Shot selection and lineup efficiencies - regular season wrap

By now, I'm supposed to have written a very long and well-researched article about the effects of a team losing it's best player (e.g. Harangody at Notre Dame). I haven't yet, due to a hectic schedule. Hopefully over the weekend.

Instead, you'll get a dump article, which is a lot easier for me to crank out. Yes, it's time again for: Georgetown shot selection and lineup efficiencies.

As last time, these stats are for all games from the Washington win forward. This is because of the natural break in the schedule between easy opponents (excluding the Temple game) and better competition. I'm not able to include the Butler game since no play-by-play was available.


First up, shot selection:

Player               Dunks   Layups   2pt J's   3FGA      FTA 
Freeman, Austin      6 /7     70/93    20/63    45/93    61/75
.                             0.753    0.317    0.484    0.813   

Wright, Chris        0 /0     71/115   19/47    23/80    63/86
.                             0.617    0.404    0.287    0.733   

Monroe, Greg         15/15    79/132   24/69    5 /17    93/140
.                             0.598    0.348    0.294    0.664   

Clark, Jason         2 /2     19/38    6 /17    42/99    29/40
.                             0.500    0.353    0.424    0.725   

Vaughn, Julian       21/21    39/64    12/33    0 /4     30/47
.                             0.609    0.364    0.000    0.638   

Thompson, Hollis     1 /1     6 /17    8 /23    12/36    17/25
.                             0.353    0.348    0.333    0.680   

Benimon, Jerrelle    0 /0     4 /11    2 /4     1 /5     13/18
.                             0.364    0.500    0.200    0.722   

Sanford, Vee         0 /0     1 /2     1 /2     2 /7     6 /9
.                             0.500    0.500    0.286    0.667   

Sims, Henry          1 /2     1 /4     1 /4     0 /1     5 /10
.                             0.250    0.250    0.000    0.500

Pithy comments on the starters:

• At this point, the only player with anything resembling a mid-range game is Chris Wright (40% on 2-pt jumpers). Austin Freeman, who most fans cite as the player with the best mid-range shot, actually has the worst shooting percentage of the regulars.

• Wright and Greg Monroe are about equally likely to make a 3FG, but Wright shoots nearly as many as Freeman and Jason Clark. At this point, his game reminds me a lot of senior Dominic James, although Chris is bigger and stronger. He's also got one more summer and season to either improve his shooting mechanics or become more selective.

• Freeman gets it done from behind the arc or driving to the rim. I think people are starting to understand what a devastating offensive force he really is - he's the player I always thought Darrel Owens would become.

• I'll bet Greg Monroe's shooting percentages will go up across the board his junior season. I'd like to be proven correct.

• I often criticize Jason Clark for not driving to the basket more often, but his shooting percentage on layups shows that this isn't necessarily a good option. Perhaps he needs to add some more strength.

• Julian Vaughn, in contrast to Monroe, goes for the dunk when possible. Throw it down, big fella.

Lineup stats (minimum of ten possession played on offense and defense):

.                                                Offense                    Defense
Lineup                                     # Poss  Eff. Secs/poss    # Poss  Eff. Secs/poss
Clark--Freeman--Monroe--Vaughn--Wright        474   114    17.6         474   105    18.0
Clark--Freeman--Monroe--Thompson--Wright      157   108    16.6         141   101    17.8
Benimon--Clark--Freeman--Monroe--Wright       127   108    19.0         118   103    16.6
Benimon--Freeman--Monroe--Thompson--Wright     82    88    17.9          76   108    14.0
Clark--Monroe--Thompson--Vaughn--Wright        72    97    17.7          71    96    21.5
Freeman--Monroe--Thompson--Vaughn--Wright      68   128    18.5          70    96    19.0
Clark--Freeman--Monroe--Thompson--Vaughn       46   111    18.2          41    98    15.0
Benimon--Clark--Monroe--Thompson--Wright       39   123    18.8          36   131    23.6
Benimon--Clark--Freeman--Monroe--Thompson      33    94    18.5          37    95    15.8
Clark--Freeman--Thompson--Vaughn--Wright       31   107    15.4          35    91    17.6
Clark--Freeman--Monroe--Sims--Wright           29   110    20.2          31   123    18.5
Freeman--Monroe--Sims--Thompson--Wright        22   127    17.8          21    86    22.4
Benimon--Clark--Freeman--Vaughn--Wright        21   129    16.5          27   115    20.4
Benimon--Freeman--Thompson--Vaughn--Wright     17    77    17.3          20   100    22.5
Clark--Monroe--Sims--Thompson--Wright          16    69    15.8          15    80    16.1
Benimon--Clark--Freeman--Thompson--Vaughn      15   100    19.1          17    65    18.6
Benimon--Clark--Monroe--Sanford--Wright        14   121    11.1          13    69    18.5
Clark--Monroe--Sanford--Thompson--Wright       13   115    12.0          10   120    16.0
Clark--Freeman--Sims--Vaughn--Wright           10    90    21.8          10    80    12.6

It's important to keep in mind that I'm not accounting for the quality of the opposition in the lineup efficiencies, so those will a small number of possessions can be greatly skewed depending upon who else was on the court.

Below are Alan's comments on the lineups:

• It's not surprising, but the two lineups with more than 60 total possessions (30 each way) that register a negative net efficiency feature two bench players at once (Benimon and Thompson). There's a whole lot of obvious reason for this, but the Hoyas are losing the game when two of their starters are out.

• The "big" lineup -- with 6'8" Hollis Thompson replacing 6'2" Jason Clark, has been our most effective lineup that's played anything close to a significant number of possessions. Thompson seems to like to coach small; perhaps he should press to see some size more often.

• Vaughn's lack of playing time is somewhat of a shame, simply because the team is much better when he's in and playing well. Now it might be simply match-ups or performance, and then his lower minutes might be a good decision. But if it is some other reason, it is disappointing, because the team seems to be substantially better when he's in.