Diving into the KenPom Player of the Year Thing
Alright, so I kept hearing about this “KenPom Player of the Year” award. Sounded a bit different, you know, not your usual media hype thing. More about the numbers, they said. So, I figured, why not try to get a feel for it myself? See what it’s all about. I like digging into stuff like this.
My First Steps: Trying to Make Sense of It
So, the first thing I did was just try to watch a load of college basketball games. Seemed logical, right? But pretty quick I realized this KenPom award wasn’t just about who looked like the best player, or who scored the most. It was deeper than that. I had to actually go to the KenPom site. Man, that place is a goldmine, but also a bit overwhelming at first with all those stats.
I started poking around the player ratings. Things like Offensive Rating, eFG%, True Shooting Percentage, and Player Efficiency Rating (PER) – though KenPom has his own special sauce, of course. At the beginning, it was just a mess of numbers to me. I’d see a guy have a huge game, drop like 35 points, and then I’d check his KenPom metrics, and they wouldn’t be as amazing as I thought. That was a bit confusing, I gotta say.
The Mid-Season Routine: Tracking and Guessing
It sort of became a habit after a while. I’d find myself checking the KenPom site pretty regularly, especially the player rankings page, to see who was moving up, who was taking a tumble. I had a few guys I was personally keeping an eye on, players I thought were having great seasons. I’d be looking at their stats after each game, trying to figure out if it would boost their KenPom numbers.
- I remember spending time trying to compare players from totally different situations. Like, a star on a mid-major team versus a key player on a national title contender. How does the system even weigh that? Still trying to fully wrap my head around all the adjustments, to be honest.
- There were definitely moments I thought, “Okay, this player has got to be the frontrunner!” Then, maybe they’d have a couple of less efficient games, or someone else would just go on an absolute tear, and the whole picture would change.
It’s funny, because you really do start watching the games with a different eye. You’re not just looking at the scoreboard or the highlight dunks. You start noticing the efficiency, the decision-making, the stuff that doesn’t always make the highlight reel but clearly feeds into these advanced metrics.
Figuring Out the Vibe (I Think)
After following it for a good chunk of a season, I started to get a better feel for what the KenPom Player of the Year is really about. It’s not just about being the highest scorer or the most famous guy. It’s heavily weighted towards incredible efficiency and making a massive, positive impact on your team’s performance, usually on a per-possession basis. It’s less about the story or the media narrative and much more about the cold, hard statistical output. Which, in its own way, is pretty cool. It gives a different perspective than the other awards.
I found myself appreciating players who might not have been the flashiest, but who consistently put up amazing advanced statistical lines. The guys who just did everything right, according to the numbers.
So, How Did My “Practice” Go?
Well, the big question: did I actually manage to predict who would win the KenPom Player of the Year? Let’s just say my little project was more about understanding the process than perfectly calling the shot. I definitely got a much better sense of what the award values and how it highlights certain types of players.
Sometimes my hunches were in the ballpark, other times I was way off. It’s a tough award to predict because the formula is complex, and it sees things or weighs things differently than a human eye might. But yeah, it was a fun little experiment. It made me dive into college basketball stats in a way I hadn’t before. No longer just looking at points and rebounds if you’re trying to figure out the KenPom POY. It was a good way to get deeper into the season, that’s for sure. Made following along even more interesting.