Monday, August 25, 2008

Zebras and Cats: Getting Down to Cases

A Gary Parrish column, "Myth Busters", from a few weeks ago put me on to a feature from Robbie Allen's StatSheet.com website. I linked to Robbie's website during the season and have used it for a few of Villanova's stats over time, but I did not realize (until Parrish's column...) that StatSheet.com also collected stats on referees. I have been tracking the fouls, free throws and technicals for villanova's games the past few seasons. I found I could compare referees (or more specifically teams of referees) to each other in how they handled Villanova games. I realized I could now step back to see how these referees handled other games and teams they worked. Was (for example) Tony Greene "harder" or "easier" on Villanova than he was on other teams? The table below provides a few answers and points of comparison.


All GamesNova Games
NameGmFPGSTDGmFPGSTD
Hillary, Ted8933.87.1151.0NA
Rutecki, Wally5037.97.1150.0NA
Laubenstein, Bill2937.07.0150.0NA
Perone, Ray7037.46.7147.0NA
Hess, Karl8936.27.1347.04.6
Clougherty, Tim5434.56.2147.0NA
Donato, Bob6037.57.1445.05.3
Luckie, Jamie9338.37.1444.03.9
Higgins, Tim6936.37.2343.74.2
Kersey, Bryan10237.97.5343.38.1
Stuart, Mike7737.16.7242.54.9
Stephens, Michael6138.46.5442.35.6
Cahill, John9035.96.1742.05.4
Clinton, Bernard6040.27.5241.510.6
Walton, Earl6739.17.2241.05.7
Jones, Les7936.77.5141.0NA
Higgins, John9735.57.2141.0NA
Collins, J.D.10336.87.4240.52.1
Driscoll, Pat6236.86.8240.53.5
Haney, Jim6836.57.0240.50.7
Greene, Tony8235.85.7340.30.6
O'Connell, Brian8735.86.3540.27.3
Shaw, Curtis10239.37.3240.02.1
Hightower, Ed8037.18.0240.012.7
Prager, Gary5736.35.7140.0NA
Burr, Jim8535.57.7439.52.4
Janssen, Paul5637.47.7139.0NA
Greenwood, Reggie6536.86.2338.03.0
Shows, Doug7236.48.1238.04.2
Roberts, Mike6135.66.1138.0NA
Corbett, Ed8734.46.5738.02.6
Lindsay, Joe6535.15.9235.53.5
Kitts, Mike8735.07.0435.53.7
Clark, Jeff6236.86.9334.03.6


Those looking for stats on Tom O'Neill's Villanova game will be disappointed. The referees listed are those who worked Big East regular season contests -- O'Neill was on the zebra crew that worked the Cats - Golden Knights game in the 1st round of the Old Spice Classic; O'Neill did not work Big East regular season games. My Villanova game stats however, do include those games against OOC opponents, however, so I am comparing the Villanova games against all games the individual referee worked. In general, the zebra's FPG was higher for the Big East games his crews worked than for all games. I highlighted (in yellow) those referees whose average FPG for Villanova games was outside of the range of the standard deviation for all of their games. In most cases the referee worked a single game, certainly reasonable. Of the three others, two are most likely recognizable to many Wildcat fans, Tim Higgins (recognizable to many basketball fans throughout the country) and Bob Donato, the referee who called Corey Stokes for a blocking foul on Jon Wallace near the end of regulation play in the Villanova-Georgetown game. Yeah, that Bob Donato. The only referee to have a lower average FPG for his Villanova games than he does for all games, Jeff Clark, is highlighted in green. The only referee whose average for Villanova games was lower than his average for Big East games, Doug Shows, is highlighted in brown. Clark worked 3 Villanova games, posting a 3-0 record for those games. Shows worked 2 Villanova games, posting a 1-1 record for those games. Other observations...
1. Ed Corbett and John Cahill worked 7 Villanova games each. That's more than any of the other referees. Villanova games accounted for 7.8% of Cahill's workload, and a straight 8.0% of Corbett's. Villanova's record in Cahill-refereed games was 1-6 last season. For Corbett, the record was 5-2.
2. The FPG for all games and for Villanova games was very close when Mike Kitts worked as part of the crew. At 7.0, Kitt's standard deviation was fairly close to the average for all 34 referees listed (6.9), but at 3.7, his crews showed more consistency when working Villanova games. The Wildcats were 4-0 last season when Kitts was in the crew.
3. Brian O'Connell was the third most prolific Villanova referee, working 5 games (5.75% of his overall workload). Averaging 40.2 FPG, O'Connell seemed to have been, relative to the other 33 referees, more in the "let 'em play" faction. But with a standard deviation of 7.3, O'Connell was pretty inconsistent.

1 comment:

VUhoops.com said...

As Always... great stuff gC!