TN Martin

[hoopsmom]

The turnovers while trying to get the ball inbound were very concerning, as werd some of the passing decisions, made while trying to break the press. I’m sure that’s something they’re going to be focusing on in practice this week. Maybe faking a baseball pass, or throwing one, will back the press off a bit. However, the refereeing in this game was absolutely horrendous. Girls were not allowed to catch the ball and land, when, in actuality, you get two steps. These refs would never officiate a men’s game in this manner. It made it very choppy and hard to get the flow of the game going.

Is there a lot of work to be done? Yes. Was it a great decisive win? No. But was it a victory? Definitely, on the road, and we will take that.

[yotenation]

Yotes were sloppy and certainly did not play very well. Hard to read too much into this game though, imo. Road game right after the close of finals and right before the holidays against a team that didn't look particularly daunting. As much as we'd like them to play their best every game, this is the kind of game where a subpar performance is not all that surprising. But they got the win and hopefully learned a few things about what they need to do to get better.

SDSU struggled mightily with NAIA Dordt last week (trailed by 9 at halftime at home) and got hammered by Gonzaga last night. I know Dordt is a very good NAIA team and Gonzaga is very good, but they certainly don't look unbeatable by any means.

FWIW some on the Bunny board say that Dordt would beat the Yotes "easily." They clearly think that USD is not a threat at all. The arrogance is over the top as usual. Kind of funny to see them complaining about Gonzaga not pulling their starters earlier. As if AJ has a history of always pulling his starters early in blowout wins.

[kiyoat]

Looking at some stats for the Yotes right now... some things are going to be unfair comparisons due to schedule strength in the non-con.  But it's still interesting.

For reference, here's the SOS for conference teams using the RPI and Massey ranking systems:

RPI method SOS:
#20 Oral Roberts
#75 NDSU
#89 SDSU
#128 St Thomas
-----
#199 UND
#215 USD
-----
#293 Kansas City
#316 Omaha
#341 Denver

Massey method SOS:
#46 SDSU
#94 NDSU
#121 USD
------
#194 Denver
#198 St Thomas
#245 Oral Roberts
#287 UND
#299 Kansas City
#302 Omaha

So even with Strength-Of-Schedule there is more than one way to look at it.  SDSU and NDSU were high in both methods, and KC and Omaha were low.  But the rest were variable.

So with that in mind, take rankings with a big grain of salt....

[kiyoat]

Here's a look at our offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) - a measure of offensive efficiency:

96 Omaha (98.5)
98 USD (98.2 points)
---
181 St Thomas (89.9)
189 SDSU (89.2)
194 NDSU (88.9)
194 Oral Roberts (88.9)
228 Kansas City (87.1)
244 Denver (85.8)
---
305 North Dakota (78.3)

[kiyoat]

defensive rating (opponent points per 100 possessions)

113 Kansas City (87.2)
123 SDSU (88.1)
----
203 USD (93.1)
211 Denver (93.6)
215 UND (93.9)
---
311 NDSU (102.3)
320 St Thomas (103.5)
339 Oral Roberts (106.3)
356 Omaha (114.7)

[kiyoat]

Assist-to-Turnover Ratio:

154 USD 0.81
162 Oral Roberts 0.80
166 Denver 0.79
166 Omaha 0.79
----
192 NDSU 0.74
192 SDSU 0.74
198 St Thomas 0.73
----
238 Kansas City 0.66
281 UND 0.59

[kiyoat]

We are in the top-2 in the conference in these stats:

Assist/Turnover .....#2
Assists .................#1
Bench Points .........#1
FG% ....................#1
FG% Defense ........#2
Fewest Fouls .........#2
FT% .....................#1
Rebound Margin .....#1
Scoring Margin .......#1
3PT Attempts/game #2
3PT%....................#2
3PT % Defense ......#1
3PT made/game ....#1

Our worst team stat rankings:

Blocks/game ...................#8 (SDSU is #1)
Turnovers forced ..............#7 (SDSU is #9)
Turnover Margin ..............#7 (SDSU is #9)
Offensive Rebounds/game #7 (SDSU is #8)

So cheer up, everyone!

[kiyoat]

I think this team has a few things to clean up, but we need to also look at the many things they are killing it at. Deepest bench, best offense, best shooters, best passing/ball movement, experienced seniors, good defense (relative to the conference), etc.

We do lack some athleticism, and that does hurt us in non-conference against fast, athletic teams. but I don't know how bad that will hurt us in conference play when we can shoot the lights out. I'm optimistic.