Friar Basketball

Charting Batts’ Afternoon versus Assumption

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That Kadeem Batts was able to record an 18 point, 11 rebound double double against Division II Assumption on Saturday shouldn’t be much of a surprise, but it was where he was scoring from on the floor that was cause for optimism.

As Bilal Dixon proved a year ago, a big night against Assumption in the exhibition season is certainly no harbinger of what’s to come, but for a Friar squad that could use a scoring lift from Batts, especially early in the season, the confidence and touch the junior showed on his jump shoot was one of the more positive results from Saturday afternoon.

Batts finished 8-14 from the field, doing much of his damage when facing up.  After the Mal Brown scrimmage it was noted here how much more comfortable Batts looks facing up, versus with his back to the basket.  He’s struggled some to find the touch on his jump hook in the exhibition season, but his jump shot looked fluid and soft versus Assumption.

Charting Batts’ Day

First half: Batts was terrific from the floor in the opening stanza.  He shot 5-7 from the field in the first half, making all four of the shots he took outside of the paint.  Batts bounced home a jump hook from just outside of the paint, made a pair of mid-range jumpers along the baseline and connected on a 17 footer near the top of the key.

His two misses were a shot near the rim and a 14 footer from just inside the free throw line that rimmed out.  His scoring log from the field the first half:

  • 19:06: a jumper pushed the early lead to 4-0.
  • 17:17: a second jump shot made it 9-0 Friars.
  • 16:52: on Providence’s next possession Batts finished on a look from Vincent Council to make it 11-2.
  • 10:17: Council assisted on Batts’ third straight field goal to make it 29-8.
  • 6:23: his fifth was a jumper that extended the lead to 38-17.

Second half:  Batts went 3-7 from the floor in the closing 20 minutes.  Two of those shots were layups at the rim, and a third was on a baseline jumper.  He rimmed out a straight-away 19 footer mid-way through the second half and followed that up by taking a contested shot outside the corner of the key which caught the ire of Ed Cooley.  It wasn’t a terrible shot, but it clearly wasn’t the one the head coach was looking for on that possession.

Batts finished 1-4 on shots outside of the paint in the second half to close out his afternoon 5-8 outside of the key and 3-6 from within.

To what extent Batts can translate this type of shooting performance in 2012-13 is unclear at this point, but this becomes a far different offense was Batts gives PC a weapon from 15-20 feet.  He was at his best in perhaps PC’s two most efficient offensive outputs in the Big East last season (27 versus Louisville, 14 on 3-5 from the field and 8-10 at the free throw line against Syracuse) and could serve as an effective option as a kick-out option for Council this season.

A third of Council’s 12 assists on Saturday were to Batts.

Batts connected from each side of the floor, both along the baseline and towards the top of the key as well.  While his jump hook still looks as though it has a ways to go, on this day he shot his jump shot with the confidence he’s showed in only flashes to this point of his career.

 

Email Kevin at kevin.farrahar@friarbasketball.com

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