Thursday, February 18, 2010

Coaches Part 8 - Bracket Buster Edition

Once again I'm averaging the tempo free numbers over the last seven years for active non-BCS coaches at all schools where they coached. Today I tackle the Four Factors on offense. For additional amusement, I sort out some of this weekend's Bracket Buster battles at the top.

-Blaine Taylor has seven years of tempo free stats at Old Dominion and his teams are consistently among the best offensive rebounding teams in the nation. And even though I’m not listing defensive stats today, I'll tell you that Northern Iowa has one of the best defensive rebounding teams in the nation this year. Something has to give.

-Want a preview of a future coaching post? I’ve got one planned regarding Siena’s Fran McCaffery. After taking over in 2005-2006, his team has improved its offensive and defensive efficiency substantially in four of the last five years. This has been the ultimate turnaround and the team hasn’t peaked yet. Meanwhile Brad Stevens has taken over at Butler and kept the offense rolling in just about all areas.

-I love Gregg Marshall but all those years in the Big South didn’t help his efficiency statistics. On the other hand, since Ken Pomeroy has been keeping tempo free stats, Stew Morrill’s teams have been phenomenal at shooting the ball. This year the dominance is at the three point line where they lead the nation at 42.8%.

-William & Mary was once one of the top offenses in the country, but they have cooled off in CAA play. Tony Shaver’s teams have never been offensive juggernauts before, so perhaps it is no surprise to see the early offense was somewhat unsustainable. Remember in 2006-07 when Iona won 2 games? They are a lot better now.

-Ken Pomeroy loves Todd Bozeman, and he can add this stat to his reason’s why: Bozeman has the second best offensive rebounding percentage among active non-BCS coaches. But Billy Kennedy’s teams have traditionally shot better including 56.5% from two point range this year. Which is a better sign of inside muscle? Good shooting in the paint or good offensive rebounding?

So if Bozeman is number two in offensive rebounding, who is number one? And who is number one in the other factors. Scroll down to find out.

(The answers might surprise you but remember these numbers aren’t adjusted for quality of opponents. You might get a few more open looks in the Southern Conference.)