New York City- With the classic in the books and teams moving on to other challenges, it is time to take a final look back at the doubleheader from a tempo free perspective.
In the end, it all added up to two entertaining games and looking forward to UConn's visit to Waco next week. Continue following the jump...
Baylor 73 St. John's 59
The Possessions:
Baylor 65
St. John's 63
Offensive Efficiency:
Baylor 112
St. John's 94
Of the Four Factors, two key areas saw the Bears excel: FT rate and offensive rebounding percentage. St. John's was perfect from the line. Only problem was they were 4 of 4. Baylor was 14 for 20, enjoying a 22%-6% advantage in free throws produced (FTM/FGA).
On the OREB end, the Bears had a 17-12 ‘raw numbers' lead in offensive rebounds. In offensive rebounding percentage terms, that came out to a 43%-31% difference in Baylor's favor.
A look at ‘Inside', a metric of Ken Pomeroy, we take free throw attempts subtract three point attempts and divide that number by field goal attempts. For ‘readability' we multiply by 100 for a good round figure. Taking ‘inside' into calculation the final totals are:
Baylor 12.7
St.John's - 77
Britney Griner only took eight shots but the remainder of the Bears, as Brooklyn Pope was in a decided ‘attack the basket ‘ mode.
The Manley efficiency leaders:
Baylor :
B. Griner 31
B. Pope 20
K. Hayden 16
Griner's 17 points, 13 boards and six blocks very nicely offset three turnovers. Pope's 18 boards, 8 of 14 shooting and only two turnovers were solid work.
St. John's:
E. McPherson 22
S. Smith 12
N. McKenith 12
McPherson led all scorers with 23 points. She was 9 of 13 from the floor with just one turnover. Smith blocked three shots, pulled down five boards and had two steals. McKenith had a team high three turnovers but did add seven assists and two blocks.
Tennessee 84 DePaul 61
Possessions:
Tennessee 83
DePaul 81
Offensive Efficiency:
Tennessee 101
DePaul 75
Possession total shows us it was a bit of a faster pace. Coming into the game the stats showed us both clubs like a quicker tempo. DePaul entered averaging 77 possessions while Tennessee was at a 74 possession per game norm.
Very glaring among the Four Factors was DePaul's 30% turnover rate. Blue Demons had 24 turnovers and the 30% means almost one third of their offense resulted in the TO. Tennessee did have 19 of their own for a high 23% TO rate, a figure they will undoubtedly address in preparation for their next opponent.
Further evidence of the Lady Vol defensive intensity, DePaul shot an effective field goal percentage of 36% from the floor.
Tennessee enjoyed a 43%-18% lead in free throw rate. Little surprise given they also had a 50-18 showing in points in the paint. Simply, you get in the lane and you have a better chance of getting to the line.
A look at possessions and usage. From SB Nation's Golden State of Mind...you can calculate individual possessions with this formula:
Poss = FGA = (FTA * .475) + TO
The NBA free throw multiplier is .44, on the college level the accepted is .475. Once you have possessions of an individual player you divide that figure by team possessions. The final total is multiplied by 100 for the usage percentage rate. To get the usage figure accurate you apply the same formula to team possessions. In other words, do not subtract the offensive rebounds in this case.
We will now take a look at the possessions and usage of the leading scorer for each team in the two games.
Name Team Poss Usage %
B. Pope, Baylor 19 23
E. McPherson, SJU 15 20
J. Penny, DePaul 11 11
G. Johnson, Tenn. 18 19
She did not lead her team in scoring but we would be amiss not to take a look at Britney Griner's numbers:
B. Griner, Baylor 14 17
The added defensive attention on Griner opened things up for Brooklyn Pope (with 6 more possessions than Griner) , who took advantage with 19 points.
Taking in the action was John Whisenant, the head coach of the New York Liberty. Whisenant said he is spending time in practices and meeting with New York Knicks mentor Mike D'Antoni. Whisenant hopes to speed up the offensive pace next season for his club.
"Last season we probably put too much on Cappie (Pondexter) and wore her out by the end of the season," Whisenant said. "Next year we would like to use depth more and with a faster paced offense, put the pressure on our opponents."
Should be interesting to see as Whisenant, a coach with an outstanding defensive reputation, makes significant changes on the offensive end.
The team records:
Baylor 10-0
St. John's 5-5
Tennessee 5-2
DePaul 8-2
Attendance for the classic was 5,486.