Kirk Hunter
MSAN 622 Data Visualization 
21 April 2016
Project 2 Thesis Statement and Motivation

The NCAA college basketball tournament championship games over the last thirteen seasons 
have been won and lost by rebounds and free throws.

If one were to predict the outcome of these championship games using only one metric, then 
it would be a toss­up between number of defensive rebounds and number of free throws made. 
In each case, the team that led in overall defensive rebounds or number of free throws made 
won the championship nine out of thirteen times ­­ around seventy percent of the time. 
And only once in the last thirteen seasons did the losing team end the game leading in both 
defensive rebounds and free throws made, while in seven championship games the winning team 
ended the game having led in both metrics.

The type of narrative I will choose to visualize the data is from the author’s perspective. 
I believe my message is clear, and the point of the visualization should be to communicate 
that message, as opposed to leaving it up to the reader to interpret what they will. The 
importance of visualizing this dataset in particular is not as pressing as other topics, 
but it is relevant to many nonetheless. Sports analytics is a growing field, and my most 
optimistic outcome for this project is that I can allow for some insight into the patterns 
that emerge in the largest national college basketball tournament in the United States. 
Another important outcome that I would like to see realized is to generate interest into 
the sport or interest for sports analytics at the college level.
