20 Games In: How Nova’s Players Rank

Villanova is off to the best start in team history (19-1) – in large part because of their tremendous depth. The Cats have gone 11-deep at times, and are dominating the 2nd half of games, as they demonstrated against St. Johns and Notre Dame last week, because they are usually more fresh than the other team.

With so many players on the court and 6 of them new from last year it has been interesting to see how they are playing compared to what I was expecting when the season started.

I ranked each player on the depth chart from 1-11, NOT based on who the 11 best players are, but based on how they have performed in relation to my expectations. Impact on team performance is obviously a factor, but not as big. In short, these are completely arbitrary and just a way to talk about all the players and rank stuff.

1. Scottie Reynolds, Sr., G (18.7 ppg, 3.3 apg, 1.7 spg, 49.6% FG%)

Like Dante Cunningham last year, Reynolds has improved tremendously from his Junior to Senior year. Unlike Cunningham however, Reynolds was already an all-league talent and I don’t think anyone expected him to improve this much at this point in his career, especially since his first 3 seasons were pretty much identical. So how has Reynolds gotten so much better? It starts with his shot selection. Reynolds shot an unimpressive 40% in his first 3 seasons. This year? He has improved that by 10% and is shooting 50% from the field as a Guard. He’s being smarter with his shots, but he also has more help on offense which gives him better opportunities. A serious contender for Big East, and even National Player of the Year. Bravo, Scottie.

2. Maalik Wayns, Fr., G (8.7 ppg, 1.6 apg, 46% FG%)

Wayns is now my favorite player. I didn’t know how he was going to find the court with all these Guards, but he did, and when he’s out there, he often looks like the best player on the team. He is totally and completely un-guardable, with elite quickness and a solid outside shot (39% from 3). He has great vision in the passing game and a strong upper body that enables him to finish inside. It is my personal opinion that he will leave Villanova and the best pro prospect Jay Wright has coached. I’m not going to go as far as to say he has Chris Paul potential, but I’m impressed enough with his all-around game at this age that that is where my mind went first. In Big East play he’s averaged 11.9 ppg on 53.5% shooting. Watch out for him next year when his minutes go up.

3. Corey Fisher, Jr., G (13.3 ppg, 4.3 apg, 1.5 spg, 44% FG%)

Fisher isn’t quite as quick as Wayns, but he still gets to the hole with ease and is tremendous at getting to FT-line, often for an “and-1″. As a 5-star recruit, expectations for him were a little too high, but he has improved in each of his 3 seasons at Nova. This year he has improved in every single category, including rate stats like FG% and Ast/TO, and I expect him to do the same next year as he and Wayns try to make up for the departure of Reynolds.

4. Taylor King, So., F (9.6 ppg, 6.2 rpg, 0.9 spg, 47% FG%)

Coming into this season, we knew King could shoot, but that’s about it. He has been a very pleasant surprise in pretty much every other aspect of his game. He is a solid rebounder and an active defender, but his best attributes are his court vision and ability to drive and finish with either hand in traffic. He is a gunner, and when’s he off it can be ugly, but his all-around game has impressed a lot of people, including me.

5. Isaiah Armwood, Fr., F (2.2 ppg, 1.5 rpg, 53 FG%)

With the exception of the game-winner against George Mason, Armwood has not had a huge impact on the season. But, like I said before, this list is based on my expectations and my personal expectations were that there was no way he would ever see the floor this season. He seemed to be a project who would benefit from a developmental year, especially during a season where we could go 10-deep. What’s he’s become is a very active defensive sub (12 minutes a game in Big East play) and someone who is a far better athlete than I thought, as many of his points come from some very impressive dunks.

6. Antonio Pena, Jr., F (10.9 ppg, 7.6 rpg, 58% FG%)

Pena impressed early in the season, and then once the big boys came along, he regressed severely. In Big East play he’s averaged only 7.6 points and 5.6 rebounds with his best game (14/10) coming against the defensively inept Fighting Irish. Pena is our best low post scoring option and it’s been very disappointing to watch him vanish in league play. One thing that he has working against him is that he hasn’t been given as much an opportunity to score once league play started, which isn’t really his fault. At the very least, his rebounding numbers need to improve.

7. Reggie Redding, Sr., G/F (9.3 ppg, 5.7 rpg)

No player causes me to curse more during a game than Reggie Redding. He is a great defender, and has occasional moments of greatness of the offensive end, but he does not possess the Guard skills he thinks he does and makes at least 1-2 plays a game (or in the case of the Louisville game, 7 plays) where he tries to do too much and makes a dumb play. See his “pass” to Dante Cunningham against Pitt last year in the Elite 8 as evidence this is not a new development. Once the ball gets past half court, he needs to pass it. His runaway train drives to the hoop never turn out well.

8. Dominic Cheek, Fr., G (5.3 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 0.5 spg)

Cheek is probably the freshman who was perceived to be the most dynamic player of the class. However, he struggled mightily in the beginning of the year, oftentimes looking very out of sync and missing badly on routine shots. He has played better of late and don’t get me wrong, he has a very promising future, but I was expecting him to be more of an offensive factor (and better than 32% 3-pt shooter).

9. Mouphtaou Yarou, Fr., C (3.3 ppg, 3.2 rpg, 2.7 PF/G)

Yarou gets a pass because of his sickness earlier in the year and the fact that he missed so many games and practices. He has shown signs of great footwork on offense, but right now he looks a little confused out there as evidenced by his 2.7 fouls per game in only 13 minutes. He also looks like he needs to get comfortable with the speed of the college game and rushes a lot on offense. He’s probably more of a project than many hoped, but much of that is due to the fact that he’s lucky to even be on the court right now.

10. Maurice Sutton, Fr., C (2.2 ppg, 2.9 rpg, 2.2 PF/G)

All Sutton really had to do was stay on the court and grab rebounds, but his tendency to immediately get in foul trouble has made that difficult. His best attribute? Easily the most energetic cheerleader on the bench. Like Cheek and Yarou, he’s got plenty of time to develop.

11. Corey Stokes, Jr., G (8.9 ppg, 4.3 rpg, 37% FG%)

Stokes has easily been the biggest disappointment of the season. I thought for sure this would be his breakout year where he added a mid-range game to his already deadly 3-pt stroke. I fully expected him to compliment Reynolds and Fisher and contribute around 15ppg. Not only has he not done that, but he has inexplicably become a well-below-average shooter (36% from 3-pt this year). He is down in PPG from last year despite playing more minutes, and is averaging a measly 1.16 points per shot. Perhaps there are too many offensive options now and he just can’t get in a rhythm, but it’s been alarming to see his shooting deteriorate so quickly.

So that’s how I feel about the team going into the rest of the Big East schedule. I think this team clearly has Final Four potential. Most years I would say they aren’t championship-caliber, but with many of the dominant teams being led by freshman (UK, Texas and Kansas to an extent), Nova could sneak in and win an improbable title this year. No matter what, this is the most exciting Nova team we’ve seen in awhile and there is still considerable room for improvement.

January 29, 2010