Pros:
-Continue to be elite defensively. According to Kenpom 10th best defensive team (Adj. Eff.)
-Our defense heavily relies on ball pressure and rim protectors. We have very good on-ball defenders in KD, Zep, and Flan. 2nd in the country in block rate % at 19.2%. I expect this number to slightly come down as we play better opponents.
-Defending the 3pt shot well, but we haven't played a lot of elite 3pt shooting teams yet. Opponents are only shooting 27% against us from 3pt and 43.3% from 2pt.
-The #1 ranked team in the country at.....FTs against. Our opponents thus far are shooting 59.8% from the FT line. There is a certain luck factor we have had there and it's helped us win games.
Cons:
-Terrible offensively from the 3pt line. Shooting 28% as a team which ranks #334 in the country (4th worst out of P5 teams).
-Terrible FT shooting team. 66.2% as a team ranking #301 in the country.
-We are giving up way too many offensive rebounds and rank #301 in the country in this category. We aren't boxing out well (sometimes don't at all) and we try to swat a lot of shots which gets us out of a good rebounding position and it leaves a backside offensive rebound more easily attainable by the opponent.
Synopsis:
-I'm a little worried that our defensive analytics are looking as good as they are because of the amount of shots we block and I think that's more due to the lack of competition we have played. We only blocked 2 shots against Memphis for instance (the best team we have played) and it was our worst defensive game by far.
-We just cannot shoot and we knew that coming into the season. Bruce knew this, but did not address it from a roster standpoint. That's amazing to me considering we were such a good 3pt shooting team during our Final 4 run (ranking Top 20 in the country). Bruce needs to address this in the offseason.
KenPom projects us to be a slight favorite against USC (close to a pick em) and about a 4-5 point favorite over Washington. His metrics also have us going 21-10 (11-7) for the year. I'm hopeful we can do that, but we have to improve in certain areas.
-Continue to be elite defensively. According to Kenpom 10th best defensive team (Adj. Eff.)
-Our defense heavily relies on ball pressure and rim protectors. We have very good on-ball defenders in KD, Zep, and Flan. 2nd in the country in block rate % at 19.2%. I expect this number to slightly come down as we play better opponents.
-Defending the 3pt shot well, but we haven't played a lot of elite 3pt shooting teams yet. Opponents are only shooting 27% against us from 3pt and 43.3% from 2pt.
-The #1 ranked team in the country at.....FTs against. Our opponents thus far are shooting 59.8% from the FT line. There is a certain luck factor we have had there and it's helped us win games.
Cons:
-Terrible offensively from the 3pt line. Shooting 28% as a team which ranks #334 in the country (4th worst out of P5 teams).
-Terrible FT shooting team. 66.2% as a team ranking #301 in the country.
-We are giving up way too many offensive rebounds and rank #301 in the country in this category. We aren't boxing out well (sometimes don't at all) and we try to swat a lot of shots which gets us out of a good rebounding position and it leaves a backside offensive rebound more easily attainable by the opponent.
Synopsis:
-I'm a little worried that our defensive analytics are looking as good as they are because of the amount of shots we block and I think that's more due to the lack of competition we have played. We only blocked 2 shots against Memphis for instance (the best team we have played) and it was our worst defensive game by far.
-We just cannot shoot and we knew that coming into the season. Bruce knew this, but did not address it from a roster standpoint. That's amazing to me considering we were such a good 3pt shooting team during our Final 4 run (ranking Top 20 in the country). Bruce needs to address this in the offseason.
KenPom projects us to be a slight favorite against USC (close to a pick em) and about a 4-5 point favorite over Washington. His metrics also have us going 21-10 (11-7) for the year. I'm hopeful we can do that, but we have to improve in certain areas.
