Saturday, November 12, 2011

Gm 1: +/- Player Analysis - Stony Brook

Welcome back to another addition of the +/- Player Analysis for your 2011-2012 Indiana Hoosiers! IU took on the Seawolves of Stony Brook on Friday night and prevailed in convincing fasion 96-66.

Key Players:

  • Cody Zeller - Wow can this kid play. One of the greatest attributes of Zeller possesses is his ability to let the game come to him. Zeller is the opposite of Bracey Wright, in the fact that he lets the game come to him and doesn't force anything. Zeller will be paramount to IU's success.
  • Super Sophs - Sheehey and Oladipo continue to impress Hoosier fans with their inspired play. Back when these guys were being recruited, many fans wondered why... I don't foresee them asking these questions anymore. These Super Sophs have turned their game up to another level, one that was not existent last year.
IU looked like a new team, but we did play Stony Brook. Let's hold the 23+ win comments until we beat someone we shouldn't beat. With that being said, let's jump into the +/- Player Analysis

+/- Player Analysis vs Stony Brook
*Just in case you forgot, here is a quick breakdown as to what the +/- Player Analysis is looking at.
Example:
Here is a quick example of how the +/- stat is determined. Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey start the game for IU. Therefore the score is 0-0. Coach Crean makes his first substitution at 15:00 with the score IU up 15-10. Oladipo comes into the game for Sheehey. For this stint in time, Sheehey would earn a +5 (while Sheehey was in, IU increased their lead by 5 points). The Lineup of Zeller, Watford, VJIII, Hulls and Sheehey also earned a +5. This will continue throughout the game.

Game Overall
Key Takeaways:
  • For the 2nd straight game in a row, Former Walk-on Daniel Moore led the team in +/-. The impressive thing with Moore in this game, is he was a part of a major run for the Hoosiers in the 2nd half that locked this game up. Moore's +15 in 6 minutes of play is a serious energy boost off the bench.
  • Cody Zeller - we talked about him above already, but Cody had the highest +/- of +27 for the night. Cody is the focal point of our offense now, and it is clear to see in the first two games that we are a much better ball club with him on the floor. I think we will continue to see this as the season progresses, especially in the +/-.
  • Hulls and Watford finished at the bottom of the roster this week. While might look at this and wonder what happened, remember this: "When Hulls and Watford were in the game, IU increased their lead by 10 and 8 points respectively. I cannot stress this enough, anything in the GREEN, means the player had a positive impact on the game and helped IU get to their 30pt win.
Lineups of the Night:

Key Takeaways: (click to enlarge)
  • This is a new chart this year, but the primary purpose is to see the flow of the game. The lineups are in chronological order from top to bottom (Start of the game to the finish). From this chart, we can see how each lineup did while on the floor together.
  • Overall, Coach Crean used 21 different combinations of players in the game. Of his 21 combinations, all but 4 lineups were positive. Crean also used two lineups twice in the game.
Best Lineup of the Night:
The best lineup of the night (+7) goes to Hulls, Oladipo, VJ3, Elston and Zeller. This unit was used two different times in the game (see lineup #31, #39 above). Coach Crean put this group on the floor with 9:00 minutes to go in the first half with IU tied 18-18. The group ended their stint two minutes later with a 1 point lead. The big push for this unit came in the second half with 16:20 to go in the game as they were able to increase a 16pt lead to 22 pts.

Worst Lineup of the Night:

The worst lineup of the night came at the end of the worst period of the game for the Hoosiers. The three lineups before this group entered, finished with a combined -3. At the 13:25 to go in the first half and IU leading 12-11. Hulls, Watford, Sheehey, Abell and Elston win the prize of being the worst lineup as in their 2 minutes played together, they ended up -5.

Season to Date:
As many people like to point out, looking at the +/- for one specific game is not entirely telling. Tracking this over the course of the year, will give a much clearer picture as to what each player brings to the team. Below is the updated season to date +/- for each player.There is nothing Earth-shattering here at this point, but it is nice to see Zeller with the highest +/- of +39, although he did this while playing the most minutes.

Lineup Combinations
Here are some quick stats related to the Lineups Tom Crean has used so far this year:
  • Coach has used 40 different lineups this year.
  • Of those 40, 30 of them are positive year to date.
  • Best lineup is +7 (team mentioned above)
  • Worst lineup is a 2 way tie for -5.
  • 5 lineups have been used multiple times this year.
  • Hulls, Oladipo, Sheehey, VJ3 and Zeller have been on the court together 3 separate times which is tied with the lineup of Hulls, Watford, Oladipo, VJ3 and Zeller for most this year.
Overall
IU played a great game tonight, it was one that IU fans needed and brought the excitement back to Assembly Hall. I would expect this to continue until the competition gets a little more fierce. Until next time.... Go Hoosiers!

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