Indiana Player Efficiencies & other notes

Before I get to the IU men's Basketball efficiencies, let me first congratulate the Big Ten for going 5-0 in the NCAA Men's Soccer tournament so far. And specifically, I'd like to congratulate the Hoosiers for pasting Tulsa 5-1. Now, the Hoosiers have a really steep challenge to go on the road to face a very good Akron team. If I were young Yeags, I'd really lay it on thick this week about how a lot of folks wanted Akron coach Caleb Porter instead of him as IU coach, and how he wants to show everyone that IU made the right call, after all. Go Hoosiers!

Basketball!
Watching the first half of the Evansville game, I was disappointed in the way the Hoosiers let themselves be taken out of their offense by mere physicality. Not surpisingly, the players who responded the best were the veterans Pritchard, Jones, and Rivers. Pritch & Rivers, btw, look like they're adapting to being role-players rather well, but that also means sum total of their first-half contributions were two reserve-lay-ups and a dunk. So, the game looked like it was portending really bad things for the Hoosiers in conference play, and specifically for Christian Watford. However, like earlier games, Watford adapted in the second half. Watford might get a lot of good mileage out of his mid-range game this season, and although he's still IU's best option on offense so far, he clearly needs someone else to hit some threes to free up space in the paint.

I ran my player efficiency ratings for the first four games, and there's not a lot to be gleaned from the findings - especially when you consider the relatively weak competition. It's basically statistical confirmation that Watford is playing well, Verdell Jones is struggling, and Maurice Creek is only running at about 65% efficiency from last year (which really, is generous. Zero steals so far? C'mon). Tom Pritchard is playing well again - efficiency-wise, but he's still fouling out half of time and isn't able to stay on the floor for even half of the possessions in a game. One really bright spot in per-possession terms is Will Sheehey, who at less than 7 minutes/game (or 11.6 possessions) is leading the team in efficiency. Furthermore, Sheehey has a brash confidence and enthusiasm for the game that we haven't seen from a Hoosier reserve since perhaps AJ Moye (And speaking of, best wishes to AJ for a full and speedy recovery). Anyway, here's the numbers:

name (poss. per game) eff. points per game / eff. rating per poss.

Christian Watford (48.6) 24.1 /.4965
Jordan Hulls (50.7) 14.9 / .2932
Tom Pritchard (31.4) 14.5 / .4619
Verdell Jones (46.9) 11.5 / .2454
Jeremiah Rivers (37.4) 11.0 / .2941
Maurice Creek (35.7) 10.9 / .3047
Derek Elston (21.2) 8.2 / .3849
Victor Olapdipo (26.2) 7.0 / .2669
Will Sheehey (11.6) 6.0 / .5168
Bobby Capobianco (16.3) 5.4 / .3289
Daniel Moore~ (14.2) 4.5 / .3171
Jeff Howard~ (5.7) 1.8 / .3198