With the throes of the offseason all around us, I thought it would be fun to take a look at the 20 best players that are departing from the Big Sky, either due to graduating, declaring for the draft, or transferring.
Cliff Ederaine for Eastern Washington was (kind of sneakily) one of the more versatile players in the Big Sky this season. He was a forward that was comfortable playing in the post (and hardly ever shot from three-point range), but he also had very solid ballhandling skills and could create shots for himself and others.
Like Mike Proctor, he was one of the best rebounders in the conference, with a 20.2 DR% (for averages, he pulled down 7.3 boards per game). He hit the glass hard for them on both ends. Offensively, he shot 51% from twos, though he made just 61% of his freebies. He could create his own shot, but he was not super efficient there.
The great thing about Ederaine was that he contributed in every facet of the game. He had a 20.3 Assist Rate (3.0 per game), which is robust for a guy that played mostly power forward for them. He could protect the glass a bit, with 1.3 blockes per game (5.1 block %) and 1.3 steals per game (2.5 steals %). Obviously he was nobody's defensive player of the year in the conference, but he helped out on that end.
He had some weaknesses... he fouled too much (like seemingly everyone else for the Eagles last year) and he turned it over too much (sometimes he tried to make too much happen), but he was an important player for EWU in that he did a bit of everything for them. How they replace him will be a key factor in determining the course of their season.
Follow me on Twitter @bigskybball
No comments:
Post a Comment