Ban The Charge!
And everything else you need to know about the week that was in college hoops.
Tipoff
On Your Mark, Get Set, NO CHARGE!
Let’s face facts, being a referee is a thankless job. If you do your absolute best, no one will ever notice you.
Well.
Maybe Fran Fraschilla will mention you during a broadcast, but that’s about it. With that being said, the refs this year in college basketball are having a tough time. Rob Dauster and Da’Sean Butler broke down two recent examples from the weekend to highlight a particularly bad rule related to goaltending (NSFW language warning - Rob got heated). Every fan has a gripe about a bad call they are convinced cost their team a chance to win a crucial game or a chance to win a parlay. For my money, the big change that has to be made is to get rid of the block/charge call.
I can hear what you are thinking: ‘Woah there, pal, you have no right to sit on your couch and type such blasphemy!’ First of all, you’re on your couch, too. Second of all, this is not a new idea. Mark Titus wrote about this almost five years ago and he even noted he was not the first to say so. The main argument in favor of the charge is that you should not allow a player to plow through the defender on their way to the hoop. Imagine how much easier life would be for Zion Williamson were that the case. But there has to be a happy place between allowing complete freedom of movement and the horror show that we are seeing, like the 54 fouls called between Illinois and Indiana on Tuesday night in which 5 players fouled out.
The block/charge call is the best place to begin. It is the most difficult snap-second judgment and most controversial call in the game. Basketball is a game of near constant motion with athletic players running and jumping around. Rewarding a defender for trying to use their body to obstruct that movement is bad for the game. Defenders should be rewarded for making a play on the basketball, like a strip or block. We should not reward a player for using their legs to slide under the person with the ball. Refs could still call a foul on the offensive player for lowering their shoulder or a player-control turnover. By removing the block/charge call, we could remove one of the biggest headaches in the game and have one less reason to remember the names of referees. They would probably thank us.
Advanced Analytics
Go beyond the traditional counting stats you see in the box score (points, assists, rebounds, fouls, etc.) to understand the stats that are revolutionizing the game.
A couple of years ago, a few mathematicians got together and crunched the numbers. They found out, after many arguments and at least one bloody nose, that a 3-point shot is worth more points than a 2-point shot. This led to a revolution in our understanding of basketball that continues today. Eventually, the NBA caught onto the idea that the college game had figured out ages ago and just this season has overtaken the NCAA in the share of shots taken from behind the 3-point line. How did NBA teams, many with their stats departments, come to this decision? The answer in part lies with our advanced stat for this week, effective field goal percentage.
The closer the player is to the basket when they shoot the ball, the more likely they are to get the ball through the hoop. For a long time, this basic fact favored tall players that were really good at being tall and close to the rim, players like George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. If you make 50% of your field goal attempts, you can expect to make 1.0 points per shot without a 3-point line. With the arc on the court, you can get the same 1.0 points per shot by making just 33.3% of your 3-point attempts. The box score added 3-point field goal percentage to show which players were good at shooting the long shot. With just the basic field goal percentage in the box score, it was impossible to tell who had a good shooting night and who didn’t.
Effective field goal percentage is a formula that takes all shot attempts into consideration and, using relatively simple math, spits out a single number that allows us to figure out if Shaquille O’Neal is more effective shooting the ball from close to the rim than Steve Kerr, who took a lot of 3-point attempts. The formula is to add field goals made and one-half of 3-point field goals made, divide that sum by the total number of field goals attempted, and multiple by 100 to get a percentage. The formula looks like this: eFG = [(FG + 0.5 * 3FG) ÷ FGM] * 100. This gives us one number that allows us to compare apples to oranges, post players to designated shooters.
This year’s leaders in effective eFG in college basketball includes familiar names, like National Player of the Year contender and 3-point marksman Corey Kispert from Gonzaga as well as 7-footers like Virginia’s Jay Huff, Illinois’s Kofi Cockburn, and Michigan’s Hunter Dickinson. A player that combines excellent shooting with size is leading the pack so far this season. Notre Dame’s 6’10” forward Nate Laszewski has an eFG of 74.6%. While Notre Dame is mired in a tough season, Laszewski is absolutely scorching the nets from distance and inside the arc.
The Mixtape
The Field of 68 team puts out lots of great content each week. Let’s take a look at some of the highlights.
Purdue head coach Matt Painter logged on with former Purdue standout Robbie Hummel and Jeff Goodman for an interview that covered a lot of ground. Fun fact, Robbie was a “coach’s dream” during his time with the Boilermakers. As a recent featured guest of this newsletter, I can also attest that Robbie is an ideal interviewee. Coach Painter touches on a lot in this interview, including his experiences with Bobby Knight, his mentor and predecessor Gene Keady, and more.
It’s head coaches week on the Field of 68, I guess. On Inside the Mind of Miles, podcast host Tim Miles interviewed Oklahoma State’s Mike Boyton. The two talk about some big topics, such as navigating the nuances of coaching, scheduling, and handling life during COVID; his path to becoming head coach at OK State; using social media to recruit top talent like Cade Cunningham; and more.
MOAR COACHES! On the Burner Turner Show, podcast host and Kentucky legend Wayne “Burner” Turner interviewed former Kentucky player and National Champion, BYU head coach Mark Pope.Pope discussed his time in Lexington, in the NBA, and Provo, Utah.
Weekend Primer
Heading into the weekend, we take a look at the big matchups on the schedule.
There’s this other sports game taking place on Sunday evening, so most of the action in college basketball is taking place on Saturday this weekend. The Friday action includes a pair of compelling matchups of teams unbeaten in conference play. In the WAC, Grand Canyon takes on UT Rio Grande Valley while the “Battle of the Badlands” (I’m taking a wild guess as to the name of the rivalry) features the two Summit League state schools of South Dakota.
In a normal season, the North Carolina vs. Duke game would get the headlines, but neither team is ranked this year and prospects for making the NCAA Tournament look slim for each of the bluest of Blue Bloods. In fact, this will mark the first time since February 1960 in which neither team is ranked in the AP poll. If you are interested in watching talented freshmen play poor basketball, tune in, I guess? If you want to see good basketball played by good teams, there are plenty of other options. The Alabama-Missouri matchup in the SEC looks tantalizing while Kansas will look to hold onto its tenuous grasp of a top 25 ranking against West Virginia. The top matchup might be Wisconsin vs. Illinois in the early afternoon. The nightcap features the two Los Angeles teams leading the division. No, not the LA teams with LeBron James or Kawhii Leonard, this is UCLA and USC.
On Sunday afternoon, Iowa travels to Bloomington, Indiana to face off against the Hoosiers while Xavier travels to the Philly area to face Villanova.
Friday:
Grand Canyon vs. UT Rio Grande Valley (8:00 p.m. EST on ESPN+)
South Dakota vs. South Dakota State (8:30 p.m. EST on ESPN3)
Saturday:
#10 Alabama vs. #18 Missouri (12:00 p.m. EST on ESPN2)
#23 Kansas vs. #17 West Virginia (2:00 p.m. EST on CBS)
#22 Florida vs. LSU (2:00 p.m. EST on ESPN)
#19 Wisconsin vs. #12 Illinois (2:30 p.m. on FOX)
Louisville vs. #14 Virginia (4:00 p.m. on ESPN)
North Carolina vs. Duke (6:00 p.m. EST on ESPN)
#21 UCLA vs USC (10:00 p.m. EST on ESPN/ESPN2)
Sunday:
#8 Iowa vs. Indiana (12:00 p.m. Eastern on Fox)
Xavier vs. #3 Villanova (2:30 p.m. EST on Fox)