On Stranger Tides

Someone asked if I was psyched for “On Stranger Tides”.  Well,

Simple answer, YES!

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2011 Big East meltdown

Through various defections from other conferences, the NCAA basketball Big East Conference has turned into a monster

  • Pittsburgh
  • Notre Dame
  • Syracuse
  • Louisville
  • St. John’s
  • Cincinnati
  • West Virginia
  • Georgetown
  • Connecticut
  • Villanova
  • Marquette
  • Seton Hall
  • Rutgers
  • Providence
  • South Florida
  • DePaul

I am assuming the NCAA was so impressed with the size of the the Big East’s membership that it decided to send pretty much the entire conference to the NCAA tournament.  11 of the 16 members were invited.  The only teams not invited had losing records.  So, the message sent, pad your early season with early puff cakes and you’ll get in.  Connecticut, Villanova, and Marquette didn’t even have winning conference records.  Tossing in the RPI’s makes it look even sillier:

Team Wins Losses % RPI
Pittsburgh 28 6 82% 13
Notre Dame 27 7 79% 9
Syracuse 27 8 77% 20
Louisville 25 10 71% 18
St. John’s 21 12 64% 25
Cincinnati 26 9 74% 36
West Virginia 21 12 64% 21
Georgetown 21 11 66% 16
Connecticut 28 9 76% 10
Villanova 21 12 64% 48
Marquette 22 14 61% 49
Seton Hall 13 18 42% 105
Rutgers 15 17 47% 128
Providence 15 17 47% 157
South Florida 10 23 30% 158
DePaul 7 24 23% 234

All you apparently had to do was finish with a double-digit power index and you’re in.  Nevermind that six of the eleven had double-digit losses.

So the NCAA goes out on a limb and just sends everyone from the Big East with a winning record.  And promptly start touting this as something big:

Big East Sends Eleven Teams Dancing

By sheer volume, and some good and bad luck seeding, when it was all said and done, the absolute worst the Big East could do was send two teams to the Sweet Sixteen.  Now, since 1 in 5 teams will make the NCAA tournament, the Sweet Sixteen is now the measure of success.  So, regardless of how good or bad the Big East was, they’re going to send two teams to the final sixteen.  No way on Earth they could send less.  Worst conference in America?  Don’t matter, they get two spots.  No other conference I am aware of was guaranteed even one.  The Big East got two.  Worst possible scenario, remember peeps, is TWO for the Big East.

So, after the first weekend, you wanna guess how many teams the Big East is sending?

You got it.

Two.

The slaughter looked like a laundry list of what could possibly go wrong:

  • Villanova was upset by George Mason in the first round.
  • West Virginia lost to Kentucky in the second round.
  • Syracuse was upset by #11 seed Marquette in the second.
  • Louisville was upset by #13 seed Morehead State in the first.
  • Georgetown was upset by #11 VCU in the first round, badly
  • Notre Dame was upset by #10 Florida State in the second round, badly.
  • #1 Pittsburgh was upset by #8 Butler in the second round.
  • St. John’s was upset by #11 Gonzaga in the first round, badly.
  • Cincinnati lost to UConn.

When the carnage was over, Connecticut and Marquette were left standing.  They both got there after cruising the first round, and beating fellow Big East teams.  Marquette is the only Big East team that actually upset someone else, Xavier. They then pulled a second upset, beating Syracuse.  They of course, are from the Big East.

The NCAA Selection Committee doesn’t have a bunch of Big East members.  And, they have plenty of basketball experience.  So, I don’t get it.  They’re just horrible I suppose.  Or, more likely, trying to stack the tourney with larger schools to sell tickets and viewers.  Sending the entire Big East along with seeding North Carolina and Duke at home and pitting two of three Kentucky teams against each other in the first round has left a bit of a bad taste on what should have been a real fun tourney for a Kentucky.  The games have been good, but that’s in spite of the seeding not because of it.  Duke winning by two at home and North Carolina winning by three at home would have been a lot more exciting to have read about the huge upsets they would have been if they had played anywhere else in the country.  I do believe home court crowds, and officials, make about a 10 point swing in any game, at least.

NCAA tourney seeding, along with the bizarre system in place punishing schools for breaking rules just leads me to believe the NCAA as a whole is a broken institution and needs fixing real quick in very fundamental ways.

Rango


Rango was what I expected.  Take Johnny Depp, morph into a small lizard, stick him in a desert, and this is what you get.  His child-like personality usually works best in darker roles, for some bizarre reason.  When he thinks he’s supposed to act child-like, he doesn’t come off as creatively.  We get fart jokes, illness jokes, slap-stick, and anything else that might seem funny to an eight year old boy.  But then near the end is a scene honoring Clint Eastwood’s spaghetti westerns done so well it make the entire movie memorable.  The whole thing is a tribute to the old spaghetti westerns.  That one scene actually captures it.

