John Pudner wrote his first statistical analysis for the New York Post more than 20 years ago, ranking pitchers on opposite Sundays from when Bill James ranked batters, and he was named as the top sports news writer in his newspaper class in Virginia by the Virginia Press Association.
Since then he has run more than 200 political campaigns for candidates or ballot issues while continuing to write statistical analysis for sports and developing a database of thousands of basketball players at www.valueaddbasketball.com and writing for www.crackedsidewalks.com. He met with and advised several NBA teams to advice on the future performance of potential draft picks this year. His work for the Alabama Farmers Federation in 2010 included helping to coordinating door-to-door efforts that reached the homes of 170,000 voters, and his more recent statistical work was featured by CNN/Sports Illustrated.
Less than five months after taking the stage with Rutgers President Robert Barchi (center photo) and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany (right) to announce that Rutgers had been selected by the Big Ten, Tim Pernetti (left) will be let go at a 1 p.m. ET press conference a source has told the AP. The Rutgers Athletic Director and former tightend at the school helped the Scarlett Knights climb from an almost insignificant athletic program to a member of the most powerful conference in the country in less than a decade, but some are calling for Barchi to also leave in the aftermath of a coaching scandal.
5 Apr 2013
On Selection Sunday, Breitbart Sports noted that NIT-bound Baylor had the 17th best trio in college basketball under the headline, “Breitbart Sports Picked 67 of 68 NCAA Bids: Middle 20s No. 7 Baylor Left Out.” On Thursday, the trio dominated Iowa of the Big Ten 74-54 to show they were better than many of the teams selected, as Pierre Jackson finished a season in which he became the first player in over two decades to lead a major conference in scoring and assists with a 17/10 that gave him an incredible 20/11 average for the NIT tournament.
4 Apr 2013
The Washington Nationals capped a packed schedule of baseball Thursday afternoon by becoming the first team in the Majors to win three games, improving to 3-0. Miami finally scored for the first time this season in the second inning, but Bryce Harper singled and scored in the first to make it 2-0,and then singled to drive in another run and raise his batting average to .600 in the third inning.
4 Apr 2013
Some thought Breitbart Sports was premature in naming Trey Burke the College Basketball Most Valuable Player 43 days ago, when speculation was focused on other players. But Thursday the Associated Press sports writers agreed, naming Burke their Player of the Year. By the end of the season Breitbart Sports moved Otto Porter to No. 2 behind Burke, and again the AP voters agreed in results released today.
4 Apr 2013
The good news for the Houston Astros is that they will win more games than injured Johan Santana, who is one of three players being paid more than their whole team, they can no longer be the only sixth place team in baseball now that they have moved to the 5-team AL West, and they had three more hits Wednesday than they did in the near perfect game thrown against them Tuesday. The rest is bad for the team with a $24 million payroll (see all teams below) that was shut out by Texas again Wednesday.
3 Apr 2013
Two years ago Rutgers coach Mike Rice was universally viewed as a victim of one of the worst officiating blunders ever. He may now become the poster child for those who challenge coaches who push youth to get more out of themselves by striving to win and excel. While not condoning the hurling of basketballs at players and other activities for which Rice was sent to counseling and then fired, there is danger of the pendulum swinging the other way.
3 Apr 2013
For the first time in history, one conference has placed five teams in the Final Four, or rather Final Fours, as the Louisville women dominated Tennessee to join the UConn women, Notre Dame women, Syracuse men and Louisville men to give the Big East five teams in the Final Four. The 2006 Women's ACC and 1985 Men's Big East were the only other conferences to put three teams into either the Men's or Women's Final Four since the Women's tournament started in 1982.
2 Apr 2013
Fans of Louisville basketball and Pittsburgh Penguins hockey could both be cheering for championships soon, but Tuesday they are happy for a more important reason. Tuesday the AP reported that both Sidney Crosby and Kevin Ware are out of the hospital following successful surgery necessitated by brutal weekend injuries.
2 Apr 2013
Louisville's Shoni Schimmel (pictured) hit five 3-pointers en route to 22 points, but more importantly was in the face of Britney Griner as the 5-seed Cardinals gave Baylor only their second loss in 76 games. If the Cardinals can now beat two 2-seeds in a row (Tuesday at 9:10 p.m. ET against Tennessee and Sunday against Cal) they will be the lowest seed to make the women's title game. If Tennessee or UConn win the title, then the status quo will have won out with those two schools owning exactly half (16 of 32) of all women's titles.
2 Apr 2013
While writing for the New York Post in 1990, I debuted a stat for starting pitchers called "ERA Needed to Win," which took runs of support from a pitcher's offense and subtracted runs allowed by relief pitchers and unearned runs allowed by the defense behind him. This translated into a "chance to win game." When Clayton Kershaw stepped to the plate in the eighth inning his "chance to win game" was theoretically 0% since the Dodgers had scored no runs for him. What happened next was historic.
1 Apr 2013