UK By the Numbers – 12/14

Another week, another two tests passed by the ‘Cats with flying colors. Wins against Connecticut in a phenomenal neutral court atmosphere at Madison Square Garden and Indiana in raucous Assembly Hall moved UK to 10-0, the first time UK has started a season with a double digit win streak since 1992-1993.

UK also kept its status among the ranks of the unbeaten, while five previously undefeated teams in D-I dropped games, meaning there are only 12 left in the country, and UK is the only one in the SEC. Additionally, Villanova was one of those previously unbeaten teams to go down, which means UK will likely move up to third in the country when the AP and Coaches Polls come out tomorrow.

I’m not going to waste any more time, so here are the numbers:

The Race to 2,000

I know I didn’t expect UK to be in position to win big number 2,000 this early. It looks like the only delay now will be UK’s week long break between games for finals. Here’s how the schedule plays out:

Austin Peay – 12/19 – Likely win
Drexel – 12/21 – Likely win
Long Beach State – 12/23 – Likely win
Hartford 12/29 – Likely win

UK will be heavily favored in all four of these games and if they hold serve, they will win number 2,000 on December 21 against Drexel, which is exciting for me because I’m going to be there for that game. I’m sure we can look forward to some theatrics in Rupp and it’s cool that they’ll get the opportunity to do it at home.

Individual Stats

John Wall – 18.1 points per game (t-51st nationally)
7.1 assists per game (t-2nd nationally)
2.8 steals per game (t-19th nationally)

Patrick Patterson – 16.8 points per game (73rd nationally)
9.6 rebounds per game (39th nationally)
62.5 field goal % (1st nationally)

DeMarcus Cousins – 2.2 blocks per game (t-55th nationally)

Daniel Orton – 1.6 blocks per game (t-97th nationally)

RPI

Another good week has provided a good boost for UK’s standing in the RPI. They moved up to 23rd in the country from 35th. UK is actually now the top rated RPI team in the SEC.

The upcoming stretch of games is a perfect example of why John Calipari’s scheduling philosophy is waaay better than Billy Gillispie’s lack of a scheduling philosophy. Cal wants to avoid playing the teams that are rated below 200 in the RPI, because they drag you down all year, even if you beat them. Austin Peay and Long Beach State are 73rd and 36th respectively.

Ken Pomeroy

The win over Indiana was one of UK’s best performances across the board this season and the boost to UK’s ranking according to Ken Pomeroy bears that out. On the strength of the win, UK is now 43rd in the country, up from 58th last week. The rankings don’t really reflect the will to win that carried UK past many of its early season opponents, but they will reflect the improved all around play that I believe UK will continue to show.

The ‘Cats are now all the way up to 45th in the country in offensive efficiency at 111.2 points scored per 100 possessions, compared with 87th last week and 119th the week before that. The ‘Cats turned the ball over much less this week and moved the ball particularly well against IU, and those two things are responsible for the improvement.

On the defensive end, UK is now 61st at 92.2 points allowed per 100 possessions, which is actually down two spots from last week. UK could not seem to turn over the sure handed Hoosiers on Saturday and IU shot the lights out in the first half and those are the reasons why UK was relatively flat in this area.

I expect UK to go up quite a bit in these rankings playing against opponents that figure to be slightly overmatched by UK.

Also, Pomeroy updated his numbers this weekend to include some fun miscellaneous stats about each team’s personnel as well as individual statistics. Now that most teams have played over a third of their schedule, there is sufficient data to rate teams on their bench minutes, experience, and height. I’m sure you can guess that UK has some interesting numbers in these areas.

First of all, UK’s bench has played 28.9% of the team’s minutes to this point, which is well below the national average of 31.9%, putting UK at 232nd nationally. This gives some insight into the fact that UK has some depth, but that the dropoff from starters to backups is such that Coach Cal plays starters heavily, particularly Wall, Bledsoe, and Patterson.

Second, and we didn’t need any numbers to tell us this, but UK is one of the most inexperienced teams in the nation. Pomeroy rates UK’s average experience at .96 years or 332nd in the country, meaning that only 15 teams are less experienced than the ‘Cats. There are only three BCS schools with less experience (Indiana, Iowa, and Washington State) and only Washington State in that group has a winning record. This goes to show how amazing it is what Kentucky is doing.

One thing that is helping UK overcome their youth and inexperience is their sheer size. Pomeroy rates UK’s Effective Height at seventh in the country and UK’s average height at 11th nationally.

I always enjoy looking at Pomeroy’s individual stats because I think they are meaningful, and also because they are funny at times. He rates players “Go-to guys”, “Major Contributors”, “Signficant Contributors”, “Role Players”, “Limited Roles”, and “Nearly Invisible” based on stats, with funny results.

DeMarcus Cousins is the Go-to guy with some outstanding numbers in rebounding percentage, blocks, and fouls drawn per 40 minutes. John Wall is a Major Contributor, ranking nationally in a bunch of different areas. Eric Bledsoe and Darnell Dodson are Significant Contributors, while Patrick Patterson and Daniel Orton are Minor Contributors. Ramon Harris, Darius Miller, and Josh Harrellson occupy limited roles, while Perry Stevenson is Nearly Invisible, which is funny to me, but unfortunately kind of true to this point.

I love Pomeroy’s numbers, but I have no idea how players are labeled with roles.