Hipster Hooligans
I was just reading something by Chuck Klosterman in which he writes that soccer fans are more about fandom than sports.This delightful look into the nascent “rivalry” between Major League Soccer’s Seattle and Portland teams seems to support that argument. About halfway through I started to think I was reading The Onion.
Is it too much to ask for a team in Austin? The food-trailer concession stands would rule, and what’s a more obvious goal celebration than The Chug when the Austin Lone Stars score? Count me in.
Destiny.
Joe P: The Biggest Winner
I may have to rename this blog Read Joe P. Today’s subject: Olympic champion and NBC’s Biggest Loser contestant Rulon Gardner.
Congrats, gentlemen.
(Source: twitter.com)
Don’t blame the game, blame the players
Joe P (a Scoring at Home favorite) got frustrated with the TV coverage of March Madness last weekend, because all anyone wanted to talk about was the officiating. To paraphrase, shouldn’t we be talking about the action between the whistles? It’s not the five-second call, or the no-call at the buzzer that won or lost the game. It’s the things the players on the court did.* And it might just be the job of the, you know, analysts, to discuss what the players and coaches are doing.
*Because I lack free will when watching TV, and the announcers didn’t discuss it, I didn’t even think about the timeout during the game. But Joe P’s totally right- it was the game-killer.
An island of reason in a sea of crazed ref haters this weekend? Charles Barkley, of course. On more than one occasion I saw him refuse to blame the refs and instead put the onus on the coaches and players for making boneheaded plays. Specifically, in the post-game chatter about UNC vs. Washington, the other commentators were blathering on about whether Washington should have had more than .5 seconds to take a final shot (blaming the refs for making a poor call), when Sir Charles stepped in to say that they were missing the point- UW gagged at the end of the game (including the premature half-court heave that led to the final play). Bravo, Chuckster. Keep calling ‘em as you see ‘em- we’re listening.
[Update: This morning, in the NY Times.]
The sound of one club hitting
Apparently golf club companies spend time and money engineering the sound of clubs. Who knew?
When 15th is better than 8th
More bracketology goodness from Nate Silver. The bottom line is that #10 seeds (or lower) have a better chance for tournament success than #8 or #9 seeds. Two factors come into play: #1 and #2 seeds are substantially better than everybody else, and the teams from #5 to #12 are roughly equivalent (the difference between #1 and #2 is about the same as #5 to #12). The #8 and #9 seeds are at a disadvantage because they are basically guaranteed to have to play the #1 seed, something lower seeds can avoid.
(If this week’s posts are not the groundwork for a book on bracketology, they should be. Awesome stuff.)
Bracketless bracket
Developed by Bill James, in a bracketless bracket office pool you pick one team per seed (so one #1, one #2, etc.) and you get points for each game your teams win. Points per win go up as seed goes down (10 points per seed): wins by your #1 seed pick are worth 100 points, but wins by your #16 seed pick are worth 250 points.
Sounds awesome.
A study of NCAA basketball games during the 2004-05 season found that when games are played on neutral courts (regular season and postseason), fouls assessed are relatively even at the end of the contest. “The probability of the next foul being called on a team increases as the net foul differential increases,” Pierce says. “So, fans who keep an eye on the foul trends during a game can be pretty certain that if their team has two fouls and the other team has six, their team will be called for the next foul.
The most frightening thing I’ve read all week regarding the Buckeyes’ chances in the NCAA tournament. I’m terrified that they’ll get tripped up by foul trouble more than anything else, and not fouling is a key part of their defensive strategy. Furthermore, OSU has a rare combination of low foul rate and high steal rate, and it wouldn’t take many calls to go from “steal” (no foul) to “foul” to get the Buckeyes’ short rotation in trouble. Ugh.
(via)
Blindfold brackets
From the WSJ. Pick your bracket on resume only- no names.
It’s too much work. Thinking is hard. Using biases and heuristics is what makes bracketology fun!
Dr. Saturday's 10-team college football playoff
As if the Tressel bombshell wasn’t enough to derail March Madness for me, today Dr. Saturday drops his playoff proposal for college football. My initial reaction is that it looks great. Once upon a time I was convinced that 12 teams was the way to go, but this proposal for 10 is pretty elegant (even if it can’t handle the Oklahoma-Texas-Texas Tech one-loss unholy trinity from a few years back). And Doc gets bonus points for making the seeding/bye rules arcane enough to keep the whole process confusing to the casual fan (a key component to any college football postseason).
The hedge-fund approach to tourney pools
Step 1: Pick good teams that everybody hates.
Step 2: Profit.
Good thing nobody reads this blog, so I can use this info for my own advantage.
(Edited: Here is 538’s projection, taking into account a bunch of different factors. The explanation of the rationale is here.)
