Variance in college hoops results: Marshall & S. Mississippi

[BlackSquirrels]

How much information do we gain about one team being better than another in one basketball game? In my opinion, not very much. Variance plays a huge role in hoops over 40 minutes. As Exhibit A in my argument, I present this season's series between Marshall and Southern Mississippi.

January 23, 2013: Southern Miss 102 Marshall 46

March 5, 2013: Marshall 88 Southern Miss 84

This was not a case of injuries affecting outcomes because the box scores show that everyone who participated in the 56-point destruction played in last night's game.

The other thing I noticed while perusing last night's results is UNC-Asheville's loss in the first round of the Big South Conference tournament. They finished 10-6 in conference play this year and had a pretty slim chance of making the big dance, but now we know for sure that nobody will have to put up with those whiners this year.

 

[Marsh01]

How much information do we gain about one team being better than another in one basketball game? In my opinion, not very much. Variance plays a huge role in hoops over 40 minutes. As Exhibit A in my argument, I present this season's series between Marshall and Southern Mississippi.

January 23, 2013: Southern Miss 102 Marshall 46

March 5, 2013: Marshall 88 Southern Miss 84

This was not a case of injuries affecting outcomes because the box scores show that everyone who participated in the 56-point destruction played in last night's game.

The other thing I noticed while perusing last night's results is UNC-Asheville's loss in the first round of the Big South Conference tournament. They finished 10-6 in conference play this year and had a pretty slim chance of making the big dance, but now we know for sure that nobody will have to put up with those whiners this year.

I followed that entire Asheville game yesterday and was not sad to see them lose.

They were like 16-15 overall so they needed to win that tournament to have a prayer.