THE BOYA FACTOR

[KillerB]

I have been thinking about this for a month now. How much did Boya's injury impact the season?
He only played limited minutes against Missouri and I guess that was when he was hurt.
His injury drastically changed the face of the team. He played say half of every game guarding the bigs on the opponents. While Mast has shouldered a lot of that burden, Childs also picked up some of that. My guess is that impacted his play offensively some. Missing Boya also clearly hurt the overall defense. Teams could play more inside and driving to the basket with no above the rim shot blocking threat. Boya's presence allowed our other defenders to stay closer to the arc because there was not as much need to double in the paint. As a result there are more open threes.

I did a little diving into the stats. (now we do have to take into account a couple of weak early season opponents -Judson for one - are in these stats)
Scoring:
After the Missouri game the Braves were averaging 74.9 points per game. Right now 69.9 points per game. A couple of factors skew this.. a double overtime time game where we scored 85 and of course the suspensions probably lowered the number a little. But even before that Bradley often ended up in the 50's.
Rebounding:
After the Missouri game the Braves were averaging 44.7 rebounds per game
Right now the average is 37.4 for the season. (So the average for the last 16 games is even lower)
Blocks:
Through the Missouri game the Braves had 49 blocks. (throw out Judson where there were 12 and they had 37 through 8 games)
They have had just 42 in the last 16 games.

As a part-time player last season Boya averaged 1.5 blocks per game and 3.6 rebounds.
This season he was averaging 6.6 rebounds per game. Throw out Judson and if I counted right he had 10 blocks (about 25% of the team's total at that time) in 8 games. So about 1.25 blocks per game. Take into account a couple of the games he had limited minutes due to blow out or injury and he is pretty much right on par with last season's average.

I'm not saying this is the only reason for what has happened this season. But I think maybe some of us under valued what Ari brings to the table.
Just my thoughts for what it's worth.

[Bradley3342]

I have been thinking about this for a month now. How much did Boya's injury impact the season?
He only played limited minutes against Missouri and I guess that was when he was hurt.
His injury drastically changed the face of the team. He played say half of every game guarding the bigs on the opponents. While Mast has shouldered a lot of that burden, Childs also picked up some of that. My guess is that impacted his play offensively some. Missing Boya also clearly hurt the overall defense. Teams could play more inside and driving to the basket with no above the rim shot blocking threat. Boya's presence allowed our other defenders to stay closer to the arc because there was not as much need to double in the paint. As a result there are more open threes.

I did a little diving into the stats. (now we do have to take into account a couple of weak early season opponents -Judson for one - are in these stats)
Scoring:
After the Missouri game the Braves were averaging 74.9 points per game. Right now 69.9 points per game. A couple of factors skew this.. a double overtime time game where we scored 85 and of course the suspensions probably lowered the number a little. But even before that Bradley often ended up in the 50's.
Rebounding:
After the Missouri game the Braves were averaging 44.7 rebounds per game
Right now the average is 37.4 for the season. (So the average for the last 16 games is even lower)
Blocks:
Through the Missouri game the Braves had 49 blocks. (throw out Judson where there were 12 and they had 37 through 8 games)
They have had just 42 in the last 16 games.

As a part-time player last season Boya averaged 1.5 blocks per game and 3.6 rebounds.
This season he was averaging 6.6 rebounds per game. Throw out Judson and if I counted right he had 10 blocks (about 25% of the team's total at that time) in 8 games. So about 1.25 blocks per game. Take into account a couple of the games he had limited minutes due to blow out or injury and he is pretty much right on par with last season's average.

I'm not saying this is the only reason for what has happened this season. But I think maybe some of us under valued what Ari brings to the table.
Just my thoughts for what it's worth.

I agree KillerB. I think there were a lot of people who under valued what Boya did on the court. Big presence inside with long wingspan for rebounding and blocking shots. Many times this year and last you saw a lot of big men bring the ball back out because of him. It really is a shame we lost him for the season.Who knows how good he could have been if he would have stayed healthy.

[Da Coach]

Agree.... Ari changed the game significantly when he was on the floor. He made it much harder for teams to get inside baskets, and that also allowed perimeter defenders to be more effective in guarding the 3-point line.

[ihatetea]

I don’t know how much he impacted our 3pt defense really, there were a couple games early in the year where opponents shot well even with him out there. Defense and rebounding have been significantly hampered with him out. Being able to defend post ups one on one, allowing guards to leak out on defensive rebounding and gaining extra possessions on offense, even guarding perimeter players on switches, Ari allowed us to play differently. And we haven’t adjusted. Mast has grown but he’d be playing half the minutes he has had to it Ari were available. In theory he should have been easy to replace. But with zero experience on the roster at his position the growing pains have been excruciating. There have been other issues on the roster, but it’s a lot harder to win as a defensive team without a lynchpin center enforcer.

[epistibrain]

I have been thinking about this for a month now. How much did Boya's injury impact the season?

I'm not saying this is the only reason for what has happened this season. But I think maybe some of us under valued what Ari brings to the table.
Just my thoughts for what it's worth.

After he’d been out a few games I went and looked at his stats and I was surprised the minutes and counting stats were so low, as it seemed very noticeable when he went out. The thought occurred to me to wonder, nonetheless, how the team stats had changed—thanks for answering that for me! Maybe there were other factors, but I have to think this was a big one.

[Chibearsfan10125]

I think a lot of people undervalue Boya because he’s not a double double machine. People see his stats and say “he only gets 5.5 points and 6.5 boards, we can make that up between other players”, and I’m willing to bet we have made that up between the uptick in scoring and rebounds we’ve seen from Mast and Hannah, but that discounts everything else he does. From a numbers standpoint, the only place he stands out is blocks, but Ari is really good impacting the game defensively without getting any stats. Teams can’t attack us the same way with Ari in there. Big men have to work more to get good looks inside. I’d argue that while he isn’t necessarily our best player, he’s one of the most irreplaceable players on the roster because we don’t have anyone else who can do what he does.

[Tommy]

I think a lot of people undervalue Boya because he’s not a double double machine. People see his stats and say “he only gets 5.5 points and 6.5 boards, we can make that up between other players”, and I’m willing to bet we have made that up between the uptick in scoring and rebounds we’ve seen from Mast and Hannah, but that discounts everything else he does. From a numbers standpoint, the only place he stands out is blocks, but Ari is really good impacting the game defensively without getting any stats. Teams can’t attack us the same way with Ari in there. Big men have to work more to get good looks inside. I’d argue that while he isn’t necessarily our best player, he’s one of the most irreplaceable players on the roster because we don’t have anyone else who can do what he does.

That was said very well, Chibearsfan. I think you nailed it.