SeattleJay wrote:Chicagojayfan wrote:jayc13 wrote:Hopefully Kalk is back because he's a stud, and not just on defense. But Mac can put together a successful defense with a small 5, like Bishop.
Agree. That 2021 team was pretty solid defensively (Kenpom 32) and while Kalkbrenner was playing he was only playing 13.8 minutes a game
One thing to think about is that Bishop had to expend a ton of energy to defend the way we did that year, so I can't imagine us having just 1 guy to play that small 5 spot (Bishop at his peak played 23.4 MPG for us, and Martin K the year prior played only 25.4 MPG)
Kalk is such a unicorn:
1. It’s rare to have a center that big
2. It’s even more rare to have a center that big who can run the floor
3. It’s really rare to have a center that big who can run the floor, play great defense and NOT foul
4. And can do it for 40 minutes.
Who could have imagined all that Kalk’s freshman year? Congratulations to Kalk on all the hard work to make that happen and the strength and conditioning guys for guiding him.
Although, I wish Mac would stop talking about how great Jeremy is because I worry that he will get poached.
I remember being really high on him, but I don't think I was even crazy enough to imagine just how good he was going to be. I catch heat sometimes for the per/40 stats, but it's amazing how consistent those stats have been across his 4 years, with some improvement and adjust based on the team around him and what we're doing with him
Pts: 17 - 17.7 - 19.7 - 20.1
Can see a nice progression in his ability to score, not only does he get more usage, he's learned to score in different ways as well
Rebounds: 10.1 - 10.4 - 7.6 - 8.8
While he looks to have gone backwards here, I think a lot of this is just having a top rebounder like Baylor on the floor next to him
Blocks: 3.6 - 3.6 - 2.6 - 3.6
Outside of last year, that's a clear line
Fouls: 4.5 - 1.9 - 2.3 - 2.2
I think this has been the key to him staying on the floor, and some if it is we aren't hedging like we used to so he's not out in space as much, but his footwork and control is just amazing - although as a Freshman you could see how well coached he was in HS defensively
A couple of other stats:
TS% - .626 - .674 - .725 (just ridiculous) - .685
FWIW - Kalk has led the BE in both eFG and TS% for 3 years in a row now (also ridiculous)
Usage% - 19.4 - 19.4 - 19.9 - 21.6
While I think the drop coverage helps Kalk by allowing him to not be chasing all of the time on D, it's still a credit to his just amazing conditioning that he can play that many minutes - He was 6th in minutes played in the BE this year and I don't think another center in the league was close -- like you said, complete Unicorn
Posted: Tue Mar 26, 2024 3:38 pm