Analysis: I choose not to pile on Troy Williams

[IndyHutch]

It would be easy to pile on Troy Williams' play on Sunday as being a big reason why Indiana got humbled in the Breslin Center, 88-69. Williams did a disappearing act and was held scoreless for the first time this season. In his place, O.G. Anunoby put up decent numbers. But here's my take regarding Williams and the Hoosiers.

The easy way today would be to pile on Troy Williams.

 

It was way more Bad Troy than Good Troy in Michigan State’s 88-69 victory over Indiana Sunday afternoon at the Breslin Center.

 

The Hoosiers are now 1-20 in their last 21 trips to East Lansing and IU has dropped into a second place tie with Maryland at 10-3, pending the outcome of tonight’s Iowa-Minnesota game.

 

A few days after a great win against Iowa at home, the Hoosiers had a humbling defeat at the hands of No. 8 Michigan State. IU played good for about 16 minutes and then the final 24 was more along the lines of a train wreck.

 

But the Twitter-universe has been up in arms about Williams. Why is he playing? What are the positives about his game? Is it time to start O.G. Anunoby in Williams’ place and have them basically switch roles?

 

I’m not going to defend Williams’ play from Sunday. He missed all five of his shots, including three 3-pointers (a shot myself I would rather he stop shooting all together) and was held scoreless in 20 minutes of play. In his last 58 games, spanning the last two seasons, Williams has been held scoreless twice. Both games were in East Lansing against Michigan State.

 

The last three times he has played Michigan State he has four points total on 2 of 11 shooting.

 

But I don't wish to over react either.

 

Is it just a bad matchup for Troy? Maybe. Myself, I think it’s more a case a lot of times of Troy trying to do too much. He needs to let the game come to him, not force shots, not force dribble penetration and then let his athleticism take over. When he does that I think he’s a pretty good player. I think he can really help this team. But when he plays like he did Sunday, he may as well have stayed in Bloomington. There was very little positive in terms of Williams impacting the game on Sunday.

 

But is the Twitter reaction to Williams at this point justified? Myself, I think it's a lot of people making too big of a deal over one game. Williams normally contributes nearly 13 points and 6 rebounds per game. He makes some high-flying, acrobatic plays that his teammates feed off of. Sure, the Assembly Hall crowd has been known to gasp at time when Williams puts his head down and drives in the open floor, but he doesn't a lot of good things along with his bad moments.

 

I guess I'm just not ready to abandon all of the good just yet.

 

But what about Anunoby? Is it time to elevate his minutes? Sunday, he scored eight points and pulled down five rebounds in 17 minutes off the bench. He was 4 for 10 from the field and had a highlight film dunk in the first half. He had a sequence where he had an offensive rebound and a missed point blank put back , followed by another offensive rebound and a second missed opportunity.

 

The bottom line for a freshman reserve like Anunoby right now, though, is that he needs to take advantage of all of his opportunities. And missing six shots doesn’t cut it. He looks as if he has tremendous upside and I believe he does, but his eight points today should have been 12-14 and then I think you could make a pretty good argument that his minutes should rival those of Williams on a consistent basis.

 

This is going to be a big week ahead for Williams. Nebraska at home on Wednesday followed by Purdue at home on Saturday. Two big games in terms of IU continuing to challenge for a Big Ten title and two home opportunities for Williams to shine. And we all know that he tends he having bigger games at Assembly Hall.

 

Williams has scored 20 points or more in three games this season – all at home. 20 against Kennesaw State, 23 against Ohio State and 21 against Illinois. In five of the last six road games, though, Williams has failed to reach double figures in scoring.

 

So pile on Williams if you must but I think IU’s problems Sunday were bigger than just one player.

 

IU didn’t finish around the basket at a point in the game where it needed buckets to keep within striking distance.

 

The matador/standing turnstile defense returned for IU and it wasn’t pretty. I’m not taking anything away from Denzel Valentine or Matt Costello Sunday because I thought they were both terrific, but both got a lot of really easy looks, too.

 

And once again, this Indiana team remains on a game-to-game basis in terms of what team you’re going to get from one game to the next. Iowa on Thursday was spectacular. Michigan State on Sunday not so much.

 

Like I said though, a big week is ahead for not just Troy Williams but Indiana Basketball, too.

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[Alford Bailey]

I'm probably guilty of piling on Troy as much as anybody. But, after watching him his frosh season I said he was way overrated, a great athlete, but no bball player. And I've stuck with my assessment no matter if he had a high scoring game or 19 rebounds. Couple that with the off court issues and I don't like Troy on this team.

[Walking Boot of Doom]

Haha thanks for this article, Hutch. Been defending this stance on other threads...

