Tag: research

Data suggests Saints were one of NFL’s luckiest teams in 2022

Data claims the Saints were one of the NFL’s luckiest teams in 2022, with opposing receivers dropping more passes than any other squad in the NFL:

Were the New Orleans Saints lucky to finish the year at 7-10? Maybe so. Research from Tom Bliss, the manager of football ops data science for the NFL, found that the Saints benefited from a lot of bounces going their way during the 2022 season. He points to examples of luck like the opposing team dropping would-be interceptions, fumble recoveries, missed kicks and opposing receivers dropping passes. Bliss took each of those stats and tabulated them into wins added per team.

Bizarrely, the Saints ranked high in a lot of those categories. New Orleans led the NFL in opponents’ dropped passes, which added a full +1.15 win to their cumulative total. And they stood out from the pack by a wide margin there, with next-closest being the Jacksonville Jaguars (+0.79). Their final ranking in the “good luck” rankings was seventh-best in the NFL.

However, that freakish performance outweighed the Saints’ more typical performance in other areas. They ranked near or below league average in opposing teams’ dropped interceptions (+0.02), missed kicks (-0.38) and fumble recoveries (-0.18). So if their luck with those dropped passes was closer to normal, the Saints look more like pedestrians than leaders in these good luck rankings.

Here’s the full tabulation from Bliss:

As we can see, the New York Giants were the luckiest team in the NFL last year thanks to good breaks on fumble recoveries and dropped interceptions, while the Buffalo Bills were unluckiest due to so many fumbles getting picked up by the opposing team. Bliss considered fumbles as examples of 50/50 randomness to even the playing field in that category.

Hopefully the Saints can enjoy more good luck next season, but you’d like to think they can figure out enough things within their control to where it doesn’t matter, as was the case for Buffalo, which made it to the second round of the playoffs. New Orleans needs to play better football rather than hope for good fortune in 2023.

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Nine players taking a leap this season

HoopsHype breaks down nine players taking a huge leap this NBA season, including Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

One of the most exciting parts of being an NBA fan every year is seeing which players take what is known as The Leap – going from being good to great or great to elite.

In some cases, we’re talking about role players becoming stars. In others, we mean when All-Stars turn into All-NBA players – or even MVP candidates.

You’ll see different examples below when we break down the nine players taking huge leaps in the 2022-23 NBA season.

Massive flying carp frenzy triggered by researchers

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday shared a striking image showing silver carp leaping en masse during a scientific electrofishing operation.

The U.S Fish and Wildlife Service on Friday shared a showing silver carp leaping en masse during a scientific electrofishing operation.

The Facebook description begins, “Oh carp, we’re going to need a bigger boat!”

The agency explained that silver carp can leap as high as 10 feet when startled by a boat’s motor or, in this case, an electric current used during population assessment studies.

The electrofishing survey was conducted on the Fox River in Illinois.

Photo: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Silver carp are an invasive species throughout their U.S. range, which includes much of the Mississippi River basin, the Ohio River basin, and other basins.

ALSO: Yellowstone tourist practically begs to be gored by bison

Aside from threats they pose to native species – they feed on phytoplankton and can out-compete native fish – they’re dangerous to boaters because of their tendency to leap.

Mature silver carp typically weigh about 20 pounds, but they can weigh as much as 80 pounds.

Other species of invasive carp in the U.S.: Bighead carp, black carp, and grass carp.

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Watch: Mako shark goes ballistic after taking hookless bait

A Southern California fisherman who tags sharks for research recorded what he described as a “monster mako splashdown” late Sunday near Santa Catalina Island.

A Southern California angler who tags sharks for research recorded what he described as a “monster mako splashdown” late Sunday near Santa Catalina Island.

Interestingly, the adult female mako shark took a live mackerel tied to a fishing line and jumped seven times against the drag of heavy tackle despite not being hooked.

The accompanying footage, captured by Keith Poe, shows four of the seven jumps.

A second video shows mako sharks taking Poe’s hookless baits and leaping in the dark to rock music.

