2007-08 Inside According to Pomeroy & Pelton

Yesterday I listed the Big East's "most outside" players based on 2007-08 statistics (all games). I wanted to also look at the players from last season who showed the strongest tendency to play on the inside. Again I used the 2007-08 statistics for all games, and filtered for those players who logged at least 35% of the playing time at their position. I show the calculated results for both Ken Pomeroy and Kevin Pelton, but again I order the list according to Pelton's results.

Name	College	Min	Min%	FGA	3FGA	FTA	KPom	Pelton
Kentrell Gransberry	USF	953	76.5	354	1	220	61.9	23.0
Jeff Adrien	UConn	1115	83.8	345	4	229	65.2	20.2
Luke Harangody	NDU	959	72.4	518	9	198	36.5	19.7
Derrick Caracter	Ville	593	52.7	201	1	108	53.2	18.0
Hasheem Thabeet	UConn	1025	77.1	189	0	169	89.4	16.5
David Padgett	Ville	611	54.3	168	0	100	59.5	16.4
Paul Harris	Cuse	1264	90.0	343	34	237	59.2	16.1
Roy Hibbert	GTU	894	65.3	294	3	144	48.0	15.8
DeJuan Blair	Pitt	963	64.6	313	0	149	47.6	15.5
Arinze Onuaku	Cuse	1070	76.2	288	0	164	56.9	15.3
John Williamson	Nati	848	65.7	294	13	132	40.5	14.0
Joe Mazzulla	WVU	684	45.6	144	20	114	65.3	13.7
Joe Alexander	WVU	1137	75.8	474	41	194	32.3	13.5
Antonio Pena	Nova	678	48.4	183	6	96	49.2	13.3
Eugene Harvey	Hall	1176	90.1	331	47	192	43.8	12.3
John Garcia	Hall	642	49.2	144	0	74	51.4	11.5
Mac Koshwal	DPU	940	78.0	260	6	112	40.8	11.3
Dwight Burke	MU	412	42.2	53	0	46	86.8	11.2
Dante Cunningham	Nova	1050	75.0	261	0	116	44.4	11.0
Justin Burrell	Johns	946	78.5	294	1	98	33.0	10.3

As before, players higlighted in yellow were seniors or out of eligibility at the end of the 2007-08 season. Green highlighted players have transferred while blue highlighted players went to the NBA draft. While the list suggests that 14 of the 20 will return to Big East play this season, the paint players are more than "a bit" more stable than the "outsiders". After all, Caracter's departure was not entirely voluntary, and Alexander was a junior last season, not a freshman. Only Justin Burrell, Mac Koshwal and Antonio Pena are freshmen. And Pena is a redshirt freshman. As I reviewed the list I realized virtually all of the players were the same centers and power forwards I have written and talked about over the past several seasons (or in the case of Pena and Burrell, the past seasson and preseason). Except for Nunu Harvey and Joe Mazzulla, who as guards seem very out of place. Both took about 14% of their FGAs from the 3 point line, not quite typical for backcourt players, but Harvey, with an FTARate of 58.0 and Mazzulla, with an FTARate of 79.2(!) showed the front court player knack for converting field goal attempts into free throw opportunities. Both have FTARates more typical of aggressive front court players, a characteristic reminiscient of Kyle Lowry (Villanova) and Carl Krauser (Pittsburgh).

Distinction Without Difference?
When identifying outside players Pomeroy and Pelton seemed to arrive at about the same place by slightlymagnitude of the differences. Pelton's 3^rd ranked player (Notre Dame's Luke Harangody) is Pomeroy's 22^nd ranked player. Pelton's 8^th (Georgetown's Roy Hibbert) and 9^th (Pittsburgh's DeJuan Blair) ranked players are Pomeroy's 16^th and 17^th ranked players respectively. And Pomeroy's 3^rd (Marquette's Dwight Burke) is Pelton's 18^th. Oh, and Pomeroy's 1^st ranked player, Byron Joynes of Rutgers, is not listed in this post, because he is ranked 26^th by Pelton's method.

Notes & Observations...
1. For the second year running Syracuse's Paul Harris is on both Pelton's (#7) and Pomeroy's (#8) list. Like Harvey and Mazzulla he shows a better aptitude for inside rather than outside play, though technically he is described as a wing/back court player. Harris took about 9% of his FGAs as 3s.
2. With 20 players listed, only 2 schools, Rutgers and Providence, are absent players. The outside top 20 lacked only USF on the list.
3. Villanova has two players, Dante Cunningham and Antonio Pena on this list, another indication that the Wildcats offense has developed an inside presence. Drummond, with only 19 or so Min% of playing time at the center position, did not make field for consideration.