Posts Tagged ‘Basketball’

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NFL Pre-Season and “Winter Break”


2010
08.24

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I’m still officially on hiatus, but I couldn’t help but comment on this NY Times article about the NFL. As you know, I’m not an NFL guy, but I’ve been interested in this move to the 18-game season.

Let me talk about something first to set the stage for my discussion on the NFL. Skip to the end if you don’t want to read my soccer mumbo-jumbo. :)

The EPL (English Premier League), or BPL (Barclay’s Premier League) as I’ve been hearing it called for the first times recently, has this type of discussion all the time. The next few sentences here are simply back-story, but stick with me. The German League has 18 teams in it, which cuts out 4 games. The Spanish League has 20 teams, but has only one domestic cup. The Italian League has two domestic cups and 20 teams in the league. The French League also is a 20 and 2. I’m not going to pretend to know if there is talk of shortening the season in France or Italy, but the argument against Italy could certainly be that the weather is better there than in the English (and Wales*…which is probably why BPL is catching on). The same could be said for France, though not to the degree of Italy.

The Germans have a winter break with their four games and one cup removed from the schedule. Many want a winter break in England (and Wales, let’s not forget them). I’m not sure about other leagues with winter breaks. Some leagues, such as my beloved Fotbollsallsvenskan take off the entire winter, but that’s not what we are talking about here. We’re talking about taking December off, or something like that.

Here’s where we bring it all back to the NFL…the EPL/BPL has the same problem the NFL does. Christmas games are a big deal in England, and doing away with that would destroy traditions.

I realize people are resistant to change, but there’s no reason change has to destroy *important* traditions. I’d claim there’s a difference in “the way things have always been done” and a true tradition. True tradition has emotional value and not just stick-in-the-mud resistance to change.

Let’s assume we stick with 16 games in the NFL. If you don’t see where I’m going yet – the NFL could have some sort of winter break. I’d suggest in between Thanksgiving and Christmas for both the EPL and NFL. That way Christmas and Thanksgiving games could be held. Maybe between Black Friday and Christmas Eve. Let everyone do their shopping, watch basketball and hockey, spend time with their family, study for exams and anything else that a human might do when it’s not NFL season. Give the players some time to rest and come back refreshed so we can watch the best of the best battle it out for the playoff spots. No one likes it when their team is put out because of an injury…except the team that takes their place and even then there’s always that nagging “well if Joe Montana [or whoever] hadn’t gotten hurt…” The same, of course, is true of the EPL, though their season extends to May and not the first weekend in February. The EPL has the additional problem of having to deal with the World Cup every four years (and continental competitions every 2), but that’s neither here nor there. What the EPL does only moderately affects us in the US as there are only a handful of US internationals playing in the league and game times are early enough on Saturdays as to be a royal pain and the others are during the work day.

The NFL would have to work out at what week to start the break. This year Thanksgiving is week 12. That seems a little late. I’m not going to go into the options in detail, but the season could be moved into August to give the southern teams the advantage the northern teams have in the winter. Then the break could be between the playoffs and the season. This is essentially what happens in college football (well, division I-AA conferences without a conference championship, anyway). The other option is to move it to week 10. Both of those have advantages and disadvantages. If there’s a lot of feedback, maybe I’ll spend some time going through those, but for now, it’s just something to ponder.

When it’s all said and done, what could be better than a Super Bowl in late February, followed by March Madness, followed by NBA and NHL playoff pushes and then playoffs? All this and you still get to see Thanksgiving and Christmas games and spend some time with your family.

*Scotland has it’s own, well-respected league. Northern Ireland has a less-respected league (to be honest, I wasn’t even sure they had a league until doing a little research!).

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supernatural disasters, natural disasters and the Bobcats and Bucks that love them


2010
04.03

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With title races and playoffs coming up, I thought I’d simply check in with some of my favorite teams and wax philosophically about their chances of bringing home silverware.  Also, you’re getting this a few hours early.  I mean, why not?

