Study Hall: Mizzou 90, Northwestern State 56

Your Trifecta: Denmon-Ratliffe-Dixon. Your winner: nobody. Though that may have had something to do with the fact that I didn't post a preview thread, and only a few people actually made picks. Go me.

This game was statistically over with 17:00 minutes left. That's a good thing, because Mizzou stopped playing with 9:40 left.

First 30:20: Mizzou 87, Northwestern State 42 (MU 35-for-58 FG, 20 assists, 7 steals, 7 TO)
Last 9:40: Northwestern State 14, Mizzou 3 (MU 1-for-7 FG, 1 assist, 2 steals, 6 TO)

That Mizzou produced the stats below despite doing almost literally nothing for a quarter of the game is pretty damn impressive, huh?

Mizzou 90, Northwestern State 56

I'm Running Out Of Words

This was yet another near-perfect statistical performance (for 30 minutes, anyway). Mizzou won the battle on the boards, more than doubled Northwestern State up in terms of ball control numbers (impressive since NWSU relies on pressing and ball control), and shot ridiculously well yet again (despite only Marcus Denmon being able to hit a 3-pointer). Not sure what else there is to say.

Mizzou Player Stats

(Definitions at the bottom of the post.)

• Marcus Denmon's jumper is so pretty that it is always a bit jarring when his shot doesn't go in. Well ... we weren't jarred very much on Friday because most of the jumpers went in. Mizzou shot 40% on 3-pointers despite the fact that Mike Dixon, Kim English and the Presseys combined to go 2-for-11 from beyond the arc. (And even Jarrett Sutton missed one!) All credit goes to Denmon for that. He was unconscious and incredible.
• Speaking of incredible ... can we bottle up that Ricardo Ratliffe performance and redeploy it during conference play? 'Cardo is shooting incredibly well so far in 2011-12; that baby hook has been nearly unstoppable. This is, to say the least, a very good thing.
• It's so good to see Kim English playing such well-rounded ball this year. He's always been solid at drawing charges, but this year he's drawing charges, grabbing boards and passing extremely well. And he's apparently watching Hakeem video, too, so there's that. He has improved this year, both in shooting and in doing everything else, and ... well, that's a good thing, too. (Though yes, I am irrationally concerned by his 0-for-4 performance from long-range after I dropped the "He could miss his next 24 and still be shooting 40%" tidbit on multiple jinx-worthy occasions last week.)
• Phil Pressey in the last two games: zero points (on four shots), 17 assists, three steals, two turnovers. That's just ... weird. And fun. At some point, Mizzou will need him to actually put the ball in the basket again, but for now I'm just going to enjoy the oddity of his stat line.

To the checklist!

Marcus Denmon's Usage% needs to be 23% or higher. (Yes!)
Kim English's %T/O needs to be at 10% or lower. (Yes!)
Kim English's Floor% should be at 35% or higher. (Yes!)
Ricardo Ratliffe's %Fouled should be at least 10%. (Yes!)
Phil Pressey's Touches/Possession need to be 3.5 or better. (Yes!)
Mike Dixon's %Pass should be 55% or higher. (D'oh!)
Steve Moore's Touches/Possession should be at least 1.0. (Yes!)

Mizzou has done a phenomenal job of maintaining its identity so far, especially after the first two games.

Summary

Mizzou's 7-0. Time to head to MSG and get No. 8.

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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.

Usage%: This "estimates the % of team possessions a player consumes while on the floor" (via). 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. As you would expect, someone like Kim English has a high Usage%, while Steve Moore has an extremely low one.

Floor%: Via Basketball-Reference.com: Floor % answers the question, "when Player X 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.

Touches/Possession: Using field goal attempts, free throw attempts, assists and turnovers, Touches attempt to estimate "the number of times a player touched the ball in an attacking position on the floor." Take the estimated touches and divide it by the estimated number of possessions for which a player was on the court, and you get a rough idea of how many times a player touched the ball in a given possession. For point guards, you'll see the number in the 3-4 range. For shooting guards and wings, 2-3. For Steve Moore, 1.30. You get the idea.

Anyway, using the Touches figure, we can estimate the percentage of time a player "in an attacking position" passes, shoots, turns the ball over, or gets fouled.