Syracuse hiring Alex Kline as GM

[Scooch]

JFC. There will likely be 1,000 players or more in the portal in 6 weeks. We'll need 5 or 6 of them. I imagine he's looking for fit with who's returning/incoming from HS. And is gathering intel on what the NIL/compensation cost will be.

Because it's ridiculous to have a wunderkind analytics genius who doesn't offer advice about the worst offensive strategies you can have

He's not helping autry with game strategy
He's not looking for under value players
And I'm stupid for thinking he must be working on other projects

Why don't you just tell me what he does then

 

[bnoro]

Come on, we've noted constantly that "GM" for college is not the same job as the pros. What difference does the title make? Call him Associate Vice President of Sparkly Unicorns for all I care.

Quite clearly, on this board, it has led to total confusion on his role. And I'd say this board is smarter than the other internet cesspools out there.

The title is contributing to the level of "savior" they can portray him as.

I don't really care either but it's pretty obvious to see when combined with the spin machine coming out of the PS/DO.

 

[Cusefan0307]

Quite clearly, on this board, it has led to total confusion on his role. And I'd say this board is smarter than the other internet cesspools out there.

The title is contributing to the level of "savior" they can portray him as.

I don't really care either but it's pretty obvious to see when combined with the spin machine coming out of the PS/DO.

Every school that has a guy like him literally calls them the GM. Again, not sticking up for Autry. I keep saying I don't think he is the guy, but the debate being had here is mostly by people who don't even know Kline's resume and have no idea what his responsibilities are when it's easy to find with a little bit of research.

 

[Scooch]

Quite clearly, on this board, it has led to total confusion on his role. And I'd say this board is smarter than the other internet cesspools out there.

The title is contributing to the level of "savior" they can portray him as.

I don't really care either but it's pretty obvious to see when combined with the spin machine coming out of the PS/DO.

I don’t think it’s because his title is “GM”. I think it’s because it’s clear that no one on this staff has a clue how to properly evaluate and sign players in this NIL/player compensation era.

So maybe now we have one guy who can do that. Hopefully.

 

[richmondcuse03]

Because it's ridiculous to have a wunderkind analytics genius who doesn't offer advice about the worst offensive strategies you can have

He's not helping autry with game strategy
He's not looking for under value players
And I'm stupid for thinking he must be working on other projects

Why don't you just tell me what he does then

he's not an analytics genius. nobody said he was. stop saying he is. he's a scout / player analyzer.

 

[richmondcuse03]

Quite clearly, on this board, it has led to total confusion on his role. And I'd say this board is smarter than the other internet cesspools out there.

The title is contributing to the level of "savior" they can portray him as.

I don't really care either but it's pretty obvious to see when combined with the spin machine coming out of the PS/DO.

this is the same on the FB side. Our GM there is a player scout essentially. It's like this way in most programs. What a GM does in professional sports is different than in college.

And he was highly regarded in the NBA. He came back to his alma mater. Some people actually like Syracuse and enjoyed their time there.

 

[hoopsupstate]

Our football team, with the savior Fran Brown also has a GM. If people don’t see the value of Alex Kline, they are just trying to find fault with everything within the basketball program to support their negative take on the program. As a fan, I hope he knocks it out of the park.

 

[Scooch]

he's not an analytics genius. nobody said he was. stop saying he is. he's a scout / player analyzer.

Well sure, but what marketing programs did he launch this year? Huhhhh?!?!

 

[OCESIP]

Seems like his core skill is observational scouting. I’m all for someone bringing that skill to the program, since we’re clearly lacking in that ability when it comes to the portal. We struck out every which way possible last summer before he was hired.

I don’t know, man. You seem to be pretty dug in about his lack of value when you don’t read the things that explain what he’s actually up to.

I think your observation is 100% correct. He's a high level scout who supposedly has a great "feel" for evaluating individual talent.

The "observational" aspect kind of bothers me since we're talking about 1000 plus portal guys and high school talent. He has to be pretty selective going into the process to spend enough time and effort into getting a good read on perspective fits. Would like to know how his schedule actually plays out doing both road and film evaluations. He can't afford to have too many misses.

 

[bnoro]

this is the same on the FB side. Our GM there is a player scout essentially. It's like this way in most programs. What a GM does in professional sports is different than in college.

