PASTNER PUSHES
The coach says: “The open man is the go-to man.” But an even distribution of shots could beef up the Tigers’ offense.
University of Memphis coach Josh Pastner’s offensive philosophy has always been “the open man is the go-to man.”
But one could make a solid argument that while Pastner’s teams have been very efficient in his three years at Memphis, the Tigers have become more and more reliant on one player to shoulder the bulk of the load offensively.
A look at Memphis’ shot distribution over the last three seasons reveals a widening gap between the Tigers’ leader in field goal attempts and the rest of the team.
In 2009-10, Elliot Williams took 99 more shots than anyone else on the team. In 2010-11, Will Barton had 135 more field-goal attempts than any other Tiger. Last season, the gap widened even more, with Barton taking 452 shots, 176 more than Chris Crawford, who was second at 276.
That isn’t to say Memphis hasn’t been good offensively under Pastner. The Tigers ranked sixth in the country in field-goal percentage last season (49.1) and were 21st nationally in offensive efficiency, according to college basketball expert Ken Pomeroy’s advanced statistics.
And it made sense that Williams and Barton — who got many of his 452 attempts last season off his 70 offensive rebounds — led the team in field-goal attempts considering both are now in the NBA.
But even Pastner acknowledges the Tigers’ shot distribution could stand to be a little more evenly spread, and there are several reasons to believe it will be.
“I think this year it’s going to be more evenly distributed than ever before,” Pastner said. “It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be a game where a guy gets a few more shots here and