Big East Bonanza: Effective FG percentages, stat leaders, power rankings

Welcome to the second edition of Big East Bonanza, and first in 2018. Our weekly recap series profiling the Big East Conference will again be broken into three segments, starting first with a closer look at effective field goal percentage in light of Butler's 101-93 upset against top-ranked Villanova this past Saturday, and will delve into both the offensive and defensive ends of the basketball. The second and third sections of the recap will once again be reserved for stat leaders and power rankings. Today, and in all future installments of Big East Bonanza, any and all statistics reflected within were gleaned either from the individual stat pages of each school's website, or from Ken Pomeroy's rankings.

Effective field goal percentage in a nutshell:
The reward for taking, and making, a three-point shot, effective field goal percentage measures a team's ability to be smart when shooting the basketball, and also develops a clearer indicator of how disciplined a team can be offensively. It is calculated by dividing the number of three-point field goals made in half, and then adding that to the total field goals made by a team. For example, if you have ten field goal attempts and make five, and two of them are three-point field goals, your effective field goal percentage is six out of ten, or 60 percent.

Offensive effective field goal percentage leaders, from highest to lowest:
1) Villanova (.601)
2) Creighton (.597)
3) Xavier (.575)
4) Marquette (.574)
5) Georgetown (.542)
6) Seton Hall (.540)
7) Butler (.540)
8) Providence (.529)
9) DePaul (.485)
10) St. John's (.481)

Analysis: Villanova and Xavier, two of the consensus top three to start the season in the Big East, are unsurprisingly among the league leaders here, as is Creighton, whose 51 percent shooting as a unit will place them near the front of the pack in any league. Along with Marquette, the quartet at the top also ranks among the top 18 schools in the nation in effective field goal percentage, as tracked by KenPom. No other school has more than three among that select few, and the Wildcats (third in the nation) and Bluejays (fifth) are in the top five. The outlier here is St. John's, whose three-point shooting has taken a slight hit this season compared to its potential, but when Shamorie Ponds and Marcus LoVett return, expect that number to go up. The Red Storm have gotten admirable contributions from Marvin Clark II and Bashir Ahmed to stem the tide, but as a whole are only managing a 32 percent effort on the deep ball.

Defensive effective field goal percentage leaders, from lowest to highest:
1) Georgetown (.453)
2) Xavier (.463)
3) Creighton (.468)
4) St. John's (.473)
5) Seton Hall (.477)
6) Providence (.492)
7) Villanova (.496)
8) DePaul (.506)
9) Butler (.509)
10) Marquette (.522)

Analysis: Only DePaul has a negative margin between offense and defense, which in layman's terms, means they are allowing a higher effective field goal percentage than they shoot offensively. For all the flak that Patrick Ewing has taken for his non-conference schedule and decision to not compete in the PK80 Invitational this past November, what cannot be ignored is how he has gotten Georgetown to play smart defensively, regardless of the caliber of their opponents. Through 14 games, including the first Big East win of his head coaching career last night at DePaul, Ewing's Hoyas have allowed a minuscule 39 percent shooting from the floor to opposing teams, and an even more meager 30 percent from three-point range. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Marquette's defensive metrics have shown slight improvement, but conceding 46 percent shooting to opponents suggests that a stronger emphasis on defense is needed as Steve Wojciechowski and the Golden Eagles enter the heart of their conference schedule.

Individual Effective Field Goal Percentage Leaders
1) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (.693)
2) Kaleb Johnson, Georgetown (.668)
3) Sam Hauser, Marquette (.659)
4) Jalen Lindsey, Providence (.658)
5) Phil Booth, Villanova (.642)
6) Matt Heldt, Marquette (.632)
7) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (.631)
8) Myles Powell, Seton Hall (.628)
9) Mikal Bridges, Villanova (.626)
10) Kaiser Gates, Xavier (.609)

A Closer Look: Butler 101, Villanova 93
The Bulldogs' scorching 15-for-22 performance from long distance was enough to hand previously undefeated Villanova their first loss of the season, and for Butler, a third consecutive victory over the Wildcats that instantly became a signature triumph for head coach LaVall Jordan. The boost from beyond the arc allowed for a blistering .725 effective field goal percentage for the game, with Kelan Martin's four triples giving the senior a commanding .750 mark individually. Although Kamar Baldwin only drained three threes, his nine rebounds and seven assists complemented a 19-point effort for the sophomore point guard as he flirted with a triple-double against a Villanova program with the nation's best KenPom rating.

