All this debate about if Jared Yoder is legit or not, there has one thing that has been left out of the debate. After watching him play this season, in games where is went off for 25 points and watching games where he “struggled,” you need to look at more than just stats. Yoder does everything on the court (as stated in previous posts), but the biggest thing that he does is attract attention away from other players on the floor. I was at LVC on Saturday and had the pleasure of watching Matt Henninger hit open shot after open shot. Why does he get all these open shots? It’s because Yoder grabs the attention of every defender on the court, leaving the Perimeter shooters open to nock down shots. Messiah is shooting 40% from beyond the arch, leading the league. Matt Henninger is 2nd in the league, shooting 51% making 45 out of 88 attempts. Matt is a pure shooter, along with Jonathan Boyd (4th in the league shooting 44%) Teams are forced to leave them on the perimeter to help on Yoder in the post, leaving them with shots, Yoder, as said before is 6th in the league in assists at 3.22 a game. Yoder is very good at passing out of the double team and finding the open man. The bottom line is that Yoder makes all the players around him better, that’s what all great players do.

Secondly, how come no one talks about Henninger, he’s just as a legitimate treat as Yoder. I wouldn’t be surprised to see teams paying more attention to him in the second half of league play. He has led the Falcons in scoring 4 of the past 6 games, shooting connecting on 19 threes in those six games, including a huge 3-3 performance against Widener. Look for Yoder to have some big games coming up as teams try and stop the hot shooting of Henninger and Messiah’s other guards