UConn ranked #69 in first NET Rankings

[CL82]

Call me old school but I can’t get excited that we are behind Yale and Rutgers! Wow how have expectations fallen!!

So get excited that we are ahead of Syracuse. It's all a matter of perspective!

 

[Fairfield_1st]

A complete history of the '69-nice' meme on Twitter

How did '69-nice' become a thing?

www.dailydot.com

A fun and informative read. I'm rarely on Twitter, so it was my 16 yo son who told me this was a popular meme. I had no idea how long this has been going on.

 

[Get a Job]

All very interesting but at the end of the day the only statistic that matters in the least is W-L. Call me old school but I don’t give a crap about pseudo scientific metrics. Winn all your games and you are the champ.

This point of view only makes sense if your in a position that you will safely get an at large bid, and even then it ignores seeding. If you are on the bubble (like we will be, at best), it's a downright stupid position.

 

[ClifSpliffy]

A fun and informative read. I'm rarely on Twitter, so it was my 16 yo son who told me this was a popular meme. I had no idea how long this has been going on.

because the cheerleaders were yelling about player number 69 (at 28 seconds). sure they were. subtle.

 

[kemba]

This point of view only makes sense if your in a position that you will safely get an at large bid, and even then it ignores seeding. If you are on the bubble (like we will be, at best), it's a downright stupid position.

Well its fine for a #casualfan to have that position and just enjoy basketball and not worry about this stuff. But obviously it does matter.

 

[UofCT]

Nice

 

[PAHusky]

I don’t like to deal in hypotheticals, but we really should be AT LEAST 8-1, probably 9-0. Wonder what our ranking would be then.

I'll give you Xavier but St Joes is a terrible team that blew us out of our own gym in the first half (don't want to hear about them going unconscious from 3, our awful defending did a lot to help that happen) and we didn't really deserve to beat Indiana with the way our guards played. I think our record is a pretty stark indication that we're still a work in progress

 

[bendm]

the St. Joe loss is gonna feel like having a pebble stuck in your shoe for 5 months

 

[Huskyfan4evr]

Who do we want to win tonight Temple or Miami?

 

[auror]

Who do we want to win tonight Temple or Miami?

We play Temple twice and more of our opponents play Temple. so likely Temple.

 

[auror]

I'll give you Xavier but St Joes is a terrible team that blew us out of our own gym in the first half (don't want to hear about them going unconscious from 3, our awful defending did a lot to help that happen)

On that topic

"We’ve been through the issue of 3-point shooting many times, but this approach again confirmed that the defense’s ability to affect opposing three-point percentage is quite limited.
...

"Three-point shooting is the great equalizer for the offense. Three-point percentage isn’t influenced much by the defense and it is also more immune to the location of the game than two-point percentage. Home court advantage for three-point percentage is 0.7% whereas for two-pointers it’s 1.4%."
...
"And that leads me to a different way of looking at the control issue. Below are the stats ranked by each side’s absolute control over them.
Defense
Blk%
PPP
3PA%
Stl%
TO%
FTR
2P%
APL
A%
NST%
OR%
3P%
FT%"

3 point shooting is both highly variable and also basically the thing influenced the least of anything under a defense's control. (other than literally free throws). Our mediocre defense on that day did not cause an in-all-other-games 20% 3 point shooter who was 0/11 coming into the game to make 5 straight 3s in one half.

That was freaking luck aka variance.

There was a couple other influencing factors, but the single biggest reason we lost that game was because they shot out of their mind in the 1st half.

 

[freescooter]

On that topic


3 point shooting is both highly variable and also basically the thing influenced the least of anything under a defense's control. (other than literally free throws). Our mediocre defense on that day did not cause an in-all-other-games 20% 3 point shooter who was 0/11 coming into the game to make 5 straight 3s in one half.

That was freaking luck aka variance.

There was a couple other influencing factors, but the single biggest reason we lost that game was because they shot out of their mind in the 1st half.

