Wahoo in review - Mike Scott
Wednesday, May 27 2009 by Ben
Each week (with a break last week, sorry guys) 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... Mike Scott.
You don't have to be an avid reader of mine to know that I am a huge fan of Mike Scott.
One of my major hang-ups with Dave Leitao was that his dribble-drive-motion (chaos?) offense was too catatonic to allow one of his best scorers to go to work. See here for an example. For the season, Scott played 65% of the team's minutes and had an offensive rating (ORtg) of 111 (for reference, note that Sylven Landesberg had an ORtg of 105).
On a team that second-to-last in offensive efficiency in the ACC, why was this gentleman only taking 18% of the available shots while Calvin Baker (20%) and Sammy Zeglinski (21%) foisted up shot after shot? 2-3% might not seem like a lot, but over the course of a season, it can make the difference between bottom of the pack in the ACC and the middle.
I've made the case before and I'll make it again: Scott isn't a first team ACC player, but he could be a very reliable second banana to Sylven Landesberg on offense.
Scott rebounds the offensive glass like a man possessed, pulling down 14% of the available offensive boards (OR%). He's just a beast on the glass and he improved over the course of a season.
However, offensive rebounding can be a double-edged sword. Why did he grab so many offensive rebounds? Probably because the offense took such poor shots. A more efficient offense would have reduced this number substantially.
Although I often use his spectacular ORtg as justification for a higher usage rate, I think that it's inflated by his OR%. Scott gets a fair amount of high percentage put-backs making it look, statistically anyway, like he's an offensive superstar.
In my opinion, Leitao used his offensive rebounding talents against him. It was an excuse to avoid passing to Scott in the post. When you're getting all those offensive rebounds so close to the basket, Leitao must've reasoned, why would we have you work with your back to the basket?
BECAUSE HE HAS A DECENT BACK-TO-THE-BASKET GAME!
It's not great, but Scott actually has an effective hook shot and solid footwork. Leitao chose not take advantage of it, which is surprising, considering it would have been an excellent change-of-pace from an offense predicated on dribble penetration.
Scott's game, however, isn't perfect. His biggest weakness is a lack of focus - he often makes two or three boneheaded plays during the game. Mostly, they have to do with little parts of the game he has not mastered: don't put the ball on the floor as soon as you touch it, roll hard to the basket on a pick and roll, don't get sealed when you're playing defense in the post, don't taunt fans in opposing arenas, etc. etc.
He's a gamer, but definitely can be used as weapon. Given that I've wasted so much time and energy writing about him, I sure hope he produces under Bennett.
Past Wahoos in Review
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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... John Brandenburg . John Brandenburg played all of 26 minutes last season. That
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