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 23NP in 40 minutes season: 365NP in 592 minutes per 40: 24.7
Tyler Roberson……. 11NP in 36 minutes season: 129NP in 381 minutes per 40: 13.5
Kaleb Joseph……….. 6NP in 33 minutes season: 118NP in 554 minutes per 40: 8.5
Michael Gbinije….. 1NP in 40 minutes season: 171NP in 544 minutes per 40: 12.6
B. J. Johnson……… -2NP in 6 minutes season: 58NP in 199 minutes per 40: 11.7
Trevor Cooney…… -3NP in 38 minutes season: 173NP in 664 minutes per 40: 10.4
Ron Patterson…….. -6NP in 7 minutes season: 19NP in 206 minutes per 40: 3.7
(not to hurt his feelings…)
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: The anatomy of a poor performance by the team, (save Rak and Roberson’s rather unproductive rebounding). Cooney’s NP per 40 went from 11.2 to 10.4, a big dip for the guy leading the team in minutes played 18 games into the season.
Rakeem Christmas has led in net points 10 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 12 offensive and 18 defensive rebounds. They had 13 offensive and 27 defensive rebounds. When we missed we got the ball 12 of 39 times, (30.8%). When they missed, they got the ball 13 of 31 times (41.9%). We’ve won the rebounding battle by this measure 13 times in 18 games. We’ve averaged getting 36.2% of our misses and our opposition has gotten 31.4% of theirs. In the last four games, we’ve only rebounded 49 of 157 misses, (31.2%)- and that includes Tyler Roberson’s ability to vacuum in offensive boards, (which seem to produce few second chance points). 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.
I’ve decided to look at a new stat based on this Clemson game, in which we had 12 offensive rebounds to 13 and yet got only 11 second chance points out of them to 21, (and lost by 13). The obvious stat: second chance divided by offensive rebounds to see the impact of the offensive rebounding. Here is the history of it so far this year:
Effective Offensive Rebounding (Second Chance Points/Offensive Rebounds)
Syracuse 26/25 = 1.04 Kennesaw State 3/7 = 0.43
Syracuse 14/11 = 1.27 Hampton 8/9 = 0.89
Syracuse 6/14 = 0.43 California 4/7 = 0.57
Syracuse 13/14 = 0.93 Iowa 15/13= 1.15
Syracuse 12/9 = 1.33 Loyola (Md) 6/15 = 0.40
Syracuse 18/11 = 1.64 Holy Cross 4/11 = 0.36
Syracuse 17/10 = 1.70 Michigan 13/17 = 0.76
Syracuse 13/15 = 0.87 St. John’s 8/12 = 0.67
Syracuse 16/20 = 0.80 Louisiana Tech 12/11 = 1.09
Syracuse 4/8 = 0.50 Villanova 12/15 – 0.80
Syracuse 19/12 = 1.58 Colgate 9/9 = 1.00
Syracuse 12/9 = 1.33 Long Beach State 14/10 = 1.40
Syracuse 4/8 = 0.50 Cornell 12/12 = 1.00
Syracuse 14/15 = 0.93 Virginia Tech 7/11 = 0.64
Syracuse 10/11 = 0.91 Georgia Tech 9/19 = 0.47
Syracuse 12/11 = 1.09 Florida State 10/10 = 1.00
Syracuse 14/15 = 0.93 Wake Forest 10/11 = 0.91
Syracuse 11/12 = 0.92 Clemson 21/13 = 1.62
For the season, we’ve averaged 235/230 = 1.02; they’ve averaged 177/212 = 0.83 We’ve led in this stat 11 times in 18 games.
So it wasn’t so much that we weren’t taking advantage of our offensive rebounds: it was that Clemson was taking exceptional advantage of theirs. It's not just about getting offensive rebounds. It's about what you do after you've got them.
Of our 9 turnovers, 5 were their steals and 4 were our own miscues. Of their 10 turnovers, 5 were Syracuse steals and 5 were their fault. We’ve had fewer turnovers in 12 of 18 games with one even and fewer unforced turnovers in 8 games with 4 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.
If you add our 30 rebounds to their 10 turnovers, we had 40 “manufactured possessions”. They had 40 + 9= 49, so we were -9, our biggest deficit of the year. We have won that battle 13 of 18 times with one even. For the season we’ve averaged 53 to 47 (+6).
