Charting How We Score and How We Are Scored On

Most of us were fairly sure of how we assessed our team and our opponents before the onslaught of analytics or advanced stats.  If nothing else, the numbers trend has likely convinced a lot of us that maybe sometimes we make up our minds on certain things and then a look at the numbers tells us something altogether different.

Today, let’s take a look at charting how we score and how our opponents score in a game.  It’s pretty simple; while we’re looking at the game possession by possession, all we have to do is designate a method of scoring next to each possession.

Common offensive designations would be Screen/Roll, Drive, Transition, Post Up, Cut, Offensive Rebound, Catch and Shoot, Live Ball TO, etc.  There are many other ways to score and it’s surprising the number of other categories we find once we get to work.

On the defensive side, labeling the categories just a little differently might be beneficial- using terms like Contain, Help, Closeout, Blockout, Hedge, Rotation etc.  The terms are up to us. We just want them to mean something specific to our players.

Of course, there are some variables to keep in mind:

  • We may run different action against different teams which will affect the numbers.
  • Our opponents will have different strengths and weaknesses, affecting the results.  One team might be extremely screen/roll oriented, another might be post-up oriented.
  • A one-game result is a “snapshot”.  It tells us SOME things.
  • A ten-game chart will reveal trends.  A thirty-game chart even more so.
  • When trends are identified, practice time can be allotted accordingly to address them.
  • Like any other form of charting, the results can either confirm or refute a hypothesis of ours.  That’s the very backbone of what’s called the Scientific Method. These types of stats are much more meaningful than blindly looking at bunch of general numbers and trying to extract meaningful conclusions.

Attached is a sample of the results of charting a recent NCAA game.

 

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