BEVERLY HILLS (MI) — Yours truly has never been a big numbers guy and am even less of a fan of Ken Pomeroy, “The Sultan of Stat” as it were. A couple of fellow college hoops fans at work asked me if I wanted to pitch in towards the $19.95 to subscribe to KenPom.com and my response was thanks, but no thanks. I got my reasons. Here are a coupla “FTS” takes on Pomeroy and his algorithm predictor from a few seasons ago:

https://www.udpride.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16265

https://www.udpride.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16471

Obviously, the feeling is kinda mutual as in his latest blog the Pom-meister says that his opinion concerning his critics is “if you don’t like what I do, just go away.”

Bloggy linkyness: http://kenpom.com/blog/index.php/weblog/entry/a_post_about_winning

Putting personal bias aside, what better way to kick off the Dayton/Xavier Three Day Week Extravaganza than to see what Kenny Boy has to say (on the free portion of his site) about the two combatants, side-by-side in a statistical tale of the tape?

Teams
UD/X

Rank
58/93

Won-Loss
12-7/11-8

Pythagorean
.8037/.7025

Adjusted Offense (Rank)
107.5 (58)/ 102.4 (93)

Adjusted Defense (Rank)
93.7 (76)/ 94.2 (86)

Adjusted Tempo (Rank)
67.9 (112)/ 63.2 (298)

Luck Factor (Rank)
-.103 (335)/ -0.28 (241)

Pythagorean (Rank)
.5220 (128)/ .6189 (45)

Opponent Offense (Rank)
99.7 (169)/ 102.0 (53)

Opponent Defense (Rank)
99.8 (109)/ 97.3 (49)

Pythagorean (Rank)
.4670 (228)/ .5661 (111)

The first thing that jumps off the page to me is that Archie & Company are truly one sorry bunch of unlucky motor scooters, ranking a dismal #335 out of a total of 347 Division 1 college basketball programs! What’s ironic is that a mere 2 years ago when I wrote the piece linked to above trashing Kenny’s statistical methods, UD was ranked something like #5 in the country in terms of luck. It’s all BG’s fault, I guess.

Otherwise, unless I’m totally reading the charts wrong, the numbers actually seem to skew in the Flyers’ favor, do they not?

Speaking of luck, yours truly has not had much of it when it comes to predicting the outcome of annual UD @ X game. So rather than taunt the denizens of Norwood U or make some emboldened prognostication, I am simply gonna say this:

UD is due

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
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