[8bucks]

If a guy is not effective and the coach keeps asking him to do things he is not able to do then I share the blame with the coach.

Troy is effective in the baseline most of the time. Repeat this and you will do well.

Troy is effective from the top of the key 1 game in 5. Try this but abandon if not working.

[Alford Bailey]

O, and people aren't piling on just because of one game. We've got a track record of boneheaded play here.

[Kepner]

The past two years the team success has pretty much depended on Troy. When he plays well, we win. When he doesn't, we lose. Its that simple for me. Every offseason we've heard about him improving his game in one facet or another but I have still yet to see it. His shot has a gotten a better, but he doesn't know a good shot vs a bad one. He ball handling and decision making hasn't really improved. I wouldn't be surprised to see him leave for the draft after this year. I don't think he is ready but I think he will have plenty of people telling him he will be. I'll probably get flak for this, but I would welcome the idea of him leaving for the NBA. I think OG shows a lot more potential and ability at the same position.

[coonhounds]

Won't pile on troy today because yogi is a bigger part of our game and imo he dropped the ball. So can't put all blame on troy when Yogi was no better

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Our Defensive effort and scheme today were deplorable. Yogi and Troy were stinko. I still think a better coach uses Troys gifts better though. He is gifted.

[HoosierAloha]

Troy is averaging about 11 points and 6 rebounds in B1G play.  Like you said, his big games have come at home but against middle of the pack to bottom feeder teams.  He also has only 20 assists to 34 turnovers in conference games, that's a 0.58 ato ratio.  Of those 20 assists 9 came in two games at home against terrible teams (ILL and NW).  Troy is shooting about 44% from the field, 26% from deep, and 71% from the FT line.  If those numbers came from a promising frosh, like OG, I would say he's adjusting to the college game.  However, they're numbers from a regressing junior that is out of control more often than not.

 

There are three main differences between OG and Troy.  Those two missed layups you mentioned by OG today actually are close.  Troy has layups that are airballs or just flat out wildly out of control.  The "assists" Troy has to the opponent are also buffling.  Troy had a two game stretch earlier in the season that he assisted on 16 points for the opponent.  You see that very little out of OG.  The third difference and most significant is defense.  Troy completely gave up on a Wiscy fastbreak earlier in the season.  You can count on him losing his man several times for wide open looks from behind the arc.  OG is there in position to at least make a play.  Yes, he gets beat on defense sometimes but Troy gets beat more often than not.  That takes a toll on the team. 

 

I'd be willing to bet if we saw less of Troy we would see the team take it up a notch similar to when JBJ went down.  OG now is what I expected of a junior Troy; playing under control, using athleticism when needed, playing position defense.  Troy is an athlete struggling to learn and execute the fundamentals of basketball.  OG is a basketball player with great athleticism. 

 

Edit:  If you want to dive deeper into the stats Troy is shooting just 37.5% (21-56) from the field in games against top half of the B1G (Wiscy x2, OSU, Michiga, Iowa, and MSU).  Half of those games were at home.  I respect your opinion and appreciate your articles on Btown Banners but Troy has regressed enough that his minutes should be decreased to a role player.  He should absolutely not be handling the ball at the top of the key or driving the ball.  That's not a position he can succeed at this point in time.

[Hoosierfan2017]

At this point I honestly just wonder how much Troy likes basketball. With his athleticism the only person stopping him from being a lottery pick is himself, and yet he hasn't really improved any of the things keeping him out of it. I cringe whenever he has the ball in his hands on anything other than an oop, and his defense is still pretty terrible for someone as athletic as him. We've got a guy in OG that can replace Troy whenever he leaves, and I wouldn't be upset if that was after this season.

[IUfan_Charlie]

People seem to think that O.G. is 2nd coming of Christ himself... He has been good, but he is a freshman averaging less than 5 points a game. It is ridiculous. 

[Walking Boot of Doom]

People seem to think that O.G. is 2nd coming of Christ himself... He has been good, but he is a freshman averaging less than 5 points a game. It is ridiculous.

The kid has shown a ton of skill and potential, but I don't think he's ready to produce the 15 and 8 a game that Good Troy can. Today we saw him struggle a bit when he started trying to do too much.

[Scooter D]

Agree Hutch, everyone can point fingers, but at the end of the day, it is a team game and as a team, they did not show up today. 

[brandct]

The Point Forward experiment needs to end. It should have ended a long time ago.

[HoosierAloha]

The kid has shown a ton of skill and potential, but I don't think he's ready to produce the 15 and 8 a game that Good Troy can. Today we saw him struggle a bit when he started trying to do too much.

