BPI Rankings

#1
CAVol

CAVol

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#1
I will try to keep this updated as they release them on ESPN. The BPI is described as:

"Created by the ESPN Stats & Information group, the College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a team rating that accounts for all team scores in every Division I game, whether they were at home, on the road, or on a neutral court, whether they won, the pace of the game, the strength of their opponent, and whether any of their top five players (by minutes per game) was missing."

It isn't the same as RPI but still a good indicator of tournament chances as we get closer to March.

Here is the link as of today, February 16. Tennessee is ranked 76.

BPI - Feb. 16 College Basketball Power Index Rankings - ESPN
 
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#2
#2
CAVol said:
I will try to keep this updated as they release them on ESPN. The BPI is described as:

"Created by the ESPN Stats & Information group, the College Basketball Power Index (BPI) is a team rating that accounts for all team scores in every Division I game, whether they were at home, on the road, or on a neutral court, whether they won, the pace of the game, the strength of their opponent, and whether any of their top five players (by minutes per game) was missing."

Here is the link as of today, February 16. Tennessee is ranked 76.

BPI - Feb. 16 College Basketball Power Index Rankings - ESPN
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Sounds a lot like kenpom.com.

Edit: btw UT is up to 66 on kenpom.com
 
#5
#5
Never heard of KenPom before. I'll check it out. Any other sites? It might be a good idea to have one thread that I could update daily with the RPI, etc from every site.
 
#6
#6
EastT said:
Mid TN is ranked #42 on that :eek:lol:
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If you haven't noticed, they're pretty darn good this year...

To the OP, KenPom became a subscription-only site this year ($19.95 for 1 year), but if you want numbers I can give them to you from the site.
 
#8
#8
govols120 said:
If you haven't noticed, they're pretty darn good this year...

To the OP, KenPom became a subscription-only site this year ($19.95 for 1 year), but if you want numbers I can give them to you from the site.
Click to expand...


Are you sure? I'm on it right now and can see all the numbers for Tennessee.
 
#9
#9
I think for game-by-game numbers, game-by-game projections, and the more in-depth stats you need the subscription. The standard rankings are available to anyone, I believe.
 
#10
#10
From the description, it looks like BPI was inspired by KenPom but makes a few tweaks. They do a good job of selling it as superior, and a cursory glance says that BPI does a better job at sorting out the very top.

But KenPom has been the best on the market for a good long while.
 
#12
#12
CAVol said:
Never heard of KenPom before. I'll check it out. Any other sites? It might be a good idea to have one thread that I could update daily with the RPI, etc from every site.
Click to expand...

Sagarin is interesting to look at. Not as good as Kenpom.com in my opinion but it is interesting to see where UT ranks from another POV. Plus, Sagarin is the place where rpiforcast.com gets his projected wins and losses.
 
#13
#13
EastT said:
Mid TN is ranked #42 on that :eek:lol:
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They are doing well this season. They've gotten votes for teh AP and coaches' polls the past few weeks. They were the first D-I team to 20 wins this season IIRC. But they're still a bunch of poosies and I hate their guts! GO VOLS!!
 
#14
#14
I'd like to see an explanation of how in the heck the "pace of the game" is considered in this formula.

Also, it might sound good when you first read that they consider whether a team was missing one of its best five players, but I think that opens the door for too much subjectivity to enter the rankings. What if the best player on the team gets hurt and is out for the year? Are they going to keep sugar-coating that team's ranking, because they're shorthanded; that player won't be able to help them if they make the tournament. What if a player is suspended? Why should a team's ranking be cushioned, because they're missing a player due to some type of negative action, such as a failed drug test, missing classes, etc? Also, what if one of a team's top five guys in minutes per game gets injured, but his replacement explodes into a star, like Jeremy Lin of the Knicks? At what point is the injured player no longer considered among the team's top five players?

I need a more in-depth explanation of how these rankings are put together before I will take them seriously. It just sounds too subjective to me.
 
#15
#15
ukvols said:
I'd like to see an explanation of how in the heck the "pace of the game" is considered in this formula.

