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.
As Breitbart Sports noted leading up to the women's NCAA championship, history was going to be tied Tuesday night. Either UConn was going to tie Tennessee with their eighth all-time title, or Louisville was going to become the first school to win the men's and women's title in the same year except for UConn in 2004. UConn left no doubt from the first half that they were going to protect their own history and deny it to Louisville.
9 Apr 2013
Kansas' Ben McLemore's decision to enter the NBA Draft Tuesday is no surprise, as he should be guaranteed to make between $7.1 million and $10.9 million as soon as his name is called in 79 days, even if he never plays an NBA game. If he goes in as the No. 1 pick, as some expect with Nerlens Noel coming back from injury, then he is practically guaranteed $10.9 million. However Ohio State's Deshaun Thomas and Louisville's Russ Smith are among 12 underclassmen planning to give up college to be a 2nd round pick--which often does not result in receiving a single dollar from the NBA.
9 Apr 2013
After a thrilling first half, every shot, pass and dribble within the arc in the second half seemed as hard fought as Chane Behanan's pictured dunk through Tim Hardaway. Louisville's pressure started to show results, but at a cost as all three players in the back court--Peyton Siva, Luke Hancock and Russ Smith--had three fouls by the time they had a 56-52 lead at the 12-minute timeout.
8 Apr 2013
Trey Burke scored seven points in the first 2:40 to help Michigan jump to the lead, but with 11:09 to go in the half it suddenly looked like Michigan’s 20-15 lead might vanish. Luke Hancock pumped Burke into the air, drawing a second foul on him to send him to the bench for the rest of the half, and force back-up Spike Albrecht to handle the Cardinals' pressure the rest of the half. No problem, for eight minutes.
8 Apr 2013
With only one college game left to be played, Trey Burke needs a solid national championship Monday to become the 10th player ever with a Value Add of 11% or more, as shown by the new top 100 Value Add players listed below. Syracuse's zone defense held Burke in check Saturday to lower his season Value Add to 10.95%, meaning he has improved Michgan's scores by almost 11%. He will need a solid outing against Louisville's top defense to join the only players who have ever topped 11% for a season (in alphabetical order): Michael Beasley (Kansas St. 2008), Jae Crowder (Marquette 2012), Anthony Davis (Kentucky 2012), Kevin Durant (Texas 2007), Kevin Love (UCLA 2008), Jon Scheyer (Duke 2010), Jordan Taylor (Wisconsin 2011), Kemba Walker (Connecticut 2011) and Shelden Williams (Duke 2006).
8 Apr 2013
Louisville, the top Value Add team, goes up against the top Value Add player in Trey Burke and Michigan Monday at 9:23 p.m. for the national title. Russ Smith dropped from No. 4 to No. 6 in the rankings after the Wichita State game. The Value Add of the match-ups of each of the top 8 players by position are shown, with Louisville having the edge due to a stronger bench.
8 Apr 2013
Freshman Breanna Stewart scored 29 points and UConn broke a losing streak against Notre Dame with a 83-65 win Sunday. UConn will now go to their eighth NCAA title game, where they have never lost, and if they beat Louisville they will tie Tennessee with eight women's titles. Tennessee made it many more times, but went 8-5 once in the title game.
7 Apr 2013
If Brittney Griner focused on the NBA rather than the WNBA, no one would benefit more than Elena Delle Donne, pictured leaving the court after Delaware was eliminated in the Sweet 16. Delle Donne would likely become the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft if Griner decided to forgo the draft to wait for the NBA, but Delle Donne told ESPN Sunday that she believed the men's game was completely different and Griner should focus on the WNBA.
7 Apr 2013
The Louisville women were already the first 5-seed to make the Final Four and had pulled the biggest upset in tournament history, and Louisville was already only the fifth school to put a men's and women's team in the final game within five years (see table below). Antonita Slaughter was not satisfied, hitting six 3-pointers to rally Louisville back from 10 down to pull another upset, 64-57 over Cal and make Louisville the third school ever to put the men and women in the title game in the same year (Duke 1999 with both runners-up, UConn 2004 with both titles).
7 Apr 2013
The Nationals finally made it back to the top of their rotation and it did not matter, as the Cincinnati Reds made it 27 runs in the three game series to win 6-3. The ball was carrying well during the daytime game in the hitter-friendly Great American Ballpark, as Reds ace Johnny Cueto was also touched for three runs in six innings, with Aroldis Chapman throwing consecutive 101 mph fastballs to wrap up the save.
7 Apr 2013