for those that haven't seen him play - here are some highlights (he usually wears a headband & the #4):
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email timande@optonline.net

Thanks,

Tim

Here is my report from the Westtown game at Philly U this evening:
https://villanova.n.rivals.com/news/scouting-the-westtown-trio

Tonight the (still) Kenpom #1 Cats take on the Seton Hall Pirates (again)



Kenpom #44 (#99 Offense / #28 Defense)

13-4

Big Wins: #23 Wichita State, #47 Providence, #86 Georgia
Losses: #112 Long Beach State, #63 GW, #1 Villanova, #40 Creighton
Opponents Punched: 0

Since we left the Hall they have lost 82-67 to Creighton at Home and beat Providence 81-72 on the road while holding the Friars to only .91 points per possession.


SETON HALL OFFENSE



Shot Selection: 38% Rim / 34% Mid-Range / 28% Three

Ranked #99 by Kenpom

The Good

• Shoots the ball a little above average from 2pt range (lots of shots at the rim) and a little below average from three.
• Great offensive rebounding (#28)
• Gets to the line at a high rate (#65)…. And believe it or not it’s everybody but Whitehead that’s getting to the line.

The Bad

• Really high turnover rate (#271). They had only 12 against Villanova last time out but are prone to blow ups like their 19 turnovers against Providence (which they somehow won anyway)
• Tons of steals (#296)
• Terrible Free Throw Percentage 65% (#284)

This team is going to come right at you on offense… sometimes reckless & out of control but they are coming at you. They will draw fouls, they will crash the offensive boards (because Isaiah Whitehead is just throwing hand grenades at the basket). And because this is Seton Hall you can expect plenty of mid-range shots.

Our success holding Hall to .93 points per possession last time out had a lot to do with allowing 40% at the hoop (and limiting Hall to only 18 shots at the rim), 30% mid-range (on high volume of 26 shots).


SETON HALL DEFENSE


Shot Selection: 37% Rim / 31% Mid-Range / 32% Three

• The defense is the strength of this team, #34 in Kenpom
• #42 2pt defense #50 3pt defense
• #58 Turnovers
• #92 Blocks
• #48 Steals
• They give up fewer than average 3pt attempts #68

Overall Seton Hall has done a great job forcing turnovers and dictating opponents shot selection. By limiting FT Attempts and 3pt attempts they force opponents to take 2pt shots, a lot of which are in the midrange. They also do an excellent job of defending at the hoop. Interestingly they are not defensive rebounding that well, ranking #233. Particularly surprising given how good they are on the offensive boards.


THE “STARS”

ISAIAH WHITEHEAD (6-4) Soph



The poster child for inefficient shot selection: 19% Rim / 42% Mid-Range / 39% Three

• Shoots a massive number of mid-range shots but only connects on 35% of them… that’s it. 31% from three and 50% at the rim.
• Takes the 26th most shots in college BB.
• Seems the narrative is that he is much improved in his Sophomore season, but I’m not seeing it in the numbers. All of his metrics are similar or slightly improved from his freshman year.
• Somehow every announcer still considers him a star, and a pro prospect.
• But whatever he has his own fan website www.isaiahwhitehead.com

KHADEEN CARRINGTON (6-3) Soph

• Killed us at their place last year for 17 points (9-10 at the line), a very quick guard. Last game he put an efficient 14 points on 4-8 from 2, 1-3 from 3, and 3-4 from the line.
• Shooting 35% from deep
• Excellent finisher at the rim (63%)

DERRICK GORDON (6-3) Senior

• Who the heck is this guy?
• Transferred to Seton Hall after spending his freshman year at Western Kentucky, and two years at UMASS.
• Not much of a long range shooter (25% from 3)
• But slashes and gets to the line at a very high rate. (but none last time out)
• Turnover prone
• Had a rough game last time, going 4-13.

