There Goes the Neighborhood

The last post on this page was me analyzing the NCAA brackets and trying to convince myself that Duke had a shot at a long tournament run. Not only did Duke underachieve YET AGAIN (did we really just recruit two more tall unathletic white guys who refuse to be post players and instead just shoot threes?), but the team that shall not be named won the damn tournament. And all the while Jim Nance kept insisting that their trio of players who tried to go pro last year came back to win the NCAA title. No Jim, they came back because the NBA scouts told Ellington and Green the dancing machine that they were second round picks and Lawson could’ve been a lottery pick until he got a freaking DUI while at the NBA CAMP. Really dude? If NBA teams are wary of you due to ‘character issues’ maybe you shouldn’t drive around drunk. Just a thought. So they came back to college because the NBA didn’t want them, not to win a championship. They aren’t devoted college athletes; they’re just middle to late first round draft picks that needed to increase their draft value.

As you can see I’m still not over the tragedies of March and early April.

The point I’m trying to get too is that I often decry college athletes who only care about striking it rich as a pro. I think college basketball is the sport most afflicted by this trend and frequenters of this website know that I’ve bashed players and coaches alike. Frequent readers will also note that most people write me off as an overeactive Duke fan who is just jealous of the talent at the school that shall not be named. But I know that I am objectively right in saying that college basketball is quickly becoming nothing more than minor league NBA due to the greed of players, coaches, and the NCAA.

Recently my thesis was given even more merit? I give you John Calipari.

It’s long been John Calipari’s modus operandi to go hard after the most prized high school prospects who are really just using college as a means to the NBA and then once he brings success to a school he jets off to a big paycheck either in the NBA or at another school and the school he left gets nailed for recruiting violations.

“Cal” began his career as the greasy coach of UMass where he landed prized recruit Marcus Camby. With Camby in the post, Calipari led this small conference team all the way to the Final Four in 1996. Everyone was impressed with this feat and so Calipari used that notoriety to land a job coaching in the NBA. Critics, like me, would say that Cal was just after a big payday and therefore just using UMass to launch his career. As it turns out Calipari wasn’t the only person on that UMass team that was trying to make a buck. As soon as the coach bolted, the NCAA discovered that Camby was being paid by agents while he was UMass. As a result of that violation, UMass had to vacate that Final Four appearance. So it’s like it never happened. That’s pretty embarrassing for UMass, but what did Calipari care, he was coaching the New Jersey Nets.

In the pros, where the players are allowed to get paid, Calipari used his coaching “genius” to lead the Nets to a 72-112 record over three years. Well, 2 and ¼ years since he got fired 20 games into his third season.

Not to worry though, because Memphis, a school located in a super rich recruiting ground and placed in a super easy conference, wanted Calipari to coach for them. Of course by this time guys were leaving college after just one year to jump to the NBA. While purist like myself think this cheapens college basketball, Calipari embraced that simple fact of basketball life. Memphis regularly landed top recruits who only stuck around for a year or two before jumping to the NBA. It made for drastic roster changes year after year at Memphis, but even I can’t argue that Calipari used this toxic (toxic in the larger sense I mean) recipe successfully. In fact, he was so successful at Memphis that Kentucky gave him a $31.65 million dollar contract (over 8 years) to coach for them and return their program to prominence.

Well guess what; after he left Memphis all of a sudden the NCAA started finding all sorts of violations in Memphis’ program. In 2001 Calipari recruited Dajuan Wagner who was the stud of that year’s recruiting class. Then, in a totally unrelated coincidence, Wagner’s dad, Milt, was named Director of Basketball Operations. But maybe that was just a harmless bit of serendipity.

Hey remember Derek Rose, the Memphis point guard who led the Tigers to a National Championship? Well apparently he ain’t so good at analogies because he had to have someone else take the SATs for him. Maybe, just maybe, Calipari didn’t know about that. But he probably did know that Rose’s brother, who was integral in the recruiting of Rose, accompanied the team on their trips and didn’t pay for his travel arrangements (plane tickets and hotels).

I think the picture is pretty clear. Even if Calipari isn’t directly involved in cheating or obfuscating the rules, he’s more than happy to look the other way. And does the media, other than Pat Forde who is being attacked by members of the Calipari family and UK fans, really dive into this story? No. Do announcers hold back praise for “Cal” due to the fact that he’s clearly playing it fast and loose with the rules? No. Do the bulk of basketball “fans” even care about this story? No.

