Given the incredulity that has met the suggestion that this team's pace of play is anything other than: (1) really slow; (2) a major obstacle to winning more; and (3) a significant detriment to recruiting, I wonder if there's a way that we can can dig into this bit and isolate the real issue.
First of all, as many of us know, there's a stat that measures pace, possessions per game (PPG).
The team playing the fastest pace is The Citadel, 83.6 PPG. The slowest is Denver (351/63.5). So, 20 PPG separates the fastest from the slowest.
Right now, we're at 224/70.4 (seven other teams also average 70.4). There are a lot of teams clustered in this area right around 70; the first team at 71 exactly is Idaho at 197, the last team at exactly 70 is Missouri at 249, so more than 50 teams between 71 and 70 PPG.
If you take a range of 5 PPG, let's say 73-68, you get everyone from SIU-Edwardsville at 113 to Texas State at 323. So 210 teams, way more than half the teams in the country, play within that 5 PPG range. It's a bell curve -- a few play really fast, a few play really slow and a whole bunch are in a fairly narrow range in the middle.
If we averaged one more PPG (71.4) the top team there is Samford at 180. Obviously 180 out of 351 is almost exactly the median team for pace. Let me say that again: we're one PPG from playing at the median pace.
If we played 2 PPG faster (72.4), we'd be at 141, where Indiana is now. If we were at 73.4, 3 PPG faster, we'd be at 103, where Montana State is now. 103 out of 351 is obviously in the top third of fastest teams.
So, I don't think the numbers support the notion that we play particularly slowly. This is consistent with my observation. The guards push the ball up on almost every possession. We almost never walk it up anymore, unless we are running out the clock. Kenny and JJ pull up and take 3s immediately with some frequency. Much more than in past years, the big men are trying to beat their man down the floor, and when they do we have done a pretty good job of hitting them for quick baskets (Yante and DO each did this against Mizzou, IIRC).
But after that game we were all frustrated. Why? I think it's the half court offense. Even though we do push the ball up pretty quickly and take a shot right away if it is there (whether a lay up, a 3 or getting it a big), the other team is obviously trying to prevent that, and when they do, things too often grind to a halt. We've had way, way, way too many shot clock violations and no-chance forced shots.
That's the problem, I think, not pace per se.
First of all, as many of us know, there's a stat that measures pace, possessions per game (PPG).
The team playing the fastest pace is The Citadel, 83.6 PPG. The slowest is Denver (351/63.5). So, 20 PPG separates the fastest from the slowest.
Right now, we're at 224/70.4 (seven other teams also average 70.4). There are a lot of teams clustered in this area right around 70; the first team at 71 exactly is Idaho at 197, the last team at exactly 70 is Missouri at 249, so more than 50 teams between 71 and 70 PPG.
If you take a range of 5 PPG, let's say 73-68, you get everyone from SIU-Edwardsville at 113 to Texas State at 323. So 210 teams, way more than half the teams in the country, play within that 5 PPG range. It's a bell curve -- a few play really fast, a few play really slow and a whole bunch are in a fairly narrow range in the middle.
If we averaged one more PPG (71.4) the top team there is Samford at 180. Obviously 180 out of 351 is almost exactly the median team for pace. Let me say that again: we're one PPG from playing at the median pace.
If we played 2 PPG faster (72.4), we'd be at 141, where Indiana is now. If we were at 73.4, 3 PPG faster, we'd be at 103, where Montana State is now. 103 out of 351 is obviously in the top third of fastest teams.
So, I don't think the numbers support the notion that we play particularly slowly. This is consistent with my observation. The guards push the ball up on almost every possession. We almost never walk it up anymore, unless we are running out the clock. Kenny and JJ pull up and take 3s immediately with some frequency. Much more than in past years, the big men are trying to beat their man down the floor, and when they do we have done a pretty good job of hitting them for quick baskets (Yante and DO each did this against Mizzou, IIRC).
But after that game we were all frustrated. Why? I think it's the half court offense. Even though we do push the ball up pretty quickly and take a shot right away if it is there (whether a lay up, a 3 or getting it a big), the other team is obviously trying to prevent that, and when they do, things too often grind to a halt. We've had way, way, way too many shot clock violations and no-chance forced shots.
That's the problem, I think, not pace per se.
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