Random Thoughts on a Tuesday

A whole bunch of thoughts while watching the end of the Twins game.  I'm not exactly sure what happened because it was 4-0 Yankees when I left the YMCA and I got home and put the kid to bed and now it's 4-4.  So that's good.  And you know this whole Yankees dominating the Twins thing does have a silver lining - this is shaping up exactly like an 80s movie.  Rag tag group of misfits from the poor side of town continually beaten down by the rich, snobby, evil kids in their fancy preppy clothes, but in the end the good guys finally get over the hump and the bad guys get their comeuppance.  The Twins are really just Daniel LaRusso while the Yankees are the Cobra Kai, we just need our All Valley Karate Tournament moment, and you know it's coming.  Cue Bananarama.

- Well that was quite the turd sandwich on top of what might have been the most entertaining NCAA Tournament I can remember.  I will say though that UCONN isn't getting nearly enough credit for Butler's poor performance.  Yes, the Bulldogs missed plenty of open shots, but they also had difficulty getting good looks and the Huskies had a lot to do with that.  The reason Butler only scored 2 points in the paint the entire game wasn't because they avoided getting the ball inside or because Brad Stevens made a mistake.  They got the ball to Matt Howard and Andrew Smith on the block plenty of times but they just couldn't score against the height, length, and athleticism of Oriakhi, Okwandu, etc.  Either there shots were blocked, altered, or they needed to do something extreme to get an open look and were at a weird angle or off balance.

Butler isn't a bad team, obviously, but this was just their second opponent of this tournament who was overwhelmingly more athletic than the Bulldogs and it showed.  Old Dominion, Pitt, and Wisconsin are at about the same level as Butler, and while Florida  is a more athletic squad they didn't play their best game (credit Butler) and that athleticism translates more when they have the ball rather than when they're on defense.  Unfortunately for Butler, UCONN was/is playing at as high a level as anybody right now (especially defensively) and they just overwhelmed the Bulldogs, stopping basically all dribble penetration and destroying anybody who tried to score from the block.

Howard, in particular, was pretty pathetic, putting up a pretty sad 1-13 shooting performance, getting multiple shots blocked, and getting out-rebounded over and over again.  For the second year in a row he looked out of place in the championship game, this time to the point that my non-basketball watching friend who I was viewing the game with picked him out as "the worst player I've ever seen."  And, of course, he suckered me in and I believed in him and lost some cash on some prop bets I placed on him.  I was a fool and I'm not going to let anything like that happen again.  I'll be back next year to get rich.  As entertaining as this year's tournament was, it was murder on the wallet.

-  I'm not sure I completely understand Shaka Smart's thinking in staying at VCU.  I mean I understand, I just don't know that I agree with him that he can turn VCU into a perennial powerhouse like Butler or Gonzaga, and by turning down NC State's offer he's basically wagering a million dollars a year that he can do just that.  Even if you just look to next year things are going to be a struggle for VCU.  They're losing Joey Rodriguez, Jamie Skeen, Brandon Rozzell, and Ed Nixon off of this year's team (that's four of their top five scorers and all-around best players) and according to Rivals the only player they have coming in to replace them right now is a non-rated forward whose other offers were from Cleveland State and Northeastern.  Meanwhile VCU's previous coach Anthony Grant, who jumped to Alabama after a nice little multi-year run with Eric Maynor and Larry  Sanders, is making almost $2 million a year and took a team that was so bad the previous coach was fired midseason to a team that won their division of the SEC this year, went 19-0 at home, and made the NIT final after just missing out on an NCAA Tournament bid.  Basically his whole team is coming back next year and he has a great class coming in with three kids ranked in the top 125, and he's thought of as a fast riser whose next job could end up being a big one.  Shaka clearly knows what he's doing, but I'm thinking he's being a bit too optimistic here.

