Syracuse Basketball: The Mike Hopkins Era Will Be A Nerdy Stat Nerd Era, Nerd

Hey nerd, you're gonna love The Mike Hopkins Era when it eventually gets here. You already love the Oakland A's, you got Obama elected and now your future Syracuse Orange basketball coach is gonna be stating the crap out of things in the Carrier Dome.

Donna Ditota chatted with Ken Pomeroy about the Syracuse basketball team and how they stack up stat-wise. There's some interesting insight into how things are going, especially defensively.

I have them ranked fifth defensively, which is kind of unusual. You look at Syracuse historically and people don't talk about their defense a lot. Most of the time, their offense ranked higher than their defense. I should point out that there are still games to be played, but their defense is surprisingly good. If it holds up, it will probably be the best Syracuse defensive team that we've seen in the past decade.

Pomeroy also mentions SU is fifth in the nation in offensive rebounding, three-point shooting is a problem and their height will give them an advantage as the season rolls on. Go read the specifics, nerd.

Meanwhile, Donna then delves into the world of SU assistant coach and lady-in-waiting Mike Hopkins, who is fully ensconced in the world of advanced stats.

"When [Jack Cooley is] in the game, he rebounds like up to 21 to 22 percent of missed shots that Notre Dame has. It’s one of out every five shots that Notre Dame misses, he’s getting the offensive rebound. That’s an unbelievable stat," Hopkins said. "That’s going to show that he’s going to the glass every time. And he’s really the only one on that team. So I tell Rakeem (Christmas): You have to box him out."

It's a good read on how advanced stats have taken over and how Hopkins uses them to his advantage. Enjoy the read, nerd.