The number of assists given out in the MCLA

[PigPen]

when I coached h.s.-one year we had a great senior goalie that was highly recruited. The defense in front of him as good, but the keeper was exceptional. So we played a zone and basically invited 10-12 yard shots. Actually we encouraged those shots. That's what we wanted. The kid was money and our guys would break up the field as soon as the shot went and it turned in fastbreaks everytime. Most TX h.s. teams don't have good shooters and definitely not from that range. At one point after the fifth game of the season I started looking at the stats and noticed that we allowing the other team to shoot over 60 shots a game. The good news was that our goalie was AVERAGING 26 saves a game and had GAA of 8.00. He finished the season with a save pct of 79%. The stats were correct-I trained the manager myself (we watched game tapes and did mock stat sheets prior to the season). My point-there are situations where these wacky stats are correct.

[JerzWB]

The reason I brought it up was because unfortunately in this league coaches do not get to see every player play. When it comes to All-American or All-Conference (a coach should see a player at least once for the most part) votes, a coach might see that player "a" had 80 points, 30 and 50. He's not as much of a superstar with 30 and 15. I just think that a good score keeper can really bust someones accolades and I don't think that is right. I couldn't agree more with you "BETA".

[mholtz]

Doing it well is a function of organization. Teams that are organized enough to have good stats people are also generally more competitive. Doing it correctly also reflects well on the MCLA as a whole.

It scares me how much I've had to agree with JP this year on this forum. There must be something wrong with the universe.

When we are training a new stat person (we never train an entire crew) we have them do an intrasquad scrimmage. I often stand over their shoulder. That adds pressure, but I also make sure I explain everything. Simply stating these things to a statperson will greatly improve the stats you get. I know that players want the stats, but ultimately it's a disservice to your program if your statisticians record "bogus" stats. I treat our statisticians as another part of the organization that requires my time and training to get things right.

As an example, if they record all the loose balls that your team picks up as GBs then only do contested for the other you may get the false impression from reading the stat sheet that your team is working as hard as they should be when really your GB drill has to go from 5 minutes a day to 20.

Now, it IS possible to have that many assists. We had a game last year where only one goal was not assisted. I questioned it, but I went back to the tape, and it was true. If someone volunteers to be your statistician, take the time and invest the effort in training them properly. It will only help you and your team in the end.

[benji]

I have learned to take saves and assists and basically divide the number by 2, this is also known as the "Texas Tech Rule".

Easy now

[Dr. Jason Stockton]

People will start taking better stats when CBS Sportsline has Fantasy Lacrosse Leagues. . .until then, the system will remain flawed.

[LaxRef]

People will start taking better stats when CBS Sportsline has Fantasy Lacrosse Leagues. . .until then, the system will remain flawed.

You mean MCLA fantasy lacrosse leagues.

[Cat Gut]

After attending a WCLL quarter final game last weekend, I went on the WCLL web site to check the game stats and was surprised to see that the losing team had recorded all of their goals as assisted. Having been there, I knew for a fact that they weren’t all assisted goals. This piqued my curiosity and I looked at the stats of other games that this team has played and found that in 4 of their games they had called 100% of their goals assisted and in most of their other games the percentage of assisted goals was in the 70%-80% range. Now this is a good offensive team and I don’t want to take anything away from that, but after seeing the game first hand and seeing that they are awarding assists on unassisted goals, the credibility of their stats is questionable. As has been said in earlier posts in this thread, it doesn’t change the outcome, but I feel that it does have an impact on post season honors.

I’m sure that many people enjoy looking at the stats on this forum as well as the league forums, but if everyone is not applying the same rules, then those stats obviously lose credibility. It is clear that this is and has been an ongoing issue and I was thinking that it would be a good thing to address when the MCLA board meets. One suggestion is for the home team to add to the scorer table a laminated card that explains the duties of the scorer table crew and include on it some rules for statistics. For example:
Quoting from the 2007 NCAA men’s rule book:
Uniformity of Records
SECTION 1. To make records and statistics consistent, the following
definitions shall be adhered to strictly:
a. Goalkeeper saves—A save is recorded any time a ball is stopped or deflected by the goalkeeper’s body or crosse in such a manner that had the ball not been stopped or deflected, it would have entered the goal.
b. Assists—Any one direct pass by a player to a teammate who then scores a goal without having to dodge or evade an opponent, other than the goalkeeper who is in the crease, is recorded as an assist. There can be
only one assist on any goal scored.

Also, as long as teams keep and submit their own stats, there is potential for abuse. Perhaps opposing teams could each validate each others stats after each game as some sort of check and balance.

It’s exciting to me to see how far the MCLA has progressed and as it evolves, there will always be areas to improve. This is obviously one of them that could use some attention.

[`MM9]

I had noticed some fishyness in those games...


those are good points. I like the idea of having the opposing team take stats for the whole game to verify stats.