Sports and Numbers

Today, I took a look at the progression of our three freshmen (Chalmers, Rush, and Wright) with respect to their cPSAN ratings.  I chose cPSAN because it accounts for quality of opponent, and thus provides a more fair assessment of game performance across different games.  I didn't use cPSAN70 because I wanted this to measure impact on the game, not just how efficiently they played.  I also didn't want to look a chart with too many ups and downs after every game.  So, I opted to look at a moving average of the last 3 games.  So, after each game, you'll see the average cPSAN score from the last 3 games (including that one) for the player.

Here's the image (click to take a look):

From this graph, you can see Mario's early struggles really bottoming out around Game 10 (N. Colorado).  Other than a mini-slide recently, his trajectory has been pointing up steadily.  In fact, he has the best cPSAN rating over the last 3 games versus the other freshmen.

Rush has had two huge surges, culminating in Game 15 (vs Kansas St) and Game 22 (@ Nebraska).  But his play has been somewhat erratic other than those surges.  Wright and Chalmers are both playing better over the last 3 games, although his performance against OSU has started him on another upswing.  (Note: Coach Self was quoted as saying Rush had one of his poorest games of the year against OSU.)

Wright experienced his moving-average low after Game 16 (@ Missouri), but otherwise has been remarkably consistent.  He's now playing his best ball.  On the year, he's second behind Kaun for best ePSAN70 rating (which takes playing time into account), so he's doing all this very efficiently.