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 31NP in 45 minutes season: 342NP in 552 minutes per 40: 24.8
Michael Gbinije….. 23NP in 42 minutes season: 170NP in 504 minutes per 40: 13.5
Trevor Cooney…… 14NP in 45 minutes season: 176NP in 626 minutes per 40: 11.2
Tyler Roberson……. 10NP in 44 minutes season: 118NP in 345 minutes per 40: 13.7
Kaleb Joseph……….. 6NP in 23 minutes season: 112NP in 521 minutes per 40: 8.6
B. J. Johnson……….. -1NP in 3 minutes season: 60NP in 193 minutes per 40: 12.4
Ron Patterson…….. -4NP in 23 minutes season: 25NP in 199 minutes per 40: 5.0
DNP-CD- none
Chinoso Obokoh….. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 14NP in 43 minutes per 40: 13.0
INJURED
DaJuan Coleman…. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 0NP in 0 minutes per 40: 0.0
Chris McCullough.. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 171NP in 450 minutes per 40: 15.2
SUSPENDED
None
Comment: Rak Christmas came in averaging 24.5 NP per 40. That went up only to 24.8 in what was surely the greatest game of his career. That’s because it’s the 17th game of the season and became 31 NP in 45 mintues is 27.6 over 40 minutes., not a great difference. He’s been playing this way all year. It’s just that he’s learned to avoid foul trouble or to stay on the court when he has it and he got to play 45 minutes in this one, instead of the 25-30 minutes he’d been limited to early in the season. He’ll have to stay on the court for 40+ minutes per game if we are to have a good season. He did it in this one. If he keeps doing it, his per game numbers are going to be really something by the end of the year. But he’d been playing this way from day one.
Rakeem Christmas has led in net points 9 times, Chris McCullough 4 times, Mike Gbinije and Tyler Roberson twice, Trevor Cooney and BJ Johnson once.
POSSESSION
Before you can score you’ve got to get the rock. Syracuse had 15 offensive and 24 defensive rebounds. They had 11 offensive and 32 defensive rebounds. When we missed we got the ball 15 of 47 times, (31.9%). When they missed, they got the ball 11 of 35 times (31.4%). We’ve won the rebounding battle in every game by this measure 13 times in 16 games. We’ve averaged getting 36.5% of our misses and our opposition has gotten 30.9% of theirs. In the last three games, we’ve only rebounded 37 of 115 misses, (31.4%)- and that includes Tyler Roberson’s clutch performance under the offensive boards down the stretch against Wake Forest. Roberson, Christmas and Gbinije aren’t a huge front line but they are all good rebounders and we need to do better in this area. A little more help from the guards would be good but it also might cut off our fast break points.
Of our 8 turnovers, 5 were their steals and 3 were our own miscues. Of their 13 turnovers, 10 were Syracuse steals and 3 were their fault. We have had fewer turnovers in 12 of 17 games with 1 even. Last year we had fewer turnovers in 29 of 34 games with 2 even. We are averaging 12 turnovers, 6 unforced, Our opposition is averaging 15/6. Our 10 steals in this game were huge.
If you add our 39 rebounds to their 13 turnovers, we had 52 “manufactured possessions”. They had 43 + 8= 51, so we were +1. We have won that battle 12 of 17 times. For the season we’ve averaged 54 to 47 (+7).
SHOOTING
It’s still what the game is all about. It’s what this game was all about, for sure. We were 21 for 51, (.412) inside the arc, 9 for 21, (.429) outside it and 17 for 26, (.654) from the line. They were 21 for 37 (.568), 9/25 (.360) and 14/19 (.737). We’ve led in two point field goal percentage in 11 of 17 games and in free throw percentage in 10 games. We’ve led in three point field goals percentage, believe it or not, in 11 games, (our opposition isn’t exactly filling it up, either). For the season we are .484/.323/.660. Our opposition is .434/.282/.697. One of my statistical conclusions form keeping track of these things over the years is that no statistic correlates to wings more than two point field goal percentage offense and defense. This game, like the last one, was certainly an exception to that “rule”: we shot 41% inside the arc and they shot 57. We have become a perimeter team, not unlike the “Roy’s Runts” teams of the 70’s. In fact this bunch is starting to remind me of our first Final Four team, which had Rudy Hackett cleaning up inside with Jimmy lee bombing way from outside. Our team three point percentage, which was .198 after our 0 for 14 game against Holy Cross, has risen to .389 since that game.