Two thumbs up.  I enjoyed it and will see it again.  The kid loved it and wants to see it again.

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Mars Needs Moms

Check this out:

This movie’s graphics blow away anything I’ve ever seen before.  Although Milo looked kinda normal and re-used, Gribble looked almost too real.  It’s supposed to be a cartoon after all.

But, that’s where it ended for me.  It’s a very creative, time tested plot.  Kid behaves badly, saves the planet, realizes he’s squeaky clean nice in the end.  This time he goes to Mars to get’r done.  I really didn’t enjoy this as much as I could have, and wanted to.  I’m going to say it was the writing, but I really can’t put my finger on it.

The kid did however, he wants to see it again.  Therefore it’s two thumbs up for accomplishing it’s only real task.

What do you think?

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NCAA hearts a couple of teams

The brackets are out for the 2011 NCAA Tournament.  Struck me as odd a couple of teams locations since the NCAA supposedly does not like giving teams a home court advantage.  Well, they did to a large degree.  How far would you drive on a whim to watch your team play in the tournament?  A couple of hours is no big deal.  Four or five makes it a little difficult.  Eight hours and you’re talking about missing work and finding babysitters.  Twelve hours?  Forget about it.

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There’s a reason I ask that. Take a look at this little chart I put together:

Team Site Distance Hours @ 50
Notre Dame Chicago, Illinois 95 2
Purdue Chicago, Illinois 124 2
North Carolina Charlotte, North Carolina 139 3
Duke Charlotte, North Carolina 142 3
Ohio State Cleveland, Ohio 143 3
Hampton Charlotte, North Carolina 157 3
Bucknell Washington, DC 185 4
Old Dominion Washington, DC 192 4
Georgia Charlotte, North Carolina 199 4
Kansas Tulsa, Oklahoma 218 4
Tennesse Charlotte, North Carolina 231 5
Pittsburgh Washington, DC 246 5
Xavier Cleveland, Ohio 246 5
Syracue Cleveland, Ohio 334 7
Akron Chicago, Illinois 368 7
Connecticut Washington, DC 376 8
George Mason Cleveland, Ohio 376 8
Indiana State Cleveland, Ohio 393 8
Memphis Tulsa, Oklahoma 402 8
Villanova Cleveland, Ohio 409 8
San Diego State Tucson, Arizona 410 8
Texas Tulsa, Oklahoma 451 9
Brigham Young Denver, Colorado 483 10
Cincinnati Washington, DC 521 10
Illinois Tulsa, Oklahoma 575 12
Butler Washington, DC 592 12
Marquette Cleveland, Ohio 612 12
Michigan Charlotte, North Carolina 614 12
Long Island Charlotte, North Carolina 646 13
Georgetown Chicago, Illinois 700 14
Utah State Tucson, Arizona 716 14
Saint Peters Chicago, Illinois 792 16
Kentucky Tampa, Florida 836 17
North Colorado Tucson, Arizona 900 18
Missouri Washington, DC 914 18
West Virginia Tampa, Florida 958 19
Florida State Chicago, Illinois 960 19
Texas A&M Chicago, Illinois 1074 21
Princeton Tampa, Florida 1090 22
Gonzaga Denver, Colorado 1091 22
Arizona Tulsa, Oklahoma 1097 22
Louisville Denver, Colorado 1111 22
Kansas State Tucson, Arizona 1151 23
Vanderbilt Denver, Colorado 1158 23
UNLV Tulsa, Oklahoma 1221 24
Morehead Denver, Colorado 1245 25
Temple Tulsa, Oklahoma 1279 26
Wofford Denver, Colorado 1506 30
Boston Tulsa, Oklahoma 1570 31
Belmont Tucson, Arizona 1613 32
Richmond Denver, Colorado 1670 33
Wisconsin Tucson, Arizona 1720 34
Oakland Tulsa, Oklahoma 1724 34
St John Denver, Colorado 1777 36
Penn State Tucson, Arizona 2284 46
UCLA Tampa, Florida 2544 51
UC Santa Barbara Tampa, Florida 2634 53
Washington Charlotte, North Carolina 2802 56

How many people will have to sacrifice much of anything at all to watch Duke and North Carolina the first round? How many Washington fans will get the same privilege?  The NCAA’s giving their pets a home court advantage.

National Peanut Butter Day

My Peanut Butter Patties

March 1 is National Peanut Butter Day. In order to celebrate properly I brought one of my fifteen boxes of Girl Scout Peanut Butter Patties.

The Green Hornet

The Green Hornet is bad.

Really bad.

