(02-14-2017 01:48 PM)Rick Gerlach Wrote:  

(02-14-2017 01:38 PM)mrbig Wrote:  

(11-30-2016 12:54 PM)mrbig Wrote:  As I noted in the Montana State thread, Rice's rebounding has improved dramatically over the last couple years. Rebound differential per game in the Rhoades era:
2014-15: -1.6
2015-16: -2.9
2016-17: +6.2

(01-17-2017 05:16 PM)mrbig Wrote:  An update on some stat comparisons to last season. This year:
(1) Rice has improved its 3-point shooting by 7.5%
(2) Rice has improved its 3-point defense (aka, other teams are shooting worse) by 6.9%
(3) Rice has improved its rebounding margin by 8.8 net rebounds per game!
(4) Rice has improved its shot-blocking by .55 blocks/game and while having essentially the same number of shots blocked
(5) Rice is getting 1.8 more assists/game
(6) Rice's turnovers are up 2.7/game, while opponents' turnovers are up 1.2/game.
(7) Rice's steals are up .45/game, while opponents' steals are up .54/game.

Was curious about how some of these stats have held up as the season has progressed.
(1) 3-pt shooting has improved even more, now at 40.0% overall, up 8.2% from last season!
(2) 3-pt defense has improved even more, opponents shooting 32.3%, down 9.0% from last season!
(3) Rebounding margin has slipped slightly, but still a net 8.1% improvement from last season (from net -2.9/game to +5.2/game)
(4) Blocks have continued to improve, now up 1.1/game over last season
(5) Assists have improved slightly, now up 2.4/game over last season
(6) Turnovers slightly improved, but still 2.4/game more than last season. Opponents only up 0.3/game now.
(7) Steals now down slightly from last season, -0.2/game. Opponents steals up 0.1/game.

So rebounding, 3-pt shooting, 3-pt defense, assists, and blocks are all substantially improved compared to 2015-16. However, Rice is giving the ball up more without taking it away more.

Incidentally, Rice has 6 guys shooting >36% on 3-pt shots who play significant minutes. Adams and MLE don't take a lot of shots, but that is still an impressive array of shooters:
Koulechov - 49.1% (57/116)
Adams - 39.5% (15/38)
MLE - 38.5% (10/26)
Cashaw - 38.3% (31/81)
Evans - 38.3% (62/162)
Jackson - 36.3% (49/135)

We are (much) better than last year clearly (the wags would say we were not good last year).

How do those indicators hold up against NCAA averages, and against Top 100 teams? Are they a function of easier scheduling? Or is our schedule equally or more difficult this year?

Improvement is always a positive.

We're 15th in the nation in three-point FG %, and our number of attempts is in the neighborhood of the rest of our peers.