I saw the comments yesterday where they talked about benching Diboundje. The justification was he didn't defend and rebound. The rebound part is true. When you look ECU as a team though it is one of the best rebounding teams in the nation so far. 62nd out of 363 teams in Rebound Rate at nearly +4 a game rebounding on the season.
How big of an issue is this teams rebounding really that it gets you benched vs Campbell, UNCW, and Coppin State? I think it's a pretty thin when you look at the totality of everything else. The rebounding rate also was significantly worse the last 3 games that he's not played much in. ECU even won the South Carolina game comfortably despite it being the worst rebounding game of the year. Other aspects obviously matter too, and points are what's on the scoreboard and win the games.
Rebounding Link
There are also only so many rebounds available in every game for the team anyway. If the team is one of the best rebounding teams at some point you are just competing with your own teammates for rebounds. The famous example of this is Russell Westbrook was taking all the rebounds from D. Sabonis when they played together. Sabonis's rebounding rate was about doubled by the next season when he was traded. Some of that is at play here too with a team that is 62nd in rebounding.
To make it completely as apples to apples as possible for the players competing for minutes in the post or SF let's take a look at the raw per 100 possessions.
per 100 possessions
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There are only 2 players with a positive net rating and Diboundje by far
leads that. Bayela is a better rebounder,
but what about everything else he is
allowed to play through. Pinedo's rebounding rate and defensive rating is even worse and
he's playing directly under the basket at Center in all of his minutes.
He's seen his minutes go up as Diboundje's have gone down. What does he do that Diboundje couldn't at 2 inches shorter and about the same weight?
If we are talking actual numbers there really is zero comparison in value produced on the court between Diboundje and these other players. He isn't a foul or turnover waiting to happen either like most of these other guys and rebounds seems like the least of ECU's worries by comparison. Diboundje also has the highest Assist to Turnover rate on the team by a mile. 2.3, next closest is Small at 1.7. His defense isn't great sure, but he has the highest Offensive Rating on the team and is still a much bigger overall positive on the court by the numbers even when you factor in defense. It just doesn't add up in the tangible results.
I posted this on another board about the High point game . But wanted to stress how great the defense was and the gameplan I believe Schwartz put in. High Point scores a lot of points but they score a lot of 2s and 3s. They had 478 points on 2s, 264 on 3s and 194 on FTs coming into the game. They get to the line 27 times per game, that is a lot. Their philosophy is to go by their man and either get to the basket for a layup, get fouled and go to the line or kick for a open 3. They did not run a ton of offensive sets because that takes too long and they want to push pace and gets shots up quickly. They are #1 in pace for the nation.
ReplyDeleteWhat we did was just perfect to stopping them. Our defense switched on every high ball screen and our guys are all quick enough to do that. Ausur and BJ can cover a guy 20 ft from the basket. They could not get by us at the 3 point line so they were forced into terrible shots. When you can't get by someone you cant get to the line and you cant force the defense to help and kick for an open 3. They were forced to take wild 1 on 1 shots most of the game which are low percentage. They just couldnt get past us and instead got to the line only 22 times, 5 under their average, they shot horrendous from the field. It was a great game plan and the players played amazing defense with switching and rotating. It was the best defensive performance I have seen since the Herrion years.
good observations
DeleteI agree the defense was very good, but some of High Point's numbers were blown up by putting up 109 and 100 on non D1's, and having that high pace. Taking out non D1's and with what ECU did to them last night they are 143rd in offensive efficiency.
ReplyDeleteThey did that without Bayela and with Diboundje playing those minutes too. This team doesn't need more rebounding out there, they grabbed 60 and +16 more than High Point last night and Diboundje still only had 2 in 15 minutes. The team rebound rate is up to 53rd out of 363 teams now after the game.
This is only one game but the team rebounding or Diboundje's defense hasn't been the the issue this season. They also need his offense especially in this game like this one over Bayela because the flip side is the offense was as bad as the defense was good on a team that was giving up 78ppg coming in to with that pace. High Point gave up 83 to one of the D2's. ECU shot 30% FG's 21% 3's and 47% FT's.
Diboundje has been better on the court. I like seeing the best players play but I'm not sure you can credit the staff for adjusting since Bayela was being held out for being late.