This year's offense vs. last year's

I thought it would be interesting to compare some offensive stats from this year and last year through the first 6 games. UK was 5-1 through 6 with wins over South Dakota St., Lipscomb, West Virginia, Liberty, and High Point. The loss came to Iowa.

FG's
2005: 161/363 = 44.4%
2006: 155/327 = 47.4%

3 Pt. FG's
2005: 53/129 = 41.1%
2006: 36/100 = 36.0%

FT's
2005: 62/104 = 59.6%
2006: 85/119 = 71.4%

Assists
2005: 101 = 63% of FG's
2006: 93 = 60% of FG's

What does all this mean? First off I think that this year's schedule has been more difficult with Top 25 teams UCLA and Memphis, plus Miami (OH), DePaul, and maybe even Charleston are better than any of the easy teams we played last year. You also have to remember that Morris wasn't playing at this time last year.

FG's - Shooting much better this year mainly because we're taking more inside shots. Last year's team was shooting 3's 35.5% of the time, while this year's is only taking 3's 30.1% of the time.

3 Pt. FG's - Last year's team was more guard oriented, and they had to make 3's to compete. Against Charleston UK put out a lineup at one time with Morris, Stevenson, and Thomas all in, and it actually worked pretty well. If we continue to push the ball inside, the 3's will start to open up more, and shoot better.

FT's - Shooting 12% points higher, and attempting more. Free throws could actually help UK win games this year, not cause us to lose them.

Assists - Rondo was an assist machine when he wanted to be, but Bradley isn't the same type of player. I have noticed that this year's big men pass the ball pretty well to each other. When Hayes and Daniels were here, they always looked for each other, and it created lots of easy shots.