For those Scoopers freaking out over our team...

[Elonsmusk]

A Christmas evening gift for Scoopers courtesy of some great analysis from The Atlantic.  Confirms what the non-alarmist faction of Scoop are seeing - good shots being missed at a higher rate than last season.  I think we do start to shoot it better and when we do the offense will once again be prolific.

https://theathletic.com/5159456/2023/12/25/college-basketball-rankings-florida-atlantic-arizona-uconn/?source=dailyemail&campaign=601983

Marquette returned four of five starters and replaced Olivier-Maxence Prosper with a better shooter (David Joplin) in the starting lineup, but this team isn't shooting as well as it did a season ago, particularly on open catch-and-shoot opportunities and shots off the bounce.

2022-23
58.9 - Unguarded eFG%
48.2 - Off Dribble eFG%

2023-24
50 - Unguarded eFG%
37.3 - Off Dribble eFG%

In their three losses, the Golden Eagles have made only 16-of-66 (24.2 percent) of their 3s, and they're shooting 35.2 percent from deep in wins. They went 4-of-20 in the 72-57 loss to Providence last week. I charted those attempts, and I'd say 19 of 20 were quality looks. Five were wide open (they made three of those), and a majority of the attempts were either going under on handoffs, short closeouts or late closeouts. A return to the mean could be coming.

Joplin is another key. He needs to be more consistent. He was better as a microwave man off the bench last season. He's averaging fewer points (9.0 ppg, down from 9.2) while playing 5.5 more minutes per game. He scored only five points in the loss to Providence — he's averaging 5.7 ppg in the losses — but he bounced back with four 3s and a season-high 20 points in Friday's win over Georgetown. Maybe that will be the game to get him going

[Lennys Tap]

Thanks, Elon. Interesting stats.

[Daniel]

Excellent.  Ty.  The key is this offense is creating good looks - for an offensive scheme that is excellent,    Now we have to hot those shots.   This team is capable of hitting those shots.    All good.

[MarquetteDano]

Agree for the most part with the analysis. However, it has been mentioned here that Jop works extremely hard on the defensive end and it is impacting his shooting. So his open shots for Jop are not what they were last.year when OMax had those defensive duties.

Also, wide open threes for JTY and Mitchell are not working out at this point. Hope they turn it around because teams are daring them to shoot 3's and they are clanking them at this point.

[MU82]

Thanks for posting. Good stats. A great season is still right in front of us.

[Shooter McGavin]

Thanks for posting. Scouted or not, have to make open shots.

[Herman Cain]

Thanks for sharing this. Hopefully our guys start to revert back to the mean

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

I have been pleasantly surprised by how consistently great our defense has been. St. Thomas has been the only game where I thought they looked poor defensively. Easy to forgive one bad game,  especially when you're down your best defender.

I've been unpleasantly surprised by how inconsistent our offense has been. Since Southern, weve only had one game where I thought we performed the way we should on offense (Texas). As others have noted,  opponets can gap contain us to death and until we start making shots,  I'm not sure we'll get better.  I agree a progression to the mean could happen but Id like to see a backup plan for if it doesn't. I'm certain Nevada is using the extended break to cook up something to cure what ails us

[panda]

We're seeing a lot of open shots because there are a few guys on the team who don't need to be guarded when taking 3's. Need them to start making those shots every now and then.

[Milkshakes]

Kam agrees...

https://x.com/csgkam/status/1739361483610341594?s=46&t=qJTzjxw37a5XJj5fWP65Ug

[MU82]

Kam agrees...

https://x.com/csgkam/status/1739361483610341594?s=46&t=qJTzjxw37a5XJj5fWP65Ug

Wise beyond his years.

[muwarrior69]

I have been pleasantly surprised by how consistently great our defense has been. St. Thomas has been the only game where I thought they looked poor defensively. Easy to forgive one bad game,  especially when you're down your best defender.

