Loading ...
« BruceBall vs. Kentucky Preview | Home | Add this to “things I’ll never say again” »
Some player stats: where the offense struggles
By rbk | January 13, 2009
Sometimes stats reveal some hidden information not readily available to the human eye. Other times they simply quantify the obvious. Such is the O-rating for the Tennessee Vols so far this season. Below is a table of Tennessee’s normal rotation of players, sorted by O-rating. Take a look and see if it surprises you at all:
| Player | Position | O-rating | %poss |
| Emmanuel Negedu | F | 118.9 | 13.4 |
| Tyler Smith | F | 112.8 | 26.8 |
| Wayne Chism | F | 112.4 | 24.5 |
| Bobby Maze | G | 110.4 | 18.4 |
| Brian Williams | F | 108.9 | 18.4 |
| Cameron Tatum | W | 103.6 | 21.9 |
| Josh Tabb | W/G | 103.6 | 11 |
| J.P. Prince | W/G | 103.5 | 22.3 |
| Renaldo Woolridge | W | 103.3 | 18.1 |
| Scotty Hopson | W | 102.6 | 18.6 |
Considering that a rating of about 110 puts you in the top 500 nationally, I would say there’s a definitive dividing line after Brian Williams. Above the line, guys are playing offense at an average level or above. Below the line, their efficiency is below average. Notice anything about the positions of the players above and below the line?
Every forward is above the line. Every wing is below the line. PG Bobby Maze joins the higher performers, but he doesn’t play wing at all, further hammering home the obvious: when Tennessee struggles on offense, it is struggling largely at the wings. While it’s okay to be disappointed in the performance of the wings, it should be noted that we lost long-term starters and scorers Chris Lofton and JaJuan Smith from those positions, so it’s not altogether surprising that the positions went from a strength to a weakness. Also, three of the five guys that play minutes at the wing are freshmen, making the problem that much worse.
I included “%poss” (percentage of team possessions used while on the floor) to point out a couple more things that have already been obvious. First, that Tyler and Wayne finish more than their share of possessions, and they should. I’d be okay with Wayne finishing even more. Secondly, J.P. Prince and Cameron Tatum also finish more than their share and are not using them as efficiently as the frontline. I think J.P. in particular has forced too many jumpers. Both are efficient when getting inside the arc (both above 56% in 2FG), so if they are going to continue to use possessions I’d prefer they choose the drive more often.
Third, and this deserves its own paragraph . . . Emmanuel Negedu needs the ball in his hands around the basket more. It hasn’t escaped most UT fans (and coaches) that good things happen when Negedu touches the ball, and his efficiency reinforces this. He hasn’t shot well but his offensive rebounding and ability to draw contact have more than made up for it, and his O-rating shows how it has paid off. He leads the team in FT% (82.6%) and gets there far more often than anyone else. He simply doesn’t get the ball near the rim enough to make a big impact for Tennessee offensively. We should make efforts to change that.
As for Woolridge, Hopson, and Tabb, they can all do better. Tabb has been excellent when he has gone to the rim, shooting over 70% on 2FG. Hopson has actually shot pretty well; it’s his turnovers that really hamper his rating and he needs to be more careful with the ball. Woolridge does a lot of little things right (like taking care of the ball) but has done a poor job of finishing and has taken many questionable shots. All three of these can improve by being more aggressive in getting into the paint and making better decisions.
Just some food for thought. It will be interesting to see if our wings are able to pick up the slack offensively (and as I’ve griped before, they are the ones that need to play better defensively as well). If we are to achieve our potential, the wings are all going to have to play better and smarter.
Topic: Uncategorized |
January 13th, 2009 at 6:16 pm
[...] Some player stats: where the offense struggles | The BruceBall Blog– A Tennessee Basketba… [...]
January 13th, 2009 at 6:52 pm
Phenomenal post. I have nothing to add at all.
January 13th, 2009 at 9:56 pm
How do you calculate an “O-rating?” What’s it measure?
I want to see Negedu get more playing time. Not sure why he hasn’t been playing more. Evidently CBP has seen some things that I obviously don’t recognize.
January 13th, 2009 at 10:03 pm
Good analysis, except some points I would make are: Tabb and Prince are not SEC caliber offensive players imo. The others are young, although Id like to see more from Scotty.
Hopefully Childress will be back soon