tell me why you voted the way you did. I really want to know what’s behind the decisions.

Perhaps that means that player is a key contributor on defense… or perhaps that stat means absolutely nothing. Plus its not like the other players’ stats blow anything out of the water at the moment…

My completely blind guesses for who the players are, are as follows:

A- Casto
B- Kop
C- Capers

These are probably the only bench players/starters that have played over 20 minutes in any game—- except for Harmeling… Harmeling might be one of those players in question I suppose. But just like westsidecougar1 says… this poll is probably a trap and at least one of the players may be who we least expect.

Just because a guy can’t shoot doesn’t mean he’s not elevating the play of his teammates, or not making the team better. Isn’t the goal of any player to make his team better, whether through shooting or otherwise?

But only because I’ve read what Jo-Jo has to say on such matters previously.

I voted A, the main reason being that we’ve had enough games at this point to where it seems like 67% could be statistically significant. But to clarify, the poll choices should state both the actual number of games won by the players and whether such games are in Pac 10 play or against the Northwestern Minnesota Techs of the world.

Hazarding a guess as to Jo-Jo’s ultimate point with all this, I would say that the statistics just as easily show that when Player A (for example) is playing well, he gets more than 20 minutes, and thus the team is probably winning. Also, assuming he is a freshman, if all of the games this year are included then of course you’d expect the numbers to be high since the frosh got a lot more minutes in the blowouts earlier in the year.

I didn’t think about it much, but I put A. I was more interested is what other people put. I know the winning percentage is more and the FG% is less, but that is Bennett Ball…better defense = more wins.

I have to agree with westsidecougar. I didn’t like the starters at first on Saturday, but boy did they play well together. The offense looked like it was finally in sync. I know Bennett wants the bench involved, but ride that hot streak until they are exhausted. We are the Cougs, we need all the offensive streaks we can get. Kop actually looked good streaking to the hole on Saturday. I thought for 75% of the game our offense looked good.

I am actually scared to lose Taylor, Forrest and Baynes next year. They made our offense look good on Saturday. Hopefully, Thames, Chadwick, Motum and Brown can give us offensive help next year. Thames is the only one I think will be an impact. So, we are looking at Thames, Thompson, Kop, Casto and Enquist? Ouch!

this is not rigged, and it is not a trap. I was just honestly curious about what everyone would pick.

I left some of the details out so that people wouldn’t be swayed by their “FEELINGS” about players. I didn’t research those numbers with the intention of an outcome, or to prove a point, and to be honest; some of those numbers surprised me. I can see the predicament that Tony is in with the rotation, based on this group of players.

I chose player A, not because of the winning %, though I think that is significant, but because he was the only player that wasn’t the worst in any of the three statistical categories.

Maybe the difference between 20% and 15% shooting isn’t that big, but maybe it is when you consider that player C has taken nearly three times the amount of shots as player A.

And certainly 1.4 isn’t any better really than 1.2 in a/to ratio, or maybe it is when you consider the fact that player B’s ratio is thrown out of balance by one uncharacteristically efficient game, that if you had removed just that one game his ratio would have been a dreadful 0.75.

And as for the winning percentage, johnnycougar brings up a good point in “I would say that the statistics just as easily show that when Player A (for example) is playing well, he gets more than 20 minutes, and thus the team is probably winning.” But player A started each of the games that contributed to his winning % so that isn’t necessarily the case. Perhaps I would say the statistic shows that the teams was playing better when player A was on the court for more than 20 minutes. Chicken …. Egg ….. whatever.

None of these stats we compiled against cupcakes because those stats just don’t matter. These were taken from games against “like” competition.

By now you should all know who is who on this list. Though I don’t think anyone than cfred has taken a real stab at it, and he was wrong. I will reveal the truth tomorrow.

My guesses are:

Nik
Capers
Daven

When he’s doing well offensively, Nik’s defense gives us the boost we need to win more. My guess anyways.

Daven
Nik
Capers

I’m pretty sure about this.

One thing I forgot to mention yesterday, completely unrelated, is how damn good our offense looked when Forrest was in the lineup. Right now I’d rather have him taking threes than the magically poor shooting monster that is Harmwickthun.

Casto
Capers
Kop

I would like to see a lot more of Casto’s energy on the floor.

But if that’s the only information you give me, I’ll go with B.

Player A = Marcus Capers; who’s winning percentage was comprised of only three games, however the single loss came against UCLA, a game in which the Cougs (in my opinion) played some of their best basketball of the year. The two point loss was also a game in which Capers played exceptional defense against a real scorer in Josh Shipp, holding him to a single field goal.

Player B = Nikola Koprivica; who does have the highest shooting percentage of the three, and I will add the the assist/turnover ratio is skewed by the 5/0 performance against Cal on Saturday. Prior to that game he was at a 0.75.

Player C = Daven Harmeling; that’s right, 15% from the field in Pac-10 play. That number is astonishing to me. It’s not a sample size, it’s over the course of 11 games and 39 shot attempts. While the assist/turnover ratio is very high, he only has 1.5 assist/game over this time period, and generally doesn’t do much with the basketball in his hands, so the weight of that number is a bit deflated.

So there it is. Like westside said, there really isn’t a clear answer, so I guess it just come down to what Tony thinks is most important from the fifth starter. Capers gives you nothing in terms of offensive statistics, Koprivica is a turnover machine, and Harmeling can’t seem to do the one thing that gives him offensive value.

I’m interested to hear y’alls reactions.

This is probably the most commented on (non-game thread) post ever at cougcenter.