Who Is Our "best" Player?

[dentUNiTe]

Not as obvious as you may think. Or maybe exactly as obvious as you think.

I have used this formula ever since I was a young lad (for my own entertainment & edification). I realize it isn't perfect (and I welcome suggestions), but I always liked to see who I thought REALLY had the best game.....and it is NOT always the top scorer and/or rebounder (although I must admit, it usually is).

The formula I use is simple -- Points + Rebounds + Assists + Blocks + Steals - Turnovers = Best Overall Game

Here are the "standings" through game #25....in other words, BEFORE tonight's game versus ULM......but I got tha Mean Green Fevah after tonight, so I went ahead with the calculations. Things may have changed a little after tonight, like with McCoy having a 20 point game, for instance.

PLAYER PTS REB ASS BLKS STLS TO TOTAL

Tramiel 12.0 6.9 0.8 0.7 0.3 minus 1.6 19.1

Johnson 11.1 2.8 3.8 0.0 1.1 minus 2.0 16.8

Thompson 12.2 2.6 1.0 0.0 0.3 minus 1.3 14.8

White 11.0 2.9 2.3 0.0 0.6 minus 2.0 14.8

Odufwa 6.0 6.8 1.1 0.7 0.9 minus 1.7 13.8

Dennis 8.2 2.1 1.8 0.1 0.8 minus 1.4 11.6

Hogans 5.3 3.4 0.3 1.0 0.2 minus 0.6 9.6

McCoy 6.6 1.5 0.6 0.0 0.3 minus 0.8 8.2

Stewart 2.2 3.0 0.3 0.4 0.3 minus 0.8 5.4

Howerton 2.0 1.9 0.2 0.1 0.3 minus 0.7 3.8

Mangrum 2.4 1.3 0.3 0.0 0.5 minus 0.8 3.7

Matlock 0.7 0.7 0.0 0.0 0.0 minus 0.7 0.7

Again, I would love to hear suggestions or refutations....I wish I could incorporate shooting percentages, but I'm not that smart...

I would have thought that Thompson would be ahead of Johnson, and I am surprised at Hogans being ahead of McCoy and even Stewart....

[dentUNiTe]

wow, that statistics line looked so beautiful when I posted it.....wha' happened?

hope you can still make some sense of it...

[Greendylan]

Thanks for compiling all those stats! I think your system provides a pretty good snapshot of who the most productive players are. My one minor suggestion would be to double the assists since each one usually results in two (sometimes three) points. I think adding a +/- category would also be interesting, but it doesn't seem like anyone even tracks that for NCAA games.

[dentUNiTe]

that's a good suggestion regarding assists, so I did that....also a friend suggested I should adjust for minutes played, so I figured that in....so I have now established a new stat, which I call PSM -- Positive Stats per Minute

I also updated the stats for last night's game. Stats are from Rivals.com at Yahoo.

it changes things quite a bit.....here are the PSM standings:

1. McCoy .81

2. Tramiel .79

3. Thompson .70

4. Odufawa .70

5. Johnson .68

6. Dennis .65

7. Hogans .57

8. Howerton .53

9. White .51

10. Stewart .45

McCoy obviously stands out as getting the most out of his minutes, so I'll use him as the example. His personal stats are:

7.2 points + 1.6 rebounds + 1.2 assists + 0 blocks + 0.3 steals - 0.8 turnovers.... that total divided by his 11.7 minutes played = .81

Also, I realize that the stats are for the whole year, and McCoy is getting a lot more minutes recently.....I'd say for good reason......he seems to me to be the most effective player on the team.....

But I guess it's possible that his production would suffer if he played more minutes? I don't know, but here's the "exit" question.......how would things change if this was used as the basis for the rotation?

[Green P1]

Frustrating

[chrisfisher]

I think Tramiel is the best all around player on the team, though McCoy is not far behind. In fact, McCoy may pick this team up on his back and carry them all the way to the NCAA tourny if he keeps shooting lights out like he has the past several games.

[Censored by Laurie]

Frustrating

x5...for Adam.

[dentUNiTe]

not intending to bag on White, BUT....if Adam was getting White's 33.8 minutes per game, his stats would extrapolate thusly:

20.1 points and 4.5 rebounds per game.....would we be talking All-Conference?

It would be at the very least a damn good Senior season...

I know that there must be a reason this isn't happening, and I don't intend to overly criticize any player or the coach.....

Sure makes you wonder, though, doesn't it?

[CMJ]

That kind of analysis also doesn't really measure the value of a guy like Harold Stewart, who does alot of little things that win games. I mean he's last on the PSM's, but there's no way he's our least valuable player.

Edited February 20, 2009 by CMJ

[dentUNiTe]

that's true, stats don't ever tell the whole story.....I have always said that every team needs a Kurt Rambis......doing the dirty work, but not piling up the pretty numbers....good point

[meangreenacct]

I wish there was a way to include charges taken in the stats - that would help a player like Stewart. You could try adding or subtracting points based on made or missed shots, but that would lead to double counting for players who are scorers.