Statistically speaking, Devin Royal was nearly perfect against USC. Here’s how:

Ohio State junior forward Devin Royal took a big jump from his freshman to sophomore year, nearly tripling his points, rebounds, assists, and minutes per game from one year to the next. A similar jump wasn’t expected as he shifted from his sophomore to junior season — statistically that’s just not possible — but Royal was expected to take on a larger leadership role and shift over to small forward after playing majority power forward for two seasons.

The shift has gone smoothly at times, and at other times the change has taken the 6-foot-6, 230-pound forward away from what made him such a special and sought-after central Ohio recruit three years ago. As a freshman and sophomore playing power forward and at times center, Royal established himself as a high-motor athlete who rebounds exceptionally well for his size and someone who is very difficult to stop when he gets within six feet of the basket.

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By shifting Royal to small forward, he has found himself on the perimeter more often — not beneath the basket as often — not scrapping for rebounds or tipping missed shots back in for hard-earned buckets amongst a crowd of men as large or larger than himself.

Royal put in a substantial amount of work this past summer on his three-point shot, trying to smoothen the transition from power forward to small forward and establish another shooting threat from the perimeter for the Buckeyes, who already have Bruce Thornton and John Mobley Jr. as three-point threats. Over the first 16 games of the season it really looked like Royal had developed something special with the three-point shot — he was sitting at 39.6% after a 3-for-3 performance against UCLA on January 17.

Since then, Royal has hit 2 of his last 23, dropping his season-long three-point percentage to 30.3%. That includes going 0-for-3 against USC on Wednesday night, which also means he has missed his last 11 threes. Oddly enough, those three missed three-pointers were the only three shots Royal would up…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/statistically-speaking-devin-royal-nearly-160100413.html

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Publish date : 2026-02-13 16:01:00

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