Derin Saran - Transfer Commit

[MDSpider8]

Out of nowhere! Another scoring guard with size - I believe we recurited him out of high school and tried to get him in the portal a few offseasons ago. Played a year at UCI off the bench, then redshirted a year at Stanford, and was back at UCI last year as regular starter. Averaged 11.5 PPG. Should have two years remaining.

Efficiency numbers dropped across the board last year - was only 40% FG, 26.5% from 3, and 68.5% from FT. Did average 5.3 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 1.7 steals though.

https://twitter.com/x/status/2047716960230682688

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

yes, I remember this guy, looked like a potentially good addition when we were first involved.

 

[Spide]

Great pickup! Love all of our new guys.

 

[SFspidur]

Wrapped up another guy!

And yep, we did recruit him both out of high school and in the portal at least once.

 

[*23*]

WOW. Saw this guy in the portal earlier and was hoping we could circle back. Yikes, see his offensive numbers dropped, but like another guard with size and defense. We should be a lot more competitive (to use our favorite word) on defense and athletically this season.

 

[*23*]

 

[Urmite]

WOW. Saw this guy in the portal earlier and was hoping we could circle back. Yikes, see his offensive numbers dropped, but like another guard with size and defense. We should be a lot more competitive (to use our favorite word) on defense and athletically this season.

Not only did his numbers drop for some reason second time at Irvine. His 3 point percentage dropped from 100% at Stanford

 

[MrTbone]

If you don't succeed the first two times, get a bigger bag of money and see how you do the third time.

 

[vt4700]

Needs to get his 3 point % up, but his rebound, assist, and steal numbers are very impressive.

 

[MrTbone]

Needs to get his 3 point % up, but his rebound, assist, and steal numbers are very impressive.

I liked his defensive clips in the highlight reel, seems to have pretty quick hands.

 

[fan2011]

High usage, low efficient 3-guard. UC Irvine was a very good defensive team last year. I am getting pretty confident that our offense next year is going to be pretty bad, but our defense is going to be decent.

 

[vt4700]

High usage, low efficient 3-guard. UC Irvine was a very good defensive team last year. I am getting pretty confident that our offense next year is going to be pretty bad, but our defense is going to be decent.

Our offensive efficiency has been 202, 156, 241, and 129 the last 4 years, and I think there is a good chance we finish better than those years this year. The 156 year, we still went 15-3 in the A-10, thanks to a defensive efficiency of 34, so good defense can lead to a lot of wins.

 

[SFspidur]

JOC article on Saran, though it includes this gem:

The addition of Saran gives the Spiders 15 players. Nine were at UR last season and the other six transferred this offseason: 6-6 Jamie Kaiser Jr. (Butler), 6-11 Amon Dorries (Bucknell), 6-9 Andrew Ball (Monmouth), 6-9 Jack McCaffery (Butler), 6-5 Dominick Stewart (Penn State), and Saran.

Pretty sure our three incoming freshmen weren't at UR last season.

https://richmond.com/sports/college/schools/university-richmond/article_37bd8d87-2747-422f-bdbf-3d8976ca7ffd.html

 

[MrTbone]

JOC article on Saran, though it includes this gem:



Pretty sure our three incoming freshmen weren't at UR last season.

https://richmond.com/sports/college/schools/university-richmond/article_37bd8d87-2747-422f-bdbf-3d8976ca7ffd.html

Tomato, tomat-o.

 

[97spiderfan]

This guy was second in minutes players, 3rd in scoring, and 2nd in rebounding on a very solid UC Irvine squad last year. Another big guard. Our guard room is going to be such more taller than the Johnston, Tyne, Thomas we rolled out last year. And this is critical with our switching defense, we can't have all of these small guards, constantly getting switched onto bigger players.

I don't know if Mooney can put this all together (I'm mean, I do), but in the spirit of the offseason being upbeat he is bringing in a really diverse set of weapons to make it at least possible.

 

[URFan1]

Not only did his numbers drop for some reason second time at Irvine. His 3 point percentage dropped from 100% at Stanford

limited PT at Stanford

 

[*23*]

https://twitter.com/x/status/2032805004520624375

 

[URFan1]

I like that Saran appears to want the ball during times when the heat is on.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

is he actually 6'4"? My first thought was 6'2" but I'll give him benefit of doubt and say 6'3" on second view of that clip. But does not look particularly like a Gonzalvez sized, 6'4" SG.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

I am a bit concerned about the junior year shooting numbers. Only 26 total three pointers made in almost 29 minutes per game over 35 games, in just shy of 100 attempts. FT numbers in the 60s on 89 attempts (enough of a sample size).

This was his first collegiate year as a starter and the numbers dipped. No idea why but hopefully he's an okay shooter who had a poor shooting year and variance will bounce back.

Do we have a shooting coach? No hard evidence but my gut tells me that vast majority of guys who came to UR as shooters were the shooters who shot well, and guys who were iffy stayed that way while at UR.

Liked his numbers when we pursued him after his freshman year, this year the numbers raise more questions for me. Holding out judgment. Also remembering watching the Will Johnston shooting clips against Gonzaga - which he duplicated when he was hot, but we didn't see lowlight clips of when he disappeared for games at a stretch, which he also duplicated this year at UR. (FWIW, I thought Johnston had potential but was somewhat ill suited for UR style offense - he needed to consistently shoot himself into games, which UR didn't permit.)