Some Perspective on Paulus

[Duke76]

painfully true.

[devildownunder]

unfortunately i agree with you that k is going to be loyal to paulus and start him the next 2 years. the million dollar question is whether that spells doom for the team. i hope that i am wrong but i really cannot see a team making a championship run with a pg who cannot take his man off the dribble and how gets taken off the dribble repeatedly on defense. as the better teams continue advancing in the tournament, look and see if any are at such a disadvantage. i really don't buy the argument that some have posted on here that the 4 other guys can compensate for paulus's woes and we still can make a final 4 run because i cannot recall a single team making it to the final 4 (or winning the nc) with such deficiencies at the most important position on the floor.

I'm not 100 percent convinced that gp's spot is secure just because he will be an upperclassman. I remember Ricky Price and Taymon Domzalski seeing their playing time cut substantially their senior years as more-talented, younger players took their minutes. And in perhaps a more-relevant case, Chris Duhon sent Nate James to the bench in 2001 on a team that won it all. Yes, gp will start out of the gate but if Nolan Smith is a better point guard, I think he'll be starting at that position before the year is out.

Also, I agree that we won't win it all with gp at the point but I think he can be a huge part of a championship team, for his scoring and as a secondary ballhandler. If Smith can play D and penetrate, and if we develop some lowpost scoring and if Kyle Singler is for real. I'm more confident in the first and last than the one in the middle.

[dukehick]

i also question your conclusion that he was "showing leadership." this team was about as rudderless as i ever have seen a duke team. being a leader means taking charge late in close games and doing whatever it takes to win. battier did this. laettner did this. hurley did this. even jj did this even though the results weren't as good when it matter the most.

I agree with you that this team looked rudderless at several critical moments this year. I also remember several critical moments where Paulus stepped up big time. But yes, it was an up and down season in that department as everyone predicted this after losing two all Americans and having no upperclassman (I love Nelson and McClure but both of them were really Sophs this season in terms of games played given previous injuries).

I think Battier was perhaps the best leader Duke has ever seen and I imagine most people would agree with me (including Coach K). But keep in mind, Battier didn't step into the leadership role until his Junior year. He was a Soph in '99 and was a solid player on that team but not the leader. So, holding Greg to the standard of Hurley, Laettner, JJ, or Battier when he is only a Soph trying to lead a team without any upperclassman is COMPLETELY UNFAIR. Hey, if you want to throw Paulus under the bus after next season then by all means... But I think you need to cut the kid some slack this year and give him a chance to prove you wrong next year.

[OldDukie]

Sure,we all agree that Paulus is not the fastest guard around. Most of us agree that he will be our primary point for the next two seasons. Our problem is not Greg. Please remember that in the past we have had a "stopper" in the middle. This year,not so. McRoberts is not,nor does he want to be, a center. Zoubek is another year away from being "the man." Duke plays a pressing defense. Guards and forwards will drive by you on occasion if you play tight defense.However, I would prefer playing tight defense in order to try taking the opposing team out of their rhythm and game plan. Since McRoberts is our best big man,if he leaves we will be in trouble next year. Remember,Patterson,if he comes, and Singlar will be Freshmen and it is a rare freshman that can step in and take over. Having said that,year after next is our year. Zoubek will be the man in the middle,Thomas will have beefed up,Singler will have a year under his belt,Henderson will get even better,etc.,etc. Those of you still in school,encourage McRoberts to stay. With him here,we can have a really good year next year. He needs a 10-15 foot jumper and a jump hook. Where better to get that than the best coach around?

[Troublemaker]

Our problem is not Greg.....Guards and forwards will drive by you on occasion if you play tight defense.However, I would prefer playing tight defense in order to try taking the opposing team out of their rhythm and game plan.

Greg's shortcomings are not our only problems but they are some of it (and, of course, "problems" are only relative, as there are plenty of schools that would love to have our problems...) Regarding Greg's defense, he doesn't threaten the opposing offensive player at all. Duke does play tight defense but the offshoot of that over the years has usually been turnovers forced. We simply didn't force enough turnovers this year and Greg is part of the reason why. Opposing guards with quickness and handle are not threatened by him; they know they can get by him with relative ease and he'll be too slow and short to really challenge them. I think he'll improve in this area but I don't know if the improvement can be dramatic.

