You may have noticed some new stats tables on our college basketball site. We recently added conference-only statistics for players and teams, which you can find on both player pages and on our team season pages. We've made these available going back to the 2010-2011 season. And be sure to check out the conference rankings on the team pages, so you can easily find out, for example, why Virginia has 9 wins in ACC play - part of the reason is efficient shooting (2nd - FG%) and strong defense (1st - Opp Pts/G), limiting opponents to a 38.4 FG%.

Who's been the most dominant D-I player in conference play this season? That distinction might go to Billy Baron, who's doing a little bit of everything for Canisius, scoring 25+ points per game and shooting 44.4% on 3-pointers so far against MAAC opponents.

Olympics at Sports Reference

Are you getting excited for Sochi? SR has full Olympic Results with every medalist and athlete in Olympic History. Olympics at Sports Reference.

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As Nate Silver tweeted out earlier today, Neil Paine is leaving Sports Reference early next month to join Nate's new FiveThirtyEight.com. I know I speak for everyone here at SR when I say I'm feeling a mix of sadness that on a daily basis we won't get to tap Neil's encyclopedic knowledge of European NBA players, his knowledge of pretty much every sabermetric study ever done, his patience dealing with every kind of user complaint, and his wit, pluck, and genuine enthusiasm for his work. But also happiness for Neil that his writing and thinking is getting the platform it justly deserves. I know someday we'll be bragging that we knew Neil Paine before he was a bigshot. :)

I'll be anticipating his articles and I suggest you search them out as well when the site launches in early 2014.

Just a quick note that we've added the Recruiting Services Consensus Index (RSCI) high school rankings to BBR, going back to the HS class of 1998. These will now show up on yearly RSCI pages, as well as player pages (under the bio section -> "recruiting rank") when applicable.

If you're not familiar with the RSCI service, they cull together various national recruiting lists and combine them together into a consensus ranking (like DraftExpress, we've also tweaked the basic RSCI by including prep-school players for their final year of the recruiting process, which is also why some players may be listed multiple years). The rankings you see at BBR are the final standings for each year; for more info on how the process works, as well as additional data like in-season rankings (fall, pre-summer, etc.), be sure to go to RSCIhoops.com.

Happy Holidays from Sports Reference

Here's to a great 2013 and a blessed 2014.

If you're also a Baseball-Reference user, you might recognize this new feature we recently added to Basketball-Reference:

If not, it's a sparkline that shows the team's scoring margin for every game of the season, with green representing wins, red representing losses, and the height of the bar representing the margin of the game. We think it's a great way to visualize the peaks and valleys of a team's season, and we hope it adds your BBR experience.

Today, we added a new feature to Basketball-Reference: historical team Pace Factors and Offensive/Defensive Rating estimates.

As of yesterday, we only had Pace and ORtg/DRtg for NBA teams going back to 1973-74, the first season in which the league tracked team/opponent turnovers and offensive rebounds (which are, of course, necessary to the possessions formula). However, it is possible to estimate possessions for years prior to '74 -- an idea I developed casually at the old BBR Blog in 2010, and one which was expanded on in more detail by ElGee35 at his (now-defunct) blog in 2012.

Read the rest of this entry

In light of the Eastern Conference's "embarrassing" showing in games against the West so far this year, here's a rundown of how each conference has fared against the other for every year since 1951 (before 1971, the NBA had Eastern and Western "divisions" which were de facto conferences):

