yes plz
ca_prophet
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| Date | Title | Body |
|---|---|---|
| 3 days 16 hours ago | This is fantastic! |
I am really looking forward to the rest of these. Well done! |
| 3 weeks 21 hours ago | As long as there's money to be chased ... |
... Expansion will continue. There is currently money to be chased, so expansion may not even be paused. As far as the ACC media rights deal, it is obviously aimed at keeping the conference together. I am only a rules lawyer and not an actual one, but I'll bet that lasts until A. Someone challenges it in court because they want to leave. |
| 3 weeks 3 days ago | Good for him |
I too hope this will be greeted with a collective shrug and a "moving on now" attitude. The other thing I think is interesting is that as far as I know, his twin brother Jarron (also an NBA player although I think he's out of the league) has made no such announcement. Don't know (and don't care, really, except for the more data points thing) if he is also gay, but it is interesting from a why-are-some-and-not-similar-others pint of view. |
| 4 weeks 1 day ago | Oops |
Double post, sorry. |
| 4 weeks 1 day ago | I believe it is to avoid gaming the system ... |
... as JGB notes. (BTW, thanks for editing the article - I would have preferred a non-BR source but couldn't get the eagletribune link to work for me.) The organ donation system is less corrupt than I would expect, given the stakes, and I imagine that we really want to keep it that way. |
| 4 weeks 2 days ago | They're actually using it to model other disease/disasters |
Seems like a fun way to get some experience with their models. Oh, and check out the zombie instructions - hilarious! |
| 4 weeks 3 days ago | I think that Michigan becomes irrelevant if the B1G does |
... and I think there's a much higher chance of that if we don't expand than others on the board do. I hope they're right and I'm wrong, but that's not the way I'd bet. Put another way, a B1G that gets locked out of guaranteed playoff bids because it doesn't expand becomes a much harder sell to recruits, and over time - say 20 years - that leads to irrelevance.
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| 4 weeks 3 days ago | We'd take Texas in a heartbeat but they don't want us ... |
... given that they can build a superconference around themselves. I think the plan is what you see - grab schools that are an academic fit and bring the dollars. Unlike Brian, I think it's a reasonable plan. I think the alternate universes where we don't expand are filled with the Big Ten becoming a third-tier football conference and dragging Michigan down with it. The remainder are places where we split with the Big Ten and join a Texas dominated Midwest Conference and struggle to hold our own. Expansion or irrelevance? I pick expansion. Those doing the expanding want grades and dollars so this is what we get. |
| 4 weeks 3 days ago | Short-term thinking |
better describes the "I cut the cable with Hulu therefore the country will do it tomorrow" mentality. Yeah, it'll happen, but not for ten-fifteen years (or about the time Google Fiber and its competitors have wired the country for mostly free). I will bet an MGoPoint that the "rapidly-fading cable model" outlasts MGoBlog :<) |
| 5 weeks 17 hours ago | 3s can also be slashers and jack-of-all-trades ... |
... which fits Robinson well. This also gives him a chance to use his quickness against bigger 3s and his strength against smaller ones, improving his defensive match ups - how many times did we see him disappear against a team that could post him with a strong 4? We didn't do two-big last year because it would mean sitting one of Robinson, Hardaway or Staukas. Just like a good coach should, we are deploying the talent at hand to get the best players on the floor. |
| 5 weeks 5 days ago | It would be a foolish decision if ... |
... Pro aspirations and financial factors outweighed other considerations. They obviously did not for Taylor Lewan, and perhaps they don't for Burke ... But that's not the way I'm betting. And that's great - if the NBA is what he wants most of all, he should grab it with both hands. |
| 5 weeks 5 days ago | Actually I don't think high schoolers will jump to the NFL |
Even the very best schoolboys play against inconsistent competition and require redshirt years before competing against less inconsistent competition in college while their bodies keep growing. The NFL has no developmental league and limited roster sizes, so stashing a guy on the practice squad means he gets pro training but no game experience or structured practice with the starters - even Manning would have hard time being worthwhile under those conditions. The guys jumping to the NBA aren't ready either - Sebastian Telfair anyone? - but they have a better chance because their sport in high school is closer to the pro version than football. |
| 6 weeks 1 day ago | It does matter because of physical aging curves ... |
Most males stop getting stronger/faster/etc. at about 24, and start seeing decreases at 30. Giving yourself the best chance of staying in the pros after your rookie contract and hence racking up the big bucks means making sure those prime improvement years overlap with your career as much as possible. Put another way, if a 23 year old Burke is coming off a rookie contract in which he's improved every year, he'll get a lot more four-year contract interest than if he's 26, because some physical growth in his skills can be expected in the former, and physical decline should be expected in the latter. This is one of the big reasons that, say, free agent baseball players are usually bad investments - their best physical days are behind them, decline is setting in, and you have to pay them for what they've already done and not for what you think they will do. |
| 6 weeks 1 day ago | You aren't studying the same sport I am ... |
"If a player is good enough to get drafted now, he will be good enough later." Barring injury, regression, or team context (team much worse, doesn't play as many heavily scouted games, etc.)? Maybe, but those are three elephants you're trying to squeeze past to get out of the room. Not to mention the rookie pay scale for NBA draftees makes it a lock to jump if you're a lottery pick because the salary difference from there to the mid-1st is significant. This is why Burke is a lock to leave unless some personal factor gets in the way - there's no guarantee he'll be a lottery pick next year when he's not coming off a near-championship run as the consensus Player of the Year. It is a more interesting question for players expecting late-1st round grades - if they can move into the lottery it's worth staying but otherwise they might slide and get even less. Whether they slide depends on factors listed above plus incoming freshman for your team and others and who else jumps from your team and others, etc. It's not an easy call, certainly not as clear-cut as you make it seem. I dislike the system because it really is set up for one-and-done style players, and it makes college teams highly variable. You want to be a serious contender every year? Pull in a top-ten recruiting class each year, or you can't replace the departures. No dynasties for anyone - it's all about the frenetic talent acquisition. |
| 6 weeks 1 day ago | That doesn't actually bode well for Burke ... |
... As the great short guards you note have talents that Burke does not. Parker is perhaps the quickest player in the league and has tremendous body control, including a very smooth acceleration that sneaks up in people. Paul is/was immensely strong and could jump out of the gym to go with near-elite quickness. Burke has been relying on a tremendous handle combined with good strength, leaping ability and quickness. The potential problem is that going against bigger, stronger and fast players might make his tools play down. He can't outmuscle NBA guards the way Paul can, or blow by them the way Parker can, and he can't elevate for his shot in a crack of space like Paul either. That doesn't mean he can't be a starter, just that I'd be surprised if he does better than Miller. |
| 6 weeks 3 days ago | Go Blue! |
The team played hard and they had an amazing run. It ended when they ran into a better team - no shame in that. They didn't lose to the refs - they didn't really lose at all so much as Louisville won. I do find it a little ironic that on Saturday, the board was mostly saying "bitching about the refs is for losers - how about making a play?" ...
