Persons of Interest

During the college basketball season, Matt Hackman spends time creating spreadsheets of interest to college basketball fans. He generates conference tournament seeding probabilities for several conferences in advance of their conference tournaments. In this podcast, Matt discusses how he started doing the spreadsheets, the process behind the work and more.

Greg Bussmann curates a free marketing email newsletter called "The Growth Mindset." From his website:

Content discussed in the episode:

Josh Spector

Ann Handley

Stacked Marketer

Visit Greg's website/subscribe to his newsletter:

Follow Greg on Twitter:

A member of the Missouri State Baseball program from 2012-2015, Hawkins was part of the 2015 club that won the Missouri Valley Conference championship and advanced to the NCAA Super Regionals. He was named the 2015 MVC Defensive Player of the Year and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. After his stint in the minor leagues, his career has now turned to coaching and he was recently named the hitting coach for the Peoria Chiefs ahead of the 2021 season. In this podcast, he discusses his time at Missouri State, playing in the minor leagues, his interest in coaching, and more.

Follow Joey Hawkins on Twitter: @J_Hawk12

Chris' Bio courtesy of the South Bend Cubs Website:

Chris Hagstrom-Jones joined the South Bend baseball franchise in January of 2014. As Assistant General Manager for Marketing and Media, Hagstrom-Jones’s primary focus is leading the Marketing, Media Relations & Broadcast, Production, and Community Relations departments. Hagstrom-Jones was instrumental in the organizational rebranding to reflect the Cubs affiliation and design element of the 2019 Midwest League All-Star Game.

Prior to his arrival, Hagstrom-Jones served as the Director of Video Services for Saluki Athletics at Southern Illinois University. His primary responsibilities included producing all live events at Saluki Stadium and the SIU Arena, developing content for Saluki All-Access on SIUSalukis.com, and teaching a course on Sports Production with the College of Mass Communications and Media Arts. He also laid the groundwork for the future Valley on ESPN3 partnership.

Prior to arriving at SIU, Hagstrom-Jones was the Director of Production, Entertainment, and Promotions for the Southern Illinois Miners Professional Baseball Team from 2007 to 2010. While working for the Miners, he was also the broadcast engineer for Saluki Sports Properties. His responsibilities included producing and engineering of all Saluki Football and Basketball games for the radio network and occasionally fill in as a broadcaster for Saluki Baseball and Softball. Hagstrom-Jones received his bachelor's degree in Radio and Television from Southern Illinois University in 2007.

In addition to his duties with the Cubs, he is also a Producer and Director for live events at the University of Notre Dame and Van Wagner Sports & Entertainment. He currently resides in South Bend with his husband Zach and their two dogs Rally and Remington.

Follow Chris on Twitter: @chrishagstrom

Follow The South Bend Cubs:

Benjamin Hochman is currently a sports columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He grew up in the St. Louis area, attended college at the University of Missouri, and has previous career stops in New Orleans and Denver. In addition to his sports columns, he has also written several books. In this podcast, Ben shares the story of his career path of journalism and writing, what's he's enjoyed covering at each of his career stops, and details on the books that he's written.

Read Ben's work at STLToday.com

Ben's Books on Amazon

Follow Ben on Twitter: @Hochman

In his own words from JakobEliason.com, here's a bio of my guest in this episode:

I left my 9 to 5 job in November of 2019 to pursue work that I was passionate about. My wife and I sold our house in August of 2020 to ride out the pandemic from our favorite place in the world. Here’s a few things I’m involved with:

Follow Jakob on Twitter: @JakobEliason

The Jakob Eliason Podcast: 

Springfield News-Leader Sports Reporter Wyatt Wheeler makes his return to the podcast to discuss Missouri State Football, Bears Basketball and Lady Bears Basketball. We also discuss:

Follow Wyatt on Twitter: @WyattWheeler_NL

Charlie Marlow is a sports anchor/reporter who joined the FOX 2 News team in April of 2008.

