West Coast Convo
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Fun with Numbers: 2013-2014 Saint Mary’s Gaels Edition! (Part 1)

By Simon Tryzna

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Eran Ganot is not impressed.

In what should be the last post relating the the Gaels 2013-2014 campaign, here is some fun with numbers (Team Edition):

Team Stats (National Ranking in parenthesis)

  • PPG -71.1 (#150)
  • OPG – 66.1 (#62)
  • Avg. Margin – +5.1(#62)
  • 1st Half Pts/Gm  – 34.0 (#95)
  • 1st Half Opp Pts/Gm – 30.6 (#82)
  • 2nd Half Pts / Gm – 36.8 (#177)
  • 2nd Half Opp Pts/Gm – 35.2 (#77)
  • Total Rebounds Per Game – 33.7 (#216)
  • Opp Total Rebounds Per Game – 30.1 (#14)
  • Def Rebound Percentage – 73.4% (#62)
  • Off Rebound Percentage – 34.4% (#35)

Takeaways:

  1. Gaels offense was 150th in the nation in terms of points per game, despite being 37th in 3-point percentage. Translation: Gaels chose shots widely, but needed to have shot more in many games in order to win.
  2. The Gaels defense was pretty good all around this year. Translation: The Gaels offense was slow so the opponents didn’t have as much time with the ball and couldn’t score many points.
  3.  The Gaels weren’t really a second half team this year. Translation: The Gaels opponents averaged 4.6 points better in the second half than they did in the first half, while the Gaels only improved their scoring by 1.8. In other words, the Gaels opponents scored, on average, 2.8 more points than Saint Mary’s in the second half. The Gaels had 3 losses by two points (Hawaii, George Mason, Santa Clara) and one loss by three points (BYU). Had the Gaels been able to win those four games, they would have been 27-8 (13-5). Saint Mary’s fans typically expect the Gaels to be a second half team, but clearly this was not the case.
  4. The Gaels were really good rebounders this year (percentage wise anyway). The reason for the low ranking in rebounding is due to the fact that Saint Mary’s didn’t play in barn burner games and there weren’t many opportunities for rebounds. However, when they were the Gaels were solid. The Gaels got around 35% of their misses on offense while their opponents only got 26.6%. That 8% difference over a season is huge.

Final thought:

To improve next year, Saint Mary’s needs to be a better second half team and create more shots per game. While their offense is efficient, there were many times where they did put up a bad shot. If their defense performs at the same level next year, then an increase in FGA would raise PPG and perhaps get the Gaels back to 25 wins and an NCAA Tournament appearance.