Sunday, November 19, 2006

Who is Joe O’Brien?

If anyone knows something about this guy, I’d love to hear it. All I know is this:

- He took over as Idaho State’s coach this season after winning 300+ games at the juco level.

- One of his assistants is former prep phenom Rodrick Rhodes.

- He inherited a team that finished last in the Big Sky and had a wretched defense.

- So far, the Bengals have gone on the road and taken Marquette and BYU to overtime, with an easy neutral-site win over Maine sandwiched in between.

- He relies on some sort of funky zone which lulled both Marquette and BYU into shooting more 3’s than normal.

Their next opponent is Washington State, a team that has shot the 3 very well so far. Which means we should find out on Tuesday whether ISU has benefited from a good bit of fortune or whether their D really is one of the most improved in the country.

Friday, November 17, 2006

Future Attractions

I know, there’s been a stunning lack of posting here. (But did you see that post I did on Oral Roberts a while back? It’s sort of timely now.) What’s coming in the future…

A thorough explanation of my power ratings, including what all those columns mean.

The annual sit-down with Longwood head coach Mike Gillian. Hey, they’re 2-1! (It’s not such big news, though, compared to Savannah State, NJIT, and Texas-Pan American being a combined 9-0 at the moment.)

And exciting things like e-mail and blogroll policies!

For today though, I’d like to add a player to the all-kenpom.com team. I already have Maarty in middle. Today, you can meet my point guard. He’s UW-Milwaukee’s Allan Hanson, and he makes the team with the most bizarre shooting stats in the nation.

Season  2PM-2PA     3PM-3PA
2005      3-22        3-10
2006      2-28       21-45
2007      0-5         7-18
Career    5-55       31-73

Yes, you read that correct. Hanson shoots 9% on 2’s and 42% on 3’s, and we’re not exactly looking at a small sample size. A statistical freak show like that can start for me any day.

Friday, November 10, 2006

The Year of Maarty Leunen Begins Now

Tonight is the real tip-off of college basketball, with a majority of schools (or nearly so, I haven’t counted) beginning their season. As usual, I’ll be trying to document the surprises that slip under the national radar. If my calculations are correct, one of those will be Maarty Leunen of the Oregon Ducks, a team that may take the college hoops world by storm despite getting a combined one vote in the two major pre-season polls. (My track record of predicting Pac 10 hoops is particularly pathetic, however.)

If they do, the praise will go to Aaron Brooks and Malik Hairston, but I’ll be giving attention to Leunen, the 6-9 junior who had 35 boards in 56 exhibition minutes against Lewis & Clark and Southern Oregon. That’s 25.7 rebounds per 40 minutes. You may be questioning the level of competition, but those teams provide a good proxy for the Ducks’ preseason schedule.

Maarty Leunen is what this site is all about. He doesn’t score enough to get national attention, but he’s plenty quirky enough to get my attention. A great defensive rebounder (12th in the country last season), yet a below average offensive rebounder.

The Menace of the Defensive Boards begins his season tonight, starting at power forward for Oregon in a tussle with Lehigh at 7 pm PST. I’ll be watching you, Maarty.