For our datathon hack, we were interested in comparing Duke basketball players and teams throughout history. Below you will find two comparison tools.

On the left, you can view and compare each player’s average “efficiency” over the course of a season. Player efficiency is John Hollinger’s all-in-one player rating statistic, which takes into account important statistics to give a good idea of a player’s overall performance each game. Here is the equation we used to calculate player efficiency:

(points + rebounds + assists + steals + blocks − Missed FG − Missed FT - turnovers) / games played

On the right, you can compare the offensive, defensive, and overall ratings of Blue Devil teams each year. To calculate team ratings, we used the accepted metric of (total points/total possessions) * 100 for offensive rating and (opponent’s total points/opponent’s total possessions) * 100 for defensive rating. The overall team rating is the difference between these two values. To calculate total possessions, we used the following equation:

FGA - OREB + TO + (0.4 x FTA) = total number of possessions

This equation is always used for calculating possessions since basketball possessions can only end in a field goal attempt, and offensive rebound, a turnover, or a free throw. The factor by which the free throw is multiplied by may vary between .4 and .5 in some versions of this equation, but as long as the value is kept constant for the comparisons, any possible error from this value is insignificant.