If roundball is your blood, this is the place to discuss the Flames as they move into the Ritchie McKay era for the 2nd time.

Moderators: jcmanson, Sly Fox, BuryYourDuke

User avatar
By Jonathan Carone
Posts
#544550
We've lost three tough games lately. I thought it'd be good to put things in perspective on where we fit in with the rest of the Big South:

10th in Scoring Offense
1st in Scoring Defense
4th in Scoring Margin
4th in Free Throw Percentage
8th in Field Goal Percentage
1st in Field Goal Percentage Defense
5th in 3-Point FG Percentage
6th in 3-Point FG Percentage Defense
5th in Rebounding Offense
2nd in Rebound Defense
2nd in Rebounding Margin
4th in Blocked Shots
10th in Assists
9th in Steals
6th in Turnover Margin
8th in Assist/Turnover Ratio
1st in Defensive Rebound Percentage
6th in Offensive Rebounding Percentage

The numbers that stick out to me are scoring offense and field goal percentage. If we can get those to the top half of the league I think we've got a great shot to finish this season really well. To do that, we've got to raise our team field goal percentage by 2.5% and score 6-7 more points per game, both of which are doable once our guys get healthy.
#544551
Here's another way to look at it if it helps:

1st in Scoring Defense
1st in Field Goal Percentage Defense
1st in Defensive Rebound Percentage
2nd in Rebound Defense
2nd in Rebounding Margin
4th in Scoring Margin
4th in Free Throw Percentage
4th in Blocked Shots
5th in 3-Point FG Percentage
5th in Rebounding Offense
6th in 3-Point FG Percentage Defense
6th in Turnover Margin
6th in Offensive Rebounding Percentage
8th in Field Goal Percentage
8th in Assist/Turnover Ratio
9th in Steals
10th in Assists
10th in Scoring Offense
User avatar
By thepostman
Registration Days Posts
#544552
Yeah it really confirms the belief that if the offense could just be average and the defense remains strong we can win a lot of games. It's a process and it may take another year or two to get there.
#544554
thepostman wrote:Yeah it really confirms the belief that if the offense could just be average and the defense remains strong we can win a lot of games. It's a process and it may take another year or two to get there.
Right. We don't need great offense, just good enough. To get to that level we need 3-4 more shots to go in each night. That'd bring our percentage up to the 45/46% range and would add 6-9 points per game to get to the 67/68 range.

With our guys recovering from the flu and getting their energy levels back up, I don't think it's a stretch to think we could get the points back. We were averaging 72.6 in Division I games out of conference (61/game in conference).

We were only shooting 44% out of conference so getting to that 46% may be a bit tougher.
#544557
And also keep in mind how slow Liberty plays...The Flames are among the 10 slowest paced teams in the country, so even if LU has a good (or the better word would be 'efficient') offense, it isn't like you all would score 80/game anyway. It's what people get wrong about UVA all the time....their offense is generally pretty good in that they score on a lot of possessions...they just have so few possessions in a game compared to most teams, that their scores are super low.

But yes, Liberty's offense does have plenty of room to improve, no matter the pace they are playing at.
NCAA Realignment Megathread

At what point in history was the ACC ever any bett[…]

Dondi Costin - LU President

With all due respect, Atrain was in Dallas in his […]

LaTech

I also keep tab with JMU because there is a player[…]

JMU for 6 games

The fact of the matter is, JMU and Liberty could n[…]