The Gophers are two games in, and I have very little to say since there is still so much unknown about this team. They seem like they play pretty decent defense, but they can't rebound at all. The pass the ball well and Carlos Morris seems like the only ball stopper, but they shoot way too many threes for a team that hasn't shown much of an ability to make them. As people always like to say, we won't really know about this team until they play a real opponent. Even if this event isn't exactly loaded with top tier teams, there's enough here that we should, indeed, know quite a bit more about this team afterwards.
First up is Temple on Thursday. The Owls have only played one game this year and they got their doors blown off by the Tar Heels, but since the Gophers have a wee bit less fire power than Carolina who knows what that means. Temple was maybe an NCAA snub last season, but they also lost two of their top three guys from last season so this is probably a decent test for our Gophers here.
Generally Fran Dunphy's teams vary their statistical profile based on personnel, which means he's a good coach, but they almost always have two things in common - tough defense, and they don't turn the ball over. Since we don't really know what we have in the Gophers the tough defense will be a good test, but I'd feel better if they weren't playing such a traditionally disciplined team. Overall, given the Owls have a decent team but not a good one, this game should tell us a ton about the Gophers this year.
Which is good, because the second game won't tell us anything, either way. If the Gophers lose they will most likely play Missouri State, who is a bottom tier Missouri Valley team that lost to Oral Roberts by 15 in their only game this year. Nothing is a guaranteed win, especially for a team like the Gophers this year, but this would be as close to one as any game they've played this year.
On the other hand if the Gophers win, they'll most likely play Butler, who has holes like any other team but is a tremendously awful matchup for them. Butler will pound the paint, crash the offensive boards, defend like hell, and take care of the basketball. They aren't a great team because they don't really have much size, but that won't matter against the Gophers. Basically if I was engineering a team to beat the Gophers, Butler is really close. If this matchup happens I'll have money on Butler, which is always fun because if you lose your bet that means your team won! (or did well).
The final game would be against Utah, Miami, Mississippi State, or Texas Tech. Utah is legit and is the favorite to win. In fact if they don't most likely they had a really bad tournament, so if the Gophers do end up playing the Utes that would mean good things for the Gophers. Plus it would be fun to watch the Gophers try to find a way to stop seven-foot monster Jakob Poeltl. Miami might not be completely terrible and we'd get to watch that jerk Ja'Quan Newton and see if Tonye Jekiri can get to 20 rebounds. Mississippi State is bad and just lost to Southern which is in the SWAC who should never beat anyone, but Malik Newman is a super stud freshman who would be fun to watch. Texas Tech is still mostly a garbage fire and it would suck to play them because the whole Gophers vs. Tubby narrative would drive me insane.
So there you go. Should be pretty fun.
Showing posts with label Butler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Butler. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 17, 2015
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Week in Review - 1/21/2013
I really have no idea why I stopped doing these posts. They're fairly easy, since I can write parts of them during the week, they cover all sports for an entire week period, and they give you, the idiot reader, something to depend on knowing this post will be here every Monday morning. I'm going to do my best to get back on this and start having the Monday morning Week in Review's again. Or your money back. And I'm going to start with Lance Armstrong.
Ha ha just kidding. I don't care.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Joe Flacco. As much as I hate to give credit when it's due, I'm going to have to in Flacco's case because he had a great game getting the Ravens to the Super Bowl and outplayed Tom Brady to do it. He seems to have developed a couple interesting skills to go with one of the strongest arms in the league - he can pick apart a defense underneath using his backs and TEs, and he has that over the shoulder throw to Boldin in the end zone down cold. Both of his touchdown throws to Boldin were on that same play, and more than half his completions were to backs or tight ends, and then he can cut loose with that big arm to Torrey Smith when needed. It will be kind of interesting to see how he adjusts in the red zone when the 49ers inevitably put a safety on top of Boldin when they get close. I also just realized this is going to be a Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl and we're going to have to hear that over and over and over again. Oh god, and also Ray Lewis. And I have a feeling Colin Kaepernick is going to get way too much press, too. God I am suddenly remembering how much I hate the 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Don't they have some kind of 2-week coma drug? I know the wife and kids probably wouldn't be down for me going in that direction, but I'm not sure I have a choice. Not my fault.
2. Washington Nationals. In a baseball hot stove league that's been characterized by teams "going for it in their window" more than any other I can remember (Baltimore Orioles exempted, for some reason) the Nats just made another move that put them in the Dodgers/Blue Jays tier for "going for it" signing closer Rafael Soriano to a two year, $28 million deal with an option that automatically vests if he finishes 120 combined games in the two years. That now gives the Nationals a bullpen of Tyler Clippard in the 7th, Drew Storen in the 8th, and Soriano in the 9th, and that's in front of a rotation of Stephen Strasburg/Gio Gonzalez/Jordan Zimmermann/Dan Haren/Ross Detwiler. Their also loaded with a young and talented lineup with only one bad contract (Jayson Werth), Wilson Ramos will be back at catcher, they traded for Denard Span to fill their only real lineup leak, and resigned Adam LaRoche to a reasonable contract which gives them an excellent trade chip (Michael Morse, now a back-up who was just traded to Seattle in a three-way deal that brought them a couple decent prospects because lord knows they don't have enough) all at the same time. Yes, paying $14 million to a reliever is too much especially when you have to give up a first round pick to do it, but I'm a big fan of this "going for it" thing and I'd say they're in pretty decent shape. At least until they shutdown Strasburg after 190 innings this year because, you know, you can never be too careful.
3. Butler Bulldogs. I don't know if it's Brad Stevens or what (NOTE: it's probably Brad Stevens) but Butler just keeps on going. When they made those back-to-back NCAA Championship games you kind of figured like, ok he found a few diamonds in the rough in Gordon Hayward, Shelvin Mack, and Matt Howard (really rough, in his case) and Stevens got them to perfectly come together for a magical run (or two) and then they'd go back to being Butler. When they missed the NCAA Tournament (made the CBI) last season everything looked confirmed. But now? First Stevens gets Rotnei Clarke, and ultra-experienced deadeye shooter who fits Butler's system perfectly, to come to Indy, joining a couple of decent players, and you figure Butler would probably be decent. Little did you know Clarke was going to play out of his mind and a couple promising youngsters would suddenly blossom into double-digit scorers. Then Clarke gets hurt against Richmond and you'd think Butler would slide, but they had no issue finishing up Richmond, and then played a really, really good Gonzaga team and did this:
I hate teams that are always good because I'm so unfamiliar with it. It's like an Amish who was dropped in Dubai.
4. Florida Gators. For my money, there are six teams (seven if you count my super sleeper VCU) who could potentially win the NCAA Championship this year - Louisville, Syracuse, Michigan, Indiana, Duke, and the sixth is Florida. For some reason they're only ranked 10th. Why? Because they have two losses, although those happen to be at Arizona (a one-loss team) in a game Florida controlled for 38 minutes before letting it slip away, and against a good Kansas State in Kansas City. Look at their recent results. After a week of dominating fools they've now won their four SEC games by 33 (vs. Georgia), 22 (@ LSU), 21 (@ Texas A&M), and 31 (vs. Missouri). I know Mizzou is in kind of a tailspin right now with Bowers hurt and Dixon having been kicked off the team, but beating that team by 31 is still damn impressive. Florida is one of the few teams in the country with a great offense and a great defense, with great players both on the perimeter and in the paint. I feel pretty effing good having gotten down on them at 12-1 to win the whole thing. Don't think, just do it.
5. Syracuse Orangemen. I've touted Louisville as my #1 team in the country so I need to give credit to the Orange for taking them down on the road, and actually this was the game that convinced me to put Cuse in that "could win the title" group because they played great in a tough environment. I have no idea why Syracuse has kind of been under my radar, but I assume it's because I'm an idiot. They're loaded at guard and play two point guards in Brandon Triche and Michael Carter-Williams, which they can get away with because they're 6-4 and 6-6, and an awesome front court that includes two great scorers (C.J. Fair and James Southerland) and a defensive superstar (Rakeem Christmas). Their only loss was to Temple at MSG, and they now have probably the best win of anyone this season with that roadie vs. the #1 team to legitimize them. They do have a big issue hanging over them with Southerland's indefinite suspension due to some kind of academic issue, but I would assume he'll be back soon enough given that Syracuse is a big time hoops school and so the administrators probably understand it's best to get him back on the court.
Stupid Joel Maturi.
WHO SUCKED
1. Gopher basketball. I'm not giving up on the season, thinking they suck, or anything like that. I mean they have three losses this season and they're all to teams that have been ranked in the top 3 this season, and only the Duke game was a double digit loss. What sucks, and why I have to put the Gophers here, is that I'm having trouble imagining them as a Final Four team anymore, simply because there have been stretches in all three losses where they've been absolutely dominated, and the domination wasn't for a short period of time but a very long one. Michigan outscored them 20-7 over a 7 minute period, Indiana had that entire first half, and Duke pretty much controlled the whole game. For much of this year I had considered the Gophers to be a possible Final Four contending team and maybe the best Gopher team of my life. That seems laughable now, as I'm fairly certain the '97 team would crush these guys.
That's not to say this can't be a very good year. I'm picturing the team now as a top 5 finisher in the Big 10 with like a 5 seed and a decent shot to make the Sweet 16. Wouldn't we all have taken that coming into the season? Of course we would have. By any measure (for the Gopher program) that's a successful season, it's just that it felt like the bar had been raised and that this might be a special team, rather than a very good one. It's hard to feel that way anymore after watching Michigan completely outclass them on their own court. Hopefully they can sweet these next four winnable games and I can feel a bit better, and even though I know this is a really good Gopher team it's hard not to feel a bit of a gut punch here. It's not the losses, it's the way they lost. Hopefully they learn and move on. I'm also now extremely terrified of going to Northwestern.
2. Los Angeles Lakers. I know I'm not exactly breaking new ground here because I think everyone is aware of the Lakers' struggles, but holy crap you guys. Anybody who ever watched sports new their might be an adjustment period bringing in Nash to play with a guy who dominates the ball like Kobe (similar to the LeBron/Wade pairing initially) but even if it took them a while to get it figured out with complimentary players like Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol you'd expect them, worst case, to end up being a very dangerous low seed in the playoffs as they finally figured it out. One problem - they're not figuring it out, and at 17-23 are in severe danger of missing the playoffs after losing to Toronto on Sunday (TORONTO!!) thanks in part to Howard getting booted for picking up two technicals. They've now lost eight of their last ten, and count losses to the Raptors, Cavs, Magic, and the Kings among their failures this year - those are some bad teams. Normally I would be enjoying this immensely, but I just acquired Kobe for my Fantasy NBA team and so now I don't hate him as much.
3. Jordan Hulls. So let me get this straight, the Underpants Gnome plays out of his mind against the Gophers but then plays like a total asshole against Wisconsin? And don't you dare credit Wisconsin for this either, because he was just total garbage who couldn't shoot, only bothered to take 1 three-pointer (seriously with that range he only attempted one? First time all year), and turned the ball over like he was giving it away for Valentine's Day to some handsome man. Plus he was outplayed by Ben Brust who sucks. And what was with Indiana doubling down on Ryan freaking Evans on the block? Just let him go to work, you'll be better off letting him shoot. The only possible explanations for this game was that Indiana felt invincible after beating the Gophers and forgot to try or Jordan Hulls threw the game. Also, why do I have so much trouble spelling invincible? Everything about this has my brain scrambled like Kevin Burleson trying to break a press.
4. Matt Ryan. I thought Ryan was getting a little too much heat for never having won a playoff game (probably because the Matty Ice nickname is so annoying) but it's hard to find a way to not blame that game on Ryan (with a major assist to the defense). I'll even forgive him the pick because Roddy White fell down, but there were plenty of unforgivable mistakes. The fumbled shot gun snap that San Fran recovered which hit him perfectly in the hands and not picking up a single first down after recovering the Crabtree fumble (giving the Niners great field position after a shitty punt) were both pretty awful, but Ryan saved his worst for the biggest play of the game. On that fourth down inside the 10 he forced the ball to a non-open White, never bothering to look at any other receive and thus missing an absolutely wide open Tony Gonzalez who had slipped behind the linebackers and there wasn't a safety over the top - easy TD. I should feel good about this loss because the Falcons screwed over the Vikings in '98, but I hate Jim Harbaugh, Ray Lewis, and the Patriots so Atlanta was my only chance to enjoy the Super Bowl. Hopefully they'll be good food.
5. Seattle Mariners. If I'm going to praise the Nationals for making a good move, I gotta point out that the Mariners apparently are assembling a softball team or something. After acquiring Michael Morse in the above mentioned trade, they now have all these guys: Morse, Raul Ibanez, Jason Bay, Kendrys Morales, Justin Smoak, and Jesus Montero. Which means that even if they plan to give Montero another shot to be a catcher (LOL) they've still got five mostly immobile types to try to shoehorn into a lineup. That means something like Montero at C, Ibanez in LF, Morse in RF, Morales at 1b, and either Smoak or Bay at DH with the other coming off the bench? Ibanez and Morse as two of your 3 outfielders? Franklin Gutierrez is very good, but he's not that good. I guess the real point is why even trade for Morse? Even if they've given up on Smoak (and if they have they should trade him to the Twins because I STILL BELIEVE DAMMIT) acquiring Morse brings nothing to you that you don't already have, and by trading John Jaso to do it you've severely downgraded your defense going to Montero, but they don't really have another choice because, again, they have way to many slow RF/DH/1b types to fit Montero's bat in any other way. Seattle has the potential for a pretty kick-ass future (seriously their minor league pitchers are top shelf) but if they keep fucking up the present like this it's not going to matter. Those Nintendo guys haven't done anything baseball-related right since Baseball Stars. Remember Baseball Stars 2? What were they thinking?
You'll notice I had the prudence to not write about this whole Manti Te'o thing because let's be honest, it's pretty played out at this point. Was a pretty good day on twitter, though. I also didn't write about hockey because it's a sport for cretins. See you soon with a preview of the Northwestern game. Or maybe just a link to the one I wrote like a week ago. Jesus aren't they supposed to space these games out?
Ha ha just kidding. I don't care.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Joe Flacco. As much as I hate to give credit when it's due, I'm going to have to in Flacco's case because he had a great game getting the Ravens to the Super Bowl and outplayed Tom Brady to do it. He seems to have developed a couple interesting skills to go with one of the strongest arms in the league - he can pick apart a defense underneath using his backs and TEs, and he has that over the shoulder throw to Boldin in the end zone down cold. Both of his touchdown throws to Boldin were on that same play, and more than half his completions were to backs or tight ends, and then he can cut loose with that big arm to Torrey Smith when needed. It will be kind of interesting to see how he adjusts in the red zone when the 49ers inevitably put a safety on top of Boldin when they get close. I also just realized this is going to be a Harbaugh vs. Harbaugh Super Bowl and we're going to have to hear that over and over and over again. Oh god, and also Ray Lewis. And I have a feeling Colin Kaepernick is going to get way too much press, too. God I am suddenly remembering how much I hate the 2 weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Don't they have some kind of 2-week coma drug? I know the wife and kids probably wouldn't be down for me going in that direction, but I'm not sure I have a choice. Not my fault.
2. Washington Nationals. In a baseball hot stove league that's been characterized by teams "going for it in their window" more than any other I can remember (Baltimore Orioles exempted, for some reason) the Nats just made another move that put them in the Dodgers/Blue Jays tier for "going for it" signing closer Rafael Soriano to a two year, $28 million deal with an option that automatically vests if he finishes 120 combined games in the two years. That now gives the Nationals a bullpen of Tyler Clippard in the 7th, Drew Storen in the 8th, and Soriano in the 9th, and that's in front of a rotation of Stephen Strasburg/Gio Gonzalez/Jordan Zimmermann/Dan Haren/Ross Detwiler. Their also loaded with a young and talented lineup with only one bad contract (Jayson Werth), Wilson Ramos will be back at catcher, they traded for Denard Span to fill their only real lineup leak, and resigned Adam LaRoche to a reasonable contract which gives them an excellent trade chip (Michael Morse, now a back-up who was just traded to Seattle in a three-way deal that brought them a couple decent prospects because lord knows they don't have enough) all at the same time. Yes, paying $14 million to a reliever is too much especially when you have to give up a first round pick to do it, but I'm a big fan of this "going for it" thing and I'd say they're in pretty decent shape. At least until they shutdown Strasburg after 190 innings this year because, you know, you can never be too careful.
3. Butler Bulldogs. I don't know if it's Brad Stevens or what (NOTE: it's probably Brad Stevens) but Butler just keeps on going. When they made those back-to-back NCAA Championship games you kind of figured like, ok he found a few diamonds in the rough in Gordon Hayward, Shelvin Mack, and Matt Howard (really rough, in his case) and Stevens got them to perfectly come together for a magical run (or two) and then they'd go back to being Butler. When they missed the NCAA Tournament (made the CBI) last season everything looked confirmed. But now? First Stevens gets Rotnei Clarke, and ultra-experienced deadeye shooter who fits Butler's system perfectly, to come to Indy, joining a couple of decent players, and you figure Butler would probably be decent. Little did you know Clarke was going to play out of his mind and a couple promising youngsters would suddenly blossom into double-digit scorers. Then Clarke gets hurt against Richmond and you'd think Butler would slide, but they had no issue finishing up Richmond, and then played a really, really good Gonzaga team and did this:
I hate teams that are always good because I'm so unfamiliar with it. It's like an Amish who was dropped in Dubai.
4. Florida Gators. For my money, there are six teams (seven if you count my super sleeper VCU) who could potentially win the NCAA Championship this year - Louisville, Syracuse, Michigan, Indiana, Duke, and the sixth is Florida. For some reason they're only ranked 10th. Why? Because they have two losses, although those happen to be at Arizona (a one-loss team) in a game Florida controlled for 38 minutes before letting it slip away, and against a good Kansas State in Kansas City. Look at their recent results. After a week of dominating fools they've now won their four SEC games by 33 (vs. Georgia), 22 (@ LSU), 21 (@ Texas A&M), and 31 (vs. Missouri). I know Mizzou is in kind of a tailspin right now with Bowers hurt and Dixon having been kicked off the team, but beating that team by 31 is still damn impressive. Florida is one of the few teams in the country with a great offense and a great defense, with great players both on the perimeter and in the paint. I feel pretty effing good having gotten down on them at 12-1 to win the whole thing. Don't think, just do it.