Also, it might sound good when you first read that they consider whether a team was missing one of its best five players, but I think that opens the door for too much subjectivity to enter the rankings. What if the best player on the team gets hurt and is out for the year? Are they going to keep sugar-coating that team's ranking, because they're shorthanded; that player won't be able to help them if they make the tournament. What if a player is suspended? Why should a team's ranking be cushioned, because they're missing a player due to some type of negative action, such as a failed drug test, missing classes, etc? Also, what if one of a team's top five guys in minutes per game gets injured, but his replacement explodes into a star, like Jeremy Lin of the Knicks? At what point is the injured player no longer considered among the team's top five players?

I need a more in-depth explanation of how these rankings are put together before I will take them seriously. It just sounds too subjective to me.
Click to expand...

Two responses to two points:

1. Some rankings just use the score of the game. The RPI is one of these. However, this can vary wildly based on the pace of the game. Why should 90-75 be any different than 60-50? So others (like KenPom) use points per possession instead to give paceless stats. I think what the BPI is saying here is that they correct for pace of the game (a la KenPom)

2. It's by minutes per game, so if they miss the whole season, it won't factor in. And presumably, if they're still out for the tournament, it won't factor in (although this is not clear). It looks like it's just designed as a correction once a good player comes back for games played without him. And it is a small (15% IIRC) correction. Seems like a good idea, but they could definitely be more precise about what they actually do.
 
#16
#16
ukvols said:
I'd like to see an explanation of how in the heck the "pace of the game" is considered in this formula.

Also, it might sound good when you first read that they consider whether a team was missing one of its best five players, but I think that opens the door for too much subjectivity to enter the rankings. What if the best player on the team gets hurt and is out for the year? Are they going to keep sugar-coating that team's ranking, because they're shorthanded; that player won't be able to help them if they make the tournament. What if a player is suspended? Why should a team's ranking be cushioned, because they're missing a player due to some type of negative action, such as a failed drug test, missing classes, etc? Also, what if one of a team's top five guys in minutes per game gets injured, but his replacement explodes into a star, like Jeremy Lin of the Knicks? At what point is the injured player no longer considered among the team's top five players?

I need a more in-depth explanation of how these rankings are put together before I will take them seriously. It just sounds too subjective to me.
Click to expand...

Pace of the game is measured by "possessions". In basketball, each team gets the same number of possessions in any given game (+/- 1 i believe, to account for who gets the jump ball to start game and who has final shot). Possesions can only end on a defensive rebound, turnover or point scored.

From the possessions of a game, stats like BPI and Kenpom can extroplate efficiency scores such as points per possession and opponent's points per possesion. These are by far the two most important and all-encompassing stats in basketball.

It allows us to differentiate teams like Kentucky and SMU, let's say. They may allow the same points per game, but since Kentucky plays a much harder schedule and plays at a higher pace, their defense is actually leagues better than SMU's (common sense).

Kenpom is the best 20 bucks you can spend if you're a serious bball fan.
 
#17
#17
The possessions per game argument is fair. I see the point, but I'll add that it leaves open the possibility of a game that was close throughout being weighed the same as a game that was not in as much doubt. Consider the 60-50 vs 90-75 example that was posted. If the 10-pt game had 40 posssessions, and the 15-pt game had 60 possessions, I suppose the games would be given equal weight (1.5-1.25 in pts per possession). But, that doesn't change the simple, obvious fact that one game was a 10-pt game, and the other game was a 15-pt game. Suppose those final margins were the scoring difference for the majority of the contests. The team trailing by 10, if they went on a run, was always in a better position to come back than the team trailing by 15.

In the end, I think there's no perfect way to include the scores in a formula. FWIW, the RPI doesn't include them. I think the positives outweigh the negatives, and they should be included. But, I prefer to stick with the final, actual numbers, and not adjust them.
 
#21
#21
When I first read "pace of the game," I thought they were trying to somehow discount a scoring margin when a team runs up the score in the closing minutes, rather than pulling the best players and allowing a blowout to turn into a respectable final margin. But, possessions per game, while an interesting statistic, sounds like another way of applying the final score to a rankings formula. At the end of the day, it uses the total score and total number of possessions instead of just the total score. It's not like it fixes the true and only downside of using scoring margin, which is how teams handle the closing minutes when the game is no longer in doubt.
 
#25
#25
Keep in mind that the Chaminade game carries as much weight as an exhibition.
 
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