Reply to thread

Message: [QUOTE="Topdawg, post: 4631915, member: 5063"] Single elimination tournaments have a small probability of identifying the best team. The problem of ordering teams (players), best to worst, was studied in 1883 by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson who was a lecturer in mathematics at Oxford. Later in life he became famous under his pen name Lewis Carroll - the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other books! For the most recent tournament, the 538 predictions before the start of the tournament for the probability of winning the championship was 68% for South Carolina, 5% for UConn, and 3% for LSU. Correspondingly, it was 3% for UConn (Men). The South Carolina prediction is an unusually high probability. We know who won, and we may argue we know who the best teams in the tournament were. But were they the best teams in 2022/2023. The best teams have a higher probability of winning tournaments where the format is like the NBA (best of many games) or World Cup Soccer (Pool followed by single elimination). Single game elimination is likely more exciting for the fans because on any given night, the best teams can be upset. Since this thread is about Azzi, I shall draw the connection between the study of single elimination formats and the likelihood of players getting injured. It is hard to predict which players will get injured and which players will not. The fact that Azzi has been injured before does not make her more likely to be injured in the future unless she either started out with structural/physical issues or has not healed from recent injuries. In a contact sport, people do get injured. Odds are that probability of injury will revert to the mean and since Azzi has already been injured, she may go the rest of her playing career without getting injured at a level that limits her playing time. That is my wish. Azzi and Paige will be back and be ready to show us in games that they can make 11 out of 12 three point baskets, as a recent Azzi video showed! [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach