We Like Stats, Stats Are Fun

In the year 2015, if you're a basketball stat nerd of worth you tend to lean toward advanced statistical measures to value a team and players. This "tempo-free" stats try to remove certain variables related to the speed of play to analyze statistics on a level playing field. But where's the fun in that? Sure they may be "advanced" and probably more "accurate" and "realistic measures" if you want to get all fancy with it - but piss on that. Today we're going to celebrate the sexy statistics that Hoiball produces on their own merits.

All stats are conference play only and can be found on the Big 12 stats page. All stats are current as of 2/19/15.

Team Stats

If Hoiball is to be defined, it is running, sharing and scoring, in whatever order is most beautiful. Below are the conference season team statistics of significance and ISU's ranking.

Scoring Offense: 1st - At 77.0 PPG almost 5 points higher than second place Kansas

Scoring Defense: 10th - Bleh, defense is gross. ISU really is within 2 PPG of the 9th place Mountaineers & 4 PPG of 8th place Cowboys, so not that terrible.

Scoring Margin: 3rd - Our offense is more good, than the defense is bad. Hooray!

FT%: 7th - at 66%, really less terrible than some games make it feel.

FG%: 1st - Hoiball

3FG%: 3rd - Hoiball

Assists: 1st - HOIBALLLLLLLLL!

Rebounding: 4th - Solid, if we could play OSU every night we may lead the country

Blocks: 5th - McKay alone would rank 9th as a team in conference

Steals: 9th - Only Texas steals it less, and minus Morris we'd be 10th

Individual Stats

Scoring

6th: Georges Niang - 13.5 PPG
14th: Monte Morris - 11.6 PPG
20th: Jameel McKay - 10.8 PPG

McKay debuts in the top 20 for the first time (and Dejean-Jones drops out of it) after a big showing against OSU.

Rebounds

6th: McKay - 6.6 RPG
17th: Bryce Dejean-Jones - 5.4 RPG
19th: Niang - 5.2 RPG

McKay is climbing the rebounding ladder, jumping 3 spots after OSU, he's been such a good scorer and shot blocker that his rebounding contributions are sometimes overlooked. Dejean-Jones & Niang continue to contribute on the glass, but both are dangerously close to dropping out of the top 20 for the first time this season. Dustin Hogue is notably absent, but he has increased his rebounding in conference, averaging 5.0 RPG. I would expect him and BDJ to swap places on and off the list by year end if Bryce continues to see limited minutes.

Assists

1st: Morris - 5.62 APG
10th: Niang - 3.00 APG

Morris is the conference leader, with only West Virginia star Juwan Staten within an assist per game of his mark.

Steals

2nd: Morris - 1.85 SPG

Morris is actually tied for second with the more widely discussed ball-thief Javon Carter of WVU. Surprisingly Baylor has FOUR players in the top 15 in steals.

Blocks

2nd: McKay - 2.54 BPG

After collecting 9 blocks in the last two games, McKay has trimmed Myles Turner's (Texas) lead to 6 blocks. No one else in the top 15 appears to be in contention for the top spot.

FG% Overall

3rd: Morris - 49%
12th: Niang - 44%

Morris is shooting exceptionally well inside considering he's having an off season from behind the arc. Niang has been money as well and is actually hitting at a better clip from behind the arc (45%) than his overall.

3PT FG%

8th: Naz Long - 41%

Niang actually dropped off the minimum of 1.5 makes per game (he is at 1.46). His 3 point percentage of 45% would rank him 5th in conference. 3sus is the only Cyclone in the top 15, because all ISU does is shoot threes (I'm not bitter).

3PT Makes

6th: Long - 25
15th: Niang - 19

Naz and Georges again pace the Cyclones from the promised land.

Free Throw%

--

So ... nobody in the top 15 for FT% ... yeah. Actually BDJ was here last week, but has apparently fallen off in either percentage or minimum attempts.

Assist/TO Ratio

1st: Morris - 4.06
11th: Niang - 1.08

Like 1st place was ever in doubt. Surprisingly Niang checks in at 11th place with a 1.08 ratio. This apparently means having an assist / TO ratio greater than one is something only about 10% of conference players accomplish at all.

Thoughts

• I'm surprised how good at rebounding McKay has been. Granted he is very tall, but I was not expecting to see him inching towards the top 5 in the conference with his limited minutes early on.
• Niang is his usual all around self showing up in 6/10 categories, and the 3 pt shooting has been stellar
• Morris is right behind Niang ranking in 5/10 categories
• McKay only shows up in 3/10, but damn: 20th Scoring, 6th Rebounds & 2nd Blocks is a helluva debut season

Attendance

The Big 12 website shows Home & Away attendance. ISU is unsurprisingly in 2nd place in Home attendance with an average of 14,384 per game behind only Kansas (16,300 per), which effectively means that they both sell out at home. As the draft of this article was written Tuesday, ISU was actually ranked FIRST in overall attendance - apparently drawing almost 1,300 more fans to AWAY games than Kansas*. Then we go and play Oky State in their empty barn and all of a sudden we're back to 2nd. Thanks for nothing Cowboy fans.

*eat shit Jayhawks