5. Syracuse Orangemen. I've touted Louisville as my #1 team in the country so I need to give credit to the Orange for taking them down on the road, and actually this was the game that convinced me to put Cuse in that "could win the title" group because they played great in a tough environment. I have no idea why Syracuse has kind of been under my radar, but I assume it's because I'm an idiot. They're loaded at guard and play two point guards in Brandon Triche and Michael Carter-Williams, which they can get away with because they're 6-4 and 6-6, and an awesome front court that includes two great scorers (C.J. Fair and James Southerland) and a defensive superstar (Rakeem Christmas). Their only loss was to Temple at MSG, and they now have probably the best win of anyone this season with that roadie vs. the #1 team to legitimize them. They do have a big issue hanging over them with Southerland's indefinite suspension due to some kind of academic issue, but I would assume he'll be back soon enough given that Syracuse is a big time hoops school and so the administrators probably understand it's best to get him back on the court.
Stupid Joel Maturi.
WHO SUCKED
1. Gopher basketball. I'm not giving up on the season, thinking they suck, or anything like that. I mean they have three losses this season and they're all to teams that have been ranked in the top 3 this season, and only the Duke game was a double digit loss. What sucks, and why I have to put the Gophers here, is that I'm having trouble imagining them as a Final Four team anymore, simply because there have been stretches in all three losses where they've been absolutely dominated, and the domination wasn't for a short period of time but a very long one. Michigan outscored them 20-7 over a 7 minute period, Indiana had that entire first half, and Duke pretty much controlled the whole game. For much of this year I had considered the Gophers to be a possible Final Four contending team and maybe the best Gopher team of my life. That seems laughable now, as I'm fairly certain the '97 team would crush these guys.
That's not to say this can't be a very good year. I'm picturing the team now as a top 5 finisher in the Big 10 with like a 5 seed and a decent shot to make the Sweet 16. Wouldn't we all have taken that coming into the season? Of course we would have. By any measure (for the Gopher program) that's a successful season, it's just that it felt like the bar had been raised and that this might be a special team, rather than a very good one. It's hard to feel that way anymore after watching Michigan completely outclass them on their own court. Hopefully they can sweet these next four winnable games and I can feel a bit better, and even though I know this is a really good Gopher team it's hard not to feel a bit of a gut punch here. It's not the losses, it's the way they lost. Hopefully they learn and move on. I'm also now extremely terrified of going to Northwestern.
2. Los Angeles Lakers. I know I'm not exactly breaking new ground here because I think everyone is aware of the Lakers' struggles, but holy crap you guys. Anybody who ever watched sports new their might be an adjustment period bringing in Nash to play with a guy who dominates the ball like Kobe (similar to the LeBron/Wade pairing initially) but even if it took them a while to get it figured out with complimentary players like Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol you'd expect them, worst case, to end up being a very dangerous low seed in the playoffs as they finally figured it out. One problem - they're not figuring it out, and at 17-23 are in severe danger of missing the playoffs after losing to Toronto on Sunday (TORONTO!!) thanks in part to Howard getting booted for picking up two technicals. They've now lost eight of their last ten, and count losses to the Raptors, Cavs, Magic, and the Kings among their failures this year - those are some bad teams. Normally I would be enjoying this immensely, but I just acquired Kobe for my Fantasy NBA team and so now I don't hate him as much.
3. Jordan Hulls. So let me get this straight, the Underpants Gnome plays out of his mind against the Gophers but then plays like a total asshole against Wisconsin? And don't you dare credit Wisconsin for this either, because he was just total garbage who couldn't shoot, only bothered to take 1 three-pointer (seriously with that range he only attempted one? First time all year), and turned the ball over like he was giving it away for Valentine's Day to some handsome man. Plus he was outplayed by Ben Brust who sucks. And what was with Indiana doubling down on Ryan freaking Evans on the block? Just let him go to work, you'll be better off letting him shoot. The only possible explanations for this game was that Indiana felt invincible after beating the Gophers and forgot to try or Jordan Hulls threw the game. Also, why do I have so much trouble spelling invincible? Everything about this has my brain scrambled like Kevin Burleson trying to break a press.
4. Matt Ryan. I thought Ryan was getting a little too much heat for never having won a playoff game (probably because the Matty Ice nickname is so annoying) but it's hard to find a way to not blame that game on Ryan (with a major assist to the defense). I'll even forgive him the pick because Roddy White fell down, but there were plenty of unforgivable mistakes. The fumbled shot gun snap that San Fran recovered which hit him perfectly in the hands and not picking up a single first down after recovering the Crabtree fumble (giving the Niners great field position after a shitty punt) were both pretty awful, but Ryan saved his worst for the biggest play of the game. On that fourth down inside the 10 he forced the ball to a non-open White, never bothering to look at any other receive and thus missing an absolutely wide open Tony Gonzalez who had slipped behind the linebackers and there wasn't a safety over the top - easy TD. I should feel good about this loss because the Falcons screwed over the Vikings in '98, but I hate Jim Harbaugh, Ray Lewis, and the Patriots so Atlanta was my only chance to enjoy the Super Bowl. Hopefully they'll be good food.
5. Seattle Mariners. If I'm going to praise the Nationals for making a good move, I gotta point out that the Mariners apparently are assembling a softball team or something. After acquiring Michael Morse in the above mentioned trade, they now have all these guys: Morse, Raul Ibanez, Jason Bay, Kendrys Morales, Justin Smoak, and Jesus Montero. Which means that even if they plan to give Montero another shot to be a catcher (LOL) they've still got five mostly immobile types to try to shoehorn into a lineup. That means something like Montero at C, Ibanez in LF, Morse in RF, Morales at 1b, and either Smoak or Bay at DH with the other coming off the bench? Ibanez and Morse as two of your 3 outfielders? Franklin Gutierrez is very good, but he's not that good. I guess the real point is why even trade for Morse? Even if they've given up on Smoak (and if they have they should trade him to the Twins because I STILL BELIEVE DAMMIT) acquiring Morse brings nothing to you that you don't already have, and by trading John Jaso to do it you've severely downgraded your defense going to Montero, but they don't really have another choice because, again, they have way to many slow RF/DH/1b types to fit Montero's bat in any other way. Seattle has the potential for a pretty kick-ass future (seriously their minor league pitchers are top shelf) but if they keep fucking up the present like this it's not going to matter. Those Nintendo guys haven't done anything baseball-related right since Baseball Stars. Remember Baseball Stars 2? What were they thinking?
You'll notice I had the prudence to not write about this whole Manti Te'o thing because let's be honest, it's pretty played out at this point. Was a pretty good day on twitter, though. I also didn't write about hockey because it's a sport for cretins. See you soon with a preview of the Northwestern game. Or maybe just a link to the one I wrote like a week ago. Jesus aren't they supposed to space these games out?
Tuesday, November 13, 2012
What did we Learn from the Marathon?
Unfortunately I couldn't make it to the Gophers latest butt whooping of Toledo but that doesn't stop me from having a couple of quick thoughts on the team and yes it feels a bit weird to have concerns about a team that's 2-0 with wins by 36 and 26 but here we are. I have 3.
1. I want to know what's going on with Trevor Mbakwe. His line looked better in this Toledo game (6 pts - 7 boards - 2 blks) but he still only played 14 minutes which is the same number of minutes he played in the game against American. Is he still hurt? Is this some sort of punishment? I'd really like to know.
2. Nineteen turnovers against Toledo? Gross. Loyola-Illinois, who is terrible, turned it over just 15 times against Toledo.
3. Is Andre Hollins ok? Maybe all the expectations are getting to him and he's pressing a bit (2-15 shooting so far, 4 TOs vs. 1 assist vs. Toledo) or maybe he's got something else going on in his head that's hurting his concentration (the shooting, plus five missed free throws already this year vs. just nine all of last season).
It's early and the team is winning, but all three of these need to get figured out before they start playing real games or they're going to be in trouble. This Thursday's game against Tennessee State is a losable game, so they may as well start playing better ASAP. The defense and rebounding have been absolutely outstanding, however, and that's a very good sign even against this level of competition. Small sample size and all, but kenpom rates the Gophers as the 8th best defensive team in the country statistically (includes rebounding) and that does take quality of competition into account (for example, American shot 24% against the Gophers and 53% in their next game against Quinnipiac - that bodes well for the Gophers).
Also, in case you were unaware somehow, ESPN just did a 24-hour college basketball marathon. Thanks to a flexible work environment that allows working from home and the miracle of internet access I was able to take in a decent amount of it. Here's what I thought was worth noting.
1. I watched the first half of Youngstown/Georgia (not part of the marathon) and figured Georgia's first half performance (3-24 shooting) would be the ugliest thing I saw all week, but I was wrong because West Virginia looked absolutely god awful in getting destroyed by Gonzaga. The Bulldogs also looked pretty good and definitely had something to do with it, but WVU just got destroyed on every level. Gonzaga had open shot after open shot (52% Shooting, 56% from 3) while WVU just threw up bricks (shot 27%, 11% from 3) and I saw at least two times in the first half where a Mountaineer 3-point attempt hit the backboard before it hit the rim. I'm sure WVU will end up being not this terrible since they're relying on three transfers to pretty much carry the team this year and that always seems to take a while to gel, but that was one of the ugliest performances I can remember watching from a team that was supposed to at least be in the mix for an at-large bid since every Gopher game ever.
2. Kendall Williams (New Mexico) is a stud PG. I didn't stay up late enough to watch this one after WVU put me to sleep, but Williams put up a line of 17 pts - 6 rebs - 7 assists - 0 turnovers. Nice.
3. The Gophers could have used Siyani Chambers. The freshman point guard from Hopkins ended up at Harvard because that was basically the only school that recruited him and oh my did he look good against UMass, nearly leading the Crimson to a big upset playing all 40 minutes and finishing with 14 pts, 5 rebs, and 7 assists to just 1 turnover and even more impressive than the stats was just watching him. He completely controlled the game when Harvard had the ball (his defense, on the other hand, was pretty atrocious). It got to the point where UMass won the game by doing everything possible to keep the ball out of his hands when they ran their press and then the Harvard dopes turned it over twice in the final minute leading to a pretty surprising comeback win for the Minutemen when it looked like this game was in the bag for Harvard. Anyway, this kids poise and ability to run an offense was shocking considering it was just his second game ever. I know we think we're in good shape with Andre Hollins, but I gotta say this looks like a whiff for Tubby (assuming he figures out the defense thing).
4. The Horizon race should be pretty good this year. Valpo killed Northern Illinois (not like that's hard) and Detroit was giving it to St. John's pretty good before they fell apart. I could see either team winning a game or two in the NCAA Tournament. Of course seeing as how those two teams are head and shoulders above the rest of the conference it probably means we can expect Cleveland State or something to get the auto-bid.
5. I thought this might be the worst version of Xavier we've seen in a very long time. Turns out it looks like this might be the worst version of Butler we've seen in a long time. I'm interested to see how this turns out with Brad Stevens if Butler bombs again. I realize he's built up all kinds of leeway with the back-to-back Finals runs, but the last couple of years have been really bad (if I'm right about this year) and if Butler doesn't get back to the tournament soon he's going to go from being known as a wunderkind to just another guy at a small school. He's already been replaced by Shaka Smart as the small school program builder who doesn't bolt du juor and with Tim Miles and John Groce (among others) taking advantage of March runs to move up in the world I wonder if Stevens has already blown his chance. Considering he was born in Indiana and never left he might not even care, which is good because soon he might not have a choice.
6. Michigan State and Kansas are going to be just fine. Not that there was ever much doubt, but both teams lost significant, and I mean significant, players from last season so there was part of me that wondered if they'd struggle but both looked very good in Michigan State's 67-64 victory. Both teams were a little sloppy (31 combined turnovers) but both offenses look to be almost in prime shape already. Keith Appling was sick (19 points and an insane lay-up to put MSU up 3 with 15 secs left) and Gary Harris joined him in the back court (18 points) to make the Spartans look like they might actually have the best guards in the Big 10 and Branden Dawson looks like he's all the way back from a knee injury. For Kansas it's much the same story with Ben McLemore and Elijah Johnson looking like they can step right in and be a very, very good pair of guards. What an awesome game this was. Although that final Kansas play looked very Tubby Smith-errific.
7. I have no idea how VCU got beaten by Wichita. VCU has their entire team back. Wichita has nobody back. I thought Wichita would finally fade away, but apparently they just re-load. Must be sweet.
8. Alex Poythress is ridiculous. I have no idea why I didn't know how athletic this guy is but I'd put him up there with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist last year. It's probably because his name sounds pretty nerdy. Honestly I couldn't even have told you if he was white or black before tonight because I didn't know anything about him, I just thought he sounded kind of like a nerd. He's not. He just dunks on Duke nerds' heads. He's like a taller Rico Tucker.
Realistically looking at the year prior (Championship) and the year after (have you seen that recruiting class?) this is the worst team of that three year span for Kentucky and it's not really even close, and yet I'd be shocked if they aren't in the Final Four this year again. Betwixt Calipari's ability to recruit the one-and-done type talent and the mystique and allure (good stripper names, fyi) of Kentucky that place is set up to be the closest thing to a dynasty since UCLA in the 60s or 70s or whatever. Maybe both. Effing Kareem.
9. The other day I went my whole family went to Joe's Crab Shack to celebrate my birthday and there was this dude at the table next to us who ate his corn on the cob with a fork. And I don't mean like that he cut the kernels off with a knife and then ate them like niblets, I mean he straight up just used his fork to scoop it right off the cob. I wasn't sure if it was impressive or not but then Snacks got his dainty thing on and was like "I hate corn on the cob because I don't like getting it in my teeth and stuff" and he tried it and couldn't do it. So basically this dude had a lifetime of experience of scooping corn kernels off the cob with a knife. He was like MacGyver crossed with Mr. Pitt. I didn't know if I should laugh or be impressed, but I certainly made sure to have everyone look. Changed my life.
1. I want to know what's going on with Trevor Mbakwe. His line looked better in this Toledo game (6 pts - 7 boards - 2 blks) but he still only played 14 minutes which is the same number of minutes he played in the game against American. Is he still hurt? Is this some sort of punishment? I'd really like to know.
2. Nineteen turnovers against Toledo? Gross. Loyola-Illinois, who is terrible, turned it over just 15 times against Toledo.
3. Is Andre Hollins ok? Maybe all the expectations are getting to him and he's pressing a bit (2-15 shooting so far, 4 TOs vs. 1 assist vs. Toledo) or maybe he's got something else going on in his head that's hurting his concentration (the shooting, plus five missed free throws already this year vs. just nine all of last season).
It's early and the team is winning, but all three of these need to get figured out before they start playing real games or they're going to be in trouble. This Thursday's game against Tennessee State is a losable game, so they may as well start playing better ASAP. The defense and rebounding have been absolutely outstanding, however, and that's a very good sign even against this level of competition. Small sample size and all, but kenpom rates the Gophers as the 8th best defensive team in the country statistically (includes rebounding) and that does take quality of competition into account (for example, American shot 24% against the Gophers and 53% in their next game against Quinnipiac - that bodes well for the Gophers).
Also, in case you were unaware somehow, ESPN just did a 24-hour college basketball marathon. Thanks to a flexible work environment that allows working from home and the miracle of internet access I was able to take in a decent amount of it. Here's what I thought was worth noting.
1. I watched the first half of Youngstown/Georgia (not part of the marathon) and figured Georgia's first half performance (3-24 shooting) would be the ugliest thing I saw all week, but I was wrong because West Virginia looked absolutely god awful in getting destroyed by Gonzaga. The Bulldogs also looked pretty good and definitely had something to do with it, but WVU just got destroyed on every level. Gonzaga had open shot after open shot (52% Shooting, 56% from 3) while WVU just threw up bricks (shot 27%, 11% from 3) and I saw at least two times in the first half where a Mountaineer 3-point attempt hit the backboard before it hit the rim. I'm sure WVU will end up being not this terrible since they're relying on three transfers to pretty much carry the team this year and that always seems to take a while to gel, but that was one of the ugliest performances I can remember watching from a team that was supposed to at least be in the mix for an at-large bid since every Gopher game ever.
2. Kendall Williams (New Mexico) is a stud PG. I didn't stay up late enough to watch this one after WVU put me to sleep, but Williams put up a line of 17 pts - 6 rebs - 7 assists - 0 turnovers. Nice.
3. The Gophers could have used Siyani Chambers. The freshman point guard from Hopkins ended up at Harvard because that was basically the only school that recruited him and oh my did he look good against UMass, nearly leading the Crimson to a big upset playing all 40 minutes and finishing with 14 pts, 5 rebs, and 7 assists to just 1 turnover and even more impressive than the stats was just watching him. He completely controlled the game when Harvard had the ball (his defense, on the other hand, was pretty atrocious). It got to the point where UMass won the game by doing everything possible to keep the ball out of his hands when they ran their press and then the Harvard dopes turned it over twice in the final minute leading to a pretty surprising comeback win for the Minutemen when it looked like this game was in the bag for Harvard. Anyway, this kids poise and ability to run an offense was shocking considering it was just his second game ever. I know we think we're in good shape with Andre Hollins, but I gotta say this looks like a whiff for Tubby (assuming he figures out the defense thing).
4. The Horizon race should be pretty good this year. Valpo killed Northern Illinois (not like that's hard) and Detroit was giving it to St. John's pretty good before they fell apart. I could see either team winning a game or two in the NCAA Tournament. Of course seeing as how those two teams are head and shoulders above the rest of the conference it probably means we can expect Cleveland State or something to get the auto-bid.
5. I thought this might be the worst version of Xavier we've seen in a very long time. Turns out it looks like this might be the worst version of Butler we've seen in a long time. I'm interested to see how this turns out with Brad Stevens if Butler bombs again. I realize he's built up all kinds of leeway with the back-to-back Finals runs, but the last couple of years have been really bad (if I'm right about this year) and if Butler doesn't get back to the tournament soon he's going to go from being known as a wunderkind to just another guy at a small school. He's already been replaced by Shaka Smart as the small school program builder who doesn't bolt du juor and with Tim Miles and John Groce (among others) taking advantage of March runs to move up in the world I wonder if Stevens has already blown his chance. Considering he was born in Indiana and never left he might not even care, which is good because soon he might not have a choice.
6. Michigan State and Kansas are going to be just fine. Not that there was ever much doubt, but both teams lost significant, and I mean significant, players from last season so there was part of me that wondered if they'd struggle but both looked very good in Michigan State's 67-64 victory. Both teams were a little sloppy (31 combined turnovers) but both offenses look to be almost in prime shape already. Keith Appling was sick (19 points and an insane lay-up to put MSU up 3 with 15 secs left) and Gary Harris joined him in the back court (18 points) to make the Spartans look like they might actually have the best guards in the Big 10 and Branden Dawson looks like he's all the way back from a knee injury. For Kansas it's much the same story with Ben McLemore and Elijah Johnson looking like they can step right in and be a very, very good pair of guards. What an awesome game this was. Although that final Kansas play looked very Tubby Smith-errific.
7. I have no idea how VCU got beaten by Wichita. VCU has their entire team back. Wichita has nobody back. I thought Wichita would finally fade away, but apparently they just re-load. Must be sweet.
