quote:
That's all well and good, but I hate to point out that the only point differential you should be concerned with when it comes to SCAR is +3.

As in: 27-24=3

"Doesn't matter if you get beat by 1 or 20 if the series is still 1-1."

That quote was uttered by Magic Johnson after game 2 of the 1991 NBA finals and its one of my favorite quotes. He said it after losing to the Bulls by 20 points or so in Game 2, which tied the series at 1-1 because his Lakers had eked out Game 1 by 3.

It's a very valid point, just as yours is. Just win. Hell we once saw Mizzou basketball go 14-0 in the Big Eight by winning multiple games by 2 or 3 points or in overtime.

However, the fact is when you are starting to compare a full series between teams or a full season's worth of results, margins of victory do tend to matter. They are good indicators. For instance, right after Magic Johnson uttered that quote, his Laker team proceeded to lose 3 straight to Chicago and lose that NBA Finals series by a margin of 4-1. Turned out, if one team is barely eking out a win when it wins and the other is crushing somebody when it wins, that tends to mean the latter is the stronger team and more likely to have a better season overall.

And I'd say similarly, when you have a differential of 109 to 12 in points for and against versus five different common league opponents, it starts to become just too much to ignore. Every team drops a game here and there they shouldn't, and a differential like 109 to 12 suggests Mizzou's loss to SC was the massive upset, moreso than was say SC's loss to Tenn. Time will tell.

This post was edited on 11/18/13 at 6:18 pm