T1B

on Cal and the Pac 12 being the laughing stock of college basketball this morning?

Cal managed to score 13 points in the first half last night and faced a 57-25 deficit with 9 minutes to go in a loss to USF. At that point USF emptied the bench to rest their regulars for Friday.


Many around the country didn't take long to start laughing at Cal including Seth Davis channeling m2 with this tweet:

"I'm shocked at this performnace by Cal. After all the Pac 12 was a dominant conference this season."


Gary Parrish got off this blast:

"So the Pac-12 was even worse than we thought, huh?"


Hell even Aaron Rogers got in on the act talking about his former school:

"Down 18 and still playing zone. Sweet. Glad Wisconsin and Marquette are on tomorrow"

"Hahaha now they press and foul??? 13.8 left and they foul. Embarrassing"

I remember the Good Old Days, when it was always a debate over the best conference -- the PAC or the ACC.

Now it's a debate between the PAC and the WAC over who is better.

Oregon built the nicest arena in the counry -- and recruited some guys from the YMCA to play in it.

Oregon State has the President show up to games... and recruits Oregon's rejects from the YMCA.

Howland is singlehandedly turning UCLA into a football school again.

The Hucking Fuskies have one of the great coaches in the game, and fielded a bunch of scrubs.

Didn't Zona used to dominate? I guess Lute might have had something to do with it.

USC... well, they've always sucked, exceot one year when they paid a guy big bucks.

The conference tourney was won by... Colorado? This is some sort of very elaborate practical joke, right?

Dinsdale wrote:
The conference tourney was won by... Colorado? This is some sort of very elaborate practical joke, right?

Forgot about that. A school that never sniffed a regular or tourney title comes in and gets one right away in the PAC. Ouch.

Left Seater wrote:

Dinsdale wrote:The conference tourney was won by... Colorado? This is some sort of very elaborate practical joke, right?

Forgot about that. A school that never sniffed a regular or tourney title comes in and gets one right away in the PAC. Ouch.

Which should tell you all you need to know about the legitimacy of these conference tourneys.

Actually it shows how far the PAC has fallen in basketball.

It says little about conference tourneys overall.

Ummm... I could be wrong... but, the PAC might have the best record of any conference in all the tourneys right now.

How bout dem apples... ???


Everyone... knew Cal losing their 7 foot monster and fly swatter was going to be a problem.

M2 wrote:Ummm... I could be wrong...

You don't say..

Left Seater wrote:

M2 wrote:Ummm... I could be wrong...

You don't say..

Hook me up with the conference comparisons.

Yet again you miss the point.

No one cares about the CBI, CIT, NIT, etc, etc. Only you would jock wins from theses tourneys.

They are 0-1 in the only tourney that matters.

Left Seater wrote:Actually it shows how far the PAC has fallen in basketball.

It says little about conference tourneys overall.

It says plenty, as did USC winning one a couple of years ago, and Vandy winning the SEC's this year. Kentucky was 16-0 during conference play. Why the fuck did they need to play a "conference championship" tournament? They lost the damn tournament and still are the #1 seed in the nation for the only tourney that matters.

Utterly pointless.

Utterly pointless if you are thinking like a normal playoff type system.

However, college basketball is and has been a different animal for some time. As I said before part of the appeal of March Madness is that everyone (basically) is still alive at the end of the regular season. If you change it up now, a ton of teams will be done and out by mid Jan. Why pay any attention to it until the tourney starts?

Jsc810 wrote:

Left Seater wrote:Why pay any attention to it until the tourney starts?

I watched exactly one game all year long. But now that March Madness has started, I'm addicted.

Do you watch the games with your husband?

Lefty, March Madness has already rendered the regular season utterly pointless. The conference tourneys are just the equivalent of wiping one's cock on the drapes before heading out.

Left Seater wrote:Why pay any attention to it until the tourney starts?

College basketball fans pay attention (i.e. people not from the south or west coast), but I get your point.

Van wrote:Lefty, March Madness has already rendered the regular season utterly pointless. The conference tourneys are just the equivalent of wiping one's cock on the drapes before heading out.

Could have made my point a little better. I already stated that the regular season was only about the seeding in ones conf tourney. What I didn't do a good job of saying is that without the conf tourney, fans of many schools have zero incentive to stay turned in or to follow the sport at all. They winner take all conf tourney holds some of those fans because of the fact they can still play their way in.

I also understand that the diehards will watch regardless, but the casual fans would checkout as soon as their team was done.

Lefty, virtually every other sport on the planet muddles along just fine without dangling a post-season carrot even to its utter dregs.

True, but then MLB pissed down its leg when it added the wildcard.

Playing that many games made sense before the wild card. Afterwards, not so much. Shorten the season already.

The conference tournaments are pointless, indeed, though I still watch and enjoy them. My approach when it comes to college sports is generally: if it's on, I'll watch. Just like bowl games...pointless, but I watch and enjoy.

