Alok Pattani is a Data Science Developer Advocate for Google Cloud, which partners with sports organizations including Major League Baseball and the NCAA. He is also a consultant for the Dallas Cowboys, and he was previously a founding member of ESPN’s sports analytics department. In this conversation, Alok will talk about…

• What Google Cloud is and what he does for them
• How Google works with MLB and the NCAA
• BigQuery and how he uses it
• How the volume of sports data has changed in recent years
• What he does for the Cowboys
• What NFL teams are doing in the analytics space and how NGS data has changed that
• Advice for students looking to get into sports analytics
• Why he chose sports and ESPN out of college
• Developing and communicating metrics at ESPN
• Researching LeBron James’ The Decision show at ESPN
• How he combines his love for data with his love for ice cream

Show links - Follow Alok on Twitter: @AlokPattani - MLB Film Room powered by Google Cloud - Alok’s white paper on schedule-adjusted metrics in NCAA basketball (page 92) - Using BigQuery to simulate March Madness - Explaining ESPN’s Total QBR - 2011 notes on the Mavericks and Dan Crawford - Paul Carr’s Google presentation on effectively communicating data - Wentworth Homemade Ice Cream - Follow @TruMediaSports on Twitter