Horizon League PPS and other Stat Leaders

Another exciting weekend of Horizon League play has come and gone.  I've updated my stat sheets for conference play only and here are the results:

Player Productivity Score Top 10

HL PPS leader Ryan Broekhoff

1) Broekhoff   Valpo   0.95808
2) Holman        Det     0.84946
3) Eargle         YSU     0.79085
4) Brown          GB      0.75581
5) Mays           WSU     0.73913
6) VanWijk      Valpo   0.71074
7) McCallum    Det      0.68900
8) Gibler          Loy      0.67788
9) Ward           YSU     0.65217
10) Talton        UIC     0.62887


Other stat categories will show top 5

Points Scored                 Assists                       FT Made
1) Mays          WSU   108      1) Williams  UMW  26      1) Mays         WSU  39
2) McCallum  Det      91       2) Perry        YSU   25      2) Gibler        Loy  31          
3) Gibler        Loy      89       3) McCallum Det    22      3) McCallum  Det  26
4) Talton       UIC       86       4) Talton       UIC   21      4) Brown        GB   25
5) Averkamp  Loy      84       5) Allen         YSU  17      5) VanWijk    Valpo 23
                                              5) Buggs     Valpo 17

Turnovers                       Fouls                         FT Missed
1) Williams       UMW  20      1) VanWijk    Valpo  22  1) Nored      But    14
1) Nored             But  20       2) Averkamp  Loy    21  2) VanWijk  Valpo 12
1) Simon             Det  20       3) Humes       UIC    19   2) Gibler      Loy    12
4) Montgomery CSU  17       4) Simon        Det    18   2) Marshall  But   12
4) Averkamp      Loy   17      5) Buggs       Valpo 18   5) Perry        YSU  10

When looking at these stats remember that not all the teams have played the same number of conference games.  If you are interested in other statistical leaders or where your favorite player (assuming he is playing/performing enough for me to follow him) just leave a note in the comment section and I'll get back to you asap.

Game Wrap Up: I really hate to do this...

The Game
This was a wild one at the ARC tonight.  It was a fast paced with plenty of second half drama.  The Crusaders built a big second half lead early, only to get complacent and watch Oakland chip away.  The teams would change leads several times down the stretch.  With the game tied at 80, Valpo had a chance at a final shot but saw Matt Kenney get himself in trouble in the lane and turn the ball over.  Oakland took full advantage of the 4 seconds left.  They got the ball into Reggie Hamilton who went the distance and hit a running bank shot at the horn. 

This is where I'm going to do something I don't like doing, go on a crazy fan rant.  Let me start off by saying I'm huge fans and believe highly in all of these guys.  First up, Erik Buggs.  Buggs has not shown an ability to play without fouling.  He needs to play smarter on defense, move his feet and stay in front of his man.  Tonight he had a couple calls go against him that I felt could have gone either way.  But he also fouled one of the Grizzly big men on a play.  He needs to realize we need his speed on the court and he needs to save his fouls for guarding Hamilton. 

Coach Drew is up next.  How many times does Hamilton have to score before we run a double team at him?  Once Buggs was out we had noone who could stay in front of him.  The zone defense was not the answer.  I feel like Valpo should've been running double teams at Hamilton as soon as he got within 6 feet of the three point arc.  The last play of the game was unbelievable.  Everyone in the gym knew who was going to get the ball, and he got it without any problems.  Why he wasn't doubled or even tripled team is mind boggling.  I don't know if this was poor execution by the players or just bad coaching?  This was an ugly loss that could've been avoided in the mind of this fan.  I'm also not sure why we didn't see more of Richie Edwards.  Now, I'm the first person to blast Richie for his shot selection, which was questionable early on.  I thought Richie played well when he was in there.  He had a couple nice scores inside and even hit a three pointer (blind squirrle finds a nut once in a while). I thought Boggs played ok in his first game as a Crusader.  It looks like he will be expected to be a big contributor considering he played 25 minutes tonight.

To top things off I had got into a verbal altercation with a crotechty old man who got upset that my son was running around above the last row of bleachers.  Guy, there were 10 empty rows below you if his running was really that noisy.  I guess there is a reason he was sitting by himself.  A look at tonight's PPS really isn't surprising.  I predicted Hamilton, Broekhoff, and VanWijk would fill their stat lines, and they did.  Unfortunately, Hamilton posted the highest PPS I've seen to date.

Valpo PPS                                        Oakland PPS
Broekhoff  1.0                                           Williams          -0.2
VanWijk     1.25926                                   Valentine         0.675
Buggs       -0.26667                                   Petros             -0.13043
Bogan        0.4                                           Bader               0.13889
Kenney      0.52778                                   Hamilton          1.47368
Boggs        0.2                                           Lucas-Perry     0.35484


Player of the Game
Reggie Hamilton: 41 points, 5-10 3 pointers, buzzer beater 

POTG Runner Up
Ryan Broekhoff: 18 points and 12 rebounds.  Really wish he would've had the ball in his hands at the end.


