Thursday, April 14, 2011
Mel Kiper
Do you think it pisses Mel Kiper off that Todd McShay is the next Mel Kiper? I think it does... at least a little bit...
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Baseball Season...
Well, it's the start of baseball season once again... what does this mean? In my mind, it means that there are at least 4 more months until I can truly justify paying close attention to baseball. Sure, if the teams I like to follow are doing well, I'll be much more likely to watch games regularly, but I have always felt that the regular season in baseball is way too long. That's not to say that I won't enjoy watching any early regular season games or that they can't be exciting. It can still be enjoyable to watch, especially if it is the only option for a sport on TV, which is often the case during baseball season. In general though, I won't go out of my way to pay a lot of attention to regular season baseball. Baseball would be a whole lot better if a couple things happened: 1) The season was cut in half to about 80 games. This would ensure that just about every game truly mattered right from the start and 2) They added 2 more rounds of playoffs as a result of have the extra time after the shortened season. With only 8 teams total making the playoffs, there are a lot of pretty good teams that miss out on the playoffs each year. I think it would enhance the excitement level around post-season baseball if those teams were able to get in.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Top 20 Most Loved Teams
- KU Basketball
- St. Louis Rams
- 3a) Any team that has ever beaten the Texas Longhorns in football 3b) Any team that has ever beaten UNC in basketball
- KU Football
- St. Louis Cardinals
- LA Lakers
- OU Football
- Manchester City F.C.
- Any team playing the Miami Heat (unless it's the San Antonio Spurs... in that case, I'd rather gouge my eyes out than have to think about choosing a team to root for...)
- Sporting KC
- U.S. Men's National Team Soccer
- Florida Gators Dazzlers dance squad - circa 1997-2000 (This has to do with Erin Andrews... if my girlfriend finds out this is on my list, she will have a fit.... If she does, well..at least they didn't crack my top 10.)
- Spot being held for which ever future NBA team moves to Kansas City... (if it actually happened, they would probably be higher on this list...)
- Chicago Bulls
- Centenary College Athletics (just a sentimental pick here...)
- Oakland Raiders (That's right... I just said that...)
- England Men's National Team Soccer
- Kansas City Royals
- St. John's Basketball
- New York Football Giants
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Mike Anderson to Arkansas
Let's just first clear the air for one thing. Arkansas is a definite step up from Missouri for Mike Anderson.
All Time:
Mizzou - 22 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 0 Final Fours, 0 National Championships
Arkansas - 29 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 6 Final Fours, 1 National Championship
Historically, there's no doubt that Arkansas is the better program. Mike Anderson was also an assistant coach at Arkansas for 17 years and was part of 3 Final Four teams there as well as the National Championship winning team in the 1994-1995 season. Being there that long, it's also the easy homecoming choice for Anderson. He probably lived there longer than anywhere else he's lived since he's been involved with basketball, so I'm sure he has tons of friends, family, and contacts in the area. The question will be, how will his style of play translate to the present day SEC. I have no doubt that Anderson can get Arkansas consistently on the second tier behind Kentucky and Florida in that conference, but I question whether he'll be able to ever compete with them for SEC titles. We'll certainly see. He should definitely have them as a program on the rise over the next few years.
All Time:
Mizzou - 22 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 0 Final Fours, 0 National Championships
Arkansas - 29 NCAA Tournament Appearances, 6 Final Fours, 1 National Championship
Historically, there's no doubt that Arkansas is the better program. Mike Anderson was also an assistant coach at Arkansas for 17 years and was part of 3 Final Four teams there as well as the National Championship winning team in the 1994-1995 season. Being there that long, it's also the easy homecoming choice for Anderson. He probably lived there longer than anywhere else he's lived since he's been involved with basketball, so I'm sure he has tons of friends, family, and contacts in the area. The question will be, how will his style of play translate to the present day SEC. I have no doubt that Anderson can get Arkansas consistently on the second tier behind Kentucky and Florida in that conference, but I question whether he'll be able to ever compete with them for SEC titles. We'll certainly see. He should definitely have them as a program on the rise over the next few years.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Winning NIT vs. just being in NCAA Tournament
Is there any scenario at all where winning the NIT is better than just appearing in the NCAA Tournament? I always ask myself this particular week each year when there are NIT games on, and I am reluctantly paying attention to them while I wait for the games that really matter to start on Thursday.
My conclusion on this question is that there is one possibility. If you have a really young team that is pretty talented, but inconsistent throughout the year... and who misses the NCAA Tournament by a decent measure, then I think you could say that winning the NIT was about the best thing that could happen to them in that year. Since the team is young, they have a lot of (albeit water-down) post-season success to spring board their confidence on for the next season or two. Had they made the tournament, they likely would have lost in the 1st round, but since they were so inconsistent throughout the year, they didn't give themselves a chance anyhow. That's the only scenario I can think of where winning the NIT might mean more. However, if this team is a usual power house like the KU's, Duke's, UNC's, Kentucky's of the world, then I think the NIT is always a disappointment, no matter how young and inexperienced you are. The scenario I described above would only make sense if it's a team that generally finishes middle to slightly above average in their conference.
