Game Related Statistics Discriminate National and Foreign Players According to Playing Position and Team Ability in the Women’s Basketball EuroLeague

Lorenzo Gasperi, Daniele Conte, Anthony Leicht and Miguel-Ángel Gómez-Ruano
Additional contact information
Lorenzo Gasperi: Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28031 Madrid, Spain
Daniele Conte: Institute of Sport Science and Innovations, Lithuanian Sports University, 44221 Kaunas, Lithuania
Anthony Leicht: Sport and Exercise Science, James Cook University, Townsville 4814, Australia
Miguel-Ángel Gómez-Ruano: Facultad de Ciencias de la Actividad Física y del Deporte, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28031 Madrid, Spain

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 15, 1-10

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to examine the differences in game-related statistics between national and foreign female basketball players in the Women’s EuroLeague, according to playing positions and team ability. The official box-scores of 112 games from the 2016–2017 season of the Women’s EuroLeague (FIBA) were examined. Players were categorised based upon country of nationality versus competition (i.e., foreign or national), playing positions (i.e., Guards, Forwards, Centers), and team ability (i.e., four groups using a cluster of k-means analysis according to the winning percentage of each team during the competition). A structural coefficient (SC) above |0.30| was used to identify the variables that best differentiated the national and foreign players. Results showed that foreign players had a better performance according to team ability and playing position for most of the performance indicators, with higher values for minutes played, percentage of successful 2-point field-goals, percentage of successful free-throws, and percentage of assists. Moreover, foreign players performed better in variables associated with offensive situations, while national players were prevailing with indicators associated with defensive actions. These results have highlighted the unique contributions of foreign and national players, based upon playing position and team ability, to team success in the Euroleague. This information will assist the recruitment process of national and foreign athletes for coaches to develop successful elite female basketball teams.

Keywords: game-related statistics; team sports; discriminant scores; player position; team ability; foreign players; women basketball (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5507/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/15/5507/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:15:p:5507-:d:392068

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().