People harp on our rebounding but fail to mention...

[arrow2arinzesknee]

That Kentucky's assist numbers are worse nationally than our rebounding numbers, which to me is as much of if not more of a concern come tournament time, as like Boeheim has said a million times, is somewhat offset by our ability to limit second chance points and our ability to force large amounts of turnovers.

Duke struggles at this statistically as well. And to me, it spells trouble come tournament time where one main facilitator or scorer goes down via Injury/ foul trouble/ or flat out has an off night and the offense stalls.

However the counter argument is the same is our rebounding woes for the most part haven't been a problem this year.

Statistically the more balanced team and one I fear as much as Kentucky is Kansas, they are complete and are a solid team in all aspects, they can win offensively as well as defensively.

Also we are #1 in turnover margin (+/-) and Kentucky isnt even top 125 (138)nationally, that can trip a team loaded with talent up big time in march

 

[jordoo]

I think UK would have to pound us in second chance points to beat us and its for the very reason you point out. They are not a great passing team and rely heavily on screen and one on one plays which is not going to play well against the zone. If we were to limit them on second chance points then I don't know that they could score enough to beat us.

 

[cusetown1]

wait so UK is not god?

 

[strumpfasaurus]

Baby steps... I know it's cool to talk about this mythical match up with Kentucky but let's worry about our journey there first.

 

[BlackSquirrels]

A team's assist numbers don't really have any correlation to the effectiveness of its offense. A team that emphasizes driving to the hoop and drawing fouls or excels at converting after offensive rebounds won't be credited for many assists.

 

[Whitey23]

people fail to mention that the tourney is guard driven and Kentucky's guards aren't great.

 

[Orange Barrel]

I think we can hold our own against UK on the boards. They'll be roughly +4 on us going by averages. I can live with that.

Rebounding stats:

UK:

Rank 17
12.5 ORPG
26.7 DRPG
39.2 RPG

SU:

Rank 118
12.9 ORPG
22.6 DRPG
35.5 RPG

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/statistics/team/_/stat/rebounds/sort/avgRebounds

 

[Knicks411]

UConn was 238th in the country last year in % of field goals assisted on.

I would like to see some studies on how assist% correlates with offensive efficiency; I agree with Blacksquirrels that I don't think it is that important. It can also be a sign than your team doesn't have a lot of players that can create their own shot.

If we played Kentucky, they would probably hurt us on the glass. They're 18th in offensive rebound%, we're like 340 in defensive rebound%. It would come down to us forcing enough misses and TO to offset that.

 

[arrow2arinzesknee]

The TO margin would scare me a lot more with UK than anything else, especially compared to us being #1 at that.

stands to reason a freshmen laden team is only gonna struggle with that more during their first tournament than magically become dominant in this area.