Who Will Replace David Padgett?
Posted by frankpos on June 30, 2008
The talent and success of this year’s Card basketball team
coupled with the talent returning
and the abundant promise inherent in a Top 5 recruiting class
has Card fans justifiably euphoric about the possibilities for next season.
But a question continues to nag at my happiness….
Who will replace David Padgett?
I see little worry or discussion on this point out in Card Land. Many fans see the blazing raw talent coming in and figure it can replace a slow white center’s 11points and meager 4 boards a game. Yeah, we all know David was a leader too, but someone will step forward.
After all… how much can his leadership really have been worth?
But …. remember how badly we struggled last year–with all our talent–when David was out for those several games?
How could that have happened? Is it some aberration we need not be concerned about?
So we must ask again… just how much was David’s leadership truly worth?
I’ll show you how much.
The chart below comes courtesy of the newest blogger in the Card universe– Cards Hoops. He’s a Card die hard that lives in Chicago. Ck out his web site –I have added his link above and here for your convenience. http://cardshoops.wordpress.com/
The chart shows the floor percentages of the top eight players who logged in the most minutes over the course of last season.
Floor percentage is the ratio of scoring possessions to total possessions. In other words, it represents the percentage of offensive possessions that result in any kind of score when the player of interest is on the floor.
See the red line that streaks across the top of the graph, far above everyone else’s? That is Padgett’s.
My gut has always told me of David’s importance, but now, thanks to Card Hoops, my brain has finally received verification.
Leadership, court awareness, facilitation of the offense — supreme unselfishness.
And the old school courage to fight through any injury, any pain…. anything.
I believe the burning question now for a big run next year is this:
Who will step forward?
Who will be our next
David Padgett?
Charlie Springer said
No doubt David will be missed for his leadership abilities. I’ve seen Samardo Samuels play and he will be the best big man we’ve seen at U of L in years. Physical talent vs. leadership hopefully balances the scale. There is no quit in Samardo; whereas we had David at best about 10 minutes per half … often only 10 minutes per game. Let’s just hope he’s not foul prone.
frankpos said
Indeed Roz,
indeed…
roz said
There won’t be another David Padgett, Frank. We were lucky there was one. And I know that you KNOW this more than anybody else. He will not be replaced; only subsituted for.
Everyone’s huffin’ about how now we’re gonna have a big inside presence, and we will, but that’s at least partially because none of the tyro’s will ever have the court vision, passing ability, or subtleties of Padgett.
Even as we watched him we all felt how “old school” he was and just breathed-in his ways, and reveled about how he played the game the right way. He made the game beautiful.
As he made another back door pass, if the person sitting by your side were to glance at you quickly, no doubt he would see the beginings of a smile.
Roz