SHOOTING
It’s still what the game is all about. It’s what this game was all about, for sure. We were 19 for 42, (.452) inside the arc, 2 for 15, (.133) outside it and 9 for 14, (.643) from the line. They were 15 for 31 (.484), 8/20 (.400) and 12/20 (.600). We’ve led in two point field goal percentage in 11 of 18 games, (but lost this stat in the last three games) and in free throw percentage in 9 games (but only three times in the last 11). 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 .482/.313/.659. Our opposition is .436/.288/.690. 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. In our last four games, we are 66 for 176 inside the arc, (.375), even with Rakeem Christmas’ excellence. He’s 38 for 64 (.594) in those games, his teammates 31 for 112 (.276). Our team three point percentage, which was .198 after our 0 for 14 game against Holy Cross, was .389 since that game until we hit 2 of 15 in this game.
We had 32 points in the paint, 10 off turnovers, 11 “second chance” points, 0 fast break points and 0 from the bench. Our opposition had 26 points in the paint, 11 off turnovers, 21 “second chance” points, 0 fast break points and 9 from the bench. We also had 33 of Pat’s “first chance points” (Total points minus second chance points, fast break points and made free throws) to 33, so those second chance points basically decided the game.
We’ve led in PIP 11 times, POTO 12 times, FCP 11 times SCP 11 times, FBP 10 times with 3 ties and BP 8 times, with a tie. For the season we are averaging 32-23 PIP, 16-12 POTO, 31-28 FCP, 12.5-10 SCP,9-7 FBP and 11-14 BP. We aren’t likely to lead anybody in bench points from here on in.
We had 53 points, 32 in the paint, 6 from the arc and 9 from the line so we had 12 ”POP”, (points outside the paint: 53-32-9) and scored 6 points, (12 POP-6 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 66/26/24/12= 28 POP and 4 from the Twilight Zone. We’ve only led in POP 8 times but we’ve led in TZ points 11 times in 18 games. For the year we are averaging 22 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. In our seven game winning streak, we’d averaged 30POP and 8TZ.
7 of our 21 baskets were assisted (.333) and also 12 of their 23 (.522). 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 8 of 18 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 57 FGA - 12 OREBs + 9TOs + (.475 x 14) = 60.65 possessions. They were 51 -13+ 10+ (.475 x 20) = 57.5 possessions. Since possessions shouldn’t be more than one off, I’ll count that as 60 possessions in which we scored 53 points, (0.883) and 59 possessions in which they scored 66 points, (1.119). We have, of course, led 13 of 18 games in offensive efficiency since the winning team always leads in that stat. For the year we are averaging 1.022 points per possession to 0.892 for the opposition.
We had 119 combined possessions in this game. We’ve averaged 132 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 scored 21 points with 0 assists for 21 “hockey” points and thus was our ODOG. Rakeem Christmas has been the O-Dog 8 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 9-18, 9-21, 14-6, 21-21. For the season we have an average of 16-12, 17-14, 15.5-15, 18-17. We’ve won 45 of 72 quarters with two even. We’ve scored 15 or more in 46 quarters and held the opposition under that 40 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. Rakeem Christmas sat us down with a lay-up at 19:38 in the first half did the same in the second half at 19:46. The average time we’ve had to wait is 1 minute 25 seconds. Our longest wait has been 3 minutes 31 seconds in the first half vs. Cornell. Rakeem Christmas has sat us down 12 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. No tacos in this one. 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?) The longest we’ve had to wait after getting close to 75 points is 3:31.
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 42 two point shots to 31, scored 32 points in the paint to 26 and got fouled 13 times to 15, attempting 14 foul shots to 20. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 3.2 for us and 2.1 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 2.5 for us to 1.7 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 1.1 for us and 1.3 for them. The officiating seems to have tilted a bit toward the home team but not much more than you’d expect.