+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
| year_id | east_w | east_l | east_wpct | west_w | west_l | west_wpct | e_vs_w | w_vs_e | e_h2h | w_h2h |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
|    2014 |    118 |    155 | 43.2%     |    157 |    120 | 56.7%     |     26 |     63 | 29.2% | 70.8% |
|    2013 |    577 |    651 | 47.0%     |    652 |    578 | 53.0%     |    188 |    262 | 41.8% | 58.2% |
|    2012 |    474 |    516 | 47.9%     |    516 |    474 | 52.1%     |    114 |    156 | 42.2% | 57.8% |
|    2011 |    579 |    651 | 47.1%     |    651 |    579 | 52.9%     |    189 |    261 | 42.0% | 58.0% |
|    2010 |    594 |    636 | 48.3%     |    636 |    594 | 51.7%     |    204 |    246 | 45.3% | 54.7% |
|    2009 |    621 |    609 | 50.5%     |    609 |    621 | 49.5%     |    231 |    219 | 51.3% | 48.7% |
|    2008 |    582 |    648 | 47.3%     |    648 |    582 | 52.7%     |    192 |    258 | 42.7% | 57.3% |
|    2007 |    583 |    647 | 47.4%     |    647 |    583 | 52.6%     |    193 |    257 | 42.9% | 57.1% |
|    2006 |    588 |    642 | 47.8%     |    642 |    588 | 52.2%     |    198 |    252 | 44.0% | 56.0% |
|    2005 |    584 |    646 | 47.5%     |    646 |    584 | 52.5%     |    194 |    256 | 43.1% | 56.9% |
|    2004 |    559 |    671 | 45.4%     |    630 |    518 | 54.9%     |    154 |    266 | 36.7% | 63.3% |
|    2003 |    575 |    655 | 46.7%     |    614 |    534 | 53.5%     |    170 |    250 | 40.5% | 59.5% |
|    2002 |    593 |    637 | 48.2%     |    596 |    552 | 51.9%     |    188 |    232 | 44.8% | 55.2% |
|    2001 |    566 |    664 | 46.0%     |    623 |    525 | 54.3%     |    161 |    259 | 38.3% | 61.7% |
|    2000 |    598 |    632 | 48.6%     |    591 |    557 | 51.5%     |    193 |    227 | 46.0% | 54.0% |
|    1999 |    379 |    371 | 50.5%     |    346 |    354 | 49.4%     |     46 |     38 | 54.8% | 45.2% |
|    1998 |    648 |    582 | 52.7%     |    541 |    607 | 47.1%     |    243 |    177 | 57.9% | 42.1% |
|    1997 |    647 |    583 | 52.6%     |    542 |    606 | 47.2%     |    242 |    178 | 57.6% | 42.4% |
|    1996 |    619 |    611 | 50.3%     |    570 |    578 | 49.7%     |    214 |    206 | 51.0% | 49.0% |
|    1995 |    550 |    598 | 47.9%     |    557 |    509 | 52.3%     |    158 |    206 | 43.4% | 56.6% |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
| year_id | east_w | east_l | east_wpct | west_w | west_l | west_wpct | e_vs_w | w_vs_e | e_h2h | w_h2h |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
|    1994 |    562 |    586 | 49.0%     |    545 |    521 | 51.1%     |    170 |    194 | 46.7% | 53.3% |
|    1993 |    583 |    565 | 50.8%     |    524 |    542 | 49.2%     |    191 |    173 | 52.5% | 47.5% |
|    1992 |    573 |    575 | 49.9%     |    534 |    532 | 50.1%     |    181 |    183 | 49.7% | 50.3% |
|    1991 |    521 |    545 | 48.9%     |    586 |    562 | 51.0%     |    170 |    194 | 46.7% | 53.3% |
|    1990 |    517 |    549 | 48.5%     |    590 |    558 | 51.4%     |    166 |    198 | 45.6% | 54.4% |
|    1989 |    522 |    462 | 53.0%     |    503 |    563 | 47.2%     |    186 |    126 | 59.6% | 40.4% |
|    1988 |    464 |    438 | 51.4%     |    479 |    505 | 48.7%     |    145 |    119 | 54.9% | 45.1% |
|    1987 |    465 |    437 | 51.6%     |    478 |    506 | 48.6%     |    146 |    118 | 55.3% | 44.7% |
|    1986 |    460 |    442 | 51.0%     |    483 |    501 | 49.1%     |    141 |    123 | 53.4% | 46.6% |
|    1985 |    462 |    440 | 51.2%     |    481 |    503 | 48.9%     |    143 |    121 | 54.2% | 45.8% |
|    1984 |    461 |    441 | 51.1%     |    482 |    502 | 49.0%     |    142 |    122 | 53.8% | 46.2% |
|    1983 |    458 |    444 | 50.8%     |    485 |    499 | 49.3%     |    139 |    125 | 52.7% | 47.3% |
|    1982 |    461 |    441 | 51.1%     |    482 |    502 | 49.0%     |    142 |    122 | 53.8% | 46.2% |
|    1981 |    466 |    436 | 51.7%     |    477 |    507 | 48.5%     |    147 |    117 | 55.7% | 44.3% |
|    1980 |    454 |    448 | 50.3%     |    448 |    454 | 49.7%     |    124 |    118 | 51.2% | 48.8% |
|    1979 |    425 |    477 | 47.1%     |    477 |    425 | 52.9%     |    205 |    257 | 44.4% | 55.6% |
|    1978 |    428 |    474 | 47.5%     |    474 |    428 | 52.5%     |    208 |    254 | 45.0% | 55.0% |
|    1977 |    436 |    466 | 48.3%     |    466 |    436 | 51.7%     |    216 |    246 | 46.8% | 53.2% |
|    1976 |    388 |    350 | 52.6%     |    350 |    388 | 47.4%     |    181 |    143 | 55.9% | 44.1% |