We had 30 points in the paint, 18 off turnovers, 14 “second chance” points, 12 fast break points and 3 from the bench. Our opposition had 28 points in the paint, 9 off turnovers, 10 “second chance” points, 8 fast break points and 31 from the bench. We also had 43 of Pat’s “first chance points” (Total points minus second chance points, fast break points and made free throws) to 51, so our 15 offensive rebounds and those points off turnovers made a big difference.
We’ve led in PIP 10 times, POTO 12 times, FCP 11 times SCP 11 times, FBP 10 times with 2 ties and BP 8 times, with a tie. For the season we are averaging 32-23 PIP, 17-12 POTO, 31-28 FCP, 12-10 SCP,10-7 FBP and 12-14 BP. We aren’t likely to lead anybody in bench points from here on in.
We had 86 points, 30 in the paint, 27 from the arc and 17 from the line so we had 39 ”POP”, (points outside the paint: 86-30-17) and scored 12 points, (39 POP-27 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 both teams used to very good effect in this game. They had 83/28/27/14= 41 POP and 14 from the Twilight Zone. We’ve only led in POP 7 times but we’ve led in TZ points 10 times in 17 games. For the year we are averaging 24 POP and 9 TZ, our opposition 25/7. The game is so much easier when you don’t have to go to the basket for all your points.
20 of our 30 baskets were assisted (.667) and also 20 of their 30 (.667). For the year we are assisting on 64.7% of our baskets to 63.4% for the opposition, who have had a higher percentage in 7 of 17 games, with one tie. 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.
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 72 FGA - 15 OREBs + 8TOs + (.475 x 26) = 77.35 possessions. They were 62 -11+ 13+ (.475 x 19) = 73.025 possessions. Since possessions shouldn’t be more than one off, I’ll count that as 76 possessions in which we scored 86 points, (1.132) and 75 possessions in which they scored 83 points, (1.107). We have, of course, led 13 of 17 games in offensive efficiency since the winning team always leads in that stat. For the year we are averaging 1.030 points per possession to 0.880 for the opposition.
We had 151 combined possessions in this game. Multiply by 40/45 and it comes to 134 for 40 minutes, (it was an unusually lively overtime.) We’ve averaged 133 this year. We averaged 122 last year, so the pace appears to be better than it was last season.
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 was a pretty offensive dude last night, with 35 points with 3 assists for 38 “hockey” points and thus was our ODOG. That was the most “hockey points” any SU player has had this year, topping Michael Gbinije’s 32 against Long Beach State and Trevor Cooney’s 30 vs. Florida State. Rakeem Christmas has been the O-Dog 7 times, Trevor Cooney 5 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 21-19, 15-18, 13-19, 15-12 OT: 15-12. For the season we have an average of 17-12, 17-14, 16-15, 17-16. We’ve won 44 of 66 quarters with, (amazingly) only one even. We’ve scored 15 or more in 45 quarters and held the opposition under that 39 times.
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. Trevor Cooney opened the first half with a trey at 19:34 and Rakeem Christmas did the same with a jumper in the second half at 19:50. The average time we’ve had to wait is 1 minute 29 seconds. Our longest wait has been 3 minutes 31 seconds in the first half vs. Cornell. Rakeem Christmas has sat us down 10 times, Trevor Cooney 7 times, Michael Gbinije, Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough 5 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. Overtime allowed us to get to 75 in this one. Mike Gbinije got us past it with a jumper at 2:54, 25 seconds after Rakeem Christmas set it up with a jumper. (The longest we’ve had to wait is 3:31.( Rakeem Christmas, Trevor Cooney, Michael Gbinije, 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 51 two point shots to 37, scored 30 points in the paint to 28 and got fouled 21 times to 15, attempting 26 foul shots to 19. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 2.4 for us and 2.5 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 1.4 for us to 1.9 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 1.2 for us and 1.3 for them. They got called for fouls more often but more of their put them on the line. It wasn’t a huge difference , though.
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 725 two point shots and scored 550 points in the paint. We’ve been fouled 298 times and taken 340 free throws. Our opposition has taken 599 two point shots and scored 402 points in the paint. They’ve been fouled 252 times and taken only 271 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 1.1 for them. So the officiating overall has been pretty even-handed.
“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, Trevor Cooney and Rakeem Christmas both played all 45 minutes. Trevor Cooney has been the “Man” 10 times, Chris McCullough and Kaleb Joseph 4 times, Michael Gbinije and Rakeem Christmas three times. Cooney still leads the team in minutes played with 626, 74 more than any other player. Encouragingly, the guy in second place is Rakeem Christmas, who earlier had a problem staying in games because of excessive fouling.
