Style of play

[chiefsfan]

I did some research over John  Pelphrey's last 2 teams at South Alabama, and his team this year at Arkansas.  My goal was to find a key strength that he had back then, that he doesnt have now.    Talent wise Arkansas has better players yes...but South Alabama was against comparable talent in the Sun Belt  and Arkansas against comparable talent in the SEC

Most Important difference

Point Guard

Player             Team             Assists/Gm              Turnovers/Gm              Assist to Turnover Ratio             points per game
Stefan Welsh       AR                2.9                            2.4                          1.2:1                                      4.9
Gary Ervin           AR                3.3                            2.3                          1.4:1                                      8.9
Daon Merritt       USA               5.3                            2.7                          1.9:1                                      12.0

Shooting Guard

Player            Team               3PtFG's/Gm             3pt FG Percentage            Rebounds/GM                          Points per game
Patrick Beverly   AR                  1.7                          36.5%                           5.9                                        11.7
Demetric Bennett  USA              2.5                         43.5%                           5.4                                         15.5

Wing/3 Guard

Player           Team               FG Prctg                   Turnovers/Gm                Rebounds/Gm                          Points Per game
Sonny Weems    AR                    47.6%                    3.2                              4.4                                        13.5
Leandro Buboltz   USA                38.7%                    1.1                              3.3                                         8.0
Carlos Smith        USA                39.7%                   1.4                              2.4                                         9.7


Center

Player        Team                  Blocks/gm               Turnovers/Gm                 Rebounds/GM                         Points Per game
Steven Hill     AR                     1.88                      1.0                               2.8                                         5.1
Darian Townes   AR                  1.44                      1.4                              5.2                                        11.3
Ernest Little*    USA                 1.0                        1.4                             9.4                                        13.6



Note*         Ernest Little was injured last season and only played in 22 of his teams 32 games

Note2*       South Alabama rotated Smith and Bubolts between the 3 and 4 slots.  I did not add Thomas to the comparison because both of those 2 for USA averaged making over 2 3's per game.   Thomas has 2 3 pointers all season.  Not really a guard


Now for the Advantages

Point Guard

Advantage   South Alabama.    Many hog fans will say, and I tend to agree...if Arkansas had a compotent point guard this year, we would have at least 2 or 3 less losses

Shooting Guard

Advantage   Even.    Interesting Pelphrey's teams thrive on having good guard rebounding.  Arkansas has that...and has a better player at driving to the hole in Beverly.  However Pelphrey's shooting guards average about 43 percent per year from 3 point range attempting 150+3's in a 30 game season.    Beverly isnt near that rate.

Wing

Advantage   Slight to Arkansas   Weems Points per game helps here.  But he also turns the ball over 2 times more per game...in fact At the rate Sonny Weems is going he will have over 30 more turnovers 30 games in then those 2 players combined.   Pelphrey likes to have a player here who can get inside for rebounds, play with the bigs, yet pop outside for a 3 and have to be followed.   Weems fits that role perfectly...  the problem once again is the turnovers

Center

Advantage   South Alabama      People say Hill is better defensively, but looking at the numbers...not really at all.  I think the only thing scary on Steven Hill is his hair...   Townes weakness is on ball defending...   so he does give up a high Field goal percentage per game.         South Alabama gets the edge because Little was an absolute force down low.    13 points and 9 rebounds per game is scary good.   through 18 games played last season he has more rebounds then Townes and Hill combined



I did some other number checks.

Free Throw Shooting.     Actually Pelphrey's teams have a weakness in this department.  His primary ball handler shot 75 percent from the free throw line...which is good.   But his big man inside, shot just over 50 percent

Turnovers Per game.    Pelphrey's teams the last 3 years not counting Arkansas have averaged about 12 turnovers per game.   Arkansas is at 14 right now.   Almost all of this can be traced back to the bad numbers by Weems Ervin and Welsh

Rebounding:   Pelphrey's Teams usually lose the rebounding battle by 1 per game.   However they also usually win the offensive rebounding battle by 2 per game.  So take your pick there. 

Assists:    A Pelphrey squad averages about 14 per game.  Arkansas is averaging 12 per game this year.   The problem is the turnovers...  thats a 0.8:1  Assist to turnover ratio for Arkansas as a team

The simple fact of the matter is that we dont have the players in here to run what is considered john pelphrey basketball.  The problem is and will be that Pelphrey's winning percentage at a slower pace...while good for most coaches...isnt going to be good enough when your basketball team is set up like a Big 10 team..  He can get away with winning some games in the 60's   But he cant consistantly.  Its not his strength.   Nor his style.  Which is some of why we are struggling this year.    Patience is going to be a key with all hog fans for the next couple months.   This team will have to be super glued together...and it wont be an easy fix

[Kevin]

look at usa's record this year with the players pel left there

15-3 this year

[hogsanity]

Basketball, at ANY LEVEL, requires good guard play.