Warren Jones dismissed from the team

[tornado]

Just a statistical thought...that certainly assuages any worries I have about the loss of our "leading scorer"...
here are some numbers from last year's official stats...and from prior years
...and I think it shows that even though Jones was our top scorer in pts per game - he was BY NO MEANS A VERY EFFICIENT SCORER...
..and had he given up those shots for other to take more, then we'd have really been no worse off.

But if you look back just a couple years to the efficiency of those players before the Geno Ford era...
it shows you that clearly finding recruits/players who can score better can't be that hard - but Geno sure had trouble accomplishing it.
If we can simply get players like those in the 2005-2011 span who could shoot, make baskets, score, pass, be unselfish, etc - that's what the game is about & fans will appreciate!


Points scored per shot taken...(all from 2014-15)
Warren Jones 249/212 = 1.17
Auston Barnes 304/253 = 1.20
Omari Grier 237/196 = 1.21
Josh Cunningham 260/221 = 1.18
Ka'Darryl Bell 189/169 = 1.12
Other 4 with most starts 1025/903 = 1.14
Entire team 2014-15 1882/1700 = 1.11

but go back a couple seasons...
Entire team 2010-11 2076/1751 = 1.19
Entire team 2009-10 2091/1641 = 1.27
Entire team 2008-09 2415/1833 = 1.32 !!
Entire team 2007-08 2805/2132 = 1.32 !!
Entire team 2006-07 2616/2011 = 1.30
Entire team 2005-06 2359/1933 = 1.22
..during that stretch - virtually everyone on the entire team were more efficient and scored more per possession and per shot taken.
Some individuals like Theron Wilson (1.52), Sam Maniscalco (1.51), Zach Andrews (1.61), Andrew Warren (1.42), POB (1.40), Daniel Ruffin (1.32), Jeremy Crouch (1.31), Will Franklin (1.34), plus Egolf, Dyricus, Chris Roberts, Matt Salley, Cellus, just about everyone.....
ALL had far better scoring efficiency and would be a MORE welcome candidate to take more shots than a player who scored so few points per possession and added very little else on defense.

addendum - then for interest ...
Doug McDermott the last year he was in the MVC 834/518 = 1.61 - this is the guy I want taking MORE shots, not the guy who charts only 1.17 pts/shot

[basketball nut]

That hurts. He was the only returning player that could actually shoot.

This could end up being a blessing in disguise. He may have been the best returning shooter but then we may have younger players that shoot just as well, or even better, and get the experience w/ more playing time that they would have, possibly, missed if WJ was on the team.
I have no idea how this team will shape up but we know the freshman and DT are going to be the future so lets get started now not next year.

[tornado]

Trivia -
Everyone remembers the game Warren Jones scored 33 points...gotta give him credit, it was a really nice game and we all wish he'd have done it often,
but those kinds of outstanding games from WJ were exceedingly few & far between as detailed below...


How many points did he score in the subsequent TEN games combined? - Answer = 7 pts

How many points did he score in the subsequent TWENTY games combined? - Answer = 60 pts

and how many subsequent games did it take for Jones to score 33 more points? - Answer = 14

Consistency and staying on the court were not the strong suits

[Tommy]

I hope you guys are right. We're such a young team, that I am not really worried about winning at this point, so maybe it will be good to get them more experience for the future.

As for Jones not being a great scorer, those are some interesting stats. I will say that he appeared to be pretty streaky and when he got hot, he could drain them pretty consistently. What I think hurt him was that every time he got hot, Geno would pull him out of the game. But that is something he did consistently with all the players that never made sense to me. Just one of the odd things Geno did on a regular basis that I really didn't understand.

[Chico]

I hope you guys are right. We're such a young team, that I am not really worried about winning at this point, so maybe it will be good to get them more experience for the future.

As for Jones not being a great scorer, those are some interesting stats. I will say that he appeared to be pretty streaky and when he got hot, he could drain them pretty consistently. What I think hurt him was that every time he got hot, Geno would pull him out of the game. But that is something he did consistently with all the players that never made sense to me. Just one of the odd things Geno did on a regular basis that I really didn't understand.

He's not the only BU coach to pull out a hot player on a regular basis. A couple others were good at that. Unfortunately Geno didn't have many shooters to pull.

[tornado]

He's not the only BU coach to pull out a hot player ....

it wasn't so much getting pulled out as not playing well consistently, being injured, then getting suspended...

[Chico]

it wasn't so much getting pulled out as not playing well consistently, being injured, then getting suspended...

I know that, but Tommy said when a player got hot, that means scoring, Geno would pull him out. Geno wasn't the first coach to do that.

[basketball nut]

I know that, but Tommy said when a player got hot, that means scoring, Geno would pull him out. Geno wasn't the first coach to do that.

That seems to be the norm anymore among many coaches as they never let a player in the game more the 5-7 minute stretches. The problem w/ Geno was that sometimes he pulled a hot player and let another player stay in the game that wasn't doing anything.

[lefty]

Coaches pull players for a variety of reasons of course. Most of us fans look at offensive production but if a player misses a couple of defensive assignments and gives up points it negates what he scores??¦??¦??¦.Seemed to me when Jones made a few shots his shot selection kept getting worse ??¦...

[tornado]

good perspective, lefty...yet all sorts of opinions still make the message boards interesting...

I know you have coached kids and thus undoubtedly have faced questions from fans/parents/etc on why you did what you did....
it's an inevitable part of the game -- and of being a coach...
I try not to microanalyze a coach's every move - but....
If these's a place where such microanalyzing is fair game - it's when coaches make seemingly inexplicable moves that repeatedly turn a lead into a 20 point deficit..

No matter what line of work or activity a person is in, there will always be critics - but there's likely more uninformed critics on message boards than anywhere else - probably because it's the only place they can go and post their opinions and still feel right at home and be applauded for it...
such is the world of the message board.

[basketball nut]

Coaches pull players for a variety of reasons of course. Most of us fans look at offensive production but if a player misses a couple of defensive assignments and gives up points it negates what he scores??¦??¦??¦.Seemed to me when Jones made a few shots his shot selection kept getting worse ??¦...

Fully agree and to the avg fan all we ever want to look at is offensive production.

[Chico]

Fully agree and to the avg fan all we ever want to look at is offensive production.

And in the days I was talking about it was point spreads.

[AZ BU Fan]

Sad kids still throw away opportunities to improve themselves and set themselves up for later in life. Hopefully Jones will learn from this and not spiral out of control.

Wardle did the best possible thing he could do for all his new, young, players:

Let them know that NO ONE is above the team rules or the team/university expectations for their behavior on/off the court.

If any of these players had any doubts about this, these should be gone now.

Can't allow a player to stay on that breaks rules/student athlete expectations, no matter how much his playing skills are needed for one more year.

One more plus for Coach Wardle!

[Da Coach]

Agree. And John Groce just did a similar thing by dismissing Darius Paul.
Hopefully, Jones can find a suitable D2 school to land at and get his degree and play his final year of eligibility. He is a really nice and polite young man from a good family, who has shown immaturity and poor decision-making.

[Chico]

Agree. And John Groce just did a similar thing by dismissing Darius Paul.
Hopefully, Jones can find a suitable D2 school to land at and get his degree and play his final year of eligibility. He is a really nice and polite young man from a good family, who has shown immaturity and poor decision-making.

Bet he was so polite he even called the bouncer checking his ID at Big Al's sir.