The Season in Review: Korie Lucious Edition
This is the second in a series of posts looking at the performance of individual MSU basketball players this past season. Because the end goal is to discuss improvements and/or adjustments that appear to be in order for next season, the series is limited to returning players. Today: Korie Lucious.
Korie Lucious' role was pretty well defined as a freshman: play 5-15 minutes per game backing up Kalin Lucas at point guard. He played more than 15 minutes in a game only twice and scored in double digits just three times.
Given his limited playing time, Lucious' per-game stats aren't all that illuminating:
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(Notes: "Conference Regular Season" includes the Kansas game. 2PM/G = 2-pointers made per game, etc.)
For context, Lucious attempted only 24 two-point shots and 18 free throws in 38 games. There are really only three stats worth analyzing:
- 3-point shooting: Despite averaging only 9 minutes per game, Lucious attempted the fourth most shots from beyond the arc on the team. He showed the ability to get his 3-point shot off even against the tight defense and converted a respectable 35.4% of his 82 long-range attempts.
- Assists: Lucious' ability to get the ball to his teammates in position to score faded as the season progressed. Lucious made some great passes in transition during nonconference play, but his passing suffered in slower-paced Big Ten play.
- Turnovers: Let's go tempo-free here. Lucious had the highest individual turnover rate on the team at 32.0. (Technical note: That figure compensates for how much a player touches the ball and is comparable to team turnover percentage. So anything above 25 is pretty bad.) An assist-turnover ratio barely over 1.0 is not what you want to see out of a point guard, even for a freshman.
Looking ahead to next season, Lucious can expect his playing time to go up considerably. He'll be the only player besides Lucas with experience playing point guard. And you can easily envision Lucas and Lucious playing together on the floor for 10-15 minutes per game, since both can be effective players playing off the ball.
Look for Lucious to make major strides from his first season to his second. Specifically, he'll need to reduce his turnover rate and become a more consistent defender. He showed flashes of being a very good on-the-ball defender this year, but like most freshmen lacked focus at times.
The final three games of the season illustrate Lucious' potential: He scored 20 points in the 28 minutes he played against the three #1 seeds MSU faced to close the NCAA Tournament. If he can harness that scoring ability and become a more efficient ball-handler, it'll make MSU very hard to stop on offense. He'd give Tom Izzo the luxury of having an explosive point guard on the floor for all 40 minutes of every game and create defensve match-up issues for opponents when both he and Lucas are in the lineup.
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Comments
Excited
for KL2 next season. Will he fill Walton’s role of locking down the opponent’s premier scoring guard or will that be Lucas?
I think Lucas is gonna have to be the guy that step up on D to take out the other teams best gaurd
"There are no next times when you're competing for big things." - Tom Izzo
Go Spartans
That's what I was thinking
at first, and could definitely see that happening. But I remember Lucious was quite intense with the in-your-face defense numerous times this past season. Might allow Lucas to focus primarily on running the show on the other end. Regardless, if it’s KL1 or KL2, the defense will be stout.
Yea Korie has the pot but I still think his D would need to make some strides. His game is just so hot or cold. He needs to get more consitant and stronger before I want to see him matched for long periods on top gaurds.
"There are no next times when you're competing for big things." - Tom Izzo
Go Spartans
Confidence
Once Korie gains confidence in the offense as a whole he will (hopefully) stop picking up his dribble immediately after crossing the 5 second line like he did far too often last season. How many of those turnovers came from being stranded out there with nobody available to get him out of trouble? Travis did the same thing as a freshman, so I am not too worried. I am not at all worried about his ability to shoot or the confidence he has in his shot, maybe some of this will rub off on Chris Allen. His man to man defense needs some work, but I trust that Izzo and Co. will address that in the offseason.
I don't see him filling Walton's role
as a shut down perimeter defender, simply due to his lack of height. He may be able to shut down many college-sized point guards, but against a 6’4" shooting guard he’s giving up too much height. I think replacing Walton defensively will be a team effort – Lucas/Lucious will have to step up their D and play the other team’s point guard straight up, and we’ll have to rely on improvements from Summers/Allen against the other team’s shooting guard. We won’t have the luxury of putting one guy on the other team’s best perimeter defender regardless of the position he plays and shutting him down.
I did not track the circumstances that lead to most of Lucious’s turnover issues season long, but in the tournament his main problems seemed to be picking up his dribble in the wrong spots as Gym Rat noted. He had a tendency to pick it up near the free throw line after beginning to drive the lane, which allowed two or three usually bigger players to surround him without getting themselves too far out of position, making it difficult or impossible to get the ball out of there without a turnover.
Hopefully that will be corrected for next year – all he needs is to keep the dribble alive until he either has a good shot or knows where he’s going with the ball. He has a good handle from what I’ve seen – it’s the decision making that needs to improve.

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