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Villanova Basketball Preview 2013: JayVaughn Pinkston

As we creep closer to the exhibition game vs. West Chester, we will be previewing the roster on a player-by-player basis. Next up is junior forward JayVaughn Pinkston.

USA TODAY Sports

Hometown: Brooklyn, NY

High School: Bishop Loughlin

Height: 6'7"

Weight: 240

2012-13 Stat Line

MIN FGM FGA FG% 3PM 3PA 3P% FTM FTA FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
26.1 136 293 46.4% 10 27 27% 171 241 71% 5.0 1.7 0.5 1.0 2.6 2.5 13.3

Career

Year MIN FGM FGA FG% 3PM 3PA 3P% FTM FTA FT% REB AST BLK STL PF TO PTS
2012 26.1 136 293 46.4% 10 37 27% 171 241 71% 5.0 1.7 0.5 1.0 2.6 2.5 13.3
2011 25.9 97 238 34.3% 15 41 36.6% 99 148 66.9% 5.2 1.1 0.5 0.6 2.9 2.6 9.6

JayVaughn Pinkston came to Villanova as a McDonald's All-American from Bishop Loughlin in New York City (the same high school that produced former Wildcat Curtis Sumpter). Unfortunately, Pinkston would never see the court during his freshman season. He was suspended from school for the year following a brawl at an off-campus fraternity party.

Following his time away from the court, Pinkston returned to the team with a renewed attitude and immediately became an impact player for Villanova, and one of the lone bright spots on one of the worst teams in recent memory. He was twice named BIG EAST Rookie of the Week. And now we move on from 2011 forever.

2012 saw a breakout year for Pinkston, as the redshirt sophomore led the team in points per game, and was second on the team in rebounding. Though undersized, Pinkston developed a great report with Mouphtaou Yarou down low which led Pinkston to be one of the best players in the country at getting to the FT line. For his efforts last season, he was named All-BIG EAST 3rd Team.

After an offseason scare with MRSA that could have cost him his leg, Pinkston is reportedly raring to go and enters the current season as a projected All-BIG EAST 2nd Teamer with Ryan Arcidiacono.

Best Case Scenario: Pinkston ascends to the top of the revamped BIG EAST and continues to lead the undersized front line for Villanova. His points per game and rebounds per game all increase, while he cuts down on the turnovers and continues to get to the FT line at will. He's properly recognized as a BIG EAST 1st Teamer at the end of the season.

Worst Case Scenario: It's hard to envision a scenario where Pinkston isn't successful, since his game is so simple, and so effective. If he begins to fall in love with shooting away from the basket, he takes away his best offense and sees his points per game go down. He could also struggle with constant double-teams down low, if Daniel Ochefu doesn't develop as a threat.

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The Wisdom of Crowds Returns

We are pleased to return our Wisdom of Crowds experiment for the 2013-2014 season. In this series, we ask that you consider the points raised in our player preview and your own personal insights and instincts to predict the points per game each scholarship player on the roster we score in the upcoming season.

What do you think the upcoming season holds for JVP? Use the voting buttons below to predict the points per game you think he will score this year. We'd love to understand your thinking, so try to post a comment to tell us how you arrived at your prediction