College Basketball Players Who Are Not Living Up to Their Preseason Hype
At the start of this season, any season, lists of all kinds publish. These preseason All-American lists do little except shower pressure on players looking to win games.
Some, like SB Nationโs, have Jahlil Okafor as a first-team All-American and Player of the Year. That may be nice to hear if youโre Okafor, but what if you bust? What if you merely have a nice season? Then youโre not living up to the hype.
Yet, here we are.
I took a look at the our own preseason All-American lists as well asย SB Nation's and USA Today's and then checked in to see how those players are doing a third of the way through the season.
All of these players havenโt fared as well as the forecasters once thought. Thereโs still time for them to turn it around, but as of now, these players have not lived up to the hype.
Read on to see who they are and why theyโre underachieving.
Wayne Selden, Kansas
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Wayne Selden got some attention from SB Nationโs preseason All-American voting and the sophomore hasnโt elevated his game in his second year.
He does log a lot of minutesโ31.5 so far this yearโbut he doesnโt put the ball in the bucket scoring only 9.3 points per game. That would be one thing if he averaged a bunch of assists, but heโs only tallying 3.3 per game.
He leads his team in turnovers with 1.8 per game and his field-goal percentage is an icy .338. Add in that heโs only a 63 percent free-throw shooter and what you see is an underachieving player already plateauing.
JayVaughn Pinkston, Villanova
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Were it not for this game-saving block against No. 19 Michigan, the talk about JayVaughn Pinkston may not be as rosy.
Pinkston earned some votes on SB Nation for preseason All-American honors (honorable mention) and given his stat line from a year ago (27.1 minutes, 14.1 points, 6.1 rebounds, .521 from the field), that seemed merited.
Through nine and games (and nine wins) Pinkston has slipped in minutes (25.6) and while his field-goal percentage is up (.558) his points are way down. Heโs averaging just 8.8 points. His rebounds are the same.
The expectations for Pinkston werenโt as high as some of the players on this list, but thatโs a significant drop in scoring from a similar base of minutes.
Fred VanVleet, Wichita State
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Fred VanVleet, who helped lead Wichita State to an unbeaten regular-season record last year, made USA Todayโs first team preseason All-American list.
The problem is he isnโt shooting like an All-American, heโs shooting like heโs only got 20 minutes at Rucker Park.
VanVleetโs field-goal percentage through is 39 percent, 26 percent from the three-point line. Heโs still averaging 13.3 points per game while taking the second most shots (76).
Thankfully for the Shockers, Ron Baker is having an All-American season so far scoring 18.4 points per game while shooting 55 percent from the field.
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Aaron Harrison, Kentucky
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Kentuckyโs Andrew Harrison has been deeply bruised by the platoon system in Lexington. Any preseason hype showered his way has been snuffed out by the system heโs in.
Harrison averaged 31.7 minutes a game last season and has just 20 this year. On paper, Harrison isnโt going to live up to any preseason billing.
What could happen is total implosion of this new system in which case the experienced Harrison would conceivably see more time.
This year Harrison is averaging 7.3 points and 3.7 assists per game where last year he averaged just over 10 points a game.
What Harrison (and his brother Aaron) lack in minutes, coach John Calipari makes up for in praise, making sure people know theyโre skills havenโt waned.
"The twins, they're selfless to say, 'I'm good with this. I'm going to do it,'" Calipari said in The Courier-Journal, referring to the platoon system. "Instead of playing 30 minutes, they're playing 23."
Malcolm Brogdon, Virginia
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Earning honorable mention for USA Todayโs preseason All-American honors is Virginiaโs Malcolm Brogdon.
A year ago he led his team in scoring with 12.7 points and 5.4 rebounds per game. Now a junior, his average points are essentially the same, 12.6, but his rebounds have dropped off by two to 3.4 a game.
Not only that, Brogdon isnโt even leading his team in those categories. Heโs third on the team in scoring behind Justin Anderson and fifth in rebounding. Anderson is having a terrific year so far. There's only so much offense to around.
Perhaps this will change. Take Virginia head coach Tony Bennettโs analysis on CBS.com: โMalcolm's game is like a fine wine," Bennett told CBSSports.com. "You watch him more and more and as it ages you're more impressed with it. You don't watch him one time and just automatically say 'he's unbelievable.'"
So, like a fine, velvety, full-bodied Bordeaux, we could see Brogdon ascend the ranks of the ACCโs best by seasonโs end. As it stands right now, heโs not living up to the billing.
Cliff Alexander, Kansas
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Kansasโ Cliff Alexander is a big dude. For a freshman, heโs got the thickness of a player five years older than him. Alexander stands at 6โ8โ and weighs in at 240 pounds.
He was a USA Today third-team preseason All-American and he could very well still make that list. In limited minutes his play has been decent, but maybe not as powerful as people had hoped, maybe not as precocious as Dukeโs Jahlil Okafor.
Kansas coach Bill Self told The Kansas City Star, โSome guys it takes a little bit longer and they learn through repetition. They learn through being visual โฆ Cliff is one of those guys thatโs going to learn through repetition. Once he gets enough reps, heโs going to be fabulous.โ
Coming off the bench, Alexander has averaged 19.6 minutes, 9.6 points and 6.5 rebounds per game.
Alexander should be getting more minutes as the season progresses.
Sam Dekker, Wisconsin
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Perhaps itโs unfair to say Wisconsinโs Sam Dekker isnโt living up to his preseason hype. He was lauded as a first-team preseason All-American, but an ankle injury he suffered in late October has derailed his production.
He scored just two points on 1-of-5 shooting against Marquette and five points on 2-of-5 shooting against Duke.
Dekker told The Wisconsin State Journal:
"We took it a day at a time. People are going to talk, people are going to be mad about stuff. But my main concern is A) getting healthy, and B) helping this team as much as I can.
Yeah, Iโve maybe not put up as great of numbers as I wanted to but, hey, tomorrowโs a new day. That stuff is going to happen over the course of the season. Itโs early in the year, and Iโm not going to worry too much about it.
"
For Dekker thatโs the silver lining here: Itโs early.
A year ago Dekker averaged 29.8 minutes per game, 12.4 points per game and 6.1 rebounds per game. This year heโs been limited to 24.5 minutes, 11.3 points and 3.9 rebounds.
Dekker has clearance to practice 100 percent so itโs still possible for him to live up to this yearโs hype, just not now.
Marcus Paige, UNC
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Marcus Paige, a preseason first-team All-American, is leading the Tar Heels in scoring with 14 points per game, but thatโs really the only stat the stand out in relief from the rest of his numbers.
Heโs been pedestrian in assists (3.4) and rebounds (1.5). Maybe the Tar Heels donโt need as much production out of him since four other players are averaging double digits in points.
Kennedy Meeks is averaging a double-double every with 13.8 points and 10.1 rebounds per game in seven fewer minutes than Paige.
Paige said on ESPN.com, โThere's something funky going on with my shot right now and I'm going to go back, look at some film. I might be kicking my leg, not holding my follow through or something. I've got good looks so it's not necessarily anything there. I just need to start knocking them down.โย
Right now Paige is shooting career-lows in field-goal percentage (35.5), three-point line (34.0) and free-throw percentage (80).
The Heels have other players like Meeks and Brice Johnson taking some pressure off Paige, but Paige needs to step up his game as the conference games start.
All statistics from this piece, unless otherwise noted, came from ESPN.com.
If you made it this far, maybe you'd want to hang out on Twitter. They call me @BrendanOMeara.
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