The Weekly Roundup: Lucky Number Seven
Reflecting on the United States’ record-tying seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal
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The Olympics have concluded and the United States swept the women’s basketball gold medals, capturing the championship in 3x3 and traditional 5x5. It’s bittersweet. Don’t get me wrong, as an American, I’m thrilled about the United States’ basketball success at the Olympics. However, Sue Bird and (likely) Diana Taurasi have played their last Olympic games; Dawn Staley has likely coached her final Olympic game. I am selfishly disappointed, but these three outstanding ambassadors for women’s basketball have given their professional lives to Team USA. On the plus side, we can all catch up on sleep and no longer have to endure 12:40 a.m. start times. Also, the WNBA is back! The Seattle Storm take on the Connecticut Sun in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern and the regular season resumes on Sunday. Before diving back into WNBA basketball, let’s first reflect on the United States 5x5 team’s historic seventh consecutive gold medal.
Team USA dominates Japan and continues its reign atop the basketball mountain
The tallest players on the Japanese team are 6-foot-1 center Maki Takada and 6-foot-1 small forward Himawari Akaho. That happens to be the average height of the United States’ roster. The U.S. exploited this height advantage to great effect on its way to a dominant 90-75 over Japan in the gold-medal game. The United States’ starting frontcourt of Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson, and Breanna Stewart combined for 63 points and 11 blocks. Griner dropped 30 on 14-of-18 shooting from the field, becoming the first player to record at least 30 points in an Olympic gold-medal game. Stewart, who was named tournament MVP, filled the stat sheet with 14 points, 14 rebounds, 5 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks. Joining Stewart on the tournament All-Star Five team was Wilson, who posted an impressive 19-point, 7-rebound, 5-assist, and 5-block stat line.
It was a remarkable Olympic tournament for a Japanese team that entered Tokyo ranked 10th in the world. After being hired as Japan’s coach in January 2017, Tom Hovasse predicted that his team would reach the gold medal game at the Olympics and face the United States in the Olympic championship. Whether he’s the next Nostradamus or a coach whose high expectations instilled confidence in his players, the team responded by twice knocking off bronze medalists France and defeating a Belgium team that some thought could contend for the gold medal.
In what felt like a modern-day David vs. Goliath match-up in the gold medal contest, Japan needed to limit the United States’ opportunities inside, hope for poor perimeter shooting by the U.S., and catch fire from behind the arc. Japan achieved some semblance of this in their meeting during pool play, hitting a blistering 6-of-10 of its threes for a 30-28 first-quarter lead. Tom Hovasse’s squad couldn’t match that performance Saturday night, hitting just 4-of-18 of its first-quarter field goals and falling behind 23-14. Japan found its rhythm in the second quarter, cutting the U.S. lead to six, 38-32. However, an 8-0 U.S. run late in the second quarter and a 25-17 third quarter in favor of the United States put the game away for good.
Earning their record fifth Olympic basketball gold medals, it was a perfect Olympic swan song for Sue Bird and probably Diana Taurasi (likely said in jest, Taurasi’s “see you in Paris” postgame one-liner left a sliver of doubt). “In the ‘04 Games, I was there to learn and take the torch from Dawn and carry it, “ Bird explained as she reflected on her USA Basketball career. “And those older players taught us what it meant. And now for us, hopefully we’ve left some sort of legacy with the younger players where they now can carry that torch. And so to be sitting here now after going through 20 years of that, it’s amazing.” With younger stars like Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson leading the way, the future is bright (and perhaps golden) for USA Basketball.
Lauren Jackson was really good
Yes, acknowledging Lauren Jackson’s greatness is not the hottest of sports takes. However, it’s still really fun to demonstrate that greatness in a neat graphic. Check out this visual from Her Hoop Stats’ own Morgan Reeder that tracks the all-time points leaders through Olympic history. Morgan also put together a similar illustration of the Olympics’ all-time leaders in rebounds - take a look!
Give me five!
With the Olympics now in the rearview mirror and the WNBA season on the precipice of restarting, it feels like an appropriate time to take a look back at a few of the impressive feats during the first half of the WNBA season. This is a newsletter for a site called Her Hoop Stats, so it seems logical to appreciate these accomplishments through the prism of statistics. Without further ado, here are five statistical achievements that caught my eye before the Olympic break this season.
Tina Charles: 26.3 points per game
As Dorothy Gentry recently reported in The Athletic, Tina Charles doesn’t consider her 2021 campaign a comeback. After all, doing so would ignore 10 seasons of consistent production, where her lowest points and rebounds per game were 15.5 (2010, her rookie season) and 7.0, respectively. However, it’s undeniable that the Washington center has elevated her game to new heights.
If the WNBA season ended today, Tina Charles’ 26.3 points per game would set a new WNBA record, exceeding Diana Taurasi’s 25.3 points per contest in 2006. She’s responsible for over one-third of the league’s 30-point games this season. In fact, Charles broke Elena Delle Donne’s single-season franchise record of five 30-point performances in just 12 games. The addition of a three-point shot to her offensive repertoire has made her a match-up nightmare for opposing teams.
