basketball

[Chanson]

I'm pretty sure Golding will give them a run for their money.
Was looking at the schedule and we have a game at home on Super Bowl Sunday. Man that sucks. Who schedules this BS?

[SisyphusMiner]

The incompetent CUSA leadership?

[kyyote]

The team is obviously playing better than they did earlier.  I think they are playing a more balanced offense.  So much depends on the opponent though.

I made three charts hoping I could see better any trends.  They tell us a lot but not necessarily what I wanted to know.



This is the last eight games and shows 3 pointers taken and made.

The one below is points in the paint for us and our opponents.  We still are getting jobbd inside.



Finally this one is a combination of 3pointers made plus points in the paint.



I wish there were easy to point to factors, but I don't think there are.  Th last three games the three pointers percentage has improved and the number taken is down but I don't know that that is a trend.  The only trend I can see for sure is that we are winning.

Here is one more thing.  Looking at winning percentage of opponents.  LA Tech was a loss to a team with a 74% winning percentage.  Next was Southern Miss with a 27% win percentage and we win.  Then came a loss to Charlotte with a 57% winning rate. ODU with a 41% winning percentage was a UTEP win.  Then came two wins over UTSA who wins 33% of their games.  FAU was a win over a team that wins 61% of their games and FIU was a win over a team that wins 57% of their games.  So, we have won games against weak teams but we also won some games on the road against some decent teams.

In December I said I thought that we were going to win 17 games.   If we continue to play the way we are we may reach 20.  Maybe.  The UNT game should tell us a little more about whether the competition is the biggest factor to our recent winning streak or not.

Last thing, The Bear would love this team and Golding.  They would be thicker than thieves if Haskins were alive.   

[Chanson]

Got to admit those charts are good & funny. 1st time I've seen one hand written.
The other big factor is the defense. We are keeping teams below 70pts which gives us a chance. Golding was clear on rather being beat with interior play than the 3 ball. They not only did that with Rice, but we outshot the long ball on a team that depends on it. It helped that JB was on fire.
Last thing, thanks Sis for giving the OK on CUSA TV. I took the plunge & did a mnth to mnth for $11/mnth. It's actually not bad. Need to deal with out of town commentary, but it was worth it.

[SisyphusMiner]

Kyyote,
I feel like it's really more that the guys that aren't hot are willing to give it up to whoever has the hot hand.  Against Rice Boum missed some early but recognized that Bienemy was on fire and stepped back and let him be the man.

Also, just attempting to score in the paint forces the defense to respect that.  It's a little like the difference betweeen Kug and Dimel.  knowing that we might pass for a 40 yd bomb means they can't pack the box with 11 players.


Chanson,
I don't know how many you've watched?  Rice had the best quality broadcast.  UTSA was pretty bad.  Ours is somewhere between.  I don't really mind listening to the homers usually.  If it gets too bad i will pull up the Teich broadcast on my phone and sync them.  Even though I have to delay one or the other to get them to sync, it's kind of cool

[Minermojo]

Man, I'm like Ky with his hand written graphs, behind the times. Hey old man, they invented rulers a long time ago. Ha, ha. Only joking old man I don't want to Ps you off. 

Hey Chans how do you get Cusa tv? I subscribed to espn just to watch some Miner games but they never show them or Cusa at that. As far as synching, that...I wouldn't know what to do. But for sure I want to subscribe to Cusa Tv. Question: can I just stop the subscription to Espin?

[Chanson]

So... I subscribed to CUSA TV for the 1st time about an hour before the Rice game. It was actually pretty good. You can cxl anytime. I'll probably cxl just after CUSA Tournament & re-subscribe come November. I saw the whole game from my phone. I'll probably watch on Smart TV next time.
Tomorrow's game is ESPN+. How funny that I never would have thought of subscribing to either with Floyd or Terry. Even though this is supposed to be a "Push Year" I love watching how Golding develops these kids along with his attention to defense.

[kyyote]

I added the Rice game to my charts and low and behold it became pretty clear.  UTEP shot 11 for 21 for 52% from three point range.  We also outscored Rice in the paint 30 to 28 and on my combo chart it went off the chart at 41.  The three point shooting percentage for the last four games each were above 40%(45) and the average for the last 5 games is 43%.  Also, the number of attempts has dropped to an average of 20 attempts per game.  Down from the 26.4 attempts a game for the previous five games.  And we are on an upswing in points in the paint.  Shooting 3 pointers at the rate we are connecting is hard to think will continue.  Getting more made threes on half the tries and pounding it inside seems to be coming along.  Also, TV has sweet moves for a big guy.  I hate them. lol But they are sweet and I think he is getting the chance to make them enough now to improve his percentage.

[SisyphusMiner]

I bet if TV could learn to pivot to the right, pump fake, then up and under to the left he'd score a crap ton.  He's pretty mobile.  Who was it that used to to do that a lot?  Wolfram?  Tofi?

[Chanson]

Cedar learned to do that his Sr year

[kyyote]

                        UTEP         Opponents

Scoring Margin   3.9              --
SHOOTING
FG: Made-Attempted   534-1276   510-1173
FG: Percentage   .418   .435

3PT: Made-Attempted   179-500   128-387
3PT: Percentage   .358   .331
3PT: Per Game   8.1   5.8

I went back to the first 13 games before the eight in the charts.  The average number of 3 pointers taken was 22.4 and averaged making 7.3 per game.  During that time the team shot 291 and made 95 for 32.6%.  In the eight games in the chart the 3 point percentage is up to 37.9.

Here is the 3 point shooting percentages for each player that is a factor;

Boum  41   113   .363
JB       52   133   .391
KK      15   51   .294
Sater   41   86   .477
Sib      9   20   .450
Holl     7   30   .233
Agn     5   24   .208
Bonk   2   13   .154

I bet that if TV would learn to turn around and take the fucking ball to the hoop like a demon he would make a butt load more baskets and free throws galore!  Sweet baby hooks and teardrop underhanded like a guard are dandy for short little guys who can't go to the basket like a big man can.    The baby hook looks pretty.  The jam with both hands daring a defender to get their arm broken, well ask The Bear what he told Latin before the Kentucky tip.  Plus he is a damned good free throw shooter to boot.

[SisyphusMiner]

Agree on TV, but just not sure he has that in him. Used to love Maxey for that reason.

Even if you have great 3 point shooters it's tough in college to win consistently if that's your only game.  Hell, even Loyola Marymount had Gathers and it didn't work without him.

[Chanson]

While I don't think scoring comes natural to Verho, he can still find ways to be in dbl digits every night. Look at Ced Lang. Kid had heart & grit. He learned to be an effective scorer. Maxey, Caracter, Hunter, etc all had the talent to score the day they touched the floor. Can Golding pick up someone like that? Time will tell.
Until then, Golding needs to work on Sibley, Verho, & Kalu. I don't think Maring has the coordination for D1 play.

[kyyote]

What blows me away is that I watched him do it and his teammates erupted in celebration like they had won the game. So I know he can do it and he damned sure seemed to like doing it. I just think he is like a lot of big men that wish they were guards. Haskins constantly had to reign in Foster. He would say that guards are a dime a dozen but you can?t teach seven feet.

[kyyote]

Our four forwards had 15 rebounds and 21 points

Their two forwards had 15 rebounds and scored 35 points. 

Guards 37 UTEP 31 UNT

Free throws UTEP 6/6(Fwds 2/2       UNT 17/27  (Fwds were 7/11)

Any questions?