What We Mean When We Talk About “Fast”
Tom Keegan’s lede from today’s Lawrence Journal-World:
Faster, faster, faster. Play faster. Will you please play faster?
Too often this season, it has been difficult to sit in Allen Fieldhouse and not repeat that thought.
As the table below shows, except for showing some mercy to an undermanned Dartmouth squad, Kansas has played at a faster pace than they did last night against an undermanned Winston-Salem State squad. The difference last night was that the Jayhawks just scored more efficiently than they have in any other games in the Fieldhouse so far this year.
| Opp | Pace | KU PPP |
| N Arizona | 75.1 | 1.21 |
| Oral Roberts | 75.3 | 0.92 |
| Towson | 75.5 | 1.15 |
| Dartmouth | 64.4 | 1.27 |
| USC | 71.9 | 1.00 |
| Winston-Salem St | 71.2 | 1.30 |
Unless I missed an outbreak of people using the phrase “at least they played fast” following the Oral Roberts loss, or, “It’s a nice win, but I wish they’d played faster” following the Florida game (62.5 possessions per 40 minutes), I think it’s safe to say that when it comes as part of a complaint, faster = score more.