Throughout the summer I'll be writing up each of the 34 players who played for the University of Minnesota under Tubby Smith. Why Tubby? Because it's the most recent era that's over. If this goes well perhaps I'll go back and do Monson as well. I'll be looking at any player who played at Minnesota under Tubby at some point, even if it was just a year. And I will be considering their entire Gopher career, so guys who started under Monson or finished under Pitino will have their whole career considered, but anyone who transferred in or out is only evaluated on their Gopher stats. With me? Here we go:
#34 to #31 can be found here.
#26-#30 can be found here.
#21-#25 are here
#20. MAVERICK AHANMISI (2010-2014).
- Stuck around all four years, which is a positive, but never really developed into a third string point guard. Probably took more heat than anyone on this list, but you can't blame him too much because he basically got forced into more playing time than he had the talent to play. He did see his playing time dwindle from 13.3 minutes per game in his sophomore year to 10.5 as a junior and 9.6 as a senior. He ended his career shooting under 40% from the floor and with a 1.1 to 0.9 assist-to-turnover ratio. He was a late spring desperation signing and he generally played like it. But at least he tried and wasn't a whiner.
#19. JOE COLEMAN (2011-2013).
- He was a pretty important piece on Tubby's last two teams before transferring to St. Mary's when Richard Pitino came in despite having a game that would thrive in his system. He never developed an outside shot, but he excelled at getting to the rim and finding ways to score despite standing just 6-4. His amazing 29 point outburst at Illinois showed his potential, but he wasn't able to harness that consistently and now he's off to the Gaels. He played in one game last season before an injury knocked him out for the year.
#18. JAMAL ABU SHAMALA (2005-2009).
- One of the harder players to rank. He wasn't very good, but he played four years and had his moments, generally behind the 3-point line because he basically didn't do anything else. It was a special moment whenever he found himself with an open three and you just didn't care if it went in because if he was in the game when it mattered it was when the Gophers were terrible and if he was in when they were decent the game was probably out of hand already. Completely unfair to him, but for whatever reason he represents the failure of the Monson/Molinari years to me. Probably because he was actually starting at one point when things were pretty much completely off the rails. Now I can appreciate who he was, at pretty much right in the middle of this countdown seems about right.
#17. COLTON IVERSON (2008-2011).
- If you had to make a poster for guys who never developed under Tubby Smith, it would have to be a pretty big poster. But if you wanted to narrow down to two guys, Iverson is one of them. He was a so so post player for the Gophers, but once he transferred to Colorado State he turned into a monster who got himself drafted in the second round of the NBA Draft. Don't remember he became a monster because he played in a smaller conference way out west? Well he averaged 14 points and 10 rebounds a game his senior year. Those are amazing numbers. Could he have put that up in the Big Ten? Most likely not, but it's clear he was underutilized his three years as a Gopher.
#16. DEVOE JOSEPH (2008-2011).
- One of the most disappointing players of the era for me, I really thought Joseph was going to be a lights out scorer. There were times where he looked so good, but he and Tubby clearly didn't get along, both on the court (Joseph could get lost out there at times) and off (weed). Then, 8 games into his junior year he bolted after being suspended twice for an undisclosed reason (weed), apparently complaining about not getting enough playing time and shot attempts which was ridiculous. Al Nolen would get hurt later that season, which would have given Joseph all the playing time he could handle. By then he was already at Oregon, and, rather than sit out a full year to maximize his playing time, he joined the ducks for the second semester of the 2011-2012 year, which meant that in his final two years he played a grand total of just 36 games. Yeah, he ended up developing into that scorer I thought he would (averaged 16.7 points per game), but a series of poor decisions cost him a lot.
Showing posts with label Colt Iverson. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Colt Iverson. Show all posts
Thursday, September 10, 2015
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Game Preview: Gophers vs. Northwestern
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| The Gophers play the Wildcats......again |
The Gophers play the Northwestern Wildcats, again, and since the last time they squared off not all that much has changed - other than reconfiguring our expectations for this Gopher team. Since the last game the Gophers have gone 1-2 with then impressive win at Illinois and losses to Indiana and Michigan - certainly understandable, however the team had stretches of poor play that have taken some of the luster off the early season success. Northwestern has gone 2-2, winning at Penn State and Illinois (thus the "then impressive win" when the Gophers won in Champaign) and losses and home losses to Iowa (by 20!!) and Indiana. Basically, the Gophers are maybe a little worse than what we thought last time, and Northwestern is a little better, if only because Reggie Hearn is healthier. I will admit it - I'm concerned.
I probably shouldn't be. Minnesota still ranks as the 7th best team in the country by kenpom's advanced metrics while Northwestern is 88th. Pomeroy projects the Gophers to win 70-61 with an 82% chance of coming out with a victory, and the Gophers seemingly have solved the Northwestern zone, and with Drew Crawford done for the year they're a little lacking in the offensive weapons department. I get it. But I'm also a lifelong Minnesota fan, and all those years watching not only the Gophers but the Vikings and Twins have me programmed to expect disappointment. How "Minnesota" would it feel to have them lose this game? I don't like feeling this way, but it's just the way I am. I'm a bipolar fan - high ups, and low downs. Anyway, if the Gopher team is who I thought they were they should still take this, as long as they don't turn it over 25 times.
Which, just so you know, is actually in the realm of possibility. Although kenpom ranks them as the 6th most efficient offensive team in the country that's a function of good shooting and great offensive rebounding (where they still rank #1, grabbing an astounding 47.9% of their misses, more than 5% higher than the second best team (Colorado State (Colton Iverson - hi!!))), because they still can't take care of the ball to save their lives. The Gophers turn the ball over on 21.9% of their possessions, 247th in the country. No other top ten offensive team turns it over more than 18.8% of the time or ranks outside the top 100. It's ludicrous.
I'm not going to do duplicate work, so instead I'll direct you to From the Barn's post where he breaks down the nerd stats on turnovers - it's pretty cool. My most favorite part is how Maverick Ahanmisi turns the ball over on 31% of the possessions when he's in the game. Only Denzel Valentine of Michigan State and Benny Parker of Nebraska are worse in the Big 10. The result of FTB's work is it's abundantly clear, even if it wasn't already, that the turnover problem is the one thing keeping the Gophers from reaching the potential we thought they had, but this far into the season it's time to start wondering if they can turn it around. Bottom line: STOP DOING THAT!!
I do, however, have a suggestion and hopefully someone can call or email or skype Tubby and tell him. Did you ever see that movie The Program with Willie Mays Hayes and that alcoholic quarterback and James Caan and the steroid guy Lattimer and a super hot Kristy Swanson? Well remember when Darnell Jefferson had fumbling issues and Caan gave him a football to carry around all the time and the other football players were supposed to try to knock it out of his hands and then if the ball was returned to Caan by anyone other than Jefferson he'd have to do laps or pushups or get in an Iron Maiden or something? Well Tubby needs to do that with every single player on this team, and open the competition to everyone on campus and if anybody loses their ball they have to spend two hours in a locked room with the guy who thinks it's cool to dress up as Goldy and act like a complete moron at games, or take a sauna with Mo Walker. It's our only hope.
The team is still plenty good enough to win the next four (@ NW, @ Wisconsin, vs. Nebraska, vs. Iowa) even if they keep the ball safe at a Lindsay Lohan's hoo-ha level (LiLo jokes played out? Never, I say!), but if they want to be a truly great team - and I believe they can - they have to stop with this sloppiness. I think we can all agree my proposal would solve everything. I should probably step in and coach, too.
Oh, and if you want a rundown on Northwestern's players just read the linked thing above from last game or my preview from the last game since it just happened like a week ago.
Minnesota 66, Northwestern 58.
Tuesday, October 16, 2012
DWG's NCAA Basketball Preview: Teams #52-47
I know plenty of people are busy tonight with the debate and the Tigers/Yankees game, but I can only watch the debates 30 seconds at a time without falling asleep or dying of self-inflicted gangrene and it seems silly to write about the Tigers/Yankees game because I don't really feel like writing "Verlander gets another stupid Yankee out easily" twenty-seven times. Thus insteadly here are some NCAA Basketball previews. I hope you enjoy them.
I'm just kidding. I really don't give a crap. I know you're reading this at work and have nothing better to do with your time anyway.
52. Illinois State Redbirds. Creighton, Wichita State, and Northern Iowa seem to get most of the Missouri Valley headlines and hype, but this could end up being Illinois State's big year. Last year's team took Creighton down to the wire in the MVC Championship before losing in overtime, then beat Ole Miss in the NIT before falling to eventual champ Stanford (also in OT). That same team returns pretty much intact (including stud Jackie Carmichael who, according to anything you read on ISU on the internet "wowed" people at the LeBron Skills Academy). They do lose their starting point guard from last season who transferred to SMU to tag along with the Redbirds' coach last year, and nobody's sure if they have a player who can fill that role capably, but who cares? Their nickname is the Redbirds for christ's sake, and if the baseball playoffs have taught us anything (other than the Yankees suck) it's that Redbirds never die.
51. Marshall Thundering Herd. Marshall hasn't been to the NCAA Tournament since 1987 and has never won a game, but they've been awfully close lately which seems interesting or something I guess. Last year they were in the hunt until a killer loss to a terrible ECU team knocked them out of the at-large running and then they were crushed in the C-USA Tournament Championship game by Memphis. Two years prior they came out of the blocks at 15-2 before sucking the rest of the year. Will this be the year they finally break through? No.
50. Belmont Bruins. Belmont takes a big step up in the world this year, shifting from the Atlantic Sun to the Ohio Valley which means capturing an at-large bid goes from impossible to simply unlikely. And once again, this will be the same kind of hyper-efficient team that takes care of the basketball and shoots well, but likely lacks the athleticism to truly compete with the big-time programs and really good teams. And once again they'll probably end up in the NCAA Tournament matched up against somebody better, and everyone (myself included) will talk themselves into how Belmont could be a sweet 16 sleeper and end up picking them to beat a #4 seed in round one only to watch in horror as they get blown out by 20 and a have to put a big red X on my bracket before the first games of day 1 are out. Looking forward to it already.
49. Arkansas Razorbacks. What's the best way to rebound from John Pelphrey trying to run the program straight into the ground? Hire the sweet Mike Anderson, Nolan Richardson's protege, and let the Hogs run wild. It didn't quite kick in for year 1, but based on his track record at UAB and Missouri I'd imagine we'll see Arkansas back in the tournament in a year or two. Guard play is the key to running Anderson's system and Arkansas is plenty loaded here. B.J. Young, who flirted a bit with the Gophers (while, they more threw themselves at him and he didn't say no right away - like your sister at a kegger) had a monster freshman year and probably could have gone pro but stayed on for another year, and he's got plenty of other perimeter help. You know fun Missouri was to watch the last several years? Yeah, that's coming to Fayetteville. I wish I could bet on things like, Arkansas will be ranked in the top 10 at some point in the next 3 years. I'd totally win a bunch of money. Just like how Snacks will owe me fifty bucks when the Royals win the AL Central sometime by 2014 (a bet we made 2 years ago). Yeah. It's coming. I've already spent that money investing in pumpkins. They've been going up the month of October. I figure if I hold those babies until January and then cash out. BAM! BOATLOADS!
48. Colorado State Rams. I don't think anyone would dispute that losing Tim Miles (to Nebraska) is a blow considering how he builds programs, but if you're going to lose a guy like that (and it was inevitable) you could do a whole lot worse than hiring Larry Eustachy. I know it's easy to think about the scandal where he was busted partying with young college chicks but let's be honest who wouldn't want to do that, but don't forget the guy is a damn good coach. This is the same guy who just took a garbage program in Southern Miss to the NCAA Tournament last year and had lots of success at Iowa State, and he's also the guy who started Utah State's run of brilliance back in 1998 (hadn't been to the tournament in 10 years). And now he inherits a team that made the tournament last season and he gets most of the team back, plus Colton Iverson. Eustachy and Iverson! Count me in. That's like a modern day Balki and Cousin Larry.
47. Cal Bears. These guys could end up with one of the best backcourts in the Pac-12 and, sad and horrifying as it is, part of the reason is Justin Cobbs. Freed from the restraints of Tubby's molasses style offense Cobbs ended up averaging 12.6 points (16th in the conference) and 5.0 assists (2nd) per game last season, and he's probably not even the teams best guard - that would be Allen Crabbe. They have to figure out how to replace two big losses including their lead point guard and their best post player, but having two good guards and playing in the shitbox Pac-12 pretty much assures Cal will at least be in the running for an NCAA bid. Mother-effing Cobbs.
Previous:
Teams #68-60
Teams #59-53
I'm just kidding. I really don't give a crap. I know you're reading this at work and have nothing better to do with your time anyway.
Previous:
Teams #68-60
Teams #59-53
Monday, January 9, 2012
Gophers something something
This is where I said I'd write something, huh? Well I don't know, I'm not particularly feeling up to it but I'll give it a go as long as I'm watching this college football championship thingy anyway. I will preface this by saying I brought WonderbabyTM to the game, and although she was very well behaved (and even made it up on the scoreboard with uncle Snacks) I still had to keep her entertained from time to time so I did miss some plays here and there - and thank god for that. She also disappointed me by continuously telling me "I want to high five Goldy the Gopher" but that's not relevant right now.
So were do we start? How about with the defense, which was the absolute biggest problem with that shellacking Purdue put on the Gophers at home (AT HOME!). Yes, the same Purdue team that just lost 65-45 at Penn State just beat the Gophers 79-66 at Williams Arena in a game that wasn't remotely that close. I don't even know how to explain just how sad that is, but it was basically a complete defensive breakdown. The problems defending the three-pointer have been a running narrative of Gopher basketball since Tubby arrived so I'm not going to rehash that here except to say yeah, some of those threes were awfully tough shots (deep, quick trigger, etc.) but they were still made on the Gophers defense so you can't excuse it. Even worse, however, was the complete inability to stop penetration by Lewis Jackson.