[HK Dukie]

The following is the summary of the last 10 games for Paulus and the people who are generally considered the best PGs in the ACC (I included both Virginia guys). Now while I may have been too aggressive in saying Paulus was the best over that time period, he certainly is not the liability all you whiners complain he is.

Paulus 174 pts, 39 assists, 36 TOs
Reynolds 173 pts, 34 assists, 31 TOs
Singletary 190 pts, 42 assists, 28 TOs
Rice 197 pts, 40 assists, 34 TOs
Crittenton 160 pts, 62 assists, 40 TOs
Lawson 112 pts, 69 assists, 16 TOs
Vasquez 110 pts, 62assists, 31 TOs

Then look at his 3pt % vs those guys

Paulus 45
Singletary 40
Reynolds 37
Lawson 37
Crittenton 36
Vasquez 32
Rice 32

I think Paulus stacks up very well thank you (and his last 5 games were even better > 20 pts a game & < 3to's a game).

Just to give you guys a bit more comparison look at these stats:

Paulus 17.4pts, 3.9 assts, 3.6 to's
J Will 21.3pts, 5.3 assts, 3.7 to's

Yes J Will was the man. He is in my top 5 favorite Duke basketball players of time. Those are his stats from the 2001 season when Duke won the title and was Jwill's sophomore year. Yes, J Will's #s are better, but Paulus still has time, and we are comparing him to someone with his jersey hanging from the rafters in Cameron!!! Paulus is pretty darn good.

Do you really have to keep dogging our captain? Look at his stats. He is getting better. He is our leader. He is right there with the best in the ACC and he has tremendous passion and heart and didn't back down to anyone (opposing players, commentators, or spectators). And I stand by what I said, I believe he will be 1st or 2nd team all ACC next year. If you can't get behind him, then perhaps you are just a spoiled wine and cheese kind of fan.

Evidence for strong Junior season from Paulus:

#1 strong finish to sophomore season
#2 46% 3pt % and leading 3pt scorer on team
#3 another season of improvement
#4 hopefully no foot injury or early season illness to slow his development

Add it all together, and I think you have a strong case to think positive for Paulus next year. Get on the bandwagon now.

[foggybottom]

statistics aside, it was painfully obvious that one of Duke's major weaknesses this season was an inability to deal with pressure defense on the ball. The VCU game was a scenario we saw many times over the last two seasons. I love Paulus's competitiveness but he struggled to even get the ball over half court. Historically Duke has made teams who pressed pay dearly for that strategy. Teams now know the risk of the press being not only broken but attacked by Duke is low. On the other side of the ball, the same is true. Duke has a hard time stopping the ball and that responsibility starts with the PG.

As a contrast, look at the performance Acie Law had yesterday against relentless pressure vs Louisville. His ability to shred the press and double team traps and create easy bakets was a key to Texas A&M winning. That is the power of an effective PG, a luxury Duke has enjoyed historically.

[Constantstrain 81]

Lawson has some nice advantages - fast, strong, aggressive. He has other advantages - he plays 25+ minutes for a very talented, offensive-minded team that runs. They averaged well over 20 points more than Duke. They had excellent finishers. Would it surprise me to know that he averaged, essentially, 2 more assists a game than Greg Paulus? No.

To get an assist, you have to make the pass that leads to a basket. Paulus has excellent instincts in this regard. He does not, however, have excellent finishers on the team. He does not, however, have teammates who run and run and get easy baskets. Some of his turnovers come from just plain poor play. I would estimate that half of them come from his aggressively trying to create offense. He has at least one (or two) turnovers a game that come from him passing the ball to where a teammate should have been (if he understand basketball). He could have picked up another assist or two if his passes to a teammate resulted in that person actually shooting a shot instead of hesitating and kicking it back out. He would have more assists if he wasn't the team's leading scorer over the last ten games. It is hard to get the assist passing to yourself.

Breaking the press? You need teammates in the right place to do that. You also need teammates who will take advantage of breaking the press and make the other team pay. Duke used to do that routinely - this team seemed to hesitate. I usually felt more comfortable with the ball in Greg's hands than in any other.

