Basketball
drorzel | November 16, 2006The college basketball season is officially underway, and as is typical of the early season, there are already some wacky results, the most shocking being Kansas losing to Oral Roberts Wednesday night. Nobody is happier to see that score than Boston College coach Al Saunders-- losing to Vermont is one thing (and makes Maryland's win over the Catamounts look better), but losing to a vanity university is a whole new level of embarrassing. Particularly at home.
Also in action Wednesday night were North Carolina, playing Winthrop in the preseason NIT, and Syracuse, playing Northeastern before a…
drorzel | November 15, 2006I wasn't going to say anything about Bob Knight's latest little incident, in which he smacked a player on the chin to get him to look up. If it were anyone else, this would be a non-issue, and even though it's Knight, I don't think this is worth the energy that sports media are expending on it.
I can't resist linking to the New York Times story this morning, though, for this analogy near the bottom of the second page:
"He's kind of like the war in Iraq: all you hear about are the bad things," said [Texas Tech fan Steve] Winters, 39.
Ah, Texas.
drorzel | November 10, 2006No, this isn't a post about a big Bernie Sanders/ Babara Mikulski throwdown. the University of Maryland played the University of Vermont Wednesday night in basketball, and I'm just getting around to writing about it.
Much to my surprise, the game was on tv. Of course, that was the day I had my tenure interview, plus two classes and office hours, so I dozed off for a good chunk of the second half. Happily, the game was well in hand by that point, with Maryland coating to an 81-63 win. Commentary both detached and deranged is available on the Internet.
My thoughts are after the jump:
There was…
drorzel | November 8, 2006The college basketball season started off well last night, with Maryland defeating Hampton in the first game of the "Coaches v. Cancer Classic" pre-season tournament. Or possibly the "2K Sports College Hoops Classic"-- I've heard both, and don't really care.
"Big deal," you say, "it's another meaningless game where a big school beats up hapless competition."
The thing is, they had previously barely squeaked past Easterbrook favorite California of Pennsylvania, in an effort to make Jeremy Gold's head explode. So, it's actually nice to see them soundly beat a team that they ought to soundly…
drorzel | November 2, 2006While I know that there's no great love for basketball in these parts, I can't let Jonah Lehrer's post on the "Hot Hand" go without comment. It's about a paper analyzing the statistics of jump shooting, which finds that contrary to popular belief among basketball players, they don't really get "hot" in a statistically significant way. In fact, in some cases, they found the opposite:
The 76ers were shocked by the evidence. Andrew Toney, the shooting guard, was particularly hard to convince: he was sure that he was a streaky shooter, and went through distinct "hot" and "cold" periods. But the…
drorzel | November 1, 2006College basketball season is almost upon us (practices have started, but there won't be real games for another couple of weeks), which means that college basketball previews are thick on the ground. Over at the world-wde leader in sports marketing, they have a column about the Maryland guard situation this season:
In 2004-05, point guard John Gilchrist seemed to spend more time rocking the Terrapins' chemistry than he did handling the rock. And when Gilchrist bolted after his junior season, swingman D.J. Strawberry assumed those duties last year, mostly because Maryland had no other reliable…
drorzel | October 26, 2006If my thoughts on the upcoming Big East basketball season aren't good enough for you, the New York Times gets in on the act. Actually, that's a story about the pre-season coaches' poll, in which Pitt and Georgetown are picked to finish at the top, and Syracuse is picked third, with one first-place vote.
So, I'm not completely crazy in my rough picks...
drorzel | October 23, 2006Some time back, I offered the right to pick a post topic to anyone who managed to name one of the Physics Nobel laureates for 2006. Tom Renbarger won, and picked his topic:
OK, with Midnight Madness on the horizon, I've decided to request a sort of season preview of two (trying to press my advantage since I got two names) of the following three conferences: A-10, plus one of the Big East or ACC. Or, if you get on a roll, all three. If you're pressed for time, the A-10 would suffice, and maybe something about Maryland. :-)
I've already talked about the ACC, and in this post, I'll take up the…
drorzel | October 21, 2006Not a lot of love for the ACC Preview post from earlier this week, and I got buried in work, so I didn't get a chance to write up the Big East and A-10 previews. I'll try to do at least one this weekend, but until then, the three basketball fans among my readers may or may not be happy to know that Jeremy Gold is back with his entertainingly bipolar look at Maryland basketball. His unique take on the roster is up now, and I'm sure there's more to come.
drorzel | October 18, 2006Well, at least, the physics of the new NBA basketball, at any rate...
For those who haven't heard the story already, the NBA is changing the style of the basketballs used in its games this season. They're moving away from the traditional leather basketballs to a new synthetic material, which is supposed to hold up better to wear and tear.
