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Post by PantherU on Feb 20, 2024 0:11:00 GMT -6
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Post by uwmfan on Feb 20, 2024 8:44:55 GMT -6
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Post by TBone on Feb 20, 2024 16:01:23 GMT -6
Why is the team 4-3 against peer competition without BJ and only 3-8 with? Well, you didn't count 4 wins over subpar competition in the BJ tally, and in your initial claim, you claimed we likely would have won those games without BJ. BJ has no control over who the team plays when he's healthy enough to play. Not only that, but the Sienna game was won on a last-second-ish shot, giving us a 2-point victory. There's no way we win that game without BJ's contributions. Secondly, if you look at the six game stretch where BJ was out for most of the month of December, we went 3-3. We lost two of those games by over 10 points: Green Bay and Longwood. The other four games, including all 3 wins in that stretch, were by less than four points. In fact, the wins were all single-possession games while the one loss in that group was by four points. All four of those games could have gone either way, which is again, why larger sample sizes are needed to eliminate potential statistical oddities. Markeith was still on the team for four of those six games. I think many have concluded that there were chemistry and team issues that were somewhat cleaned up by his dismissal. (we won the next two after his dismissal, while BJ was still injured) Looking closer at some of the statistics from the stretch when BJ was out...you'll see two games (both losses) where the opposition shot over 45% from the field AND from 3. (Longwood shot over 50 from both!) These are, safe to say, not examples of better "team" play, and are ironic given one of our "worst defenders" wasn't on the court. In two of the wins during that time, (Chattanooga in OT and Robert Morris) KP and Pratt combined for 55 points in both. (I believe both set their D-I career highs in these games?) The St Thomas 2-point victory saw us shoot almost 60% from the floor, while turning the ball over 18 times. And the Cleveland State win that just occurred with BJ on the bench, saw season-highs - if not career-highs - from Fields and Learic, along with 50% shooting from the field for the team and a mind-numbing 19 turnovers. This is again, ironic given BJ's propensity to turn the ball over, yet the team seems to handle turning the ball over just fine without him playing. Given these stats and other potential chemistry issues being handled, it is certainly concludable to me that the team doesn't conclusively play better with or without BJ, and on some nights has some lucky things happen or stars align. (or not) But typically a lot has to go right for the team to win without BJ. We have three home games out of the four remaining - two against teams that are above us in the standings, and the road game is a winnable game as well. I believe the team has a much better chance of winning these games with BJ on the court, providing his twenty points, four assists and six and a half boards instead of hoping to rely on someone else stepping up and having a career night or the team shooting lights out.
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