Xavier 2015 Season in Review: Brandon Randolph player report card

Thanks to everyone who participated in our inaugural Banners on the Parkway postseason player report cards. We'll be breaking down each player's grades for the rest of this week and on into next week, where we'll reveal the top three finishers according to the community. We'll also be assigning and explaining our own grades of each player. We'll start with the player who got the lowest community ranking and work our way up to the MVP.

First off the board is the since departed Brandon Randolph, whose community GPA of 1.04 is functionally a D. Nearly 2 of every 5 voters graded him exactly there, with a near even split setting him one letter grade lower or higher. Despite a small band of outliers giving him a B, not a single soul dared give Randolph an A for his work this season.

Offense: D

By the numbers - at least rate stats - Randolph wasn't so bad. His assist rate was more than twice LAJ's, and his TO rate was less than half. He shot 54.5% (albeit on just 6-11) from behind the arc, enough to overcome mediocre 2P% numbers and get his EFG% to 52.3%. His ORtg of 100.9 speaks to a basically average offensive player, which isn't bad for a backup. So why did he rate so low with both me and all of you?

It was the feel of the game when Randolph came in that doomed him. He played this year like a player fighting himself to do what he was coached to do rather than what he would instinctively do. The result was tentative, confused play that generally slowed down the pace of Xavier's offense. LAJ made plenty of mistakes, but he always attacked the defense and Xavier played with energy when he was on the floor. Randolph struggled to set the defense on its heels, and that more than anything else contributed to his problems.

Defense: D

Randolph never really got a chance to make an impact on defense. We didn't really get a look at Randolph in the 1-3-1 because it was on the way in as he was on the way out. In man, he was not convincing on or off the ball, seeming to have trouble knowing when to track his man as opposed to helping off or digging in the post. He was never a lockdown guy on a ballhandler and he didn't badger shooters off the ball like Dee Davis. He was a good rebounder for a guard, which I suppose isn't nothing.

Overall grade: D

Honestly, it was a lack of playing time as much as anything the derailed Randolph's season and ultimately his career. I didn't see what was happening every day in practice, but Coach Mack did and apparently it didn't thrill him. After two seasons with Xavier, it became clear that Brandon wasn't a fit with the program, nor was the program a fit for him.

I hate writing a series of negative paragraphs about a dude, but an objective assessment of the season didn't leave a lot of positives to take away. Randolph is now moving on to seek his degree and the culmination of his career elsewhere, and I wish him all the best.

Hop into the comments to tell us how you graded Brandon and why. Our ratings were pretty much in line with the community's on this one; do you think we all got it right, or are you one of the few who believes Randolph deserved a different grade?