Cool stuff here from KenPom…
http://kenpom.com/blog/foul-trouble-data-by-coach/
Minutes played by players with two fouls in the first half.
Beilein checks in at 308th with 88 of 1277 minutes with two fouls
A couple other random notables
Izzo (294th)
Coach K (43rd)
Tom Crean (81st)
Bill Self (206th)
At a quick glance it doesn’t look like you can draw too many conclusions about any of the coach’s relative success from the data–would that be your conclusion too, Dylan?
I’m not as big a critic of the policy as some, because while it’s clear that a foul is a foul at any time–and a point from your player scored in the first half is just as valuable as one scored at the end of the game–I do think you want your leaders and starters in the game down the stretch. Again, I don’t think the space-time continuum bends for certain parts of games; this could be superstition too, but while I wish Beilein would play his gut and his individual players’ stats more, I still want Trey in at the end against Louisville.
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Interesting that SU’s Boeheim is among the most lenient. Maybe he sells the kids on that.
It may also be that Syracuse always, and I mean always, plays zone, which lets you hide guys in foul trouble more easily.
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Good point, I just like to take digs at Syracuse.
I’d be interested to see if there’s any correlation between these numbers and % of bench minutes. Just at a glance, there seem to be plenty of defensive minded coaches at the bottom. Doesn’t seem to be an offense/defense guy thing.
Also wonder about the correlation btw. man-to-man and zone defense by coaches.
I’m not sure what the answer is to any of this, but it is a really good job by KenPom to come up with the data.
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Yup, good stuff, thanks for posting it.
Kind of funny that Sean Miller is toward the top of the list (32nd) and his brother Archie is near the bottom (304th). Can’t even draw a family/coaching tree conclusion.
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Something that should be kept in mind here is game flow.
If you’re down 10 points late in the first half, you have a lot more incentive to keep a starter in with two fouls than the team who’s up 10. So you’d generally expect the most successful coaches to be in the bottom half of the list.
Coach K is a fascinating outlier. Given his reputation for being able to work officials, I wonder if he just figures he can manage the foul situation. Boeheim is a different case because they’re exclusively zone and thus can worry less about foul trouble.
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Excellent take. Coaches with lots of talent on the bench can afford to play it conservative.