Welcome to Should I Listen To This? Nosotros deep-dive into a podcast to discover out what it'due south about, what works, what doesn't, and whether or not you demand to make the earth-shaking determination to hit subscribe and add it to your rotation.

Know a podcast you'd like usa to consider? Ship an e-mail and we'll add together it to the pile.

Podcast: Counterpoints

Network:MIT Sloan Management Review

What'due south It Virtually?:Say the term "sports analytics" and you're likely to become a slew of hot takes that rum the gamut. Some might swear by their utilize, some might consider them the reason everything in sports is bad now, and some might not have whatever existent idea what, exactly, analytics are.

Regardless of where you stand, the question that always looms over analytics, particularly in the sports realm, is "simply how much can they evidence?" Counterpoints seems to gear up out to answer that question but answering many other questions that exist within the world of pro and college sports.

The synopsis for Counterpoints calls it a show, "for sports professionals, data junkies, and fans alike. It's a show for anyone who knows that numbers are about much more the score." Given the topics covered so far, that does seem to concur upward, every bit they're less concerned with trying to prove a particular statistic and more concerned with bigger ideas.

Who'south The Host?: Co-host Ben Shields is a Lecturer in Managerial Communication at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a former Director of Social Media and Marketing at ESPN. Co-hostPaul Michelman is the electric current editor-in-main of MIT Sloan Direction Review and as was also the sometime editor-in-main of Safari Books Online, and the former executive editor and director of new editorial products for Harvard Concern Review.

What'south It Like?: Counterpoints offers up a simple premise. The hosts posit a question or idea (Is 'Basketball IQ' a real thing and can it be measured?) then speak with an expert on the topic in lodge to make up one's mind the respond. Afterward, the hosts huddle upwardly to decide if they're convinced. Episodes are compact (20-to-30 minutes) and don't overstay their welcome. And y'all certainly come away from the bear witness feeling similar you lot've learned a niggling bit virtually what's possible in the globe of sports analytics and thinking about how else we might be able to measure out the specific topic.

That said, I couldn't help but feel similar I came away from the ii episodes available and so far wanting more.

Based on the premise of Counterpoints, I kept thinking of like-minded podcasts that share the same space such as Science Vs. and Hidden Brain. Both of these shows nowadays a question or a topic and so spent the whole episode dissecting it in society to figure out the answer. Very oft, these shows will interview multiple people in lodge to get unlike perspectives on the topic, all of which help inform the conclusion. They too dig into independent inquiry, provide devil'due south advocate arguments, and look at the data behind the problem. In the end, they can come away with a clear or clear-ish idea of what the reply is to their burning question.

It's not thatCounterpoints doesn't seek answers. But considering we've been programmed to look deep dives into data and multiple expert opinions on any kind of big question posed by these kinds of podcasts, a solo interview with one person doesn't quite feel like plenty. The interviews themselves aren't bad, they're informative. The topics existence discussed aren't boring, they're interesting. But by posing a big question such as "Do Teams Need to Win to Sell Tickets?" it feels like you're presenting a claiming that requires more research and insight that nosotros get from what is ostensibly a 15-to-xx minute interview.

That sense of lack is driven home fifty-fifty more than by the post-interview discussion, in which the hosts quiz each other on whether or not they feel similar the question at the centre of the episode has been answered. We're simply two episodes in simply it seems as though the respond to that question for every episode is destined to be, "Yeah? Probably?" Perchance that'south simply something that ane needs to accept from the world of statistical analysis, but information technology does lack a definitive construction that nosotros every bit listeners are conditioned to become.

All of which is to say thatCounterpoints is an enjoyable listen, even as it butts upwards confronting certain expectations we as listeners have for the genre.

Who Is It For?: Information technology's definitely interesting for whatsoever sports fan who has ever wondered well-nigh how to quantify things that one time seemed unquantifiable, like Basketball IQ. The interviews themselves are with leaders in the field and provide interesting insight into their topic.

Who Is Information technology Not For?: The testify doesn't go into whatsoever kind of hardcore mathematics or equations, so data obsessives probably won't come away feeling like they've learned something new. And of class, if you're just hate-listening because you've decided that analytics are "bad" and "ruining sports" for some reason, y'all will not come away feeling whatsoever differently.

Where Should I Start: As of the fourth dimension of this writing in that location have been two episodes released, so yous might too start with the first one, "Exercise Teams Need to Win to Sell Tickets?" The 2d episode, "The Quest to Measure Basketball IQ," was released the same day. They provide a practiced residue of topic potential when information technology comes to sports analytics, from the squad-broad to the actor-specific.

And so, Should I Listen To This?: If you're interested in the globe of sports analytics and want to get some unfettered access to the experts who tin explicate it in a way that'southward easy to sympathize, you will get that hither. It's as well interesting to see analytics practical to topics beyond but in-game value and just how far that can exist stretched. Equally noted, if yous're looking for robust discussions and dissections of the topic, you probably won't get that, so just prepare your expectations accordingly.

About Sean Keeley

Sean Keeley is the creator of the Syracuse weblog Troy Nunes Is An Absolute Magician and writer of 'How To Grow An Orange: The Correct Manner to Brainwash Your Child Into Rooting for Syracuse.' He has also written not-Syracuse-related things for SB Nation, Curbed, and many other outlets. He currently lives in Seattle. Send tips/comments/complaints to sean@thecomeback.com.