Parsing The WAC: Utah State the best in the country

Friday, April 10, 2009

Utah State the best in the country

Utah State has been a good shooting team for as long as we can remember and Shawn Harrison has an article today about the Aggies' sharp-shooting.

Ags end up leading nation in shooting
Shawn Harrison
Herald Journal
April 10, 2009

It’s official.

For the second straight season the Utah State men’s basketball team led the nation in field goal shooting percentage. The NCAA released its final Division I statistics Thursday. This is the third time in five years the Aggies have led the country in shooting percentage...

Go here for the remainder.

So why is this? Here's what we can determine (and please add your own takes).

*** Utah State recruits kids who can shoot -- possessing good form and technique. Obviously other teams do too but USU appears to place a premium on this while other focus more on athletic ability and the like.

*** The Aggie offensive 'system' (pass, screen, pass, screen -- not a premium on dribbling) is designed to create highly make-able open looks and promotes unselfishness. Newcomers who don't adapt to this style of play either don't play much or depart from Logan fairly soon.

*** The emotional and intellectual maturity that comes with older players plays a role as it's easier to instill a team-first, me-last attitude on those more 'sophisticated' if you will. The greater physical advancement of many on the USU roster is also a factor.

What else?

No comments:

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08/25/2011: Want to also thank Kevin, who writes what I consider to be next to my blog, (just kidding), the best college basketball blog in the country and trust me, I read them all, http://parsingthewac.blogspot.com, it is always fresh and always important info, plus Kevin has often referenced my blog and it is not forgotten and greatly appreciated. Too many bloggers think their you know what does not stink and are not willing to recognize other people. So thank you Kevin and keep up the awesome work.

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02/25/2009: Nevada paper rates WAC players: "Once again I must give credit where it is due – I pulled these articles off of Parsing the WAC,...an almost daily updated blog run by Kevin McCarthy. It is the authority on all things WAC men’s basketball. If there is a feature or game story put out about one of the schools in the league he will have a link to it (and a corresponding editorial comment). It is one of the first places I go on the Internet each day. We are very lucky to have a fan in this a midmajor league willing to put the time and energy in bring all this great information to all of us. Thanks Kevin."

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