Now, I do get that somebody that little doesn't make it in the Big 10 without being lightning quick and being able to handle himself in the paint so it's not surprising the Gopher guards struggled to stay in front of him, but I didn't figure he'd get to the paint every single time he felt like it. And what really bothered me was where the hell was the interior help? Lew Jack is 5-9 and even though he's one of my favorites in the Big 10 amongst opposing players even I can recognize there is no way in hell he 20 points on 8-11 shooting because he's a FUCKING TERRIBLE SHOOTER. Every time he got by the guard somebody needed to get in his way and either force him to shoot a pull-up or dish it somewhere else, you can't let him keep getting lay-ups because even girls can make lay-ups. At the very least if he's going to keep going at the rim somebody needs to put him on his ass at least once. Not maliciously, not flagrantly, and not by making a dirty play or anything but a good ole-fashioned hard foul. He's like 140 lbs. he's going to go flying if you just put a body into him hard. If only the Gophers had a 7-foot senior who could make such a play.
Yeah, that's right. Ralph Sampson may have just played his most worthless game ever. Not only was he invisible on defense to the point where a god damn child sized player was making lay-up after lay-up in his paint on his home court, but he was disinterested on the offensive end as well. He took three shots. Three god damn shots. He grabbed all of three rebounds. He was so worthless Tubby only played him 13 minutes which now qualifies as the only good call Tubby's made all year. It just baffles me. Your senior year, a game where you absolutely need a win or your last season in college will almost certainly go down as a failure, and a home game in front of a crowd that knows how badly this win is needed and would readily jump up behind you and you basically don't even leave the locker room. He gave the team absolutely nothing on either end.
Which brings us to this team's offensive issues, and despite a decent offensive effort against the Boilers this team is still in a lot of trouble. Basically it boils down to that they just aren't skilled enough. Rodney Williams is really the only one on this team with any kind of discernible skill, and it's "jumping." The rest of the team is basically interchangeable, and not in the "everybody is good and can do it all" kind of way Calipari's old Memphis teams or Huggins' WVU teams when they were good were built. Everybody is just mediocre at basically everything..
Really, even somebody as nondescript and Brian Cardinal-ish as D.J. Byrd has a skill that nobody on the Gophers can match in his shooting prowess. He's hitting 44% from three this year, and that five-for-five first half was enough to basically bury the Gophers. Can you see anybody on this team matching that first half at any point? I sure as hell can't. Nobody on this team is a good enough shooter to pull that off. And that goes for basically everything. Nobody is a great shooter. Nobody is a great ballhandler. Nobody is a great penetrator (although I can see Andre Hollins possibly getting there someday). Nobody is a great scorer (maybe Coleman in the future?). Nobody is a great passer or distributor or facilitator or whatever word you want to use, and outside of Williams nobody is a great athlete. Perhaps the worst part of this is how the three-pointer is such a huge and important weapon in the college game, as Purdue shoved down all our throats, and the Gophers not only don't have an elite shooter, I'm not even sure they have an average one. Oto Osenieks is the only chance they have but Tubby seems pretty freaking committed to keeping him on the bench. Much be reverse racism or something, I don't know.
So what to do? With this season basically lost at this point it's time to take the guys who have shown the aggressiveness and effort to deserve more time along with any flashes of ability because there isn't much here. Coleman did a nice job last night of being aggressive and trying to score and although he was only 4-13 shooting he did put up 13 shots. On a team where nearly everyone's first, second, and third instinct is to defer, that's valuable. Coleman needs to start the rest of the way.
I think Andre Hollins should be starting as well. No, it's not an ideal situation because he still has a tendency to get a little bit out of control and his decision making is sub-optimal most of the time he's still the best option for this team's future. He does lead the team in turnover percentage, but he's not much worse than Ahanmisi or Welch, and with every passing day Ahanmisi proves he's not a Big 10 caliber point guard (nice line last night: 0 pts, 3 asts, 2 tos). At this point in the season I still haven't figured out Welch. At times he looks like a brilliant floor leader, and other times he seems overwhelmed by the game (not surprising based on his history at UC-Davis and then JuCo). In any case, it's clear this team is more than one year away from contending for anything meaningful, so at best Welch is a stop gap. Giving him a lot of run in the back court will help take some of the pressure off Andre Hollins so I like keeping him in the lineup.
So that gives you Andre Hollins, Welch, and Coleman in the lineup, and obviously Rodney should be there too. Williams has really taken a step forward since Mbakwe went down and he was forced to play more in the paint, and he was a rare bright spot last night (19 points, 14 rebounds, and maybe most impressively 15 shot attempts). He's attacking the rim, going after every rebound with gusto, and even attempting to have some semblance of a mid-range game (it's not working that great so far, but I commend him for the effort). He's easily the team's best player, both in terms of overall potential and current ability, so there's really no reason why he should ever be off the floor. If he doesn't lead the team in minutes in every game the rest of the year Tubby should be fired immediately.
As far as a big guy in the lineup your guess is as good as mine. I never in a million years thought I'd say this but this team, and I, really miss Colton Iverson. You know damn well that he would've done something to at least make Lewis Jackson think twice about coming at the rim again, and even though I would never exactly call him skilled Elliott Elliason makes him look like Hakeem Olajuwon out there. It turns out he was a capable Big 10 big man, which is exactly what this team doesn't have any of. So I guess you continue to start Ralph and if it's a game where he decided to show up you give him plenty of run and if not you just go small (and Elliason gets his 10 minutes per game either way). I don't know. I give up.
The last guy worth mentioning is Chip Armelin, who I don't want in the starting lineup despite my thinking he's the team's second best player. I love his energy coming off the bench, plus if you take my starting lineup suggestion there is nobody in that second unit capable of scoring and so you need a guy like Chip with them to get the offense going. So I like him coming off the bench, but playing a ton of minutes.
So that's what you go with: Andre Hollins, Welch, Coleman, Williams, and Sampson (by default) with a healthy dose of Armelin. That group at least gives you a bunch of guys who are going to be aggressive, who are going to try to score rather than just pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out. Hollins, Welch, Coleman, and Armelin can all penetrate, and although there isn't a great shooter in this group it's not like you're exactly leaving a great shooter out of the rotation or anything. Plus Austin Hollins is probably the best shooter outside of Osenieks on the team and he should be the second guy off the bench, and if you're going against a defense where you need his shooting you can just play him more. Simple.
I don't know. It's a lost season at this point anyway, but concentrating your playing time amongst those guys gives you some chances to be in games as well as giving a couple of guys who are probably your future plenty of chances to improve and develop. Or whatever. This all just sucks anyway.
So were do we start? How about with the defense, which was the absolute biggest problem with that shellacking Purdue put on the Gophers at home (AT HOME!). Yes, the same Purdue team that just lost 65-45 at Penn State just beat the Gophers 79-66 at Williams Arena in a game that wasn't remotely that close. I don't even know how to explain just how sad that is, but it was basically a complete defensive breakdown. The problems defending the three-pointer have been a running narrative of Gopher basketball since Tubby arrived so I'm not going to rehash that here except to say yeah, some of those threes were awfully tough shots (deep, quick trigger, etc.) but they were still made on the Gophers defense so you can't excuse it. Even worse, however, was the complete inability to stop penetration by Lewis Jackson.
Now, I do get that somebody that little doesn't make it in the Big 10 without being lightning quick and being able to handle himself in the paint so it's not surprising the Gopher guards struggled to stay in front of him, but I didn't figure he'd get to the paint every single time he felt like it. And what really bothered me was where the hell was the interior help? Lew Jack is 5-9 and even though he's one of my favorites in the Big 10 amongst opposing players even I can recognize there is no way in hell he 20 points on 8-11 shooting because he's a FUCKING TERRIBLE SHOOTER. Every time he got by the guard somebody needed to get in his way and either force him to shoot a pull-up or dish it somewhere else, you can't let him keep getting lay-ups because even girls can make lay-ups. At the very least if he's going to keep going at the rim somebody needs to put him on his ass at least once. Not maliciously, not flagrantly, and not by making a dirty play or anything but a good ole-fashioned hard foul. He's like 140 lbs. he's going to go flying if you just put a body into him hard. If only the Gophers had a 7-foot senior who could make such a play.
Yeah, that's right. Ralph Sampson may have just played his most worthless game ever. Not only was he invisible on defense to the point where a god damn child sized player was making lay-up after lay-up in his paint on his home court, but he was disinterested on the offensive end as well. He took three shots. Three god damn shots. He grabbed all of three rebounds. He was so worthless Tubby only played him 13 minutes which now qualifies as the only good call Tubby's made all year. It just baffles me. Your senior year, a game where you absolutely need a win or your last season in college will almost certainly go down as a failure, and a home game in front of a crowd that knows how badly this win is needed and would readily jump up behind you and you basically don't even leave the locker room. He gave the team absolutely nothing on either end.
Which brings us to this team's offensive issues, and despite a decent offensive effort against the Boilers this team is still in a lot of trouble. Basically it boils down to that they just aren't skilled enough. Rodney Williams is really the only one on this team with any kind of discernible skill, and it's "jumping." The rest of the team is basically interchangeable, and not in the "everybody is good and can do it all" kind of way Calipari's old Memphis teams or Huggins' WVU teams when they were good were built. Everybody is just mediocre at basically everything..
Really, even somebody as nondescript and Brian Cardinal-ish as D.J. Byrd has a skill that nobody on the Gophers can match in his shooting prowess. He's hitting 44% from three this year, and that five-for-five first half was enough to basically bury the Gophers. Can you see anybody on this team matching that first half at any point? I sure as hell can't. Nobody on this team is a good enough shooter to pull that off. And that goes for basically everything. Nobody is a great shooter. Nobody is a great ballhandler. Nobody is a great penetrator (although I can see Andre Hollins possibly getting there someday). Nobody is a great scorer (maybe Coleman in the future?). Nobody is a great passer or distributor or facilitator or whatever word you want to use, and outside of Williams nobody is a great athlete. Perhaps the worst part of this is how the three-pointer is such a huge and important weapon in the college game, as Purdue shoved down all our throats, and the Gophers not only don't have an elite shooter, I'm not even sure they have an average one. Oto Osenieks is the only chance they have but Tubby seems pretty freaking committed to keeping him on the bench. Much be reverse racism or something, I don't know.
So what to do? With this season basically lost at this point it's time to take the guys who have shown the aggressiveness and effort to deserve more time along with any flashes of ability because there isn't much here. Coleman did a nice job last night of being aggressive and trying to score and although he was only 4-13 shooting he did put up 13 shots. On a team where nearly everyone's first, second, and third instinct is to defer, that's valuable. Coleman needs to start the rest of the way.
I think Andre Hollins should be starting as well. No, it's not an ideal situation because he still has a tendency to get a little bit out of control and his decision making is sub-optimal most of the time he's still the best option for this team's future. He does lead the team in turnover percentage, but he's not much worse than Ahanmisi or Welch, and with every passing day Ahanmisi proves he's not a Big 10 caliber point guard (nice line last night: 0 pts, 3 asts, 2 tos). At this point in the season I still haven't figured out Welch. At times he looks like a brilliant floor leader, and other times he seems overwhelmed by the game (not surprising based on his history at UC-Davis and then JuCo). In any case, it's clear this team is more than one year away from contending for anything meaningful, so at best Welch is a stop gap. Giving him a lot of run in the back court will help take some of the pressure off Andre Hollins so I like keeping him in the lineup.
So that gives you Andre Hollins, Welch, and Coleman in the lineup, and obviously Rodney should be there too. Williams has really taken a step forward since Mbakwe went down and he was forced to play more in the paint, and he was a rare bright spot last night (19 points, 14 rebounds, and maybe most impressively 15 shot attempts). He's attacking the rim, going after every rebound with gusto, and even attempting to have some semblance of a mid-range game (it's not working that great so far, but I commend him for the effort). He's easily the team's best player, both in terms of overall potential and current ability, so there's really no reason why he should ever be off the floor. If he doesn't lead the team in minutes in every game the rest of the year Tubby should be fired immediately.
As far as a big guy in the lineup your guess is as good as mine. I never in a million years thought I'd say this but this team, and I, really miss Colton Iverson. You know damn well that he would've done something to at least make Lewis Jackson think twice about coming at the rim again, and even though I would never exactly call him skilled Elliott Elliason makes him look like Hakeem Olajuwon out there. It turns out he was a capable Big 10 big man, which is exactly what this team doesn't have any of. So I guess you continue to start Ralph and if it's a game where he decided to show up you give him plenty of run and if not you just go small (and Elliason gets his 10 minutes per game either way). I don't know. I give up.
The last guy worth mentioning is Chip Armelin, who I don't want in the starting lineup despite my thinking he's the team's second best player. I love his energy coming off the bench, plus if you take my starting lineup suggestion there is nobody in that second unit capable of scoring and so you need a guy like Chip with them to get the offense going. So I like him coming off the bench, but playing a ton of minutes.
So that's what you go with: Andre Hollins, Welch, Coleman, Williams, and Sampson (by default) with a healthy dose of Armelin. That group at least gives you a bunch of guys who are going to be aggressive, who are going to try to score rather than just pass the ball around the perimeter until the shot clock runs out. Hollins, Welch, Coleman, and Armelin can all penetrate, and although there isn't a great shooter in this group it's not like you're exactly leaving a great shooter out of the rotation or anything. Plus Austin Hollins is probably the best shooter outside of Osenieks on the team and he should be the second guy off the bench, and if you're going against a defense where you need his shooting you can just play him more. Simple.
