They changed his release point so it’s not in front of his face. That seems to have turned him into more of a set shooter. Maybe they should have left it alone.
Interesting.
I hope this is one of the things Coach Beilein acknowledged wasn’t going to be fixed in season, but they have remedies for in the off season.
Coach Beilein mentioned on more than one occasion that flexibility in the shoulder region was an issue for Simpson. Too muscular maybe for a fluid shot. I expect this too be addressed during Camp Sanderson. A svelter Simpson may be part of the solution.
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I would definitely temper my expectations for DeJulius as a freshman to come in and make a huge impact. I will be happy if he’s a solid backup in his first year providing a different skill set than Simpson.
Simpson and Brooks clearly weren’t ready to contribute much as freshmen and nether was Darius Morris. Walton had a solid freshman year but had the benefit of playing with Stauskas and LeVert who controlled the offense. Walton stood in the corner a lot on offense. Burke was obviously the exception and took the reins right away.
Clearly Simpson needs to improve in certain areas and ultimately DeJulius may turn out to be a better overall player but I just don’t think it will be year one.
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While I don’t doubt the mental part of shooting playing a room for Zavier, he simply isn’t that good of a shooter. Dylan covered his EYBL shooting and it was less than spectacular. Watching the highlights might show some different ways in which he created or got his shots but to think he’s a much better shooter than he’s shown because of a highlight tape is a bit foolish. Unless you’re trying to highlight hustle I’ve never seen a highlight tape of a guy missing. My guess for why we don’t see Zavier shoot off the dribble is simply because he’s among the last guy we want doing that. My hope for Zavier is to get the ft up to the 65 pct range and be able to relatively consistently make open stand still 3s and get his 3 point percentage closer to 35 pct. I’d be surprised to see him become a threat to shoot off the dribble because we should have better options than that, but that doesn’t mean he can’t be effective at attacking the basket and making guys respect his outside shot.
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If DeJulius’s HS shooting prowess translates immediately he’s gonna play significant minutes.
No skill JB covets more than shooting, and this team had multiple horrible shooting games this year. 5/6 tournament games were absolutely brutal.
A guy that can get shots off the dribble ( especially late shot clock ) is desperately needed by this team going forward.
Help is on the way regarding shot creation. DeJulius, Johns, and Brazdeikis all appear advanced in ability to get their own shot.
Then there is Nunez with a shot that may quickly become the best on the team. Ability to get his own shot is more of an unknown for me.
Castleton, physically, could use a redshirt.
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I fully believe Poole and Iggy are going to be prolific shot creators next year.
I don’t think shot creation will be an issue next season. Getting all these freshman to play defense will be a bigger challenge. Castleton has the most upside but I doubt he plays much. Should Wagner return (he won’t) Castleton will be a mortal lock to redshirt.
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I didn’t see these stats. Was that three ball or mid range off the bounce too? If imagine his 3 ball is below avg but he appeared to me to have a nice mid range game in videos I’ve seen.
I’m still very disappointed he didn’t look to score against nova til too late. He could have hD 6-8 points in the first half if he was looking to score. We needed him
Might not have been clear as I was typing on my phone but it was simply his Krossover shot chart from EYBL and his first five HS games.
His shooting percentage wasn’t terrible from 3 but his mid range game was in the 40 percent range which isn’t particularly efficient. If he can manage to get close to that 35 percent number on 3s and bump up the free throw percentage to the mid 60s I’d feel good with what he can bring on the defensive end.
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To be fair, less than spectacular is a big jump up from what we got this year.
Dylan’s preview was pretty spot on, so far anyway.
Making a pull-up jumper from the elbow is a lot different in high school vs. college because of how much space you need to create to attempt it. You have to get lift on your shot, quick release, etc. That is a lot harder for Simpson to achieve at this level.
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I would agree. If he can maintain his 2 point percentage, increase his 3 point percentage up to around 33-35% and shoot around 65% at the FT line it would go a long way. If he can do that he should be a 10-12 PPG, 4-5 APG type of guy who’s among the best defensive guards in the country.
Or even stay at 30% with actual consistency. Over the hot stretch we had (All games after Northwestern) he shot 18.8% from deep. I still have no clue how he got so lucky for that stretch at the beginning of the season.
The most notable difference between Z’s shot in HS and at UM is he had a little rotation in HS and his release point was far better in HS. His right arm was perpendicular to the floor rather than his current day 2 hand set shot.
Yeah. Regardless of shooting percentage or whatever, his shot and how he was able to get it off just looked way different on that video. If he could just harness that somehow, and then just work on his mechanics with the coaches, you might have something there. Hope he wasn’t messed up by some sort of Markelle Fultz situation.
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I didn’t watch the video so not sure if this was a theme for X in high school as well, but he tends to take his 3s a few feet beyond the line. The extra distance naturally will make it harder for him to connect on 3s.
I know it probably seems dumb to honor a 21-14 team that lost in the second round of the tourney, but I really hope we try and bring the guys from the 2009 team together for a game next year and have them out on the court at a timeout or something for the 10th anniversary. Despite the modest result, the program probably wouldn’t be where it is today without that team. Laval Lucas-Perry shan’t be invited.
Hey didn’t LLP come up huge in our last regular season game that year at Minnesota. Probably the game of his life but I think we really needed that win to get in the tourney. I do have fond memories of that team for finally breaking the drought and getting back to the tourney. We’ve come a long way from those days.