Syracuse Basketball: ‘Jim Boeheim is forefather of analytics’ says Jay Bilas

ESPN analyst Jay Bilas on a recent podcast revealed that Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim is actually the father of analytics.

Despite being a Hall of Famer, it doesn’t seem like Syracuse basketball head coach Jim Boeheim gets the respect he deserves. At 73 years of age there are many people who think he’s over the hill, doesn’t have it anymore, and can’t relate to the common player today.

The other criticism that is heard every year is about the ‘archaic’ 2-3 zone that Boeheim has employed for the last 20 plus years. Yet Boeheim has a NCAA championship, five Final-fours, and countless other accolades. But there’s one you probably don’t know about, him being the ‘forefather of analytics’.

ESPN college basketball analyst Jay Bilas appeared on the ML Sports Platter and gave the juicy details:

"“Jim Boeheim is one of the smartest basketball minds I’ve ever been around. He was analytical about the game, before analytics ever came into the game. Boeheim sees everything, nothing gets by him. He doesn’t allow people on the outside affect how he coaches or analyzes things.”"

Analytics started at a primal level: on the backs of trading cards and in your local newspaper’s sport section. It has evolved into an essential piece of every major sport and if you’re not doing it, you’re only hurting yourself.

In an adapt and die universe, Boeheim has proven he has clearly adapted. Here’s the obvious statement, Syracuse isn’t that attractive. There’s cold weather, there’s the zone (NBA plays man-on-man), and if you just look at the prospects that are coming in, Syracuse isn’t doing as well in that department as the Dukes or Kentucky’s etc.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because that’s where analytics come in. If Syracuse isn’t grabbing five star prospects left and right, then they need to get less heralded prospects and turn them into better players in your program and you can do that by looking at deeper analytics.

Points per game and some of those sexy stats are obvious, but some of the deeper analytics nowadays include these:

• Shooting percentages
• Per 40 minute numbers

But again, it’s more than just those stats, it’s about players reaching certain benchmarks within those stats. Those benchmarks are determined by past prospects and there successes and failures. So for example, if a certain player, at a certain position, shoots a certain percentage then you prorate that over 40 minutes. Then you can project how well they can do, a key for Syracuse in the recruiting/scouting department.

The moral of this story is, don’t judge a book by its’ cover. I can understand why you’d think a 73 year old would have no clue what ‘analytics’ is, but ironically he’s the guy who used it before anyone else.