SWC75
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I’ll continue doing a statistical analysis of games this year with some of the off-beat numbers I like to look at. I’ll post them after each game, probably the next day.
The first thing I’ll look at is “NET POINTS”. The idea is that each statistic in the box score is arguably worth a point, (that is, somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 points). A point is a point. Teams score an average of a point per possession so anything that gets you possession is a point. A missed shot will more often than not wind up in the possession of the other team. Most baskets are for two points so if the passer who set up the shot is given half credit, that’s worth a point. One half of the blocked shots will likely have gone in and they are almost always two pointers, so that’s a point. If you add up the “positives”, (points, + rebounds + assists + steals + blocks) and subtract the “negatives”, (missed field goals, missed free throws, turnovers and fouls), you have a number that summarizes a player’s statistical contributions to a game. Then, by averaging the net points per 40 minutes of play, you factor out differences in playing time and have a look at the player’s rate of production. Both are important. The game is won based on what you actually did, not the rate at which you did it. But the rate is a better measure of the skills you can bring to the game.
Of course, there are things players do both on and off the court that contribute to victory. Leadership, hard work, keeping the team loose, scrambling for loose balls, (that could be a statistic: when neither team is in control of the ball, who winds up with it?), sneaker-sneaker defense, keeping the ball moving on offense, etc. etc. My experience is that with rare exceptions, the players who are the most statistically productive are the ones who grade highest in the things not measured by statistics, as well.
Here are the NET POINTS of our scholarship player in the most recent game and their averages per 40 minutes of play for the season, (exhibitions games not included):
Rakeem Christmas 17NP in 40 minutes season: 294NP in 472 minutes per 40: 24.9
Michael Gbinije….. 17NP in 36 minutes season: 133NP in 422 minutes per 40: 12.6
Kaleb Joseph……….. 4NP in 25 minutes season: 96NP in 466 minutes per 40: 8.2
Ron Patterson…….. 3NP in 16 minutes season: 23NP in 167 minutes per 40: 5.5
Trevor Cooney…… 2NP in 39 minutes season: 139NP in 542 minutes per 40: 10.3
Tyler Roberson……. -2NP in 20 minutes season: 101NP in 269 minutes per 40: 15.0
Chris McCullough.. -3NP in 24 minutes season: 168NP in 442 minutes per 40: 15.2
DNP-CD- none
Chinoso Obokoh….. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 18NP in 38 minutes per 40: 18.9
B. J. Johnson……….. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 61NP in 190 minutes per 40: 12.8
INJURED
DaJuan Coleman…. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 0NP in 0 minutes per 40: 0.0
SUSPENDED
None
Comment: Tyler Roberson’s NP per 40 increased from 15.0-16.5 after the last game. Now it’s back down to 15.0. Chris McCullough fell from 16.4 to 15.2. The others remained about the same.
Rakeem Christmas has led in net points 8 times, Chris McCullough 4 times, Mike Gbinije and Tyler Roberson twice, BJ Johnson once.
POSSESSION
Before you can score you’ve got to get the rock. Syracuse had 11 offensive and 22 defensive rebounds. They had 19 offensive and 24 defensive rebounds. When we missed we got the ball 11 of 35 times, (31.4%). When they missed, they got the ball 19 of 41 times (46.3%). We’ve won the rebounding battle in every game by this measure 11 times in 15 games. We’ve averaged getting 37% of our misses and our opposition has gotten 31% of theirs.
Of our 12 turnovers, 6 were their steals and 6 were our own miscues. Of their 14 turnovers, 7 were Syracuse steals and 7 were their fault. We have had fewer turnovers in 10 of 15 games with 1 even. Last year we had fewer turnovers in 29 of 34 games with 2 even. We are averaging 13 turnovers, 6 unforced, Our opposition is averaging 15/6.
If you add our 33 rebounds to their 14 turnovers, we had 47 “manufactured possessions”. They had 43 + 12= 55, so we were -8. We have won that battle 11 of 15 times. For the season we’ve averaged 54 to 47 (+7). The offensive rebounds Georgia Tech in this game kept it closer than it should have been. (See “First Chance Points”, below.)
