regressing Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
No One Tells You About The Banana Peels: My Very Brief Career In Surgery
It started with a banana peel....
Bats Out of Hell: The Dumbest "Improvements" Made To Baseball Bat Design
Much like its cousin, the baseball cap, the baseball bat seems pretty simple, at first glance. Take a reasonably cylindrical piece of wood, taper it as necessary, put a little nub on the end so your hands don't slip off, and swing. Hit the ball too low, and you'll pop it up....
A Troubling Statistical Conundrum, From A Burger King Baseball In 1996
Reader Sully from Holy Cross wrote in this weekend with a question. ...
How John Calipari's Juggled Kentucky's Lineups To A Near-Perfect Season
In late October, Kentucky coach John Calipari announced a unique substitution pattern, one specifically designed to take advantage of the squad's nine McDonald's All-Americans. He would platoon his Wildcats, splitting the team into White and Blue units that would alternate for several minutes spurts...
How Has The NCAA's New 30-Sec Shot Clock Worked This Postseason?
As a college hoops superfan, I'll watch the NIT, and even the CIT and CBI given the chance. I've even attended two CIT title games. But the reality is that there's little at stake in these events other than the chance for participating teams to play more basketball and for me to watch more basketb...
Oh, Hey, College Baseball Successfully Juiced Its Balls
Home runs are up 39 percent in NCAA D1 baseball, at an even 0.5 per game through March 29, thanks to new flat-seamed baseballs. Through the same stretch of season last year, they were at 0.36 per game, and finished at a record-low 0.39. So, this is good news, at least for hitters. ...
Hold On, Jim Caldwell Went For The Most 4th Downs Last Year?
Football Outsiders published its Aggressiveness Index results yesterday, and came back with a very weird result. Jim Caldwell went for a shitload of fourth downs....
Here's Facebook's 2015 MLB Fandom Map
It's that time of year again: time to nod our heads at the fact that baseball fandom is largely geographic, unless you're a goddamned Yankees fan. ...
NBA Court Factors: How Assists Aren't As Unbiased As You Think
There will never be any question over what it means to have scored 25 points, or recorded a number of rebounds, blocks, or steals. Sure, if we've learned anything in the age of analytics it's that raw stats can be misleading—they fail to account for pace or efficiency—but at least they are facts. Ru...
Does WAR Undervalue Injured Superstars?
In an article last month, "Ain't Gonna Study WAR No More" (subscription required), Bill James points out a flaw in WAR (Wins Above Replacement), when used as a one-dimensional measure of player value....
Wichita State Knows What It's Doing On Offense. At Least One Team Does.
The Wichita State Shockers are impressive for a lot of reasons—their beatdown of geographic rival Kansas and top-10 defense, or for the simple possibility that they can trade punches with Kentucky in a tournament rematch, should WSU defeat Notre Dame later tonight. But at the minimum, praise Gregg M...
A Highly Scientific* Analysis of GRRM's Progress On <i>The Winds of Winter</i>
This post originally appeared on Watchers on the Wall. Republished here with permission. ...
If You Like Slick, Ridiculous Passing, Root For Providence's Kris Dunn
Providence coach Ed Cooley is renowned for his recruiting foresight, having helped land Craig Smith, Tyrese Rice, and other under-scouted players as an assistant at Boston College, but there weren't many layers for him to peel back with Kris Dunn, the most thrilling passer in the country. ...
How Those 3-on-3 Overtime Rules Would Cut Down NHL Shootouts
The NHL general managers are having their annual meetings this week and for the second year in a row they are discussing rule changes to decrease the number of games that are resolved by a shootout. The particular ideas they're tossing around—centered around adopting a 3-on-3 overtime—stand a very g...
Why The Size Of Your NCAA Tournament Pool Matters
You can have the best analytics on your side. You could even watch 100 hours of college basketball a week to prepare for filling out your bracket. None of this matters for the wrong pool. And just about the only wrong sort of pool is a big one. Let me repeat: DO NOT enter a big pool. Here's why....
Exciting NCAA Tourney Upsets: Not Brought To You By Enforced Amateurism
Over the next week, a relatively unheralded team from a small conference will probably defeat a blue blood program from a major conference. This will be surprising because we will have expected the more powerful team to win, what with their larger budget, better-paid coach, etc....
How Anthony Davis Gives The Pelicans Open Looks They Don't Deserve
Good ball movement generates open shots. This is Basketball 101, so fundamental to the game's primary education it may as well come down on stone tablets to every young player. It's proven: perhaps to the relief of youth coaches around the country, SportVU player-tracking shows that ball movement in...