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After watching the game and perusing the box score from Saturday some things jumped out at me. Most notably was that we had a number of assists from Clements, Hamblet, and Jakubowski. Watching the game I commented at how much better of a job we were doing than last year in getting the ball in to the post players. Last season it didn't matter if we had a guy open on the block, because we seemed to turn it over at an alarming rate just trying to make an entry pass.

So anyways, I took a look at the season stats for the year and some things really jumped out at me. I know it's early, and I'm not sure about the overall level of our competition, it's too early to really gauge how good any of these teams are. Still there are some things that I REALLY liked to see thus far in the season.

1. Assists. We're currently averaging 16.0 assists per game as a team. Last year we averaged 14.6. Not sure how significant an extra 1.4 per game is, or if that average will even hold up over the course of the year, but watching the game we're definitely moving it better than last year, and this stat shows that, at least a little bit.

2. A/TO More importantly as assists have gone up slightly turnovers have gone down from 14.2 to 11.8 per game. That is very significant, basically giving us an extra 2.5 possessions per game.

3. Shooting. Wow. I think we can all agree that our current team lacks any true consistent shooters from the perimeter right? Well, despite that fact the team is currently shooting an eye-popping 49% from the field! This is up from the 43.9% that we shot last year. Maybe they're just hot this early? Not sure, but the 3 point shooting is actually down from 35% to 31%. To me this looks like we're getting good inside looks and making them, getting much better production from the half court offense and getting some good looks off the break. If you're curious last year we averaged 19.7 three point attempts per game...this year we're down to 11. I MUCH prefer to see us getting shots inside versus trying to rely on that three ball. What's even more encouraging with the shooting numbers we're putting up is that Nate Miller (who shot 51% last year) has been EXTREMELY cold thus far shooting only 35%. I have to believe as the season goes on his numbers will start to look better which can only help the team's number as a whole.

4. Defense. Last year opponents shot 41% against us, this year we're holding the opposition to 36% shooting. Another nice trend towards the good. I really liked hearing on the radio how we switched to a zone to stifle Cincy, then we can go out and play mostly man Saturday. It's nice that seem to have that versatility to go whichever way the opposition dictates. To me that was a flexibility that we haven't had in past years, and should lead to better overall defense.



Overall, I really like what I saw from the team Saturday in these areas, and it appears that these things have been a trend so far. I know it's only 4 games, and statistics are really not yet relevant, but in some of these areas we're seeing a pretty drastic change. Sure we still need to work on keeping our big guys on the floor, they just foul too much. Sure, we still struggle with rebounding. But, I'm encouraged by a lot of these things we're seeing, and just thought I'd throw out some numbers for the people that haven't gotten to see this team play yet.

Let's hope this keeps up, because I know this team sure is fun to watch again.

Couldn't agree more there Hammb. It'll be interesting to see how we do vs Temple and the rest of our non-confernece sched. By the time Mac play rolls around I would hope that our offense and rebounding and staying out of foul trouble is nearing its peak. Yes, watching this team is more akin to watching the women play now, uptempo , faster paced exciting basketball.

Our turnover totals have been very low, as well. In one of the games, we had 1 turnover at the half and 6 for the game.

BleedOrange wrote:Our turnover totals have been very low, as well. In one of the games, we had 1 turnover at the half and 6 for the game.

that was the UC game

BGFalconfromCincy wrote:

BleedOrange wrote:Our turnover totals have been very low, as well. In one of the games, we had 1 turnover at the half and 6 for the game.

that was the UC game

Yeah , I was surprised at how well we played in that game vs a much bigger team. I'm actually surprised that OP didn't foul out in that game as UC had a couple of athletic guys at 6'10 and 6'11. I believe Larson played pretty well too in that game.

Back to OP, Orr is gonna have his hands full with him in the coaching him up dept. OP simply has to get better at getting in better position and actually playing position D instead of trying to swat away every ball. I'm sure he tries to cuz he thinks he can swat every ball but his large frame unfortunately gets in his way and almost aways makes contact with the driving player resulting in the obvious body fouls. This may explain why the best shot blockers are usually the thin, slender ones. If anyone can get OP to realize his full potential it will be Orr.

Temple will be the game to see where this team is at. I just hate that it's over Thanksgiving break and there wont be many students.

Well, Temple is a name program. However, the is down and is having a mediocre year so far. I'm not sure what the Temple game will mean more than the others.

Temple is much better than anyone BG has played so far and is the best team on the schedule in my opinion. Christmas and Tyndale are prob. the 2 best players we'll see all year.

Falcon137 wrote:Temple is much better than anyone BG has played so far and is the best team on the schedule in my opinion. Christmas and Tyndale are prob. the 2 best players we'll see all year.

Maybe. They had a losing season last year. They just lost at home to Charlston (1-3) and are 1-3. They lost by 17 at Tennessee(#7), which may be their most impressive game. They lost by 2 at Providence(2-1) and won by 4 at Marist (1-3). Providence is a solid Big East team and Charleston has a decent D1 squad. Marist probably sucks.

There may not be a lot of sample points here, but there's no evidence that Temple is that good at all. I'm expecting OU and Western Michigan to be the strongest teams on our schedule, then Temple.

Falconboy wrote:Yeah , I was surprised at how well we played in that game vs a much bigger team. I'm actually surprised that OP didn't foul out in that game as UC had a couple of athletic guys at 6'10 and 6'11. I believe Larson played pretty well too in that game.

They may have been bigger, but from both UC games I saw (Saturday vs WCU, Sunday vs us) I was not that impressed by the play of almost all their players. There one 7ft freshmen big was the only player who really impressed me, but he only played 10 minutes. The rest of the players only had one good night, weather it be Saturday or Sunday

Temple will be a good test. Saw two of three games in Puerto Rico and they are athletic. They score in waves and go in hideous scoring droughts, like losing a 25 point lead to Charleston. Should have flat beat Providence on a neutral court, but didn't finish. Temple is much better than that 1-3 record IMO.

hammb,

Thanks for a great recap. The season sounds very promising so far and I'm thinking of getting up there on 12/29 for the Eastern Ill game. I wanted to stay overnight in BG after the UT game to see the Temple game but I have tons of leaves yet to do and my ride needs 4 new tires and brake pads before winter. Sat AM, the car goes in.

I like the fact BG plays @ Kent and @ Akron within 8 days of each other in Jan.

Definitely will make it to at least 4 or 5 hoops games this year.

GO FALCONS

BleedOrange wrote:

Falcon137 wrote:Temple is much better than anyone BG has played so far and is the best team on the schedule in my opinion. Christmas and Tyndale are prob. the 2 best players we'll see all year.

Maybe. They had a losing season last year. They just lost at home to Charlston (1-3) and are 1-3. They lost by 17 at Tennessee(#7), which may be their most impressive game. They lost by 2 at Providence(2-1) and won by 4 at Marist (1-3). Providence is a solid Big East team and Charleston has a decent D1 squad. Marist probably sucks.

There may not be a lot of sample points here, but there's no evidence that Temple is that good at all. I'm expecting OU and Western Michigan to be the strongest teams on our schedule, then Temple.

They'll more than likely have a losing season again this year. They play a brutal non-conference schedule and the A10 is good this year. Christmas and Tyndale finished 1 and 2 in scoring in the A10 last season. If you would have seen the Providence game you would have seen Temple dominate for 30 minutes and then lose a 10 point lead late. The same Providence team that handled #18 Arkansas easy. If BG can beat Temple they should be able to beat any one in the MAC.

**They played Charleston, Marist, and Providence in Puerto Rico, not at home or on the road.**