I discovered that there was a BasketballProspectus.com (I read BaseballProspectus.com) and spent a few hours reading articles last night. I knew essentially nothing about college basketball beforehand beyond some pretty basic shit about my team, Wisconsin, and some of the more well-known players and teams.

I started here http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=580 and ended up following a lot of the blue links to other articles. I learned about Tempo-Free stats which adjust game stats to possessions rather than a team or players straight up stats. So putting up 23 pts in a game on 30 possessions isn't really as impressive as 15 pts on 7 possessions. It's pretty simple really and seems kind of like the more intuitive way of looking at basketball teams/players than the traditional raw totals when it comes down to it. But my understanding is that ESPN and other major sports media tend to favor good old points per game and other per game stats that aren't as telling as you think (think RBIs in baseball).

Also, comparing points per possession and opponents points per possession allowed gives you a good stat for looking at teams called efficiency margin and there's an article on that. And then you can look at how consistent a team is looking at standard deviation for certain stats.

So yea, now my bracket is statistically better than yours.

Edit: This one is even cooler, http://www.basketballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=543, comparing temp-free stats and other stats as predictors of tournament success.

I learned today that google maps isn't updated very frequently and drove 20 minutes to a UPS that had been shut down months before.

I just figured out straightXedge is the one everyone's calling atari. Just a few more and I'll be gw literate. I also tried to figure out the US school system, the different levels and types of schools there, but I'm still confused about universities, colleges and university colleges.

pr sure alec is from texas

Texas, Northamptonshire

Today I learned the difference between a university and a college in the US.

college is the 2 years before university in england. how old are you when you get to uni in america?

17-18 years old. In America, the word college and the word university are interchangeable. See Dartmouth College and Harvard University. Both have many different schools, but have different names. Most colleges/universities are four year deals, except with special programs (i.e. my friend is in a six-year medical program straight out of high school). When you get out of high school, you can attend community college (two years for your associates' degree) or a four year college/university. Or you can not go to school, I guess.