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Preview: Kansas at Nebraska Print E-mail
Jan 13, 2010

Kansas at Nebraska (Lincoln, NE)

  Kansas Nebraska

Performance Indicators

   
Record (conference)
14-1 (0-0)
12-4 (0-1)
AP Rank 3
NR
Pomeroy Rating
(Updated daily)
1
78
Consensus Ranking
(Updated periodically - avg several computer ratings and polls)
2
84
Best opponents defeated this season
(Ranking from Pomeroy)

vs California (#14) W 84-69
@ Temple (#25) W 84-52

vs Tulsa (#43) W 74-70
@ Southern Cal (#51) W 51-48
RPI
(Used for schedule strength, not team strength. Current and forecast RPI from RPIForecast .)

Current: 8

Forecast: 2

Current: 98

Forecast: 92

Projected NCAA Tournament Seed
(Latest consensus from The Bracket Matrix)
 #1 Seed
 Out

Prediction Models

   
Vegas Oddsmakers Win by 12.0
Est. Projection: 73-61
 
Prediction Tracker
(Average of several power ratings)
 Win by 12.42  
Sagarin Power Ratings (Predictor)  Win by 11.25  
Pomeroy
(Efficiency and Tempo-Adjusted)

 Win 74-61
90% chance of victory

 
 TeamRankings.com

(Use home rating for home team, road for road.  If fewer than 3 games played at corresponding locations, use "predictive" ratings for both teams but use specific home advantage rather than standard average homecourt advantage for all NCAA teams.)

Win by 11.8  
Last 7 Games (Venue Adjusted)
(Uses team performance and consistency over last 5 home/non-home games, whichever pertains to this game + 2 other most recent games regardless of location.  This takes offense and defense into account separately to reflect how consistent teams have played on each end of the court)
 Est. Projection: 72-55
80.5% chance of victory
 
Similar Opponent
(Examines offensive performance against similar defensive teams and defensive performance against similar offensive teams.  Threshold for similarity set at efficiencies of 5 pts/100 possessions above or below that of opponent in this game.  If necessary, threshold adjusted to find a minimum of three games to analyze for offense and defense.)
  Est. Projection: 77-57
89.8% chance of victory
 
Weighted Average of All Models Above
(40% Vegas + 10% Pred Trckr + 10% SagP + 10% Pom + 10% TmRnk + 10% SimOpp + 10% Last 7)
 Win by 13.3
Est. Projection: 73-60
 

 

 

PSAN-Related Player Ratings - Cumulative This Season

(PSAN-O = Offensive impact, PSAN-D = Defensive impact.  For PSAN-D, lower ratings are better.  PSAN70 ratings are just PSAN expressed as "per 70 possessions" to reflect efficiency.  The difference between ePSAN and PSAN is that "e" is enhanced and weighs recent games more - used for Kansas only.)

Kansas

 

Impact Ratings

 

PLAYER ePSAN-O ePSAN-D ePSAN-Comp
Cole Aldrich 32.38 -57.41 89.79
Sherron Collins 39.14 -18.99 58.13
Xavier Henry 25.29 -30.49 55.77
Marcus Morris 26.70 -21.38 48.08
Markieff Morris 21.72 -19.77 41.49
Tyshawn Taylor 13.05 -16.61 29.66
Tyrel Reed 13.06 -13.98 27.04
Brady Morningstar 11.01 -5.82 16.83
C.J. Henry* 14.68 -1.32 16.00
Elijah Johnson 10.79 -4.23 15.01
Thomas Robinson -1.09 -9.83 8.74
Conner Teahan* 1.31 -4.22 5.52
Jeff Withey* -0.52 -0.69 0.17
Jordan Juenemann* 0.16 0.46 -0.30
Chase Buford* -0.46 0.50 -0.96

 

 Efficiency Ratings

 

PLAYER ePSAN70-O ePSAN70-D ePSAN70-Comp
C.J. Henry* 8.86 -0.80 9.65
Cole Aldrich 3.25 -5.76 9.01
Markieff Morris 3.71 -3.38 7.09
Marcus Morris 2.92 -2.34 5.25
Xavier Henry 2.33 -2.80 5.13
Elijah Johnson 3.62 -1.42 5.03
Brady Morningstar 3.19 -1.69 4.88
Tyrel Reed 2.35 -2.51 4.87
Sherron Collins 3.25 -1.58 4.82
Conner Teahan* 0.93 -3.01 3.94
Tyshawn Taylor 1.42 -1.80 3.22
Thomas Robinson -0.29 -2.63 2.34
Jeff Withey* -2.10 -2.77 0.67
Jordan Juenemann* 0.43 1.25 -0.82
Chase Buford* -0.88 0.97 -1.85

 

* Rating not based on enough data.

