Saturday, December 25, 2010

The Christmas-y Non-Conference Review

Twelve under normal.  The Hoyas shot about 12% less in eFG% in the loss to Temple than they normally do. Temple's size inside had the Hoyas' shooting 14% below average from 2 and the extended zone kept the three-point shooters from going off. It was a tough non-conference schedule, but it was also a somewhat short (in height) non-conference schedule. The Big East may test the Hoyas' ability to score against size.

Eleven center rebounds.  Georgetown centers are combining for 11 rpg, with both of them sporting solid defensive rebounding numbers but really bolstered by Julian Vaughn's strong offensive rebounding (5th in the country in Off. Reb %).

Ten players playing.  For the first time in III's era, the Hoyas have got themselves a legitimate ten player rotation. This seems almost crazy when coming from a coach whose first team played six and a half and went to a Final Four playing mostly seven.

Nine good men passing.  Nine players have an assist rate of 11% or higher on the team, meaning that nearly everyone who plays can and will share the ball. Note to our PF/SF duo of Hollis Thompson and Jerelle Benimon -- catch up!

Eight treys a dropping.  Georgetown is averaging 8.4 threes made a game, meaning that at this pace the team would break the season record of 269 in their 33rd game.

Seven Big East rankings.  Seven Big East teams rank in Pomeroy's Top 27, with two more in that at-large conversation (Notre Dame at 32 and Marquette at 40). It's worth remembering that despite ranking GU 8th, Pomeroy projects a 12-6 BE record - for the the 8th best team in the country.

Six -ty eight plus pace. Can we recognize how much John Thompson has evolved his offense? More than most coaches in six years, and that's with a team supposedly locked into its system. Georgetown gets over 68 possessions per game this year; in Georgetown's slowest year under JTIII, the Hoyas didn't hit 59. That's doesn't seem like a big change but it is.

Five Gaaaaaaames at Hoooooome.  Is there another major conference team that has played only five home games in its preseason schedule?

Four awesome shooters. The Hoyas have four perimeter players with eFG% over 63% (Austin Freeman, Vee Sanford, Hollis, Jason Clark). The lowest 3pt % in the bunch - Clark's - is still at 45%. When Chris Wright, shooting 40% from 3 and 78% from the line, is your "bad" shooter, your team can shoot.

Third place at twos.  We knew the Hoyas could shoot, but without a proven low-post threat, could they score inside the arc? How about the 3rd best percentage in the country? Some decent low post play plus a whole lot of sweet-looking assisted layups have led to this.  This is why they're #1 in eFG%.

Two better Os.  Only Duke and Pittsburgh have more efficient offenses so far this year, according to Ken Pomeroy.

And One stat to watch as they play.  Defensive efficiency. Relatively speaking, the Hoyas are an all O, no D team right now with a defensive efficiency ranked 57th. But the Final Four team wasn't particularly special on D going into the conference slate; a conference slate they started 1-2.



Merry Christmas!

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