An end of regular season update:
Blake Barkley has been an every-game starter for the 1st-place ETSU team that starts SoCon tourney play on Saturday. On the season, he's averaging 14.3 points, 5.9 rebounds, 1.3 assists, 1.7 turnovers, 0.8 steals and 0.2 blocks per game. His eFG% is 60.5%, shooting 61.5%/36.8%/84.8% from 2/3/FT respectively. In conference play, he's averaging 16.1 points, 6.8 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 1.7 turnovers, 0.9 steals and 0.2 blocks per game, with an eFG% of 60.1%, shooting 61.4%/34.8%/85.6%. Definitely seems like he's found his level of play, will be interested to see if he stays next year or seeks to move higher.
Casey Simmons has been an every-game starter for the 1st-place Yale team that has the Ivy league tourney starting Sat March 14th. On the season, he's averaging 10.3 points, 4.1 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 0.7 turnovers, 0.7 steals and 0.6 blocks per game. His eFG% is 58.7%, shooting 58.3%/40.0%/69.6%. In conference play, he's averaging 11.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.1 assists, 0.6 turnovers, 0.8 steals and 0.9 blocks per game, with an eFG% of 67.7%(!), shooting 64.1%/55.6%(!!)/68.0%. Wild how bad he is at FT shooting given the 3-point numbers. If Yale can survive having to play a road game as the top seed and make it to the tourney, expect to see Simmons quite a bit.
Hunger, we've been over many times now. Came back to earth in their last game, a 2-point home loss to Dayton, scoring just 6 points on 1-4 shooting, with 6 boards, 2 assists, 5 turnovers and 3 fouls in 24 minutes. The last two games they've tried playing a double-big lineup with Hunger playing alongside the guy he'd replaced, Castro - +9 against LaSalle, -5 against Dayton. On the season, he's averaging 8.7 points, 4.8 rebounds, 1.0 assists, 1.4 turnovers, 0.2 steals and 0.1 blocks per game. His eFG% is 55.1%, shooting 56.1%/34.3%/81.4%. In conference play, he's averaging 10.4 points, 4.9 rebounds, 0.9 assists, 1.6 turnovers, 0.2 steals and 0.1 blocks per game, with an eFG% of 61.3%, shooting 61.3%/40.7%/85.4%. Since he became a starter, he's averaging 17.1 points, 8.1 rebounds, 1.5 assists, 2.6 turnovers, 0.5 steals and 0.2 blocks per game, with an eFG% of 64.4%, shooting 63.3%/45.0%/89.5%. GW is likely going to end up an 8 or 9 seed in the A10 tournament, which means playing St. Louis, so we are not likely to see much more of Hunger this season.
Parker Strauss never played this season, as he inherited a new coach who I guess didn't rate him highly. Still listed on the team roster though...odd.
And lastly, our old friend Rowan Brumbaugh, somehow listed as only a junior, has been the best player on a terrible Tulane team that will need to win 5 games in 5 days to make the NCAA tourney. Averaging 18.0 points, 4.9 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 2.4 turnovers, and 1.6 steals per game, with an eFG% of 50.0% on 50.0%/33.3%/78.8%. In conference play, 17.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.4 turnovers and 1.3 steals per game, with an eFG% of 50.8% on 53.9%/31.0%/75.9%.
