7:30 — Evander Hood. DT. Steelers. I've run out of name puns.
Which is fortunate, because this live blog is fini.
7:27 — Wha? What's going on? Oh, it appears a puddle of drool formed on its own. It appears Chris "Beaneater" Wells is now playing for the Arizona Cardinals.
7:18 — Wideouts! Get your wideouts! Kenny Britt goes to the Titans, because he sounds like a guy that Nashville would love and put on a morning radio show.
7:09 — It's the Giant's turn. Hakeem Nicks will be their guy to forget about Plaxico Burress. AND THIS PLACE IS BUMPIN'! Especially that huge painted up Giants fan in the front row. Tom Coughlin's face is red with excitement. Or anger. Or perhaps marinara sauce.
7:04 — The Bills get clockin'. They go with ... Eric Wood. But then again, he wouldn't.
7:01 — Now the Colts get to select someone. Donald Brown. Donald Brown. He's a clown. Donald Brown.
6:59 — And now for a brief timeout on the podium, to take some time to thank the men and women in the armed forces. Touching, if not completely random. BACK TO THE BIG BOARD.
6:55 — Another trade and pick and zzzzzzzz....
6:48 — Cornerback Vontae Davis gets taken by the Dolphins, giving them someone with opposable thumbs.
6:46 — As the NFLN comes back from commercial, they pan into the guys at the table, but you can also see the ESPN table off to the side. I wonder if, between picks, John Gruden and Keyshawn Johnson make lewd faces at each other, or at the very least, do the head squishing thing.
6:42 — The Falcons select Ole Miss defensive tackle Peria Jerry with the 24th pick, which means we've reached the point in the draft in which the casual fan affirms that he knows shit about college football anymore. All anyone wants to know from here on out:
• Quarterbacks selected • Running backs selected • The first kicker selected • Players from "their" school selected • If there's anything else on TV • No there is nothing else on TV • And how long of a nap is too long
6:40 — Michael Oher, standing on the podium with his family: "you mean I'm gonna stay this color?"
6:36 — The Ravens pick Michael Oher. Great pick. With our next ... oh, wait, that's right, we invited Oher to this whole thing. [sigh] All right, bring him out h... MICHAEL! Congratulations! You have a bright future in this league! Here, hold this. Smile. Now pretend I'm your offensive coordinator and MOVE MOVE MOVE THE HELL OUT OF HERE!
6:35 — The Patriots select ... someone else's draft pick. There have been enough anticlimactic trades in this first round to fill an entire key party.
6:29 — The Vikings select wide receiver Percy Harvin. Expect him to be the starting quarterback next year.
6:27 — Wait, a football player? What the fuck are the Browns going to do with that?
6:22 — Fantastic banter leading to commercial on NFLN. "I love what they're doing." "Who?" [ad]
6:20 — The Lions' second first-round pick is ... Matthew Stafford, quarterback, Georgia. Great need pick. It's quite daring to draft someone twice, but I admire the courage and innovation. I'd have gone with tight end Brandon Pettigrew myself, but that's why I'm sitting here.
6:19 — Eisen asks Goodell about tweeting. "Someone explain this to me." YOU WERE JUST DOING IT.
6:13 — Donovan McNabb gets someone to throw to! That should be open and stjuff! The Eagles trade for the Browns' 19th pick and take Jeremy Maclin. What is this fancy theory Philly's trying to pull off? Wide receivers? That'll never work.
6:11 — You know, I'm about to believe nobody from the Browns is actually in the building.
6:07 — I'm concerned that the Broncos are palling around with Robert Ayers. Josh McDaniels is a terrorist.
6:06 — Also how many people did they invite to the NFL Draft? The green room turned into a goddamn clown car.
6:05 — God, these NFL prospects are just like us. They are always on their cell phones and watching TV. There is a disparity of empty pizza boxes, however. (Also, they're talking to girls.)
6:01 — The Bucs claim one fourth of a back in Josh Freeman I'm going to defer to my Blogcritics colleague Jay Skipworth on this pick (who, ahem, is doing what I'm doing right now. Read both.) He's not impressed with Freeman, noting the number of balls he bounces in front of his receivers. "He's got a curveball better than Doug Drabek." He's scheduled to pitch next Thursday for the Rays.