I don't know. It's a lost season at this point anyway, but concentrating your playing time amongst those guys gives you some chances to be in games as well as giving a couple of guys who are probably your future plenty of chances to improve and develop. Or whatever. This all just sucks anyway.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Thursday Things
Random thoughts on a Thursday evening, as I sit here with a couple of Coors Light tallboys. No, I'm not abandoning your precious 6 things format, but I can't sit here just married to it, night after night. I'm sorry I'm not like you and can't just have the same thing over and over, night after night. Some of us need a little variety. A little newness. So settle down.
By the way, I have Friday off. Do you?
SUCKA MC!!
- I'm sitting here watching Alexi Casilla flail away haplessly at yet another pitch, it strikes me that this Casilla/Tolbert combo must be one of the absolute worst offensive double-play combos of all time. So let's play around with baseball-reference.
Casilla's career OPS+ is 68. Tolbert's is 72. According to BR, there have been 134 seasons where a player had an OPS+ of 72 or less while playing 2b 75% of the time and acquiring 500 plate appearances, and using those same parameters we come up with 238 shortstops. The question is, did any of those 2b's play with an of those SS's, or, if they hit at their career averages, do the Twins have the worst offensive double play combination in history?
I'll save you some suspense. I found 16 teams where the SS and 2B both had an OPS+ of 72 or worse, so the Casilla/Tolbert combination is only one of the 16 worst in history - not THE worst. BUT. 14 of those come from pre-1980 teams. Back when nobody even gave a crap if your middle infield could even hit the ball out of the infield as long as they could field their position well. Since 1980, only two teams (2003 Dodgers with Alex Cora (67) and Cesar Izturis (60) and the 2007 Giants with Ray Durham (64) and Omar Vizquel (60)) had a worse hitting middle infield than the Twins. So yes, in case anybody asks you can feel comfortable telling them this Twins combo is the third worst since 1980. Comforting.
- Speaking of shitty baseball players I'm really sick of Austin Jackson, who is on my fantasy team. The guy has zero plate discipline and apparently almost zero ability to actually make contact when he swings. Now I'm not against strikeouts per se, despite their being fascist, but when you have a player who strikes out a ton you expect to get a little bit of power along with it. Not so with Mr. Jackson, who struck out 170 times last year while countering with just four home runs (and this year he's at 24 to 1). Bizarre, right? Let's check Mr. Baseball-Reference again.
Prior to Jackson last year, the fewest home runs hit by a player with 170 strikeouts or more was 13 by Jose Hernandez in 2003. Next fewest was Mark Bellhorn with 17 in 2004, then Curtis Granderson's 19 in 2006. The fewest home runs by a player with 160 strikeouts was Mickey Tettleton with 15 in 1990. 150 strikeouts was Delino DeShields with 10 in 1991. In fact, the most strikeouts by a player with 4 or less home runs was Michael Bourn, who struck out 140 times with just 3 home runs in 2009. Simply put, Jackson is about to become the world's greatest strikeout artist with no power, because he's going to pretty much repeat last season's numbers. Only 8 players have ever hit five or less home runs while striking out at least 125 times, including that illustrious firecracker Vince Coleman, and only Gary Pettis has done it twice. Can Jackson match the feat of Gary George Pettis? It's exciting, isn't it?
- I'm pretty sure if there's a heaven, at least one of the main rivers is made up of Buffalo Wild Wing's Spicy Garlic sauce. Not their version of the Nile or the Amazon or the Mississippi, because those are probably reserved for booze, but maybe like the Congo or the Mekong.
- Former Twin Kyle Lohse pitched a hell of a game today, specifically a 2-hit shutout. I was going to write more about it but really who the hell cares? He's a completely average pitcher who occasionally has moments of brilliance, like today, just like he was 10 years ago or whatever on the Twins and just like ten million other pitchers in the major leagues. God he's so boring. He's like the pitcher version of a MASH episode.
- Jesus christ is Parks and Recreation funny. Community is awfully good too, but there's nothing better than Parks and Rec right now. It's knock it out of the park funny every time. I think the five funniest characters in tv history are Ron Swanson, April Ludgate, Tom Haverford, Rob Lowe's character, and Bill Haverchuck. Four of them are from Parks and Rec. And Andy Dwyer is a runner-up, and we haven't even gotten to comedic genius Amy Poehler yet. Really, if you're not watching this show you're a god damn idiot.
- How does Chris Bosh only get 6 rebounds in 41 minutes? Both Wade and LeBron grabbed more rebounds than him, when really his biggest role on that team should be "rebound getter guy." Ugh. He's so lame.
- ohmygodohmygodohmygod you guys I am so freaking excited right now. Mrs. W just showed me a video (settle down, pervs) of a movie coming out this summer from SyFy called Swamp Shark about, well, a shark in a swamp. It stars D.B. "shoeless joe" Sweeney and Kristy "hotter than fire or at least I used to be" Swanson (who was also in Red Water which I desperately want to blog but is apparently never ever ever replayed on tv even though it had Coolio as an evil mastermind in it) which is simply an awesome pairing of two awesome people. I don't know if I could come up with a better male and female lead for a crappy SyFy shark movie. I'm like Jessie Spano on caffeine pills right now. Here's the trailer but I want to warn you - you're going to end up with a boner.
Also I think we should all think of Kristy Swanson like this:
And pay no attention to any pictures of her from the last few years because hey, sometimes life gets in the way of being hot. I'm sure she'll bring her A game for Swamp Shark. I mean, she'd have to in order to beat out all the other actresses who were no doubt clamoring for that role.
- So I came up with this formula to calculate how likely a player is to get a hit in any given at-bat against a pitcher and using that info can calculate games where a player is particularly unlikely to get a hit and then wager on such, usually at a 2-to-1 payout or so if they don't. I have to tell you it's nerve-wracking, especially when some dickhole (F you Melky Cabrera and Dan Uggla) is hitless all game and then gets one in the ninth. Like right now I just watched a relatively meaningless Ryan Howard at-bat, but because I have him to get NO hit at +170 I was riveted, even though it's the 4th inning. It's good, and it's bad.
- Speaking of gambling, here are my season futures this year:
- Oh crap I guess I should mention something here about Colton Iverson transferring to Colorado State. So here, "Colton Iverson is transferring to Colorado State." I can't think of anything else to write. I'd rather have him here than there, but if you were to ask me if I care I'm not entirely sure I could even muster a "meh." Maybe just a "m".
- I know Christina Aguilera has put on some weight lately, but I have to be honest with you - all the reports of her becoming a total drunk mess have me bumping her up in my rankings, extra weight or not.
- You know what's a great snack mix? Corn nuts and soy nuts. Outstanding. Throw some sunflower seeds in there and you have a little bit of heaven.
- Finally, I started reading Sid Hartman's latest column on startribune.com, and I just can't resist. Let's break this down a little bit, Sid's writings in bold.
By the way, I have Friday off. Do you?
SUCKA MC!!
- I'm sitting here watching Alexi Casilla flail away haplessly at yet another pitch, it strikes me that this Casilla/Tolbert combo must be one of the absolute worst offensive double-play combos of all time. So let's play around with baseball-reference.
Casilla's career OPS+ is 68. Tolbert's is 72. According to BR, there have been 134 seasons where a player had an OPS+ of 72 or less while playing 2b 75% of the time and acquiring 500 plate appearances, and using those same parameters we come up with 238 shortstops. The question is, did any of those 2b's play with an of those SS's, or, if they hit at their career averages, do the Twins have the worst offensive double play combination in history?
I'll save you some suspense. I found 16 teams where the SS and 2B both had an OPS+ of 72 or worse, so the Casilla/Tolbert combination is only one of the 16 worst in history - not THE worst. BUT. 14 of those come from pre-1980 teams. Back when nobody even gave a crap if your middle infield could even hit the ball out of the infield as long as they could field their position well. Since 1980, only two teams (2003 Dodgers with Alex Cora (67) and Cesar Izturis (60) and the 2007 Giants with Ray Durham (64) and Omar Vizquel (60)) had a worse hitting middle infield than the Twins. So yes, in case anybody asks you can feel comfortable telling them this Twins combo is the third worst since 1980. Comforting.
- Speaking of shitty baseball players I'm really sick of Austin Jackson, who is on my fantasy team. The guy has zero plate discipline and apparently almost zero ability to actually make contact when he swings. Now I'm not against strikeouts per se, despite their being fascist, but when you have a player who strikes out a ton you expect to get a little bit of power along with it. Not so with Mr. Jackson, who struck out 170 times last year while countering with just four home runs (and this year he's at 24 to 1). Bizarre, right? Let's check Mr. Baseball-Reference again.
Prior to Jackson last year, the fewest home runs hit by a player with 170 strikeouts or more was 13 by Jose Hernandez in 2003. Next fewest was Mark Bellhorn with 17 in 2004, then Curtis Granderson's 19 in 2006. The fewest home runs by a player with 160 strikeouts was Mickey Tettleton with 15 in 1990. 150 strikeouts was Delino DeShields with 10 in 1991. In fact, the most strikeouts by a player with 4 or less home runs was Michael Bourn, who struck out 140 times with just 3 home runs in 2009. Simply put, Jackson is about to become the world's greatest strikeout artist with no power, because he's going to pretty much repeat last season's numbers. Only 8 players have ever hit five or less home runs while striking out at least 125 times, including that illustrious firecracker Vince Coleman, and only Gary Pettis has done it twice. Can Jackson match the feat of Gary George Pettis? It's exciting, isn't it?
- I'm pretty sure if there's a heaven, at least one of the main rivers is made up of Buffalo Wild Wing's Spicy Garlic sauce. Not their version of the Nile or the Amazon or the Mississippi, because those are probably reserved for booze, but maybe like the Congo or the Mekong.
- Former Twin Kyle Lohse pitched a hell of a game today, specifically a 2-hit shutout. I was going to write more about it but really who the hell cares? He's a completely average pitcher who occasionally has moments of brilliance, like today, just like he was 10 years ago or whatever on the Twins and just like ten million other pitchers in the major leagues. God he's so boring. He's like the pitcher version of a MASH episode.
- Jesus christ is Parks and Recreation funny. Community is awfully good too, but there's nothing better than Parks and Rec right now. It's knock it out of the park funny every time. I think the five funniest characters in tv history are Ron Swanson, April Ludgate, Tom Haverford, Rob Lowe's character, and Bill Haverchuck. Four of them are from Parks and Rec. And Andy Dwyer is a runner-up, and we haven't even gotten to comedic genius Amy Poehler yet. Really, if you're not watching this show you're a god damn idiot.
- How does Chris Bosh only get 6 rebounds in 41 minutes? Both Wade and LeBron grabbed more rebounds than him, when really his biggest role on that team should be "rebound getter guy." Ugh. He's so lame.
- ohmygodohmygodohmygod you guys I am so freaking excited right now. Mrs. W just showed me a video (settle down, pervs) of a movie coming out this summer from SyFy called Swamp Shark about, well, a shark in a swamp. It stars D.B. "shoeless joe" Sweeney and Kristy "hotter than fire or at least I used to be" Swanson (who was also in Red Water which I desperately want to blog but is apparently never ever ever replayed on tv even though it had Coolio as an evil mastermind in it) which is simply an awesome pairing of two awesome people. I don't know if I could come up with a better male and female lead for a crappy SyFy shark movie. I'm like Jessie Spano on caffeine pills right now. Here's the trailer but I want to warn you - you're going to end up with a boner.
Also I think we should all think of Kristy Swanson like this:
- So I came up with this formula to calculate how likely a player is to get a hit in any given at-bat against a pitcher and using that info can calculate games where a player is particularly unlikely to get a hit and then wager on such, usually at a 2-to-1 payout or so if they don't. I have to tell you it's nerve-wracking, especially when some dickhole (F you Melky Cabrera and Dan Uggla) is hitless all game and then gets one in the ninth. Like right now I just watched a relatively meaningless Ryan Howard at-bat, but because I have him to get NO hit at +170 I was riveted, even though it's the 4th inning. It's good, and it's bad.
- Speaking of gambling, here are my season futures this year:
- Jayson Werth OVER 21.5 home runs
- Joakim Soria OVER 34.5 saves
- Mark Reynolds OVER 30.5 home runs
- Nelson Cruz OVER 27.5 home runs
- Jayson Heyward UNDER 23.5 home runs
- Adam Dunn OVER 35.5 home runs
- Ryan Zimmerman OVER 26.5 home runs
- Carlos Pena OVER 27.5 home runs
- Jose Bautista OVER 29.5 home runs
- Shin Soo Choo OVER 156.5 hits
- Justin Verlander OVER 15.5 wins
- Joe Mauer OVER 164.5 hits
- Ichiro OVER 197.5 hits
- Josh Johnson OVER 13.5 wins
- David Price OVER 15.5 wins
- Clayton Kershaw OVER 13.5 wins
- Clay Buchholz OVER 14.5 wins
- Troy Tulowitzki OVER 28.5 home runs
- Phillies UNDER 96.5 wins
- Marlins OVER 82.5 wins
- Red Sox UNDER 96.5 wins
- Cubs OVER 82.5 wins
- A's OVER 83.5 wins
- Orioles UNDER 77.5 wins
- Oh crap I guess I should mention something here about Colton Iverson transferring to Colorado State. So here, "Colton Iverson is transferring to Colorado State." I can't think of anything else to write. I'd rather have him here than there, but if you were to ask me if I care I'm not entirely sure I could even muster a "meh." Maybe just a "m".
- I know Christina Aguilera has put on some weight lately, but I have to be honest with you - all the reports of her becoming a total drunk mess have me bumping her up in my rankings, extra weight or not.
- You know what's a great snack mix? Corn nuts and soy nuts. Outstanding. Throw some sunflower seeds in there and you have a little bit of heaven.
- Finally, I started reading Sid Hartman's latest column on startribune.com, and I just can't resist. Let's break this down a little bit, Sid's writings in bold.
