First Post

The point of this blog is to be a place where I can put some work that I am doing for the public viewing. My current task is creating a new "version" of the RPI due to it being obviously flawed. As I try different methods, I will post summaries, pictures, data, and results that I have finished. Hopefully I will make progress towards achieving my goal and I know I will also be learning along the way.

Due to me being a Washington State student and fan, most of my analysis will be run beginning with WSU stats and matchups. For conference analysis it will begin with the Pac-10 (and Pac-12 in due time). 

Now time for a disclaimer. When people choose the winner of a game, they commonly look at PPG, RPG, APG, BPG, and other box score stats. If the matchup is too close to call on paper, people just go with their hearts or their affiliations. This being said, I have great love for WSU basketball. Behind WSU in my heart is Duke. The point of my blog is to find the strengths and weaknesses of a team and how they will fare against each other MATHEMATICALLY. While I will show bias in my writeups of data, I promise that my data will be accurate and my formulas will be unbiased when it comes to weighting.

Follow me on twitter: @danshirley and please comment on my posts letting me know what you think I should include, fix, or just to say what you think.

-Dan