6:00 — Tampa's gonna pick someone. Hey Gruden, who are you going to ... I mean, wait, what are you doing up here with the NFL Network anchors? You ... you got FIRED!? Oh man, I am so sorry, we had no idea.
5:57 — KEEP TRADING DOWN! The Browns, with the pick they got from the Jets, trade it again, this time to Tampa Bay. At this rate, the Browns will hoard all the picks for the 2012 NFL Draft. A shrewd move by Mark Mangini.
5:55 — The Browns biological clock is also ticking. It's probably best for no young male to get involved with them right now.
5:52 — MID. AMERICAN. CONFERENCE. Larry English will fill the "NIU alum" void on the Chargers created when Michael Turner left for Atlanta. I just wish I'd heard of him before today.
5:46 — The Houston Texans are able to look past things like ponytails in order to draft linebacker Brian Cushing.
5:41 — The Saints will opt for cornerback Malcolm Jenkins. He's a proven performer. The Saints should do quite well in World of Warcraft raids next season.
5:34 — The Redskins draft Brian Orakpo, a defensive end. I'm sure Redskins fans are livid about this pick, because that's just how they're programmed to feel.
5:32 — Reeling from his loss in the Name of the Year tournament, Knowshon Moreno becomes the latest running back for the Denver Broncos. Tremendous value pick. Moreno has his own space shuttle.
5:28 — The Bills quickly get to business and take defensive end Aaron Maybin. Great need pick. Terrell Owens needed someone to blame when the team starts 2-5.
5:26 — Crabtree: "I can't wait to learn anything from anybody." I believe that's called the Wikipedia Methodology of Football Tutelage.
5:25 — How's the ESPN coverage? Did Berman get through the entire Eagles discography yet?
5:22 — There we have it. Michael Crabtree gets swiped up by the 49ers at the No. 10 selection. Now it's time to vacuum the green room and clear the tables, because the national Apples to Apples championship will be taking place there.
5:15 — The Packers make their pick. Whoa, the dude from Johnny Quest? Did they really need someone with a turban? Sounds like a value pick. Oh ... B.J. Raji. Looks like my TV needs some tuning.
5:11 — Eugene Monroe lined his socks with bacon. I immediately like his pro potential.
5:09 — Three minutes later, Eugene Monroe finally goes up to the stage. Here's what happened between the announcement and him taking the stage:
5:07 — The Jag-yoo-ars call dibs on O-tackle Eugene Monroe. Good "need" pick, as they say in the draftology business. They needed someone to give Maurice Jones-Drew piggyback rides during practice.
5:01 — NFL Network coverage is extremely more tolerable. The normally brain-exploding Deion Sanders seems reserved as the field reporter. Rich Eisen has aged well. If I were a batshit insane news anchor, I'd totally want to do him.
4:57 — The Raiders can plant their Crabtree! But no, they'll instead go with ... um, Darrius Heyward-Bey. This couldn't have worked out better for Heyward-Bey. This also couldn't have worked out better for Michael Crabtree, who doesn't have to play in Oakland.
4:51 — The Bengals take ... Jigglystuff! Carson Palmer no longer has to block for himself by throwing the ball into the blitzer's crotch.
He projects as a .280-300 hitter with minimal power and above average speed. He probably doesn’t have much value outside of a deep NL only league, but he could provide 30 steals or so. His speed indicates that he is actually capable of more than that, but San Francisco is not a running team both in philosophically and physically - with the number of slow players they have who clog up the bases.
Also reassigned were C Buster Posey, 1B/OF John Bowker, Positionless Jesus Guzman and Reliever Osiris Matos.
You have to give the Pistons a lot of credit in this one.
Detroit couldn't even top 70 points, I know, and it was at home with its season
on the line, but they stood up to a Cavs team that was playing one of its
better games of the year, and nearly made a game of it.
Crazy talk, I know, what with Cleveland's backcourt shooting 1-18 ("better
games of the year?") and Detroit losing by 11 in a super-slow game (at a typical
pace, that's an 18-point loss), but Cleveland was astonishingly good
defensively, while moving the ball expertly, and Detroit still hung in there. As
much as can be reasonably expected. And that's all we ask for.
Even through Rip Hamilton's foul trouble, they kept trying.