8. Alex Poythress is ridiculous. I have no idea why I didn't know how athletic this guy is but I'd put him up there with Michael Kidd-Gilchrist last year. It's probably because his name sounds pretty nerdy. Honestly I couldn't even have told you if he was white or black before tonight because I didn't know anything about him, I just thought he sounded kind of like a nerd. He's not. He just dunks on Duke nerds' heads. He's like a taller Rico Tucker.
Realistically looking at the year prior (Championship) and the year after (have you seen that recruiting class?) this is the worst team of that three year span for Kentucky and it's not really even close, and yet I'd be shocked if they aren't in the Final Four this year again. Betwixt Calipari's ability to recruit the one-and-done type talent and the mystique and allure (good stripper names, fyi) of Kentucky that place is set up to be the closest thing to a dynasty since UCLA in the 60s or 70s or whatever. Maybe both. Effing Kareem.
9. The other day I went my whole family went to Joe's Crab Shack to celebrate my birthday and there was this dude at the table next to us who ate his corn on the cob with a fork. And I don't mean like that he cut the kernels off with a knife and then ate them like niblets, I mean he straight up just used his fork to scoop it right off the cob. I wasn't sure if it was impressive or not but then Snacks got his dainty thing on and was like "I hate corn on the cob because I don't like getting it in my teeth and stuff" and he tried it and couldn't do it. So basically this dude had a lifetime of experience of scooping corn kernels off the cob with a knife. He was like MacGyver crossed with Mr. Pitt. I didn't know if I should laugh or be impressed, but I certainly made sure to have everyone look. Changed my life.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Tuesday Talkers
Well my derby picks didn't exactly work out, but Mrs. W randomly picked the winner, "I'll Have Another", probably because she's a raging alcoholic and that brought in some dough. Which, naturally, she immediately assumes is hers and has already been trying to figure out what to buy with it. Funny how that works. When I win and make a withdrawal, she's buys something. When she wins and I don't make a withdrawal, she's buys something. Frankly as long as she keeps reading that book I don't much care what else she does. In any case, sorry for the shitty derby picks. Here's some other thoughts on what's going on.
- Gopher dream transfer Trent Lockett picked Marquette over the Gophers, and it appears that your favorite team was never really in the mix. Whether it's because Lockett had no interest (understandable), Tubby and no interest (ridiculous), or simply because they didn't have a scholarship (come on), from what I can tell from very limited research he never even considered the U. It's too bad because he would have been the second or third best player on the team depending on where you want to slot Dre Hollins, but if the Gophers were going to lose a player (well kind of) losing one on the wing was the way to go. They should have enough perimeter guys to get them through, but this puts a ton of extra pressure on the Hollins twins. Assuming Mbakwe is healthy (yes a big assumption) it's going to be on those two how good/how far this Gopher team can go. Well, them and Charles Buggs, the next Hakim Warrick/JaJuan Johnson. Give it time. Love has patience.
- Sticking with college basketball, inside sources have confirmed for me that Butler is moving to the Atlantic-10, which is a great move for both parties. Butler gets to step up and challenge itself with programs like Xavier and Temple (assuming they're not moving because frankly I can't keep up with all the moves), while the A-10 grabs another marquee school (I know they weren't last year, but back-to-back Final Fours says a lot). Apparently the A-10 is also looking to grab VCU and George Mason out of the Colonial, and that pretty much has to vault them ahead of the Mountain West for basketball power, doesn't it? Certainly Conference USA if they weren't there already, and possibly even the Pac-10 the way things are going lately. Crazy basketball world. Next thing you know San Diego State will be in the Big East.
- I know, I should talk Twins but they suck worse than Woody Allen movies. I mean, all these people are in the lineup tonight: Komatsu (I literally have no idea who this is, where's Ben Revere?), Brian Dozier, Danny Valencia, Trevor Plouffe, Drew Butera, and Jamey Carroll. How many of those guys are big league hitters? Valencia and Plouffe combined make one? Honestly how many Twins could you even write anything positive about this year? Span (for being a good leadoff guy), Willingham (for not completely tanking after his hot start), and Doumit (for doing exactly what he's supposed to - be average at everything with average defense at 3 positions)? I mean for fuck's sake they were just praising Mauer for hitting a double - a double that was a blooper down the left field line (yes I'm actually watching the game, but just until Mrs. W is out of the shower because she won't watch this garbage and they're way too shitty for me to go all the way downstairs to watch.)
I guess the bullpen has been better than expected because three guys are having good years out of there (Burton, Gray, Burnett), but you Burnett and at least one of those other two is going to go back to sucking, the most important reliever (Capps) might be the worst one in the pen not named Maloney, and pretty much all of this is moot because the Twins have to have the worst rotation in all of baseball. And there's no hope for the future. None. The only possible prayer is the Twins' knock this upcoming draft out of the park with a bunch of college players who are going to be close to ready and can get here before Morneau and Mauer are completely washed up, because you know damn well the Twins are stuck with those two for the rest of their careers because nobody else is going to overpay to that extent. A terrible present and a non-existent future. This is exactly how the Wolves used to feel. I guess the Twins need a Rubio in this draft. What would that be, some kind of pitcher with studly stuff who makes the game fun to watch? Yeah, I'd take that. Thanks for nothing, Kyle Gibson. But apparently this team completely owns Dan Haren, which makes total sense.
- Staying with baseball for a moment, did you see my boyfriend Cole Hamels got suspended for five games for admitting to intentionally hitting Brian Harper's dickhead kid? And here's how it went down - Hamels plunked him in the back, not the head or anywhere, but the back - the most accepted place to hit someone intentionally. Harper went to first without a look, without a glance, without a reaction (which was kind of surprising because unlike his dad I thought he was kind of a dick). Then later Hamels comes up and Jordan Zimmerman hits Cole in the leg, to which he just jogs down to first without a look or reaction. Hard-nosed baseball where all parties understand exactly what's going on. But because Hamels admitted it he gets rung for five games (which for a starting pitcher means 1 game but still). What about Zimmerman, shouldn't he get a game too? It's all so stupid. I'm not a big whiner about the "pussification of America" since I think football and surfing should be outlawed as too dangerous, but this is so stupid. If somebody hits a dude in the head then yeah, hammer him. But this was harmless. Hamels should pitch in a skirt next time. If nothing else it'd be kinda hot.
- Last baseball thing quick. I was following a Mets' game the other night due to a wager I made (3 actually, and I won all 3 so suck it) and these were some Met players: Kirk Nieuwenheis, Andres Torres, Josh Thole, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, Mike Baxter, and Mike Nickeas. Those are all batters. I'm in a pretty deep fantasy baseball league and regularly play baseball player prop bets so I know players quite well even in the NL, and I'm only vaguely familiar with a couple of those guys. That team may be more messed up than the Twins, and they have more money (although most of it is wrapped up in Jason Bay lolololol oh wait Twins/Mauer right). Actually bite my tongue because apparently when your recreations all involve following players you sometimes miss shit like the Mets are 17-13. I'm not going to go sever my own limbs with a chainsaw and then drown myself in my own blood.
That was pretty morbid. Go Twins.
- Gopher dream transfer Trent Lockett picked Marquette over the Gophers, and it appears that your favorite team was never really in the mix. Whether it's because Lockett had no interest (understandable), Tubby and no interest (ridiculous), or simply because they didn't have a scholarship (come on), from what I can tell from very limited research he never even considered the U. It's too bad because he would have been the second or third best player on the team depending on where you want to slot Dre Hollins, but if the Gophers were going to lose a player (well kind of) losing one on the wing was the way to go. They should have enough perimeter guys to get them through, but this puts a ton of extra pressure on the Hollins twins. Assuming Mbakwe is healthy (yes a big assumption) it's going to be on those two how good/how far this Gopher team can go. Well, them and Charles Buggs, the next Hakim Warrick/JaJuan Johnson. Give it time. Love has patience.
- Sticking with college basketball, inside sources have confirmed for me that Butler is moving to the Atlantic-10, which is a great move for both parties. Butler gets to step up and challenge itself with programs like Xavier and Temple (assuming they're not moving because frankly I can't keep up with all the moves), while the A-10 grabs another marquee school (I know they weren't last year, but back-to-back Final Fours says a lot). Apparently the A-10 is also looking to grab VCU and George Mason out of the Colonial, and that pretty much has to vault them ahead of the Mountain West for basketball power, doesn't it? Certainly Conference USA if they weren't there already, and possibly even the Pac-10 the way things are going lately. Crazy basketball world. Next thing you know San Diego State will be in the Big East.
- I know, I should talk Twins but they suck worse than Woody Allen movies. I mean, all these people are in the lineup tonight: Komatsu (I literally have no idea who this is, where's Ben Revere?), Brian Dozier, Danny Valencia, Trevor Plouffe, Drew Butera, and Jamey Carroll. How many of those guys are big league hitters? Valencia and Plouffe combined make one? Honestly how many Twins could you even write anything positive about this year? Span (for being a good leadoff guy), Willingham (for not completely tanking after his hot start), and Doumit (for doing exactly what he's supposed to - be average at everything with average defense at 3 positions)? I mean for fuck's sake they were just praising Mauer for hitting a double - a double that was a blooper down the left field line (yes I'm actually watching the game, but just until Mrs. W is out of the shower because she won't watch this garbage and they're way too shitty for me to go all the way downstairs to watch.)
I guess the bullpen has been better than expected because three guys are having good years out of there (Burton, Gray, Burnett), but you Burnett and at least one of those other two is going to go back to sucking, the most important reliever (Capps) might be the worst one in the pen not named Maloney, and pretty much all of this is moot because the Twins have to have the worst rotation in all of baseball. And there's no hope for the future. None. The only possible prayer is the Twins' knock this upcoming draft out of the park with a bunch of college players who are going to be close to ready and can get here before Morneau and Mauer are completely washed up, because you know damn well the Twins are stuck with those two for the rest of their careers because nobody else is going to overpay to that extent. A terrible present and a non-existent future. This is exactly how the Wolves used to feel. I guess the Twins need a Rubio in this draft. What would that be, some kind of pitcher with studly stuff who makes the game fun to watch? Yeah, I'd take that. Thanks for nothing, Kyle Gibson. But apparently this team completely owns Dan Haren, which makes total sense.
- Staying with baseball for a moment, did you see my boyfriend Cole Hamels got suspended for five games for admitting to intentionally hitting Brian Harper's dickhead kid? And here's how it went down - Hamels plunked him in the back, not the head or anywhere, but the back - the most accepted place to hit someone intentionally. Harper went to first without a look, without a glance, without a reaction (which was kind of surprising because unlike his dad I thought he was kind of a dick). Then later Hamels comes up and Jordan Zimmerman hits Cole in the leg, to which he just jogs down to first without a look or reaction. Hard-nosed baseball where all parties understand exactly what's going on. But because Hamels admitted it he gets rung for five games (which for a starting pitcher means 1 game but still). What about Zimmerman, shouldn't he get a game too? It's all so stupid. I'm not a big whiner about the "pussification of America" since I think football and surfing should be outlawed as too dangerous, but this is so stupid. If somebody hits a dude in the head then yeah, hammer him. But this was harmless. Hamels should pitch in a skirt next time. If nothing else it'd be kinda hot.
- Last baseball thing quick. I was following a Mets' game the other night due to a wager I made (3 actually, and I won all 3 so suck it) and these were some Met players: Kirk Nieuwenheis, Andres Torres, Josh Thole, Justin Turner, Ruben Tejada, Mike Baxter, and Mike Nickeas. Those are all batters. I'm in a pretty deep fantasy baseball league and regularly play baseball player prop bets so I know players quite well even in the NL, and I'm only vaguely familiar with a couple of those guys. That team may be more messed up than the Twins, and they have more money (although most of it is wrapped up in Jason Bay lolololol oh wait Twins/Mauer right). Actually bite my tongue because apparently when your recreations all involve following players you sometimes miss shit like the Mets are 17-13. I'm not going to go sever my own limbs with a chainsaw and then drown myself in my own blood.
That was pretty morbid. Go Twins.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Week in Review - 11/14/2011 (+ mini South Dakota State preview)
Hey thanks internet. You are supposed to be there to let me watch the Pacquiao/Marquez fight without having to pay a dime. Instead I had to watch 3 seconds at a time and then stare at a god damn hour glass. You failed me internet. You failed me. We are totally fighting.
WHO WAS AWESOME.
1. Gopher hoops. Click here for a proper recap, but to put it short, that was a solid win against a solid team, and the fact that they were able to actually manage to come back from down 5 with six minutes to go, against said solid team, just really impresses me. I guess I have a low impress threshold. I suppose it's just one more thing Gopher basketball has stolen from me. And yet I can't stop going back. I'm like a beaten woman, aren't I. Oh my god I'm Aaliyah and the Gophers are Chris Brown.
2. Royce White. God mother hell shit fart. This sucks. Royce with 25 and 11 in his ISU debut, with 3 blocks and a couple assists to go with it. And here's you, sitting there in your Laz-E-Boy watching Cops and swirling your brandy around even though it's fucking Korbel and making snide comments about how you wonder how many security guards he's pushed down or how many laptops he's stolen. It's people like you that will always hold the Gopher basketball program down with your judging judgement. What about the bible, fella? Doesn't it say "don't be a pompous judgmental ass or I'll turn you into a pillar of salt" or something? I think it's in Leviticus.
3. Utah State. There were better wins this weekend - UNC's over Michigan State for one - but between pure emotion and actual effect on an NCAA bid Utah's State's win over BYU might end up being the biggest. In terms of NCAA Tournament implications, Utah State always needs quality wins since they're in the WAC where quality wins are basically impossible to come by and this was only one of three games against quality opponents for USU. Huge win in the RPI sense. Also a huge win in the "i hate these fuckin' guys" sense, because Utah Staties hate BYU, mostly because they're a bunch of prissy dickheads. Here is a video of Utah State students welcoming BYU to their arena. Solid effort.
4. Kendall Marshall. You know how sometimes thing don't live up to the hype like Terra Nova, every Hannibal Lecter movie after Silence of the Lambs, flavored Mountain Dew (other than Live Wire), the last two George R.R. Martin novels, or having kids? Well I finally got a good chance to watch Kendall Marshall on Sunday against UNC-Asheville and this dude is straight legit. The stats are crazy - he had 15 assists - but just watching him it's clear he's the best point guard UNC has had since Ed Cota and he might even be better. He's got that smooth playability about him where he doesn't really look like he's moving quickly or even really trying (like Evan Turner) but continually gets past people and his court vision is off the charts. Whether it's a simple entry pass, running the break, or getting the ball up the court as fast as possible by passing it ahead, he's a legit point guard and as far as pure points go I'm thinking he might be the best in the country. Outside of Justin Cobbs, of course.
5. Mark Sanchez. Actually he sucks and couldn't get the Jets in the end zone with four plays inside the 10 at the end of the game, but he's awesome because as part of a teaser I had Jets/Pats under 54 and so boom. The final leg is Vikes/Pack over 43, and there's almost no way the Pack doesn't even get there by themself, am I right?
WHO SUCKED
1. UCLA. You know how the Pac-10 has been in shambles for a few years and getting even two NCAA bids was kind of an accomplishment? Well it's probably going to happen again. Arizona looks like a sloppy mess right now, but at least they managed to not eff it up so badly that they actually lost, unlike the Bruins. Yes, UCLA managed to lose their opener. Not only did they lose, they lost to a mid-tier WCC team in Loyola-Marymount. At home. By 11. The first time LMU beat UCLA since 1941. Ouch. Particularly impressive was point guard Lazeric Jones going 1-11 from the field for the Bruins, but they'll get some help at the point next game when Jerime Anderson is back, who was suspended one game for stealing a laptop this summer. Huh? A one game suspension for stealing a laptop. How interesting. Personally I would have run him right off campus and made sure he transferred out, probably going to a school in a neighboring state where he'd have a right smashing debut. It's the proper way to handle it.
2. Butler. I know Butler lost to Evansville last year early and still made the Nat Champ Game, and I know that losing Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard would be pretty tough for anybody so dropping a game to Evansville (in Evansville) is probably not that big a deal. Then again, last year at 9-9 was the first time Evansville reached .500 in conference (MVC) play since 2000 so losing to them is not exactly excusable. Let me put it this way, outside the Aces two wins over Butler the last two years their only notable non-conference win dating back to 2001 was over Purdue in 2005. This ain't exactly a giant killing program. Maybe Evansville just has Butler's number, or maybe it's going to take a while to adjust to no Howard and no Mack, but maybe Butler just flat sucks this year. They're going to struggle there's no doubt, because there's some quality Horizon opponents this year. And speaking of......
3. Vanderbilt. You know how every time Vandy has a supposed good team they get bounced early in the NCAA Tournament? Well apparently this year's version decided just to go out and start disappointing people right away because they lost on Sunday to Cleveland State 71-58. Now in reality losing to Cleveland State isn't that bad of a loss because Cleveland State is one of the best teams in one of the best mid-major conferences in the country, and they will likely be in the running for an at-large bid come end of the year if they don't win the Horizon tournament. But still, this was at Vanderbilt and the Commodores supposedly have their best team of all time and are ranked 7th in the country, so due to those circumstances this is a pretty crappy loss. Vandy sucked, you might even say.
4. Kansas City Chiefs. Actually there were so many NFL teams who embarrassed themselves this week it was hard to pick just one. The Chiefs lost (at home) to Denver despite the Broncos completing just two passes the entire game. The Ravens lost to the T-Jax led Seahawks while passing 53 times and only giving Ray Rice eight carries. The Lions got smoked by the Bears by something like 50 points, the Eagles continued their unstoppable march to mediocrity by losing at home to a terrible Eagles team, and Buffalo reminded everyone they are Buffalo by getting crushed by Dallas. Just a bizarre week in the NFL with a lot of really ugly games by ugly teams. I'd say at this rate the Vikings actually have a chance to beat the Pack tonight.
5. Cain Velasquez. I don't know why I keep trying to get back into these fighting sports. First Mayweather/Ortiz which ends in Floyd knocking out Ortiz while Ortiz is defenseless (his own fault but still), then Hopkins/Dawson which ended with an essential body slam and/or an old man looking to quit. Now Saturday night I decide to check in on UFC and I get to see Velasquez, the "champion" (quotes should be read as air quotes), get hit in the face once, fall down, and then cry. Seriously, pros should be able to take a punch, if I wanted to watch someone get knocked out I'd just ask someone to hit me (although the one time it actually happened after Dawger pickd a fight with some gang member and some other dude sucker punched me in the face and I was all like I will kill you mother fucker but he knocked my glasses off so I couldn't see shit and had no idea what was going on but I asked some other gang member dude to help me find my glasses since it was bullshit that the dude sucker punched me and he actually helped me look for them). So yeah, I could beat up Cain Velasquez. FACT.