And he was highly regarded in the NBA. He came back to his alma mater. Some people actually like Syracuse and enjoyed their time there.

I UNDERSTAND WHAT KLINE'S ROLE FOR SU IS. I am literally just saying people are using him to justify keeping Red for year 3. He could be the best talent scout of all time, and I still don't think Red could get a team to the tournament.

And I'm sorry, are you saying I don't like Syracuse/enjoyed my time on the hill?

 

[Millhouse]

he's not an analytics genius. nobody said he was. stop saying he is. he's a scout / player analyzer.

DO article talks about the algorithm he and his assistant built. Maybe it's just tulyagijja
....

To pair with Kline’s scouting prowess, Tulyagijja and Kline worked together to build an algorithm to help identify and quantify talent. The algorithm is built around Kline’s scouting experience and Tulyagijja’s prior work with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ analytics department — modeling it around what worked at the NBA level.

This offseason will be the first time SU has fully used the algorithm, but Tulyagijja said it’s how the Orange found Luke Fennell and Aaron Womack in the high school circuit. Heading into last year’s portal season, Tulyagijja revealed Syracuse dove into each player’s analytics but didn’t use a specific algorithm.

“With Alex here now, I think the model hopefully is more efficient this time around,” Tulyagijja said. “Understanding that having all the money in the world, if you can’t talent evaluate, it’s not going to do you anything.”

 

[Scooch]

I UNDERSTAND WHAT KLINE'S ROLE FOR SU IS.

It’s marketing, right?

 

[Scooch]

DO article talks about the algorithm he and his assistant built. Maybe it's just tulyagijja
...

To pair with Kline’s scouting prowess, Tulyagijja and Kline worked together to build an algorithm to help identify and quantify talent. The algorithm is built around Kline’s scouting experience and Tulyagijja’s prior work with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ analytics department — modeling it around what worked at the NBA level.

This offseason will be the first time SU has fully used the algorithm, but Tulyagijja said it’s how the Orange found Luke Fennell and Aaron Womack in the high school circuit. Heading into last year’s portal season, Tulyagijja revealed Syracuse dove into each player’s analytics but didn’t use a specific algorithm.

“With Alex here now, I think the model hopefully is more efficient this time around,” Tulyagijja said. “Understanding that having all the money in the world, if you can’t talent evaluate, it’s not going to do you anything.”

I will admit that this reference to a high holy model doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. I really hope it’s just poor writing from someone who doesn’t really understand data.

 

[richmondcuse03]

DO article talks about the algorithm he and his assistant built. Maybe it's just tulyagijja
...

To pair with Kline’s scouting prowess, Tulyagijja and Kline worked together to build an algorithm to help identify and quantify talent. The algorithm is built around Kline’s scouting experience and Tulyagijja’s prior work with the Cleveland Cavaliers’ analytics department — modeling it around what worked at the NBA level.

This offseason will be the first time SU has fully used the algorithm, but Tulyagijja said it’s how the Orange found Luke Fennell and Aaron Womack in the high school circuit. Heading into last year’s portal season, Tulyagijja revealed Syracuse dove into each player’s analytics but didn’t use a specific algorithm.

“With Alex here now, I think the model hopefully is more efficient this time around,” Tulyagijja said. “Understanding that having all the money in the world, if you can’t talent evaluate, it’s not going to do you anything.”

I took that to mean it's what Tulyagiija does. I've met Alex and in talking with him, he talks in more traditional ways about basketball skills and things that don't scream analytics to me. He's a basketball junkie.

 

[Scooch]

I took that to mean it's what Tulyagiija does. I've met Alex and in talking with him, he talks in more traditional ways about basketball skills and things that don't scream analytics to me. He's a basketball junkie.

Yeah, reading between the lines, I'm guessing Kline gave some input on factors that should be in this model that weren't in it previously.

I don't get the sense that Kline is buried in SQL 8 hours a day. He's got too many marketing responsibilities to waste that kind of time.

 

[kirbivore]

I don’t think it’s because his title is “GM”. I think it’s because it’s clear that no one on this staff has a clue how to properly evaluate and sign players in this NIL/player compensation era.

So maybe now we have one guy who can do that. Hopefully.

but will they listen to him?

 

[Scooch]

but will they listen to him?

I think the staff may want to use the Costanza strategy and do everything opposite of their first thought this offseason.

