Adam White is a graduate student at Bowling Green State University. Here is his idea: I call the statistic “gifts.” Like any worthy measure, gifts are simple to understand and to calculate, yet aspire to novel explanatory force. Gifts are the difference between a team’s total points scored and the points they scored on kills. This reflects the number of non-kill or “unearned” points handed to them by the other team. For example, say [Texas Tech] beats BGSU 25-21, but the Falcons outhit the Red Raiders 15-14. This entails that BGSU gave TTU 11 gifts (25-14), while TTU gave BGSU only 6 gifts (21-15). The point is that, in this case at least, the gifts explain the TTU victory better than do the kills. (This is an exception, but not a rarity.) “Gifts per set” is probably the best way to track and analyze the measure. Teams would have both a “gifts received” and a “gifts given” figure. Arguably "gifts given" measures the consistency and effectiveness of a team’s al