Thursday, February 11, 2016

St. Joe's and Deandre Bembry

Fresh off a win at George Washington, the St. Joseph's RedHawks have risen to 38 in KenPom and are in position to battle Dayton & VCU for the A-10 crown.

St. Joe's is a defense first team. They're 33rd in the nation in effective fg%, helped by teams only shooting 29.5% from deep against them. They play defense without fouling. They're 3rd best in the nation in keeping teams off the foul line. The one thing they don't do on defense is force turnovers. The Hawks are 305th in turnover %. 

They don't anything special on offense but are still 55th in offensive efficiency. They have a middling effective fg% of 49.8%, 174th. Part of that is misery from 3, where they are 254th in 3pt %. They do protect the ball. Their turnover % is only 14.9%, 12th best overall. They don't get many extra chances off the offensive glass with only an offensive rebounding % of 29%, 206th.

While 20-4, they don't have any great wins but are handling business in A-10 play. Their best win out of league is Princeton, so they won't want any slip ups in league. They are favored in the remaining of their games except for a trip to St. Bonaventure who did beat them in Philly earlier this year. This stretch includes a home tilt against Dayton.

In the title, I mentioned their do everything junior forward Deandre Bembry. Bembry plays 93.8% of available minutes, 9th most in the nation. What does he provide in those minutes? 16.9ppg, 7.9rpg and 4.6apg is what. Watch the Hawks just to see him. Joining him is senior forward Isaiah Miles who actually leads the team in scoring and rebounds. He also shoots 40% from 3.

The Hawks aren't a team likely to make a deep run but Phil Martelli should get them back into tournament where a guy like Deandre Bembry deserves a chance to shine. 

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