Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Today's Games: 1/14/2009

I've finally located and fixed the bug that was causing the point spreads to be underestimated, and I figured now was as good a time as any to finally get a post up explaining just how TAPE and TAPE projections work.

If you're a baseball stathead or you're familiar with Ken Pomeroy's ratings, you've probably heard of the Log5 method for predicting the outcome of a given event. Simply put, it says that a team's expected winning percentage in a given game can be predicted using the following formula:

log5Formula

Where T is the team's winning percentage and P is the opponent's winning percentage. So if you have a full baseball season's worth of data, or a really good adjusted ratings system like KenPom's (or even the TAPE ratings), you can get a pretty good handle on what the odds are for a given game.

There's a much more powerful variation on the theme of Log5, though, and it's way more useful. Instead of having an implied mean of .500 for all teams, the following formula (which I stumbled upon here) has league average as its own variable:

Extlog5Formula

In this case, the formula gives the expected batting average for a hitter with a batting average of B facing a pitcher with a batting-average-against of P in a league where the overall batting average for all players is L. The good news for us is that it works just as well in basketball as it does in baseball. Field goal percentage, rebounding percentage, the ratio of three-point attempts to field goal attempts, and anything else that is (or can be) expressed as a number between zero and 1 can be predicted with a suitable degree of accuracy using the above formula.

Using this method and a table of each team's double-neutral (i.e. what the team would be expected to do on a neutral court against average competition) values in a number of categories, it's possible to not only predict teams' performances in any given category, but also, using a probablistic model of a possession, to build a complete predicted line score for any matchup.

The full slate of games is after the jump.

Tipoff Visitors TAPE Predicts Home Line O/U % Conf.
6:30 PM Michigan St. 71.9 at 69.3 Penn St. +6.0 136 57.4% BigTen
7:00 PM Binghamton 65.2 at 70.3 Albany

64.5% A-East

Holy Cross 56.2 at 54.7 Army

54.6% Pat

Sacred Heart 67.2 at 61.7 Bryant

65.2%

Elon 53.9 at 84.4 Davidson -23.5 137.5
98.6% SoCon

Hofstra 58.7 at 63.0 Drexel -4.0 122 62.5% CAA

Geo. Washington 60.6 at 78.8 Duquesne -10.5 146 90.1% A-10

Duke 79.2 at 67.1 Georgia Tech +12.0 148.5 80.0% ACC

Maine 59.6 at 62.7 Hartford

59.0% A-East

N.C. Wilmington 67.2 at 91.3 James Madison -15
153.5
94.8% CAA

Bowling Green 63.5 at 68.0 Kent St. -7.5 135 62.7% MAC

Colgate 62.5 at 66.6 Lafayette

61.7% Pat

Navy 69.8 at 74.5 Lehigh

62.7% Pat

N.J.I.T. 45.8 at 71.4 Loyola (MD)

97.3%

Ohio 55.0 at 67.8 Miami (OH) -9.0 122 83.2% MAC

UMBC 65.1 vs 60.1 New Hampshire

64.9% A-East

Temple 71.7 at 65.8 Pennsylvania +9.0 138.5 66.3%

South Florida 51.5 at 74.7 Pittsburgh -21.0 131 95.8% B-East

S. Carolina St. 58.4 at 63.1 Savannah St.

63.8%

St. Joseph's 67.0 at 64.9 St. Bonaventure +4.5 137 56.2% A-10

VCU 75.7 at 67.0 Towson +9.0 135.5 72.8% CAA

Richmond 64.2 at 69.1 Virginia Tech -8.0 131 64.2%

Toledo 57.2 at 64.1 W. Michigan -10.0 124.5 69.7% MAC

George Mason 61.7 at 56.7 William & Mary +6.0 122.5 65.0% CAA

Gardner-Webb 66.9 at 66.3 Winthrop

51.6% B-Sou
7:30 PM Bucknell 56.7 at 70.2 American

83.9% Pat

Vermont 70.7 at 73.2 Boston U.

56.7% A-East

La Salle 69.3 at 76.4 Charlotte -5.0 145 69.1% A-10

Rutgers 59.9 at 70.1 Cincinnati -9.0 130 77.1% B-East

Fordham 48.8 at 77.1 Dayton -21.0 125.5 98.1% A-10

Syracuse 67.2 at 78.8 Georgetown -6.5 142.5 79.2% B-East

Texas Pan Amer. 63.6 at 61.3 N.C. Central

56.9%

UTSA 66.7 at 67.1 Nicholls St.

51.3% S'land
8:00 PM Florida 70.0 at 69.7 Auburn +3.0 138 50.8% SEC

Stephen F. Austin 66.2 at 51.5 Central Arkansas

87.3% S'land

Nebraska 60.8 at 57.1 Iowa St. +1.5 120 61.2% Big 12

South Carolina 70.6 at 74.1 LSU -3.5 144 59.6% SEC

Arkansas 74.3 at 80.7 Mississippi -1.5 146.5 66.9% SEC

Alabama 62.6 at 72.7 Mississippi St. -7.0 136 76.2% SEC

SMU 63.6 at 65.3 Rice -3.0 130 55.0% C-USA

Massachusetts 59.7 at 66.3 Saint Louis -3.5 129 69.0% A-10

Northwestern St. 68.4 at 85.0 SE Louisiana

87.4% S'land

Texas St. 75.4 at 77.0 Texas A&M C.C.

54.4% S'land

Southern Miss 62.7 at 56.5 Tulane +3.0 123 68.4% C-USA

Lamar 75.3 at 81.5 TX Arlington

66.4% S'land

Georgia 58.2 at 71.9 Vanderbilt -10.5 132 83.4% SEC

Marshall 55.8 vs 77.4 West Virginia -15.5 136 94.6%

San Diego St. 76.4 at 67.9 Wyoming +6.0 139 72.3% MWC
8:05 PM Southern Ill. 60.3 at 72.8 Creighton -10.5 129.5 81.9% Valley

Drake 64.0 at 74.5 Illinois St. -8.5 136 77.1% Valley

Wichita St. 54.4 at 56.6 Missouri St. -4.0 116 56.7% Valley
8:30 PM Michigan 61.6 at 70.5 Illinois -7.0 127 74.5% BigTen
9:00 PM Wake Forest 80.4 at 75.4 Boston Coll. +3.5 155.5 63.4% ACC

UNLV 73.3 at 68.3 Colorado St. +7.5 140.5 63.7% MWC

Maryland 61.4 at 75.1 Miami (FL) -6.5 141 83.0% ACC

Colorado 59.8 at 81.7 Missouri -18.0 138 94.6% Big 12
9:05 PM Houston 71.7 at 74.3 UTEP -4.5 149 57.1% C-USA
9:30 PM Baylor 71.6 at 69.0 Texas A&M +1.5 139.5 57.4% Big 12
10:00 PM Utah 61.5 at 53.5 Air Force +8.0 122 73.3% MWC

CSU Northridge 66.9 at 65.9 UC Riverside -1.0 132.5 53.0% B-West
Point spreads compiled from OddsShark.com. Updated 11:42 PM EST

No comments: