UConn Professor Works Yale’s Upset of UConn into Final Exam

Nov 14, 2014; Storrs, CT, USA; Connecticut Huskies guard/forward Daniel Hamilton (5) reacts with Connecticut Huskies guard Ryan Boatright (11) after a play against the Bryant University Bulldogs during the second half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. Uconn defeated Bryant 66-53. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 14, 2014; Storrs, CT, USA; Connecticut Huskies guard/forward Daniel Hamilton (5) reacts with Connecticut Huskies guard Ryan Boatright (11) after a play against the Bryant University Bulldogs during the second half at Harry A. Gampel Pavilion. Uconn defeated Bryant 66-53. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports /
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NERD ALRT! NERD ALERT! UConn Professor and Yale Alum, Joe Chen, used Yale’s upset win over the UConn Huskies as a probability question on the Final Exam

Last weekend, the Yale basketball team pulled off a major upset, defeating the UConn Huskies 45-42 on Jack Montague’s 3-pointer in the final seconds.

It was the first time UConn has lost to an Ivy League school since the 1980-81 season.

With such a statistical anomaly happening right before his eyes, UConn Professor and Yale Alum, Joe Chen, took this opportunity to use Yale’s upset as a question on his Math 3160: Probability class, according to CBSSports.com’s Matt Norlander.

Here’s the question Chen gave his students from CBSSports.com:

yaleuconnmathproblem
yaleuconnmathproblem /

In an email to Norlander of CBS Sports, Chen said:

"“When I came to UConn, one of the things I want to do is to build in references to the men’s/women’s basketball program as much and as reasonably as possible,” he said. “And probability is the best setting to achieve this.”"

Way to go, Teach!

You have to respect the pride (and cojones!) Chen has for probability and trying to get his students to understand how to use probability in the real world, especially while sticking it to his his employer, UConn, the defending NCAA Basketball champs!

I can’t imagine head coach Kevin Ollie is very pleased with the professor, but maybe Chen and Ollie can get together, crunch some numbers, and figure out where on the court UConn should be shooting from to score some points. Scoring 42 points in a game isn’t going to beat anyone.

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