Topic: Danny D pleased with Herd D

[QuickStrike]

There's only one statistic  that means anything and that is Wins.

BINGO.  Wins are the best measurement of how good you are.  People have never even heard about the PPP stat until it was brought up here.  You play the game on the court, buckle down on defense, and try to have more points than the other team at the end of the game.  That PPP stat means nothing during the course of a game.  You can use it as a metric of how well you've done overall, but it has no way of quantifying how good or bad your inside defense is.  Our inside defense at times has been terrible.  Last night the boys played a good overall game.  Who cares what the PPP was?

[GreenWhite]

It's just a measure that levels the field between the ODUs and the Marshalls of the basketball world.  ODU plays a slow torturous pace.  They frequently hold teams in the 40s and 50s in points.  Does that mean their defense is super awesome?  Not necessarily.  If they smother teams and drop their shot clock but the team still scores, then run out the clock when they have the ball on the other side there won't be many points scored in the game, but their opponent still will have a high ppp even though they only scored 48.  Marshall plays fast paced and gives both teams many more possessions.  Statistically you can't fault Marshall's defense for their opponent scoring more with many more possessions.  So ppp weights that statistic so you can get a feel for how your defense did each time up and down the court, no matter how many times up and down the court you went. 

The lower that number is for your defense the better chance you have of winning that game as your offense can produce less and less and still get the win.  So you want that number to be low.  1 ppp is considered a good benchmark.    Jacking up threes doesn't affect that number any more than a layup does.  It is independent from our ppp, rating THEIR defense. 

Part of Danny's whole scheme is take that shot when you have it.  If we only hit 33% of threes that's already 1ppp against our opponent, and we're usually much better than that.  We hit 40% of threes in a game and we're up to 1.25ppp.  We do that plus 60% from 2 point land and add in foulshots at 70% we'll be in the 1.3-1.4 range, maybe higher.  This means their defense is not very good, no matter how many times we shoot.  It's all about the percentages.

But yes, completely aside from that statistic we want to shoot well and limit opponent's scoring.  Well, duh.  PPP on offense and defense simply tells us we're doing that or not as the case may be, at a glance.

I get the whole ppp thing. I just think you have to look at things as a whole. I know, just by hearing him talk after games on the radio, he looks at more than just the points per possession. I've heard him talk about the opponent's shooting percentage from three. I've heard him talk about the rebounding margins. He talks about all the stats. His main focus might be the ppp, but the other stats have his attention.

[2xBison]

BINGO.  Wins are the best measurement of how good you are.  People have never even heard about the PPP stat until it was brought up here.  You play the game on the court, buckle down on defense, and try to have more points than the other team at the end of the game.  That PPP stat means nothing during the course of a game.  You can use it as a metric of how well you've done overall, but it has no way of quantifying how good or bad your inside defense is.  Our inside defense at times has been terrible.  Last night the boys played a good overall game.  Who cares what the PPP was?

you mean you never heard of it.  here is a link for you, read up.  sorry, but I couldn't find a remedial tutorial.

https://www.burntorangenation.com/2011/10/19/2464697/advanced-basketball-statistics-understanding-possession-estimation

[coalherd]

Bison, not really sure how the article's content really applies to the game of basketball, but it sure is a damn good cure for insomnia!  ;D

[QuickStrike]

These are advanced stats that have nothing to do with the then & now flow of the game.  During each possession you are either playing good defense or not.  The end score is a result of the cumulative.  That ppp stat means nothing.  In the huddle no one is talking that crap.  The players are probably just told we are behind so play some f'n defense.  Doubt seriously they are being told in the huddle that they are allowing the other team 1.2 ppp.  After the game it's just a stat.

[herdorbust]

The bottom line is if you are giving up .085 ppp then you are playing some defense. And if you are giving up 1.25 you are not. Just like you would shoot for 4 yds per carry in football would be great. 2 yds per carry not so good. Its that simple.

[QuickStrike]

The bottom line is if you are giving up .085 ppp then you are playing some defense. And if you are giving up 1.25 you are not. Just like you would shoot for 4 yds per carry in football would be great. 2 yds per carry not so good. Its that simple.

But, you don't need that ppp stat to tell you that you are playing good defense.  Watching the game flow, the individual players, the other players, and the score tells you how good of defense you are playing, right?  Ppp is an after the game stat that can be used as a metric of success.  Having a separate category that measures inside defense might give a better breakdown of the team's defense, but then again the other team's shooting percentage kinda already does that.

[parshall2marshall]

It seems like we play good D on the perimeter and usually have a hand up inside of 16-18 feet. The trouble seems to be if the ball bounces around inside on us after a miss, too many times the other team will get an easy basket. I hope IB and Cook clean that up to a large degree next year. It seems like we would really be tough to beat if that happens.

Other times it looks like we are playing no D at all as someone gets to the rim all to easily. I understand foul trouble, and the game being basically over, etc. But the baseline in-bounds buckets, etc. kill me.