Plus/minus: MBB vs. Washington State

"Well, there was this trucker, see, and he went for a job interview. The manager wanted to find out how good this guy was so he gave him a little oral test."

Washington State 70, California 49

Player	Min	+Pts	-Pts	Pts	Reb	Ast	Diff
David Liss	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
Jordan Wilkes	3	0	2	0	0	0	-2
Nican Robinson	5	4	8	0	0	0	-4
Jamal Boykin	17	27	37	6	3	3	-10
Patrick Christopher	22	28	38	2	3	0	-10
DeVon Hardin	31	39	50	4	10	0	-11
Jerome Randle	32	39	50	7	2	2	-11
Nikola Knezevic	13	16	30	0	1	0	-14
Harper Kamp	12	10	26	6	3	0	-16
Ryan Anderson	35	47	63	17	6	1	-16
Eric Vierneisel	29	35	51	7	3	2	-16

"The manager asked him, 'What would you do if you were going eighty miles and hour on a five-mile downhill grade and your brakes went out?'"

"He said, 'Well, I'd keep downshifting into lower gears to get the thing slowed down.'"

"Manager said, 'Good. But what if your transmission broke and you couldn't downshift, and now you were going a hundred miles an hour?'"

"'Well, I guess I'd look for a runoff area.'"

"'Good. But what if you couldn't find a runoff area, and now you were doing a hundred and twenty, and up a shead you saw an eighteen-wheeler in the left lane, passing a Greyhound bus in the right lane?'"

"'Well, let me see...I reckon I'd look in the oncoming lanes and if they were clear, I'd try to jump the median and go around the eighteen-wheeler and the Greyhound on the wrong side of the road.'"

First vs. Second Half (minimum 2 minutes)

First Half Top - DeVon Hardin - 20-18, +2
Second Half Top - Nikola Knezevic - 11-14, -3

First Half Bottom - Harper Kamp - 6-13, -7
Second Half Bottom - Ryan Anderson - 23-39, -16

"'But what if you looked, and in one oncoming lane there was a cattle truck, and in the other lane there was an auto-hauler with eight brand-new cars on board?"

"'Now let me get this straight. My brakes are gone, my transmission's broke, there's no runoff area, I'm running a hunnerd and twenty miles and hour on a downgrade, and up ahead there's a Greyhoud, an eighteen-wheeler, a cattle-hauler, and a fully loaded car-hauler. Is that right?'"

"'Correct.'"

Difference Makers

With Harper Kamp in 12 minutes - 10-26, -16
Without Kamp in 28 minutes - 39-44, -5

With Nikola Knezevic in 13 minutes - 16-30, -14
Without Knezevic in 27 minutes - 33-40, -7

"The ol' trucker kinda grins, and he says, 'Well, in that cae, I reckon I'd wake up Lee Roy.'"

"'Wake up Lee Roy?' the manager says. 'Who the hell is Lee Roy?'"

Lineups

Starting lineup
Randle, Christopher, Vierneisel, Anderson, Hardin in 13:01 - 14-25, -11
All other lineups in 26:59 - 35-45, -10

Point guard combinations

Randle only	21:05	29-37, -8
Randle and Knezevic	9:00	10-13, -3
Knezevic only	4:04	6-12, -6
Robinson only	3:08	4-8, -4
Robinson and Randle	1:49	0-0, 0
Liss only	0:54	0-0, 0
	40:00	49-70, -21

Point guard combinations summary

With two	10:49	10-13, -3
With one	29:11	39-57, -18
	40:00	49-70, -21

Big player combinations

Anderson and Hardin	19:15	22-31, -9
Boykin, Anderson, and Hardin	7:50	17-13, +4
Boykin, Anderson, and Kamp	4:36	8-13, -5
Boykin and Kamp	2:46	2-7, -5
Anderson, Hardin and Kamp	1:27	0-4, -4
Hardin and Kamp	1:18	0-0, 0
Boykin, Wilkes and Kamp	1:11	0-0, 0
Wilkes, Anderson, Hardin, and Kamp	0:59	0-2, -2
Boykin, Wilkes, and Anderson	0:38	0-0, 0
	40:00	49-70, -21

Big player combinations summary

Four bigs	0:59	0-2, -2
Three bigs	15:42	25-30, -5
Two bigs	23:19	24-38, -14
One big	0:18	0-0, 0
	40:00	69-79, -10

"'Well,' says the trucker, 'Lee Roy, he's my swamper.' You know what the swamper is - he's the guy who rides in the jump seat and checks the chains and stuff."

"So the manager says, 'Why, what could your swamper do to help in a situation like that?'"

"Well, nothin'.'"

"Then why would you wake him up?"

Contribution Evaluation

Player	Minutes	Expected	Actual	Difference
Randle	32	-16.80	-11	+5.80
Hardin	31	-16.27	-11	+5.27
Anderson	35	-18.38	-16	+2.38
Christopher	22	-11.55	-10	+1.55
Liss	1	-0.53	0	+0.53
Wilkes	3	-1.58	-2	-0.42
Vierneisel	29	-15.23	-16	-0.77
Boykin	17	-8.93	-10	-1.07
Robinson	5	-2.63	-4	-1.37
Knezevic	13	-6.83	-14	-7.17
Kamp	12	-6.30	-16	-9.70

Description: This stat measures the significance of a player's contribution to the team's effort. If a team wins by 10 points, and a player plays in half of the team's minutes, his expected contribution would be a +5. For example, when Cal defeated Grambling by 19 points. Brian Wethers played 28 minutes or 70% of the game. If we multiply 70% x +19, Wethers' expected contribution would be a +13.30. But for the game he was a +26, so his net for the game for a +12.70. In a perfect team situation, if everyone contributed equally, the difference column would consist of a row of zeros.

"'Well, because Lee Roy, he ain't ever seen a wreck that big before.'"

(The above story was told by Darrell Waltrip and is taken from Daytona: From the Birth of Speed to the Death of the Man in Black by Ed Hinton, an outstanding book about NASCAR history.)

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