R Notebook

In-class activity #10: Correlation between teams rank and wins

# Rank of teams in 2012 and 2013 playoffs (1 = highest, 5 = lowest)
teamRank <- c(1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 5, 5)

# Wins in 2012 by team, in order of playoff rank
wins2012 <- c(94, 88, 95, 88, 93, 94, 98, 97, 93, 94)

# Wins in 2013 by team, in order of playoff rank
wins2013 <- c(97, 97, 92, 93, 92, 96, 94, 96, 92, 90)

cor(teamRank, wins2012)

[1] 0.3477129

# Correlation between rank and wins in 2013
cor_2013 <- cor(teamRank, wins2013)
print(paste("Correlation between teamRank and wins2013:", round(cor_2013, 4)))

[1] "Correlation between teamRank and wins2013: -0.6557"

# That value of -0.6557 for the correlation between teamRank and wins2013 suggests a moderate to strong negative relationship

teamRank

 [1] 1 2 3 3 4 4 4 4 5 5

wins2012

 [1] 94 88 95 88 93 94 98 97 93 94

wins2013

 [1] 97 97 92 93 92 96 94 96 92 90

cor(teamRank, wins2012)

[1] 0.3477129

cor(teamRank, wins2013)

[1] -0.6556945

plot(wins2013, teamRank, main="Team Rank vs Wins 2013",
     xlab="Regular Season Wins", ylab="Playoff Rank", pch=19)
abline(lm(teamRank ~ wins2013), col="red")  # Optional trend line

# There is a moderate negative correlation between regular season wins and playoff rank in 2013. This demonstrates that although more wins help, they do not guarantee postseason success.