SHOOTING
It’s still what the game is all about. It’s what this game was all about, for sure. We were 14 for 43, (.326) inside the arc, 4 for 9, (.444) outside it and 6 for 10, (.600) from the line. They were 12 for 40 (.300), 3/17 (.176) and 12/15 (.800). We’ve led in two point field goal percentage in 11 of 15 games and in free throw percentage in 9 games. We’ve led in three point field goals percentage, believe it or not, in 9 games, (our opposition isn’t exactly filling it up, either). For the season we are .502/.294/.655. Our opposition is .409/.283/.700. Two point field goal percentages for the season fell from .514 to .502 for us and .429 to .419 for our opposition. This was easily our worst performance in that department. Loyola, (3 for 24) was easily the worst for our opposition. Strangely the one other team that ahs shot worse than Georgia Tech from two point range was St. John’s (11 for 37: .297)
We had 18 points in the paint, 9 off turnovers, 10 “second chance” points, 9 fast break points and 2 from the bench. Our opposition had 22 points in the paint, 12 off turnovers, 9 “second chance” points, 6 fast break points and 6 from the bench.
I heard the caller named Pat, who calls in to all the local radio shows, say that he likes to use a statistic called “First Chance Points”. The idea is to see how successful a team is at scoring, (or preventing it) on their first shot of a half-court possession. You can’t get a shooting percentage on that from the box score but you can figure out the point totals by taking the overall point total and subtracting fast break points, second chance points and free throws made. I liked the idea and decided to include it in my analysis. Here at the game by game totals for this stat this year:
Syracuse 34 Kennesaw State 30
Syracuse 33 Hampton 28
Syracuse 32 California 46
Syracuse 34 Iowa 29
Syracuse 19 Loyola (MD) 14
Syracuse 17 Holy Cross 14
Syracuse 34 Michigan 24
Syracuse 26 St. John’s 32
Syracuse 19 Louisiana Tech 17
Syracuse 41 Villanova 18
Syracuse 31 Colgate 26
Syracuse 31 Long Beach State 40
Syracuse 38 Cornell 25
Syracuse 21 Virginia Tech 40
Syracuse 39 Georgia Tech 12
It’s interesting that we led Villanova 41-18 in “first chance points” but still lost by 5. These last two games are interesting, too. You might think of both of the “Tech” games as being similar but in this stat, they were totally different. The Hokies were far more success in their first attempts to score than we were but we out-rebounded them by 8 and had 14 second chance points to 7. We also got our offense totally shut off by their constant fouling at the end of the game. (It could be argued that some of those free throws were first chance points if we got a shot off but were fouled but there’s no way to discern how many of those free throws belong in this stat form the box score). Georgia tech was the worst team we’ve seen all season on their first attempt to score, (even below Loyola) but out-rebounded us by 10. But that didn’t help them much as we also led in second chance points.
We’ve led in PIP 9 times, POTO 10 times, FCP 11 times, SCP 9 times, FBP 8 times with two ties and BP 8 times, with a tie. For the season we are averaging 33-23 PIP, 17-12 POTO, 30-26 FCP, 13-10 SCP, 9-7 FBP and 13-13 BP.
We had 46 points, 18 in the paint, 12 from the arc and 6 from the line so we had 22 ”POP”, (points outside the paint: 46-18-6) and scored 10 points, (22 POP-12 from the arc), from what I’ll call the “Twilight Zone”: that area between the paint and the arc that is the land of the pull-up jump shot, a lost art but a great weapon. It was a weapon we used to very good effect in this game. They had 45/18/9/12= 11 POP and 2 from the Twilight Zone. We’ve only led in POP 6 times but we’ve led in TZ points 10 times in 15 games. For the year we are averaging 22 POP and 9 TZ, our opposition 24/7. The game is so much easier when you don’t have to go to the basket for all your points.
