...was looking at player ratings on EvanMiya.com between Fouss this past season and Keita (at Utah). Evan's Bayseian Performance Rating (BPR) data focuses on the value a player brings to his team when he is on the court and he is playing with and against avg players. Evan also does a Box BPR where it's just rating the players individual stats against avg players.

Looking at Fouss' numbers last year and considering how many injuries he was working through and how he was never at 100% health during the year, his numbers look pretty good (all things considered). Among the regular rotation players (not counting AAA or Stewart there) he had BYU's best Def BPR (DPBR) at 2.04 but was only 6th in OBPR with 3.04. His adj Team Def Eff Rtg (points allowed per 100 possessions, adj for strength of opponent; lower is better) was tops among BYU's regular rotation guys at 90.7. His +/- was 131 for the year.

With all the hype Keita has been getting on CB and in the media and the assumptions that he will be the starter based on that hype, I was curious how he stacked up last season. He wasn't Utah's best defensive player by a long run, but wasn't their worst either. He wasn't even their best defending big man (he trailed Lovering by a large margin). His DBPR was 1.85, slightly lower than Fouss' and his OBPR was 2.48, again a little lower than Fouss'. His Adj Team Off Eff (this is just based on his own individual stats) was close to Fouss (KK 116.5 vs Fouss 118) but defensively I was surprised to see how much stronger Fouss was individually on Adj Team Def Eff (KK 96 vs Fouss' 90.7) and also in +/- (KK 70 vs Fouss 131). The only 2 guys with worse +/- for Utah was Hunter Erickson and Ben Carlson and the only Ute with a worse Adj Team Def Eff score was Ben Carlson. KK was 8th in that measure among their rotation players.

When you consider how badly banged up Fouss was all year it should help fans appreciate him a little more to see how he stacked up vs Keita and not write him off or buy into the hype and automatically proclaim KK the starter. If Fouss is still struggling with lower leg injuries (hammy, calf and ankle) it might result in him coming off the bench and playing limited minutes but I also wouldn't be surprised to see them split starting duties based on matchups this year. I'm sure there will be a battle for that position between them and trust that coaches will make the right decision there who ever it ends up being. Just not ready to annoint KK as the starter here when he couldn't even nail down the starting position at Utah.