FINAL TVT: OOC, Conference, Post Season, Total Season

Mark BlankenbakerMay 13, 2013

Published Originally By CrumsRevenge

2013 is in the Books. We won the whole damn thing. Not bad.

I have the final TVT “top 5” for the team broken down into 4 parts; Total Season, OOC, Conference, and Post Season Tourneys. Some of the results might surprise you.

History

I started TVT, because I saw many fans devaluing Luke Hancock solely due to his shooting early in the season. We now know how hurt he was, but the reality was – he was chipping in quite a bit, just not with the 3 ball. He sure chipped in the 3 ball at the end of the year, but TVT was born.

I evaluate most statistical categories (good and bad), made a formula that takes the net of this statistics, and divide it by minutes played. A player gets a value, which essentially means: “When I play for 1 minute, I net the team ‘X’ amount of positive contributions”.

Note: I find it interesting to see how players move depending on the segment of the season: Total Season, Out Of Conference schedule (OOC), Conference league play (Conference), and Post Season Play (BET, NCAA).

I also tracked the team average for each leg of the season to see if we were rising or falling in production averages as the season progressed. As we all witnessed – in the post season, the averages freaking skyrocketed to levels not seen all season long. It was beautiful. That is peaking at the right time.

Final Season Rankings

I tracked 37 of our 40 games – not all played those full 37 (example, Gorgui was out for 7).

Team average: 0.48, which means that the team average – everyone factored in for all 37 games, averaged about 1 net positive statistic just slightly over 2 minutes played. That is a pretty good score

Full Season Top Performer: Gorgui Dieng (0.65)

Mr. Consistent delivering night in and night out. We will miss Gorgui next year.

Next 4: Smith (0.63), Behanan (0.58), Harrell (0.57), Siva (0.43)

Some usual suspects, and how nice to see Frosh Harrell in the mix for top performing “per minute played”? 37 games of tracking, and he is in top 5.

OOC ONLY Final Rankings

I tracked 10 of Louisville’s OOC games. This is how the team fared in those games.

Team Average: 0.53, an uptick compared to the entire season, not uncommon. The Big East is a battle, and we had some weak RPI’s in the OOC (mixed in with some toughies). Averaged about 1 net positive statistic just slightly less than 2 minutes played. That is above our season average, a strong OOC run for the cards.

OOC Top Performer: Russ Smith (0.81)

Whoa, Russdiculous blew the roof off the competition in the OOC schedule, and it helped “re-brand” the meaning of Russdiculous, and put him in the POY discussion with great games again some tough OOC matchups. This is a moderately insane score.

Next 4: Behanan (0.69), Dieng (0.63), Harrell (0.63), Siva (0.58)

None of the names on this list should surprise you.

Conference Final Rankings

I tracked all 18 games. This is how the team fared in those games.

Team Average: 0.48, Hit the season Average. Hardest run of the regular season not surprised to see a drop in production compared to OOC, averaged about 1 net positive statistic just slightly over 2 minutes played. That is a pretty good score.

Conference Top Performer: Dieng (0.84)

You can see why Dieng was the season’s leader. Averaging an extremely high score over a period of 18 games. Well done, big fella.

Next 4: Behanan (0.67), Smith (0.62), Harrell (0.56), Blackshear (0.57)

Behanan was bigger in conference play than people seem to remember, and the Frosh Harrell remains on the list. I guess we will keep him on the team. Blackshear finally shines for the team, and rounds out the top 5.

Post Season Final Rankings

I tracked all 9 post season games. This is how the team fared in those games.

Team Average: 0.63, That is not a typo. The team went nuts, from the starting 5, to the last sub in. They out produced their efforts at a higher level than any point in the season, playing the toughest opponents. Wow. The team was averaging 1 positive net statistic well inside of 2 minutes.

Post Season Top Performer: Dieng (0.70), SVT (0.70)

Many thought Luke would be near the top, but the reality is everyone on the team produced at a high level, so everyone moved up together and not as many changes in the order. SVT benefited hugely from a few production packed minutes where he only played 2 or 3 minutes, so consider Dieng your winner, and I will toss SVT out of the top 5. He did play well for us though, and should be noticed, that is why I listed him above for peeps to see.

Next 4: Smith (0.63), Harrell (0.67), Behanan (0.56) Hancock (0.55).

The “next 4” all return for the Cards. That makes me happy. Siva finished 6^th, but his contributions are not just measured on a stat sheet. He will go down as one of the great floor/team leaders ever. His calming effect on the team, and his ability to turn a team into a brotherhood should always be remembered.

Final Thoughts

We are returning 6 of the top 8 TVT leaders. We lose #1, Gorgui Dieng, that is a factor. We are replacing our most productive player “per minute played” with an unknown commodity (Mangok), a reserve (SVT), or potentially a power forward (Harrell). I personally do not think Rick would play Behanan and Harrell together because the PF spot is a crucial one, and we don’t have a reliable replacement on the boards if they both get into foul trouble. I believe they will remained hitched to keep production steady. I think we will need to “out shoot” our lost production from Gorgui, and with the shooters we are adding – we might shoot better than our play on the court, and that is ok. As a coach much smarter than me once said “Shooting will hide a multitude of sins”.

A new year, a new challenge – is there anyone you would rather figure the new puzzle out than Hall Of Fame Coach Rick Pitino?

Not me.

Go Cards.