RMU freshman forward Jeremiah Worthem, as expected, has been
a great get for RMU. His size and offensive game left head coach Andy Toole no
choice but to insert Worthem into the starting lineup after coming off the
bench to start the year. Because of the productivity from Worthem, it can be easy to
forget he is in fact a freshman. These last two games against big time
opponents has been a nice reminder of this, shooting a combined 3-14 with six
turnovers.
Just going off of initial memory, Worthem’s game Saturday
was probably the worst of his career. He shot 2-7 (and 1-1 from three) with
five turnovers. I re-watched the Alabama
game to break down his performance a little farther. Here’s what I found:
This is the first offensive possession of the game. It was a
simple pick and pop between Worthem and Karvel Anderson. Worthem sets a ball
screen at the wing, as you can see here…
Two defenders follow Anderson ,
while Worthem settles in some open space. Anderson
finds him and Worthem gets an easy 15 foot jump shot. This same concept
resulted in a big Worthem three pointer in the second half too. Nice balance
from the big man on the jumper.
That was very good. Unfortunately the next possession wasn’t
that great. Worthem gets the ball at the top of the key and beats his man off
the dribble by half a step. The defender knows he has some help, which comes. I
would prefer to have seen Worthem give the ball off to Anthony Myers-Pate there
to reset the offense with so much time in the shot clock. In fact, Myers-Pate just did the same thing; drove left, saw help defense, and kicked it out to Lucky Jones. Instead, Worthem forced a
tough shot. A makeable one, but forced.
There were a few defensive possessions that didn’t go well
either. Of course, he was also put in a tough spot with no Mike McFadden so
when Hawkins was out, he played center usually against someone with five inches
on him. Even still, look at this screen grab with a little over 13 minutes left
in the first half:
Worthem is completely behind the center on defense. He has
no positioning. This, predictably, leads to a bucket. Under those
circumstances, help from Aaron Tate probably should have came early, especially
after Chuck Oliver was in position to guard the wing.
These are pretty much the basics with small variances. While I just showed some examples of bad play, Worthem had his moments too. I think he is a pretty good isolation low post defender when his head is in it. Also, some of his turnovers were just a little unlucky, like when he slipped on a drive to the basket and had the ball go off his foot. The end of the first half was probably the roughest
stretch, when Worthem had a ball slip out of his hands on a dunk attempt, force
up a tough mid-range floater, and gave up an easy bucket all in a matter of a
minute.
There are always going to be rough stretches for freshman.
The tape from this game really wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be.
Some better shot choice and limiting the turnovers will go a long way in
conference play.
--Chris Cappella
--@C_Cappella
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