Problem was, Cleveland
is just onto the Pistons at this point. They went under screens, and
essentially destroyed Detroit's
pick and roll game. Rasheed Wallace and Antonio McDyess shot only 6-17
combined, as the Cavaliers did a fabulous job closing out on perimeter looks.
McDyess ended up hitting four shots, but he was way out of his comfort zone as
the Cleveland
bigs closed out. You could tell that shutting Dyess down was a big point of
emphasis for Cleveland.
(And, a good six years after his career was considered to be over, that's a
pretty astonishing and respectable thing, Mr. McDyess.)
So, it might be iffy praise handed down on a Saturday late
in April, hardly the stuff of champions, but the Pistons showed up. They played
hard, most of them played smart (Kwame Brown still has his issues, though the
effort was there), and they didn't back down. It's a shame that it took them
this long to pull a game like this out, but I did want to recognize this team's
effort in losing after spending an entire season ripping these guys for moping
through games. Cleveland
was just the better team.
The much better team. A lot of turnovers (14 in a slow game
is a hefty amount), but nothing too crazy. The ball was moving, and though the Cleveland guards weren't
hitting from the floor, that will change, and you had to love 20 assists on 28
field goals.
LeBron James finished with 25 points, nine assists, 11
rebounds, two turnovers, three steals, and two blocks. In an 84-possession
game. Huge.
I don't know what it is about sports -- hell, I don't know
what it is about us -- but if you didn't feel a little spring in your step
watching Dwight Howard nail two game-tying free throws late in this one, then
there's something wrong with you.
There is something
wrong with us. Most of the people that will read this post will have no
particular preference as to who wins or loses the Magic/76ers series, and most
of us have never met Dwight Howard. Most of us will never make the money Dwight
clears on his bi-weekly check in a lifetime. A lot, if not most of us
(certainly not me), can also clear the 60 percent mark at free throw shooting
that Dwight averages on the year, with 1/100th the practice time
that he's afforded.
And yet, there we were, feeling all sorts of giddiness for
Dwight when he hit those two late free throws (his 11th and 12th
in the game, on 14 tries) in the fourth quarter on Friday. Cheering for a 6-11
guy who won the genetic lottery and can slap the top of the box on the
backboard. As you can tell by this long-winded intro, the irony wasn't lost on
me, mainly because I watched it while on the exercise bike, trying to not to
look 20 years over my 28 years of age.
So, good on ya, Dwight. Of course, it hardly mattered, as
Thaddeus Young scooped in a lefty lay-up with a few ticks left, meaning that
Philadelphia won the game and retained home court advantage.
The 76ers just have matchup advantages all over the place,
and they've won both close contests. Two or three more points gone the other
way, and the Magic are up 3-0. That's basketball. And it's fun.
Andre Miller continues to burn both Rafer Alston and Anthony
Johnson, he finished with four turnovers but also contributed seven assists,
nine rebounds, and 24 points. Willie Green actually came alive by hitting 6-9
shots, finishing with 12 points (because he's Willie Green, he doesn't shoot
free throws), Andre Iguodala (29 points) was everywhere as usual, and the
Sixers shot 52 percent against one of the toughest defenses in the league. Very
good effort, strong execution, fine play from Philly.
There's a very real chance that the Magic could be out of
this series. I'm not calling anything, but I want to get the word out now.
This
isn't a collapse. This isn't a choke job. This is a team that has overachieved
all year playing good basketball and losing close games to another good
basketball team that underachieved for a good portion of the year. Those of us
that picked the Magic in a walk completely and utterly understood that the
Magic and 76ers were closer in terms of talent than their records would
indicate, but also assumed that the Magic would continue to play above their
station, and the Sixers below theirs. That hasn't been the case, and a 2-1
Philly lead is the result.
There was a lot not to like about this game. Dick Bavetta's
crew continued to let defenses get away with rough, foul-laden play under the
guise of "jostling for position," and coupled with Houston's continued refusal to understand
that it boasts a 7-6 guy with skills in the low post, this completely took Yao
Ming out of the game.
