Guru Special Report: Analytical Team View of the Guru D-1 Local Group of Programs - Season to Date

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

There is a new analytical blog/website this season called Her Hoop Stats https://herhoopstats.com/ run by Aaron Barzilai, who used to do analytics for the NBA Philadelphia 76ers. Many of the WBB bloggers are using different aspects for their stories on teams and players.

We dined recently and yours truly asked if he might be able to, for starters, come up with some trends team-wise at the outset of the Guru’s local group and he did so here is what he found.

And courtesy of Aaron in this update here are  his  links to all the teams alongside their names: 

Villanova https://herhoopstats.com/team/739

• 9th slowest pace in the country.  As a result, they are 132nd in points per game but really 41st (top 12%) in offensive efficiency (points per 100 possessions)
• 12th in the nation in 2P% shooting 52.9%
• 5th in 3P Rate, 47% of their FGA are 3PA
• They protect the ball, 7th in the nation in low turnover rate
• Temple https://herhoopstats.com/team/690
• Unfortunately very poor defensively, 322nd (bottom 8%) in points allowed per 100 possession.
• Penn https://herhoopstats.com/team/540
• Very poor at getting to the line, they are 9th worst.
• Strong offensive rebounding team, they are 36th in offensive rebound rate (top 10%). They get the board on 38.7% of their own misses
• Great at protecting the ball. 14th in low turnover rate
• 7th in block rate, they block almost 1 in 6 of opponent 2PA
• St. Joe's https://herhoopstats.com/team/606
• 30th in the country in offensive rebound rate (top 10%). They get the board on 39.2% of their own misses
• Rarely shoot 3s. They are bottom 10% in 3PA per FGA. less than 1/4th of their FGA are 3PA
• Rarely get steals. They are bottom 10% in steal rate
• An oddity: teams are shooting 78% from the FT line against St. Joes.  That's 2nd highest (worst) in the nation. Not sure why, may be they are fouling good shooters but more likely it's bad luck. I'd expect this to go down, so defense will look slightly better.  Median team is making 70%. 
• Related, St. Joe's fouls more than average. Opponent FT Rate is 40th %ile, meaning they are slightly worse than average.  So that accurate FT shooting by opponents hurts  
• LaSalle https://herhoopstats.com/team/340
• Rarely shoot 3s. They are bottom 10% in 3PA per FGA. less than 1/4th of their FGA are 3PA.  Not sure if that's a theme with Philly teams
• Really turn the ball over.  They are bottom 5% in D1 in turnover rate
• Don't force steals, they are bottom 10%. 
• Not letting opponents take 3s. Their opponent 3P Rate is 4th lowest (best) in the nation, only 23% of opponent FGA are 3PA.
• Drexel https://herhoopstats.com/team/191
• They play really slow, lowest 10% (actually 7%) of D1 in terms of possessions per 40 mins
• 2/3rds of their FGA are assisted.  That's top 5% in the country.
• Top 10% of D1 in terms of steal rate 
• Princeton https://herhoopstats.com/team/554
• 14th in points allowed per game. Helped by their slow pace, they are top 10% in terms of defensive efficiency
• 32nd (top 10%) in defensive rebound rate, much better than their def rebs per game because of slow pace.  They get the defensive board on 71.8% of opponent misses.
• Opponents don't shoot many 3s against them. Top 10% in opponent 3P Rate.  25.8% of opponent FGA are 3PA 
• Rutgers https://herhoopstats.com/team/587
• 29th in our Her Hoop Stats rating entering Wednesday night
• 13th in defensive efficiency, opponents only score 79.7 points per 100 possessions
• 4th in the country in steal rate
• 11th in the country in block rate
• Both of those are better than per game numbers because their pace is a little fast but not too fast. A few teams ahead of them play very fast.
• Defensive rebounding is a weakness. They are bottom quarter of D1 in terms of defensve rebounding rate, just grab 64.8% (less than 2/3rds) of boards on opponent misses
• Rider https://herhoopstats.com/team/576
• Top 12% in D1 in FT% (hitting 74.9%)
• Bottom 20th %ile in Off Reb Rate
• Only 50% of their FGA are assisted, both 14% of D1
• Foul a ton, their Foul Rate is 14th %ile (only 14% of teams foul more)
• Penn State  https://herhoopstats.com/team/539
• They give up lots of assists.  Opponents get an assist on 63.4% of their FGA.  That's 10th %ile for most assists allowed. Teams are moving the ball against them.
• Nothing else really stands out
• Delaware https://herhoopstats.com/team/180
• They've gone from one of the slowest teams each of the last 3 seasons to basically top quarter of D1 in terms of pace this year.
• With their high pace, their defensive efficiency is better than defensive points per game. Their defensive efficiency is top 12% of the country
• Among the worst 3P shooting teams. At 26% they are bottom 6% in terms of accuracy.  They are bottom 14% in 3P Rate (how often they take it, 25% of FGA are 3PA)
• They are top 10% in Def Reb Rate, grabbing board on 71.8% of opponent misses.
• Top 10% in Block rate too. They block 12% of opponents 2PA, or about 1 in 8.
• They are top 10% in terms of opponent shooting efficiency.  Teams average 0.88 points each time they try to shoot, including 3s and getting sent to the line.
• Lafayette https://herhoopstats.com/team/342
• Bottom 15% in terms of offensive efficiency.
• Good at 3s (top 21%), but bottom 10% in country in 2P%.  
• Bottom 5% in terms of getting to the line
• High turnover rate, they are among 10% worst teams. Turn it over on 23% of possessions.
• Lehigh https://herhoopstats.com/team/352 
• Top 5% in the country in terms of foul rate, they rarely foul.  
• Don't give up many assists. Their opponent assist rate is top 10% in the country.