StepCross
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I consulted my +/- oracle, and some of the numbers surprised me. Here's some stuff.
(All +/- numbers in the following are scaled, first by combining on-court and off-court +/- in the obvious way, and second by scaling by possessions played. Also I threw out the data from guys who only played 5 minutes or less, as their numbers can kind of blow up and not make any sense.)
1. Backup 3 is killing us, to the point that McRae needs to be playing no matter how ready he is. At the beginning of the year, Woolridge pretty much owned the worst +/- award for all the games he played much in. At that time, Pearl's +/- was decent. Now that Pearl's moved to the backup 3, his +/- has plummeted, and he has owned team-worst numbers for the 3 losses. Looking at the data, "tobias to backup Cam" shouldn't come as a surprise.
2. Brian Williams might be our MVP. In the non-blowout games, he was team-high 4 times (Mizzou St., Nova, Pitt, Oakland) and came in third two time (VCU, USC).
3. Tatum would be our other MVP. When Brian wasn't our best +/-, Tatum usually was (Belmont, VCU, Charlotte). Like Williams, when Tatum wasn't first, he was usually near the top: third Mizzou St., third Nova.
4. Steven Pearl was a solid contributor until he got moved to the 3. Against Mizzou State and VCU, when Tatum and Williams were trading the 1st and 3rd place spots, Pearl was 2nd in both.
5. Hopson and Harris don't really stand out in either direction. They tied for tops vs. USC. Hopson was 2nd vs. Nova. Paradoxically, Hopson was team-worst at Pitt, and he played the game of his career there (so bear in mind that +/- is not infallible).
6. Harris is easy to explain: he's middle of the pack because he has struggled with defense some, yet been a huge weapon on offense and in transition.
7. Hopson is odder...he's clearly one of our best players, and he only has one backup (mcbee) who is one of our worst players. Part of it is that Hopson plays a lot of minutes, and so when Goins and Tatum and Williams go out, Hopson gets to play with the B-team for a while. But that doesn't explain all of it.
8. Believe it or not, McBee was playing well until the 3-loss skid. He wasn't up there with Tatum/Williams, but his +/- was respectable. Like Pearl, he's fallen off a cliff the past 2 weeks.
To summarize:
-we need to get off BW's back, he's playing good basketball.
-we need more from Hops and Harris
-the staff can perhaps be forgiven for being medium-stubborn about playing McBee and Pearl, they were solid until after Pitt. Three games is enough, though, and I expect a change tonight
-time for McRae to get his chance IMO; no one else is getting it done when Cam is out.
(All +/- numbers in the following are scaled, first by combining on-court and off-court +/- in the obvious way, and second by scaling by possessions played. Also I threw out the data from guys who only played 5 minutes or less, as their numbers can kind of blow up and not make any sense.)
1. Backup 3 is killing us, to the point that McRae needs to be playing no matter how ready he is. At the beginning of the year, Woolridge pretty much owned the worst +/- award for all the games he played much in. At that time, Pearl's +/- was decent. Now that Pearl's moved to the backup 3, his +/- has plummeted, and he has owned team-worst numbers for the 3 losses. Looking at the data, "tobias to backup Cam" shouldn't come as a surprise.
2. Brian Williams might be our MVP. In the non-blowout games, he was team-high 4 times (Mizzou St., Nova, Pitt, Oakland) and came in third two time (VCU, USC).
3. Tatum would be our other MVP. When Brian wasn't our best +/-, Tatum usually was (Belmont, VCU, Charlotte). Like Williams, when Tatum wasn't first, he was usually near the top: third Mizzou St., third Nova.
4. Steven Pearl was a solid contributor until he got moved to the 3. Against Mizzou State and VCU, when Tatum and Williams were trading the 1st and 3rd place spots, Pearl was 2nd in both.
5. Hopson and Harris don't really stand out in either direction. They tied for tops vs. USC. Hopson was 2nd vs. Nova. Paradoxically, Hopson was team-worst at Pitt, and he played the game of his career there (so bear in mind that +/- is not infallible).
6. Harris is easy to explain: he's middle of the pack because he has struggled with defense some, yet been a huge weapon on offense and in transition.
7. Hopson is odder...he's clearly one of our best players, and he only has one backup (mcbee) who is one of our worst players. Part of it is that Hopson plays a lot of minutes, and so when Goins and Tatum and Williams go out, Hopson gets to play with the B-team for a while. But that doesn't explain all of it.
8. Believe it or not, McBee was playing well until the 3-loss skid. He wasn't up there with Tatum/Williams, but his +/- was respectable. Like Pearl, he's fallen off a cliff the past 2 weeks.
To summarize:
-we need to get off BW's back, he's playing good basketball.
-we need more from Hops and Harris
-the staff can perhaps be forgiven for being medium-stubborn about playing McBee and Pearl, they were solid until after Pitt. Three games is enough, though, and I expect a change tonight
-time for McRae to get his chance IMO; no one else is getting it done when Cam is out.