- Finally, and this probably wraps up college basketball for the year until/unless the Gophers sign somebody or Tubby Smith finally signs on with NC State, but I would love for somebody to explain to me how they selected the participants in the College 3-point contest.  I thought it was kind of bizarre that Blake Hoffarber wasn't involved, but that was before I realized Jon freaking Diebler wasn't involved.  I was worried that maybe I was just being Big 10-centric, so I looked it up.  Diebler ranked 3rd amongst all seniors (event is only open to seniors) in three-point makes and second in 3-point percentage.  Although looking at the numbers it's kind of surprising Jimmer Fredette wasn't there.  Talor Battle too.  I'm not saying they're screwing it up or anything but the choices for some of the players involved just seem weird, especially since Brady Morningstar made as many threes this year as

- Speaking of white guys playing basketball, when I was at the Y tonight there was no open gym because they had "special" kids playing adapted basketball and I watched for a couple of minutes.  Those kids sure do hustle but man, they have no handles.

-  Twins are now winning.  This is unexpected, but I'm guessing this is like the part where Daniel sprays Johnny with the hose at the Halloween dance - you feel like you got the upper hand, but the night ends with you being held up against a chain link fence while you get the shit beat out of you by guys in skeleton outfits.

- A few players who have caught my eye so far this baseball season who might be worth keeping your eye on:

• Starlin Castro, SS, Cubs - His numbers obviously stand out since they're ridiculous so far (.476/.522/.762) and of course they won't last but I've actually had a chance to watch several of his at-bats and looks awfully good.  He's making solid contact and really driving the ball with some gap power (2 doubles and 2 triples already) and is looking like he could end up being a star.  Ideally you'd like to see a little bit more plate discipline and more walks, but he's a 21-year old shortstop from the Dominican Republic - it kind of comes with the territory.
• Rickie Weeks, 2B, Brewers - I've talked about him on here before, but he's impressed me this year by being less of a knucklehead than I thought.  He had a career year last year and was rewarded with a fat contract and I actually expected him to regress quite a bit but he's having another very good season so far.  Nice work, Rick.
• Neil Walker, 2B, Pirates - Leads the league in RBI mainly due to a grandslam he hit on opening day, but has overall shown an awful lot of power (.684 slugging) for a white middle infielder.  Guy must not be much of a hustler or a gamer.
• Jaime Garcia, SP, Cardinals - I don't know why his complete game 4-hitter against San Diego impressed me so much because it's not out of line based on his numbers from last year (2.70 ERA, 1.32 WHIP, 3rd in NL RoY voting), but I guess I didn't really take him seriously because his name was Jamie and everyone knows that's a girl's name.  I guess maybe he's good though.
• Craig Kimbrel, RP, Braves - Since neither Dawger or Bogart could draft their joint team in our fantasy league we had the Bear come out and do it for them.  When it suddenly came time to draft a relief pitcher Kimbrel was the #1 guy left on every list we had even though none of the three of us (me, Bear, Snake) had heard of him, and we laughed and we laughed thinking about the look on those two clowns faces when they saw this dude they'd never heard of on their team.  Well, joke was on us because Kimbrel has been unhittable - almost literally.  He's pitched two innings thus far (picking up 2 saves), faced just six batters and struck out five of them.  Hell, Adam LaRoche is practically a hero because he managed to fly out.  Look out for this kid. 

-  Hey, the Twins actually won.  Sweet.  The final out came when Joe Nathan struck out Derek Jeter on a high fastball that was clocked at 89 mph.  I don't know who that sentence is worse for, but Nathan's fastball is seriously only at 89 mph there are going to be some extremely ugly game endings in our future.

- Lastly, if you like golf our good buddy Grand Slam has promised me a Masters Preview at some point tomorrow, so look for that either Wednesday night or Thursday morning.  I'm sure it'll be epic.  As for my picks I'm not exactly digging deep here but it's hard to argue with Mickelson the way he's playing, and Watney and Justin Rose are solid picks here as well.  Sleeper picks could be David Toms or Sergio.  I don't know.  Trust Grand Slam, he's smoking everybody in our fantasy golf league. 

Week in Review - 03.07.2011

I can't think of a single relevant thing to say about Gopher basketball right now, other than this is easily the most disappointing season I can recall - period.  Injuries played a part and so did a couple big defections, no doubt, but even with what was left and based on the start to the year this team should have been able to get a bid into the NCAA Tournament.  At this point the NIT even looks shaky.  What's more prestigious, the CBI or the CIT?  Let's just move on.  Lots of good basketball going on.