Sure, he missed a few turnaround jumpers, but you try
hitting them while getting a two-armed shove in the back as you leave your
feet. Kind of helps to deny the whole "squaring your shoulders"-thing. I hate
this. If Yao did that to Joel Przybilla on the
other end, the Houston
center would have fouled out by halftime. I don't blame Joel for anything, it's
his job to see what he can get away with, but I wish the post play was cleaned
up.
LaMarcus Aldridge's defense was horrid in the first half,
allowing Luis Scola a series of open looks. The problem for Houston was that Scola shot about the same
percentage on open looks that he shot on contested looks, so a would-be 25 or
27-point game ended with a 19 and nine line. Still a great game, but it could
have been better.
Worst was the pace, though that was to be expected. 81
possessions in this game. People still refer to the Blazers as a running team
sometimes, and all the mic'd up bits that we got from Nate McMillan (push the
ball, he said, but pull it out and run the offense if you don't have anything.
So, don't push the ball, he intimated), but these guys just don't run. Well,
they run. They sprint down the court after pulling in a defensive rebound, but
this starts a series of four or five passes that usually sees a Blazer taking a
(usually, good) shot with seven seconds left on the clock. Or less.
Tonight, the looks weren't good. Portland
tried, they moved the ball and played the right way, Houston can just defend like mad. And while I
think Shane Battier has surpassed him in terms of defensive might, Ron Artest
was a demon on Brandon Roy again. Of course, this sorcery only held Roy to 19 points, but he
did need 18 shots to get there. It's a credit to how brilliant Roy is that he looked as if he was taken out
of the game, but he still put up numbers that would earn him an eight-figure
contract.
Give Portland credit for coming back, somehow they're one of
the best at it despite the team's slow pace (a late 9-2 run for a slow team
will take much longer to put together than a late 9-2 run for the Suns, and
eventually you run out of time), but a lot of the usual late-game heroics
weren't there. And, by "late-game heroics," I mean "Travis Outlaw." He's been a
late-game hero his entire career, but he shot just 2-11 in this game, an ohfer
four in the fourth quarter.
But through all these complaints, I love both these teams.
Smart, talented, deep teams. This has been a great series so far, here's hoping
it goes seven.
Also, Jeff Van Gundy called a terrific game. He's truly one
of the best when he doesn't try to act showy or tough, and get into sports talk
radio nonsense. Just knockout analysis, and very much appreciated.
about 15 hours ago:
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, left, poses for photographs with Virginia's Eugene Monroe after he is selected as the eighth overall pick by the Jacksonville Jaguars, in the NFL Draft at Radio City Music Hall Saturday, April 25, 2009, in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)
We covered the all-time worst draft picks in a team-by-team fashion earlier this week. Thankfully, the first round of the draft is in the books and not only was it freaking awesome, it was chock full of mistakes -- which, obviously, made it that much more awesome.
We've decided to pick out the top five and mock them here. If you have decisions that you think were worse, by all means, leave them in the comments. Two things to remember: one, "mistakes" can equal a pick or a trade, and two, yes, "Al Davis is insane" is an acceptable comment.
The "Vale Tudo Queen," Yuka Tsuji, made short work of Kate Martinez in Tokyo on Saturday night, submitting the Royce Gracie-trained Coloradan in the first frame of their title bout to become the inaugural Valkyrie Featherweight Champion. The length of the championship rounds - extended to 3x5 minutes from the standard 3x3 - proved an advantage to the hometown favorite Tsuji, who elicited a tap from Martinez with an armbar after four minutes and twenty seconds. The undercard for Valkyrie's second outing also featured the semi-finals in a four-woman tournament to decide Tsuji's first challenger, where Kyoko Takabayashi and "V Hajime" both dispatched of their opponents handily and will go on to face one another at the third Valkyrie show.
On the guy-centric evening portion of Greatest Common Multiple's day/night double-header, only three of the evening's eight bouts went to a decision... but the main event had to be canceled due to Team Alpha Male's Marcus Donahue* being unable to make weight for his bout with newly-minted lightweight Kuniyoshi Hironaka. Meanwhile, Motoki Miyazawa - who lost to Hironaka at welterweight in a tough doctor's stoppage at DREAM.5 last July - took out the always game DEEP and Pancrase veteran Hiroki Nagaoka with a first round rear-naked choke, and the Sakuraba-trained Wataru Takahashi won his second straight for the first time in his career.
