Basketball Player Previews: Troy Huff

For the next month or two (however often I get around do it basically) I’m going to be previewing the players from this coming year’s basketball team (except the Freshmen). Today I start with, who else? Troy Huff.

Overview: Huff, who spurned recent NCAA tournament teams Montana and NDSU for the Sioux, emerged as the team’s most talented player last year as he led them in scoring. He was named a mid-major Freshman All-American and is on many watch lists for mid major All America honors this year.

What he does well: Huff shouldered a majority of the load last year while he was on the floor, taking 32.1% of the team’s shots and using 28.7% of their possessions. If you were able to watch the Wisconsin game on ESPN3 you know Huff has tremendous jumping ability and he was able to use that to grab 13.2% of available defensive rebounds, which was 3rd best on the team among players who played major minutes, and very good for a guard. For his general lack of assists (10% assist rate) his 17% turnover rate is a bit too high for my liking, though in a vacuum it is not bad at all, especially when considering the team’s rate was 20.8% and every other Freshman except Josh Schuler.

What he doesn’t do well: Score efficiently. It’s hard to believe that I could knock Huff for his ability to put the ball in the basket, but a 49.1% eFG is pretty bad, and he only shot 62.4% from the line. For a guy who needs to get to the rim to score (33% from three), Huff hopefully will improve that mark by about 10% or so in the next year or two. Still I would give Huff a pass because of the tremendous load he had to carry this year in terms of being the focal point of the offense as well as the main scorer.

What to expect this year: I expect him to lead the team in scoring again and just as a byproduct of getting stronger and getting some more experience I think he’ll score much more efficiently. A run at conference POY isn’t out of the question, and my lone regret is that I’ll be home for Christmas break when the Sioux head down to Allen Fieldhouse to take on Kansas, as I would love to see him in person.