And we all hope Hill picks up where he left off in last season.
Well I did look at Hill's end of the season recently. He certainly played better and more minutes from the start of the SEC tourney on which is 5 games. I think if you go back you can see the beginning of him coming around a bit earlier. In UF's last 9 games Hill never scored less than 8 points and his averages were:
Last 9 games: 26.7 min, 13.1 points, 3.9 assists and 2.4 turnovers shooting 50% inside the arc, 42.9% outside the arc and 53.5% from the FT line.
Those 9 games were Vandy, at LSU, UK, at UMo, UAR (N), aTm (N), at UNF, at Ohio St, at GW so the level of competition seems pretty much the UF norm to me.
Really the big jump in his numbers the last 5 games was at least in part due to his minutes jumping from around 22 minutes a game to about 30 minutes a game those last 5. If you take the last 9 games and adjust his numbers to what they would average if he had played exactly 30 minutes in each of those games, you get adjusted averages of:
Last 9 games adjust to 30 min per game: 14.8 points 4.3 assists 2.8 turnovers
All the shooting stats stay the same, as we are assuming constant play with the extra minutes. BTW, Hill actually averaged exactly 4 FTs those last 9 games and thus by shooting 53.5% from the FT line rather than 75% costs himself .9 points per game off his scoring average.
So if the last quarter of the season was a break out moment for Hill, then I would expect him to score between 13 to 15 or so points per game this season with a decent turnover to assist ratio playing about 30 minutes per game. His 42.9% (9 of 21) from the arc those last 9 games means in the first 27 games last year Hill was 23.2% from the arc. As we have all known, if Hill is a slight threat from the arc, the rest of his offense, driving and dishing become more effective. So to me the key is for Hill to remain a judicious shooter from the arc and to improve his FT shooting. Improved FT shooting will also help the rest of his offensive game.