I wanted to call attention to the excellent post by Pico Dulce over at Rumble In The Garden (THE BEST ST. JOHN'S RED STORM BLOG EVER!) that deals with Efficiency Ratings for each team in the Big East conference. Keep in mind this post is a couple of days old at this point, so the Villanova Wildcats game against the Seton Hall Pirates.
What's interesting about the below analysis - I feel like it's the complete opposite of what we've been seeing put out on the floor lately. I mean, are we REALLY performing at that level? Not a chance in hell in my mind.
The one thing that sticks out in my mind is the fact that we have been playing at a much slower pace than we have in years past. The last 2-3 years, we've been playing most of our games in the 70's and 80's. This year, it's the 60's and 70's for the most part.
Our defense has definitely improved, and we don't run as much, so that's definitely one of the reasons why we're scoring less. I still feel like there is no way that with the last 2 weeks of basketball we're still this high on the efficiency charts.
The graph, which is beautifully formatted thanks to Pico, is after The Jump.
| Team |
W
|
L
|
Pos/G
|
Offensive Efficiency
|
Defensive Efficiency
|
Efficiency Margin
|
Median Pom Rk, upcoming schedule
|
| Pittsburgh |
11
|
1
|
63.6
|
113.4
|
97.8
|
15.6
|
34.5
|
| Villanova |
7
|
5
|
64.8
|
112.1
|
104.2
|
7.9
|
29.5
|
| Notre Dame |
10
|
3
|
63.2
|
111.3
|
103.6
|
7.7
|
27
|
| Marquette |
6
|
6
|
65.3
|
112.9
|
108.3
|
4.6
|
51
|
| Georgetown |
9
|
4
|
64.0
|
107.3
|
102.9
|
4.4
|
34
|
| Syracuse |
8
|
6
|
64.9
|
105.4
|
101.1
|
4.3
|
45
|
| West Virginia |
7
|
6
|
62.3
|
105.2
|
101
|
4.2
|
21
|
| Louisville |
8
|
4
|
68.0
|
106
|
102.1
|
3.9
|
30.5
|
| Connecticut |
7
|
5
|
67.3
|
102.6
|
99.5
|
3.1
|
25
|
| Cincinnati |
6
|
6
|
62.5
|
101.1
|
100.7
|
0.4
|
22
|
| Seton Hall |
5
|
8
|
68.0
|
94.6
|
98
|
-3.4
|
28
|
| St. John's |
7
|
5
|
65.5
|
98.3
|
102.2
|
-3.9
|
44
|
| Rutgers |
4
|
9
|
64.1
|
102.5
|
108.6
|
-6.1
|
27
|
| Providence |
3
|
9
|
71.4
|
100
|
107.9
|
-7.9
|
28
|
| South Florida |
2
|
11
|
64.4
|
97.1
|
108.6
|
-11.5
|
14
|
| DePaul |
0
|
12
|
65.3
|
96.6
|
118.8
|
-22.2
|
56.5
|
Continuing our thoughts from above, what does this say about the rest of the conference? Are there A LOT of good teams? Or just a lot of mediocre teams. One thing is for sure though - other than Pittsburgh and (lately anyways) Georgetown, all of the 'top' teams could go down on any night.
So what say you, 'Nova Nation? What does this chart say about the Big East, and about 'Nova in particular?