Lacrosse IQ — Saying You Like Data & Analytics Doesn’t Make It So
Another Lesson From “The Nation’s Fastest Growing Sport”
This article is a follow up to an earlier Lacrosse IQ article.
As I sit here listening to Paul Carcaterra, Anish Shroff, and Quint Kesnic announcing the Loyola vs Duke game, I am struck by the number of times I have heard these guys mention data & analytics without any follow-up. This is the “A” team of ESPN College Lacrosse, for whatever that is worth. But they seem to believe simply saying those words “data & analytics” makes it real.
A quick Google search for “Lacrosse Infographics” and things start to become a little more understandable. There are a whopping ten. Only seven of which are actually unique. I have never seen the image summary on Google’s main page run out of images before. If you are game — go to Google image search and compare “Football Statistics” to “Lacrosse Statistics”. This sport is literally starving for intelligence!
Perhaps I Should Just Be Thankful No One Is Talking About AI or Machine Learning?
I suppose I shouldn’t fault lacrosse too much. Many businesses like to mention data & analytics or machine learning or AI — most have none to speak of… wait, but they do!? Sigh, why should lacrosse be any different?
Only… as I sit here, I am being constantly reminded that Pat Spencer wants to play basketball. I mean repeatedly! I have also been reminded that “multiple Superbowl ring wearing” Chris Hogan played lacrosse in college (PSU). Shots are going through the “five hole” — hockey term. If you are going to keep borrowing from other sports, those sports have plenty of data & analytics to speak of. Where is are the lacrosse statistics?
Maybe I am being too harsh? This is only college after all. Only — a quick google search of “college football infographics” leaves me drowning in examples. Maybe it is a budget thing? Only — “Stevenson University infographics” yielded a couple of pages. Stevenson is a local Div III school — they aren’t swimming in budget. Besides — this is ESPN!
With 07.3 seconds left, I just saw only the second presentation of statistics (aside from the score). But showing the top two scorers of the night is the weakest version of “data & analytics” I could think of. The first presentation at least included summary statistics from the first half. I am still waiting to see if we get a game summary. And… that is a no. But Happy Anniversary John Danowski!
Let me be direct
In my last article, I asked the question. Let me answer it. Lacrosse is struggling from a lack of data & analytics! This isn’t the only struggle, but it is an incredibly important one. Data & analytics built baseball. It powers football.
Lacrosse struggles to even have its own statistics. The only stat that is close to unique in this sport is ground balls. And to be honest, baseball has its own version of that, too. Sadder still, it typically takes nearly a full season for anything beyond goals, assists, and face-off wins to be reported. Through most of the season, all we get is story telling. And if you watch enough of these games, those stories repeat endlessly.
Circling back to the beginning of this article, I thought it might be nice to share one of the better infographics. The two best examples were both created in 2013 or with 2013 statistics.
There are now more than 71 division I schools, 61 division II, and 236 division III with lacrosse programs. Even Wikipedia is two years behind!
Hopefully the sport will continue to grow. But if nothing changes, that will be despite its complete lack of meaningful data & analytics. Perhaps that won’t matter? Or perhaps that is what has been holding it back all along?
Data & analytics should make the sport more competitive. It should make the broadcasts more informative. It gives fans more ways to connect to the sport (I mean look what it has done for baseball). Lacrosse clearly has great story lines. No sport may have more authenticity, but data & analytics will provide them true authority as well.
This article may have been a bit severe. As noted, many companies try to fake their way through data & analytics. Lacrosse just makes an easy example. I hope my next Lacrosse IQ article is to highlight just how that is finally happening. Until then, thanks for reading. Check out the first article here:
