This Stat Professor Doesn’t Believe in the Hot Hand, but He’s Clearly Not a Baller

In most introductory probability courses, you will probably learn about the hot hand phenomenon—the belief that when someone’s in the zone in a sport, they’re likelier to achieve further success in additional attempts.

When freshman Pascal Taylor (C ’21) was told by his STAT 430 professor Matt Richards that this was indeed a fallacy, he was left confused and disappointed. How else could he have hit five 3’s in a row at Pottruck last night?

“Does the guy even ball?” Taylor asked many of his classmates (most of whom shook their heads).

It turns out that Richards (E ’89) has never shot a single basketball in his life, and yet, most of his research and time is devoted to disproving this phenomenon.

“It may seem unintuitive to some people like Pascal, but math and logic can never lie,” Richards explained.

When Taylor showed him Klay Thompson’s legendary 37-point third quarter, the professor started to contemplate all of his life’s work.

The two will settle it on the courts at Pottruck this weekend. It’s a shame that Richards does not believe in the hot hand, because he will definitely need it.