Two More Stats That Point To Brad Underwood Being a Good Coach

I have done maybe not a 180 but a 90 (?) or a 110 (?) on Brad Underwood in the last 10 days. A week ago, I was skeptical. Now, I’m cautiously on board with all signs pointing to the fact that he can in fact be an excellent coach.

Two more of those signs:

1. Four Factors

A fan named Paul Iwanaga did the legwork here, and it is very impressive legwork. And I’m not talking about the four factors according to KenPom.com, but Iwanaga’s four factors are nonetheless compelling. Here’s his post from Rivals.

After looking over this data somethings started to really stand out in the data. For example, every team from last year (2015 NCAA Tournament) that advanced to the Final Four had four data points in common. All of these teams placed in the top 50 in the following four categories (assist-turnover ratio, FG percentage, rebound margin and scoring margin).

In other words, only the very successful teams scored well in these four categories. It was the only thing they all had in common, so I determined it must be some type of indicator/recipe for success. Here is where these stats got my attention regarding coaching. These statics help to show which teams are well disciplined and well-coached.

In last year’s tournament, there were only nine teams that ranked in the top 50 in all four of these measurements. 

You know who is on the list.

Duke (won the NC)
Wisconsin (lost NC game)
Kentucky (Final 4)
Michigan State (Final 4)
Gonzaga (Elite 8)
Arizona (Elite 8)
North Carolina (Sweet 16)
Utah (Sweet 16)
Stephen F. Austin (lost in R1)

Think about the coaches at these schools. Insanely good, right? The point here is that these are statistical categories that reveal disciplined squads. We have seen enough to know now that Underwood coaches disciplined teams. They didn’t play nobody, you might say. That’s true. But neither did Travis Ford’s Eastern Kentucky teams and my gosh were they inefficient.

2. Scoring Margin

Let’s dive a little deeper into one of those stats. Friend of the blog Doug Drinen pointed this out to me. SFA beat teams. They beat a lot of teams actually. But not only did they beat them, they hammered them. Here are the best three-year conference scoring differentials of the last 15 years.

1. Duke (1999-2001): 19.25
2. SFA (2014-16): 18.91
3. Memphis (2007-09): 18.88
4. Duke (1998-2000): 18.58
5. Memphis (2006-08): 18.41

The list is littered with Gonzaga, Wichita State, Davidson, Kansas and others. It’s a great list. A list you want to be on. Like I said earlier, Underwood did everything he could and more in a crappy conference. None of this means he’s going to be any good in the Big 12, of course, but it also doesn’t mean he won’t.