13 of our 18 baskets were assisted (.722) and 9 of their 15 (.600). For the year we are assisting on 63.6% of our baskets to 63.5% for the opposition, who have had a higher percentage in 7 of 15 games. Assists tend to come more often from jump shots than lay-ups or dunks so the more assists you get, the more you are settling for jump shots to try to win the game which is often a bad strategy. I think it’s interesting that we have a high assist percentage with our “point guard by committee” situation. The team is at least sharing the ball well. But we are now ahead of our opposition in assist percentage. Per my previous discussion of this, it’s not necessarily a good sign.
You compute “Offensive Efficiency” by taking field goal attempts – offensive rebounds + turnovers plus 47.5% of free throws attempted and dividing that into the number of points. We were 52 FGA - 11 OREBs + 12TOs + (.475 x 10) = 57.75 possessions. They were 57 -19+ 14+ (.475 x 15) = 59.125 possessions. Since possessions shouldn’t be more than one off, I’ll count that as 58 possessions in which we scored 46 points, (0.793) and 59 possessions in which they scored 45 points, (0.763). We have, of course, led 11 of 15 games in offensive efficiency since the winning team always leads in that stat. For the year we are averaging 1.018 points per possession to 0.863 for the opposition. Our efficiency went down from 1.042 to 1.018 but the opposition only dipped from 0.869 to 0.863. Basically, we got as bad as the other team in this game and we usually don’t. In the first half against Virginia Tech, SU scored 42 points 31 possessions, an efficiency rate of 1.354. The second half we scored 26 points in 34 possessions,.0.765. Put that together with the Georgia Tech game, the SU team we saw in the first half against Virginia Tech, in a 60 possession game, would beat the team we’ve seen since 81-47.
We had 117 combined possessions in this game, the lowest of the season. We’ve averaged 132 this year. We averaged 122 last year, so the pace appears to be better than it was last season. But the last three games have been 126, 129 and 117 so the pace may be slowing a bit.
Hubert Davis once told us to “Get an offensive dude”. I decided to name an “Offensive Dude Of the Game, or an O-Dog, and use the hockey concept of points + assists. In this game Rakeem Christmas had 18 points with 3 assists for 21 “hockey” points and thus was our co-ODOG. Rakeem Christmas has been the O-Dog 6 times, Trevor Cooney 4 times, Michael Gbinije 3 times , BJ Johnson, Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough once each.
Every other level of basketball plays quarters. To check the consistency of our performance, I look at what the score was at the 10 minute mark of each half to see what the quarterly scores would be. At a minimum, I think we want to score at least 15 points in each quarter and try to hold the opposition to less than that. The quarterly breakdown for this game 14-13, 14-14, 7-11, 11-7. For the season, an average of 16-11, 18-14, 16-15, 18-17. We’ve won 39 of 60 quarters with, (amazingly) only one even. We’ve scored 15 or more in 38 quarters and held the opposition under that 35 times. I’ve been break out games like this for several years, (but not keeping all the game by game records). This is the first game I can remember where neither team scored 15 points in any quarter.
I also like to keep track who sits us down in each half. Besides being fun it gives an indication of who Coach B likes to design plays for since opening possessions are more likely to be scripted. Michael Gbinije opened the first half with a trey at 18:17 and did the same with a lay-up in the second half at 17:09. The average time we’ve had to wait is 1 minute 30 seconds. Our longest wait has been 3 minutes 31 seconds in the first half vs. Cornell. Rakeem Christmas has sat us down 8 times, Michael Gbinije 5 times, Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough 4 times, Trevor Cooney three times and Tyler Roberson twice.
Another fun fact is the “Taco Bell MVP”: the guy who gets us to 75 points so people can free, (or is it discounted?) tacos at Taco Bell. There were no tacos after this game. (We were just 30 points short) The longest we’ve had to wait is 3:31). Rakeem Christmas, Trevor Cooney, BJ Johnson and Ron Patterson have each got us Tacos once. (I wonder how many point we have to score to get real meat in the tacos?)
FOULS
My theory about fouls is that the team that attempts the most two point shots will tend to get fouled the most. If the numbers are as predicted or close, there’s nothing to be read into them but if there’s a big disparity, it makes you wonder about how the game was called.
