Shot Chart Data from Last Season

[DSMok1]

Ken Pomeroy took a look at national category leaders in percentage of shots taken from various regions of the court and percentage made.

Interestingly, OU had both the leader in % of shots taken from midrange (6'-20') (Fitzgerald) and % of shots taken from 13'-20' (Pledger).

Of course, neither of those shot locations are particularly desirable!

Here is the relevant part of the article:

Highest percentage of shots taken from mid-range (6’-20’)
- Min. 100 total shots…Andrew Fitzgerald, Oklahoma (77/103, 74.8%). Fitzgerald made 42% of his attempts, which is quite solid. (You can basically treat mid-range FG% as you would 3P%. The average success rate is nearly identical.) His mid-range appetite explains how he could take 339 field goal attempts, zero three-pointers, and yet attempt just 78 free throws.

Highest percentage of shots taken from 13-20’
- Min. 100 total shots…Steven Pledger, Oklahoma (49/141, 34.8%). Pledger and Fitzgerald rank one and two in this category. There are a few possible explanations for this, among them that the hamsters recording data at the Lloyd Noble Center might have had a bias towards inflating shot lengths. But remember that since data is only recorded for games involving top 25 teams, and the Sooners were not a top 25 team, they were facing difficult defenses in this sample. I’m inclined to believe the numbers given that OU ranked 246th in 2P% last season and barely got to the line. It follows that they probably weren’t challenging the rim often. Considering their inability to get easy 2’s, it’s a mystery as to why just 22% of their shots were three-pointers.

Source:
http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/shot_chart_champions

 

[Mr.B!!!]

Based on the very limited basketball I.Q. that I possess, this is not good. With Fitzgerald it doesn't surprise me, because that is where his offensive game pretty much has to be. And I'm not really surprised about Pledger either, he is not a threat to take it hard to the rim. Hopefully Osby, M'Baye or [finally] Cam can get more opportunities within two feet of the basket.

 

[BigTime]

Thanks for posting, DSMok1.

I am hoping if/when Kruger gets this rolling again if you will grace us with our stat breakdowns. I know there hasn't been a whole lot to crow about these past few seasons, but I have a feeling that the Sooners will be getting quite a bit better starting this season.

 

[kbsooner]

Went to the Alumni game, and while watching the homage video to the '88 team, I coudn't believe how many easy buckets they had. And I'm not talking fast break layups, it was Grace, Blaylock, and even King breaking down the D, getting into the lane, and finding a cutter for an easy layup as they drew the double or triple team. It was beautiful, seemed effortless. Quite a contrast of watching the last few season where it seemed just getting an open jumper was a moral victory.

 

[DenverSooner]

They had three NBA players on that team plus Seiger and Grace. Grace had a few very brief stints in the NBA and is one of the best players ever in Australia. Seiger could a little in the CBA and could have made a career of basketball but chose academics. All 5 starters were big time scorers. I think it was easily the best starting 5 OU has ever had.

The most amazing thing is all 5 starters could practically play the entire game at the pace they played.

 

[Mr.B!!!]

They had three NBA players on that team plus Seiger and Grace. Grace had a few very brief stints in the NBA and is one of the best players ever in Australia. Seiger could a little in the CBA and could have made a career of basketball but chose academics. All 5 starters were big time scorers. I think it was easily the best starting 5 OU has ever had.

The most amazing thing is all 5 starters could practically play the entire game at the pace they played.

I think that this is one of the most underrated aspects of the entirety of Coach Tubbs' tenure at OU, Kelvin rightfully got a lot of mileage out of heart, hustle and hardwood, but Tubbs' teams were always extremely well conditioned. Whoever was running the strength and conditioning department at that time deserves a bunch of credit as well.

 

[WTSooner]

Keep in mind that simply playing that style of basketball in practice and games served as a form of conditioning as well. I'm guessing the guys didn't do much outside of practice, conditioning-wise, then our guys do now. They simply got used to playing that fast for that long.

 

[Sooner04]

Whoever was running the strength and conditioning department at that time deserves a bunch of credit as well.

According to numerous interviews from the dinner, that would be Billy Tubbs.