By Michael Letendre

Last weekend in The Bristol Edition, you read about Tony Floyd’s first game as head coach for the girls basketball team at Bristol Eastern while diving into the Lancers first ever boys basketball game in 1959.

It’s important to know the history of the squads in town but it takes some doing to gather those stories and facts.

And there’s plenty of statistics that have to be compiled in order to bring some of those stories to life.

My first love in sports was keeping, recording, and compiling basketball statistics and it’s something I’ve enjoyed doing for over thirty years.

I cut my teeth in the basketball stats world by watching my friends play an NBA video game on my computer – the Lakers vs. the Celtics and the NBA playoffs, a simulation that actually had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar playing his final year on the Lakers’ squad.

And I received a quick education on how tough it was for one person to keep track of all the different statistics in hoop.

But I figured out different spreadsheets, the right clipboard to use which my pops eventually found for me, and starting in 1992, I was the stats guy for the Bristol Eastern boys – and girls – basketball team (Floyd used to send me home with VCR tapes of his games. I was much happier when he started using DVDs).

I later helped the basketball stats crew at New Hampshire College (Southern New Hampshire University), dabbled a little bit for a team in the United States Basketball League (the squad was called the New Hampshire Thunder Loons) and when I came back home to Bristol, I learned a couple methods that made tracking statistics a bit easier.

One such lesson was making sure my rebounds balanced between the two teams during a game.

It sounds strange but that statistical balance is critical if you want to properly keep track of stats.

In basketball, every missed shot or field goal has a rebound and just because someone doesn’t grab the ball, it doesn’t mean that there isn’t a rebound to record.

For instance, if a player from Team A misses a field goal, and the ball bounces out of bounds off the shot, a team rebound is recorded for Team B.

And there’s even a rebound issued when a player misses the first of two free throws. 

That is call a dead-ball rebound.

A rebound is still recorded in that foul shooting situation despite no one touching the ball.

When a player takes a shot at the buzzer and misses the attempt, a dead-ball rebound is recorded since no player can be credited for a rebound because the play is over.

And remember, there’s only one rebound per missed shot and you can’t have more rebounds than missed field goals.

Does all of that sound confusing?

Well, let’s use a visual aid – one of historical proportions – to explain how to properly balance rebounds on a stat sheet.

If TBE Sports Editor Jack Krampitz is awake, paying attention, and alive (editor’s reply, of course he is), you should see my stat sheet from the Bristol Eastern boys basketball game from January 30, 2012 inserted below:

And there it is!

That’s the stat sheet from Bristol Eastern’s historic game at Middletown.

Before we go into the rebounding equation, what made this game at Middletown so special?

It was the Lancers’ first game back in Middletown since that huge basketball fight from the previous year – a contest that saw Eastern and Middletown players, and even fans from the stands, get into a major brawl (when the Middletown police squad showed up with a German Sheppard, who looked like he was in no mood for games, the fighting quickly ceased).

But the game went on without a hitch as a serious security presence was patrolling the gymnasium.

Middletown won the game in overtime, 77-73, but the story of the night was Eastern’s Eli Rodriguez.

The guard was simply sensational as he burned the Blue Dragons for a school record 46 points and tied the standard at BE in three-pointers made – hitting an incredible 6-of-8 attempts.

That’s the history aspect of the story but back to the issue of rebounds properly balancing.

The way I record stats is simple as I track all the players individually from the Bristol Eastern squad while tracking the statistics for the opponent as a whole.

And by hook or by crook, I have all the missed shots and rebounds from both teams properly recorded.

Now, how do I make sure my rebounds balance? Here’s the formula:

BEHS offensive rebounds: 8

BEHS dead-ball rebounds: 3

Middletown defensive rebounds: 22

Total: 33

That total (33) has to equal Eastern’s missed field goals and missed free throws total.

Do my shots and rebounds balance in the end? Let’s see:

BEHS missed field goals: 27

BEHS missed free throws  6

Totals: 33

Hey, my rebounds and shots balanced.

And if you plug in Middletown’s numbers on the flip side, you’ll see balance there as well.

This may look like algebra, a strange language or some sort of impossible equation that can’t be properly mastered.

But I figured out how to do it – and that’s an earth-shattering accomplishment – so with a little patience and practice, you can get it right, too.

Once you start to get the hang of compiling statistics, it’s truly a lot of fun if you have a spare clipboard lying around.

Or, you can purchase one of those computer gizmos and all you have to do is input the stats and everything balances automatically.

Some of those machines can even track 100 stats per player.

But what’s the fun in using a computer?

There’s nothing like learning something on your own and keeping track of basketball stats – and doing it correctly – really isn’t that difficult after all.

If you have any questions about basketball statistics, what stat sheet you should be using or how to track stats, feel free to email me at mletendre@bristoledition.org.