But again you guys are pointing out specific instances. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. It’s just we’ve seen chandler play now for two seasons.
you cannot go into a season expecting a guy transform. You go into the year expecting what that guy has done up to that point. If he happens to transform that’s great.
truth is some get better. Some get worse. And the majority hover around what they always did. I mean just look at the current UK team. Guys that played for multiple years. Who took a major step forward on this team? It was pretty much guys doing what they normally did
You are right, that cherry picking single examples does not tell the whole story.
However, you are wrong, that many/most guys do not improve/develop.
I know PPG is only 1 stat, but hey I'm not paid to do this, well technically I am but not by this website. Also this doesn't take into account injuries, the loss or addition of other (better) players, etc...
Below are the PPG scoring averages for any UK player this century who play 3 or 4 seasons at UK (not including walk-ons) shown as FR-Soph-Jr-Sr (T = Transfer in or out; P=went pro; S = Sit out)
Let's remove the obvious 4-year end-of-bench players (denoted with a *). Then the average PPG by Class is: (38)
FR-4.0
Soph-5.6
JR-8.1
SR- 7.9 (negatively biased by several going Pro after JR year)
So you see a 40% increase in scoring from FR year to Soph year;
and a 45% increase from Soph year to JR year.
I'm not saying he plays like these guys, or is quite as good, or isn't a little better, but the ones most similar in playing level would include Fitch, C.Hawkins, Daniels, Estill, Hayes, Azubuike, Bradley, Crawford, Miller, Liggins, Poythress, Lee, D.Hawkins, Willis, Toppin
Those guys their SOPH year averaged: 7.8, 7.1, 3.5, 7.3, 8.6, 11.1, 7.6, 10.1, 6.5, 2.9, 5.9, 2.6, 0.8, 0.7, 5.0
How many of those guys would you not have wanted their JR & SR years? And you can make a good argument that Chandler as a Soph out-played every one of them as a Soph.
T-5.0-6.0-12.4
1.6-1.4-1.8-T
4.5-10.3-10.8-T (>50% more the T year)
5.1-4.0-14.0-P
0.6-0.8-2.1-4.7
1.6-2.6-6.4-T
0.4-0.7-7.7-7.0
11.2-5.9-5.5-10.0
8.3-6.8-8.9-P
0.2-0.0-3.1-0.8
T-3.4-0.7-7.6
0.5-0.6-1.2-0.4
3.9-2.9-8.6-P
5.3-6.5-10.9-9.9
16.4-17.9-14.3-P
0.4-4.2-5.5-1.8
2.8-5.9-7.8-1.2
1.3-1.6-4.1-T
8.7-8.8-23.7-P
2.9-10.1-14.1-17.9
4.6-7.6-13.4-15.9
8.8-13.4-16.0-P
1.1-1.0-1.7-1.9
0.4-2.4-1.2-T
0.8-3.3-7.2-8.4
1.2-1.4-4.3-2.4
0.3-1.3-3.7-5.7
0.9-0.8-0.3-1.5
3.2-11.2-14.7-P
0.5-1.1-0.9-0.7
5.9-8.6-10.7-10.9
3.0-7.1-6.3-10.3
5.2-3.5-9.5-14.5
6.8-7.8-12.3-16.2
S-7.3-8.9-11.6
4.4-7.2-6.1-6.4
12.7-17.0-11.6-15.7
5.8-13.3-16.9-17.5