The Green Hornet is a movie made for Will Ferrell, but Will Ferrell’s not in it.  It’s a movie that thinks sexual harassment in the workplace is comedic fodder.  It’s one of those movies where lots and lots of professional killers shoot lots and lots of weapons for 90 minutes and never really hit the totally unprotected heroes.  It’s not funny, you never like the main character, the action is old-hat shoot-em-up stuff, and it’s not moody like The Dark Knight or Iron Man.

Now, let me tell you how I really feel.

Skip it.  Click on those links up there and watch The Dark Knight or Iron Man again.  Hopefully The Green Lantern will be better.

2011 BCS

Tonight is the night every fan of NCAA football waits for.  By having really good seasons, two teams are chosen to play for the championship.  This year those two teams are:

Oregon Ducks

and

Auburn Tigers

That’s right, Oregon and Auburn.  The Ducks vs the Tigers.  Both teams are undefeated.  Texas Christian is too, but we’ll just have to ignore them in order to say this is the championship.  The #2 vs the #3 according to teamrankings.com.  We’ll have to ignore Stanford too.  The #5 vs #10 according to strength of schedule.

The Ducks have done it with offense.  Tons and tons of offense.  They’ve also done it largely against sub-par teams.  The Stanford win was quality for sure, but their other non-conference game, Tennessee, had a bad year.  Not Oregon’s fault for sure, but still rather meaningless in the big picture.  Their quality win was against Stanford.  Stanford’s lofty power ranking is not based on schedule, but on the the fact they crushed the mediocre teams they played.  California played Oregon close and shut down their offense.  I’m betting Auburn’s studying that game real close.

Auburn got to this point beating some tougher teams, but not usually by as much.  They had some tough games this year.  Most notable was the near loss to Kentucky.  They also dodged a bullet at Alabama and skipped by LSU.

This is as far as I think I need to go.  If you don’t see the difference in beating Alabama at Alabama vs beating California, then my conclusion is pointless.

The caliber of defense Oregon’s used to is not the same as the caliber of defense Auburn brings to the table.  Oregon’s not going to score 48 in this game.  They may score 21 or so, but that won’t be enough against Cam Newton and company who most recently put up 56 against a very good South Carolina team that had only given up 35 to one team all year.  That team was also Auburn.

I’m going to go with Auburn by 21.  Over/under at 70.  Both teams can score, and will, but it won’t be close.

And after it’s done, we”ll just pretend the winner of this game got the chance to take on the winner of the TCU/Stanford second round playoff game.

1/11/11 Update: Auburn won 22-19 on a last-second field goal.  Much better game than I anticipated.  The BCS still sucks tho.

Marvin Lewis puts his foot down

Marvin Lewis put his foot down and refused to sign a contract extension before the season.  Coming off a division championship, the ownership spurged on payroll and brought in a big name, and retained some old stars.  He then promptly led his troops to a dead-last finish at 4-12.  He had this to add:

Where I am right now in my coaching career is a different point from where I was eight years ago, and I think this football team is a lot different than it was eight years ago, and that’s good. … We’re in a good spot.”

Dead last.

His first season they went 8-8 and finished second.  He did manage to get into the team record books.  First Bengals team to lose ten consecutive games.

Bouyed by the confidence that 4-12 is better than 8-8, he apparently stuck to his guns that the reason they didn’t win more games this year was the training facility and personnel department needed upgrading.

So far, Mike Brown hasn’t bit.  Marvin Lewis is apparently history.  The lesson Lewis is learning right now is Mike Brown has a reputation of being a tightwad and no one is going to ruin that rep.  I really don’t think the fact the Bengals have once again dropped to one of the worst teams in football bothers Mike Brown.  I really, really, don’t.  I really don’t think the fact they could not sell out Mike Brown’s bigger stadium four of the eight home games this year bothers him either.  I really, really, don’t.  What I do think bothered Mike Brown was someone telling him he needed to spend some serious money to compete.

Mike Brown is going to have to do a lot more than replace a disgruntled coach if he expects to sell out any games next year.  The NFL needs to recognize how toxic Mike Brown is to a team the was one of the best in the NFL and originated by one of the greatest NFL coaches ever, and intervene.  I have been a lifelong Bengals fan.  I was there for the Ice Bowl.  I really am not there any more.  We can’t even watch them on tv any more.

UPDATE: JANUARY 4, 2011:  Marvin Lewis isn’t leaving.  Mike Brown isn’t leaving.  The players will not get a practice facility.  Nothing is said about the personnel issues.  Owens may or may not be leaving.  Ochocinco may or may not be back.  How’s THAT for decisive actions following a horrible season for no apparent reason?

Anagrams: Teach and cheat

the_thinker

Ever notice that teach and cheat are anagrams.  Coincidence? ( Truth be known, not really.  )

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