Ken Pomeroy, college basketball stats guru, used to do meteorology

Ken Pomeroy, college basketball stats guru, used to do meteorology

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No one knew that college basketball was on the verge of changing forever. Not even the catalyst of the revolution, tinkering with statistics and mathematical formulas during his downtime from writing a thesis on atmospheric science.

Ken Pomeroy didn’t aspire to become one of the most influential people in the sport, playing a role on virtually every team in the country. He couldn’t know how many coaches would become reliant on the advanced statistics system featured on his website (kenpom.com

). He couldn’t fathom becoming the godfather of a movement, changing how teams prepare, altering media coverage and influencing sportsbooks.

Pomeroy, 48, was simply a college basketball fan with no connection to the sport outside rooting interests for his alma maters (Virginia Tech, Wyoming). He’d been enamored with mathematics since he was a child. By creating proprietary algorithms to more accurately evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of every Division I team, Pomeroy found an absorbing and fulfilling hobby to keep him occupied when he wasn’t busy working as a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

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