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I was at the Sheboygan Lutheran-Oostburg game tonight to do an assignment for Basketball II and to check out Sam Dekker. Lutheran lost 63-54, so Oostburg remains undefeated. It was tied 42-all at the end of the 3rd and Oostburg padded the final score by draining 7 of their last 8 free throws.

Sam has had better games, but he ended with (by my count) 32 points, 12 boards (2 offensive), 6 assists, 2 steals, and 1 block. Unfortunately, he also had 8 turnovers, 5 in the first half. He also struggled from deep, hitting 2 of 12 bombs. But he was six of seven inside the arc with a thunderous dunk-and-one. He also hit 15 of 17 free throws, but it was officially 14 of 16 due to a lane violation.

Overall, he looks like the real deal. He could have had quite a few more assists, but to put it nicely, his supporting cast is below average. He can finish well, has a decent handle for his size with both hands, and is used to running the point and playing a pick and roll as the ball handler. His shot looks good, although he leans forward a bit too much like Valentyn... enough that on most of his free throws, he has to lean his head and shoulders back to make sure he doesn't cross the line. I couldn't get a great read on his defensive ability since they switched defenses a lot and he was allowed to float a bit to block shots and grab rebounds.

Due to the poor play of his counterparts (29.6% from the floor), pretty much every time he stepped inside the arc he was double- or triple-teamed. He was still able to weave his way to the basket and score quite a few times though. Of his 8 turnovers, I'd venture to guess 4 or 5 of them were travels from slipping on the court. But he was hardly the only turnover machine in the game. Another guy on his team had 5 turnovers, the point guard for Oostburg had 5, and the off guard for Oostburg had 6. All in all, there were 34 turnovers between the two teams. Lutheran tried to speed the game up on their press break, which resulted in some easy baskets for them, including Dekker's and-one dunk, but also errant passes. It added up to a 64-possession game, which would be an 80-possession in 40 minutes. He also played all but the final 3.7 seconds of the game.

His tempo-free stat line for the game looks something like this...
Possession Usage: 53.1%
Shot Usage: 41.3%
Off Efficiency: 94.1
Turnover Rate: 23.5%
2PT: 85.7%
3PT: 16.7%
FT: 87.5%
FT Rate: 8.42
Assist Rate: 37.5%
Def Reb Rate: 32.1%
Off Reb Rate: 6.1%
Steal Rate: 3.1%
Block Rate: 5.3%

The only unimpressive numbers here are the turnovers, 3-point shooting, and, in turn, efficiency. If he hits his average from 3, it turns the efficiency into a very respectable 120.6.