Monday, June 09, 2008

Replacing rebounders

One of my hypotheses regarding next year's basketball team was that Blair, Oates and Spears were highly replaceable. To reinforce my hunch, I ran some numbers and was surprised by what I had previously overlooked.

Rebounds per minute of the departed
Blair -- 0.21
Spears -- 0.23
Oates -- 0.17

Rebounds per minute of the returning
Raji -- 0.21
Sanders -- 0.17
Trapiani -- 0.20*
Southern -- 0.22
(* Trapiani's numbers from his year with Vermont.)

As you can see, the four players expected to fill many of the departed's minutes rebounded at a rate that was very similar to Spears, Oates and Blair.

What does it mean?
We probably won't be a significantly better rebounding team next year. However, the hope is that the replacements are much better all-around players and make BC more effecient in other areas.

No comments: