I have a love/hate relationship with player comps. There are clearly some good things about them but some of the utility in identifying a player’s group of comparables is removed by the human tendency to first match players based on things like race, ethnicity, or even hair style. While I haven’t studied it, I expect that […]

Late Thursday night, Saint Mary’s suffered its first loss of the season at the hands of UT-Arlington, reducing the number of unbeatens nationally to eight. Going back to the 2000 season (because that’s as far back as my database goes) that’s the fewest number of unbeatens at this point in the season. Perhaps equally interesting […]

There hasn’t been much talk about the player of the race yet. I know it’s the first week of December, so it’s highly premature to discuss such matters, but that’s never stopped anybody before. Last year at this time many people had already narrowed the race to Buddy Hield and Denzel Valentine. The problem this season […]

College hoops teams have produced enough data so far this season to evaluate statistical trends across the basketball universe. And yet again, it’s clear that shooting has never been better. After an awesome weekend from the free-throw line, the national average for free throw percentage rose to 69.78% in games involving two D-I teams. The season-long record was […]

For the first 11 years of his coaching career, Horace Broadnax ran a tight ship. Savannah State was a reliably slower-than-average team that deployed all of its resources on the defensive end. They were basically the San Diego State of the MEAC. So when they played really good teams early in the season, the results […]

Hey, sports fans, it’s time for the most cherished tradition on ye olde blog. That would be revealing the pair of teams that has gone the most consecutive days without losing on the same day. Useless trivia? Yes, but moderately fun nonetheless. There are stories behind all of these streaks, but the stories aren’t as […]

Normally, when one team blocks a lot of shots and its opponent doesn’t block any, it leads to a large victory. The blocks themselves may only be a small contribution to the final margin. But the block dominance suggests that one team has a significant advantage in size and athleticism, and that advantage normally manifests itself in a […]

In anticipation of opening day, many people have offered up lists of the best players in college hoops. These are the lists I have found as of press time: CBSSports.com NBCSports.com SBNation The Big Lead (top 50) Well, I am offering my own list, but it is just a top five: the top five players that […]

There will be a lot of fun games before conference play begins. You know the ones: top ten teams playing top ten teams on national television. The best amateur players in the world testing themselves against each other thanks to a pile of TV cash. This piece is not about those games. It is about […]