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Statistics MVP: Grad Student Rates College Athletes

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Photo by Scott Daly

Many junior high students like to watch sports, but few use statistics to accurately predict the NBA’s most valuable player. Zachary Knowlton, who is graduating this month with a master’s degree in statistics, is the exception.

Knowlton based his graduate work on a 2002 paper by professional statisticians Chris White and Scott Berry. The paper ranked players based on expected points per play according to field position, downs and yards to go. But while this paper’s NFL rankings were based only on raw points, Knowlton and his colleagues added coaches’ rankings to enhance the model.

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