On Wednesday, we handed out our honor for “Mr. Offense” in the SEC to Arkansas freshman guard BJ Young. Studying the numbers for every player in the SEC who was on the floor for at least 300 minutes in 2011-12, we found that Young made more positive things happen on the offensive end for his club (points, assists and offensive rebounds per minute) than any other player in the league this season. Kudos.
Now, we could do what everyone else does and just give it the eye test, but what fun is that? Plus you wouldn’t have gotten to see a list of stats that you might not normally have viewed.
And we could have chosen a different method like plus/minus results or we could have factored in fouls and turnovers. But if you’re on the court when Michael Jordan’s on the court, you’re plus/minus will be pretty good… and is a foul committed on the offensive end or the defensive end?
No formula is perfect, but the one listed above was the one we used to determine Mr. Offense. To find Mr. Defense, we once again examined the stats of all the SEC players with more than 300 minutes of floortime this season. We tallied defensive rebounds, steals and blocks. Then we compared the number of positive defensive plays made to the number of minutes played.
It’s no surprise then that Kentucky freshman big man Anthony Davis wins the “Mr. Defense” honor from MrSEC.com for 2011-12. For the season he averaged 9.8 rebounds (total rebound, not just defensive) and 4.7 blocks per outing. He blocked shots at a record pace.
Below are the SEC’s top 20 players in terms of defensive production by minute. The comparison should show you just how much more impressive Davis was than any other league performer this season. Just eye-popping. Mind-boggling. And any other exclamation ending in i-n-g.
Here’s the full top 20 for defensive production:
| Player | Minutes | Def. Rebounds | Blocks | Steals | Total | Positive Plays Per Minute |
| 1. A. Davis (UK) | 969 | 213 | 146 | 44 | 403 | .415 |
| 2. R. Buckner (UM) | 774 | 144 | 64 | 20 | 228 | .294 |
| 3. H. Mickelson (Ark) | 511 | 67 | 69 | 14 | 150 | .293 |
| 4. J. Stokes (UT) | 347 | 70 | 17 | 14 | 101 | .291 |
| 5. K. Gabriel (Aub) | 962 | 172 | 69 | 35 | 276 | .286 |
| 6. S. Warren (LSU) | 573 | 97 | 23 | 29 | 149 | .260 |
| 7. T. Jones (UK) | 821 | 121 | 56 | 36 | 213 | .259 |
| 8. F. Ezeli (VU) | 481 | 70 | 45 | 8 | 123 | .255 |
| 9. W. Yeguete (UF) | 569 | 103 | 10 | 31 | 144 | .253 |
| 10. M. Holloway (UM) | 848 | 160 | 15 | 38 | 213 | .251 |
| 11. T. Mitchell (Ala) | 684 | 118 | 31 | 22 | 171 | .250 |
| 12. D. Harris (USC) | 776 | 95 | 70 | 29 | 194 | .250 |
| 13. L. Goulbourne (VU) | 881 | 148 | 24 | 47 | 219 | .248 |
| 14. A. Moultrie (MSU) | 985 | 195 | 22 | 25 | 242 | .245 |
| 15. J. Green (Ala) | 661 | 110 | 33 | 17 | 160 | .242 |
| 16. R. Sidney (MSU) | 623 | 107 | 20 | 22 | 149 | .239 |
| 17. M. Kidd-Gilchrist (UK) | 966 | 160 | 33 | 37 | 230 | .238 |
| 18. J. O’Bryant (LSU) | 531 | 93 | 20 | 13 | 126 | .237 |
| 19. M. Waithe (Ark) | 467 | 64 | 26 | 20 | 110 | .235 |
| 20. J. Maymon (UT) | 861 | 156 | 10 | 32 | 198 | .229 |
As usual, the stats have been double- and triple-checked, but it’s always possible that a digit might have gotten flipped in transcribing the info from Excel to our site. If you see a typo, let us know.
But congrats again to UK’s Davis. What phenomenal production on the defensive end of the floor.
[...] the numbers we’ve already shown you in our “Mr. Offense” and “Mr. Defense” rankings, we’ve put together our own version of an All-SEC team for 2011-12… based [...]
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