Wall Street Journal: Why Is the Big Ten Sooooooo Slow?

[BleedGopher]

Hat tip to "anonymous" for this story. Interesting read:

"Of the 32 conferences that play Division I basketball, the Big Ten has either been the slowest or second-slowest in seven of the last eight years (in conference games) according to kenpom.com, a statistics website. For the entire regular season, the Big Ten is even slower than the Ivy League, which plays as if peach baskets were still in use."

http://professional.wsj.com/article...html?mod=wsj_share_tweet&mg=reno-secaucus-wsj

Go Gophers!!

 

[josh087]

Hat tip to "anonymous" for this story. Interesting read:

"Of the 32 conferences that play Division I basketball, the Big Ten has either been the slowest or second-slowest in seven of the last eight years (in conference games) according to kenpom.com, a statistics website. For the entire regular season, the Big Ten is even slower than the Ivy League, which plays as if peach baskets were still in use."

http://professional.wsj.com/article...html?mod=wsj_share_tweet&mg=reno-secaucus-wsj

Go Gophers!!

Ummmm...because the Big Ten actually plays defense?

 

[Whathavewedone]

Ummmm...because the Big Ten actually plays defense?

Uh NOT really. Mostly it's because outside of Ohio State, the conferences
offenses have been inept. Playing slow is a necessity, especially against
teams from other conferences that can actually put the ball in the hoop.

 

[bga1]

Ummmm...because the Big Ten actually plays defense?

The style of the coaches:

Bo Ryan, Tubby Smith, Carmoudy are all plodders emphasizing ball control
Izzo and Painter both rely a lot on physcial play - which slows things down
Most of these guys force you to play their style. It's easier to slow a game down than speed it up.

 

[Monty519]

Defense in the B1G is about as physical (specifically away from the ball) as any, in addition to also having pretty darn good coaching staffs up and down IMO, who also have defense as their focus. Plus, it's a culture. I think fans of the B1G can appreciate a physical, defensive battle more than others. I think the Big East is kinda similar, they have a lot of teams that can play that rugged style as well.

 

[savagerube]

Uh NOT really. Mostly it's because outside of Ohio State, the conferences
offenses have been inept. Playing slow is a necessity, especially against
teams from other conferences that can actually put the ball in the hoop.

I disagree. I think the level of defensive play in the B1G is superior to the other conferences. UNC is the 2nd leading scoring team in the nation (82.1 PPG) and Wisconsin held them to their lowest point total on their home floor this year. UNC scored under 70 points four times this year; two of those games were against B1G teams. Kentucky is 29-1 this year. Their only loss is against a B1G team. Ohio State held Duke to 63 points; second lowest for Duke all season.

 

[scher215]

This, IMO is why. The big 10 is all about GOOD coaches.

I was watching the second half of the Oregon game last night against Colorado and saw Devoe. Devoe shot a great percentage and scored a lot of points. However, all of his shots were fade aways, contested threes, etc. early in the shot clock. His teammates did the same thing. Pulling up for contested NBA 3's, forcing drives by going 1 on 4, and throwing up prayers. That is poorly coached basketball.

Now, for anyone who has coached basketball, If you had a guy pull up for a crazy fade away 10 seconds into the shot clock, how happy would you be? Not very. Any coach who does let that happen either sucks at drawing up an offense to get guys good looks or doesn't care/think about coaching.

The Big 10 plays defense and emphasizes defense. The big 10 focuses on getting good shots rather than forcing up terrible ones. The coaches in the Big10 are actual basketball coaches.

 

[Whathavewedone]

This, IMO is why. The big 10 is all about GOOD coaches.

I was watching the second half of the Oregon game last night against Colorado and saw Devoe. Devoe shot a great percentage and scored a lot of points. However, all of his shots were fade aways, contested threes, etc. early in the shot clock. His teammates did the same thing. Pulling up for contested NBA 3's, forcing drives by going 1 on 4, and throwing up prayers. That is poorly coached basketball.

Now, for anyone who has coached basketball, If you had a guy pull up for a crazy fade away 10 seconds into the shot clock, how happy would you be? Not very. Any coach who does let that happen either sucks at drawing up an offense to get guys good looks or doesn't care/think about coaching.

The Big 10 plays defense and emphasizes defense. The big 10 focuses on getting good shots rather than forcing up terrible ones. The coaches in the Big10 are actual basketball coaches.

You're equating turning games into grab and clutch slow downs, with playing
good defense. And in a sense it IS good defense if that's what you need to
do to try to win. But the conf. play has slowed because of what I said,
we don't have good offenses and need to be more deliberate, so the
offense is just as responsible as the defense. It's not really "great"
defense, it's the defense of necessity. And it's not just here in the Big 10,
it's all over the country, we're just seem to be more dedicated to it,
perhaps because of that very lack of offensively adept teams.

 

[dpodoll68]

You're equating turning games into grab and clutch slow downs, with playing
good defense. And in a sense it IS good defense if that's what you need to
do to try to win. But the conf. play has slowed because of what I said,
we don't have good offenses and need to be more deliberate, so the
offense is just as responsible as the defense. It's not really "great"
defense, it's the defense of necessity. And it's not just here in the Big 10,
it's all over the country, we're just seem to be more dedicated to it,
perhaps because of that very lack of offensively adept teams.

 

[josh087]

The style of the coaches:

Bo Ryan, Tubby Smith, Carmoudy are all plodders emphasizing ball control
Izzo and Painter both rely a lot on physcial play - which slows things down
Most of these guys force you to play their style. It's easier to slow a game down than speed it up.

Really, only two teams in the conference play a deliberate slow down style all of the time.

The overall style of most of the coaches in the conference is based on winning with defense first. That's how guys like Painter, Izzo, Tubby, Ryan, Weber, Belein have always coached. The minimal possessions are because the teams play such good defense, each possession is more critical, not to mention it is more difficult to take quality shots and score since the teams play harder on defense.

Really, only McCaffery and Crean like a more up-tempo style of game.

I'd say the tempo is much more dictated by the coaching styles of many of the coaches in the league rather than the fact that two of the teams in the league play a slow-down tempo.

 

[josh087]

Uh NOT really. Mostly it's because outside of Ohio State, the conferences
offenses have been inept. Playing slow is a necessity, especially against
teams from other conferences that can actually put the ball in the hoop.

This is such a stupid statement I don't even know where to begin.

 

[GophersInIowa]

especially against
teams from other conferences that can actually put the ball in the hoop.

If you look at shooting percentage, this part isn't true. Just comparing the Big Ten to the Big East and ACC, the Big Ten shoots a better percentage overall and 3-pointers than the other two conferences. However, both conferences average more shot attempts per game than the Big Ten.

So the Big Ten is more efficient on offense, but also plays a slower tempo which is probably partly due to the defense.

 

[josh087]

If you look at shooting percentage, this part isn't true. Just comparing the Big Ten to the Big East and ACC, the Big Ten shoots a better percentage overall and 3-pointers than the other two conferences. However, both conferences average more shot attempts per game than the Big Ten.

So the Big Ten is more efficient on offense, but also plays a slower tempo which is probably partly due to the defense.

Correct. Weird that logic and facts destroy the opinion that the BIG is bad on offense. For example, the conference makes up about 3% of D-I teams, but 20% of the top 30 most effective offenses in the nation according to kenpom.com.