Alec Peters - Sophomore edition

[wh]

As I'm sure most everyone recalls, Alec began his Freshman year with some strong OOC performances, struggled in the 1st half of conference play, then found his sea legs and finished the season strong.  Here's his stats over the final 7 games:

34.0 MPG
16.3 PPG
42-68 FG (62%)
16-21 FT (76%)
14-30 3PT (47%)
5.0 RPG
1.3 TOPG
2.0 FPG

There's every reason to think he's only going to get better from here.  I'm thinking 18-20 PPG with even better FT and rebounding numbers, as well. And remember - he didn't turn 19 until April (after the season was over).  With a little more age and a little more experience - look out. 

Thoughts?

[chef]

He has looked unbelievable in open gym. He's a legit 6'9, and looks quicker. He's such an incredibly hard worker, he's only going to get better and better. I think 18-20 ppg is a reasonable prediction, and I would not have thought that a few months ago.

[VU75]

Hopefully his stats will be held down by contributions from Nickerson, a healthy Chadwick and offensive improvements from Fernadez and Adekoya.

[wh]

If you're going to dream, go big:

http://statsheet.com/mcb/players/compare?add=alec-peters&doug-mcdermott=2010-2011&p1=doug-mcdermott

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Initially I laughed, but, you know, comparing apples to apples it's not too far off!

Might have a couple separate things on the Over/Under this year--Alec Peters' improvement might be a good one to ask opinions on too!

[vu72]

The difference could be as smple as the supporting staff.  Ultimately McDermott wouldn't have garnered the national attention had Creighton lost in the first round.  Roudy was the best in our conference but didn't get past the first round. IF, and it is a big IF, Alec does continue to improve and get to an NBA level, can the supporting team get him noticed via wins in the NCAAs??i

[justducky]

He has looked unbelievable in open gym. He's a legit 6'9, and looks quicker. He's such an incredibly hard worker, he's only going to get better and better. I think 18-20 ppg is a reasonable prediction, and I would not have thought that a few months ago.

All of that sounds just great! So just as long as you as you can refrain from calling him a special talent I will be hopeful that he can avoid the sophomore jinx. Speaking of someone with "special talent" is there any indication that the galactic alien abductors have returned the real Keith Carter back to planet Earth and the VU campus? 

[wh]

From the P.T. at today's H.L. Media Day:

Peters averaged 12.7 points and 4.8 rebounds last season for the Crusaders, making the All-Freshman team, and seems poised to make significant strides this season.

"He's a much better player than he was at the end of last year," Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew said.

"He's much quicker this year. He's improved his shooting — and he was a good shooter last year. He's improved his ballhandling. He's improved his defense. The first couple weeks, he's shown all of that improvement in practice."


As a freshman he shot 49% from the field and 39% from 3.  And he's improved his shooting?  He's quicker?  He's a better ball handler?  He's better defensively? 

Get ready my friends!

[wh]

From the P.T. at today's H.L. Media Day:

Peters averaged 12.7 points and 4.8 rebounds last season for the Crusaders, making the All-Freshman team, and seems poised to make significant strides this season.

"He's a much better player than he was at the end of last year," Valparaiso coach Bryce Drew said.

"He's much quicker this year. He's improved his shooting — and he was a good shooter last year. He's improved his ballhandling. He's improved his defense. The first couple weeks, he's shown all of that improvement in practice."


As a freshman he shot 49% from the field and 39% from 3.  And he's improved his shooting?  He's quicker?  He's a better ball handler?  He's better defensively? 

Get ready my friends!

Wait a minute.  Bryce said, "He's a much better player than he was at the end of last year."  As I noted at the beginning of this thread, his numbers over the last 7 games of the season included:

34.0 MPG
16.3 PPG
42-68 FG (62%)
16-21 FT (76%)
14-30 3PT (47%)
5.0 RPG
1.3 TOPG
2.0 FPG

And he's "much better" than that? 

[wh]

If you're going to dream, go big:

http://statsheet.com/mcb/players/compare?add=alec-peters&doug-mcdermott=2010-2011&p1=doug-mcdermott

Looks like I'm not the only one thinking Doug McDermott:

Alec Peters tweet
@dougmcd3 jersey finally came in today.
Favorite player to model my game after! pic.twitter.com/z19AhbCmtP
10:33pm - 17 Oct 14

[VULB#62]

that's cool.  I am excited about seeing him in his sophomore body and the added strength, power and speed that comes with that.  At 6-9 he could tear up the league.

[vu72]

that's cool.  I am excited about seeing him in his sophomore body and the added strength, power and speed that comes with that.  At 6-9 he could tear up the league.

Cool Aid drinker here.  I'm as always at this time of year, really excited to see what the team will bring.  What did we lose?  A lot of size but not a great deal of anything other than shot blocking (no small contribution).  We are replacing  a big, slow forward (Bobby Capobianco) with a smaller, much quicker and more versatile forward in E. Victor.  How good is he?  That is question #1.  Losing the strong, slashing, scorer that was LaVonte, is probably the bigger question.  Who will put the team on their back like he did?  It has to come from someone other than just Alec or they will throw whomever is necessary to stop him. 

