'Cats land grad transfer and Evanston native Elyjah Williams from Fairleigh Dickinson. Love adding some toughness and rebounding. Definitely fills a need.
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Fairleigh Dickinson?
Sounds Fairly Ridiculous to me.
Did he play much during their 2019 March Madness appearance?
Sounds Fairly Ridiculous to me.
Did he play much during their 2019 March Madness appearance?
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He had a very good senior season. 14ppg, 7rpg, 42% 3-point on 2.5 attempts/game.
It appears that he was a starter by the end of FD’s tournament season in 2019.
fduknights.com
It appears that he was a starter by the end of FD’s tournament season in 2019.
Elyjah Williams - 2020-21 - Men's Basketball - FDU Knights Athletics
Elyjah Williams (21) Forward - 2020-2021: Collected NEC Co-Player of the Week honors on 12/14 after averaging 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per contest over the
fduknights.com
Google reveals he scored 7 points, grabbed 8 boards and dished 4 assists and blocked 2 shots in their play-in game against Prairie View A&M.
The entire team struggled in their loss to Gonzaga the next game, but he managed 10 pts (3-10), 9 rebounds, 2 assists a block and a steal.
He has played four full seasons, so with the COVID exemption for 2020-21, this will be his final season of eligibility.
Always hard to compare small conferences to the Big Ten, but his numbers indicate the exact sort of player NU needs to score tough buckets. He also sounds undersized for that type of game and his FT% is concerning. So we'll see, but this sounds like a solid pickup on the whole.
Always hard to compare small conferences to the Big Ten, but his numbers indicate the exact sort of player NU needs to score tough buckets. He also sounds undersized for that type of game and his FT% is concerning. So we'll see, but this sounds like a solid pickup on the whole.
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Here's a video with two blocked shots in that play in game. First at 0:23 and second at 0:50. Looks like a real built dude.
Great news. Sounds like the type of tough, physical presence that NU needs.
Welcome, Elyjah!
Welcome, Elyjah!
He looks like a longer version of Gaines who can hit the 3 (42% last year on 50 attempts). Frankly that would be amazing.
So basically he a had good game against what was probably the best team they played? If true, that is encouraging. My problem is I don't know BB so I can only feed off of other peoples excitement.
He's also played against Kentucky, Notre Dame and DePaul in the last 2 years and had decent games in each. I'm optimistic that he'll be a decent contributor in B1G play.
He looks like he does a lot of nice things that we can use (averaged 3 assists, 1.5 blocks and 1 steal a game). My only concern is that he turns the ball over a lot (3 a game). Hopefully, we can find a role for him where is not asked to try to create as much (like Gaines).
Interesting side note.....as a high school Senior he had an offer from Holy Cross.....then coached by Bill Carmody.
Exciting. We need help at the wing. I obviously never seen him playing but it looks, on paper, a good get.
From the fact he does shoot well, but not a lot, from three, I am assuming he is a 3/4. I don't care his numbers go down as he plays in the B1G. As long as he brings toughness, experience, he can contribute. I look at a comparable, Brandon Johnson (6'8 F) from MN:
-Last year at Western Michigan: 15.4/8.1
-At Minnesota: 8.9/6.3
Our dude:
-At FD: 13.9/7.6
-At Johnson's decrease rate, his projected NU numbers: 8.0/5.9
I'll take those stats.
From the fact he does shoot well, but not a lot, from three, I am assuming he is a 3/4. I don't care his numbers go down as he plays in the B1G. As long as he brings toughness, experience, he can contribute. I look at a comparable, Brandon Johnson (6'8 F) from MN:
-Last year at Western Michigan: 15.4/8.1
-At Minnesota: 8.9/6.3
Our dude:
-At FD: 13.9/7.6
-At Johnson's decrease rate, his projected NU numbers: 8.0/5.9
I'll take those stats.
Eliyah was 3rd team all-Northeast Conference last year.
According to Sagarin's ratings that conference is 20 points worse than the Big Ten.
The MAC, on the other hand, is 7 points better than the Northeast conference.
