re: Tide Hoops | 31-6 (16-2)

quote:

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It’s practically a miracle that we are a top 10 team when we are squarely in a quadrant with UGA, USCe, and Vandy in Bball…and we’re worse than all 3 in the chart. That better get fixed or we won’t stay top 15 for long.

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The 2 closest to us on the chart are Louisville and Cal. They have a combined record of 2-21. That’s mind blowing.

Clearly we are doing some other things well to compensate (rebounding, probably effective FG % against, etc.). But the law of averages says we can’t continue giving up 7 more TOs than we get and win big games.

TO differential against good teams:
Gonzaga -12
Memphis -9
Houston -5
UNC -4
UConn -9
Mich St +1

We were pretty fortunate to win the Memphis game at -9. Think they missed a bunch of layups that game. The UNC and Houston games could have gone either way down the stretch, and the one game we took care of the ball against Mich St is the game we won handily.

Would be interesting to see what’s the furthest a team has made it in March with a -5 or worse TO margin on the season, but I can’t imagine it’s beyond sweet 16 if that (I’m sure there’s an outlier that got hot from 3s), or % of teams with that level of TO margin that even make the Tourney.

In summary, this young team needs to learn to take care of the ball if we want to be special. We can’t use our rebounding advantage if you don’t get a shot up.