K-State MBB: Who produced?

With the Kansas State Wildcats awaiting news on their postseason destination, I thought today would be a good time to look at the stats from the regular season and Big 12 Tournament.

The “Prd” stat in the second-to-last column is short for production. Not really an advanced stat at all, just an easy way to look at how much each guy contributed to the box scores all season. Prd = (Pts + Reb + Ast + Stl + Blk) - (missed FGs + missed FTs + TO), and Prd/40 = Prd per 40 minutes playing time.

It isn’t a perfect stat. It tends to favor post players over guards, both because it favors high-percentage shooting and because rebounds are naturally more plentiful than assists. Just look at the team stats: we were a garbage rebounding team and good passing team but still have almost two rebounds for every assist.

Observations

• I’ll start with the most obvious point. It is no surprise that Dean Wade leads the way. He led the team in scoring without being a volume shooter and led the team in rebounding. Add his pretty good numbers for assists, steals, and blocks in, and he leads the way by a lot.
• Barry Brown Jr. is, unsurprisingly, the second most productive player in terms of raw numbers, but I am surprised by the fact that he is closer to being third than first. Some of that boils down to him being a bit more of a volume shooter than Wade (although he isn’t a serious offender in that category). And I think some of it has to do with how he plays the game. His biggest contributions are things that jump out at you on TV but not on a stat sheet. His number of steals doesn’t do nearly enough to reflect how good his defense is. And his scoring numbers don’t reflect how he can take over a game.
• Xavier Sneed’s stat line practically screams “athletic wing stat sheet stuffer,” and what do you know, that is perfectly accurate. He ranks third or better in every positive stat except assists.
• Makol Mawien’s biggest problem was staying on the court (although he really should be a better rebounder than he has been). On a per-minute basis, his productivity was great, and it isn’t like it is inflated by high rebounding numbers.
• I really hope Kamau Stokes can get back to full health, conditioning, and speed, because even with his late-season struggles, he still averaged out to being our best PG option.
• Cartier Diarra, Amaad Wainright, and Levi Stockard III all contributed well in their first full season in purple. If they all stick around and can take steps forward next year, we look to have options for a deep rotation.
• Pierson McAtee was the clear MVP of the end of the bench. I don’t anticipate he’ll get significant playing time in his career, but it’s good to see one of the walk-ons score some points in those end-of-game situations.