The Vikings seem to have a strong interest in securing a veteran quarterback once the NFL lockout ends.
I'm not entirely certain, but the fact that the QBs on the roster are Joe Webb, Patrick Ramsey, and Rhett Bomar make it seem like they may need somebody else
It also might be possible the Vikings and Redskins have had some conversations about a deal for 34-year-old quarterback Donovan McNabb, who definitely won't be a member of his current team once play resumes.
I'm definitely not saying anything with any certainty but possibly maybe it could be in the realm of existence that the Vikings have talked to the Redskins about Donovan McNabb. I think I read that somewhere.
Of course, no deals can be made while the lockout is in progress, but I don't know if there is any rule against the clubs talking about making a deal.
I don't know if there are any rules against it, and this paper for some reason has a strict policy against looking things up or even asking someone who might know the answer. Of course, to do either of those things I'd have to figure out this computating machine or the communication device on my desk.
One reason why McNabb might be the veteran quarterback the team will sign is because Vikings coach Leslie Frazier is personally familiar with McNabb. Frazier was a defensive assistant with the Eagles from 1999 to 2002, when McNabb was in his prime.
Way back in 2002, back when the Patriots were a Super Bowl underdog, the New Jersey Nets made the NBA Finals, the Indiana Hoosiers made the Final Four, and Mike Tyson still held a championship belt. But I'm assuming with Frazier being on board, McNabb should be about the same player he was back then.
Last season, Shanahan's first year as the Redskins coach, McNabb played in 13 games, completed 275 of 472 passes for 3,377 yards, a 58.3 completion percentage and an average of 7.2 yards per attempt. He threw for 14 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and a 77.1 passer rating.
AAAh numbers! What are you, some kind of nerd? Sports aren't played by computers or numbers or stats, they're played by people. And Donovan McNabb is a people.
The big problem might be McNabb's contract, which calls for the Redskins to pick up McNabb's $10 million option if he is on the Redskins' 53-man roster the day after the first regular-season game. McNabb's base salary for the 2011 season, if it is played, is reported to be $2.5 million, but jumps to $12.75 million in 2012.
My head hurts.
I'm sure the Vikings would not deal for McNabb unless they could redo his contract. They are not going to pay that kind of money to a 34-year-old quarterback who is at the tail end of his career.
Sounds like a dare.
ESPN correspondent Adam Schefter wrote on Twitter on Saturday that he "believes McNabb would like to play for the Vikings" next year.
What's twitter? Is that on the computationalator?
No doubt the plan is to sign a veteran quarterback, draft another and try to develop Joe Webb into the future starter.
What happened to all this "I'm not entirely certain" talk? Now we've moved to no doubt?
Jerry Kill continues to coach the Gophers football team without a contract. Apparently University of Minnesota lawyers and Kill's agent can't agree on some of the clauses in the contract.
And I absolutely refuse to expound on this further. I know stuff and you don't. Neener neener neener.
Basketball coach Tubby Smith's lawyers still are trying to reach an agreement on an extension. Baseball coach John Anderson, who won the Big Ten title a year ago and advanced to the NCAA tournament, is operating on his old contract without any new negotiations taking place.
This is the part where I don't know where I am and forgot what I'm supposed to be writing about. Since I just re-read the thing about the Gopher football coach, I'm just going to mention the only other two Gopher coaches whose names I remember.
Former Twins shortstop Orlando Cabrera is one of the big reasons for the Cleveland Indians' early success and first-place standing in the American League Central entering Wednesday's games. The 36-year-old is hitting .262, and his 11 RBI is second on the team. He's also hit two home runs this season after hitting five in all of 2009 for the Twins and four for Cincinnati last year.
He's hitting .257, has walked all of twice in 72 plate appearances, and outside of those two precious home runs has one extra base hit. His OPS+ of 86 actually says he's been a significantly below average hitter this year, equivalent to what Michael Cuddyer has done for the Twins so far this year (pre-tonight's home run). But keep clinging to those 11 RBI, which are more a product of hitting behind Travis Hafner, Carlos Santana, and Michael Brantley - all of whom can't stop getting on base. And how dare he hit more home runs for Cleveland than for the Twins. He'll never work in this town again.
... Jon Rauch, who the Twins declined to keep after the 2010 season and instead signed a $3.5 million deal with Toronto, is 1-1 with a 2.35 ERA and three saves for the Blue Jays.
He also has a 5/4 strikeout-to-walk ratio and an insanely lucky BABIP. He sucks. And is lucky.
Another pair of relievers the Twins let go last winter are doing well with their new teams. Jesse Crain has been fantastic for the Chicago White Sox, posting an 0-1 record and a 1.93 ERA in 9 1/3 innings pitched, with 11 strikeouts and only two walks.
And has been a huge part of two bullpen meltdowns that lead to Sox's losses.
Former Twins utility player Nick Punto appeared in his first game of the season for the St. Louis Cardinals on Wednesday, taking a walk as a pinch hitter in the sixth inning. Punto had been on the disabled list because of a sports hernia.
A real tough-guy, hard-nosed, gritty, hustley, gamer injury probably suffered by sliding into first base.
... J.J. Hardy, who was hurt a great deal in his one season with the Twins last year, has been placed on the 15-day disabled list by the Baltimore Orioles because of a muscle strain. Hardy was off to a somewhat slow start for the Orioles, hitting .200 (3-for-15) through six games, but all three hits were doubles.
Not a gamer. Pussy.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Weekend Review - 03.28.2011
What a retardedly stupid nonsensical and awesome tournament this has been. I can't remember ever having this much fun watching. Nearly every game close, and essentially completely impossible to predict. At this point I'd bet there are more people with zero final four teams correct (including your president - suck it, commie) than even have one, and although I'm sure there are a handful of people who have two correct I'd be pretty shocked if I know anyone who does. Every year it sucks when this tournament ends because it's always the most fun sporting event to watch, but this year it's going to be even worse. Doesn't help that the Twins are speeding towards mediocrity even faster than usual, but I won't dwell on that know. Plenty of time to talk hardball after next week.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Virginia Commonwealth Rams. Hard not to recognize a team that went from the First Four round to the Final Four, and a team that had the "experts" wringing their hands and bitching non-spot about how they shouldn't have gotten a bid (check the records and you'll see that I said they should be in multiple times - point me). Since you're about to get force fed more happy fun stories about VCU than you can handle I'm going to tell you a semi-funny story from Chicago instead. As most bars do at this time, the Dayton bar where we spent an inordinate amount of time had a bracket on the wall and an employee would hand write in each winner. This bar clearly had a female employee do it, because on the line where you would write the winner of the Georgetown/VCU game the chick wrote "VCU/USC." So now I'm picturing a bracket on the wall of the bar with four different winner lines with "VCU/USC" written down. I don't know, maybe you had to be there but it's pretty god damn funny.
2. Derrick Williams. Easily the most impressive player I saw this weekend and I don't even know if there was a second one. What an absolute monster. That dunk he threw down against UCONN in the second half where he basically powered through two dudes to throw down would have been the most impressive dunk of the entire tournament, except he eclipsed that one with the monster Shawn Kemp NBA Jam style slam he had against Duke. And it's not like he's a one-dimensional, Trevor Mbakwe dunking machine. He can shoot from the perimeter, rebound like a mofo, and he's excellent with the ball around the basket. I don't know what kind of NBA career he might have because I don't watch until the playoffs because I'm not retarded, but Williams is/was an absolute college beast. Probably has a huge crank, too.
3. Matt Howard. If Williams blew me away with his awesomeness, Howard blew me away with his improvement. Last year he was basically a chubby disaster against good teams and, although I don't want to say he single handedly lost the championship game against Duke, but he was so badly outplayed by Brian freaking Zoubek and looked so ridiculously out of place in that game that it's really just a testament to the brilliance of Shelvin Mack and Gordon Hayward that the championship went down to the wire.
Now, however, he's lost a bunch of that babyfat, added a jumper with 3-point range to his game, cut way way way down on his fouling, and is absolutely brimming with confidence. Which he should be because he's playing great. He's played some very good front courts so far this tournament in Old Dominion, Pitt, and Florida, and even the dainty Jon Leuer can be a challenge, and he's played well on both ends of the court against all of them. Last year's version of Howard would have gotten killed by Florida's super athletic dudes, but this year Howard scored 14, grabbed 5 boards, and most importantly only committed three fouls so he was able to play 40 minutes. His numbers might not jump out an grab you, but if you saw him this year and last you'd see what a massive improvement he's made, and he's a big, big reason Butler is heading to the Final Four.
4. Jeremy Lamb. All season long the one thing UCONN really needed was a second scorer to take pressure off of Kemba Walker who, despite being completely awesome, is not unstoppable despite what the media and announcers decided to make their running story (12-25 and 7-17 shooting in the two games this weekend doesn't make him unstoppable, it just makes him a high volume shooter and scorer). Lamb really stepped up, scoring 24 against San Diego State, tying a season high and was basically the whole reason UCONN won that game, and then following it up with 19 in the win over Zona. I still think he's a bit soft, but he's only a freshman so he can either take the good path and toughen up a bit and end up a pretty high level player and scorer, or he can go on about his business as he is, having games where he scores a ton and just as many games where he's nowhere to be found. I say that second thing like it's a bad thing, but I should point out that even that version of Lamb would be the best player on the Gophers, and it wouldn't even be close.
5. Kentucky Wildcats. Well I'm flabbergasted. It's rare of me to misjudge a team this badly. Actually strike that, because I think team's are better than they really are all the time, but it's rare that a team I think is terrible ends up doing something stupid like going to the Final Four. Calipari is a terrible game coach and a terrible game planner, generally winning games by having the most talent, almost in spite of himself. This year's Kentucky isn't all that talented, at least from a Calipari's most talented team perspective, so I figured an early exit was inevitable. Shocking that I got something wrong in this year's tournament I know, but apparently Brandon Knight is a lot better than I thought. Much, much better than Brandin Knight, who, of course, played for the world's most chokiest program in history in the Pitt Panthers, the same most chokiest program who I inexplicably chose as my national champion. Next year I'm not even filling out a bracket, it's getting too embarrassing. It's like if Stephen Hawking called you to hook up his tivo. From an understanding how to do it perspective, I mean. Not the whole "I have no movement in any of my limbs" thing.
WHO SUCKED
1. Wisconsin Badgers. As enjoyable as that loss was for Gopher fans and white people haters that had to be brutal for Badger fans. Really, I mean if you lose a buzzer beater game it sucks like getting punched in the stomach by a large black man who was just helping you find your glasses in a snowbank sucks - quick, painful, unexpected, but the pain subsides quickly. It sucks to lose that way, just like it sucks to lose to a team that just blows you away because they're so much better or playing so well at the time, but you can live with those losses. The way Wisconsin lost, however, has got to just gnaw away at you for a long, long time. Butler gets credit for shutting the Badgers down, but in reality they didn't do much. It was simply Wisconsin missing open shots. Over. And over. And over. And over. In the mid-first half Jordan Taylor was fouled on a three-pointer and missed the first two free-throws, and that basically summed up the night. And I loved every damn minute of it.
2. Jimmer Fredette. Did you get a chance to watch the Jimmer? Freaking amazing when he has the ball, right? Amazing shooter with unlimited range and a hair-trigger release, ability to get buy a defender off the dribble and get into the lane, an excellent eye to find open teammates for easy hoops, and just amazing body control. Really an impressive player with the ball. But did you happen to notice him when he doesn't have the ball? I've never seen a lazier god damn player in my life. He does one of three things if he doesn't have the ball:
3. Duke Blue Devils. hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha oh my god that was so awesome. It was like, all of a sudden Arizona realized, "hey, these guys are a bunch of nerds. More athletic nerds than the Northwestern dorks of course, but still nerds. And we aren't, so let's kill them" and then suddenly a dunk contest broke out and pasty white dorks and Jalen Rose's favorite type of brothers were their props. They could do the entire one shining moment montage just from dunks from this game. I think if Duke was playing a women's team that night those broads would have been running and jumping all over there heads. Or maybe a lay-up line would have broken out instead. I guess that's more realistic.
4. William Buford. Outside the Wisconsin duo of Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer, I'm not sure anybody looked crappier than Buford. Here's my impression of his game against Kentucky: clang clang clang clang clang clang and so on and so forth. Like Billy Ho once said, "I'll tell you what. Why don't we take all these bricks and build a shelter for the homeless, so maybe your mother will have a place to stay. And your sister, too. I want your mother and sister out of my house." Damn Will, you just got played by a slow, white, geeky chump. What do you mean, black ball?
5. Colton Iverson's transfer. Of all the red flags jumping up around the program regarding player defections this one has to be the worst. The rest can all be rationalized away if you are looking for a reason to do so: Royce White was a bad egg, Justin Cobbs was homesick, Paul Carter's sister was sick (ok so that one was pretty legit), Devoe Joesph is a selfish player who only cares about himself, and on and on. If you want to have blind faith in Tubby you didn't have to try to hard. For me, however, this one is a stunner and, frankly, makes me more than a little concerned.
I mean, what exactly is the reasoning here? Iverson can't possibly believe Tubby is holding him back from a professional future playing ball, so what possible rationale could he have for leaving with only one year left to play? It's not like a playing time issue makes much sense either, because of his style of play, body type, and just overall gangliness he's not going to suddenly jump up to 36 minutes a night no matter where he goes. I just don't get this one. Colton would have been my last guess at a player who would be transferring out. I fear there are some real issues with this program, and I'm starting to think this year may not have been rock bottom. If Colton can leave, anybody could. What if both Mbakwe and Rodney end up leaving? Or hell, anybody else, I don't even know any more. I just know that I'm suddenly more fearful than ever that Tubby's style of coaching isn't just not winning as many games as we'd hoped but is now actively pushing players out. Let's just move on to baseball so a different team can let me down.
