Project 1C: NCAA Basketball Tournament Data

Overview

This data set contains data on every men’s NCAA basketball tournament game ever played.

Details

This data set contains every NCAA Basketball Tournament game ever played. The tournament has been held every year since 1939. Years 1939-1990 were obtained from “The Encyclopedia of the NCAABasketball Tournament”, by Jim Savage, Dell Publishing, NY,NY (1990). Years 1991-1995 were obtained from selected major U.S. newspapers.

Data Description

Variable	Description
year	Year
w_team	Winning School
w_score	Winning Score
l_team	Losing School
l_score	Losing Score

\(^*\) The last game listed for each year is the championship game.

ncaa_data = read.table("data/basketball_use.dat")
colnames(ncaa_data) = c("year", "w_team", "w_score", "l_team", "l_score")
head(ncaa_data)

Data Files

• basketball_use.dat

Objectives

The goal is to find a distribution that fits the distribution of the total score of the games. In doing this, please address the following:

• Provide numerical and graphical summaries of the total score of the games.
  
• Consider fitting some of the known distributions you’ve discussed in class, both this semester and last semester, to this variable. For each distribution you consider, explain how you are estimating the relevant parameters (e.g., are you using the MLEs? MOMs? etc.).
• Provide some assessment of fit of the distribution to the data. For example, q-q plots are useful for this purpose.
• Make some conclusions about modeling this variable.
• Look for some other interesting features of this data. For example, plot year versus total score. You can also try pulling out all of the games involving OSU, for example, and looking at their scores and years of appearance in the tournament.