Women’s NCAA Basketball - Building a shiny app

How to make an intro shiny app
Authors
Affiliation

Abby Sikora

St. Lawrence University

Ivan Ramler

St. Lawrence University

Published

April 3, 2025

Module

Introduction

Women’s Division 1 basketball is a rapidly growing sport with a full-fledged professional circuit and tournaments across the country (WBBALL). Caitlin Clark has revolutionized women’s college basketball with her dynamic scoring ability and deep shooting range, making an indelible impact on the game. Playing a 30-game regular season, her performances have captivated fans, culminating in the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament, where teams battle for the national championship each year.

The data set for this activity was taken from Caitlin Clark season statistics found on the Her Hoops college basketball statistics website, (HerHoops).

The learning objectives associated with this module are:

  • Understand the structure and components of a Shiny App

  • Create interactive visualizations and dynamic outputs by integrating R packages

  • Analyze outputs from the Shiny App

  • The handout provides a step by step Shiny App creation using Caitlin Clark career data

  • Up to date statistics can be obtained using the code available from the SCORE Data Repository

Data

This data set contains 4 rows and 26 columns. Each row represents a single season for Caitlin Clark with statistics.

Variable Descriptions
Variable Description
season calendar year (2020 - 2024)
team the team the player is on
G the number of games the player has played in a season
GS the number of games in a season
MIN the number of minutes total the player has played in a season
PTS the total count of points scored in a season
FGM the total number of field goals made
FGA the total number of field goals attempted
FG. the percent of field goals made in a season
X2PM the number of 2 point field goals made
X2PA the number of 2 point field goals attempted
X2P. the percent of 2 point field goals made in a season
X3PM the number of 3 point field goals made
X3PA the number of 3 point field goals attempted
X3P. the percent of 3 point field goals made in a season
FTM the number of free throws made
FTA the number of free throws attempted
FT. the percent of free throws made in a season
ORB the number of offensive rebounds in a season
DRB the number of defensive rebounds in a season
TRB the total number of rebounds in a season
AST the number of assists in a season
TOV the number of turnovers by the player in a season
STL the number of steals by the player in a season
BLK the total number of blocks by the player in a season
PF the total number of personal fouls in a season

Points(PTS): Points are scored by shooting the ball into the opponent’s hoop, with 2 points for regular field goals, 3 points for shots made beyond the three-point line, and 1 point for free throws.

Field Goals(FGM & FGA): This is a shot attempted from the court during play

Rebound(ORB, DRB, TRB): This is the act of retrieving the ball after a missed field goal or free throw attempt, either by grabbing it off the rim or backboard.

Free Throw(FTM, FTA): This is an unopposed attempt to score one point by shooting the ball from the free-throw line, awarded after certain fouls are committed.

Data Source

The data is obtained from the Her Hoops college basketball statistics website. HerHoops.

Materials

Clark.csv - Caitlin Clark data set containing statistics from the 2020-2024 seasons SCORE Network Data Repository

Worksheet1.qmd - guided walk through of creating a Shiny App

Worksheet2.qmd - less guided walk through of creating a Caitlin Clark Shiny App

Solutions for questions:

Worksheet1_key.qmd

Worksheet2_key.qmd

Students should find that Clark gets progressively better over time in scoring categories. Structure of the module comes from Mastering a Shiny App