Dave Sez

Gimme Some DAP

Ken Pomeroy's stat o' the week this week is Defensive Assist Percentage. As it sounds, it's a rating of how many assists a team allows its opponents.

When I read his description, the first team I thought of was Duke. They play that aggressive passing-lane defense that tries to take teams out of their sets. The best way to attack Duke is often with dribble penetration, a style that produces few assists.

Sure enough, Pomeroy goes on to highlight Duke, the #1 team in his ratings.

The thing is, a quick glance at those ratings show that there's little correlation between denying assists and winning. The only other power team in the top ten is Kansas. The only good team between 11-20 is Florida.

So it's a nice curiosity, but nothing to get too excited about.