Counterpoints: The Sports Analytics Podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review
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Counterpoints: The Sports Analytics Podcast from MIT Sloan Management Review
This is a show for sports professionals, data junkies, and fans alike. It’s a show for anyone who knows that numbers are about much more than the score. Hosts Ben Shields (MIT Sloan School of Management) and Paul Michelman (MIT Sloan Management Review) engage the world’s premier sports analytics exp...
Neueste Episoden
25 EpisodenWhy Analytics Don’t Always Pay Off in the Playoffs
In today's NBA, are analytics just a regular season tool? Analytics have a major place in today’s basketball world. At some level, every team relies o...
Front Office, Disrupted
The explosion of streaming media offers fans unlimited access to sports and entertainment. So how can teams entice their audience to the events happen...
The Running Game Is Only Mostly Dead
Recent years have seen an explosion in the NFL passing game and emerging analytics demonstrate that teams that throw the ball more win the game more....
Information Overload?
Counterpoints takes on two pressing questions in the sports analytics field: the issue of information overload and whether there is such a thing as to...
Talent vs. Teamwork
Stop us if you’ve heard this one before: The rag-tag group of underdogs overcomes the more skilled favorite thanks to nothing more than their belief i...
Behold the Big Man
In the NBA’s modern era of pace-and-space, small ball, and chucking away from 3, it feels like there’s no more place for the lumbering 7-foot center w...
What the NBA Gets Wrong About Lottery Pick Protections
A herd mentality and a lack of good data have led teams to make some poor decisions about trading draft picks. Is there a better way?
Predicting the College Football Playoff
Which teams make it to the college football playoffs isn’t as random as it sometimes seems, says University of Wisconsin-Madison professor Laura Alber...
NFL Pass Blocking is Even More Important than You Think
Though lacking in glitz and glamour, the tackle, guard, and center positions make up the backbone of every NFL offense. Without skilled players in tho...
The Secret of My eSports Success
eSports has arrived as a major player in the sports world. Games like DOTA 2 and League of Legends have hundreds of millions of players, and the best...
The Economic Impact of Sitting NBA Superstars
When NBA superstars like Steph Curry, Joel Embiid, or Kawhi Leonard are given a planned night off, the impact of their absence isn’t just felt on the...
Second-Grade Soccer Superstars
Even as soccer has become a multibillion-dollar business, with superstar transfer fees exceeding nine digits figures in euros, the best clubs can stil...
Buyer Beware! MLB Free Agents Underperform Their Contracts
Almost every team’s fans can point to a signature free agent signing that fell flat. Sometimes the reasons for the players’ underperformance are clear...
How Much Do Coaches Actually Matter?
Eddie Robinson at Grambling. Mike Krzyzewski at Duke. Gregg Popovich with the Spurs. It’s hard to underestimate the impact these coaches have had on t...
"Out-getting" Is the Next Great Baseball Strategy. Or Not.
Most Counterpoints listeners are well familiar with the sweeping changes that Moneyball brought to offensive strategy in baseball. Are we now on the c...
Mapping Tom Brady's Brain
It is incredibly difficult to judge individual talent in the NFL, because so much of a player's ability to succeed is based on context: his teammates...
What Would Happen if Baseball Outlawed the Shift?
Supporters of the shift believe it's a solid baseball strategy. By overloading defenders to the side of the field where a hitter routinely drives the...
Is It Possible to Judge Individual Talent in the NFL?
When the Patriots and the Rams take the field on Sunday, February 3, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta for Super Bowl 53, both teams will be there o...
Why F1 Mathematicians Should Be Paid More than Drivers
On the Formula One circuit, tenths and even hundredths of seconds can be the difference between podium glory and being out of a job. Races are won and...
So, Do Analytics Actually Work?
In this week’s episode, we take on a question that could lead to an existential crisis for this very podcast: How much of a difference do analytics ac...
When NHL Best Practices Go Overboard
In pairing right-handed defensemen with left-handed defensemen, many NHL teams believe they are following a proven and, seemingly obvious, formula. If...
Sleep is the Greatest Legal Advantage in Sports
Does everyone benefit equally from the same amount of sleep? And how exactly does one measure its specific impact on performance — athletic or otherwi...
Do Teams Need to Win to Sell Tickets?
It’s easy to understand why winning teams would draw more fans — a great team features exciting players, entertaining competition, and the expectation...
The Quest to Measure Basketball IQ
Basketball IQ is one of the game’s holy analytical grails. We know it’s there, or at least we think we know it’s there. But what is it even made of? I...
Preview Episode
This is a sports analytics show for sports professionals, data junkies, and fans alike. It’s a show for anyone who knows that numbers are about much m...