UCSB vs. Davis Recap

UCSB improved on to 8-4 in conference play with last night's 77-73 victory over the Aggies from Davis. Although this score was close, UCSB made this game much closer than it had to be. The Gauchos played some uncharacteristic ball last night by shooting poorly from the three point line (it's gonna happen sometimes) and some poor free throw shooting. Below is the game flow chart, courtesy of statsheet.com. From the looks of the chart, you'll notice that UCSB never relinquished their lead, which is nice to see from the team at this point in the season.

NOTE: I had to delete the Chart, as it was abnormally humongous and taking up a huge part of the site. You can head over to statsheet.com to check out the game flow chart.

From an efficiency standpoint, the Gauchos had their fourth most efficient game of the season with a rating of 118.2. Defensively, the Gauchos had their third worst performance with a rating of 112.0. While the offensive performance is clearly something to get excited about, the defensive performance should have you worried. I'm willing to chalk up the performance to one bad game, however, anytime you let an inefficient Davis rack up a 112.0 on you, you should be worried. For reference, it was Davis' sixth highest offensive output of the season, putting us up there with LaVerne (Who?), Presbyterian (Who?), Portland St. (Who?), Irvine (Who?, Just kidding) and Pacific.

Effective Field Goal Percentage

UCSB: 56.4%
Davis: 60.5%

Believe it or not, but this was our seventh highest effective field goal percentage performance of the season. This is cause for celebration because the Gauchos shot 4-15 from the arc. All this means that the Gauchos headed to the hoop and got them some two pointers like they were going out of style.

On the other hand, UCSB allowed Davis to get a higher percentage on the floor. This was likely the effect of the Aggies' three point shooting. All told, the Aggies shot 8-22 from beyond the arc.

Free Throw Rate

UCSB: 43.6
Davis: 55.8

This stat really surprised me for two reasons. First, it was nice to see the Gauchos get to the line 24 times. I'm sure they've been to the charity stripe that many times in a couple of games, but I can't recollect any games in recent memory. Secondly, I was surprised because the Gauchos shot an uncharacteristically poor percentage from the line, going 15-24. I consider this a one game aberration and believe they'll get back on track this week.

Offensive Rebounding Percentage

UCSB: 43.6%
Davis: 28.6%

For once, the tables are turned! Maybe Bob Williams lit a fire under their ass. Maybe the players drank some crunk juice. I don't know, but whatever the players did (and Davis didn't), the Gauchos need to keep up the good work.

I know Davis didn't have Michael Boone in the middle, but I still believe the Gauchos have the power to rebound like madmen. Most importantly, they kept Davis off the offensive glass.

The Gauchos gave themselves a lot of second chances in the game which is always nice to see. If anyone out there has a second chance point stat, I'd love to see it. You can leave me a comment.

Turnover Percentage

UCSB: 18.4%
Davis: 26.1%

Davis committed 17 turnovers, as compared to the Gauchos 12. Not exactly a whopper of a differential, but if you consider the fact that 12 of the Aggies 17 turnovers came from UCSB steals, you have to be impressed.

Our guards were a little high on the turnover side again, but the overall performance of the Gauchos was a pretty good game.

In wrapping up tonight's review, I wanted to point out a couple of other things. For the past couple weeks, we've been harping on the Gauchos inability to control the pace. The Davis game presented an interesting case study because they play at such a slow speed. While UCSB wasn't exactly playing lights out, they seemingly pushed the pace because they ended with a pace of 65. Not bad considering their last game was played at a 53.

One thing of concern is the lack of minutes that the bench is receiving. TGM has always been a big proponent of playing as many players as you can to create depth. It's our opinion that you do so by playing guys an average of about 10+ minutes a game. The Gauchos have been getting seven or eight guys 10+ minutes a game over the course of the season. The problem with this strategy will surface during the Big West Tournament (Mark my words). If the Gauchos end up playing back-t0-back-to-back games, they could experience some extreme fatigue. The other problem with this is foul trouble. When someone gets into foul trouble, who can Bob turn to? As stupid as it sounds, the players who get these minutes won't have the confidence and Bob won't have it in them. That's enough for tonight.

See you back on Monday.