Comments on: Defensive Charting vs Boston College

By: william

william — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:27:52 +0000

Then teams should play the weakest preseason schedule possible to ensure a perfect record for as long as possible. That goes against the whole movement the last ten years to judge teams based upon who they play, not their records.

I have seen several articles taking both points of view but Pittsburgh and Wake should not be rewarded for avoiding competition for a month and a half, but honestly, who cares? It only matters to the schools’ public information departments but rankings have zero effect on who wins the national title, unlike, say 25 years ago.

By: Chris

Chris — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 02:14:59 +0000

You base the ranking on how the teams have played so far to date. Not who you think would win the tournament should it be played right now. Even if you did, I wouldn’t rank Carolina number one given the way they played against BC. It’s simply and purely performance to date, period, not some hypothetical projection about how they would do in some hypothetical tournament right now. Pitt has done what Carolina hasn’t done, and that is, won all their games. They haven’t played poorly enough as yet, as Carolina has, to lose a game. That’s why Pitt is number 1. Duke being number 2 is only because the Carolina loss is much more recent than the Duke loss.

By: william

william — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:20:59 +0000

I agree that you don’t base it on projected improvement. You base it on, if they played the tournament, right now, who would win? It wouldn’t be Pitt. They barely beat FSU and Rutgers. With the exception of the win over Georgetown (something accomplished easily also by Tennessee, and now Notre Dame) Pitt has no victories that are impressive. Honestly, there still have not been enough tough games for anyone yet to arrive at anything conclusive. Neither Pitt, nor Wake nor Clemson has played more than one tough game, if any.

I must be misunderstanding the projected stop percentage and points allowed above, because that seems to indicate that Frasor did not play good defense. I wonder if anyone keeps a +- like they have in hockey.

By: heeledsoul

heeledsoul — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 00:10:57 +0000

i agree that the #1 rank is “best results to date.” it’s not a #1 rank on odds. for example, i don’t think the votes are designed to take into account how much the voters believe the players (especially the freshmen) will progress through to the end of the season. if they prove to be quick studies, the results (wins) should show that as the season progresses, and voters should vote based on tangible results.

so agree pitt is #1 for this week. i can see voters vote dook #2 although i believe UNC is clearly the better team. then from #4 down, i’m not sure.

also, i seem to recall that frasor has won quite a few of the defensive player of the game awards. i do see he has great fundamentals on defense but is at times too slow for the acc starting guards. does anyone know how many times frasor has won the award (total and acc)? or how i may be able to find out?

By: william

william — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 23:53:33 +0000

Jordan had no meat on his bones back then either. He was probably the key player in the game and seemed not to be intimidated by Ralph Sampson.

It is amazing how often the guys who end up having the best pro careers are really off the map in terms of their college careers. Guys like Pippen and Rodman and Karl Malone and many, many others are like that.

By: 52bgJ

52bgJ — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:41:55 +0000

Othell Wilson was one helluva player, and got overshadowed a bit by Ralph. I still marvel at the physical transformation of Sam from twig-thin college player, to a relative stud by the end of his NBA career. Sam has a special place in the hearts of many UNC fans!

By: 52bgJ

52bgJ — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:29:05 +0000

I seem to recall there being a lot of talk about Wayne possibly going pro after his freshman year–how ridiculous does that look now? I think this group in particular, (including Brandon in this conversation) is a fine example of why the system was broken, and needed fixing. I won’t even go into Calipari or Floyd here.

By: Chris

Chris — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 22:09:06 +0000

My vote for Number 1 would be for the team that has played the best basketball to date. Predicting who you think will win the tourney is a crap shooot, mainly due to injuries. I think losing a game in the manner that we did against BC disqualifies us for the Number 1 position.

By: Tar Heel Fan

Tar Heel Fan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:16:48 +0000

I saw that…not sure what standards they use for that. I know they have their own system of defensive charting which may resemble the information posted above. Kind of odd considering Frasor only played nine minutes. If he was that good defensively why did Roy sit him so much?

By: william

william — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:04:22 +0000

Roy Williams chose Bobby Frasor as defensive player of the game for Sunday’s loss versus BC.