In this game, we attempted 43 two point shots to 18, scored 12 points in the paint to 10 and got fouled 40 times to 22, attempting 13 foul shots to 15. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 3.6 for us and 3.1 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 1.5 for us to 1.7 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 0.8 for us and 1.2 for them. I think the refs let too much go in this game but they seemed to be offciatging it the same way on both ends.
Last year we attempted 1368 two point shots to 993 for the opposition and scored 1028 PIP to 753. We committed 546 fouls to 598 and went to the line 720 to 607 times, suggesting that there should be a relationship between two points attempts and points in the point and how many fouls are called on the other team and how many times you got to the line. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 2.3 for us and 1.8 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 1.7 for us to 1.4 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 1.2 for us and 1.1 for them.
This year we have taken 634 two point shots and scored 502 points in the paint. We’ve been fouled 259 times and taken 292 free throws. Our opposition has taken 525 two point shots and scored 348 points in the paint. They’ve been fouled 222 times and taken only 231 free throws. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled has been 2.4 for us and 2.4 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled has been 1.9 for us to 1.6 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team has been 1.1 for us and 1.0 for them.
“MY MAN”
A reporter once asked Casey Stengel how come he won so many games with the Yankees. He said “Because I never play a game without “my man”. The reporter wondered who his man was. Casey suggested “You could look it up.” The reporter did look it up and found that Yogi Berra had played in every game that season at some positon: catcher, left field, pinch-hitting, something. He was the player Stengel had the highest regard for and the most trust in, so he didn’t want to do without him.
Who is Jim Boeheim’s “man” this season? The only way to tell is to see who plays the most minutes each game. In this game, Rakeem Christmas played all 40 minutes. Trevor Cooney has been the “Man” 9 times, Chris McCullough and Kaleb Joseph 4 times and Michael Gbinije and Rakeem Christmas twice. Cooney still leads the team in minutes played with 542, 70 more than any other player. It’s encouraging that Christmas has committed only 10 fouls in the last 5 games so he can stay on the court longer. Now, if we could only get him a legitimate back-up center.
The first thing I’ll look at is “NET POINTS”. The idea is that each statistic in the box score is arguably worth a point, (that is, somewhere between 0.5 and 1.5 points). A point is a point. Teams score an average of a point per possession so anything that gets you possession is a point. A missed shot will more often than not wind up in the possession of the other team. Most baskets are for two points so if the passer who set up the shot is given half credit, that’s worth a point. One half of the blocked shots will likely have gone in and they are almost always two pointers, so that’s a point. If you add up the “positives”, (points, + rebounds + assists + steals + blocks) and subtract the “negatives”, (missed field goals, missed free throws, turnovers and fouls), you have a number that summarizes a player’s statistical contributions to a game. Then, by averaging the net points per 40 minutes of play, you factor out differences in playing time and have a look at the player’s rate of production. Both are important. The game is won based on what you actually did, not the rate at which you did it. But the rate is a better measure of the skills you can bring to the game.
Of course, there are things players do both on and off the court that contribute to victory. Leadership, hard work, keeping the team loose, scrambling for loose balls, (that could be a statistic: when neither team is in control of the ball, who winds up with it?), sneaker-sneaker defense, keeping the ball moving on offense, etc. etc. My experience is that with rare exceptions, the players who are the most statistically productive are the ones who grade highest in the things not measured by statistics, as well.
