Clayton leading slightly in RBs (1.5 vs 1.1) and assists 2.0 vs 1.8) and KJ leading in points (4.8 vs 3.7) , lower turnovers (0.8 vs 1.2) and steals (0.8 vs 0.3) but the differences have not been big one way or the other and can easily be associated with differences in playing time to date
Just saying at this point the overall difference is not that much and can be accounted for in continuity and playing time. Right now KJ looks to have more of an upside but how much of that is just getting enough playing time to get to the next step?. I mean you take out those couple recent games and his performance for this year looks much more pedestrian
I think you are close, but Clayton was not the backup PG last year other than in the beginning of the season. It started like that but, by the time the conference play started, with plenty of poor play, he was pretty much stapled to the bench.
Ultimately I think you are right and the red shirt happened because it was obvious he was not going to play this season. Except we lost our two primary ball handlers.
This is getting absurd. It’s near the level of Carmody versus Collins. I just hope we don’t have two more years of this crap because someone needs to be right.
Whether KJ was awful on defense or he was Gary Payton 90 days ago is irrelevant to anything now. People have expressed their opinions and aren’t going to change their view. What is relevant is where is he now and where he will be in the future.
Whether Clayton was afraid to be out there last year is irrelevant. What is relevant is can he help us in the future. He already is a back up ( in terms of minutes) and of course he’ll have less expections than starters. Again, can he contribute? My belief is KJ has more than a slight advantage now. That doesn’t mean I am going to sh*t on Clayton every time I get a chance. I have great respect for Clayton’s willingness to burn his shirt and try and help.
Can someone start a thread about Blake Barkley? We are more likely to get closer to consensus there. Maybe not.
Whether KJ was awful on defense or he was Gary Payton 90 days ago is irrelevant to anything now. People have expressed their opinions and aren’t going to change their view. What is relevant is where is he now and where he will be in the future.
Whether Clayton was afraid to be out there last year is irrelevant. What is relevant is can he help us in the future. He already is a back up ( in terms of minutes) and of course he’ll have less expections than starters. Again, can he contribute? My belief is KJ has more than a slight advantage now. That doesn’t mean I am going to sh*t on Clayton every time I get a chance. I have great respect for Clayton’s willingness to burn his shirt and try and help.
Can someone start a thread about Blake Barkley? We are more likely to get closer to consensus there. Maybe not.
I really want to understand you here. You bring a ton of good data to this board, but what exactly is your criticism? I think we agree that with a healthy Leach and KJ, Clayton doesn't get meaningful playing time. That being the case, what's the downside of redshirting him? You might get a productive year out of him in the future. He's not taking valuable minutes from better players. And he's there on the bench in case of emergency. It seems like the best logical choice, but somehow you, a stats-driven logical guy, finds it bizarre. What should Coach have done in your mind?
Clayton is no threat to drive the lane. Not a good shooter either. Give me a slasher or a good shooter.
I wouldn't write off his shooting yet. He showed flashes at Minnesota, hitting two 3-pointers. His shooting form seems much better than last year. If he can give us a solid 15 minutes of no turnovers, good defense, and a few buckets, he's done his job. I expect him to be the third point guard in the rotation next year, behind KJ and West.
Thanks for the direct questions. And the sincerity (gasp).
I was high on Windham coming into the season.
I was surprised that Clayton was redshirted, because I thought our ball-handling concerns were obvious.
And I've never heard of sophomores redshirting.
So if I'm the coach, I'm looking at the possibility that Leach can't run the offense against Big Ten guards. I'm also wondering if Windham can be that guy. I'm concerned about our lack of quickness in the starting 5 - particularly the possibility that Berry and Leach cannot stay in front of quick guards. I'm also concerned that Leach will get injured or even just get in foul trouble during a game. If Clayton is redshirted, I can't use him.
But Collins did next to nothing to get Windham experience. Six minutes of garbage time for the entire month of December is just brutal for a young, talented player - especially one who represents most of your team's upside.
I would have preferred to see Clayton not redshirted. If Leach misses time (quite likely) then Clayton is likely needed. By redshirting him he comes in cold against Washington and causes us to lose that game. Collins decision to start Clayton over Windham was telling all of us that he thought Clayton was better than Windham - and if thats the case, then why the hell was Clayton sitting there redshirted?
Thats my frustration. The decisions do not make sense when viewed together.
Our goal in basketball now needs to be the Sweet 16. We've done the 32 a couple of times. To be in that 16, we need everyone to be at least very good at something, and a couple or more guys to be extremely good at several things. Windham looks like he has the potential to be at the least a very good scorer and I think he could be a significant piece of a 16 team in two years (next year we're not going to be that). Clayton's role, assuming he stays around, will be to compete for a back-up position. Maybe he gets it, maybe another young guy turns out to be better, which is what I expect to happen.
FWIW, Clayton had seven assists and six rebounds tonight. Of course NU lost, which is more important, and he didn't score, but he made a strong contribution nonetheless.
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