The other day I did a post about the perimeter defense against Syracuse. Matt from down the drive was nice enough to link to it, but said the following:
“In short, the perimeter defense is terrible. Or it was Monday. On the whole the defense this year has been about as I expected it. Teams are actually shooting at a slightly lower clip (eFG% allowed is identical 45.8, true shooting percentage defense is actually down this year to 48.3 from 49.9). But that isn’t the issue. The issue was that on Monday UC had no answer for the combination of Scoop Jardine and Kris Joseph. Joseph in particular was untouchable. I need to see more games like Monday’s defensively for me to worry about this.”
He is accurate about the whole team defense, but it seems he’s putting me on front street in my claims about the perimeter defense. Challenge accepted.
I’ve thrown out all season long that UC can’t stop guards from scoring. To be completely fair to the guards, I’m going to post the season average in points and the shooting percentages (Season, 2 & 3) in parenthesis so we have a comparison to see how above or beyond they have been. Free throws will be judged on a case by case basis.
This will be a 2 part series. The first part deconstructs the box scores. The second part will involve a video breakdown of the Presbyterian game, and every game from Georgia and on. I’ll be breaking down the guard shooting from 2, 3 and the free throw line. I’m going with the full free throw shooting totals. There may be an amended free throw shooting part in the second piece looking at the context of the attempts, IE intentional fouling late in games. At the bottom of the post, you’ll see the scoring for 2s, 3s and FTs on the season. In many cases multiple guards will be listed. Most teams play multiple guards For the sake of math, any season point average over .5 moves up, anything .5 or under down. So if Player X is averaging 2.6 points, his season averages moves up to 3 in the calculations below.
The format will be as followed:
Team
Player – Makes-Attempts, game % (season%), 2M- 2A, 2% (season 2%), 3M-3A, 3% (season 3%), FTM-FTA, FT%, (seasonFT) Points (season average) *denotes season high
Alabama State
Kendereck Washington – 7-16, 45% (45%) 4-8, 50% (52%), 3-8, 37% (37%), 1-2, 50% (62%) 18 points (14.1)
Note: Unsure to count Page. He was listed as a forward, so I did not.
—
Jacksonville State
Brian Williams – 7-15, 47% (38%), 6-9, 67% (40%) 1-6, 17% (34%), 1-2, 50% (66%) 16 points (12.1)
Mason Leggett – 8-15, 53% (38.5%), 8-14, 57% (40%) , 0-1,0%(31%), 0-0 FT 16 points (6.6)
—
Presbyterian
Khalid Mutakabbir – 11-15, 73% (43%), 8-10, 80% (51%), 3-5, 60% (28%), 0-0 FT, 25 points* (14)
—
Northwestern State
Shamir Davis – 4-9, 44% (48.4%), 3-7, 43% (53%), 1-2, 50% (32%), 4-4, 100% (72%), 13 points (14.1)
—
Marshall
Damier Pitts – 6-16, 37.5% (38%), 2-7, 28.5% (46%), 4-9, 44% (33%), 3-4, 75% (65%), 19 points (12.9)
—
Miami
No one
—
Georgia
Kentavious Caldwell-Pope – 6-14, 43% (41%), 5-8, 62.5% (52%), 1-6, 17% (32%), 3-5, 60% (63%), 16 points (14.4)
Gerald Robinson – 4-10, 40% (41.4%), 3-8, 37.5% (43%), 1-2, 50% (29%), 3-4, 75% (%), 12 points (13.4)
Note: They combined for 28 of the 51 Georgia points
—
Xavier
Mark Lyons – 6-11, 54.5% (47%), 3-6, 50% (48%), 3-5, 60% (46%), 4-4, 100% (77%), 19 points (17.2)
Tu Holloway – 5-10, 50% (41%), 4-5, 80% (46%), 1-5, 20% (30%), 6-6, 100% (86%), 17 points (16.1)
Dez Wells – 7-10, 70% (52%), 7-10, 70% (55%), 0-0 3s, 0-1, 0% (61%), 14 points (9.5)
—
Wright State
John Balwigaire – 4-6, 67% (37.5%), 2-4, 50% (42%), 2-2, 100% (33%), 1-2, 50% (%), 11 points (5.1)
Note: Balwigaire had 11 of the first 25, which is why he is on the list.
