Assists

[Phantom Warrior]

The stats below relate to assists per game for conference games only in the 2012-2013 season.

1. COUNCIL, Vincent-PC 7.2
2. GRANT, Jerian-ND 5.9
3. SIVA, Peyton-LOU 5.9
4. CARTER-WILLIAMS, M.-SYR 5.7
5. COLLINS, Anthony-USF 5.5
6. NAPIER, Shabazz-UCONN 5.3
7. ATKINS, Eric-ND 5.0
8. WOODALL, Tray-PITT 4.8
9. YOUNG, Brandon-DP 4.7
10. BOATRIGHT, Ryan-UCONN 4.2
11. CADOUGAN, Junior-MU 4.0

Now compare those assist stats to these for the 2013-2014 season:

1. COTTON, Bryce-PC 6.1
2. DAVIS, Dee-XU 5.2
3. GIBBS, Sterling-SHU 4.4
4. WILSON, Derrick-MU 4.3
5. CHATMAN, Austin-CU 4.3
6. CHRISTON, Semaj-XU 4.2
7. STARKS, Markel-GU 3.8
8. ARCIDIACONO, Ryan-VU 3.7
9. BARLOW, Alex-BUTLER 3.7
10. MANIGAT, Jahenns-CU 3.4
11. JORDAN, Rysheed-SJU 3.4

Seems to me the assist stats for 2012-2013 are substantially higher than for this past season. Granted, the league dropped from 16 teams to 10, so fewer players, but that would only tell part of the story.

There were a lot of good point guards in 2012-2013. Were their counterparts last year simply not nearly as good?

Or did the rule changes have an impact, one not anticipated, leading to fewer assists?

Or did the style of play change somewhat from the previous season?

Or does this simply represent one of those blips, one of those anomalies, that we seem from time to time?

I wonder if the same kind of difference in assist stats occurred in the Big 10-14, the SEC, the ACC, the Pac 12, etc.

[mutpm]

Not sure what to make of it, but out of the top 11 in 12-13, 8 played on teams were not in the conference in 13-14. Maybe the style of play of those teams led to more assists.

I do think there were less points scored from the field last season, leading to less opportunities for assists.

[pbiflyer]

Napier was way down on assists. Does that mean he had a bad year?

[Phantom Warrior]

Actually, scoring was up considerably last year.

For 2012-2013, for conference games, here are the stats:

1. Louisville 18 14-4 1263 70.2
2. DePaul 18 2-16 1256 69.8
3. Connecticut 18 10-8 1248 69.3
4. Marquette 18 14-4 1229 68.3
5. Providence 18 9-9 1204 66.9
6. Notre Dame 18 11-7 1200 66.7
7. Villanova 18 10-8 1198 66.6
8. Pittsburgh 18 12-6 1187 65.9
9. Syracuse 18 11-7 1175 65.3
10. Georgetown 18 14-4 1152 64.0
11. St. John's 18 8-10 1131 62.8
12. Cincinnati 18 9-9 1083 60.2
13. Seton Hall 18 3-15 1078 59.9
14. Rutgers 18 5-13 1073 59.6
15. USF 18 3-15 982 54.6

For this past season, here are the stats:

1. Creighton 18 14-4 1402 77.9
2. Villanova 18 16-2 1390 77.2
3. Providence 18 10-8 1327 73.7
4. Marquette 18 9-9 1297 72.1
5. Xavier 18 10-8 1280 71.1
6. St. John's 18 10-8 1278 71.0
7. Seton Hall 18 6-12 1227 68.2
8. Georgetown 18 8-10 1212 67.3
9. DePaul 18 3-15 1206 67.0
10. Butler 18 4-14 1172 65.1


If my calculations (in my head, not with a calculator, so could be mistaken) are correct, then last season the 10 teams averaged 71.1 ppg, while the year before the 15 teams averaged only 64.7 ppg. There should have been more opportunities for assists (unless teams made 6 or 7 more free throws per game).

[mutpm]

It appears that assists were distributed among more players last year. In conference games only, there was an average of 13.2 assists per game. This past season, that number went up to 13.6.

While scoring was up, teams only averaged 1.7 more made field goals per game than last year. Free throw makes were up 2.1 per game.

[BLT]

Per Pomeroy, both assist rate and free throw rate were up in Big East play, confirming the theories here (spread out assists, more free throws).