Heard the same about too many players before their JR or SR years to make a judgement. You go back to just our last two teams and I can name MT, Burton and Nader that made huge jumps. I think NWB has shown more all around game than Matt or Abdel at a similar point in their careers.
Matt was a 4.9ppg at 33% 3 his SO year in 15.3 min.
Nader was a 5.8ppg at 22% 3 his JR year in 16.4 min.
Burton went from 9.7ppg to 15.1.
NWB at 4.0ppg and 31% from 3 his SO year in 16.5 min.
All of these guys were putting time in the gym to improve their games. We have heard a lot about guys like Ejim, Niang and Mitrou-Long setting that culture and keeping it going. Will be interesting to see who the leaders by example are this offseason.
While Matt's increase in 3PT% was remarkable, what jumped his sophomore to junior year was his defense. If he wasn't streak shooting as a sophomore, then he came off the floor. As a junior after almost shutting out the skinny Hawkeye in the second half by getting up in his business, he became not only not a liability, but actually a strength. That kept him on the floor so his rebounding went up. The other dramatic change was he increase his FT% almost 20 percentage points.
Nadar's increase in shooting from distance was remarkable, yet what impressed me more was his decision making improved. Through his junior season and start of the senior season, he would get at least one or two charges a game. Seemed like he was getting stronger so didn't foul as much on defense so was able to be in the game more at crunch time, but he always had the scorer's mentality.
With Burton, you could see the athletic talent, but like Nadar would have stupid fouls that cut into his minutes. Certainly his outside shot improved as a senior, but I thought his ability to drive with more control without the obvious charges was a big change like Nadar. I still held my breath on his fade aways though.