Stats for SB Shocker and Other Number Crunchers

[Ricardo del Rio]

Notes for the table below.

1. The first three lines under each category title represent teams, which are 1st, 2nd and 3rd in rank in the category.

2. Subsequent teams in each category are listed for interest in WSU and UNI. The team rank in the subject category is indicated adjacent to the team name. As an example, in the category of Points, UNI is ranked 10th.

3. To facilitate comparisons, I have colored cells for UNI and WSU in purple and yellow respectively.

I found it surprising that generally UNI ranks poorly in the rankings and yet, it leads the conference by 2 games. Since UNI chooses to engage in low scoring games, it explains, in part, UNI's lower rankings. It also explains UNI's higher ranking in turnovers.

WSU ranks higher than UNI in eight of the ten categories.

I know that SB Shocker will find some interest in this chart. I hope others do as well.

I am not sure what conclusions may be drawn from this data. Comments are welcome.

[Uncle Rico]

re:

Someone has made the Fouls + Turnover argument in previous threads.

UNI = 26.2 per game
WSU = 33.3 per game

UNI is very good in large part because they take care of the ball, and don't give up freebies on the free throw line.

We MUST get to the line on Wed if we're going to win. Another game with 4 FT's spells a loss if you ask me.

[pogo]

What this tells me is that uni likes a slow deliberate style of play which would result in fewer possessions per game. Fewer possessions would explain several of the statistics. WSU by comparison plays more up tempo with more possessions and more chances for assists/turnovers/fouls etc. This may be too simplistic a view but I believe it explains alot of the comparisons.

[shockerfan]

Good job, I have a spreadsheet somewhat similar. I'm a stats person myself, thanks for posting this.

[Snapshot9]

That's some good info - thanks!

[ShockTalk]

Nice, easy chart to read. I like the format of showing the top three teams in each category and the two teams your comparing color coded.

However, I think it is offensively overloaded. You show points scored and it appears WSU to have a good advantage, but if you added points allowed, that 6.5 point advantage reduces to around 1 point (from memory).

FT% is important, but if one doesn't get to the line very often that % advantage can get wiped out. Does a low offensive scoring team just slow the game down or do they have a lock-down defense which might be told by defensive FG% and 3pt%.

Didn't look, but if one added these areas, we may not still lead in 80% of them.