Part 1: Tempo
*This stuff may not be very interesting to most people, but it is fascinating to me. Some more interesting analysis on our offense and defense will come soon*
The possession is an important concept in analyzing basketball performance. What a possession is and why they are used are talked about here. Our team has been one of the slowest in the country recently, meaning we had a low number of possessions per game.
In 2015 we average 62.0 possessions per game, which is 308th lowest in the country. The national average was 64.8 possessions per game. What causes us to have few possessions? It turns out the biggest factor in our low possession numbers was actually our defense.
We are known for slowing things down on offense, so long offensive possession times are expected, but our defensive possession times are significantly longer. Our average time of possession on offense is 18.9 seconds (232nd), which is ~0.5 seconds longer than the national average. However, on defense we force teams to take an average of 19.6 seconds (328th). The long defensive possession times are due to three things:
1) Taking away transition offense from opponents. Only 15.9% of our opponent's shot attempts came in transition. This is the 6th best in the country in terms of preventing transition shot attempts. Since our opponents don't get many quick baskets their possessions tend to be longer.
2) Low defensive rebounding rate. We only pulled down 66.6% of our defensive rebounding opportunities, which was 280th best in the country. The national average was 68.9%. Since offensive rebounds extend the possession, allowing opponents more offensive rebounds leads to longer defensive possessions.
3) It takes teams a long time to find good looks against our defense. 41.7% of our opponents' shots were 2pt jump shots, the least efficient shot in college basketball. We were the 9th best team in the country at forcing opponents to take the mid-range jumper with our defense because we were effective at taking away both the 3 and layup/dunk.
So we know why we have a low number of possessions per game, but what does that mean for our team? All of D1 has become slower and slower over the past decade. This has lead to lower scores while scoring efficiency has remained relatively constant. Lower scoring games allow more chances for upsets, and this can be seen with home court winning percentages dropping along with the pace of the game. I have heard from some credible sources that the NCAA is very likely to go to the 30s shot clock next year which should increase the number of possessions per game, and scoring, but I think Mooney's offense and defense will always keep us on the low end of the tempo spectrum.
I'll post some more analysis on our team in the next few days.
*This stuff may not be very interesting to most people, but it is fascinating to me. Some more interesting analysis on our offense and defense will come soon*
The possession is an important concept in analyzing basketball performance. What a possession is and why they are used are talked about here. Our team has been one of the slowest in the country recently, meaning we had a low number of possessions per game.
In 2015 we average 62.0 possessions per game, which is 308th lowest in the country. The national average was 64.8 possessions per game. What causes us to have few possessions? It turns out the biggest factor in our low possession numbers was actually our defense.
We are known for slowing things down on offense, so long offensive possession times are expected, but our defensive possession times are significantly longer. Our average time of possession on offense is 18.9 seconds (232nd), which is ~0.5 seconds longer than the national average. However, on defense we force teams to take an average of 19.6 seconds (328th). The long defensive possession times are due to three things:
1) Taking away transition offense from opponents. Only 15.9% of our opponent's shot attempts came in transition. This is the 6th best in the country in terms of preventing transition shot attempts. Since our opponents don't get many quick baskets their possessions tend to be longer.
2) Low defensive rebounding rate. We only pulled down 66.6% of our defensive rebounding opportunities, which was 280th best in the country. The national average was 68.9%. Since offensive rebounds extend the possession, allowing opponents more offensive rebounds leads to longer defensive possessions.
3) It takes teams a long time to find good looks against our defense. 41.7% of our opponents' shots were 2pt jump shots, the least efficient shot in college basketball. We were the 9th best team in the country at forcing opponents to take the mid-range jumper with our defense because we were effective at taking away both the 3 and layup/dunk.
So we know why we have a low number of possessions per game, but what does that mean for our team? All of D1 has become slower and slower over the past decade. This has lead to lower scores while scoring efficiency has remained relatively constant. Lower scoring games allow more chances for upsets, and this can be seen with home court winning percentages dropping along with the pace of the game. I have heard from some credible sources that the NCAA is very likely to go to the 30s shot clock next year which should increase the number of possessions per game, and scoring, but I think Mooney's offense and defense will always keep us on the low end of the tempo spectrum.
I'll post some more analysis on our team in the next few days.