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| 6 weeks 3 days ago | Heck, Pitino got elected to the Hall of Fame today ... |
... and he had one championship before now. Even the very best teams struggle to win 6 games in a row against increasingly good competition. We had a great season and came within a few bounces of a national title. That's better than every other team but one, and it's not nothing. If we can keep the talent pipeline flowing, we have a staff than can coach 'em up; that will keep us winning. Go Blue!
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| 6 weeks 4 days ago | My first thought was ... |
"Gee, I'm glad he's got really long arms!". He just managed to keep it in control and flick it back to Burke. Very nice play that shows up in its absence on the stat sheet. |
| 6 weeks 5 days ago | Congrats to Syracuse for a great season |
They played hard and for a minute I thought they might pull it out. Fair was uncanny and they had a few monster drive and dunks late, but we hit just enough free throws and shots. The difference was really that McGary was either rebounding every miss or tipping it back out for us to chase down. It's an easy thing to realize but hard to drill down so the players will remember and do it every time down the court - kudos to Beilein and the staff for getting that in. Go Blue!
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| 7 weeks 1 day ago | We never just look any more ... |
"The stars. We never just look anymore." - Dee, Men In Black
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| 7 weeks 4 days ago | Shrug |
These quotes are all things the fan base was saying a few weeks ago. With the possible exception of Hardaway, we don't really have anyone besides Burke to create a shot for themselves - that's why there's a heroball meme floating around here. We don't as a rule block shots, run post plays, or get offense via 1-1 plays except for Burke. It's just a lot easier to laugh them off on the heels of a Final Four appearance. What we do is avoid fouls, run the break, and get easy shots ... which we did to perfection against Florida. Go Blue - Beat Syracuse! |
| 7 weeks 6 days ago | They played a hell of a game ... |
... and would have won if Burke or McGary had been any less magnificent. Props to Kansas and to their fanbase for not, say, melting down when their players missed free throws in an important game. |
| 8 weeks 1 day ago | If McGary gets anywhere near Hansbrough ... |
... we'll be blessed. Hansbrough won the Wooden award and was a four-year all-conference player. McGary making two all-B1G teams would be pretty sweet. They might be stylistically similar, but Hansbrough dominated college ball. (The reason he didn't go higher in the NBA is the same reason that he's not that good there - he's not quick enough or a good enough shooter to play SF and is undersized for a post player at 6'9"/250.) McGary is an inch taller and about the same weight. In order for him to have a good chance at the NBA, he'll have to show the ability to dominate college players the way Hansbrough did. He's not there yet, but he could be that guy if he keeps improving the way he has this year.
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| 9 weeks 10 hours ago | Burke wasn't fouled because ... |
... his own player bumped into him according to Coach's explanation from the refs. I found this bit amusing:
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| 10 weeks 1 day ago | True ... |
...but whenever we lose a basketball game, our players are apparently all weak, spineless wimps with no effort and no heart. We might be better but we are far from good. |
| 10 weeks 2 days ago | Very nice |
I, too, was sure that Brian had written this and was going to crack a joke about his best writing comes out when he's trying to make narrative out of the latest prank from the sports-random-number-generator. Then I saw it wasn't Brian ... Well done, sir.
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| 10 weeks 3 days ago | Sweet 16 + B1G Tourney championship game appearance ... |
Better in either aspect makes the rest gravy. Elite 8 and early loss in the conference tourney is better than a conference win and early March Madness loss, but I think that the fan base has had expectations blown up into entitlement if you're thinking more is our birthright and the baseline for happiness. (I mean, we act like Penn State didn't deserve to be on court with us, when the reality is that they played a great game and deserved to win. Sometimes teams play well against us and we have to raise our level or lose. Sometimes we do, and sometimes the ball rolls off the rim.) |
| 10 weeks 4 days ago | When we do that it generates a meme ... |
And t-shirts. Underlining victories like that doesn't register with me since you had to win the game first. Don't like it? Make your free throws. Win the game. Take care of your game and don't give him the chance to showboat. |
| 10 weeks 5 days ago | If it's not Kalis we're in trouble |
If Kalis isn't locking down a guard spot (ideally with something like Lewan-Kalis-Miller-Schofeld-Magnusen/Braden) then our o-line has little chance of playing with the big boys, and our offense will continue to sputter when we need it most. We must get better line play or we'll continue to come up short. |
| 10 weeks 5 days ago | John C. Reilly is awesome ... |
In Chicago. His Mr. Cellophane is fantastic. |
