So, some reflections on the very early, way too small sample size, of the college season so far:
1) Early season college basketball often has many oddities ... specifically, teams often struggle. The key for an NCAA bid down the road is to SURVIVE and somehow fund a way to win to avoid a bad loss. For all I know REU will struggle at some point and take a bad loss. So far, RU has struggled just a bit in 2 games, but won - especially vs St. Peter's (the game against Monmouth was never in doubt - so some 2nd half defensive struggles, but pulling away several times). The latest exhibit: Wisconsin, last night (and Wisconsin is having a heckuva a season, so far, no?). Wisconsin beat UT-Rio Grande Valley ... by 3 ... 87-84 ... after trailing by 52-48 at the half. UT-Rio Grande Valley is now 3-3: They beat 3 poor teams (well, 2 really poor teams and a who knows whether they are good team), and have now lost to 3 decent to very good teams (by 20 to Nebraska, by 13 to Creighton - though it was not really that close, and now by 3 to Wisconsin)
2) There are also stat and individual performance oddities ... too many to keep track of, of course. Here are a couple I found fascinating:
a) In Creighton's win over UT-Rio Grande, their star Kalkbrenner scored 49 points (pretty incredible) - but how he did it, and how Creighton won, was interesting. Kalkbrenner was a ridiculous 20-22 FG!!! and 7-8 FT. But though Creighton scored 99 points, they just had 3 players in double digits in points - 1 of whom had just 11 points ... Kalkbrenner had 49, and 1 other player had 25 points - and THAT oddity came with only 3 made FG's - and 17-17 FT!
b) Wisconsin's John Tonje - fascinating season so far ... really odd. First, this is his 6th season ... odd enough on its own. His best season ever was 2 seasons ago, for Colorado State, averaging 14.6 points per game ... previously he had averaged 6.6 ppg as a sophomore and 9.1 ppg as a Junior ... then played just 8 games for Missouri last year - averaging just 10 minutes per game. due to a foot injury pre-season and during the season. So, for one thing his scoring is ridiculously high (to his credit) so far this season, averaging 23 ppg ... and yes, he had a crazy 41 points against Arizona - but he also had 23 in the 1st game, and 13, 17 and 19 in his other games. What is also an oddity is HOW he is scoring: 41% of his total points are from the FT line (on 47-49 FT on the year - career 83.5% FT shooter). He got a crazy 22 FT attempts (made 21) versus Arizona ... but he also was 10-10 vs UT-Rio Grande, AND was 8-9 and 8-8 in 2 other games (0 FT attempts in 1 game). That is just really odd, I find.
If anyone has any other oddities, I love to see them - because this is definitely the silly season, with loads of strange, skewed, small sample-size stats.
1) Early season college basketball often has many oddities ... specifically, teams often struggle. The key for an NCAA bid down the road is to SURVIVE and somehow fund a way to win to avoid a bad loss. For all I know REU will struggle at some point and take a bad loss. So far, RU has struggled just a bit in 2 games, but won - especially vs St. Peter's (the game against Monmouth was never in doubt - so some 2nd half defensive struggles, but pulling away several times). The latest exhibit: Wisconsin, last night (and Wisconsin is having a heckuva a season, so far, no?). Wisconsin beat UT-Rio Grande Valley ... by 3 ... 87-84 ... after trailing by 52-48 at the half. UT-Rio Grande Valley is now 3-3: They beat 3 poor teams (well, 2 really poor teams and a who knows whether they are good team), and have now lost to 3 decent to very good teams (by 20 to Nebraska, by 13 to Creighton - though it was not really that close, and now by 3 to Wisconsin)
2) There are also stat and individual performance oddities ... too many to keep track of, of course. Here are a couple I found fascinating:
a) In Creighton's win over UT-Rio Grande, their star Kalkbrenner scored 49 points (pretty incredible) - but how he did it, and how Creighton won, was interesting. Kalkbrenner was a ridiculous 20-22 FG!!! and 7-8 FT. But though Creighton scored 99 points, they just had 3 players in double digits in points - 1 of whom had just 11 points ... Kalkbrenner had 49, and 1 other player had 25 points - and THAT oddity came with only 3 made FG's - and 17-17 FT!
b) Wisconsin's John Tonje - fascinating season so far ... really odd. First, this is his 6th season ... odd enough on its own. His best season ever was 2 seasons ago, for Colorado State, averaging 14.6 points per game ... previously he had averaged 6.6 ppg as a sophomore and 9.1 ppg as a Junior ... then played just 8 games for Missouri last year - averaging just 10 minutes per game. due to a foot injury pre-season and during the season. So, for one thing his scoring is ridiculously high (to his credit) so far this season, averaging 23 ppg ... and yes, he had a crazy 41 points against Arizona - but he also had 23 in the 1st game, and 13, 17 and 19 in his other games. What is also an oddity is HOW he is scoring: 41% of his total points are from the FT line (on 47-49 FT on the year - career 83.5% FT shooter). He got a crazy 22 FT attempts (made 21) versus Arizona ... but he also was 10-10 vs UT-Rio Grande, AND was 8-9 and 8-8 in 2 other games (0 FT attempts in 1 game). That is just really odd, I find.
If anyone has any other oddities, I love to see them - because this is definitely the silly season, with loads of strange, skewed, small sample-size stats.