And that’s what college basketball has become. The rules are a drag on the entertainment value of the game. People want to see the best players and not concern themselves with how the player got recruited. The NBA legislated out defense for the sake of entertainment. Baseball ignored steroids for the sake of entertainment. Now college basketball is ignoring violations for the sake of entertainment.

NIT Level Intellect Applied to the NCAA Brackets

After the horror of last year when all the number 1 seeds made it to the final four, I’m betting this year gets us back to the days of upsets and multi-numerical final fours. Basically what I’ve done is fill out two brackets. The first is with Michael Orr from The AD Hall. I filled out that bracket Sunday night so that I could get the purest gut reaction. Then, just now I did a bracket with my group of best friends and used every ounce of basketball intellect I could muster. The idea is that between my gut reaction bracket and my highly analyzed bracket I’d be able to discern the truest predictions.

The result was actually somewhat surprising since my hyper analyzed bracket was basically identical to what I initially came up with just going on my gut. So for any of you struggling with your picks, I’ll highlight some points that I was faced with as I compared my two brackets.

Oh, but first you should probably read this article I did a while back: Fantasy Sports Morality. This is explains why, as always, I have Duke winning the whole thing.

Midwest

Louisville went from being way underrated to being way overrated. They lost to Western Kentucky (more on them later) early in the season and got blown out by UConn. And both those loses took place on their home court! Louisville only had to play UConn once and Pitt once because of an unbalanced schedule in the Big East. They’re good to be sure and play excellent defense, but they are very beatable. That said their bracket is pretty weak. So as much as I’d love to have them get upset, I don’t see anyone that can pull that off. In my gut reaction bracket I had them in the championship game and even when I analyzed the situation, I still had them in the final four.

Michigan State is in the same boat. They are streaky as can be but until them come up against Louisville it’s hard to see who could be them (although I was VERY tempted to pick West Virginia to upset them).

Arizona is in this regional and the fact that they made the tournament after losing 5 of their last 6 games is ludicrous. However, I feel like this might motivate them and that worries me because I think Utah could beat Wake Forest and make it to the elite eight so long as they don’t blow it in the first round against Arizona.

Ohio State versus Siena is the most difficult 8v9 game to pick. Ohio State was pretty bad and I like Siena just like I liked them last year. But the game is in Dayton, Ohio and Thad Matta has a good NCAA track record.

Mark my words, North Dakota St will give Kansas a run for their money.

West

UConn is the worst of the number 1 seeds. All year they had trouble scoring and they seem to get into foul trouble frequently.

Purdue and Washington are the real question marks. I have only seen highlights of Washington and Duke beat Purdue at Purdue pretty handily. Ultimately, I’m siding with the Huskies because against Duke the Boilermakers looked like a team that is too dependant on outside shooting and doesn’t play particularly great defense.

Utah State should be Marquette.

I watched Mizzou win their conference championship and was fairly impressed. However, they will run up against the team I’ve got playing in the title game; Memphis. I love that they got dissed by being given a number 2 seed. They are long, athletic, and their Freshman point guard is more than capable of leading this team back to the finals.

East

This is Duke’s region so of course I have them coming out as the winners of this bracket.

The other surprise is that I don’t like Pitt. Once DeJuan Blair gets in foul trouble they fall apart and you can count on them getting into at least one game where the fouls start to pile up. My bet is that FSU takes them on in a game with lots of interior play, which results in a lot of fouls. If Blair is in foul trouble then FSU’s Toney Douglas becomes the best player on the court and the Seminoles pull an upset.

Villanova seriously worries me. If I wasn’t a Duke fan, I’d pick Villanova to beat FSU and go to the Final Four. But since I am a Duke fan I’ve got Duke playing and beating FSU for a fourth time this year.

UCLA is terrible and will lose to VCU.

Wisconsin is in this bracket and shouldn’t have made the tournament. They never can score and this year they don’t play defense at all. San Jose State should be here instead of yet another inept Big 11 team (I refuse to call it the Big 10 conference because they have 11 teams).

