The Hawkeyes
Whatever you’re doing tonight for Valentine’s Day,
get it done quick as Michigan plays at 6:30.
And of course, the Olympics are on, too….
Games – Dates – Time – Result - Record
Illinois(H) January
6th Noon WON 79-69 14-3
Purdue
(H) January 9th 9:00 PM Lost 70-69 14-4
Sparty (A) January
13th Noon WON 82-72 15-4
Maryland (H) January
15th 6:30 PM WON 68-67 16-4
Nebraska (A) January 18th 8:00 PM LOST 72-52 16-5
Rutgers
(H) January 21st Noon WON
62-47 17-5
Purdue (A) January 25th 7:00 PM LOST 92-88 17-6
Northwestern
(H) January 29th 7:00 PM WON 58-47 18-6
Minnesota
(H) February 3rd 2:30 PM WON 76-73
(OT) 19-6
Northwestern (A) February 6th 6:00PM LOST
61-52 19-7
Wiscy (A) February 11th Noon WON 83-72 20-7
Iowa (H) February
14th 6:30 PM
Suckeyes
(H) February 18th 1:00 PM
PSU (A) February 21st 7:00 PM
Maryland (A) February 24th Noon
Think Sparty is PISSED with the
#3 Seed?
I do. And they took it out on the Lowly Gophers last night
in an 87-57 rout. Yep, don’t piss off
Sparty with a crappy seed. They
can lose in the round of 32 or the Sweet 16 no matter where you seed them, but
they prefer to be seeded higher when they lose!!!
Lunardi, KenPom, BPI, RPI And Too
Much Info
One of my daily lunch time rituals
during the month of February is to check out the following links or websites
to see where things are at and how they’re moving.
Lunardi’s Bracketology
I like Lunardi until I don’t. Lunardi jumped Michigan 2 SEED LINES (Michigan
now a #6-Seed) in the latest update.
Apparently, that has to do with Sparty being a 3-Seed and Michigan
winning at Sparty. And 2 good losses to
the Boilers. Lunardi shuffled a
bunch of teams around from his last update based on what the committee
posted on the Top 16 teams. Oklahoma as
a 4-Seed definitely messed some stuff up for a lot of Bracketologists. I have a feeling the committee may downgrade
the Laters in the next reveal. Just a
hunch. IF Michigan can win out and get to 24 wins, that might be enough to move
them up a seed line, assuming some other folks nosedive at the end of
the season. (and a split with the Suckeyes would definitely help) The
5-Seed Line would be nice…
ESPN’s Own BPI (Put together with Jay Bilas’
assistance) is more or less a mirror of KenPom, but let’s
ESPN manage and use this and they don’t have to pay or say “KenPom” and he can’t
sue them. Michigan is ranked #25 in the ESPN
BPI.
KenPom is a great site as it has what is
arguably the Best Statistical ranking system and Ken constantly tweeks the
system if the data dictates it.
Michigan is ranked #27 on KemPom and probably won’t move unless
they can beat the Suckeyes…
Crashing the Dance has Michigan in the “Don’t
Get Comfortable” At Large section, but the reasoning is flawed and isn’t consistent with what the
committee appears to value at this point:
Big Games – Win or Lose.
I’ve never been a big fan of Crashing the Dance. And the fact that he even has the Domers,
Marquette, Miss St., Baylor, Texas and others as “having a chance” in the same section
as Michigan and others is a farce. When
you get to Double Digit Losses, you better have some HUGE WINS in there
somewhere. So, whatever.
And the Old Stand By: RPI
Michigan currently ranked #37 in RPI.
Why Anyone is still using RPI
(which is based only on W’s and L’s, SOS and other components) that doesn’t
used adjusted stats is beyond me.
Whenever I see large, inconsistent gaps, it’s usually in the
RPI. And this is the main
ranking criteria the Committee is still using.
They admittedly (FINALLY!) stated last season that they also “consider”
and “review” the BPI ranking in their seeding evaluation, but not necessarily
as part of “who gets in the dance”. So,
comparatively, Purdue, Sparty and the Suckeyes are 12, 14 and 17 in the RPI. (And based on that you might ask: How did Purdue
get a 1-Seed as the 12th ranked RPI Team?) I guess this reflects the “weak” B1G and the
conference’s poor performance. But I don’t
think anyone believes that Purdue, Sparty or the Suckeyes aren’t Top 10 teams
at this point. So, yeah… It’s a mess.
Call me when the Final 68 are named on
Selection Sunday.
I wish I could do that…but the Basketball
Junky in me can’t ignore this stuff.
The Domers Get NCAA’d – Without Lube
Well, I have to admit, as
much as I hate the Domers (JEEZ I HATE THESE GUYS!), as I’m sure everyone
knows, I am today feeling a little bit (but not a lot) of empathy
for them. For those of you not aware – a
recap:
In 2012-13, an Athletic Tutor who
was dating
a Domer Football player, wrote a couple of papers for 3 players on the Domer
Football team. The Domer’s
administration discovered it, took it to the Honor Council, and the Student
Athletes were given F’s for the courses and the administration also dismissed the
students (expelled after the fact) from Notre Dame.
