The r-squared Podcast

Today's episode features a conversation with Stephen Shea, an associate professor of mathematics at Saint Anselm College and one of the co-authors of the book, Basketball Analytics: Objective and Efficient Strategies for Understanding How Teams Win. Stephen was nice enough to take me through some of the metrics in the book as well as some of the work he has done extending those metrics this season with the publicly available SportVU data. We also spend some time talking about the relative complexity of certain basketball metrics and the trade-off that complexity generates between accuracy and accessibility. You can purchase a copy of his book at the link above and find more of Stephen's work at his blog, BasketballAnalyticsBook.com. _____ Podcast RSS Feed | Find us on ITunes _____

It may seem crazy to be talking about the NBA Draft but today is the last day of the regular season which means draft prospects are now the pressing issue of concern for 16 NBA fanbases. This episode features an extended conversation with Layne Vashro, a part time contributor to CanisHoopus and developer of some of the most interesting statistical models for projecting draft prospects. Layne took me through some of his different models, explaining both how they work and some of the important information to be gleaned. We also touched on a few specific prospects and the idea of defining and measuring player potential in general. Here are a few links to relevant material: Layne on Twitter - @VJL_bball Layne's Draft Models Layne's article, How We Assess Potential _____ Podcast RSS Feed | Find us on ITunes _____

The last episode of The r-squared Podcast was recorded many moons ago, when the season was young and the Philadelphia 76ers were still off to a surprising start. Oh, how things have changed. Recording this podcast on a regular basis proved to be a much more complex challenge than I had originally thought, but over the next few weeks I'm hoping to get things reinitiated and stumble my way into a regular schedule. Today's relaunch episode features Andrew Lynch of Hardwood Paroxysm. We meandered through lessons from this year's MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, the release of ESPN's new RPM statistic, historical legacies, writing about analytics and why my Pacers are destined to break hearts. You can find more from Andrew at Hardwood Paroxysm, and follow him on Twitter @AndrewLynch. Podcast RSS Feed | Find us on ITunes _____

Today's episode features a conversation with Tom Sunnergren, who covers the Philadelphia 76ers for Hoop76, part of ESPN's TrueHoop Network. We're talking about the Sixers hot start and how the organization's shift towards a more analytic approach could manifest on and off the court this season. You can find more from Tom at Hoop76 and on Twitter, @tsunnergren. Podcast RSS Feed | Find us on ITunes

The scheduling gods took favor on me and I'm happily able to present a second episode this week. Today we have a conversation with Grantland's Zach Lowe. We talked about the league's new investment in the SportVU camera system, Kawhi Leonard, the Knicks, the Pacers and how Zach watches basketball. You can find more from Zach at Grantland and on Twitter, @ZachLowe_NBA. (I know every one of you already follows Zach on Twitter and reads every word he writes, but it's common courtesy to promote a podcast guest). Podcast RSS Feed | Find us on ITunes

After an extended hiatus, The r-squared Podcast is back. Today's episode features a conversation with Kirk Goldsberry, guru of spatial analytics and a contributor to Grantland. We talked about Kirk's new shooting metric, ShotScore, shot-selection in general, the challenges of handling context when it comes to basketball statistics and the new wealth of data coming from the SportVU camera systems. You can read about ShotScore, and all the rest of Kirk's fantastic work, at Grantland. He can also be found on Twitter, @KirkGoldsberry. Podcast RSS Feed | Find us on ITunes

This is the first episode of a new podcast project here at Hickory-High. Despite the name, this is not a podcast specifically about basketball statistics. The idea is a forum for conversations about all sorts of basketball variables, learning through discussion. For the inaugural recording I sat down with Art Rondeau, a Peak Performance Coaching Expert who works with NBA players on a variety of issues, including free throw shooting and breaking out of slumps. The conversation ranges far and wide from specific strategies he uses to help players unlock the riddle of consistent free throw shooting to building confidence to complete recovery from injury. Enjoy! You can find more information about Art's professional work at ArtRondeau.com and pick up more of his basketball perspectives at his blog, Game Time at the Garden of Good and Evil, and on Twitter, @ArtRondeau.