For an explanation of the Defensive Score Sheet go here. I'm also still looking for a replay of the Vandy game to do a DSS. If anyone happens to know where one might be (online) let me know.
Update: This is what I get for trying to do this quickly: there was a fairly substantial error in my spreadsheet for this game due to some incorrect entries. The corrected chart is now posted.
This was not a pretty game defensively, though there a few pleasant things to point out. There are also some puzzling results as well as one that is completely contrary to what I and most everyone else saw while watching the game.
I don't have any charts for this game - it just didn't seem to be worth it.
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- Terrence Jones
led the team in Defensive Ratinghad a good Defensive Rating despite not getting in on many shot attempts. Credit his 10 defensive rebounds and 3.5 forced Turnovers. It's odd because Jones guarded Kodi Augustus for most of the game and Augustus took 8 shots (made 3). -
Josh Harrellson was REALLY involved on shot defense. That's surprising to me since MSU attempted so many 3's. Almost every time the Bulldogs went inside, Harrellson got involved. His 31% usage rate (%TmDPoss) is the highest I've seen for a player with that many minutes.
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I was a bit surprised by Miller's rating, I expected it to be better than average, but I guess that's what happens when you don't grab any defensive rebounds.A second time watching the game largely confirmed by initial impression that Miller spent most of his time defensively out on the perimeter and when a shot went up he would break out towards the offensive end. My original intuition was correct about Miller, who was better than the team average by just a bit despite not getting any defensive rebounds.
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I was shocked by Sydney's stats. Not quite as shocked with Sydney's line now. Anyone watching the game knows he was not very good defensively. This is one of the weak points of the DSS - if a player doesn't involve himself in defensive plays he can come off looking better on paper than he actually was.
- Having said that about Sydney, check out his Usage Rate (%TmDPoss) of
18%11% - that's really, really low for a center/inside player (see Harrellson, Jones, Vargas, etc for comparison). That's an indication that Sydney was not getting involved in the defense which does jive with what we saw in the game. - Kodi Augustus guarded Jones most of the night and Jones really took him to school. If Terrence hadn't picked up his 4th foul with 10 minutes to play he might have had a 30 point night.
A couple of additional thoughts now that the correct chart is up.
- Bost and Augustus were the most involved players in the MSU defense as they spent most of their time guarding Knight and Jones respectively. The fact that Knight and Jones both had big games does not speak well to the defense.
- Vargas had another solid defensive game in limited minutes. His big moment came in the second half when he successfully defended Augustus after Jones had to back off due to 4 fouls.
- One of the things I keep my eye on is how closely the tracked estimates match up with the exact values from the box score. This game had the closest match by far between the two.