...The more I think about this post though, I wonder why I'm even trying to defend the NIT. The NIT is like that smelly, unkept little kid who shits on the back of the school bus on a field trip to the zoo and thinks it's funny. As much as he tries to impress people, he will always have that hanging over his head.
...Who was I kidding? The NIT is March Sadness to the NCAA Tourney's March Madness.
My conclusion on this question is that there is one possibility. If you have a really young team that is pretty talented, but inconsistent throughout the year... and who misses the NCAA Tournament by a decent measure, then I think you could say that winning the NIT was about the best thing that could happen to them in that year. Since the team is young, they have a lot of (albeit water-down) post-season success to spring board their confidence on for the next season or two. Had they made the tournament, they likely would have lost in the 1st round, but since they were so inconsistent throughout the year, they didn't give themselves a chance anyhow. That's the only scenario I can think of where winning the NIT might mean more. However, if this team is a usual power house like the KU's, Duke's, UNC's, Kentucky's of the world, then I think the NIT is always a disappointment, no matter how young and inexperienced you are. The scenario I described above would only make sense if it's a team that generally finishes middle to slightly above average in their conference.
...The more I think about this post though, I wonder why I'm even trying to defend the NIT. The NIT is like that smelly, unkept little kid who shits on the back of the school bus on a field trip to the zoo and thinks it's funny. As much as he tries to impress people, he will always have that hanging over his head.
...Who was I kidding? The NIT is March Sadness to the NCAA Tourney's March Madness.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Big East Tournament
UConn just won the Big East Tournament. That's not a huge surprise. What's surprising is that they did not have one of the single or double-byes and had to win games for 5 straight days in the best conference in college basketball in order to win it.
Bob Knight, the other day, said that he thought that winning the Big East tournament might actually be more impressive than winning the National Championship given the level of competition in that conference. I happen to agree with him in this year's case with UConn winning it. To win the National Championship, you have to win 6 games over a stretch of about 3 weeks. If you are a good team - a higher seed -then you might be able to get to the Sweet 16 before you meet another team close to your skill level. Since UConn played on the first day of the Big East Tournament, in theory they were playing teams better than them on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th days of the Tournament, all in consecutive days... and were still able to win each game. That's pretty amazing. If you compare whomever wins the National Championship's round-by-round games versus the round-by-round games that UConn just won and also consider that UConn did it in 5 consecutive days with no rest, I do think that UConn's run may prove to be harder based on level of competition faced and stamina.
Now before anyone calls me crazy, understand that I'm not saying that it's better to win the Big East Tournament than the National Championship...that's not even close to what I'm saying. Obviously the stakes are much higher in the NCAA Tournament and there is much more pressure on each and every team to elevate their game. Obviously, winning the National Championship means infinitely more than winning a conference tournament. It's almost a joke to compare the two feats in the same sentence. If you win the National Championship, no one will ever talk about whether or not you won the conference tournament that year. I get all of that. For UConn, it'll actually be quite an anticlimactic season for them because they likely won't win the National Championship. They'll then be relegated as the team that couldn't perform in the NCAA Tournament because they wore themselves out in the Big East Tournament. So, not only will it not mean as much that they only won the Big East Tournament, but they will actually be condemned to an extent for doing so.
Bob Knight, the other day, said that he thought that winning the Big East tournament might actually be more impressive than winning the National Championship given the level of competition in that conference. I happen to agree with him in this year's case with UConn winning it. To win the National Championship, you have to win 6 games over a stretch of about 3 weeks. If you are a good team - a higher seed -then you might be able to get to the Sweet 16 before you meet another team close to your skill level. Since UConn played on the first day of the Big East Tournament, in theory they were playing teams better than them on the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th days of the Tournament, all in consecutive days... and were still able to win each game. That's pretty amazing. If you compare whomever wins the National Championship's round-by-round games versus the round-by-round games that UConn just won and also consider that UConn did it in 5 consecutive days with no rest, I do think that UConn's run may prove to be harder based on level of competition faced and stamina.
Now before anyone calls me crazy, understand that I'm not saying that it's better to win the Big East Tournament than the National Championship...that's not even close to what I'm saying. Obviously the stakes are much higher in the NCAA Tournament and there is much more pressure on each and every team to elevate their game. Obviously, winning the National Championship means infinitely more than winning a conference tournament. It's almost a joke to compare the two feats in the same sentence. If you win the National Championship, no one will ever talk about whether or not you won the conference tournament that year. I get all of that. For UConn, it'll actually be quite an anticlimactic season for them because they likely won't win the National Championship. They'll then be relegated as the team that couldn't perform in the NCAA Tournament because they wore themselves out in the Big East Tournament. So, not only will it not mean as much that they only won the Big East Tournament, but they will actually be condemned to an extent for doing so.
Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Scott Drew
I'm just going to go out on a limb (sarcasm) and say Scott Drew's post-game comments, after Baylor's loss to OU, related to Perry Jones were a little over the top. If you aren't sure what I'm talking about, I would suggest looking it up.
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