Whats up with his playing time/games started? Stats look great
Followed him nearly all year. What a weird season for this upstart d1 program. The roster construction was odd.
They had a ton of seniors and the lineup usually had 3 or 4 of them starting. They had a returning defensive first smaller guard who was a sophomore who started twenty games as a freshmen. Then a true freshman guard started twenty games as well. Giving these guys 20 starts is pivotal for team chemistry, personal performance, and for their ability to transfer up in the future.
It appears Billy Gillespie and Dior had an agreement that he would be the sixth man then finish games. That was working well. All the non-seniors are trying to eventually transfer to a bigger school and go pro; and none of them, including the seniors, had the talent or name recognition of Dior. So he doesn’t really need to start. He played the most minutes in most of his games.
At these small d1 schools there can be friction/static with a guy so good as Dior and the team still isn’t good enough to win. He got injured at one point so he missed a few games; but after he was already leading the nation in scoring, he had a few December games where he didn’t play as much because the team was up big & there was no need for him.
I’m not completely sure what happened next. About the middle of january, billy Gillespie has a major health problem and steps away from the team. He is gone for the next month and half. After Billy goes, the new coach wasn’t playing Dior as much in competitive games & the team started losing. If you look at the game on 12/29; billy doesn’t coach that night and Dior only plays 9 minutes. So when Billy starts his indefinite leave, he kinda already knows what to expect.
Maybe he shut it down, maybe he was actually injured — who knows. But he doesn’t play until it’s announced Billy G won’t return as the coach while the team finishes the regular season before their conference tournament. So he played the last ~5 games of the year. I cant recall if Billy G ever returned but I believe he did not.
He is a Kyrie Irving level scorer. Johnnie Dawkins would’ve won more games if he played more. But the good news is that Dior accepted a bench role where he had spotty playing time & didn’t get in any major trouble; which is showing maturity.
He has some defensive challenges obviously; but he is going to be a top ten scorer in the country again next year. He was Legit unguardable this past season; sophomore allen iverson at Georgetown-esque. His highest scoring and most efficient game was against Baylor; 42 points on 17/24 shooting.