ALSO: Can you spot the mountain lion stalking the elk? 

Poe, who tags sharks for the Marine Conservation Science Institute, told FTW Outdoors that he keeps hookless baits in the water to alert him when sharks arrive in the chum slick.

“When I want to tag a white shark or a mako shark, I use a hook and a handline,” Poe said.

NBA Finals: The games with the highest ratings of all time

With the advent of the internet and online streaming, TV ratings across the board are not what they once were.

Still, as followers of the NBA can attest to, it’s still fun to learn about which games still draw a ton of viewers in the traditional sense – on TV.

So with the 2022 NBA Finals on the brink of being decided, we decided to take a look at the NBA Finals games with the highest ratings in league history.

Spoiler alert: A lot of them involve His Airness, Michael Jordan.

Check out what we found below.

Source: SportsMediaWatch

The worst-performing NBA stars at the draft combine

HoopsHype presents the 25 statistically worst-performing eventual NBA All-Stars at the draft combine.

We recently took at the eventual NBA All-Stars who performed the best at the draft combine, a list led by none other than Isaiah Thomas, who surprisingly went last in his draft class anyway.

Others featured on that list included James Harden, Jimmy Butler and Victor Oladipo, indicating that the draft combine can be a solid indicator of future NBA success.

However, that isn’t always the case.

Below, we present the NBA All-Stars who performed the worst at the combine. To determine the worst performances, we took the percentile scores for each star in the following drills: lane-agility drill, three-quarter sprint, standing vertical leap, max vertical leap and max bench press.

Again, many stars skipped draft combine drills, so it’s not as comprehensive a list as it could be. Either way, it’s a fun exercise. Let’s check out the results below, featuring the likes of Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and a historically bad performance by Rudy Gobert.

The worst-performing NBA stars at the draft combine

We recently took at the eventual NBA All-Stars who performed the best at the draft combine, a list led by none other than Isaiah Thomas, who surprisingly went last in his draft class anyway.

Others featured on that list included James Harden, Jimmy Butler and Victor Oladipo, indicating that the draft combine can be a solid indicator of future NBA success.

However, that isn’t always the case.

Below, we present the NBA All-Stars who performed the worst at the combine. To determine the worst performances, we took the percentile scores for each star in the following drills: lane-agility drill, three-quarter sprint, standing vertical leap, max vertical leap and max bench press.

Again, many stars skipped draft combine drills, so it’s not as comprehensive a list as it could be. Either way, it’s a fun exercise. Let’s check out the results below, featuring the likes of Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard and a historically bad performance by Rudy Gobert.

The best-performing stars ever at the Draft Combine

HoopsHype ranks the best star performances at the NBA Draft Combine, including Stephen Curry, Dwyane Wade and Chris Paul.

Keep in mind many stars skipped draft combine drills, so it’s not as comprehensive a list as it could be.

But among those who did go through the process, these were the best who eventually became All-Stars.

To measure the best performances, we took the percentile scores for each All-Star in the following drills: lane-agility drill, three-quarter sprint, standing vertical leap, max vertical leap and max bench press.

Check out the interesting results below.

The best-performing stars ever at the Draft Combine

Keep in mind many stars skipped draft combine drills, so it’s not as comprehensive a list as it could be.

But among those who did go through the process, these were the best who eventually became All-Stars.

To measure the best performances, we took the percentile scores for each All-Star in the following drills: lane-agility drill, three-quarter sprint, standing vertical leap, max vertical leap and max bench press.

Check out the interesting results below.

The slowest stars ever at the NBA Draft Combine

Speed is quite important when trying to predict the future success of NBA prospects, particularly for ball-handlers and wings.

However, it’s not the end-all, be-all.

Either way, the league still measures speed for participating prospects at the annual draft combine in various drills.

Below, we present the slowest NBA All-Stars ever measured, which we determined by adding players’ lane-agility time and their three-quarter sprint.

Look out for the likes of Kevin Durant and Rudy Gobert, two of the league’s current greats, both of whom were quite slow in those drills.