SU #2 in SI Power Rankings

[Upstate]

Syracuse Orange (22-1)​

Next week -- spoiler alert! -- I'm going to publish some extensive defensive charting of Syracuse, in the same format David Hess and I used ​

for the SI season preview issue's main story​

. It's a project I've been working on for a while, in hopes of getting a better understanding of who's making the biggest impact in the Orange's zone. The charting still works well for the 2-3, because our fractional-credit system allows it to address situations where, say, two players are converging on a wing shooter, or a couple of slow rotations lead to a layup.​

While Syracuse's D is elite, it has two deficiencies: it gives up tons of offensive rebounds (ranking 15th in the Big East in OReb% allowed), and sends opponents to the line a bit too often (ranking 12th in the league in FTA/FGA allowed). I've charted all 10 of the Orange's Big East games, plus their four other games against BCS-conference competition (Virginia Tech, Stanford, Florida and NC State), and here's how each player breaks down in terms of free throws created per 100 field-goal attempts faced (DFTA/DFGA). For comparison, the table also includes the players' fouls per 40 minutes from kenpom.com.​

Player DFTA/DFGA FC/40
Baye Moussa Keita 58.5 5.8
James Southerland 55.5 3.0
Rakeem Christmas 48.9 6.4
Fab Melo 35.9 5.2
Kris Joseph 33.4 2.1
Dion Waiters 33.2 2.9
C.J. Fair 33.0 2.0
Brandon Triche 30.2 2.2
Scoop Jardine 10.4 1.4​

As you might expect in a zone, the back-line defenders are almost all above the front-line guys in the chart. Keita is the biggest culprit, creating 58.5 FT attempts per 100 FGA defended. Melo, for a guy who gets in foul trouble frequently, doesn't create all that many free throws. Jardine almost never fouls, but, as you'll find out next week, that doesn't necessarily mean he's an excellent defender. ​

Next three: ​

2/4 at St. John's, 2/8 vs. Georgetown, 2/11 vs. UConn​

Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/luke_winn/02/02/power.rankings/index.html#ixzz1lGZOueOX​

 

[jekelish]

Luke Wynn's breakdowns make my brain hurt. Whatever happened to writers who say "I think this team is better than that team because they score more points and give up fewer than the latter team"?

 

[jdubs30]

So in short:

Rakeem Christmas, BMK and Fab Melo create the most foul shots for the other team. Triche and Scoop create the least amount.

Breaking news here.