Mostly agreed. Nothing wrong with pointing out a player’s deficiencies. I think it’s one of the best things about this place, that most can do so and be fair and respectful. But some of the people here have gone straight past that and into pure vitriol, even going as far as trashing people on here who know Brooks personally.
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Telling someone that their opinion of a player’s game come from extreme bias isn’t trashing anyone. It seems like the majority of the board is in agreement, that lack of depth is the only reason he is getting starter minutes. If the roster had talented depth, he would be a 7th/8th man in the rotation at best. You are the one who seems to think just because he plays decent defense at times, that he is All B1G or something. Carr ate him up plenty yesterday though, so I am not sure the great defense stance holds much water either.
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I haven’t done that once, nor have I seen “vitriol”. I think folks are just a bit sensitive. Although, I have seen hate and vitriol towards those who don’t want him in for extended mins.
Most against Eli playing big mins have only stated that he’s not a high B1G level talent… because he’s not.
That’s not to say he isn’t a wonderful person, comes from a great family and would dominate on the MAC level, or even in the Pac 12. He just can’t do it consistently in the B1G. We’ve been losing and he’s been completely unproductive on the offensive end. Zero. His D is above average. Let’s see if DDJ can produce more.
That’s literally it. No hate.
Eli’s primary defensive assignment yesterday was not Carr, it was Kalsheur, who he held to 3 points on 1-6 shooting. X started on Carr, and DDJ covered him down the stretch. You are certainly to your opinion that Eli’s extreme offensive struggles recently overshadow any defensive value he has, but it is factually incorrect that he was eaten up by Carr. That didn’t happen.
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Eli’s offensive struggles are career long, they aren’t recent.
By recent, I’m referring to post-November. If you believe that 12.8 ppg on 50% 3 point shooting, which is what Eli did in November’s 7 games, was a struggle, we’ll agree to disagree.
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I just don’t see the value in assuming that those 7 November games are the baseline expectation. There’s a much greater sample size available.
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There is a greater sample size available…if you take games played in past seasons. Players do improve–we certainly did not, for example, judge D.J. Wilson’s junior year based upon his freshman and sophomore numbers. If Eli’s slump continues, his freshman and sophomore numbers will take on greater weight as the baseline for what he is. If the slump doesn’t continue, the his junior year stats establish a new normal. We’ll see what happens.
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“above average” on D and occasionally solid on D don’t seem to be accurate descriptions of his defense. I understand that some feel his minutes should be limited given the offensive limitations–but those individuals consistently underrate his D, probably because as casual basketball fans they pay less attention to the defensive end, particularly off the ball. He’s our best off-ball defender, and does pretty good on the ball too. He can lock down opposing shooters and take them out of games (as he did against Purdue and Minnesota). Despite shooting an atrocious 19% from three in five conference games–he’ s shooting 59% on twos. His Ortng is around 96 and Drtng (less statistical validity in the college game, but still) is 116. His assist to TO rate is 2.5 to 1.
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Really Brooks should be coming in off the bench. To me he’s not really a starter (never has been). Hope he can shake this slump, with Livers out they need all the fire power they can get.
Many would argue they’re blatant misrepresentations to try and trash him as much as possible. Not really sure how you can watch him this year and put his defense anywhere beneath great.
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In fairness, what we have seen of Bajema has been very impressive. Most of it has been in “garbage time”, sure, but Nunez looked completely out of his depth on both ends of the floor even at such moments last year as a freshman. Not so with Bajema.
Your point is well taken though. I really think it has to be either his frame (whereas Nunez’s body is college ready) or Martelli’s history with Nunez that is keeping Bajema from seeing those backup minutes at the 3.
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Yes there is a much a greater sample size and unless you attended all of his practices and high school games and practices then it is likely the greater sample was not available to you.
The fact that JB started him as a Freshman should give all of the people who think they “know better than the coaches” a moment of pause.
The fact many people can not see that he is a very good defender is absolutely laughable. Do those people not watch the games?
For all we know early season on offense is the “True Eli” these coaches are trying to bring out.
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@gtfomycourt, I definitely agree that the Eli of November is the one the coaches want to see. To be clear though, I didn’t say anything bad about his defense. See multiple posts of mine above. You may want to direct that part of your post somewhere else.
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My bad Hack. I edited my post. The way I worded it initially did make it seem like I was accusing you specifically of saying something negative about Eli’s defense. I meant that to be a general statement to the commenters who seem to think Eli is just “ok” at defense. I should have been clearer that I addressed that comment to you more because of what you were saying about sample size.
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For the '19-'20 team, I think we’re really discussing something like 5 minute of playing time, and whether it goes to Eli or DeJulius. There’s no feasible way for Brooks to play less than 25 minutes a game in my eye, basically no matter what happens. Bajema’s absence from minutes would tell me that regardless of what I’ve seen from his few minutes on the floor, he’s far away from the others.
In short - I’m not sure the space between the “pro” and “anti” crowds here is that big. He is going to, and should, play alot. My view, personally, is that on a conference title contender, he’s probably closer to a 15 minute a game bench guy that 30+ minute starter.
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the Brooks discussion has focused a lot on whether he’s making his open threes or not, but he is also still the guy that canned a bunch of mid-range jumpers on the road against Illinois.
Most of the arguments about his shooting involves some cherry-picking (“if you don’t count the good/bad parts then…”)
I guess I’d say that over 300 career shot attempts, split almost evenly between twos and threes, he is shooting 38% overall, 44% from 2 and 32% from 3. His true shooting is around 51%. None of that is particularly good. If you choose to count current season more (ie, his numbers from two years ago are less indicative than those this year), maybe you could say he’s a bit below average (55% true shooting is average) shooter. He hasn’t taken many FT’s in his career (sort of a problem in of itself), but his % there is only 62% - which again would suggest he’s a mediocre shooter.
In terms of not shooting stuff, he’s posting pretty much the same assist and rebounding and steals rates as his career numbers, but his TO rate has dropped despite more usage - ok as it goes.
His DBPM is and has always been pretty good so numbers would agree he’s a significantly above Average defensive presence (not sure how “good” college BPM is as a stat).
It all combines to suggest that as a total package he’s probably a bit above average as a D1 player, which means probably exactly average as a B10 player.
That means in absolute terms - not really how he fits into specific contexts. I have some sympathy for those who’d say that without Livers, his profile (overall weak shooting, strong defense) could be less valuable given the desperation for people who can make shots.
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For every home game I arrive at Crisler 2 hours before tipoff and Eli is almost always practice shooting 100-200 3 pointers. Livers, before he got hurt, would be the only other player practicing a similar number of shots at that time.
I have been amazed at Eli’s consistency at shooting over 90% when he is practicing at this 2 hour pre-game time. His shooting stroke appears to be very good and consistent. A few times I have seen him make 19 of 20 shots.
I was surprised that for the first time this year he was not practicing during this pre-game period for our recent home game vs Purdue. I was wondering whether he was hurt or something.
Only DDJ was practicing his 3 pointers during this Purdue pre-game period. Although he shot well, he did not shoot as well as I have seen Eli shoot. This was the 1st time I saw DDJ practicing during this pre-game time period like Eli usually does.
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What would it hurt to try DDJ in the starting lineup and having Brooks come off the bench? Kind of like how Coach B did with D Robinson when he went through his shooting slump a few years back.