DESI RODRIGUEZ (6-6) Soph



The anti-Isaiah Whitehead shot selection: 44% Rim / 26% Mid-Range / 31% Three

• Most efficient offensive player on the team.
• Great offensive rebounder
• Skilled robber: #39 in steals
• Draws a ton of fouls
• Shooting 68% on FT / 68% at the Rim / 32% Mid-Range / 38% 3pt
• Shoots a lot more from the left side of the court, literally double the shots. Carrington does the same thing which I thought was really odd until I looked back at Whitehead’s shot chart, which is very slanted to the right side of the court. Whitehead has taken 53 shots left of the key for a 34% eFG and 71 shots right of the key for 44% eFG. Players will often shoot a little more from one side of the court but not so much that it changes other players on the team.
• Has the ability to go off: 19 pts against Marquette, 18 against Wichita State.
• He’s the guy that worries me most, he is dramatically improved from last year, but had a miserable game last time going for 7 points making only 1-8 from the field. Maybe the tension with Willard contributed, but he did see normal minutes that game.

Now seems like a good time to quote myself from my notes about the Mary Kline Classic a couple years ago…

“Seton Hall has a loaded class, they will be good in a couple years. Only problem is all 4 of them never saw a shot they didn’t like. You can already tell there will be attitude issues along the way as well. Good luck Willard, this won’t be easy.”

Yup


ANGEL DELGADO (6-9) Soph

• Excellent rebounder
• Struggles on the line (55%)
• Shooting 66% at the rim / 41% Mid-Range
• We basically owned him last year, and did again last time out. He only had 4 points and 4 rebounds.

This game is very worrisome as the Hall beat us last year at their place 66-61 in overtime. The game was an assault on the eyes, featuring 48 total fouls and Villanova shooting 38% from 2pt and 21% from 3pt. Hall will look to muddy up the game again and defend their home court. I’m glad this game is at 9:00 on a Wednesday this time around, last year it was a noon Saturday game and the place was packed and rocking (at the time Seton Hall was 11-2 and the fan base believed their program was Lazarus raised from the dead, and Whitehead to be Jesus… they went 4-13 after that game). The late start should temper the crowd I would think.


OTHER NOTES

• 
  
• Wil D Cat keeps getting so much robot love… Kenpom #1 (#12 SOS) / RPI #1 (#1 SOS)
• Buddy Hield is still running away with KPoy, he deserves it.
• Josh is up to #3 and Chef #5. They are still the only teammates in the top 10.
• Duke has the 126nd ranked defense.
• Villanova is the #18 Offense / #4 Defense
• The only teams undefeated in conference are: Indiana, Iowa, Texas A&M, UNC, and Villanova. Winning in conference is hard.

Like the Georgetown game going to be a tough cover.

Tuesday

6:30 Butler @ Providence (Fox Sports 1)

8:30 Georgetown @ Xavier (Fox Sports 1)

I think Providence will right their ship tonight at home. They beat Butler on the road by a fair margin and should TCOB. That would put Butler at 2-4 in league play and move Prov to 4-2. A butler win muddies the middle of the conference standings even further. Kenpom has it at 60% chance of Providence winning and a score of 76-73.

Xavier was 3-0 against GTown last season and kenpom has 78-65 win for X w/ 89% likelihood. I don't give the Hoyas much of a chance in this game. Road games against Providence, Creighton, Butler and Georgetown still remain for X - they have a lot of bullets to dodge if they want to make the 24 Feb game at their place against 'Nova a game where the conference title is on the line. The last two games after that for X are @ Seton Hall and home against Creighton. The Cats have 3 games after playing X and it is an easier slate - @ Marquette, home against DePaul and Georgetown. Just goes to show how valuable the road wins are - Cats already tallied road wins at 3 tough places (Creighton, Butler and Georgetown). X has won at SJU and Marq. Cats have the better record against the tougher schedule and already held serve against X at home.

...all three are doing pretty well elsewhere.

Mislav Broja is at Evansville and is their sixth man. Plays about 24 minutes a game and is scoring about 8 PPG, while shooting the ball very well. His 3FG% is around 44%.

Arch Yacoubou is at St. Louis and is their leading scorer around 12 PPG. Interestingly, he was know as a shooter while at Nova, but he is shooting rather poorly at SLU.

Marcus Kennedy is at SMU, one of the top 20 teams, but his role has been diminished from his prior seasons. He is a part-time starter and is averaging about 9 PPG. He is still shooting very well from the floor, but his minutes have decreased significantly this season.

This should end well.

If you're looking for somewhere to watch the 'Nova-Seton Hall game, a bunch of us will be getting together at Gullifty's (http://www.gulliftys.com/) at 1149 Lancaster Ave. in Rosemont. Although the game isn't scheduled to start until just after 9 p.m. on CBS Sports Network, we'll have a large portion of the bar area reserved starting at 8:30 p.m.

