31 days of College Basketball have come and gone. 31 days means we are that much closer to March. 31 days has been enough time to lose a few hairs, give you hope for the future, and start putting money aside for a trip to Brooklyn. This past month also allowed us to form opinions on teams and players.
But down below, you won’t find opinions. However, you will find stats. I like stats. So here are 5 stats to get you through a night without any A-10 basketball games:
Briante Weber, VCU – 4.2 Steals per Game
Entering the day, Briante Weber is the biggest thief in the nation. A huge reason why VCU leads the conference in turnover margin, Weber also has the second best steal-to-turnover margin, 34-14. It’s not a stat that many people talk about, but in my opinion (OK I lied, there is some opinion), steal-to-turnover is a pretty good measuring stick.
About half of all turnovers are steals, so the average player should steal 1 ball for every 2 turnovers. But Weber has 2.42 steals, for every 1 turnover. Weber is a bad, bad man.
Derrick Colter, Duquesne – .600 3-Point Field Goal Percentage
One of the Dukes’ few bright spots, Colter currently leads the nation in 3-point field goal percentage. In 7 games, Colter has dropped in 21 of 35 longballs. A .345 3-point shooter last season, it will be interesting to see if Colter can keep his hot streak going. Either way, congrats on a great month, Derrick.
3 A-10 Players in Top 10 in Rebounds per Game
Youssou Ndoye, St. Bonaventure – 11.0 (6th in nation)
Ryan Rhoomes, Fordham – 10.8 (8th in nation)
Shevon Thompson, George Mason – 10.6 (10th in nation)
Pretty impressive that the A-10 has 3 top 10 rebounders. Unfortunately, I have not had the chance to see all of them play in person, so I will leave my argument for best rebounder with a stat:
Shevon Thompson is 9th nationally in rebounding percentage, or percentage of rebounds he collects when in the game. Thompson rebounds the ball 21.6 percent of the time, getting it done on both sides of the floor.
Youssou Ndoye, St. Bonaventure – 3.0 Blocks per Game
Bonus points for Ndoye. The 7-foot center has swatted 21 shots despite only playing in 7 of his team’s 9 games. Ndoye is an absolute force on a Bonnies team that could make some noise in a wide open A-10.
Jordan Price, La Salle – 35.0 Usage Percentage
Price ranks 7th nationally in usage percentage. According to Basketball Reference, usage percentage basically measures the proportion of plays an individual is involved in, combining shooting, minutes played, turnovers, free throws, and a whole bunch of other stuff. The formula is too long and complicated for my UMass-educated brain to understand, so here’s the conclusion I drew from this:
Jordan Price is the 7th biggest ball hog in the country.
