If you are interested in golf, you are aware that Tiger Woods just won his fifth Masters, and if you are not interested in golf I dare you to keep reading. The most famous Masters prior to this year was in 1986 when Jack Nicklaus won his sixth green jacket. I barely remember it so […]

With Purdue and Auburn in the Elite Eight, there’s a lot of talk about how far they’ve come from the depths of their season. But those depths are fabrications of the AP poll. To illustrate let’s look at each of the teams in the Elite Eight by their worst ranking in the AP poll since […]

It was not surprising to see coaches and ex-players universally defend Tom Izzo’s treatment of freshman wing Aaron Henry last week, nor was it surprising to see most of college basketball’s non-coach/player media either stay silent or support Izzo. This is a college sports tradition. In this case, the most common defense seems to be that […]

Qtrs Semis Final Champ 1S Virginia 81.9 55.0 37.0 22.1 1W Gonzaga 74.0 44.7 26.1 15.2 2E Michigan St. 74.6 41.5 21.8 11.7 1E Duke 66.2 37.3 19.5 10.5 1MW North Carolina 64.5 36.6 17.0 7.8 2W Michigan 54.9 26.4 13.4 6.8 2MW Kentucky 58.4 30.2 13.2 5.8 3S Purdue 51.3 20.6 10.3 4.3 3W […]

Rd2 Swt16 Elite8 Final4 Final Champ 1S Virginia 97.7 85.1 66.7 48.5 34.5 21.4 1W Gonzaga 99.1 84.5 67.3 44.3 26.3 15.5 1E Duke 99.0 85.2 62.9 39.6 22.8 12.9 2E Michigan St. 97.0 75.2 58.0 33.1 18.4 10.3 1MW North Carolina 98.7 80.9 57.6 36.7 17.9 8.5 2W Michigan 93.3 68.5 43.4 22.2 11.3 […]

While tables of numbers have their place, no fan should have to scroll to see their team’s rating. For that reason, I have been spending the past few weeks building a handy visualization called D-I Universe. It’s probably a little different than anything you have seen before, but I think it’s the best way to […]

One of the more curious nuggets to come from the NCAA’s release of the NET was its decision to ignore scoring margin in overtime games. Any use of ‘artificial intelligence’ would have revealed that overtime scoring margin is just as useful for evaluating team strength as regular season scoring margin. The simplest way to demonstrate […]

Who likes it when players get into foul trouble? Well, maybe nobody, but it’s one of the most interesting strategic aspects of college basketball. While people have been thinking about ways to eliminate the individual limit on personal fouls, I’d feel very strongly about preserving the five-foul limit if officiating were perfect. Mainly because I […]

There are a few ways to analyze something but using the wisdom of the crowd is one my favorites. Of course, it depends on the particular crowd. Me, I’d prefer to use the crowd that bets money on things. Anyone can make predictions but history shows the best ones are made by people that put […]

Hey coaches! Need a hand filling out your schedule for the the 2018-19 season? I can’t play matchmaker but I can provide you a spreadsheet with a first cut of expected ratings for every team next season. These ratings use the same method that has produced the preseason ratings on my site in previous seasons. […]