A cog in one of the most efficient offenses in the country, Sydney Wagner provided energy and an offensive spark off the bench.
Sydney Wagner was one of the players I was most excited to see in 2019-20. She was exactly the type of player that the 2018-19 team was missing – another offensive weapon that could command some respect from defenses, keeping them from focusing their full attention on CAA first-teamer Bianca Boggs.
Obviously, Wagner did not end up producing remarkable numbers. But she didn’t need to. She brought a set of skills, a dimension that the Tribe did not have anywhere else: Wagner was a straight-up gunner.
I mean, look at the numbers: she came off the bench in every single game and still put up over five threes a game. She led the team in attempted threes, with over a quarter of W&M’s total. A solid majority of her shots (59.5 percent) were from behind the arc.
And those stats are a pretty good visualization of how Wagner played. She handled the ball a little, but was generally off-ball, only tallying 38 assists in her 29 games. However, she was solid when she did have the ball in her hands, also posting just 38 turnovers. She was not a liability on defense, but she didn’t really rebound the ball. The only truly exceptional thing Wagner did was shoot tons of threes.
When she shot them, she generally made a reasonable amount. Wagner shot 31.3 percent from deep in 2019-20, and she was very consistent. Wagner attempted at least two three-pointers in every single contest and hit at least one in all but three games. Her effective field goal rate was 47.4 percent, while she averaged .98 points per shot attempt, both decent numbers.
Wagner set her season high of 15 points in the season opener at Army, hitting 4-of-8 threes. She didn’t make four treys in a game for the rest of the season, but knocked in three threes in five more games. Wagner only went scoreless once, in a 12-point win against George Washington in late December.
It’s a pretty well accepted fact in basketball statistics that as shot attempts and usage go up, efficiency goes down. So, it could theoretically be posited that Wagner could increase her efficiency shooting the ball by picking her spots a little more.
But that would take away a little bit from what her value is to the Tribe. Wagner brings energy every time she hits the hardwood, but she’s always a threat to shoot the ball, opening up room for other guards, including Eva Hodgson, to get to the rim. Just that threat helps her impact the game more than just her made threes.
That being said, Wagner could make an even bigger impact if she keeps improving her shooting. Obviously, any sort of summer program has been in jeopardy, given the global pandemic. You know. But continued improvement shooting the ball will continue to open up more space for players like Hodgson, Bre Bellamy, and Nyla Pollard. If William and Mary will win the conference in the next two years, Wagner will be a big part of it.
H/T to HerHoopStats.com for access to advanced stats for this post. Women’s college basketball stats have traditionally been harder to access than men’s for a number of structural reasons, so thanks to this great resource for making it easier to analyze women’s basketball with the same rigor as their male counterparts. Consider subscribing for just $20 a year to help make sure we can continue to access these informative numbers!