Joe Ragland has a chance to set BCL’s best-ever season in assists

By Stefan Djordjevic/ sdjordjevic@eurohoops.net

Hapoel U-NET Holon has been a tough team to beat in the Basketball Champions League for the past five years and this season they signed an additional weapon that just might be enough to push them over the hump – Joe Ragland.

The competition has seen many great point guards since its beginnings and Ragland has quickly created a name for himself among those, in his debut season in BCL.

When it comes to points guards, assists naturally impose as the main stats category by which they are ranked. There are multiple ways of looking at it but since Ragland is going through his first season in the competition, single-season numbers would suit best in comparing him to the elite.

The 32-year-old Hapoel Holon point guard has been averaging 7.9 assists over 13 games so far this season for a total of 103. He is convincingly the leader in assists this season league-wide with Marcelinho Huertas (6.9 apg) and David Holston (6.3 apg) following.

Hearing the two names that are behind him already makes the achievement that much impressive. Both Huertas and Holston have got their own set of achievements in BCL.

In fact, they are ranked third and fourth respectively on the all-time assists list. Huertas is third with a total of 302 and is four assists away from the second spot (Tamir Blatt, 306) while Holston is behind with 289.

Additionally, they’ve got some unique feats ongoing. Huertas has dished out 8+ assists in eight games this season while Holston logged 12+ points and 6+ assists in 18 games throughout his BCL career. The feats of both players are the most-ever in the competition history.

However, both of them have been present for years in BCL and it would unfair to compare Ragland to those numbers. This season, he’s been delivering more assists than Holston and Huertas while he’s also right behind Huertas with seven games of 8+ assists, just one less than the record-holder.

And that isn’t the only ranking in which he’s right next to Huertas. At the current pace, with an average of 7.9, he would rank second all-time in single-season average for assists. Huertas has been holding the record with his dominance in the 2019-20 season (8.1 assists over 17 games for a total of 138).

That said, Ragland’s already achieved a great feat and he’s also got at least two more games to catch up to Huertas. He might have even more if Hapoel Holon succeeds in going deep into the tournament.

Aside from Huertas and Ragland, there were five other players that succeeded in averaging more than seven assists for the season. Some names might be a surprise.