Here are the NET POINTS of our scholarship player in the most recent game and their averages per 40 minutes of play for the season, (exhibitions games not included):
Rakeem Christmas 17NP in 40 minutes season: 294NP in 472 minutes per 40: 24.9
Michael Gbinije….. 17NP in 36 minutes season: 133NP in 422 minutes per 40: 12.6
Kaleb Joseph……….. 4NP in 25 minutes season: 96NP in 466 minutes per 40: 8.2
Ron Patterson…….. 3NP in 16 minutes season: 23NP in 167 minutes per 40: 5.5
Trevor Cooney…… 2NP in 39 minutes season: 139NP in 542 minutes per 40: 10.3
Tyler Roberson……. -2NP in 20 minutes season: 101NP in 269 minutes per 40: 15.0
Chris McCullough.. -3NP in 24 minutes season: 168NP in 442 minutes per 40: 15.2
DNP-CD- none
Chinoso Obokoh….. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 18NP in 38 minutes per 40: 18.9
B. J. Johnson……….. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 61NP in 190 minutes per 40: 12.8
INJURED
DaJuan Coleman…. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 0NP in 0 minutes per 40: 0.0
SUSPENDED
None
Comment: Tyler Roberson’s NP per 40 increased from 15.0-16.5 after the last game. Now it’s back down to 15.0. Chris McCullough fell from 16.4 to 15.2. The others remained about the same.
Rakeem Christmas has led in net points 8 times, Chris McCullough 4 times, Mike Gbinije and Tyler Roberson twice, BJ Johnson once.
POSSESSION
Before you can score you’ve got to get the rock. Syracuse had 11 offensive and 22 defensive rebounds. They had 19 offensive and 24 defensive rebounds. When we missed we got the ball 11 of 35 times, (31.4%). When they missed, they got the ball 19 of 41 times (46.3%). We’ve won the rebounding battle in every game by this measure 11 times in 15 games. We’ve averaged getting 37% of our misses and our opposition has gotten 31% of theirs.
Of our 12 turnovers, 6 were their steals and 6 were our own miscues. Of their 14 turnovers, 7 were Syracuse steals and 7 were their fault. We have had fewer turnovers in 10 of 15 games with 1 even. Last year we had fewer turnovers in 29 of 34 games with 2 even. We are averaging 13 turnovers, 6 unforced, Our opposition is averaging 15/6.
If you add our 33 rebounds to their 14 turnovers, we had 47 “manufactured possessions”. They had 43 + 12= 55, so we were -8. We have won that battle 11 of 15 times. For the season we’ve averaged 54 to 47 (+7). The offensive rebounds Georgia Tech in this game kept it closer than it should have been. (See “First Chance Points”, below.)
SHOOTING
It’s still what the game is all about. It’s what this game was all about, for sure. We were 14 for 43, (.326) inside the arc, 4 for 9, (.444) outside it and 6 for 10, (.600) from the line. They were 12 for 40 (.300), 3/17 (.176) and 12/15 (.800). We’ve led in two point field goal percentage in 11 of 15 games and in free throw percentage in 9 games. We’ve led in three point field goals percentage, believe it or not, in 9 games, (our opposition isn’t exactly filling it up, either). For the season we are .502/.294/.655. Our opposition is .409/.283/.700. Two point field goal percentages for the season fell from .514 to .502 for us and .429 to .419 for our opposition. This was easily our worst performance in that department. Loyola, (3 for 24) was easily the worst for our opposition. Strangely the one other team that ahs shot worse than Georgia Tech from two point range was St. John’s (11 for 37: .297)
We had 18 points in the paint, 9 off turnovers, 10 “second chance” points, 9 fast break points and 2 from the bench. Our opposition had 22 points in the paint, 12 off turnovers, 9 “second chance” points, 6 fast break points and 6 from the bench.
I heard the caller named Pat, who calls in to all the local radio shows, say that he likes to use a statistic called “First Chance Points”. The idea is to see how successful a team is at scoring, (or preventing it) on their first shot of a half-court possession. You can’t get a shooting percentage on that from the box score but you can figure out the point totals by taking the overall point total and subtracting fast break points, second chance points and free throws made. I liked the idea and decided to include it in my analysis. Here at the game by game totals for this stat this year:
Syracuse 34 Kennesaw State 30
Syracuse 33 Hampton 28
Syracuse 32 California 46
Syracuse 34 Iowa 29
Syracuse 19 Loyola (MD) 14
Syracuse 17 Holy Cross 14
Syracuse 34 Michigan 24
Syracuse 26 St. John’s 32
Syracuse 19 Louisiana Tech 17
Syracuse 41 Villanova 18
Syracuse 31 Colgate 26
Syracuse 31 Long Beach State 40
Syracuse 38 Cornell 25
Syracuse 21 Virginia Tech 40
Syracuse 39 Georgia Tech 12
It’s interesting that we led Villanova 41-18 in “first chance points” but still lost by 5. These last two games are interesting, too. You might think of both of the “Tech” games as being similar but in this stat, they were totally different. The Hokies were far more success in their first attempts to score than we were but we out-rebounded them by 8 and had 14 second chance points to 7. We also got our offense totally shut off by their constant fouling at the end of the game. (It could be argued that some of those free throws were first chance points if we got a shot off but were fouled but there’s no way to discern how many of those free throws belong in this stat form the box score). Georgia tech was the worst team we’ve seen all season on their first attempt to score, (even below Loyola) but out-rebounded us by 10. But that didn’t help them much as we also led in second chance points.
