I've checked out Torvik's site, but I couldn't figure out where to see some of the stats you have here. Where are you seeing the experience/talent ranking? I'm curious what 2 teams could possibly have more talent than this Duke team.
The green
Bart Torvik link (above in my Table 2, and also provided in this reply) will take you to his Team Tables or Team Charts page, which contains a bunch of weird statistical goodies. Click on AVG HGT to order the teams from tallest to shortest, and you'll see Duke on top, but click on EFF HGT to see Duke at #17 and Elon at #1.
In each game preview, almost as a footnote, I include a link to Torvik's
FAQ, where he replies to the comments. I always include his explanation of Experience and Talent, but this is what he says about height:
Q: What is the difference between Effective and Average Height?
A: "Effective Height" is an attempt to calculate minute weighted height of the 4s and 5s. So it's basically the average height of the tallest 40% of minutes.
"Average Height" includes all minutes, not just the bigs.
Torvik lists Connecticut and UNC as having a higher Talent number than Duke. I couldn't tell you what the actual number (81.033 for Duke) means, but it has something to do with recruiting rank, and the number changes slightly because it's weighted by minutes.
I like his Experience number because it resembles slugging percentage in baseball, a vastly underrated stat. Home plate/0 is freshman, first base/1 is sophomore, second base/2 is junior, and third base/3 is senior. The actual number helps you visualize where on the "field" the average player would appear, in terms of their experience. So Duke is at 1.016, or 358th overall; it's like the average Blue Devil took his foot off first base in an attempt to steal second.
Texas A&M is the most experienced of the power conference teams and 5th overall, with a number of 2.731. An average Aggie on that team would appear about three-quarters of the way between second and third base, or about halfway through spring semester of their junior year. Keep in mind that this number is skewed because Henry Coleman III, Wade Taylor IV, and other A&M players are using their 5th year of eligibility. (Jaemyn Brakefield, Matthew Murrell, and Ole Miss are 8th overall, not far behind.)
I'm not married to the tables the way they are, and I welcome suggestions on additions that can be made. I have two rules, though:
1. The stats have to freely available to anyone, without a subscription or even a signup.
2. I have to understand the stat well enough to explain it to a (fellow) layman. Stats are not my strength.
I took a little longer today to post this Notre Dame game preview because I was debating whether or not to add the
EvanMiya team rating. Is it helpful here, or just another number? I didn't get much out of it that KenPom's main table or T-Rank doesn't already provide. Still, I thought the individual team pages are interesting, where they show each team's best 2-man, 3-man, 4-man, and 5-man lineups. For example (and I'm leaving out the efficiency and possession numbers for each grouping):
Duke (#1 EvanMiya)
2-man: Sion James/Khaman Maluach
3-man: Cooper Flagg/Sion James/Khaman Maluach
4-man: Cooper Flagg/Sion James/Kon Knueppel/Khaman Maluach
5-man: Cooper Flagg/Sion James/Kon Knueppel/Khaman Maluach/Tyrese Proctor
Notre Dame (#82 EvanMiya)
2-man: Matt Allocco/JR Konieczny
3-man: Matt Allocco/JR Konieczny/Braeden Shrewsberry
4-man: Matt Allocco/Tae Davis/JR Konieczny/Braeden Shrewsberry
5-man: Matt Allocco/Tae Davis/JR Konieczny/Kebba Njie/Braeden Shrewsberry
What does this mean, if Markus Burton does not appear here at all? Is there some minimum usage factor in play, and he's eliminated because he missed 7 games, or is he truly inefficient?
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