Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Numbers Never Lie


This week I have transported back to my days in college where I had a few commitments a day and copious amounts of free time. What I am saying is that I am a teacher and am on spring break but am stuck in small town Illinois with very little to do. While this is a blessing in disguise, due to being on break during the Thursday and Friday of March Madness, I also have been extremely bored and can only run so much while training for Last Call IV. If you like you could rename it to Alum Repeat III, it doesn’t have a great ring to it but if we do repeat the tournament should be renamed. While preparing to watch endless basketball this weekend I became interested in looking at the teams being matched up in the tournament. I enjoy looking at the teams averages for the season. Their average points per game. Their total wins against the top 25. You can crunch numbers forever but you have to play the game on the court to truly see who the best team will end up being. Anyway this started me to think what would Reaper’s numbers look like at the end of their spring season? How many points would they average per game? Which team has been the best Reaper team of all time? Well I have done my own statistical analysis based on the numbers supplied for us on Scorereporter. The numbers are superficial and some seasons are lacking some tournaments. Here are the numbers for only the spring seasons for the 2009-2013 Reaper teams. Enjoy.


 GamesRecordPts. ScoredPts. AgainstAve Pts. Game
Reaper 200984--4828310.25
Reaper 2010149--514612310.429
Reaper 20113421--1336432510.706
Reaper 20124121-204084359.951
Reaper 20134128--1341940910.22
 Opp. Pts. GameDifferenceVs IL teamsVs IL St.Final RRI
200910.375-0.1252--1n/an/a
20108.7861.6435--31--02228
20119.5591.1479--5n/a2196
201210.61-0.65913--61--32196
20139.9760.24412--93--21925

Here are some highlights from each teams season
Reaper 2009- Very little information was provided.
Reaper 2010- Highlights include a one day tournament during THE Original Polar Vortex: Chi Invite 2010. Creating a rivalry with Loyola at Conference as well as defeating Western Illinois on DGP.
Reaper 2011- There was no information for Last Call however if I remember correctly we won which would have added another 7 or 8 wins to the total. Finishing 3rd at Chicago Invite despite having a 3-4 record. This team also had the highest RRI ever recorded for a Reaper team at 2285.
Reaper 2012- Beating Illinois at Regionals was the highlight of the season. The only time Reaper has beat a team who had earned a bid to go to Nationals that year.
Reaper 2013- Beating IL State at Regionals.


Mike Schwenk #29

5 comments:

  1. 2009 - First win ever was vs IL St. at NIU's tournament (after singing bohemian rhapsody in it's ENTIRETY!) Also we became reaper during the winter of 09 I believe.
    2011 - First time making regionals and playing close vs the top seed in our pool (mich state) but falling short in the brutal weather vs NUT.
    2012 - U of I didn't go to natties that year, huge win in a game we lead the entire time. Highest regionals finish we have ever had.
    2013 - 3rd at conference for the 3rd year in a row.

    Great post

    ~James #2

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    1. No but Illinois was the highest seed that year in the Great Lakes region I believe? That is what I meant.. Also, we had never beaten a team in our history who had been to nationals at any point in time in their history.

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  2. Replies
    1. http://play.usaultimate.org/teams/events/rankings/#algorithm - it's usau's ranking system (kind of).

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  3. I'm not trying to necessarily say anything in particular or whatever, buuut...

    2010 and 2011 we pretty much dominated teams in the PPG For vs. PPG against categories, and then SOMEbody left the team and moved to North Carolina... ;)

    It's good to see Reaper getting back into that winning mentality and I hope those numbers keep going up this season and going forward. The other thing to remember is that while numbers never lie, Sunday of Regionals is what matters. You can beat a team 5 times in a season, but if you don't play your game when it counts, you stay home and WATCH Natties instead of playing. (Or regionals, or whatever other tournament you're trying to qualify for). What I'm saying is work hard, and kill yourself all year, but make sure to prepare to execute when it matters!

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