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Belmont Bruins.  Yes!  I know Coastal Carolina lost to Asheville so they won't be in the tournament, but they were just the second most interesting small college in play - Belmont was #1.  I mentioned it in my conference tournament preview, but I don't think anyone actually reads those so I'll mention it here - Belmont is ranked as the 20th best team in the country by kenpom.com.  It's all math and there's no eye test involved here so Belmont jumps up because of it's complete domination of the Atlantic Sun (30-4, average margin of victory around 25 points), but it's intriguing just because of how bizarre it is.  For reference, last year's top non-major or mid-major team was Murray State who was ranked at #50.  The year prior it was Siena at #59.  Teams like Belmont are never ranked that high, and I'm intrigued.  They played three good teams this year (Vandy - lost by 9 and Tennessee twice - lost by 9 and by 1) so they don't have any real great wins, but I'm very, very excited to see what they can do in the first round.

2.  Jon Diebler.  As much as I hate to give credit to a guy with one skill, Deibler had a hell of a week shooting the basketball.  He was 10-12 from three in the Buckeyes 82-61 win over Penn State and then followed that up this weekend going 7-8 as they dismantled Wisconsin.  Ohio State is a dangerous team no matter what - maybe the best team in the nation - but when Diebler is on they're basically unstoppable.  Obviously nobody can keep up that level of shooting accuracy, but he won't need to.  If he can hit even 50% in the tournament they're going to be almost impossible to beat.  Can a team with only six players really win the national title?  I guess we'll find out.

3.  Virginia Commonwealth Rams.  I believe from what I've seen of VCU that they belong in the NCAA  Tournament, even if their resume maybe disagrees.  That's why it's awesome they beat George Mason in the Colonial semi-finals (the Patriots are in regardless), not only do they get a chance to play Old Dominion tonight for an auto bid, but even a loss might put them in thanks to the quality victory they picked up.  They're 22-10 and 13-6 in a very good CAA, with an RPI of 56 and a SoS of 99.  They have wins over UCLA, Wichita State, ODU, and now George Mason.  They do have a couple bad losses (Georgia State, South Florida) but in a year with a whole bunch of weak bubble teams they stick out to me.  It would serve them better, of course, just to beat the Monarchs again and get the auto bid, but I think they deserve to be regardless.  

4.  North Carolina Tar Heels.  Guess who is suddenly the hottest team in college ball?  Two hugely impressive wins this week (@ Florida State, vs. Duke) run their win streak to seven, and they're now 26-4 overall with an ACC record of 14-2, and are in line for a two seed.  Basically Harrison Barnes has figured it out (averaging 17 and 6 during the streak) and Kendall Marshall has really blossomed since Larry Drew departed (10 pts, 7.5 assists per game the last seven).  The Heels are suddenly looking really, really tough.  Makes me cry with anger that the Gophers beat them.  Why separate knob?!  Why separate knob?!!??!

5.  Notre Dame Fighting Irish.  I'm going to help you out with your bracket.  This is a guaranteed Elite 8 team.  I'd say Final Four, because I think they are, but I can't guarantee a win over Ohio State, Pitt, or Kansas.  Here's the important thing to remember though - they're upset proof.  Too smart, too good, too disciplined, and too balanced.  They aren't going to lose to a bad/mediocre team - they're just not.  And they just finished up the season on an 11-1 run through the Big East.  They very well might be the best team in the nation.  Go ahead and put them into your Elite 8 - in ink.  Guaranteed.


WHO SUCKED

1.  Virginia Tech Hokies.  Has any team every pissed away a huge win quicker than the Hokies did to their big victory over Duke?   That win gave them the signature win they needed desperately, and with just two games to play they looked to suddenly be in solid shape.  They had BC at home and then traveled to Clemson, two fellow bubble teams, needing to win just one in order to feel pretty confident in their chances to get a bid.  Of course because it's Va Tech, they couldn't just take care of business and lost both.  And they weren't close with BC beating them by 15 and Clemson by 9.  They lost to a mediocre BC at home by 15 in a must win game.  Yuck.  Now they likely have to win two in the ACC tournament to avoid just missing the NCAAs again.  But really, who cares?  If they get in over VCU I'm going to burn the whole system to the ground.

