- The last 9 seconds of regulation in the Wake-Texas game are a perfect example of why most coaches call timeouts reflexively in those situations. Just a total mess where Wake got nothing despite gaining possession off a missed free throw with 9 seconds to play. Yikes.
- I mean seriously, it's OT now, and Wake's guards are practically begging Texas to steal the ball on every other trip down the floor. An ACC tournament team with cruddy guards? What's the world coming to?
- Based on their...ahh..carelessness with the ball, I was shocked Wake didn't call timeout down 1 with 10 seconds left. Shows what I know, they simply called him Ishmael. Texas could have afforded to call a timeout, as the big man who ended up getting fouled with 10 seconds left missed both of his free throws, if Rick Barnes beleived in time outs, or coaching in general. I'm not sure Barnes doesn't just want to accumulate as much talent as possible and hope for the best.
- San Jose as cardiac city? Really? What about Providence, 8th string announcing team?
- The biggest bracket buster of Day 1? Easily Georgetown's loss. Took out 2 winners in my pool.
- Well, Day 1 was more fun than usual, hopefully it hasn't used up all the excitement for round 1.
Friday, March 19, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
More Day 1
Going to have to go to the proverbial bullet points, as I was away from the TV/computer for a good portion of the afternoon/evening:
- Kansas State must have watched the 'Nova game, as they came out strong and the game was never in doubt. Nice to see a high seed take their first round game seriously, though the fact that the #2 seed is pretty new territory for K-State may have something to do with it.
- It's nice to see Baylor have some success. It seems like only a couple years ago that one of their players killed another and then the coach was caught on tape trying to cover things up. Upon further review, it was almost 7 years ago. Wow.
- St. Mary's had a hellish schedule, having to win their conference tourney to get in, then travel to Providence over Daylight Savings weekend to play their first round game. Didn't hurt them too much, though it won't help them against the wounded and angry Villanova Wildcats.
- Murray State played a heck of a game. Vandy didn't play bad defense at the end, Murray just hit an incredible shot. Tough break for Vandy, who didn't play great, but looked like they had done just enough to pull it out.
- Kentucky had a very smooth start to their tourney. They had better win the tourney, because that's the only way the NCAA won't take away their tournament victories 3-5 years down the road. What? That's how it goes with Callipari. Ask UMass, or Memphis. Luckily for the Nets, Callipari didn't win any playoff games with them for the NBA to take away.
- Wow Georgetown. A double digit loss to THE Ohio University?
- Washington-Marquette was a fun game, kudos to Pondexter for holding for the last shot in a tie game but starting his move with ~10 seconds left and giving himself time to get a decent shot off. Too many players wait until ~5 seconds are left and end up throwing up wild, rushed shots, or worse, not getting any shot off at all. Sure Marquette had 1.7 seconds left to try a desperation 3 pointer for the win, but better risking that scenario then wasting a shot at a good game winning chance of your own.
- Kansas State must have watched the 'Nova game, as they came out strong and the game was never in doubt. Nice to see a high seed take their first round game seriously, though the fact that the #2 seed is pretty new territory for K-State may have something to do with it.
- It's nice to see Baylor have some success. It seems like only a couple years ago that one of their players killed another and then the coach was caught on tape trying to cover things up. Upon further review, it was almost 7 years ago. Wow.
- St. Mary's had a hellish schedule, having to win their conference tourney to get in, then travel to Providence over Daylight Savings weekend to play their first round game. Didn't hurt them too much, though it won't help them against the wounded and angry Villanova Wildcats.
- Murray State played a heck of a game. Vandy didn't play bad defense at the end, Murray just hit an incredible shot. Tough break for Vandy, who didn't play great, but looked like they had done just enough to pull it out.
- Kentucky had a very smooth start to their tourney. They had better win the tourney, because that's the only way the NCAA won't take away their tournament victories 3-5 years down the road. What? That's how it goes with Callipari. Ask UMass, or Memphis. Luckily for the Nets, Callipari didn't win any playoff games with them for the NBA to take away.
- Wow Georgetown. A double digit loss to THE Ohio University?
- Washington-Marquette was a fun game, kudos to Pondexter for holding for the last shot in a tie game but starting his move with ~10 seconds left and giving himself time to get a decent shot off. Too many players wait until ~5 seconds are left and end up throwing up wild, rushed shots, or worse, not getting any shot off at all. Sure Marquette had 1.7 seconds left to try a desperation 3 pointer for the win, but better risking that scenario then wasting a shot at a good game winning chance of your own.
