Tag Archives: College Basketball

NCAA Basketball: Unprecedented Upsets or Same Old Story?

Posted on March 6, 2013 by harvardsportsanalysis

By Julian Ryan *Editor’s Note: Written before Week 18 rankings published Is it really that crazy a college basketball season? Most college hoops fans would argue that this season has seen an unprecedented amount of upsets. Unlike last year, when … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Football | Tagged , | 8 Comments

Ohio Basketball Streaks: Which Was More Improbable?

Posted on February 16, 2011 by dadler3

By Arjun Modi and Daniel Adler Going into this past weekend, two Ohio basketball teams were streaking, but within just 24 hours, both streaks were over.  On Friday evening, the Cleveland Cavaliers’ 26 game losing streak mercifully ended when they … Continue reading →

Posted in NBA Basketball, NCAA Basketball | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Momentum in College Basketball: Do Late Rallies Carry Over to Overtime?

Posted on January 5, 2011 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz Of all the sports announcer’s tropes and standards, the concept of momentum may be the most often used and least well understood. Momentum is frequently cited as an important factor in deciding the outcome of games, but … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , | 24 Comments

In Which an Infinite Number of Monkeys Brag About Picking Northern Iowa

Posted on March 24, 2010 by David Roher

By David Roher There are over nine quintillion ways to fill out your bracket, and over four hundred trillion ways to predict the first two rounds alone. Based on the craziness of the first four days of the tournament, I … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Predicting NCAA Tournament Upsets: Favorite Vulnerability

Posted on March 17, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz On Tuesday, I looked at predicting upsets in the NCAA Tournament. Today I’m looking at which favorites are vulnerable to upsets. Again, I created a database of NCAA Tournament favorites’ tempo-free stat profiles using KenPom.com’s invaluable data.  … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Predicting NCAA Tournament Upsets: The Underdogs

Posted on March 15, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz A few weeks ago, when I started analyzing the effects of tempo on NCAA Tournament upsets, I got a crazy idea: what if I could find a model that would predict factors of successful underdogs? I’ve always … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , , , , , | 9 Comments

Ivy League Efficiency Margins, Week 2

Posted on February 17, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz Last week, I took a look at the Efficiency Margins for Ivy League conference play so far this season. Since then, a momentous upset by the previously-lowly Penn Quakers over Cornell upset the Ivy order. After Princeton … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

NCAA Tourney Upsets Continued: Do Close Games Have a Higher Tempo?

Posted on February 16, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz and Andrew Cohen Last week, we analyzed the effect of tempo on NCAA Tournament upsets and found that contrary to Dean Oliver’s theory, a faster tempo (more possessions) was predictive of underdog success. We searched for potential … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged | 5 Comments

Putting Theories to the Test: Does Slow Tempo Aid NCAA Tournament Upsets?

Posted on February 11, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz and Andrew Cohen The allure of March Madness is due in no small part to the complementary joys of filling out a bracket and first and second round upsets. America loves an underdog, and the first four … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , | 14 Comments

Ivy League Hoops and Efficiency Margins

Posted on February 9, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz One very effective statistical measure to analyze college basketball is Efficiency Margin. The concept behind EM, like a lot of the best stats, is sublimely simple: track how many points per possession teams score and allow, and … Continue reading →

Posted in NCAA Basketball | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments