Success By The Numbers

If you follow the blog at all you know how much I love numbers. If you know me you are then extremely confused because I hate numbers. In sports, numbers tell a story that is often forgotten and overlooked during the course of the game. Here are some key statistics from Monday's home opener against Anderson.

Plus/Minus

Alex Young: +30, 36 minutes

Christian Siakam: +29, 19 minutes

Leroy Nobles: +18, 35  minutes

Stephen Thomas: +13, 35 minutes

John Ashworth: +20, 32 minutes

Donovan Gibbs: +2, 13 minutes

Nick DeSchepper: +2, 4 minutes

Mitchell Patton: +3, 7 minutes

Nick Kitcoff: +6, 6 minutes

Anthony Williams: +1, 7 minutes

Sean Esposito: Even, 6 minutes

David Mazanowski: -3, ~1 minute

Stats By Line, > 2 Minutes

Young, Nobles, Ashworth, Thomas, Siakam:

11:36; +18; 9 rebounds; 6 assists; 4 turnovers; 3 steals

Young, Nobles, Patton, Thomas, Kitcoff:

8:44; +10; 7 rebounds; 2 assists; 2 turnovers; 2 steals

Young, Nobles, Ashworth, Thomas, Gibbs:

4:28; -2; 3 rebounds; 0 assists; 1 turnover; 0 steals

(13 other combinations under 2 minutes total)

Observations

While most of the numbers are in line with how you'd expect them to be against a smaller, slower team like Anderson, the statistic here that sticks out to me the most is Christian's +29 in just 19 minutes of play. Wow. If that's not reason enough to believe his presence on the court is important, I don't know what is.

Patton was definitely a better force inside than Gibbs, but they both seemed out of sorts.

If I were basing how the team were to finish solely on the #1 line, a berth in the NCAA tournament could come down to IUPUI scoring from the perimeter and Oakland scoring inside. If I were basing our future off of how the bench played, finishing about .500 would be great. Starters were a combined +110 to the bench's +11. 

In the first half, Ashworth and Thomas looked equally as bad. In the second half, Thomas stepped up and Ashworth didn't. Ashworth's plus/minus is fairly inflated, where as Thomas' is lower than you'd expect because he spent more time with more subs than Ashworth did.

Ron Hunter loves to sub, and sub often. As always. He'll need to figure out who his go-to guys are much faster than normal. Last year he had the best bench player in the conference with Jon Avery who was able to take over the front court. Gibbs, Patton, and/or others need to step up quickly. There isn't any room for error this year.

What else do you see in the numbers? Let me know!