It’s time to update your Stevie Mitchell priors

Almost one year to the day, Mark wrote an incredible piece about how Stevie Mitchell was more than just a “glue guy” as most like to call him.

But Marquette’s ceiling reaches a new high if Mitchell can maintain this run he’s currently on. He’s the ultimate glue guy, but he also may be something more than that.

Stevie Mitchell is more than just a glue guy

It’s not that he isn’t the connective force that binds so many of the things that make Marquette special, he undoubtedly is. Simply speaking, it’s a disservice to him to only think of him as a secondary piece.

After his performance at Butler, it’s time to think bigger.

Stevie is a Big East First Teamer

I know this sounds hyperbolic after a few great games, but this isn’t a spur of the moment reaction to a good week. The thing with players like Stevie that provide most of their impact on the defensive end (usually), you have to really watch the game attentively to truly understand what makes them so special. And even then the eyes don’t do enough.

That’s why we are lucky to live in a time where we have smart people building awesome models that help quantify a lot of these piece for us.

Take Evan Miya’s BPR, which “incorporates a player’s individual efficiency stats and on-court play-by-play impact, and also accounts for the strength of other teammates on the floor with him” to come up with a number showing how much better he makes a team over 100 possessions. Here, Stevie ranks as the 3rd best player in the Big East at the moment, closed to 2nd than 6th.

If you don’t really believe in things like BPR, I’ll present another on/off impact related stat from Hoop-Explorer called RAPM, which again measures the value of a player to team based on more than just box score stats. And using RAPM, Stevie ranks 5th in the conference to date.

Ok but these are stats from sites I’ve never heard of, how do we know they are legit?

May I introduce to you good old fashioned Box Plus Minus, which does a lot of what BPR and RAPM try to get at without all the fancy regressions and stuff. Using Bart Torvik’s BPM, what do you know, Stevie shows up in the top-5 once more.

Don’t Hold Intangibles Against Him

I’m not here to turn you into an uber nerd like me. I get that points and rebounds and box scores still matter. Opposing coaches think so little of Stevie’s offense they are willing to put less-mobile big men to guard him and dare him to make shots.

But at some point, the notion the country has about him (as a truly especial defensive player with no offensive bag to speak of) needs to be updated. No, he doesn’t usually score 20 points a game. No, his usage doesn’t usually rise over 20%. No, defenses are not going to be scared of him.

And still, Stevie always comes through with the exact thing his team needs of him to win. Whether that’s ripping the ball away from the best scorer in the league. Or sacrificing himself in the mosh pits for and offensive rebound. Or attacking the rim relentlessly with the BEPOY in foul trouble.

The fact that Stevie does bring all these intangibles is usually why it’s so easy to overlook him.

He’s grown every year and become one of the best players in the conference.

If you want to argue differently, that’s ok, just know you’re wrong.

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