Ken,
The other night I got a career high 21 minutes. I went 7-11 for 15 points, had 6 boards and not turnovers, and it was against a top 50 defense this time. I am currently the most efficient high-usage player in the country and sitting on the bench half the game. Just thought I’d let you know how things are going.
Luke H.
Yet another imaginary discussion with Luke. But did you know that? Our boy Harangody is the most efficient high-usage player in the country. (Actually, it’s been that way for the last four weeks.) Granted, he’s played some weak competition (ND’s defensive schedule strength is ranked 267th) and since he’s coming off the bench, he gets to face the opposing reserves a little more often than a starter would. But this Notre Dame team has a chance to do some great things this season. While I think Mike Brey is one of the great offensive minds in the game, he isn’t getting the most out of his team without putting Luke on the floor for the 10 or 12 additional minutes he can get out of him. I know beating this drum every week has become tiresome. So, Luke, you’re on your own. I’m done with you. If the Irish lose 4 or 5 close games the rest of the way, I can no longer stick up for your team and call it bad luck.
Ken,
Pretty basic line from last night…except for one category.
Over 84% (37/44) of WVU’s total FG attempts were three-pointers. WVU’s usually a little higher up in that category than most teams, but never to that degree.
Got me thinking: what’s the highest 3FG/TotalFG you’ve seen? Has anyone topped 90%?
Chad
This isn’t the half of it. Actually, the half of it is more interesting, namely, the second half. The Mountaineers took 15 of their 17 shots from 3 after intermission, and one of those was a Darris Nichols’ bomb where he inadvertently had a toe on the line. So they only attempted one 2-pointer intentionally. This WVU team is a little different from its predecessor in that it has shot the 3 pretty well so far. They turn the ball over a little more, but so far have rebounded better on the offensive end. The biggest difference is that their defense has been spectacular, which wasn’t a trademark of the Pittsnogle years. Villanova seemed to flat out give up near the end of the first half.
Since the 2004 season, which will be known as “history” from now on, only two other teams have been able to take 80% of their shots from beyond the arc. This game between Princeton and UTEP from two seasons ago, and Saint Joe’s in a January 2004 game against Temple. (One of the casualties of John Chaney’s retirement is no more 3-point shooting contests between the Hawks and the Owls.) So this goes down as the highest 3-point rate in the history of man until someone proves otherwise.
Hey
Are you back on. That UNLV loss does not look so bad now, does it.
Also did you like the Zag came.
You should be careful not to jump on and off bandwagons to quickly as it hurts your credibility.
Credibility? Anonymous Nevada fan, did you see what I was writing about Washington State at this time last year? No need to expect credibility when you come here. (Just so we’re clear, you want me to jump back on the bandwagon, right?)
Ken,
So you’re jumping off the Nevada Wolf Pack bandwagon after they hung a loss on Akron in their home arena where they’d won 21 in a row and right before an exciting victory over Gonzaga in an arena that was anything but neutral? I can understand why you may not be impressed with the Pack’s margin of victory in many games, but you may not have been aware that Coach Fox has been rotating in several true freshmen (sometimes 4 at a time) any time Nevada gets a substantial lead. That has helped several opponents to keep the games closer than they should have been, but it will pay big dividends down the road. I also understand why you’d be unimpressed with the WAC as a whole considering the weakness of the OOC schedules, but I think the top of the WAC is pretty darn good. NMSU, Fresno, Hawaii and Utah State are all good teams along with Nevada. Hopefully the Bracketbuster schedulers will match the WAC up with the top teams from the MVC plus Butler. I think you’ll be surprised by the results.
As always, your site is the best resource on the net. Thanks for the hard work.
Pat
Nevada not only won the Battle in Seattle, but the also won the battle of the inbox last week. This was one of the more thought out e-mails.
Yay, they beat Gonzaga. Congrats, but Gonzaga hasn’t held anybody below a point per possession since November. I mean, Nevada fans need to get used to the fact that they’ll probably be ranked the rest of the season and I’ll probably be complaining about it from time to time. Look, if your looking for positive press about the Wolf Pack, there are about a million other people willing to give you that.
But I don’t follow the herd. How boring would that be. I’m going to tell you Pitt’s defense has issues, even when the “experts” claim they are still winning with defense. I’m going to tell you I’m skeptical about Wichita State when others say they could be a Final Four team. I’m going to say that Washington will be a bubble team (if they improve) when writers are still throwing a lot of top 25 votes at them.
Other things you’ll only get here: The Duke/Virginia Tech game tomorrow will be one of the ugliest, most difficult to watch games of the season, and even if UConn loses to LSU Saturday, they’ll still be a factor in the Big East race, despite having not beaten anyone of note to this point. (UConn should beat LSU, though, unless the Temple/Mitchell combo has a productive shooting game.) It’s all here for posterity until I edit it on Sunday.
Maybe I’ll be right, and maybe I’ll be wrong about Nevada. Check back in a couple months. Here’s hoping they do get the best possible BracketBusters opponent, because I’d like to see them get a good test from an MVC team in mid-February. I’d make sure to plant myself in front of the TV for that. They’re going to get a really nice seed if they win the WAC, but I’d be suprised if they see the second weekend of the tourney. And while the tight wins over Akron and Gonzaga were better than losses, they don’t change my mind very much. One or two games rarely change my mind about anything.
Seriously, I love you people in the WAC. I spent my formative blogging years listening to streaming audio of Hawaii games at 2 in the morning. Don’t go all Oklahoma State on me over this, OK?
Coming up on Monday: I have it on good authority that I’ll have a free column on espn.com. So check it out and then sign up for insider, because it’ll probably never happen again. Also on Monday, I’ll be introducing a new toy on this site, so come back then.