Cory Jez - Founder, Tour IQ Golf Analytics

Cory Jez is the Founder of Tour IQ, a golf analytics platform dedicated to providing PGA Tour players an the resources they need for the first time in golf history. He also has a unique resume, having worked for FanDuel, the Utah Jazz, Austin FC, and an an on-air analyst for the Portland Trailblazers. In this conversation, Cory talks about…

His time as an Analytics Manager with FanDuel.
His role as Director of Basketball Analytics with the Utah Jazz.
His time with Austin FC as the Director of Sport Science and Analytics.
The differences of coming into a job vs building a department from scratch.
His role as an On-Air Analytics Insider with the Portland TrailBlazers.
What Tour IQ is and how it can help golfers improve their game.
Transactional vs Transformational in the analytics process.
Building trust with “non-data” types.
Keys to communicating analytics concepts to athletes, front-office personnel, and a TV audience.

Then, TruMedia’s Sergio De La Espriella joins the show to discuss Paul’s conversation with Cory.

Show Links

Follow Cory on Twitter: @JezData
Follow TourIQ on Twitter: @tour_IQ
To check out Cory on LinkedIn, click here.
To check out Cory’s website, click here.
To check out TourIQ’s website, click here.
To read Sports Illustrated’s feature on TourIQ, click here.
To read UpRoxx’s feature on the Blazers’ analytics integration on their broadcasts, click here.
For more on the Tobacco Road golf course, click here.
Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn.

Expected ValueGuest UserApril 26, 2023Basketball, NBA, Golf, Soccer, MLSComment

Tegan Ashby - Philadelphia Phillies, Assistant Director, Software Engineering

Tegan Ashby is the Assistant Director of Software Engineering for the Philadelphia Phillies. Before that, she worked in the NBA as a Senior Developer of Basketball Systems for the Brooklyn Nets, and as a Developer of Research & Development for the Philadelphia 76ers.. She holds a BA in Linguistics from Penn, and took classes at Cal Berkeley’s Ancient Neat Eastern and Biblical Languages, Literatures, and Linguistics Graduate Studies program. In this conversation, Tegan talks about…

What a software engineer does and how it applies to a baseball team.
What kinds and volumes of data MLB teams deal with.
The difference between a development job with an NBA team compared to an MLB team.
What NBA engineering looks like.
Her background in Linguistics and how it helps her in her profession.
Advice on sports-specific tools for someone learning software engineering.
Co-founding the Women In Sports Data and how people can support the initiative.

Then, TruMedia’s Sergio De La Espriella joins the show to discuss Paul’s conversation with Tegan.

Show Links

Follow Tegan on Twitter: @bunsushi
Follow Women in Sports Data on Twitter: @WinSportsData
For more on Women in Sports Data, click here.
For more on SportsDataVerse, click here.
To check out Tegan’s website, click here.
To check out Tegan on LinkedIn, click here.
Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn.

Expected ValueGuest UserApril 12, 2023Baseball, Basketball, MLB, NBAComment

Lauren Poe - Sports Analytics Developer, ESPN

Lauren Poe is part of ESPN’s sports analytics team, which is responsible for metrics like Total QBR, Power Indices for Basketball, Football, and Soccer, and Strength of Record for college football. She has a degree in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma, spent time as a math teacher, and got her ESPN in the Stats and Analysis department. In this conversation, Lauren talks about…

Her career path from math teacher to ESPN
Her early years in the ESPN Stats & Analysis group
The challenges and importance of data cleaning
Steps she took to join ESPN’s analytics team
What she does as a sports analytics developer
Creating and maintaining ESPN’s metrics
Her favorite college football metrics
Communicating data well in writie
How she watches games, especially Oklahoma football

Then, TruMedia’s Sergio De La Espriella joins the show to discuss Paul’s conversation with Lauren.

Show Links

Follow Lauren on Twitter: @laurenpoe.
Follow the Women in Sports Data on Twitter: @WinSportsData.
To check out the Women in Sports Data website, click here.
To check out ESPN’s 2022 College Football Playoff predictor, click here.
To check great article explaining ESPN’s Football Power Index (FPI), click here.
Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn.

Expected ValueGuest UserAugust 31, 2022ESPN, Football, BasketballComment

Seth Partnow - Director of Basketball, StatsBomb

Seth Partnow was formerly the Director of Basketball Research for the Milwaukee Bucks, and he now writes for The Athletic and is the Director of Basketball for the data company StatsBomb. Last November he released a book titled: The Midrange Theory, Basketball’s Evolution in the Age of Analytics. In this conversation, Seth talks about…

His book The Midrange Theory, Basketball’s Evolution in the Age of Analytics
The first two games of the 2022 NBA Finals
How he watches games and looks at data afterwards
The state of NBA analytics in general
His path from law school to the NBA
Advice for anyone interested in basketball analytics
His Luc Longley story

Then, TruMedia’s Sergio De La Espriella joins the show to discuss Paul’s conversation with Seth.