2.  Maryland Terrapins.  The Terps were sort of supposed to be a bit of an ACC sleeper this year, but that clearly never happened, and they couldn't have put more of an upside down exclamation point on their season than they did this week dropping games to both Miami and Virginia (both by 14) to drop to 7-9 in the conference and making damn sure nobody put them anywhere near any bubbles of any kind.  Just ugly.  Apparently Jordan Williams (16.9 points, 11.6 rebs per game) can't do it all, and you actually need guards of some kind in order to win.  I guess we maybe kind of saw some of that this year at Williams Arena.

3.  Baylor Bears.  There are a lot of disappointing teams out there this year:  Maryland, as mentioned.  The Gophers, who make me cry.  Michigan State, who might sneak into the tournament anyway, and plenty of others with NCAA bid aspirations who are going to fall short.  No team, however, was as bad as Baylor this year - a team with National Championship aspirations who isn't even going to make the tournament.  An elite 8 team last year losing just one key player but gaining a consensus top-5 in the nation freshman?  How could they lose?  Well, in every possible way, culminated by losing four of their final five including two this week, @ Oklahoma State and Texas at home.  One they couldn't lose and the other they needed to win, but of course neither happened.  The only good news about all this is that maybe we'll get a chance to see them in person at the Barn.  That's an NIT CBI game I would actually show up for.  

4.  Klay Thompson.  Let me see if I have this right.  You've just won a huge game over one of the better teams in your conference on the road, a big enough win that it takes your team from "no way is this an NCAA Tournament team" to "maybe this is an NCAA tournament team."  You have one game left against UCLA, one of the two best teams in your conference and a good enough team that if you beat them on the road you suddenly jump to "this is probably an NCAA tournament team."  Huge game.  Monster game.  You're also the best player on your team and it isn't even close.  So what do you do?  Get busted for marijuana possession ON YOUR WAY HOME FROM THE USC GAME.  Seriously?  Jesus Smokey, wait until you get to your hotel.  Suspended for the game, which Washington State lost in overtime.  Do you think Thompson, who averages 21-5-4 per game, would have made a difference in a tight one?  Nice work, Marley.

5.   Gopher basketball.  Just because I want to put them in here one last time.  Unfortunately there's nothing left to say.  I was impressed by Blake's transformation from one-trick pony to do it all everything guy, and nobody gave more to the team than him.  I loved watching Mbakwe's terror show in the paint, not since Courtney James have the Gophers had a power forward like him, and Trevor's even better.  I hope he's back for another year.  I liked what I saw from Chip Armelin - an incredible athlete with a drive to score.  On a team full of guys who wait for the game to come to them, he goes out and grabs it - a little over enthusiastically at times, but at least he does it.  And I though Maverick Ahanmisi showed he could end up being a decent back-up PG some day, which is far greater praise than I expected to be giving him.  And that's pretty much it.   I can't come up with any other positive words to say.  So I'll just stop.  For now.


Finally, a shout-out to the Optimator, who won our first ever Big Ten Fantasy College Basketball League, smoking Snacks in the Championship game.  His team of Jordan Taylor, Verdell Jones, Aaron Craft, JaJuan Johnson, and Jeff Brooks took it home.  Nice work, nerd.

F the Buckeyes

That's a terrible post title, but I couldn't really think of anything else because I'm so damn tired.  Seriously, I'm exhausted.  I probably have mono.  Or AIDS.  I haven't had any gay sex lately or hugged Magic Johnson, so it's probably not AIDS. 


1.  Is Ohio State more of a "final four" team like you said, or "not a top 100" team like Dawger said?  It should be obvious at this point that any time Dawger and I disagree, you just take my side and you'll be good, and this is just another example.  Since the Gophers beat them at Williams, they have won at Purdue, vs. Wisconsin, and at Iowa and lost at #12 West Virginia by 6.  The team's RPI this year is 41, they're ranked 14th by Ken Pomeroy's numbers and 20th and 24th in the two polls, and are 12-3 when Evan Turner plays.  I'll admit "final four team" might be a little bit strong, but "not a top 100" team is just plain old ludicrously stupid.  Much like everything else that comes out of Dawger's mouth.  You can still get them at 75-1 to win the National Championship.  I recommend you throw a $5-spot on it.

