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Your Trifecta (Missouri Southern): Marcus Denmon (22.0), Matt Pressey (19.8), Mike Dixon (18.9)
Your Trifecta (Truman State): Marcus Denmon (20.3), Mike Dixon (17.0), Ricardo Ratliffe (10.6)
Your Trifecta (Central Missouri): Ricardo Ratliffe (21.9), Marcus Denmon (16.0), Mike Dixon (13.9)
Your Trifecta (EXHIBITION AVERAGE): Marcus Denmon (19.5), Mike Dixon (16.6), Ricardo Ratliffe (15.3)
(For newcomers, the game's Trifecta represents the top three players according to the Adj. Score measure you'll learn about after the break. For each game preview, everybody submits their Trifecta guesses. As with any totally fun game, almost nobody ever wins. That we had a winner for more than one game last year was a minor miracle. Of course, if Denmon and Dixon are going to be involved every game this year, the contest gets easier.)
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AVERAGE SCORE: Mizzou 96.3, Opponent 62.0
| Mizzou |
Opp. | |
| Pace (No. of Possessions) |
70.6 |
|
| Points Per Minute |
2.41 |
1.55 |
| Points Per Possession (PPP) |
1.36 |
0.88 |
| Points Per Shot (PPS) |
1.45 |
1.12 |
| 2-PT FG% | 57.9% |
50.0% |
| 3-PT FG% | 47.3% |
29.4% |
| FT% | 71.7% |
75.7% |
| True Shooting % | 64.7% |
51.0% |
| Mizzou | Opp. | |
| Assists/Gm | 19.0 |
10.3 |
| Steals/Gm | 11.0 |
4.3 |
| Turnovers/Gm | 10.7 |
20.0 |
|
Ball Control Index (BCI) (Assists + Steals) / TO |
2.81 |
0.73 |
| Mizzou | Opp. | |
| Expected Offensive Reb./Gm | 11.0 |
11.3 |
| Offensive Rebounds/Gm | 14.7 |
8.7 |
| Difference | +3.7 |
-2.6 |
For comparison, in Mizzou's two exhibition games last year, they averaged 1.32 points per possession and allowed 0.77. They managed a 2.79 BCI and allowed a 0.69. In terms of expected offensive rebounds, they were plus-1.5, and opponents were minus-3. It is difficult to compare one set of semi-worthless stats to another -- who the hell knows how to compare Central Missouri and Truman State this year to Arkansas-Ft. Smith and Harris-Stowe last year? -- but at the very least we know that these stats compare relatively favorably to those of a team that made the NCAA Tournament last year. That's something.
Perhaps the most intriguing numbers here, just knowing what we know about last year's weaknesses, are these: last year in exhibitions, opponents made 37% of their 3-pointers. This year, they made 29%. One would like to see better defensive rebounding numbers, but we already know that defensive rebounds are going to be a concern on a team that employs Kim English at power forward for extended amounts of time. They played solid perimeter defense and crashed the offensive glass. I'll take that.
Mizzou Player Stats
(Definitions at the bottom of the post.)
| Player |
AdjGS | GmSc/Min | Line |
| Marcus Denmon |
19.5 |
0.70 |
27.7 MPG, 21.0 PPG (53% 2PT, 64% 3PT, 71% FT), 3.3 RPG, 1.7 APG, 1.0 SPG |
| Mike Dixon |
16.6 |
0.72 |
23.0 MPG, 17.0 PPG (75% 2PT, 64% 3PT, 86% FT), 4.3 RPG, 4.0 APG, 2.0 TOPG |
| Ricardo Ratliffe |
15.3 |
0.69 |
22.3 MPG, 16.0 PPG (58% 2PT, 86% FT), 8.0 RPG (5.0 Off. RPG), 1.3 SPG, 1.7 TOPG |
| Matt Pressey |
12.6 |
0.46 |
27.7 MPG, 14.0 PPG (50% 2PT, 30% 3PT, 79% FT), 4.7 RPG, 2.0 SPG |
|
Phil Pressey |
9.9 |
0.35 |
28.0 MPG, 4.7 PPG (38% 2PT, 14% 3PT, 71% FT), 7.3 APG, 3.7 SPG, 3.0 RPG, 2.0 TOPG |
| Kim English |
6.9 |
0.26 |
26.7 MPG, 9.3 PPG (50% 2PT, 31% 3PT, 75% FT), 4.3 RPG, 2.7 APG, 1.7 TOPG |
|
Steve Moore |
6.4 |
0.32 |
19.7 MPG, 8.3 PPG (71% 2PT, 25% FT), 2.7 RPG (1.7 Off. RPG), 1.3 SPT, 1.3 TOPG |
|
Kadeem Green |
4.1 |
0.23 |
17.7 MPG, 3.0 PPG (67% 2PT, 33% FT), 4.7 RPG (1.7 Off. RPG), 1.0 BPG |
|
Jarrett Sutton |
3.3 |
0.53 |
6.3 MPG, 3 Glorious Walk-On 3's |
| Andy Rosburg |
0.0 |
0.00 |
1.5 MPG, Nada |
- God, Marcus Denmon looks so effortless sometimes.
- I understand that Mike Dixon isn't going to shoot 60% on 3-pointers this year, just like Phil Pressey isn't going to shoot 14%. Still, seeing Dixon so effortlessly rack up the points was incredibly encouraging, especially in the face of Kim English shooting like 2010-11 Kim English (he was 3-for-4 on 3-pointers in Joplin, then 2-for-12 in the two home games).
- Actually, just because I find it funny...
3-Pointers
Marcus Denmon & Mike Dixon: 23-for-36 (64%)
Kim English & both Pressey: 9-for-33 (27%) - Ricardo Ratliffe was a beast on the offensive glass, racking up a 27% Off. Reb. rate. Kadeem Green managed a respectable 11%, but no other Tiger was over 10%. Steve Moore (8%) barely topped Matt Pressey (7%).
| Player | Usage% | Floor% | Touches/ Poss. |
%Pass | %Shoot | %Fouled | %T/O |
| Denmon |
23% |
54% |
2.5 |
40% |
50% |
9% |
1% |
| Dixon |
24% |
57% |
4.5 |
65% |
24% |
6% |
6% |
| Ratliffe |
31% |
48% |
2.8 |
27% |
55% |
10% |
8% |
| M. Pressey |
23% |
41% |
2.2 |
27% |
50% |
20% |
3% |
| P. Pressey |
13% |
42% |
5.3 |
83% |
10% |
4% |
4% |
| English |
19% |
36% |
2.9 |
58% |
32% |
4% |
6% |
| Moore |
19% |
47% |
1.2 |
0% |
70% |
14% |
16% |
| Green |
8% |
46% |
1.2 |
52% |
27% |
12% |
9% |
| Sutton |
10% |
76% |
2.4 |
75% |
25% |
0% |
0% |
| Rosburg |
0% |
N/A |
0.0 |
N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A |
- Matt Pressey attacks the rim, hard. He attempted twice as many free throws in three games (14) as anybody else (Denmon, P. Pressey, Ratliffe and Dixon all attempted seven).
- Flip looked like the purest of pure point guards, dishing 22 assists (to only six turnovers) and attempting just 15 field goals.
- It's nice seeing just one player under the "10% T/O" mark. As means of comparison, Ratliffe was at 20% in last year's two exhibition games.
- We seriously have eight scholarship players this year. Yikes.
Summary
Nobody got hurt, Mizzou rebounded pretty well (all things considered), Marcus Denmon is still awesome, and the One State, One Spirit Classic was a rousing success. Win, win, win. The season starts for real tonight. Leave your trifecta picks in comments.
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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.