Welcome to A10 Talk’s Preseason Top 25 Player Countdown for the 2017-18 season. Each day, we’ll be publishing a new article, counting down our best 25 players for the coming season. Today, we feature #16 Joseph Chartouny of Fordham.
Our Top 25 Player Countdown is a compiled list based on voting from our staff and writers from across the league. Thanks to the following for helping configure this year’s Top 25 Atlantic 10 Player Countdown:
Grant Labedz (@GrantLabedz), Mat Shelton-Eide (@MatSheltonEide), Grant Kelly (@GrantKelly07), Andrew Phung (@LoveRI401), By George (@ByGeorgeGMU), Davidson Recruiting (@DavidsonMBBRecr), Steve DiMiceli (@SteveDiMiceli), Rhody Rampage (@RhodyRampage), UMass Recruiting (@UMassRecruiting), Bona Blog (@BonaBlog), Petey Buckets (@PeteyBuckets), and UMass Ball Report (@theumbr).
What He’s Done
Offensively and defensively, there are fewer players in the A-10 more complete than Joseph Chartouny. As a sophomore, Chartouny led the nation in steal percentage with a 5.8% mark; he averaged 3.2 steals per contest, and the nearest competitor in the A-10 was Jaylen Adams with 2.1, more than 1 fewer per game. He had 8 games last season with at least 5 takeaways. In conference play, Chartouny only committed 2.8 fouls per 40 minutes, good enough to rank top 25 in the Atlantic 10. Despite all of this, Fordham’s sophomore didn’t see his name on the A-10 All-Defensive Team this past year, and honestly, that had to be the biggest snub of the league’s postseason awards.
On the other side of the ball, Chartouny shot the ball efficiently (41.5% FG, 38.2% 3PFG) and was the Rams’ second-leading scorer with 12.1 per game. The sophomore was a force particularly towards the end of last season. He rattled off 20, 17, and 19 point performances in the Rams’ final 3 games of the season. Most impressively, he’d shoot 10/19 from three during that final stretch; subsequently, Fordham almost took down George Mason in the opening round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament.
The Rams pulled off some big conference wins, and Chartouny’s distributive abilities were key as well; an assist rate of 31.9 ranked 44th in the nation, though it was a slight digression from his 36.2 mark freshman year. Regardless, Chartouny would tally up assists consistently, but his turnover numbers are something to improve. Giving the ball up nearly 3 times per contest is not doing the Rams any favors, especially considering this Fordham team ranked 297th in the nation in limiting opponents’ steals.
What He’ll Do
Joseph Chartouny’s ceiling on offense is much higher without Javontae Hawkins, Christian Sengfelder, or Antwoine Anderson at Rose Hill Gym. The Rams lose 3 double digit scorers, and with the exception of Chartouny, Fordham’s next best scorer from last year is Prokop Slanina at just 5.9 per contest. The Rams averaged just 65 points per game last year but relied heavily on defense to win tight ballgames. That’s going to be a theme once more; that is, unless a guy like Chartouny erupts into a 22+ PPG type scorer.
As previously mentioned, it’s imperative that Chartouny doesn’t cough the ball up as often as he’s been doing. While the Rams have been good at taking the ball away (they ranked 2nd nationally in forced turnover % last year), they haven’t been so good at hanging onto it. That starts with the guy at the helm: Joseph Chartouny. If he can augment his sup-par 1.72 assist-to-turnover ratio, it will give the Rams better scoring opportunities. At the end of the day, Chartouny and the Rams can try to win grinders in the league where neither team reaches the 50 point mark, but it’s going to have to generate some consistent offense if it wants to stay out of 14th place.
Previously: #17 Mike Lewis II
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