First off, a disaster of cosmic proportions – a supernatural disaster if you will.  I’m talking about the Red Devils falling at Old Trafford.  It’s likely this game should have ended in a 2-2 draw, or even a 3-2 United win.  ManU had two penalties not called and Gary Neville’s shoulder barge also should have been a penalty.  Let’s say they make all of them (not unlikely).  That’s 3-2.  Ok, ManU’s goal may have been a hand ball.  I think it hit his chest, but I’m not exactly neutral.  However, DROGBA WAS CLEARLY AND ABSOLUTELY OFFSIDES. WTF!!!!!!!! It wasn’t even close.  A full body, plus a hair.  So, that makes it 2-2.  Even with no penalties, it would have been 1-1.  It’s clear that Rooney getting injured is bad news for Champions League and EPL.  The Red Devils are safely in Champions League competition next year, so there’s not a lot of difference in two and three, but if Chelsea slips, you definitely want to overtake them.  Unless Chelsea has an injury, I don’t see anyone catching them.  Arsenal and ManU still have Champions League to deal with.  Now, I think Arsenal are pretty much done.  Two away goals is a huge mountain to climb.  However, Fulham overcame a 3-1 defeat in the Europa Cup against giants Juventus, so it could happen. Remember that Any Given Sunday piece? I just want to note that I am cheering hard for Fulham and American midfielder Clint Dempsey to win it.  I’m halfheartedly cheering for Liverpool too, but I really want Fulham to take home the silverware.

ManU may also be done in Champions League, but coming back from 2-1 at home is certainly doable.  Defense and have Nani or Berbatov poke one in.  It’s certainly possible, despite Berbatov looking like trash today…seriously, I did not get up at 6:45am to watch that kind of performance.  If you lose and Cech plays out of his mind, fine.  To lose by simply miss chances and not put it on frame…seriously?

Well, if you don’t believe in the supernatural, there are always natural disasters…the Carolina Hurricanes.  Now, I was going to write about how the Hurricanes have an outside chance at making the playoffs, but that has pretty much evaporated as at the time of this writing, there is 2:32 left in the 3rd period of the game against New Jersey…and they are losing 4-0.  I’m not even going to say anything else about it.

Just want to throw this in here since I’m talking about my teams that at some point I’ll probably look at the Bama 2010 football season based on recruits as well as the UK 2010 season based on recruits and departures.  Should be interesting to see if any of the big three leave UK.  I think they could all benefit from another year. I think draft stock went down as the season progressed…mostly because they were sharing minutes with each other.

Additionally, I have done a terrible job following college baseball this year.  At some point I’ll check in and give an overview of how seasons are going for GWU, UK, Bama and UNC.

Now on to the NBA…I live in Madison, so I keep an eye on the Bucks, but they traded my boy Jodie Meeks, so I’m not real happy with them.  The Bucks are putting the hurt on Phoenix right now…24 points at halftime…ouch.  The Bobcats are really my team though.  The   The Bobcats are also currently losing, but only by 9 points in the 3rd, so that’s not too bad.  Playing better in the 2nd half so far.  If the playoffs ended right now they would have the 7th spot and even if they go on to lose this game, they will still be in the 7th spot by a game.  Chicago is in the 9th spot though, so this is not a good game to lose.  They’ll play one more time before the end of the season, so in football parlance, these are 6-pointers (and that’s not a touchdown, but rather the 3 points per game that soccer uses).  Bobcats were up, but now down by 5 again very late in the 4th. Not really to call it just yet though.  The only team with a better record than the Bobcats that they play in the remaining games is the Hawks, so it’s looking pretty good for them to be in, but at New Orleans and at Houston will definitely be tough.  Chicago, on the other hand, has to play Boston, Cleveland and the Bucks…those are all home games though.  Last game of the season is Bulls in what is -more-or-less my hometown of Charlotte.  It could be for all the marbles…well, a playoff spot.

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Any Given Sunday


2010
03.22

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Posted in College BBall | 1 Comment »

Yesterday (you know, the day I was supposed to have this article done…), a Sunday, Manchester United defeated Liverpool to go atop the EPL with no one able to catch them with games in hand.  I just wanted to mention that as a ManU fan and to keep you from thinking this was an NFL post. ;)

The title phrase was coined by Bert Bell in 1958 in regards to what is now called ‘parity’ in the NFL.  For those of you not in the US, Sunday is ‘the’ day for the professional American football.  Sure, there’s Monday Night Football and the occasional Thursday game, but Sunday is the day.  If you ask me, the NFL (and the MLS, but that’s another post entirely) have too much parity.  This is going to get a little off subject, but indulge me.  No one wants to see a team buy a championship, but Real Madrid and the New York Yankees have both proven you simply can’t do it.  I could see it being possible in the NBA, with only 5 players on the court, but the closest thing the NBA has seen to the Galácticos, the 2004 Lakers, proved not to be a winning formula.  The draft in the US or youth programs in Europe add enough spice to see a team like Montpellier HSC atop Ligue 1 or Åtvidaberg FF in the top league of a country.

