GEORGE F. LEE / GLEE@STARBULLETIN.COM
HPU sports information student assistant Seryna Ko is a popular person on game nights. Players, coaches and fans ask her for selected statsitics throughout each game.
The Numbers Game There is more to the game of basketball than scoring more points than the other team.
Players love statistics,
What a coach sees
coaches have learned to
adapt and tolerate themBy Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.comDepending on your perspective, the collection of individual measurements in a team sport on the left of this page either makes you smile or cringe. If you smile, consider yourself a player. If you cringe, you have the makings of an old-school coach.
Coaches used to detest the stat sheet, considering it an enemy of unity, but as time has passed and statistics have become more prevalent, they have begun to embrace the neat columns of numbers -- except the column that has always been the favorite of players.
"You can't stop it," Hawaii-Hilo coach Jeff Law said. "The old school says no stats for the players, but you want them to see some of them like turnovers, assists and rebounds. But they always creep way over to the right hand side where they can pick up their points. Sometimes I wish I could just white out that column."
When today's coaches were in their basketball infancy, all they had were points out of the official scorebook, and they loved them as much as today's players. Some, like Hawaii Pacific's Russell Dung, used to count the points as he went along, something that would probably cause him to go into a Sellitto-like fit of rage if he knew his current players were doing it.
"It helps them a lot, I tell the guys that each night they should have some goals in mind," Dung said. "We try to stress that it's not all about points and rebounding and as a coach you can tell by watching them play which ones are more concerned with their stats."
In their playing days, a few of today's coaches had the benefit of a student trying to track rebounds and coming up with what often resulted in a rough estimate. Now, complete stats such as shooting percentages and blocked shots are available to the players immediately, with the players able to track their progress even at halftime.
Nearly all players will say that the first thing they look at is shots taken to gauge ball distribution, or turnovers in an attempt to find correctable flaws in their game. But it always comes back to who scored the most points.
Law -- and other coaches who did the same thing in their playing days -- says players always look to see how many points they scored. It has become the lifeblood of the game.
"It's interesting," Brigham Young-Hawaii coach Ken Wagner said. "If you ask 10 players what they look for, none of them will say 'points' but all of them would be lying a little bit. Everyone wants to know how many points they scored."
As the most veteran basketball coach among Hawaii's small colleges, at one time Wagner wished the stats could be for his eyes only. But that became increasingly impossible, and he slowly began to accept it. Now, the stat sheet is as much a part of his coaching as his whistle.
"I am using them a lot more this year because we have set specific statistical goals for ourselves," Wagner said. "It is certainly a tool if it is used right."
As the newest head coach on the block, Dung has no problem embracing the stats as a tool. After all, he did serve as former coach Sellitto's numbers guy throughout his tenure under him both at Maryknoll and HPU.
"I'm a stats man," Dung said. "The game is advanced and they (statistics) have advanced with it. The stat sheet is a helpful tool, not a harmful one."
As adamant as he is about the mountain of numbers his staff is able to pile up, Dung says there are some players that have no business looking at the stats. He cites his center, Nate Block, as one of those guys.
Dung asks Block to do the little things for his team like hustling for loose balls and becoming a presence to avoid in the paint. All numbers aside, Dung believes Block's leadership alone is worth having him on the floor.
But Block, who leads the conference in blocked shots and is fifth in rebounding, can still find something in the sea of numbers to inspire him.
"I look at rebounds first," Block said. "It is what I do and the thing that can tell me how I am playing."
Dung says his team doesn't seem as enthralled with statistics as much as last year, which may have something to do with HPU's 7-1 start.
"I don't know if they are getting them somewhere else like the Internet," Dung said. "But we haven't had too many players asking for them recently. Last year all the guys wanted to see."
The biggest impact math has had on the game of basketball isn't its ability to measure nearly everything that goes on in a game, it is that the coaches are slowly coming around to the players' side. They don't look at the same things, but they are looking nonetheless.
"If we don't have a strong rebounding team, I look at that and I always look at assists and turnovers to see how we are moving the ball," Law said. "The stats get to the locker room the minute the half ends now, and you have to peek at them."
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A look at the numbers
Field Goals made-attempted (TOT FG-FGA): Dung doesn't look at it to see who his best shooters are. He looks to see if his guys are putting up good shots because he believes collegiate players should be able to hit any shot that is wide open.
This is the form that schools send out to the media after games. The following is a look at what Hawaii Pacific head coach Russell Dung looks for in each category.
"It just comes with the game. It's all about taking good shots. If you shoot only layups you'll get a good percentage. It also tells me if you are aggressive going to the basket."
3-pointers (3-PT FG-FGA): Dung sees it as an extension of field goals, but he doesn't want to see one player dominating this category.
"I tell the guys if they are open they should take them. They should know what a good shot is and what a bad shot is, but on the other hand I look to see if they are complementing each other."
Free throws (FT-FTA): Dung doesn't concern himself with percentages unless they are bad, instead using it to tell him who is being aggressive in going to the basket. "They are important, but only to tell us if we are getting to the free-throw line more than the other team."
Rebounds (OF-DE-TOT): One of the most useful stats, especially if you coach a poor rebounding team.
"I look at what our margin is, not so much how many we have. If you can rebound you can control the game. I like to see everybody getting rebounds, because that tells me if you are going to the ball."
Fouls committed (PF): It is the great balancing act of basketball -- too many is bad but too few is just as bad.
"You are going to get them, but if you don't get many, it tells you that you are not playing defense."
The greatest impact of fouls is not measured -- when they occur. Three fouls in the first half usually means a seat on the bench, five in a game certainly means a seat on the bench.
Points (TP): The most celebrated number, players love it and coaches tolerate it. Dung uses it to gauge individual performance, but only as it relates to the team.
"It is what everybody practices. Nobody really grows up practicing defense. I use it to make sure our offense is working, but it is mostly an individual thing. I go down the list with the guys and let them know what we expect out of them."
Assists-Turnovers (A-TO): The most useful number for most coaches, it tells them if their offense is working or not by indicating whether too much is being asked of the point guard. A 2:1 ratio means a good point guard, a 3:1 means a great one.
"It depends on the team. If you run a flex and milk the clock you are going to have a better ratio than if you are running up and down the floor. The thing for me is when I watch the game and all these turnovers are unforced, just throwing the ball away, that gets me a little hot."
Blocked shots (BLK): A glory stat if there ever was one, Dung wants to know how the team is faring in the category rather than specific individuals. If you go out trying to block shots, you may never get one.
"Blocks just come when you are aggressive and trying to contest every shot. If you don't give up freebies, the blocks will come."
Steals (S): If Dung was limited to knowing a single stat after a game, this is it because he considers himself a defensive coach.
"This is very important to us because you can kind of disrupt the other team's offense. It is largely a product of how well the guys listen to the other team's scouting report. We go over patterns and don't like to run out of the defense, but if you have a lot of steals, you are playing defense."
Minutes (MIN): The biggest troublemaker on the stat sheet. Everyone wants to play, but there are only 200 of these available to the roster in each game.
"That's either a coach's best friend or his worst enemy, because a lot of guys look at that category. You recruit a player telling him he will get so many minutes, but it isn't always true because things change."
