Much has been said, rightfully so, about Jaren Holmes’ outstanding 38 point outburst in St. Bonaventure’s 83-57 victory over Saint Joseph’s. The Bonnie victory on Wednesday was bolstered by another significant performance as Jalen Adaway added 24 points.
In 1999 Arthur R. Linton, an engineer by profession and college basketball fanatic, wrote a book on grading players. In his ‘How to Rank and Grade Every Player in Basketball History’, Linton describes his effectiveness factor (EF). Points, rebounds, blocked shots, steals and assists are added. Turnovers are subtracted with the total divided by minutes played.
Here is how Holmes and Adaway fared:
| Pts. | Reb. | Blk. | Stl. | Ast. | TO | Min | EF | |
| Hol. | 38 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 37 | 1.35 |
| Ada. | 24 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 26 | 1.39 |
By the numbers Adaway, a 6’5 junior, actually had a better effectiveness factor than his classmate. A 24 point outing in 26 minutes plus 4 assists without a turnover proved the difference in the final tally.
Linton also breaks down the effectiveness numbers into groups ranging from a categorized ‘average player’ to ‘best ever’. Both Holmes and Adaway had their performance fall into the range called ‘superstars’.
One can argue Holmes going 8 of 12 from downtown supersedes and formulas. Looking into it closer Holmes’ proficiency from three undoubtedly opened things up for teammates as Adaway who took all his attempts inside the arc going a torrid 11 of 12. Others can point to Adaway’s numbers in 11 less numbers. The numbers are useful and tell us a lot, but not everything. Some intangibles and parts of the game simply escape the box score.
Did Adaway have a better game than Homes? Even though the EF suggests, we are not implying such. AS previously noted, there are aspects of the game escaping calculation into a tidy mathematical formula.
Regardless of your inclination toward using the eye test or relying on numbers one must be in agreement. It was a superstar outing, on the afternoon, for Mark Schmidt’s duo.