He came to FOX 2 from WLNS-TV, the CBS affiliate in Lansing, Michigan where he was a sports anchor/reporter for two years. Prior to that, Charlie worked for WLUC-TV, the NBC affiliate in Marquette, Michigan as the weekend sports anchor. He has won or shared in winning 4 Michigan Association of Broadcaster Awards.

Charlie graduated magna cum laude from Bradley University with a double major in communications and history. He also played baseball during his first two years of college.

Charlie’s hometown is Toledo, Ohio and he still roots for his beloved Buckeyes from The Ohio State University.

Follow Charlie on Twitter: @CharlieMarlow_

Via Fox2Now.com

Drew Richards bio via UNCPBraves.com

After leading Lander to its most regular-season wins in 20 years, as well as a Peach Belt Conference Tournament title, as the head coach of the Bearcats in 2019-20, Drew Richards returned to Pembroke in March 2020 as the 16th head coach of the Braves. 

It will be the second coaching stint at UNCP for Richards, who helped guide the Braves to a 113-43 (.724) record and four NCAA Tournament appearances as an associate head coach from 2014-19. The Braves compiled a 72-29 (.713) record against conference foes over that span, and captured the PBC regular season and tournament championships in both 2016-17 and 2017-18. 

In his lone season with the Bearcats in Greenwood, S.C., the nine-year college coaching veteran helped lead the program on a 10-game turnaround from an 12-17 clip in 2018-19 to a 23-8 mark in 2019-20. The Bearcats concluded the 2019-20 campaign with a 15-1 mark at home, and rolled through the PBC Tournament on the way to a conference championship and the league’s automatic berth into the NCAA Tournament. 

Richards began his collegiate coaching career at Missouri State-West Plains, where he helped lead helped pace the Grizzlies to a cumulative 63-30 record in two seasons, as well as the 2012-13 NJCAA Region XVI regular season title. His 2011-12 team finished ninth nationally in field goal percentage defense while also setting a program record for fewest points allowed in a season. 

As a player, Richards spent four seasons at Missouri State, where his Bears teams averaged 20 wins per season and made three trips to the National Invitational Tournament (NIT). He played in 118 games, making 69 starts, including 56 over his final two seasons. He led the team in blocks each of his final three campaigns and currently ranks third in program history in career blocks. 

Richards played professionally for one season with Erdgas Ehingen Steeples, where he finished ninth in the league in blocked shots and 12th in rebounds per game during the 2008-09 seasons. 

Richards earned his bachelor's degree in public relations from Missouri State in 2008, while also earning his master's degree in sports science from the United States Sports Academy in 2013. He and his wife, Caeli, have two children, Knox and Benton.

Follow Drew Richards on Twitter: @DrewT_Richards

Katy Winge works as an analyst, reporter, and host for Altitude TV and the Denver Nuggets. She previously was the in-arena reporter and an associate producer at the Pepsi Center, hosting the pregame and halftime show Courtside Countdown.

Basketball became Katy's passion in 3rd grade. Through her early playing years, a dream to play in college developed - and blossomed after Illinois State University offered her a scholarship. After roughly 15 years, Katy saw her decorated career on the court as a Division I athlete come to an end. That marked the beginning of her new journey as a broadcaster.

Thanks to her background, Katy loves breaking down the game. She cares about being the connection between the team and the fans, and likes telling stories that go beyond simply the score.

With a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University, Katy worked as a sideline reporter and host for Comcast SportsNet Chicago and FOX Sports Wisconsin. She also did analyst work for Big Ten Network’s StudentU Productions. In addition, she worked as a local sports anchor, producer, and reporter at KTTC/FOX 47 in Rochester, MN.

A tomboy at heart hailing from Minnesota, Katy is a lover of family, friends, food, and traveling. She enjoys all things outdoors, especially hiking and skiing, and adventuring around the Mile High City.

(via Altitude Sports.com) LINK: https://www.altitudesports.com/on-air-talent/katy-winge

Follow Katy on Twitter: @KatyWinge