Big Data and March Madness
Over
the past couple of decades, NCAA’s March Madness has gained immense popularity and
teams are starting to see how technology can help them better understand the
game. Synergy Sports Technology has
filmed over 300 men’s Division 1 basketball teams. They have film on almost all
of the 5,700 games played this past season.
Most
people think that basketball analytics has an advantage on improving the
offensive numbers, but it actually provides an edge on the defensive side of
the ball. “Inevitably, points scored are
going to go down because of the information coaches have at their disposal.” Not
only do coaches have lots of information, but they receive it quickly. This
allows them to make adjustments during a game rather than a game by game basis.
The software analyzes live game video of the basketball games and calculates statistical
trends. For example, what a given player does on a pick and roll on the left
side of the basket.
Many
people think that because lots of teams are using this technology, the playing
field is once again level. But PC Mag believes that analytics has given early
adopters a distinct advantage. Synergy Sports first offered its services to
Marquette University. Marquette has since gone to the NCAA tournament seven
straight times. The next two programs
that used Synergy were UCLA and Kansas.
UCLA went to the Final Four and Kansas won the National Championship.
The
live video statistics industry is going to become a driving force in how teams
strategize. What else can this
technology influence? I believe that gamblers will be the next group to benefit
from these technologies.
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