Originally Posted by
Duke76
It just dawned on me that one of the biggest differences this year vs last are the number of fast breaks per game we have witnessed...Haven't looked at the numbers but intuitively it feels like night and day...Top 5 highlights on each game seem to include many more. Mason is getting out on the break at an alarmingly positive rate, Cook and the other guards are pushing much more...we are finishing at a high percentage...I'd say this a major reason we have gotten off to such a great start and can be a real differentiator in a drive to another championship.
Our more quantitative posters hopefully will see this as a worthy topic for rumination and fill in my many holes of analysis.
This is certainly an incomplete measure, since it doesn't take into consideration opportunities, conversion rate, etc., but per the box scores, we have 69 fast break points through 8 games this season compared to 42 through 8 games* last season. So that's certainly consistent with your impressions. Interestingly, we've done better on the break against top competition - 12 against Kentucky, 13 against OSU, and 17 against Louisville, in contrast to 6 against Georgia State and 0 against Gulf-Coast.
*the box score for last year's Belmont game does not list fast break points, so the 42 points is from games 2-9 (Presbyterian through Colorado State).
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