Up Next
Valpo will go back on the road and try to regain their winning ways for a game at Northern Illinois on December 20.  

PPS Preview: Oakland vs. Valpo

Our Player Productivity Score study continues on as Valpo will welcome formal MidCon rival Oakland to the ARC on Saturday.  Oakland has several pretty decent scores, but they also have a couple very low scores from regular contributors.  Let's take a look at how the teams match up according to PPS.  The players are listed in the order they appear on Oakland's and Valpo's stat pages.

Oakland                                                                          Valparaiso
D. Hamilton         0.88308                                                R. Broekhoff        0.87241
T. Bader              0.46705                                                K. VanWijk         0.83744
C. Petros             0.69632                                                R. Edwards         0.72033
D. Valentine         0.61994                                                J. Harris              0.57674
L. Lucas-Perry    0.53053                                                M. Kenney          0.47843
R. Bass               0.30476                                                 W. Bogan           0.38174
B. Cushingway    0.26667                                                 E. Buggs             0.27315
D. Williams          0.11940                                                *B. Boggs

As you can see by the numbers, Hamilton is playing at a very high level so far this season.  Petros and Valentine are also off to nice starts and are having solid years.  Petros is foul prone and those high foul totals helped bring his number down a little bit.  Williams has played in every game and is averaging over 13 minutes per game.  He has not shot the ball well and is foul prone.  I think the key to a Valpo Victory is keeping Hamilton below a 1.0 score and limiting Petros and Valentine to scores below 0.6.

*For Valpo I included Ben Boggs who I suspect will make his debut on Saturday.  I'm hoping that he will effectively end Tommy Kurth's reign of terror, move Will Bogan to the back up point guard, and put Jay or Ben in the starting 2 guard spot.

Comparing the two teams' PPS this should play out to be a very competitive game.  I will give Valpo the slight edge due to the fact that the game is at the ARC (where Valpo is 4-0 this year).  I think Broekhoff, VanWijk, and Hamilton are going to fill up their stat lines and this game will be decided by which Richie Edwards shows up and can Harris and/or Bogan hit enough jumpers to allow our big guys to do their thing inside.

A PPS Preview of Saturday

For anyone who has read this blog before you know that I like tracking something I'm calling the Player Productivity Score (PPS). Remember, PPS is figured using a formula takes into account only statistics that appear in a final box score. The final score should tell you how many positive things a player does per minute of game time that they play.  

I thought I'd take a look at the upcoming opponent and compare their scores with Valpo's scores.  Danny will have the regular game preview for you shortly.  For this study I'm looking only at players who have averaged more then 8 minutes per game on the season and have played in all (or in KVW's case just about all) of their team's games.  The order the players are listed in is the order in which they appear on their school's statistics website.


Bowling Green                                                      Valparaiso
S. Thomas   0.62389                                        R. Broekhoff   0.80690
A. Calhoun  0.42935                                        K. VanWijk      0.84729  
D. Brown     0.42640                                        R. Edwards    0.72034
J. Crawford 0.32955                                         J. Harris         0.57674
C. Sealy       0.43478                                        M. Kenney      0.47843
L. Kraus      0.20988                                        W. Bogan        0.38174
C. Black       0.30968                                        E. Buggs        0.27315
T. Oglesby  0.40678                                         T. Kurth         0.08197

From looking at each teams' schedule I'd say Valpo has played the tougher opponents so far.  Valpo has also played one more game (which could make the scores fluctuate a little bit in either direction this early in the year).  Out of the 16 players listed Valpo guys fill up 5 of the top 6 spots. Judging from the PPS scores Valpo should win this game.

Horizon League Player Productivity Score

The PPS has been revamped a bit since I last posted anything on it.  To see the old formula click here.  PPS is calculated using only the information on the box scores. Throughout this season I will be tracking some of the main guys from each HL team, and a few extra players from Valpo.  After the first weekend of games here it how the top ten stack up.  Please remember, all teams have played two games except for Butler and Valpo.  Listed is their rank, name, position, school, and PPS.  A couple more notes, all forwards and centers are listed as F to make my life easier later on. I also am noticing that I only have it set to go two decimal places. This will be adjusted later on as well.

1) K. Williams  G  Mil   0.84
2) R. Edwards F Valpo 0.83
3) R. Allen  G  Mil  0.79
4) R. McCallum G  Det  0.79
5) W. Gibler  F  Loy  0.77
6) K. Kelm  F  Mil  0.75
7) D. Brooks  F  YSU  0.75
8) D. Anderson  F  Det  0.75
9) A. Brown  F  GB  0.69
10) R. Broekhoff  F  Valpo  0.69