Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Statistical Analysis of Men's NCAA DI lacrosse

As the saying goes, "There are lies, damn lies, and statistics." But in today's ultra-competitive sports world, the use of statistics can help a coach better understand his opponents, while using stats to create better performance by his own team. Michael Lewis even wrote a best selling baseball book - Moneyball - in which the key element of the Oakland A's extraordinary record of wins per dollar spent on salaries was shown to derive from GM Billy Beane's advantage in the use of statistics.

Lacrosse is just coming into its own with sophisticated statistical analysis. Recently, a seven page article deconstructed game data from all 2011 NCAA DI contests. Without giving too much away, one of the key takeaways was the exceptional shooting performance by Canadian NCAA DI laxers. You can read the article at: http://www.laxpower.com/content/mauboussin/stats_analysis.php