—
Radford
Jareal Smith – 7-12, 58% (35%), 4-8, 50% (39%), 3-4, 75% (31%), 5-7, 71% (%), 22 points* (10.5)
—
Arkansas Pine Bluff
No one worth noting
—
Oklahoma
Held Steven Pledger to 4-12. Watched some of the game to see if Fitzgerald scored on the guards, but it was mainly zone and he was fronted by a big man.
—
Pittsburgh
Ashton Gibbs – 7-15, 47% (39%), 5-8, 62.5% (4204%), 2-7, 28.5% 35(%), 2-2, 100% (82.5%), 18 points (16.7)
—
Notre Dame
Jerian Grant – 5-12, 42% (43%), 3-4, 75% (48%), 2-8, 25% (37%), 5-5, 100% (79%), 17 points (12.8)
—
St John’s
Moe Harkless – 6-15, 40% (46%), 5-12, 42% (54%), 1-3, 33% (24%), 1-1, 100% (65%), 14 points (16)
D’Angelo Harrison – 5-15, 33% (37%), 2-7, 28% (41%), 3-8, 37.5% (36%), 5-7, 71% (81%), 18 points (15.5)
Note: They scored 32 of 57 St John’s points
—
Georgetown
Jason Clark – 6-7, 86% (50%), 6-6, 100% (61%), 0-1, 0% (36%), 2-3, 67% (%), 14 points (15.9)
Hollis Thompson – 5-6, 83% (5%), 1-2, 50% (52%), 4-4, 100% (50.6%), 0-0 FT, 14 points (14)
—
Villanova
Maalik Wayns – 12-22, 54.5% (42%), 6-9, 67% (49%), 6-13, 46% (29%), 9-10, 90% (89%), 39 points* (18.7)
Dominic Cheek – 6-16, 37.5% (38%), 1-3, 33% (52%), 5-13, 38% (28%), 2-2, 100% (81%), 19 points (12.2)
—
Connecticut
Shabazz Napier – 10-19, 53% (43%), 7-11, 64% (48%), 3-8, 37.5% (37.5%), 4-5, 80% (74%), 27 points* (14.8)
Jeremy Lamb – 5-12, 42% (50%), 4-7, 57% (60%), 1-5, 20% (37%), 3-3, 100% (85%), 14 points (17.9)
—
West Virginia
Jabaire Hinds – 4-8, 50% (51%), 2-3, 67% (50%), 2-5, 40% (36.5%), 2-3, 67% (67%), 12 points (8.2)
Gary Browne – 5-10, 50% (44%), 4-7, 0% (50%), 1-3, 33% (28%), 2-3, 66% (58%), 13 points (6.5)
—
Syracuse
Scoop Jardine – 5-9, 56% (51%), 3-5, 60% (62%), 2-4, 50% (32%), 1-4, 25% (51%), 13 points (8.5)
Kris Joseph – 8-11, 72% (44%), 8-8, 100% (50%), 0-3, 0% (36%), 1-5, 20% (77%), 17 points (13.7)
Brandon Triche – 4-8, 50% (44%), 3-6, 50% (47%), 1-2, 50% (40%), 2-3, 67% (86%), 11 points (9.9)
—
Overall %: 175-344 – 50.87%
Overall 2%: 119-202 – 58.9%
Overall 3%: 50-142 – 35.2%
Overall FT%: 72-97 – 74.2%
Scoring average per counted player: 16.78 points
Total points above season average: 128
Average points above average per: 4.57
What this tells us is pretty definitive. The UC guards give up a lot of points. If you can get to the basket, you have an excellent chance of scoring on them, because they are very weak defensively. They are also pretty poor at closing out on shooters, 35% from 3 is awfully high. The good news would be that UC doesn’t put guys on the line. In some cases, like against Georgia and Georgetown, the Bearcats didn’t give guys opportunity to get the ball to get chances to get shots off. This is why turnovers are so important. The guys need turnovers to get stops.
Part 2 will be out sometime on Friday.
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
