Latest NCAA Statistics

[DoubleDuke Dad]

Here are some interesting numbers from the latest NCAA Men’s BB statistics released today.

http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_basketball/m_basketballMenu.html

Duke is tied for #3 in rebound margin (10.5)! The worlds greatest team ever™ is only #21 at 7.9. I seem to remember that we used to have a problem rebounding. Image how good we would be if we didn’t have such a small team.

Duke is #11 (82.8) in scoring offense and #38 (60.2) in scoring defense.

North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest are #1 (24.1), #2 (22.7) and #3 (21.2) respectively in scoring margin.

Duke is #24 in field goal percentage (48.2) and #46 (39.1) in field goal defense.

Duke is also #24 in free throw percentage (74.6) but they are not ranked in free throw percentage defense. :)

Duke is tied for #49 (4.8) in blocked shots.

Duke is #13 (10.0) in steals. Surprisingly the worlds greatest team ever™ is #4 at 10.5.

[bdh21]

Here are some interesting numbers from the latest NCAA Men’s BB statistics released today.

http://www.ncaa.org/stats/m_basketball/m_basketballMenu.html

Duke is tied for #3 in rebound margin (10.5)! The worlds greatest team ever™ is only #21 at 7.9. I seem to remember that we used to have a problem rebounding. Image how good we would be if we didn’t have such a small team.

Duke is #11 (82.8) in scoring offense and #38 (60.2) in scoring defense.

North Carolina, Duke and Wake Forest are #1 (24.1), #2 (22.7) and #3 (21.2) respectively in scoring margin.

Duke is #24 in field goal percentage (48.2) and #46 (39.1) in field goal defense.

Duke is also #24 in free throw percentage (74.6) but they are not ranked in free throw percentage defense. :)

Duke is tied for #49 (4.8) in blocked shots.

Duke is #13 (10.0) in steals. Surprisingly the worlds greatest team ever™ is #4 at 10.5.

I don't mean to steal your thunder, but this seems like another good opportunity to plug tempo-free stats, updated for each school daily at http://kenpom.com/stats.php

They are more instructive and insightful than traditional basketball stats, and pretty easy to understand, too.

Rebound margin is a tricky stat that can vary greatly depending on how often either you or your opponent miss. It helps to talk about O and D rebounding separately.

Duke is currently getting offensive rebounds on 42.3% of the shots that we miss, good for #9 in D1 (and better than the holes!).

On the defensive side, we are allowing our opponents to rebound only 28.6% of their misses, good for 35th in D1 (and significantly better than our marks in any of the Shelden years. He did not have much help!).

On offense, Duke has been scoring an average of 1.15 points per possession (adjusted for the level of competition), which is 22nd in the country. This stat is more instructive than Points scored per game because of schools like Georgetown. They run a slow offense, but rank 2nd in points per possession, making them a potent offensive team.

Duke's fast pace obscures how good a defensive team they are. While Duke is #38 in points allowed per game, we are #1 in D1 in points allowed per possession (adjusted for competition): 0.80 pts/poss.

Instead of looking at FG%, it helps to split it up into 2ptFG% and 3ptFG%. While it's no surprise to any of us here, Duke has been shooting 32.4% on 3ptFG%, good for 229th in D1. But our 2 point shooting has been phenomenal: 55.6%, 19th in D1.

Not only has Duke been shooting free throws well, they've been getting to the line at a great rate, as they seemingly do every year. Duke has made 32 free throws for every 100 field goals attempted on the year, good for 25th in D1.

Other observations about this team:

2 traditional strengths of Duke defenses show up in the tempo-free stats of this years team. First, Duke's opponents are shooting only 27.5% of their field goal attempts from beyond the three point line. Only 21 teams in D1 allow fewer 3 point attempts.

While Duke's aggressive ball denial often gives up drives to opposing guards, it makes assists hard to come by for opponents. Sure enough, Duke opponents are only assisting on 43.6% of their made field goals so far, good for 8th in D1.

Some commentators are reviving the old line about Duke's excessive reliance on the 3 point shot. Sorry, but that just isn't true this year. Duke has only attempted 32.6% of their field goals from 3 point range. That's 186th in D1, and actually a below average rate.

Duke's bench has played 38.9% of the available minutes this year, 32nd best in D1. Depth is here, folks. True, that's been through the OOC portion of the schedule, but everyone else in D1 has been OOC, too.

[BlueintheFace]

... anybody feel like disagreeing?

http://kenpom.com/stats.php

-see adjusted Rk