Report Card 2016: Jalen Rhea

Photo credit: American University Sports Information

THE NUMBERS

Minutes
MPG: 16.6
% Minutes: 29.2

Offense
Points: 4.3 ppg
O-rating: 99.7
E-FG: 46.5%
Two-point shooting: 33%
3-point shooting: 33.8%
FT shooting: 66.7%
Turnover rate: 10%

Defense
Rebounding: 1.2 rpg
Defensive reb %: 4.7%
Steals: 0.5 spg

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STRENGTHS
The biggest takeaway is that Rhea went from a player at the beginning of the season who couldn’t find the net and shot with little confidence to a key cog in the rotation during the Eagles’ two winning streaks that turned the team’s season around. When AU was playing well, Rhea — coming off the bench — was usually a part of it. Consider this:

Rhea minutes per game
AU wins he played in: 22.1
AU losses he played in: 14.3

Those numbers exclude the nine games Rhea didn’t play in (five DNPs and four after he suffered a concussion diving along the sideline against Colgate Jan. 30). The Eagles were 3-6 in those games. They make it pretty clear that Rhea made the Eagles better when playing well. And that meant him making 3s.

Rhea shot the same from beyond the arc as from two, 33%, but took three times as many attempts from deep (65 to 21). His role on the team was simpler than anyone else’s — make shots. It took him a while, but once he did, Rhea became an absolute zone killer — particularly from the corner against the 1-3-1. Navy tried that look Jan. 27, and Rhea’s 5-8 shooting from downtown was the difference in a surprising Eagles road win against one of the league’s best teams at the time.

Jalen Rhea 3-point shooting splits
AU wins: 17-32
AU losses:  5-33
Pre-Navy game: 6-38
Navy game & after: 16-27

Rhea’s jarring shooting splits can be attributed to a couple factors. One, which coach Mike Brennan mentioned throughout the season’s first months, was learning to play with the younger guys. Passes weren’t always to his chest. Defenders didn’t sag off. He often caught the ball away from his comfort spots. Secondly, though, Rhea got a lot of open looks and just missed them. Not getting anything from Rhea until the end of the season’s third month was a reason the Eagles simply couldn’t keep up offensively with opponents.

Credit to Rhea for sticking with it, continuing to shoot, and finding his stroke to help American on its impressive season-ending run.

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ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
This is tricky, because Rhea epitomizes role player for the Eagles. Asking him to modify his game or make drastic changes as a senior isn’t fair or realistic. The 6-foot-2 guard is who he is, mostly. But don’t get me wrong — Rhea improving is going to play an integral role in the success of the 2016-17 team:

Free-throw shooting: 66% (14-21) isn’t good enough for such a smooth shooter. Rhea should be one of the team’s top three at the line and a late-game guy.

Ballhandling: Rhea’s good 10% turnover rate belies the fact that he’s still shaky with the ball. I know he doesn’t handle it much, but if he’s out there in crunch time he might be thrust in positions where he needs to.

Defense: This is the  area that kept Rhea on the bench for long stretches of early season games and even out entirely for full games. Rhea is not the quickest lateral defender and when he loses focus that means getting burnt and layups for the opponent. But he improved throughout the year and the effort was always there. Another summer of conditioning, and Rhea can be an average to good defender as a senior.

He also needs to become a better rebounder (see below).

Defensive rebounding rate for Patriot League guards 6-foot-2 or shorter (who played at least 40% of available minutes)
Zack Rufer, 13.4%
Alex Ramon, 11.4%
Andre Walker, 10.4%
Stephen Brown, 9.7%
Austin Tillotson, 9.6%
Kyle Foreman, 9.4%
Bryce Scott, 9.3%
Tillman Dunbar, 8.8%
Cullen Hamilton, 8.5%
Anthony Thompson, 8.5%
James Washington, 7.8%
Kahron Ross, 7.2%
…
Jalen Rhea, 4.7%

Leadership: With Jesse Reed and Marko Vasic gone, there’s once again a leadership void that needs to be filled. Charlie Jones and Rhea will be the longest-tenured active seniors on next year’s team — Paris Maragkos and Leon Tolksdorf will be seniors in their second year of eligibility with the program — and regardless of whether he’s on the court or not, Rhea will need to develop into an emotional leader for a team whose core will still be among the youngest in the Patriot League.

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GRADE: B-

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QUOTABLE
“I think it’s just in our offense where I happen to end up and drives come and the defense collapses and Jesse and Charlie and Delante and everybody are able to find me somehow in the corner and I just happen to be right there in the corner. I’m gonna keep shooting them, I know they’ll keep finding me. I don’t know what it is about the corner, but I’m going to try to stay close to the corner.”

