NCAA Basketball: Analyzing advanced stats and analytics in college hoops

When it comes to NCAA Basketball, advanced stats and analytics are commonly used when discussing players. How are they properly defined for hoops?

Advanced stats and advanced analytics have been a recent fad of the sports world and have allowed scouts, coaches and executives determine the worthiness of players. Although advanced stats and advanced analytics are mainly heard of in baseball, they’re also advanced stats for basketball as well. In fact, advanced stats may reveal more about a player to NBA scouts come draft time.

Advanced stats for college basketball players are easily accessible for fans via sportsreference.com. Fans can see advanced stats for players throughout the season as well as just conference play. The site has various stats about almost every player in college basketball which is pretty useful.

The first advanced stat that is used is player efficiency rating or PER. This stat is without a doubt the most complicated as it requires a long formula to determine it. Basically, you add the good stuff and subtract the bad stuff and then determine how that compares to the league and do another weird calculation to get a players efficiency rating. To be perfectly honest I’m not a mathematician nor do I try to be one since I almost failed statistics in high school, so here’s a link explaining it.

Player efficiency rating is a very important stat since it really determines how good a player is in all facets of the game. Last season, Jock Landale of Saint Mary’s had a 33.7 player efficiency rating which was the best in all of college basketball. Landale’s 33.7 was nearly one point higher than that of Deandre Ayton’s 32.6.

So what did Landale do that Ayton didn’t? Landale scored 761 points compared to Ayton’s 704 points. Although their points per game average were one point apart, the equation only takes points into account. In fact, Ayton beats Landale out in nearly every other category however the equation values all other stats less than points.

More from NCAA Basketball News

The next stat is effective field goal percentage or eFG% which is a player’s field goal percentage and their three-point percentage multiplied by .5 added together then divided by their field goal attempts. Last season Udoka Azubuike of Kansas lead in this category with a .770 eFG%. Azubuike eFG% is so high because he did not attempt a three-pointer last season and also shot 77% from the field which goes to show the flaws in some of these stats.

Next is true shooting percentage which is basically all shots made, (including free throws) and combines them into one percentage. This category was led by Connor Burchfield of William and Mary with .730. Burchfield was a lights-out shooter last season as he shot 52% from three which was the best in all of college basketball.

Next is the usage percentage which is how often a player is used when they are on the court. The more times a player puts up a shot or gets a rebound, the higher their usage percentage is. Last season this category was led by Trae Young who had a 37.1 usage percentage which is not surprising at all given the numbers he put up last year at Oklahoma.

Young also led the points produced and points produced per game categories as well. Points produced is yet another complicated formula that I’m not even going to bother trying to explain so here’s another link.

To go with points produced is also offensive rating which is calculated kinda the same way. There is also a defensive rating to go along with it. Last season, Andre Wolford had the best offensive rating with a 136.6. The reason for that he rarely turned the ball over and was also a very good shooter. The defensive rating was led by Gary Clark who had a good amount of steals, blocks and defensive rebounds last season.

Clark was also the leader in defensive win shares and win shares per 40 minutes. Win shares is basically a players contributions during a game in terms of wins. What this is supposed to calculate is how a players actions on the court translates into their team winning a game. On the offensive side, this stat was led by Jock Lindale who also leads in total win shares.

Lastly is box plus/minus. This stat determines the quality of the contributions a player makes to their team. This stat was lead on the offensive side by Trae Young and on the defensive side by Isaiah Wilkins of Virginia. Clark, however, leads in total box plus/minus.