And then the Domers took
everything to the NCAA in an effort to show transparency and FULL DISCLOSURE.
And what did the NCAA do?
They’ve kicked the Domers right in the
collective nuts and vacated all the wins from the NC run in 2012 (12 victories)
and the subsequent 2013 Season (9 victories).
In other words, The Domers handed the NCAA the Bullet and The Gun, the NCAA
loaded it, pointed at the Domers junk, and pulled the trigger.
Naturally, the Domers appealed.
Yesterday, the NCAA
held up their ruling to vacate the victories from 2012-13 due to the 3
student athletes who had papers written for them.
3 student athletes...Papers written for
them. Like THAT’S NEVER HAPPENED
ANYWHERE ELSE in Collegiate Athletics.
On a team of 85 players…That made it to the
National Championship.
This wasn’t everyone on the team getting strippers
and hookers over a 2-year period paid for by a coach (Louisville). This wasn’t Academic Fraud at the highest
level (North Carolina) over a 20-year period where hundreds of Student Athletes
on the football and basketball team took classes and received ABOVE passing
grades and later earned degrees based on that fraudulent
activity at north carolina.
Nope – this was a couple
of papers written for the players that they might have collaborated on (at the
time, they said they did).
And the Domers are getting hit right
where it counts.
For being honest.
And transparent.
Here’s a link to Father Jenkins Letter
to the Alumni of Notre Dame:
An Excerpt:
The NCAA has not chosen to ignore academic autonomy; it has instead
perverted it by divorcing it from its logical and necessary connection to the
underlying educational purpose. As noted above, Notre Dame’s exercise of
academic autonomy in the form of the rigorous application of the University’s
Honor Code was the source of the underlying violation on which the vacation of
wins penalty is based. Although all parties acknowledged that Notre Dame did
everything right in response to the academic misconduct, the University is now
told that it must live with severe sanctions for its actions.
Notre Dame’s case stands in striking contrast with another recent
high-profile academic misconduct case in which the NCAA Committee on
Infractions chair explained that even though certain classes “more likely than
not” were used to keep athletes eligible with fraudulent credits, the
legitimacy of those classes was beyond the jurisdiction of the NCAA’s
enforcement process precisely because that question must be left to the
determination of the university in the exercise of its academic autonomy. The
notion that a university’s exercise of academic autonomy can under NCAA rules
lead to exoneration—or to a severe penalty—without regard to the way in which
it is used defies logic and any notion of fundamental fairness.
Read the entire letter. I think Father Jenkins gets it just about
right…And I relish the fact that he used “perverted” when referencing the
NCAA’s logic in this case…Classic!!!
Hmmmm…I wonder how each and every
University responds from this point forward when it comes to “disclosure” and
dealing with the NCAA. The Domers,
unlike everyone in the SEC and north carolina, have tried to do things “The
Right Way”. You really shouldn’t get
punished for that. In fact, I’ll bet if
you put it to a vote of the 129 FBS level Universities as to what the Domer
punishment should be, they wouldn’t have voted (as a majority) to vacate those
wins.
Even this guy, if given the vote for the University of Michigan, wouldn’t
have voted to take those wins away from the Domers.
I know, SHOCKING, right???!!!!
But the punishment, in all cases, needs to
fit the crime.
This is one more nail in the NCAA’s
coffin and this one, while seemingly small, just might be the one that breaks
the ole’ camel’s back when it comes to all the D-1 Universities. This is one that should’ve been reviewed in
detail and a rational human being says, “Hey, The Domers punished the students.
This was NOT that big of an on-field
advantage for the Domers. We need to
determine a punishment that doesn’t hurt the innocent players involved and
administer that.”
Please note I have no idea what that
punishment should have been, but vacating all those victories wasn’t it. Especially if you couldn’t do ANYTHING to
punish north carolina.
Maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this finally gets the NCAA out of
everyone’s hair and brings them down, once and for all.
I doubt it, but one can hope.
And at the end of the day, it
makes this debate less entertaining:
Judgement Day
The Faculty
Board at MSU met yesterday and voted (to the tune of 96%!!!) no confidence on
the MSU Board of Trustees.
For the record, this carries no
legal weight nor is it recognized by the administration or governance folks at
MSU. However, now that the vote is
complete, they will request that the Entire Board resign their positions and
step down. I’m curious to see
how this plays out, especially because some of the more outspoken idiots (Furgeson, Lyons,
Breslin) are guys who really need to consider dismissing
themselves. I do believe if one goes,
they all go, but there could be hold-outs.
And Furgeson is probably one.
Gov Snyder could make himself a
hero (after the Flint Crisis) if he waits for public sentiment to get stronger
against the existing Board Members.
If several resign, he could can the rest a week later and he’s suddenly
a great guy.
We’ll see what happens.
And With February, Comes THIS!!!!
SI’s making of the Swim Suit Issue!
(Otherwise known as “Soft Porn
for Dads”!!!)
Except now I do believe they
are including guys in the shoot for the ladies as well. Due to the fact that most of you reading
this wouldn’t look good in the suits the guys are wearing….
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