And since we're almost to baseball season (preview of some sort coming soon, maybe even this week), here's the team Snake and I put together in our fantasy baseball draft. I don't know about you, but looks like a championship to me.
C - Miguel Montero, Arizona (do you realize there are like 3 good catchers? And we weren't getting stuck with freaking Wieters again. I've done that dance twice).
1B - Billy Butler, KC (fat doubles machine)
2B - Rickie Weeks, MIL (counting on last year NOT being a career year)
3B - Evan Longoria, TB (so sexy he'll steal your girlfriend)
SS - Starlin Castro, CHC (please don't suck)
OF - Mike Stanton, FLA (not the middle reliever. We're buying the hype)
OF - Austin Jackson, DET (how about just a little plate discipline?)
OF - Delmon Young, MIN (no points for fielding)
Ut - Jason Kubel, MIN (got him very, very late. Decent upside)
SP - Jon Lester, BOS (could win 25)
SP - Justin Verlander, DET (looking even more unhittable this year)
SP - Clay Buchholz, BOS (I guess we're all in on Boston)
SP - Madison Bumgarner, SF (hoping his rough spring doesn't mean anything)
RP - Jonathan Papelbon, BOS (like I said)
RP - Joakim Soria, KC (Will probably end up saving 85% of KC's wins)
RP - Drew Storen, WAS (we can't have Strausberg, so we'll take his little buddy)
Bench - 1B Justin Smoak, SEA (Of course)
Bench - SP Michael Pineda, SEA (we hit it big with Leake last year, might as well try again)
Bench - RP Chris Sale, CHW (already unhittable, just needs to get the closer gig)
Bench - SP Carl Pavano, MIN (steady enough)
CHAMPIONSHIP!
RIP Paul.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Virginia Commonwealth Rams. Hard not to recognize a team that went from the First Four round to the Final Four, and a team that had the "experts" wringing their hands and bitching non-spot about how they shouldn't have gotten a bid (check the records and you'll see that I said they should be in multiple times - point me). Since you're about to get force fed more happy fun stories about VCU than you can handle I'm going to tell you a semi-funny story from Chicago instead. As most bars do at this time, the Dayton bar where we spent an inordinate amount of time had a bracket on the wall and an employee would hand write in each winner. This bar clearly had a female employee do it, because on the line where you would write the winner of the Georgetown/VCU game the chick wrote "VCU/USC." So now I'm picturing a bracket on the wall of the bar with four different winner lines with "VCU/USC" written down. I don't know, maybe you had to be there but it's pretty god damn funny.
2. Derrick Williams. Easily the most impressive player I saw this weekend and I don't even know if there was a second one. What an absolute monster. That dunk he threw down against UCONN in the second half where he basically powered through two dudes to throw down would have been the most impressive dunk of the entire tournament, except he eclipsed that one with the monster Shawn Kemp NBA Jam style slam he had against Duke. And it's not like he's a one-dimensional, Trevor Mbakwe dunking machine. He can shoot from the perimeter, rebound like a mofo, and he's excellent with the ball around the basket. I don't know what kind of NBA career he might have because I don't watch until the playoffs because I'm not retarded, but Williams is/was an absolute college beast. Probably has a huge crank, too.
3. Matt Howard. If Williams blew me away with his awesomeness, Howard blew me away with his improvement. Last year he was basically a chubby disaster against good teams and, although I don't want to say he single handedly lost the championship game against Duke, but he was so badly outplayed by Brian freaking Zoubek and looked so ridiculously out of place in that game that it's really just a testament to the brilliance of Shelvin Mack and Gordon Hayward that the championship went down to the wire.
Now, however, he's lost a bunch of that babyfat, added a jumper with 3-point range to his game, cut way way way down on his fouling, and is absolutely brimming with confidence. Which he should be because he's playing great. He's played some very good front courts so far this tournament in Old Dominion, Pitt, and Florida, and even the dainty Jon Leuer can be a challenge, and he's played well on both ends of the court against all of them. Last year's version of Howard would have gotten killed by Florida's super athletic dudes, but this year Howard scored 14, grabbed 5 boards, and most importantly only committed three fouls so he was able to play 40 minutes. His numbers might not jump out an grab you, but if you saw him this year and last you'd see what a massive improvement he's made, and he's a big, big reason Butler is heading to the Final Four.
4. Jeremy Lamb. All season long the one thing UCONN really needed was a second scorer to take pressure off of Kemba Walker who, despite being completely awesome, is not unstoppable despite what the media and announcers decided to make their running story (12-25 and 7-17 shooting in the two games this weekend doesn't make him unstoppable, it just makes him a high volume shooter and scorer). Lamb really stepped up, scoring 24 against San Diego State, tying a season high and was basically the whole reason UCONN won that game, and then following it up with 19 in the win over Zona. I still think he's a bit soft, but he's only a freshman so he can either take the good path and toughen up a bit and end up a pretty high level player and scorer, or he can go on about his business as he is, having games where he scores a ton and just as many games where he's nowhere to be found. I say that second thing like it's a bad thing, but I should point out that even that version of Lamb would be the best player on the Gophers, and it wouldn't even be close.
5. Kentucky Wildcats. Well I'm flabbergasted. It's rare of me to misjudge a team this badly. Actually strike that, because I think team's are better than they really are all the time, but it's rare that a team I think is terrible ends up doing something stupid like going to the Final Four. Calipari is a terrible game coach and a terrible game planner, generally winning games by having the most talent, almost in spite of himself. This year's Kentucky isn't all that talented, at least from a Calipari's most talented team perspective, so I figured an early exit was inevitable. Shocking that I got something wrong in this year's tournament I know, but apparently Brandon Knight is a lot better than I thought. Much, much better than Brandin Knight, who, of course, played for the world's most chokiest program in history in the Pitt Panthers, the same most chokiest program who I inexplicably chose as my national champion. Next year I'm not even filling out a bracket, it's getting too embarrassing. It's like if Stephen Hawking called you to hook up his tivo. From an understanding how to do it perspective, I mean. Not the whole "I have no movement in any of my limbs" thing.
WHO SUCKED
1. Wisconsin Badgers. As enjoyable as that loss was for Gopher fans and white people haters that had to be brutal for Badger fans. Really, I mean if you lose a buzzer beater game it sucks like getting punched in the stomach by a large black man who was just helping you find your glasses in a snowbank sucks - quick, painful, unexpected, but the pain subsides quickly. It sucks to lose that way, just like it sucks to lose to a team that just blows you away because they're so much better or playing so well at the time, but you can live with those losses. The way Wisconsin lost, however, has got to just gnaw away at you for a long, long time. Butler gets credit for shutting the Badgers down, but in reality they didn't do much. It was simply Wisconsin missing open shots. Over. And over. And over. And over. In the mid-first half Jordan Taylor was fouled on a three-pointer and missed the first two free-throws, and that basically summed up the night. And I loved every damn minute of it.
2. Jimmer Fredette. Did you get a chance to watch the Jimmer? Freaking amazing when he has the ball, right? Amazing shooter with unlimited range and a hair-trigger release, ability to get buy a defender off the dribble and get into the lane, an excellent eye to find open teammates for easy hoops, and just amazing body control. Really an impressive player with the ball. But did you happen to notice him when he doesn't have the ball? I've never seen a lazier god damn player in my life. He does one of three things if he doesn't have the ball:
- Stand there
- Clap his hands and call for the ball.
- Run directly at his teammate with the ball and clap his hands while calling for the ball
3. Duke Blue Devils. hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha oh my god that was so awesome. It was like, all of a sudden Arizona realized, "hey, these guys are a bunch of nerds. More athletic nerds than the Northwestern dorks of course, but still nerds. And we aren't, so let's kill them" and then suddenly a dunk contest broke out and pasty white dorks and Jalen Rose's favorite type of brothers were their props. They could do the entire one shining moment montage just from dunks from this game. I think if Duke was playing a women's team that night those broads would have been running and jumping all over there heads. Or maybe a lay-up line would have broken out instead. I guess that's more realistic.
4. William Buford. Outside the Wisconsin duo of Jordan Taylor and Jon Leuer, I'm not sure anybody looked crappier than Buford. Here's my impression of his game against Kentucky: clang clang clang clang clang clang and so on and so forth. Like Billy Ho once said, "I'll tell you what. Why don't we take all these bricks and build a shelter for the homeless, so maybe your mother will have a place to stay. And your sister, too. I want your mother and sister out of my house." Damn Will, you just got played by a slow, white, geeky chump. What do you mean, black ball?
5. Colton Iverson's transfer. Of all the red flags jumping up around the program regarding player defections this one has to be the worst. The rest can all be rationalized away if you are looking for a reason to do so: Royce White was a bad egg, Justin Cobbs was homesick, Paul Carter's sister was sick (ok so that one was pretty legit), Devoe Joesph is a selfish player who only cares about himself, and on and on. If you want to have blind faith in Tubby you didn't have to try to hard. For me, however, this one is a stunner and, frankly, makes me more than a little concerned.
I mean, what exactly is the reasoning here? Iverson can't possibly believe Tubby is holding him back from a professional future playing ball, so what possible rationale could he have for leaving with only one year left to play? It's not like a playing time issue makes much sense either, because of his style of play, body type, and just overall gangliness he's not going to suddenly jump up to 36 minutes a night no matter where he goes. I just don't get this one. Colton would have been my last guess at a player who would be transferring out. I fear there are some real issues with this program, and I'm starting to think this year may not have been rock bottom. If Colton can leave, anybody could. What if both Mbakwe and Rodney end up leaving? Or hell, anybody else, I don't even know any more. I just know that I'm suddenly more fearful than ever that Tubby's style of coaching isn't just not winning as many games as we'd hoped but is now actively pushing players out. Let's just move on to baseball so a different team can let me down.
And since we're almost to baseball season (preview of some sort coming soon, maybe even this week), here's the team Snake and I put together in our fantasy baseball draft. I don't know about you, but looks like a championship to me.
C - Miguel Montero, Arizona (do you realize there are like 3 good catchers? And we weren't getting stuck with freaking Wieters again. I've done that dance twice).
1B - Billy Butler, KC (fat doubles machine)
2B - Rickie Weeks, MIL (counting on last year NOT being a career year)
3B - Evan Longoria, TB (so sexy he'll steal your girlfriend)
SS - Starlin Castro, CHC (please don't suck)
OF - Mike Stanton, FLA (not the middle reliever. We're buying the hype)
OF - Austin Jackson, DET (how about just a little plate discipline?)
OF - Delmon Young, MIN (no points for fielding)
Ut - Jason Kubel, MIN (got him very, very late. Decent upside)
SP - Jon Lester, BOS (could win 25)
SP - Justin Verlander, DET (looking even more unhittable this year)
SP - Clay Buchholz, BOS (I guess we're all in on Boston)
SP - Madison Bumgarner, SF (hoping his rough spring doesn't mean anything)
RP - Jonathan Papelbon, BOS (like I said)
RP - Joakim Soria, KC (Will probably end up saving 85% of KC's wins)
RP - Drew Storen, WAS (we can't have Strausberg, so we'll take his little buddy)
Bench - 1B Justin Smoak, SEA (Of course)
Bench - SP Michael Pineda, SEA (we hit it big with Leake last year, might as well try again)
Bench - RP Chris Sale, CHW (already unhittable, just needs to get the closer gig)
Bench - SP Carl Pavano, MIN (steady enough)
CHAMPIONSHIP!
RIP Paul.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Michigan State Aftermath
I've taken some time, calmed down, self-medicated, and I'm ready to discuss the Gopher basketball team again. Not specifically the Michigan State game because if we start talking about that I will probably murder all the furniture in my house, but in a more general, "this whole year sucked" compared to "last night sucked" sense. I have so many conflicting emotions about it all - sadness, anger, confusion, anger again, sleepiness, horniness, then depression - that I can't really sort it all out, so let's do it in self-interview fashion. If it helps your visualization techniques you can picture the questioner as Benicio del Toro and the answerer as me without any pants.
Q. There are some pretty legitimate reasons why the Gophers suck now, right?
A. Yes, and that's why it's hard to get too enraged (but make no mistake, I'm still enraged) because it's pretty easy to assign the most blame for this disaster on God/Buddha/Allah/Kali/Tiamat/Merlin, as misguided as that might be. Of course, it all starts with Al Nolen's injury - or perhaps it starts with Devoe Joseph's defection - but in any case the net results is zero point guards, zero depth, and complete disaster. Blake playing the point when he's not remotely suited for the role, with the sweet double whammy of putting the teams only perimeter threat in a position where, given his abilities, it's more difficult to get shots and score. Ralph Sampson playing the three, where no matter how badly he wants to be a perimeter guy, he just doesn't have the skill set. Is he a good perimeter player for a big man? Absolutely. Is a three? Hell mother flipping no. And you have three freshmen that should be playing 20-25 between them playing about 20 minutes each.
I mean, you can trace most of their close losses to an inability to play well at the close of games, and so much of that starts with a competent lead guard. Michigan State had Kalin Lucas last night. Penn State beat the Gophers because Talor Battle made plays. Hell, Wisconsin just barely beat Michigan, but they did because they had Jordan Taylor out there making plays (and a little luck) just as he did against Purdue. The Gophers don't have that. Instead they have players who travel unguarded on a final possession, players who panic at the first sign of a trap, and an inability to execute half-court plays at the end of the game because the only player good enough to get the ball to a shooter is the shooter himself, and passing to yourself is traveling. Unfortunately.
This game should have been a battle between two snake-bitten and underachieving teams. Hell, Tubby Smith and Tom Izzo could have traded war stories like Captain Quint and Hooper on the Orca. Instead of stories about a big Chinese fella in an arm-wrestling contest and a thresher shark's tail, they could have discussed player defections, suspensions, and injured players. But instead it was more like Tubby was Chief Brody, just sitting there with stupid smile on his face. Or that dumb Alex kid who paddles out too far on his gay little raft.
