NU stomped UIC at the UIC Pavilion last night to the tune of 93-58. While this year's improved defensive effort continued with NU holding the Flames to 0.84 points per possession, the story of the game was the offense finally coming to life. NU had 5 players score in double digits and more impressively 6 players whose offensive ratings were over 120 with the team overall scoring 1.35 PPP!
GAMBLE Report 1.03 notes:
1. Overall ranking improved by 23 with NU up to #87. However this is still 21 spots worse than our CBC baseline.
2. Offense ranking improved by 45 and now lags the baseline by 95 spots.
3. Principal reason offense improved was an incredible 115 spot jump in eFG% (still trails baseline by 32).
4. OR% and FTR also notably improved with FTR well ahead of the baseline (178 spots).
5. Defense ranking continues to be stable and is improved over baseline by 93 spots. The longer this stability keeps up the more reasonable it will be to set commensurate defensive expectations for this team.
6. Defense eFG% continued improving (up 46 spots and now 199(!) spots improved over baseline)
7. Defense FTR continued to improve marginally (up 19 spots and 109 baseline). This could be a sign the team is adapting to man defense and new foul rules instituted by NCAA this year.
