Thanks to reader Rich for putting together these +/- figures for the Pac-10 season to date. Plus/minus measures the team’s performance only when a specific player is on the floor.
Rich has tried to put the numbers in perspective a little bit by giving a “garbage time only” number for three players who are typically on the court once the score has been decided.
Pac-10 games total point differential: +9 (meaning Huskies are nine points better than their opponents during the Pac-10 season)
Matthew Bryan-Amaning: +41
Quincy Pondexter: +39
Venoy Overton: +37
Isaiah Thomas: +37
Justin Holiday: +29
Scott Suggs: +7 (Garbage time only: -23)
Brendan Sherrer: -7
Darnell Gant: -10
Clarence Trent: -22
Elston Turner: -27 (Garbage time only: -15)
Tyreese Breshers: -31
Abdul Gaddy: -37 (Garbage time only: -10)
Tags: Plus/Minus
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That is pretty interesting… and I think stats like this are useful to an extent….however:
+ – stats are a funny thing because I am not sure what meaning should be derived from them. To an extent, they can be statistical anomolies. For example, (and I love Holiday so this is nothing negative on him because I would play him 30 minutes every night) but he missed the two games in the desert. Any player who got big minutes during those games got his + – stats rocked.
Bresheers barely played at the beginning of the season, when we were beating teams like Portland State by 50! MBA was on the floor as a starter and getting Quincy-like minutes. Etc… etc…
With all of that said, I do think these stats are fascinating and a lot of fun to look at. In the end, I am a firm believer that what you see and feel is a more accurate assessment of who to play and who to sit.
Romar seems to FINALLy have figured out his lineup and I think he has gotten it right, This team is starting to play with a certain style and guys are really beginnning to know their roles.
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Maybe we got rocked in the desert because Holiday missed those games.
and, I think the plus minus numbers that were posted are just for the Pac-10 games. So the MBA numbers would be legit.
The +/- numbers aren’t everything, but maybe they should be. I think they are very telling. And I think they should be used more. I think our guys are pretty good, but some guys are motivated by stats and +/- is the most important stat of them all.
I think people get frustrated because MBA has so much talent and it doesn’t seem like he’s getting the most of it. But don’t forget about that talent. Him playing gives us the best chance of winning.
Also interesting to see the Venoy/Gaddy difference. In this case I think Romar keeps playing Gaddy because he continues to improve. That guy is our future and we need to keep bringing him along. But let’s not forget how good Venoy is and how important he is to this team.
Other than those guys, doesn’t the +/- stats show what we would think anyway? Good stats, keep em coming Madness!
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Thats a good point Gant. So would it be better to look at these numbers from a game to game basis for a more accurate +/- rating? These numbers don’t show great accuracy when you go over the full season, but when you look at a few games in a row you might get a sense of who is playing well during that stretch.
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Jake, +/- should be looked at over a large data set. Individual games wouldnt show any real trends, so for the stat to have any real value it should be over a large sample set. That being said i dont think +/- is a tell all stat. It does indicate some trends, but its tough to tell the whole story of what was happening with +/-. A lot of times it depends on who you were playing with at the time. For instance, Gaddy may have a much higher +/- when playing with the starters, but when he is with the bench players (which is probably the majority of his minutes at this point) his +/- may suffer greatly.
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It might be a good idea to create some subsets for +/- stats. Say Gaddy, Qpon, and Thomas and then Gaddy, Qpon and Venoy. I notice that the provider of the stats(thanks I love em) had team +/- but two, three and four man subsets could be even more telling. Maybe I’ll throw something together utilizing my discarded stock market algorithym. :>)
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