Worst BSU defense in 48 years (at least)
Dec 20, 2021 19:23:02 GMT -6
cardfan, calpoly, and 4 more like this
Post by williamtsherman on Dec 20, 2021 19:23:02 GMT -6
Looking into the available data, it appears that there has not been a BSU team this bad at defense for nearly half a century....maybe a good bit longer
Going back to 2002, we have the invaluable KenPom rankings which give us a defensive efficiency rating. This helpfully takes into account both tempo and strength of opponents' offense. This is pretty much the gold standard of defense ranking.
So the worst BSU national defensive efficiency rankings since 2002 are shown below in order of terribleness:
1) Whitford 2021-22 319th
2)Taylor 2012-13 264th
3) Whitford 2013-14 259th
4) Buckley 2002-03 251st
5) Whitford 2014-15 247th
You can see that 2 thru 4 sort of group together in a 20 spot range, but this year's team is 55 spots lower than second worst. So, it's pretty clear that this is the worst BSU defensive team of the 20 year KenPom era.
Now moving backwards in time to try to find other candidates, using the archived stats at the BSU official website. Unfortunately, the pdf's from some of the mid-90's team are missing on that site. The top candidate for bad defense in this stretch may be Ray's 1996-97 team that had his worst record 16-13. (Ray never had a losing season). I'm going to say that a team could not win 16 games playing a half-way decent MAC schedule, If their defense was one of the 40 worst in the country. With that, I will dismiss the idea that any of Ray's 90's teams had a worse defense than this year.
And I think we can dismiss out of hand the idea that any of the Hunsaker or Majerus teams had a sub-300 defense. Either of those two guys would have simply pulled every scholarship and cancelled the season if that were the case.
We come to AL Brown's final season 1986-87. A bad 9-18 team that got him fired. That team allowed 77.7 ppg. This years team is allowing 80.2. Each team scored 74 ppg itself, so we are looking at similar tempo of play. Other defensive stats are basically a wash. I would say the extra 2.5 ppg allowed this year, puts it over the top in terribleness.
We can take a look at Steve Yoder's worst team (14-15) on 1979-80. This team allowed 73.4 while scoring 73.7. Possibly not a good defensive team, but not terrible and not deserving to be in this discussion.
Finally we get to some bad Jim Holstein and Bud Getchell teams in the 70's. For example, Holstein's 1972-73 team that went 9-15 and allowed 85.1 ppg (scoring 81.3 themselves). Apparently, the idea was that Larry Bullington could just outscore the other team. It was a different time and different game, but this is a team that MIGHT have been as bad defensively as this years team.
Going back to 2002, we have the invaluable KenPom rankings which give us a defensive efficiency rating. This helpfully takes into account both tempo and strength of opponents' offense. This is pretty much the gold standard of defense ranking.
So the worst BSU national defensive efficiency rankings since 2002 are shown below in order of terribleness:
1) Whitford 2021-22 319th
2)Taylor 2012-13 264th
3) Whitford 2013-14 259th
4) Buckley 2002-03 251st
5) Whitford 2014-15 247th
You can see that 2 thru 4 sort of group together in a 20 spot range, but this year's team is 55 spots lower than second worst. So, it's pretty clear that this is the worst BSU defensive team of the 20 year KenPom era.
Now moving backwards in time to try to find other candidates, using the archived stats at the BSU official website. Unfortunately, the pdf's from some of the mid-90's team are missing on that site. The top candidate for bad defense in this stretch may be Ray's 1996-97 team that had his worst record 16-13. (Ray never had a losing season). I'm going to say that a team could not win 16 games playing a half-way decent MAC schedule, If their defense was one of the 40 worst in the country. With that, I will dismiss the idea that any of Ray's 90's teams had a worse defense than this year.
And I think we can dismiss out of hand the idea that any of the Hunsaker or Majerus teams had a sub-300 defense. Either of those two guys would have simply pulled every scholarship and cancelled the season if that were the case.
We come to AL Brown's final season 1986-87. A bad 9-18 team that got him fired. That team allowed 77.7 ppg. This years team is allowing 80.2. Each team scored 74 ppg itself, so we are looking at similar tempo of play. Other defensive stats are basically a wash. I would say the extra 2.5 ppg allowed this year, puts it over the top in terribleness.
We can take a look at Steve Yoder's worst team (14-15) on 1979-80. This team allowed 73.4 while scoring 73.7. Possibly not a good defensive team, but not terrible and not deserving to be in this discussion.
Finally we get to some bad Jim Holstein and Bud Getchell teams in the 70's. For example, Holstein's 1972-73 team that went 9-15 and allowed 85.1 ppg (scoring 81.3 themselves). Apparently, the idea was that Larry Bullington could just outscore the other team. It was a different time and different game, but this is a team that MIGHT have been as bad defensively as this years team.
