| Does Getting Those Ground Balls Really Matter? Statistics and Their Relationship to Win-Loss Records in Men’s and Women’s Division I Lacrosse | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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The percentage of shots that find the net is related to shot selection, shooting accuracy, and, of course, goalies’ ability to make saves. In both men's and women's Division I, the association between shooting percentage and win-loss record (WL) and computer power ratings (PR) is strong. Looking at the section for men, teams with a shooting percentage above 30% had a WL of 0.649 and PR of 94.0. Conversely, teams shooting 24% or worse had a WL of just 0.263 and a PR of 76.6. Both the tables and graphs show the detail. The margin statistic, which you'll see more of in later sections, is simply the differential between team and opponent. Here it's the difference in the percentages. For count-type statistics (e.g., ground balls), it's the difference team and opponent per-game averages. In many cases, the margin is more revealing — it tends to reduce the effects of schedule strength and scorekeeping practices — so you'll see it used much more in later sections. Graphs are available for each statistic; just use the link beneath the tables to view/close them. They show the average win-loss percentage for the teams in each of the five groups. Clicking on the graphs will produce a full-size [911 x 623] version in a new browser window.
Women's Division I
We turn next to gaining possession of the ball via face-offs and draw controls. |
