Stats up to 11/26

[SoCalstu09]

This team has a lot of upside, but one downside is our heavy reliance on jumpshots and 3s. An off night will be difficult to watch (Idaho State!!). Could be the cause of some tough losses down the road.
FG%: .452 (13th in BE)
FT%: .616 (12th in BE)
3 P%: .352 (11th in BE)

It's also rough looking at Pitt and their numbers. Pitt is a good team this year.
FG%: .539 (1st in BE)
FT%: .742 (3rd in BE)
3 P%: .471 (1st in BE)

They also lead in assists @ 21.8

Check out all the stats at http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/confstats?confId=4

[Desert_Eagle]

Great job on the stats. I think we're much better than those numbers indicate, though, jugding from our tough start and then recent win over Duke.

[downtown85]

I too want to see the FG% and FT% higher for MU but conventional offensive stats regarding this team may be a little misleading given the up tempo style of play and defensive nature of this team.  Kenpom.com has a better, IMHO, measure of offensive and defensive efficiency.  Simply stated, offensive efficency is points per 100 possesions, likewise defensive efficiency is points per 100 opponent possessions.  MU ranks 3rd in offensive efficiency in the BE so far this year and 2nd in terms of defensive efficiency.  Kenpom also has a complicated formula which takes into account offensive efficiency, defensive efficiency, free throws, and tempo puts it all together and attempts to determine the probability of a team winning against an average team.   MU currently ranks 4th in the nation according to that formula.  

That all being said, there is no reason why this team can't be shooting free throws in the mid seventies percentagewise.  

[warriors_mu]

I agree that those stats don't tell the whole story due to our style of play, but they are still a source of concern. If an opponent can control the tempo and force us to play in the halfcourt we will have problems(see: Idaho State). Granted, we only shot 29%, which is definitely an extreme that likely won't be repeated even on a bad shooting night, but we won't need to be that bad to lose to a Big East team.

And anytime someone would like to take a few extra free throws after practice would be great.

[WashDCWarrior]

This team is designed to score a lot of points.  There are two factors that determine how many points a team scores.  One is the shooting percentages and two is the number of shots taken.  Marquette, while it would love to increase the shooting percentage, is designed to score based on taking more (many more) shots than our opponent.  This is done by forcing turnovers and grabbing offensive boards.

that being said, improving our FT% is a must, given that our big three will get a number of trips to the stripe.

[spiral97]

Thanks for posting these stats!

Lots of good discussion on them saying we need to do better at this or that and whatnot..  But how about we add some meat to them.. consider this a text based poll request and answer this question:

What do these stats need to be in order for MU to:
1.) have a 20+ win season?
2.) Win the Big East Tournament?
3.) Win the NCAA Tournament?

[SoCalstu09]

If an opponent can control the tempo and force us to play in the halfcourt we will have problems(see: Idaho State).

This will be our problem in the future. To have a 20+ win season, we will need to keep the same fastbreak mentality in our game. That's easier said than done since every team we play will now be gunnin for us and practicing on cutting down their turnovers like crazy! Also, we'll have no problem hitting 20...we have 14 nonconference games. We can squeak out 6+ wins in the BE.

I can see us doing really well in the BE tourney. I imagine that we'll have some nice momentum and confidence boosters near the end of the season (our last 5 of 8 games are at home - one with WADE in da HOUSE) which will help us to play our style in the tournament. Hopefully we can get a bye and watch everyone else play their hearts out to play MU!

[Big Papi]

Great stats but they don't tell the whole story.  Looking at those stats alone, there is no way we should have beat Duke and Texas Tech and routed Detriot like we did. 

i would like to see where we stand on forced turnovers and offensive rebounding which is a key for this teams success.  My guess is near the top.  Our shooting percentage will in all likelihood be average to below average all year but our offensive rebounding and turnovers foced will more than make up for that.  Lets face it there are very few teams that can matchup with our guard play.  Texas Tech and Duke proved that. 

Free throws is an area that needs to be improved on otherwise we will lose a few games we should otherwise win and that will be the difference between a top 4 seeding in the dance and 5 plus seeding where upsets are more likely.

[DoubleMU0609]

Thanks for posting these stats!

Lots of good discussion on them saying we need to do better at this or that and whatnot..  But how about we add some meat to them.. consider this a text based poll request and answer this question:

What do these stats need to be in order for MU to:
1.) have a 20+ win season?
2.) Win the Big East Tournament?
3.) Win the NCAA Tournament?

I think we'll get to 20 wins no problem playing exactly the way we are right now. 

As for the runs in the tournaments I don't think it matters at all what our season stats are.  Good teams can get bounced early and average teams can get hot.  Look at the '77 team.  They had more losses than any of Al's teams since the 60s and managed to win it all. 

(Disclaimer: I am in no way saying that the '77 team wasn't any good or didn't deserve to win.)

[WashDCWarrior]

Thanks for posting these stats!

Lots of good discussion on them saying we need to do better at this or that and whatnot..  But how about we add some meat to them.. consider this a text based poll request and answer this question:

What do these stats need to be in order for MU to:
1.) have a 20+ win season?
2.) Win the Big East Tournament?
3.) Win the NCAA Tournament?

I think we'll get to 20 wins no problem playing exactly the way we are right now. 

As for the runs in the tournaments I don't think it matters at all what our season stats are.  Good teams can get bounced early and average teams can get hot.  Look at the '77 team.  They had more losses than any of Al's teams since the 60s and managed to win it all. 

(Disclaimer: I am in no way saying that the '77 team wasn't any good or didn't deserve to win.)

I agree here.  A few people have said that this year's team is better than 2003.  I would agree, but that's not to say I expect them to do better than reaching the final four.  The 2003 team was hot at the right time.  I do feel that if this year's team played the 2003 team five times, they'd win 3.

I think what's really important is that the team is clicking and peaks in late February and into March.  Crean's NCAA tourney record is 4-3, with all four wins coming in the same year.  Two of our losses were in the first round to higher (worse) seeded teams.  12-seed Tulsa in 2002 and 10-seed Alabama last year.  While a lot of good work has to be done for a team to earn a 5 or 7-seed, it's more important that the team is playing well when the tourney starts.

At this point, I have no concerns about the team making the NCAAs, just that we play well once we do.

[spiral97]

no argument on season stats not being a true indicator of tournament success.. my question with regards to the tournaments is what kind of stats do you believe we need to maintain in the games of each tournament to win that tournament.

[WashDCWarrior]

I'll give one answer since I think winning the Big East tournament will take similar output as winning the NCAAs.

FGs: 45%
3-pts: 38%
FTs: 75%
TO margin: +6
Reb Margin: +3

Going back to what I said earlier, I think we can win shooting lower percentages than the other team, but we need to generate more shot attempts.  60-65% FTs isn't going to cut it though.