PhilipVU94
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Offered from a visiting Vanderbilt fan in hopes it's useful. Would love to hear OU perspectives on these aspects of the matchup. All rankings from Bart Torvik.
VANDERBILT
Our team is rather mediocre at three of the Four Factors on both "sides of the ball": effective FG%, offensive rebound %, and free throw rate. A minor exception is offensive eFG% where we're 78th (8th SEC).
But that fourth factor... wow. We're 12th nationally in not committing turnovers (3rd SEC) and 14th in getting opponents to commit them (2nd SEC). Kentucky fans were left scratching their heads over what they called "unforced errors," but it's the cornerstone of Mark Byington's defense, not some unthinkable coincidence that opponents forget how to take care of the ball when they play us. (Notably Ole Miss is ahead of us on both sides.)
In short, if you get a shot off then we might give up a good one. But you'll have to work hard to get that shot.
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma has one area where it excels (22nd offensive eFG%), two where it's good (70th offensive FTR, 71st defensive turnover rate), and then... is atrocious at rebounding. Technically it's defensive rebounding where they're atrocious (316th defensive OReb%) whereas they're merely bad on their own offensive glass (250th).
For perspective, that defensive rebound % is not only last in the SEC but would be 4th in the MEAC. It would be 10th in the OVC. At least on the offensive side they're 15th in the league ahead of the ubiquitous Ole Miss.
SYNTHESIS
So how do they match up? Heck if I know. Here's a guess.
VANDERBILT
Our team is rather mediocre at three of the Four Factors on both "sides of the ball": effective FG%, offensive rebound %, and free throw rate. A minor exception is offensive eFG% where we're 78th (8th SEC).
But that fourth factor... wow. We're 12th nationally in not committing turnovers (3rd SEC) and 14th in getting opponents to commit them (2nd SEC). Kentucky fans were left scratching their heads over what they called "unforced errors," but it's the cornerstone of Mark Byington's defense, not some unthinkable coincidence that opponents forget how to take care of the ball when they play us. (Notably Ole Miss is ahead of us on both sides.)
In short, if you get a shot off then we might give up a good one. But you'll have to work hard to get that shot.
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma has one area where it excels (22nd offensive eFG%), two where it's good (70th offensive FTR, 71st defensive turnover rate), and then... is atrocious at rebounding. Technically it's defensive rebounding where they're atrocious (316th defensive OReb%) whereas they're merely bad on their own offensive glass (250th).
For perspective, that defensive rebound % is not only last in the SEC but would be 4th in the MEAC. It would be 10th in the OVC. At least on the offensive side they're 15th in the league ahead of the ubiquitous Ole Miss.
SYNTHESIS
So how do they match up? Heck if I know. Here's a guess.
- If OU can get off a large number of shots, they will likely make a lot of them (weighted for 2 vs 3) and likely win.
- There's a good chance VU can prevent that many shots, though.
- Meanwhile one of OU's relative strengths (forcing turnovers) is neutralized by Vanderbilt's greater strength in not committing turnovers.
- Rebounds are interesting. VU is famously undersized for the SEC (with our biggest player, USC transfer Kijani Wright, injured all season) but surprisingly strong. It's likely VU will get plenty of second and third shots to cover up for poor shooting on the road.
- OU doesn't miss that much, but if they're cold then they won't get that many second shots.
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