Monthly Archives: November 2010

How to win H-O-R-S-E with Math: HSAC in the Wall Street Journal

Posted on November 17, 2010 by harvardsportsanalysis

In today’s Wall Street Journal, David Biderman used our very own Ben Blatt’s probability-based H-O-R-S-E strategy to show how to win the game most of the time.  If you go first against an opponent of the same quality, always shooting … Continue reading →

Posted in Menu, Papers | Tagged , | 1 Comment

Unnecessary Inference and Undisputed Authorship: Bill Simmons, Jason Whitlock, and Rick Reilly

Posted on November 10, 2010 by Ben Blatt

By Ben Blatt In 1964, Mosteller and Wallace published Inference and Disputed Authorship: The Federalist. The paper used statistical analysis to try to determine if James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, or John Jay was the author of the unaccredited essays that … Continue reading →

Posted in Other Sports | Tagged , | 32 Comments

One and Done: A Thing of the Past? An Analysis of the NBA First-Round Playoff Format

Posted on November 9, 2010 by wmcmillan

By Will McMillan In the middle of the 2002-2003 NBA season, the league made a decision to switch the first round of playoff series from a best-of-5 to best-of-7 format. This was a puzzling move at the time, with the … Continue reading →

Posted in NBA Basketball | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Predicting NBA Road Team Attendance: Do Marginal Fans Come to See the Home Team Lose?

Posted on November 8, 2010 by John Ezekowitz

By John Ezekowitz and Alex Koenig Before the start of the latest NBA season, NBA superfan and ESPN columnist Bill Simmons wrote a column ranking all NBA teams in order of “must-see.” Simmons has his personal definition of what makes … Continue reading →

Posted in Business, NBA Basketball | Tagged , , | 1 Comment