Bobby Hurley was great. One of my favorite Duke players ever. He never had to deal with the other team focusing most of their defensive energy on him. He had other superstars who took (and made) all kinds of big shots. He had defensive pressure that lead to fast breaks and easy assists. What would Bobby have done playing with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores who were afraid to shoot? He'd probably be reading about how King Rice was so much better and about how the incoming freshmen would relegate him to the bench because they were so much better.

How would Ty Lawson done with this Duke team? Let's increase his minutes. He could push the pace - but since no one else on the team was joining him - he'd have to stop that. He could drive into the middle to the hoop. Since Duke had no one stepping up to be an offensive threat, he'd have to make some shots. He'd end up with some charges, some layups, and some blocked shots and turnovers. Why more? Because driving into the heart of a defense only really works if the defenders are more worried about who you might pass it to than they are about you. Would he have shot as well or consistently from long-range? No. His assists would be down and his turnovers would be up. He would be more fatigued. The pressure would rise. He is an excellent player - but it is more than just the physical skills (Stephon Marbury and John Stockton).

How would our maligned Paulus have done with the UNC team? His scoring would be down (the team wouldn't need it). His court vision and work on the break, in my opinion, is better than Lawson's. I think his assists would be way up. His turnovers would remain the same - more possessions and he is still aggressive. Drive and kick for a three. Assist. Pick and roll to Pyscho T. Assist. Paulus has the skills and the drive. He just needs more experienced teammates.

The last ten games the consistency and confidence of almost every player on the team waned. People seemed afraid to step up. Except for Greg Paulus. For that, he is endlessly compared to others (in an unfavorable light). There are even some who hint that his increased leadership role played a part in our lack of success. Somehow, if he had just made a better pass to Jon, that jumper would have gone in.

For heaven's sake. He just played one of the guttiest ten game stretches that a short, speed-challenged former quarterback could be expected to play against long odds and the criticism of half the fan base and most of the media. He rose to the challenge. We should celebrate his accomplishments. Instead, we're trying to retire him.

[throatybeard]

Not only is Lawson faster than greased grease, so is Ellington. I'm not sure if I've ever seen a pair of guys who can get out ahead of everybody on a break like those two. You're used to seeing fast guys all the time in sports, such that fast guys look like normal speed. But these Carolina guys right now make me

[captmojo]

Greg Paulus is not the problem. Offensive troubles for this team were nearly as bad as last year. Paulus is not JJ. The rest of the squad has to learn to move without the ball, not stand and watch and wait to see the point create a score from out of the blue. Also this team needs to hit free throws,75% or better please. They leave far too many points off the board from the line!

[OldSchool]

Constantstrain makes some good points on pace.

One of the frustrating things about watching Duke this season was that, once we got into conference play, K would have Greg stop pushing the ball quickly upcourt once we got an 8-10 point lead. Instead, he would walk it up, slowing down the pace of the game and shortening the clock.

K clearly was worried about foul trouble if we pushed the ball the whole game, and this was understandable. On the other hand, we lose the opportunity to get any quick scores while the defense is getting set and have to rely solely on our half-court offense. And the other team has more of a chance to D up on Greg. So less assists, more turnovers.

The way VaTech and MD were able to beat UNC was by pushing the ball hard on offense the whole game, not slowing it down on their own end. The most important key to playing competitively with Carolina this year was for the opposing team to get back quickly on defense after a basket and especially after a turnover. Carolina gets so many extra points in transition and occasionally by Lawson just speeding past people to the rim, often those points are the difference between winning and losing. Michigan State did a good job of this last night and if Neitzel had been hot from 3 the Heels would be starting their offseason today.

[dukie8]

[QUOTE]

The following is the summary of the last 10 games for Paulus and the people who are generally considered the best PGs in the ACC (I included both Virginia guys). Now while I may have been too aggressive in saying Paulus was the best over that time period, he certainly is not the liability all you whiners complain he is.