Nebraska

  

Impact Ratings

 

PLAYER PSAN-O PSAN-D PSAN-Comp
Ryan Anderson 15.26 -23.53 38.79
Brian Diaz 10.47 -14.91 25.39
Eshaunte Jones 16.68 -2.60 19.28
Brandon Richardson 10.57 -6.91 17.48
Myles Holley* 2.88 -7.65 10.53
Sek Henry 2.53 -6.15 8.69
Ray Gallegos -0.83 -4.79 3.96
Matt Karn* 3.30 -0.55 3.85
Mike Fox* 2.26 -0.77 3.03
Christian Standhardinger 2.62 -0.19 2.81
Toney McCray 1.09 -1.71 2.80
Lance Jeter 1.71 0.15 1.56
Adrien Coleman* -2.24 -2.36 0.12
Quincy Hankins-Cole -1.82 -1.57 -0.24
Ben Nelson* -3.05 -2.02 -1.04
Brandon Ubel -6.89 3.51 -10.41

 

 

Efficiency Ratings

 

PLAYER PSAN70-O PSAN70-D PSAN70-Comp
Christian Standhardinger 5.19 -0.37 5.55
Matt Karn* 4.49 -0.74 5.23
Mike Fox* 3.64 -1.24 4.88
Myles Holley* 1.26 -3.36 4.63
Ryan Anderson 1.76 -2.71 4.47
Brian Diaz 1.28 -1.82 3.10
Eshaunte Jones 2.44 -0.38 2.82
Brandon Richardson 1.55 -1.01 2.56
Toney McCray 0.85 -1.33 2.18
Sek Henry 0.28 -0.68 0.96
Ray Gallegos -0.16 -0.91 0.76
Lance Jeter 0.16 0.01 0.14
Adrien Coleman* -1.68 -1.77 0.09
Quincy Hankins-Cole -0.51 -0.44 -0.07
Ben Nelson* -3.24 -2.14 -1.10
Brandon Ubel -1.05 0.54 -1.59

 

* Rating not based on enough data.

 

Last 7 Game Projection

 

  Kansas Nebraska
Expected Score 72.3 55.1
Win 80.5% 19.5%
Win by 3 or less 4.6% 4.2%
Win by 10 or more 63.5% 8.4%

 

Down to the Wire?

 Margin of game was less than 1 point in 3.0% of simulated games from "Last 7 Game Analysis."  Many of these would be "overtime" games.

 

(Methodology of Last 7 Game Analysis: Here, we look at the last seven venue-appropriate games to see how the teams are performing.  If the game takes place on the road for Kansas, for example, the analysis looks at the five most recent non-home games for Kansas.  In addition, the two most recent games, regardless of venue, are added.  That way, we get a picture of the how the team is performing of late.  This season, the analysis also splits offense and defense.  Teams often are more or less consistent on one side of the court than the other.  This analysis will reflect that.  Based on the strength of the opposing offense and defense they've played over the last seven games, each team's offense and defense is evaluated based on strength and consistency.  Those numbers are then plugged into a simulation of 8,000 games.  The results are what you see in the table.)

 

Similar Opponent Projection

 

  Kansas Nebraska
Expected Score 77.2 56.8
Win 89.8% 10.2%
Win by 3 or less 3.7% 2.9%
Win by 10 or more 74.0% 2.9%

 

Down to the Wire?

 Margin of game was less than 1 point in 2.2% of simulated games from "Last 7 Game Analysis."  Many of these would be "overtime" games.

 

(Methodology of Similar Opponent Analysis: Here, we look at games against opponents with similar offensive and defensive profiles to the opponent of interest to see how the teams are performing.  For Kansas, we would look at its offensive performances against teams that have a defense that is within 5 pts/100 possessions efficiency above or below that of the opponent in this game.  If this does not result in at least three appropriate comparisons, the threshold will be adjusted until it finds three.  If there are more than three that are within the original threshold, all of those will be used.  The same is done for defense but using offensive profiles of opponents.  The analysis splits offense and defense.  Teams often are more or less consistent on one side of the court than the other.  This analysis will reflect that.  Those numbers are then plugged into a simulation of 8,000 games.  The results are what you see in the table.)

