[Cracked Sidewalks] Little Rock Preview

[brewcity77]

The times I most enjoy writing these previews is when I dig into a team I'm not familiar with and discover they aren't just interesting, they're awesome. Little Rock is that type of team. This team is loaded with proven all-OVC players and, if they can earn a bid, is the type of dark horse squad fans would pick to pull a 13/4 or 14/3 upset in March.

In Scoop terms, this buy game opponent is much better than 2022-23 Radford.

Little Rock Trojans

[Uncle Rico]

The times I most enjoy writing these previews is when I dig into a team I'm not familiar with and discover they aren't just interesting, they're awesome. Little Rock is that type of team. This team is loaded with proven all-OVC players and, if they can earn a bid, is the type of dark horse squad fans would pick to pull a 13/4 or 14/3 upset in March.

In Scoop terms, this buy game opponent is much better than 2022-23 Radford.

Little Rock Trojans

Oh, boy.

[The Sultan]

Little Rock? More like Big Stones...

[Hards Alumni]

Oh, boy.

Green wienie, aina?

[Uncle Rico]

Green wienie, aina?

Could be the game thread of the year if Brew is correct in his assessment of the Trojans.

[Jay Bee]

They still bangin in Little Rock

[Nukem2]

Little Rock connection with MU was Mike Newell the Little Rock coach hired by MU and then backed out leading to the Piano Man.

[Shooter McGavin]

Oh, boy.

Two, three level scorers in Lindsey and Robinson (old school) in our first two games?  Oh boy, is right!

[brewcity77]

Two, three level scorers in Lindsey and Robinson (old school) in our first two games?  Oh boy, is right!

I'll be honest, our new coaching staff has convinced me that isn't necessarily a good thing. In their most recent seasons, per Hoop-Explorer, Lindsey & Robinson shot...

• Lindsey: 49.3% from 2 (≈1150 nationally), 42.9% midrange (≈500), 53.7% at the rim (≈1100)
• Robinson: 47.6% from 2 (≈1250), 40.4% midrange (≈450), 55.6% at the rim (≈1000)

Lindsey took 18.2% of his shots in midrange and 26.6% at the rim. Robinson took 32.2% of his shots in midrange and 29.3% at the rim. While both of them were "good" midrange shooters, 75th percentile type guys, and average at the rim shooters (50th percentile types) they were far more likely to convert in the area they were average than the area they were good because at the rim attempts are simply better shots.

For comparison, of Marquette's rotation players, Royce took the most midrange at 17.9% (converting 48.3% of those). Even though he was better in MR than either of those two and took fewer shots in that area, I'm willing to bet Nevada Smith would say that 17.9% is too high, especially when you consider Royce's 65.0% ATR conversion rate.

[Shooter McGavin]

Brew,  I was just being facetious.  I do get it, despite my lame attempts at humor.


However,  when defenses get extremely high level, sweet sixteen or greater, having multiple ways to score the ball is a necessity.  Whether it's efficient or not is another story.