In Which We Go Off The Rails

I was working on a post about where are we now going into the Southern Miss game.  That post will probably become the game preview since that game would seem to be a good referendum on where this team is now, and if they can lift themselves off the mat and rise to a challenge, like they did against Bama at MSG.  While researching that piece I wanted to look at Frantz Massenat's assist distribution, using a hypothesis that it is Frantz that is causing Drexel to play 3 on 5 basketball, and not the coaching staff.  I believed this to be true based on quotes coming out of the Saint Francis game where both the staff and Rodney Williams were quoted postgame as saying that the strategy was to feed the post, and yet Massenat had just 1 assist in the game, while shooting the ball 11 times.  Upon scouring the play by play sheets, I came up 1 assist short from Massenat and 1 assisted shot short from Ruffin, I have noted this in the tables.  If anyone wants to figure out which one I missed, do feel free to correct me.

Here is the list of shots made by players that were assisted by Frantz Massenat (Massenat has 55 assists on the season):

Fouch:  20
Allen: 16
Lee:  9
Ruffin: 4
Williams: 3
Abif:  2
Unknown:  1

Here are the list of who assisted Dartaye Ruffin's made baskets (Ruffin has made 13 assisted baskets thus far):
Allen: 5
Massenat: 4
Fouch:  2
Abif: 1
Unkown: 1


The entire frontcourt has 9 assists from Massenat this season, 10 if the one I'm missing went there.  For perspective, the frontcourt has assisted on 18 baskets this year.  The frontcourt has double the number of assists than their point guard has thrown to them.

In order to reflect on my hypothesis, this where Massenat's assists go by percentage:
Guards:  82%
Forwards:  18%

This is the percentage of the teams total field goals shot by each position this year:
Guards:  81%
Forwards:  19%



I won't go as far as saying that the reason Drexel is playing 3 on 5 basketball is solely because that's how Frantz Massenat chooses to play, regardless of coaches instructions.  I will say that he is assisting them less than once per game.  I will also say that I'd be interested to see how a lineup of Canady/Fouch/Massenat/Abif/Ruffin might play together.  Which will lead nicely into the where are we now post that I've been working on which will be published by lunchtime tomorrow.

Oh by the way, Dartaye Ruffin's 65.1% shooting is good for 24th in the country, per BBState.com  (28th in the country in effective fg% per Kenpom.com)

Happy New Year everyone, and here's hoping for a clean slate for DU hoops!