I just watched my game to see Pagan's performance. Really interesting stuff. First of all, although Pagan had 19 assists on the game, he didn't get his first one until almost 5 1/2 minutes into the game, on a fast-break assist to Michael Eini. He did have jumper to open the game and a nice and-1 though, and he had 7 of his 20 points but still seemed to be a relative non-factor. Also he turned the ball over once, losing the handle and having the ball stripped from him.
In the 2nd quarter Pagan started to really move the ball with six assists in the period, four of them to Belhadj (three in the first two minutes. In chronological order, his assists were: a layup, an inside shot, a jumper, and a dunk) as well as a nice feed to Rutledge on the fast-break for the baseline dunk and a pass to Mallory Montel for a powerful two-handed slam. He also drew a foul and hit both free throws, but otherwise struggled to score as he missed all five shots he took (not counting the one on which he was fouled). Finally, he grabbed his first rebound (a defensive board).
The third quarter was Pagan's best, as he had another seven assists, one to Eini for a baseline jumper, two more to Belhadj for another dunk and a jumper, a pair of assists to Rutledge for two more dunks (one of which brought the crowd to its feet in applause), and another pair to Caruso for a lay-in and a dunk. He also had a nice dunk off an assist from Eini, hit a jumper, drew a foul and hit one of two free throws, grabbed two rebounds (one offensive, one defensive), and blocked three shots (two of them rotating over on help defense). Again, he had the ball stripped from him for his second and final turnover of the game.
In the fourth quarter, Pagan closed out his magnificent night with 5 more assists, one to Montel for a dunk, three to Gilliam for more dunks, and another to Lasonen for yet another dunk. He also hit two jumpers and was fouled on another, hitting both free throws, and added a steal and a block for good measure. He was called for his only foul of the game during this period.
Overall, Pagan's assists break down like this:
Jumpers: 3
Inside shots: 2
Layups: 2
Dunks: 12
Belhadj: 6 (2 dunks, 1 layup, 1 inside shot, 2 jumpers)
Rutledge: 3 (3 dunks)
Eini: 2 (one inside shot, one jumper)
Caruso: 2 (one driving layup, one dunk)
Gilliam: 3 (3 dunks)
Montel: 2 (2 dunks)
Lasonen: 1 (1 dunk)
Scoring:
3-pointers: 0 (0-2)
2-point jumpers: 4 (4-12)
Layups: 1 (1-1)
Dunks: 1 (1-1)
Free Throws: 8 (8-9)
Notes: Pagan did have 8 passes by my count that set up teammates with good shots that they missed, four to Belhadj, two to Caruso, one to Gilliam, and one to Eini. So he could have had 26 assists or more potentially if his teammates hit all their shots. Also, the four blocks were very impressive for a player with atrocious shot-blocking!
Most of Pagan's assists came on inside shots, primarily dunks. This is not surprising in a LI offense. It was interesting to see how often Pagan looked to Belhadj, as 6 of his assists were to him, double the total of any other player. And four of his eight passes that set up makable opportunities were to Belhadj as well. Clearly, Belhadj at SG is a mismatch that Pagan likes and is able to exploit, since otherwise you would expect him to look more to Eini or Rutledge who are both better individual scorers. Also, Pagan's passing was not the cause of his turnovers; rather, it was his low handling that caused him to get stripped of the ball. As a passer, he was flawless. As a ball-handler, not so much.
Overall, any player could be proud of this performance and it is to be hoped that the sophomore guard will build on this and become even better moving forward.