South

Everybody and their brother has unc coming out of this bracket and even I can’t figure out how to make them lose to anyone before the elite eight. Usually a number 1 seed gets a tough matchup with the number 4 seed in their bracket. For unc, the number 4 is Gonzaga. What? They aren’t that good and if they are so good then why didn’t St Mary’s, who are in Gonzaga’s conference, get into the tournament? What’s worse is that the number 5 seed is Illinois, which gets me to the next point.

Illinois will lose to Western Kentucky. They are solid and can score, which Illinois can’t do. I love WK so much that I have them upsetting Gonzaga and thereby making unc’s path to the elite eight even easier.

I love both Arizona State and Temple. Whoever wins their game (I’m picking ASU) will beat Syracuse because I absolutely hate Syracuse.

Clemson is really scary. They haven’t won a tournament game since 1997 or something and I’m afraid that if they break through the first barrier they’ll hit their stride and go deep in the tourney. The only thing that prevents me from picking them to beat Oklahoma is that Clemson’s weak scheduling philosophy inadequately prepares them for tournaments. Nevertheless, you have to figure that they’ll beat Michigan.

I’m going out on a limb for former Duke player Jeff Capel, who is the coach of Oklahoma. He’s actually a very good coach and obviously it helps to have Blake Griffin. They started off amazing and then after Griffin’s concussion fell apart. But they’ve had a break and Griffin is fine now and so I’m betting that they return to early season form and end up beating unc to go to the final four.

Final Four

So the bottom line is that I’ve got Duke (2) v Oklahoma (2) and Louisville (1) v Memphis (2). Then I have Duke playing Memphis for the championship with Coach K ultimately cutting down the nets and Gerald Henderson declaring that he’s coming back for his senior season to defend the championship.

Sure that may sound crazy, but compared to Bill Simmons’ podcast about the brackets it is expert analysis (seriously Simmons, Klosterman was right, stick to the NBA because you just don’t get college sports).

College Hoops Observations: Duke and I Won!

I won the SP Sports ACC Tournament bracket challenge. Sure only four people participated, but frankly even if twenty people had been in it I still would’ve won. I only missed two games in the entire tournament; VT beat Miami and Georgia Tech upset Clemson. Maybe I should’ve seen the VT victory over Miami coming, but you really can’t blame me for not picking GT. Either way, after that I nailed every game because I totally called the FSU upset over unc and had Duke winning it all.

I gave 1pt for a correct pick in round one, 2pts for a correct pick in round two (the quarterfinals), 3pts for a correct pick in round three (the semifinals), and 4 pts for picking the correct ACC champion. Since I only missed two first round games I got 20pts out of a possible 22. The other three people picked unc and like unc now smell of defeat. In second, Jared finished with 11pts because he had faith in Duke beating Maryland. Just behind him was Mao with 10pts because he had a unc v Maryland finals. And in last was Lauren who might as well not have even tried because she only picked 4 games correctly and finished with 6pts. So not only did I win, I dominated. But maybe everyone else in the competition was like Roy Williams and didn’t think the ACC tournament meant anything so didn’t try very hard.

And as per my agreement, I will take the FSU football players’ tests for the upcoming academic year. A deal is a deal.

I’m really glad Duke won the ACC championship because we drew a horrific spot in the NCAA tournament. I’ll do a whole post about the brackets and probably just end up talking about Duke the whole time so I won’t go into it right now, but know that I fear Texas/Minnesota and Villanova is ridiculously good. Anyway, look forward to bracket analysis.

Until then, Duke is your ACC tournament champion for 2009. Hate us all you want, we just keep winning.

Super 14 Week 4 and 5 Results (Plus, Week 6 Fixtures)

Obviously basketball has taken priority in my life and that is reflected on the website. I’ve missed posting the last two weeks of Super 14 Rugby results. While I doubt anyone was seriously troubled by this, here are the results from the past two weeks and the slate of games for this weekend with a brief analysis. Read it while you can because soon this post will get bumped by my pre-NCAA Tournament College Hoops Observations wherein I celebrate Duke’s ACC title and look at the bracket (spoiler: I love Western Kentucky chances).

