Words & Photos from Jonathan N.
"Our enthusiastic crew was filled with excitement (Riley's smile tells us all!) coming into our third Experiential day of the year, which we were announced that we would learn more about how to work with Excel effectively to analyze different sports.
We were very fortunate to have a working space in Downtown Victoria, which was different from the last two Experiential days when we mostly worked at the school. The plan for the day was to look at several basketball players and teams. The highlight of our day was analyzing the statistics of an NBA legend who we recently lost in a helicopter crash, Kobe Bryant. Kobe was not only my favorite player growing up but he was also my role model, whose actions inspired me to work hard every day. Rest in peace, Kobe, Gianna and the victims in that helicopter crash. You will be missed!
Mr. Geddes and Mr. Bates showed us some basic Excel skills to calculate the average of Kobe's different aspects of his game, including Points Per Game, Free Throw Percentages, etc. According to these numbers, it is certain that he was dominating the game at his prime. However, with Kobe's free throw percentages of 83.7%, Mr. Geddes made an interesting assumption that if Kobe was more efficient with his free throws, particularly above 90%, he could potentially surpass Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the all-time leading scorer. With sports analytics, we could have a deeper insight into the way players play the game.
We ended our day by predicting the brackets of the upcoming NCAA March Madness based on the previous year's results. We were divided into 4 groups, representing four regions in the tournament. Our group was assigned to Eastern teams, which are considered the best in the US. Accordingly and surprisingly, we predicted that Liberty would have the best chances to make the Final Four. We really look forward to the tournament to see if our predictions are accurate.
Today gave us a different perception of how statistics can really change the sports industries."