Previously: Tyler
Dykstra
When I first decided to check out first half/second half
splits for certain players Haverdink didn’t come to mind. My initial focus was
going to be on a few of the less experienced guys. So I fired off the
first post on Tyler Dykstra* and was going to follow up with Jordan Mast, but
one fact kept gnawing at me while looking through Mast’s numbers: despite
better offensive numbers during the second half of the year, he saw a playing
time reduction.
*The author is keenly
aware that it has been well over two months since that post. Don’t judge him.
This fact didn’t make sense for two reasons. (1) As I stated
above (and will show in a future post), Jordan’s offensive numbers took a big
jump in the second half of the year, and (2) Mitch Vallie and Mickey DeVries
each missed the entire second half of the year and David Rietema missed a few
games as well. These three players don’t fit the exact Jordan Mast archetype,
but you’d think that there would have been some position shifting involved that
would force Mast (who even started four games) into more playing time. But that
didn’t happen; Mast’s per-game average fell from 18 minutes to 14.8 minutes
between the first 13 games and the second 13 games. So, yeah. I didn’t get it
right away.
I didn’t really have a feel for this at the time, but Brian
Haverdink’s minutes soared in the second half of the year. I mean, I knew he
was re-inserted into the starting lineup just a few games into conference play,
but I don’t know that it really struck me that he was getting so many more
minutes than he received during most of the non-conference season. But he
certainly was.
Some Numbers
22 -- Haverdink
|
G
|
GS
|
Min
|
MPG
|
1st Half
|
13
|
5
|
249
|
19.2
|
2nd Half
|
13
|
11
|
341
|
26.2
|
Total
|
26
|
16
|
590
|
22.7
|
Haverdink, who began the year in the starting lineup (and
averaged more than 26 minutes for the first five games), was a victim of the
Thanksgiving weekend rotation shakeup. He was sent to the bench in favor or
Matt DeBoer (among other lineup/rotation moves) and received fewer than 13
minutes per game over the next six games (through the nightmare trip to the
Pacific Northwest).
I can only imagine that this must have been a dark spot for
Haverdink (in his senior year) on a personal level (though this would be pure
speculation on my part), but it was a huge blow to the team as well. I’m not necessarily
talking in the sense that Haverdink was a disappointment to the team (he was
never going to be confused for a scoring champion), but the (somewhat
illogical) hope from many fans (me) was that he was going to morph into a real
three point threat for a team that otherwise had no strong three point options.
Then injury issues happened and eligibility issues happened,
and Haverdink saw his playing time ratchet back up. And he took advantage.
Other Numbers
22 -- Haverdink
|
FG
|
FGA
|
Pct
|
2FG
|
2FGA
|
2 Pct
|
3FG
|
3FGA
|
3 Pct
|
FT
|
FTA
|
FT Pct
|
1st Half
|
16
|
61
|
0.262
|
8
|
27
|
0.296
|
8
|
34
|
0.235
|
6
|
6
|
1.000
|
2nd Half
|
26
|
68
|
0.382
|
8
|
22
|
0.364
|
18
|
46
|
0.391
|
12
|
18
|
0.667
|
Total
|
42
|
129
|
0.326
|
16
|
49
|
0.327
|
26
|
80
|
0.325
|
18
|
24
|
0.750
|
It’s not even the same player. One might turn their nose up
at his .382 field goal percentage (and he still wasn’t all that effective
inside the arc), but key to his second-half success was his stout .391 three
point percentage. His second-half line was good for a .515 effective field goal percentage and 1.07 points per weighted shot. Both of which were above average for the
team last season.
The difference in his offensive numbers from the first half
of the year to the second half equated to nearly three points per game and two fewer
shot attempts; so, since the team scored about one point per shot attempt, you
could figure Haverdink added five points per game to the team with his elevated
play down the stretch.
This is something I completely missed by focusing primarily
on the season stats. Haverdink had dug himself an early hole, so his bottom line
never looked great, but I never stopped to realize that he was a completely
different player in January and February than he was in November and December.
Brian obviously won’t be suiting up for the Knights in
2012-13 so we really can’t take much of this information forward, but I thought
it was important to highlight a senior who elevated his game to help will his
team to a respectable second half finish.
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