That said, the conference tourneys do little to water down the overall product. The teams that clearly deserve to be in are going to be in. From the onset of 345 teams, only a small handful of teams will wind up being in the tourney that don't "deserve" to be in the tourney. I would guess less than 1%. Not enough for me to get up in arms. So beyond the small % of teams that "steal" bids, we're really just talking about bubble teams battling it out vs other bubble teams, and nobody really gives a fuck if Iona gets in over Drexel.

Left Seater wrote:True, but then MLB pissed down its leg when it added the wildcard.

Playing that many games made sense before the wild card. Afterwards, not so much. Shorten the season already.

Heresy!

MLB has the fewest amount of teams, as a percentage of total teams in the league, that make the playoffs of any major league sport.

Well, maybe they could shorten the season but I like having the wildcard.

Not a basketball fan at all...don't watch it and don't like it..

But it is fucking hilarious when the Trail Blazers implode for the bazillonth time and choke the season away by getting their ass kicked days in a row. So they break off one of the best coaches they have had in Nate McMillon, trade a couple of dudes away to cut the payroll and finally cut the freak known as Greg " I never play" Oden and start "rebuilding".

All the locals are whining on sports radio and heading for the shower rod, and the season tickets holders are punked AGAIN...bwwwhaaa Spend that huge jack for season tickets for a really fucked up team..has been and will be until Paul Allen is not the owner. Fuck the NBA.

Fuck Paul Allen and his crew..they get what they deserve. Opening day of baseball is in about 17 days..can't come any time too soon for me.

http://www.oregonlive.com/blazers/index ... ach_a.html

Derron wrote:Fuck Paul Allen and his crew..they get what they deserve. Opening day of baseball is in about 17 days..can't come any time too soon for me.

You think the M's are going to do much better?

Derron wrote: But it is fucking hilarious when the Trail Blazers implode for the bazillonth time and choke the season away by getting their ass kicked days in a row. So they break off one of the best coaches they have had in Nate McMillon, trade a couple of dudes away to cut the payroll and finally cut the freak known as Greg " I never play" Oden and start "rebuilding".

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=33576

Derron, you guys have soccer now.

Derron wrote:Fuck the NBA.

That's all you had to say.

Van wrote:Lefty, March Madness has already rendered the regular season utterly pointless. The conference tourneys are just the equivalent of wiping one's cock on the drapes before heading out.

Poppycock.

Or for a word more befitting of this board, bullshit. The regular season is how teams earn their seed for the tournament. Over the course of a few months teams get to prove, on the court, how good they are. Here's the past 20 years of champions seed history: 3,1,1,1,1,3,1,2,3,1,1,1,1,2,4,1,1,1,1,1. So 70% of the time a team that through the course of the regular season proved they were one of the best 4 teams in the country won it all. 95% of the time a top 12 team won it all. The regular season matters a great deal.

So I'd love to hear how that makes the basketball regular season any more pointless than a 6-6 college football team playing in the Little Caesars Bowl or even a 9-3 team playing in the Capital One Bowl.

Diego in Seattle wrote:
You think the M's are going to do much better?

Just because I am a northwest boy, does not mean I homer for the Mariners. I did back in the day, 95,96,97 during the play off runs and when they had some great players. We made the trip about 3 times a year in regular season, and several playoff games in all three years. Mariners management has managed to ruin excellent and contending teams year after year after year. They traded away many players (sup Beltrae) who were world class players and added to other teams playoff runs.

We usually go up to Seattle on the train and catch a weekend series about every other year. Mostly just to see the visiting teams, and catch the Seattle town action. I met and stay in touch and do business with several former players who are now involved in youth sports in Washington.

I follow the Rangers in the AL west and the Dodgers in the NL west. Follow the Dodgers because of Vin Scully, I remember listening to him broadcast the Dodgers when I was a very young boy growing up in SoCal. My Dad would have his transistor radio playing while he worked in the yard or garage. I follow the Rangers because Nolan Ryan is one of the best players ever, I saw his last game he pitched in Seattle, and I enjoy what he has done with the Rangers so far.

Left Seater wrote:Derron, you guys have soccer now.

Please...we will see for how long. I don't like soccer, but with the Messican population and the white boys who could not play any other sport, they apparently have plenty of support. Enough that these morons were lining up outside the stadium the night before the game to get duckets..and it rained almost one inch over that night.

They converted over a nice baseball stadium to soccer only. Told the Triple AAA Beavers to hit the radio, which San Diego gladly welcomed to their town. We had a 4 pack of season tickets to the Beavers, ( business expense of course) and got to see a lot of great baseball games. Nothing like a businessman's special in the afternoon on a warm July day drinking beer and eating dogs. I was at their last game, which was a sell out of course and I don't expect to see AAA ball back in Portland in my lifetime, or professional level baseball too.

The local media bandwagoned the soccer big time, and barely reported anything on the Beavers in the last 2 years they were in town. Pretty sad day when soccer trumps baseball.