As far as the Gophers go, they keep it going by taking on South Dakota State tonight. The Jackrabbits are on a very similar plane as Bucknell as far as talent level goes - a good team from a terrible conference - and it should be a similar story to the Bucknell game - they have some good players and can be dangerous if the Gophers either don't play well or take them too lightly, but the Gophers really have no excuse for losing this game.
SDSU is another team that shoots the ball very well from three (41% last year) and they have a player in Nate Wolters who can take over a game and who many people who are stupid think should be a Gopher. Wolters has a shot at winning Summit League Player of the Year this season, averaged 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists per game last year, and opened up this year by dropping 32 (with 11 assists) in the Jackrabbits' win over Western Michigan. Wolters is also from St. Cloud, which means people in this state are needlessly in love with him and also means he'll have a bit of extra motivation. Him coming out and scoring 30+ is a very real possibility.
There are a couple of other decent players here (Jordan Dykstra in the post and SG Griffen Callahan both have the ability to score 20), but, like on Friday, the Gophers have more size, athleticism, ability, talent, and depth. I expect SDSU to come out with a burst of emotion and grittiness and keep this one tight in the first half, but the Gophers should pull this one out by 10+ by the time it's over. Of course, I say should, but once again this isn't a cupcake opponent and if the Gophers let them get hot from the perimeter and nobody's making shots for the Gophers isn't going to be tough. Mbakwe and Sampson will probably be doubled again all day, so somebody else is going to have to help.
Or Mbakwe just grabs 20 boards and scores on putbacks all game because SDSU has absolutely nobody who can keep him off the glass.
Minnesota 72, South Dakota State 62
(If you're looking for something a little more in-depth, I'd assume From the Barn has got you covered)
WHO WAS AWESOME.
1. Gopher hoops. Click here for a proper recap, but to put it short, that was a solid win against a solid team, and the fact that they were able to actually manage to come back from down 5 with six minutes to go, against said solid team, just really impresses me. I guess I have a low impress threshold. I suppose it's just one more thing Gopher basketball has stolen from me. And yet I can't stop going back. I'm like a beaten woman, aren't I. Oh my god I'm Aaliyah and the Gophers are Chris Brown.
2. Royce White. God mother hell shit fart. This sucks. Royce with 25 and 11 in his ISU debut, with 3 blocks and a couple assists to go with it. And here's you, sitting there in your Laz-E-Boy watching Cops and swirling your brandy around even though it's fucking Korbel and making snide comments about how you wonder how many security guards he's pushed down or how many laptops he's stolen. It's people like you that will always hold the Gopher basketball program down with your judging judgement. What about the bible, fella? Doesn't it say "don't be a pompous judgmental ass or I'll turn you into a pillar of salt" or something? I think it's in Leviticus.
3. Utah State. There were better wins this weekend - UNC's over Michigan State for one - but between pure emotion and actual effect on an NCAA bid Utah's State's win over BYU might end up being the biggest. In terms of NCAA Tournament implications, Utah State always needs quality wins since they're in the WAC where quality wins are basically impossible to come by and this was only one of three games against quality opponents for USU. Huge win in the RPI sense. Also a huge win in the "i hate these fuckin' guys" sense, because Utah Staties hate BYU, mostly because they're a bunch of prissy dickheads. Here is a video of Utah State students welcoming BYU to their arena. Solid effort.
4. Kendall Marshall. You know how sometimes thing don't live up to the hype like Terra Nova, every Hannibal Lecter movie after Silence of the Lambs, flavored Mountain Dew (other than Live Wire), the last two George R.R. Martin novels, or having kids? Well I finally got a good chance to watch Kendall Marshall on Sunday against UNC-Asheville and this dude is straight legit. The stats are crazy - he had 15 assists - but just watching him it's clear he's the best point guard UNC has had since Ed Cota and he might even be better. He's got that smooth playability about him where he doesn't really look like he's moving quickly or even really trying (like Evan Turner) but continually gets past people and his court vision is off the charts. Whether it's a simple entry pass, running the break, or getting the ball up the court as fast as possible by passing it ahead, he's a legit point guard and as far as pure points go I'm thinking he might be the best in the country. Outside of Justin Cobbs, of course.
5. Mark Sanchez. Actually he sucks and couldn't get the Jets in the end zone with four plays inside the 10 at the end of the game, but he's awesome because as part of a teaser I had Jets/Pats under 54 and so boom. The final leg is Vikes/Pack over 43, and there's almost no way the Pack doesn't even get there by themself, am I right?
WHO SUCKED
1. UCLA. You know how the Pac-10 has been in shambles for a few years and getting even two NCAA bids was kind of an accomplishment? Well it's probably going to happen again. Arizona looks like a sloppy mess right now, but at least they managed to not eff it up so badly that they actually lost, unlike the Bruins. Yes, UCLA managed to lose their opener. Not only did they lose, they lost to a mid-tier WCC team in Loyola-Marymount. At home. By 11. The first time LMU beat UCLA since 1941. Ouch. Particularly impressive was point guard Lazeric Jones going 1-11 from the field for the Bruins, but they'll get some help at the point next game when Jerime Anderson is back, who was suspended one game for stealing a laptop this summer. Huh? A one game suspension for stealing a laptop. How interesting. Personally I would have run him right off campus and made sure he transferred out, probably going to a school in a neighboring state where he'd have a right smashing debut. It's the proper way to handle it.
2. Butler. I know Butler lost to Evansville last year early and still made the Nat Champ Game, and I know that losing Shelvin Mack and Matt Howard would be pretty tough for anybody so dropping a game to Evansville (in Evansville) is probably not that big a deal. Then again, last year at 9-9 was the first time Evansville reached .500 in conference (MVC) play since 2000 so losing to them is not exactly excusable. Let me put it this way, outside the Aces two wins over Butler the last two years their only notable non-conference win dating back to 2001 was over Purdue in 2005. This ain't exactly a giant killing program. Maybe Evansville just has Butler's number, or maybe it's going to take a while to adjust to no Howard and no Mack, but maybe Butler just flat sucks this year. They're going to struggle there's no doubt, because there's some quality Horizon opponents this year. And speaking of......
3. Vanderbilt. You know how every time Vandy has a supposed good team they get bounced early in the NCAA Tournament? Well apparently this year's version decided just to go out and start disappointing people right away because they lost on Sunday to Cleveland State 71-58. Now in reality losing to Cleveland State isn't that bad of a loss because Cleveland State is one of the best teams in one of the best mid-major conferences in the country, and they will likely be in the running for an at-large bid come end of the year if they don't win the Horizon tournament. But still, this was at Vanderbilt and the Commodores supposedly have their best team of all time and are ranked 7th in the country, so due to those circumstances this is a pretty crappy loss. Vandy sucked, you might even say.
4. Kansas City Chiefs. Actually there were so many NFL teams who embarrassed themselves this week it was hard to pick just one. The Chiefs lost (at home) to Denver despite the Broncos completing just two passes the entire game. The Ravens lost to the T-Jax led Seahawks while passing 53 times and only giving Ray Rice eight carries. The Lions got smoked by the Bears by something like 50 points, the Eagles continued their unstoppable march to mediocrity by losing at home to a terrible Eagles team, and Buffalo reminded everyone they are Buffalo by getting crushed by Dallas. Just a bizarre week in the NFL with a lot of really ugly games by ugly teams. I'd say at this rate the Vikings actually have a chance to beat the Pack tonight.
5. Cain Velasquez. I don't know why I keep trying to get back into these fighting sports. First Mayweather/Ortiz which ends in Floyd knocking out Ortiz while Ortiz is defenseless (his own fault but still), then Hopkins/Dawson which ended with an essential body slam and/or an old man looking to quit. Now Saturday night I decide to check in on UFC and I get to see Velasquez, the "champion" (quotes should be read as air quotes), get hit in the face once, fall down, and then cry. Seriously, pros should be able to take a punch, if I wanted to watch someone get knocked out I'd just ask someone to hit me (although the one time it actually happened after Dawger pickd a fight with some gang member and some other dude sucker punched me in the face and I was all like I will kill you mother fucker but he knocked my glasses off so I couldn't see shit and had no idea what was going on but I asked some other gang member dude to help me find my glasses since it was bullshit that the dude sucker punched me and he actually helped me look for them). So yeah, I could beat up Cain Velasquez. FACT.
As far as the Gophers go, they keep it going by taking on South Dakota State tonight. The Jackrabbits are on a very similar plane as Bucknell as far as talent level goes - a good team from a terrible conference - and it should be a similar story to the Bucknell game - they have some good players and can be dangerous if the Gophers either don't play well or take them too lightly, but the Gophers really have no excuse for losing this game.
SDSU is another team that shoots the ball very well from three (41% last year) and they have a player in Nate Wolters who can take over a game and who many people who are stupid think should be a Gopher. Wolters has a shot at winning Summit League Player of the Year this season, averaged 19 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists per game last year, and opened up this year by dropping 32 (with 11 assists) in the Jackrabbits' win over Western Michigan. Wolters is also from St. Cloud, which means people in this state are needlessly in love with him and also means he'll have a bit of extra motivation. Him coming out and scoring 30+ is a very real possibility.
There are a couple of other decent players here (Jordan Dykstra in the post and SG Griffen Callahan both have the ability to score 20), but, like on Friday, the Gophers have more size, athleticism, ability, talent, and depth. I expect SDSU to come out with a burst of emotion and grittiness and keep this one tight in the first half, but the Gophers should pull this one out by 10+ by the time it's over. Of course, I say should, but once again this isn't a cupcake opponent and if the Gophers let them get hot from the perimeter and nobody's making shots for the Gophers isn't going to be tough. Mbakwe and Sampson will probably be doubled again all day, so somebody else is going to have to help.
Or Mbakwe just grabs 20 boards and scores on putbacks all game because SDSU has absolutely nobody who can keep him off the glass.
Minnesota 72, South Dakota State 62
(If you're looking for something a little more in-depth, I'd assume From the Barn has got you covered)
 | |
| This picture comes up if you search for Jackrabbits Cheerleaders. Good enough, amiright? |
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Random Thoughts on a Tuesday
A whole bunch of thoughts while watching the end of the Twins game. I'm not exactly sure what happened because it was 4-0 Yankees when I left the YMCA and I got home and put the kid to bed and now it's 4-4. So that's good. And you know this whole Yankees dominating the Twins thing does have a silver lining - this is shaping up exactly like an 80s movie. Rag tag group of misfits from the poor side of town continually beaten down by the rich, snobby, evil kids in their fancy preppy clothes, but in the end the good guys finally get over the hump and the bad guys get their comeuppance. The Twins are really just Daniel LaRusso while the Yankees are the Cobra Kai, we just need our All Valley Karate Tournament moment, and you know it's coming. Cue Bananarama.
- Well that was quite the turd sandwich on top of what might have been the most entertaining NCAA Tournament I can remember. I will say though that UCONN isn't getting nearly enough credit for Butler's poor performance. Yes, the Bulldogs missed plenty of open shots, but they also had difficulty getting good looks and the Huskies had a lot to do with that. The reason Butler only scored 2 points in the paint the entire game wasn't because they avoided getting the ball inside or because Brad Stevens made a mistake. They got the ball to Matt Howard and Andrew Smith on the block plenty of times but they just couldn't score against the height, length, and athleticism of Oriakhi, Okwandu, etc. Either there shots were blocked, altered, or they needed to do something extreme to get an open look and were at a weird angle or off balance.
Butler isn't a bad team, obviously, but this was just their second opponent of this tournament who was overwhelmingly more athletic than the Bulldogs and it showed. Old Dominion, Pitt, and Wisconsin are at about the same level as Butler, and while Florida is a more athletic squad they didn't play their best game (credit Butler) and that athleticism translates more when they have the ball rather than when they're on defense. Unfortunately for Butler, UCONN was/is playing at as high a level as anybody right now (especially defensively) and they just overwhelmed the Bulldogs, stopping basically all dribble penetration and destroying anybody who tried to score from the block.
Howard, in particular, was pretty pathetic, putting up a pretty sad 1-13 shooting performance, getting multiple shots blocked, and getting out-rebounded over and over again. For the second year in a row he looked out of place in the championship game, this time to the point that my non-basketball watching friend who I was viewing the game with picked him out as "the worst player I've ever seen." And, of course, he suckered me in and I believed in him and lost some cash on some prop bets I placed on him. I was a fool and I'm not going to let anything like that happen again. I'll be back next year to get rich. As entertaining as this year's tournament was, it was murder on the wallet.
- I'm not sure I completely understand Shaka Smart's thinking in staying at VCU. I mean I understand, I just don't know that I agree with him that he can turn VCU into a perennial powerhouse like Butler or Gonzaga, and by turning down NC State's offer he's basically wagering a million dollars a year that he can do just that. Even if you just look to next year things are going to be a struggle for VCU. They're losing Joey Rodriguez, Jamie Skeen, Brandon Rozzell, and Ed Nixon off of this year's team (that's four of their top five scorers and all-around best players) and according to Rivals the only player they have coming in to replace them right now is a non-rated forward whose other offers were from Cleveland State and Northeastern. Meanwhile VCU's previous coach Anthony Grant, who jumped to Alabama after a nice little multi-year run with Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders, is making almost $2 million a year and took a team that was so bad the previous coach was fired midseason to a team that won their division of the SEC this year, went 19-0 at home, and made the NIT final after just missing out on an NCAA Tournament bid. Basically his whole team is coming back next year and he has a great class coming in with three kids ranked in the top 125, and he's thought of as a fast riser whose next job could end up being a big one. Shaka clearly knows what he's doing, but I'm thinking he's being a bit too optimistic here.
- Finally, and this probably wraps up college basketball for the year until/unless the Gophers sign somebody or Tubby Smith finally signs on with NC State, but I would love for somebody to explain to me how they selected the participants in the College 3-point contest. I thought it was kind of bizarre that Blake Hoffarber wasn't involved, but that was before I realized Jon freaking Diebler wasn't involved. I was worried that maybe I was just being Big 10-centric, so I looked it up. Diebler ranked 3rd amongst all seniors (event is only open to seniors) in three-point makes and second in 3-point percentage. Although looking at the numbers it's kind of surprising Jimmer Fredette wasn't there. Talor Battle too. I'm not saying they're screwing it up or anything but the choices for some of the players involved just seem weird, especially since Brady Morningstar made as many threes this year as
- Speaking of white guys playing basketball, when I was at the Y tonight there was no open gym because they had "special" kids playing adapted basketball and I watched for a couple of minutes. Those kids sure do hustle but man, they have no handles.
- Twins are now winning. This is unexpected, but I'm guessing this is like the part where Daniel sprays Johnny with the hose at the Halloween dance - you feel like you got the upper hand, but the night ends with you being held up against a chain link fence while you get the shit beat out of you by guys in skeleton outfits.
- A few players who have caught my eye so far this baseball season who might be worth keeping your eye on:
- Hey, the Twins actually won. Sweet. The final out came when Joe Nathan struck out Derek Jeter on a high fastball that was clocked at 89 mph. I don't know who that sentence is worse for, but Nathan's fastball is seriously only at 89 mph there are going to be some extremely ugly game endings in our future.
- Lastly, if you like golf our good buddy Grand Slam has promised me a Masters Preview at some point tomorrow, so look for that either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I'm sure it'll be epic. As for my picks I'm not exactly digging deep here but it's hard to argue with Mickelson the way he's playing, and Watney and Justin Rose are solid picks here as well. Sleeper picks could be David Toms or Sergio. I don't know. Trust Grand Slam, he's smoking everybody in our fantasy golf league.
- Well that was quite the turd sandwich on top of what might have been the most entertaining NCAA Tournament I can remember. I will say though that UCONN isn't getting nearly enough credit for Butler's poor performance. Yes, the Bulldogs missed plenty of open shots, but they also had difficulty getting good looks and the Huskies had a lot to do with that. The reason Butler only scored 2 points in the paint the entire game wasn't because they avoided getting the ball inside or because Brad Stevens made a mistake. They got the ball to Matt Howard and Andrew Smith on the block plenty of times but they just couldn't score against the height, length, and athleticism of Oriakhi, Okwandu, etc. Either there shots were blocked, altered, or they needed to do something extreme to get an open look and were at a weird angle or off balance.
Butler isn't a bad team, obviously, but this was just their second opponent of this tournament who was overwhelmingly more athletic than the Bulldogs and it showed. Old Dominion, Pitt, and Wisconsin are at about the same level as Butler, and while Florida is a more athletic squad they didn't play their best game (credit Butler) and that athleticism translates more when they have the ball rather than when they're on defense. Unfortunately for Butler, UCONN was/is playing at as high a level as anybody right now (especially defensively) and they just overwhelmed the Bulldogs, stopping basically all dribble penetration and destroying anybody who tried to score from the block.
Howard, in particular, was pretty pathetic, putting up a pretty sad 1-13 shooting performance, getting multiple shots blocked, and getting out-rebounded over and over again. For the second year in a row he looked out of place in the championship game, this time to the point that my non-basketball watching friend who I was viewing the game with picked him out as "the worst player I've ever seen." And, of course, he suckered me in and I believed in him and lost some cash on some prop bets I placed on him. I was a fool and I'm not going to let anything like that happen again. I'll be back next year to get rich. As entertaining as this year's tournament was, it was murder on the wallet.
- I'm not sure I completely understand Shaka Smart's thinking in staying at VCU. I mean I understand, I just don't know that I agree with him that he can turn VCU into a perennial powerhouse like Butler or Gonzaga, and by turning down NC State's offer he's basically wagering a million dollars a year that he can do just that. Even if you just look to next year things are going to be a struggle for VCU. They're losing Joey Rodriguez, Jamie Skeen, Brandon Rozzell, and Ed Nixon off of this year's team (that's four of their top five scorers and all-around best players) and according to Rivals the only player they have coming in to replace them right now is a non-rated forward whose other offers were from Cleveland State and Northeastern. Meanwhile VCU's previous coach Anthony Grant, who jumped to Alabama after a nice little multi-year run with Eric Maynor and Larry Sanders, is making almost $2 million a year and took a team that was so bad the previous coach was fired midseason to a team that won their division of the SEC this year, went 19-0 at home, and made the NIT final after just missing out on an NCAA Tournament bid. Basically his whole team is coming back next year and he has a great class coming in with three kids ranked in the top 125, and he's thought of as a fast riser whose next job could end up being a big one. Shaka clearly knows what he's doing, but I'm thinking he's being a bit too optimistic here.
- Finally, and this probably wraps up college basketball for the year until/unless the Gophers sign somebody or Tubby Smith finally signs on with NC State, but I would love for somebody to explain to me how they selected the participants in the College 3-point contest. I thought it was kind of bizarre that Blake Hoffarber wasn't involved, but that was before I realized Jon freaking Diebler wasn't involved. I was worried that maybe I was just being Big 10-centric, so I looked it up. Diebler ranked 3rd amongst all seniors (event is only open to seniors) in three-point makes and second in 3-point percentage. Although looking at the numbers it's kind of surprising Jimmer Fredette wasn't there. Talor Battle too. I'm not saying they're screwing it up or anything but the choices for some of the players involved just seem weird, especially since Brady Morningstar made as many threes this year as
- Speaking of white guys playing basketball, when I was at the Y tonight there was no open gym because they had "special" kids playing adapted basketball and I watched for a couple of minutes. Those kids sure do hustle but man, they have no handles.
- Twins are now winning. This is unexpected, but I'm guessing this is like the part where Daniel sprays Johnny with the hose at the Halloween dance - you feel like you got the upper hand, but the night ends with you being held up against a chain link fence while you get the shit beat out of you by guys in skeleton outfits.
- A few players who have caught my eye so far this baseball season who might be worth keeping your eye on:
- Starlin Castro, SS, Cubs - His numbers obviously stand out since they're ridiculous so far (.476/.522/.762) and of course they won't last but I've actually had a chance to watch several of his at-bats and looks awfully good. He's making solid contact and really driving the ball with some gap power (2 doubles and 2 triples already) and is looking like he could end up being a star. Ideally you'd like to see a little bit more plate discipline and more walks, but he's a 21-year old shortstop from the Dominican Republic - it kind of comes with the territory.
- Rickie Weeks, 2B, Brewers - I've talked about him on here before, but he's impressed me this year by being less of a knucklehead than I thought. He had a career year last year and was rewarded with a fat contract and I actually expected him to regress quite a bit but he's having another very good season so far. Nice work, Rick.
- Neil Walker, 2B, Pirates - Leads the league in RBI mainly due to a grandslam he hit on opening day, but has overall shown an awful lot of power (.684 slugging) for a white middle infielder. Guy must not be much of a hustler or a gamer.
- Jaime Garcia, SP, Cardinals - I don't know why his complete game 4-hitter against San Diego impressed me so much because it's not out of line based on his numbers from last year (2.70 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 3rd in NL RoY voting), but I guess I didn't really take him seriously because his name was Jamie and everyone knows that's a girl's name. I guess maybe he's good though.
- Craig Kimbrel, RP, Braves - Since neither Dawger or Bogart could draft their joint team in our fantasy league we had the Bear come out and do it for them. When it suddenly came time to draft a relief pitcher Kimbrel was the #1 guy left on every list we had even though none of the three of us (me, Bear, Snake) had heard of him, and we laughed and we laughed thinking about the look on those two clowns faces when they saw this dude they'd never heard of on their team. Well, joke was on us because Kimbrel has been unhittable - almost literally. He's pitched two innings thus far (picking up 2 saves), faced just six batters and struck out five of them. Hell, Adam LaRoche is practically a hero because he managed to fly out. Look out for this kid.
- Hey, the Twins actually won. Sweet. The final out came when Joe Nathan struck out Derek Jeter on a high fastball that was clocked at 89 mph. I don't know who that sentence is worse for, but Nathan's fastball is seriously only at 89 mph there are going to be some extremely ugly game endings in our future.
- Lastly, if you like golf our good buddy Grand Slam has promised me a Masters Preview at some point tomorrow, so look for that either Wednesday night or Thursday morning. I'm sure it'll be epic. As for my picks I'm not exactly digging deep here but it's hard to argue with Mickelson the way he's playing, and Watney and Justin Rose are solid picks here as well. Sleeper picks could be David Toms or Sergio. I don't know. Trust Grand Slam, he's smoking everybody in our fantasy golf league.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
A Gambling Perspective on the Sweet 16
I am now ready to write again. You may think the reason I haven't put any words down is because I filled out the world's worst bracket. And yes, I most certainly did fill out the worst bracket, but since I've never had any credibility anyway I don't really care how badly I look. The reason I haven't been able to put anything up is I'm still trying to recover from Chicago. Three nights of drinking until 3am - two of which started around noon - is way too many for an old man like me to handle. I've been trying to maximize my sleep in order to try to recalibrate myself back to normal. It hasn't worked yet but it's getting better, so I'm going to at least put something up so nobody thinks I'm dead.
There's no doubt my bracket is god damn awful, and I think I've figured out why other than that I suck - overthinking. It's hard to even rank the stupid things I did in making my picks, starting with believing in a Jamie Dixon Pitt team. Perennial underachievers, taking them to the Final Four would have been stupid, let alone picking them as my national champ. And he's not even the worst coach I backed, because I actually put my money behind Rick Barnes. Rick. Effing. Barnes. So dumb. Hell, after those two believing in a Lorenzo Romar-led Washington Huskies team doesn't even look bad, and that would normally be the biggest mistake one could possibly make in a bracket.
It wasn't just backing obviously poor coaches either, because there were some teams I was behind that should have had more obvious red flags. The most obvious is Notre Dame, and somehow I completely missed it and had them in my final four. Yep, I took a team that is almost 100% reliant on the jump shot to score points and suddenly expected them to be able to beat four straight NCAA Tournament caliber teams. Just stupid. But possibly not as stupid as expecting a team that just lost one of it's best players and leading rebounders to make a surprise run to the elite 8. Why did I back St. John's despite all that? Again, I'm an idiot.
The good news, however, is that although my bracket picks were god awful I did manage to come out ahead by a bit with the gambling gods thanks mainly to a heavy bet on George Mason, a heavy bet on the Zona/UNC over, and a super mega heavy bet on Darius Morris over 4 assists against Duke. So let's all clear our minds, forget my poor picks, and concentrate on picking the sweet 16 from a gambling perspective using what I learned this past weekend. We'll do Thursday's games today and Friday's games tomorrow.
UCONN -1 vs. San Diego State: Right away we hit up one of the biggest subplots of the weekend - don't back a poor game coach. Although I love Steve Fisher and the man has a national championship and a couple other Final Fours, he's the epitome of a "recruit great athletes, roll the ball out and let them play" style coach. That can work, but you run into trouble against teams with similar athletes who are backed by a game coach who can actually influence a game, and that's what you have with the Huskies and Jim Calhoun.
Two big x-factors in this game: home court advantage for the Aztecs and Kemba Walker for the Huskies. The game is going to be played just 2 hours from SDSU's campus so it should be a partisan crowd for them, while if you watched any basketball this year you know Kemba Walker is the kind of player who can carry a team by himself - and not only can he, but he's done it over and over in big spots. I give the x-factor advantage to UCONN, and along with the coach factor that makes this one an easy decision. Take UCONN -1 (3 units).
Florida -3 vs. BYU: This one's a rematch of a thrilling first-round match-up from last year that saw BYU take the Gators down in triple-overtime. Both teams are mainly still intact from last year, particularly Florida who has the same starting five, so if you're looking for some kind of x-factor that could be it.
Personally, I'm a bit more interested in how BYU's has survived without being exposed for a lack of a big man by Brandon Davies suspension for playing a little pickle. Basically neither of their first two opponents has been able to throw an athletic big man at them - the type of player the Cougars need Davies around in order to slow down. Wofford's Noah Dahlman is efficient, but he'll never be described as an incredible athlete, while Robert Sacre from Gonzaga is more of a defensive presence. The real question is if Florida's interior players can make BYU pay for their honor code.
Neither Alex Tyus or Vernon Macklin are offensive juggernauts, although they average 20 pts and 11 rebounds per game between the two of them, but the biggest stat affecting this game is their three-point shooting - specifically their lack of interest in in with just 5 attempts between the two of them all season. This means they're basically just going to camp in the lane - bad news for the Cougars. SDSU's Billy Thomas and Malcolm White are similar players to Tyus and Macklin, and in the first two games with Davies BYU held them to a combined average of 17 points and 12 rebounds - both Cougar wins. In their third game with Davies in street clothes those two went off for 30 and 19 and the Aztecs won. Good enough for me. The pick is Florida -3 for 2 units. BONUS: Take the OVER 149.5 for a unit. Florida is going to score at will in the paint, which means BYU is going to have to score a ton to keep this close, pushing the final up into the 80s range each.
Duke -8.5 vs. Arizona: The coaches are a wash because both are excellent in game, although maybe peg Krzyzewski half a point for pre-gaming, and give Arizona a small advantage for being the quasi-home team in this one with the Dukies traveling across the world to play. What I'm really curious is to see how Derrick Williams of Arizona plays here, because I'm getting a bit of a Danny Manning vibe from him.
Williams, who averaged 19 and 8 this season and was one of the most efficient players in the league with a FG% of .600 (.581 from three), has scored 22 and 17 (with 10 and 9 boards) in the Wildcats' first two wins and had a game-winning play in each, one from each end (blocked shot vs. Memphis, 3-point play vs. Texas). Of note is that Duke played a similar player to Arizona's Williams this year twice in Maryland's Jordan Williams, who went for 20 and 10 and 16 and 16 in the two games. In Duke's late loss to UNC John Henson went 10 and 12. Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen scored 18 and grabbed 15 in their win over the Dukies, and Justin Brownlee was 20 and 9 in St. J's win - nearly double his season averages.
Look, I'm not saying Arizona is going to win, but I am saying this is interesting. You have one of the best players in the country carrying his team right now and running himself into possibly the #1 pick in the NBA Draft, and he just so happens to be the kind of player who Duke struggles to contain - the same Duke team that's flying all the way across the country for what will be a semi-road game. Personally, I'm taking Arizona and the +8.5 points for 3 units, but right now if you threw a little cash at the moneyline on Zona you're getting nearly 4/1 odds. I can see it.
Wisconsin -4.5 vs. Butler: In many ways, Butler is just a slightly worse version of Wisconsin - both teams play very efficient offense, good but not great defense, limit opponents possessions by taking extreme care of the basketball and not allowing offensive rebounds, and play at a slow pace. Hell, they even have the same black guy do everything ball-handler guard and big white guy combination. The real question is: is Wisconsin 4.5 half points better than Butler, or less?
Two things have me thinking that Butler is the play here: Timing, and Ronald Nored. As far as timing goes, Butler has struggled all year, even losing five Horizon games and suddenly looking like they wouldn't get an invite to the tournament. Since a three-game losing streak mid-season they've now won the next 11 in a row including a sweep of the second best team in their league (Cleveland State), a win over a team that had previously swept them (Milwaukee) and wins over two very good teams in ODU and Pitt - clearly they're hot. The other reason is Nored - the Bulldogs best defender. He's not much for scoring (he'd be great as a BYU student) so he can just chase Jordan Taylor around all day and use his energy up that way, leaving Shelvin Mack free to concentrate on offense. On the flip side, Wisconsin doesn't have anybody outside of Taylor who I can see Bo Ryan using to guard Mack, so Taylor's going to be playing double duty. Not that he can't handle it, but it's a small advantage toward the Butler side of this one.
Look, I don't know who is going to win this one and I'm really glad I don't have to pick a winner. I think this game is straight 50/50, but those small advantages detailed above tell me that the best bet here is to go ahead and take Butler +4.5 for two units, because this should come down to the wire. As a little bonus, that OVER/UNDER 124 number looks pretty interesting, and I'm taking the OVER 124 for three units. Both teams play slow but neither is a necessarily great defense. Since both teams take great care of the basketball (and neither defense is particularly adept at taking it away), both teams will get their shots. Since both teams are efficient scoring machines, they should score some points.
So there's Thursday's games. Those should work out pretty well because I've got a lot better feeling for this set than I do for the next nights. I'll do some math, run some numbers, read some things, and see how I come out. Right now I'm thinking Ohio State and three question marks. Stay tuned.
There's no doubt my bracket is god damn awful, and I think I've figured out why other than that I suck - overthinking. It's hard to even rank the stupid things I did in making my picks, starting with believing in a Jamie Dixon Pitt team. Perennial underachievers, taking them to the Final Four would have been stupid, let alone picking them as my national champ. And he's not even the worst coach I backed, because I actually put my money behind Rick Barnes. Rick. Effing. Barnes. So dumb. Hell, after those two believing in a Lorenzo Romar-led Washington Huskies team doesn't even look bad, and that would normally be the biggest mistake one could possibly make in a bracket.
It wasn't just backing obviously poor coaches either, because there were some teams I was behind that should have had more obvious red flags. The most obvious is Notre Dame, and somehow I completely missed it and had them in my final four. Yep, I took a team that is almost 100% reliant on the jump shot to score points and suddenly expected them to be able to beat four straight NCAA Tournament caliber teams. Just stupid. But possibly not as stupid as expecting a team that just lost one of it's best players and leading rebounders to make a surprise run to the elite 8. Why did I back St. John's despite all that? Again, I'm an idiot.
The good news, however, is that although my bracket picks were god awful I did manage to come out ahead by a bit with the gambling gods thanks mainly to a heavy bet on George Mason, a heavy bet on the Zona/UNC over, and a super mega heavy bet on Darius Morris over 4 assists against Duke. So let's all clear our minds, forget my poor picks, and concentrate on picking the sweet 16 from a gambling perspective using what I learned this past weekend. We'll do Thursday's games today and Friday's games tomorrow.
UCONN -1 vs. San Diego State: Right away we hit up one of the biggest subplots of the weekend - don't back a poor game coach. Although I love Steve Fisher and the man has a national championship and a couple other Final Fours, he's the epitome of a "recruit great athletes, roll the ball out and let them play" style coach. That can work, but you run into trouble against teams with similar athletes who are backed by a game coach who can actually influence a game, and that's what you have with the Huskies and Jim Calhoun.
Two big x-factors in this game: home court advantage for the Aztecs and Kemba Walker for the Huskies. The game is going to be played just 2 hours from SDSU's campus so it should be a partisan crowd for them, while if you watched any basketball this year you know Kemba Walker is the kind of player who can carry a team by himself - and not only can he, but he's done it over and over in big spots. I give the x-factor advantage to UCONN, and along with the coach factor that makes this one an easy decision. Take UCONN -1 (3 units).
Florida -3 vs. BYU: This one's a rematch of a thrilling first-round match-up from last year that saw BYU take the Gators down in triple-overtime. Both teams are mainly still intact from last year, particularly Florida who has the same starting five, so if you're looking for some kind of x-factor that could be it.
Personally, I'm a bit more interested in how BYU's has survived without being exposed for a lack of a big man by Brandon Davies suspension for playing a little pickle. Basically neither of their first two opponents has been able to throw an athletic big man at them - the type of player the Cougars need Davies around in order to slow down. Wofford's Noah Dahlman is efficient, but he'll never be described as an incredible athlete, while Robert Sacre from Gonzaga is more of a defensive presence. The real question is if Florida's interior players can make BYU pay for their honor code.
Neither Alex Tyus or Vernon Macklin are offensive juggernauts, although they average 20 pts and 11 rebounds per game between the two of them, but the biggest stat affecting this game is their three-point shooting - specifically their lack of interest in in with just 5 attempts between the two of them all season. This means they're basically just going to camp in the lane - bad news for the Cougars. SDSU's Billy Thomas and Malcolm White are similar players to Tyus and Macklin, and in the first two games with Davies BYU held them to a combined average of 17 points and 12 rebounds - both Cougar wins. In their third game with Davies in street clothes those two went off for 30 and 19 and the Aztecs won. Good enough for me. The pick is Florida -3 for 2 units. BONUS: Take the OVER 149.5 for a unit. Florida is going to score at will in the paint, which means BYU is going to have to score a ton to keep this close, pushing the final up into the 80s range each.
Duke -8.5 vs. Arizona: The coaches are a wash because both are excellent in game, although maybe peg Krzyzewski half a point for pre-gaming, and give Arizona a small advantage for being the quasi-home team in this one with the Dukies traveling across the world to play. What I'm really curious is to see how Derrick Williams of Arizona plays here, because I'm getting a bit of a Danny Manning vibe from him.
Williams, who averaged 19 and 8 this season and was one of the most efficient players in the league with a FG% of .600 (.581 from three), has scored 22 and 17 (with 10 and 9 boards) in the Wildcats' first two wins and had a game-winning play in each, one from each end (blocked shot vs. Memphis, 3-point play vs. Texas). Of note is that Duke played a similar player to Arizona's Williams this year twice in Maryland's Jordan Williams, who went for 20 and 10 and 16 and 16 in the two games. In Duke's late loss to UNC John Henson went 10 and 12. Virginia Tech's Jeff Allen scored 18 and grabbed 15 in their win over the Dukies, and Justin Brownlee was 20 and 9 in St. J's win - nearly double his season averages.
Look, I'm not saying Arizona is going to win, but I am saying this is interesting. You have one of the best players in the country carrying his team right now and running himself into possibly the #1 pick in the NBA Draft, and he just so happens to be the kind of player who Duke struggles to contain - the same Duke team that's flying all the way across the country for what will be a semi-road game. Personally, I'm taking Arizona and the +8.5 points for 3 units, but right now if you threw a little cash at the moneyline on Zona you're getting nearly 4/1 odds. I can see it.
Wisconsin -4.5 vs. Butler: In many ways, Butler is just a slightly worse version of Wisconsin - both teams play very efficient offense, good but not great defense, limit opponents possessions by taking extreme care of the basketball and not allowing offensive rebounds, and play at a slow pace. Hell, they even have the same black guy do everything ball-handler guard and big white guy combination. The real question is: is Wisconsin 4.5 half points better than Butler, or less?
Two things have me thinking that Butler is the play here: Timing, and Ronald Nored. As far as timing goes, Butler has struggled all year, even losing five Horizon games and suddenly looking like they wouldn't get an invite to the tournament. Since a three-game losing streak mid-season they've now won the next 11 in a row including a sweep of the second best team in their league (Cleveland State), a win over a team that had previously swept them (Milwaukee) and wins over two very good teams in ODU and Pitt - clearly they're hot. The other reason is Nored - the Bulldogs best defender. He's not much for scoring (he'd be great as a BYU student) so he can just chase Jordan Taylor around all day and use his energy up that way, leaving Shelvin Mack free to concentrate on offense. On the flip side, Wisconsin doesn't have anybody outside of Taylor who I can see Bo Ryan using to guard Mack, so Taylor's going to be playing double duty. Not that he can't handle it, but it's a small advantage toward the Butler side of this one.
Look, I don't know who is going to win this one and I'm really glad I don't have to pick a winner. I think this game is straight 50/50, but those small advantages detailed above tell me that the best bet here is to go ahead and take Butler +4.5 for two units, because this should come down to the wire. As a little bonus, that OVER/UNDER 124 number looks pretty interesting, and I'm taking the OVER 124 for three units. Both teams play slow but neither is a necessarily great defense. Since both teams take great care of the basketball (and neither defense is particularly adept at taking it away), both teams will get their shots. Since both teams are efficient scoring machines, they should score some points.
So there's Thursday's games. Those should work out pretty well because I've got a lot better feeling for this set than I do for the next nights. I'll do some math, run some numbers, read some things, and see how I come out. Right now I'm thinking Ohio State and three question marks. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Welcome to March
Well the Gophers might be dead, but that doesn't mean we don't still have a fun March ahead of us - although slightly less fun, I'll admit. The smaller conferences get their tournaments up and running starting today, and as in year's past I feel compelled to write a preview of each and every one of them as they get going. Does anybody read these? Doubtful, at best, yet I feel I must. It's some kind of powerful drug, I guess.
These tournaments kick-off today:
BIG SOUTH: This is an interesting conference, because they have one juggernaut in Coastal Carolina, and then a bunch of meh. The Chanticleers (seriously) are 26-4 and 16-2 in the conference. They won't get an at-large since they haven't played anybody, but if they manage to win this thing they'll be a 13 or 14 and have a shot at an upset. If they lose, whoever goes in is going to have a good shot at playing on Tuesday and, if they win, getting destroyed in round 1.
FAVORITE: Coastal Carolina.
SLEEPER: VMI. Usually these guys are kind of a novelty because they play either the #1 or #2 fastest tempo every year, but play recklessly and inefficiently and don't play any defense, finishing around the bottom half of the Big South each year. This year, however, they're more efficient (70th in the country) and finished fourth at 10-8, although they still don't play any defense.
W's PICK: Coastal Carolina. Even though they've lost 2 of their last 4 after winning their first 12 conference games they're still just so much better than every other Big South team. It's not going to just be a bummer if they lose, it's going to be a shame.
HORIZON: A bit of a change in the Horizon this year, because, for the first time in a long time, Butler probably has to win this thing to get a bid, or at the very least make it to the final. In the four years since they've become what they became they've only won the Horizon Tournament twice but it didn't really matter. Now it matters.
FAVORITE: Milwaukee. There was a three-way tie for first between Milwaukee, Butler, and Cleveland State, and although the other two teams are sexier, Milwaukee was actually 3-1 against the others in head-to-head and I'll assume will have the #1 seed.
SLEEPER: Detroit. It's tough to see anybody but one of the three top teams coming out of here, but if anybody can do it based on talent it's the Titans. Freshman guard Ray McCallum was a highly sought recruit who stayed home to play for dad, and post man Eli Holman is an Indiana transfer - they're two of the most talented players in the league, and could lead this team on a run.
W's PICK: Butler. Maybe I'm just a sheep but the idea of a tournament without Butler seems criminal. There's nothing better than watching Matt Howard get into foul trouble every time he goes up against an athletic post player.
BUBBLE WATCH
Yes, I realize quite well that doing a Bubble Watch loses a little bit of panache by the Gophers being absent, but I still want to do it. I could also cover an NIT bubble watch, but when the Gophers fall off of that I'd be forced to kill myself or you. I wonder what watching the Gophers in a CBI game will be like. Just kidding. I wouldn't watch.
Last night there was only one bubble relevant game, but it was a doozy as K-State went into Austin and beat the Longhorns, basically completing their redemption arc going from biggest disappointment of the year to NCAA lock. Well maybe not lock, but damn close to it. Huge win. Nice to see a team rise up once in a while. No idea what that's like, personally.
Tonight's Bubble Games:
Ohio State @ Penn State - Maybe the biggest game of Talor Battle's career, and his last chance to salvage an NCAA berth out of an amazing career. The Nittany Lions aren't even on the bubble right now, but a win over the Buckeyes would put them back in the conversation.
Illinois @ Purdue - The Illini have been a pretty big train wreck lately, but have a chance here for a huge win to boost their chances on selection sunday.
Alabama @ Florida - The Tide are 11-3 in conference play which would normally be enough to feel comfy at this point in the year, but a weak SEC combined with some terrible non-conference losses (Iowa, St. Peter's, Providence) and only one real good win (Kentucky) have them on shaky ground. If they can split their last two (Georgia at home on Saturday) I think it would be hard to keep them out at 12-4 in the SEC.
Baylor @ Oklahoma State - The Bears have zero room to lose to non-elite teams, so no matter how hard it is to beat a decent team in Stillwater this one is a must have.
Boston College @ Virginia Tech - The Hokies put themselves in good shape by beating Duke over the weekend, but still can't afford to lose home games to teams they should be able to handle. BC on the other hand is basically fighting for survival here.
These tournaments kick-off today:
BIG SOUTH: This is an interesting conference, because they have one juggernaut in Coastal Carolina, and then a bunch of meh. The Chanticleers (seriously) are 26-4 and 16-2 in the conference. They won't get an at-large since they haven't played anybody, but if they manage to win this thing they'll be a 13 or 14 and have a shot at an upset. If they lose, whoever goes in is going to have a good shot at playing on Tuesday and, if they win, getting destroyed in round 1.
FAVORITE: Coastal Carolina.
SLEEPER: VMI. Usually these guys are kind of a novelty because they play either the #1 or #2 fastest tempo every year, but play recklessly and inefficiently and don't play any defense, finishing around the bottom half of the Big South each year. This year, however, they're more efficient (70th in the country) and finished fourth at 10-8, although they still don't play any defense.
W's PICK: Coastal Carolina. Even though they've lost 2 of their last 4 after winning their first 12 conference games they're still just so much better than every other Big South team. It's not going to just be a bummer if they lose, it's going to be a shame.
HORIZON: A bit of a change in the Horizon this year, because, for the first time in a long time, Butler probably has to win this thing to get a bid, or at the very least make it to the final. In the four years since they've become what they became they've only won the Horizon Tournament twice but it didn't really matter. Now it matters.
FAVORITE: Milwaukee. There was a three-way tie for first between Milwaukee, Butler, and Cleveland State, and although the other two teams are sexier, Milwaukee was actually 3-1 against the others in head-to-head and I'll assume will have the #1 seed.
SLEEPER: Detroit. It's tough to see anybody but one of the three top teams coming out of here, but if anybody can do it based on talent it's the Titans. Freshman guard Ray McCallum was a highly sought recruit who stayed home to play for dad, and post man Eli Holman is an Indiana transfer - they're two of the most talented players in the league, and could lead this team on a run.
W's PICK: Butler. Maybe I'm just a sheep but the idea of a tournament without Butler seems criminal. There's nothing better than watching Matt Howard get into foul trouble every time he goes up against an athletic post player.
BUBBLE WATCH
Yes, I realize quite well that doing a Bubble Watch loses a little bit of panache by the Gophers being absent, but I still want to do it. I could also cover an NIT bubble watch, but when the Gophers fall off of that I'd be forced to kill myself or you. I wonder what watching the Gophers in a CBI game will be like. Just kidding. I wouldn't watch.
Last night there was only one bubble relevant game, but it was a doozy as K-State went into Austin and beat the Longhorns, basically completing their redemption arc going from biggest disappointment of the year to NCAA lock. Well maybe not lock, but damn close to it. Huge win. Nice to see a team rise up once in a while. No idea what that's like, personally.
Tonight's Bubble Games:
Ohio State @ Penn State - Maybe the biggest game of Talor Battle's career, and his last chance to salvage an NCAA berth out of an amazing career. The Nittany Lions aren't even on the bubble right now, but a win over the Buckeyes would put them back in the conversation.
Illinois @ Purdue - The Illini have been a pretty big train wreck lately, but have a chance here for a huge win to boost their chances on selection sunday.
Alabama @ Florida - The Tide are 11-3 in conference play which would normally be enough to feel comfy at this point in the year, but a weak SEC combined with some terrible non-conference losses (Iowa, St. Peter's, Providence) and only one real good win (Kentucky) have them on shaky ground. If they can split their last two (Georgia at home on Saturday) I think it would be hard to keep them out at 12-4 in the SEC.
Baylor @ Oklahoma State - The Bears have zero room to lose to non-elite teams, so no matter how hard it is to beat a decent team in Stillwater this one is a must have.
Boston College @ Virginia Tech - The Hokies put themselves in good shape by beating Duke over the weekend, but still can't afford to lose home games to teams they should be able to handle. BC on the other hand is basically fighting for survival here.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Week in Review 1.31.2011
Can somebody please explain to me what is going in college basketball this year? Michigan State, a final four team last year that lost nothing more than Raymar Morgan and replaced him with more talent, is in danger of missing the NCAA Tournament and lost to Michigan for the first time in 23 years, and at home. Which was Michigan's first road win all year. Syracuse, who started the season at 18-0, has now lost four straight, which included losses to two other top 10 teams in Pitt and Villanova. Teams who both lost this week - Villanova twice. Duke, who looked nearly unstoppable most of the year, lost to St. Johns, the same team that lost to both St. Bonaventure and Fordham. BYU gave San Diego State it's first loss on the year, and then turned around and got beat by New Mexico, Texas A&M lost to lowly Nebraska, and UCONN completely blew a home game they had in hand against Louisville. Two of the top five, 3 of the top 10, and 5 of the top 15 teams in the preseason poll aren't even ranked right now. It's insane. I know it's great for a fun season and an even better NCAA Tournament, but it's been hell on my bank account so let's just knock this crap off.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. St. Johns Red Storm. If ever a team could have used a win like this it's St. Johns, and beating Duke by 15 is an awfully nice chip to have in your pocket when March rolls around. They're in good shape RPI-wise thanks to a very tough strength of schedule, and a 4-5 Big East is probably ok, but this game gives them a huge marquee win and stops a three-game skid, not to mention the shot of confidence they probably get considering they just completely blew the doors off the Blue Devils. The schedule gets easier going forward here, so you can expect to see the Red Storm with a bid for the NCAA Tournament. Which is what I called, way back in October. Seriously, sometimes it's hard being so smart.
2. Penn State Nittany Lions. You gotta admit, they're doing what they can. It's an uphill climb considering they're just 12-8 and missed every chance to get a quality non-conference win, but they're now 5-4 in a good Big Ten, the RPI is moving up (now #45), the strength of schedule is good (#6), the win over Duquesne is looking better and better, and, even if Michigan State is free-falling, the wins over Illinois and Wisconsin will hold up nicely. Talor Battle is getting help from PSU's trio of senior forwards - David Jackson, Andrew Jones, and especially Jeff Brooks - and that makes this team very dangerous. Their home court advantage has been quite strong this year, if they can steal a game or two on the road they'll be in the big dance.
3. Duquesne Dukes. At the beginning of the year, the Atlantic 10 was supposed to be very strong at the top with Xavier, Temple, Dayton, and Richmond, and the rest of the schools kind of blah. Three of the four have been good, but Dayton has sucked (which they deserve) and Duquesne has not only snuck into their spot, but might be the best team in the conference. They beat Temple earlier this year, and after shellacking Dayton on Saturday are now 7-0 in conference play and tied with Xavier at the top. The schedule is favorable, with Xavier still to come at home and both Dayton and Richmond on the road, but everything else is against pretty bad squads. I don't know if they can get an at-large - the RPI sits at #89 despite the gaudy record, but it would be a shame if they fall short because this is a really fun team to watch. Or at least it was fun watching them destroy the most hated team in the country. I'm referring to Dayton and it's dirty hippie fans.
4. Darius Morris. I said he's the best point guard in the country and he really helps bolster my argument when he does things like he did against Iowa on Sunday: 12 pts, 11 assists, 10 rebounds for just the third triple-double in Michigan history (Manny Harris, Gary Grant). Considering Kalin Lucas and Talor Battle are not point guards, and I have no idea what McCamey is but he sure as hell isn't a PG (more later), that leaves Morris up against Jordan Taylor, Michael Thompson, Al Nolen, Bryce Cartwright, Aaron Craft, Lewis Jackson, and Jordan Hulls. Not a bad group, and Craft might end up the best of the bunch eventually, but I'd take Morris for sure over every other one of those guys except maybe Jordan Taylor. That one would be close, but if you need a pure distributor Morris is your man. If you need more scoring go with Taylor. Or roofies.
5. Georgetown Hoyas. I'm not sure if there's a tougher team to figure out than the Hoyas. They're clearly good, but are they GOOD or just good? They have three awesome guards and a suspect interior, so are they are March sleeper because of their guard play or a March quick out because of a weak interior? I don't know either, but they are looking like they might be hitting their stride, so if you want to jump on the wagon I'd do it now. Their win over St. Johns was expected, but doing it by 25 was not, and then going to Villanova and knocking off the #7 Wildcats wasn't. Austin Freeman is a stone cold pimp (scored 10 of G-Town's last 12 against Nova, and assisted on the other 2), Jason Clark is a dead-eye from deep, and Chris Wright just makes it all happen. If they get anything from their post guys they're a final four team. Although they could also go out in the first round. Just like every other god damn team in this crazy stupid year.
WHO SUCKED
1. Syracuse Orange. First their defense was exploited on the road at Pitt, then Villanova shot the lights out to beat them in Syracuse, then they were shredded by Seton Hall - in Syracuse - and followed that up by dropping yet another game to Marquette. So that makes four straight losses piggybacking their 18-0 start. Three of the four losses are explainable, even if the home loss to Nova is unfortunate, but that loss at home to Seton Hall is troubling and rather inexplicable - especially since they lost by 22. The Hall had only two prior conference wins, over bottom feeders DePaul and South Florida, but they roll into the Carrier Dome and run the Orange out of it. Here's what I think happened - Pitt exploited the zone and showed how athletic guards with some size could dribble-penetrate into the gaps and either score or find open teammates and everybody else has copied them. Each team they've lost to on this skid has guards who can do just that. They're done. Cooked. Over.
2. Michigan State Spartans. Well you knew this was coming, and these guys are just a mess. A home loss to Michigan and an comeback overtime one-point win against Indiana, also at home, say that this isn't a team that's starting slowly and will peak in March. No, this is more like a team that sucks and will be lucky to sniff the NCAA tournament, let alone peak during it. Suddenly, despite being nearly the same team that made the Final Four last year, they're turning the ball over like crazy and playing nearly zero defense - not a great combination. Their strength of schedule is good, which will keep them in the postseason picture if they can turn it around or at least play like an average team, but it's looking less and less likely that it's even a possibility. If Wisconsin doesn't implode late in the game in East Lansing, Jeremiah Rivers doesn't miss free throws down the stretch, and Northwestern doesn't blow a lead with 30 seconds to play, the Spartans are 2-7 and in 10th place. I know that's a lot of IFs, but it just underscores how awful they've been. And I really don't have a clue why.
3. Demetri McCamey. I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again: Demetri McCamey is not a point guard and Illinois will not win their first round NCAA game with him running the show. He proved me right yet again in the Illini's awful loss @ Indiana this week - Indiana's first win over a ranked team in their last 20 tries. McCamey's line: 6 points on 2-11 shooting (2-7 from three, nice job getting in the lane, guy), with 3 assists and 5 turnovers. Even worse, down the stretch Illinois had Brandon Paul running the point, who isn't a point guard either. Trust me you guys, I know the numbers look like something a good PG would put up (15 pts and 7 assists per game), but just watch him. Or watch Illinois in any late game situation, several of which they've screwed up already this year. He's awful. Please, I beg you, pick against them in round 1 of the tournament. It's a lock.
4. Butler Bulldogs. I'm actually really sick of writing about Butler, but they keep showing up here because they are a huge disappointment and they suck. This week they did an absolute awesome job of making sure they don't get an at-large bid, losing to both Milwaukee (at home) and Valparaiso (on the road), dropping their Horizon record to 6-4, overall record to 14-8, and chances of getting an at-large to about 1.4%. Of course, I'm sure they'll win their conference tournament and sneak in, and everybody will think they are a trendy upset pick, but you'll know they suck and pick against them. I swear to god if there's a first round Butler/Illinois matchup I'm going to the light something on fire.
5. The Coreys. No, not Haim and Feldman. Those guys rocked in everything, even Dream a Little Dream and that Lost Boys movie with that hot chick from the final season of the O.C. (pictured). I mean the stupid fake Coreys from Villanova, who are less irritating than Scottie Reynolds but still make me want to punch my own nuts with a pepper grinder. Villanova had a rough week, losing to Providence on the road and then at home to Georgetown, dropping them to 5-3 in the Big East, and fake Corey Haim and fake Corey Feldman didn't help. Corey Fisher (Feldman) shot 7-20 in the two games, while Corey Stokes (Haim), whose only identifiable skill is scoring (shooting heroin) went 4-23 (Four. For. Twenty. Three) and registered four turnovers against just one assist. Those two aren't the only reason they went 0-2 this week, because the whole team sucked outside of Maalik Wayns (who we'll call Nicole Eggert), but the Corey's are what make this team go. Just like grandpa's cadillac. Probably end up about the same, too.
Oh, and I missed the second half of the Gopher game because I was at a kids' birthday party, so my thoughts on that are: did you really expect them to win @ Purdue? Just worry about the games they could/should win. Let's just win in Bloomington here, mmmmkay? This one is terrifying.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. St. Johns Red Storm. If ever a team could have used a win like this it's St. Johns, and beating Duke by 15 is an awfully nice chip to have in your pocket when March rolls around. They're in good shape RPI-wise thanks to a very tough strength of schedule, and a 4-5 Big East is probably ok, but this game gives them a huge marquee win and stops a three-game skid, not to mention the shot of confidence they probably get considering they just completely blew the doors off the Blue Devils. The schedule gets easier going forward here, so you can expect to see the Red Storm with a bid for the NCAA Tournament. Which is what I called, way back in October. Seriously, sometimes it's hard being so smart.
2. Penn State Nittany Lions. You gotta admit, they're doing what they can. It's an uphill climb considering they're just 12-8 and missed every chance to get a quality non-conference win, but they're now 5-4 in a good Big Ten, the RPI is moving up (now #45), the strength of schedule is good (#6), the win over Duquesne is looking better and better, and, even if Michigan State is free-falling, the wins over Illinois and Wisconsin will hold up nicely. Talor Battle is getting help from PSU's trio of senior forwards - David Jackson, Andrew Jones, and especially Jeff Brooks - and that makes this team very dangerous. Their home court advantage has been quite strong this year, if they can steal a game or two on the road they'll be in the big dance.
3. Duquesne Dukes. At the beginning of the year, the Atlantic 10 was supposed to be very strong at the top with Xavier, Temple, Dayton, and Richmond, and the rest of the schools kind of blah. Three of the four have been good, but Dayton has sucked (which they deserve) and Duquesne has not only snuck into their spot, but might be the best team in the conference. They beat Temple earlier this year, and after shellacking Dayton on Saturday are now 7-0 in conference play and tied with Xavier at the top. The schedule is favorable, with Xavier still to come at home and both Dayton and Richmond on the road, but everything else is against pretty bad squads. I don't know if they can get an at-large - the RPI sits at #89 despite the gaudy record, but it would be a shame if they fall short because this is a really fun team to watch. Or at least it was fun watching them destroy the most hated team in the country. I'm referring to Dayton and it's dirty hippie fans.
4. Darius Morris. I said he's the best point guard in the country and he really helps bolster my argument when he does things like he did against Iowa on Sunday: 12 pts, 11 assists, 10 rebounds for just the third triple-double in Michigan history (Manny Harris, Gary Grant). Considering Kalin Lucas and Talor Battle are not point guards, and I have no idea what McCamey is but he sure as hell isn't a PG (more later), that leaves Morris up against Jordan Taylor, Michael Thompson, Al Nolen, Bryce Cartwright, Aaron Craft, Lewis Jackson, and Jordan Hulls. Not a bad group, and Craft might end up the best of the bunch eventually, but I'd take Morris for sure over every other one of those guys except maybe Jordan Taylor. That one would be close, but if you need a pure distributor Morris is your man. If you need more scoring go with Taylor. Or roofies.
5. Georgetown Hoyas. I'm not sure if there's a tougher team to figure out than the Hoyas. They're clearly good, but are they GOOD or just good? They have three awesome guards and a suspect interior, so are they are March sleeper because of their guard play or a March quick out because of a weak interior? I don't know either, but they are looking like they might be hitting their stride, so if you want to jump on the wagon I'd do it now. Their win over St. Johns was expected, but doing it by 25 was not, and then going to Villanova and knocking off the #7 Wildcats wasn't. Austin Freeman is a stone cold pimp (scored 10 of G-Town's last 12 against Nova, and assisted on the other 2), Jason Clark is a dead-eye from deep, and Chris Wright just makes it all happen. If they get anything from their post guys they're a final four team. Although they could also go out in the first round. Just like every other god damn team in this crazy stupid year.
WHO SUCKED
1. Syracuse Orange. First their defense was exploited on the road at Pitt, then Villanova shot the lights out to beat them in Syracuse, then they were shredded by Seton Hall - in Syracuse - and followed that up by dropping yet another game to Marquette. So that makes four straight losses piggybacking their 18-0 start. Three of the four losses are explainable, even if the home loss to Nova is unfortunate, but that loss at home to Seton Hall is troubling and rather inexplicable - especially since they lost by 22. The Hall had only two prior conference wins, over bottom feeders DePaul and South Florida, but they roll into the Carrier Dome and run the Orange out of it. Here's what I think happened - Pitt exploited the zone and showed how athletic guards with some size could dribble-penetrate into the gaps and either score or find open teammates and everybody else has copied them. Each team they've lost to on this skid has guards who can do just that. They're done. Cooked. Over.
2. Michigan State Spartans. Well you knew this was coming, and these guys are just a mess. A home loss to Michigan and an comeback overtime one-point win against Indiana, also at home, say that this isn't a team that's starting slowly and will peak in March. No, this is more like a team that sucks and will be lucky to sniff the NCAA tournament, let alone peak during it. Suddenly, despite being nearly the same team that made the Final Four last year, they're turning the ball over like crazy and playing nearly zero defense - not a great combination. Their strength of schedule is good, which will keep them in the postseason picture if they can turn it around or at least play like an average team, but it's looking less and less likely that it's even a possibility. If Wisconsin doesn't implode late in the game in East Lansing, Jeremiah Rivers doesn't miss free throws down the stretch, and Northwestern doesn't blow a lead with 30 seconds to play, the Spartans are 2-7 and in 10th place. I know that's a lot of IFs, but it just underscores how awful they've been. And I really don't have a clue why.
3. Demetri McCamey. I've said it a million times, but I'll say it again: Demetri McCamey is not a point guard and Illinois will not win their first round NCAA game with him running the show. He proved me right yet again in the Illini's awful loss @ Indiana this week - Indiana's first win over a ranked team in their last 20 tries. McCamey's line: 6 points on 2-11 shooting (2-7 from three, nice job getting in the lane, guy), with 3 assists and 5 turnovers. Even worse, down the stretch Illinois had Brandon Paul running the point, who isn't a point guard either. Trust me you guys, I know the numbers look like something a good PG would put up (15 pts and 7 assists per game), but just watch him. Or watch Illinois in any late game situation, several of which they've screwed up already this year. He's awful. Please, I beg you, pick against them in round 1 of the tournament. It's a lock.
4. Butler Bulldogs. I'm actually really sick of writing about Butler, but they keep showing up here because they are a huge disappointment and they suck. This week they did an absolute awesome job of making sure they don't get an at-large bid, losing to both Milwaukee (at home) and Valparaiso (on the road), dropping their Horizon record to 6-4, overall record to 14-8, and chances of getting an at-large to about 1.4%. Of course, I'm sure they'll win their conference tournament and sneak in, and everybody will think they are a trendy upset pick, but you'll know they suck and pick against them. I swear to god if there's a first round Butler/Illinois matchup I'm going to the light something on fire.
5. The Coreys. No, not Haim and Feldman. Those guys rocked in everything, even Dream a Little Dream and that Lost Boys movie with that hot chick from the final season of the O.C. (pictured). I mean the stupid fake Coreys from Villanova, who are less irritating than Scottie Reynolds but still make me want to punch my own nuts with a pepper grinder. Villanova had a rough week, losing to Providence on the road and then at home to Georgetown, dropping them to 5-3 in the Big East, and fake Corey Haim and fake Corey Feldman didn't help. Corey Fisher (Feldman) shot 7-20 in the two games, while Corey Stokes (Haim), whose only identifiable skill is scoring (shooting heroin) went 4-23 (Four. For. Twenty. Three) and registered four turnovers against just one assist. Those two aren't the only reason they went 0-2 this week, because the whole team sucked outside of Maalik Wayns (who we'll call Nicole Eggert), but the Corey's are what make this team go. Just like grandpa's cadillac. Probably end up about the same, too.
Oh, and I missed the second half of the Gopher game because I was at a kids' birthday party, so my thoughts on that are: did you really expect them to win @ Purdue? Just worry about the games they could/should win. Let's just win in Bloomington here, mmmmkay? This one is terrifying.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Week in Review - 01.10.11
A loss by just three, on the road against one of the best team's in the country, is definitely nothing to be ashamed of. If you look at the Gophers three Big Ten losses, all three to road teams and all three competitive games, you really don't have anything to worry about because they should be fine. I'm still a bit nervous because I don't think they've looked good and they should/could be playing better, but I can see why people could be optimistic. I don't really think we can evaluate this team until after Thursday's game, when they play Purdue at home. It will be their first time playing a Big Ten contender at home, and if they win we can all smile and say everything is going to be alright.
Of course, what is not alright is the play Tubby drew up at the end of that game against the Buckeyes. Gophers down three with 15 seconds to play and the ball, and a huge opportunity. So they run a play that consists of a single screen for Hoffarber, who, don't forget, is the only person on the team who can shoot and who everybody, including one of the best defensive teams in the country, knows is going to be the the guy they're going to run the play for. When Ohio State jumped the screen and Hoff wasn't open, nobody knew what to do because nobody was doing anything else. There was no other option on the play. It was a silly, ridiculous, and stupid play with no options other than the obvious, and no back-up plan after the Buckeyes predictably focused all their efforts on stopping Blake. Is everybody still sure that losing Devoe (heading to Oregon, BTW) isn't such a big deal?
Good final result, terrible final play. Moving on.....
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Cincinnati Bearcats. Every year, the Cincinnati vs. Xavier game is one of the most hotly contested games of the year. The "Crosstown Shootout" isn't as well known as some other rivalries, but that doesn't make it any less intense (including a double-OT thriller with multiple technicals and benches clearing last year). And lately, it's been dominated by Xavier, who had won the last three. Not this year, because the suddenly relevant Bearcats have done the old "addition by subtraction" routine, and are now 15-1 on the season after blowing out X by 20 (and losing to Nova on Sunday), despite the loss of super star Lance Stephenson to the NBA after last season. I guess he can't really have been that much of a star, if you really think about it.
2. Jeff Brooks. I've talked on here before about how Penn State missed every chance to get a signature - or even quality - win in their non-conference schedule and how that made their margin of error razor thin if they wanted to get Talor Battle into an NCAA Tournament before he graduated. An early road loss to Michigan made it look like they could forget it, but they picked up a very big win over the weekend against Michigan State that means they are still alive, and it's mainly thanks to Brooks, who had 17 points and 12 boards against Sparty, following up another double-double earlier in the week against Purdue. Brooks first three seasons at PSU were pretty nondescript, but he's taken this break-out senior thing to another level, averaging 14 points and 8 rebounds per game on the year and giving Battle a legitimate threat to take some pressure off of him. I mean, there's still pretty much no way they're going to make the NCAA Tournament, but at least they're trying.
3. Colorado Buffaloes. Colorado had been pegged as a bit of a sleeper coming into the year due to their two NBA-type players, Alec Burks and Cory Higgins, but they struggled a bit out of the gate with early losses to Georgia, San Francisco, and Harvard and it was starting to look like those two weren't going to be able to do enough to push Colorado to a bid. This weekend, however, they picked up a huge win, beating #8 Missouri 89-76 behind a combined 54 points and 18 rebounds from their two stars (who are both guards, by the way). The Big 12 should be good enough this year where if Colorado can beat everybody but Kansas at home - and Missouri was the next biggest obstacle - and beat the bad teams on the road they should be able to grab the program's first NCAA bid since Chauncey Billups was running around Boulder.
4. Georgia Bulldogs. Similar to Colorado, Georgia was another borderline tournament sleeper type team. And similarly to the Buffaloes, the Bulldogs didn't really get off to a great start. They didn't have any bad losses, but they took part in the Old Spice Classic and walked away with nothing more than a win over Manhattan after losing in OT to Notre Dame and getting dropped by Temple. Since then they've won nine straight, but there were no real good wins, and a few struggles against bad teams (1 pt win over Georgia Tech, 3 pt win over Mercer, 7 pt win over Eastern Kentucky) and were generally unimpressive. Well, they finally picked up their signature win on Saturday, knocking off the 11th ranked (though overrated) Kentucky Wildcats. And I'm going to tell you something: if you get a chance to watch Georgia, take it. Their small forward, Travis Leslie, is the kind of guy whose athleticism rivals and may surpass Rodney Williams. Plus he averages 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, and probably never gets pulled in crunch-time on the road against a nationally ranked team for a freshman.
5. Missouri State Bears. The Bears (coached by Cuonzo Martin, FYI) won a huge statement game last night, beating Wichita State in Wichita to move to 5-0 in the conference, now a game ahead of the Shockers and the Creighton Blue Jays - another team they've already beat on the road. In fact, the Bears also won at Northern Iowa, which means they've already traveled to, and beaten, three of the top 5-6 teams in the conference, so they are definitely in the driver's seat to win the Missouri Valley. Of course, it's starting to look more and more like the MVC is going to be a one-bid conference this year, so none of this really matters at all and the only thing that matters is who gets hot in March. Kind of anti-climactic and waste of time-y, if you ask me.
WHO SUCKED
1. Florida State Seminoles. Here is a list of team's Auburn has lost to this year: UNC-Asheville, Samford, Campbell, Jacksonville, Rutgers, South Florida, and Presbyterian. Only the South Florida game was on the road, which is why it is so shocking that Florida State, an NCAA Tournament caliber team, went to Auburn and lost to the Tigers this week, and then followed that up with an understandable but unfortunate loss at Virginia Tech. And all this coming on the heels of a fabulous upset win over Baylor. I think it's fairly safe to say nobody really knows what is going on with this team, other than that they play great defense and are putrid offensively. A real recipe for success.
2. Georgetown Hoyas. Losing to West Virginia isn't exactly the most embarrassing thing in the world, even if it is at home, but I'm putting the Hoyas here this week because doesn't it seem like they do this every single year? They start out hot and get themselves ranked inside or near the top 10, drop a bunch of games they should win in conference play but win enough to keep a relatively high ranking, and then get housed in the NCAA tournament. It really feels like they do this all the time to me, so I never really buy into the Hoyas. I will say that this year, rather than relying on a big, plodding center they have three very, very good guards, which is a much better recipe for success, but I think I've put G-Town in the same category as Kansas and Duke - other than an exception once in a while, they nearly always fail to perform to expectations in March.
3. David Akers. Excellent work, Akers. Way to have the worst game of your career in a the playoffs, in a game where your two missed kicks (from 41 and 34, distances that are almost automatic for him) absolutely made a massive difference in this game. It's very likely the Eagles win this game if he makes those two kicks. Instead we have to put up with the stupid Packers for another week, at least. Thanks Akers. You may now consider yourself an enemy of this blog. Make your time.
4. Butler Bulldogs. There are certain things that just can't happen when you're a mid-major trying to get a bid. One of the biggest is that you can't lose by over 20 to a conference foe who is not a contender for the league crown. So guess what Butler did? Yep, they got their clocks cleaned by Milwaukee, a team sitting at 8-9 overall with several ugly losses. So let's look at Butler. Right now the are 12-5, with an RPI of 23 and Strength of Schedule of 16. Wins over Florida State and Washington State are good, while the loss to Milwaukee and an earlier loss to Evansville are bad. Knowing that the SoS and RPI will go down as conference play continues, and knowing that Butler really doesn't have another chance at a big-time win (I don't think they're in bracket busters this year), they are very, very close to having to win out to grab at at-large. I wouldn't say they're quite there yet, but they'd do well to avoid more than 1 or 2 more losses.
5. Kansas City Chiefs. I don't even know who to blame here the most. Dwayne Bowe for not being a part of the offense (zero catches)? Matt Cassell for not even throwing to him (zero targets) and throwing three picks? Or Todd Haley for being unable to design a game plan which would find ways to get Bowe the ball, and, at the same time, when the passing game wasn't working he still managed to only give the ball to Jamaal Charles nine times. And don't forget the defense for surrendering 30 points to team known more for defense than offense. In any case, just a complete implosion by a team playing their first playoff game in like 80 years. Well done.
Honorable mention for awesomeness goes to the Seattle Seahawks. After getting down early it would have been easy to roll-over and die, but they fought back and ended up kicking the crap out of New Orleans. Although in retrospect we should have seen this coming - home team, massive underdog, not only did they get no respect, they got no respect in a "we need to change the rules because this team is too shitty to be in the playoffs" kind of no respect, and that's the worst kind. Very good win, and this run here by Marshawn Lynch is like whoa:
Of course, what is not alright is the play Tubby drew up at the end of that game against the Buckeyes. Gophers down three with 15 seconds to play and the ball, and a huge opportunity. So they run a play that consists of a single screen for Hoffarber, who, don't forget, is the only person on the team who can shoot and who everybody, including one of the best defensive teams in the country, knows is going to be the the guy they're going to run the play for. When Ohio State jumped the screen and Hoff wasn't open, nobody knew what to do because nobody was doing anything else. There was no other option on the play. It was a silly, ridiculous, and stupid play with no options other than the obvious, and no back-up plan after the Buckeyes predictably focused all their efforts on stopping Blake. Is everybody still sure that losing Devoe (heading to Oregon, BTW) isn't such a big deal?
Good final result, terrible final play. Moving on.....
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Cincinnati Bearcats. Every year, the Cincinnati vs. Xavier game is one of the most hotly contested games of the year. The "Crosstown Shootout" isn't as well known as some other rivalries, but that doesn't make it any less intense (including a double-OT thriller with multiple technicals and benches clearing last year). And lately, it's been dominated by Xavier, who had won the last three. Not this year, because the suddenly relevant Bearcats have done the old "addition by subtraction" routine, and are now 15-1 on the season after blowing out X by 20 (and losing to Nova on Sunday), despite the loss of super star Lance Stephenson to the NBA after last season. I guess he can't really have been that much of a star, if you really think about it.
2. Jeff Brooks. I've talked on here before about how Penn State missed every chance to get a signature - or even quality - win in their non-conference schedule and how that made their margin of error razor thin if they wanted to get Talor Battle into an NCAA Tournament before he graduated. An early road loss to Michigan made it look like they could forget it, but they picked up a very big win over the weekend against Michigan State that means they are still alive, and it's mainly thanks to Brooks, who had 17 points and 12 boards against Sparty, following up another double-double earlier in the week against Purdue. Brooks first three seasons at PSU were pretty nondescript, but he's taken this break-out senior thing to another level, averaging 14 points and 8 rebounds per game on the year and giving Battle a legitimate threat to take some pressure off of him. I mean, there's still pretty much no way they're going to make the NCAA Tournament, but at least they're trying.
3. Colorado Buffaloes. Colorado had been pegged as a bit of a sleeper coming into the year due to their two NBA-type players, Alec Burks and Cory Higgins, but they struggled a bit out of the gate with early losses to Georgia, San Francisco, and Harvard and it was starting to look like those two weren't going to be able to do enough to push Colorado to a bid. This weekend, however, they picked up a huge win, beating #8 Missouri 89-76 behind a combined 54 points and 18 rebounds from their two stars (who are both guards, by the way). The Big 12 should be good enough this year where if Colorado can beat everybody but Kansas at home - and Missouri was the next biggest obstacle - and beat the bad teams on the road they should be able to grab the program's first NCAA bid since Chauncey Billups was running around Boulder.
4. Georgia Bulldogs. Similar to Colorado, Georgia was another borderline tournament sleeper type team. And similarly to the Buffaloes, the Bulldogs didn't really get off to a great start. They didn't have any bad losses, but they took part in the Old Spice Classic and walked away with nothing more than a win over Manhattan after losing in OT to Notre Dame and getting dropped by Temple. Since then they've won nine straight, but there were no real good wins, and a few struggles against bad teams (1 pt win over Georgia Tech, 3 pt win over Mercer, 7 pt win over Eastern Kentucky) and were generally unimpressive. Well, they finally picked up their signature win on Saturday, knocking off the 11th ranked (though overrated) Kentucky Wildcats. And I'm going to tell you something: if you get a chance to watch Georgia, take it. Their small forward, Travis Leslie, is the kind of guy whose athleticism rivals and may surpass Rodney Williams. Plus he averages 14 points and 8 rebounds per game, and probably never gets pulled in crunch-time on the road against a nationally ranked team for a freshman.
5. Missouri State Bears. The Bears (coached by Cuonzo Martin, FYI) won a huge statement game last night, beating Wichita State in Wichita to move to 5-0 in the conference, now a game ahead of the Shockers and the Creighton Blue Jays - another team they've already beat on the road. In fact, the Bears also won at Northern Iowa, which means they've already traveled to, and beaten, three of the top 5-6 teams in the conference, so they are definitely in the driver's seat to win the Missouri Valley. Of course, it's starting to look more and more like the MVC is going to be a one-bid conference this year, so none of this really matters at all and the only thing that matters is who gets hot in March. Kind of anti-climactic and waste of time-y, if you ask me.