Paulus 174 pts, 39 assists, 36 TOs
Reynolds 173 pts, 34 assists, 31 TOs
Singletary 190 pts, 42 assists, 28 TOs
Rice 197 pts, 40 assists, 34 TOs
Crittenton 160 pts, 62 assists, 40 TOs
Lawson 112 pts, 69 assists, 16 TOs
Vasquez 110 pts, 62assists, 31 TOs

Then look at his 3pt % vs those guys

Paulus 45
Singletary 40
Reynolds 37
Lawson 37
Crittenton 36
Vasquez 32
Rice 32

I think Paulus stacks up very well thank you (and his last 5 games were even better > 20 pts a game & < 3to's a game).

i have no idea why you arbitrarily picked the last 10 games but i was just responding to your outlandish claim that he was the best pg in the acc over that time period. now that you posted the stats over that arbitrary time period for other guards, why are you so confident that he stacks up so well? he had the LEAST assists among the pgs (reynolds is the 2 not the 1 for uva) and the second most turnovers (the most was freshman crittendon). moreover, you didn't include guys who you probably automatically assumed were worse but who were actually better. take a peak at these stats:

smith (wfu): 6.0 asst/game and 3.6 tos/game for the season and 65 assts and 41 tos for the last 10 games (note that he, too, is a freshman)
atsur (nc st): 4.2 asst/game and 2.3 tos/game for the season and 32 assts and 8 tos for the last 10 games
hammonds (clem): 4.1 asst/game and 1.6 tos/game for the season and 54 assts and 23 tos

so looking at all of the stats, paulus had the WORST assist/to ratio out of all 9 of these pgs. wonderful. even doormat miami had a pg with with a better ratio (harris was 1.5 and clemente was 1.7). we haven't even looked at what goes on the defensive end (which isn't pretty). here is just a small sampling of opposing pgs who had had either season best of close to season best performances against us:

maynor (neutral): 22 pts, 8 assts and 2 tos
vasquez (at duke): 18 pts (season high), 3 assts and 3 tos
vasquez (home): 13 points, 12 assts (season high) and 4 tos
atsur (acc tourn): 22 points (season high in the acc), 2 assts and 2 tos
james (neutral): 25 points (season high), 7 assts and 1 to
hammonds (home): 14 points, 9 assts (1 off season high) and 2 tos
lawson (at unc): 12 pts, 5 assts and 1 to

Yes J Will was the man. He is in my top 5 favorite Duke basketball players of time. Those are his stats from the 2001 season when Duke won the title and was Jwill's sophomore year. Yes, J Will's #s are better, but Paulus still has time, and we are comparing him to someone with his jersey hanging from the rafters in Cameron!!! Paulus is pretty darn good.

no. we are comparing him to the other current pgs in the acc, most of whom are either freshmen or sophmores, and his numbers are WORSE than all 9 listed above.

Do you really have to keep dogging our captain? Look at his stats. He is getting better. He is our leader. He is right there with the best in the ACC and he has tremendous passion and heart and didn't back down to anyone (opposing players, commentators, or spectators). And I stand by what I said, I believe he will be 1st or 2nd team all ACC next year. If you can't get behind him, then perhaps you are just a spoiled wine and cheese kind of fan.[/

it still baffles me why anyone who watches games and concludes that paulus is an extremely weak pg in the acc and for a team looking to win nc's automatically is a "whiner" or is "dogging" him (whatever that means). the facts are the facts and some people are willing to look at them and make objective conclusions. can things change next year? i don't know. i'd like to think that they can and have to come back here and eat crow. however, i was one of the most vocal people on here going back to last december when we were in the top 10 saying that this season was going to go up in smoke if we don't address the pg situation. i was completely tarred and feathered on here for even bringing that up. the problems were not addressed and the season effectively went up in smoke.

[Sir Stealth]

I personally thought Paulus was the best thing Duke had going for it by the end of the year. He was the only player I counted on to make a big shot, period. He had to grind it out at full speed, breaking pressure, leading the team, trying to make plays, trying to play good defense on a team that needed great defense, and filling the role of go-to scorer for just about the entire game with little substitution.

Demarcus and McRoberts were disappointing when it came to supporting the team on offense. None of the freshmen seemed fully ready to be major leaders on offense in the VCU game. I think Paulus will improve his playmaking as players improve around him and maybe he can get a rest druing a game. It seems to me at this point that he's the strongest link on the team and the last player that should be looked at for criticism.

