Term Project – Basketball Statistics Ever since its inception, basketball has been a difficult sport to quantify compared to others, other than baskets and assists. This is because, unlike a sport such as baseball or football, there are no individual sequences (such as a pitcher throwing a strike, or a running back scoring a touchdown). Instead, basketball revolves around constant flow and ball movement, with play never stopping unless the ball falls out of bounds or a foul is committed. In addition, the rapid movement of the ball ricocheting off players and the basket has made movement difficult to track. One of the most difficult to track has been the probability of a rebound after a missed shot. A rebound occurs when a player shoots, misses, …show more content…
After a missed shot attempt, players from both teams are free to grab the basketball to gain possession. During the 2013-2014 National Basketball Association (NBA) Regular Season, players missed well over 100,000 shot attempts, and since you cannot score without possession, rebounds are extremely valuable in the sport. Teams in the NBA have traditionally relied on natural instincts, and a bit of luck, when battling for rebounds. However, recent improvements in camera technology have started a new analytical age. Because of advanced tracking cameras and the data sets they provide, previously unquantifiable statistics such as which players are the most agile or which players pass the most are available. These cameras, called the SportVU System, are also tracking the precise position of the basketball at all times. This means that not only can the exact location of each missed shot be logged, but the corresponding location of each rebound. Thus, the age-old question of “where are rebounds the most likely …show more content…
While the predictability starts out near 77% when the ball leaves the offensive shooter’s hands, the probability that we can predict the correct team who will make the rebound increases to 87.5% by the time the ball has fallen back down to the 8-foot level, which is the altitude at which most players can begin to grab and control the ball. The support vector machine (SVM) is a state-of-the art machine learning technique that has been shown to work well in a wide variety of settings, with the important trait of avoiding over-fitting. For this data, we used [ALEX, YOU KEEP SAYING ‘WE’. WAS THIS A GROUP PROJECT?] an implementation of an SVM provided by the WEKA machine-learning program. The SVM is able to outperform simple logistic regression by several percentage points in terms of accuracy of its predictions. The graph below shows performance of an SVM with radial basis function (RBF) kernels, which enables the SVM to separate between offensive and defensive rebounds using a hyper-plane in a higher-dimensional space created using this non-linear kernel. Hence the SVM can create non-linear class separators when the solution is projected back down to the original search
In this project, many different statistics were used to try and predict the winners of the NCAA March Madness tournament. To do this, statistics were tested from the previous year to see if they moderately correlated to winning games. When a stat is moderately correlated, that means it relates to winning. Using a scatter plot, a graph that gives a visual of whether or not a stat is correlated, correlation coefficients were found for each stat. The correlation coefficient is a decimal that shows if a set of numbers is moderately correlated. After finding stats that were the closest to being moderately correlated, a metric was put together that used the best stats to determine which teams will win games. The stat that was the closest to being moderately correlated was the turnover ratio of the teams. Another stat that was almost moderately correlated was RPI, or Rating Percentage Index. This stat uses a team’s win percentage, their opponents’ win percentage, and their opponents’ opponents’ win percentage to rank teams. Also, missed field goal percentage was a stat that was used.
"Teams are paying a little bit more attention to my offensive rebounding. Another reason is that the level is higher just because teams are competing more," Porzingis told the New York Post's Marc Berman. "There are more guys going for offensive rebounds, so I'm worrying more about boxing my guy out and not just grabbing the rebound. The first part of the season I would rebound, I was wide open. Nobody was there. I'd just take it."
The National Basketball Association, otherwise known as the NBA, is an association that has allowed us to see some of the greatest athletes to ever play the game of basketball. When we think of NBA basketball or basketball period, we think about dunks, three pointers, and alley-oops but there was a unique element of basketball that players specialized in and brought to the NBA; specialties that players use today. John Stockton of the Utah Jazz made the element of passing truly known as an asset of a point guard. Julius Erving of the Philadelphia 76ers brought his electric, spectacular dunking ability to the NBA which influenced many future high-flying players, such as Dominique Wilkins and Shawn Kemp, and made the NBA a more exciting
The main element is the visualization of the shots. The shots are formed by arcs that go from the hoop to the distance where the player took the shot.
Hawk-eye is a simulation which is provided by numerous cameras. By tracking the flight of the ball and projecting its path, Hawk-eye is able to triangulate the ball’s potential location. Sport has been notable throughout the years of attempting to eliminate human error using technology, in order to deliver fair sport to the public. The brand has continued to grow extremely quickly, and is synonymous with modern day sport. Initially used in Cricket at the turn of the century, it has spread to numerous sports, most recently football. Whilst both are at differing ends of the spectrum, in terms of experience in the game, they draw huge contention within the media and amongst players. Fallibility is a matter discussed widely in sport, and not just in Tennis. This report will thoroughly examine the article 1by Suzi Gage and discuss the claim presented that Hawk-eye is not as infallible as people think. Therefore, the accuracy of Hawk-eye, its weaknesses and any potential advances that would help progress the technology used in sport will be discussed. Gage bases most of her article findings on the journal by Harry Collins and Robert Evans2 and the Hawk-eye website3, both of which will be thoroughly scrutinised in order to best determine the validity of the claim.