Day 1, Part 1
Aaaaand, we're back!
The past couple of years the tourney has gotten off to a pretty boring start. Favorites took care of business, underdogs perhaps put up a fight into the 2nd half, but then couldn't maintain the fight. Any "upsets" were ones most everyone saw coming, and only the bracket pickers who tried to get cute felt the sting on Day 1. In the last 3 years I believe 5 people have successfully nailed all of the games on Day 1. Day 2 is when the upsets started wreaking havoc on the brackets.
This year is definitely a change-up.
The first set of games started with perhaps the worst display of offense at Notre Dame since the days of Ron Powlus. About 10 games ago, sitting firmly on the bubble and with their star player injured, Notre Dame decided to slow their games down to a crawl, only take shots with less than 5-7 seconds on the shot clock, and hope this frustrated the other team and kept the game close through the end. Unfortunately, it worked. It also created some of the most boring basketball I've ever seen (Ty Willingham would be proud). Fittingly, Notre Dame wasted the last 8 minutes of this game, during which time they hit a grand total of 1 bucket (Charlie Weis would be proud...what? Too soon?) I usually pull for Notre Dame, but I don't want to see that ever again.
Doing a complete 180, BYU's Jimmer Fredette was awesome. 37 points, and 2 big 3's in double overtime to finally help BYU pull away from a surprisingly tough Florida team.
Finally, there was the Providence game: Villanova (2) vs Bob Morris (props to ESPN for this one) (15). These games usually are, ahem, terrible. But Bobby came to play, and Villanova...didn't. Things didn't get off to a rocking start for 'Nova with coach Jay Wright benching 2 of his starters for the first 4 minutes for..well, no one knows why. I don't think he was expecting much of a fight (I can't blame him, Robert Morris? Please.) But Ol' Bobby jumped out to an early lead and had a 6-point edge at halftime. Nova's best player Scottie Reynolds wasn't hitting anything (he finished 2-15 from the field), but thanks to his driving and foul-drawing skills, Nova stayed within striking distance, but with 4:19 left they still trailed by 8. Finally Nova started taking advantage of the bucketfuls of turnovers (21 for the game) Bob Morris and clawed their way back in the game to force OT. At the beginning of OT, Bobby looked outclassed, but then Nova started getting careless with the ball. In the end, plucky Bob was down by 3 with 9 seconds left and the ball on their own baseline. They then proceeded to dribble out the clock in one of the worst plays out of a timeout I've seen in a couple years. The little guy who drained a 3 from the parking lot 20 seconds earlier? Never touched the ball, mostly because he didn't cut for it until 1.5 seconds or so were left. Nice job coach. Maybe you can call lanes for Dutch speedskaters next.
I've already started to hate the Ivan Brothers. Bad sign, as I'm going to see them 3427 more times between now and April 5th.
The past couple of years the tourney has gotten off to a pretty boring start. Favorites took care of business, underdogs perhaps put up a fight into the 2nd half, but then couldn't maintain the fight. Any "upsets" were ones most everyone saw coming, and only the bracket pickers who tried to get cute felt the sting on Day 1. In the last 3 years I believe 5 people have successfully nailed all of the games on Day 1. Day 2 is when the upsets started wreaking havoc on the brackets.
This year is definitely a change-up.
The first set of games started with perhaps the worst display of offense at Notre Dame since the days of Ron Powlus. About 10 games ago, sitting firmly on the bubble and with their star player injured, Notre Dame decided to slow their games down to a crawl, only take shots with less than 5-7 seconds on the shot clock, and hope this frustrated the other team and kept the game close through the end. Unfortunately, it worked. It also created some of the most boring basketball I've ever seen (Ty Willingham would be proud). Fittingly, Notre Dame wasted the last 8 minutes of this game, during which time they hit a grand total of 1 bucket (Charlie Weis would be proud...what? Too soon?) I usually pull for Notre Dame, but I don't want to see that ever again.
Doing a complete 180, BYU's Jimmer Fredette was awesome. 37 points, and 2 big 3's in double overtime to finally help BYU pull away from a surprisingly tough Florida team.
