stats are destiny

[citygriz]

sure, you can win with bad stats some of the time but not much of the time. so let's have a look at some key ones, to date:

field goal percentage defense: you know that's a biggie with me. in the nba, the team with the best percentage here is also the team with the best record, the golden state warriors. right now we rank 293rd among all division one teams, at 50.3%. this is an improvement from last years godawful 53.2% but--funny thing--tinks's oregon state team this year ranks 23rd at 42%. go figure. what saves our butt here is that five conference teams, incuding weber, are worse than we are. goal: equal oregon state at 42%.

rebounding: another biggie with me. no rebound, no ball, no ball, no score. simple. we rank 310 in rebounding. we've been outrebounded 459-438--not as bad as last year, but still not good. but here's an oddity: weber state ranks 283rd in rebounding, even though bolomboy ranks 19th in the country at almost ten per game. not much rebounding on the rest of that team. super goal: top 50. consolation prize: outrebound our opponents.

free throw percentage: think it was mike montgomery who said, free throws are like vitamins, ya gotta have 'em. we are now 198th in free throw percentage at .679. goal 72%. and by the way, weber state ranks fourth at .771.

three point percentage shooting: we rank 114th at 35.3 %. several conference teams rank way above us here, including idaho (one of the best in the country), eastern washington (of course, thanks to harvey) and weber. goal: 38%.

 

[UMGriz75]

Our stats are probably skewed a bit low by playing good defensive teams early in our schedule. I am convinced there is no lack of talent on this UM team; it's a very good team, but now its a matter of tightening up and getting all the talent playing at the same time.The fact that five players had career highs at Idaho State -- and none of them were Gregory or Breunig -- really is something.

 

[Potomac Griz]

Apples and oranges to compare the stats this year to last year's stats at this point in the season. Last year's stats include the entire Big Sigh season. That's two games against SUU, two against the Cats, etc etc.. This years stats only have 4 Big Sky games so far. Lets see where we are towards the end of the season comparing the stats in conference. That will be a little more indicative of where we improved.

I'm betting we'll be quite improved in rebounding, scoring, assists per game, FG% defense, and 3pt% defense. Due to the more up tempo style we'll likely give up quite a few more points per game though too while scoring more.

So far (still way too early for this to mean much) here is where the Griz are ranked in Big Sky play.

#6 in Scoring Offense (72.5pts/game)
#1 in Scoring Defense (60.8pts/game)
#1 in Scoring Margin (+11.8)
#8 in FT% (71.2%)
#5 in FG% (48.1%)
#7 in FG% Defense (45.9%)
#6 in 3pt% (40.9%)
#1 in 3pt% Defense (29.0%)
#3 in Rebounding Offense (33.8)
#3 in Rebounding Defense (28.8)
#2 in Rebounding Margin (+5.0)
#11 in Blocked Shots (1.8)
#1 (tied) in Assists (16.8)
#6 in steals (5.0)
#4 in Turnover Margin (+1.0)
#5 in Assist/Turnover Ratio (+1.5)
#10 in Offensive Rebounds (9.5)
#2 in Defensive Rebounds (24.3)
#2 in Defensive Reb % (75.8%)
#8 in Offensive Reb % (31.1%)
#4 in 3pt Made (9.0)

Biggest thing that jumps out at me so far is the rebounding and assists. The Griz and the "slow it down" offense of last year combined with lack of post play really seemed to make assists fairly rare. Much better this year so far it seems.

Rebounding is another area where the improvement is very drastic and noticeable. Remember last year's debacle against UNC in Missoula where we had 15 rebounds in the entire game? This year we out-rebounded them 39-34. Out-rebounded UND 33-20, ISU 28-22 and got out-rebounded @Weber by 1 only.

Hope that trend continues and we continue to win the battle on the boards more often than not.