Wahoo in review - Calvin Baker
Wednesday, April 08 2009 by Ben
Each week we'll be taking a look at one player on the Virginia basketball roster: how they did, where they were good, and, where they were bad. Today's featured player is... Calvin Baker.
For Calvin Baker, it was a season defined by injury, frustration, and overuse. Although the story didn't get much play, Baker suffered a stress fracture at the outset of the season. Injuries like that never fully heal when you're on feet, sprinting and jumping, 1,000 times a week.
So, it didn't heal and Baker "toughed" it out. Well phooey, I say. Baker should've sat out the first 10 games and gotten the wheels healthy. He didn't and the season was miserable for him.
Baker shot an abysmal 44% on his twos and 30% on his threes. In Dave Leitao's offense, predicated on the drive to the lane, Baker was required to knife through the lane and score against defenders half a foot taller than him. Not only is that impossible for anyone to accomplish on a stress fractured foot, it's just not Baker's game.
There are a lot of skills that Baker does have. When his legs are under him, that goofy shooting form and release can get the job done. In the 2008 season, Baker fired a solid 37% from three. Before you attribute all that primo shooting to the presence of Sean Singletary, just remember that Landesberg was Singletary's equal in pulling defenders away from Baker.
The looks were there, Baker just wasn't being asked to shoot it from long distance.
Leitao never figured out that the kid in the point guard's body was actually a shooting guard. Hence, decrease in three-pointers (110 to 71), more turnovers, and more assists.
I'm not saying they're in the same ballpark offensively, but does Rick Barnes ask AJ Abrams to bring the ball up and drive the lane? No and no.
To his credit, Baker stuck it out, continued to play, and put up some great defensive performances. He shut down Jack McClinton and Jeff Teague, two of the ACC's elite scorers at JPJ. He's not the quickest defender, but has a wide frame for a guy his size and is able to keep the smaller shooting guards at bay. In all, Baker's a gritty, hard-nosed defender; something I'm sure Tony Bennett has seen and liked.
Despite his offensive struggles, he scored that beautiful end-to-end lay-up to defeat Georgia Tech. He also kept Virginia close aginst Clemson at Littlejohn with some superb shooting.
Leitao's over-reliance on Baker as a PG is, along with his under-reliance of Mike Scott in the post, the one of the biggest reasons for the Cavalier's failure to produce points on a consistent basis.
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Each week we'll be taking a look at one player on the Virginia basketball roster: how they did, where they were good, and, where they were bad. Today's featured player is... Jamil Tucker . In my mind, no one typifies the enigmatic Leitao era quite like
Very well said Ben. The insistence on playing Baker at the point guard was frustrating.
The problem was that there wasn't a single player in the ACC who Zeglinski could guard, so he was forced to play Baker at PG. But our best squad was having Baker guard the opposing PG, while Landesberg ran the offense.
Frankly, the offense that we ran did not fit the players we had, but guys like Baker and Landesberg did what they could within the system.
Baker was exciting at times, but by and large was frustrating.