TITLE: CS in Everything: On the Hardwood
AUTHOR: Eugene Wallingford
DATE: July 28, 2009 12:40 PM
DESC: 
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BODY:
The economics blog
<A HREF="http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/">
   Marginal Revolution</A>
has an occasional series of posts called "Markets
in Everything", in which the writers report examples
of markets at work in various aspects of everyday
life.  I've considered doing something similar here
with computing, as a way to document some concrete
examples of computational thinking and -- gasp! --
computer programs playing a role how we live, work,
and play.  Perhaps this will be a start.

Courtesy of
<A HREF="http://geek-knitter.blogspot.com/2009/02/cs-is-everywhere.html">
   Wicked Teacher of the West</A>,
I came across
<A HREF="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/15/magazine/15Battier-t.html">
   this story</A>
about NBA player Shane Battier, who stands out in an
unusual way: by <EM>not</EM> standing out with his
stats.  A parallel theme of the story is how the
NBA's Houston Rockets are using data and computer
analysis in an effort to maximize their chances of
victory.  The connection to Battier is that the
traditional statistics we associate with basketball
-- points, rebounds, assists, blocked shots, and
the like -- do not reflect his value.  The Rockets
think that Battier contributes far more to their
chance of winning than his stat line shows.

The Rockets collect more detailed data about players
and game situations, and Battier is able to use it
to maximize his value.  He has
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2009-05.html#e2009-05-28T22_02_25.htm">
   developed great instincts</A>
for the game, but he is an empiricist at heart:

<BLOCKQUOTE><EM>
The numbers either refute my thinking or support
my thinking, and when there's any question, I
trust the numbers.  The numbers don't lie.
</EM></BLOCKQUOTE>

For an Indiana boy like myself, nothing could be
more exciting than knowing that the Houston
Rockets employ a <EM>head of basketball
analytics</EM>.  This sort of data analysis has
long been popular among geeks who follow baseball,
a game of discrete events in which the work of
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_James">
   Bill James</A>
and like-minded statistician-fans of the American
Pastime finds a natural home.  I grew up a huge
baseball fan and, like all boys my age, lived and
died on the stats of my favorite players.  But
Indiana is basketball country, and basketball is
my first and truest love.  Combining hoops with
computer science -- could there be a better job?
There is at least one guy living the dream, in
Houston.

I have written about the
<A HREF="http://www.cs.uni.edu/~wallingf/blog/archives/monthly/2005-03.html#e2005-03-14T14_47_54.htm">
   importance of solving real problems</A>
in CS courses, and many people are working to
redefine introductory CS to put the concepts
and skills we teach into context.  Common themes
include bioinformatics, economics, and media
computation.  Basketball may not be as important
as sequencing the human genome, but it is real
and it matters to a enough people to support a
major entertainment industry.  If I were willing
to satisfy my own guilty pleasures, I would design
a CS 1 course around
<A HREF="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoosier_Hysteria">
   Hoosier hysteria</A>.
Even if I don't, it's comforting to know that
some people are beginning to use computer science
to understand the game better.
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