Friday, January 09, 2004

Fantastic Four

The ACC is at the end of its golden age this year. This is the last year that all members will play each other twice. Fans can savor this last year of double round-robin play because 4 teams have a claim to be among the top 10 in America. Duke, UNC, Georgia Tech, and Wake Forest will most likely finish 1-4 in the ACC in some order. But in the process of beating each other up, they won't all stay in the top 10.

Once a week - and sometimes twice - for the rest of the year one of these teams will play another, providing a potential insant classic. One of these 12 matchups has already occurred: December 20th, 2003. Wake Forest 119, North Carolina 114, triple overtime. It was the game of the year so far, but it may not hold up. Next up on Sunday, it will be Georgia Tech at UNC.

Thursday, January 08, 2004

Jason Conley, Where Art Thou?

I don't know what Mizzou fans expected from Conley, but I know I was expecting more than this in his first 6 games...

Points by game: 19, 0, 2, 1, 5, 0

Minutes by game: 21, 23, 21, 19, 14, 9

Looks like Conley is heading further down Quin Snyder's bench with each performance.

Tuesday, January 06, 2004

Temple/Chaney Continued

The table below summarizes the shot distribution of Temple's oppenents this year - both in the games against Temple, and over the whole season. (3PA = 3-point attempts, FGA = field goal attempts, %3PA = 3PA/FA)

                vs. Temple       Season
Opponent       3PA FGA %3PA   3PA  FGA %3PA
Villanova       18  43 41.9   219  602 36.4
Illinois        22  51 43.1   215  682 31.5
Rutgers         23  58 39.7   181  563 32.1
Drexel          28  55 50.9   181  582 31.1
Arizona St.     11  48 22.9   181  555 32.6
Penn St.        29  53 54.7   160  561 28.5
South Carolina  35  73 47.9   290  853 34.0
Miami FL        20  45 44.4   219  753 29.1
Indiana         39  61 63.9   234  606 38.6
TOTAL          225 487 46.2   644 1880 32.7

The only numbers that matter are the one under %3PA. From this we see that eight out of Temple's nine opponents so far have shot more three's than they normally do. Overall, teams have made 33.3% of their 3-point attempts compared to 34.3% on the season, so it's not like Chaney's defense is particularly good at affecting a team's accuracy from long range.

The previous post was titled "John Chaney, Genius". But really he is a defensive genius. Offensively, Temple becomes more and more anemic every year. Yet still, they are able to pull off a few upsets, clogging up the middle offensively and preying on teams laying bricks from the perimeter.