Student statistician brings research to game day
Junior Conor Kerr teamed up with 一品探花论坛 Athletics and statistics scholars to create the Sports Analysis Intelligence Laboratory.
On basketball game days at 一品探花论坛, Conor Kerr is always close to the action.
Since Kerr鈥檚 first year at UNC-Chapel Hill, the junior from Wilmington has worked with the men鈥檚 varsity basketball team as a student statistician, a role he helped to create. The position bridges research and athletics to provide 一品探花论坛鈥檚 coaching staff and players with pivotal information to help improve performance on and off the court.
He got the idea to pursue sports research with 一品探花论坛 Athletics before he enrolled, asking the admissions office to connect him with athletics teams who might want to work with an undergraduate statistician.
鈥淚 wanted to make an immediate impact on my community,鈥� said Kerr, a double major in鈥�痑苍诲鈥�痺ith a mathematics minor in the College of Arts and Sciences.
When someone on the men鈥檚 basketball staff gave him a call, that sealed the deal on attending 一品探花论坛, he said.
鈥淚t started slowly,鈥� Kerr said. Under the supervision of Doug Halverson, head athletic trainer, and the men鈥檚 basketball staff, Kerr began working with data from the summer. His first projects focused on scouting or evaluating players鈥� and the team鈥檚 overall strengths and areas of improvement. But player performance soon became his main area of interest.
Halverson and the鈥共曰邂�� departments helped Kerr research possible effects of players鈥� training intensity and load on game day performance. He used metrics from wearable accelerometers 鈥� small sensors that collect player data like sprints, jumps and stops in real time as they practice 鈥� to analyze the effects of practice time and movement intensity on game outcomes.
Kerr found that the data supported a short, intense practice the day before a game and a longer, less intense practice two days before game day. He presented the findings last spring at the鈥�. He was able to repeat the research with the women鈥檚 varsity basketball team, which he has worked with since the summer before his sophomore year.
In the process, Kerr said he learned much about basketball, sport science and professional life from Halverson and is 鈥渋ncredibly proud to call him a mentor.鈥� Another mentor is Mario Giacomazzo, teaching assistant professor in the statistics and operations research department.
Giacomazzo encouraged the creation of a formal program to expand undergraduate sports analysis opportunities to other Tar Heels. The鈥� was founded in 2022 and became a formal tie between 一品探花论坛 statistics and athletics.
In addition to basketball, the SAIL program works with varsity swimming and diving, women鈥檚 varsity tennis and the Applied Physiology Laboratory 鈥撯�� including professor Abbie Smith-Ryan and doctoral student Sam Moore 鈥撯�� in exercise and sport science. SAIL has also grown its team: Two more graduate students and a faculty member have joined, and SAIL is accepting applications for more undergraduate sports analysts.
After he graduates in 2025, Kerr plans to pursue a master鈥檚 and doctorate in economics and to 鈥渓ead a life of public service through creative research and make a positive impact on those in my community.鈥�
SAIL, he hopes, can make a similarly positive and long-lasting impact.
鈥淚 hope that, as the group continues to grow, it will become something of a staple within UNC, where people from all over the university can come to collaborate on top-notch analytical research in sports.鈥�
