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Because you lack critical…

Because you lack critical thinking skills.

 

Sports talk radio (or tv shows that are just sports talk radio) is as real as wrasslin. They should not be taken seriously in any way.

Ask

Ask Bart:

http://www.barttorvik.com/trankpre.php

"but wouldn't have been

"but wouldn't have been without Jordan"

 

He was first team All-NBA in both years without Jordan.

Moon 2: Electric Boogaloo.

M00N 2: Electric Boogaloo.

“But yes many many people

“But yes many many people still get fucking furious about Michigan football for some reason.”

For some reason? It is obviously because a lot of people devote a lot of time, money, and energy into this team, and getting smacked in the face for that loyalty really sucks. Yes, more of this fanbase needs to go take a walk and get some fresh air or play with their kid instead of getting angry. That doesn’t mean they should be expected to act like Northwestern fans when the team plays like crap against S&P+ #66. How many people spent their New Years in Tampa to see their $7M coach run out a performance like that? The program looked awful and deserves criticism, and the site that has become the thought leader on Michigan football can’t muster more than “eat at Arby’s”.

For better or worse, this site thrives off the fact that a whole bunch of people are devoted to Michigan football. That they want to see someone break down every single play of every single game. It seems disingenuous to say “come along for the ride” when things are going well, and “screw, you jerks” when they aren’t.

"It is ridiculous that this

"It is ridiculous that this comittee follows such an inconsistent system for ranking teams. "

Its almost like there isn't one criteria that is a trump card, and they try to account for a wide set of factors, and each situation is taken on a case-by-case basis.

I get how you see it that

I get how you see it that way, but that's not a Lloyd bashing, it's a criticism of the people above that.

The process to replace Klinsmann was pretty much "oh shit, we need to bring in someone right now, who's the first person that will answer the phone?". That would make sense if he was found with a dead hooker in his bed the morning before a game. You wouldn't have had to offer Arena more than to pay for the snack box on his flight that afternoon to get him to manage the team.

But the Klinsmann issue was a long burn and there was more than enough time to find a real replacement, someone who really and truly could be considered the best person for the job. Instead Gulati, and the powers that be, chose the easiest path, didn't bother to do any sort of preparation, and just called up the first number in the speed dial.

"replacing him with Arena was

"replacing him with Arena was fine" Only in the same way bringing back Lloyd after Rodriguez would have been fine. Arena was an absolute stiff, and everyone knew it. He wasn't brought in because he was the best man for the job, but because MLS has too strong a grip on the USMNT.

The issue with Steele is that

The issue with Steele is that he decides in his head what is important first, and then goes looking for that, rather than sorting through and figuring out what is predictive, and using those measures.

 

% of tackles returning sure seems like it would be predictive, but Steele shows none of the actual legwork behind figuring out how much, instead just haphazardly showing some random examples, the first of which he brings up doesn't even support his theory. This is straight up just shitty science that may guess right some times, even a lot of times, but demonstrates nothing that should be considered reliable.

Ehh, this year is more

Ehh, this year is more begging for one team being crowned at the end of the regular season. 

Honestly, I don't understand

Honestly, I don't understand the appeal of Bill Simmons. Sure, to Boston homers. But how does a guy who doesn't come across well on TV at all and who thinks the best way to start a new show is to talk about a topic from 17 months ago get his own HBO show? 

I know, when he used to write, he was kind of entertaining. But here we are, with the same Teen Wolf references, every NBA comparison coming back to Bird, and a whole bunch of pounding the table to prove how big of a Boston homer he is. This still appeals to people once they leave the frat house?

 
"It's the largest

 

"It's the largest over-reaction in sports I can remember in my lifetime"

 

And yet here we are, with people still over-reacting to the over-reaction over a year after the incident. 

While the Gold Cup was a

While the Gold Cup was a cluster****, and they should get out of this group (SPI gives them a 57% chance), I think it's wholly unfair to use the team that punched the most above it's weight as a comparison. It would be like Boise St going "we won the 2007 Fiesta Bowl with a bunch of kids no one bothered recruiting, we should be amazing now that we can get some halfway decent recruits"

A good (but long) read for

A good (but long) read for anyone interested in this case

http://viewfromll2.com/2014/11/26/serial-why-jays-testimony-is-not-cred…

 

"This could explain, perhaps, why Adnan’s defense counsel was so unconcerned by Asia’s supposed alibi for Adnan, even though Asia placed Adnan in the library at 2:30 p.m. — because throughout all of the pre-trial investigation, and throughout at least Jay’s first two interviews, everyone was working under the theory that the murder occurred just before 3:40 p.m., and a 2:30 p.m. alibi would be meaningless.)"

"a mat with each 11 jersey

"a mat with each 11 jersey numbers on it"

At the Rutgers game, they had a mat with the numbers 1-10 and an M on it. I wondered if it was for this kind of purpose. But then the team never actually seemed to use it, so I have no idea what it was there for.

I'm down, but it's not up to

I'm down, but it's not up to Celtic to get to decide which league they get to join. The Premier League has no interest in seeing how Celtic could do with real money.

"the Nigerian defense

"the Nigerian defense includes two local players, a couple of guys in the English second tier, and just one player at anything resembling a big club: left back Eldereson Echiejile plays for French runners-up Monaco"

 

And Efe Ambrose. As a Celtic fan, I swear, we're still a big club. No, really.

But the role of college is to

But the role of college is to prepare you for the real world in a lot more facets than just education.  Stauskas is going to "further" his "career" (your words) by preparing for the NBA while at Michigan. Now, that's true for a very small percentage of even NCAA athletes, so the eggs should be put in different baskets, so to speak, and a Michigan degree is still worth a hell of a lot for many people. It's just that in this specific instance, Stauskas preparing for the NBA is worth a lot more, at this moment in time, than an education from Michigan. If some whiz kid programmer developed some great piece of software that required his undevoted attention to put out in the marketplace, would anyone bemoan the fact that he didn't finish school? Of course not. And of course, Stauskas can always come back and finish his degree when the time better suits him.

Brazil's ranking was really

Brazil's ranking was really hurt as they didn't have to qualify, and qualifying games count more in FIFA ranking than friendlies.

No, I completely get your

No, I completely get your point, but you're missing mine while you bluster about the good ol' days. You think that because some kids can't handle both parts of "student-athlete", then all of them should have to sit out a year. But this completely misses that all of these kids are different, some can handle both, some can handle only one, and some can't handle either part. There are kids that can handle both as a freshman, and all you're doing is cutting out a great opportunity for them. 

You seem to think that if we incentivize the kids who are primarily thinking of going pro in a sport from going to college, then college sports will become pure and clean. I can't help but think how laughably naive that is.

 

No, you're just taking the

No, you're just taking the "athlete" out. If a kid still has to figure out the "student" part, then set up something specific to him to help him out, don't pass an across-the-board decision that hurts the kids who can handle both.

And all the kids who want to

And all the kids who want to enjoy going to a college and are good enough to play as a freshman? Just too bad for them?

Stave shouldn't hand the ball

Stave shouldn't hand the ball to the ref, and wait for him to spot it. The clock is still running. He should have left it exactly where it was, so that his team could lineup immediately so they could stop the clock.

But a number of high

But a number of high schoolers are good enough to go make a NBA roster, a lot more than could go make a NFL roster. Sure, its a risk for NBA teams, but they're more than willing to take that risk, as it pays off often enough, so let them.

Stauskas has to be 7' to be

Stauskas has to be 7' to be able to get to the NBA early? Huh? He's going to have to put on some muscle, but 6'6" is plenty tall enough to be a shooter off someone's bench.

Sure, if we recruit enough

Sure, if we recruit enough talent that we can tell the opponent what we're going to do and they still can't stop us, then we should mimic Alabama. But when we play teams that we can't clearly out-talent, we should have some alternate strategies.

To both of you, I understand

To both of you, I understand that this is a bit different, and a Kent St win would make them more likely to move up than TCU being idle, just that the voters have already seen that the lower end of the poll matters and somewhat made a statement last year.

They saw this just last year.

They saw this just last year. TCU was ranked 18 heading to the conf championship games, behind Georgia and Michigan St. They figured that with both teams losing, they would get bumped up the two spots necessary. They didn't.

Because, rightfully so, some

Because, rightfully so, some people don't think that you order best teams solely by fewest losses.

A big reason that Cabrera had

A big reason that Cabrera had better numbers was because of the park that each guy had to play in.

Actually Triple Crown doesn't

Actually Triple Crown doesn't equal MVP. Not only, obviously, are they two different measures, but we have precedent that a Triple Crown winner can also not be the MVP. In 1947, the best hitter in the game, and a meh defender in a corner position came in second to a centerfielder who was pretty great with the bat too, and would have won gold gloves if they had existed.

In the play, the three

In the play, the three releasing lineman only hit two guys. Whether it was a miscommunication or whatever, the RG hits no one. If they each hit a guy, then either Demens or Kovacs are blocked, and Colter just has to guess properly on which one it will be and give or pitch accordingly.



It's a great play in that it forces the o-line to be perfect in figuring out their assignments, still leaves guys to make a play on each part of the option,  and forces Colter to make a decision before he can probably figure out the defense, but it was really helped by a NW o-lineman doing nothing on the play.

