Stomp The Lunatic – Page 131 – Just another WordPress site

2010 Team Schedules Are Loaded

March 13, 2011

As many of you know, one of my insane features is that I try to provide people with data about the teams in case they want to do research on the teams. Each year, we get several people who have demonstrated the power of statistics by building models in order to predict the games. Some of them have been extremely successful with this – especially Bill Kahn with his Bradley-Terry models, showing that even something extremely unpredictable as sports can be forecasted through good statistical techniques. But the part of this that has made me happy – and why I do this – is because a few people who were not statisticians but were taking a stats training course at work used this data for their class project and ended up having some success – including our 2006 champion, David Shaddick.

So, since that point, I decided to provide the scores to everyone in an attempt to provide people as much of a chance to try to leverage data to make their decisions. I realize that most of you will probably spend three to five minutes just looking at the teams and figuring who will do best – I probably don’t need a model to decide that the number 1 seeds will beat the 16 seeds… In fact, the way I have been going this year with trying to innovate the site, I will likely being doing the same thing late on Wednesday night.

However, if I can give people a chance to try to learn something about statistics in a very fun environment, it is well worth the effort. So, in the 2011 Statistics section is a link to an Excel file with the basic box score numbers for each game for every Division I team.

My classic caveats on this data are the following: I have only checked that standings match with ESPN’s page. I don’t have time to error check over 5000 box scores. I also tried to identify all the neutral court games – I believe I have done that since I was able to match the March 6th RPI standings, which uses site of games in the calculation as a weight. But no guarantees. Also, obviously, the 4 championships on Sunday are not in the file. If you notice something terribly wrong, let me know – no promises I have time to fix it, but at least everyone will know.

Enjoy the data!!!!
Thank you Tom!

March 12, 2011

Tom, Thank you, from your multitude of adoring fans, for running this event. You are the Michael Jordan of the March Madness season. And the data you provide every year. Oh–just to die for. Yes, the best weekend of the year, getting to the game history and rebuilding my model. I have tomorrow blocked off to try to find last year’s modeling code. Every year I promise myself I will document and macro-ize so that all I have to do is push a button to generate new predictions. And every year I tweak and play and finish with stray bits of code that collectively generate a reaosnably small number of error messages. And then Jane calls me for dinner. I never document. And never automate. The shame of not practicing personally what I preach professionally. Again, thank you for putting on this temporally and geographically dispersed party. -Bill
Introducing the 2011 User’s Blog

March 10, 2011

That’s right! In attempt to add even more fun for all of you, I have added a User’s Blog! This is your chance to ramble about how your team is going to win the championship or got a horrible break in the seeding. Actually, it is your chance to ramble about almost anything – preferably relating to the tournament or the contest. Just click on the link in the contents – Users Blog, and it will let you read what everyone else has said as well as let you add to the commentary. Enjoy!!!!
Enjoy the User’s Blog

March 10, 2011

Hope that everyone enjoys the new feature on the site! Have fun!!!!!!!
The major conference tournaments have all begun

March 10, 2011

And let the upsets begin!!!Pittsburghhas already been knocked out of the Big East tournament.Kansasalmost suffered the same fate. It is just another example of how on any given day, anyone can win! Also interesting which bubble teams so far have really responded to the challenge. Would not have expectedColoradoto upsetKansasState- good for the Buffaloes.Marquettemight have locked down an 11th Big East bid with their victories in the Big East – wonder if they will continue their run againstLouisvilletonight. So much good basketball – so little time…..until Selection Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Championship Week has arrived

February 28, 2011

Tomorrow is a great day! On Tuesday, the Big South and Horizon conferences start the first round of their conference tournaments. It also will be March 1st!!!! And that can only mean one thing!!!!

MARCH MADNESS IS HERE!!!!!!!! IT MUST BE TIME TO STOMP THE LUNATIC!!!!!!!!!!!

In what has to be a first, I am trying to get the site up and running before the actual tournament. That means that there is a slim possibility that some of the fixes that I have wanted to do such as allowing people to edit their picks will actually become a reality this year. OK – maybe not. But having goals has to be a good thing. And I know that all of you have an even better goal – to be the 2011 Stomp the Lunatic Champion!!!!!! So, start doing your research, watch some great conference tournament games, and wait for Sunday, March 13th – when the Selection Committee will make their final decisions and announce one of the greatest events in sports – the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament!!!!
It’s almost that time again

February 27, 2011

We will be once again doing the Stomp the Lunatic contest in 2011!!!! Please forgive the mess as I try to clean up the site as well as set up the 2011 contest. I’m trying to make some changes in order to help me better manage the site as well as fix some known bugs. Hopefully, everyone will like the changes.