NCAA Basketball

Could an AFL Style Tournament Structure be Utilized in College Basketball

Introduction While Australian Rules Football (AFL) recently suspended its season, it was for a brief moment in time, the most popular sports league in the world (if only due to the fact the every other major sports league had already shut down). AFL is actually really fun to watch, and I’d highly recommend checking it out once its season returns. One of the parts of AFL that has always interested me is its unique playoff structure–an eight team playoff that is a hybrid of single elimination (for seeds 5-8) and “psuedo” double elimination (for seeds 1:4).

Statsketball 2019

Below is my submission methodology for the 2019 American Statistical Association Statsketball Draft Challenge. Having won the contest in 2018, I knew that I had to up my game this year to defend my crown. Contest Background The Statsketball Draft Challenge asks participants the chance to select NCAA Tournament Teams using a budget of 224 draft points. The cost of each team, in draft points, is based on the team’s seed.

Does Arizona State's Curtain of Distraction Work?

Introduction One of the more unique student sections in college basketball belongs to the Arizon State Sun Devils and their famous “Curtain of Distraction”. The Curtain of Distraction opens to reveal students in ridiculous attire trying to do all they can to break the focus of opposing free throw shooters. Perhaps the most famous attempted distraction occured when Olympic swimmer Michael appeard from behind the curatin wearing only a speedo.

Game Excitement Index: An In-Depth Exploration

Introduction One of the NCAA Men’s Basketball metrics I’ve been fascinated with lately is that of Game Excitement Index. Game Excitement Index (GEI) attempts to quantify how exciting a particular game was after it has been played. Related metrics have been implemented for NFL games by Brian Burke, NBA games by InPredict (Mike Beuoy), and for March Madness by FiveThirtyEight. One can compute GEI for college basketball games using my ncaahoopR package, which I define as follows: