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.
When Mayor Michael Bloomberg was at a press conference announcing the New York Islanders would move to Brooklyn, he may have missed a chance to ban one more weapon - Matt Martin (left in photo). Saturday the Islanders' Left Wing finished a week in which he knocked out New Jersey Devils right wing Tom Kostopoulos with a punch and then took a step toward knocking the Devils out of the playoffs with a tie-breaking goal Saturday. The Islanders are trying to beat out their two New York Metro rivals for one of the final two playoff appearances (see all three team’s schedules below).
6 Apr 2013
Syracuse’s zone took away the scoring of Player of the Year Trey Burke (right in photo), but Michigan's Mitch McGary (left in photo) grabbed the rebound on Syracuse's first shot, then rejected the next two Syracuse shots to set the tone, going have four assists, seven rebounds and seven points in the first half to give Michigan an 11-point lead. When Syracuse rode CJ Fair all the way back to the lead, McGary had to sit and his replacement Jordan Morgan draw a charge on Brandon Triche to foul him out of the game and preserve a 61-56 win to send the Wolverines into Monday’s title game against Louisville.
6 Apr 2013
After Wichita State had played an almost perfect game to take a 12-point lead over Louisville in the second half, two unlikely heros emerged. Walk-on Tim Henderson (left in photo) came in and hit two three-pointers to keep Louisville alive, and then Luke Hancock (right in photo) took over from inside and outside. Hancock drove to the hoop and scored with both his left and right, hit jumpers and then saved the game when he grabbed his own missed free throw to tie it up for a jump ball and give Louisville the ball back in the final seconds with a 71-68 lead. Russ Smith then hit a free throw to provide the 72-68 final.
Hancock was the first player to come off the bench and score 20 points in almost four decades, and the combined effort eventually offset an incredible 24-point performance by Cleanthony Early.
6 Apr 2013
If the bottom of the Blue Jays rotation can get shutouts like JA Happ did Saturday against the Red Sox, and the bottom of their line-up can produce two home run blasts from sub-.250 hitters, then this may truly be the year that the AL East gets flipped with Toronto on top and the Red Sox and Yankees in fourth and fifth.
6 Apr 2013
At the outset of March Madness, we noted that the teams with the best trios have the best chance to go alll the way. In the "almost" final Value Add rankings below (see table) just three teams - Indiana, Louisville and Syracuse - have three Top 50 players, and the latter two hope to win Saturday to make it an All-Big East championship Monday. However, Wichita State will take the court with a big, solid trio against Louisville at 6:09 ET in the first Final Four game. Michigan will take the best player in the country into the late game, as Trey Burke takes the court for the first time since receiving the AP Player of the Year and Wooden Award to try to solve Syracuse's 2-3 zone.
6 Apr 2013
Like the final shot in Hoosiers, there was no doubt who would take the final big shot for Santa Clara in the CIT championship game Friday. Earlier this season Kevin Foster scored 30 points against St. Louis, 29 against Duke and 29 against Gonzaga. He averaged 26.3 points in the tournament - the most important three coming with 1:11 to play to give Santa Clara the lead for good at 75-73.
5 Apr 2013
On Thursday Breitbart Sports reported on the Nationals 3-0 start after allowing Miami only one run in 27 innings, but warned, "The Nationals' great pitching will get more of a test when they go to Cincinnati to face another early season favorite..." Did they ever, as the Reds slammed six home runs in a 15-0 win that sent an early message for a possible NL Championship series.
5 Apr 2013
Barry Zito reached base all three times at the plate including once that allowed San Francisco to score their only run, and threw seven scoreless innings to give the Giants a 1-0 win over St. Louis in front of their opening day crowd. It was the 10th time this season that a Major League Pitcher won a game despite needing to register an “ERA Needed” of 3.00 or lower (see the table below for all 10).
5 Apr 2013
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