WIS User Interview - coach_billyg Topic

Coach_billyg's interview is now available here:

http://whatifsports.com/beyondtheboxscore/default.asp?article=interview_20120702

Thanks to coach_billyg and all of the HD players that submitted questions!
7/2/2012 6:22 PM
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Great job, billy!
7/2/2012 6:32 PM
Nice interview. I challenge whoever is next on the interview list to come within 2,500 words of billyg's output
7/2/2012 6:43 PM
hmm, i should have taken the time to look up real IDs... many of those are like, not who i was talking about :O but i think most readers know who i was talking about. hopefully :)
7/2/2012 7:30 PM
Posted by wsut on 7/2/2012 6:43:00 PM (view original):
Nice interview. I challenge whoever is next on the interview list to come within 2,500 words of billyg's output
thanks! i was very torn on where to try to provide guidance for coaches and where to just give the short answers that are generally lighter and/or more for amusement purposes. i left it to WIS to pick the half they thought was worth keeping, but they said they'd just leave it all and if anyone had the hour and the desire to make it to the end... then they would :) i should have put something really useful at the bottom, like the value of prestige or something, but i didn't expect them to keep it all!
7/2/2012 7:32 PM
ton more of information than I first expected, THANKS
7/2/2012 8:18 PM
I've reached the pinnacle, billyg mentioned my name in his HD interview. Now if I never win a D1 title, I don't care, lol. Nice interview.
7/2/2012 8:55 PM
Posted by kmasonbx on 7/2/2012 8:55:00 PM (view original):
I've reached the pinnacle, billyg mentioned my name in his HD interview. Now if I never win a D1 title, I don't care, lol. Nice interview.
I got a mention in passing, which is cool, but I still want a D I title too #greedy.

Jeff, great stuff, really. Now I need to spend a few weeks parsing every detail...

7/2/2012 10:00 PM

Great info in here, but it was tough to get to the end ;).  Thanks for answering my question!

7/2/2012 10:12 PM
billyg, i have to ask...how much analyzing time do you end up saving because of your comp sci background?
7/2/2012 11:14 PM
for example, you set up those dynasty rankings and everything...that would take my 28 hours a day to put that together using copy+paste and excel.
7/2/2012 11:17 PM
Posted by jetwildcat on 7/2/2012 11:17:00 PM (view original):
for example, you set up those dynasty rankings and everything...that would take my 28 hours a day to put that together using copy+paste and excel.
i wrote that across a few drunken nights, at least the first one, that did longest streaks (most straight NT appearances, etc). the second round was maybe 1-2 more drunken nights, 3-4 hours each, to get world strength and the first cross world dynasty lists done. probably another good 10 hours since with tweaks, formatting, cutting down the monotony of my job. it used to take me like 30 posts to post some of that ****, so i restructured.

i can run the program to generate everything, because of my last modification, in 1 command - it will grab everything, and generate every lists. then a solid hour to post it all but thats simply copy pasting from notepad to WIS forums. i meant to do it each season but never did, but i recently spent like 2 hours cutting an hour of copy paste and BS out so now i might actually do it. that means the time is now... hmmm.... :)

but long story short, it wasn't bad. if i had been sober, wouldnt have taken long at all, and id never have somehow gotten worlds 2 and 5 mixed up... that was a pain in the *** to figure out what the hell i did...
7/3/2012 12:04 AM
Posted by jetwildcat on 7/2/2012 11:14:00 PM (view original):
billyg, i have to ask...how much analyzing time do you end up saving because of your comp sci background?
well, if what you are asking is, what does my PROGRAMMING save me -- nothing. i purposefully do NOT farm the data of seasons of games, and reverse compile the secrets of the game. its very difficult for people to do - many have tried, and failed. they simply run simple regressions and go wow, shot blocking is REALLY important. well... no, no its not. the only way those simple regressions work is if *recruit generation ratings are independent variables*, and clearly, they are not (ath/def, sb/reb, both have extremely tight correlations, to name a few).

however, if you pair statistical analysis, with a strong understanding of the game, you could probably get exact values on things you shouldn't be getting exact values on. and anyway, i feel like i already know what ratings are valuable for, how valuable they are, and how they complement each other.

on the other hand, i did go to CMU, which is about as good a theoretical computer science program as you will find in the world. the problem solving and analytical skills they work on there are really valuable for tons of abstract stuff. i can't tell you how i could study a team and try to predict the outcome of a game, then study the outcome, and draw valid conclusions - especially with the incredible number of variables involved. but the problem solving and analysis i built there definitely helped! probably helps too, that i didnt know a damn thing about basketball :) i didn't have paper and pencil tricks or programming tricks and i didn't keep track of anything. im sure programming would have sped up the process - but i don't think it would have been as much fun. i do think most people would benefit from that kind of analysis, but i think it would take them longer, and most people probably couldn't get to the same level of detail. so in that regard, the comp sci definitely helped.

i would *REALLY* like to write a sim AI for this game though, but at that point, i may as well just write my own sim engine and be done with it...

7/3/2012 12:27 AM (edited)
I enjoyed reading all the info to all the questions, always in-depth that makes you think and not a stone left unturned ... always appreciated billyg
7/3/2012 12:32 AM
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