Syracuse Sun

The sport analytics program at Syracuse University's Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics has entered a historic partnership with the Kumamoto Volters, a professional basketball team in Japan, for the 2024-25 season. This collaboration marks the first time an American college or university has partnered with a Japanese professional sports team for such purposes.

Under this agreement, students and faculty from Syracuse will work alongside their counterparts at Kumamoto University on various data analysis projects aimed at improving the Volters' performance. The team is striving to move from the B.League's B2 league to the B1 league.

Satoshi Yunoue, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kumamoto Basketball Co., Ltd., expressed confidence in the partnership. "In recent years, the importance of data has been gaining attention, and we are confident that together with Kumamoto University, (Syracuse) will support us in the analytics portion and contribute to improving our winning percentage as we accumulate know-how in data analysis," Yunoue said in a statement translated into English on the team's website.

"We are excited to be able to work with Syracuse University, which is leading the way in data analysis in the field of basketball in the United States," Yunoue added.

Seven undergraduate and graduate students from Syracuse's sport management program will serve as the Volters' de facto analytics department. They will remotely collect and analyze various types of data, including player performance statistics, live game video, information from wearables that track performance data, and business operations data.

Rodney Paul, Sport Analytics Undergraduate Director and Professor at Syracuse University, shared his enthusiasm about the collaboration. “We are honored and excited about the partnership between Kumamoto University and Syracuse University Sport Analytics,” he said. “We look forward to providing statistical insights, building visualizations and models, and doing everything we can to help with the success of the Volters as we build what we hope to be a lasting collaboration with our wonderful partners at both Kumamoto University and the Volters.”

Under Paul's leadership, sport analytics students have achieved significant recognition by capturing back-to-back National Sport Analytics Championships. Approximately 70 students currently provide data collection and analysis for 11 of Syracuse University's athletic teams. Other similar partnerships are being explored both nationally and globally.

Previously, data analysis for the Volters was conducted on a limited basis by staff members. The new collaboration aims not only to enhance analysis for their own team but also includes evaluating opposing teams' data. Additionally, it will assist in developing Kumamoto's own data analysis team.

Yunoue emphasized the broader impact of this partnership: “We would like to use the Volters as a hub to connect university students in Kumamoto and America,” he said. “We are grateful for this connection, and we will become a team and work together as colleagues working toward this goal.”

Paul highlighted how this initiative reflects on Syracuse’s unique sport analytics program. "This is the next step in the evolution of our program where our students are working in a practical laboratory with a professional team in another country," he said. "These are ways they can show off their skills; they can wake up in the morning and see the score of the game and results of what they did."