[Zeke]

Several games I have been surprised that GP had so few turnovers. It is always possible that I had misperceived the number, but I don't think so. Question: If GP drives into the paint, gets stuck, and throws a pass that is rushed, badly conceived pass, highly contested,and goes off a Duke player's hand(or body, or leg) - who get's credit for that turnover? I have seen that play so many times I have nightmares about it albeit less in the later part of the season.
GP seems like a nice kid. I love his attitude. He reminds me of a Golden Retreiver obviously tries really hard, affirming, helpful, and always nodding understanding to the coach's directions. I hope he makes the next leap. He must be a fun kid to coach.

[BobbyFan]

Wow, this is an incredibly apologetic post. Anyway, I'll respond to some parts:

To get an assist, you have to make the pass that leads to a basket. Paulus has excellent instincts in this regard.

I haven't seen much evidence to suggest that Greg has "excellent" passing instincts. Not for a point guard.

He does not, however, have excellent finishers on the team.

McRoberts, Henderson, and Nelson are just fine as finishers. Again, I'm not sure of your definition of "excellent", but Greg wasn't playing with a lack of finishers this year.

I would estimate that half of them come from his aggressively trying to create offense. He has at least one (or two) turnovers a game that come from him passing the ball to where a teammate should have been (if he understand basketball). He could have picked up another assist or two if his passes to a teammate resulted in that person actually shooting a shot instead of hesitating and kicking it back out. He would have more assists if he wasn't the team's leading scorer over the last ten games.

Where are you getting all of these figures from? For instance, the statement that he has one or two turnovers a game because his teammates weren't in the right place is nonsense. I can make that claim about any point guard, and it wasn't any more true for Greg. Just like any point guard also benefits from teammates saving their errant passes.

Straying away from blanket statements, how often did Greg create opportunities for his teammates? Not often, and his lack of penetrating ability and subpar effectiveness in leading a break was a large reason.

Breaking the press? You need teammates in the right place to do that. You also need teammates who will take advantage of breaking the press and make the other team pay.

Huh? His teammates weren't in the "right place"? Sounds like you are just making generic arguments that absolutely do not apply here. Let's stick with this Duke team. How many other teams had a weapon like Josh to serve as an option to bring the ball across?

Bobby Hurley was great. One of my favorite Duke players ever. He never had to deal with the other team focusing most of their defensive energy on him.

Actually he had to plenty during his senior year. And I don't understand why you are bringing this up because defenses didn't do it to Greg anyway.

He had defensive pressure that lead to fast breaks and easy assists.

Right, with much of that defensive pressure generated by Hurley himself. And even if we do normalize all other factors in this respect, Hurley still dwarfs Paulus in his ability to lead the break.

What would Bobby have done playing with a bunch of freshmen and sophomores who were afraid to shoot? He'd probably be reading about how King Rice was so much better and about how the incoming freshmen would relegate him to the bench because they were so much better.

Hurley would have immediately solidified an identity for this offense, created many more opportunities with his penetrating ability, and allowed this team to be one of the best defensive teams Coach K has had.

You really shouldn't have brought Hurley into this.

For heaven's sake. He just played one of the guttiest ten game stretches that a short, speed-challenged former quarterback could be expected to play against long odds and the criticism of half the fan base and most of the media. He rose to the challenge. We should celebrate his accomplishments. Instead, we're trying to retire him.

Greg played very well to end the season, but the defense and playmaking were still lacking. I'm glad that he made the strides he did. But it has to be taken into account that they were strides because he got off to such a horrendous start.

[Madrasdukie]

I haven't seen much evidence to suggest that Greg has "excellent" passing instincts. Not for a point guard....BobbyFan

Is it normal for a point-guard to have his fingers taped ? Also, there's this nagging issue of his leg injury that wasn't completely healed but wasn't grave enough to warrant immediate surgery (K, recently said that Greg may need to have his leg "treated" during this off-season).
Based on the few high school games (and some of the Duke preseason practices in '05) that I've seen of Greg, he clearly seemed to demonstrate above average passing ability. Having said that, I do agree that there hasn't been much evidence of that during the past season barring a few occassions. I just wonder to what extent, if at all, injuries might be affecting his passing game ?




.

