Ken Pomeroy
EducationVirginia Tech (BS)
University of Wyoming (MS)
Occupation(s)College basketball statistician, columnist
Years active2002–present
Known forKenPom ratings
Websitekenpom.com

Ken Pomeroy is the creator of the college basketball website and statistical archive KenPom. His website includes his College Basketball Ratings, statistics for every NCAA men's Division I basketball team, with archives dating back to the 2002 season, as well as a blog about current college basketball. His work on tempo-based basketball statistics is compared by many to the work of Bill James in baseball.[1] As of the spring of 2012, Pomeroy is also an instructor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Utah.[2]

Pomeroy earned his undergraduate degree at Virginia Tech, and received a graduate degree in atmospheric science from Wyoming.[3] After working as a meteorologist for the U.S. government, he quit that job to focus full-time on his website.[4] He previously worked with the Houston Rockets, teaming up with noted advanced statistics user, general manager Daryl Morey.[5]

Pomeroy has written articles in The New York Times, ESPN.com, and Sports Illustrated. He was a co-author of The 2008-09 College Basketball Prospectus and has been an author for the past four years.

Kenpom.com

Pomeroy's website has helped explain basketball on a possession by possession level. His peers have taken to calling him "Doctor Po-Po."[6] As well as maintaining and calculating a variety of statistics on his website, including tempo-free statistics, Pomeroy also maintains data on non-numeric factors such as offensive and defensive style of play.[7][3] One such measure that Pomeroy uses is called log5, a proprietary blend of data for projecting the likelihood of teams advancing in conference and national tournaments.[8] The equations for Pomeroy's log5 projections[9] were originally created by Bill James.[10]

Throughout the season, Pomeroy continually updates his KenPom ratings for all 363 Division I men's basketball programs with metrics such as offensive and defensive efficiency, tempo, and pace.[11][12] Although his site was more of a personal venture when it was founded, Pomeroy's research is used by numerous college basketball teams in an attempt to gain a competitive advantage.[3]

The accuracy of Pomeroy's rankings in predicting game outcomes has been noted by popular newspapers and blogs such as FiveThirtyEight,[13] Mediaite,[14] and The Wall Street Journal.[15]

Syracuse head basketball coach Jim Boeheim mentioned Pomeroy in a press conference rant about analytics on February 20, 2020, mistakenly attributing his consternation about certain stats to Pomeroy.[16]

Personal life

Pomeroy graduated from West Potomac High School in Alexandria, Virginia in 1991. In 2017, he was a resident of Salt Lake City.[17]

References

  1. ^ "KenPom's 'profound' influence on the CBB betting market". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2017-09-11.
  2. ^ "Ken R Pomeroy - Teaching - Faculty Profile - The University of Utah". faculty.utah.edu. Archived from the original on 2014-02-21. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  3. ^ a b c Thamel, Pete (2011-03-23). "Meteorologist Becomes a Go-To Guy". The New York Times. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  4. ^ "NWS Cheyenne, WY: Office Staff". crh.noaa.gov. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  5. ^ "Moneyball and the Houston Rockets «". grantland.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  6. ^ "The Valley Ledger - Missouri Valley Conference - MVC - Men's Basketball Coverage". valleyledger.com. Archived from the original on 2012-03-21. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  7. ^ Brennan, Eamonn (2011-03-15), "Field Notes: Don't forget your tempo-free", ESPN.com, ESPN, retrieved 2011-03-16
  8. ^ Pomeroy, Ken (March 6, 2012). "Log5 Part 5: Woulda, coulda, shoulda". kenpom.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  9. ^ Pomeroy, Ken (February 27, 2012). "Log 5 season: winning is everything". kenpom.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  10. ^ Miller, Steven J. (2012-03-23). "A justification of the log 5 rule for winning percentages" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-23.
  11. ^ Pomeroy, Ken. "National Efficiency". kenpom.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  12. ^ Pomeroy, Ken (November 29, 2006). "Ratings Explanation". kenpom.com. Retrieved 2014-02-09.
  13. ^ Silver, Nate (2011-03-14), "Talent Is Nice but Luck Is Vital", FiveThirtyEight, The New York Times, retrieved 2011-03-16, For instance, Ken Pomeroy's ratings — which are better at predicting the outcome of tournament games than the Ratings Percentage Index formula used by the tournament's selection committee — regard Washington as the 15th-best team in the country and Florida as the 19th best.
  14. ^ Davis, Glenn (2010-04-05), "College Hoops Blogger Ken Pomeroy Is One Game From Looking Like A Genius", Mediaite, retrieved 2011-03-16, Using several advanced formulas calculating team efficiency on both offense and defense, Pomeroy has had Duke ranked #1 in his personal college basketball team rankings for a long time now. For example, he still had them at #1 a month ago, when we released our "top Internet-heavy sportswriters" list, included Pomeroy, and in discussing his rankings said Duke didn't deserve to be #1. Whoops. Pomeroy was pretty much on an island in ranking Duke first – they haven't topped either major top-25 poll at any point this season – but he'll be sitting pretty if Krzyzewski's squad vindicates him tonight.
  15. ^ Bialik, Carl (2008-04-10), "Ken Pomeroy's Winning Bracket", The Wall Street Journal, retrieved 2011-03-16, More than three weeks ago, college-basketball number cruncher Ken Pomeroy calculated that Kansas was the best team in the country, and Memphis was second best. Six games later, Kansas is the national champion and Memphis is runner-up. That earns Mr. Pomeroy a victory in my March Madness contest pitting stats guys against media analysts against the consensus picks of fans.
  16. ^ Walder, Seth (2020-02-20). "Here are the analytics Jim Boeheim cited in postgame rant (we think)". ESPN.com. Retrieved 2022-10-16.
  17. ^ Goon, Kyle (2017-01-16). "College basketball: Salt Lake City stat guru Ken Pomeroy hopes to influence selection committee". The Salt Lake Tribune. Archived from the original on 2017-12-07. Retrieved 2022-10-16.

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