statistical analysis – Rush The Court

Behind the Numbers: The Counterintuitive Result of the Syracuse Zone

KCarpenter — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 22:41:24 +0000

Kellen Carpenter is an RTC contributor.

While theoretically, the intricacies of basketball should provide for a near-infinite array of offensive and defensive strategies, we instead see a surprisingly few varieties of essential approaches. On the defensive end, simple man-to-man defense is the primary defense of the vast majority of college basketball teams. Other types of defense are less common, but the clear runner-up in terms of defensive schemes is 2-3 zone defense, which is usually what TV and radio people mean when they say “zone defense.” More specifically, when radio and television people refer to “the zone” they probably [...]

Behind the Numbers: Do Blowouts Predict Champions?

KCarpenter — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 17:18:17 +0000

Kellen Carpenter is an RTC contributor.

It’s been a hard-fought game. Every shot contested, players from both teams diving all over the court for loose balls, the crowd whipped into a frenzy. Bitter rivals, ranked teams, and it all comes down to one buzzer-beating shot. This is a good game. This is why we watch college basketball. Who wins? Who cares? Rhetorical questions can cut two ways, and this one is particularly vicious in matching it’s semantic zig with meaningless zag. On one hand, we gladly affirm the joy-of-the-game sentiment: Close games are their own reward, and if [...]

Predicting Half of the Finals: Michigan St. vs. UConn

rtmsf — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 21:28:06 +0000

Ben from Dear Old UVa is once again back to statistically analyze the NCAA Tournament for us.

Last time, I told you about my dorky little model.

This time, we’ll take a look at the second half of the finals: UConn and Michigan St.

First, UConn:

To me, the amazing part about UConn’s season is how much they turned it around to make the final four. Look at that graph. I guess I could’ve put a trend line on it, but it clearly would’ve been downward-sloping.

Then, you get to the tourney and [...]

Statistical Proof Iman Shumpert is a Gunner

rtmsf — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:17:36 +0000

What really gets us all juiced and lathered up are statistics that appear self-evident only after someone shows you how to figure them. You know, the kind of thing where we say, “wow, that makes a lot of sense,” and yet, we never thought of it ourselves. Forest for the trees and all that.

So it was with particular interest that we were alerted to a post made earlier this week by our friends at the Virginia athletics blog, Dear Old UVa. This post attempted to get to the bottom of the question about whether UVa coach [...]

Will the Duke Swoon Begin Tonight at Clemson?

rtmsf — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:46:50 +0000

Wait, did you guys hear that? It happened over the weekend… a strange ticking noise, more specifically, it happened as the calendar moved to February. It has the faint sound like a bomb is about to go off, as if some well-known and respected ACC team is about to collapse. Ok, maybe not collapse – that would characterize Clemson. It’s become a pat line around these parts that Clemson inevitably collapses every season. While the Tigers got over that particular demon last year and managed to actually find its way into the NCAA Tournament (losing in the first round to Villanova after leading by as much as 18), [...]