Predictably enough, most of the players hate the new ball, and Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has gone so far as to enlist physicists to look into the situation:
Jim Horwitz is chair of the physics department at UT-Arlington, and Kaushik De is the project leader…
drorzel | October 16, 2006Some time back, I offered the right to pick a post topic to anyone who managed to name one of the Physics Nobel laureates for 2006. Tom Renbarger won, and picked his topic:
OK, with Midnight Madness on the horizon, I've decided to request a sort of season preview of two (trying to press my advantage since I got two names) of the following three conferences: A-10, plus one of the Big East or ACC. Or, if you get on a roll, all three. If you're pressed for time, the A-10 would suffice, and maybe something about Maryland. :-)
I'm going to do the ACC first, because I know a bit more about them…
drorzel | October 16, 2006Some time back, I offered the right to pick a post topic to anyone who managed to name one of the Physics Nobel laureates for 2006. Tom Renbarger won, and picked his topic:
OK, with Midnight Madness on the horizon, I've decided to request a sort of season preview of two (trying to press my advantage since I got two names) of the following three conferences: A-10, plus one of the Big East or ACC. Or, if you get on a roll, all three. If you're pressed for time, the A-10 would suffice, and maybe something about Maryland. :-)
I'm going to try to do all three leagues (though I know basically…
drorzel | September 2, 2006Oh, c'mon, how could I pass that up?
So, if you didn't know, no sooner did I say nice things about Team USA than they turned around and reverted to NBA ball, playing a couple of closer-than-expected games, and getting bounced in the semifinals of the World Basketball Championships by basketball powerhouse Greece. I blame Mike Krzyzewski.
I'd discuss the game in detail, but, well, it was on at three in the morning US time, so I haven't seen more than the highlights on ESPN. Apparently, the Greeks got very hot in the middle part of the game, shredding the US defense with a series of pick-and-…
drorzel | August 31, 2006A couple of guys goaded me into trying to dunk at the lunchtime basketball game today. "You've lost a lot of weight," they said, knowing I'm a sucker for flattery, "You've got to be close." So I tried, and much to my surprise, succeeded.
It wasn't what you'd call Jordanesque-- I barely got the ball over the rim-- but that's the first time I've managed to dunk a basketball since... sometime in my first year or two of grad school. I believe the phrase is "w00t."
I'm sorely tempted to call that my accomplishment for the day, and go home now.
drorzel | August 22, 2006I want to take a quick moment to echo what Dave Sez about the World Basketball Championships:
Now, I know what you're thinking. You've seen the US play in past years and have been underwhelmed and maybe a bit disgusted. I'm with you. I felt the same way. Ever since the Dream Team in 1992, we've been putting out worse and worse teams filled with disinterested players. There was nothing worse than watching a team full of NBA All-Stars get drubbed by Puerto Rico by 20 points in the last Olympics. It was disgraceful.
But that's the past. This team is awesome. They way they play is awesome. The…
drorzel | June 21, 2006The Miami Heat won the NBA title last night, led by young superstar Dwyane Wade, and obtained championship rings for a bunch of guys who have been around for years without winning, like Gary Payton and Alonzo Mourning. It's alo another title for Shaquille O'Neal, which probably gives him a conclusive victory over Kobe Bryant in their post-Laker competition.
I'm fairly happy to see them win-- I hated Mourning as a college player, but he's had a hard life since, and I like Shaq. I didn't care enough to watch the second half, though-- the game was on way too late, and it's methadone basketball…
drorzel | June 14, 2006Via Dave Sez, Chris Chase has all the J.J. Redick DUI jokes you could possibly want:
* Redick's arrest could actually help his draft status, as the Portland Trail Blazers are currently sitting at #4.
* To keep up with his pal, Adam Morrison plans on knocking off a Seattle-area liquor store this evening.
Special extra bonus: poetry!
(Well, OK, maybe you don't really want to hear J.J. Redick jokes, but I needed to test something, and it's a cheap excuse for a post...)
drorzel | May 12, 2006Last night was the third annual faculty-student basketball game, held as a fund-raiser for charity by a local sorority. This year the threw us a team that included five players from the varsity, including the only 2,000-point scorer in school history. Needless to say, we didn't win...
It was sorta-kinda close for a while, until a stretch of about 4-5 minutes in the third quarter when the guys from the team played really hard. They eased up on us later, but the official final margin of five points owes a lot to the scoreboard operator "missing" a few of their baskets...
My personal stats…
drorzel | April 24, 2006In a previous post, I dissed the NBA as being a haven for ugly pseudo-basketball. It does serve a purpose, though, as a sort of methadone program to ease the way down from the hoops-jukie high of March to the Great Sports Desert between the end of the NBA and the start of the NFL.
As I was feeling generally cruddy yesterday (side effects of some medication, I think, and we're going to be getting that dosage tweaked just as soon as the doctor's office opens), I wound up watching a little of the NBA playoffs, specifically, the Indiana Pacers playing the New Jersey Nets. Now, granted, these are…
drorzel | April 9, 2006The New York Times Book Review section this week features a big two-page ad for the Penguin Classics/ NBA cross-promotion. This involves a handful (well, four-- a shop-teacher handful) of NBA/ WNBA stars promoting books in the Penguin line, the best of the lot being Dwyane Wade talking about Pride and Prejudice. You can get poster versions of the ads from the site, featuring tasteful black-and-white shots of the players reading their chosen books.
Of course, it looks sort of like they're promoting new editions of the books read by the players, a cross-marketing opportunity that, alas, still…