(January 26, 2007) — “Welcome to CSBA! (Clark Stats Basketball Association). Thus begins the first line of the Fantasy Basketball assignment, a project devised by statistics teacher Fred Blattner. His fifth period statistics students have been using NBA players to create their own league and work in pairs to draft their own teams since November. “Many people have participated in fantasy sports, but I never had the chance to, so I thought it would be interesting to incorporate it in my stats class,” Blattner said. The goal of Blattner’s project is to allow the students to demonstrate how statistical methods can be used in everyday activities, such as sports. The groups of students draft their fantasy teams by researching players’ stats on www.NBA.com . Their objective is to draft a team that produces points for the specific categories specified by Blattner. For example, each three-point shot scored by an NBA player is worth one point, whereas each point scored during a game is equivalent to two. Therefore, if a player scores ten points, each point is worth two points, and the total worth equals 20. Along with keeping track of their players and competing with all of the other fantasy teams in the class, the students must keep a diary to record their progress. The class spends about five minutes at the beginning of class to discuss which teams are winning in their league. “It’s cool because we get to talk about the [NBA] games from the night before,” said senior Artin Tahmassian. Blattner’s idea for this project stemmed from two past experiences. The first was a book he had read about a man who thought he could predict the winning team in a league and get inside information on teams by collecting and calculating their stats; however, the man failed to produce the results he expected. Also, Blattner was inspired by a similar project that he had heard about from a college professor from Western Carolina University (WCU). Some aspects of Blattner’s project and the WCU professor’s project are different. “I thought creating a league would be more interesting,” Blattner said. The stats students are showing positive reactions to the Fantasy Basketball project. “It’s great to incorporate statistics into something that everyone follows,” Tahmassian said. According to Tahmassian and his group partner, senior Hovig Mazmanyan, their team (The Civil War Reenactment Society of Glendale) is currently one of the top teams in the league. It includes players such as Tracy McGrady from the Houston Rockets and Gilbert Arenas from the Washington Wizards. At the end, the grade for the project comes down to the quality of the reports students will write second semester. “It must demonstrate statistical methods and apply the drafting of their teams,” Blattner said. “The winning team wins bragging rights, but that’s as far as it goes. It still comes down to the report for the grade.” The students must wait until February, when the NBA season ends, in order to find out the winning fantasy basketball team.