29 Thoughts for 29.4 Points, Jordon Varnado Lights Up the Sun Belt in January

I’ve never done one of these before, but I figured this would be a great time to start. Troy forward Jordon Varnado lit up the conference to the tune of 29.4 points per game in seven games played during January.

He was an absolute menace every time he stepped on the floor and imposed his will on a nightly basis.

I’ll do my best to breakdown the January Varnado just had right here in 29 thoughts, including some looks at how Troy performed during the month.

1. After missing the first game of the month against Coastal Carolina, Varnado scored at least 26 points in every game during the month.
2. His 29.4 points per game is second in the entire country for the month of January. Detroit Mercy’s Antoine Davis, a Birmingham native, is first with 31.1.
3. This outburst came with a warning, a then-season high 32 points against UAB on December 21. His previous best had been 22 against Pittsburgh.
4. He hit that 32-point mark twice during January before dropping a career-high 33 points against the Rajin’ Cajuns.
5. Varnado has been on the floor for nearly the entire contest in each game this month. He’s played at least 34 minutes in every game and has hit 37 minutes four times. His game-high during the stretch is 38 minutes against Appalachian State. All told, Varnado played a total of 253 minutes in January.
6. It almost feels like everything Varnado is putting up goes in. He’s shot at least 57.1 percent from the field in five of seven games this month. In back-to-back games against Georgia State and Georgia Southern, he shot 9-12 (75 percent).
7. Altogether, Varnado hit 59 percent of his shots in January and made 10.3 field goals per game. He was efficient inside, shooting 64.2 percent from inside the arc.
8. It’s the explosion of his outside jumper that has made him so deadly as of late, though. Varnado made just eight of his first 33 three point attempts, but has since made 27 deep balls in 53 attempts.
9. That 50.9 percent clip includes the last three games of December. For just January, it’s a still-great 48.8 percent. In fact, that number is second best among the month’s 10 best scorers.
10. One area Varnado hasn’t seen an improvement in, at least from a percentage standpoint, is at the free throw line. He went from 80 percent at the line over the first two months to 76.4 percent in January.
11. However, even while taking a step back he still improved in that area. His percentage may have dipped, but he’s getting two more points per game at the stripe in January than he did before.
12. He was putting up five free throw attempts per game and making four of them before January. This month, though, he’s made six of 7.9 free throw attempts per game.
13. That lone stat is a key look at how dangerous Varnado has been lately. He’s drawing more attention inside while making the opposition pay from beyond the arc. As long as he’s stays consistent from deep, Varnado will continue to draw more late-game opportunities at the free throw line.
14. Outside of scoring, Varnado hasn’t shied away from his nightly duties as a big man. He’s still cleaning up the boards, grabbing 8.7 rebounds per game in January compared to 7.3 before.
15. His assist to turnover ratio has been roughly the same thanks to one tough January game. He averaged 2.5 assists to 2.7 turnovers over the first two months and 2.4 assists to 2.4 turnovers in January.
16. In Troy’s inexplicable loss to Little Rock on January 10, Varnado turned the ball over eight times. If you drop that number to his average of two, his turnover per game figure for the month would be just 1.8.
17. Despite the extreme success Varnado had in January, Troy still went just 3-4 in the seven games Varnado played in and are 3-5 total in conference play. The losses include back-to-back road losses in the Louisiana trip.
18. Defensively, the Trojans have not been able to slow anybody down. The Trojans gave up 82.1 points per game during January and six of eight opponents scored more than their season average.
19. In Troy’s five losses, the average opponent field goal percentage is 49.6 compared to 44 percent in the three wins.
20. Troy’s defensive efficiency numbers for the entire year have been pretty somber. Teams are shooting 38 percent from deep against the Trojans, giving Troy the 326th ranked three point defense in the country. The 37.6 percent allowed in January is worst in the Sun Belt.
21. Case in point: the Georgia Southern loss. The Eagles are 11th in both three pointers made and three point field goal percentage. Yet, against Troy, Georgia Southern shot 10-19 from deep.
22. The Trojans have been a good shot blocking team and have had great luck as far as watching opponents shoot free throws (opponents are 68.8 percent from the stripe) but Troy has really struggled to force live-ball turnovers.
23. Troy’s 7.5 steal percentage is 283rd nationally. The Trojans get 5.7 steals per game, good for 11th in the Sun Belt. In the Trojans’ five conference losses, they averaged just 5.4 fastbreak points per game.
24. With Troy often locked in score-fests, the result of the game largely hinges on X-factors on the bench. When Charles Norman and KJ Simon play well, it often results in a win.
25. The Trojans are 7-4 this year when Norman hits a three pointer. When Simon records multiple assists, Troy is 5-3. So far, both have happened in the same game just three times with Troy winning on two of the occasions. The lone loss was the Coastal Carolina game that Varnado sat out.
26. All in all, Troy’s offensive efficiency has been the opposite of the defensive side. The team shoots the ball well from inside the arc (55 percent) and is rarely blocked (third nationally in blocked shot percentage at 5.3).
27. This has at least kept Troy around and in position to win a lot of games. Three of Troy’s five Sun Belt losses were single digit games. In games decided by five points or less the Trojans are 5-2 for the year.
28. Varnado has played a monumental part in all of this, even hitting a late three pointer to down Sun Belt-leading Georgia State. He’s had a career year against what has been the toughest schedule Troy has ever played, according to sports-reference. This leads me to my final thought…
29. Jordon Varnado is the best forward in the Sun Belt and a serious threat to D’Marcus Simonds as the Sun Belt’s top player.