— Jalen Rhea, Feb. 24, after making 3-4 from 3 in AU’s 72-65 home win over Navy

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QUICK TAKE
The season had two halves for Rhea, and can almost be categorized as pre- and post-concussion (although pre- and post-first Navy game is more accurate). The most interesting thing to watch next year is whether A) Rhea will move into the starting lineup (doubtful) and; B) How Rhea will fit into the rotation when Brennan inevitably plays Sa’eed Nelson at point guard and James Washington off the ball. That lineup will be too small to also include Rhea, so expect him most likely to be the fourth guard for the Eagles behind those two and Delante Jones, who will also play some three.

Also expect Rhea to feel more comfortable in AU’s offense during the season’s first three months and have a more balanced season.

Quotes: Mike Brennan and players talk win over Navy

Mike Brennan and players Jesse Reed and Jalen Rhea spoke to the media after American’s 72-65 win over Navy, the Eagles’ third consecutive victory to boost their record to 10-18, 8-9 in the Patriot League.

MIKE BRENNAN

On the 17-0 run in the second half
“I think we were just being more aggressive going to the basket in the second half and then Jesse made a couple shots that are just — step-back 3 with a guy all over him, it’s like he makes that and they drew up something against our zone where they got an open look and they just didn’t go in. Sometimes you just gotta be lucky where you make some shots and they miss some shots. That could be the difference. But our guys were just a little more aggressive in the second half.”

On switching to the 2-3 zone
“They were going inside and everyone’s about to foul out trying to guard the guy (Will Kelly). We haven’t played zone in a while so we tried it for a possession, looked OK, they called the timeout — they got that wide-open shot. They got open shots, they just missed against the zone. So that’s why it worked.”

Even a month ago is team capable of this kind of comeback?
“Yeah I told them that. That’s a heck of a thing to be down 14 and to be at this point of the season and to muster up the energy to fight back. I don’t think — a month ago we didn’t have the confidence to get something like that or just the experience. So it’s a big growth step for all of us.”

On late offense
“We were just trying to get stuff going to the basket, post-ups — we were posting up a few different guys, post up Jesse, post up Marko, post up Delante and then we got some drives too. It wasn’t just launching threes. With Jesse and Delante, pick and choose, and Charlie got a couple big drives too. And Jalen at the end of the drives sometimes we had to kick it out and we were able to make some shots off that stuff.”

On Delante’s fourth foul and him needing to realize value to team
“Yeah, absolutely. You’d rather give up the two, have Delante out there, but that’s another thing that he has to learn, get used to, he’s trying to defend, he’s trying to make a play on the ball. That’s something that a veteran — a veteran would be able to make that play and make that determination.”

On the back and forth, unpredictable nature of the Patriot League
“Yeah, I mean every team’s equal. Every team plays really hard, they run their stuff, they’re well-coached at this point in the season, everyone knows what the other team’s gonna do. So it’s just a matter of just toughness. They were driving by us and they were finishing a lot of their drives and we weren’t — I think we stopped their drives with the zone a little bit so that helped us a lot but at this point in the season it’s just make shots, get rebounds, play harder each possession, stuff that coaches say all the time.”

On what’s been the biggest key in winning 8 of 11
“Obviously Delante and Jesse are scoring points but I think everybody’s contributing on a given night. I mean we don’t know — we need something from everybody, Andrija got two big rebounds in the last few minutes there, Jalen comes in and makes some big 3s, and Charlie just gives you what he gives you every night. So you just need everybody to be ready at any given time.”

On Jesse’s progression this season and finding the balance of looking for his offense vs. creating for others
“I give Jesse a ton of credit. He’s been so consistent throughout the year and it was tough early on when I’m telling him, ‘Pass the ball, pass the ball,’ because he’s wired to score and he feels like, ‘I can score.’ But he’s gotten much better as a passer, and that’s allowed these other guys to contribute and help him. So I think for him, for his game to sort of expand the way it has this year, it’s just a testament to him and what he does on a daily basis in practice. It’s hard to change your game but still have the scoring. He’s done that.”

On Delante shooting 70% at the rim, getting to the free-throw line frequently and showing poise like on the game-winning possession vs. Holy Cross
“He’s got a good feel for the game, good knack for when to drive, he’s usually pretty much under control when he drives. (If) he gets cut off, he doesn’t sort of — he’s got a counter. But he’s just a good player and I thought he was — teams are playing us a little harder (on perimeter), so it’s a little difficult to maybe pick and choose your spots. I think he was trying to drive a few times when he shouldn’t have but him and Jesse have found a good balance. We need them to score, we need them to be aggressive, we need them trying stuff — so if they have a few turnovers here and there trying to do stuff, you’ve got to live with that because those are the guys who’ve gotta make plays.”