 

He is ready and willing to play solid defense which Troy hasn't shown he can.  While OG might not be able to put up 15 and 8 consistently he wouldn't have to playing solid defense.  After JBJ went down it is easy to point out who isn't giving maximum effort on defense.  That hurts the team as much, if not more, than his out of control layups and assists to the other team.  OG, more often than not, plays within his abilities.  Troy fails miserably at this.

[Alford Bailey]

Troy is averaging about 11 points and 6 rebounds in B1G play.  Like you said, his big games have come at home but against middle of the pack to bottom feeder teams.  He also has only 20 assists to 34 turnovers in conference games, that's a 0.58 ato ratio.  Of those 20 assists 9 came in two games at home against terrible teams (ILL and NW).  Troy is shooting about 44% from the field, 26% from deep, and 71% from the FT line.  If those numbers came from a promising frosh, like OG, I would say he's adjusting to the college game.  However, they're numbers from a regressing junior that is out of control more often than not.

 

There are three main differences between OG and Troy.  Those two missed layups you mentioned by OG today actually are close.  Troy has layups that are airballs or just flat out wildly out of control.  The "assists" Troy has to the opponent are also buffling.  Troy had a two game stretch earlier in the season that he assisted on 16 points for the opponent.  You see that very little out of OG.  The third difference and most significant is defense.  Troy completely gave up on a Wiscy fastbreak earlier in the season.  You can count on him losing his man several times for wide open looks from behind the arc.  OG is there in position to at least make a play.  Yes, he gets beat on defense sometimes but Troy gets beat more often than not.  That takes a toll on the team. 

 

I'd be willing to bet if we saw less of Troy we would see the team take it up a notch similar to when JBJ went down.  OG now is what I expected of a junior Troy; playing under control, using athleticism when needed, playing position defense.  Troy is an athlete struggling to learn and execute the fundamentals of basketball.  OG is a basketball player with great athleticism. 

YES!

[iceman]

People seem to think that O.G. is 2nd coming of Christ himself... He has been good, but he is a freshman averaging less than 5 points a game. It is ridiculous.

How would anyone know what he could do with the limited minutes he gets ? Yes he makes freshman mistakes and I'll take that every time verses Troy a junior standing in the corner tugging on his shorts ! He pretty much embarrassed Valentine a senior on that fast break in today's game , might not be the second coming but man I can't wait till he is a junior !!!!

[HoosierSadaseci]

Time to move on from Troy, or better yet Troy to move on, he hasn't overcome his flaws and it's year three for him, so he's likely not going to "get it". OG brings so much more positive play, and is on an arc to get even better. Troy kills us with so many blatantly stupid plays, I'm sick of it.

[HoosierSadaseci]

Troy is averaging about 11 points and 6 rebounds in B1G play.  Like you said, his big games have come at home but against middle of the pack to bottom feeder teams.  He also has only 20 assists to 34 turnovers in conference games, that's a 0.58 ato ratio.  Of those 20 assists 9 came in two games at home against terrible teams (ILL and NW).  Troy is shooting about 44% from the field, 26% from deep, and 71% from the FT line.  If those numbers came from a promising frosh, like OG, I would say he's adjusting to the college game.  However, they're numbers from a regressing junior that is out of control more often than not.
 
There are three main differences between OG and Troy.  Those two missed layups you mentioned by OG today actually are close.  Troy has layups that are airballs or just flat out wildly out of control.  The "assists" Troy has to the opponent are also buffling.  Troy had a two game stretch earlier in the season that he assisted on 16 points for the opponent.  You see that very little out of OG.  The third difference and most significant is defense.  Troy completely gave up on a Wiscy fastbreak earlier in the season.  You can count on him losing his man several times for wide open looks from behind the arc.  OG is there in position to at least make a play.  Yes, he gets beat on defense sometimes but Troy gets beat more often than not.  That takes a toll on the team. 
 
I'd be willing to bet if we saw less of Troy we would see the team take it up a notch similar to when JBJ went down.  OG now is what I expected of a junior Troy; playing under control, using athleticism when needed, playing position defense.  Troy is an athlete struggling to learn and execute the fundamentals of basketball.  OG is a basketball player with great athleticism. 
 
Edit:  If you want to dive deeper into the stats Troy is shooting just 37.5% (21-56) from the field in games against top half of the B1G (Wiscy x2, OSU, Michiga, Iowa, and MSU).  Half of those games were at home.  I respect your opinion and appreciate your articles on Btown Banners but Troy has regressed enough that his minutes should be decreased to a role player.  He should absolutely not be handling the ball at the top of the key or driving the ball.  That's not a position he can succeed at this point in time.

I unliked this post just so I could thank it twice!

[Geometry Hoosier]

Troy is a descent basketball player. Could he be great, yes, but I really think he missed his calling as a high jumper, long jumper, or triple jumper.