Do you want to know if your NCAA basketball team will make it to March Madness? Microsoft’s Bing Predicts can help you.
March Madness is still a couple of months away but it’s never too early to prepare for Microsoft as it launched its Bing Predicts’ new “Are We In” college basketball tool.
AreWeIn.net gives college basketball fans some daily updated predictions such as team’s probability of making the tournament, what the team will be seeded, how it will finish, and its conference standings.
According to ESPN College Basketball Analyst Jay Williams, Bing Predicts will take a look at the historical statistics to see which factors contribute to strong teams who make the tournament either automatically or as an at-large bid. Predictions are based data such as team’s strength of schedule, opponents’ win/lose record, and detailed statistical analysis regarding their on-court tendencies such as ball control, rebounding and field-goal percentage. And since predictions are also subject to changes, it would also add web activity and social sentiment to tune the strengths, capturing real-time information like injuries and line-up changes.
Bing Predicts already used its algorithms to predict outcomes of events like the 2015 Academy Awards and Super Bowl. But the search engine’s newest prediction engine may be its most robust to date not only for sports entertainment but also for bracket competition and gambling purposes.
The launch of AreWeIn.net follows another NCAA Bing Predicts tool called the Bracket Builder, which help the fans build the best bracket based on 10 seasons of college basketball data combined with predictions of the Bing predicts team.
NCAA changes rules on NBA Draft deadline
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that it changed a couple of rules to its NBA draft process.
Basketball players will be able to remain in the draft pool until 10 days after the combine and will be able to enter multiple drafts during their college careers without penalty.
In addition, players will retain their college eligibility even if they declare themselves for the NBA draft in more than one year, giving the players more time to think if they want to leave the school and turn pro or return to school to play another year or teams are not interested.
“(The rule allows) student-athletes to realize their dreams without punishing them for having such dreams,” said Cody McDavis of the oversight committee for Division I men’s basketball. “Almost every men’s basketball student-athlete has dreamt of playing in the NBA. This proposal allows them to attempt to make those dreams a reality without taking away their ability to come back and play in amateur collegiate sport if they happen to be unsuccessful.”
