So doing a bit of a stat search it became apparent to me that X has quite a few overall statistical similarities as Marquette, but they do it in a bit of a different manner.
MU X
PPG. 74,2 75,1
FG%. 44,9 45,0
FT%. 72,4 71,8
3P%. 34,7 34,0
TO. 12,7 12,8
Blk. 5,3 4,8
KenPom metrics X is 22 spots ahead of Marquette with an AdjO of 24, AdjD of 36 and tempo 77. MU has an AdjO of 66, AdjD of 33 and tempo 43.
KenPom luck of 69 for X and 96 for MU, so it seems Marquette is due.
Also, like Marquette, Xavier has a deep rotation of 8 players that play nearly 20 mpg- 3 “bigs” 6’8 or taller in Nunge, Freemantle and Hunter and 5 “guards/wings” in Johnson, Jones, Scruggs, Kunkel, Odom. Important to note here that 6’6 Colby Jones leads their team in rebounding with 8 per game! Also important to note Odom torched us and Nova B2b and hasn’t done squat since or before, so let’s not have that happen again.
Marquette has 8 rotation players that average nearly 18mpg- 4 bigs in Lewis, Omax, Kur, Oso and 4 guards/wings in Morsell, Kolek, Kam, GE.
So where are the main differences?
Rebounding and Assists.
X rebounds 38,9 per game
MU rebounds 35,8 per game
MU assists 17,5 per game
X assists 14,5 per game
So they out board and out muscle opponents, using their guards to help a ton in the rebounding department (which is why I think a big key to MUs season going forward is Morsells improvement on the glass). MU breaks teams apart with assisted buckets due to better ball movement/PR/cuts to the hoop and drive and dish outs to open shooters.
I found it interesting how statistically similar the two teams are even though they do it in a different way offensively.
Seems like keeping Johnson and Kunkel at bay from 3, and more importantly matching Xs intensity on the glass may be the difference in a close game.
