Kenpom Wannabe Stats v. Marquette

A few times in the past (maybe the 2009-2010 season) I wrote up a stats posts after games. I am not a coach, and I do not know how to beat Pittsburgh. These stats never tell the whole story, but it is at least something that is fun to examine. My overly simplified efficiency formula is Points + Rebounds + Blocks + Steals - Turnovers / Minutes = Efficiency Rating. The higher, the better. I am open to suggestions on changing this formula. It does not include fouls, shot attempts, or free throw attempts. Those are harder to figure into the grand scheme; I'll leave that to Kenpom.

The stats and ratings are listed below, here are my takeaways:

- Good game Chane Behanan. He transformed into a scoring machine for a few minutes. I hope there's more where that came from.

- Rakeem Buckles had a very solid minute of play before his injury.

- Kevin Ware was a great boost from the bench.

- Peyton Siva's assists to turnover is good; however, he still desperately needs to get his shot back. Outside of these stats, I actually think it looked better today on a few shots-- near misses.

- Angel Nunez also had some near misses, which killed him from a stats standpoint. The way the rating comes out for him does not make sense because it is in the negative. You can see Pitino's concern with him though, he basically came in and did nothing but hurt the team with a turnover in his few minutes. He has got to grab a rebound, steal a ball, or block a shot. On the other hand, his rating dramatically increases if he makes one of his three shot attempts.

- No wonder this team did not press. Look how many minutes everyone played. I really want to see the results of getting more of these guys off the bench and implementing the full court press throughout the entire game. Really, what do we have to lose? The offense is rarely successful after setting, Pitino ball requires the press, steal, fast break, etc. Get back to your roots, Coach P. At least give it a shot when nothing else is working well.

- This was not Louisville's best game. But hey, it could be a lot worse. This team still has tremendous potential. Take three players that average a total of 55.5 minutes a game (Kyle Kuric, Mike Marra, and Stephan Van Treese) and a star freshman recruit (Wayne Blackshear) away from any team in the nation, have another player who averages 14.8 minutes a game (Rakeem Buckles) go down after one minute of play, and then tell me how many teams in the nation can go into Marquette and come out with a win? A loss of only 11 points? Probably none. This season is a series of unfortunate events. Lemony Snicket is cruel, but it is not over until the fat lady sings. Don't stop believin'.

GO CARDS! BEAT PITT!

Stats Source: ESPN