Coverage at Big Apple Buckets isn’t going to stop now that “One Shining Moment” has been played and Louisville has been named the national champion, but I do want to thank everyone that came to read the site this season. It’s been an exciting journey. We’ve set all sorts of site records and gotten to bring you live coverage from Maryland to Massachusetts. It’s been an exciting five and a half months.

Continue reading “Thanks For A Great Season” →

The Final Four will feature two coaching greats in Jim Boeheim and Rick Pitino along with two well-respected head coaches in Gregg Marshall and John Beilein, but who is the luckiest? Continue reading “Coaching and Luck 2004-12” →

The CBI and CIT fields are out. When I first look at the College Basketball Invitational bracket my first question is, “Huh?” I’m not quite sure how some of these match ups made sense in the organizers’ heads. Also, it appears at least one team that thought they’d get to play in the CBI – Utah – was left out. Continue reading “Reaction to the CBI and CIT Fields” →

Selection Sunday is upon us. Unlike predicting the NCAA tournament or the NIT, projecting the College Basketball Invitational and the CollegeInsider.com Tournaments is very difficult due to the fact that there are no automatic bids and teams regularly decline to play in such events. Thus you’re reading the tea leaves of about hundred athletic departments (and projecting the NIT bubble).

Continue reading “Actual CBI and CIT Fields” →

The 2013 DIII NCAA tournament bracket was released today and my undergraduate alma mater, Catholic University, is hosting one of our local New York City schools, College of Staten Island, in the first round on Sunday, March 2. Continue reading “Tempo-Free Breakdown: Catholic vs. College of Staten Island” →

Gary Moore may have moved to South Carolina, but he’s still going to a ton of college basketball game and writing on The College Hardwood. (He’s even got South Carolina season tickets.) Recently he wrote about Stats The Likely Correlate Into Success (Part I). It’s a really interesting read. Continue reading “Winning Mid-Major Stats (Part I – Pythag)” →

Continuing my series on luck. Let’s investigate if “luck” has anything to do with good “coaching”. Do our opinions about “good in-game” coaches line up with how lucky they’ve been over the past four seasons? The Top and Bottom 10 Coaches in Luck over the past four seasons (minimum 3 seasons). Continue reading “Ten Luckiest and Unluckiest Coaches: 2009-2012” →

A fun little post for the weekend. I loaded up the data to do similarity scores for teams this season. It’s based on the work of Neil Paine, but I refined it a bit last season. These scores are strength of schedule adjusted, but because conference play just started sometimes that causes weird results. I’m presenting the most similar team for every 2013 New York City team.

Continue reading “Top Similarities of New York City Teams” →

Conference play has begun and its shaking things up in the Pomeroy rankings. Being forced to play opponents of similar strength and skill sets is exposing frauds (hello Pittsburgh) and helping some other teams get back on their feet (Missouri State is so thankful for a fresh slate). Here’s all the movement in the rankings this week. Continue reading “KenPom Movement: Conference Play Shakes Things Up” →

After running 10,000 sims for the West Coast Conference it quickly becomes apparent that Gonzaga is probably the heaviest favorite in the nation. The Bulldogs are ranked 14th nationally by Pomeroy after squeaking past Oklahoma St. at home last night and are heavy favorites in league play. Continue reading “10,000 Sims: WCC is Gonzaga, Everyone Else” →