You can have your magazine

You can have your magazine sent to our troops. I'm not exactly sure how it works so that you can still get your code for insider, but I think you just have to call ESPN Magazine and they'll handle just about everything.

This is accurate. In just

This is accurate. In just about every measure used in the BCS, Michigan's win over UMass is worth more than the loss to Alabama. No one gets credit for scheduling up and losing, and I'm not seeing how that will change.

Assuming Bama stays at #1,

Assuming Bama stays at #1, I'd say close to 50-50, but I'll lean no. Sugar will get to pick an at-large team before the Rose will, so they'll take either ND or the top SEC team left.

Same network doesn't mean

Same network doesn't mean everyone has the same opinion



And again, and much more importantly, these are completely unrelated. Guesswork for "fun" before a game is even played is different than understanding how the polls work in the majority of circumstances and then explaining that.

I didn't see who said the

I didn't see who said the Irish wouldn't pass an undefeated Bama or Oregon, but I would bet my bottom dollar that it was different from those who made those NC predictions.



And those two are completely different kinds of analyses. Not comparable in any way.

And they beat better

And they beat better opponents than us.



A big problem for Michigan in the computer polls is that UMass is dead last, and dragging down their strength of schedule. the Colley Rankings have a tool to add/remove games. Replace UMass with Bowling Green (still a blowout, but ranked #72 there instead of Umass' #138) and Michigan moves up to #27 from #38. This is the same exact problem that the basketball team had last year.

Fine, completely ignore any

Fine, completely ignore any thoughts you have about what Alabama and Notre Dame's defense would do to Ohio, or what Denard would be able to do against New Mexico St, Marshall, Norfolk St and Buffalo. But you have to find something more nuanced than "win is good, loss is bad".

The Big Ten has no big wins

The Big Ten has no big wins is the actual problem. I count 13 OOC losses, but five were to now top 10 teams, Alabama, Oregon St and ND x3. And Illinois, Iowa and Penn St lost to now a combination of Iowa St, LA Tech, Arizona St, and Ohio,  all borderline top 25 teams, and it's not like anyone was expecting that former group to carry the banner for the Big Ten to begin with. Indiana has always been bad, leaving us with C Michigan over Iowa, UCLA over Nebraska and Virginia over Penn St. Not good, but Sagarin has the Big Ten as his 4th best conference, and that sounds about right.

Fine, compare the resumes.

Fine, compare the resumes. Ohio's best win has come against a before-they-got-it-together Penn St, and in the only similar opponent to Michigan had to come from behind in the 4th Q to beat UMass. Ohio would have (at least) two losses with Michigan's schedule, and Michigan would be undefeated against Ohio's schedule.

But you haven't teased out

But you haven't teased out how many of those runs have to do with the guys hitting around those two. Put Trout in the middle of the lineup, but still ahead of a big bopper, and his % here will go up.

I'm not sure you have any

I'm not sure you have any idea what youre talking about. Sorry to sound so blunt. The "philosophy" of sabermetrics is nothing more than the desire to understand the game at a deeper level. That is, we know that AVG/HR/RBI isn't good enough by itself, and there is more to know. Sabermetricians has been trying to evaluate defense, and has so far determined that it is quite difficult, but certainly not unimportant. And they also say that it's not SBs that are not valuable, but the guys who get thrown out so many times while trying to steal bases that neutralize any return (Trout's SB% is fantastic though).



This is the biggest source of strife between the groups - not understanding what the others are saying.

Don't treat Ohio like just

Don't treat Ohio like just any other MAC team. They're going to be one of the best non-major-conferences teams this year.

Sure, a trial lawyer is going

Sure, a trial lawyer is going to come off sounding a lot less offensive than a hothead former baseball player, that doesn't mean his position is any less damaging. The Marlins did what they did solely because it was good PR.

Absolutely. It's a complete

Absolutely. It's a complete PR thing. The Orioles went down and played an exhibition game in Cuba and Angelos said he would never sign Cuban players. That was an actual sign of support for the Castro regime, unlike Guillen's spouting off. There were no suspensions then.

People frequently say that if

People frequently say that if X athlete just came forward to begin with, the public wouldn't be so upset, but I'm not sure if that's true. Americans love to judge your moral character, and we don't see a bit of remorse for steroid users, regardless of how they respond to accusations. No matter how you respond, you're assumed to be guilty of nearly the worst possible.

If its just that they were

If its just that they were stupid, they are truly incredibly stupid. ESPN put up the exact same headline when talking about basketball during the Beijing Olympics. It got pulled quickly, but I'm not sure if anyone got fired for it.

Alex Sanchez

Did Alex Sanchez surprise you? Steroids aren't just for bodybuilders.

Oklahoma St would probably be

Oklahoma St would probably be the computer champion