College Basketball Advanced Stats Overview: ‘Four Factors’ Formulas and Meanings

Prior to the season, I wrote a number of posts centered around advanced metrics and tempo-free stats, but with more college basketball writers and analysts starting to use them, it seemed like a good idea to provide a brief summary of the key stats and how they are calculated. Pace and Points Per Possession (PPP) The purpose behind looking at scoring on a per-possession basis is that it normalizes teams who play at a variety of different tempos. For instance, VMI ranks third in the nation at 83.1 points per game, but they play at one of the fastest paces in the country and don’t shoot the ball very well.  And just because Wisconsin is 252nd overall in scoring doesn’t mean they are inherently terrible offensively.  Ultimately it boils down to a quantity versus quality proposition. The first piece of the calculation is to arrive at the number of possessions in the game, which is defined as: Field Goal Attempts – Offensive Rebounds + Turnovers + 0.475 * Free Throw Attempts A more deta...