George Mason University
AES/SCS Statistics Colloquium Series
Seminar Announcement



A Quantitative Analysis of GMU Basketball

Clifton Sutton


George Mason University


ABSTRACT

Successful basketball teams tend to shoot well and rebound well (when they miss their shots) while on offense, and rebound well and force their opponents to take poor shots while on defense. But typically there is a trade-off to consider: a style of defense that may prevent opponents from getting too many good shots, may at the same time allow opponents to snatch too many offensive rebounds. Last spring GMU men's head basketball coach Jim Larranaga asked me to look into some issues related to this, and this summer I used analytical and graphical methods to do an analysis of some aspects of the performance of the GMU men's basketball team. During the seminar I'll present some of my findings, discuss some somewhat subtle issues involving basketball statistics and strategy, and suggest some possible measures of player production that combine shooting performance, rebounding, and turnovers in a reasonable way.


Friday, November 1, 2002
George W. Johnson Center, Assembly Room B
Seminar at 10:45 a.m.
Refreshments at 10:30 a.m.
For the 2002 Fall Seminar Schedule, go to
www.science.gmu.edu/statseminars