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Twenty-six! Coincidently, close to the score of this Thursday night game (3-6) at the time of writing.
This week has a good mix of sports. With college basketball tipping off, I included a research paper that should be used in determining at-large teams for March Madness, as well as what NBA execs think is the best-advanced stat. NFL has a new measurement for defensive explosiveness, an R tutorial that tries to understand how shifts have impacted batting averages, and a walkthrough of how metrics can appear misleading, but insightful if you keep asking questions, this one involving women's soccer.
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This Week's Lineup
Best Advanced Stat for basketball? NBA Execs Comment
Nearly 30 folks answered questions to help determine a list of perceived best statistics for basketball. Needless to say, I wasn't aware of the majority of these.
College Basketball Rating (CBR): A new metric for NCAA tournament selection
With the season tipping off this week, I wanted to share this research paper that was published earlier this year. A great walkthrough of how it compares to the other models out there.
Pass Rusher Explosiveness via Next Gen Stats
"Get Off" time measures the average time it takes for a defensive player to get past the line of scrimmage after the snap of the ball. In a shocker to no one, the quicker the defender is, the better defensive outcomes for their team. Lions, yikes.
Batting Averages on Ground Balls
With all the shifts of late in MLB, how do those impact the batting averages on ground balls? An attempt to answer a few questions with R, code snippets along the way.
How Sophia Smith Turns Good Passes Into Great Ones
In-depth example of how data can lead to questions, this one specific to women's soccer. Good reminder to keep asking "why?" when seeing an outlier. Lots of good soccer data in this one too!
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Unexpected Points Added is curated and maintained by Patrick Hayes. If you have questions or suggestions for the newsletter, just reply to this email. I answer every single one.