Men's BBall: The Offensive Woes Detailed Out

Virginia Tech comes into their game against Maryland with a recent string of stronger defensive showings. The Hokies have held their last six opponents under 42% shooting, averaging a surprising 36.3% Field Goal Against Percentage. If they had managed to accomplish that over the entire season, they would be ranked #2 in the country in this category.

To understand how impressive that stat is, given how they played the rest of the season, Tech is currently #35 in this category on the season with a 40.1% against. Why is this important? Tech is one of only three teams in the top 50 in this category with a losing record. This statistic usually is a big indicator of Win-Loss success. How much so you ask? The average record of the Top 50 in this category is 20-9.

So how come a team with such a great number in that category has lost so many games?

I was reading this article over at Gobbler Country and it was like a cloud parted over the offensive end of the floor. This article does a great job spelling out how often Tech goes on scoring droughts (basket from the field) over the last two years.

The article's table details that this season alone we have had 64 scoring droughts of three and a half minutes or longer. I wanted to take this info a bit further so I calculated the total amount of time for these droughts. Just these 64 droughts represent 340 minutes.

That's eight and a half games of not scoring one basket from the field.

This goes to shot selection, clock management, ball control and just experience (or lack thereof) as this team continues to struggle consistently scoring the basketball. Too many times we see a guy opt for the three point attempt when he has the space to step in to make it a fifteen footer. Too often we let the clock run all the way down before we hail mary the ball at the basket.

Just to focus on the top guys: Eddie (35.9%), Wilson (39.4%), Emelogu (39.4%), Wood (36.9%) and even Adam Smith (38.4%)

This shows how much the outside shooting effects their overall shooting. Most starting guards shoot around 42-45% from the field. Small Forwards usually are around that same number.

The big guys have respectable numbers this season JVZ (50.4%), Barksdale (50.8%), and Raines (48.3%) compared to the norm which is about 50% from the field.

This was the most telling part of the article for me:

The Hokies are 319th in the nation in field goal percentage this season (.410) (down from last season's .426) and are 318th in scoring, averaging just 64.3 points per game (down from last season's 70 ppg). To put this in perspective: there are around 350 Division I college teams.

There are 345 NCAA teams just to clarify.

This isn't a category that will just improve overnight, but hopefully JJ works hard with his guys to improve these two areas by focusing on shot selection and the team continues to improve the defensive side that is on the rise.