The Low-Usage All-Stars: Scoring isn’t everything
1. Jo Lual-Acuil Jr. – Baylor
(18.6 percent usage, +14.5 points / 100 possessions BPM)
Jo Lual-Acuil (LOO-ahl ah-CHU-ill) Jr. — the big man in the middle for the upstart Baylor Bears, owner of the No. 2 AP ranking and some of the young season’s best wins — rounds out our investigation of the low-usage BPM all stars.
A 7-foot-0, 220 pound junior college transfer from Neosho County Community College, Acuil is making a huge impact in his first season on the court for the Bears. While he was on the roster last year, he sat out the season (and received a medical redshirt) due to a heart issue identified by the medical staff. Healthy (and huge), Acuil has proven a difference maker at the center of Scott Drew’s zone-centric defensive scheme.
The clear difference Lual-Acuil makes is near the rim. Beyond the obvious counting stats (he racked up 11 blocks in his first two games with Baylor, and is currently averaging 3.8 per game, second-best in the country), he provides an enormous deterrent at the rim. Check out the shot charts and hooplens table below.
Baylor is currently missing their games with Oral Roberts, Florida Gulf Coast, VCU, Xavier, and John Brown from the data source.
The defense has been about 10 points per 100 possessions better with Acuil on the floor (the equivalent of taking the defense from about the 85th-best in the country to a top-15 unit in unadjusted efficiency).
He moves his feet very well for a 7-footer, showing the ability to cover the court like this. And whatever his feet can’t take him to, his 7-foot-3 wingspan and 9-foot-5 standing reach cover for. He provides Drew’s defense with an anchor, something that can leverage the most aggressive parts of the scheme without sacrificing too much on the back end.
The biggest benefit of that rim presence is what it enables in the zone. As detailed in this excellent breakdown of Acuil’s early season emergence, his presence allows the Bears to trap more aggressively on the wing to force turnovers and uncomfortable ball movement. It also allows the zone to spread further to the 3-point line and harass perimeter shooters and ball movement. As shown in the tables and charts above, the biggest difference in the defense when Acuil is on the floor is the 3-point percentage. When he’s off the floor, the Bears are letting opponents pour the ball in from deep, to the tune of 37.8 percent. When he’s on the floor, teams are hitting just 25 percent of their 3s — a mark that would be the worst in all of college basketball for a team.
On offense, Acuil has functioned best as a roll man and putback artist. He’s made 38 of his 42 attempts at the rim on the year, good for 90.5 percent. Twenty-eight of those made baskets have been assisted, and eight more have come on a putback attempt after an offensive rebound. While he does have a hook shot he tends to favor as a post move, it really hasn’t been falling so far this year — per hoop-math, he’s made just 17 of 43 attempts classified as – point jumpers, good for 39.5 percent. While it’s an okay mark for the shot classification — D-I average on ‘2-point jumpers’ is about 35.5 percent — it’s not exactly ideal for a Baylor offense currently ranked among the country’s best. He has displayed some touch on his outside shot, hitting 4 of his 9 attempts on the year — but it’s unlikely to be a huge part of his game.
Jo Lual-Acuil Jr.’s breakout season reads as sustainable. He’s currently at a ridiculous 15.4 block percentage, and his size (and place at the back of a zone) won’t just be going away. He would be in double digits in Box Plus-Minus even if we just considered his contributions on the defensive end, and he provides real value on the offensive end with his size and prowess inside. He may even be able to raise his offensive efficiency by trading in a few hook shots for passes back out to the perimeter.