2.  So just how good is this Evan Turner?  If you can get past the fact that he turns it over a ridiculous four times per game he's pretty damn good.  His 18.4 ppg ranks third in the Big Ten.  His 9.9 rebounds per game ranks first in the conference, and his 5.5 assists ranks second.  He's also tied for fourth in steals per game at 1.7 and is twelfth in blocks at 0.9 per game.  All this while shooting 55%, good for fourth in the Big Ten, and he's a guard.  The team is 12-3 with him, including wins over Purdue, Florida State, and Cal, and is just 3-3 without him with a loss to Michigan.  He might legitimately be the best player in college basketball this year, and if he hadn't gotten hurt would be a legit National Player of the Year candidate.   

3.  Tell me about the rest of guys, but be quick about it.  I don't have all day. Fellow wings David Lighty and William Buford are basically knockoffs of Turner, and both can carry the team if they need to.  Lighty scored 18 in the second-half alone this week against Iowa, and Buford played his best game of the year last weekend against West Virginia with 22 on 9-13 shooting.  Jon Diebler is the only player in the conference with more three-pointers made than Blake Hoffarber this year, shoots 44% behind the line, and has hit five or more threes in a game seven-times already (and can get his own shot).  Finally, manning the paint is Dallas Lauderdale, who is an offensive retard but leads the conference in blocked shots and is a pretty intimidating force in the middle - good thing the Gophers don't have anybody who can drive into the paint anyway.  

4.  How is the post-Al Nolen point guard thing going?  Well Justin Cobbs has been a non-factor.  He played just four minutes against Michigan State because he was way, way, way, way too freaking hyper resulting in two turnovers in those four minutes.  In the next game against Northwestern he played better, putting in 12 minutes of work and getting almost nothing on his stat line, good or bad.  I didn't notice him for his good play, but didn't notice him for bad either.  Devoe Joseph had a great game against Michigan State with 16 points and 7 assists against just 1 turnover, but kind of disappeared against NW with just six points and four turnovers.  So, in a word, pretty uneven.

I'm encouraged because both Joseph and Cobbs have shown flashes the past two games, but they'll need to play even better if there's an NCAA bid in the future.  Ohio State doesn't match up well against quick point guards because there best guys are bigger wings and their only "true" point guard is a gigantic douchebag.  I just don't know if either of our guys would be classified as a "quick" point guard.  As usual and in every game the rest of the year, point guard play is going to be a huge key.

5.  This would obviously be a huge win for the Gophers, is there any reason to believe?  Not really.  Ohio State is almost as good defensively as the Gophers, but are a far, far better offensive team - one of the best in the country (16th in offensive efficiency).  They can thrive either in the halfcourt or in an up-and-down fast-paced game and have not only the best player out of the two teams, but maybe the best two or three.  I'm hoping the Gophers can keep it close to the end and find a way to sneak a win out somehow, but I think a blowout is more likely (and not the good way).

Ohio State 74, Minnesota 62. 

   

PJ Hill is a Douche (not the Badger running back)

And, more importantly, the Gophers knocked off the #24 ranked Ohio State Buckeyes 68-59, assuring that they won't start the Big Ten 0-2, will probably keep right around their current ranking of 21st, and I will still go to the games this year.

In case you missed it, the aforementioned Hill decided that although his team was getting it's doors blown off this afternoon he'd take it upon himself to trash talk one Mr. Lawrence Westbrook, a guy who I wouldn't fight if I was offered a million dollars and given a gun. He even took the douchiness to a special level usually reserved for guys who put their sunglasses backwards on their heads and wear bluetooth ear pieces everywhere they go by standing next to Westbrook on the free throw line after L-Dub was fouled an about to shoot, woofing at him the whole way until the refs made little P.J. move - Minnesota was up like 8 at this time with under a minute left. He then continued yapping even after Westbrook made the free throws, after the final buzzer sounded (and his team lost), in the handshake line (which almost led to an altercation), and from the entry to his team's tunnel while the Gophers were singing the rouser (along with Will Buford, who Jon Diebler eventually pushed to get him to get down in the tunnel).

