Monday, December 29, 2008

Side by Side -- Monroe & Samuels

As the OOC is winding down, and in the pause before the Big East regular season kicks off, I wanted to look at some the of the preseason "All" selections to see how they were doing. In prior seasons the ROY selections in particular have not lived up to expectations (at least not immediately -- see Paul Harris up in Syracuse, he is really doing well this season...). Like last season, two freshmen were tabbed to share the honor. By this time last season it looked as if Jonny Flynn would live up to the hype, but Donte Greene was not having the Melo-level season everyone had foreseen. This season's co-honorees, Greg Monroe of Georgetown and Samardo Samuels of Louisville appear well on their way to impact seasons. A possessions-based comparison...


ORtg%Poss%ShotseFG%OR%DR%FTRateARateTORate%Blks%Stls
Samuels111.525.422.154.812.412.370.27.517.75.31.8
Monroe122.921.819.657.68.813.7100.014.114.96.93.7
[Note -- Samuels' stats from Pomeroy's Louisville Scouting Report, while Monroe's stats are from Hoya Prospectus Blog. Thanks to both]

While it appears as if Monroe has won the efficiency battle, I would argue that Samuels has played a much larger (and more important) role for the Cardinals. Sam-Sam has assumed a "star-level" role in Louisville's offense, as his 25.4 possession and 22.1 shot rates suggest. While defensive rebounding is pretty much a wash, Samuel's 12.4 offensive rebounding rate is good for a #152 ranking. Monroe on the other hand gets to the line for each FGA he takes. That's #1 in D1 ball, and very impressive. I doubt that the voters who award the honors at season's end will be as amenable to splitting the award as the preseason voters. But going into the Big East season it looks like they are (still) dead even.

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