Louisville basketball parlays advanced analytics into top-5 ranking

Pat Kelsey likes to be innovative. Fortunately for Louisville basketball, he is not above copying a good idea.

Kelsey’s willingness to embrace what’s next is a good bit responsible for the Cardinals being ranked fifth in the USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll. His embrace of advanced analytics is now on display on the KFC Yum! Center interior scoreboard for his players and staff to view in real time:

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Points per possession, which takes the number of points scored divided by the number of possessions. Anything over 1.1 is considered very efficient, anything less than 0.9 is considered very poor and 1.0 is about average.

Effective field-goal percentage, which uses a formula that takes into account the added value of a made 3-pointer.

Offensive rebounding percentage, which is the percent of missed shots that are rebounded. (This stat is computed by KenPom.com and some other analytic sites as the percentage of offensive rebounds among a team’s total rebounds.)

Turnover percentage, which is the number of turnovers divided by the number of possessions.

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Free-throw rate, which is the number of free-throw attempts divided by the number of field-goal attempts and measures how often the team gets to the free-throw line.

“That, to me, that’s way more important than the old-school stats,” Kelsey said. “… if you win three or four of those things (categories), you’re gonna win most of the time.”

The NCAA doesn’t officially track any of these stats except effective field-goal percentage. It still gauges things like rebounding margin and offensive rebounds as categories along with turnover margin and free-throw attempts per game.

Western Kentucky ranks No. 1 nationally with an offensive turnover percentage of just 10.1%, according to KenPom.com. That frames how well the Hilltoppers take care of the ball a lot more than just knowing they’re 11th in turnover margin.

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The advanced stats allow the Cards to hold themselves accountable and be…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/louisville-basketball-parlays-advanced-analytics-101402298.html

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Publish date : 2025-11-25 10:14:00

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