Ecclesia may have come to Searcy ready to play another D-II team, but they probably left demoralized after last night’s 109-50 beating at the hands of the Bisons.
Here are the keys:
| Away | Home | +/- | ||
| Eff | 61.0 | 128.0 | -67.0 | Actual net efficiency |
| TS% | 37.4 | 61.8 | -0.245 | |
| OR% | 33.3% | 42.1% | -0.088 | |
| TR | 27.8 | 9.8 | -0.180 | |
| -70.6 | Predicted net efficiency |
And the non-traditional stats:
| 24 | Andrepont, Patrick | f | 20 | 19.1 | 0.955 | 71.4 | 5.0 | 16.7 | 5.6 | 12.0% |
| 30 | Hall, Matt | f | 17 | 13.0 | 0.765 | 71.8 | 3.9 | 8.7 | 0.0 | 14.2% |
| 42 | Thies, Jacob | c | 16 | 4.4 | 0.275 | 100.0 | -12.5 | 0.0 | 40.0 | 9.0% |
| 21 | Sims, Brandon | g | 17 | 5.6 | 0.329 | 38.9 | 7.8 | 18.2 | 0.0 | 2.8% |
| 22 | Barnett, Steven | g | 21 | 14.2 | 0.676 | 77.3 | 23.8 | 64.8 | 7.2 | 13.8% |
| 4 | Kee, Cole | – | 8 | 0.2 | 0.025 | 18.4 | -4.2 | 13.4 | 13.4 | 12.0% |
| 10 | Morgan, Kellen | – | 11 | -1.5 | -0.136 | 20.0 | -3.0 | 14.3 | 14.3 | 0.0% |
| 12 | Bibb, Reggie | – | 9 | 10.4 | 1.156 | 82.0 | 37.0 | 67.2 | 0.0 | 5.4% |
| 15 | Hamilton, Rick | – | 18 | 19.6 | 1.089 | 88.3 | 0.0 | 18.4 | 12.3 | 8.0% |
| 32 | Morgan, Trent | – | 13 | 7.7 | 0.592 | 82.0 | -2.6 | 14.5 | 14.5 | 7.4% |
| 33 | Wise, Jordan | – | 9 | 4.7 | 0.522 | 51.2 | 18.5 | 40.5 | 10.1 | 5.4% |
| 34 | Bynum, Jesse | – | 16 | 0.9 | 0.056 | 20.5 | -6.3 | 0.0 | 17.0 | 21.1% |
| 40 | Howard, Brian | – | 16 | 10.3 | 0.644 | 71.4 | -2.1 | 11.1 | 11.1 | 15.1% |
| 52 | Groves, Philip | – | 9 | 1.2 | 0.133 | 50.0 | -11.1 | 0.0 | 33.3 | 21.4% |
It’s pretty clear that Ecclesia was no match for Harding in this one, even against the second- and third-stringers. No Harding player played for more than 21 minutes, with typical minutes leader Matt Hall only playing 17. Everyone who got into the game for the Bisons scored, and all 15 players played at least eight minutes each.
The keys usually aren’t interesting in games that were clearly one-sided like this one. Sometimes it’s neat to see which players were the most productive in their time on the court, though. Reggie Bibb and Rick Hamilton both managed to get at least one point of game score for every minute they played, which is awfully good. Most of the typically productive players were over .500 in GS/minute.
No Harding player really had a bad game, per se, but Cole Kee, Kellen Morgan, and Jesse Bynum did struggle in their limited time on court. Both Morgan and Kee shot 1-for-5 and missed all eight of their total three-point attempts, hurting an otherwise stellar shooting night for the team.
Next up is Texas College on Friday night, the third in a series of five straight home games for the Bisons.
Update: Stats are up. The latest file can be found on the 06-07 Stats Page.
jfwiii.net 
Look for Brian Howard to be the Rowdies’ favorite this year. He can jump out of the gym and is a snake around the basket. Will he get any “real” playing time?
Although Thies is the starter so far (I have never understood that one), Cole “never met a shot he didn’t like” Kee seems the better overall choice for the high post. He can handle the ball and has some good moves inside. He has had some hard luck misses in there as opposed to the brick 3-balls he has thrown up.
Good to see Matt Hall as the team’s biggest cheerleader – too bad some of the borderline talents seems not share that unselfish spirit.
I’ll be interested to see Howard, then, when I go to Huntsville (assuming he plays). I don’t understand the decision to start Thies, either, although I guess I haven’t seen the rest of the post players. If Howard’s really any good, he obviously needs to be playing more.
Kee would be an interesting change in the high post, and I would be really interested to see if he could make that sort of change in approach to the game. I guess almost anything’s better than what we’re getting now.
Thies is a real liability on both ends, especially offense. Starting him with Bibb or Barnett means you have only three offensive players on the floor. He cannot handle the ball and cannot score from more than point blank. I do not understand why he has played so much over his first two years. Two or three minutes a half spelling Matt down low should be the max for him.
Kee is a knothead, but he has the ability to screen and pass from the high post and handle the ball under pressure.
Hopefully Howard will be able to fit into the Bisons highly complex offensive scheme 🙂
Statistically, Thies is deficient across the board, but he has always played really hard, taking charges and going for lose balls. He seems like the kind of player who busts himself in practice and earns his minutes based off that.
You’re absolutely right though about playing him with Bibb or Barnett really limiting the Bisons on O.
My spam blocker ate your comment, Luke. I really need to be more diligent about monitoring those, because I hate to lose good comments.
I would agree that Thies seems like exactly that type of player, but my problem is with the idea that busting yourself in practice merits playing time. I realize that winning is not the most important thing in sports, but it’s important to understand that playing inferior players because they work hard is not, in and of itself, going to win you a lot of basketball games.
There’s a fine line to be drawn here, and Coach Morgan is in an awfully difficult position, where he has to play the good players enough to win, but he also has to play the hard workers so he can motivate his team to do more. It would be so much easier if Thies were also a very good player in addition to being a hard worker.
Of course all this speculation about work ethic is just that: speculation. I have no idea which Bisons work harder than others, but Thies’ on-court hustle plays would seem to back up the assumption that he is among the harder workers.