Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="LwrcasefaN, post: 4867524, member: 11185"] The problem with stats is that they tell you what happened, but not why they happened. And without knowing why, you can't necessarily repeat the outcome or avoid the outcome. I like the eye test...first before I conclude what a stat is telling me. Some stats, like free throw % and steals (for the most part) are pretty reliable on their face. Ball pressure creates steals, but that defender doesn't always make the steal...and that doesn't show up in the stats. Something like shooting percentage can be deceptive. There are a lot of variables such as is the player primarily a 3 point shooter, mid range or close to the basket shooter? Is the player a focus of the defense or the player they leave open or don't guard as closely? Is the player shooting against double teams. Is the player undersized? And the biggest variable of all...opponent quality. And then...to me, efficiency matters. And the slower paced your offense runs (half court dominant), then the more efficient your shooters need to be because you generally get fewer possessions. There are corrections, but they are often recognized after you already loss. LSU, SC type teams can shoot poorly and win because they have elite rebounders. Another team can have an elite scorer (USC/Iowa), but is less efficient and the team isn't elite at rebounding. The year Syracuse played UCONN in the national championship, Q just had his team shoot more 3s because it was obvious they weren't efficient. So his remedy was...get more shots up. It was his option to not having elite rebounders. In a nutshell, stats shouldn't mean the same thing to fans as they do a coach. And you can't just look at stats because there's a stat for everything now. That can be a full-time job. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach