On the way home from the bar tonight, and I happened to catch Trent Tucker drop this little nugget of wisdom about the sweet 16 matchup between Stanford and Texas.
"The key here is Tempo. Texas really wants to get out and run, whereas Stanford wants to slow the game down."
I've actually heard this same thing from some other analyst, but here is a classic example of perception not matching reality.
In terms of tempo, from the basketball stat jesus, Texas ranks 258th out of 341. Not anywhere near a team that wants to speed the game up. Stanford is actually a slow it down kind of team, but their tempo ranks 249th, so they are actually slightly faster than Texas.
The Longhorns score a lot of points, third in the Big 12 at 74.5 per game, but it's not because they play an up tempo style, it's because they're efficient. They rank third in offensive efficiency in the country, behind only Kansas and North Carolina.
So, the point is, people like to make things up based on their perception without bothering to even make a cursory glance at the stats which could either back up or refute their subjective opinion, and that's what's wrong with a lot of columnists and commentators these days. But I still love Trent Tucker anyway.
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You've been watching sports for about 25 years and you just now realize that former athletes are full of shit. I'll save you the time of having to write this next month. Peter Gammons likes the Red Sox.
What? No way.
This, and the petruding belly, are why you are the Budda in the sports world that is DWG. Who makes these stat pages and how are some of the stats recorded? Tempo, for instance, explain how this is recorded for all of us casual fans.
On an unrelated note, are the DWG NCAA tournament prizes actual prizes or are they just things you have laying around your house that you don't want anymore?
6th Place - 1 copy of Sex for Dummies and a VHS tape that consists of multiple, edited Cinemax softcore porns. No time wasting storyline, just uninterrupted visual stimulation.
Both.
WWWW- Why do you think Cody Shilling is getting absolutely no attention from the U or any other D1 programs? The guy averages 28/10/9 (Oscar-esque) and needs 20 pts to break Dahlman's state scoring record.
Sounds like a guy that pretty much does it all. Is there some small town bias occurring here? Or does he not participate in the AAU summer leagues?
Scout says he plays for the South Dakota AAU team. Don't know why none of the high major teams are after him, but he says the U did call his school. Despite his numbers, he must not have athleticism needed for high D-I ball, since Nevada and Northern Iowa are the top schools after him.
That's basically what I was going to say with my uneducated opinion. My guess would be that he doesn't have the athleticism for high D-I ball as well. I remember reading an article about him a month or two in the star trib or somewhere, but can't remember what it said about this issue.
Here is a link to the article:
http://www.startribune.com/sports/15528592.html
Includes this:
[Last season Schilling was the only junior named to the Associated Press all-state first team, which included current Gophers player Blake Hoffarber of Hopkins and Bloomington Jefferson’s Cole Aldrich, now playing at Kansas.
Schilling has not made a college choice. His final list contains three schools: Division II power Winona State, Division II Augustana in Sioux Falls and Northwestern in Iowa, the NAIA school where brother Curt is playing.
Those colleges have offered free rides, as have such schools as North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Northern Iowa. Minnesota, Iowa State, Drake, Creighton and others have offered Schilling a walk-on spot with the possibility of a scholarship in the future. ]
Doesn't give any reason why the good schools won't offer him a scholarship. I'm still guessing lack of athleticsm.
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