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Look I hate Xavier and I hope nothing but the worst for them.

But the reality is; good breaks or not, they capitalize on luck far more than we do and they advance in the tourney much more than we do.

Can they get beat early? Sure and I hope they do, but I can easily see them making their first final four just like Gonzaga did last year. They have all the required part of what it takes to win and while they don’t defend well on a grand scale, they do buckle down and get stops when they need to.

It’s going to be embarrassing if they make it further in the tourney than us again. I hope that doesn’t happen

Capitalize on luck lol.
 
Capitalize on luck lol.

yeah you know, like having creighton go 1-12 the last 8 minutes of the game and manage to pull out that 1 point win despite that fact that xavier was only down 1 point when creighton started missing all those shots.


thats all senior leadership and coaching, im telling you (and a bs foul call cause they still couldn't manage to legit win that one)
 
It's really not hard. If we look at the other teams rated highly in luck, shouldn't we see a bunch of teams with high level coaching, great 1on1 players, Sr leadership, or something else tangible?

But you know who the top 10 in luck are?

#1 UMBC
#2 Xavier
#3 Memphis
#4 Savannah St
#5 Tenn Tech
#6 Ill St
#7 SD St
#8 Lipscomb
#9 UNC Asheville
#10 George Mason


And the list doesn't get much better as you scroll further.

So... Do we ascribe the same narrative to those other 9 teams that share roughly the same amount of luck as X has had this year?
 
You guys are being good Bearcats fans but terrible college basketball analysts.

We were gifted a victory at temple because of dunphys unlucky water bottle grab.,

Luck doesn’t sink 2 clutch free throws after a sketchy foul call. Luck doesn’t sink the and 1 on a 3 point foul.

Capitalizing on luck is a real thing and I’ll just call you a not so smart person if you don’t think so.

Luck didn’t win the big east for Xavier.

Add in that, I guess Xavier is lucky every year in the tourney and some how we are always just unlucky right ?
They beat the piss out of us too, I guess that’s luck as well.

Put away the homerism a bit and jus recognize that their senior class is clutch and knows how to win. They have an elite 8, a Sweet 16, and now a #1 seed for the first time ever. But yea, luck.

You guys made me defend Xavier. That’s gross. But stupid basketball analysis is still stupid basketball analysis.
 
You guys are being good Bearcats fans but terrible college basketball analysts.

We were gifted a victory at temple because of dunphys unlucky water bottle grab.,

Luck doesn’t sink 2 clutch free throws after a sketchy foul call. Luck doesn’t sink the and 1 on a 3 point foul.

Capitalizing on luck is a real thing and I’ll just call you a not so smart person if you don’t think so.

Luck didn’t win the big east for Xavier.

Add in that, I guess Xavier is lucky every year in the tourney and some how we are always just unlucky right ?
They beat the piss out of us too, I guess that’s luck as well.

Put away the homerism a bit and jus recognize that their senior class is clutch and knows how to win. They have an elite 8, a Sweet 16, and now a #1 seed for the first time ever. But yea, luck.

You guys made me defend Xavier. That’s gross. But stupid basketball analysis is still stupid basketball analysis.

Wouldn't say they "beat the piss out of us." They got up by 16 in the first like 7-8 minutes. And we outscored them the rest of the game. Just saying.and you don't think they've had better matchups in the tourney than us? I mean that's just a fact, it's not about being a homer. And finally, Kenpom doesn't track luck because Cincinnati fans made it up, Xavier is statistically the second luckiest team in basketball. But yeah they're just good, no luck.
 
You guys are being good Bearcats fans but terrible college basketball analysts.

We were gifted a victory at temple because of dunphys unlucky water bottle grab.,

Luck doesn’t sink 2 clutch free throws after a sketchy foul call. Luck doesn’t sink the and 1 on a 3 point foul.

Capitalizing on luck is a real thing and I’ll just call you a not so smart person if you don’t think so.

Luck didn’t win the big east for Xavier.

Add in that, I guess Xavier is lucky every year in the tourney and some how we are always just unlucky right ?
They beat the piss out of us too, I guess that’s luck as well.

Put away the homerism a bit and jus recognize that their senior class is clutch and knows how to win. They have an elite 8, a Sweet 16, and now a #1 seed for the first time ever. But yea, luck.

You guys made me defend Xavier. That’s gross. But stupid basketball analysis is still stupid basketball analysis.
Luck Is What Happens When Preparation Meets Opportunity
 
You guys are being good Bearcats fans but terrible college basketball analysts.


we are being neither while you're being both. and you're calling us stupid.



i'm not even coming at this as a bearcat fan and i know ervins isn't either. we are coming at it from a math perspective that says winning that many close games, no matter who is on your team, is nearly impossible. the fact that you went on that rant AFTER ervins posted the list of the top 10 teams in luck factor is rather hilarious and proof you have no clue what you're talking about.
 
we are being neither while you're being both. and you're calling us stupid.



i'm not even coming at this as a bearcat fan and i know ervins isn't either. we are coming at it from a math perspective that says winning that many close games, no matter who is on your team, is nearly impossible. the fact that you went on that rant AFTER ervins posted the list of the top 10 teams in luck factor is rather hilarious and proof you have no clue what you're talking about.
Aw what about me :(
 
You guys are being good Bearcats fans but terrible college basketball analysts.

We were gifted a victory at temple because of dunphys unlucky water bottle grab.,

Luck doesn’t sink 2 clutch free throws after a sketchy foul call. Luck doesn’t sink the and 1 on a 3 point foul.

Capitalizing on luck is a real thing and I’ll just call you a not so smart person if you don’t think so.

