[M T]

As for the +/-, I've never understood whether it is helpful for a single game, comparing players who play 33 minutes with those who play 3.  But among starters Jump was tops at 21, Lepolo at 18, Brink at 10, Jones at 11, and Iriafen down at 3.

It is an indication of how the team does against an opponent with a player in.  It is influenced by the other players on the court (teammates & opponents).  Two players that play the exact same portions of the game will have the same +/-.   It is probably most useful comparing players that played, say, about half the game (not fully overlapping).

Any player that played all the first 3 quarters would be +8 on Stanford's side or -8 on FGCU's side.  Players that were in during the last quarter when Stanford pulled away will get the benefit (or deficit), appropriately so.  

In Jones's case, she went out in the first when the score was 8-14 and came back in when it was 15-14.  Stanford scored 7 and prevented the other team from scoring any during that time.  The Stanford players in during that time get +7 while Jones gets 0.   Why Stanford did relatively better during that time doesn't matter.

The things I like about +/- are that it directly correlates to the score differential (and thus who wins) and that it includes all the little things like denying the ball to an opponent, screening to open up your shooter, etc. that otherwise don't show up in statistics.

[M T]

As for the +/-, I've never understood whether it is helpful for a single game, comparing players who play 33 minutes with those who play 3.  But among starters Jump was tops at 21, Lepolo at 18, Brink at 10, Jones at 11, and Iriafen down at 3.

It is an indication of how the team does against an opponent with a player in.  It is influenced by the other players on the court (teammates & opponents).  Two players that play the exact same portions of the game will have the same +/-.   It is probably most useful comparing players that played, say, about half the game (not fully overlapping).

Any player that played all the first 3 quarters would be +8 on Stanford's side or -8 on FGCU's side.  Players that were in during the last quarter when Stanford pulled away will get the benefit (or deficit), appropriately so.  

In Jones's case, she went out in the first when the score was 8-14 and came back in when it was 15-14.  Stanford scored 7 and prevented the other team from scoring any during that time.  The Stanford players in during that time get +7 while Jones gets 0.   Why Stanford did relatively better during that time doesn't matter.

The things I like about +/- are that it directly correlates to the score differential (and thus who wins) and that it includes all the little things like denying the ball to an opponent, screening to open up your shooter, etc. that otherwise don't show up in statistics.