William and Mary - Learning From Our Mistakes Part 1

Final:  William and Mary 68, Drexel 66 at The DAC
Player of the Game:  Frantz Massenat
Key to the game:  Chris Fouch
Next Game:  Wed Jan 29 @ Hofstra 

Welcome to part 1 of a 3 part series on the game played this Saturday at the DAC against William and Mary.  I apologize both for the lack of brevity and the mundane pace in getting these posted, but wanted to take the time to do the research, talk to people smarter than me, and watch film, especially since I missed most of the first half of this one due to some sweet Bruins/Flyers tickets that a lovely young lady was kind enough to provide me for Christmas.  6-1 Bruins, boo ya, probably helped with the old blood pressure at the Drexel game.  Without further ado, Part 1:  The CF3 Chronicles:

So the average Drexel fan clicked on this page, read the header, saw Chris Fouch wasn't the blog's player of the game and lost little credibility he or she had for this blog and left the page.  To those still reading, thanks, and here's why Frantz Massenat is the POG.

Here's Chris Fouch's line from this game with Frantz Massenat in the game:

29 minutes - 8/13 fg (62%), 4/8 3pt (50%), 0/0 FT, 4 assists*, 0 turnovers, 20 points

Here's Chris Fouch's line from this game with Frantz Massenat on the bench:

10 minutes - 4/10 fg (40%), 1/3 3pt (33%), 2/2 FT, 0 assists, 0 turnovers, 11 points

From this data, we can conclude that Chris was not as effective with Frantz on the bench.  A player not performing as well when the teams starting point guard is on the bench?  Not a surprise.  But why?  I believe I have found the answer, in spades:


Field Goal Attempts taken by the team while Frantz Massenat was in the game:  44
Field Goal Attempts by Chris Fouch while Frantz Massenat was in the game:  13
Percentage of shots by team taken by Fouch while Frantz was in the game:  29.5%

Field Goal Attempts taken by the team while Frantz Massenat was not in the game: 12
Field Goal Attempts by Chris Fouch while Frantz Massenat was not in the game:  10
Percentage of shots by team taken by Fouch while Frantz was not in the game:  83.3%


This wasn't a small sample size.  As many have noted, the referee assisted in the teams rotation and Frantz ending up on the bench for 10 minutes.  So the 83.3% was a quarter of the game.  For those wondering, Wilson and Ruffin had the other two shots while Massenat was out, and Fouch and Canady had 2 free throws a piece during that time.

In order to add some sample size, I looked back at another game where Massenat sat for 10+ minutes, the most recent of which was against Towson (another 10 minute even stint).  Here is the same breakdown:


Field Goal Attempts taken by the team while Frantz Massenat was in the game:  52
Field Goal Attempts by Chris Fouch while Frantz Massenat was in the game:  17
Percentage of shots by team taken by Fouch while Frantz was in the game:  32.7%%

Field Goal Attempts taken by the team while Frantz Massenat was not in the game: 17
Field Goal Attempts by Chris Fouch while Frantz Massenat was not in the game:  10
Percentage of shots by team taken by Fouch while Frantz was not in the game:  58.8%

Note:  In the Towson game 3 of the 7 shots not taken by Fouch when Frantz was out of the game were offensive rebound putbacks by Rodney Williams.  If the putbacks are were not included in the calc, Fouch would have shot 10 of the 14 shots while Massenat was out, 71.4%.


Now a fool could come up with a defense to slow down the Dragons offense while Massenat is on the bench.  Monte Ross isn't the coach of William and Mary though, Tony Shaver is and that guy is pretty smart.  Going to the tape, here are three randomly chosen shots that Chris took while Frantz was on the bench.

Shot 1:  The semi-contested beyond NBA range three.  This was late in the shot clock so some credit needs to be given

Shot 2:  Here Chris passes up the bounce pass dunk option and shoots a floater while running into Tim Rusthoven well before even getting close to the restricted area underneath the basket.  No foul deserved, no foul given

Shot 3:  This is a great look at how William and Mary adjusted to the offense with Fouch on the floor.  All three of these pictures are from the same play:

Part 1:  With 26 on the clock Chris again passes up a bounce pass to Willams for a dunk possibility while pump faking an oncoming double team.

Part 2:  In part two you can see Thornton overplaying the pass to Fouch, along with two defenders stepping out on Chris while he doesn't even have the ball.  They can do this more easily since both Drexel bigs are at the three point line where the defense can completely ignore them.

Part 3:  Thornton had stepped back to help, but since he had FOUR (4!!!) teammates already stepping out on Fouch he rotates back to the perimeter, also ready to start a break the other way.  Fouch ends up taking the shot on this play too, amidst the masses.

Chris Fouch played a hell of a game on Saturday.  There's no doubt that his sixth year isn't playing out the way he expected it and his frustrations are likely high.  But in the 20 minutes of basketball that Frantz was off the floor in the two games that were sampled Chris took twenty shots and the other four players on the team took combined to take nine.  And three of those nine were on rebound putbacks.  Actually only one non-putback shot was taken by a forward in that half of basketball, a Goran jumper that went in.  Chris was absolutely the most talented Drexel player on the floor during this twenty minute stretch, but hey man, Carmelo Anthony just called and he thinks you should share the ball a bit more.

Frantz has seemed to have found his teammates of late.  The numbers are skewed by only playing one forward against Delaware, but he did a decent job of including the big men more in this William and Mary game.  The offense has been playing well and Massenat's additional willingness to find the bigs is part of that, and maybe even helping the forwards at both ends of the court.  Chris needs to get on that page as well.  When Massenat isn't on the court there's no one who will lead Chris.  Asking a freshman point guard to take charge of a sixth year senior is asking an awful lot.  This is a time when Bruiser, and Frantz, need to step in and talk to Chris.  Until they do, expect a lot more screenshots like the ones above when Frantz is getting a blow.


*All four assist from Fouch in that game were to Frantz Massenat.  His assist in the Towson game were to Canady and Wilson