We’ve led in PIP 9 times, POTO 10 times, FCP 11 times, SCP 9 times, FBP 8 times with two ties and BP 8 times, with a tie. For the season we are averaging 33-23 PIP, 17-12 POTO, 30-26 FCP, 13-10 SCP, 9-7 FBP and 13-13 BP.
We had 46 points, 18 in the paint, 12 from the arc and 6 from the line so we had 22 ”POP”, (points outside the paint: 46-18-6) and scored 10 points, (22 POP-12 from the arc), from what I’ll call the “Twilight Zone”: that area between the paint and the arc that is the land of the pull-up jump shot, a lost art but a great weapon. It was a weapon we used to very good effect in this game. They had 45/18/9/12= 11 POP and 2 from the Twilight Zone. We’ve only led in POP 6 times but we’ve led in TZ points 10 times in 15 games. For the year we are averaging 22 POP and 9 TZ, our opposition 24/7. The game is so much easier when you don’t have to go to the basket for all your points.
13 of our 18 baskets were assisted (.722) and 9 of their 15 (.600). For the year we are assisting on 63.6% of our baskets to 63.5% for the opposition, who have had a higher percentage in 7 of 15 games. Assists tend to come more often from jump shots than lay-ups or dunks so the more assists you get, the more you are settling for jump shots to try to win the game which is often a bad strategy. I think it’s interesting that we have a high assist percentage with our “point guard by committee” situation. The team is at least sharing the ball well. But we are now ahead of our opposition in assist percentage. Per my previous discussion of this, it’s not necessarily a good sign.
You compute “Offensive Efficiency” by taking field goal attempts – offensive rebounds + turnovers plus 47.5% of free throws attempted and dividing that into the number of points. We were 52 FGA - 11 OREBs + 12TOs + (.475 x 10) = 57.75 possessions. They were 57 -19+ 14+ (.475 x 15) = 59.125 possessions. Since possessions shouldn’t be more than one off, I’ll count that as 58 possessions in which we scored 46 points, (0.793) and 59 possessions in which they scored 45 points, (0.763). We have, of course, led 11 of 15 games in offensive efficiency since the winning team always leads in that stat. For the year we are averaging 1.018 points per possession to 0.863 for the opposition. Our efficiency went down from 1.042 to 1.018 but the opposition only dipped from 0.869 to 0.863. Basically, we got as bad as the other team in this game and we usually don’t. In the first half against Virginia Tech, SU scored 42 points 31 possessions, an efficiency rate of 1.354. The second half we scored 26 points in 34 possessions,.0.765. Put that together with the Georgia Tech game, the SU team we saw in the first half against Virginia Tech, in a 60 possession game, would beat the team we’ve seen since 81-47.
We had 117 combined possessions in this game, the lowest of the season. We’ve averaged 132 this year. We averaged 122 last year, so the pace appears to be better than it was last season. But the last three games have been 126, 129 and 117 so the pace may be slowing a bit.
Hubert Davis once told us to “Get an offensive dude”. I decided to name an “Offensive Dude Of the Game, or an O-Dog, and use the hockey concept of points + assists. In this game Rakeem Christmas had 18 points with 3 assists for 21 “hockey” points and thus was our co-ODOG. Rakeem Christmas has been the O-Dog 6 times, Trevor Cooney 4 times, Michael Gbinije 3 times , BJ Johnson, Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough once each.