 

 

Four Factors Breakdown

 

Based on the cumulative season boxscore for each team, we can look at the Four Factors to see where each team has derived the bulk of its (dis)advantage in terms of scoring margin versus its opponents to date.  For each team, Team 1 is the team itself and Team 2 is its opponents.  Here is the breakdown:

 

Kansas

 

  Team 1 Team 2 Advantage  
eFG% 57.05% 39.88% 307.8  
TO Rate 17.61% 20.94% 36.2  
OREB% 37.04% 27.74% 48.3  
FTA/FGA 28.64% 20.02% 11.5 FT Pct
      64.5 FT Attempts

Nebraska

 

  Team 1 Team 2 Advantage  
eFG% 52.83% 46.35% 106.5  
TO Rate 18.26% 25.36% 72.3  
OREB% 30.10% 29.12% 5.0  
FTA/FGA 24.26% 25.31% -5.5 FT Pct
      10.5 FT Attempts

 

FOUR FACTORS ANALYSIS:  The largest mismatch is at the eFG% level, where KU has blown people away, but still it's Nebraska's biggest advantage also.  But looking at it from a strength vs weakness matchup, the standout category is OREB%, where Nebraska has been even but KU has posted a healthy edge.  KU also has a sizably better edge in the FT attempts category.  The only Nebraska advantage is in turnovers where the Huskers have done an amazing job of forcing TO's on a whopping one-in-four possessions.

 

 

Four Factors Regression Analysis

KenPom.com's "Game Plan" feature shows the Four Factors results for every game a team has played.  Below the results, there is a table with correlation coefficients that show how closely related each of the Four Factors is to a team's offensive and defensive efficiency (both for itself and its opponent).  Unfortunately, the correlations are based on raw efficiencies, which of course has much less value because a team's true efficiency is significantly affected by the strength of the opponent.  Below, I have taken each team's Four Factors results and run a multiple regression analysis with the Four Factors as the variables of interest and the adjusted efficiencies as the outcome of interest to see whether a team's eFG%, for example, is related to its true offensive efficiency.

 

Statistical Significance = There is less than a 10% chance that the relationship between this statistic and the team's adjusted offensive or defensive efficiency is due merely to chance.

Four Factors Rank = In ascending order, which of the Four Factors has the lowest chance of being related to efficiency due merely to chance (i.e., best significance).

 

Kansas

 

Offense Statistical Significance Four Factors Rank
Overall Regression Yes
 
eFG%   3
TO% Yes
1
OREB%   4
FTA/FGA   2
     
Defense    
Overall Regression Yes  
eFG% Yes
1
TO%   3
OREB% Yes
2
FTA/FGA   4
Nebraska

 

Offense Statistical Significance Four Factors Rank
Overall Regression Yes
 
eFG% Yes 2
TO% Yes 1
OREB%   3
FTA/FGA   4
     
Defense    
Overall Regression Yes  
eFG% Yes
1
TO%   2
OREB%   3

FTA/FGA

 

4

 
Key Factors This Game

 

Using the p-values from the regression analyses above, we can calculate the probabability that a factor will be statistically significant in this game.

 

At least 75% likely to be important:

  • Nebraska eFG%
  • Nebraska TO%
  • Nebraska OREB%
  • Kansas TO%

 

Between 50-75% likely to be important:

  • None

 

Between 25-50% likely to be important:

  • Kansas eFG%

 

 

Season Performance Trends

The charts below show the trend for each team's performance this season.  For each game, a team's offensive, defensive and overall performance is standardized.  Thus, performance indicates how many points per 100 possessions a team would score (offense), yield (defense) or net (average of offense and inverse defense) for a game.  It is based purely on its opponent's adjusted efficiencies and the resulting efficiency of the game played.  The dotted lines represent the best-fit line (linear regression), indicating which way a team may be trending for the season overall.

 

 

TRENDS ANALYSIS:  Both teams have slightly downward pointing overall trends.  Not much can be made from this analysis other than the clear superiority of KU's results thus far.

 

 

 

Highlighted Efficiency Rankings
Note: There are 347 Div-I teams
(Source: KenPom.com)

Kansas

Nebraska

Offense #2 - Defense #2 - Tempo #73
Incredible job in the all-important eFG% battle (#5 eFG%, #1 opp eFG%)
Controlling 2FG% (#10 own, #18 opp)
Pretty strong on 3FG% too (#14 own, #4 opp)
Excellent ball control (#36 limit own TO%)
Strong offensive rebounding (#48)
Great job on defense of BLK (#11) and avoiding own shot blocked (#48)
STL often on defense (#30)
Very high % of FG's are assisted (#30) but also allow a high % (#283)

Size (Tall = Position is Top 50 in minutes-weighted height, Short = #250 or worse)
Tall: C, PF
Short: SF

 

Other Factors:

Team is #26 in Effective Height
Team is #292 in Experience
Unusually high/low % of points scored by positions:  Hi - None ... Lo - SG


Individual Player Highlights: (thru Jan 10)

