Our 2018 Class vs. Hall & CJ

[rude1]

Beard was 36% on treys in SEC play when Hall became playable, and Hall was limited to taking wide open shots.  Beard sometimes had to take shots at the end of the shot clock.  Beard only took a shot every 3.7 minutes, which was a distant fifth to the Big Three and CJ Jones.  Hall shot the ball almost as often at 4.1 minutes per shot.  Beard also got an assist every 10.0 minutes, as opposed to 32.4 to Hall.  Likewise, Beard had a TO every 23.4 minutes to 13.3  for Hall.  It's not obvious to the casual observer how big a difference that drop in ballhandling makes to the offense when the goal of the offense was to get Barford, Macon, and Gafford shots.  Hall scored at only a slightly higher rate than Beard, 2.9 to 3.2 minutes per point.  Hall was not a scorer and a big drag in ballhandling.

Not following you here, so Hall taking wide open shots was bad while Beard throwing up missed contested shots was good? I don't like the per minute comparisons when one player is getting sustained minutes vs a player who minutes are sporadic. The extended minute player has time to get into the flow while the other player many times feels rushed to make something happen or he fears being pulled out. Player A playing 10 minutes straight is much different than Player B who will play 5 minute stretches. Bottom line is Hall was a better shooter, defender, rebounder and just a better player than Beard and it wan't even close.

[Pig in the Pokey]

I was surprised to find that Hall's 2017 rating (of .8616) is lower than anyone we signed in our 2018 class.  In our 2018 class, Desi Sill is our lowest ranked recruit coming in at .8830 -- with everyone else being .9087 or better.  With all the hype around Hall lately, I was also surprised to see he was rated only a hair higher than Gabe (with .8600). 

I wasn't so surprised to find that CJ's 2016 rating was the lowest of that class (at .8328) and even lower than Hall's rating.  For reference Brachen Hazen had a rating of .8519.

All numbers are according to 247.  With all that said, I am not claiming Hall, if were fully on board with our team, wouldn't be missed next season.  The problem is he gave up on our team -- with some reports claiming it started as early last December.  Sad to see an Arkansas kid so enamored with himself that he cannot see the forest for the trees.

I said all along he was a 6th man at best next year- and a defense/energy sub at that. I do LOVE he aggression and defense- it will be missed. His dunks were a thing of beauty, too. That said, he was probably the 7th or 8th most talented guy. Garland or Joe, Henderson, Chaney, Gafford, and harris/embery are the starters imo.