Luck didn’t win the big east for Xavier.

Add in that, I guess Xavier is lucky every year in the tourney and some how we are always just unlucky right ?
They beat the piss out of us too, I guess that’s luck as well.

Put away the homerism a bit and jus recognize that their senior class is clutch and knows how to win. They have an elite 8, a Sweet 16, and now a #1 seed for the first time ever. But yea, luck.

You guys made me defend Xavier. That’s gross. But stupid basketball analysis is still stupid basketball analysis.
But luck allows you 2 free throws because Fran d wacks his water bottle. Luck is a part of it. Not always does the best team win the NCAA tournament, but matchups and luck goes a far way. Cincinnati has been on the other side of the luck thing for long enough. Time to right the ship. I'm not saying Xavier has done what it had done because there the luckiest team, but it helps to have luck on your side, but just like anything else, luck has to run out some time. I'd rather be unlucky all regular season and conference tournament time, and get lucky during the big dance.
 
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But luck allows you 2 free throws because Fran d wacks his water bottle. Luck is a part of it. Not always does the best team win the NCAA tournament, but matchups and luck goes a far way. Cincinnati has been on the other side of the luck thing for long enough. Time to right the ship. I'm not saying Xavier has done what it had done because there the luckiest team, but it helps to have luck on your side, but just like anything else, luck has to run out some time. I'd rather be unlucky all regular season and conference tournament time, and get lucky during the big dance.

Right denying that we have been unlucky quite a few times is just funny. You don't get two game ending/tying half court shots in a season when your lucky haha
 
Luck doesn’t sink 2 clutch free throws after a sketchy foul call. Luck doesn’t sink the and 1 on a 3 point foul.

Capitalizing on luck is a real thing and I’ll just call you a not so smart person if you don’t think so.
Yeah, well, that's just, like, your opinion, man.

I happen to think clutch (and most other narratives) is imaginative. Free throws are random events determined by the shooter's probability of success. Successful free throws in high leverage situations is luck.

If Xavier's luck stat was due to good coaching, they would be consistently lucky every season. They're all over the map though. A few years ago they were #317.
 
This is my last attempt to explain this. I feel like my point of view about luck is being either misunderstood, or misrepresented. Either way, I'm going to clarify a few things.

In this thread, I was not referring to past seasons in regards to good draw, bad draw, or "unlucky vs lucky in the tournament in the tournament." That is a lot more subjective. We all have thoughts on it, but let's keep our focus on the kpom luck stat. I am specifically referring to the kpom luck stat. Nothing more. Nothing less.

Definition of kpom luck- basically it's discounting records in close games. Teams usually win and lose about half of their close games. Additionally, multiple studies have been done on the idea of winning close games being a skill (something predictive and reproducible) vs random fluctuations.

As far as I know, every single one has shown it's random fluctuations. For example, they would study teams in the first half of the year who won a disproportionate amount of close games. In the second half of the year, they tended to win almost exactly half of their future close games. The exact same thing happened with teams in the other end of the spectrum who were terrible in close games to start the season, would win about half of their future close games.

That is really strong evidence that "winning close games" isn't something that is a skill.

Additionally, if it's coaching, as sedz alluded to, you would expect to see the same teams, year in and year out rank near the top of the luck stat. But go back and look at past seasons. There is nothing to indicate the same teams are at the top of this metric year in and out.

Being lucky and being a really good team, aren't mutually exclusive. It's possible to be the best team in the country and also be the luckiest team.

One last thing to consider in regards to "clutchness." If I told you a player was performing way above their season averages between the 10 minute and 5 minute marks of the first half, I think most people's initial reaction is to say "well ok... But that's probably just a lot of statistical noise." No one writes an article saying, "He's a killer during that stretch. This player really knows how to turn it on between the 10 and 5 minute marks of the first half," because it sounds absolutely insane. Now apply the same reasoning to the end of the game. This is just another reason why I don't buy it.

Lastly, of course X is really good. They've also been very lucky this year too have the close game record they do. This doesn't mean they're going to lose their next close one, it just means they're not much, if any more likely than anyone else to win or lose a close game.

One more thing I'll touch on. When a 90% free throw shooter makes 2 FTs was he lucky? Stop and think. Yes. The expected value there is 1.8 points. We scored 2. We got 0.2 points above expectation there. That is fortunate. This doesn't mean making the FT is not a skill.

Same scenario. 50% guy makes both. We scored 1 point over expectation. We were lucky there too, but by a bigger amount.
 
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You guys are being good Bearcats fans but terrible college basketball analysts.

We were gifted a victory at temple because of dunphys unlucky water bottle grab.,

Luck doesn’t sink 2 clutch free throws after a sketchy foul call. Luck doesn’t sink the and 1 on a 3 point foul.

Capitalizing on luck is a real thing and I’ll just call you a not so smart person if you don’t think so.

Luck didn’t win the big east for Xavier.

Add in that, I guess Xavier is lucky every year in the tourney and some how we are always just unlucky right ?
They beat the piss out of us too, I guess that’s luck as well.

Put away the homerism a bit and jus recognize that their senior class is clutch and knows how to win. They have an elite 8, a Sweet 16, and now a #1 seed for the first time ever. But yea, luck.

You guys made me defend Xavier. That’s gross. But stupid basketball analysis is still stupid basketball analysis.

So you cede the fact that UC was given that temple game, but then defend eggs luck as just being good?

You're being a good x fan, but a terrible apologist
 
Zeke Upshaw for the Grand Rapids G League team collapsed on the court and was rushed to the hospital. He passed away this morning. Just awful.
 
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