Despite losing R.J. Hunter, the leading scorer in school history, and Ryan Harrow, another dynamic starter, along with two other starters from last year’s NCAA tournament team, Georgia State is off to its best start under coach Ron Hunter.
The Panthers (7-2) have won four consecutive games, including three straight over teams from Conference USA. Georgia State opens defense of its Sun Belt title at Texas-Arlington, one of the conference’s surprise teams, on Wednesday.
“I felt like a lot of people thought last year’s team was the best team,” guard Kevin Ware said. “I feel like we have a lot of guys that can really go this year and we are proving that right now with a 7-2 record.”
The Panthers have risen to No. 59 in ESPN’s RPI, but have done so with a strength of schedule ranked No. 145, which means winning the Sun Belt tournament is most likely the only path back to the NCAA tournament.
Here are five things the team has learned during its non-conference season:
The offense is improving. It may seem odd, but one of the preseason questions was, with a roster featuring a lot of players who can score, who would do the scoring? It was relevant because while the Panthers have as many as four players who could lead the team in scoring, three of them (Jeremy Hollowell, Jeff Thomas and Isaiah Williams) didn't play last season.
Game-planning last season was easier for defenses, since all opponents knew where the points were coming from. Hunter and Harrow led the team in scoring in 34 of 35 games.
“When R.J. or Ryan didn’t score in double-figures we probably lost that game,” Ron Hunter said. “It’s not that way now.”
Now, it’s not so easy to scout the Panthers. In nine games, the team has already had three different leading scorers, each at least twice. The Panthers have won when top scorer Hollowell, a transfer from Indiana who sat out last year, has totaled four points.
“I think we are harder to guard,” Hunter said. “We move the ball around.”
The point guard is settled. The offense is starting to spark with the insertion of Williams at point guard. He and Isaiah Dennis alternated starts in blocks of two or three games, but it appears Williams has the job for now with Dennis coming in to pair with Ware as a defensive stopper in the backcourt.
Williams, a transfer from Samford who also sat out last year, can hit 3-pointers, even though his percentage (30.4) isn’t as high as it was at Samford (39.0). What he does well is find open teammates. Hunter is thrilled that Williams has a team-leading 27 assists compared to 10 turnovers.
The outside shooting is back. The offense also started to open up once Thomas' shots started falling. The freshman with the pretty shooting stroke suffered through a horrible start, missing 21 of his first 25 attempts. But he began to get comfortable and has since hit 13-of-29.
Hunter said when Thomas gets the ball, he can hear opposing coaches say “Shooter, shooter, shooter.”
Spark off the bench found. Like Thomas, Markus Crider also struggled to start the season, which Hunter said he typically does. Looking to get him going off the bench, Hunter replaced Crider with T.J. Shipes in the starting lineup in three of the past five games. In all five games Crider scored at least 10 points after only doing so once in the first four games. Crider is averaging a career-high 9.8 points while playing 27.2 minutes.
“Now Markus is going against a tired first-team guy or a second-team guy,” Hunter said. “He’s more talented than a second-team guy. It’s been better with him in that position.”
The defense is working. Regardless of who is on the court, Georgia State is allowing 59.3 points per game, the 11th-lowest total in Division I.
“Defensively, we have a chance to be really special,” Hunter said.
Despite the shorter shot clock this season, just one team (Indiana-Purdue) scored more than 70 points against the Panthers.
Despite the addition of new players, Hunter said he’s not surprised the defense is playing well. He is surprised that it’s playing so well for so long.
“Never had a team play it at this level consistently,” he said. “Usually, there’s one or two bad games and we come back to it.”
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