KJ’s BB Newsletter         January 28, 2001  

MIDSEASON STATS

To compare teams and players, I use the Production Rating developed by fellow western Kansan Martin Manley.  The Production Rating adds those things that are positive contributions (points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals) and subtracts the negative things (turnovers, missed field goals, and missed free throws). That Production Rating can be divided by the number of games played to derive a Game Index, which shows how overall productive players (and the team) are on average per game.  The Production Rating can also be divided by Minutes Played to derive a Minute Index, which shows how productive players are while on the floor.

Since it’s approximately mid-season, it’s a fairly appropriate time to evaluate our favorite teams and players.   Third-ranked Kansas, of course, has the best team stats with a phenomenal 107.24 Game Index rating through it first 17 games. KU’s GI is second only to Duke, which sports an unbelievable 111.05 rating.  Stanford and MSU, the first and third ranked teams nationally, had ratings of 99.21 and 99.05, respectively.  ISU came in at 97.89 after 19 games, Iowa registered 82.63 after 19 games, and Drake compiled a respectable 80.76.  The Minute Index shows KU at .536, ISU at .471, Iowa with .408, and Drake .404.

GI = Points + Rebounds + Assists + Blocked Shots + Steals – Field Goals Missed – Free Throws Missed – Turnovers / Games Played.

Reggie Evans, Iowa’s powerful forward,  has the highest Game Index among players with 18.63, followed by four Jayhawkers: Kenny Gregory at 18.43, Nick Collison at 17.71, Drew Gooden with 17.53 and Kirk Hinrich at 16.71. Iowa’s Luke Recker came in at sixth with 15.76 and ISU’s Kantrail Horton registered 15.32.  Iowa native Collison registered the highest Minute Index, showing the highest production while actually playing, with .713.  Surprisingly, ISU’s Tyray Pearson came in at second with .682, followed by KU’s Gooden at .642,  Eric Chenowith at .631, and Gregory with .626. Cyclone center Martin Rancik had the sixth highest Minute Index with .562, followed by Paul Shirley with .554.  Reggie Evans, at .524 came in eighth.  Guards Hinrich and Oliver had .513 and .494, respectively.

TOP 20 PLAYERS

* Season over.

So who’s got the best starters and bench?

                        *Players with five best Game Indexes.    ** Remainder of team.           

An interesting statistic shows that ISU relies on it’s top seven players for 91.3% of the teams’ production, while KU’s top 7 generate 90.9% of it’s Game Index, followed by Iowa with 85.5% and Drake at 81.9% from their top seven cagers.  It’s worth noting that  Drake lost 43.6% of its production index when four players were declared ineligible.

EVANS MVP

I read all the preseason mags, faithfully read the USA TODAY sports section (internet version), watch ESPN and Fox Sports regularly, catch almost all of my favorite teams televised games, daily pore through the Des Moines Registers sports section, particularly on Sunday, regularly write and publish a basketball newsletter, and I almost always stay up to catch the ten o’clock news for the latest basketball news.  So, I consider myself to be pretty well informed about basketball, both present and past.  One thing I do know for sure is that the national sports media experts, in general, don’t include Iowa’s Reggie Evans on their All-American lists. You know it’s Duke this, Stanford that, etc.  Iowa doesn’t get a lot of press in the large media centers.

At this stage of the season, though, if it isn’t Duke’s Shane Battier, who has the nation’s highest production Game Index of 22.25, Reggie’s got my vote for MVP.  The guy’s a HORSE. An athletic and productive horse.  If not the national MVP, he’s certainly the Hawkeye’s best player, as evidenced by the Production Indices above.  I see tremendous NBA potential.  He’s got the size, strength, speed, demeanor and court smarts that pro scouts love and I predict he’ll definitely be a first-round choice in the NBA draft, possibly a lottery pick.  Remember, you heard it here!

I should mention that Reggie had a lot of help from teammate Luke Recker in the Indiana game this Saturday. Recker poured in 27 points, leading the Hawks to a comeback win, 71-66, from a 17 point halftime deficit.  The win had to be sweet revenge for Recker, who played his first two years at IU, and whose presence at Iowa is reportedly the source of the publicized rift between Hawkeye coach Steve Alford and his mentor, recently fired Indiana coach Bobby Knight.

This win, over media favorite Indiana, should focus the press spotlight a little more on the Hawkeyes, and its star, REGGIE…….