Week 4 Results (as always, the home team is on the left):

Chiefs 31 v Western Force 13

Waratahs 15 v Reds 11

Hurricanes 29 v Cheetahs 12

Blues 31 v Sharks 35

Highlanders 6 v Crusaders 0

Bulls 14 v Stormers 10

(the Brumbies and Lions had byes)

Comments: The two biggest stories are that the Crusaders, who are the defending champs, got shut out. As good as they were last year is as bad as they are this year. Conversely, last year the Bulls broke with tradition and had a poor season. This year they’ve corrected whatever was wrong in ’08 to assert themselves as the best team in Super 14. The Stormers, who barely lost to the Bulls, are in dire straits and on the verge of firing their coach.

 

Week 5 Results:

Blues 46 v Cheetahs 12

Brumbies 21 v Waratahs 11

Crusaders 23 v Western Force 23

Highlanders 10 v Chiefs 14

Reds 25 v Sharks 13

Stormers 56 v Lions18

(the Hurricanes and Bulls had byes)

Comments: Coming off their bye week the Brumbies surprised the Waratahs, who until this week were undefeated. Western Force and the Crusaders put up the first tie of the season and given the Crusaders’ struggles of late perhaps Western Force should’ve won this one outright (although they did suffer a bunch of injuries during the game). The undefeated Sharks lost to a suddenly feisty Reds team. But the biggest story is that the Stormers gave up the first two scores of the game to the Lions and then proceeded to rally by racking up 56 points. This saved their coach’s job (for now) but the larger question is whether or not it saved their season. The Stormers now have to tour Australia and New Zealand. None of those away fixtures will be easy but the fact that they got a win plus a bonus point for scoring more than 4 tries puts them in a good spot to challenge for a playoff spot.

 

Week 6 Fixtures:

Hurricanes v Bulls

Highlanders v Cheetahs

Chiefs v Blues

Waratahs v Crusaders (a rematch of last year’s championship game)

Western Force v Sharks

Lions v Brumbies

(the Stormers and Reds have byes)

 

The Standings After Week 5

	Team	Nation	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	PD	Bp	Ttl
1.	Bulls	(SA)	4	4	0	0	122	65	57	2	18
2.	Waratahs	(AU)	5	4	1	0	97	77	20	2	18
3.	Sharks	(SA)	5	4	1	0	115	96	19	1	17
4.	Blues	(NZ)	5	3	2	0	142	133	9	4	16
5.	Hurricanes	(NZ)	4	3	1	0	103	79	24	2	14
6.	Brumbies	(AU)	4	3	1	0	88	83	5	1	13
7.	Stormers	(SA)	5	2	3	0	116	90	26	4	12
8.	Chiefs	(NZ)	5	2	3	0	80	75	5	4	12
9.	W.Force	(AU)	5	2	2	1	96	105	-9	2	12
10.	Reds	(AU)	5	2	3	0	102	91	11	3	11
11.	Crusaders	(NZ)	5	1	3	1	82	90	-8	4	10
12.	Highlanders	(NZ)	5	1	4	0	80	103	-23	4	8
13.	Lions	(SA)	4	1	3	0	71	125	-54	2	6
14.	Cheetahs	(SA)	5	0	5	0	65	147	-82	2	2

 

College Hoops Observations: The Calm Before the Storm

I’m writing this before Duke plays BC tonight because if Duke loses I won’t write another one of these until just before the NCAA tournament. So here’s the random thoughts I’ve got going on:

Ty Lawson won ACC Player of the Year, which I actually agree with because he was the most indispensable player on the best team in the conference. In fact, his importance is so great, that unc may lose to VT today since he isn’t playing. But the larger point is that Cryler “Shuffles” Hansbrough didn’t win the conference MVP. So prior to the season the pundits basically handed unc the National Title because they could foresee no way that they could lose to anybody and marketed Cryler as the greatest college basketball player in the past decade and the easy choice for National Player of the Year. As it turns out, unc did lose to people and Hansbrough isn’t even the best player on his own team.

In other Cryler news, did you know he has taken the second most free throws in NCAA history? Personally I file this in the same category as the fact that Michael Jordan never fouled out of an NBA game in his entire career. Think about that; Jordan never ever fouled out of an NBA game. How likely is it that he never committed 6 fouls in game? Not likely. The reality is that the NBA has two sets of rules, one for superstars and one for everybody else. So Jordan got away with fouls that would’ve been called on other players. I think “Shuffles” is in the same position. I have never seen any player get bailed out by the refs more than Hansbrough. He goes up with an akward shot and the refs immediately blow for a foul. So am I surprised that he has taken the second most foul shots in NCAA history? No, not at all.

