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.
Dwight Howard kept the Lakers close for most of the first half, with four inside baskets including a three-point play off a lay-up and foul to give the Lakers their last lead at 44-43 with 2:55 to play in the half. However, Matt Bonner responded with a three-pointer to spark a 17-4 run that made it 60-48 Spurs in the first minute of the second half, and French music star Tony Parker had 28 points and seven assists to make the Spurs the 6th team to take a 2-0 playoff lead.
25 Apr 2013
The only company that will have a College Football Playoff semifinal game named after them is Chick-fil-A. The honor will come less than a year after President Dan Cathy came out against gay marriage, and the Huffington Post had to admit that sales had soured to $4.6 billion in 2012 after the controversy.
23 Apr 2013
In giving the playoff odds for all games, Breitbart Sports reported that the Chicago Bulls were the low seed with the best chance to pull an upset (49%), and with Kirk Hinrich and Joakim Noah back on the court they pulled the first road win of the NBA playoffs.
23 Apr 2013
It appears the final chess move has been played in the battle over whether college realignment would continue until there were four conferences of four divisions each for 64 teams on the inside. The ACC has virtually assured that 64 teams will not control all of the BCS and potentially even March Madness revenue--and assured that the Big Ten will not look like what is depicted in this table in a couple of years.
22 Apr 2013
Good NBA teams play 82 games to get home court advantage, because the home team wins 61.2 percent of NBA games. The Miami Heat had an 87.6 percent of winning at home against the Bucks, and have a 49.97 percent of sweeping the series, while the Spurs and Nuggets had the second best chance at 85.2 percent. But the chances of all eight home teams winning Game 1 this weekend was only 8.2 percent - and they did it for the first time in nine years. All of the odds and recaps of the four games today are below.
21 Apr 2013
The day after Breitbart Sports noted that Darrelle Revis could take the field in the Jets opener - in the opposing uniform - ESPN and AP have reported that will be the case. The best cover cornerback in the NFL will take the remainder of his $46 million contract to Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
21 Apr 2013
Two weeks ago, Breitbart Sports reported on the uphill fight the New Jersey Devils faced to make the playoffs after their right wing Tom Kostopoulos was knocked out against the Islanders. On Sunday, the other New York team knocked the Devils out as a team - eliminating them from the playoffs for only the second time in six years.
21 Apr 2013
Al Michaels, best known for the audio behind this video (click here) in which he called the final minute of the greatest upset in history, was reportedly arrested for an alleged DUI Friday. Michaels called Monday Night Football for 20 years, and is now calling Sunday Night Football for NBC, but is best known for the calling the United States's 4-3 upset over the Soviet Union in the 1980 Winter Olympics en route to the gold medal.
21 Apr 2013
The winners of the London Marathon Sunday morning included Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede (2:06.04, men's), Priscah Jeptoo (2:20.15, women's), spectators with no reported incidents, and victims of the Boston bombing who stood to net roughly $100,000 because organizers vowed to donate 2 pounds for every one of the 36,000 runners who finished the race.
21 Apr 2013
The only Boston team to resume play away from home after the successful manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev played a gritty game and stayed within six points either way until New York's Carmelo Anthony hit a tough jumper with 1:21 to play. The Celtics opened the NBA playoffs by taking their 14-27 road record into New York to play on a court on which the Knicks were 31-10.
20 Apr 2013