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Masterofreality
12-09-2013, 10:43 PM
I always like to "break down tape" after a game if I have the time. Just the old coach in me.

One of the things that I like to chart is the plus/minus of each player. Plus/Minus is the total point differential for a player while he is on the court adding up all of his participation intervals. While it can be skewed in the cases of players in short minutes, it can also be very valuable in seeing who is contributing on the starters & big minute players. It definitely tells you who has issues but it must also be looked at closely as to what rotation was on the court. For example, Jalen Reynolds was the beneficiary of some very good play by others when he was on the court, although he didn't really put anything on the stat sheet. You could argue that his defense had a positive effect, I suppose.

So, who had the best plus and who had the worst? Well, Dee Davis had the best plus count bouncing back from a very bad Atlantis trip. Myles Davis, Semaj and James Farr were the next best pluses.

The other side? Matt Stainbrook and Justin Martin. JMart also had the worst minus in regulation time by far at a (7). He also had as many turnovers as points. Not jumping on the kid, but it was also interesting to me that the starting lineup for the overtime was Stain, IPhillmore, Dee Davis, Semaj and Myles Davis with Semaj playing the equivalent of the 3. Welp, in the OT, XU outscored BG by 12. In fairness, JMart was on the floor for most of that OT, but he put nothing on the stat sheet.

Plus/Minus is only one of the stats that must be taken with others, but it does tell a story- especially in a close game. It told me plenty in this game. I'll try to do these more often.

GIMMFD
12-09-2013, 11:28 PM
Good stuff MOR, it's always good to see the +/-, I'm not taking what J-Mart did into much consideration, just because it's almost expected at this point, you don't know what Justin Martin you're going to get. Hopefully he responds against Evansville with a strong defensive showing and a good stat line. Dee bounced back with a pretty good game, I'm more worried that it went into overtime more than anything though, we really need to lock down, and lock in.

bleedXblue
12-10-2013, 07:00 AM
I just wish Martin provided some type of productive consistency that you could count on. To me, I dont get why he doesnt come off the bench and play 10-15 MPG. I think the more we get into this year, you're going to see other guys like Myles and James get the nod.

Masterofreality
12-10-2013, 07:28 AM
Xavier had an 11 point lead with 5:49 left in the game. By 3:53 left it was down to 1. Missed layup by BRandolph, turnover by JMart, blocked shot on Semaj, and a turnover by Dee. A three, three point play and 2 buckets by BG and there you go. The same thing happened in the first half when JMart had 4 turnovers.

Sorry, but your 3 is supposed to be you best all around player who puts lots of plusses on the sheet. JMart did that in the first half against Iowa and look what the score was. No question that the staff knew that they had to get 3's in this program and that is why we have Remy Abell and Tevon Bluiett coming in. Justin Martin's performance will determine how well this team does, unless the staff decides to play Semaj more at the 3, which I would recommend.

danaandvictory
12-10-2013, 08:56 AM
Plus/minuses are available for all games from statsheet.com, just FYI.

Masterofreality
12-10-2013, 09:36 AM
Plus/minuses are available for all games from statsheet.com, just FYI.

But then, I can't break down tape. :biggrin:

XUFan09
12-10-2013, 11:01 AM
I used to be a big believer in plus-minus, until I read this blog post (http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/a_treatise_on_plus_minus) from Kenpom. He used to be a big believer in the statistic too, but he decided to run a statistical test on it. He used a perfectly average player on a perfectly average team up against perfectly average competition. Basically, a player with no positive or negative impact on the team, so his plus-minus should end up being 0. Even in that artificial scenario, single-game variance was enormous and multi-game variance was significant too. There's just too much randomness on the court, not enough games, and not enough minutes in each game (Stars don't spend meaningful minutes on the bench out of necessity of rest like in the NBA) for plus-minus to work well in the college game.

GoMuskies
12-10-2013, 12:21 PM
I like +/- based on lineups as opposed to individual players. Much harder to find, though.

Masterofreality
12-10-2013, 05:27 PM
I like +/- based on lineups as opposed to individual players. Much harder to find, though.

Lots of work, especially the way that CMack is shuffling guys in and out, but I'll try that.