Possessions

[SWC75]

One stat I've heard that supposedly favors Wisconsin is "possessions". They hold teams to 56 possessions a game, which is supposed to frustrate Syracuse. Here are our possessions per nin each game this year:

Fordham 71
Manhattan 77
Albany 75
Colgate 71
Virginia Tech 59
Stanford 71
Eastern Michgian 58
Florida 71
Marshall 68
George Washington 70
North Carolina State 65
Bucknell 64
Tulane 58
Seton Hall 65
DePaul 75
Providence 64
Marquette 73
Villanova 74
Providence 70
Pittsburgh 63
Notre Dame 62
Cincinnati 59
West Virginia 59
St. John's 72
Georgetown 65
Connecticut 63
Louisville 58
Rutgers 66
South Florida 64
Connecticut 67
Louisville 61
Connecticut 59
Cincinnati 62
UNC-Ashville 60
Kansas State 64

We've averaged 66 possessions a game, (this is by the FGA-OR+TO+ [.475 x FTA] formula), so 56 is a substantial difference. But since the Pittsburgh game it's down to 63 and we've had 7 sub 60 possession games- and won all of them. Both our losses were 62 possession games, much closer to our average than theirs. Wisconsin may win the game but I don't think it will be because of SU's frustration over limited possessions. What you do on those possessions is more important.

 

[PauliePeppas]

Yikes, they really are the ultimate stall ball team...this will be a frustrating game to watch

 

[JrodCuse]

Frustrating for them. What do they do when we go on one of our patented runs? How does a team like Wisc play catch up if they fall behind big? That is my major questioning entering tonight.

 

[Orangemen]

Totally agree.

No talking head seems to notice exactly what you point out. SU is not out of their comfort zone in these types of games, they've been playing them for about a month. The typical result is a close game, but always a close win.

 

[upperdeck]

one issue with the formula.. it does not really allow for how games end.. if you are up 10 and get fouled 7-8 times in the last two minutes that skews the possession number up way more than a 2-3 pt game where no fouls occur.. considering we were up so many games I bet our possession numbers went up by 4-5 per game because we had so many fouls to create possessions.

 

[PauliePeppas]

Frustrating for them. What do they do when we go on one of our patented runs? How does a team like Wisc play catch up if they fall behind big? That is my major questioning entering tonight.

Well thats the trick, get out to a quick early lead...but thats something this team everrrr does

 

[Sgt Cuse]

Well thats the trick, get out to a quick early lead...but thats something this team everrrr does

He mentioned a patented run not an early lead. It would be better to have that patented run in the later stages of the second half. Getting a six point lead with under 5 to play is really hurts given their style. It was like when we had a 6 point lead with under 3 to play with USF. They couldn't switch out of their style and they continued to run 25-30 seconds off the clock.

It reminds me in football of a running team is behind in the 4th quarter. Hard to change your style to adjust to the game situation.

 

[jdubs30]

Frustrating for them. What do they do when we go on one of our patented runs? How does a team like Wisc play catch up if they fall behind big? That is my major questioning entering tonight.

A "patented run" against Wisconsin will be a 10-0 run over a 4 minute span.

 

[jncuse]

If we win 36-33 ( like Penn St did against Wisconsin last yea )it will be the most beautiful disaply of basketball I have ever seen. Just win.

 

[JrodCuse]

A "patented run" against Wisconsin will be a 10-0 run over a 4 minute span.

Yea that's the type of run I'm talking about. We're not going to go on a 10-0 spurt in 45 seconds of hectic paced basketball. But how do they respond to that 10-0 run over 4-7 minutes of game time. We have had several games this season where we hold the opponent scoreless for LONG stretches of game (5-10 minutes), and considering how Wiscy is going to slow it down and not crash the boards, there is a very good chance of this happening if they aren't shooting lights out.

So my question is, how do they face that type of situation? I've seen maybe 10 minutes of Wiscy basketball this season, so I honestly don't know. Will they speed it up a bit? (20-25 seconds instead of 30-35) or do they just continue to plod along and pray the shots start falling and ours don't? Do they press? Do they try to start crashing the board for second chance points in which case we can get a few transition baskets?

 

[SWC75]

Jason Benetti, sitting in for Mike Lindsley said that Syracuse can't win a game played at Wisconsins' pace and if the final score is 52-50, Wisconsin will win.

If the final score of any game is 52-50, how do we know who won? One team might have been more comfortable playing that type of game than the other but how do we know that team didn't get the 52?

And we've played games like that before and won, (see above). Our chief advantage over Wisconsin is that they couldn't win our preferred type of game but we could win theirs.

 

[JrodCuse]

Jason Benetti, sitting in for Mike Lindsley said that Syracuse can't win a game played at Wisconsins' pace and if the final score is 52-50, Wisconsin will win.

If the final score of any game is 52-50, how do we know who won? One team might have been more comfortable playing that type of game than the other but how do we know that team didn't get the 52?

And we've played games like that before and won, (see above). Our chief advantage over Wisconsin is that they couldn't win our preferred type of game but we could win theirs.

Well said. If the game is in the 50's, we don't know who wins. But if the game is in the high 60's or 70's, we know who probably won the game. A game in the 50's will come down to who makes the fewest boneheaded mistakes (rut-roh scoop) and who was able to capitalize the most off of those few mistakes.

 

[DallasCuse]

I'd be curious what they hold quality teams possessions to. I think many of teams they play (Penn St, Nebraska, etc) are more than happy to keep it low scoring and tight.

Lets see what happens if we can bury some shots.