Category Archives: Basketball

BASEBALL DEFENSIVE STATISTICS.

BASEBALL DEFENSIVE STATISTICS. With all the statistical work that’s been done by sabermatricians in baseball, defensive statistics are, as is the case with basketball, less satisfactory. The variety of approaches shows how little agreement there is. Baseball Prospectus has arrived … Continue reading

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MEASURING DEFENSE IN THE NBA.

MEASURING DEFENSE IN THE NBA. Half of the game of basketball is played on defense, but little attention is paid to defensive accomplishments. Offense is measured by scoring, and all fans have a ranking in their heads of the scoring … Continue reading

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PLAYING SCRABBLE LIKE AN NBA ALL STAR GAME.

PLAYING SCRABBLE LIKE AN NBA ALL STAR GAME. In her article about Scrabble, Judith Thurman refers to a computer that is a “nitwit who leaves the triple-word scores undefended.” In our family, we now play Scrabble the way the NBA … Continue reading

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ARE TWINS BETTER IN SOME SPORTS THAN IN OTHERS?

ARE TWINS BETTER IN SOME SPORTS THAN IN OTHERS? The NBA season is starting and the Lopez twins are joining the Collins twins, also identical twins, as NBA players. One of my correspondents suggested to me that twins seem to … Continue reading

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REFEREEING IS PART OF THE NARRATIVE.

REFEREEING IS PART OF THE NARRATIVE. In addition to accountability (and providing economists with data), there is another reason for making a league’s evaluations of refereeing public. Like many fans, I watch a game because of the story. I watched … Continue reading

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AN ECONOMIST CALLS FOR MAKING REFEREE EVALUATIONS PUBLIC.

AN ECONOMIST CALLS FOR MAKING REFEREE EVALUATIONS PUBLIC. I posted here arguing that referee ratings should be made public. I linked to a report by the Sun Belt Conference on the the refereeing of the 2006 Alamo Bowl which I … Continue reading

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SHOULD REFEREE RATINGS BE PUBLIC?

SHOULD REFEREE RATINGS BE PUBLIC? The National Basketball Association is now faced with the nightmare of a referee (Tim Donaghy) being accused of betting on games he officiated. Did his bets influence his refereeing? Sports officials today are subject to … Continue reading

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TWINS IN SPORTS– WITH ONE MISTAKEN IDENTITY STORY (COMMENT).

TWINS IN SPORTS –WITH ONE MISTAKEN IDENTITY STORY (COMMENT). Successful twins seem to be more common in sports than in politics. There were the Van Arsdale twins in basketball, who had remarkably similar careers. I saw them play when they … Continue reading

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BASKETBALL–AN EXPERIMENT THAT FAILED.

BASKETBALL–AN EXPERIMENT THAT FAILED. A follow up on an earlier post. I had posted at the beginning of the basketball season that the Bulls this year would test the importance of defense versus offense for a basketball team. I had … Continue reading

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ADUJSTED NBA STANDINGS REVISITED.

ADJUSTED NBA STANDINGS REVISITED. Today is the NBA All Star Game. On January 1, I posted adjusted standings which corrected for the fact that some teams had played a lot more home games than road games. I planned to revisit … Continue reading

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