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Welcome to the latest episode of Hot Takedown, our podcast where the hot sports takes of the week meet the numbers that prove them right or tear them down. On this week’s show (Jan. 19, 2016), ESPN writer Bill Barnwell joins us as we look at whether Aaron Rodgers and the Packers were cheated out of their NFL playoff game by the flip of a coin. We ask FiveThirtyEight writer Ben Lindbergh whether sabermetrics is making baseball coaches smarter. And we explore the brilliance of Australian college basketball player Ben Simmons. Plus, a Significant Digit on 17-year-old soccer star Mallory Pugh.
Stream the episode by clicking the play button, or subscribe using one of the podcast clients we’ve linked to above. Links to what we discussed are here:
- Bill Barnwell on Packers coach Mike McCarthy’s hyper-conservative decision not to go for 2 points.
- An academic study on gaming the coin flip.
- Ben Lindbergh on how sabermetrics is making baseball coaches better.
- Significant Digit: 17. That’s the age of Mallory Pugh, the youngest woman ever to gain a professional soccer contract in the U.S.
So, how good is Ben Simmons?
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