Also from Sports Illustrated: A new stat to measure individual defense, hometown hero Skylar Diggins, a leap of faith by USC’s gifted center and the fallout from Penn State
Posted: November 10, 2011 Filed under: Austin Murphy, Chris Ballard, College Basketball, Damon Hack, Luke Winn, Phil Taylor, Richard Deitsch | Tags: alabama football, Andrew Luck, basketball defensive efficiency, college basketball defensive stats, dewayne dedmon, eric reid, indianapolis colts, joe frazier, joe paterno, lsu football, magic johnson hiv, notre dame women's basketball, penn state football scandal, peyton manning, skylar diggins, usc basketball Comments Off
In addition to the College Basketball Preview Men’s Top 20 and Women’s Top 10 and this week’s NFL Players Poll, here’s what readers can expect in the Nov. 14 issue of Sports Illustrated, on newsstands now.
THE CASE FOR THE DEFENSE – LUKE WINN (@lukewinn)
Using methods that statistician Dean Oliver lay out in his 2003 book Basketball on Paper, SI conducted the most comprehensive study of individual defense ever done in college basketball. The defensive rating produced answers the following question: If a player were on the floor for 100 defensive possessions, engaging in his normal rate of plays, how many points would an opposing team score? (page 52)
The 2010–11 defenses for five of this year’s championship contenders were analyzed. The subjects comprised the nation’s most efficient defensive team from ’10 –11 (Florida State); the two preseason title favorites with the majority of their rotations returning (Ohio State and North Carolina); the defending champion (UConn); and, for contrast, an offensive powerhouse undone last season by its struggles on D (Vanderbilt). SI’s adjusted defensive rating is the byproduct of the following statistics:
- Percentage of plays involved with
- Individual stop percentage (per 100 possessions)
- Field goal percentage against
- Percentage of a player’s possessions resulting in a turnover
- Free throw rate (ratio of free throw attempts allowed versus field goal attempts allowed)
On the Tablets: Winn discusses SI’s defensive efficiency formula in a podcast interview.
