In this article about the productive bench of the Rice Owls men’s basketball team, writer Moisekapenda Bower makes a strange assertion about Owl swingman Jamal Moore.
His energy and stifling defense, intangibles statistics can’t quantify, are as valuable as [teammate Brock] Gillespie’s penchant for hitting timely treys.
Emphasis mine. Since when is defense unquantifiable in basksetball? Last I checked, steals, blocked shots, and defensive rebounds all counted as defensive statistics. And some of the more sabermetric stats, like plus/minus ratio (the difference between the points your team scores when you’re on the floor and the points their team scores) and defensive efficiency (points per possession for the opposing team, also calculated while the given player is on the floor) take into account the effect of forcing turnovers, which is a measure of hustle and energy. I don’t know if Bower got lazy here or if he really believes in that “intangibles” shinola, but either way this was a dumb thing to say.
What amazes me about the statement is that the writer could have gone to the team website or the NCAA statistics website and found the defensive information he needed.