Shine, that merely proves my point even further. The eventual champion was almost always a #1 seed, so all the rest was just pointless filler. As for college football, you don't see any 6-6 or 9-3 teams playing for the title. Those teams are relegated to where they belong.

Derron wrote:All the locals are whining on sports radio and heading for the shower rod

Did they add a third sports station that I'm unaware of?

Since ever Blazer fan I know... all of them (including the ones I went to the game with last week) were dancing in the streets after yesterday's news. Got one phone call after Nate's ousting was announced that went "only have a second, so I'll keep it short... YES!...**click**."

Nate is a horrible coach. Maybe if every player on the roster was over 35, he might do a good job. Basically signed one second-tier free agent his whole tenure, and it was only because Crawford knew Nate from the Seattle scene. No one who wasn't drafted by the Blazers or traded to them waned any part of Nate's schtick. Poison to the franchise.

Since the Zers were in the toilet, everyone I know wanted to blow up the roster and coaching staff. Yesterday accomplished just that. Have a rising star for a coach (someone promoted a Blazer video coordinator/shooting coach to HC -- of the Miami Heat), possibly 2 lottery picks in a very deep draft, and about eleventeen buhzillion dollars in cap space for next year.

This is the brightest that things have looked since Brandon Roy first yelled "Ow, my knee."


Now maybe they can actually hire a GM without a qualifier before his title, and maybe... just maybe, we can get a non-idiot owner (and President Larry Miller can go fuck himself, too).

That Greg Oden pick is still looking awfully sweet.

Van wrote:you don't see any 6-6 or 9-3 teams playing for the title.

We might see a 10-3 team play for the title someday... if I have any say in it.

Sin,
Mike Slive

Van wrote:That Greg Oden pick is still looking awfully sweet.

I can only imagine the hilarity that would have ensued if the Blazers drafted that other guy... the absolute worst defensive player in the league, who actually has a coach who panders to his refusal to do anything but wave his arms around at the rainbow, playing for Nate, the guy who doesn't even bother coaching offense, since defense was all that mattered.

I don't think Nate would have made it this far.

Besides, it's the Blazers -- if they had made the other choice that day, Oden would still be going 20 and 20 every night, and Urant would be playing shuffleboard with Brandon Roy.

Dinsdale wrote:
Did they add a third sports station that I'm unaware of?

Don't know or care..radio changes so fast in Portland, 5 stations will have a different format tomorrow. Listen to Mark and Brian a bit in the morning, some local talk show conservative gas canner in the afternoon a bit and Slacker in the office.

Since ever Blazer fan I know... all of them (including the ones I went to the game with last week) were dancing in the streets after yesterday's news. Got one phone call after Nate's ousting was announced that went "only have a second, so I'll keep it short... YES!...**click**."

Nate is a horrible coach.

Quite possibly could have been. To any outsider with zero care about basketball in PDX, he appeared to be good, lasting almost as long as Jack Ramsey.

Since the Zers were in the toilet, everyone I know wanted to blow up the roster and coaching staff. Yesterday accomplished just that. Have a rising star for a coach (someone promoted a Blazer video coordinator/shooting coach to HC -- of the Miami Heat), possibly 2 lottery picks in a very deep draft, and about eleventeen buhzillion dollars in cap space for next year.

Since I don't follow the Blazers that close, I may be wrong, but has not this happened about 40 times before when ever they blast the current coach, and get rid of the bad choices in players they have made ? Same shit you hear all over again...Until Paul Allen is not the owner of he Trail Blazers, this cycle is doomed to repeat itself in Portland over and over.

Dins/Derron U&L talk is almost as painful as TiC on Big East expansion. Almost.

Not even close.

You're right, that was going too far...and I knew it.

Van wrote:Shine, that merely proves my point even further. The eventual champion was almost always a #1 seed, so all the rest was just pointless filler.

Actually it proves my point. How did those teams end up as 1 seeds? By proving DURING THE REGULAR SEASON that they deserved it. No computer spitting out who the best team is, no voters deciding arbitrarily who the best team is, but actual on the court play. This year Michigan State was unranked in the preseason, now they're a 1 seed. Nobody had an idea how good they'd be to start the year, then they played the very meaningful regular season and proved their worth.

And again you've failed to answer the question of how the truly pointless filler that is the college football regular season is anything but.

As for college football, you don't see any 6-6 or 9-3 teams playing for the title. Those teams are relegated to where they belong.

As I showed with the seeding of the title winning teams, with rare exception the basketball title isn't won by comparable level teams either. For me, I'd rather a mediocre hoops team play in the tournament and typically lose early with an occasional deep run versus 68 mediocre football teams playing in 34 unwatchable bowl games. Then add the little league "everyone gets a trophy" mentality and have 34 mediocre teams hoist some sort of "award" and celebrate their shit season with a W. In basketball one team and one team only* lifts a trophy, the rest go home with a loss to end the year.

*even hoops diehards like me don't give two shits about the "other" tournaments