Finally, there was the Providence game: Villanova (2) vs Bob Morris (props to ESPN for this one) (15). These games usually are, ahem, terrible. But Bobby came to play, and Villanova...didn't. Things didn't get off to a rocking start for 'Nova with coach Jay Wright benching 2 of his starters for the first 4 minutes for..well, no one knows why. I don't think he was expecting much of a fight (I can't blame him, Robert Morris? Please.) But Ol' Bobby jumped out to an early lead and had a 6-point edge at halftime. Nova's best player Scottie Reynolds wasn't hitting anything (he finished 2-15 from the field), but thanks to his driving and foul-drawing skills, Nova stayed within striking distance, but with 4:19 left they still trailed by 8. Finally Nova started taking advantage of the bucketfuls of turnovers (21 for the game) Bob Morris and clawed their way back in the game to force OT. At the beginning of OT, Bobby looked outclassed, but then Nova started getting careless with the ball. In the end, plucky Bob was down by 3 with 9 seconds left and the ball on their own baseline. They then proceeded to dribble out the clock in one of the worst plays out of a timeout I've seen in a couple years. The little guy who drained a 3 from the parking lot 20 seconds earlier? Never touched the ball, mostly because he didn't cut for it until 1.5 seconds or so were left. Nice job coach. Maybe you can call lanes for Dutch speedskaters next.
I've already started to hate the Ivan Brothers. Bad sign, as I'm going to see them 3427 more times between now and April 5th.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
Sarcastic Guy, Vol. 5
At about 1PM Eastern today, the Seattle Seahawks will hold a press conference announcing Pete Carroll as their new head coach. He leaves behind a USC program that went 97-19 under Carroll in 9 years, including a 7-2 bowl game record and 2 national titles.
The words of the immortal Ron Burgundy come to mind, "I immediately regret this decision." Yes, Seattle is about to throw caution to the wind, and in an effort to save a team that's flailing for its life, jump into a pit full of bears.
Apparently the decision to can Mora was made by Paul Allen, who decided that he wanted "the biggest name out there", and gave his CEO a list of names he would be okay with as the new head coach. That list supposedly had one name on it. Now, Paul Allen did something similar once before, back in 1999 he fired Dennis Erickson (showing incredible football acumen) and threw the kitchen sink at Mike Holmgren, offering him both the GM and head coaching positions. While this would end up being a great success (especially in Seahawks terms) it was only after Allen forced Holmgren to relinquish his GM duties that this team went anywhere. And Mike Holmgren was on top of the NFL world at the time, coming off a 3 year stretch with 1 Super Bowl win and another appearance.
Now Allen is going back to the well, only this time he's hiring one of the guys on top of the college coaching world. When will people finally get it? Coaching college football and coaching professional football are 2 entirely different animals. Pete Carroll has had 2 short stints in the NFL already: 1 year with the Jets (6-10 record), and he took over a Patriots team fresh off of a Super Bowl appearance (10-6/1 playoff win, 9-7/0 playoff wins, 8-8, no playoff apprearance) before the Patriots realized he had lost the team and fired him. Carroll then landed at USC (as its 4th choice) and built himself an empire (see the top of this article for the stats).
Carroll is such a success at the college level in part because he failed at the pro level. On the spectrum of hard nosed coach to players coach, the extreme end on the players coach side might as well be renamed the Carroll wing. Carroll doesn't seem to have it in him to be a disciplinarian. At the college level, a 58-year-old with ADD (Carroll's never been diagnosed, but has many times diagnosed himself) who throws himself into drills with the players,] plays pranks on them (youtube USC lean on me), and creates an atmosphere where they feel comfortable posing for pictures with the Governator on the sideline during a game can be emperor. 19-year-olds with NFL dreams will eat that stuff up. All Carroll has to do to keep them in line is remind them that their dream of playing football in the NFL and making it big goes through him.
In the NFl, however, most of the players already have financial security. Motivating millionaire adults is totally different from motivating college kids. Carroll has taken a couple of swipes at motivating millionaires, and it didn't work. By the end of his term with the Patriots, story after story was leaking out that he had lost the locker room, that players did not respect his authority. Sounds like a great guy to be coaching your team, Mr. Allen!
