What to make from these first two games

[Henry Sugar]

In theory, this could be correct but it doesn't necessarily apply to Otule/Gardner. DRtg applies to the team as a whole when the specific player is on the court. If Bill Russell was playing with 4 James Hardens then his DRtg wouldn't look very good. On the contrary, if James Harden was surrounded by 4 Bill Russells, his DRtg would likely be excellent.

Exactly right. DRtg takes the team performance and then adjusts individual credit up or down based on defensive box score statistics. DRtg has flaws, in particular not accounting for defense of guarded shots and ball denial/reversal defense. It's a little like plus/minus, which I kind of hate admitting.

It's fine to use DRtg, but one should be honest about the flaws.

[Silkk the Shaka]

Here's a not-so-crazy theory: Davante gets buckets. Plain and simple. When that happens, the opposition has to face a set defense. Ergo, the team defense actually improves due to his ridiculous offensive production, regardless of individual defensive skill. So it's not like you're just giving right back what he got on the offensive end. There's a huge spike in point production when he's on the floor, without much of an overall defensive drop-off because of it.

I miss Davante.

[bilsu]

If tOSU is the 2nd to 3rd  best team in the B1G then they are seriously overrated as a conference this season.  That team we played last night wouldn't have finished in the top 10 in the old Big East we played in just a couple seasons ago.

Put them in the current ACC and they'd finish bottom half.

I think OSU is a top 20 team. You have to look at a team's ability to improve during the year. They will improve a lot more than UW will. UW is a very experienced team, so while they are playing very well now they will not improve much during the season. Basically, they might be 20 points better than Ohio St right now, they will be 10 points better at the start of the conference season and 5 points better at the start of Big 10 tournament. MU is a very young team, so as long as they do not give up they will improve more during the year than Villnova will.