Xavier 2016 season in review: Sean O'Mara player report card

Thanks to everyone who participated in our second annual 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 finisher 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.

Sean O'Mara is the second reserve big man to have his number come up here. Like Makinde London, he had his share of ardent supporters: there were regular starters who didn't get as many A's as Sean's 11. That's not bad for a guy who didn't even play 1 of every 5 available minutes. The vast bulk of the community saw Sean somewhere in the B/C range, and his 20 D's were enough to drag his community rank down to the C range. That's probably pretty fair, really, as he had some moments but was eventually stuck behind a really good veteran front court.

Offense: B

O'Mara had some turnover problems, but he was otherwise a really reliable post presence on the offensive end. A lot of his issues in ball security came not from being able to control the pumpkin but from getting called for a decent number of charges, what with all the running people over that he does. For all his physicality, he drew a good number of fouls as well. His offensive rebounding was very good, and he showed deft touch to both hands on the post and some occasionally surprising bursts of athleticism. You don't get the feeling that additional court time is going to expose a lot of weaknesses in Sean on the offensive end.

Defense: D

The gap between "James Farr" and "a young James Farr" is meaningful, so when I say that Sean O'Mara occasionally defended like a young James Farr, Xavier fans will understand that that isn't a compliment. O'Mara's defensive reflex seems to be to run the dude over before he can score; he was whistled for 6.6 fouls per 40 minutes of playing time and 7.0 per 40 in conference play. No matter what else you do - and Sean was very good in terms of defensive rebounding and snared the occasional block - you can't be a sustainable force on the floor if you're fouling at that prolific a clip.

I don't want to heap scorn on a guy, but O'Mara's fouling out in just four minutes against DePaul was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen on a basketball court.

Overall: C

O'Mara's season high in minutes was 14, but he went for 10/6/1 in that game, a 24-point revenge win over Auburn. He gave glimpses of his ceiling throughout the year, dropping 9 and 2 with 2 blocks against Seton Hall and 9 and 5 against Dayton, but he didn't get many opportunities due to the quality of the players in front of him, and he too often hamstrung himself with foul trouble when those chances came his way. Nobody on the team really even approached his number in EFG% (60.9%, six points clear of second-place Myles Fox Morrissey); when he could stay on the court, it wasn't often that an opponent had an answer for him.