Basketball Statistics Blog

Friday Press Clippings:
Illuminating the Black Box:
Using Statistics to Understand Women's College Basketball

From Swish Appeal
By Q McCall
Download source here: ' Illuminating the Black Box: Using Statistics to Understand Women's College Basketball '
by Q McCall

"... Personally, I like statistics because they help me to pinpoint reasons a team won or lost, see patterns that might have seemed like disconnected moments, and organize my thinking about the game.

However, while the use of statistics has definitely been growing among basketball enthusiasts, there are people who lament their use for good reason – they neither capture the full story of the game, nor the nuance of the type of "good basketball" ..."

"... The key however is to keep it all in perspective: statistics should be used to complement, not replace, the subjective beauty of games like basketball. ..."

"... Furthermore, while it’s hard enough to follow all of men’s basketball, it’s even harder to follow women’s basketball given that so few games are televised and so many less are even given in-depth coverage.

If nothing else, the statistics can tell us some kernel of a story about what happened in a given game or over the course of a given season that we would otherwise not have. ... "

"... For example, things such as ball movement, whether a team played together well, or whether or not a team actually played well and lost or played terribly and won are things that are difficult for the casual fan to see just looking a final scores and basic statistics. ..."

"... So here's the question that I've been struggling with and have come up with some tentative answers for after watching as many pre-season games as I could: how can we give the most accurate account of what’s happening in women’s college basketball – even in one conference – if it’s essentially impossible to watch every game due to fundamental barriers such as accessibility, time, and money? What might statistics say and not say in response to that question? ..."

Read more articles in Swish Appeal.

To read today's 'Press Clippings' in Spanish, click this week above on the 'Español' tab or afterwards click here: ' Liderazgo Sistemático ' by Xavi García .

Friday Video Clippings:
My Coach Sucks ...!

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