 

[oldpinepoint]

I think the staff may want to use the Costanza strategy and do everything opposite of their first thought this offseason.

That might just work….

 

[Millhouse]

I will admit that this reference to a high holy model doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. I really hope it’s just poor writing from someone who doesn’t really understand data.

If you're like me, red flags go up when you hear anyone say algorithm. I hear that and I translate it to made up assumptions changed to justify a conclusion in an Excel spreadsheet that is full of formula errors that no one cares to check

Their model isn't going to be better than what they could get on stathead for 10 bucks a month

So I wonder what kind of modeling on internal data this underling might be working on that isn't already done

 

[Scooch]

If you're like me, red flags go up when you hear anyone say algorithm. I hear that and I translate it to made up assumptions changed to justify a conclusion in an Excel spreadsheet that is full of formula errors that no one cares to check

Their model isn't going to be better than what they could get on stathead for 10 bucks a month

So I wonder what kind of modeling on internal data this underling might be working on that isn't already done

I mentioned it earlier, but to me the biggest challenge with basketball analytics is being able to differentiate individual performance from team-influenced performance. And the next biggest challenge is to determine if past individual performance is predictive of future performance, given the changes in level of play/competition, role, team composition, etc.

I know analytics can be an effective tool. I 100% want SU to be in that realm.

My concern is that high school, international and college data is noisy and a very small sample. This isn't like looking at hundreds of NBA games.

 

[kingtidge]

I mentioned it earlier, but to me the biggest challenge with basketball analytics is being able to differentiate individual performance from team-influenced performance. And the next biggest challenge is to determine if past individual performance is predictive of future performance, given the changes in level of play/competition, role, team composition, etc.

I know analytics can be an effective tool. I 100% want SU to be in that realm.

My concern is that high school, international and college data is noisy and a very small sample. This isn't like looking at hundreds of NBA games.

Yeah, it's tough job to run predictive analytics on young players, for sure.

HS players... we know the jump from HS to D1 is massive and we know that year 1 to year 2 at D1 is a huge bellweather year for a young player, as well. A lot of BIG ifs in that 2 year cycle that a big data algo is going to be hardpressed to crunch right with good predictive analytics methinks.

Targeting experienced players in the portal is a lot more analytics-friendly, however and more pro-style oriented in the analytics.

 

[Millhouse]

I mentioned it earlier, but to me the biggest challenge with basketball analytics is being able to differentiate individual performance from team-influenced performance. And the next biggest challenge is to determine if past individual performance is predictive of future performance, given the changes in level of play/competition, role, team composition, etc.

I know analytics can be an effective tool. I 100% want SU to be in that realm.

My concern is that high school, international and college data is noisy and a very small sample. This isn't like looking at hundreds of NBA games.

The odds that anyone is cracking that code at SU is so low. The odds that anyone above them can evaluate how well their models do and can tell whether it's just good or bad luck are even lower

I think the biggest bang for their buck would be someone with knowledge of research that's already done with authority to communicate with and judge autry on it

Is this model going to inform who their gm (who knows everyone) is going to go after? I doubt it, they will probably just tweak the assumption knobs until the model spits out that they should go after the players they already went after

I think it would be smarter for wildhack to have them work on pricing or whatever than transfer modeling that will never override Kline's relationships

We are 8 points per game different from the 60th team in the country. Take fewer idiotic shots, stop going under idiotic screens, and stop paying 52 pickup to form lineups, and call it analytics. If they understand at all what good teams *don't* do, this wouldn't be some disaster. Get on the bubble and then cry for money

 

[Millhouse]

Yeah, it's tough job to run predictive analytics on young players, for sure.

HS players... we know the jump from HS to D1 is massive and we know that year 1 to year 2 at D1 is a huge bellweather year for a young player, as well. A lot of BIG ifs in that 2 year cycle that a big data algo is going to be hardpressed to crunch right with good predictive analytics methinks.

Targeting experienced players in the portal is a lot more analytics-friendly, however and more pro-style oriented in the analytics.

There is no big data here
There aren't that many players and there aren't that many games
It's just fancy talk

 

[kingtidge]

There is no big data here
There aren't that many players and there aren't that many games
It's just fancy talk

It's not and there is plenty of data.

But it is hard to crunch and predictively-model well.