Big East offenses: How the teams stacked up

Here's the latest Cracked Sidewalks contribution from Ray Floriani of Hoopville.net and Basketball Times:

A couple of weeks ago we looked at the defenders of the paint. Simply, the Big East squads who were the stingiest inside the three point arc.

And as mentioned before, not all attempts inside the arc are in the lane, but a surprisingly high percentage of them are. Speaking of offensive production inside the arc, the ranked list of Big East teams follows. Remember only regular season conference games are calculated.

Two Point Offensive FG %

1. GU -- 58%
2. WVU - 55%
3. PC ---52%
4. Ville -- 50%
5. Pitt -- 50%
6. DPU -- 49%
7. USF -- 48%
8. ND -- 47%
9. SU -- 47%
10. MU -- 46%
11. SHU -- 44%
12. Nova -- 43%
13. Cincy -- 43%
14. SJU -- 43%
15. UConn -- 41%
16. RU -- 41%

Notes and observations:

• How did West Virginia finish second in the conference with a 55% field goal mark inside the arc? Simple, their style. The Mountaineers were not afraid to get out and run which translated to easy baskets. Their marksmanship and willingness to fire from beyond the arc also extended enemy defense and opened the lane up for back door cuts.
• Georgetown, with Roy Hibbert and Jeff Green doing damage inside and their ability to get backdoor layups logically explained their inside dominance.
• Thought Pitt might be higher with Aaron Gray inside.
• Syracuse had some good inside players but also had the ability and tendency to hoist a number of treys on a given night.
• The optimist in me says Marquette was middle of the road inside but the realist says help was needed in the paint.
• Seton Hall and Rutgers both struggled inside. St.John’s had a nice low post presence in Lamont Hamilton but no one else to consistently help him out and the numbers show.
• Not surprised too much by perimeter-oriented Villanova, but UCONN’s figure was an eye opener. Especially with 7’3” Hasheen Thabeet in the middle. On closer inspection Thabeet didn’t get a great deal of touches while two guards (Jerome Dyson and A.J.Price) were among the Huskies’top three in field goal attempts. Chalk it up to having a dozen first or second year players on the roster.

The next installment will have the average two and three point attempts per game with a few interesting insights.

---Ray Floriani