Quote:
Originally Posted by Texas Aggie
I've never really thought to compare a team's propensity to travel or pick up a charge to their getting the ball stolen or throwing it out of bounds (if in the control group). I'm as huge a critic of the NBA's officiating system as anyone -- I think its a joke -- but I can't necessarily agree that a 5 to 10 percent difference in these so-called discretionary vs. non-discretionary items means much of anything.
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I'll bet I can show statisically that in the last 3-4 minutes of a close game, officials tend to call more fouls on the team that's behind. Gasp!
That's an obvious bias towards the team that is ahead! Stop the presses!
(Well, as long as I don't take into account the fact the team that's behind usually wants to foul. Wouldn't want facts to get in the way of a good story, eh?)
While I'm not an expert on statistics, and I haven't played one on TV either, the one item that jumped out at me was the fact I didn't see any mention in the study about including the variable on how teams play differently when they are ahead vs. when they are behind. It would make sense there are some calls that happen more often under the scenario of playing from behind; playing harder to get the ball back vs. protecting the ball, etc.