Could Pete Carroll have learned something from his failures? Sure, it's possible. But his success at USC had a lot to do with his personality, a personality he had back in his previous NFL stints. He didn't have to change himself to create the dynasty at USC, he just had to change his arena. This brings up a great question, "Why would Carroll leave his empire in Los Angeles for a faltering team in the NFL's Siberia?" If you listen to Pete Carroll, he relished the challenge. If you look just a little deeper, you see the vultures circling USC's football program. Rules appear to have been bent at the very least during Carroll's tenure at USC, and many people believe sanctions are coming for the football team (and that USC is trying to sacrifice its basketball team to avoid these sanctions).
So, before I write the next great American novel, let's review the facts:
Seattle is about to hire a guy who succeeded at the college level because...
- He accumulated more talent that most everyone else on his 85+ man roster. The NFL has 53 man rosters and a salary cap. This method doesn't work in the NFL.
- His personality. A personality that has been shown to not work in the NFL (see Jim Mora, Dennis Erickson, Barry Switzer. I can see you getting ready to argue. Don't. Don't use the Super Bowl XXX win to argue on Switzer's behalf. We could have gone to the Ukraine, picked a random person off the street, and that person could have coached the Cowboys to that Super Bowl title.)
- Good defensive schemes. This might be a plus for Seattle, as he cut his teeth as an NFL defensive coordinator. But he was last involved in the league 10 years ago. Who knows how well those schemes have aged, with regards to the NFL.
In sum, this is a terrible move for the Seattle Seahawks. Paul Allen's heart may be in the right place, but he is going to end up firebombing the team in an effort to save it. Perhaps if they hadn't botched the hiring process (allowing Mora to address the media as if he was staying another season, talking with Carroll behind Mora's back while he still had the job, all the leaks ahead of any interviews they did, making a complete mockery of the league's Rooney Rule, having candidate after candidate pull out of interviews for the Seahawks GM job, the list goes on) I hope I am 100% wrong, but I just can't see it. The team I love is heading back to the Dark Ages, and thanks to his giant contract and the faith of the man in charge, I don't see an Age of Enlightment coming anytime soon.
The words of the immortal Ron Burgundy come to mind, "I immediately regret this decision." Yes, Seattle is about to throw caution to the wind, and in an effort to save a team that's flailing for its life, jump into a pit full of bears.
Apparently the decision to can Mora was made by Paul Allen, who decided that he wanted "the biggest name out there", and gave his CEO a list of names he would be okay with as the new head coach. That list supposedly had one name on it. Now, Paul Allen did something similar once before, back in 1999 he fired Dennis Erickson (showing incredible football acumen) and threw the kitchen sink at Mike Holmgren, offering him both the GM and head coaching positions. While this would end up being a great success (especially in Seahawks terms) it was only after Allen forced Holmgren to relinquish his GM duties that this team went anywhere. And Mike Holmgren was on top of the NFL world at the time, coming off a 3 year stretch with 1 Super Bowl win and another appearance.
Now Allen is going back to the well, only this time he's hiring one of the guys on top of the college coaching world. When will people finally get it? Coaching college football and coaching professional football are 2 entirely different animals. Pete Carroll has had 2 short stints in the NFL already: 1 year with the Jets (6-10 record), and he took over a Patriots team fresh off of a Super Bowl appearance (10-6/1 playoff win, 9-7/0 playoff wins, 8-8, no playoff apprearance) before the Patriots realized he had lost the team and fired him. Carroll then landed at USC (as its 4th choice) and built himself an empire (see the top of this article for the stats).
Carroll is such a success at the college level in part because he failed at the pro level. On the spectrum of hard nosed coach to players coach, the extreme end on the players coach side might as well be renamed the Carroll wing. Carroll doesn't seem to have it in him to be a disciplinarian. At the college level, a 58-year-old with ADD (Carroll's never been diagnosed, but has many times diagnosed himself) who throws himself into drills with the players,] plays pranks on them (youtube USC lean on me), and creates an atmosphere where they feel comfortable posing for pictures with the Governator on the sideline during a game can be emperor. 19-year-olds with NFL dreams will eat that stuff up. All Carroll has to do to keep them in line is remind them that their dream of playing football in the NFL and making it big goes through him.
In the NFl, however, most of the players already have financial security. Motivating millionaire adults is totally different from motivating college kids. Carroll has taken a couple of swipes at motivating millionaires, and it didn't work. By the end of his term with the Patriots, story after story was leaking out that he had lost the locker room, that players did not respect his authority. Sounds like a great guy to be coaching your team, Mr. Allen!
