How To Determine A Winning Team
The UW-Parkside women’s basketball team extended its winning streak to three games last weekend and will close its regular season with a pair of road games against a top-10 team. ESPN has a probability winning percentage in which what team has more of a probability of winning the game. Like team A is up a certain amount of points and time remaining they’ll have a certain percentage chance of winning the game. How does ESPN calculate that? To make it concrete, your new estimate of the probability that team x will beat team y, given all observations so far, is the probability of doing those observations given your previous estimate, times your previous estimate, divided by the overall probability of seeing the observations you have seen (i.e. Given no assumptions about relative strength between teams; one team winning most of the time is.
Current winning streak helps Kansas reemerge as a team worth talking about as postseason draws near
Kansas forward David McCormack (33) elevates to defend against a shot from Oklahoma State guard Cade Cunningham (2) during the second half on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021 at Allen Fieldhouse.
While the Kansas basketball team’s current three-game winning streak was absolutely essential for the Jayhawks to get their confidence back, it also opened the door to a key component of KU’s postseason prospects.
Had the Jayahwks continued to struggle like they did in January, it would have been awfully tough for anyone touting KU’s overall résumé to look back at what this team did in December as worthy of being the primary component of Bill Self’s team’s postseason seeding.
Today, however, that narrative looks a little different. Just like the Jayhawks.
No one is claiming that back-to-back wins over Iowa State and a home victory over now-unranked Oklahoma State are enough to suddenly vault the Jayhawks into the conversation for a 3 or 4 seed today.
But the fact that those recent victories helped this team rediscover some of the elements that made them a Top 10 team in December makes it a lot easier to look back at those wins with a little more weight.
Included among them:
• A Dec. 8 victory over Creighton. The Bluejays have turned in the kind of season most people expected them to have and have maintained their status as a Top 20 team all season long. Currently ranked 16-5 and 12-4 in the Big East, Creighton is fresh off of a 16-point victory over No. 5 Villanova. Any way you slice it, beating this team, now or in December, qualifies as a good win.
• A Dec. 17 road win at Texas Tech. Like Creighton, the Red Raiders have spent most of the season in the Top 20, and, as recently as last week, were ranked No. 7 in the nation. Tech’s 11-point home loss to West Virginia last week (you might remember it as the Chris Beard ejection game) dropped Tech to No. 15 in this week’s poll, and the Red Raiders are, without question, a tournament team and one of the toughest teams in the Big 12. KU will get a shot at validating that December win when Tech comes to Lawrence on Saturday. If the Jayhawks can pull off the season sweep, both wins will bolster their NCAA Tournament resume.
• A Dec. 22 home win over West Virginia. The Mountaineers are currently 14-6 and ranked No. 13 in the country. Like KU, they, too, do not have a single bad loss on their resume, with all six WVU losses coming to teams ranked in the Top 28 of the current KenPom.com rankings. Any team that tops them can count it as a quality win, and, it will be really interesting to see what the selection committee does with the teams who finish behind Baylor in the Big 12 standings. On one hand, they all may be battling each other for spots on the 3-4-5 lines. On the other hand, there’s a chance that all of them could wind up on the same line but in different regions.
• A Jan. 9 home win over Oklahoma. The Sooners are currently the second-highest ranked team in the Big 12 and they’ve been on an absolute tear (7-1, with four wins over ranked teams) since losing to Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse in a game they had a chance to win. Nobody thought much of that victory at the time, but it may wind up going down as one of KU’s best of the season. And, if the Sooners stay hot — they’re currently ranked No. 9 at 13-5 — that KU win in early January will go down as much more than a nice, little Quadrant 1 victory.
Those victories, to date, are KU’s only four Quadrant 1 wins. But before you scoff and view that number as teenie tiny, consider that only eight teams in the country (Gonzaga, Baylor, Illinois, Ohio State, Alabama, West Virginia, Oklahoma and Missouri) have more Quadrant 1 wins at this point in the season.
Beyond that, Kansas has played six games against that group, which illustrates how tough this team’s schedule has been. The NET rankings have it as the 11th hardest schedule in the country, and KenPom.com puts it at No. 17. Back-to-back games against Iowa State (No. 148) knocked it out of the Top 10 on that site.
Tough schedules are great and can give a team a significant boost in the rankings or seedings if the road is viewed as impressive enough by those filling out their ballots or the bracket.
