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Written by Jim Nakadate
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Friday, 15 February 2008 |
 How Efficient Are Duck Men On The Court? The Oregon men’s basketball team is averaging 79.2 points per game in fashioning its 14-9 season record thus far. As much as wins and losses are determined by defense as well as offense, Duck fans are always wondering whether the five guys on the floor are the best qualified to get the job done. This graph shows distribution of playing time for the top 12 players on Coach Ernie Kent’s team. (Reserves Drew Viney and Ray Schafer have logged 38 and 11 minutes, respectively. Virtually all of Viney’s PT has occurred in the last few games since coming off injury.)  In the determination of the coaches the players who give Oregon the best chance to win have gotten the most playing time. Injuries alone have skewed these numbers the most. This next graph shows how efficient these players are in scoring when they are in the game. For purposes of comparison the players are listed in the same order, left to right, in these two graphs.  The top four most efficient scorers are, not surprisingly, the four returning starters from last year. Although Joevan Catron, Frantz Dorsainvil and Ray Schafer have the next three best averages, knowledgeable fans realize that rotations in substitution, ability to rebound, handle the ball, pass, and run different offenses and defenses, are all ultimately more important than just scoring. Fans who know a little about coaching (and less about illness, injuries, attitude, and actual schemes) will have their favorites, but in the end will have to trust the guys who evaluate players every day to pick the right combinations.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 15 February 2008 )
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