Some Comparative Stats

[Nukem2]

I mentioned the assist aspect after the Providence game. Now MU won that game in 2 OTs, but Providence had 26 assists on 28 made baskets. That is an incredible number. Marquette on the other hand had 13 assists on 33 made baskets. That is not a good number. To me that shows a lack of ball movement with too many guys trying to beat their man 1-on-1.

A lot of that has to do with the makeup of this team. Henry, Haney, Duane, JJ, Traci and even Luke all do their best work off the bounce. No real catch and shoot guys other than Sandy...? Duane to an extent.

[IrwinFletcher]

Just by looking at the raw stats Silver gave, it does make you scratch your head a bit. But look deeper, and maybe the numbers aren't quite telling the whole story. For instance

12/30 SHU 6 minutes. 4 fouls 2 TOs
1/2 Gtwon 26 minutes 4 fouls
1/5 Prov 26 minutes 5 TOs
1/9 SJU 28 minutes 5 TOs
1/13 Vill 26 minutes 5 fouls
1/16 X 21 minutes 5 fouls
1/20 Dep 13 minutes 2 fouls

So in the first 7 games of the BE he averaged 21 mpg despite fouling out in two of those, committing 5 TO's in two of them, 1 of them committing 4 fouls in 6 minutes and another one 2 fouls in 13 minutes and I assume he was benched due to poor play.

During this stretch of games, Traci only scored above 4 points two times. Unlike Haaney who does have a propensity to turn the ball over, he is scoring at a higher rate and is one of our best 3-point shooters which has helped open up the middle for our two bigs.

Traci has turned the corner and his play has improved and so have his minutes, but I think before we go off the deep end on the coaching staff, a closer look at the numbers is required.