Basketball has “Blocks” and “Rebounds” stats, but those are not always accurate. Baseball, known for its continuing trend towards sabermetrics and a desire to quantify every possible aspect of the game, has complicated fielding metrics for various positions. Football is an exception, as it has many quantifiable defensive metrics. Hockey has a unique circumstance that makes tracking defense very complicated: the goaltender. In the sport of hockey, there is ultimately one sole player on each team whose entire job is to prevent goals from being scored. None of the other three major sports has this. The play of a goaltender and the play of the skaters in front of them are intimately related, and one can easily make the other appear better than they are through the use of statistics. This is where we get to
What is the easiest way to earn points in a basketball game? Free shots, also known as free throws, are given to a player after being fouled. What do shooters focus on to score the given shots? They rely on what they can see. What if the net was removed? Would the player’s free throw accuracy increase or decrease? Visual targets, can have a tremendous effect on one’s shot.
Playing 2K every day may not improve a player’s jump shot or increase their speed, but through observational learning, a player is able to enhance their basketball intelligence through an interactive simulation. Although impossible to control every player on the court simultaneously, artificial intelligence, also known as AI, controls teammates and CPU by inputting players into optimal scoring and defensive positions. A pass to a center may lead to a double team, a shooter may spot up, or another player may cut towards the basket. Additionally, based on the user, the AI will adapt and counter user’s strengths so that players must learn to use their
There is a substantial amount of qualities that go into becoming a complete basketball player. Perhaps the most important quality to possess, in order to be a great player, is the ability to understand and improve the use and recognition of kinesics. According to Dr. Gretchen N, Foley, author of Nonverbal Communication in Psychotherapy, about 65 percent of communication is nonverbal. This means most of peoples emotions are shown through their actions. These actions are classified by body language, eye contact, gestures, and facial expressions. Therefore, the game of basketball is full of nonverbal communication. Speaking from experience, kinesics is seen throughout pre-game, in-game,
Free throws are often the deciding factors in a basketball game. The team that makes the most free throws down the stretch is often the team that will come out victorious. Learning the tips and tricks of shooting free throws will make you better and will help your team win close games.
In baseball, the book “Moneyball” revolutionized the way that the whole sport looked at analytics. Basketball has a comparable situation. The book “Basketball on Paper” dives into the numbers behind the sport (Haefner 10). In this book, author Dean Oliver states there are four main statistics to tell which team will win, and also states of how much importance these statistics are. He says that a team’s shooting is forty percent of winning, turnovers are twenty five percent, rebounding is twenty percent, and and free throws are fifteen percent (Haefner 11). One of the fathers of analytics in basketball claims that shooting is far and away the most important statistic in the game. However, in order to know how a team is performing in this category, the team must be compared against other teams. Doing this is extremely easy. If comparing two teams playing each other, the opposing team’s effective field goal percentage is simply subtracted from the team being observed (Haefner 15). A golden example of the utility of effective field goal percentage is the Golden State Warriors. This team has broken records for three pointers made, and recently won seventy three games in a single season. The Warriors have an advantage on almost every other team in the NBA because of the vast amount of three pointers that they take (Dizikes 2). The ease with which effective field goal percentage can be used and its direct correlation to which team wins the game makes it possibly the most useful statistic in the game of basketball. However, while shooting does have a direct correlation for team performance, it does not always have a major impact on how a single player
After the final dribble, the ball should meet the person’s hand and shouldn’t cross their mid-line. There is a shot also called a jump shot in which a person is to jump straight up and perform the basic shooting form. One of the more famous shots is known as the dunk; also the most popular person to perform this particular shot Michael Jordan. Dunk totals represent a general aggressiveness needed by a player to access this shot: a willingness to persevere through people and down the court, pick up your place from fouls, and to try for the offensive rebound, and athletic ability must be prominent– all things that a good team should have. Dunks are attained by a negative stigma from basketball purists because many have no compassion when their head is in the game such as players like Andre Iguodala: star players on bad teams whose score and dunk has garnered them more media attention from the public which helps the team but also turns one against his team mates also their financial compensation is endowed more than their actual natural basketball skills. Centers and power forwards are the types of players who
Basketball may seem like a complicated sport but it is not unless one makes it complicated. In the game of basketball there is the basket which has a back board made of a sturdy glass and a net made from special rope. Then there is the basketball which is made of rubber with a leather cover for grip. The players wear shorts and a jersey with a number and sometimes the last name of the player on the back and the same number and team name on the front. The player will also wear a special shoe made for the sport. The shoes are made from different materials, and the bottom of the shoe has a good, sticky
The efficiency of a player accounts for both their offensive and defensive contributions. In the sport of basketball it’s about being able to use the possession of the ball wisely but also forcing the opposition to waste their possession of the ball. (J. Nicholas. 2009.) Being efficient in all aspects of basketball increases the players chances of getting a turnover, rebounding, blocking and therefore opens up more opportunities to score more field goals. A field goal in basketball refers to a wide range of shots, from dunking the ball to a 3 point shot.
Thesis: The original concept of the game is surprisingly similar to the concepts created decades ago. It is still a popular pastime today, but in order to play, you need to know how to shoot a basketball.