More on the Patriot League and AU having a legitimate chance in the Patriot League tournament
“Everybody can beat everybody, we’ve known that. So we’re just trying not to be the one to get beat. I mean, that’s about it.”

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Is team capable of this kind of comeback even a month ago?
JESSE
“I mean I think we’ve grown a lot on the court and off the court. Our chemistry’s been great. We’re starting to learn how to play for each other and fight for each other, dig in a little more. It just comes with experience. I don’t know if a month ago we’d be able to pull that off; I don’t know if yesterday we’d be able to pull that off. But today we dug deep and we found a way.”

JALEN
“I think it’s a just a matter of playing together and everything coming together. We practice it every day and just waiting for that time for the pieces to fall together.”

On holding Navy without a basket for 6 minutes down the stretch
JALEN
“Just communicating and being there. When somebody gets beat, trying to help our teammates out and once they put a shot up, just rebounding and boxing out and making sure that we got the ball back and we’re ready to go down and get a good shot on offense.”

On holding Will Kelly (22 points) without a point the last nine minutes
JESSE
“That’s tough to do. I don’t know how to explain that one.”

On going to the 2-3 zone. What did coach say about going to the zone?
JESSE
“I mean, he didn’t really say why — he just said, ‘Run 2’ and we just stuck with it. At first he said, ‘Run 2 for one possession,’ and once we got a stop he was like, ‘All right, stay in it.’ Yeah, my guess was (to) try to neutralize them down low, we were getting beat up pretty bad down low and we couldn’t really guard their post that well. So kind of packing it in a little bit and making it a little harder for them to catch the ball or get good position I think really helped us a lot.”

Jesse, are you thinking about fact that games are winding down your senior season?
“Nah, I’m staying in the moment. I’m just trying to enjoy each day as it comes. I’ll think about it being my senior year after I’m done, but right now we got games to play, we got practices to go through. I’m just trying to enjoy ’em as they come each and every day.”

How important was getting dribble penetration late in the game?
JESSE
“Yeah, our offense works great whenever we’re working inside-out instead of just hanging around the perimeter. A lot of us were making good drives and finding guys wide open for shots. Jalen was able to come in and give us a spark — really knock down some big shots to help us get back in it. Just working inside-out really helps us a lot instead of just staying on the perimeter.”

On being a game from finishing .500 in the league after starting 0-6
JALEN
“It just comes back to coach Brennan telling us he’s not going to judge us by wins and losses. It’s just a matter of if we’re getting better every day and I think the games down the stretch attest to that, that we just do what we practice, we’re trying to win games and it’s working out for us.”

On how good Jalen is shooting from the corners. What is it about those spots?
JALEN
“I think it’s just in our offense where I happen to end up and drives come and the defense collapses and Jesse and Charlie and Delante and everybody are able to find me somehow in the corner and I just happen to be right there in the corner. I’m gonna keep shooting them, I know they’ll keep finding me. I don’t know what it is about the corner, but I’m going to try to stay close to the corner.”

Jesse on if at all playing his final games as a senior is in back of mind and playing like it
JESSE
“I mean it’s hard not to think about but I just focus on hanging with these guys every day. I know the days are numbered so I’m really just trying to make the most of it. I’m not really thinking about, ‘This is my last game here, this is my last game there.’ It’s more of just enjoying each and every day as they come and if unfortunately it does come to an end, I’ll worry about that when the times comes. But until then I’m just gonna enjoy having fun with my brothers.”

On feeling confident beating anyone in the league with tournament just around the corner
JALEN
“Yeah I think the Patriot League, it’s pretty much just whoever’s night it is, it’s pretty even. If it happens to be our night, I think we can make a run. We’ll just have to wait and see.”

1.10.16 — Talking rotations, freshmen vs. experience

Sam’s busy getting heat for his new Chicago digs, but Dave and Jake are here to dive deep into what’s plaguing the Patriot League’s lone winless team and are also joined by a pair of Eagles legends on Alumni Day at Bender Arena.

0:00-42:42 — Dave and Jake talk Eagles rotation, struggles.
42:42-52:25 — Dave interview with Garrison Carr, Jake interview with Patrick Doctor
52:25 — Patriot League talk, closing thoughts

Listen above or below or subscribe on iTunes.

11.8.15 — Massive 2015-16 season preview

The season is 5 days away, and the fellas break down every aspect of the Eagles; predict every game; make Patriot League prognostications; and much more.

Listen above or below or subscribe on iTunes.