Speaking of players I can’t stand, why does no one point out how much of an asshole Eric Devendorf? If you don’t know who he is, he’s the white guy covered in “tats” who plays for Syracuse. He’s a good player, but in November he apparently pulled a Chris Brown and hit a female student. Here’s where things get interesting. The student body government decided he should be suspended for the entire academic year. If that seems like a harsh punishment, keep in mind that he was involved in a previous altercation during the spring of 2008. So he’s nothing if not consistent. Anyway, Coach Jim Boehiem, who is a good friend of Coach K but I’m going to kill him anyway, decided that losing his best player for a whole year due to slapping a chick was unfair so he and Eric “Chris Brown” Devendorf appealed the decision and won. Hence, Devendorf is on the court for Syracuse. Now, you’d think after all that the guy would be humble and keep a low profile. However, I’ve watch Syracuse play in the Big East tournament and Devendorf spends the entire game trash talking, clapping his hands in other people’s faces, popping his jersey, making faces, and mugging for the cameras. The guy is a total asshole and yet, the Big East loving ESPN media never mention this. “Boy, Devendorf is really intense.” So there you go Chris Brown, just tell the judge you are “intense” and you’ll be forgiven.

Here’s a great article about how the ACC Tournament being played in the Georgia Dome is retarded. The journalist is actually much nicer than I would have been, but the overall point is that they basically cut the Georgia Dome in half and then couldn’t even sell out half of the venue. But Swofford’s defense is that they sold more tickets, even though they didn’t sell out, than they would’ve if they had sold out a venue like the Greensboro Coliseum. Maybe that’s true, but all that proves is that for the sake of more money, Swofford and his douche bag cronies are willing to play in a quarter full football stadium where you can’t really see the action on the court instead of playing somewhere that oozes atmosphere and tradition. Once again, good job Swofford (who, by the way, went to unc).

I love that Georgia Tech randomly beat Clemson. I’ve said this before, but here it goes again. Clemson folds under pressure because they schedule a bunch of cupcakes to start the season. Yes, that does mean that they get to start the year with a 16-0 record, but it also means that you never get pushed and therefore never grow as a team. Dollars to donuts says they lose in the first or second round and don’t look at all good in the NCAA tournament.

Duke made the move to put Elliot Williams in the starting lineup after the losing at BC. So tonight we get to see if that move was just a band aid or if it actually made Duke a substantially better team. That’s all I’ll say about the game because nothing makes me more nervous and antsy than Duke in the ACC and NCAA tournaments.

As for the NCAA tournament, UConn losing to afore mentioned Syracuse (a battle of teams that litter the police blotter) I think cost them a number 1 seed. They lost to Pitt twice and got knocked out in the first round of their conference tournament. So the number 1 seeds that are locked in are unc and Pitt. After the UCon(vict) loss, I think Memphis will get a number 1 seed provided they win their conference tournament (which they should do easily). The fourth number 1 I think goes to Louisville. However, if Louisville blows it in their tournament and Michigan State wins their tournament convincingly then the Spartans could get the number 1. Or, and I think this is the more interesting thing, if Duke and Wake Forest advance tonight and then play each other and the winner of that game plays either FSU or unc in the ACC championship game and wins (all of which would raise their already strong RPI), then they could leap frog up to the fourth number 1 seed.

ACC Tournament Bracket Challenge

First of all, there is no basketball God. Duke can’t keep up with unc to save their life and College of Charleston beat Davidson in the conference tournament semifinals only to lose to Chattanooga in the championship game. So CofC first ends Davidson’s 40 some odd game home winning streak to become the first SoCon team to beat them in like a year (this year Davidson only lost two conference games; first to CofC, then to the Citadel in a game where Curry was hurt and didn’t play), then we knock them out of the tournament and Chattanooga slips in the big dance. Oh, and the tournament was on Chattanooga’s home court, so they had that going for them. Unbe-freaking-lievable.

