Stats through 6 OOC games

SR has never cared about steals, he cares about Opponent FG%. So far that's 34.8%, which is right on track with last year's 35.0%. Comparing that to our own 48% shooting that's the equivalent of something like 5-10 "steals" per game.

Agreed.
As I understand it, his defensive philosophy is to have his players always in position to make the shots difficult for opposing players to make, as opposed to gambling for a steal (which is usually what you have to do - great when you guess right, often leads to a less difficult shot for the opponent if you find yourself out of position). .

For example, Janessa, likely buoyed by her (great) 8 steal game earlier, went for a steal against a ND player in the 1st half that led to the ND player freely driving and getting a foul on TC. I would happily have traded that sequence for Janessa staying in front of her player, no steal attempt, and no foul on TC, who was having a really good game until the fouls derailed her.....NOTE - don't begrudge JT's effort, just picking out an example of where SR's philosophy can also pay dividends (we usually don't have as many fouls or as much foul trouble as our opponents).....

Note that while SR's players are racing up most all of the career milestone charts (blocks, rebounds, 3 ptrs, scoring, ...) they have not dented the career or season steals charts at OSU.

Go Beavers!