WHO SUCKED
1. Florida State Seminoles. Here is a list of team's Auburn has lost to this year: UNC-Asheville, Samford, Campbell, Jacksonville, Rutgers, South Florida, and Presbyterian. Only the South Florida game was on the road, which is why it is so shocking that Florida State, an NCAA Tournament caliber team, went to Auburn and lost to the Tigers this week, and then followed that up with an understandable but unfortunate loss at Virginia Tech. And all this coming on the heels of a fabulous upset win over Baylor. I think it's fairly safe to say nobody really knows what is going on with this team, other than that they play great defense and are putrid offensively. A real recipe for success.
2. Georgetown Hoyas. Losing to West Virginia isn't exactly the most embarrassing thing in the world, even if it is at home, but I'm putting the Hoyas here this week because doesn't it seem like they do this every single year? They start out hot and get themselves ranked inside or near the top 10, drop a bunch of games they should win in conference play but win enough to keep a relatively high ranking, and then get housed in the NCAA tournament. It really feels like they do this all the time to me, so I never really buy into the Hoyas. I will say that this year, rather than relying on a big, plodding center they have three very, very good guards, which is a much better recipe for success, but I think I've put G-Town in the same category as Kansas and Duke - other than an exception once in a while, they nearly always fail to perform to expectations in March.
3. David Akers. Excellent work, Akers. Way to have the worst game of your career in a the playoffs, in a game where your two missed kicks (from 41 and 34, distances that are almost automatic for him) absolutely made a massive difference in this game. It's very likely the Eagles win this game if he makes those two kicks. Instead we have to put up with the stupid Packers for another week, at least. Thanks Akers. You may now consider yourself an enemy of this blog. Make your time.
4. Butler Bulldogs. There are certain things that just can't happen when you're a mid-major trying to get a bid. One of the biggest is that you can't lose by over 20 to a conference foe who is not a contender for the league crown. So guess what Butler did? Yep, they got their clocks cleaned by Milwaukee, a team sitting at 8-9 overall with several ugly losses. So let's look at Butler. Right now the are 12-5, with an RPI of 23 and Strength of Schedule of 16. Wins over Florida State and Washington State are good, while the loss to Milwaukee and an earlier loss to Evansville are bad. Knowing that the SoS and RPI will go down as conference play continues, and knowing that Butler really doesn't have another chance at a big-time win (I don't think they're in bracket busters this year), they are very, very close to having to win out to grab at at-large. I wouldn't say they're quite there yet, but they'd do well to avoid more than 1 or 2 more losses.
5. Kansas City Chiefs. I don't even know who to blame here the most. Dwayne Bowe for not being a part of the offense (zero catches)? Matt Cassell for not even throwing to him (zero targets) and throwing three picks? Or Todd Haley for being unable to design a game plan which would find ways to get Bowe the ball, and, at the same time, when the passing game wasn't working he still managed to only give the ball to Jamaal Charles nine times. And don't forget the defense for surrendering 30 points to team known more for defense than offense. In any case, just a complete implosion by a team playing their first playoff game in like 80 years. Well done.
Honorable mention for awesomeness goes to the Seattle Seahawks. After getting down early it would have been easy to roll-over and die, but they fought back and ended up kicking the crap out of New Orleans. Although in retrospect we should have seen this coming - home team, massive underdog, not only did they get no respect, they got no respect in a "we need to change the rules because this team is too shitty to be in the playoffs" kind of no respect, and that's the worst kind. Very good win, and this run here by Marshawn Lynch is like whoa:
Monday, December 13, 2010
Week in Review - 12.13.2010
So how about those Minnesota Gophers? The second half, and specifically that huge run to start the half, was great and all, but this team is just flat, man. Sampson and Mbakwe played well when they go the ball, and Trevor continues to shock me with the things he can do, but this team is certainly in a bit of trouble. Up just three points at half to Eastern Kentucky? And that lead was only because Maverick Ahanmisi hit a half-court shot. Not to mention how much worst it should have/could have been if the Colonels didn't miss a whole ass-ton of wide open three-pointers.
I know Al Nolen is gone, and he's the "glue guy" or the "catalyst" or whatever, but he's not going to be back until something like three weeks into the Big Ten season and if they don't learn to play better without him they're going to dig themselves a nice hole in the standings. The Big Ten is deep and very good this year, playing like they have the last three games against any Big Ten team, including Iowa, will result in a quick deficit leading to a quick loss.
I won't say they sucked, because they did win and do a nice job in the second half and pounding the ball in the paint, but I can't say they're awesome either because they won a game they should have won by 25 by just 13. Just two more games to get their shit together before conference play starts and the Gophers travel to Wisconsin and then Michigan State to open. Right now I don't see any possible way they aren't starting 0-2.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Jared Sullinger. In our Big Ten Fantasy Hoops league, Sullinger went #3 overall to Elk and there was some questioning of the pick by some of the other players. Although he was putting up good numbers he was outscored in Week 1 by several players who went right after him - Draymond Green, Jon Leuer, Demetri McCamey, etc. which made the pick look even more curious. But Sullinger turned it on this week with a 40 point, 13 rebound performance against IUPUI and followed it up with "just" 17 and 5 against Western Carolina. No, the competition wasn't exactly the best, but Sullinger is now 6th in scoring and 2nd in rebounding (to Mbakwe) in the Big 10. Not bad for a freshman, and not bad for the #3 pick in the fantasy league.
2. Rick Jackson. I don't know if you're aware of this but Rick Jackson - the Syracuse power forward - has become an unstoppable monster. He's like a better version of Trevor Mbakwe - yes, I'm serious. After putting up a 17 pts./16 reb game against Michigan State during the week he followed it up with an 18 & 10 against Colgate this weekend, and that now gives him 8 double-doubles in the Orange's ten games this year. With Jackson's development into a stud, Kris Joseph's big-time scoring ability, and solid point play from Scoop Jardine, the Orange are suddenly a contender without having gotten anything from their heralded freshman class. If those develop as the season goes along, watch out.
3. Terrence Jones. I read somewhere a lot of talk about how this class of Wildcats isn't like the last one, and you shouldn't expect a full-on stripped down roster: Doron Lamb is almost certainly a 2-year player, Brandon Knight might have to go a second year, etc. But one player who is basically certain to bolt is Jones, who is basically running circles around every opponent other than North Carolina. He's had five double-doubles in nine games and has put up some absolutely monster performances including Wednesday against Notre Dame where he put up a 27 point, 17 rebound performance - and that was his second 17-rebound game on the year. Guy is a beast. He's also going to be a bust in the NBA. That's a call, Bert.
4. Louisville Cardinals. I don't know exactly how this ended up happening because based on personnel it was looking like a down year in Louisville, but suddenly the Cardinals are 8-0 and extremely relevant after beating an awfully good UNLV team this weekend in Vegas. Terrence Jennings is finally starting to show some of the Terrence Williams/Earl Clark he was supposed to be, but this is a very balanced team with 9 players who score at least 5.5 points per game and 6 who score at least 8.4, and is led by a dynamic backcourt of Preston Knowles and Peyton Siva. I don't know if they have enough size to get through in March, but right now kenpom.com has them as the 11th best team in the country and an absolute lockdown defensive squad. Good back court, balanced scoring, and great defense? That's basically a blue-print for March success. Add in Pitino and they could be a nice sleeper team.
5. Boston College Eagles. Coming into the year it was supposed to be Duke at the top of the ACC, followed by whoever emerged out of Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, or Florida State, and then a bunch of crap. While most of the bunch of crap has lived up to it's name, BC has risen to the top and may have had the best week out of anybody this week, beating a pretty good Providence team at home and then going into Maryland and knocking off the Terps. An embarrassing early loss to Yale has basically been wiped out, because other than those two wins they've also knocked off a bunch of BCS teams - not good BCS teams, but good enough to help out that RPI - Indiana, Cal, Texas A&M (also UMass). Nice little surprise team here.
WHO SUCKED
1. Mid-major "dynasties." If we don't count the Atlantic-10 as a mid-major, and I don't, the two biggest mid-major dynasties are clearly Butler and Gonzaga, and suddenly each of them is facing the prospect of having to win their conference tournament to get into the big dance. Butler sits at 5-4 and has lost every meaningful game and lost to crappy Evansville. Gonzaga is 4-5 and in the middle of a three game losing streak, and outside of a win over Marquette they've done nothing, getting crushed by Illinois, Washington State, and Kansas State. A couple of other really solid mid-majors over the last few years, Siena in the MAAC and Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley, are looking like they can forget at-larges as well. Siena is now 2-5 with some really, really bad losses (Albany, Princeton) an dis dead in the water, and Northern Iowa is 4-3 with losses to Iowa and Milwaukee. Basically the first four teams I think of when I think mid-major are all either already out of the running for an at-large or are facing a major uphill battle. Weird year. Not counting the A-10, Mountain West, or Memphis, the Colonial might have the three best mid-major teams in the country.
2. St. Johns Red Storm. Wow we wow wow. Well apparently my sleeper Big East squad is more sleepy than sleeper, because they had an absolute brutal week, losing to two A-10 bottom feeders in St. Bonnie's and Fordham this week. St. Bonnie's is bad, but they are at least a halfway decent squad, but the loss to Fordham is inexcusable. The Rams are 5-4, but are still one of the worst teams in the country after winning a total of just 5 games the last two years. In short, these two losses are hugely embarrassing for St. Johns, and they almost kill their post-season chances. They play in the Big East so they could go on a run and end up in good shape, but losing these two games says pretty definitively that this team sucks way too hard to do that. I am awesome and picking sleepers.
3. Pac-10 Contenders. There are exactly two good teams in the Pac-10: Washington and Arizona. Both played road games against decent, but beatable, teams on Saturday with a chance to show how good they really are. Both failed miserably. Washington lost by one to Texas A&M and Arizona got crushed by BYU. This whole demise of the Pac-10 thing is completely out of control. I think this is year 3 of them sucking it up. Get your shit together or we're going to have to replace you with the Mountain West.
4. The Metrodome. Nice stadium, lol. Where are we, exactly? Bratislava?
5. Kyrie Irving. I'm not a Duke fan, not remotely, but Irving's injury and possible out-for-the-yearedness really sucks in a lot of ways. First, he was incredible and fun to watch. Like a Ty Lawson who could score, and he was only a handful of games into his freshman year and was just getting better. Seventeen points per game on 53% shooting and 45% from three with 5 assists and 4 boards as well and a 2-1 assist-to-turnover ratio? Wow. And we lose out on a juggernaut Duke team that had a legit shot at going undefeated. Not that I like Duke, I hate them, but remember how much fun it was rooting against the Patriots their undefeated year? And how awesome it was when the Giants beat them in the Super Bowl? We could have had that again in March, but now we will just have to root against Duke with all the regular hate, not super extra hate. I miss super extra hate. I wish Favre was still a Packer.
And about this whole JJ Hardy trade: I don't get it. The assumption is that the signing of Nishioka is apparently now imminent, which is fine, but we don't know anything about how his game will transfer. Ichiro is great, but look at Kaz Matsui - no thanks. And either way, he can play both middle infield positions, so would you rather roll with a starting tandem of Nishioka and Hardy, or Nishioka and Casilla? Should be obvious. With such a pedestrian return for him - two middle reliever prospects of dubious value - this trade doesn't make much sense to me. I'll let Aaron Gleeman break it down since he does a better job than I and I've already written enough for one day, but Hardy was a valuable piece. Even if one of the two players they got back becomes a competent reliever that's not as valuable as a quality everyday shortstop. Not impressed with this off season so far. Not at all.
I know Al Nolen is gone, and he's the "glue guy" or the "catalyst" or whatever, but he's not going to be back until something like three weeks into the Big Ten season and if they don't learn to play better without him they're going to dig themselves a nice hole in the standings. The Big Ten is deep and very good this year, playing like they have the last three games against any Big Ten team, including Iowa, will result in a quick deficit leading to a quick loss.
I won't say they sucked, because they did win and do a nice job in the second half and pounding the ball in the paint, but I can't say they're awesome either because they won a game they should have won by 25 by just 13. Just two more games to get their shit together before conference play starts and the Gophers travel to Wisconsin and then Michigan State to open. Right now I don't see any possible way they aren't starting 0-2.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Jared Sullinger. In our Big Ten Fantasy Hoops league, Sullinger went #3 overall to Elk and there was some questioning of the pick by some of the other players. Although he was putting up good numbers he was outscored in Week 1 by several players who went right after him - Draymond Green, Jon Leuer, Demetri McCamey, etc. which made the pick look even more curious. But Sullinger turned it on this week with a 40 point, 13 rebound performance against IUPUI and followed it up with "just" 17 and 5 against Western Carolina. No, the competition wasn't exactly the best, but Sullinger is now 6th in scoring and 2nd in rebounding (to Mbakwe) in the Big 10. Not bad for a freshman, and not bad for the #3 pick in the fantasy league.
2. Rick Jackson. I don't know if you're aware of this but Rick Jackson - the Syracuse power forward - has become an unstoppable monster. He's like a better version of Trevor Mbakwe - yes, I'm serious. After putting up a 17 pts./16 reb game against Michigan State during the week he followed it up with an 18 & 10 against Colgate this weekend, and that now gives him 8 double-doubles in the Orange's ten games this year. With Jackson's development into a stud, Kris Joseph's big-time scoring ability, and solid point play from Scoop Jardine, the Orange are suddenly a contender without having gotten anything from their heralded freshman class. If those develop as the season goes along, watch out.
3. Terrence Jones. I read somewhere a lot of talk about how this class of Wildcats isn't like the last one, and you shouldn't expect a full-on stripped down roster: Doron Lamb is almost certainly a 2-year player, Brandon Knight might have to go a second year, etc. But one player who is basically certain to bolt is Jones, who is basically running circles around every opponent other than North Carolina. He's had five double-doubles in nine games and has put up some absolutely monster performances including Wednesday against Notre Dame where he put up a 27 point, 17 rebound performance - and that was his second 17-rebound game on the year. Guy is a beast. He's also going to be a bust in the NBA. That's a call, Bert.
4. Louisville Cardinals. I don't know exactly how this ended up happening because based on personnel it was looking like a down year in Louisville, but suddenly the Cardinals are 8-0 and extremely relevant after beating an awfully good UNLV team this weekend in Vegas. Terrence Jennings is finally starting to show some of the Terrence Williams/Earl Clark he was supposed to be, but this is a very balanced team with 9 players who score at least 5.5 points per game and 6 who score at least 8.4, and is led by a dynamic backcourt of Preston Knowles and Peyton Siva. I don't know if they have enough size to get through in March, but right now kenpom.com has them as the 11th best team in the country and an absolute lockdown defensive squad. Good back court, balanced scoring, and great defense? That's basically a blue-print for March success. Add in Pitino and they could be a nice sleeper team.
5. Boston College Eagles. Coming into the year it was supposed to be Duke at the top of the ACC, followed by whoever emerged out of Maryland, North Carolina, NC State, or Florida State, and then a bunch of crap. While most of the bunch of crap has lived up to it's name, BC has risen to the top and may have had the best week out of anybody this week, beating a pretty good Providence team at home and then going into Maryland and knocking off the Terps. An embarrassing early loss to Yale has basically been wiped out, because other than those two wins they've also knocked off a bunch of BCS teams - not good BCS teams, but good enough to help out that RPI - Indiana, Cal, Texas A&M (also UMass). Nice little surprise team here.
WHO SUCKED
1. Mid-major "dynasties." If we don't count the Atlantic-10 as a mid-major, and I don't, the two biggest mid-major dynasties are clearly Butler and Gonzaga, and suddenly each of them is facing the prospect of having to win their conference tournament to get into the big dance. Butler sits at 5-4 and has lost every meaningful game and lost to crappy Evansville. Gonzaga is 4-5 and in the middle of a three game losing streak, and outside of a win over Marquette they've done nothing, getting crushed by Illinois, Washington State, and Kansas State. A couple of other really solid mid-majors over the last few years, Siena in the MAAC and Northern Iowa in the Missouri Valley, are looking like they can forget at-larges as well. Siena is now 2-5 with some really, really bad losses (Albany, Princeton) an dis dead in the water, and Northern Iowa is 4-3 with losses to Iowa and Milwaukee. Basically the first four teams I think of when I think mid-major are all either already out of the running for an at-large or are facing a major uphill battle. Weird year. Not counting the A-10, Mountain West, or Memphis, the Colonial might have the three best mid-major teams in the country.
2. St. Johns Red Storm. Wow we wow wow. Well apparently my sleeper Big East squad is more sleepy than sleeper, because they had an absolute brutal week, losing to two A-10 bottom feeders in St. Bonnie's and Fordham this week. St. Bonnie's is bad, but they are at least a halfway decent squad, but the loss to Fordham is inexcusable. The Rams are 5-4, but are still one of the worst teams in the country after winning a total of just 5 games the last two years. In short, these two losses are hugely embarrassing for St. Johns, and they almost kill their post-season chances. They play in the Big East so they could go on a run and end up in good shape, but losing these two games says pretty definitively that this team sucks way too hard to do that. I am awesome and picking sleepers.
3. Pac-10 Contenders. There are exactly two good teams in the Pac-10: Washington and Arizona. Both played road games against decent, but beatable, teams on Saturday with a chance to show how good they really are. Both failed miserably. Washington lost by one to Texas A&M and Arizona got crushed by BYU. This whole demise of the Pac-10 thing is completely out of control. I think this is year 3 of them sucking it up. Get your shit together or we're going to have to replace you with the Mountain West.
4. The Metrodome. Nice stadium, lol. Where are we, exactly? Bratislava?
5. Kyrie Irving. I'm not a Duke fan, not remotely, but Irving's injury and possible out-for-the-yearedness really sucks in a lot of ways. First, he was incredible and fun to watch. Like a Ty Lawson who could score, and he was only a handful of games into his freshman year and was just getting better. Seventeen points per game on 53% shooting and 45% from three with 5 assists and 4 boards as well and a 2-1 assist-to-turnover ratio? Wow. And we lose out on a juggernaut Duke team that had a legit shot at going undefeated. Not that I like Duke, I hate them, but remember how much fun it was rooting against the Patriots their undefeated year? And how awesome it was when the Giants beat them in the Super Bowl? We could have had that again in March, but now we will just have to root against Duke with all the regular hate, not super extra hate. I miss super extra hate. I wish Favre was still a Packer.
And about this whole JJ Hardy trade: I don't get it. The assumption is that the signing of Nishioka is apparently now imminent, which is fine, but we don't know anything about how his game will transfer. Ichiro is great, but look at Kaz Matsui - no thanks. And either way, he can play both middle infield positions, so would you rather roll with a starting tandem of Nishioka and Hardy, or Nishioka and Casilla? Should be obvious. With such a pedestrian return for him - two middle reliever prospects of dubious value - this trade doesn't make much sense to me. I'll let Aaron Gleeman break it down since he does a better job than I and I've already written enough for one day, but Hardy was a valuable piece. Even if one of the two players they got back becomes a competent reliever that's not as valuable as a quality everyday shortstop. Not impressed with this off season so far. Not at all.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
