Today’s Bearcats Breakdown is about Yancy Gates. Yancy is going to be a gigantic part of this upcoming season, as he’s going to have to be the man. UC needs him to be what all the hype said he was, and more. Yancy is going to finally have some company up front, with Ibby Thomas, and the new guys, and we are finally going to see if he is everything we hoped he would be when he decided to stay home and play for Mick Cronin.
Scoring
Yancy Gates averaged 10.3 points per game. That was slightly down from his freshman effort of 10.5. Gates averaged 2 more minutes a game, making his output look a little worse. Keep in mind that UC played 3 more games this past season. Gates had his possessions cut down, getting 21% of UC shots. His offensive rating was 107.3, up 4 points from his freshman year, and 54th in the Big East. Gates effective fg % was 52, and his true shooting % was 53, both up 4% from his freshman season. Gates was 155/297 for 52% shooting. He took a handful less shots this season. He was 53/90 at the foul line for a horrible 59%. That was consistent with his free throw rate from his first season. It’s safe to say that next season, Yancy Gates has to step up his offensive production. He also needs to stop shooting 15 footers from the wing, because he can’t shoot and it drives me insane.
Yancy Gates posted his career high this season in the 74-69 win over DePaul. Gates scored 23 points on 11-15 shooting. Gates scored 18 in the Crosstown Shootout. He dominated Maryland with 17 points in 29 minutes on 7-11 shooting. Gates scored 16 points four times, and UC was 3-1 in those games. He did it against Vandy in Maui on 7-13 in 25 minutes, against Winthrop on 6-10 in 25 minutes, Louisville in the Big East Tournament, and the loss to Pitt where he had his best game of the season. Gates was having a big game against Marquette, 14 on 6-9, but for some reason didn’t crack the bench down the stretch and in overtime as UC lost. Gates had a couple of plays called for him to win games. UC went for a lob to Gates against Gonzaga, where Gates was clearly fouled but there was no call. More successfully, UC called another lob inside to Gates against Notre Dame. The picture up top is of Gates putting the ball in the basket for that UC victory.
Gates also had games where he vanished. Lipscomb and Cal St Bakersfield shouldn’t really count against him, but they do. He played 14 minutes in those games and had 2 points. Gates had no cause to be invisible against Dayton (2), at South Florida where no one showed up (5), UAB, where no one showed up either (7), and Georgetown (7). Gates sucked hard against UConn, where he had 14 points in the two meetings.
Rebounding
Rebounding is where I had the biggest issue with Mr Gates. Gates averaged 5.9 rebounds a game, which is absolutely terrible for your big man. Gates pulled in 2.5 offensive rebounds, 11% of UC’s total o boards. That was down from 13.5%. Gates pulled in 3.4 defensive rebounds, 15.2%, which was down from 16%. Rebounds are about wanting the ball, and all too often, it appeared that Yancy Gates did not want the ball. The motor for Yancy Gates can fire, but it also can go stagnant, which it seemed to all too often.
Gates had his best rebounding game against Pitt, where he pulled down 14 to go with his 16 points. Gates had 4 other double digit rebounding games. He had 13 big ones, 6 offensive, in the win over the Irish to go with 11 points. He had 13 to go with his 17 points against Maryland. He had 10, 5 offensive, with his 16 points against Vandy. The other 10 rebound game was against Prairie View in the season opener. Clearly Yancy Gates had the desire to rebound in November. Once the calender turned, his fire burnt out.
Gates had his worst rebounding day against West Virginia, where in 20 minutes he had as many rebounds as you or I, 0. Gates had 2 in the South Florida win, and 3 in the South Florida loss, as he was dominated by Jarrid Famous. Gates had 3 boards in the Toledo, and first UConn victories, as well as the Marquette loss. He had 4 against Miami and Dayton. Gates shockingly had 5 games where he didn’t gather a defensive rebound. UC won just 1 of those games, the South Florida game, where Gates played 10 minutes. The others were against WVU, Syracuse, Marquette, and again against South Florida. He had 0 defensive rebounds against the Bulls. Unreal.
Blocks
No one is going to get Gates confused with Kenyon Martin or Eric Hicks, but Gates picked up a few blocks. Most of them early in the season. He blocked 4 against Miami, and 4 more against Pitt. Gates blocked 30 shots this season. But he only blocked 13 in 2010. To get deeper into the numbers, he blocked 6 after January, 2 against Marquette and 2 against Weber State being the highs.
Other
Gates doubled his number of assists. He had 30, compared to 14. He dropped 4 against Toledo. Gates had 20 steals, with 3 of them coming against Weber State. Gates turned the ball over 48 times, which accounted for 15% of UC turnovers.
Overall
Yancy Gates’ sophomore season has to be chalked up as a disappointment. He was supposed to be part of the big 3 for UC along with Vaughn and Stephenson, but he didn’t perform up to that level. Anthony Bufford and Lance McAlister went on record wondering if you could win with Gates on your team. That has to be motivation for 34 this season to make the leap. Getting back to this past season, Gates would probably have been the biggest UC disappointment if Deonta Vaughn didn’t fall off a cliff production wise. Gates was outshined down the stretch by Ibrahima Thomas, and with a couple of new bigs coming in, Yancy needs to do something big. Another season of 10-6 is going to be a gigantic let down. We know he can be a monster, we’ve seen it, but it takes hard work to maintain, and last year Yancy Gates didn’t put in the effort to maintain his November pace. He’s going to be a huge part of this team, it’s time to nut up or shut up for Yancy Gates.
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