In the "Inside College Basketball" section of this week's SI, an article lists seven candidates (the article lists Jeff Newton of IU, then "five other candidates," although it actually lists six others)for most improved college basketball player. Here's the blurb about Bright: "For the last three years Bright, a senior point guard, has been coach John Brady's favorite whipping boy. But this season Bright has silenced Brady by taking much better care of the ball. After having almost as many turnovers (123) as assists (129) last season, Bright has 96 assists and just 41 turnovers through Sunday." Admittedly, I haven't been as on top of the hoops situation this year as I should. But, hasn't Torris still been in Brady's doghouse, and wasn't Brady considering benching him for the start of tonight's game? This article seemed strange to me, and not just because of SI's inability to count to seven. For what it's worth, here are the other 6 candidates, according to SI: Jeff Newton, Indiana Matt Carroll, Notre Dame Arthur Johnson, Missouri Dahntay Jones, Duke Joe Shipp, Cal Hakim Warrick, Syracuse
Here's a post that I posted earlier on T Bright. Most improve player is a far stretch. Bright is at best a average NCAA 1A point guard. He is actually probably playing out of position. The #2 probably suits him better. He is in Brady's dog house for good reason. Of late too many defensive breakdown and critical turnovers key position has plague him. As I am listening to the game right now, he has another big turnover against S Carolina to cut LSU 15 point lead to 4. If LSU can get some kind of consistent play with Bright, they have a chance to maybe turn this season around in the second half of the SEC schedule. At least the last three years around the start of SEC play, Brady rave about Bright's Assist/Turnover ratio. You never hear anything about it again after SEC starts. Anybody wonder why? Ray Charles could have a good Assist/Turnover ratio against the competition that LSU plays pre-SEC. Pre-SEC schedule 72 Assist to 28 turnovers - SEC play 20 assists to 21 turnovers. That stat does not included tonight's game. The bottom line is the offense starts with the point guard and the point guard is not getting the job done.
Torris was playing off the hook for the early part of the season. Against Zona and MSU, he dominated the opposing PGs and that is probably what SI is going off of. They probably look at his averages in points, assists, etc. which look solid, partially from his early season play. And as far as Whipple playing the point, it was mainly cosmetic as he only played 13 minutes and was on the bench for the last 15 minutes in the 2nd half.
It is great the he is doing well offensively.. but a point guard must be able to guard his man. Torris is struggling on defense and always has. It does not matter if you have 15 points but give up 25... guards are for guarding. Nice win tonight and if you take out KY and probably Ole miss at home, we should have an opportunity to win some games down the stretch.