I don't have a lot of rules in life - ok, that's not true, I have a ton of rules and most people constantly break them and piss me off - but this one is a biggie: when you aren't very good at basketball, and your career high in points is seven, and you managed all of three on that day, and the guy you want to trash talk scored fifteen and averages over 10 times as many points per game as you, and your team just got worked, you keep your god damned mouth shut you stupid douchebag, or you just look like even more of a jackaas than you already do with your wanna-be a broke ass Troy Hudson dreads. I hope he dies.

Anyway, the game was awesome. With Al Nolen in foul trouble very early, like before we even got to our seats, running the offense for the majority of the first half fell to Devoe Joseph, and he answered the call in a huge way, leading the Gophers to a 34-24 halftime lead with his scoring and, more importantly, some stellar point guard play, including breaking a Buckeye press with the dribble and finding Shamala cutting from the corner with a pretty pass that would have been a monster dunk by pretty much anyone else on the team other than Hoff or Busch. Joseph's numbers actually ended up pretty pedestrian, 7 points on 3-9 shooting, four assists and two turnovers, but unlike it baseball the numbers can't and don't tell the whole story here. If Joseph can't step in like he did, Westbrook would have had to give it a go, and that's not a good look. Absolutely the player of the game in my book.

Although it is very hard to overlook what Damian Johnson did out there today. This statline is just sick: 12 points, 6 rebounds, 4 assists, 4 steals, and 3 blocks with zero turnovers. A completely dominating performance without actually being dominating. What can't this guy do? Well, he can't hit a jumper beyond about fifteen feet, but that's ok. And I think he's starting to realize that himself, so that's even better. PJS over at the Daily Gopher is falling more and more in love with him each game DJ plays, and has even started lobbying for Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year consideration. And you know what? I completely agree.

Overall it was a very enjoyable game, and it was awesome to see a game where the Gophers were much more talented than a Buckeye team. A couple of short thoughts on some other players:

- Ralph Sampson III is probably my second favorite Gopher behind Joseph, and he looked to be on track for a nice offensive game after scoring a couple of early buckets. Tubby pulled his playing time however, opting for a smaller, more athletic lineup and RSIII ended up with just those four points in 17 minutes, but finished tied for second on the Gophers with five boards. Call me crazy, but I know Snake will agree, I think Sampson has the potential to be an absolute star by the end of his stake here.

- The guy who tied Sampson with five boards was Paul Carter, who looked good today and helped the Gophers outrebound the Bucks 35-27, a nice change from the Michigan State game (although let's not compared the two opponents, let's just be happy with this result). I'm not really sure what to make of Carter. At one point today I joked he was Quincy Lewis without the scoring, which is funny because that's all Lewis did. I think Carter can follow in DJ's footsteps eventually. I don't expect him to a major scoring threat at any point, but he could easily develop into something approaching DJ's all around game.

- Travis Busch and Jonathan Williams only played 3 minutes each, none of them in the second half - and the Gophers won. Not a coincidence.

- I think I still believe in Devron Bostick, but I'm starting to wonder if he's nothing more than a more athletic Hoffbauer. Nearly half his shot attempts are from three. Of course, the Hoff is at over 70%, so maybe not quite. (NOTE: Not a rip on Hoff. I love what he gives this team).

- Jon Diebler for the Buckeyes is at over 75%, and that's before today's game where he chucked up 13 shots, 11 of them from beyond the arc. Although "chucked" seems to invoke visions of poor shots, and since he was 5-11, I'll withdraw my adjective.

- Lastly, B.J. Mullens is very, very good. I don't know why he doesn't get more touches, but I'm glad for the Gophers and the rest of the Big Ten. He only took two shots today, but made them both and they were both impressive. The first was a really smooth jump hook from about 12 feet, and with his seven foot frame was pretty much unstoppable. The second was even more impressive, getting it on the block and using a combo shot fake-drop step-duck under to go right around Colt Iverson like he was Felton Spencer for the easy lay-in. The kid is very smooth, and has very good footwork. Once he gets a little more confidence and with it more aggressiveness it's going to be trouble. Although I'm still pretty sure RSIII can take him.






Also P.J. Hill is a douche (not the Badger running back).