Sustained greatness is certainly possible, winning championships is not (depending upon how you define greatness, of course).  If you look at Barcelona, a lot of those world-class players came through their system.  Even Messi, an Argentinian, spent four years in the Barcelona youth system.  ManU also has had regulars Paul Scholes, Wes Brown and Gary Neville come through their youth system.  Neither of those clubs opposed to buying either; Zlatan (affectionately known as BigZ) is a clear example of that.  I’m not going to argue that ManU’s youth system is anywhere close to Barca’s, but it’s telling that they made bigger news with selling to Madrid than with any of their pickups.  All of this is to say that money cannot buy championships.  Rich clubs still have to buy quality players that fit in their system and also make sure they are developing the best youth sides lest someone catch them.  Champions League and such changes the equation a bit, but that (like MLS parity) is another post altogether.  Even when the money is stacked against you, or even if you don’t play on Sundays, “any given Sunday,” a team can win.

The same is true in college basketball. (You didn’t see that coming, did you?)  Especially on Saturdays, it would seem.  Unless you live under a rock or don’t live in the US, Northern Iowa beat Kansas Saturday.  Millions of brackets blew to the wayside with that game.  Mine did, but Purdue helped bring it back to respectability.  The unpredictability of the tournament is what gives it so much of it’s luster.  My roommate and I discussed how it compared to the FA Cup.  One of the differences is FA Cup games aren’t played on a neutral site until the final, but it’s much different from that too.  For those of you on the other side of the pond, you can think of a similar sort of excitement toward the giant killing.

One of the things I loved to do as a kid and that I haven’t done in years because I haven’t had time is to redo my bracket after each round.  Let’s try this again.

MSU over NIU (originally had KU)

OSU over UT (original pick)

Syracuse over Butler (original winner)

KState over Xavier (originally had Pittsburgh)

UK over Cornell (original winner)

WVU over Washington (original winner)

dook over Purdue (original winner)

Baylor over St. Mary’s (original winner)

Not going to go through the other games now, but I now say a Syracuse/dook final with UK and OSU in the Final Four.  I hope that’s not how it turns out, but that’s what I expect.

Games are starting again on Thursday and then on Friday, but…any given Sunday.

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Quick thoughts on NCAA tourney


2010
03.14

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Posted in Basketball, College BBall | No Comments »

First off, I follow UK, Wisconsin, UNC, Gardner-Webb, Alabama and Murray St and outside the SEC, I’m not watching a lot of games.  My roommate is a Nova fan, so he keeps me informed on the Big East.  You’ll likely see some East Coast bias in my bracket, but the Pac 10 was obviously down this year.  I don’t have a western team making it to the sweet 16, unless you count Kansas, Baylor and K-State.  A lot of that is just the matchups, UNLV vs. Kansas, OSU vs. OSU, Gonzaga/’Cuse, BYU/K-State.  The best teams in the west are just not supposed to make it to the final 16, based on seedings.  The exception is New Mexico.  You got to pick upsets somewhere, right? Marquette is definitely a quality side, and they pass my winning record in the conference barometer.  GT, on the other hand, does not…first round exit for them.  Other than NC State, Marquette did not lose to a team not in the NCAA tourney.  Either way, the winner of that game is losing to West Virginia, but that’s a tough one.  Once I realized my bias, I picked Richmond over St Mary’s.  That one’s a toss up.  The loss to USC is the real blemish for St. Mary’s otherwise they lost mostly close games to quality teams and had two wins over non-conference teams now in the tourney.  They lost by 2 to Vandy.  There are more quality wins on the Richmond side, but also more head-scratching losses.  Meh, reverse-bias.

The Dayton loss is the big blemish on Old Dominion’s record, but I still think they can beat a Notre Dame team with injuries.  Sure, they are in the Big East, but they also finished 8th.  I think the only reason they are so high is they couldn’t justify giving Georgetown a 3 and Notre Dame an 8 with the same in-conference schedule.  Admittedly though, Big East conference schedules can be VERY misleading with their crazy scheduling system.

Losses at Colorado and at home to Alabama have me scratching my head about Baylor. Beating Texas 3 times at the end of the season is no big accomplishment.  After starting 17-0, Texas went 7 and 9.  Will the game against Nova being in their home state propel them to victory? Either way, I’m confident dook wins the next game.  The loss at UConn is the question mark for Nova.  Ultimately, I’m going with Baylor.  I already have 3 Big East teams in the Elite 8 and I have the Big 12 losing the 3/2 matchup in the west.

You’ll notice I have Murray St going to the sweet 16.  This is wishful thinking, but if they get past Vanderbilt, I’m confident they can win the next match.

This is the point where I was going to link to my bracket, but since Yahoo! won’t let me do that until the 18th, I’ll just have to add it then.

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