Show Links

Follow Seth on Twitter: @SethPartnow.
To read Seth’s writing on The Athletic, click here.
To buy Seth’s book The Midrange Theory, click here.
To buy Thinking Basketball, click here.
To buy Basketball on Paper, click here.
To check out Cleaning the Glass, click here.
To catch up on Kevin Pelton’s writing, follow him on Twitter: @kpelton.
For more information on Seth’s favorite Milwaukee spot The Vanguard, click here.
Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter.

Listen here or wherever you get your podcasts: Apple, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, TuneIn.

Expected ValueGuest UserJune 7, 2022Basketball, The Athletic, StatsBombComment

Keith Goldner - VP of Data Science, FanDuel

Keith Goldner is the Vice President of Data Science at FanDuel, where he oversees the company’s sports modeling and innovation. He’s also the Chief Analyst for numberFire, the sports projection company he helped start straight out of college about a decade ago. In this episode, Keith talks about…

- What he does for FanDuel and numberFire
- Working with NBA teams, both now and a decade ago
- The most important thing in communicating data
- How to break into the sports analytics field
- What he looks for when hiring employees
- Three main avenues for sports analytics jobs
- Majoring in math at Northwestern
- Value of internships
- His tough decision to choose a startup over a team job after college
- Differences between backward-looking and forward-looking modeling
- State of field hockey analytics
- Hanging out with Shaq

Show links
- Follow Keith on Twitter: @keithgoldner
- Keith’s web site
- FanDuel and numberFire
- Sloan Sports Analytics Conference panels
- Forbes 30 under 30
- Drive-By Football
- Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter

Expected ValueRafe AndersonSeptember 30, 2020Basketball Comment

Dean Oliver - Assistant Coach for Analytics, Washington Wizards

Currently an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards, Dean Oliver is one of the godfathers of basketball analytics. In 2003, he wrote Basketball on Paper, one of the first and best books published in the field. Since then, he’s worked for four NBA teams plus ESPN and TruMedia. In this episode, he talks about…

What he learned in his first season on the bench with the Wizards
His role during a game
Importance of using video with data
How NBA analytics have changed over two decades
How basketball analytics is like ice cream
Where to start if you’re getting to know NBA data
Importance of telling a story when using numbers
Working in the media at ESPN
How Basketball on Paper came to be and how Bill James was involved
Thoughts on his Four Factors 17 years later
When he first thought he had a chance to work in basketball
Memories from his playing days at Cal Tech

Show links

Expected ValueRafe AndersonAugust 26, 2020BasketballComment

Eric Thibault - Associate Head Coach, Washington Mystics

Eric Thibault is the associate head coach of the reigning WNBA champion Washington Mystics. He’s been with the Mystics since 2013, and he has his hands in most every aspect of coaching the team. In this conversation, he talks about…

- What he does as an associate head coach
- Using data in advance scouting, player development, draft prep and more
- How available data has changed in the past decade
- Communicating with players and reinforcing positively
- Getting married a week after the WNBA Finals

Show links
- Follow Eric on Twtter: @ET_hoops
- Thibault promoted to associate head coach
- Thibaults keep coaching in the family
- Mystics-Lynx analytics scrimmage in 2015
- Thibault joins Mystics staff

Expected ValueRafe AndersonApril 8, 2020BasketballComment

Paul Sabin - ESPN Senior Sports Analytics Specialist

Paul Sabin is a Senior Sports Analytics Specialist at ESPN, where he works on various metrics as part of ESPN’s Sports Analytics group. In this episode, Paul will discuss…

- What his job entails at ESPN
- The college football title game, through the lens of metrics like Total QBR and Football Power Index
- Creating the Player Impact Rating
- Challenges of capturing a human element in ESPN’s College Playoff Predictor
- Communicating uncertainty
- Midseason takeaways from ESPN’s Basketball Power Index
- How an engineering class pushed him toward a stats career
- Advice for people entering the sports analytics industry
- Being a Nationals fan during their World Series run

Show links- Twitter: @SabinAnalytics, @ESPNStatsInfo
- ESPN’s Sports Analytics home page
- Football Power Index
- College football Total QBR
- College football Player Impact Rating
- Basketball Power Index
- Midseason BPI takeaways

Expected ValueRafe AndersonJanuary 8, 2020ESPN, Football, BasketballComment

Spencer Anderson - Pacers Director of Basketball Analytics

Spencer Anderson is the Director of Basketball Analytics for the Indiana Pacers, and he’s one of few sports analytics people with both a master’s degree and a law degree. Among the topics covered:

- His career path to his current job
- What he does with the Pacers
- State of analytics in the NBA
- Keys to communicating data
- Load management in the NBA
- Where to eat in Iowa City

Show links
- Follow Spencer on Twitter: @spencejanderson
- Summer internship opening with the Pacers
- NFL’s Big Data Bowl

Expected ValueRafe AndersonNovember 14, 2019BasketballComment