Villanova, Duke of the Northeast

[Smashcat]

Zach Braziller‏Verified account@NYPost_Brazille 5h5 hours ago

Villanova edges La Salle, and went to the line 35 times compared to 5 for opponent. Amazing how Wildcats never seen to foul. Duke of the northeast.

 

[Cawood86]

Yet some folks say refs are impartial and don't care who's playing or who the coaches are.

 

[The_Answer1313]

Some teams foul more often than others.

This isn't to say that the refs aren't somewhat bias, but you absolutely cannot look at free throw difference and conclude refs are bias.

 

[AnarchoNeoLuddite]

Villanova has decades to go before anyone would ever think their games are called differently. Article must be from a La salle guy

 

[yoshukai]

I thought Duke WAS the Duke of the Northeast. At least that's where all their students are from .

 

[Poetax]

Some teams foul more often than others.

This isn't to say that the refs aren't somewhat bias, but you absolutely cannot look at free throw difference and conclude refs are bias.

Even know it’s not the sole reason it is a stat that can reflect it.

 

[The_Answer1313]

The ability to get to the line is a skill.

Heck under Cal most years we have feasted on offense by driving the ball and getting to the line.

Conversely, some teams just foul more than others.

The four major factors that determines efficiency and by extension wins/losses is shooting, rebounding, turnovers, and getting to the line. You do those 4 things well on offense and defense, your going to win a bunch of games.

 

[JonathanW]

Zach Braziller‏Verified account@NYPost_Brazille 5h5 hours ago

Villanova edges La Salle, and went to the line 35 times compared to 5 for opponent. Amazing how Wildcats never seen to foul. Duke of the northeast.

But do they flop like an epilepsy victim?

 

[Untouchables22]

I like Jay Wright and Nova is small catholic school in Philly WITHOUT a superiority complex. It's the arrogance of Duke and K that bothers me the most.

 

[docholiday51]

If Nova and duke played each other would there be no fouls called?

 

[Sawnee Cat]

Yet some folks say refs are impartial and don't care who's playing or who the coaches are.

We know different

 

[YouKay]

Nova did have a game early this season where they had zero fouls charged. They're pretty good at drawing them on opponents.

Don't sleep on this team, it may actually be better than the 2016 team. I have tickets to see them play Temple on Wednesday.

 

[The_Answer1313]

Yep only Elon and Central Michigan are better at not fouling.

Nova was also ranked 1st last season in not fouling.

The weird part is before 2015, his teams always ranked in the bottom half in fouling. You don't really see that often. It's kinda amazing that while the players change, the pattern with most schools do not. Coaches like Coach K and Mike Brey have had amazing offenses for years and not so great defenses (exception Duke 15). I guess Jay was finally reading those articles back then about his teams having major fouling issues and set out to change that.

The last four years, 48th, 41st, 1st, and now 3rd.

He's always had good offensive teams but with the reduction in fouling on defense, their defense has finally caught up.

 

[TopCatCal]

The thing that's hard to take about Duke shooting so many free throws. Is the fact that Duke has always been a jump shooting team. You don't get fouled very often taking 20' foot jump shots. But somehow Duke does. They've never been an inside based team, yet they live at the foul line.

 

[The_Answer1313]

It's a bit of a misconception about Duke and free throws tho
Free throw rate they have ranked in the last five years (220th, 97th, 79th, 72nd and 143rd)

Compared to us (12th, 31st, 142nd, 42nd and 54th)

 

[SemperFiCat]

Am I the only person that thinks if you're ranked in the top couple teams for not fouling, maybe you're not playing aggressive enough defense?

 

[The_Answer1313]

Am I the only person that thinks if you're ranked in the top couple teams for not fouling, maybe you're not playing aggressive enough defense?

No your 100% right.

It's one of the reasons that Duke hasn't fouled much in years past but their defense as a whole has not rated very high.

You could say the same thing about turnovers. Cal has even mentioned times where we didn't turn it over much that he DIDN'T like it which sounds odd when i first heard it but his rationale was that we weren't aggressive enough if we don't have at least some turnovers.

 

[The_Answer1313]

What's interesting also about Duke's defense is they do a really good job at making teams take 2 point shots. Since 2002, this is the ranking as far as least three pointers attempted against them

02 = 14th
03 = 5th
04 = 4th
05 = 1st
06 = 1st
07 = 2nd
08 = 2nd
09 = 5th
10 = 11th
11 = 5th
12 = 3rd
13 = 24th
14 = 4th
15 = 15th
16 = 20th
17 = 10th

So in other words, they force teams to take a majority of 2s, yet still don't foul much.

 

[YouKay]

Am I the only person that thinks if you're ranked in the top couple teams for not fouling, maybe you're not playing aggressive enough defense?

Nova used to play very aggressive full court trapping defense. A lot of that was to compensate for their lack of athleticism and scoring ability.They have been recruiting much better in recent years and getting better athletes, playing more zone and less aggressive man defense.

One thing you can say about Jay Wright, he knows how to tailor his approach to the players he has. Last year he had no bench so he slowed them down and played zone almost the entire game to keep his starters from wearing out and fouling out. This year they are playing faster and playing less zone because they have a deeper bench and more scorers.

 

[Poetax]

The ability to get to the line is a skill.

Heck under Cal most years we have feasted on offense by driving the ball and getting to the line.

Conversely, some teams just foul more than others.

The four major factors that determines efficiency and by extension wins/losses is shooting, rebounding, turnovers, and getting to the line. You do those 4 things well on offense and defense, your going to win a bunch of games.

The thing that bothers me is that at the most inopportune time of a game the officials stop making calls because they have called so many. They are so inconsistent.