He is not afraid to challenge the Bigs in the lane & still somehow get his shot off & not get it blocked
Francis is a baller
- Thread starter rpiseman
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He had two career stand out games in Oregon and Penn. No doubt.
But before you were focused on efficiency - now your shifting to offensive production. Two different things. Francis has been solid across the whole season either way you look at it though. If scoring points is your focus, he’s put up at least 9 points in every game so far except 3. And he actually played a decent game against Lehigh despite it being his lowest scoring output of the season. He had 4 assists and 6 rebounds in that game.
His efficiency vs OSU and Delaware State were below his season average, but so what? Often times he gets hot early and then teams focus on him. If nobody else can put the ball through the net, this continues. Of course his efficiency is going to go down in that case. Technically he was efficient vs Tenn and Michigan. Chucking up shots wasn’t the problem. He wasn’t able to get open and have the same impact in those games likely for a combination of reasons, but it’s simply not true that he was hoisting bad shots in those games and deserved to sit. Everyone was just flat out 100% wrong about him in every way relative to our options on the current roster - and looking more and more likely wrong about him in general. As I said - the kid has earned the right to prove it somewhere on a better roster next year. I personally wouldn’t mind at all if it’s at Rutgers if Pike ends up surviving.
He was a chucker at NJIT because he was on a truly awful team and literally had no choice
his next test as a player will come soon as big ten teams start to game plan specifically for him
for now he’s proven he’s a capable hand in the big ten… if he can adapt to teams scouting him he will take that next step
Congrats to the team and coach on a nice win. That ref should be suspended or fined and im sure she(?) Is grateful we won in the end thus reducing the potential damage (osu 2.0)
I'm grateful I cannot be quoted saying a bad thing about this kid as I've seen enough of players like him in the tournament from schools like Hofstra, Monmouth, etc.
Win or lose at least they are exciting to watch.
I'm grateful I cannot be quoted saying a bad thing about this kid as I've seen enough of players like him in the tournament from schools like Hofstra, Monmouth, etc.
Win or lose at least they are exciting to watch.
With a team without any scorers, you can bet that Oregon game planned to stop Francis but were unsuccessful. Who else would Oregon have game planned to stop on this team?
It seems like most teams start out playing us straight up. When Francis has gotten hot they’ve adjusted and dared others to shoot. Unfortunately in some games, nobody else has been able to execute. The difference was we got some offense from other guards. If other guys can contribute it really opens things up for Tariq. He’s difficult to defend in single coverage because he’s comfortable penetrating in either direction and can score the ball in a variety of ways. His close in midrange jumper is so efficient that defenders have to watch for it which sometimes opens up that finger roll lay up. Another thing unique about his approach to the midrange game is even when he seems to be forced into a contested shot he has a way about him of initiating contact and getting to the foul line.
He's also developed a bit and is playing differently. He's actually cut back on the % of three's he was forcing, but kept the same efficiency from deep. He's getting to the line at twice the rate he was at the lower level. Because he doesn't have to handle the ball, his turnover rate has dropped 50%. He's still not average defensively (drating same as it was last year), but we have many poor defenders so its tough to totally judge.
He’s “okay” on D. The bar is obviously low, but he’s a modest upgrade over most of the perimeter defenders that left us (Acuff, Jordan, PJ) and not, in my opinion, a significant downgrade from J Will despite his height disadvantage. Dylan Harper was often exhausted on D and thus not necessarily all that more effective as a defender either. francis does lead the team in both actual steals and on a per minute basis, so that’s something. He’s surpassed the expectations of him on D coming into the season in the least.
In many ways, Dylan Grant has been the guy who can do no wrong from a fan perspective (certainly compared to Francis as his production has dropped even more than Francis’ against better opponents but nobody seems to notice that) but whether it’s him, Buchanan, Badalau or a guard like Zrno sliding to the 3/4 slot, none of them are good help defenders except Dortch, but he’s not supposed to be helping because we mostly use him at the 5 and then that often leaves the rim completely unprotected when he comes out. In my opinion, our guards are pesky enough. Pike plays a style that gives up more 3s than we’d like but it would be more effective if we had more reliable rebounding and help defense to lock down other sources of scoring better. Simply put - Francis and Davis would both have better defensive numbers in terms of scores against if we had a few guys who offered a fraction of what kids like Caleb and Mag brought. We don’t - and that’s a major hole in the D that Ogbole is somewhat being scapegoated for. It’s not only the 5 spot that’s weak in the post.
Not sure I'd say he's an upgrade, but his quickness helps him a little bit. Steals don't usually come off the man you are guarding usually, and I think that's a stat you have to look at per possession, or per 100 possession as per minute can be affected by pace. Davis and Williams averaged more per 100 possessions last year than Tariq does this. Dortch and Mark, and even Powers average more this year.
Grant is, and has always been pretty awful on D. Think he's very over rated by many, but he'll continue to improve as he matures.
I agree, in combo, the D we've seen from Davis, Tariq, and Mark has been passable. Dortch and Ogbole are our two best defenders, funny enough in very different ways.
Upgrade probably wasn’t the right word. There were different types of problems last year. Pike couldn’t command constant defensive hustle out of certain kids and that created challenges we don’t have this year unrelated to talent. Francis doesn’t stand out as hurting us on D was what I was trying to say. I think coming into the season Pike may have been worried that he would. I agree with you. Dylan Grant hurts us more on that end than any of the guards. And Badalau when he was playing big minutes. The big difference between the halfcourt D now and what it was back when it was elite (2023-24) was the frontcourt. Ogbole isn’t awful at D but hes obviously not as good as Cliff was either. The perimeter D isn’t all that worse than it was then.
Agree with most all of this. It's really the help D aspect that is the big difference. EO gets caught between whether to help or stay. Other guys just have no idea how to help. Caleb and Mag really held some of those teams together. EO averages as many blocks as sophmore Cliff and more rebounds per 100 possessions for Cliffs soph and junior years. Cliff was advanced help wise.