Eleby

[coach]

You need point guards to win in college basketball. Your only as good as your point guard is. Which is why we are not good or going to be good unless we get one in here. Eleby, was highly regarded, coming out of philly-i thought we stole another one, but... They say he is a gym rat and works extremely hard, but what is he working on. His game is no better than when he came in and he is not the answer. Time to get the best possible pg still available for next year, or we are in trouble

[njbona02]

I agree whole heartedly. He just doesn't look like he knows whats going on.

[magnusbu]

You can honestly say that you think that Eleby is not any better this year compared to last year? He was not that highly regarded coming out of philly unless you are considering the optimistic bandwagon posters as your main source. Your right though, he is not the answer to our PG problem this season, but who is then?

I think he is better and the stats back it up. No he is not a very good PG. I'm not saying that, but I do think he is getting better. Problem is that most of us are used to seeing pg's like Green, Winn, McNeil. when Eleby is more like a Ahmad Smith type player. Smith was brought in as a PG, but as he developed he turned into an off guard. The main difference between Smith and Eleby is shooting. Smith could hit the occasional shot and knew how to score, which Eleby stinks at.

FG % is up this year even though it still stinks
Asst/TO Ratio is up and is over 1 which is not great but definitly better than .8 from last year
Rebounds per game - UP
Pts/Gm - UP
FT% - Down
Min/Gm - UP

If he can improve on these number next year and the following year then I think you will see a decent player. Notice I said decent and not great or excellent. Also, get some players around him that can score or create their own scoring chance and you'll see a different player.

[LumsdnA10Academc98]

Watching St. Joe's give him all the time in the world on multiple jump shots last night, I felt bad for Eleby. Joe's didn't even entertain the thought of sending a body out on him and instead just worried about getting the rebound. Eleby got his own rebound on one, thought about pulling a 15-footer, but lacked the confidence to even hit the open mid-range jumper, which is sad.

Like coach asked, what was he working on all summer? Eleby is the exact same player today as he was as an incoming freshman. You guys can whine until the cows come home about Blackburn, but the fact of the matter is that he's shown a propensity to score, defend and get to the free throw line, attributes few on this team have flashed, especially the free throws and defense. That's the reason he continues to play over Eleby, who's shown virtually no upside a year and a half into his career.

[coach]

Did Schmidt think that Leonard was going to provide the scoring for us? Because the rest of these guys don't know how to put the ball thru the hoop.

[magnusbu]

I'll admit I haven't seen much upside in Eleby yet, but you have to admit that he has gotten better even if its just a little bit. Was he a top 10 PG out of HS? No Was he a top 50 PG out of HS? No. That alone tells me that this is the type of player that is going to need at least 2 years to develop his game.
Not everyone out of HS turns out to be a good player in one year. Especially PG's

[magnusbu]

Here's an example: Gerald Colds a 2 star recruit - Was on our radar also, similarly ranked as a PG as Eleby, Signed with Drexel. So, hows he doing so far. Pts/Gm are 4 more than Eleby, Asst/TO are lower than Elebe, FG% is worse than Eleby's, Boards per is worse than Eleby, FT% is worse than Eleby, and fewer Steals by Colds.

Deonte Roberts from Wisconsin-Milwaukee A 3 star PG, Pts/Gm same, A/To ratio is lower at .8 per game, FG% is higher, Rebounds/GM are lower, fewer steals.

Both these guys have better numbers as a soph compared to their Fr. seasons but not that much better just like Eleby. You can pick more similar players for more examples but I think your going to find the same results.


Now here comes the big kicker, if you go to 2 star PG's from the class of 2006, you'll have a hard time finding out how they are doing as Jr's this season. Why? Because they usually don't pan out and end up transfering somewhere else just like Carson did. Question is can we convince Eleby to stay and hope his improvements start to show some dividends or do we start all over with another 2 star PG and a JUCO PG and hope we find a rare diamond in the rough.

I don't know what to think anymore, except I hope he speeds up his progression quite a bit before next season.

[bigdobber]

Eleby was not a Schmidt recruit so I think it's unfair to say that Schmidt could have done better. As a player his numbers are better than a year ago and will probably be better next year. I think by his senior year he could be averaging 10 a game. He has no jump shot but seems to find other ways to be productive. I expect we will come up with better guards over the next few years but Malcolm will continue to see plenty of playing time. I think people on this board need to stop being so negative. The kids are playing hard, the staff is working hard and we are seeing progress with our record. It also looks like attendance at the RC is up in a lousy economy. If you ever go on channel surfing, swing around to some of the other A10 games and you see alot of empty seats. Duquesne, Fordham, Lasalle, GW all draw flies. I think the program has made a nice turnaround and am willing to show patience. When you start reading about Nicholson in a few years being an All American candidate don't all jump on the bandwagon at once. And after Schmidt starts to log 20 game win seasons and starts to be mentioned as a hot coach alot of you will be expecting him to be loyal to the Bonnies. We have a guy in the middle who could play for any team in the country and he is bigger than 6"7". In college that translates into wins. This year and next are the transition years. When Andrew is a Junior and Senior I am expecting big things. Schmidt will build his program around this guy.

[triple302]

We can't give up on Eleby. I know I really want him to succeed. Why wouldn't you? Other than the fact that he plays for the Bonnies. By all reports he is a gym rat and he is one of the only guys that busts it hard on every play on both sides of the ball. Granted he doesn't always get the best results, but from what I have seen, no one plays harder and you can't sit a guy like that. He needs a breakout offensive game more than anyone right now.