[HK Dukie]

[QUOTE=dukie8;8362]

no. we are comparing him to the other current pgs in the acc, most of whom are either freshmen or sophmores, and his numbers are WORSE than all 9 listed above.

I noticed how you conveniently forgot to list points scored when discussing the other PGs in the ACC. Paulus became a significant scoring threat, our #1 option in the 2nd half the season, scoring nearly 1/4 of our points. None of the second tier point guards were a scoring threat, that is why I compared him only to the best.

I also noticed how you conveniently left out the comparison with Jason Williams. 17ppg vs 21, 4 APG vs 5, and he actually had less turnovers than JWill during our championship season in 2001 with a team that scored many more points than the 2007 team. The way Paulus finished the season you have to be encouraged.

You conveniently snubbed Reynolds who happens to be second team all-ACC. Well guess what, Paulus compares really favorably with that guy and this is what I mean when I say that Paulus has a chance to get 1st or 2nd team all-ACC next year with some improvement. Indeed, I believe he will improve and will attain that standing.

I'll repeat the numbers again...

"Paulus 174 pts, 39 assists, 36 TOs
Reynolds 173 pts, 34 assists, 31 TOs
Singletary 190 pts, 42 assists, 28 TOs
Rice 197 pts, 40 assists, 34 TOs
Crittenton 160 pts, 62 assists, 40 TOs
Lawson 112 pts, 69 assists, 16 TOs
Vasquez 110 pts, 62assists, 31 TOs

Then look at his 3pt % vs those guys

Paulus 45
Singletary 40
Reynolds 37
Lawson 37
Crittenton 36
Vasquez 32
Rice 32"

BOTTOMLINE: Paulus is not the reason for our falloff towards the end of the season. In fact he stepped up big time and for that he should be thanked and congratulated. He showed more heart and tenacity than any of you doubters expected and yet you still won't give him any credit. I have no problem with analyzing the reason for our troubles, so long as it is in a non-mean spirited way and logical. But let's face facts, Paulus stepped up when it counted most for us.

He is improving, already is a fantastic shooter, and if he can just cut one turnover a game his assist/to ratio becomes 2 to 1. Just one per game, that's it. (Since that seems to be the only statistic you care about dukie8). I would argue that his scoring prowess and 3pt fg % more than make up for that one turnover per game disadvantage, but just imagine if we can have both next year. I think we can.

[Madrasdukie]

He is improving, already is a fantastic shooter, and if he can just cut one turnover a game his assist/to ratio becomes 2 to 1. Just one per game, that's it. (Since that seems to be the only statistic you care about dukie8). I would argue that his scoring prowess and 3pt fg &#37; more than make up for that one turnover per game disadvantage, but just imagine if we can have both next year. I think we can...NYCDukie[/QUOTE]

Coach K even said recently that he is the best 3-point shooting point guard he's ever had.

Regarding assit/to ratio, like I had alluded to in a previous post, I wonder to what extent injuries affected his game.

The two 3-pointers in the second half and that basket-and-one drive in the second half against VCU with Jesse Pellot Rosa blocking him (and after he had taken a physical beating), to me, symbolized the fire, the passion and the willingness to perform in crunch time, that Greg symbolizes - as a fan, it is very uplifting to see someone do that, even in a losing effort.


In other words, I totally agree with you that this aspect of Greg has to be appreciated.

[EagleDevil]

These Paulus stats being thrown around are misleading. One thing that I think is being overlooked is that Paulus scored as much as he did because he absolutely had to, and because defenses were focusing on other players.

This Duke team desperately needed someone to step up and take shots. Paulus took them, and hit a pretty good % of his threes. But I think it's misleading to compare his scoring numbers to J-Will's or Lawson's -- those are guys on teams with tons of other offensive options, who could/can create points in situations Paulus can't.

As we've now heard ad nauseam, Duke didn't have a "go-to scorer." That means there was no one who could score when they had to, which is why Duke lost so many close games. I suspect an analysis would show that Paulus racked up some nice numbers while defenses were focusing on McRoberts and Scheyer (and maybe Nelson and Henderson); but but a good defender on him and you could forget about him.

Offensively, Paulus might be cut out to be that "Steve Kerr" figure on a team. I've been pleasantly surprised by his shooting. But I agree with others that he is not a Final Four team's PG -- unless, as has been suggested, he was playing significantly hurt all season.

