Eli Boettger | @boettger_eli | 05/12/20
Welcome back to Three Things!
The intention of Three Things is simple: Keeping you informed. The offseason can be a busy time and college basketball isn’t always on everyone’s radars from April to October.
Here’s how it will work: Every morning, Monday through Friday, we will provide you with three things that you need to know from the previous day. Pretty simple, right? You’ll be amazed by your new college basketball wisdom!
Here are the three things you need to know for May 12.
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Drew Peterson finds new home
One of the bigger names on the transfer market found a new home on Monday. Former Rice guard Drew Peterson announced he will be headed to USC for his final two years of college eligibility. Peterson figures to be a traditional sit-out transfer.
At 6-8 and 185 pounds, Peterson has nice length for the guard position. He averaged 11.1 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and one steal per game this past season and has started 54 games in two years. Peterson is already the fourth transfer to commit to USC this offseason, joining Tahj Eaddy (Santa Clara), Chevez Goodwin (Wofford) and Joshua Morgan (Long Beach State).
Paul Reed signs with agent
Though the decision was anticipated, the DePaul Blue Demons suffered a big loss on Monday. Forward Paul Reed has signed with Ron Shade of Octagon and will forego his remaining college eligibility.
Reed played three seasons in a DePaul uniform, averaging a double-double this past season at 15.1 points and 10.7 rebounds per game. He started just one game and averaged 3.6 points per game as a freshman before taking a big sophomore leap that attracted NBA scouts. Reed is largely expected to be drafted.
Changes to NET formula
The NCAA announced on Monday that it will be changing the NET formula. In an effort to “increase accuracy and simplify (the formula),” three of the components of the original NET formula have been removed. The Team Value Index — a “result-based feature that rewards teams for beating quality opponents” — and an adjusted net efficiency remain while the NCAA has removed winning percentage, adjusted winning percentage and scoring margin.
This move doesn’t expect to have much of an impact on the rankings as a whole. Several people pointed out in the initial NET release prior to the 2018-19 season that the original NET formula was both redundant and flawed. For example, including both scoring margin and net efficiency places a double emphasis on points scored vs. points allowed, and the use of two winning percentages caused confusion. Additionally, the previous NET formula’s scoring margin was capped at 10 points to prevent any incentive of running up the score, but efficiency margin wasn’t capped. The new formula should clean up some of the inconsistencies that were found in the original metric.
Eli Boettger is a college basketball writer and founder of HeatCheckCBB.com. He has previously worked for Sporting News, DAZN and USA TODAY SMG.
Boettger’s content has been featured by Bleacher Report, NBC Sports, FiveThirtyEight, Yahoo Sports, Athletic Director University, Washington Post, Illinois Law Review and Notre Dame Law Review, among other publications. Boettger is also a current USBWA member and Rockin’ 25 voter.