Iowa’s +/- in 2013 Big Ten play after 15 games (premium)
Posted on 28. Feb, 2013 by admin in Iowa Basketball
By Brendan Stiles
HawkeyeDrive.com
This is the fifth installment of a series examining Iowa basketball players’ plus-minuses during Big Ten play. Part One was written Jan. 11, Part Two was written Jan. 23, Part Three was written Feb. 4 and Part Four came Feb. 15, one day following the Hawkeyes’ 74-72 win at Penn State.
Iowa is now through 15 games of its 18-game Big Ten slate, making this an appropriate time to provide this fifth update in our series about (+/-), a statistic used by basketball coaches in evaluating individual players and how their team is doing when said player is on the court during a game.
Since the fourth part was written, Iowa has won two of its last three games and has now won four of its last five. This recent three-game stretch began with a monster home win over Minnesota, was followed by a mind-boggling loss at Nebraska last weekend in a game postponed by two days, and then most recently, the Hawkeyes defeated Purdue at home by 10 points.
Typically, the plus-minus data gathered for this series comes courtesy of the site, statsheet.com. Only one game — the win over Minnesota — provided accurate data though. The info. on statsheet.com regarding the Nebraska game didn’t take into account substitutions made by Iowa head coach Fran McCaffery in the final minute of play and also included inaccurate spots as far as when certain substitutions were made. As for the info. from the Purdue contest, there were a few significant errors. One in particular had to do with Pat Ingram’s plus-minus, where the numbers just didn’t add up as it had listed. So the data compiled from the last two games was done again by myself charting when Iowa made substitutions.
As for the data itself, there are a handful of observations to be made. Let’s start with the most significant news-item regarding this team right now, which is the foot injury to Mike Gesell. The freshman guard did not play against Purdue and the earliest McCaffery said he would be back is the start of the Big Ten Tournament. Assuming this is the case, the totals for Gesell through 14 games are going to be his final numbers for Big Ten play.
His absence is huge for three reasons. First and most obviously, Gesell made the switch back to point guard when Melsahn Basabe was inserted into the starting lineup. In terms of the data compiled, Gesell logged the second most minutes of any Hawkeye player during Big Ten play to this point and he was among the players listed on the plus side. Finally, he was among the staples (the others being Aaron White and Devyn Marble) that stayed in the game in crunch time for Iowa. It didn’t end up costing the Hawkeyes against Purdue, but not having Gesell’s services for the next three games has potential to be a major problem for Iowa going forward.
Speaking of White, I mentioned last time how he was on a trajectory going back towards the plus side. Through 15 Big Ten games, White is now a +1. It will be interesting to see if he can get through these last three Big Ten games staying in the plus category, but if nothing else, it’s further evidence that White is a huge reason why Iowa has won four of its last five games.
One other player that needs to be discussed here as well is Josh Oglesby. While portions of the fan base might seem confused with why Oglesby is playing as much as he has, his plus-minus data sort of tells the story. In Iowa’s last nine games, Oglesby has finished on the positive side of plus-minus seven times and one of those two times he didn’t, his plus-minus was 0 the first time the Hawkeyes played Purdue back in January. Aside from a -2 when Iowa played at Penn State two weeks ago, Oglesby has consistently been finishing with pluses for Iowa.
Many people are looking at his shooting and the issues that have come there. But this data is evidence to what McCaffery has said about Oglesby doing other things in games, and that shows with the minutes played. This could also be a huge reason why Oglesby got the start against Purdue on Wednesday and will likely remain in Iowa’s starting lineup until Gesell returns from his foot injury.
Like the previous four posts in this series, there are three sets of numbers next to each name. The number surrounded by parentheses is the +/-. The first set of numbers is the point differential when that particular player is playing. Next to the +/- is the number of minutes played during the Big Ten season.
Underneath each player’s name will be data from the three most recent games, which will then be broken up with data from each individual game.
Aaron White: 747-746; (+1); 453:45
Last 3 games: 159-130; (+29); 98:54
– vs. Minnesota: 60-32; (+28); 30:17
– at Nebraska: 45-57; (-12); 32:55
– vs. Purdue: 54-41; (+13); 35:42
Mike Gesell: 675-654; (+21); 410:39
Last 3 games: 109-82; (+27); 57:08
– vs. Minnesota: 61-34; (+27); 29:05
– at Nebraska: 48-48; (0); 28:03
– vs. Purdue: DNP
Devyn Marble: 692-672; (+20); 409:57
Last 3 games: 154-134; (+20); 97:30
– vs. Minnesota: 69-42; (+27); 36:34
– at Nebraska: 42-55; (-13); 31:41
– vs. Purdue: 43-37; (+6); 29:15
Eric May: 493-507; (-14); 329:11
Last 3 games: 108-97; (+11); 69:30
– vs. Minnesota: 43-33; (+10); 23:56
– at Nebraska: 39-40; (-1); 23:53
– vs. Purdue: 26-24; (+2); 21:41
Melsahn Basabe: 506-456; (+50); 307:02
Last 3 games: 105-84; (+21); 62:54
– vs. Minnesota: 42-24; (+18); 21:52
– at Nebraska: 30-26; (+4); 17:24
– vs. Purdue: 33-34; (-1); 23:38
Anthony Clemmons: 413-453; (-40); 261:43
Last 3 games: 41-46; (-5); 36:50
– vs. Minnesota: 11-15; (-4); 10:21
– at Nebraska: 12-16; (-4); 11:57
– vs. Purdue: 18-15; (+3); 14:32
Josh Oglesby: 406-364; (+42); 243:20
Last 3 games: 78-54; (+24); 43:53
– vs. Minnesota: 16-7; (+9); 7:39
– at Nebraska: 25-19; (+6); 14:29
– vs. Purdue: 37-28; (+9); 21:45
Zach McCabe: 416-400; (+16); 239:31
Last 3 games: 90-75; (+15); 54:17
– vs. Minnesota: 34-21; (+13); 16:57
– at Nebraska: 29-33; (-4); 21:34
– vs. Purdue: 27-21; (+6); 15:46
Adam Woodbury: 334-363; (-29); 227:10
Last 3 games: 50-53; (-3); 36:21
– vs. Minnesota: 9-16; (-7); 9:09
– at Nebraska: 14-17; (-3); 10:35
– vs. Purdue: 27-20; (+7); 16:37
Gabe Olaseni: 225-175; (+50); 139:52
Last 3 games: 46-47; (-1); 35:44
– vs. Minnesota: 9-19; (-10); 9:50
– at Nebraska: 16-9; (+7); 7:29
– vs. Purdue: 21-19; (+2); 18:25
Pat Ingram: 53-52; (+1); 33:35
Last 3 games: 6-6; (0); 4:13
– vs. Minnesota: 3-4; (-1); 1:36
– at Nebraska: DNP
– vs. Purdue: 3-2; (+1); 2:37
*The next post in this series will come following the Hawkeyes’ final three regular season games against No. 1 Indiana, Illinois and Nebraska. with data from those three contests. For more on the (+/-) statistic, current Portland Trail Blazers head coach Terry Stotts wrote this article about it from his days as an assistant coach with the Milwaukee Bucks.
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