Chris Murray feeds us "College Basketball Prospectus" material

We've never had an intimate relationship with numbers, having last been involved with such as a sophomore in high school. It was a pairing that just never clicked. Heck, fractions were hard enough and don't even talk about percentages. How we ever graduated let alone then connived a university to issue a degree, well, it must have been based on our good looks. ;-)

Here's Chris Murray with numerical items he found interesting from this season's College Basketball Prospectus:

A by-the-numbers look at the WAC and Pack
Chris Murray
Reno Gazette-Journal
November 7, 2008

I received a copy of the College Basketball Prospectus last night and thought I would post some interesting WAC tidbits. The book previews each of the BCS conferences and its top four mid-major conferences (Atlantic-10, Conference USA, Missouri Valley Conference and Mountain West Conference). It also has a short blurb about the WAC (below).

The Western Athletic Conference would typically produce one or two teams capable of making some noise in March, and normally we would devote a section to previewing their teams. But last season, the conference suffered a sharp decline in its level of play with at-large talk pretty much ending before the conference season even started. That probably won’t change this season, but Mark Fox and Nevada managed to put together one of the better recruiting classes in the nation. It’s headlined by 6-9 power forward Luke Babbitt, who had interest from a number of elite programs. Babbitt elected to stay home in Reno and will have an impact on the Western Athletic Conference immediately. Also headed to Nevada is 6-6 Joey Shaw, who showed promise as an athletic wing while playing for Indiana two seasons ago.

Other WAC tidbits

— The WAC has had one of the best conference home records in the nation this decade. Since 2000, WAC teams have won 65.2 percent of their home games (the eighth-best percentage among 31 Divison-I conferences). The Mountain West was first with a 67.4 winning percentage; the West Coast Conference was last at 55.6 percent.

— The WAC should also be known for playing close games. Since 2000, 23.3 percent of the league’s conference games have been decided by three points or fewer or gone into overtime. That is the third-highest percent among the 31 conferences (behind only the MEAC and Atlantic Sun). Interestingly enough, the WAC was 30th in “close games” last season, with only 12.5 percent being decided by three points or fewer or going into overtime...

Go here for the remainder.