Similar Player Comparison from Stat \Sheet.com

[im4wsu]

StatSheet offers a comparison of players from 1996-2013 and determines statistical similarity using 12 statistical categories as described here http://statsheet.com/blog/introducing-similarity-scores. For example, here is what comes up for Fred Van Vleet as of 2/16/13. If nothing else, somewhat of a history lesson here.

or the 2012-13 season, Fred Van Vleet (WSU) has been the most similar to:

All 2012-13 NCAA players: 92.7% Daveon Balls NIU 92.6% Michael Grace Yale 92.2% Denzel Douglas Idaho 91.6% Stephon Whyatt SFPA 90.9% Vonn Jones TXState 90.7% Kaza Keane IllSt 90.7% Myles Hamilton KSU 90.5% Reggie Groves Canisius 90.4% D`Vonne Pickett SU 90.4% Brandon Dorsett GSU

All 2012-13 NCAA Freshmen: 92.7% Daveon Balls NIU 90.7% Kaza Keane IllSt 90.7% Myles Hamilton KSU 90.4% Drew Charles UTA 89.6% Jake Bittle SDSU 89.6% Josh Hagins UALR 89.4% Todd Johnson NoKY 89.4% Jackson Trapp FAU 89.1% Rashun Davis Radford 89.1% Jared Klein WMU

All 2012-13 Missouri Valley players: 90.7% Kaza Keane IllSt 88.0% Dorrian Williams MSU 87.5% Micah Mason Drake 87.3% Malcolm Armstead WSU 87.2% Dawon Cummings ISU 86.7% Demetric Williams WSU 85.8% Austin Chatman Creighton 84.1% Jalen Crawford BU 83.7% Jeremy Jeffers Drake 83.7% Richard Carter Drake

All Missouri Valley players since 1996: 94.1% Ismael Caro Creighton 2001-02 92.0% Clint Keown Evansville 1998-99 91.7% Carl Lemons WSU 1998-99 91.4% Michael Phillips WSU 1999-00 91.3% Will Franklin BU 2005-06 91.0% Kaza Keane IllSt 2012-13 91.0% Rob Dye BU 1996-97 90.9% Kavon Lacey Evansville 2009-10 90.6% Frank Wiseler Drake 2009-10 90.6% Kendal Brown-Surles SIU 2009-10	All Missouri Valley Freshmen since 1996: 92.0% Clint Keown Evansville 1998-99 91.4% Michael Phillips WSU 1999-00 91.3% Will Franklin BU 2005-06 91.0% Kaza Keane IllSt 2012-13 91.0% Rob Dye BU 1996-97 90.6% Kendal Brown-Surles SIU 2009-10 90.2% Armand LeVasseur Drake 1996-97 90.1% Kevin Clancy LCU 1998-99 90.0% Gal Mekel WSU 2006-07 89.9% Anthony Shavies MSU 2003-04
All WSU players since 1996: 91.7% Carl Lemons WSU 1998-99 91.4% Michael Phillips WSU 1999-00 90.0% Gal Mekel WSU 2006-07 89.4% Jerome (Fridge) Holman WSU 2002-03 89.0% Demetric Williams WSU 2009-10 88.3% Michael Phillips WSU 2000-01 87.5% Matt Braeuer WSU 2004-05 87.5% Demetric Williams WSU 2010-11 87.3% Matt Braeuer WSU 2005-06 87.2% Demetric Williams WSU 2012-13	All WSU Freshmen since 1996: 91.4% Michael Phillips WSU 1999-00 90.0% Gal Mekel WSU 2006-07 89.4% Jerome (Fridge) Holman WSU 2002-03 89.0% Demetric Williams WSU 2009-10 87.5% Matt Braeuer WSU 2004-05 86.9% Matt Clark WSU 2000-01 86.7% C.C. (Curtis) McFall WSU 2000-01 86.2% Jermaine McLeod WSU 1997-98 86.0% Chris Grill WSU 1997-98 85.8% Adam Liberty ORU 2003-04

Here is the link http://statsheet.com/mcb/players/sim...t=Submit+Query

[Ricardo del Rio]

I hope he is not too much like Carl Lemons. Carl was a good guy and played hard, but he could not shoot a lick. Not even a little lick.

[ShockTalk]

Can you summarize what the history lesson is? Not being critical, just wanting to learn.

I noticed that two of the "most comparable" players, Keane and Balls, both have down trending seasons going on while FVV's is upward trending. I'm pretty sure that if I looked at FVV's comparisons 10 games ago, I would have seen much different players than now. Also, if he continues to improve through the end of the season, we will see another set of comparable players.

I like stats more than most, but this seems to have a lot of outside moving parts that the player has little control of. Team dynamics, coaching dynamics, SoS played, style of play by opponents, and so on.

[Dan]

Stats don't really mean much at this point considering him not playing as much the first half of the season.

[im4wsu]

Can you summarize what the history lesson is? Not being critical, just wanting to learn.

There were former Shocker players on the list that I didn't know or at least didn't remember.

[wusphlash]

It lists Fridge Holman, CC McFall and Chris Grill under All WSU Freshman. I don't think any of these players spent their freshman year at WSU.

[ShockTalk]

It lists Fridge Holman, CC McFall and Chris Grill under All WSU Freshman. I don't think any of these players spent their freshman year at WSU.

Details, details!

[ShockTalk]

There were former Shocker players on the list that I didn't know or at least didn't remember.

Yes, that's what I thought, but I'm sure the teams that many played on were quite different than today's. Anything is possible, but I doubt you'll forget Fred VanVleet's name. Don't even remember what happened to Phillips as he was just here 2 years. McLeod played 9 games his frosh (and only) year. I'm sure he's a good comparable to FVV.

Like I said, if Fred has a few more nice games, they'll be a little bit different set of names. It's a constantly moving target.

[Shockeriffic]

I'm disappointed statsheet doesn't use similarity scores for all players since 1996. Part of the fun of this is to see how players similar to Van Vleet developed. Having a list of players from only this year means that you can't see that. Having a list of only Valley players since 1996 limits the pool to choose from. Kenpom has Tray Woodall as the most similar player to Van Vleet. I wonder if people would be saying that stats don't really mean much if the current starting point guard for Pittsburgh was the first name they saw.