Maybe I’ll make this a regular Thursday feature. It’s an effective way to maintain my laziness and continue to churn out content.

First up, we have someone who can navigate the NCAA web site better than me:

Ken,

It’s been three years since the last 50-point game. Here are all the D-I 50-point games from the last four years (from the NCAA web site):

54 Michael Watson, UMKC vs. Oral Roberts, 02/22/2003
53 Antawn Dobie, Long Island vs. St. Francis (N.Y.), 02/22/2003
52 Ron Williamson, Howard vs. N.C. A&T, 01/21/2003
50 Desmond Cambridge, Alabama A&M vs. Texas Southern, 02/25/2002

Chuck

Thanks, Chuck! It’s a little creepy that the last 50 point games occurred on the same day.

Ken,

Earlier you posted your preference for the Pythagorean winning pct. over your ratings.  Now that the season is a bit further along and the ratings seem to have stabilized a bit, how do you feel?

A couple of notable disparities as of today (2/08):

Team          Pom Rating  Pythag Rating
*******************************************
Memphis       4            11
George Wash.  14           48 
Arizona       41           24

Dave

I still think the Pomeroy ratings are done after this season. Sure Pythagoras craps the bed every now and then, but have you seen the teams rising to the top of the power ratings this season? It hasn’t been pretty, and the latest victim was Florida, who was #2 before last night’s loss to South Carolina. Even before last night, I don’t think too many people would have bought that Florida was better than UConn, Villanova, or Texas.

Next season, I will make an adjustment to the efficiency ratings to calculate winning percentage based on something similar to Dean Oliver’s bell curve concept rather than the Pythagorean equation. The benefit of the bell curve is to penalize good teams that are inconsistent and reward good teams that are consistent. This would knock Kansas down a few pegs and bring Gonzaga up a little. While those two – rightly, I believe – look very underrated/overrated compared to national perception, the values coming out from Pythagoras are a little extreme.

Line o’ the Night

                           FG    3pt  FT   Reb
                      Min  M-A   M-A  M-A  O-T   A F S TO BLK Pts
Jamon Gordon           42  9-15  0-1  5-6  3-16  4 3 4  3  1   21
Result: Win. Virginia Tech 75, Clemson 74. (OT)

Hey, the guy is only 6’-3”.