kwyjibo Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Many people on this board have speculated as to why SLU has had several bad offensive games. Because the bad games happened on the road that could be an explanation but they have had some OK road games as well. Because BC and Kent St happened early in the year the Majerus "adjustment" argument has been used. However, there have been bad offensive performances in January as well (and even though I hope not they could happen again). Obviously, good defenses play a role but Dayton and GW have defenses that are below average (Kent State and BC have OK defenses but their best defensive performances were against SLU). Anyway, one possible factor is also shoot backdrops. I will never forget the first time I ever shot a basketball in an arena (old Brown County Arena) and the difficulty I had adjusting. It always took several shots to adjust when I shot at the old Kiel. Anyway, college players have a lot better ability adjust than I do but it may be a factor. Statistically, at least it seems to be quite dramatic this year with 3 of our 4 worst offensive outings happening in a short backdrop (LaSalle was also with a short backdrop but we did great offensively). Here is the average Offensive Efficiency (use Ken Pomeroy's numbers explained here http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/four_factors/) under three different shooting backdrops: Pro/Long Backdrop (ScottKielvis and Pitt): 105.3 College/Medium Backdrop (Dayton/SMS/Richmond): 90.9 HS/Short Backdrop (GW/BC/LaSalle/Kent): 72.9 Kent is actually tough to classify as it is pretty steep like the other "high school style"/ short backdrop on one end and more like the "college style"medium backdrops on the other (maybe I could use half stats!) If you think Home and Away are just different there is still a significant difference between the Long/Medium Backdrop away efficiency and the short backdrops on the road Away Long/Medium Backdrop: 101.3 Away Short Backdrop: 72.9 FYI, UMass has a medium backdrop so we should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimbofive Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Get back to your NASA job! Hayzoo creestay that was in-depth. Hat's off - I really, truly learned something about the game today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
drlove Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 Many people on this board have speculated as to why SLU has had several bad offensive games. Because the bad games happened on the road that could be an explanation but they have had some OK road games as well. Because BC and Kent St happened early in the year the Majerus "adjustment" argument has been used. However, there have been bad offensive performances in January as well (and even though I hope not they could happen again). Obviously, good defenses play a role but Dayton and GW have defenses that are below average (Kent State and BC have OK defenses but their best defensive performances were against SLU). Anyway, one possible factor is also shoot backdrops. I will never forget the first time I ever shot a basketball in an arena (old Brown County Arena) and the difficulty I had adjusting. It always took several shots to adjust when I shot at the old Kiel. Anyway, college players have a lot better ability adjust than I do but it may be a factor. Statistically, at least it seems to be quite dramatic this year with 3 of our 4 worst offensive outings happening in a short backdrop (LaSalle was also with a short backdrop but we did great offensively). Here is the average Offensive Efficiency (use Ken Pomeroy's numbers explained here http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/four_factors/) under three different shooting backdrops: Pro/Long Backdrop (ScottKielvis and Pitt): 105.3 College/Medium Backdrop (Dayton/SMS/Richmond): 90.9 HS/Short Backdrop (GW/BC/LaSalle/Kent): 72.9 Kent is actually tough to classify as it is pretty steep like the other "high school style"/ short backdrop on one end and more like the "college style"medium backdrops on the other (maybe I could use half stats!) If you think Home and Away are just different there is still a significant difference between the Long/Medium Backdrop away efficiency and the short backdrops on the road Away Long/Medium Backdrop: 101.3 Away Short Backdrop: 72.9 FYI, UMass has a medium backdrop so we should be fine. Considering we don't practice in the arena that we play our home games in, it would seem to me that everygame would be "a road game". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SShoe Posted February 15, 2008 Share Posted February 15, 2008 I found that interesting and think there could be some validity to it, although you'd think college players wouldn't have those problems. I played at Scottrade multiple times in high school and the basket not only seemed like it was ten feet away when it was actually 15 feet, but it felt like shooting on an 9 foot rim instead of a ten foot rim. I would imagine that it takes a while to get used to, but I think we probably play there enough to be used to it by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwyjibo Posted February 15, 2008 Author Share Posted February 15, 2008 I just wanted to reply that there is no evidence that SLU has any problem transitioning from West Pine to Scott Kielvis. That is not what I am getting at. What I posted above is that SLU has much better success in "pro-style" or "college-style" backdrops this year. There are obviously not enough games to make any definitive conclusions but the fact that they had such bad games at BC/GW/Kent St. just got me thinking. They had one of their best offensive games of the year at the short backdrop of the Tom Gola center at LaSalle which gives evidence the other way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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