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 31NP in 45 minutes season: 342NP in 552 minutes per 40: 24.8
Michael Gbinije….. 23NP in 42 minutes season: 170NP in 504 minutes per 40: 13.5
Trevor Cooney…… 14NP in 45 minutes season: 176NP in 626 minutes per 40: 11.2
Tyler Roberson……. 10NP in 44 minutes season: 118NP in 345 minutes per 40: 13.7
Kaleb Joseph……….. 6NP in 23 minutes season: 112NP in 521 minutes per 40: 8.6
B. J. Johnson……….. -1NP in 3 minutes season: 60NP in 193 minutes per 40: 12.4
Ron Patterson…….. -4NP in 23 minutes season: 25NP in 199 minutes per 40: 5.0
DNP-CD- none
Chinoso Obokoh….. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 14NP in 43 minutes per 40: 13.0
INJURED
DaJuan Coleman…. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 0NP in 0 minutes per 40: 0.0
Chris McCullough.. 0NP in 0 minutes season: 171NP in 450 minutes per 40: 15.2
SUSPENDED
None
Comment: Rak Christmas came in averaging 24.5 NP per 40. That went up only to 24.8 in what was surely the greatest game of his career. That’s because it’s the 17th game of the season and became 31 NP in 45 mintues is 27.6 over 40 minutes., not a great difference. He’s been playing this way all year. It’s just that he’s learned to avoid foul trouble or to stay on the court when he has it and he got to play 45 minutes in this one, instead of the 25-30 minutes he’d been limited to early in the season. He’ll have to stay on the court for 40+ minutes per game if we are to have a good season. He did it in this one. If he keeps doing it, his per game numbers are going to be really something by the end of the year. But he’d been playing this way from day one.
Rakeem Christmas has led in net points 9 times, Chris McCullough 4 times, Mike Gbinije and Tyler Roberson twice, Trevor Cooney and BJ Johnson once.
POSSESSION
Before you can score you’ve got to get the rock. Syracuse had 15 offensive and 24 defensive rebounds. They had 11 offensive and 32 defensive rebounds. When we missed we got the ball 15 of 47 times, (31.9%). When they missed, they got the ball 11 of 35 times (31.4%). We’ve won the rebounding battle in every game by this measure 13 times in 16 games. We’ve averaged getting 36.5% of our misses and our opposition has gotten 30.9% of theirs. In the last three games, we’ve only rebounded 37 of 115 misses, (31.4%)- and that includes Tyler Roberson’s clutch performance under the offensive boards down the stretch against Wake Forest. Roberson, Christmas and Gbinije aren’t a huge front line but they are all good rebounders and we need to do better in this area. A little more help from the guards would be good but it also might cut off our fast break points.
Of our 8 turnovers, 5 were their steals and 3 were our own miscues. Of their 13 turnovers, 10 were Syracuse steals and 3 were their fault. We have had fewer turnovers in 12 of 17 games with 1 even. Last year we had fewer turnovers in 29 of 34 games with 2 even. We are averaging 12 turnovers, 6 unforced, Our opposition is averaging 15/6. Our 10 steals in this game were huge.
If you add our 39 rebounds to their 13 turnovers, we had 52 “manufactured possessions”. They had 43 + 8= 51, so we were +1. We have won that battle 12 of 17 times. For the season we’ve averaged 54 to 47 (+7).
SHOOTING
It’s still what the game is all about. It’s what this game was all about, for sure. We were 21 for 51, (.412) inside the arc, 9 for 21, (.429) outside it and 17 for 26, (.654) from the line. They were 21 for 37 (.568), 9/25 (.360) and 14/19 (.737). We’ve led in two point field goal percentage in 11 of 17 games and in free throw percentage in 10 games. We’ve led in three point field goals percentage, believe it or not, in 11 games, (our opposition isn’t exactly filling it up, either). For the season we are .484/.323/.660. Our opposition is .434/.282/.697. One of my statistical conclusions form keeping track of these things over the years is that no statistic correlates to wings more than two point field goal percentage offense and defense. This game, like the last one, was certainly an exception to that “rule”: we shot 41% inside the arc and they shot 57. We have become a perimeter team, not unlike the “Roy’s Runts” teams of the 70’s. In fact this bunch is starting to remind me of our first Final Four team, which had Rudy Hackett cleaning up inside with Jimmy lee bombing way from outside. Our team three point percentage, which was .198 after our 0 for 14 game against Holy Cross, has risen to .389 since that game.
