Interesting stats on MOV

[MilfordHusky]

I was looking at some NCAA records tonight and came across something that is very impressive. The team that led the nation in scoring margin each year was ______ :

2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016

Covering the Maya Moore era, the Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis era, and the beginning of the Lou Samuelson era, the Huskies have led the nation in scoring margin for 9 years in a row. Last year's 40.6 ppg was the record. UConn also has the 5 highest MOVs in history and 12 of the highest 20. Diana was right--domination.

 

[bags27]

The Maya Moore era, the KML era, and the KLS era. I seem to recall someone else playing during the last 4 years who might merit her own era. Just can't think of her name right now.... Thanks for the amazing stats!

 

[MilfordHusky]

The Maya Moore era, the KML era, and the KLS era. I seem to recall someone else playing during the last 4 years who might merit her own era. Just can't think of her name right now.... Thanks for the amazing stats!

LOL! Obviously, other players made major contributions, but Maya and Kaleena were the top players in their respective classes, and the 8-year span covered their full careers at UConn.

 

[JoePgh]

Interesting that there seems to be an implicit assumption in the original post that 3-point shooters are the key factors in achieving a high level of scoring and MOV. No mention of the Tina Charles era or the Stef Dolson era or the Breanna Stewart era?? Or, for that matter, the eras of Renee Montgomery, Bria Hartley, and Moriah Jefferson running the point? An outstanding offense has many (metaphorical) fathers, but the Tennessee offense since 2008 has been an orphan child.

A factor that must be acknowledged as influencing these statistics in the last few years is the 20+ games per year which UConn plays in the AAC, only 3 of which (with South Florida) have ever been competitive. I was looking on a Women's RPI site last night, and was shocked to see that on that site's "Power Ratings" listing (which takes account of MOV as RPI does not), although UConn was ranked as the top team in its Power Rating, its Strength of Schedule for this year to date is rated at #51. The LV's have the highest SOS whether that is rated by RPI or Power Rating, with ND and South Carolina as #2 and #3. The conference does make a difference.

 

[alexrgct]

Question: how is season-long MOV calculated? I count the loss to Stanford as a -2 single-game MOV and factor that into the 39-game average. Not sure how everyone does it, though.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Question: how is season-long MOV calculated? I count the loss to Stanford as a -2 single-game MOV and factor that into the 39-game average. Not sure how everyone does it, though.

I think that's it. Points scored less points given up, divided by the number of games--which is equivalent to calculating game by game with each margin having a 1/39th weight.

 

[UcMiami]

Question: how is season-long MOV calculated? I count the loss to Stanford as a -2 single-game MOV and factor that into the 39-game average. Not sure how everyone does it, though.

Average points scored per game minus average points given up per game. As far as I know that is the only way it is calculated.

 

[MilfordHusky]

Interesting that there seems to be an implicit assumption in the original post that 3-point shooters are the key factors in achieving a high level of scoring and MOV. No mention of the Tina Charles era or the Stef Dolson era or the Breanna Stewart era?? Or, for that matter, the eras of Renee Montgomery, Bria Hartley, and Moriah Jefferson running the point? An outstanding offense has many (metaphorical) fathers, but the Tennessee offense since 2008 has been an orphan child.

A factor that must be acknowledged as influencing these statistics in the last few years is the 20+ games per year which UConn plays in the AAC, only 3 of which (with South Florida) have ever been competitive. I was looking on a Women's RPI site last night, and was shocked to see that on that site's "Power Ratings" listing (which takes account of MOV as RPI does not), although UConn was ranked as the top team in its Power Rating, its Strength of Schedule for this year to date is rated at #51. The LV's have the highest SOS whether that is rated by RPI or Power Rating, with ND and South Carolina as #2 and #3. The conference does make a difference.

I wasn't assuming anything about 3-point shooters, but I think they really help. The Maya era and the Kaleena era were convenient ways to describe the non-overlapping respective 4-year spans (2007-8 to 2010-11 and 2011-12 to 2014-15) when we led the nation in MOV. We did NOT lead the nation in MOV in Renee's first 2 years or Tina's first year, so their careers were not the right time periods. This was not meant to disparage any other players nor to exalt Maya and Kaleena any more than they already deserve.

I totally agree that the 40.6 MOV last year was partly a function of the AAC teams, though we played only 18 regular-season conference games. We won some conference games by 60. If we had been in the ACC, we would have won by only 40. The prior MOV record was set by the great 2002 team in the Big East.

But looking at earlier years when we had the highest MOV, we were in the old Big East, with Notre Dame, Louisville, Syracuse, DePaul, South Florida, St. John's, Villanova, et al. That was a strong conference. In fact, the 2010 team (Maya, Tina, Tiffany, Kalana, et al.) set the NCAA records for fewest points given up, 46.2 ppg, AND the lowest shooting percentage given up, 30.0%. That was, statistically speaking, the best defensive team ever.