Maybe in 1994 that was true but in today’s game 3-point shooting is critical. Teams work on it and it is a key component of most offenses not based in Storrs Connecticut. As a result teams need to actually work on defending it too

 

[buddy]

I think UConn is going to surprise a lot of people the rest of this season. No one can deny the improvement that we have seen.

 

[auror]

Maybe in 1994 that was true but in today’s game 3-point shooting is critical. Teams work on it and it is a key component of most offenses not based in Storrs Connecticut. As a result teams need to actually work on defending it too

You didn't understand what I wrote, so I'll re-phrase it. The study was from 2015 featuring data from 2002-2014. There have been others with more up-to-date data.

Three point offense is critical. You are right. Three point defense as it pertains to the opposing offense's shooting percentage from 3 is mostly not under a team's control. Teams can control to some extent the NUMBER of 3 point attempts an opposing offense takes (by being in zone, or aggressive pushed up man, or by having a packed in paint and strong rim protector, etc.), but have much less control on how often the other team make those attempts no matter how many that ends up being. Hurley's D does prioritize lowering opposing team 3 point attempts.

But 3pt% D has been tested multiple ways: In-season consistency (first half of the year vs. 2nd half of the year shooting %'s), one year to the next with the same coach, offensive vs. defense control influence, etc. All show that three point shooting % defense to be mostly random and much more influenced by the opposing team's skill. Aka you can contest as much as you want, but Markus Howard or Shabazz Napier or a random guy who is totally in the zone is still making that 3 40+% of the time.

Why is this? Well you can contest the shot, but that's about it. At best this is an inconvenience to the shooter and does not lower the % THAT much, depending on the distance at time of shot. You can't really block 3 pointers unless you're Giannis or Zion, and there's not really much help defense on 3 point attempts that might dramatically lower the %. Jump shooters are incredibly protected by the rules of the game from disturbance and fouling a 3 point shooter is actually worse than giving up a dunk, so defenders are incentivized to not overly contest.

So when another team is raining 3s on you, it's much more likely that they are just good, hot or in a random steak of variance than your poor contests are actually causing you to lose.

Different more in-depth article

" It’s simply that a good three-point offense will beat a good three-point defense over the long term. The offense controls most of what can be controlled, but randomness is a huge specter that looms over three-point shooting on a game level. "

 

[husky429]

You didn't understand what I wrote, so I'll re-phrase it. The study was from 2015 featuring data from 2002-2014. There have been others with more up-to-date data.

Three point offense is critical. You are right. Three point defense as it pertains to the opposing offense's shooting percentage from 3 is mostly not under a team's control. Teams can control to some extent the NUMBER of 3 point attempts an opposing offense takes (by being in zone, or aggressive pushed up man, or by having a packed in paint and strong rim protector, etc.), but have much less control on how often the other team make those attempts no matter how many that ends up being. Hurley's D does prioritize lowering opposing team 3 point attempts.

But 3pt% D has been tested multiple ways: In-season consistency (first half of the year vs. 2nd half of the year shooting %'s), one year to the next with the same coach, offensive vs. defense control influence, etc. All show that three point shooting % defense to be mostly random and much more influenced by the opposing team's skill. Aka you can contest as much as you want, but Markus Howard or Shabazz Napier or a random guy who is totally in the zone is still making that 3 40+% of the time.

Why is this? Well you can contest the shot, but that's about it. At best this is an inconvenience to the shooter and does not lower the % THAT much, depending on the distance at time of shot. You can't really block 3 pointers unless you're Giannis or Zion, and there's not really much help defense on 3 point attempts that might dramatically lower the %. Jump shooters are incredibly protected by the rules of the game from disturbance and fouling a 3 point shooter is actually worse than giving up a dunk, so defenders are incentivized to not overly contest.

Good way to put it here. The best measure 3 pt defense is not the % most of the time, even if it's still relevant in a vacuum. Check a teams average # of 3s taken vs. What # they shot vs our team.

Hurley's hard hedging 1/5 and athletic wings at the 2/3/4 are good ways for us to run shooters off the 3 pt line. Akok (and hopefully Sid soon) have the speed and shotblocking ability to block shots when the guards get by the hedges and get to the rim.