I have often written of Ruoff's lack of clutch shooting and ability to make shots against solid defensive teams. That was clearly evident in the last two games. Against a poor DePaul team, Ruoff shot 6 of 9 from 3. Against Louisiville he was 0-4 from the field and 0-2 from 3. He could not get a shot off and when he did it was ugly. The only way WV stayed in the game was by Ruoff getting in foul trouble. WV fell behind early, but the team pulled together with Ruoff sitting on the bench. They actually took the lead in the second half and were either in the lead or a point down when Ruoff returned to the game with five minutes to play. He missed a few shots, but, more importantly, he turned it over several times down the stretch with poor play against the pressure defense. His inability to make big shots against good teams combined with him often taking the big shots against good teams has led me to be pessimistic on the chances of another magical WV tourney run. I think the future is bright with those three freshmen improving and years to come without Ruoff to let them down when they need him most. Here are some final Big East stats to support my position:
Ruoff:
Games against teams finishing ahead of WV 35% from the field 27% from 3
Games against teams finishing behind WV 45% from the field 42% from 3
Rest of the team:
Games against teams finishing ahead of WV 39% from the field 28% from 3
Games against teams finishing behind WV 45% from the field 33% from 3
As you can see, in the tougher games everyone shoots a little worse. However, Ruoff drops 10% from the field and 15% from 3. The rest of the team drops a much more reasonable 6% from the field and 5% from 3. Ruoff is 9% better than the rest of the team from 3 against weaker competition but 1% worse against quality competition. Despite what fluff commentators may say, Ruoff is still primarily a three point stand still shooter. He will try to create but does not do it well. He is better defensively, but still below average. If he cannot stroke the three, he is not helping the team very much. WV's tourney fate will likely be decided by Ruoff's ability to overcome these struggles in his final chance.
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Ruoff's biggest choke job to date, for sure. When Huggins put him back into the game with about 5-6 minutes left, I was actually disappointed. I knew he would try to do too much and he wasn't into the flow of the game at all. I guess he has earned the right to be out there at the end but he really couldn't have played any worse if he was trying to throw the game. I was at the game, and there was a fan who had a sign that said "Ruoff" which turned to "Ruon", when he flipped it over. Sadly, he never did get to flip that sign. The silver lining is the freshman continue to improve and the team will be better in the years to come. Maybe Butler can go back to being a role player next year as well, which is something he is more suited for.
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