regressing Page 33 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Problem With Bitching About Fourth Downs And Two-Point Conversions
It's funny how the analytics of a sport can often mirror the sport itself. Sabermetrics are as regimented (or more) as the national pastime ever was; basketball analytics have progressed into lively, intersecting data points thanks to new player tracking technology; and heady football talk often en...
Can Science Predict An Injury-Prone Future Draft Pick?
Freshman basketball phenom Andrew Wiggins’s college debut tonight for the University of Kansas is one of the most anticipated arrivals in a generation. When he steps on the court at Allen Fieldhouse against the University of Louisiana at Monroe, scouts from every NBA team will presumably be watching...
NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Week 10 (Late Edition)
Below is updated betting information lines for the Week 10 NFL games (you can see the early-week edition here). Spread movement and money lines are now included for each game, as is info for Lions-Bears....
Where's Your Team Scoring From? An Early Look At NBA Distance Shooting
Although we're just a few games into the season, the shooting strategies of different squads have started to come into focus. A lot of teams—like the Warriors—continue to put more and more emphasis on three-point shots, while other teams—like the Rockets—have made a push towards getting more looks i...
Tony Dorsett Is One Of The First Living Players To Show Signs Of CTE
We diagnose chronic traumatic encephalopathy, the neurological disease thought to be ravaging former NFL players, at autopsy. But now, for the first time, we're beginning to find ways to discover it in players before they're dead. Hall of Famer Tony Dorsett is one of the first to be tested and foun...
Video: The History Of International Football Transfers In Sixty Seconds
The video above, by EyeSeeData.com's Mac Bryla, jams 133 years of international football transfers into very cool-looking visual. If you're interested in digging into the data a bit more you can check out the interactive version he made on his site, which lets you break down the transfers by country...
Charts: Who Are The Oldest And Fattest Teams In The NBA?
Note: The charts and text have been updated to include Roger Mason Jr. (Heat), Mike Harris (Jazz), and Brandon Davies (76ers), who were initially missing. These updates are reflected in the BestTicketBlog's charts as well....
So You Got A Deadly Infection From Playing In The NFL? Prove It.
Of all the storylines you expected to be a part of the first half of the NFL season, a workman's comp issue involving a toenail probably wasn't one of them. But it is, and it's actually intriguing in a number of ways, large and small....
NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Week 10 (Early Edition)
Here is your early betting info for Week 10 NFL; we'll update on Thursday with money lines and spread movements for the 13 games, and add info for Lions-Bears (spread opened late)....
The NBA Players No One Will Pass To
Now that the NBA's new SportVU site has launched, armchair morons like you and me can avail themselves of all kinds of wonky stats—how often Marc Gasol touches the ball on the elbow, say, or how many of his rebounds Dwight Howard actually has to fight for. But leave that for the professionals. What ...
Why Is Making The NBA For Rich Kids? Ask Seth Stephens-Davidowitz Here
It's far easier to make it to the NBA if you're born in a richer part of the country, and to a more stable family. Seth Stephens-Davidowitz, whose article in the New York Times was based on data from the US Census data and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will be here to chat about it...
Midway Point: How Does Your NFL Team Stack Up On Offense and Defense?
After Week 5, we took a look at the excellent offensive/defensive visualizations that Brian Burke puts together on AdvancedNFLstats.com. A lot of weird shit can happen in the first five weeks of the season, so now that we're at the midway point, it's worth taking another look to see how teams have s...
What Are Your Best Day-After Marathon Misery Stories?
The New York City marathon was yesterday, meaning today there are about 48,000 people who are feeling beat to hell today. What's the worst thing that happened to you, in yesterday's race, or ever: Toenails fall off? Peeing blood? Global refusal to get the hell out of bed until next decade? Open foru...
Surprise: Being Poor Makes It Much Harder To Get To The NBA
Here's something that would be roundly unsurprising in most any other context, but will still startle many: Where you grow up, and how wealthy your family is, has a profound effect on the odds you'll make it to the NBA....
NFL Statheads Are Losing Their War With The Spread. Here's Why.
In last week’s post, we showed that several of the larger statistically-inclined websites which offer NFL picks have had a rough go of it to start the season, at least as far as their picks against the spread. This was a surprise, because these results come on top of a string of several successful s...
Why Marathoners (Especially Men) Are "Irrational" Runners
If you're going to sacrifice your body to run 26.2 miles all at once, shouldn't you at least run them as best you can? Eric Allen (USC) and Patricia Dechow (Berkeley) took a look at finishing times for 300,000 Chicago Marathon runners from 2003 to 2011, concluding, in the style of all behavioral eco...
Infographics: Where Does Your NFL Team's Offense Come From?
The NFL season is just about half over, which means most teams are what they're going to be. But what does that look like, exactly? Here's a quick visual guide for every NFL team's offense....
How The Chiefs Stopped Sucking In One Offseason
Before Week 1, if you'd said that the Kansas City Chiefs would be undefeated halfway through the season, you'd have been chased up and down Blue Parkway by men with butterfly nets. Yet here we are, on the cusp of November, and the last undefeated team in the NFL plays at Arrowhead Stadium. How'd th...
NFL Betting Lines, Visualized: Week 9 (Late Edition)
Below is updated betting information lines for the Week 9 NFL games (you can see the early-week edition here). Spread movement and money lines are now included for each game, as is info for Eagles-Raiders....
The Terrifying Hell A Marathon Inflicts On The Human Body
Pamela Anderson running on a beach is one of those indelible images in American pop culture. So there were a lot of yuks when she announced earlier this fall that she'd be running in the New York City Marathon, which takes place this Sunday. Pam Anderson running—for 26.2 miles! And when she went on ...