Tuesday, March 07, 2006

King of the Hill

                           FG    3pt  FT   Reb
                      Min  M-A   M-A  M-A  O-T  A F  S TO BLK Pts
George Hill            35  6-13  0-1  5-11 6-12 4 3  0  2  1   17
Result: Loss. Chicago St. 57, IUPUI 53.

There were better lines last night, but this is my last chance to salute George Hill. If you’ve figured out how to manipulate my stats pages, you’ve seen a name that doesn’t belong in the top five in offensive rating among high-usage player. The list currently goes: Redick, Fazekas, Morrison, Hill, Foye. This was an average performance for Hill, except for the free throw shooting - he was an 82% shooter from the line coming into this one. This guy does everything well and is only a sophomore. Playing for a slow-paced team doesn’t allow him to rack up gaudy numbers, but he’ll terrorize MidCon opponents again next season.

Monday, March 06, 2006

The Mo Valley is Mo’ Boring

You know I have the MVC’s back on a lot of things. For instance, this idea that is gaining momentum that the MVC is fraudulent because all of their quality wins have come in-conference. Hey, look at bubble teams from power conferences. You’re not going to find too many that have big out-of-conference wins. So don’t lay a double standard on the MVC. However…

Check out the halftime scores of the nine games of the MVC Tourney: 24-23, 24-22, 20-20, 23-19, 23-21, 25-16, 30-24, 19-10, 18-17. Consider yourself warned to tune into games involving Valley teams sometime in the second half.

On an unrelated note, the most convenient way to keep up with conference tournament action is by stopping by The Bracket Board, and utilizing the One Stop Shop.

Friday

                           FG    3pt  FT   Reb
                      Min  M-A   M-A  M-A  O-T  A F  S TO BLK Pts
Ricky Woods            39 12-22  0-1  4-7  3-16 3 3 10  2  3   28
Result: Loss. Southeastern Louisiana 89, Lamar 79.   

Saturday

                           FG    3pt  FT   Reb
                      Min  M-A   M-A  M-A  O-T  A F  S TO BLK Pts
Paul Millsap           38  8-16  0-0  4-9 12-23 0 3  3  5  5   20
Result: Win. Louisiana Tech 51, Hawaii 48.

Talk about having the rebounding gods on your side. The two teams (minus Millsap) combined to go 29 for 96 (30.2%) from the field, and 2 for 35 (5.7%) from 3. There were plenty of missed shots, and naturally Millsap grabbed a lot of the rebounds to clinch his third consecutive national rebounding title. This was the worst 3-point shooting brickfest in the land this season (minimum 25 attempts).

Sunday

                           FG    3pt  FT   Reb
                      Min  M-A   M-A  M-A  O-T  A F  S TO BLK Pts
Je'Kel Foster          34  2-15  1-9  3-3  2-8  5 1  5  2  0    8
Result: Win. Ohio State 76, Purdue 57.

OK, who was the goofball that wore the Je’Kel Foster jersey yesterday?

Sunday, March 05, 2006

This Just In…

Giving my own personal “Full Circle” coverage here…

- I haven’t heard anybody say it yet, so I will: Right now, UNC is the best team in the ACC. Even if you believe last night’s game was an abberation and Duke is still the best bet to go the farthest in the dance - which is perfectly reasonable - I think you’d have to admit the gap between these two is now very small. At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised to see either Duke or UNC in the Final Four. I thought it was odd that near the end of the game, Brad Nessler noted that UNC was playing for a 2-seed in the ACC Tourney and would get the spoils of avoiding Duke until the title game. I mean, UNC had just won in Duke’s house. If there’s one team trying to avoid the other, I would suggest it’s the other way around.

- From a UNC perspective, the Tar Heels stuck to the John Chaney recipe of using their defensive currency on stifling Redick from three. Despite Lee Melchionni allegedly being dangerous if left open, he was a 33% three point shooter coming in. That’s nothing special. Sure, Melchionni can beat you if he’s left open. But you have to assume Redick will beat you if left open, despite his recent slump. Every three that Melchionni and Greg Paulus take is one less for Redick. Those two went 3 for 11, and just about every one was a good look.

- You want another reason why some people have a visceral hatred for the Dukies? The latest example is the idea that J.J. Redick is mentally drained. This going-for-the-ACC-record business was a tremendous burden, and we should all feel sorry for him. Coach K has been one of the leading proponents of this theory, like it was an inevitable byproduct of Redick being such a prolific scorer. Here’s one of the best scorers ever, but wait - it’s not all fun and games for him. Being that good carries a tremendous burden. Hey, how about this idea - at least in the case of Temple and UNC, the defense has been pretty solid on Redick. Duke’s first opponent in the ACC Tourney should feel his wrath.

- If you’re going to buy into the Redick fatigue idea, don’t let K off the hook. Through last Sunday’s games, Redick has played 91.9% of his team’s minutes (roughly 37 minutes per 40-minute game). That’s the most in the ACC and 19th in the nation, and for every one of those minutes he has been target #1 of the defense. If he’s fatigued - and I don’t think that he is - I’d propose that K’s overuse of Redick is the primary reason. In his last four games, Redick has averaged 39.5 mpg.

- And while I’m piling on Coach K, if he has any confidence in Sean Dockery running the point, he should give Greg Paulus some more bench time. His latest stats are 43.8% eFG and 33.6 TO%. I’ll confess that TO% is not the best way to measure a point guard’s ball handling ability, especially one that doesn’t shoot much, but there are only eight players in the country getting 80% of their team’s minutes with a TORate greater than 30. Paulus’ lack of scoring ability allows a team to run multiple players at Redick without penalty. I have to think that the Duke offense is more productive with a lineup of Dockery, Redick, Nelson, McRoberts, Williams.

- This game had a whopping 81 possessions, which had to make Roy Williams happy. Any of UNC’s players can and does bring the ball into the frontcourt. Even Hansbrough led a fast break once. I’m just saying it’s time to update your expectations. Enough talk about Roy being Coach of the Year and how crazy this all is. This isn’t January any more. This team is good enough to stand on its own now.

- Finally, through Possessograph^TM technology, we can witness that a pair of Duke droughts cost them against the steady scoring machine of UNC (scroll down a little):