The Daily Progress, Charlottesville’s top-of-the-line local newspaper, recently featured an article about “combo guards,” or shoot-first point guards.
According to said paper, the “combo guard” is currently one of the sexy buzzwords in college basketball—presumably the others are AASA, efficiency, and Lorenzo Mata-Real.
The New York Times published a similar piece around the time of last year’s NCAA tournament. The DP rehashed the Times' story in a roundabout way in order to gush about Sean Singletary, Virginia’s shoot-first point guard. To round out their roundabout, my subject today is a critical essay on Singletary.
I find Singletary to be fascinating player. To use an old analogy, he’s a peppercorn on the court: small and powerful. He’s tough as nails, drives the lane, and wears his emotions on his sleeve. Heck, Ken Pomeroy even has a slight man-crush on him. So, what’s not to like?
My main problem with Singletary is that he shoots too much. Like any good economist will tell you, the gentleman should specialize: he should try to function less as a shooter and more of a facilitator. Often, his shot comes when he’s out of control and trying to take on a multitude of defenders.
In addition, for a guy who makes a nice living out of bowling his way to the basket, he fails to get many old-fashioned three-point plays.
So as not to paint the picture too vividly with platitudes, let's take a look at some statistics which bear this out. He shoots on more than a full quarter of Virginia’s possessions (26%), but yet only posts an effective FG percentage (eFG) of 49%.
Although not as scary as JR Reynolds—more on him in a bit—the rest of the team is shooting remarkably well. Mamadi Diane, Adrian Joseph, and Calvin Baker—UVA’s other primary offensive weapons—are all shooting above 55%, with Diane and Baker shooting over 62%.
Joseph takes his fair share of shots (25%).
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