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5 things to know from UNC's Basketball Analytics Summit

Dwayne Ballen (left) moderates a panel with Gabe Farkas, Patrick Lucey and Ken Pomeroy at the SPEIA Basketball Analytics Summit hosted at Kenan-Flagler Business School on Saturday.

Dwayne Ballen (left) moderates a panel with Gabe Farkas, Patrick Lucey and Ken Pomeroy at the SPEIA Basketball Analytics Summit hosted at Kenan-Flagler Business School on Saturday.

Sports and statistics converged at UNC this weekend in the third annual SPEIA Basketball Analytics Summit, hosted at the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Here are the five things to know from the event, which took place on Friday and Saturday.

Dean Oliver's fingerprints were everywhere.

Though he was not prominently involved in this year's event, analytics pioneer Dean Oliver left his mark on the weekend's action.

Oliver, a UNC graduate who spoke at the first Basketball Analytics Summit two years ago, was mentioned as a primary inspiration for many of the speakers — including college basketball statistician Ken Pomeroy, who prominently uses Oliver's concept of the "Four Factors" in his own model.

The San Antonio Spurs are the NBA champions of analytics.

Despite the recent attention paid to the analytical approach of the Golden State Warriors — who won a record-setting 73 games this season — it was San Antonio that drew most of the praise at the summit.

Many lauded the Spurs for their sustained excellence on the court, which San Antonio Director of Basketball Analytics Gabe Farkas attributed to the organization's continued commitment to analytics.

Analytics affect the entire industry.

Much of the current focus on analytics revolves around player development and coaching tactics. But many other sports professionals utilize data in unique ways.

A panel of marketing experts discussed how they use advanced analytics to sell tickets and attract clients, while Noel Nash — vice president of ESPN Stats and Info — explained how statistics can inform gamblers, contextualize in-game situations and act as an integral part of journalistic storytelling.

The potential of statistical analysis is limitless.

The prevalence of analytics in sports has grown rapidly since the early days of the "Moneyball" era, with more teams and players relying on statistics than ever before. And with the technological advances made in recent years, the possibilities are seemingly endless.

This year's summit featured the work of many innovative models — one charted precise passing locations to reveal a short-yardage trend in football, and another tracked movement and data sets in basketball to accurately replicate real-life plays.

The future is coming soon.

While most statistical analyses focus on situations from the past and present, predictive models are becoming increasingly popular.

Students from Stanford presented their study on projecting NBA prospects as superstars or busts, and Pomeroy hinted at integrating team projections into his own model within the next year. Dr. Patrick Lucey — director of data science at STATS — even discussed data-driven virtual reality training for athletes as a realistic goal in the near future.

@CJacksonCowart

sports@dailytarheel.com

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