Some Comparative Stats

[Phantom Warrior]

Assists (Conference Games Only):

Duane: 2.2 apg in 29.1 mpg.

Haanif: 2.0 apg in 31.4 mpg

Jajuan: 1.9 apg in 22.7 mpg

Sandy: 1.3 apg in 23.8 mpg

Traci: 4.5 apg in 22.0 mpg

Traci has more than twice as many assists than any other player on the team in fewer minutes than any of the other regular rotation players. So why does he play virtually half the game and sit almost half the game?

(By the way, Henry is averaging a whopping 1.1 apg in BE games in something like 34 mpg.)

Or, how about these stats:

Duane: 28 assists and 28 turnovers for an assist/turnover ratio of 1.0/1.0.

Haanif: 26 assists and 42 turnovers for an assist/turnover ratio of 0.6/1.0.

Traci: 58 assists and 31 turnovers for an assist/turnover ratio of 1.9/1.0.

(By the way, Henry has 14 assists and 31 turnovers for an assist/turnover ratio of 0.5/1.0.)

So, again, how can we have a guy playing point for over half the game who has a negative assist/turnover ratio while our top off guard has as many turnovers as assists and still expect to win many games?

It just boggles my mind.

And it's not like Traci isn't working hard on defense or that the other guards are such outstanding lockdown defenders. In my mind Traci plays better on-ball and off-ball defense than the other guards, certainly no worse.

[MU/Panther]

He is now playing more, but who was in at point guard when MU was up by 2 after the timeout, for the play that was never ran?

[ge1974]

One of the big problems Saturday night was we didn't get the ball to Henry or Luke enough, IMO. Part of the reason was Creightons defense but our coaching staff should have figured out ways to make it happen (screens etc)

That said I don't think we are a very good passing team;hence the turnovers.

[Markedman]

Lots of our turnovers come from offensive fouls and traveling violations. Having only 1 point guard(who is a frosh) tells part of the story but not all of it.

[Markedman]

Before deciding if Wojo is messing up by not playing Traci more I'd prefer to know what our offensive efficiency is when he is on the court as opposed to on the bench. Plus/minus would also be interesting to see for his time on the court as well as off it.

Assist to turnover ratio never tells the complete story....even for a point guard.

[MUAlphaBangura]

He is now playing more, but who was in at point guard when MU was up by 2 after the timeout, for the play that was never ran?

Good point. Guess we need to know the "ran the play that was called/ ran something else" ratio of all these guys.

[Nukem2]

He is now playing more, but who was in at point guard when MU was up by 2 after the timeout, for the play that was never ran?in watching that play on the DVR several times, was Traci the only guilty party? Wojo said the play was designed to get the ball to Henry or Luke. But, they both had their back to the ball for much of the play.

[MUfan12]

That whole situation was a cluster. I wasn't wild about the timeout, and they come out and get completely flummoxed by a man defense.

[IWB]

I mentioned the assist aspect after the Providence game. Now MU won that game in 2 OTs, but Providence had 26 assists on 28 made baskets. That is an incredible number. Marquette on the other hand had 13 assists on 33 made baskets. That is not a good number. To me that shows a lack of ball movement with too many guys trying to beat their man 1-on-1.

[mcwman]

Not sure where you looked up the stats, but what are the total personal fouls per game? traci sits a lot with 2 or 3 fouls

[Nukem2]

I mentioned the assist aspect after the Providence game. Now MU won that game in 2 OTs, but Providence had 26 assists on 28 made baskets. That is an incredible number. Marquette on the other hand had 13 assists on 33 made baskets. That is not a good number. To me that shows a lack of ball movement with too many guys trying to beat their man 1-on-1.

A lot of that has to do with the makeup of this team. Henry, Haney, Duane, JJ, Traci and even Luke all do their best work off the bounce. No real catch and shoot guys other than Sandy...? Duane to an extent.

[IrwinFletcher]

Just by looking at the raw stats Silver gave, it does make you scratch your head a bit. But look deeper, and maybe the numbers aren't quite telling the whole story. For instance

12/30 SHU 6 minutes. 4 fouls 2 TOs
1/2 Gtwon 26 minutes 4 fouls
1/5 Prov 26 minutes 5 TOs
1/9 SJU 28 minutes 5 TOs
1/13 Vill 26 minutes 5 fouls
1/16 X 21 minutes 5 fouls
1/20 Dep 13 minutes 2 fouls

So in the first 7 games of the BE he averaged 21 mpg despite fouling out in two of those, committing 5 TO's in two of them, 1 of them committing 4 fouls in 6 minutes and another one 2 fouls in 13 minutes and I assume he was benched due to poor play.

During this stretch of games, Traci only scored above 4 points two times. Unlike Haaney who does have a propensity to turn the ball over, he is scoring at a higher rate and is one of our best 3-point shooters which has helped open up the middle for our two bigs.

Traci has turned the corner and his play has improved and so have his minutes, but I think before we go off the deep end on the coaching staff, a closer look at the numbers is required.