Oh Happy Day
Ken Pomeroy broke out his comprehensive possession-based stats page for the 2005-06 season. Stats nerds (myself included) rejoice from coast to coast. Now you can check each team's offensive and defensive efficiency and see how they compare to every other team in the country. The offense and defense summary pages break down the two categories into Dean Oliver's Four Factors (click on Articles, it's at the top of the list)- shooting efficiency, turnover rate, offensive rebounding, and free throw frequency.

A little sampler.....
[the stats and abbreviations are explained in my Stats Primer]

Iowa, through 6 games
Offensive Efficiency - 96.7, 154th nationally
eFG% - 45.5%, 232
TO% - 20.6%, 105
oRb% - 36.7%, 77
FTM/FGA - .232, 186

Defensive Efficiency - 74.3, 5th nationally
eFG% - 39.9%, 14
TO% - 27.2%, 26
dRb% - 73.0%, 57
FTA/FGA - .241, 29

In short, Iowa's offense has been painful to watch at many times (the last ten days certainly come to mind), but they've been making up for it with a top ten defense. It's hard to place much stock in season statistics this early on, as many teams have only played two or three times, and against widely varying levels of competition, but given that Iowa has already played three ranked teams, their defensive numbers look downright gaudy.

Their game-by-game defensive efficiency (or points allowed per 100 possessions) -
UMES - 51.7
Colgate - 79.4
Kentucky - 85.2
Texas - 104.9
Tex-SA - 68.1
NC State - 60.4

According to Ken, the national average for PPP stands at about 96.0. So, against a fairly tough schedule, Iowa's offense has been about average, while the defense has been outstanding. A couple cake games this weekend should help to improve that poor shooting and the overall outlook of the offense.
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