1 MVC game Monday, Dec. 11

[tornado]

Strus is the one player on DePaul who is a threat to score from any & every spot on the floor - and with decent ballhandling skills & 6-6
he is very tough for the opponents to defend - so he singlehandedly strains the defensive capabilities of the opponent.
I know DePaul won't scare anyone in the post-season but that's because they really only have 3-4 real upper D-I players so opponents
don't really have to guard everyone on DePaul. But you know there were people saying Strus was not a D-I player - and I think
he is actually in the discussion for Big East 1st Team - and would have been an All American had he gone to a Valley school.

[tornado]

Yeah, Strus turned into a decent D1 player, though he does get his points from the sheer volume of shots he takes ...

Strus went for 30 pts again tonight and hit 8-15 from 3-pt range
I'd say if he's hitting like that maybe he ought to put up sheer volumes

[Da Coach]

He has one good game and you pull out a long-dead thread to toot Max Strus' horn again.
As I said, he is a decent player, and would have been a star and a POY type player at a midmajor and would probably have played in a couple NCAA Tournaments. But he does get his points from sheer volume of shots. Here are the facts... he takes more shots than anyone in the Big East, except for the 2 top scorers in the league who average way more points per game than he does (4-6 more ppg!). He has the worst FG% of any of the top 8 scorers in the league. And nobody in the Big East attempts more 3-pointers than Strus, yet his 36.8% 3-pt FG% is not anywhere in the top 20 among qualified players in 3-point FG%. To me, that is the definition of a gunner.
And yet it still doesn't help DePaul win much. They are now one game out of last place in the Big East, still have fewer wins than any Big East team, and still have the worst RPI & NET of any team in the league.

[egib52]

He has one good game and you pull out a long-dead thread to toot Max Strus' horn again.
As I said, he is a decent player, and would have been a star and a POY type player at a midmajor and would probably have played in a couple NCAA Tournaments. But he does get his points from sheer volume of shots. Here are the facts... he takes more shots than anyone in the Big East, except for the 2 top scorers in the league who average way more points per game than he does (4-6 more ppg!). He has the worst FG% of any of the top 8 scorers in the league. And nobody in the Big East attempts more 3-pointers than Strus, yet his 36.8% 3-pt FG% is not anywhere in the top 20 among qualified players in 3-point FG%. To me, that is the definition of a gunner.
And yet it still doesn't help DePaul win much. They are now one game out of last place in the Big East, still have fewer wins than any Big East team, and still have the worst RPI & NET of any team in the league.

I was listening to 670 the other day and Laurence Holmes (DePaul grad and at one time color guy for their games) proclaimed that with DePaul's win yesterday (he said if they won one of their last two) they were guaranteed to be in a postseason tournament. In fact he specifically said they should be in the NIT if not the NCAA. I can not believe one of the last place teams in the Big East with maybe a .500 record overall and under .500 record in the Big East gets into the NCAA.

FWIW he also said he believes that Loyola, ISU or SIU will likely win the Valley. However, he doesn't think that this year's Loyola team can make the Final Four. As if before last tournament he felt that they could.

[tornado]

you are right - by all logic they probably can't but they overcame the improbability last year as have many MVC teams in post-season play over the past couple decades.

as for Max Strus - it appears there are a whole lot more people who agree he is a very fine DI player than disagree...

He was just named the BIG EAST PLAYER OF THE WEEK again...the THIRD time this season - more than any other player
https://247sports.com/college/depaul...ime-129713822/
He probably won't win the BIG EAST PLAYER OF THE YEAR because most of the voters are east coast people but he will surely get votes - and likely be on the 1stTeam All Conference. Not bad for a minimally recruited DII kid who some said (and strangely - apparently continue to insist) couldn't play at the DI level.

and he was just named the CBSSports NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK - https://247sports.com/college/depaul...ek--129747071/
...that's not just regional or conference - that is the BEST PLAYER in the entire nation - but all those people could be wrong and he's really fooling them by just jacking up lots of terrible shots He broke scoring records and put up the 5th HIGHEST scoring game in Big East History! Not a trivial accomplishment.

...and note that ALL of those accolades were BEFORE he put up 30 points and carried his team over Georgetown. He could well win yet another Big East Player of the Week next week!

[Da Coach]

Nothing I posted was incorrect, and nowhere did I say he's "just jacking up lots of terrible shots" or that he isn't a decent player. For people who just look at the final point count, on paper he looks like a great scorer, but he gets a lot of points because he shoots a lot of shots, not because he's a great shooter. His shooting percentage is average at best. He is not in the top 20 qualified players in the Big East in 3-point percentage, yet nobody in the league shoots more 3-pointers than he does. He's taken 42 shots, including 25 three pointers, in their last 2 games. By comparison, Bradley's most prolific shooter, Darrell Brown who shoots 46.2% from three, almost 10 percentage points better than Strus, averages less than 12 shots per game, and only 5 three point attempts. Strus is also not a good defensive player, and contributes to DePaul's ranking next to last in the Big East in points allowed.
Like all gunners, he'll win some games for you, and he'll help lose some too.

[tornado]

You know there's not a whole lot of reliable scorers on DePaul - and Strus kinda has to take over if they wanna win...
I suppose he could have narrowed his shot selection just so his shooting pct would go up..
but then they'd have likely lost even more games not less as you imply-

[Da Coach]

Or maybe they might have won more? DePaul has lost more games in Strus' career than any other team in the Big East. And they aren't devoid of talent either.
Btw, DePaul's second leading scorer, Femi Olujobi shoots 62.7% (compared to Strus' 42.4%), and 4th leading scorer Paul Reed shoots 53.6% overall. And both shoot far better from three than Strus. And DePaul has other good players who have better shooting percentage numbers than Strus, yet Struss has taken over 400 shots this season, almost twice as many shots as anyone else on the team. I've seen several DePaul games, and I believe if they shared the ball more, they would win more games.