It wasn’t always pretty, but the Hogs out-muscled Lipscomb 76-60 on Wednesday night to start the John Calipari era with a 1-0 record. The crowd was a bit disappointing for the official season opener, but my theory is that most fans consider the Kansas exhibition to be the real start of the Calipari era.
The Hogs jumped to an 11-point halftime lead and led by as many as 16 midway through the second half, but the Bison roared back to eventually get as close as 60-56 before a Zvonimir Ivisic 3-pointer stretched the lead back to seven and sparked a final rally.
The fact that it wasn’t a blowout isn’t really a concern, as Lipscomb is pretty good. The Bison are the Atlantic Sun favorites and have a very good chance of being a pesky 13- or 14-seed in March.
Advanced stats
Transition was the name of the game. The Hogs won the fastbreak battle 37-10, getting in transition on 30% of possessions. Only allowing Lipscomb to score on 36% of its own transition possessions is really impressive as well.
Halfcourt, however, really needs some work. When the Bison were set defensively, the Hogs struggled. That’s not a great sign, although obviously it is still very early.
Pretty simple stuff here. The Hogs were longer and more athletic, and it showed. On offense, the Hogs dominated around the rim, shooting 81% on layups, dunks, and tip shots.
On defense, they didn’t let the Bison get many shots off. Effective Possession Ratio is the number of shot chances per 100 possessions (shot chance = field goal attempt or trip to the line), and the Bison only averaged 80.8 shot chances per 100 possessions. The Hogs ate up the rebounds and forced turnovers at a good rate. They also clamped down defensively at the rim, allowing Lipscomb to shoot just 47% there.
Some poor 3-point shooting and a general lack of fouls were the only reason this game was remotely close. And Calipari probably isn’t complaining about the lack of fouls: like Eric Musselman’s teams, Cal’s teams can draw a ton of fouls and win some ugly free-throw-fests, but that’s not really an ideal way to beat Lipscomb.
Individually, Johnell Davis snags the team MVP award with a 12.0 game score and +17, but give some credit to Boogie Fland and Big Z for being right there with him.
One really positive trend is that in all three games (if we count the two exhibitions), the Hogs have been led by different players in all three. Fland and DJ Wagner were the leaders against Kansas, then Adou Thiero against TCU, and now Davis and Big Z were the top two in this game. There are a lot of good players on this roster.
Highlights
Up next
The Hogs face a very good Baylor team in Dallas on Saturday. This is a great opportunity for this team against a marquee opponent in a game that counts.
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