All ages are welcome.

The game will be on a variety of big-screen TVs throughout the bar area, and, as always, the audio will be on.

quade 26

Good game

SCORING DEFENSE......FOURTH IN THE NATION......AT SIXTY POINTS PER GAME""..................FIELD GOAL PERCENTAGE DEFENSE......TENTH IN NATION.......THIRTY SEVEN PERCENT.......BOTH CATEGORIES COMBINED PUT US IN THE TOP.......ONE PERCENTILE....DEFENSIVELY.........INDIVIDUALLY....RYAN ARCH HAS COME A LONG WAY...DEFINITELY QUICKER FROM EARLIER IN HIS CAREER......KRIS JENKINS WILL NEVER PASS THE LOOK TEST...BUT HE IS FAR FROM A POOR DEFENDER....HE IS UNDERRATED DEFENSIVELY......DO TO HIS BODY TYPE......NOT GREAT....BUT GETTIN BETTER.....

... how many would find it useful if I updated this every day through the Big East Tournament:
https://villanova.n.rivals.com/news/2015-16-big-east-tracker

Playing at SMU right now. I'm sick and tired of reading about that corrupt program and coach.

44-19 at the half.

Rock stars. Xavier loses at home to GTown by 9, no way I saw this one coming. First time all year Xavier has been out rebounded. JTIII told the announcers before our game that his team had put behind their early season struggles. Just goes to show how impressive our win Saturday was.

#1 by next week?

were all coaching at today's Episcopal-Germantown Academy bball game...EA wins by 1

Discuss






"..these were his favorite foods."

Not sure if this has been brought up before, but is the 2-3 being introduced now subtley as a March option. You can't just play a new defense like this well in March without working on it live during the season. It's almost like a different "personnel group" in football, where we bring in a longer group with Ryan, Josh, Bridges, Kris, Chef. I'm wondering if this is being implemented to play against the Cat Barber types who are real dribble penetrate guys and stopping them might not be this teams forte. If we played 2-3 against NC State and forced them to shoot from the perimeter and limited dribble penetration, would that have helped. Also, it makes us longer and stronger on the glass which could also help us against larger, more athletic front lines. Those are typically the two reasons you go 2-3: you don't match up well in man and you don't want to get your boards pounded (as long as you check out...).

Wondering if Jay is playing this now and if we see that NC State dribble penetrate guy with some athletic bigs and limited shooters - the 2-3 becomes an option that we play fairly well as we've worked it during the regular season in a semi-stealth way where a March opponent wouldn't spend much time prepping for it as it's far from our base defense.

Also - looked at the 8/9 line. Lunardi has us playing the ND/UConn winner in Brooklyn. I think we all throw up with that draw. Other 8/9's way more palatable include GW, Cal, Indiana, Valpo, etc. Often in March there is some "be careful what you wish for". I do hope though that one way or another UCONN plays it's way off of our line.

Before the season started I posted that we would be a much better shooting team than last years, but a far worse team in terms of defense and rebounding. So far, it looks like I pretty much had it as wrong as you can be. While like everyone else I am thrilled with this team's effort, I still think we need to improve our shooting if we expect to succeed in March. While we are not a bad shooting team, we could certainly improve. Arch, Brunson, Booth, Josh, Kris and even Bridges all have the potential to be pretty good shooters. I can't put my finger on it, but I suspect that one of the reasons they are not shooting collectively as well as I would like,is that they are still adjusting to the different roles that they play on this team. I know that sounds crazy after 18 games, but it has taken a while to settle the point guard role and that may affect all 3 guards. Jalen and Phil are still adjusting to bigtime prime minutes and Arch has moved around a lot. the same could be said for the 3 forwards who are also still adjusting to their new roles, Josh, obviously less so. I am hoping that the team shooting improves so we don't have grind out every game, but I recognize that it may not and that this is what we got. If so, it ain't pretty, but it ain't bad.

Rutgers loses to Purdue 107-57 at home tonight. Out rebounded by 35 and Purdue didn't commit a turnover until halfway thru the second half. Many fans thought the loss to Nebraska by 35 last week was rock bottom for the Scarlet Knights, but they were wrong.