In any case, yes, there are plenty of easy excuses as to why this team has underachieved, should you choose to latch on to them.
Q. Doesn't it seem like some of these guys should be better though?
A. And really, here is my biggest issue. I could excuse a bad season if it wasn't playing out in this particular way. I mean, was every recruiting service wrong about some of these guys or is the seeming lack of development on far too many players indicative a real problem with the way they're taught? Some of these guys were major, big-time recruits, but I'm not seeing the development. I mean, Chief Brody was afraid of water and stayed in the car on the ferry ride over to Amity Island from the mainland in the beginning, but ended up the badass who killed the crap out of the shark - where's that kind of development here? Was Sampson destined to fall in love with his perimeter game and shrink in big spots whether he was a Gopher or a Terrapin? Would Colton Iverson be nothing more than a stronger, heavier version of the same gangly, elbow-y, pasty tornado if Billy Donovan was in charge of him instead of Tubby? What about Rodney Williams lack of development? He's exactly like last year - flashes of potential sandwiched in between long stretches of invisibility. Would he be stuck in this holding pattern of mediocrity if he had ended up at Kansas or UCONN? Obviously I don't have a flux capacitor nor any plutonium so I can't generate 1.21 gigawatts to travel to an alternate universe so I don't know the answer to these questions, but it bugs the shit out of me that we aren't talking one guy, or even two, but we're talking three. Throw Devoe in if you want. Like, literally you can throw him into the shark-invested waters off Cable Junction near Amity Island if you want.
Then there's the inability to draw up anything resembling an effective play out of a timeout, something I did mention was harder without a true point guard, but it was an issue back when Nolen was still around and has just gotten worse. Or the way the freshmen seem to constantly freeze in nearly every high leverage game situation - either freeze or go balls out, either way it's a bad choice. Or the random substitution patterns and inability to stick to anything resembling a consistent rotation - granted that's suddenly become less of an issue this year. The mass defections of quality players - even excepting Paul Carter that's still far too many transfers in two years. How about, due to those transfers, there isn't a viable starting point guard on the roster outside of Nolen, and there isn't one on the roster next year. Maverick Ahanmisi's upside is a good back-up, and, for all the talk that Andre Hollins is going to be the PG next year, he's 1. a freshman and 2. playing SG in high school. It's got disaster written all over it (not him, but the sitch).
Perhaps my biggest complaint is that I thought we'd be farther, here. This is year 4, and although the team is in better shape than when he first arrived, you don't really hire Tubby Smith to get your program back to mediocrity - that's why you hire Todd Lickliter. I guess the best way I can put this is that I was expecting this: "Y'all know me. Know how I earn a livin'. I'll catch this bird for you, but it ain't gonna be easy. Bad fish. Not like going down the pond chasin' bluegills and tommycods. This shark, swallow you whole. Little shakin', little tenderizin', an' down you go. And we gotta do it quick, that'll bring back your tourists, put all your businesses on a payin' basis. But it's not gonna be pleasant. I value my neck a lot more than three thousand bucks, chief. I'll find him for three, but I'll catch him, and kill him, for ten. But you've gotta make up your minds. If you want to stay alive, then ante up. If you want to play it cheap, be on welfare the whole winter. I don't want no volunteers, I don't want no mates, there's just too many captains on this island. Ten thousand dollars for me by myself. For that you get the head, the tail, the whole damn thing" but instead I think we got the idiots who try to catch the shark using a pot roast with a tire for a bobber.
Q. How do you foresee the rest of the year/offseason playing out?
A. It really wouldn't shock me to see them lose the next four games and just call it a season, but I expect them to win two of the next three, win the B10 tournament opener, lose their second, and make a very prestigious appearance in the NIT. From there who cares. Then things get interesting. Who leaves, like Roy Scheider after the sequel, and who sticks around like Lorraine Gary until the disaster that was Jaws 4?
Does Tubby leave? A frustrating year, an inability to advance the program, and lack of progress towards his precious practice facility could make leaving while his name still has plenty of cachet an attractive option for someone closing in on his last run. People always question if he'd really want to start over at a new program at his age, but I ask what's worse, that or squandering your last opportunity? It would surprise me if jumping ship to somewhere that's more of a basketball hotbed and has state-of-the-art facilities and a rabid fanbase (read: NC State) suddenly looks better to him that what's going here in basketballs Siberia. Don't forget, he was in play at some level before they hired Sid Lowe, who's about to get canned.
And how about Rodney and Trevor Mbakwe? There are convincing arguments for either of them to jump ship and go pro. Rodney could enter the NBA draft and based solely on potential have a shot at being a late first round pick. He shouldn't, and anybody who takes him should have their head examined, but it's a possibility. Not to mention the chance that he just decides things aren't working out here. He's not developing into the NBA player his high-school career suggested he would and I'm guessing he's not blind or myopic enough that he can't see that. It wouldn't shock me if he decides that he's not ready for the NBA but that Minnesota isn't he place to make that happen. As far as Mbakwe he's not an NBA player, although he could potentially develop into one with some improvements to his game, but he could make a living playing overseas. There's got to be a temptation factor there for an "old" senior who has had multiple legal issues and has been in school for too many years. If he's offered six figures to play pro ball in Australia or Israel, who'd begrudge him for leaving?
The only other transfer risk I really see is Mo Walker. With his best bud (get it, bud?) and possibly a guy who had a heavy hand in getting him here (although that seems less likely now) gone is he interested in sticking around, especially considering he has essentially a zero percent chance of starting next year? I think he'll probably stick around, but you never know.
Actually, I think most of them stick around. I'd say Walker is about 10% to leave, Williams 20%, Mbakwe 25%, and Tubby 50/50%. I hope they all stay. I really do, because I'm not ready to give up on Tubby going from the baby shark that ate the license plate to the shark that ate all them people, but I really didn't expect this team to still be sitting where it is. I really thought they'd be much farther by now.
Q. So what do you make of the Gophers' chances at this point to earn an NCAA Tournament bid?
A. Farewell and adieu, to you my Spanish ladies. Farewell and adieu, you ladies of Spain. For we've received orders to sail back to Boston, and so nevermore shall we be seeing you again.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Live Blog: Minnesota Gophers vs. Penn State Nittany Lions
You know what's great? Technology. You know why? Because a working dad like me can come home from work, eat dinner with his family (homemade pizza), play with the kids, put the kids to bed, watch the best show on TV (Parks & Rec), spend quality time with his wife (wink wink) and still watch a game that started at 6pm thanks to the miracle of DVR. And I already have a buzz on. Sweet.
Keep in mind throughout this game that I made a semi-large wager on Talor Battle over 26.5 points+rebounds+assists, so I'll be rooting for him to do well at the same time I'm dying for a Gopher win. Here's what I know: Bogart told me to look for Mbakwe at 6:11 left in the first half, and Dawger called me at 8:24, which would be not long after the game ends. I've been trying to figure out why he'd call me, but I'm guessing at this point we're going down to the wire. Let's see.
19:24 - Iverson fouled on the games first possession, makes one. Sounds about right. It's a bit disconcerting that with the big lineup in the ball didn't get anywhere near the point until there were 4 seconds left on the shot clock, but whatever.
18:36 - Gophers in a zone and are really shading Battle. Whichever area Battle is the defender is almost playing man on Battle, even without the ball. Interesting strategy which leads to Battle getting nothing but backboard on a pro range three. What a stupid bet.
17:27 - Jesus christ, Ralph. Although I don't know if that's really his fault, not really sure why Mbakwe thought it would be a good idea to outlet to Sampson. But sheesh, that was like watching a baby deer try to stand up for the first time.
16:35 - Rodney Williams with the travel trying to drive, moving his feet before he gets the ball on the ground. How many times has that happened this year? Twice per game or so, no?
16:10 - Battle for three. 5-3 PSU. Sampson with a deep two-pointer to tie it up. That guy sure loves his jumpshot.
14:26 - Battle with another three to make it 11-7 Penn State. Hair trigger style too, he looks incredibly dialed in. Obviously that's a negative. They have him running baseline against the Gopher 2-3, and they're going to need the wings to pay more attention, because he completely ran Iverson into a pick on that one.
13:38 - David Jackson misses another three. This guy should play for Michigan. Complete and total chucker, never saw a shot he didn't want to take, and at 6-7 basically refuses to go anywhere near the paint. I should also mention he's a starter on my fantasy team. Yes, my team sucks.
12:27 - Why do they keep calling Jackson "DJ Jackson?" Is that what he actually goes by? Because all the literature on Penn State calls him David. Not that I'd ever question Stephen Bardo, the worst starter on that awesome '89 Illinois team: Bardo, Kendall Gill, Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle, Lowell Hamilton. That was a hell of a squad.
12:04 - Armelin loves shooting. And that's good, because at least somebody is always looking to score. He doesn't really even seem to force it very often, it's just whenever it's open he's going to take it. He could end up being a pretty big-time scorer some day.
9:12 - Another three by Battle, 14-11 Penn State. Assisted by Tim Frazier. Those two give me nightmares. Battle can't graduate fast enough for me. Or run out of eligibility. Whichever.
8:16 - A three by some guy and penn state has five threes making up 15 of their 17 points. And it could easily be more but "D.J." Jackson can't shoot for shit. God damn the Gophers are awful at defending the three-pointer.
7:55 - Hey I have a book recommendation for the five of you who read this blog who actually read books: Scorecasting by Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim. It's basically like Freakonomics, but with sports topics. So where Freakonomics (also a great book) dug into the economics of drug-dealing and the socioeconomic patterns of naming your children, Scorecasting looks at things like "Does defense really win championships?" (yes, but so does offense), "Does calling a timeout to ice a player work?" (no), and "Why does home court advantage exist?" (it's the referees, for real.) Just really great stuff, clearly researched by nerds but presented in a way that normal people will enjoy reading. Read it, if for no other reason that the next time you want to throw something at your tv when your team is on the road and you're convinced they're getting screwed, you'll at least have some facts that support you.
7:42 - Hoff for three, 19-16 Penn State. Let's do more of that, please. and Battle answers with a shot that doesn't even make any sense that he made it. I hate to say I told you so, but he's looking like he's beyond dialed.
6:42 - It's almost 6:11. I'm giddy with anticipation.
6:11 - Yep, that'll do it. Bardo calls Mbakwe a "grown man" which is still the stupidest compliment in history. Well, other than "dapper."
4:40 - Whoa. Battle missed. That's whack. PSU grabs the o-board of course. Luckily some guy who isn't Battle clangs the open three-pointer. Hoff with his third three and it's 26-24 Penn State. I don't understand how that guy gets open threes against anybody. If I was a coach every time my team let Hoff have an open three-ball they'd be running laps. And I don't mean at practice, I mean I'd take whoever's fault it was out right then and there and make him run around the court in front of the fans and cameras and everything. I'm tough like that.
3:50 - Ralph scores with a jump hook. I bet you can't guess who Bardo compared him too. Go ahead, you'll never get it right. Oh. Yeah. It was his dad. For the 53rd time this season.
1:41 - Another high-low from Iverson to Mbakwe and teh Gophers are up 28-26. They are killing them inside, but it should be even worse considering Penn State's only good inside players have both been on the bench for much of this half with foul issues. Just sad. I don't feel good at all right now.
0:28 - You know what the best movie I've seen in a long time is? Threat Level Midnight.
0:00 - 29-28 Penn State at half. Terrible half if you aren't Trevor Mbakwe (10 pts, 10 rebs at half). And that's with Jeff Brooks missing basically the entire first half. My tummy hurts. I need a beer.
19:24 - Frazier hits a desperation three-pointer with the shot clock at 1. Great. Good omen.
16:54 - Good god does Penn State love to launch the three-pointer. Is the Big Ten just a three-pointer dominated league? Northwestern, Michigan, and Wisconsin are all in love with it, and apparently Penn State is too. Hold on, let me get my tape recorder out: "Do some nerd research on if the Big Ten is a more three-point heavy league than the other ones." There.
16:04 - I desperately want to see Iverson shoot a three-pointer. What would that even look like? Probably similar to watching Ralph try to play PG on a fast break. Also the Gophers are still losing, 34-32. They really need to do something about that.
14:29 - Sampson hits a three, white announcer guy gushes, Bardo references his dad (#54 this year). Seriously, can we calm down with the moistness after Ralph hits a perimeter shot, please? Yes, it's great that a 7-footer can hit a three, but what would be even greater is if that 7-footer could spend more than 10% of his time in the paint instead of flitting about on the perimeter. You're a big man, get your ass in the paint and post up. If the perimeter jumper comes to you, great, but you should not be looking for it. It's like a counselor once told me, you're not an alcoholic if you're hunting the booze, you're an alcoholic if the booze is hunting you. Which means I need another beer.
13:32 - Here's my impression of Tim Frazier: I'm going to drive the lane because nobody on this slow ass team can stop me but I have no intention of even looking to score but it doesn't matter because the Gophers haven't figured this out so they collapse to stop me and guess what I know exactly where my buddy Talor is and I just found him for another open three-pointer which he of course nailed. Boom roasted.
13:06 - And it's all falling apart. Fart.
11:53 - Talor Battle must have the patience of a saint. If I were him and these were my teammates I'd be in prison.
10:38 - Sometimes doing a live blog isn't fun at all. Penn State 47, Minnesota 37. I might not type anymore.
8:25 - Five straight for the Gophers, getting it inside to Mbakwe and finding Hoff for a 3-pointer. Why is it those are literally the only two scoring options for this broke ass team?
7:43 - huh.
6:44 - Rodney Williams for three?
