Michigan State Basketball: Second Annual B1G Most Improved Offensive Player Award

Last year I created the extremely official and totally legitimate B1G's most improved offensive player award which you can check out here which also includes a top 5 for every year since 2004-05.

The Results

Easy way to put it, upper right is good, lower left is bad. Being above the line means they did well in their new role relative to other players and their new role. Nigel Hayes in the bottom right increased his role by a good amount (+5.9% was the second highest) but that also came with some struggles as his offensive rating decreased by from a terrific 123.8 to a pedestrian 103.6. Oddly enough if you check out last year's article, Hayes' numbers almost completely flipped due to the team needing him to take on a larger role. The three eligible Spartans placed in the top 10 by my improvement "score" with Valentine (4th), Forbes (5th), and Costello (10th).

Congrats to Brandon Taylor for winning my very prestigious most improved player award. Taylor increased his usage more than any eligible player while also increasing his offensive rating by just under 10 (wasn't great to begin with but still impressive. Webster similarly wasn't overly effective but a marginal increase in usage with an increase of 20 in ORtg is still nothing to scoff at. Jok is a bit interesting because although he's a different style of player, he made a jump similar to what Valentine did between his sophomore and junior year. While I wouldn't expect him to make the second huge leap that Valentine did as a senior, he's my dark horse guy for a huge senior year as he had similar numbers to Buddy Hield's junior year and Iowa loses 4 senior starters. It might be hard for him to increase his efficiency by much but the shots will be there for the taking and his raw averages could end up pretty impressive. Valentine and Forbes improved efficiency and increased role but I'm sure you all knew that.