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 767 two point shots and scored 582 points in the paint. We’ve been fouled 311 times and taken 254 free throws. Our opposition has taken 630 two point shots and scored 428 points in the paint. They’ve been fouled 267 times and taken only 291 free throws. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled has been 2.5 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, Rakeem Christmas both played all 40 minutes. Michael Gbinije is listed as “40-, meaning he was out for elss than a minute. But I’ll round it off to include him. Trevor Cooney has been the “Man” 10 times, Chris McCullough and Michael Gbinije, Kaleb Joseph and Rakeem Christmas 4 times each. Cooney still leads the team in minutes played with 664, 72 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 23NP in 40 minutes season: 365NP in 592 minutes per 40: 24.7
Tyler Roberson……. 11NP in 36 minutes season: 129NP in 381 minutes per 40: 13.5
Kaleb Joseph……….. 6NP in 33 minutes season: 118NP in 554 minutes per 40: 8.5
Michael Gbinije….. 1NP in 40 minutes season: 171NP in 544 minutes per 40: 12.6
B. J. Johnson……… -2NP in 6 minutes season: 58NP in 199 minutes per 40: 11.7
Trevor Cooney…… -3NP in 38 minutes season: 173NP in 664 minutes per 40: 10.4
Ron Patterson…….. -6NP in 7 minutes season: 19NP in 206 minutes per 40: 3.7
(not to hurt his feelings…)
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: The anatomy of a poor performance by the team, (save Rak and Roberson’s rather unproductive rebounding). Cooney’s NP per 40 went from 11.2 to 10.4, a big dip for the guy leading the team in minutes played 18 games into the season.
Rakeem Christmas has led in net points 10 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 12 offensive and 18 defensive rebounds. They had 13 offensive and 27 defensive rebounds. When we missed we got the ball 12 of 39 times, (30.8%). When they missed, they got the ball 13 of 31 times (41.9%). We’ve won the rebounding battle by this measure 13 times in 18 games. We’ve averaged getting 36.2% of our misses and our opposition has gotten 31.4% of theirs. In the last four games, we’ve only rebounded 49 of 157 misses, (31.2%)- and that includes Tyler Roberson’s ability to vacuum in offensive boards, (which seem to produce few second chance points). 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.
I’ve decided to look at a new stat based on this Clemson game, in which we had 12 offensive rebounds to 13 and yet got only 11 second chance points out of them to 21, (and lost by 13). The obvious stat: second chance divided by offensive rebounds to see the impact of the offensive rebounding. Here is the history of it so far this year:
Effective Offensive Rebounding (Second Chance Points/Offensive Rebounds)
Syracuse 26/25 = 1.04 Kennesaw State 3/7 = 0.43
Syracuse 14/11 = 1.27 Hampton 8/9 = 0.89
Syracuse 6/14 = 0.43 California 4/7 = 0.57
Syracuse 13/14 = 0.93 Iowa 15/13= 1.15
Syracuse 12/9 = 1.33 Loyola (Md) 6/15 = 0.40
Syracuse 18/11 = 1.64 Holy Cross 4/11 = 0.36
Syracuse 17/10 = 1.70 Michigan 13/17 = 0.76
Syracuse 13/15 = 0.87 St. John’s 8/12 = 0.67
Syracuse 16/20 = 0.80 Louisiana Tech 12/11 = 1.09
Syracuse 4/8 = 0.50 Villanova 12/15 – 0.80
Syracuse 19/12 = 1.58 Colgate 9/9 = 1.00
Syracuse 12/9 = 1.33 Long Beach State 14/10 = 1.40
Syracuse 4/8 = 0.50 Cornell 12/12 = 1.00
Syracuse 14/15 = 0.93 Virginia Tech 7/11 = 0.64
Syracuse 10/11 = 0.91 Georgia Tech 9/19 = 0.47
Syracuse 12/11 = 1.09 Florida State 10/10 = 1.00
Syracuse 14/15 = 0.93 Wake Forest 10/11 = 0.91
Syracuse 11/12 = 0.92 Clemson 21/13 = 1.62
For the season, we’ve averaged 235/230 = 1.02; they’ve averaged 177/212 = 0.83 We’ve led in this stat 11 times in 18 games.
So it wasn’t so much that we weren’t taking advantage of our offensive rebounds: it was that Clemson was taking exceptional advantage of theirs. It's not just about getting offensive rebounds. It's about what you do after you've got them.
Of our 9 turnovers, 5 were their steals and 4 were our own miscues. Of their 10 turnovers, 5 were Syracuse steals and 5 were their fault. We’ve had fewer turnovers in 12 of 18 games with one even and fewer unforced turnovers in 8 games with 4 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.
If you add our 30 rebounds to their 10 turnovers, we had 40 “manufactured possessions”. They had 40 + 9= 49, so we were -9, our biggest deficit of the year. We have won that battle 13 of 18 times with one even. For the season we’ve averaged 53 to 47 (+6).
