March Madness Team Profiling Guide

March Madness Team Profiling Guide

March Madness is one of the best college sporting events. It's got a ton of games, it's exciting, it's easy for fans to get involved, and it's extremely unpredictable. 64 teams will battle it out to determine which of the 9.2 quintillion possible outcomes will become a reality. There are a few things that are guaranteed to happen. Highly ranked teams will lose, underdogs will become fan favorites, and your friends, family, and colleagues will complain about their bracket. The key to not being one of those people complaining is information. We can use the Fanalysis app to profile teams and determine how they play down the stretch during any circumstance. With this guide, you can profile probable tournament teams to see how they play under various conditions. This will allow you to take a data-driven approach to filling out your bracket on a match-up by match-up basis.Now that you've read or skipped past the intro, here are the Team Profiling instructions.

Team Profiling Instructions

1.  Download the Fanalysis iOS app. You can watch tutorial videos on how to use the app here.
2. Follow likely NCAA tournament teams
3. Check into those teams games when they play with the stats below applied when they are appropriate.
4. Create new stats to track your own unique insights
5. As you profile teams, share your findings with us through social media so we can compile the information into a draft guide.
6. Follow Fanalysis on twitter to get updates and reminders about team profiling.

Team Profiling Suggested Stats

Opponent Based

1. Impact mismatches by position: If opponent has height, speed, or some other advantage at a position.
2. Opponent primary offensive play-style: Is the opponent a jump shooting team? A post oriented team? A slashing team?
3. Opponent RPI ranking: Track this in groups of 5. So, RPI 1-5, RPI 6-10, RPI 11-15, etc.
4. Opponent primary defensive scheme: Man to man? 2-3 Zone? Etc.

Game Conditions

1. Game Location:  Is it a Home game , Away game, or Neutral game.
2. Distance Traveled: If it is an Away or Neutral game, how far did the team travel? Track this in groups 1-250 miles, 251- 500 miles, 501 miles- 750 miles, 751 - 999 miles, over 1000 miles.
3. Rest: How many days of rest/prep time has the team had since their last game?
4. Game Time: Is the game in the morning, afternoon, night, or late night? 
5. Crowd: Which team has the support of the crowd? 

Intuition

1. Opponent Pace: Does the opponent play at a slow, average, or fast pace?
2. Perimeter Defense: Does the opponent have a poor, average, or great perimeter defense?
3. Rim Protection: Does the opponent have poor, average, or great rim protection?
4. Impact Player: Does the opponent have a player who can take over a game offensively or defensively?