We had 30 points in the paint, 18 off turnovers, 14 “second chance” points, 12 fast break points and 3 from the bench. Our opposition had 28 points in the paint, 9 off turnovers, 10 “second chance” points, 8 fast break points and 31 from the bench. We also had 43 of Pat’s “first chance points” (Total points minus second chance points, fast break points and made free throws) to 51, so our 15 offensive rebounds and those points off turnovers made a big difference.
We’ve led in PIP 10 times, POTO 12 times, FCP 11 times SCP 11 times, FBP 10 times with 2 ties and BP 8 times, with a tie. For the season we are averaging 32-23 PIP, 17-12 POTO, 31-28 FCP, 12-10 SCP,10-7 FBP and 12-14 BP. We aren’t likely to lead anybody in bench points from here on in.
We had 86 points, 30 in the paint, 27 from the arc and 17 from the line so we had 39 ”POP”, (points outside the paint: 86-30-17) and scored 12 points, (39 POP-27 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 both teams used to very good effect in this game. They had 83/28/27/14= 41 POP and 14 from the Twilight Zone. We’ve only led in POP 7 times but we’ve led in TZ points 10 times in 17 games. For the year we are averaging 24 POP and 9 TZ, our opposition 25/7. The game is so much easier when you don’t have to go to the basket for all your points.
20 of our 30 baskets were assisted (.667) and also 20 of their 30 (.667). For the year we are assisting on 64.7% of our baskets to 63.4% for the opposition, who have had a higher percentage in 7 of 17 games, with one tie. 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.
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 72 FGA - 15 OREBs + 8TOs + (.475 x 26) = 77.35 possessions. They were 62 -11+ 13+ (.475 x 19) = 73.025 possessions. Since possessions shouldn’t be more than one off, I’ll count that as 76 possessions in which we scored 86 points, (1.132) and 75 possessions in which they scored 83 points, (1.107). We have, of course, led 13 of 17 games in offensive efficiency since the winning team always leads in that stat. For the year we are averaging 1.030 points per possession to 0.880 for the opposition.
We had 151 combined possessions in this game. Multiply by 40/45 and it comes to 134 for 40 minutes, (it was an unusually lively overtime.) We’ve averaged 133 this year. We averaged 122 last year, so the pace appears to be better than it was last season.
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 was a pretty offensive dude last night, with 35 points with 3 assists for 38 “hockey” points and thus was our ODOG. That was the most “hockey points” any SU player has had this year, topping Michael Gbinije’s 32 against Long Beach State and Trevor Cooney’s 30 vs. Florida State. Rakeem Christmas has been the O-Dog 7 times, Trevor Cooney 5 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 21-19, 15-18, 13-19, 15-12 OT: 15-12. For the season we have an average of 17-12, 17-14, 16-15, 17-16. We’ve won 44 of 66 quarters with, (amazingly) only one even. We’ve scored 15 or more in 45 quarters and held the opposition under that 39 times.
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. Trevor Cooney opened the first half with a trey at 19:34 and Rakeem Christmas did the same with a jumper in the second half at 19:50. The average time we’ve had to wait is 1 minute 29 seconds. Our longest wait has been 3 minutes 31 seconds in the first half vs. Cornell. Rakeem Christmas has sat us down 10 times, Trevor Cooney 7 times, Michael Gbinije, Kaleb Joseph and Chris McCullough 5 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. Overtime allowed us to get to 75 in this one. Mike Gbinije got us past it with a jumper at 2:54, 25 seconds after Rakeem Christmas set it up with a jumper. (The longest we’ve had to wait is 3:31.( Rakeem Christmas, Trevor Cooney, Michael Gbinije, 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 51 two point shots to 37, scored 30 points in the paint to 28 and got fouled 21 times to 15, attempting 26 foul shots to 19. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 2.4 for us and 2.5 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 1.4 for us to 1.9 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 1.2 for us and 1.3 for them. They got called for fouls more often but more of their put them on the line. It wasn’t a huge difference , though.
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 725 two point shots and scored 550 points in the paint. We’ve been fouled 298 times and taken 340 free throws. Our opposition has taken 599 two point shots and scored 402 points in the paint. They’ve been fouled 252 times and taken only 271 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 1.1 for them. So the officiating overall has been pretty even-handed.
“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, Trevor Cooney and Rakeem Christmas both played all 45 minutes. Trevor Cooney has been the “Man” 10 times, Chris McCullough and Kaleb Joseph 4 times, Michael Gbinije and Rakeem Christmas three times. Cooney still leads the team in minutes played with 626, 74 more than any other player. Encouragingly, the guy in second place is Rakeem Christmas, who earlier had a problem staying in games because of excessive fouling.
