A few weeks ago, Yet Another Basketball Blog started a series of analytical posts about men's college basketball coaches. The bad news is that it only included data from the "major" conferences. Well, lucky for us that on Friday they put out their non-BCS coaching data. I've pulled all the important Horizon League data and tried to make sense of it.
First, let's get to know a little more about the numbers we're looking at. Adjusted Offensive Efficiency is a way to measure offensive prowess while taking into account the tempo at which a team plays. Basically, it is points scored per 100 offensive possessions. Adjusted Defensive Efficiency is points allowed per 100 possessions.
These are the average adjusted numbers from each coach over the last seven years. For Brad Brownell it includes his time at UNC-Wilmington and for Ray McCallum it includes his last year at Houston and so on. This is Division I data only, so Jerry Slocum is only credited for his work at Youngstown State.
Now that we've gotten all the introductions out of the way, here are the numbers:
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The second part of this study shows the tempo, or pace, that non-BCS coaches have their teams play. Tempo, in this case, is number of possessions per 40 minutes.
*Rank is in parenthesis
Jeter- 68.3 (82)
Drew- 67.6 (105)
Slocum 67.4 (114)
Collins 66.8 (142)
McCallum 66.2 (165)
Kowalczyk 65.8 (190)
Waters 65.6 (197)
Whitesell 65.4 (203)
Stevens 63.1 (255)
Brownell 63.1 (256)
The Horizon League is not this slow. I repeat, the Horizon League is not this slow. At least this year it isn't. FIVE teams are averaging over 68 possessions per 40 minutes this season. This has a lot to do with Gary Waters speeding things up at Cleveland State and Detroit adding about 5 possessions per game over last year. If a couple teams speed up their game it affects everyone else. Well, almost everyone. Butler and Wright State are two of the slowest teams in the country over the past seven years. But, both are a little quicker this season (BU: 65.3 WSU: 64) due to better athletes and the aforementioned change of pace from Detroit and Cleveland State.
Coach Jeter has the fastest paced teams in this data set, but his current collection of players wouldn't win too many races. Taking over a Bruce Pearl team, with a Bo Ryan background, must have been maddening. For reference, coach Ryan and his Wisconsin Badgers are currently ranked 341 out of 343 in possessions/40 minutes, ahead of only Denver and former Butler coach Todd Lickliter at Iowa. Tennessee, with former UWM coach Bruce Pearl at the helm, is among the 25 fastest-paced teams in the nation in terms of possessions/40 minutes. It's certainly been difficult for coach Jeter to try and slow down what was one of the fastest paced teams in the country.
I would have expected a faster pace from Green Bay because of their offensive prowess. Their pace and efficiency highlight what a nice job coach Kowalczyk does getting his teams to run good halfcourt offense.
It's an interesting look at the league for sure. These numbers are a great tool for predicting how certain players may fit into a system and how certain teams match-up against one another.
With conference play winding down, the good teams will be able to force their opponents to play their style/pace and play to their strengths. Now you know those strengths and weaknesses.