It will be fun--hopefully!   

[Chairback]

Keith Carter's performance is the key to the season.  With Lexus out, Keith has to come up big. 

Alec needs a supporting cast that can score.

[Kyle321n]

If we're looking at a Dougie McBuckets-esque player I really hope he takes the Frosh to Soph jump Doug did.

If Alec makes the jump here's what we're in store for. I think you'll like what I've found.

32.5 MPG
20.7 PPG
58.5% FG%
82.1% FT%
44.0% 3P%
2.0 3PM/G, 3.3 FTM/G
5.9 RPG
1.3 ORPG
1.3 APG
1.9 Fouls/G
4 Blocks (not per game total)
26 Steals

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Please elucidate.  Are you:

--simply enumerating McDermott's sophomore statistics or
--extrapolating from Peters' freshman statistics an identical % improvement as between McDermott's first two years or
--something else?

[Kyle321n]

Dougie played 39 games his frosh year and 35 his soph year.  I took the per game stats for counting numbers and took the improvement and added it to Alec's stats.  For example I took DougieSoph's 307 FGM and divided by the 35 games he played, then I subtracted DougieFresh's 220 FGM by his 39 games. It led to an improvement of 106.4 so I added that to Alec's 154 frosh FGM and got 260 FGM for Alec.

[covufan]

If we're looking at a Dougie McBuckets-esque player I really hope he takes the Frosh to Soph jump Doug did.

If Alec makes the jump here's what we're in store for. I think you'll like what I've found.

58.5% FG%

While I would love to see this, I don't see how this could happen.  Unless someone is taking all of their shots within 8 feet of the rim, you won't see 58.5% for a FG%.  Even if Alec were to increase his 3PT%, he'd have to hit about 72% from inside the arc to get the 58.5%.

Only Vashil, Jubril and Chadwick have a shot to get near 58.5% for FG%.

[Kyle321n]

McBuckets through his college career: 52.5% - 60.1% - 54.8% - 52.6% and 40.5% - 48.6% - 49.0% - 44.9%
(remember his senior year was against a tougher brand of opponent)

If Alec improves ala Doug he'd shoot 66% from the inside the arc and 44% from outside. He shot 58% from inside the arc last year, 12 more made shots and he's at that 66%.

[vu72]

Just for jun, do you know what Rowdy's numbers were, say, his junior and senior years?  Obviously, he didn't get to play much as a freshman.

The other Crusader playing a similar role/position would be Dan Oppland

[valpopal]

If Peters averages 20 points per game, he would surpass Bryce, who averaged 19.9 in his best year. Also, if Alec shot 66% inside the arc, he would do better than Kevin Van Wijk, whose best was 63%. I think that is asking way too much, especially from a sophomore.

On a related note, the improvement I'd like to see this year would be in Vashil's free throw shooting percent. Kevin improved from 65% in his junior year to 75% in his senior year. Vashil shot only 47% last year (less than 40% in conference play). If he could shoot just 65%, that would be a huge help given how many times he will likely be fouled in the upcoming season.

[Kyle321n]

Rowdy was 40.9% - 48.8% - 49.1% - 44.8% and 36.4% - 44.8% - 39.1% - 41.7%

He was more of a long distance shooter as 56% of his shots over his career were threes. Alec last year was 47% threes. Alec took 165 shots from inside the arc while Rowdy never took more than 159. They don't play as similar a game.

Oppland seems like a reasonable comparison. 50.9% - 54.6% - 52.0% - 50.8% from the field. Now his 3P shooting didn't come into fruition until his junior year He took 78 and 99 his last 2 seasons and only 14 total in the previous seasons. He also didn't start until his Sophomore year.

I don't think we've seen a player like Peters at Valpo. McDermott seems to be the most apt comparison I've seen in a while. There is one player in history who hit a similar amount of threes his freshman year and shot 45.9% from behind the arc. But that guy came to campus 20 years ago and was only 6'2".

[LaPorteAveApostle]

Is the FG% "FG%" or "2-pt FG%"?  Important distinction; the latter more plausible.

[Kyle321n]

In the "Doug-jump" is overall FG%. I realize McDermott was a lottery pick and comparing him to Alec is a stretch, but looking at their freshman numbers it's not completely unbelievable to think he could turn into a similar player. This isn't Michael Jordan we're coming him with.

[a3uge]

Why are we talking about Doug McDermott?

[valpotx]

While we are shooting for the moon, why not hope that Vashil makes a Dan Oppland-like jump in FT%?  I believe that he was around 45% in his first few years, and through a ton of practice, upped it into the 70s.  Any time we were running in the gym, that guy was living at the FT line.  Similar to Kenny Harris, who even though he didn't look like it, worked his @$$ off each morning in the gym.