Anyway, I’ve decided that we should have a bracket challenge for the ACC Tournament. This probably won’t work because there aren’t enough teams and I’m probably too distraught to prevent myself making unc lose in the first game they play. By the way, if Florida State beats unc, I will take all the FSU football players’ tests for an entire year as thanks. The ball is your court FSU.

So click on the picture below (which I made, all by myself) to see the bracket and then make your picks in the comment section.

What is Manny Ramirez’s Fantasy Value?

My fantasy baseball draft is in two weeks or so and my fantasy team name is The Reverse Cowgirls, so I have a lot to live up too.

Both ESPN and Yahoo (where I play) have Manny ranked as the 28th player to be drafted. The other night, while doing research I changed my personal pre-draft settings to make Manny the 7th best player overall.

Here’s who I’ve got in front of him: (Note that I rank David Wright 9th based solely on the fact that I hate the Mets. So Wright is better, but I couldn’t live with myself knowing that I ranked two Mets in the top 5.)

Hanley Ramirez – SS Florida

Jose Reyes – SS New York Mets

Albert Pujols – 1B St Louis

Grady Sizemore – OF Cleveland

Miguel Cabrera – 1B/3B Detroit

Ryan Braun – OF Milwaukee

Then I’d follow those guys with Manny Ramirez at 7 and Alex Rodriguez at 8 (and yes, David effing Wright is at 9).

It’s early in the process and I haven’t taken the time to think about strategy or position needs or anything like that. However, I feel like with the exception of Manny, my top 9 is effectively the same as everyone else’s top 9 just possibly in a different order. (Note: Yahoo always undervalues pitchers and ESPN always overvalues them in their pre-draft rankings.)

So here’s the question I pose to you sports fans: Why is Manny not a top 10 fantasy guy?

He’s not only a great hitter, he’s a historically great hitter. He hits bad pitches, gets on base, doesn’t care who is batting behind him, and doesn’t get hurt. Now that LA has signed him he seems happy so should play hard for the whole season. On top of that the NL West is always the weakest division so outside of San Francisco’s Tim Lincecum, he will face subpar pitching. Ultimately, don’t you think you’d rather have Manny Ramirez than the oft hurt, historically not clutch, uber-sensitive A-Rod who is going to face vitriolic booing at every away game? So why would ESPN and Yahoo advise me to take Manny in round three instead of round one?

Or am I as crazy as Manny for believing in him?

Laettner Recreates “The Shot”

Let’s see, I like vitamin water, I love Duke, and I like when commercials get a little ‘salty’. Thus, this is now officially my favorite commercial. The fact that Pitino calls Laettner an asshole is hilarious. So here’s the commercial and after that it’s the actual shot, which I could watch on an endless loop for the rest of time.

Super 14 Week 3 Results

There’s really no reason to comment on these posts where I post the scores and a brief summary of the Super 14 weekend results so I don’t know if it’s a waste of my time to relay that information or if I should just put the scores up and call it a day. So I’m going to be brief with this post and unless someone complains I’ll continue striving for brevity.

The home team is on the left

Crusaders 24 v Hurricanes 30

The defending champion Crusaders lost at home to fellow New Zealand squad the Hurricanes. At 1-2 this is a really slow start for the defending champs, while the Hurricans snatched a quality away victory.

Waratahs 34 v Highlanders 16

Typical game for the Waratahs; they score a lot of points and the other side just can’t keep pace.

Chiefs 15 v Sharks 22

The Chiefs are a decent team so this was a valuable away win for the Sharks who remain in the top 4 as one of the three remaining unbeaten teams (Waratahs and Bulls are the other two).

Brumbies 16 v Western Force 25

This is the craziest score of the weekend. The Brumbies beat the Crusaders last week but followed that home win with a home loss to Western Force. Either this was just a typical let down game or Western Force has officially put everything together this year and could contend for one of the top 4 spots.

Lions 9 v Bulls 16

The battle of Jo’burg v Pretoria! The Lions got a point for losing by 7 or less, which is a little surprising because the Bulls were coming off a week when they put up 59 points on the Blues and could only muster 16 against the rival Lions.

