CBB Team Ratings Glossary:
- Relative Ranking: Each team is ranked based on how it would be expected to perform head-to-head against other similarly ranked teams. If a team is ranked 4th, it is predicted to lose against each of the top three teams, but predicted to beat teams ranked 5th, 6th, and so on. Each head-to-head prediction is based on both teams' efficiency ratings, opponent adjustment, and pace adjustment.
- O-Rate: Team Offensive Efficiency Rating reflects a team's expected offensive efficiency. This number can be interpreted as the points per 100 possessions better than average expected when playing against an average D1 team. However, each team's O-Rate is actually based on how its offense would perform against other similarly ranked teams. A higher rating is better.
- D-Rate: Team Defensive Efficiency Rating reflects a team's expected defensive efficiency. This number can be interpreted as the defensive points per 100 possessions better than average expected when playing against an average D1 team. However, each team's D-Rate is actually based on how its defense would perform against other similarly ranked teams. A higher rating is better.
- Relative Rating: Team Net Relative Rating is the sum of a team's O-Rate and D-Rate. This rating is the ultimate measure of a team's expected overall strength, relative to other teams ranked similarly. The Relative Rating value can be interpreted as the number of points the team is expected to outscore an average D1 team by in an 100 possession game. However, each team's Relative Rating is actually based on how it would be expected to perform against other similarly ranked teams. See the example at the bottom of the page.
- Change: Improvement in BPR over the last 30 days.
- Opponent Adjust: This measures how well each team performs above or below expectation based on if they are playing an above average opponent on their schedule or a below average opponent. There are some teams that perform better than anticipated when they face really tough teams but struggle to dismantle teams that are worse than them (positive red bar). This concept is sometimes referred to as “playing up/down to competition”. Other teams are the opposite; they can easily crush inferior opponents but are disappointing against high quality teams (negative blue bar). Note that being positive isn't better than being negative in this variable. A team that has a really high red bar is more likely to succeed against elite competition but is also equally likely to have a stunning loss to an inferior team. Teams with a really low blue bar are trustworthy to handle business against teams they should beat, but are less likely to win against the best teams.
- Pace Adjust: This measures how well each team performs above or below expectation in games that are played at a higher or lower pace than usual. Some teams perform slightly better when they play in up-tempo games (positive orange), and some teams are more comfortable in slow-paced games (negative blue bar).
- Kill Shots Per Game: The number of double digit scoring runs per game (10 points or more scored in a row without the opposing team scoring).
- Kill Shots Allowed Per Game: The number of double digit scoring runs conceded per game (10 points or more scored in a row by the opponent without the team scoring).
- Kill Shots Margin Per Game: How many more 10-0 runs a team has per game than their opponents.
- Total Kill Shots: The total number of double digit scoring runs in the season.
- Total Kill Shots Allowed: The total number of double digit scoring runs conceded in the season.
- True Tempo: A measure of a team's true game pace. This number reflects the estimated number of possessions played in a game against an average paced D1 opponent.
- Off Rank: A team's rank in OBPR.
- Def Rank: A team's rank in DBPR.
- Tempo Rank: A team's rank in True Tempo
- Injury Rank: A team's overall ranking after accounting for the absence of all currently injured players.
- Rank Excluding Ineligible: A team's overall ranking if every player whose eligibility case is still pending were ruled ineligible and unavailable for the season. Use the "Include Eligibility Cases" filter above to see the full ratings with those players removed.
- Preseason Team Rank: Where each team was ranked in the preseason.
- Preseason Roster Rank: The ranking of each team's preseason roster grade, see Preseason Roster Grade.
- Preseason Roster Grade: This measures the talent on the roster coming into the season. It's the mean of each player's projected BPR, weighted by which players are expected to play more.
- Resume Rank: A ranking of each team's in-season resume, treating all teams as equal at the start of the season. Think of it as a better version of the NET.
- Home Rank: A team's rank in how much better they perform at home versus road games. A team ranked higher will play much better at home than on the road.
Relative Rating Interpretation Example: If Kansas has a Relative Ranking of 3rd, this means that they are expected to lose head-to-head to the teams ranked 1st and 2nd, but win head-to-head against the teams ranked 4th, 5th, and so on. Suppose Michigan State is 4th, and Kansas has a Relative Rating of 25.0 and MSU has a Relative Rating of 23.0. This means that Kansas is expected to beat Michigan State by 2 points per 100 possessions. If they played a typical 70 possession game, the game prediction would have Kansas favored by 1.4 points.
Kansas's Relative Rating of 25.0 would roughly translate to them being predicted to beat a D1 average opponent by 25 points per 100 possessions. However, since each team's Relative Rating is calculated based on how they are predicted to perform against other similarly ranked teams, the rating of 25 can't be directly interpreted this way.
For example, at the end of 2022-23, UConn's Relative Rating was 26.1 (1st in the country), and Houston's Relative Rating was 24.7 (3rd in the country). However, since UConn's Opponent Adjustment coefficient indicates that they excel against good teams (large positive red bar), but struggle against weaker teams, they were only predicted to beat an average D1 opponent by 24.0 points per 100 possessions. By contrast, Houston was great at dismantling weaker opponents (large negative blue bar), but struggled against stronger teams. As a result, they were predicted to beat an average D1 opponent by 28.1 points per 100 possessions, a larger margin of victory than for #1 UConn. Against each other, UConn would be predicted to beat Houston by 3.8 points per 100 possessions.