Career Wrap: Tyrique Jones

MHettel · 04-01-2020, 01:52 PM

Similar in approach to my "Career Wrap: Quentin Goodin" post, I've attempted to evaluate Tyrique's career from a numbers perspective to give it some context against the backdrop of 79 other former XU players, and to determine if my observations and impressions of his game are reflected in his career statistics.

I will say that this one feels like it's going to be more straightforward than my piece on Goodin. Tyrique was undoubtedly a one trick pony as an "above the rim" big who played a physical game. He was pretty good at most of the aspects of the game that aligned to that playing style.

Was Tyrique bad at anything? FOR SURE! He just was never expected to do any of those things, and as a result could limit exposing his weaknesses. This is the big difference between Tyrique and Q. Q's weaknesses, unfortunately, were an essential part of playing his role of PG.

So, with that said, I'll just focus on the context of Tyrique's career stats, with a little commentary.

DISCLAIMER! I did not have the minutes played for the following players, so per minute stats would NOT include these guys: Sykes, TJ Johnson, Braggs, Posey, & Frey

THE GOOD
Ranked 4 of 80 in FG%
Ranked 6 of 80 in 2pt FG%
Ranked 1 of 55 in ORebs per minute
Ranked 4 of 55 in DRebs per minute
Ranked 2 of 59 in Total Rebs per minute
Ranked 8 of 59 in Free Throw Attempts per minute
Ranked 9 of 59 in Blocks per minute
Ranked 10 of 59 in Points per minute

Conclusion: WOW. These are all the things we asked him to do....mostly (MAKING those FTs would have helped). Right out of central casting for a Physical Big.

THE HO-HUM
Ranked 20 of 59 in Steals per minute
Ranked 44 of 59 in Minutes per game
Ranked 22 of 59 in FG attempts per minute
Ranked 29 of 58 in Turnovers per minute
Ranked 35 of 80 in Free Throws Made as % of total Points
Ranked 40 of 59 in Assists per minute

Conclusion: For as much as he contributed, he just didn't stay on the floor enough. With that crazy FG%, I would have LOVED to see him take a few more, but they may have been forced shots and we had enough of those already....And I would have loved to see more points coming from those frequent trips to the line.

THE UGLY
Ranked 50 of 59 in Fouls per minute
Ranked 43 of 60 in Assist to TO Ratio
Ranked 73 of 80 in FT Shooting %

Conclusion: I can somewhat get past the fouls....he was a bruiser and we had depth at the 5 (O'Mara, Kanter, Hankins, Gaston, Free), and I'm not too concerned when a big that limits his TO's (somewhat) has a poor A/TO ratio because he also doesn't have a lot of assists. But that FT % is a KILLER. He shot 59.6% from the line. His % from the field was 59.5%! ALL players COMBINED shot 71.7% from the line. If he just was at the average, he would have scored 53 more points over his 4 years. Think any of them would have come in handy?

So, the book is closed on Tyrique. He's going down as one of my favorites. Would take a clone of him in a millisecond, and then I'd make him take 1000 FTs a day.

whopper · 04-02-2020, 09:11 AM

excellent analysis and I was most annoyed the past few years about going to Tyrique the first 3 or 4 possessions of the game. Too predictable and it seemed that he would have an offensive foul, a passing turnover, and a couple of forced shots. I would look to him for accidental offense, offensive rebounds, running the court, etc and I can think of a few times his second half was better than the first. He also had a great ability to draw charging fouls. God bless him and Q and I wish them luck in the future.

**UCGRAD4X** · 04-03-2020, 11:16 AM

Originally Posted by whopper

excellent analysis and I was most annoyed the past few years about going to Tyrique the first 3 or 4 possessions of the game. Too predictable and it seemed that he would have an offensive foul, a passing turnover, and a couple of forced shots. I would look to him for accidental offense, offensive rebounds, running the court, etc and I can think of a few times his second half was better than the first. He also had a great ability to draw charging fouls. God bless him and Q and I wish them luck in the future.

Maybe the thinking was, if it worked, great. If it didn't (which as you indicated - not often enough) it would create a false sense of security that they can move out and cover the three and then leave the middle open more consistently. I do realize the flaw in this strategy is that reasonably intelligent opposition coaches would stay with what works until it doesn't and know damn well it doesn't matter if they cover the three or not. But hey, maybe that is the type of decision making that feeds some of the criticism of Travis (I'm looking at you MOR).

Then again, what the hell do I know.

drudy23 · 04-03-2020, 11:21 AM

He was also very dedicated to his physique.

Sato will probably always be #1 there, but Rique may be #2. Impressive frame - his hard work shows.

IM4X · 04-03-2020, 05:08 PM

Very proud of Tyrique. He understood the importance of stepping up your game and becoming a leader.

I feel bad for him though. I feel like others around him let him down (players and coaches). He was the only upperclassman this season truly locked in to working harder and smarter.