Winasota Gopher
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- Feb 9, 2012
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Anyone have a dunk rate stat for college basketball? I've searched the internet a little bit but to no avail.
The reason I bring it up is that I firmly believe we might have been the less athletic team almost every time we took the court this year. The only guys that are purely gifted athletes with rim rocking ability or ankle breaking quicks are Austin Hollins and Deandre Mathieu, and each of those only have one of those two qualities I listed. We failed so many finishes at the basket because we simply could not finish above the rim, and that makes the game so much more difficult.
Think about last year, how many times did we bail ourselves out of a tough offensive possession with a offensive rebound because we had 3 guys on the court that could out jump their defender? How many times did we finish fast breaks in traffic with rim rocking dunks like this link Nadine posted on twitter??
Mbakwe Dunk
Now remember this year, how often did Mo lose grip of the ball while going up for a dunk and made one of two free throws? How often did he miss the layup all together, same goes for EE? How many fast breaks did we finish with contested layups rather than an alley oop or a strong attempt at finishing through or over a guy and drawing a hard foul?
Defensively how often did we have other teams break our press with an alley oop? How often did we give up offensive rebounds to the opposition because they dunked a put back or got a tip by out jumping our blockouts?
I'm not faulting anyone, but I think it's to point out that this team won 25 games with a severe athleticism gap with our competition. I wouldn't mind saying it was probably worth 4-6 points a game as well. There was at least two instances in every game where we failed to put the ball in the hoop or stop the opposition simply because we didn't have the athleticism to get up or over someone.
I'm convinced we might have had the least amount of dunks from our starting 5 that any team in the B1G and perhaps any team in the NIT and NCAA. Obviously thats not a scientific measure at all, but it does paint the story I'm telling.
I'm thinking when Rich gets some more athletes on the squad we will see his brand develop much more, but that's at least another year away as I don't see those traits totally in the guys we've got coming in this year at the level I'm hoping we get to.
The reason I bring it up is that I firmly believe we might have been the less athletic team almost every time we took the court this year. The only guys that are purely gifted athletes with rim rocking ability or ankle breaking quicks are Austin Hollins and Deandre Mathieu, and each of those only have one of those two qualities I listed. We failed so many finishes at the basket because we simply could not finish above the rim, and that makes the game so much more difficult.
Think about last year, how many times did we bail ourselves out of a tough offensive possession with a offensive rebound because we had 3 guys on the court that could out jump their defender? How many times did we finish fast breaks in traffic with rim rocking dunks like this link Nadine posted on twitter??
Mbakwe Dunk
Now remember this year, how often did Mo lose grip of the ball while going up for a dunk and made one of two free throws? How often did he miss the layup all together, same goes for EE? How many fast breaks did we finish with contested layups rather than an alley oop or a strong attempt at finishing through or over a guy and drawing a hard foul?
Defensively how often did we have other teams break our press with an alley oop? How often did we give up offensive rebounds to the opposition because they dunked a put back or got a tip by out jumping our blockouts?
I'm not faulting anyone, but I think it's to point out that this team won 25 games with a severe athleticism gap with our competition. I wouldn't mind saying it was probably worth 4-6 points a game as well. There was at least two instances in every game where we failed to put the ball in the hoop or stop the opposition simply because we didn't have the athleticism to get up or over someone.
I'm convinced we might have had the least amount of dunks from our starting 5 that any team in the B1G and perhaps any team in the NIT and NCAA. Obviously thats not a scientific measure at all, but it does paint the story I'm telling.
I'm thinking when Rich gets some more athletes on the squad we will see his brand develop much more, but that's at least another year away as I don't see those traits totally in the guys we've got coming in this year at the level I'm hoping we get to.