Sagarin has NU rated 10 points higher than the conference champ (Bryant).
Hopefully he can defy history and contribute meaningfully, but thats a big step up in competition.
I’ll be happy if he can inject some of that Lumpkin kind of toughness and grit into our team
arguably our best player this season was a transfer from a lower tier program, so may not be defying too much history. This guy has a big ten body and size and looks like he can hit the 3, which was Gaines major liability--without which he could have been a 25-30 minute a game guy with his defense, physicality and leadership.
Nance and Young were our two best players.
I like Audige, but he struggled with turnovers because the competition was stronger.
Eliyah does have good size, but I think he was only a 2 star recruit out of high school.
The fact that he was 3rd team all-Northeast Conference when NU was 10 points better than every team in that league.... tells me that Kopp, Buie, Nance and Young would have been first team all-Northeast conference.
I hope I'm wrong, but I wouldn't assume Eliyah is as good as what we have.
Ha! Maybe Nance, but no way for the others. Your use of statistics is lacking in credibility.
Here is a link to the press release for the Northeast conference awards...
(PDF) - Northeast Conference
northeastconference.org
Note how small the best players are. Young and Nance would dominate that league. Kopp would be dunking on people. Buie would score 20 a night. Its just a much lower level of play.
The "statistics" I am using here are Jeff Sagarin's, also used by the NCAA to rate teams. Complain to them!
Interesting stuff, WhiteBoy. I've never seen those team ratings before. Nice dose of perspective.Here is a link to the press release for the Northeast conference awards...
(PDF) - Northeast Conference
Note how small the best players are. Young and Nance would dominate that league. Kopp would be dunking on people. Buie would score 20 a night. Its just a much lower level of play.
The "statistics" I am using here are Jeff Sagarin's, also used by the NCAA to rate teams. Complain to them!
Audige was inconsistent but he's clearly our most talented player, which I think was the point. He had great games against conference opponents and bad games against conference opponents. Nance and Young were our two most consistent players but they are not capable of taking over games like Audige.
I am assuming that Elyjah is being recruited to come off the bench and rebound, play defense and hit a few open shots for 10 to 15 minutes a game at the wing. It looks like he can guard 3's or 4's if necessary. I am fairly (no pun intended) confident that he can fill that role. He's played o.k. against the better teams he has faced. Against Kentucky a couple of years ago, he had 8 points, 4 boards and 3 blocks. Against Notre Dame he had 10 points and 6 boards. Against DePaul, 12 points and 8 boards. He's not a star by any means but he should be able fill his role.
I think you can argue that Audige is our most athletic player, especially with Gaines gone, but I don't see how he is "most talented."
It is really odd that you can't find Audige or Elyjah in Rivals.com's historical recruiting records (or I couldn't).
Really? Who is then? Who else on the team is a plus defender and can create his own shot off the dribble? He's capable of making shots that nobody else on the team can make. He's inconsistent but when is playing well there is nobody else that can generate offense and play good defense like him. Nance does a lot of things well but has not been able to shoulder the scoring burden so far.
Nance probably. Tall, defends well, quick, soft touch, and a nice mid range jumper. Nance has the most “talent” just has to capitalize on it.
Buie and Audige are the next “most talented”. They’re just scorers (meant as a compliment not saying all they do is score and nothing else). Buie even though it isn’t the prettiest probably is the most pure shooter among the 3. He can also create if the dribble and break down defenders. He’s also quick. Audige has similar plus’s. He shoots contested 3’s the same as open it almost felt like last year. Better defender than Buie. Similar in that has the ability to break down defenders of the dribble and create but not as quick. Both have the ability to do more the passing game. Should do more once they break down defenders it helps create a lot of offense.
Kopp hurt us with poor shooting and no defense! Sounds like a good trade!
Starting or in a backup role? If he is a replacement for Gaines, he was a backup last year and likely one for this coming year as well. It would seem he would be at a similar level as Gaines or maybe fits what we need a bit better.
Thats fair. You never really know "quickness" and "toughness" until the guy is on the court. If Elyjah can step in for Gaines, he will help off the bench.