Charles may not shoulder as much of the offensive load in the season’s second half with the potential returns of Delle Donne, Myisha Hines-Allen, and Emma Meesseman. Mystics fans and Tina Charles herself would be thrilled if those three are on the Mystics’ active roster down the stretch. Oddly enough, this could actually jeopardize Tina Charles’ pursuit of WNBA history.
Jonquel Jones: 0.36 win shares per 40 minutes
No list of statistical accomplishments in the season’s first half would be complete without Jonquel Jones. The Connecticut superstar leads the league in points per play, total rebounds per game, defensive rebounding rate (the percentage of defensive rebounding opportunities rebounded), and defensive rating.
However, it’s Jones’ league-leading 0.36 win shares per 40 minutes that earns her a spot on this list. If the season ended today, that would rank 10th all-time. That sounds great, though you may still wonder why this belongs on a list of eye-catching statistics. Of the nine players ahead of Jones on the list of single-season win shares per 40 minutes, eight earned WNBA MVP honors (Lauren Jackson’s 2006 campaign is the sole exception). It’s no wonder sportsbooks have Jonquel Jones pegged as the front-runner for the league’s top individual prize.
Courtney Vandersloot: 47.0% assist rate
Assist rate is a statistic that calculates the percentage of teammate field goals where the player recorded an assist. Sabrina Ionescu boasts the second-highest assist rate league-wide at 35.6%. Who’s first? Chicago Sky point guard Courtney Vandersloot by a country mile at 47.0%. Besides Vandersloot, no other WNBA player has ever posted an assist rate higher than 45%. Vandersloot accomplished the feat in each of her past two seasons and is on pace to do so again this season. Legendary point guard Sue Bird has recorded an assist rate north of 40% just once in her career. That’s not a knock against Bird; it’s a testament to Courtney Vandersloot’s stellar production at the point guard position.
The entire WNBA: 80.6% free-throw percentage
It’s not the flashiest of statistics, but the W has been lights out when it comes to free-throw shooting this season. While nearly the entire basketball universe has been immune to long-term improvements in free-throw shooting, the WNBA seems to have solved the problem. Last season, the W averaged 80.7% from the charity stripe; the WNBA and the NBA had never cracked the 80% threshold in 95 seasons prior. With an 80.6% free-throw percentage heading into the Olympic break, the WNBA is on pace to do it again.
Seattle at Dallas on 5/22: The most exciting game of the year
It’s difficult to quantify excitement. However, Mike Beuoy has given it the old college try on his fascinating site inpredictable.com. He defines basketball excitement as the cumulative change in win probability throughout a single game. Basically, it attempts to measure how much “back and forth” exists within a game or how much of an emotional roller coaster a particular contest is. Beuoy’s calculations indicate that Seattle’s overtime win at Dallas on May 22 was the most exciting game of the year. It makes complete sense, as this game had it all: a shorthanded, underdog in Dallas on the cusp of upsetting the defending champions; Seattle finding a way to force overtime via a gutsy Jordin Canada drive; and Stewie coming through in the clutch during the extra period while hitting the 2,500-point, 1,000-rebound career threshold.
Her Hoop Stats content in case you missed it
In the latest episode of Courtside, Christy Winters-Scott and Gabe Ibrahim broke down Team USA’s dominant quarterfinal win over Australia and how the play of A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart inspires confidence in the future of USA Basketball.
In Part I of his analysis on how WNBA futures odds have shifted this season, Calvin Wetzel tracked how teams’ championship prospects have changed. In Part II, Calvin turned his attention to the MVP race and analyzed which players have the best odds of taking home the league’s top individual prize.
After each night of WNBA action, Her Hoop Stats selects the top three performances in its Lines of the Night feature. Alford Corriette broke down which players have appeared on the list, who has most frequently topped the list, and who had the three best games in the entire first half of the season.
Can Arizona and Stanford make a second straight trip to the NCAA championship game? How will the loss of Michaela Onyenwere impact UCLA’s prospects? Kim Doss addressed these questions in Part I of her multi-part series previewing the Pac-12.
Other recommended content
The law firm of Kaplan Hecker & Fink LLP released its report on gender equity in Division I basketball. For TheNew York Times, Alan Blinder summarized the results of the analysis. As a former Division I athlete, Missy Heidrick of The Next described her experiences with gender inequality and proposed solutions to some of the problems outlined in the Kaplan report.
In late June, The Athletic’s Chantel Jennings and Dana O’Neil reported on the toxic atmosphere under Syracuse coach Quentin Hillsman that led to several player departures. This prompted an internal investigation by the university, which ultimately led to Hillsman’s resignation last week. Jennings and O’Neil published a follow-up piece detailing former players’ attempts to alert Syracuse officials about the verbal and emotional abuse they suffered while playing for Hillsman.
For the Associated Press, Teresa M. Walker covered Japan coach Tom Hovasse and his team’s improbable Olympic run.
Women’s professional basketball trivia question of the week
Women’s basketball made its Olympic debut at the 1976 Olympic Games in Montreal. Who is the only player from that trailblazing silver-medal winning U.S. squad that played in the WNBA?
Thanks for reading the Her Hoop Stats Newsletter. If you like our work, be sure to check out our stats site, our podcast, and our social media accounts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.