Inside the box score, week 2

Time for another look inside IU's box score. After the Mississippi Valley State game, IU coach Tom Crean highlighted Victor Oladipo's +/- at +30 for the game. That number was twice as high as any other player on the team for the game and was in stark contrast to the -11 that Maurice Creek had on the night.

On that note, Oladipo -- through four games -- has been one of the most effective players on the court. And it shows in the 5-man lineup +/-. Of the nine most effective 5-man lineups, Oladipo is in seven of them. Granted through four games,some of those lineups have not seen much time on the court. However, of the 15 least effective lineups, Oladipo is in just two of them. Coincidence? Maybe not.

Overall, Oladipo (+67) trails only Christian Watford (+68) in the plus/minus category. Last week, someone suggested a +/- per minute calculation, and in that category Oladipo (61 minutes) is the leader at +1.1/minute. That means for every minute Oladipo is on the court, IU beats its opponent by 1.1 points. The second-highest in that category is (surprisingly?) Bobby Capobianco at +.76/minute.

Let's take a look at the statistics.

5-man plus/minus

As mentioned, Oladipo's name is the common thread at the top of these results, while he doesn't show up at the bottom. Through four games, Crean has used 72 lineups (of the 2,002 possible, by the way). Notice also, that outside the starting lineup, Maurice Creek is in only one other of the most effective lineups. And the three most effective lineups are also the three lineups that have seen the most time on the court together.

Here's the top nine lineups (with +/- and time on court).

1. Creek-Hulls-Jones-Pritchard-Watford: +13, 32:22
2. Capobianco-Hulls-Oladipo-Rivers-Watford: +10, 5:18
3. Jones-Oladipo-Pritchard-Rivers-Watford: +8, 5:28
4. Capobianco-Hulls-Jones-Oladipo-Watford: +7, 4:49
5. Capobianco-Jones-Moore-Oladipo-Watford: +6, 1:42
6. Capobianco-Creek-Jones-Oladipo-Watford: +5, 3:00
7. Elston-Hulls-Moore-Rivers-Watford: +5, 1:56
8. Hulls-Oladipo-Pritchard-Rivers-Watford: +5, 1:45
9. Capobianco-Hulls-Jones-Oladipo-Rivers: +4, 1:23

And here's the bottom five:

1. Capobianco-Creek-Hulls-Sheehey-Watford: -9, 2:49
2. Creek-Hulls-Jones-Pritchard-Rivers: -6, 3:20
3. Elston-Hulls-Jones-Rivers-Watford: -4, 3:57
4. Howard-Hulls-Jones-Moore-Rivers: -3, 1:01
5. Creek-Hulls-Pritchard-Rivers-Watford: -2, 4:10

Individual plus/minus

Through four games, only one player has a negative plus/minus: Will Sheehey. That's mainly because he was in the lineup Sunday night when Evansville cut the deficit from 20 to 12 late in the second half. He also had a negative +/- in the Wright State game. Without further explanation, here's the list for the season (with per minute +/- in parentheses):

1. Christian Watford: +68 (+.60/min)
2. Victor Oladipo: +67 (+1.1/min)
3. Verdell Jones: +51 (+.47/min)
4. Jordan Hulls: +46 (+.39/min)
5. Jeremiah Rivers: +41 (+.47/min)
6. Tom Pritchard: +38 (+.52/min)
7. Bobby Capobianco: +29 (+.76/min)
8. Maurice Creek: +27 (+.33/min)
9. Daniel Moore: +24 (+.72/min)
10. Derek Elston: +12 (+.32/min)
11. Kory Barnett: +4 (+.5/min)
12. Taylor Wayer: +3 (+1.0/min)
13. Jeff Howard: Even (0/min)
14. Will Sheehey: -1 (-.04/min)

Player efficiency

While +/- could care less about the box score, the player efficiency rating is all about the box score. So if you think the box score can tell who's playing well, than this is pretty effective at measuring such stats (and the results, I'm told, are similar to John Hollinger's PER in that the same players come out on top). Here's the formula:

{[(Pts+Reb+Ast+Blk+Stl) - (Missed FG+Missed FT+TO)]/ Minutes]}*100

Here's the rundown (for those who have played more than 15 minutes). Notice how Sheehey, who ranks low in +/- shoot to the top of the list in player efficiency. In 27 minutes, he has 18 points, has missed only four shots and has just three turnovers. That contrasts with Rivers, who has only taken two shots this entire season.

1. Watford: 69.03
2. Sheehey: 62.96
3. Elston: 48.65
4. Creek: 48.19
5. Pritchard: 47.95
6. Oladipo: 37.7
7. Capobianco: 34.21
8. Jones: 33.03
9. Hulls: 31.36
10. Moore: 30.3
11. Rivers: 28.74