Dr. Green and White Sports Authority

The analysis of sports statistics can take many forms, from individual player performance to full season results. In the world of college basketball one of the most useful categories of metrics are tempo free efficiency stats.  These stats measure things such as offensive and defensive performance on a points-per-possession basis. Combining offensive and defensive values yields an effective efficiency margin which can be used to rank teams. For NCAA Tournament selection and seeding, this class of metrics are referred to as predictive metrics as they can be used to estimate victory margins for any arbitrary matchups. There are several different systems out there that measure and track college basketball efficiency. Two of the most notable system are the ones created by Ken Pomeroy ("Kenpom") and that created by Bart Torvik. Both systems are attempting to do the same things, but they use slightly different methods and get slightly different results. Calculating raw efficiency i...

The 2024-25 college basketball season ended just over a month ago, but fans are already looking ahead to next year. Currently, most of the focus is on the transfer portal as teams at all levels and in all parts of the country attempt to (re)build their rosters. But there was another recent announcement that will have an impact of the 2025-26 Big Ten season. The conference provided the first look at the conference schedule for each team. This includes the seven opponents that Michigan State will face only at home, the seven opponents the Spartans will only face on the road, and the three opponents Michigan State will face twice. The 2025-26 season will mark just the second year of the 18-team, 20-game Big Ten conference schedule. Based on my research, this is the eighth different scheduling pattern used by Big Ten basketball since 1950. Over the years, one of my fascinations in the realm of sports is study of strength of schedule. I strive to understand the impact that the schedule has ...