NCAA Update

The answer to my question about NCAA versus NBA efficiency can be found here where we see that college teams are much more variable in their performance levels than are NBA teams. The most efficient NBA offense belongs to the Phoenix Suns who score 111.11 points per hundred possessions. Thirty NCAA teams, from Florida at the top of the list with 118.9 down to Long Beach State at 111.2, do better than that. Houston has the top pro defense, giving up just 96.8 points per hundred possessions, and there are fifty-six NCAA teams who give up fewer than that. What's more, the higher-seeded NCAA teams tend to both do better than Phoenix on offense and better than Houston on defense.

The average NCAA efficiency level of 102.1 is, however, lower than the NBA has been in recent years, though about where it was during the offensive nadir a little while back.

Comments

The numbers are skewed by so many teams playing patsies at the beginning of the season. Conference game stats would be more valuable.

Posted by mal | March 18, 2007 2:15 PM

Also need to consider the 3 point line difference

Posted by Alex Farivar | March 18, 2007 8:14 PM

college teams are much more variable in their performance levels than are NBA teams

Well, there are more of them, so yeah, you ought to see higher highs and lower lows. Doesn't mean the underlying distribution is different (I'd rather not analyze all the data to see if it is). And every weak team that ends up playing a strong team just accentuates the difference.

Posted by Mike | March 19, 2007 1:03 AM

Here are the conference only stats for Big Ten and ACC. (Big Ten Wonk also has graphical representations for other conferences.) The best teams play at or slightly better levels of efficiency to the pros. That's understandable, as the talent dropoff from the NBA to college is on both sides of the ball and balance one another out.

Posted by Craig | March 19, 2007 1:45 AM

Big Ten Wonk is one of my favorite sites. Unfortunately he's running out of teams to blog about in the tournament..

Posted by bouncepass | March 19, 2007 9:26 AM

Yay! Truth is served.

Don't you love the NCAA tournament because it's "true'' basketball? Because it's played at such a higher level than the NBA?

ANSWER: Please don't tell me that you've been following Scot Pollard's advice. The quality of basketball in the NCAAs is as poor as it has been in 40 years. The reason for the tournament's popularity is its sudden-death format, which enables millions of people to bet on it with impunity (other than Rick Neuheisel). It's a terrific event, but it has little to do with the talent of the players or the way they play, which by any historic standard is inferior.

Posted by SomeCallMeTim | March 20, 2007 10:33 AM