SHOOTING
It’s still what the game is all about. It’s what this game was all about, for sure. We were 19 for 42, (.452) inside the arc, 2 for 15, (.133) outside it and 9 for 14, (.643) from the line. They were 15 for 31 (.484), 8/20 (.400) and 12/20 (.600). We’ve led in two point field goal percentage in 11 of 18 games, (but lost this stat in the last three games) and in free throw percentage in 9 games (but only three times in the last 11). 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 .482/.313/.659. Our opposition is .436/.288/.690. 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. In our last four games, we are 66 for 176 inside the arc, (.375), even with Rakeem Christmas’ excellence. He’s 38 for 64 (.594) in those games, his teammates 31 for 112 (.276). Our team three point percentage, which was .198 after our 0 for 14 game against Holy Cross, was .389 since that game until we hit 2 of 15 in this game.
We had 32 points in the paint, 10 off turnovers, 11 “second chance” points, 0 fast break points and 0 from the bench. Our opposition had 26 points in the paint, 11 off turnovers, 21 “second chance” points, 0 fast break points and 9 from the bench. We also had 33 of Pat’s “first chance points” (Total points minus second chance points, fast break points and made free throws) to 33, so those second chance points basically decided the game.
We’ve led in PIP 11 times, POTO 12 times, FCP 11 times SCP 11 times, FBP 10 times with 3 ties and BP 8 times, with a tie. For the season we are averaging 32-23 PIP, 16-12 POTO, 31-28 FCP, 12.5-10 SCP,9-7 FBP and 11-14 BP. We aren’t likely to lead anybody in bench points from here on in.
We had 53 points, 32 in the paint, 6 from the arc and 9 from the line so we had 12 ”POP”, (points outside the paint: 53-32-9) and scored 6 points, (12 POP-6 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 66/26/24/12= 28 POP and 4 from the Twilight Zone. We’ve only led in POP 8 times but we’ve led in TZ points 11 times in 18 games. For the year we are averaging 22 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. In our seven game winning streak, we’d averaged 30POP and 8TZ.
7 of our 21 baskets were assisted (.333) and also 12 of their 23 (.522). 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 8 of 18 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 57 FGA - 12 OREBs + 9TOs + (.475 x 14) = 60.65 possessions. They were 51 -13+ 10+ (.475 x 20) = 57.5 possessions. Since possessions shouldn’t be more than one off, I’ll count that as 60 possessions in which we scored 53 points, (0.883) and 59 possessions in which they scored 66 points, (1.119). We have, of course, led 13 of 18 games in offensive efficiency since the winning team always leads in that stat. For the year we are averaging 1.022 points per possession to 0.892 for the opposition.
We had 119 combined possessions in this game. We’ve averaged 132 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 scored 21 points with 0 assists for 21 “hockey” points and thus was our ODOG. Rakeem Christmas has been the O-Dog 8 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 9-18, 9-21, 14-6, 21-21. For the season we have an average of 16-12, 17-14, 15.5-15, 18-17. We’ve won 45 of 72 quarters with two even. We’ve scored 15 or more in 46 quarters and held the opposition under that 40 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. Rakeem Christmas sat us down with a lay-up at 19:38 in the first half did the same in the second half at 19:46. The average time we’ve had to wait is 1 minute 25 seconds. Our longest wait has been 3 minutes 31 seconds in the first half vs. Cornell. Rakeem Christmas has sat us down 12 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. No tacos in this one. 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?) The longest we’ve had to wait after getting close to 75 points is 3:31.
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 42 two point shots to 31, scored 32 points in the paint to 26 and got fouled 13 times to 15, attempting 14 foul shots to 20. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled was 3.2 for us and 2.1 for them. The ratio of points in the paint to times fouled was 2.5 for us to 1.7 for them. The ratio of free throw attempts to fouls called on the other team was 1.1 for us and 1.3 for them. The officiating seems to have tilted a bit toward the home team but not much more than you’d expect.
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 767 two point shots and scored 582 points in the paint. We’ve been fouled 311 times and taken 254 free throws. Our opposition has taken 630 two point shots and scored 428 points in the paint. They’ve been fouled 267 times and taken only 291 free throws. The ratio of two point attempts to times fouled has been 2.5 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, Rakeem Christmas both played all 40 minutes. Michael Gbinije is listed as “40-, meaning he was out for elss than a minute. But I’ll round it off to include him. Trevor Cooney has been the “Man” 10 times, Chris McCullough and Michael Gbinije, Kaleb Joseph and Rakeem Christmas 4 times each. Cooney still leads the team in minutes played with 664, 72 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.