Dolphin Ratings - Women's National Basketball Association

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Predictive-Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Predictive-Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Predictive-Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.
Home Scoring. This is an adjustment to the scoring ranking applied at home. Values are nonzero only for baseball, where park effects can be significant.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
DETROIT     29 14 3332 3122 -0.012 20.111    1  1.403    2  0.317    1  0.341    2 0.5381  3.545  0.321  0.361  0.000
SAN ANTONIO 29 15 3264 3175  0.034 21.755    2  1.393    1  0.330    5  0.131    1 0.5400  3.478 -0.165  0.426  0.000
SEATTLE     23 14 2690 2604  0.025 18.108    3  1.264    3  0.236    4  0.133    3 0.5299  3.439 -0.318  0.585  0.000
LOS ANGELES 23 17 3019 2933  0.065 20.212    4  1.172    4  0.161    2  0.195    4 0.5254  3.491 -0.049  0.439  0.000
CONNECTICUT 22 15 2888 2750 -0.034 17.103    5  1.135    5  0.135    3  0.139    5 0.5149  3.582  0.274  0.003  0.000
NEW YORK    22 18 2969 2931  0.046 20.083    6  1.093    6  0.122    6  0.074    6 0.5132  3.503 -0.121  0.270  0.000
SACRAMENTO  19 19 2857 2886  0.047 19.340    7  0.971    7  0.037    9  0.002    7 0.5070  3.562  0.050 -0.047  0.000
HOUSTON     17 17 2561 2606  0.011 16.906    8  0.919    8  0.002   12 -0.101    8 0.5008  3.526 -0.201 -0.002  0.000
INDIANA     18 19 2695 2700 -0.012 17.959    9  0.862   10 -0.042   10 -0.060   11 0.4938  3.456 -0.441  0.322  0.000
PHOENIX     16 18 3010 3009  0.024 16.931   10  0.861    9 -0.040    8  0.014    9 0.4955  3.881  1.509 -1.481  0.000
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
MINNESOTA   16 18 2767 2721  0.016 16.650   11  0.837   11 -0.063    7  0.039   10 0.4951  3.664  0.530 -0.452  0.000
CHICAGO     12 22 2472 2510 -0.051 16.191   12  0.522   12 -0.311   11 -0.100   12 0.4589  3.473 -0.414  0.215  0.000
WASHINGTON  10 24 2368 2601 -0.034 17.146   13  0.389   13 -0.380   13 -0.467   13 0.4489  3.488 -0.722 -0.212  0.000
ATLANTA      4 30 2535 2879 -0.048 17.004   14  0.000   14 -0.731   14 -0.523   14 0.4057  3.668 -0.015 -1.030  0.000

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
SAN ANTONIO 29 15 3264 3175  0.034 21.755    2  1.393    1  0.330    5  0.131    1 0.5400  3.478 -0.165  0.426  0.000
SEATTLE     23 14 2690 2604  0.025 18.108    3  1.264    3  0.236    4  0.133    3 0.5299  3.439 -0.318  0.585  0.000
LOS ANGELES 23 17 3019 2933  0.065 20.212    4  1.172    4  0.161    2  0.195    4 0.5254  3.491 -0.049  0.439  0.000
SACRAMENTO  19 19 2857 2886  0.047 19.340    7  0.971    7  0.037    9  0.002    7 0.5070  3.562  0.050 -0.047  0.000
HOUSTON     17 17 2561 2606  0.011 16.906    8  0.919    8  0.002   12 -0.101    8 0.5008  3.526 -0.201 -0.002  0.000
PHOENIX     16 18 3010 3009  0.024 16.931   10  0.861    9 -0.040    8  0.014    9 0.4955  3.881  1.509 -1.481  0.000
MINNESOTA   16 18 2767 2721  0.016 16.650   11  0.837   11 -0.063    7  0.039   10 0.4951  3.664  0.530 -0.452  0.000

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                            STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI
TEAM         W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  P-SCR  P-OFF  P-DEF  H-SCR
DETROIT     29 14 3332 3122 -0.012 20.111    1  1.403    2  0.317    1  0.341    2 0.5381  3.545  0.321  0.361  0.000
CONNECTICUT 22 15 2888 2750 -0.034 17.103    5  1.135    5  0.135    3  0.139    5 0.5149  3.582  0.274  0.003  0.000
NEW YORK    22 18 2969 2931  0.046 20.083    6  1.093    6  0.122    6  0.074    6 0.5132  3.503 -0.121  0.270  0.000
INDIANA     18 19 2695 2700 -0.012 17.959    9  0.862   10 -0.042   10 -0.060   11 0.4938  3.456 -0.441  0.322  0.000
CHICAGO     12 22 2472 2510 -0.051 16.191   12  0.522   12 -0.311   11 -0.100   12 0.4589  3.473 -0.414  0.215  0.000
WASHINGTON  10 24 2368 2601 -0.034 17.146   13  0.389   13 -0.380   13 -0.467   13 0.4489  3.488 -0.722 -0.212  0.000
ATLANTA      4 30 2535 2879 -0.048 17.004   14  0.000   14 -0.731   14 -0.523   14 0.4057  3.668 -0.015 -1.030  0.000

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 143 118 0.548    1  0.098
EASTERN CONFERENCE 117 142 0.452    2 -0.128

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.304 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.034 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Mon Oct  6 17:10:30 2008
games through: Sun Oct  5 2008

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.