[Bumped, and quite worth a read.--OPS]

In a recent post, StoopsMyAss described the "Lickliter way".  This post just adds one facet to the picture he painted (I commented on SMA's post, and this is just an extension of that post).  The most striking aspect of the "Lickliter way" for me has always been the pace of the game.  His teams play slooooow.  This is subjectively obvious to anyone who watches a game, but it's objectively true, too.  Here's how his teams have ranked in terms of possessions per game for the past six years:

08-09: 56.7 poss/game (344th out of 344 teams)
07-08: 59.5 poss/game (334th out of 341 teams)
06-07 [Butler]: 58.4 poss/game (332nd out of 334 teams)
05-06 [Butler]: 59.4 poss/game (327th out of 332 teams)
04-05 [Butler]: 58.1 poss/game (327th out of 330 teams)
03-04 [Butler]: 57.9 poss/game (325th out of 326 teams)

That is really slow!  Lickliter's teams are regularly in the bottom five in the nation in terms of pace.  For a sense of perspective, the average pace is 66.5 poss/game.  As I watched Iowa play, I began to wonder: what does Lickliter hope to accomplish by this?  And I wasn't (just) asking out of frustration.  I assumed there must have been some good reason to play this way.  After all, other teams gained some measure of success playing at a slow pace, Butler being a prime example.  The usual reasons broadcasters and sportswriters gave -- that the slow pace "frustrated" other teams into making mistakes, that we would use our possessions more efficiently -- weren't very satisfying.  "Are teams really that frustrated by playing slowly?", I thought.  "And can't we only control the pace of our own possessions, not the other team's?  Shouldn't it be our team, not theirs, that gets frustrated by playing slow?  And if our offense is so dang efficient, why not give it more opportunities in a game to do its efficient-tastic thing?"  With these questions in mind, I went to Google, and found an answer.  It's not necessarily the answer, but it does explain one way that playing slow helps a team compete.  And this answer comes down to what is, depending on your view, either the savior or the anti-Christ of modern sports: statistics.

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