Scoring Leaders
1) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (22.4 PPG)
2) Markus Howard, Marquette (20.5)
3) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (20.1)
4) Trevon Bluiett, Xavier (19.8)
5) Kelan Martin, Butler (19.3)
6) Marcus Foster, Creighton (19.0)
T-7) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (18.9)
T-7) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (18.9)
T-9) Desi Rodriguez, Seton Hall (18.6)
T-9) Max Strus, DePaul (18.6)

Rebounding Leaders
1) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (12.1 RPG)
2) Angel Delgado, Seton Hall (11.5)
3) Omari Spellman, Villanova (8.1)
4) Justin Simon, St. John's (7.9)
5) Martin Krampelj, Creighton (7.8)
6) Ronnie Harrell, Jr., Creighton (7.6)
7) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (7.5)
8) Kelan Martin, Butler (6.9)
9) Rodney Bullock, Providence (6.7)
10) Tariq Owens, St. John's (6.4)]

Assist Leaders
1) Kyron Cartwright, Providence (6.3)
2) Quentin Goodin, Xavier (5.7)
3) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (5.0)
4) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (4.8)
5) Justin Simon, St. John's (4.8)
6) Jonathan Mulmore, Georgetown (4.2)
7) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (4.1)
8) Eli Cain, DePaul (4.1)
9) Khadeen Carrington, Seton Hall (3.7)
10) Aaron Thompson, Butler (3.7)

Field Goal Percentage Leaders
1) Tyler Wideman, Butler (.690)
2) Tyrique Jones, Xavier (.686)
3) Martin Krampelj, Creighton (.649)
4) Nate Watson, Providence (.610)
5) Kaleb Johnson, Georgetown (.596)
6) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (.595)
7) Jessie Govan, Georgetown (.558)
8) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (.549)
9) Toby Hegner, Creighton (.547)
10) Tariq Owens, St. John's (.545)

Free Throw Percentage Leaders
1) Markus Howard, Marquette (1.000)
2) Marvin Clark II, St. John's (.935)
3) Marcus Derrickson, Georgetown (.923)
4) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (.891)
5) Trevon Bluiett, Xavier (.885)
6) Marin Maric, DePaul (.883)
7) Shamorie Ponds, St. John's (.873)
8) Quentin Goodin, Xavier (.867)
9) Kelan Martin, Butler (.862)
10) Sean O'Mara, Xavier (.861)

Three-Point Field Goal Percentage Leaders
1) Jalen Brunson, Villanova (.492)
2) Sam Hauser, Marquette (.488)
3) Omari Spellman, Villanova (.488)
4) Jalen Lindsey, Providence (.487)
5) Marvin Clark II, St. John's (.481)
6) Kyron Cartwright, Providence (.463)
7) Mikal Bridges, Villanova (.456)
8) Andrew Rowsey, Marquette (.450)
T-9) Phil Booth, Villanova (.438)
T-9) Kaiser Gates, Xavier (.438)

Power Rankings
1) Xavier (15-1, 3-0 Big East)
Last Week: 2
Last Game: Tuesday 1/2 vs. Butler (W 86-79)
Next Game: Saturday 1/6 at Providence, 12 p.m.

2) Seton Hall (13-2, 2-0 Big East)
Last Week: 3
Last Game: Sunday 12/31 vs. St. John's (W 75-70)
Next Game: Saturday 1/6 at Butler, 2:30 p.m.

3) Villanova (13-1, 1-1 Big East)
Last Week: 1
Last Game: Saturday 12/30 at Butler (L 101-93)
Next Game: Saturday 1/6 vs. Marquette, 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CT)

4) Butler (12-4, 2-1 Big East)
Last Week: 8
Last Game: Tuesday 1/2 at Xavier (L 86-79)
Next Game: Saturday 1/6 vs. Seton Hall, 2:30 p.m.

5) Creighton (11-3, 1-1 Big East)
Last Week: 4
Last Game: Sunday 12/31 vs. Providence (W 83-64)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/3 vs. St. John's, 7 p.m. (8 p.m. ET)

6) Marquette (10-4, 1-1 Big East)
Last Week: 6
Last Game: Saturday 12/30 vs. Georgetown (W 74-65)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/3 at Providence, 5:30 p.m. (6:30 p.m. ET)

7) Providence (10-5, 1-1 Big East)
Last Week: 7
Last Game: Sunday 12/31 at Creighton (L 83-64)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/3 vs. Marquette, 6:30 p.m. (5:30 p.m. CT)

8) St. John's (10-4, 0-2 Big East)
Last Week: 5
Last Game: Sunday 12/31 at Seton Hall (L 75-70)
Next Game: Wednesday 1/3 at Creighton, 8 p.m. (7 p.m. CT)

9) Georgetown (11-3, 1-2 Big East)
Last Week: 9
Last Game: Tuesday 1/2 at DePaul (W 90-81)
Next Game: Saturday 1/6 vs. Creighton, 12 p.m. (11 a.m. CT)

10) DePaul (7-8, 0-3 Big East)
Last Week: 10
Last Game: Tuesday 1/2 vs. Georgetown (L 90-81)
Next Game: Saturday 1/6 at St. John's at Carnesecca Arena, 1 p.m. (2 p.m. ET)