damned-lies - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Myth Of The Myth Of The Hot HandAdapted from the new book, How Not to Be Wrong: The Power of Mathematical Thinking....
The Deceptive Math Behind The Seahawks' Pitch To Undrafted Free AgentsAs soon as the NFL draft ends, the mad scramble to sign the best undrafted players begins. To get an edge, the Seattle Seahawks have distributed this data-heavy deck to NFL agents, a move that caught the eye of NFL.com's Ian Rapoport....
Behold, The Most Useless Graphic Of The NBA Playoffs
The map above—from TNT last night—is one of those "who's getting the most buzz" graphics that are as ubiquitous as they are useless. Unfortunately, Houston and Portland both wear red, a nuance lost on whatever computer program generated this image. Better luck next time, computer program!...
The Greatest Season In NBA History*, Brought To You By DeAndre Liggins
The play above—what looks like an afterthought in LeBron James's 61-point outburst against the Bobcats—represents the sole meaningful play of #14 DeAndre Liggins's season. Spending most of the year in D-League, Liggins was signed by Miami late in February and released in mid-March, appearing in just...
Which NCAA Scorekeepers Give Out The Most Assists?
Over on FiveThirtyEight, Carl Bialik has an interesting article on how NCAA assist rates vary from court to court, since scorekeepers are given considerable leeway in deciding what counts as an assist and what doesn't. Ken Pomeroy tackled the same subject back in 2007, and both identified Sam Housto...
So Close, ESPN Data Team
You usually can't calculate free throw percentages in your head, but 680/1,000 is pretty easy. There are plenty of perfectly reasonable explanations for why this happened—maybe the counting and rate stats update at different speeds?—but still, whoops....
Cherrypick Your Way Through 143 Years Of Baseball Stats
Did you know that Curt Schilling led the league in complete games from 1992-2001? That Tim Raines led the league in hits from 1981-87? That Fred McGriff led the league in home runs from 1987-95? All great stats to argue for your favorite player's HOF admission, made possible by the magic of cherrypi...
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ESPN Says The Ravens (Who Won) Had A Sub-Zero Chance Of Winning
The graph above, tweeted out by ESPN Stats & Info last night, shows the win probability for the Ravens and Vikings over the fourth quarter of their ridiculous Sunday game, which saw five lead changes in the final two minutes....