Conference Speeds
This is quite interesting. It gives the possessions-per-40 minutes stats for all the power conferences over the past three years.
A couple thoughts:
-The Pac-10 has slowed down over the past two years, which really brings into question my belief that it's a "D-Lite league" (as that blogger calls it). But I would suggest that the drop could be caused by Ben Howland's brilliant defensive scheming at UCLA and Son-of-Dick Bennett's slow it down, Big 10-esque style at Washingston State. The Cougars have, indeed, the fourth fewest possessions per 40. Arizona State has even fewer, but that might be just because they suck; note that they have a "WANT TO PLAY FOR THE SUN DEVILS?" link on their men's basketball homepage.
-Syracuse is the 9th fastest team. I guess that makes sense. The zone is designed to create turnovers, and we played it fairly well this season. We turned it over a lot this season. We occaisionally like to push the pace. We kept getting down and having to scramble back into the game by increasing the number of possessions. (See last night.)
-Big East is on average the second slowest conference. Exactly what I would have guessed, and unlike that blogger, I like it that way. Big 10 games are defensive grinders, but Big East games are slugfests. As long as the Big East has existed, it has generally been the most physical conference.
-ACC has slowed down. The addition of 3 Big East teams to the mix probably has something to do with it. Also, Duke hasn't been as talented. I suspect normally they'd be right up there with North Carolina and Maryland at the top of the possessions per game chart.
Anyway, interesting stuff. I'd like to see it over the past 10 years.
A couple thoughts:
-The Pac-10 has slowed down over the past two years, which really brings into question my belief that it's a "D-Lite league" (as that blogger calls it). But I would suggest that the drop could be caused by Ben Howland's brilliant defensive scheming at UCLA and Son-of-Dick Bennett's slow it down, Big 10-esque style at Washingston State. The Cougars have, indeed, the fourth fewest possessions per 40. Arizona State has even fewer, but that might be just because they suck; note that they have a "WANT TO PLAY FOR THE SUN DEVILS?" link on their men's basketball homepage.
-Syracuse is the 9th fastest team. I guess that makes sense. The zone is designed to create turnovers, and we played it fairly well this season. We turned it over a lot this season. We occaisionally like to push the pace. We kept getting down and having to scramble back into the game by increasing the number of possessions. (See last night.)
-Big East is on average the second slowest conference. Exactly what I would have guessed, and unlike that blogger, I like it that way. Big 10 games are defensive grinders, but Big East games are slugfests. As long as the Big East has existed, it has generally been the most physical conference.
-ACC has slowed down. The addition of 3 Big East teams to the mix probably has something to do with it. Also, Duke hasn't been as talented. I suspect normally they'd be right up there with North Carolina and Maryland at the top of the possessions per game chart.
Anyway, interesting stuff. I'd like to see it over the past 10 years.
posted by Prof. A at 7:42 AM
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