Stormers 8 v Blues 14

My boys lost. And they lost to a team that the Bulls trounced last week. The good news is that they began the week in 10th place and despite losing are still in 10th place. The bad news is that Stormers coach Rassie Erasmus is now under fire. The belief is that the players no longer believe in Erasmus and his mad hatter coaching style. They barely hung on to victory last week as they blew a huge led against the Reds in the second half. This week versus the Blues people felt like they actually digressed as a team. And as a wing myself, it’s troubling that they are failing to get the ball out to the backs. They keep trying to force the ball down the other team’s throat with their forwards, but this slow and plodding pace doesn’t play to their strength. So if the Stormers lose next week Erasmus is probably done and the Stormers’ season will most likely be a wash.

Reds 22 Cheetahs 3

The Reds really needed a win and the Cheetahs obliged by sucking.

Actually that gets me to a larger point that is going in Super 14. Apparently Super 14 wants to expand to Super 15 or Super 16 at some point in the near future. The question is where this new expansion team would be located. As it stands South Africa has 5 teams, New Zealand has 5, and Australia has 4. So it would stand to reason that Australia would get an expansion team to even everything out. However, South Africa’s rugby union, which is prone to insanity/corruption/racism/ineptitude, is throwing a hissy fit because they want another team. (First article on the decision to not expand right now. Second article on Australia and South Africa fighting about where the team should go.)

This makes no sense to me at all. The Cheetahs are terrible and located in Bloemfontein. Bloemfontein is in the middle of no where. Yet, SA rugby union insists that it makes sense to plop another team in one of South Africa’s sparcely populated middle of no where towns. That isn’t to say that these towns aren’t beautiful and great places to live or travel too, just that they don’t seem like ideal revenue sources for a professional sports team. Nevertheless, SA rugby union wants to deny Australia a 5th team and this is causing great consternation.

So as a fan of SA rugby I’d just like to say, do not expand at all, but if you must put team number 15 in Australia.

The Standings After Week 3

	Team	Nation	P	W	L	D	PF	PA	PD	Bp	Ttl
1.	Bulls	(SA)	3	3	0	0	108	55	53	2	14
2.	Waratahs	(AU)	3	3	0	0	71	45	26	2	14
3.	Sharks	(SA)	3	3	0	0	67	40	27	0	12
4.	W.Force	(AU)	3	2	1	0	60	51	9	2	10
5.	Blues	(NZ)	3	2	1	0	65	86	-21	2	10
6.	Hurricanes	(NZ)	3	2	1	0	74	67	7	1	9
7.	Brumbies	(AU)	3	2	1	0	67	72	-5	1	9
8.	Crusaders	(NZ)	3	1	2	0	59	61	-2	3	7
9.	Reds	(AU)	3	1	2	0	66	63	3	2	6
10.	Stormers	(SA)	3	1	2	0	50	58	-8	2	6
11.	Lions	(SA)	3	1	2	0	53	69	-16	2	6
12.	Chiefs	(NZ)	3	0	3	0	35	52	-17	3	3
13.	Highlanders	(NZ)	3	0	3	0	64	89	-25	3	3
14.	Cheetahs	(SA)	3	0	3	0	41	72	-31	2	2

 

Bill Simmons Explains the Financial Woes of the NBA

I find the ways in which the poor economy is affecting sports to be incredibly interesting. NFL free agency started last night and it’s crazy that these guys are trying to get contracts for hundreds of millions of dollars while the rest of us simply settle for jobs that pay like 8 bucks an hour. Then you think about how Jim Calhoun flipped his shit about being asked how he justified his high salary and the fact that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell is taking a self imposed pay cut. What’s funny is that Goodell runs the NFL, which is the most financially viable of all the sports as it is basically a license to print money, while MLB’s commish Bud Selig is facing huge financial problems with baseball and continues to receive a salary of $18.35 million; $7 million more than what Goodell receives.

Anyway, Bill Simmons wrote an article that is amazingly well researched and full of insider information about how the NBA is facing down huge financial problems. It’s really an astute analysis of the whole situation. They salary cap is going to go down for only the second time ever, teams are stuck paying player contacts they can no longer afford, and teams are thinking about moving cities because they’re revenue base (fans and local businesses) are drying up. And that’s not to mention the coming 2011 lockout!

So give this a read (The No Benjamins Association) and feel free to put your thoughts in the comment section. Seriously, this is, in my opinion, one of Simmons’ best articles.