Pete Tiernan of bracketscience.com plugged all the key stats of the 65 teams into a spreadsheet, performed his analysis and published the rankings in his multimedia blog ($). I extracted a few of the Wolverine-relevant categories, again, these are versus the entire NCAA field:
Field goal percentage differential versus opponents:
Best: Gonzaga (+.120)
Worst: Michigan (-.011)Percentage of three-point field goals attempted:
Highest: Michigan (.476)
Lowest: Washington (.205)Rebounding margin*:
Largest: Michigan State (9.9 rpg)
Smallest: Michigan (-3.1 rpg)
I’m not shocked by any of these stats, but if you handed me just the field goal percentage stat and the rebounding margin before this season, I’d of guessed Michigan would win about 10 games in 2008. I mean, we shot worse than our opponents and on top of that, we probably didn’t get off as many shots because we didn’t get any rebounds (although I think we do better on the offensive glass because we get some long rebounds).
Granted, this is a comparison against the best teams in the country, but still. Of course when you see the stat on the three point field goals attempted, we make up for our relatively poor shooting because shot for shot, our attempts on average are worth more if they find the net.
*If you’re wondering, when Michigan and Michigan State played on February 10, we actually outrebounded the Spartans on the offensive glass (9-8), but were edged out in the totals 31-28.
Vegas Says…
For some folks, the only stat that matters comes out of Vegas. Depending on your book of choice, Michigan’s coming off as a 5 to 5.5 point underdog for Thursday evening’s tilt against Clemson.
4 Comments
Chris
I hope Michigan can get a big man for next year. In the UCONN game, Michigan shot well enough to win, there was just absolutely no inside presence to clean up the boards. Go Blue!
Greg (MVictors)
Cronin can fill space; he’ll be there. They should be better as long as Harris and Peedi stay. I don’t think Peedi is close to being ready to jump, and Harris could refine his skills and add some muscle.
Bob
Actually, since we have a very low turnover percentage – and because we force a lot of turnovers – we probably end up taking about as many shots as other teams.
Greg (MVictors)
Bob, my point was looking at those statistics alone, you’d draw certain conclusions. ed 3/20 – BTW, Michigan’s in the bottom third of the tournament in turn-over margin as well.