Xavier 2016 season in review: Jalen Reynolds player report card

Thanks to everyone who participated in this year's 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. Visit our 2016: Season in Review page for every player breakdown.

There was a lot of disparity in how to rank the big man who began the season as an all Big East selection. It's tempting to say that the four F grades come from people who aren't fans of the program and merely came along to troll, but Jalen was a serious disappointment at times this year. 3.2% of you also though that he lived up to those preseason expectations well enough to pull the highest grade possible. Mostly though, Jalen's grades were a reflection of being good, but not quite fully what Xavier fans were hoping for.

Offense: C

Offensively, Jalen went backwards this year. His minutes were down slightly, his shooting percentages were down at the line and from the field (he did shoot 33% on six three point attempts), his points per game dropped, his offensive efficiency was down a full 10 points, and his turnover rate went up. While his rebounding rate remained elite, it too slid. The raw numbers are a rather scathing indictment of the way Jalen played offense this year. However, he remained fully capable of taking over a game, going for 25/26/0 in two games against Providence and dominating Michigan, but he did it in spurts rather than as the consistent post presence he could have been. Interestingly enough, no one on the team had a higher usage rate than Jalen did this year.

Defense: C

Here, the numbers are the same as above. Block percentage dropped, fouls committed increased, and defensive rebounding also went down a bit. Once again, it's not that Jalen was bad, per se, just that he wasn't what he seemed like he could have been. Only twice all year did Jalen have a game in which he didn't record either a block or a steal, but he also didn't accrue either of those stats in great abundance. Reynolds also grabbed defensive rebounds at a rate higher than all but 64 other players in the nation, but at a lower rate than he himself did last year.

Overall: C

Maybe this is what Jalen is. There are worse things in life than being a guy who can go for essentially 10 and seven every single time he steps on the floor. It's in the games where Jalen isn't content to just do that, when he bullies Providence for 31 minutes, or single handedly ends 12 St. John's possessions, or flips the ball over a guard before out running everyone and cramming it home that he raises the expectations on himself. There is an absolute monster of a face up power forward lurking somewhere inside Jalen Reynolds, and until he consistently lets it out it's hard to look at him and not see tantalizingly unfulfilled potential.