Michigan State Basketball: Team USA Pan American Games Stats

From July 21-25, Denzel Valentine played on Team USA during the Pan American Games in Toronto. Team comprised of both college stars and former NBA players now playing overseas. Because I was unable to find a full list of the stats, I compiled the box scores together to make the charts below.

Totals

Per 36 minutes

Valentine wasn't out there for particularly long but he made the most of his minutes. He had the highest points per 36 and he was efficient with a 62.2% true shooting percentage. His rebounding numbers were solid, his turnover rate was pretty typical Valentine, but the surprising number was his low assist numbers. I saw a few of the games and his style of play was different in that he didn't have the ball in his hands as much so playmaking for others wasn't really his role. He went out, made some shots, defended, and grabbed some rebounds.

A thing that's nice to see is that his 3P% and FT% were good indicating that last year's percentages were legitimate improvements rather than fluke and that his shooting excellence from last year is something we can expect for next year.

In general it was the former NBA players (Randolph, Wilkins, Brown) that led the way but Prince, Baker and Valentine were helpful in their time out there.

(I made and tweeted out these charts a couple weeks ago but didn't make a post thinking only weird hoops junkies like me would care about them)

Looking Ahead

Michigan State's trip to Italy runs from August 21 - September 1 where they play a game in Florence on August 25th (the report on it doesn't specify against whom) and then a 3-day tournament against the national teams from Italy, Russia, and Georgia. One aspect I like about this is that they're going to be playing against at least somewhat high level teams and we may consequentially have better data to evaluate from. However, I have no clue how good the opposing teams are or if those countries are sending their best players. If those teams don't send their best, I would advise you to take the stats with a grain of salt.

The two stats I'm personally going to be looking for are:

• 3P% and 3PA's per game (To see who's comfortable shooting them and who has Izzo's blessing to shoot them. Looking at you Bess, Nairn, and Davis)
• Assists per game (To roughly see who the playmakers are. Looking at you Harris and Bess)

(I'm high on Bess)