But, at some point, teams have to prove that they can do more than just play good teams. They also have to beat them.
The Jayhawks were doing that earlier this season and then the wheels fell off a little bit. Now that this team’s confidence has been restored and Kansas seems to have found its identity — win with defense and let the offense come naturally — the Jayhawks have put themselves in position to do just that.
How To Identify A Winning Team
Whether they do, or how often, could go a long way in determining where they’re seeded and what kind of a threat they’re viewed as in March.
Keys To A Winning Team
But, as of now, that’s at least worth discussing again, and it’s not hard to see how KU quickly could get into the conversation as a potential 3 or 4 seed.
They’ll have to win to get there. But this group appears to be more prepared to do that today than at any time this calendar year.
Kansas coach Bill Self speaks to media ahead of rematch with Kansas Stateby KUsports.com
Ochai Agbaji on Jayhawks being back in AP Top 25 after undefeated weekby KUsports.com
KU senior Mitch Lightfoot preparing for different atmosphere in Manhattanby KUsports.com
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What are the key ingredients needed to develop winning teams and a winning environment?
The desire of CEO’s, HR’s, Managers and team leaders is to have not just a collection of people working in an organisation but to have ‘winning teams’.
Winning teams by their very nature are progressive, enthusiastic, eager to press and not settle for the status quo. They realise the importance of team work and understand the huge importance of training in order to be recognised as a winning team.
As John Maxwell says – ‘Teamwork makes the dream work’.
What are some of the characteristics of a winning team?
- They are committed
- Very intentional
- Understand the importance of team work
- Desire for training to grow themselves
The role of HR, CEO’s, managers and team leaders is vital if a team is to develop from a group of people employed to perform certain roles to become a strong winning team.
Employers and team leaders should look at their teams with a strong intention of – how can I make this team become the best they could ever be?
When employees understand that their superiors are not just wanting them to fulfil a role, but are committed in developing them to be the very best they can be – this is where teamwork grows and a winning team is birthed.
This in turn causes the heartbeat within the employer to beat even strong as they realise that they are not by themselves but they have a team who have a ‘winning attitude’ which enables the whole organisation to grow from good to great.
Good leadership is the ability to lead people to places they could not have gone without you. Click HERE to read a blog abut this.
You can either hire the hands and feet of people to perform a role – or you can hire their brains, vision and commitment – which will aid a group of individuals to become not just a team but a winning team. Every individual has value and insight they can bring to the table – but it takes a leader to draw that goodness out of them.
However this does not always come naturally to everyone, this is why training is so important. As I train and coach many people in various organisations I often see that there is a huge need and desire to formulate a programme for team leaders and managers in how to construct winning teams.
The choices a leader makes will determine their effectiveness – this is so true when it comes to building a winning team. To read more about a ‘The Leaders Choice’ click HERE.
If you don’t have a winning team then you have an average team. Average teams will die out because other organisations become better and stronger.
This is a crucial area that must be continually challenged and worked on to ensure survival of organisations.
Never think you are good enough or that you don’t need training on how to develop winning teams – why is this? – because winning is not a guaranteed position – it is a position that has to be worked for, trained for and kept.
With increased competition – the best return on investment is training – but not just any training. Training that will develop the whole team in order for each team member to see how important their role is, for them to bring their contribution to the table, to serve the rest of the team.
With a winning team comes a ‘winning environment’. One aspect I notice about a winning environment is that it does not start from the ground floor of an organisation – it starts from the very top.
The CEO, COO and MD set the environment which cascades down and permeates every fibre of the organisation. They realise that as John Wooden said – “The main ingredient for stardom is the rest of the team”.
Developing winning teams and a winning environment is a learnable skill. It is one that takes time, but it produces huge dividends for teams and organisations.
ACTION.
1.What are the actions you can put in to place today to strengthen your team and environment? Remember if nothing changes – nothing will change!
2. Who can you become accountable to in order to grow in your leadership to ensure your team and environment is positively impacted?
3. Do you have a Leadership Excellence Action Programme?
For a leader to grow to be the best leader they can be they must have in place a:
- Leadership Excellence Action Programme.
Without it leaders often go from dealing with one situation to another, always giving and never receiving and often feeling they are just ‘coping’ in the leadership rather than ‘thriving’.
Those who commit to a personal Leadership Excellence Programme are taking responsibility for developing their leadership in order to become increasingly effective which has huge rewards and benefits.