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Show MyWeberMedia.com | April 18, 2019 | 15 HOW MATH IS CHANGING THE GAME OF BASKETBALL By JOHN KEEFFER Reporter Zach Braxton dramatically dunks during his final game. JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost Brekkot Chapman inbounds a pass in his final career game. JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost Zach Braxton goes up for a dunk during one of his final games with the Wildcats. JOSHUA WINEHOLT | The Signpost During the first half of the Weber State home men’s basketball game against Sacramento State on Feb. 2, Jerrick Harding stole the ball from an opposing guard and led the Wildcats on a fast break. As Harding drove the lane, instead of cutting to the basket, all of the other Wildcats ran to a different spot behind the three point line. Harding passed the ball to left, and then the ball swung around the perimeter for an open 3-point attempt by junior power forward Brekkott Chapman. In the moment before Chapman shot the ball, all five Wildcat players were behind the 3-point line. For good measure, he made the shot. This is just one example of how analytics is changing the game of basketball. Just ten years ago, if this same play occurred, the player taking the three would likely have been pulled from the game for taking an unnecessarily bad shot. “The advantage of using analytics is that you can get both the team and player to be as efficient as possible,” said Weber State lead assistant coach Eric Duft. “Efficiency is all about maximizing the chance of each shot going in.” The use of analytics has become more and more predominant in basketball. The concept is to take emotions out of the game and to focus on what the numbers and math are saying about how it should be played. So, what is it telling us? Offensively, it is stressing the importance of taking shot attempts as close to the rim as possible, or from 3-point range, while eliminating everything in between. This is based off the typical shooting percentages from those ranges. According to NCAA Stats, the average 2-point shooting accuracy is 46 percent, while the 3-pointers go through the net an average of 37 percent of the time. If two players attempt 100 shots each, with one only taking threes and the other taking twos, based on the typical averages, the one taking threes would outscore the other 111 to 92. The effects of these anayltics have been on full display at Weber State. Ever since Randy Rahe was appointed the head coach in 2006, Weber State has been a leader in the country in threepoint shooting. In 2005, Weber attempted 388 threes, which ranked 324 out of 330 Division I college basketball teams in the country. The number immediately grew with Rahe, and by 2008, the Wildcats attempted 631 threes during the campaign. Think about that for a second: over the course of just three years, they were attempting around 250 additional threes per season. Since that 2008 season, Weber has only once failed to clear 600 triples attempted in a season, and they have twice cleared 700. A critical part of this shift has been driven by offensive assistant coach Eric Duft, who joined the program in 2006 alongside Rahe. Duft is known as the “analytic guru” in the coach’s office, and he provided valuable insights on the use and importance of analytics at Weber. “What you’re trying to do is increase your efficiency on both ends of the court, offensively and defensively,” Duft said, “trying to take what you are seeing with your eyes and then looking at the numbers to see if you are seeing the same things. We do that a lot here.” They focused on two primary changes on the offensive side of the ball: getting shots at the basket and stressing the importance of the three. “The old style was just to try and take a CONTINUED ON PAGE 16 |