NBA@PU

Providing the ultimate assist to a Princeton University educational workshop on building predictive models

The Pregame

At Princeton University, there is a two-week period in January called Wintersession. They would offer fun experiences on topics ranging from cooking to astronomy to sports. One such experience was a coding workshop in building a predictive analytics application for the National Basketball Association. The leader of the workshop was seeking students to help with its preparation and delivery. I applied for a spot even though I knew they were aiming for Princeton students. To my surprise, I was selected as the only high school student among the team. I was stoked to join.

The Playbook

I was given the position of research assistant and I had several responsibilities — data collection on the players and teams of the 2024-25 NBA season; dissecting the structure of an NBA game; applying statistical methods such as Monte Carlo, Markov Chain, and Random Forest. In order for the four-hour workshop to be successfully delivered, my input had to be substantial. If there was something I didn’t know, I had the resourcefulness to learn on my own. I never said I could not complete my end of the bargain.

The Result

On January 15, 2025, the workshop was conducted. It was titled “And One” as we aimed to predict the remainder of the NBA season. My research was critical to the process as the models could not have been as robustl without my contribution. All in all, this was a special experience for me as I took it upon myself to learn subject matter outside of my comfort zone. This was also a fantastic opportunity to work as a team where failure was an option if everyone did not do their part.

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