A couple of odds and ends to start off the week.
If you haven’t seen the new blog from Ryan, of Hawkeye Hoops fame, you should check it out. For those of you that have lamented the lack of material over here this season, maybe Ryan can fill the void for you. He already has two excellent posts up. The latest one deals with the legacy of Dick Bennett.
Each season, I end up gravitating towards two or three teams this time of year – usually the ones that seem to be on the verge of getting showered with attention. Washington State is one of those teams this season. Sure, they could have made life easier on themselves by winning one game on their LA road trip last week. But with Arizona getting swept by the third and fourth best teams in Oregon, and UCLA with some serious injury issues, the Pac-10 is in total chaos. Nine of the ten teams have two or three losses in conference. If you keep an eye on WSU, you may be putting yourself three or four weeks ahead of the national media curve.
A statistical oddity involves the Saint Louis Billikens. They are 8-7 after a Saturday win against UMass. The order of their results this season looks like this:
W L W L W L W L W L W L W L W
That’s good news for Richmond fans, since SLU travels to play the Spiders on Wednesday.
This week, I’ll review what some of the individual stats mean on the scouting report pages since I’ve received a few questions about how to interpret the numbers and what these stats can do for you. First up will be offensive rating.
Friday
FG 3pt FT Reb
Min M-A M-A M-A O-T A F S TO BLK Pts
Jeff Xavier 38 6-10 3-7 10-10 2-4 8 1 6 1 0 25
Result: Win. Manhattan 87, Rider 81.
Saturday
FG 3pt FT Reb
Min M-A M-A M-A O-T A F S TO BLK Pts
Al Thornton 39 15-18 1-1 6-8 3-6 1 3 1 3 0 37
Result: Loss. Boston College 90, Florida State 87.
Sunday
FG 3pt FT Reb
Min M-A M-A M-A O-T A F S TO BLK Pts
Jared Jordan 36 3-7 1-4 2-2 2-4 16 2 3 2 0 9
Result: Win. Marist 89, Rider 66.