We've been saying around here for a while now how talented Nance is and its just a matter of time before he is able to "capitalize on it". I'm not even sure what that means anymore. I think Nance is who he is. There isn't another gear there. Shon Morris broke down one of Nance's biggest problems in the BIG tournament game I think (or one of the last games of the regular season). He noted that Nance plays too stiff, too straight-up-and-down. He doesn't have any bend to him. This limits his quickness on both ends of the floor as well as his ability to create off the dribble. I hope he spends his entire offseason in a catcher's squat to work on that knee bend. But if not, don't expect much more production out of Nance.
I think he can get a lot better with his back to the basket but otherwise agree that he not an explosive athlete like his Dad and brother. Still a good (very good some days) player and really glad he is returning for his senior year.
What I think we all forget in analyzing individuals and their capabilities is the effect that other individuals have on them. What if we had guards who could all consistently drive, dish and shoot, thus requiring double-teams from the defense? We’d have many more opportunities for the bigs like Nance to get more open looks or easy buckets in rhythm. The entire team makeup matters as to how the individuals perform. Sometimes one missing piece makes all the difference in a team’s performance. It’s not a one-way argument; there are dependencies.
I’m saying not he’s gonna hit his ceiling or not. Just he has the highest ceiling on the team and that to me means most talent.
I guess that is what I'm wondering. What if he's already hit his ceiling?
That's part of the problem, isn't hit? What is the definition of Nance's ceiling. Too much of it is defined by his name.
And I think too many out here have been expecting a stud. It's been pretty clear since his freshman year he's not that.
Before this season, I had already given up on the idea of him as a dominant inside player. He's ok .. just ok. And he doesn't have a stunning outside game that a team needs to double team.
On defense, he's out of position at the 5. He doesn't have enough bulk to defend the better players in the league.
He's got the body, but until you see consistent productivity, I think you're asking for disappointment if you expect a dominant All-B10 player to show up next year. Hopefully he's a strong, consistent piece of the puzzle.
Nance is pretty darned good inside of 15 feet offensively. Decent defender due to length.
But he is a natural 4, not a 5. (4 = big forward, 5 = center, traditionally)
Over the last 13 games, when Nance played with Robbie Beran, we got outscored 340-261.
(Thats a 75 - 58 losing pace) Thats very bad.
When Nance played with guys not named Robbie Beran, we outscored our opponents 338-319.
(Thats a 67.5 - 63.7 winning pace)
Much of that was due to the Nance/Young combo, which "won" 215-199 (63 - 58.3 pace).
Beran is another 4, but Nance is better. With those two on the court we struggled to score and defend.
However, when Beran was paired with Ryan Young (a natural 5), we were barely outscored 116-115.
(Thats a 64 - 63.4 competitive pace)
In other words Beran was much more successful with Young on the court instead of Nance. The difference is rather remarkable.
When Nance and Young were out there together, NU played like an NCAA bubble team.
When Nance and Beran were out there, we played worse than anybody in the Big Ten.
But he is a natural 4, not a 5. (4 = big forward, 5 = center, traditionally)
Over the last 13 games, when Nance played with Robbie Beran, we got outscored 340-261.
(Thats a 75 - 58 losing pace) Thats very bad.
When Nance played with guys not named Robbie Beran, we outscored our opponents 338-319.
(Thats a 67.5 - 63.7 winning pace)
Much of that was due to the Nance/Young combo, which "won" 215-199 (63 - 58.3 pace).
Beran is another 4, but Nance is better. With those two on the court we struggled to score and defend.
However, when Beran was paired with Ryan Young (a natural 5), we were barely outscored 116-115.
(Thats a 64 - 63.4 competitive pace)
In other words Beran was much more successful with Young on the court instead of Nance. The difference is rather remarkable.
When Nance and Young were out there together, NU played like an NCAA bubble team.
When Nance and Beran were out there, we played worse than anybody in the Big Ten.
There’s lots of room for improvement. Not saying he’ll hit his ceiling but the physical tools and natural touch are there.
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