December has finally ended. It's been 9 days since ISU played their most recent game, but it's time to wrapup what happened in December. They have now played 12 of their 31 regular season games, making for a little over 38% of the season done with!
Let's take a look at some of the stats:
| December Totals | Season Totals | Conference Rank | National Rank | |
| Record | 3-2 | 9-3 | -- | |
| Expected Record | 4-1 | 10-2 | -- | |
| RPI | -- | 129 | -- | |
| Pomeroy Rank | -- | 59 | -- | |
| Sagarin Rank | -- | 57 | -- | |
| Off. Efficiency | 1.07 points/poss | 1.12 points/poss | 8 | 45 |
| Def. Efficiency | 0.97points/poss | 0.91 points/poss | 6 | 45 |
| eFG% | 55.8% | 56.3% | 2 | 12 |
| TOV% | 18.4% | 19.1% | 5 | 260 |
| OR% | 24.66% | 32.9% | 7 | 184 |
| FT Rate | 49.7% | 38.3% | 9 | 141 |
| Asst% | 72.56% | 60.8% | 2 | 50 |
| A/T | 1.14 | 1.29 | 2 | 36 |
| Steal % | 9.5% | 9% | 10 | 236 |
| DR% | 68.06% | 72% | 2 | 38 |
My general takeaway from the stats is that December was a down month, inflated by games against some bad teams in Iowa and North Dakota. Against UNI and Cal we were terrible at times.
I'd just characterize the month and season as above. We're playing like the 8th or 9th best team in the Big 12, obviously not good enough to play in some kind of postseason tournament. I hope with this layoff between games that the guys were able to continue to work on being tough, getting rebounds, etc. I still think we should be seeing Dendy starting with Brackins, along with Christopherson. McDermott talked about Lucca forcing other teams to guard him, and while that's true, I sort of feel the same way with Christopherson. If anyone is shooting a high percentage from outside, the opposing coaches will pick up on that and guard the man.
Either way, I can't control who starts, and McDermott's obviously going with who he thinks fits in the best. I hope that translates into more winning, because this team still has a way to go.