Diante Garrett – Iowa State PG

I watched Diante for his entire college career almost every game he’s played in, and he *definitely* improved his game in his senior season.  Without a doubt, there was a huge difference.  There is more than meets the eye about all of this too.

His first few years,  many times I thought "Oh god, pass the ball please" when he had the ball unless he was having a GREAT night because he appeared pretty inconsistent, turnover prone, and had trouble finishing around the hoop.  When you’d see his summer league game videos or even back to his HS/AAU videos, he was completely different.  He could pretty much score at will, get to the hoop easily, finish, etc which is why he was a Rival Top150 coming out of high school (Top 20 for PG position).   When you got to the games that counted at ISU his first few years, he was different.  He would turn the ball over, couldn’t finish, etc. He looked nervous for some reason in games.

A lot of this had to do with the old coach and his system actually.  This wasn’t just a Diante Garrett thing, it was a 95% of the team thing.  The coach his first few years, Greg McDermott, boasted a playbook of hundreds of plays.  People thought he was a genius for this, but not really. Every single possession was a set play and players were never allowed to play freely in the least bit unless it was an exhibition game.  I believe there were so many set plays the players had to learn, they would get confused hence many turnovers and confusion.  Not just Garrett, but many players would do something they shouldn’t i.e. making a cut the wrong way..ALL THE TIME. Very apparent of "confusion" brought on by this.  They were almost never allowed to play freely.  Because of this they compensated and gave Craig Brackins the ball a lot of the time, because he was good enough in the post (high pct shot) that he could make them pretty well. It worked.

During Greg McDermott’s tenure at ISU, MANY players transferred.  Why? Part of the reason was because McDermott was a hot head.  He yelled at players that they actually became scared and afraid of making mistakes during a game.  Very apparent of almost everybody on the team.  I am not joking either.  I believe over 1 in every 3 players to ever play for McDermott transferred or quit the team.  One guy even quit basketball all together even though he was decent and semi-highly recruited out of HS. He could have easily transferred to another decent program, but didn’t because the coach turned him off so much to the game.  

Remember Wes Johnson for Syracuse, the guy who was a lottery pick? Oh right, he played for Greg McDermott for two years.  He didn’t transfer because "hey Syracuse wants me and Syracuse is AWESOME," it was because he injured his ankle and McDermott was such a d-bag to him, he’d tell Johnson he was lying about his ankle.  He would make Johnson play on basically a broken/sprained ankle which was completely ridiculous.  Can you blame him for transferring? No.  Oh right too, Johnson improved his game a lot once he got a better coach, so much he became a lottery pick.  Just saying.

Now, Fred Hoiberg came in and right away they pretty much got along.  Fred is a lot more easy going and from day one said they would play up-tempo and free.  Completely opposite of what McDermott’s system was and what most players, especially Garrett, was used to already.  Hoiberg, having played at ISU and having watched DG his entire career too as an ISU fan, noticed an improvement with the system.

No, Hoiberg did not give Garrett free reign because he had a lack of talent around him his senior season. That is false.  Actually there was talent around him, just not enough to pull out tons of Big 12 wins.  Scott Christopherson, a transfer from Marquette and former Wisconsin Mr. Basketball, averaged almost 14 points/game last year while shooting 44% from 3 point range. Jake Anderson, a four year starter at Northern Illinois (who averaged 17 points/game in his juinor year there), scored 13 points/game for ISU.  Jamie Vanderbeeken put in 11 points/game and Melvin Ejim put in another 10 points/game.  That’s four players other than Garrett last year averaging double figures per game.

Yes, Iowa State finished 3-13 in Big 12, but 7 of those losses were decided by 6 points or less including another loss in OT by 9 points.  They could have easily gone 11-3 if they actually knew how to finish out games because most of those losses by 6 points or less had ISU leading with 3 minutes left in the game.  The 9 point OT loss, ISU blew a 10 point lead with under 2 minutes to play. So again, to say there was no talent in his senior season is completely false.  

You can look at all the stats you want and a few games’ videos here and there, but as someone who watched him his entire career almost every game he played in, I can tell you this guy improved a ton. Yeah he’s probably not going to be a superstar, but as far as improvement and game goes, yeah.  I know you like him, but he is a lot better than most people give him credit for.