Chris

[dukie8]

I noticed how you conveniently forgot to list points scored when discussing the other PGs in the ACC. Paulus became a significant scoring threat, our #1 option in the 2nd half the season, scoring nearly 1/4 of our points. None of the second tier point guards were a scoring threat, that is why I compared him only to the best.

i didn't "conveniently" forget to list points scored. we are talking about pgs and most people look at assists and turnovers as the most relevant stats regarding them. do you also want to look at rebounds? blocks? you still have not explained away that paulus's asst/to rate was the worst in the acc. this is particularly glaring because many of the other pgs actually were freshmen who never had played college ball prior to this year (eg, lawson, vasquez, smith and crittendon). you don't think that rice is a scoring threat? did you watch any of bc's games in the tournament? how about atsur and the 21 he pumped in against duke? even douglas, who hasn't even been mentioned yet, scored over 20 points in 5 different games (and missed 5 games). i compared him to ALL of the acc pgs (not just "the best" -- whatever that means) and he doesn't look good in that regard.

I also noticed how you conveniently left out the comparison with Jason Williams. 17ppg vs 21, 4 APG vs 5, and he actually had less turnovers than JWill during our championship season in 2001 with a team that scored many more points than the 2007 team. The way Paulus finished the season you have to be encouraged.

i didn't "conveniently" leave it out -- i thought any comparison to j will is completely ridiculous (as is your comparison to hurley). if you watched the games in 2001, you would have realized that (1) j will did not play pg after duhon took over that role mid season and (2) j will usually was the focus of the other team's defense (he was, after all, the national poy). why you continue comparing him to non-pgs (reynolds included) is beyond me. also, contrary to what you claimed earlier, paulus did NOT improve his running of the offense at the end of the year as his assts/to ratio was basically the same that it was all year (roughly 1:1). i agree that his scoring picked up and he shot the ball well but his PRIMARY responsibility as the pg is to run the offense and set up OTHER players -- not create his own shots. you further have completely omitted any discussion of his defensive liabilities, which more than offset the points he was scoring.

You conveniently snubbed Reynolds who happens to be second team all-ACC. Well guess what, Paulus compares really favorably with that guy and this is what I mean when I say that Paulus has a chance to get 1st or 2nd team all-ACC next year with some improvement. Indeed, I believe he will improve and will attain that standing.

as stated above, reynolds is NOT the full-time pg at uva so i am baffled why you continue using his as a comparison. he plays the 2. paulus plays the 1. they are very different positions.

BOTTOMLINE: Paulus is not the reason for our falloff towards the end of the season. In fact he stepped up big time and for that he should be thanked and congratulated. He showed more heart and tenacity than any of you doubters expected and yet you still won't give him any credit. I have no problem with analyzing the reason for our troubles, so long as it is in a non-mean spirited way and logical. But let's face facts, Paulus stepped up when it counted most for us.

He is improving, already is a fantastic shooter, and if he can just cut one turnover a game his assist/to ratio becomes 2 to 1. Just one per game, that's it. (Since that seems to be the only statistic you care about dukie8). I would argue that his scoring prowess and 3pt fg % more than make up for that one turnover per game disadvantage, but just imagine if we can have both next year. I think we can.

do you even bother reading what people write on here? i have not read one person who has said that paulus shot the ball poorly. he shot the ball very well and it has been acknowledged on here repeatedly. you continue to throw around terms like "mean spirited" and "whining" about anyone who expresses even the slightest reservation about his game. nobody on here is saying that he is bad guy and nobody is wishing that he continues with his woes but the facts are the facts and both his defensive and offensive issues were major contributors to the team's less than stellar season. i'm not sure how much basketball you watch, but you should know that going from 1:1 to 2:1 in assists/tos is a monumental improvement. 2:1 is the gold standard for pgs and is not easy to reach. that's like saying that a baseball player only has to raise his batting average 0.050 with an extra hit every 20 abs to be good. considering that he has played 2 full seasons (1 of which had 2 aas next to him) and hasn't been anywhere near 2:1, i would be extremely surprised if he were able to do so next year. if he could do that, then this team is going to be much much improved next year and all of this chatter will be moot.