Player Ratings: Maui Invitational

Welcome back to the KU player ratings. This time we’re changing it up a bit and rating the players based on their entire performance in the Maui Invitational.

Please keep in mind that these ratings are just the thoughts of one person and are certainly up for debate, so if you have a beef, you know where the comments section is located.

Here’s the scale:

10 - Magical, extraterrestrial, godlike

9 - Outstanding, truly fantastic, utterly brilliant

8 - Great, excellent

7 - Good

6 - Slightly above average, close to ‘Good’

5 - Slightly below average

4 - Poor

3 - Terrible

2 – Disastrous

KU scored at will in the first two games, but had a stiffer challenge in the championship game against Vanderbilt. But after a slow start, KU got cooking, both offensively and defensively, and closed out the tournament with a championship trophy.

I am giving the players a score in each of the games and then a composite score over the course of the entire tournament. And because Chaminade is not very good, I decided not to just add the scores together and divide by three. It didn’t seem fair. And again, these ratings are arbitrary, so please keep that in mind.

Starters:

Frank Mason: Chaminade 7, UCLA 8, Vanderbilt 7. TOTAL: 7.5. Had a nice game against Chaminade, but dominated UCLA. To go with his 16 points, he had seven assists and no turnovers while forcing two steals. Had a solid game against Vandy and solidified why we all love him: solid drives, good dishes, and a great leader.

Wayne Selden: Chaminade 7, UCLA 8, Vanderbilt 9. TOTAL: 8. When Wayne Selden settles down, he’s a pretty good basketball player. The first half KU played against UCLA was their best half in a long time and Wayne was a big part of that, scoring 12 of his 15 before the break, and if it wasn’t for Wayne, the first half against Vandy would’ve been a disaster. Keep playing like this, and KU could go a long way.

Devonte’ Graham: Chaminade 7, UCLA 7, Vanderbilt 7.5. TOTAL: 7. The Chaminade game was just what Grahama needs to bounce back from a horrific performance against Michigan State. His game against UCLA was composed and he didn’t force things. He was KU’s second best player in the championship game, scoring 12 points on 3-5 shooting from downtown.

Perry Ellis: Chaminade 7, UCLA 9, Vanderbilt 4. TOTAL: 7. Perry did whatever he wanted against UCLA. Whatever. He. Wanted. The first half was as dominant a scoring performance as we’ve seen from a KU player since Wiggins against West Virginia. Perry wasn’t very good in the title game and had trouble with Vandy’s size. He did come up big late in the game to grab a crucial rebound to maintain possession.

Jamari Traylor Chaminade 5, UCLA 6, Vanderbilt 6. TOTAL: 6. Foul trouble and an effective Landen Lucas limited Jamari in the Chaminade game. Brought the energy again against UCLA. The stats don’t jump out at you in the Vandy game either, but Jamari was active down low against the never-ending parade of big guys the Commodores threw out there.

Bench:

Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk: Chaminade 9, UCLA 6, Vanderbilt 5. TOTAL: 7. Hopefully, the Chaminade game was Svi’s coming out party. He was 6-11 from three in that game but they all looked good when they left his hands. He kept shooting against UCLA but they weren’t falling. Svi didn’t get as many chances against Vanderbilt, but he took it to the hole with power a few times. The kid has confidence.

Landen Lucas: Chaminade 8, UCLA 5, Vanderbilt 5 TOTAL: 6. Landen Lucas scored a double-double against the Silver Swords and did all the things that you’d want him to do against lesser competition. Against Vandy, you got a little good Lucas and little bad Lucas. He had a nice tournament.

Carlton Bragg: Chaminade 7, UCLA 6, Vanderbilt 6. TOTAL: 7. I really like Bragg’s game, and he quietly filled up the stat sheet in the first game with nine points and six boards in 12 minutes. Against UCLA, he brought energy. Carlton got some quality minutes at the end of the Vanderbilt contest. He needs more minutes, in my opinion, but at the expense of who?

Hunter Mickelson: Chaminade 7, UCLA 4 Vanderbilt 5. TOTAL: 5.5. Hunter made the most of his minutes against Chaminade and scored 11 points in 12 minutes. Mickelson came on in the first half against Vandy and looked like an immediate improvement on Jamari and Landen, but then failed to impress (and play very much) after that. Hoisting that long shot against UCLA and again against Vanderbilt takes him down a notch.

LaGerald Vick: Chaminade 6, UCLA N/A, Vanderbilt N/A. TOTAL: N/A. It was good to see Vick out there playing significant minutes against Chaminade. The kid is still raw.