Battier on FiveThirtyEight

[Ballboy1998]

Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere, but I didn't see it on a quick search.

Shane Battier was a guest for FiveThirtyEight's recent "Hot Takedown" live show (don't worry, none of this means much to me either).

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/shane-battier-says-dukies-always-have-two-brackets/

If you want to jump straight ahead to the Battier portion, skip ahead to 00:26:18.

Shane is very thoughtful and engaging, as always. Among other interesting points, he suggests that Coach K was well ahead of the basketball analytics revolution in encouraging a high volume of three point attempts and drives to the rim (that tend to draw fouls), while college basketball at large continues to lag behind.

[OldPhiKap]

Shane on FiveThirtyEight? What are the odds?


{ducks}

Thanks for the link, look forward to streaming it later!

[weezie]

Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere, but I didn't see it on a quick search.

Shane Battier was a guest for FiveThirtyEight's recent "Hot Takedown" live show (don't worry, none of this means much to me either).


That was a good laugh with which to start the avoiding-work day.

[COYS]

Apologies if this is discussed elsewhere, but I didn't see it on a quick search.

Shane Battier was a guest for FiveThirtyEight's recent "Hot Takedown" live show (don't worry, none of this means much to me either).

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/shane-battier-says-dukies-always-have-two-brackets/

If you want to jump straight ahead to the Battier portion, skip ahead to 00:26:18.

Shane is very thoughtful and engaging, as always. Among other interesting points, he suggests that Coach K was well ahead of the basketball analytics revolution in encouraging a high volume of three point attempts and drives to the rim (that tend to draw fouls), while college basketball at large continues to lag behind.

This is great! Thanks for sharing. As usual, Shane was excellent in the interview. A couple highlights:

Battier mentions that Coach K allows his teams lots of freedom on offense. For the 2001 team, K told them to play defense and shoot as many threes as they want . . . that worked out. Says that this is very different from a lot of college coaches who really try to control offensive possessions.

Says that when he was at Duke, playing in the NCAA Tournament was very business-like. For the players, the "real" season started when the post season began because that's why they went to Duke, to win a championship.

Mentions that they didn't spend much time looking at the tournament bracket to try and find upsets to make their path easier. (caveat that Shane was on teams that got number one seeds every single time . . . it's possible this year's team might be paying a little more attention to upsets).

Brushes off negative Duke media coverage by saying that no other school is going to be on the front page every time they play, win or lose (my thoughts exactly, even when I get annoyed about negative coverage of Grayson I always remember that it's just the way it is if you go to Duke and we might as well love it while it lasts).

Short segment but really enjoyable. Besides, I will never turn down an opportunity to hear Battier speak.

[Tom B.]

Battier mentions that Coach K allows his teams lots of freedom on offense. For the 2001 team, K told them to play defense and shoot as many threes as they want . . . that worked out.

That team could sling it. They took 1,057 three-pointers and made 407. I think both numbers are still Duke records.

Probably no accident that the 2001 team outscored its opponents by an average of more than 20 points per game (90.7 to 70.5) for the season, which I think is also a Duke record.

[UrinalCake]

Great podcast! Bonus points for their conclusion that Harrison Barnes is actually an average NBA player.

[COYS]

That team could sling it. They took 1,057 three-pointers and made 407. I think both numbers are still Duke records.

Probably no accident that the 2001 team outscored its opponents by an average of more than 20 points per game (90.7 to 70.5) for the season, which I think is also a Duke record.

That is definitely true, but I also think that it's true that one of K's strengths is coming up with offensive schemes that allow players to naturally improvise and use their best talents rather than force complicated sets. I mean, one of our best sets this season is get Grayson the ball on the left wing so he can drive to his right off of a screen. So simple but so effective because he can intuitively choose to take advantage of a mismatch on the screen and drive, drive and kick, pull up and shoot an open three of the defender goes under the screen, etc. But you're totally right, that 2001 team was something special. And totally fun to watch. I mean, those guys got out in transition like crazy, rained threes, and were utterly relentless on D. I rewatched the Maryland Final Four game from that season, recently. What's so amazing is how easy and inevitable the big comeback seems when you watch it (obviously it wasn't easy). It just seemed like the team decided "hey, we're really good . . . let's go out there and win this game" and they did, just like that.