|    1975 |    378 |    360 | 51.2%     |    360 |    378 | 48.8%     |    171 |    153 | 52.8% | 47.2% |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
| year_id | east_w | east_l | east_wpct | west_w | west_l | west_wpct | e_vs_w | w_vs_e | e_h2h | w_h2h |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
|    1974 |    315 |    341 | 48.0%     |    382 |    356 | 51.8%     |    131 |    157 | 45.5% | 54.5% |
|    1973 |    318 |    338 | 48.5%     |    379 |    359 | 51.4%     |    134 |    154 | 46.5% | 53.5% |
|    1972 |    283 |    373 | 43.1%     |    414 |    324 | 56.1%     |    125 |    215 | 36.8% | 63.2% |
|    1971 |    291 |    365 | 44.4%     |    406 |    332 | 55.0%     |    139 |    213 | 39.5% | 60.5% |
|    1970 |    309 |    265 | 53.8%     |    265 |    309 | 46.2%     |    169 |    125 | 57.5% | 42.5% |
|    1969 |    314 |    260 | 54.7%     |    260 |    314 | 45.3%     |    176 |    122 | 59.1% | 40.9% |
|    1968 |    274 |    218 | 55.7%     |    218 |    274 | 44.3%     |    154 |     98 | 61.1% | 38.9% |
|    1967 |    223 |    182 | 55.1%     |    182 |    223 | 44.9%     |    133 |     92 | 59.1% | 40.9% |
|    1966 |    184 |    136 | 57.5%     |    176 |    224 | 44.0%     |    124 |     76 | 62.0% | 38.0% |
|    1965 |    181 |    139 | 56.6%     |    179 |    221 | 44.8%     |    121 |     79 | 60.5% | 39.5% |
|    1964 |    170 |    150 | 53.1%     |    190 |    210 | 47.5%     |     98 |     78 | 55.7% | 44.3% |
|    1963 |    169 |    151 | 52.8%     |    191 |    209 | 47.8%     |     97 |     79 | 55.1% | 44.9% |
|    1962 |    179 |    141 | 55.9%     |    181 |    219 | 45.3%     |    107 |     69 | 60.8% | 39.2% |
|    1961 |    162 |    154 | 51.3%     |    154 |    162 | 48.7%     |     84 |     76 | 52.5% | 47.5% |
|    1960 |    180 |    120 | 60.0%     |    120 |    180 | 40.0%     |    102 |     42 | 70.8% | 29.2% |
|    1959 |    159 |    129 | 55.2%     |    129 |    159 | 44.8%     |     87 |     57 | 60.4% | 39.6% |
|    1958 |    162 |    126 | 56.3%     |    126 |    162 | 43.8%     |     90 |     54 | 62.5% | 37.5% |
|    1957 |    155 |    133 | 53.8%     |    133 |    155 | 46.2%     |     83 |     61 | 57.6% | 42.4% |
|    1956 |    154 |    134 | 53.5%     |    134 |    154 | 46.5%     |     82 |     62 | 56.9% | 43.1% |
|    1955 |    150 |    138 | 52.1%     |    138 |    150 | 47.9%     |     78 |     66 | 54.2% | 45.8% |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
| year_id | east_w | east_l | east_wpct | west_w | west_l | west_wpct | e_vs_w | w_vs_e | e_h2h | w_h2h |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+
|    1954 |    173 |    187 | 48.1%     |    151 |    137 | 52.4%     |     73 |     87 | 45.6% | 54.4% |
|    1953 |    168 |    183 | 47.9%     |    183 |    168 | 52.1%     |     67 |     82 | 45.0% | 55.0% |
|    1952 |    169 |    161 | 51.2%     |    161 |    169 | 48.8%     |     79 |     71 | 52.7% | 47.3% |
|    1951 |    181 |    187 | 49.2%     |    173 |    167 | 50.9%     |     80 |     86 | 48.2% | 51.8% |
+---------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-----------+--------+--------+-------+-------+

In the early stages of 2013-14, we are indeed seeing an historic level of inter-conference imbalance. The West's 70.8% winning percentage vs. the East is tied for the highest by one conference/division vs the other, matching the mark set by the Eastern Division in 1960.

Powered by the transcendent 59-16 Celtics (who won 10 more games than any other team), the 49-26 Philadelphia Warriors, and the 45-30 Syracuse Nationals, the East dominated a Western Division that boasted only one team -- the 46-29 St. Louis Hawks -- with a record anywhere near .500. (Aside from St. Louis, the other West teams had a combined 74-151 record that season.)

For the 2013-14 College Basketball season, we've added a few new features:

• Seasonal Coaching Lists - These pages list every coach who was active during the season in question along with their record that season, plus their career record (both overall and at the school they coached) through the season in question. This means, for instance, that you'll see Bob Knight as the 4th-winningest active coach through, say, 1994, but he'll be #1 through 2002. This list can be accessed from the "Seasons" dropdown on any page, as well as the individual season pages themselves.
• 2-Point Shooting Stats - Just like we did for Basketball-Reference, we added 2-point shooting numbers (2P/2PA/2P%) to the player stat tables. These are also now on team pages and are searchable in the Play Index Season Finder for years since 1998.