5:59 - Well lookie there, we're tied at 50 on what has to be Iverson's fifth assist at least. And then he follows it up with an idiotic out-of-position foul where he should have just given up the layup but instead tries to do something and ends up giving Penn State a free point. Apparently there's no magic IQ juice in retinol.
5:04 - Rodney with a great take and pull up and barely hits the far side of the rim. Love the aggressiveness, love using the athleticism to create an open jumper, hate the inability to shoot. And there's a lay-up and the foul for Rod. Free throw to tie.
5:04 - No. Of course. Christ.
4:45 - Rodney now looking extra aggressive, took the rock to the hole. Unfortunately his handles aren't exactly The Professor level and he basically handed the ball to Frazier. Fortunately, the refs inexplicably called him for the foul, and fortunately Rodney somehow made both free throws. 55-54 Penn State.
4:10 - Battle airball from about 35-feet as the shot clock expires. This I like.
3:49 - Rodney with a great fucking pass from the top of the key to find Iverson for a lay-up. Is this a coming out party? I feel like it might be a little bit.
2:09 - Hoff to Iverson for a dunk and 3-point Gopher lead. That was quite pretty, especially when you consider it was a couple of white dorks.
1:08 - Hoff takes a retardedly stupid shot, which he misses, which leads to a break for Penn State, which leads to an open 3 for Battle, which he of course makes, and it's now 62-60 Nittany Lions. Mother fuck.
0:52 - Do something, idiots.
0:38 - Hollins travels with 2 seconds on the shot clock. Here is what happened after a Tubby Smith timeout: pass in to Hoff, pick with no roll with Mbakwe at the top of the key, over to Rodney on the wing, dribble, dribble, throw to Hollins 35 feet from the hoop with 4 seconds on the shot clock. That's your play? Did you even draw anything up or did you just spend the whole time telling the team to play defense? Honest to Odin, Tubby is a bad game coach. Not terrible or horrible, but bad. Bad bad bad. What the fuck was that exactly? Every single time they need to run a play at the end of the game they got nothin? When they get in the huddle do you think Tubby just shrugs his shoulders? Embarrassing, predictable, and ridiculous. Also, for the record that's pretty much was Mrs. W says to me each night in bed.
0:22 - 16 seconds. It took 16 seconds to make sure to foul Battle. Fuckin' bunch of geniuses here.
0:22 - Lane violation? Please let this matter. It would be too sweet for it not to.
0:17 - Oh good, a timeout. I'm sure we'll be seeing an absolute superb play here.
0:14 - Hoff throws it directly out of bounds. I'm going to murder someone.
0:06- Hoff for three after two PSU free throws. Penn State still up by 2. I have no idea why I'm still typing words. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfff.
0:06 - Battle misses the first. There's still a chance. Makes the second. Timeout Penn State. Can't wait to see what kind of brilliant play Tubby draws up. I'm willing to bet it ends up with Maverick getting the ball at the near free-throw line having to Tyus Edney it, but he will get to about mid-court and then throw it out of bounds.
Great play. Just great. Awesome. Coaching genius. I hate this team.
Keep in mind throughout this game that I made a semi-large wager on Talor Battle over 26.5 points+rebounds+assists, so I'll be rooting for him to do well at the same time I'm dying for a Gopher win. Here's what I know: Bogart told me to look for Mbakwe at 6:11 left in the first half, and Dawger called me at 8:24, which would be not long after the game ends. I've been trying to figure out why he'd call me, but I'm guessing at this point we're going down to the wire. Let's see.
19:24 - Iverson fouled on the games first possession, makes one. Sounds about right. It's a bit disconcerting that with the big lineup in the ball didn't get anywhere near the point until there were 4 seconds left on the shot clock, but whatever.
18:36 - Gophers in a zone and are really shading Battle. Whichever area Battle is the defender is almost playing man on Battle, even without the ball. Interesting strategy which leads to Battle getting nothing but backboard on a pro range three. What a stupid bet.
17:27 - Jesus christ, Ralph. Although I don't know if that's really his fault, not really sure why Mbakwe thought it would be a good idea to outlet to Sampson. But sheesh, that was like watching a baby deer try to stand up for the first time.
16:35 - Rodney Williams with the travel trying to drive, moving his feet before he gets the ball on the ground. How many times has that happened this year? Twice per game or so, no?
16:10 - Battle for three. 5-3 PSU. Sampson with a deep two-pointer to tie it up. That guy sure loves his jumpshot.
14:26 - Battle with another three to make it 11-7 Penn State. Hair trigger style too, he looks incredibly dialed in. Obviously that's a negative. They have him running baseline against the Gopher 2-3, and they're going to need the wings to pay more attention, because he completely ran Iverson into a pick on that one.
13:38 - David Jackson misses another three. This guy should play for Michigan. Complete and total chucker, never saw a shot he didn't want to take, and at 6-7 basically refuses to go anywhere near the paint. I should also mention he's a starter on my fantasy team. Yes, my team sucks.
12:27 - Why do they keep calling Jackson "DJ Jackson?" Is that what he actually goes by? Because all the literature on Penn State calls him David. Not that I'd ever question Stephen Bardo, the worst starter on that awesome '89 Illinois team: Bardo, Kendall Gill, Nick Anderson, Kenny Battle, Lowell Hamilton. That was a hell of a squad.
12:04 - Armelin loves shooting. And that's good, because at least somebody is always looking to score. He doesn't really even seem to force it very often, it's just whenever it's open he's going to take it. He could end up being a pretty big-time scorer some day.
9:12 - Another three by Battle, 14-11 Penn State. Assisted by Tim Frazier. Those two give me nightmares. Battle can't graduate fast enough for me. Or run out of eligibility. Whichever.
8:16 - A three by some guy and penn state has five threes making up 15 of their 17 points. And it could easily be more but "D.J." Jackson can't shoot for shit. God damn the Gophers are awful at defending the three-pointer.
7:55 - Hey I have a book recommendation for the five of you who read this blog who actually read books: Scorecasting by Tobias Moskowitz and L. Jon Wertheim. It's basically like Freakonomics, but with sports topics. So where Freakonomics (also a great book) dug into the economics of drug-dealing and the socioeconomic patterns of naming your children, Scorecasting looks at things like "Does defense really win championships?" (yes, but so does offense), "Does calling a timeout to ice a player work?" (no), and "Why does home court advantage exist?" (it's the referees, for real.) Just really great stuff, clearly researched by nerds but presented in a way that normal people will enjoy reading. Read it, if for no other reason that the next time you want to throw something at your tv when your team is on the road and you're convinced they're getting screwed, you'll at least have some facts that support you.
7:42 - Hoff for three, 19-16 Penn State. Let's do more of that, please. and Battle answers with a shot that doesn't even make any sense that he made it. I hate to say I told you so, but he's looking like he's beyond dialed.
6:42 - It's almost 6:11. I'm giddy with anticipation.
6:11 - Yep, that'll do it. Bardo calls Mbakwe a "grown man" which is still the stupidest compliment in history. Well, other than "dapper."
4:40 - Whoa. Battle missed. That's whack. PSU grabs the o-board of course. Luckily some guy who isn't Battle clangs the open three-pointer. Hoff with his third three and it's 26-24 Penn State. I don't understand how that guy gets open threes against anybody. If I was a coach every time my team let Hoff have an open three-ball they'd be running laps. And I don't mean at practice, I mean I'd take whoever's fault it was out right then and there and make him run around the court in front of the fans and cameras and everything. I'm tough like that.
3:50 - Ralph scores with a jump hook. I bet you can't guess who Bardo compared him too. Go ahead, you'll never get it right. Oh. Yeah. It was his dad. For the 53rd time this season.
1:41 - Another high-low from Iverson to Mbakwe and teh Gophers are up 28-26. They are killing them inside, but it should be even worse considering Penn State's only good inside players have both been on the bench for much of this half with foul issues. Just sad. I don't feel good at all right now.
0:28 - You know what the best movie I've seen in a long time is? Threat Level Midnight.
0:00 - 29-28 Penn State at half. Terrible half if you aren't Trevor Mbakwe (10 pts, 10 rebs at half). And that's with Jeff Brooks missing basically the entire first half. My tummy hurts. I need a beer.
19:24 - Frazier hits a desperation three-pointer with the shot clock at 1. Great. Good omen.
16:54 - Good god does Penn State love to launch the three-pointer. Is the Big Ten just a three-pointer dominated league? Northwestern, Michigan, and Wisconsin are all in love with it, and apparently Penn State is too. Hold on, let me get my tape recorder out: "Do some nerd research on if the Big Ten is a more three-point heavy league than the other ones." There.
16:04 - I desperately want to see Iverson shoot a three-pointer. What would that even look like? Probably similar to watching Ralph try to play PG on a fast break. Also the Gophers are still losing, 34-32. They really need to do something about that.
14:29 - Sampson hits a three, white announcer guy gushes, Bardo references his dad (#54 this year). Seriously, can we calm down with the moistness after Ralph hits a perimeter shot, please? Yes, it's great that a 7-footer can hit a three, but what would be even greater is if that 7-footer could spend more than 10% of his time in the paint instead of flitting about on the perimeter. You're a big man, get your ass in the paint and post up. If the perimeter jumper comes to you, great, but you should not be looking for it. It's like a counselor once told me, you're not an alcoholic if you're hunting the booze, you're an alcoholic if the booze is hunting you. Which means I need another beer.
13:32 - Here's my impression of Tim Frazier: I'm going to drive the lane because nobody on this slow ass team can stop me but I have no intention of even looking to score but it doesn't matter because the Gophers haven't figured this out so they collapse to stop me and guess what I know exactly where my buddy Talor is and I just found him for another open three-pointer which he of course nailed. Boom roasted.
13:06 - And it's all falling apart. Fart.
11:53 - Talor Battle must have the patience of a saint. If I were him and these were my teammates I'd be in prison.
10:38 - Sometimes doing a live blog isn't fun at all. Penn State 47, Minnesota 37. I might not type anymore.
8:25 - Five straight for the Gophers, getting it inside to Mbakwe and finding Hoff for a 3-pointer. Why is it those are literally the only two scoring options for this broke ass team?
7:43 - huh.
6:44 - Rodney Williams for three?
5:59 - Well lookie there, we're tied at 50 on what has to be Iverson's fifth assist at least. And then he follows it up with an idiotic out-of-position foul where he should have just given up the layup but instead tries to do something and ends up giving Penn State a free point. Apparently there's no magic IQ juice in retinol.
5:04 - Rodney with a great take and pull up and barely hits the far side of the rim. Love the aggressiveness, love using the athleticism to create an open jumper, hate the inability to shoot. And there's a lay-up and the foul for Rod. Free throw to tie.
5:04 - No. Of course. Christ.
4:45 - Rodney now looking extra aggressive, took the rock to the hole. Unfortunately his handles aren't exactly The Professor level and he basically handed the ball to Frazier. Fortunately, the refs inexplicably called him for the foul, and fortunately Rodney somehow made both free throws. 55-54 Penn State.
4:10 - Battle airball from about 35-feet as the shot clock expires. This I like.
3:49 - Rodney with a great fucking pass from the top of the key to find Iverson for a lay-up. Is this a coming out party? I feel like it might be a little bit.
2:09 - Hoff to Iverson for a dunk and 3-point Gopher lead. That was quite pretty, especially when you consider it was a couple of white dorks.
1:08 - Hoff takes a retardedly stupid shot, which he misses, which leads to a break for Penn State, which leads to an open 3 for Battle, which he of course makes, and it's now 62-60 Nittany Lions. Mother fuck.
0:52 - Do something, idiots.
0:38 - Hollins travels with 2 seconds on the shot clock. Here is what happened after a Tubby Smith timeout: pass in to Hoff, pick with no roll with Mbakwe at the top of the key, over to Rodney on the wing, dribble, dribble, throw to Hollins 35 feet from the hoop with 4 seconds on the shot clock. That's your play? Did you even draw anything up or did you just spend the whole time telling the team to play defense? Honest to Odin, Tubby is a bad game coach. Not terrible or horrible, but bad. Bad bad bad. What the fuck was that exactly? Every single time they need to run a play at the end of the game they got nothin? When they get in the huddle do you think Tubby just shrugs his shoulders? Embarrassing, predictable, and ridiculous. Also, for the record that's pretty much was Mrs. W says to me each night in bed.
0:22 - 16 seconds. It took 16 seconds to make sure to foul Battle. Fuckin' bunch of geniuses here.
0:22 - Lane violation? Please let this matter. It would be too sweet for it not to.
0:17 - Oh good, a timeout. I'm sure we'll be seeing an absolute superb play here.
0:14 - Hoff throws it directly out of bounds. I'm going to murder someone.
0:06- Hoff for three after two PSU free throws. Penn State still up by 2. I have no idea why I'm still typing words. FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfff.
0:06 - Battle misses the first. There's still a chance. Makes the second. Timeout Penn State. Can't wait to see what kind of brilliant play Tubby draws up. I'm willing to bet it ends up with Maverick getting the ball at the near free-throw line having to Tyus Edney it, but he will get to about mid-court and then throw it out of bounds.
Great play. Just great. Awesome. Coaching genius. I hate this team.
Monday, February 14, 2011
Weekend Review - 02.14.2011
Damn you Turtle Lake. You win this round. At least I'm killing it with BetUS’ college basketball predictions so I don't have to worry about moving into the poor house. At least not yet. Onto your college hoops report:
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Minnesota Gophers. Wow. That was pretty awesome. Not the loss to Illinois of course, which was pretty disappointing, but I was becoming convinced this team was coming apart at the seams and that they were going to lose to Iowa, sounding the death knell on the season. Instead, they went out and beat the Hawkeyes soundly by a final margin of 62-45 in a game that wasn't even that close and was never in doubt. This tells me that the team should be good enough to hang on to their NCAA bid, and hopefully Nolen will come back in March, and then we'll just see what we'll see.