Sherron Collins - #166 PF commited/40 min (good)
Xavier Henry - #100 eFG%, #187 STL%
Cole Aldrich - #49 OREB%, #17 DREB%, #6 BLK%, #126 FT Rate
Tyshawn Taylor - #200 AST Rate

Offense #103 - Defense #63 - Tempo #279
Force a ton of TO's (#18)
Strong 3FG% (#18)
Very poor FT% (#287)
Avoid having ball stolen (#18)
Very high % of FG's are assisted (#39)

Size (Tall = Position is Top 50 in minutes-weighted height, Short = #250 or worse)
Tall: C, PG
Short: PF

 

Other Factors:

Team is #283 in Experience
Unusually high/low % of points scored by positions:  Hi - None ... Lo - SG


Individual Player Highlights: (thru Jan 10)

Ryan Anderson - #10 STL%
Brian Diaz - #70 BLK%
Lance Jeter - #182 AST Rate
Brandon Richardson - #123 STL%
Eshaunte Jones - #39 TO% (good)

Scoring Distribution:

On offense, KU is fairly balanced, while its opponents are as well.
On offense, NU relies less than usual on FT's, while its opponents are fairly balanced.

 

Game Projections

(Not a prediction.  Read more details in "FAQ & Terms" section.)

Manual adjustments: None.

 


Projected Boxscore

 

Kansas 73                            
Nebraska 57                            
                               
Kansas                              
PLAYER MIN 2FGM 2FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB TREB AST TO STL BLK
Brady Morningstar 20 1 1 1 2 0 0 5 0 1 1 2 1 1 0
Cole Aldrich 26 3 6 0 0 3 4 9 2 7 9 1 2 0 3
Elijah Johnson 8 1 1 0 1 1 1 3 0 1 1 2 1 0 0
Marcus Morris 25 3 5 0 1 2 3 8 1 3 4 1 1 1 0
Markieff Morris 16 2 3 0 0 1 2 5 1 4 5 1 1 1 1
Sherron Collins 31 3 3 2 4 2 3 14 0 2 2 3 3 1 0
Thomas Robinson 8 1 3 0 0 1 2 3 1 2 3 0 1 0 1
Tyrel Reed 12 0 1 1 3 0 0 3 0 1 1 1 1 1 0
Tyshawn Taylor 25 2 4 1 1 1 2 8 0 2 2 3 2 1 0
Xavier Henry 29 3 5 2 4 3 3 15 0 3 3 1 3 1 1
TOTALS 200 19 32 7 16 14 20 73 5 26 31 15 16 7 6
                               
Nebraska                              
PLAYER MIN 2FGM 2FGA 3FGM 3FGA FTM FTA PTS OREB DREB TREB AST TO STL BLK
Brandon Richardson 20 1 3 1 3 2 2 7 0 1 1 2 1 1 0
Brandon Ubel 17 1 3 0 1 1 2 3 1 1 2 0 2 0 0
Brian Diaz 21 3 6 0 0 1 2 7 1 1 2 1 1 0 1
Christian Standhardinger 20 2 6 1 1 3 4 10 2 2 4 1 3 0 0
Eshaunte Jones 17 1 2 1 3 0 1 5 0 1 1 1 1 1 0
Lance Jeter 27 1 4 1 1 1 1 6 1 1 2 3 2 1 0
Ray Gallegos 15 1 2 0 2 0 1 2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0
Ryan Anderson 23 2 4 1 3 2 2 9 1 2 3 1 2 2 0
Sek Henry 23 1 4 1 2 1 1 6 1 1 2 2 2 0 1
Toney McCray 17 1 3 0 1 0 1 2 1 2 3 0 1 0 0
TOTALS 200 14 37 6 17 11 17 57 8 13 21 12 15 5 2

 

 

Projection Summary

 

 
Projection
Comments

 OVERALL RESULTS

 Final Score  KU 73-57  
 Tempo (# poss)
 68 
 

PLAYER PROJECTIONS (10+ min played)

 Leading Scorers

 KU - X. Henry, Collins

 Opp - Standhardinger, Anderson

 
 Highest PSAN-Comp
(game impact)

 KU - Collins

 Opp - Anderson

 
 Highest PSAN70-Comp
(efficiency)

 KU - Markieff Morris

 Opp - Anderson

 
 Highest efficiency vs season-to-date

 KU - Collins, Taylor

 Opp - Jeter, Anderson

 
 Lowest efficiency vs season-to-date

 KU - Reed, Aldrich

 Opp - McCray, Gallegos

 

 

Sports and Numbers Projection

Kansas wins 73-57

(all prediction models included/complete)

 

 

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