Every other level of basketball plays quarters. To check the consistency of our performance, I look at what the score was at the 10 minute mark of each half to see what the quarterly scores would be. At a minimum, I think we want to score at least 15 points in each quarter and try to hold the opposition to less than that. The quarterly breakdown for this game 14-13, 14-14, 7-11, 11-7. For the season, an average of 16-11, 18-14, 16-15, 18-17. We’ve won 39 of 60 quarters with, (amazingly) only one even. We’ve scored 15 or more in 38 quarters and held the opposition under that 35 times. I’ve been break out games like this for several years, (but not keeping all the game by game records). This is the first game I can remember where neither team scored 15 points in any quarter.
I also like to keep track who sits us down in each half. Besides being fun it gives an indication of who Coach B likes to design plays for since opening possessions are more likely to be scripted. Michael Gbinije opened the first half with a trey at 18:17 and did the same with a lay-up in the second half at 17:09. The average time we’ve had to wait is 1 minute 30 seconds. Our longest wait has been 3 minutes 31 seconds in the first half vs. Cornell. Rakeem Christmas has sat us down 8 times, Michael Gbinije 5 times, Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough 4 times, Trevor Cooney three times and Tyler Roberson twice.
Another fun fact is the “Taco Bell MVP”: the guy who gets us to 75 points so people can free, (or is it discounted?) tacos at Taco Bell. There were no tacos after this game. (We were just 30 points short) The longest we’ve had to wait is 3:31). Rakeem Christmas, Trevor Cooney, BJ Johnson and Ron Patterson have each got us Tacos once. (I wonder how many point we have to score to get real meat in the tacos?)
FOULS
My theory about fouls is that the team that attempts the most two point shots will tend to get fouled the most. If the numbers are as predicted or close, there’s nothing to be read into them but if there’s a big disparity, it makes you wonder about how the game was called.
In this game, we attempted 43 two point shots to 18, scored 12 points in the paint to 10 and got fouled 40 times to 22, attempting 13 foul shots to 15. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 3.6 for us and 3.1 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 1.5 for us to 1.7 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 0.8 for us and 1.2 for them. I think the refs let too much go in this game but they seemed to be offciatging it the same way on both ends.
Last year we attempted 1368 two point shots to 993 for the opposition and scored 1028 PIP to 753. We committed 546 fouls to 598 and went to the line 720 to 607 times, suggesting that there should be a relationship between two points attempts and points in the point and how many fouls are called on the other team and how many times you got to the line. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 2.3 for us and 1.8 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 1.7 for us to 1.4 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 1.2 for us and 1.1 for them.
This year we have taken 634 two point shots and scored 502 points in the paint. We’ve been fouled 259 times and taken 292 free throws. Our opposition has taken 525 two point shots and scored 348 points in the paint. They’ve been fouled 222 times and taken only 231 free throws. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled has been 2.4 for us and 2.4 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled has been 1.9 for us to 1.6 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team has been 1.1 for us and 1.0 for them.
“MY MAN”
A reporter once asked Casey Stengel how come he won so many games with the Yankees. He said “Because I never play a game without “my man”. The reporter wondered who his man was. Casey suggested “You could look it up.” The reporter did look it up and found that Yogi Berra had played in every game that season at some positon: catcher, left field, pinch-hitting, something. He was the player Stengel had the highest regard for and the most trust in, so he didn’t want to do without him.
Who is Jim Boeheim’s “man” this season? The only way to tell is to see who plays the most minutes each game. In this game, Rakeem Christmas played all 40 minutes. Trevor Cooney has been the “Man” 9 times, Chris McCullough and Kaleb Joseph 4 times and Michael Gbinije and Rakeem Christmas twice. Cooney still leads the team in minutes played with 542, 70 more than any other player. It’s encouraging that Christmas has committed only 10 fouls in the last 5 games so he can stay on the court longer. Now, if we could only get him a legitimate back-up center.