Yes, I’m a little upset about UAPB’s 6 made threes in the final 10 minutes, let me have this.

For the past week Missouri has been experimenting with lineups and at the same time running roughshod over anyone who would dare set foot inside Mizzou Arena.

After setting records against Mississippi Valley State and dispatching of Pacific, they welcomed Arkansas Pine Bluff in and provided the Golden Lions just as much hospitality as they showed their previous two opponents.

Despite starting just 1 of 8 from the field, and looking up at a tied score after about 7 minutes of action, the Tigers began their race as they sped away for what would end up being a 27 point half time lead. A 23-1 run over the course of 6 minutes left the game in no doubt.

How Missouri won this game was different than the previous two. They didn’t shoot the ball well, but they attacked the rim and rebounded so well it didn’t matter.

Team Stats

Rebounding has been a point of contention of the last few years: but I think it’s worth mentioning Missouri played UAPB last year to open the season and won the expected rebounding battle by +2.8. From barely winning a rebounding battle to winning this one by +9 rebounds is a good step. After losing the rebound battle in the season opener, the Tigers have won each game since. They’re currently 180th in defensive rebounding in the country, which is better than being 358th last year.
Seventy-Nine possessions is a lot of possessions: and Pine Bluff seemed willing to play at the pace Missouri wanted, to their own detriment.
It’s really all what you’d want to see: dominance in the BCI, a high percentage of shots at the rim, more than doubling up on the free throw attempts, and ownership of the glass.

Player Stats

Your Trifecta: Mark Mitchell, Anthony Robinson II, Tamar Bates

On the season: Mark Mitchell 10, Caleb Grill 7, Tamar Bates 8, Anthony Robinson II 7, Trent Pierce 2, Marques Warrick 2, Aidan Shaw 1

Missouri hasn’t really needed much from Mark Mitchell over the last few games, so it was nice to see the Duke transfer to get on track a little. The early returns have shown Mitchell isn’t quite ready to handle the type of offensive load that Kobe Brown held two seasons ago, but with this roster he won’t need to. They just need him to be consistent and convert at the rim.

In all Missouri played 16 guys which I wasn’t sure you were able to do. Josh Gray was the only Tiger (non-walk on) to not register a point, and only four Tigers hit double digits. It was a lot of by-committee. Some may be surprised Ant Robinson wasn’t higher in the trifecta but that’s what happens when you turn the ball over! Box Game Score metrics don’t like turnovers.

It’s hard to take too much away from these statistical categories. Missouri wiped out UAPB, you expect Floor Rates and ORtgs to be high. The takeaways from these last three games are more about the forming of rotations, and that for the first time under Dennis Gates the Tigers aren’t playing with their food.

Since coming out of a lackluster performance against Eastern Washington, Missouri has annihilated their opponents. They’ve taken MVSU, Pacific, and UAPB all out of what they want to do and the leads have grown while the bench players have been in the game. If you didn’t already, click on the link at the top of this post and read Matt Harris’ lineup post over on Rockm.plus. Exploring what Gates has been doing with his second unit should provide us some insight into what it likely going to transpire once the competition steps up.

But in the meantime, at least Missouri is doing what they need to do against opponents they should beat handily.

True Shooting Percentage (TS%): Quite simply, this calculates a player’s shooting percentage while taking into account 2FG%, 3FG%, and FT%. The formula is Total Points / 2 * (FGA + (0.475+FTA)). The 0.475 is a Free Throw modifier. KenPomeroy and other College Basketball sites typically use 0.475, while the NBA typically uses 0.44. That’s basically what TS% is. A measure of scoring efficiency based on the number of points scored over the number of possessions in which they attempted to score, more here.

Effective Field Goal Percentage (eFG%): This is similar to TS%, but takes 3-point shooting more into account. The formula is FGM + (0.5 * 3PM) / FGA

So think of TS% as scoring efficiency, and eFG% as shooting efficiency, more here.

Expected Offensive Rebounds: Measured based on the average rebounds a college basketball team gets on both the defensive and offensive end. This takes the overall number of missed shots (or shots available to be rebounded) and divides them by the number of offensive rebounds and compares them with the statistical average.

AdjGS: A take-off of the Game Score metric (definition here) accepted by a lot of basketball stat nerds. It takes points, assists, rebounds (offensive & defensive), steals, blocks, turnovers and fouls into account to determine an individual’s “score” for a given game. The “adjustment” in Adjusted Game Score is simply matching the total game scores to the total points scored in the game, thereby redistributing the game’s points scored to those who had the biggest impact on the game itself, instead of just how many balls a player put through a basket.

%Min: This is easy, it’s the percentage of minutes a player played that were available to them. That would be 40 minutes, or 45 if the game goes to overtime.

Usage%: This “estimates the % of team possessions a player consumes while on the floor” (via sports-reference.com/cbb). The usage of those possessions is determined via a formula using field goal and free throw attempts, offensive rebounds, assists and turnovers. The higher the number, the more prevalent a player is (good or bad) in a team’s offensive outcome.

Offensive Rating (ORtg): Similar to Adjusted game score, but this looks at how many points per possession a player would score if they were averaged over 100 possessions. This combined with Usage Rate gives you a sense of impact on the floor.

IndPoss: This approximates how many possessions an individual is responsible for within the team’s calculated possessions.

ShotRate%: This is the percentage of a team’s shots a player takes while on the floor.

AstRate%: Attempts to estimate the number of assists a player has on teammates made field goals when he is on the floor. The formula is basically AST / (((MinutesPlayed / (Team MP / 5)) * Team FGM) – FGM).

TORate%: Attempts to estimate the number of turnovers a player commits in their individual possessions. The formula is simple: TO / IndPoss

Floor%: Via sports-reference.com/cbb: Floor % answers the question, “When a Player uses a possession, what is the probability that his team scores at least 1 point?”. The higher the Floor%, the more frequently the team probably scores when the given player is involved.

In attempting to update Study Hall, I’m moving away from Touches/Possession and moving into the Rates a little more. This is a little experimental so if there’s something you’d like to see let me know and I’ll see if there’s an easy visual way to present it.