Syracuse Basketball, Statistically-Speaking

by Sean Keeley on Jan 31, 2012 11:00 AM EST in Syracuse Basketball

We don't often look at how the Syracuse Orange match up statistically in the Big East so let's take the time.

As a team, the Orange remain atop the league in points per possession and are No. 2 in PPP defense behind Louisville. They're also tops in the league in turnover margin (+7.22).

Kris Joseph is the leading scorer at 13.7 PPG, which is good for 20th in the conference. Dion Waiters' 12.3 PPG is 32nd in the league and Brandon Triche's 10.2 is 43rd.

Fab Melo is the top rebounder with 5.7 per game, good for 22nd in the conference. As for active players, C.J. Fair is 31st with 5.1 RPG.

Scoop Jardine is 7th in the Big East in assists with 5.0 per game. Triche's 2.9 per game is good for 29th overall.

Waiters is fourth overall in steals with 2.26 while Scoop is 24th with 1.39 and Joseph is 25th with 1.35.

Melo is now second in the conference in blocks with 3.0 per game and 60 overall. Baye Moussa Keita checks in at 15th with 1.14 per game.

Brandon Triche would be third in the Big East in free throw percentage (86%) if he qualified but he's still averaging less than two per game (1.9). Kris Joseph is the best qualified shooter at 78%, 11th in the league. C.J. is 27th at 71% while Waiters is 32nd at 70%. Scoop Jardine is off the charts at 51%, though he swears he'll "make them when it counts."

Scoop is our top field goal percentage man at 50%, good for 11th in the league. Waiters is 21st at 49%, James Southerland is 23rd at 48% and Fair is 30th at 47%.

Of all people, Triche is our best three-point shooter so far, shooting 40%, which is 11th in the conference. Waiters is the only other SU shooter in the top 30 with a 35% percentage.

In closing, the Orange remain better as the sum of their parts. A look at efficiency margins shows they're not the powerhouse they were with Fab Melo, they're still far and away the most efficient team in the Big East.

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I think it's worth noting that given our 10-man rotation, per game stats can be misleading for this team.

An example: if you look at Points Per 40 instead of Points Per Game, SU has 4 players in the Top 25 of the BE (Waiters at 6th with 21.8, Southie tied for 18th with 18.5, Triche at 20th with 18.3 and KrisJo tied for 22nd with 18.1). I’m not sure if there is an easy way to get a similar stat for rebounds, blocks, steals, assists, etc, but I’d bet we fair pretty well if there is.

Also, for fun on statsheet I looked at +/- in the BE. We absolutely KILL it there. Fair, Joseph, Southie, Waiters, Triche, Melo and Scoop are all in the Top 15 in the BE with Fair, Joseph, Waiters, Triche and Southie all in the Top 10. Yea. (Furthermore, we rate almost identically in +/- average with Scoop at 17th instead of 14th). Don’t even get me started on +/- Win Percentage (we own the top 4 spots in the BE in that stat with several more Orange players lurking in the Top 20).

Clear eyes, full bologna sandwiches!

by NOLACuse on Jan 31, 2012 11:32 AM EST reply actions

I think per 40min stats are overvalued

I understand your point, most of the guys don’t get the number of minutes they might otherwise because there are so many productive players. But even with such a deep, productive rotation, PT is given out based on performance, not equality. If we’re using stats to judge how good a player is, if seems dumb to me to discount the fact that, if a player isn’t playing well, he’s going to get less minutes. That goes for game by game stats as well as stats over the course of a season.

"If I ain't gonna be part of the greatest, I gotta be the greatest myself." Busta Rhymes

by FeloniousPhunk on Jan 31, 2012 3:21 PM EST up reply actions

They may be overvalued, but PPG with a deep team like this seems overvalued at the same time.

I think the truth lies somewhere in between. I think Waiters, Joseph, Triche and Southerland are all top 30/35 BE scorers all things being equal. An average of PPG and PP40 would seem to support that.

Clear eyes, full bologna sandwiches!

by NOLACuse on Jan 31, 2012 5:40 PM EST up reply actions

Agreed you can't just blow out stats proportionally to 40 minutes

Perhaps with such a deep bench, it would be better to approach it as production by position. What is the center producing per 40, no matter what players were put there, etc. I don’t recall exactly where I saw it, but someone did something like that and Syracuse jumps to the upper echelon of nearly every category (rebounding aside). Harder to define who was playing 2 vs 3 forward or course or who was really on point vs shooting guard, but with such a deep team, it might prove insightful.

by CuseBruceMileHi on Jan 31, 2012 4:51 PM EST reply actions