One of the great things about leveraging a data-centric approach to basketball is that it provides a very system agnostic way of understanding your team, the best ways to use your players, and defeating an opponent. Whether your team likes to run and gun, grind out possessions, relies on the three or wants to live in the paint, a solid analytical framework can be easily used to monitor a team’s progress and identify optimal decisions. For example, a metric such as points per possession doesn’t care how those points are generated or how many possessions a given team has in 40 minutes. The whole goal is to maximize the # of points relative to the # of possessions.
Here at Pivot Analysis, we have worked tirelessly to ensure that our subscribers can easily monitor their teams and track the metrics that are the most important to them and overlay this data with their individual strategies. In 2023, our users experienced substantial success across the board. In fact, in each division of NCAA Women’s basketball a partner of Pivot Analysis had a win streak of at least 9 games.
One of our newest teams, the MIT Engineers, rebounded from a tough start in one of the toughest D3 WBB conferences in the country to win a school record 9 straight games in conference and finish 2nd in the NEWMAC!
Image taken from MIT Team Report showing significant Offensive and Defensive growth over the season.
Coach Lucia Robinson-Griggs and her staff implemented Pivot Analysis in the weekly prep as well as in support of player-centric skill development.
“We loved working with Pivot Analysis this season! Our whole staff looked forward to receiving our reports and using them to help us dig deeper into our lineups, practice planning, and skill development. Without having a full-time staff, working with Christien and Morgan allowed us time to focus on other areas, while providing concise reports to help support our work with players on the court.”
MIT WBB Head Coach Lucia Robinson-Griggs
“Through digging deeper into the various reports we received, skill development and practice planning were greatly impacted. I knew that I could always check in with follow-up questions or additional data that I was curious about to inform next steps. After using this information to advise some of our decisions with regards to skill development focal points and opportunities for growth to our overall performance, we saw huge strides in our second semester growth, including having the longest win streak in our program’s history. We went from being a pre-season #5 pick, to finishing the regular season tied for second place.”
In Division II, Dave Slifer and the University of Central Missouri have been a standard bearer for years including a national championship in 2018. Things started well once again for the Jennies in 2023 as they reeled off 16 straight and were ranked in the top 25 the whole season. Coach Slifer has partnered with Pivot Analysis for a few years now and has expertly integrated lineup data and advanced metrics into his weekly workflow.
Image taken from UCONN MBB Team Report showing single player on-court metrics.
“I enjoy the advantage our team benefits by utilizing Pivot Analysis. One of the hardest decisions we make as coaches is knowing who/when/how much to play different players. Pivot Analysis is a great tool to utilize for this decision-making process.”
Caption: Central Missouri WBB Head Coach David Slifer
“Early in the week (after our Thursday/Saturday conference games) I pull up the updated Pivot Analysis stats for our own team and make decisions based on analytics, not just my own feelings and mindset. Mid to early week we pull up the opponents for the week and determine how to attack them offensively and defensively.”
Image taken from South Carolina WBB Team Report showing detailed player stat trends and grades over the season.
The Illinois State Redbirds have had back-to-back extremely successful seasons in the MVC. Pivot has been proud to partner with Head Coach Kristen Gillespie the last few years and are fortunate to have had the chance to work with a staff that has shown itself to be so good at building and sustaining a winning basketball program. Following up their 2022 MVC conference tournament title, the Redbirds won the regular season this season including a run of 11 straight wins to start 2023. By monitoring the data from the beginning, they were able to make minor adjustments to the rotation that maximized the team’s potential entering the home stretch of the season. Associate Head Coach Scott Gillespie had this to say about working with Pivot Analysis.
“The insights we gained helped us tremendously with our subbing patterns. We felt very comfortable going into conference play and especially the second half of conference with what lineups were most effective together.”
Illinois State WBB Associate Head Coach Scott Gillespie
“We loved the timely fashion in which things are delivered. There are so many functions and uses we get out of it each year. I feel like we find a few things each year that stick out more and more.”
The team at Pivot Analysis has worked hard the last several years to ensure that we can provide a high-quality level of service across all levels of competition in the NCAA. We currently partner with men’s and women’s teams at every tier in every division, from perennial national title contenders to teams vying for their conference championship to teams looking to develop their players and maximize their rosters. For coaches interested in maximizing their rotations or evaluating their players in a new light, feel free to contact us at www.pivotanalysis.com or email us at [email protected].
