Friday Roland Ratings Review

by:Stuart Hammer11/22/13

StuartHammerKSR

roland-ratings-review Today is Friday and that means it’s time for Roland Ratings Review, a semi-weekly post that will recap and breakdown the Kentucky Wildcats basketball players by examining the +/- stat. Because this is the debut post, if you’re not familiar with the plus/minus stats, it’s pretty simple: the number represents the team’s net point differential when the player is on the floor compared to when he is not. If a player has a positive value, it means the team did better than when he was off the floor, a negative value means the opposite. In theory, this helps to not only gauge how valuable a player is by directly scoring points, but it also incorporates the intangibles, because a higher plus/minus often equates to good defense and other more hidden contributions over the course of a game. A Roland Rating number simply combines a player’s plus/minus on the court with his plus/minus off the court. For example, if Julius Randle has a +15 on-court value (meaning he was good for UK scoring 15 points more than the other team) and a -2 off-court value (meaning UK was 2-points worse without him) that would make his Roland Rating a +17. So now that you understand how the stats work, let’s take a look at the leaders in the +/- and Roland Rating stats through the team’s first five games. ********** rr-unc-a This is a prime example of how Roland Ratings capture more than just stat-stuffers. In the game against UNC-Asheville, Andrew Harrison had the highest rating for Kentucky, yet he only scored 8 points, he didn’t have any rebounds, and only shot three field goals. But he only had one turnover, had five assists, and was a court general for the team as they separated themselves from the Bulldogs. rr-nku Sometimes, however, the best player in the Roland Ratings is, in fact, the best player in the stat columns. Julius Randle dropped 22 points on the Norse, to go along with 14 rebounds while limiting himself to just a pair of turnovers and fouls each. rr-msu The Ratings take a big hit against the Spartans, but check out Alex Poythress. His 27 minutes were by far the most valuable anybody gave on the team, thanks in large part to his 12 rebounds. Julius Randle scored 27 points, but it still wasn’t enough to push him over the edge and into the positive range. If these ratings tell us anything in hindsight, it’s that Calipari should have found a way to get Poythress on the floor more. rr-rmu When your team cruises past another so easily, the Roland Ratings can lose some of their significance, especially when you play limited minutes like Johnson or Hawkins — their contributions were solid, but with UK blowing RMU out of the gym, they just didn’t need ‘em. Either way, this again shows how Kentucky’s point guard is doing his job. Just 8 points again for Andrew Harrison but his +14 RR ranks well in the game. His brother Aaron had a career night, dropping 28 points and a perfect 10-for-10 from the charity stripe. At the final tally, Julius Randle wins the first round of games with a total RR of +70, averaging out to +18 through Kentucky’s first four games. A close second goes to Aaron Harrison who has a total RR of +60 (average +15) and third goes to Andrew Harrison with +52 (average +13).

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