Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
In the U.S., the annual NCAA college basketball tournament, known as March Madness, draws in millions of people trying to predict who will win. Just one problem: no one has ever created a perfect bracket. By using a player-based rating system that updates throughout the season, a “predictive model” can be created to accurately predict teams with the best shot of winning the championship, and even show which players had the most impact on a single team in college basketball.
In the basketball world, perhaps one of the most sought-after feelings is that of momentum. Basketball players, coaches, analysts, and fans alike are all too familiar with the idea that a “team has momentum” during a stretch of time, or that the team needs to do something to “generate their own momentum”. In a game that appears to be an accumulation of independent possessions, what exactly does momentum really mean? My goal was to see if there is a way to quantify momentum in an NBA game, particularly by looking at the Phoenix Suns 2021-2022 NBA season.