Could Pete Carroll have learned something from his failures? Sure, it's possible. But his success at USC had a lot to do with his personality, a personality he had back in his previous NFL stints. He didn't have to change himself to create the dynasty at USC, he just had to change his arena. This brings up a great question, "Why would Carroll leave his empire in Los Angeles for a faltering team in the NFL's Siberia?" If you listen to Pete Carroll, he relished the challenge. If you look just a little deeper, you see the vultures circling USC's football program. Rules appear to have been bent at the very least during Carroll's tenure at USC, and many people believe sanctions are coming for the football team (and that USC is trying to sacrifice its basketball team to avoid these sanctions).
So, before I write the next great American novel, let's review the facts:
Seattle is about to hire a guy who succeeded at the college level because...
- He accumulated more talent that most everyone else on his 85+ man roster. The NFL has 53 man rosters and a salary cap. This method doesn't work in the NFL.
- His personality. A personality that has been shown to not work in the NFL (see Jim Mora, Dennis Erickson, Barry Switzer. I can see you getting ready to argue. Don't. Don't use the Super Bowl XXX win to argue on Switzer's behalf. We could have gone to the Ukraine, picked a random person off the street, and that person could have coached the Cowboys to that Super Bowl title.)
- Good defensive schemes. This might be a plus for Seattle, as he cut his teeth as an NFL defensive coordinator. But he was last involved in the league 10 years ago. Who knows how well those schemes have aged, with regards to the NFL.
In sum, this is a terrible move for the Seattle Seahawks. Paul Allen's heart may be in the right place, but he is going to end up firebombing the team in an effort to save it. Perhaps if they hadn't botched the hiring process (allowing Mora to address the media as if he was staying another season, talking with Carroll behind Mora's back while he still had the job, all the leaks ahead of any interviews they did, making a complete mockery of the league's Rooney Rule, having candidate after candidate pull out of interviews for the Seahawks GM job, the list goes on) I hope I am 100% wrong, but I just can't see it. The team I love is heading back to the Dark Ages, and thanks to his giant contract and the faith of the man in charge, I don't see an Age of Enlightment coming anytime soon.
Monday, January 4, 2010
Strike a blow for fairness in college football
If you care at all about fairness, or college football, or fairness in college football, if you despise good-ol-boy networks and societies designed to keep the same group of people in charge year after year after year, do something about it.
Turn your TV to FOX. Right now. Seriously, drop what you are doing and put on FOX right now. Leave the TV on FOX for the next 3.5 hours. If you happen to enjoy good college football, then watch the Boise State-TCU game and enjoy the bonus.
TCU and Boise State are both outside of the 6 BCS conferences, which means they have to jump through a bunch of extra hoops just to play in these featured bowl games, and it's just about impossible for them to get serious consideration for berths in the national title game. A big reason for this is the major bowls are worried these teams won't travel well and that casual fans won't tune in to watch games featuring these teams, preferring games with big name schools instead.
Show them they are wrong. Do it for fairness, if you don't want to do it to see some good college football. These are the #3 and #6 teams in the country this season. One of these teams has the #1 defense in the country. The other just put forth the most exciting bowl game of the decade the last time they were in the Fiesta Bowl 3 years ago.
Watch the game, or at least have it on in the background.
Turn your TV to FOX. Right now. Seriously, drop what you are doing and put on FOX right now. Leave the TV on FOX for the next 3.5 hours. If you happen to enjoy good college football, then watch the Boise State-TCU game and enjoy the bonus.
TCU and Boise State are both outside of the 6 BCS conferences, which means they have to jump through a bunch of extra hoops just to play in these featured bowl games, and it's just about impossible for them to get serious consideration for berths in the national title game. A big reason for this is the major bowls are worried these teams won't travel well and that casual fans won't tune in to watch games featuring these teams, preferring games with big name schools instead.
Show them they are wrong. Do it for fairness, if you don't want to do it to see some good college football. These are the #3 and #6 teams in the country this season. One of these teams has the #1 defense in the country. The other just put forth the most exciting bowl game of the decade the last time they were in the Fiesta Bowl 3 years ago.
Watch the game, or at least have it on in the background.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)