Special shout-outs to Colt Iverson, Rodney Williams, and Maverick Ahanmisi for their play last night. Iverson looked like a 6-11 point guard in his role in the middle of the Gopher offense against the Iowa zone, consistently finding the open man and helping the team get open shots. He only ended up with 1 assists but he definitely was a big reason the Gophers shot well and controlled the game. Williams took over the game for a stretch, showing the actualization of his near limitless potential, even if it was too short-lived. Finally, Ahanmisi played his best 11 minutes as a collegian, scoring 7 points, dishing 2 assists, and most importantly looking like a legitimate Big Ten point guard. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to hand over the keys to him for next season, but I'm sold on him as a backup and he might end up pretty good later in his career.
So, yeah, Iowa is a bad team and this win isn't exactly like beating an NCAA tournament team or even an NIT team, but at least we know they aren't in a death spiral here, and should most likely still end up in the dance. And then hey, who knows, am I right?
2. Xavier Musketeers. Huge week for X, which starting off with them beating an NCAA bubble team in Georgia and ended wit them reasserting their A-10 dominance by knocking off Duquesne, the team they were tied with at the top of the conference standings, and they did it at Duquesne's place - whatever it's called and actually I don't even know where Duquesne is. I'm going to guess Massachusetts. Anyway, Xavier has overcome a rough start and is starting to round into form. Either they just needed some time to adjust at the beginning of the year or they really aren't that good - it's just that the A-10 is down this year. Tread lightly.
3. Wisconsin Badgers. Giving Ohio State their first loss will get you a mention here. And now they're 9-3 in the Big Ten, have basically solidified themselves as the second best team in the conference, and are looking like they're a Sweet 16 team with upside. Great. I still hate them. Seriously, how can they be this good with guys like Tim Jarmusz, Keaton Nankivil, and Mike Bruesewitz as integral cogs? Bo Ryan is a freaking wizard. Crap. I think I accidentally realized I respect him. Still hate him though.
4. Pitt Panthers. It's a wide open year with about 15-20 legit final four contenders, and nearly every team has some pretty severe flaws that could end up knocking them out early. The one exception I've found is Pitt, a very balanced team who showed some serious moxie this week, winning on the road at both West Virginia and Villanova, the first loss for Nova at home since 2007. And they did it without leading scorer and point guard Ashton Gibbs. They're a good offensive team, a good defensive team, they score inside, they score outside, and they have great guards - everything you could want for success in March. If I didn't hate the Pitt program so much, I'd be a huge fan. Damn you Carl Krauser.
5. St. Johns Red Storm. I feel like I'm writing about these guys almost every week, but this was another monster week for the resurgent storm, dismantling UCONN at home and then winning a very big bubble implications type of game on the road at Cincinnati. I don't know exactly where they rank on the bubble and a 14-9 overall record isn't pretty, but a 7-5 Big East record with wins now over Georgetown, Notre Dame, UCONN, and Duke tells me that based on talent this is absolutely an NCAA Tournament team, and an RPI of 20 with a strength of schedule ranked #2 says the same. They still have two gimmes in home games versus DePaul and South Florida, so at minimum they should end up at 9-9 in conference play. That's got to be good enough.
WHO SUCKED
1. Northwestern Wildcats. They seem to land here almost every week, don't they? I'm not even sure what else there is to write anymore, but they're just so hard to ignore because jesus. This week they lost to a bad Michigan team by 9 after allowing 52% shooting by the Wolverines, one of the poorer shooting teams in the conference and that wasn't nearly the more embarrassing loss of the two they registered this week. They got smoked by Penn State by 24 in a game where they mustered just 41 points in a brick city effort, shooting just 18-52 and 2-21 from three. Basically they can't shoot or play defense and are 4-9 in the Big Ten, just one game out of the cellar. I'm not even sure they're a NIT team. Maybe CBI. Sorry Loretta8.
2. Syracuse Orange. Another team that seems to find it's way into this section quite a bit lately, the Orange had yet another rough week, this time dropping a home game to Georgetown and then losing on the road at Louisville. That makes them 2-6 now since starting the year at 18-0, and although they aren't really in any danger of missing the NCAA Tournament their seed has slid rapidly, going from a possible #1 to #4 in the latest bracketology. They have two guaranteed wins in their final five games (DePaul and Rutgers at home), but a quick exit from the Big East tournament could get them down to a #5 and a matchup with a dreaded 12. If they end up against a team with quick, penetrating guards they're going to be in trouble. Actually, they're pretty much screwed and I don't see any way they make it out of the first weekend alive.
3. Missouri Valley Conference. Guess which conference basically guaranteed that they won't have an at-large team this year? Assuming you aren't a retard you probably figured out I'm talking about the Missouri Valley. Wichita State, the conference leader and a team that's 20-5, lost a home game to Southern Illinois, a team that you think is good until you remember that it's actually not 2005 anymore, and Northern Iowa, the third best team in the MVC, lost to Wichita as well as Evansville, continuing a losing streak that starting last week with a loss to Drake. UNI is definitely out, while Wichita's win over the Panthers keeps them barely hanging on by a string. They would probably need to win out and then make the MVC Tournament final to have a chance. Missouri State also has a chance, but they too would need to finish very, very strong. Looking more and more like a 1-bid league this year, even with a weak bubble and expanded field.
4. Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The weekend loss to Memphis really puts the Eagles in a bad spot, now a full game back atop the C-USA standings of co-leaders UAB and UTEP, and with only one win this year over an RPI Top 50 team their at large chances are fading. They still have home matches against both leaders and need to win those games and take care of business against the various other conference also-rans, but road games against UCF and Tulsa aren't going to be easy. Larry Eustachy has made USM relevant again within the conference, but will need a strong finish to make them relevant on a national level.
5. Utah State Aggies. So are we just going to have zero mid-major at-larges this year? Butler, Gonzaga, and Memphis were all givens in the past but most likely will all have to win their conference tournament, and now Utah State kicked away their chance at a bid on Wednesday by losing to Idaho. It sucks that they are basically eliminated from at-large consideration since they are 23-3, but it's their own fault. Their best win out of those 23 is probably their win over Long Beach, who ranks 116 in the RPI and 101 at kenpom.com. Yes, that's right, Utah State doesn't have a single win over an RPI top 100 foe, and they've only played two (Georgetown and BYU), leading to a ridiculous strength of schedule rank of 157. They get to play St. Mary's in Bracket Busters coming up here on Saturday which will help, but this loss to Idaho (RPI 156) is extremely damaging. Like crawling through a tunnel covered with razor wire and sharks.
For those who like Twins talk stick around. I'm aiming to get a Twins post up here on Tuesday.
WHO WAS AWESOME
1. Minnesota Gophers. Wow. That was pretty awesome. Not the loss to Illinois of course, which was pretty disappointing, but I was becoming convinced this team was coming apart at the seams and that they were going to lose to Iowa, sounding the death knell on the season. Instead, they went out and beat the Hawkeyes soundly by a final margin of 62-45 in a game that wasn't even that close and was never in doubt. This tells me that the team should be good enough to hang on to their NCAA bid, and hopefully Nolen will come back in March, and then we'll just see what we'll see.
Special shout-outs to Colt Iverson, Rodney Williams, and Maverick Ahanmisi for their play last night. Iverson looked like a 6-11 point guard in his role in the middle of the Gopher offense against the Iowa zone, consistently finding the open man and helping the team get open shots. He only ended up with 1 assists but he definitely was a big reason the Gophers shot well and controlled the game. Williams took over the game for a stretch, showing the actualization of his near limitless potential, even if it was too short-lived. Finally, Ahanmisi played his best 11 minutes as a collegian, scoring 7 points, dishing 2 assists, and most importantly looking like a legitimate Big Ten point guard. I'm not sure I'm quite ready to hand over the keys to him for next season, but I'm sold on him as a backup and he might end up pretty good later in his career.
So, yeah, Iowa is a bad team and this win isn't exactly like beating an NCAA tournament team or even an NIT team, but at least we know they aren't in a death spiral here, and should most likely still end up in the dance. And then hey, who knows, am I right?
2. Xavier Musketeers. Huge week for X, which starting off with them beating an NCAA bubble team in Georgia and ended wit them reasserting their A-10 dominance by knocking off Duquesne, the team they were tied with at the top of the conference standings, and they did it at Duquesne's place - whatever it's called and actually I don't even know where Duquesne is. I'm going to guess Massachusetts. Anyway, Xavier has overcome a rough start and is starting to round into form. Either they just needed some time to adjust at the beginning of the year or they really aren't that good - it's just that the A-10 is down this year. Tread lightly.
3. Wisconsin Badgers. Giving Ohio State their first loss will get you a mention here. And now they're 9-3 in the Big Ten, have basically solidified themselves as the second best team in the conference, and are looking like they're a Sweet 16 team with upside. Great. I still hate them. Seriously, how can they be this good with guys like Tim Jarmusz, Keaton Nankivil, and Mike Bruesewitz as integral cogs? Bo Ryan is a freaking wizard. Crap. I think I accidentally realized I respect him. Still hate him though.
4. Pitt Panthers. It's a wide open year with about 15-20 legit final four contenders, and nearly every team has some pretty severe flaws that could end up knocking them out early. The one exception I've found is Pitt, a very balanced team who showed some serious moxie this week, winning on the road at both West Virginia and Villanova, the first loss for Nova at home since 2007. And they did it without leading scorer and point guard Ashton Gibbs. They're a good offensive team, a good defensive team, they score inside, they score outside, and they have great guards - everything you could want for success in March. If I didn't hate the Pitt program so much, I'd be a huge fan. Damn you Carl Krauser.
5. St. Johns Red Storm. I feel like I'm writing about these guys almost every week, but this was another monster week for the resurgent storm, dismantling UCONN at home and then winning a very big bubble implications type of game on the road at Cincinnati. I don't know exactly where they rank on the bubble and a 14-9 overall record isn't pretty, but a 7-5 Big East record with wins now over Georgetown, Notre Dame, UCONN, and Duke tells me that based on talent this is absolutely an NCAA Tournament team, and an RPI of 20 with a strength of schedule ranked #2 says the same. They still have two gimmes in home games versus DePaul and South Florida, so at minimum they should end up at 9-9 in conference play. That's got to be good enough.
WHO SUCKED
1. Northwestern Wildcats. They seem to land here almost every week, don't they? I'm not even sure what else there is to write anymore, but they're just so hard to ignore because jesus. This week they lost to a bad Michigan team by 9 after allowing 52% shooting by the Wolverines, one of the poorer shooting teams in the conference and that wasn't nearly the more embarrassing loss of the two they registered this week. They got smoked by Penn State by 24 in a game where they mustered just 41 points in a brick city effort, shooting just 18-52 and 2-21 from three. Basically they can't shoot or play defense and are 4-9 in the Big Ten, just one game out of the cellar. I'm not even sure they're a NIT team. Maybe CBI. Sorry Loretta8.
2. Syracuse Orange. Another team that seems to find it's way into this section quite a bit lately, the Orange had yet another rough week, this time dropping a home game to Georgetown and then losing on the road at Louisville. That makes them 2-6 now since starting the year at 18-0, and although they aren't really in any danger of missing the NCAA Tournament their seed has slid rapidly, going from a possible #1 to #4 in the latest bracketology. They have two guaranteed wins in their final five games (DePaul and Rutgers at home), but a quick exit from the Big East tournament could get them down to a #5 and a matchup with a dreaded 12. If they end up against a team with quick, penetrating guards they're going to be in trouble. Actually, they're pretty much screwed and I don't see any way they make it out of the first weekend alive.
3. Missouri Valley Conference. Guess which conference basically guaranteed that they won't have an at-large team this year? Assuming you aren't a retard you probably figured out I'm talking about the Missouri Valley. Wichita State, the conference leader and a team that's 20-5, lost a home game to Southern Illinois, a team that you think is good until you remember that it's actually not 2005 anymore, and Northern Iowa, the third best team in the MVC, lost to Wichita as well as Evansville, continuing a losing streak that starting last week with a loss to Drake. UNI is definitely out, while Wichita's win over the Panthers keeps them barely hanging on by a string. They would probably need to win out and then make the MVC Tournament final to have a chance. Missouri State also has a chance, but they too would need to finish very, very strong. Looking more and more like a 1-bid league this year, even with a weak bubble and expanded field.
4. Southern Mississippi Golden Eagles. The weekend loss to Memphis really puts the Eagles in a bad spot, now a full game back atop the C-USA standings of co-leaders UAB and UTEP, and with only one win this year over an RPI Top 50 team their at large chances are fading. They still have home matches against both leaders and need to win those games and take care of business against the various other conference also-rans, but road games against UCF and Tulsa aren't going to be easy. Larry Eustachy has made USM relevant again within the conference, but will need a strong finish to make them relevant on a national level.
5. Utah State Aggies. So are we just going to have zero mid-major at-larges this year? Butler, Gonzaga, and Memphis were all givens in the past but most likely will all have to win their conference tournament, and now Utah State kicked away their chance at a bid on Wednesday by losing to Idaho. It sucks that they are basically eliminated from at-large consideration since they are 23-3, but it's their own fault. Their best win out of those 23 is probably their win over Long Beach, who ranks 116 in the RPI and 101 at kenpom.com. Yes, that's right, Utah State doesn't have a single win over an RPI top 100 foe, and they've only played two (Georgetown and BYU), leading to a ridiculous strength of schedule rank of 157. They get to play St. Mary's in Bracket Busters coming up here on Saturday which will help, but this loss to Idaho (RPI 156) is extremely damaging. Like crawling through a tunnel covered with razor wire and sharks.
For those who like Twins talk stick around. I'm aiming to get a Twins post up here on Tuesday.
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