I've been unpleasantly surprised by how inconsistent our offense has been. Since Southern, weve only had one game where I thought we performed the way we should on offense (Texas). As others have noted,  opponets can gap contain us to death and until we start making shots,  I'm not sure we'll get better.  I agree a progression to the mean could happen but Id like to see a backup plan for if it doesn't. I'm certain Nevada is using the extended break to cook up something to cure what ails us

Bring back Markus Howard, Steve Novak and "the thing" when we're on offense.

[Uncle Rico]

Oklahoma is shooting 34% from 3.  Bradley is shooting 35%

🤔

[MU82]

Oklahoma is shooting 34% from 3.  Bradley is shooting 35%

🤔

One word explanation for that:

Coaching.

[Jay Bee]

Welcome to Scoop, where "We can't shoot!" is a positive rallying cry

[Newsdreams]

Welcome to Scoop, where "We can't shoot!" is a positive rallying cry

I've seen you shoot, meh..

[ATWizJr]

Excellent.  Ty.  The key is this offense is creating good looks - for an offensive scheme that is excellent,    Now we have to hot those shots.   This team is capable of hitting those shots.    All good.

. It is disingenuous to say that we are capable of hitting those shoots. Because if that were true, we would have hit those shots. And alarm bells would not be going off.

[wisblue]

Because players shoot, not teams, I'm not sure how much of a conclusion you can draw from team statistics year over year. Obviously, a lot depends on who's taking the shots.

MU's team percentage is obviously dragged down by a few players who are taking (and missing) a lot more shots this year than they did last year.

One thing MU really needs is for Kam Jones to snap out of his shooting/scoring slump.

[GusJohnson]

Would be very curious to know how many attempts it takes for 3-point shooting percentages to stabilize for college players over the course of a season.

This is well known in baseball for example, where data shows it takes 60 plate appearances for your strikeout rate to hit its mean and be an accurate reflection of your true talent level. Batting average on the other hand takes 910 at bats.

Point is, how far into the season can we make it until we have to say "it is what it is" about MU's three point shooting? Hopefully we're not there yet, but it seems worrisome that despite generating a plethora of good looks these shots still aren't going down at the rate they need to. Included an image of their 3-point % chart so far this year from Bart Torvik.

[MU82]

Through the first 7 games, Gold was 6-21, a .286 percentage that was even worse than his pedestrian .300 of last season.

Since then, he is 10-for-21, or .476, bringing his season percentage to a very respectable .381.

Through the Purdue game, Oso's FT% was .470 (16-34). Since then, he's at .784 (29-37), including .806 (25-31) the last 4 games.

Not sure if either Ben or Oso has found his mark in those stats yet.

I like to think Stevie's 3s will at least meet his career %. We'll see.

[TSmith34, Inc.]

It's the positive power of Scoop. Ben read here that his shot was flat and set about fixing it.

[Shooter McGavin]

It's the positive power of Scoop. Ben read here that his shot was flat and set about fixing it.

Ha!  His shot did look like it had a little more arc on it last game, especially on that first three pointer.  Was a nice, quick catch and shoot.  Didn't have time to think about it.  Didn't fade away.  Hopefully we'll see more like that. 

[JakeBarnes]

Ha!  His shot did look like it had a little more arc on it last game, especially on that first three pointer.  Was a nice, quick catch and shoot.  Didn't have time to think about it.  Didn't fade away.  Hopefully we'll see more like that.

I was super impressed with how quick that release was. Expecting to see his stock rise as we go forward.

[Goose]

Shooter and Jake

I agree on the catch on release and the arc. That is a big-time skill for a guy his size. IMO, once he gets some real confidence, we will a guy that change the game on a regular basis.

[Herman Cain]

Shooter and Jake

I agree on the catch on release and the arc. That is a big-time skill for a guy his size. IMO, once he gets some real confidence, we will a guy that change the game on a regular basis.

The Third Three Pointer he had his hand set and release style very similar to Sam Hauser . I hope he can spend all summer putting up 1,000s of similar shots and come into next season as a consistent threat .