Tempo

[X Factor]

Do any of you stat guys know whether it's better to play at a faster or slower tempo?

Looking at KenPom, it looks most of the teams ranked higher play at a slow tempo. Even going back 3-4 years that seems to be the case.

[Juice]

Do any of you stat guys know whether it's better to play at a faster or slower tempo?

Looking at KenPom, it looks most of the teams ranked higher play at a slow tempo. Even going back 3-4 years that seems to be the case.

It can hurt you in the tournament if you play too slowly and you get behind, i.e. UVA. Granted they are one of the slowest teams in all of college basketball. Over the long haul of a season or in an extended series (7 games or something), efficiency is probably the most important obviously but in a one and done tournament it can bite you in the ass.

[XUFan09]

Intuition says that if you're playing slower, variance in results is greater. This is why you'll often see inferior teams beating their opponents by scores like 20-13 early in games or superior teams beating up on their opponents by scores like 25-8 early in games. However, over the course of a whole game, it's harder to tell. It's hard to isolate tempo as a variable, especially when close games will generally have more possessions than blowouts. Here's one breakdown of the issue:

https://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/putting-theories-to-the-test-does-slow-tempo-aid-ncaa-tournament-upsets/

Then, this article below notes that outside of 2016 Villanova and 2014 UConn, champions in the Kenpom era tend to have a above average tempo. However, it's hard to tell if the correlation is a causation.

https://247sports.com/Article/The-profile-of-an-NCAA-Tournament-Champion-51629473

In sum...maybe tempo matters?

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[UCGRAD4X]

Intuition says that if you're playing slower, variance in results is greater. This is why you'll often see inferior teams beating their opponents by scores like 20-13 early in games or superior teams beating up on their opponents by scores like 25-8 early in games. However, over the course of a whole game, it's harder to tell. It's hard to isolate tempo as a variable, especially when close games will generally have more possessions than blowouts. Here's one breakdown of the issue:

https://harvardsportsanalysis.wordpress.com/2010/02/11/putting-theories-to-the-test-does-slow-tempo-aid-ncaa-tournament-upsets/

Then, this article below notes that outside of 2016 Villanova and 2014 UConn, champions in the Kenpom era tend to have a above average tempo. However, it's hard to tell if the correlation is a causation.

https://247sports.com/Article/The-profile-of-an-NCAA-Tournament-Champion-51629473

In sum...maybe tempo matters?

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After all your Ivy League analysis...this is all you got?

Kidding...mostly...more an indictment of the source than the final analysis.