A few more postgame thoughts

Total Team Effort

One of my biggest takeaways from the game was the team effort. Graphically below you can see how the team contributed: First Ford, Bearden and Evans. Then Skeete Wigginton and Regan. Then Skeete and Regan. Then Ford and Bearden, Then Ford Wigginton and Moss.

It continued in the second half with Ford, Regan, Moss, Evans and Wigginton having periods of scoring prowess. A great team can't be shut down, when a team tries to stop one thing, you move to the next. It was a beautiful performance.

Gameflow: Comparison

My mind keeps going back to the other two Basketball Championships I watched, 2005 and 2009.

Looking at the first half, UB 2015 was the mirrored image of the 2005 team, and interestingly the 2009 Akron team and the 2005 Ohio team had the exact same first half. CMU had the best opposing first half of any team we played in the Championship.

Again in the 2nd half CMU performed the best but UB 2015 was better. This team would have beat all the other teams they just couldn't be stopped.

Nerding out and adding a linear trendline, every 4 minutes:

UB 2009 trend was 4.09 points.

Akron 2009 and Ohio 2009 trended at 6.1 points

CMU 2015 trended at 6.87 points

UB 2005 trended at 6.95 points

and UB 2015 trended at 7.24 points.

This tells me 1) UB 2009 was dead in the water, 2) Reggie's defense was consistent, 3) UB 2005's collapse was an anomaly and 4) UB 2015 was on fire, the most consistent team of any we've seen in our three MAC championship runs.

Big Time Players

I then looked to see how UB 2015's players compared to the big players in the three previous championship teams.

Shannon Evans tied Turner Battle (2005) and Max Boudreau (2009) for the lead in field goals made in the Semifinal and Final with 11.

Will Regan was third in fg% shooting 6 for 10 (60%). Boudreau (2009) shot 69% and Mario Jordan (2005) shot 75%.

Ford tied Jason Bird (2005) in 3 point efficiency, both shot 3 for 7 43% in the final two MAC games.

Regan tied Andy Robinson (2009) with 6 offensive rebounds, but they were eclipsed by Ford with 7. The same three lead in offensive boards per minute, Ford had .246 ARob had .280 and Regan snatched .402.

Rodell Wigginton had 10 defensive rebounds bested only by Justin Moss who had 12, which tied Turner Battle (2005). Moss had .380 defensive rebounds a minute, Mark Bortz (2005) had .416  and Wigginton had .450.

Moss and Ford had 15 rebounds each, and Wigginton tied previous leader Mark Bortz (2005) with 14 rebounds. Ford had .527 rebounds per minute, Wigginton .633, Bortz (2005) .642 and the new leader is Will Regan with .661 rebounds per minute.

Regan has 81 career points at the Q, second only to Javon McCrea. Total points in the final two MAC games goes to Turner Battle who had 36, Ford had 35 and Shannon Evans is third with 32.

The points per minute title stays with Boudreau who had .7 points per minute but Ford .625 and Regan .5 round out the top 3.

They were helped by overtime, but Battle 22 and Cage 20, still lead all in scoring in the MAC Final. It is remarkable that the 2005 Bulls had 5 free throws in a 45 minute game. UB had 5 free throws by the 8:45 mark of the first half this year, and finished with 30 free throw attempts.

Time for Justin Moss to do what Randy Moss never could, beat WVU.