* If anyone can confirm that Marcus Donahue is the fighter's real name, it'd be appreciated. The translation reads "Makasu Donahiyu" but I can't find any information about him on the interwebs and emails to Team Alpha Male have gone unreturned, presumably because they have no time for nerds and/or computers.
Full results for both cards in the extended entry. Photo and results via Sportsnavi.
Valkyrie 02 April 25, 2009 Differ Ariake Tokyo, Japan
Valkyrie Featherweight Championship (3 rounds x 5 min.) Yuka Tsuji (22-1) def. Kate Martinez (1-1) via Submission (Cross Armbar) at 4:20 of Round 1
-61.2kg Bout (3 rounds x 3 min.) Megumi Yabushita (17-15) def. Chisa Yonezawa (0-2) via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 1:43 of Round 2
Valkyrie Featherweight Eliminator Semi-Final (3 rounds x 3 min.) Kyoko Takabayashi (9-3) def. "Windy" Tomomi Sunaba (12-10) via Submission (Rear Naked Choke) at 1:41 of Round 1
"Honestly, I came into (the draft) expecting the worst, which is to be a second round pick. I am kind of disappointed, but being that Denver drafted me at 37 I couldn't care less now because it's one of the teams I preferred to go to; along with Atlanta for location reasons and the Miami Dolphins for the location. Denver was one of the teams I really wanted to play for and just having a chance to play with (CB) Champ (Bailey) and (S) Renaldo Hill, and my favorite player in the league is (S) Brian Dawkins. So, just to be in the same locker room and meeting room with those guys is truly a pleasure. And now that it's all over, I couldn't care less."
On how he'll contribute immediately as a rookie
"I have the attitude that I'm trying to come in and start right away, to be honest with you. That's the way I'm going to approach this thing and if it happens, it'll be great, but if not, if that's not the case I started all four years at nickel at Wake Forest and I think I'm pretty good at it. I think I'll be able to make an immediate impact with that being said."
On his game
"I'm really instinctive and what I think separated me from the other corners was, I understand the game. I'm really smart, I take calculated risks instead of - I get coined as a "gambler" sometimes, but I know when I can do. I think that's one of the things that attracted Coach (Josh) McDaniels and (Secondary) Coach Ed Donatell to me, and (Defensive Coordinator) Coach Mike Nolan is that I'm a pretty savvy football player and instinctive."
On how playing with veterans will help his game
"One of the reasons I was so attracted to Denver, I was like ‘Oh, my God, I'm going to be in the same locker with (CB) Champ Bailey, (S) Brian Dawkins, (S) Renaldo Hill.' All of these guys have played more than five years. They know the game. And just being a rookie, it's the best situation coming in. And I think, with that being said, I'll add a little pressure to myself; I might have the best rookie season out of the cornerbacks."
On LB Aaron Curry
"What makes (LB) Aaron Curry a special player is that this kid is the hardest working kid I've ever seen and he's one of the smartest kids. Aaron Curry, you can just look at him and the tape explains it all about him; I don't need to say much about him. What I will allude to is, all Wake Forest Players are like that. Smart guys who play extremely hard and guys that have the knack for making plays and that's Aaron Curry and myself. That's our mode, the Wake Forest guys; smart, play like our hair is on fire and we're just good guys all around."
A big hang-up for Tom, and a lot of people has been the word that the groundbreaking recent study fixated on how likely a make was to be followed by a miss. As if two shots captured the ebbs and flows of shooting touch!
I could talk all day about how this is not in fact measuring two shots -- it's measuring every shot, and whether or not the makes and misses tend to come in groups -- but don't take my word for it.
TrueHoop reader Tom had a point similar to many people's: You need to define the hot hand in some way, perhaps as six of eight or whatever, and then see if getting hot in that way makes people better shooters for a while. (This would show up in John Huizinga and Sandy Weil's study, but no matter. Also, these kinds of studies have been done, didn't find the hot hand, and are often discredited for their rigid definition of a hot hand, which is a good reason not to do it that way.)
Anyway, Tom did his own micro-study, and here's what he found:
I chose Ben Gordon because he is a "streaky" shooter, he puts up a large number of shots with great consistency and he is largely a jump shooter. I looked at the start of every game he has played this season and defined a 'hot' start as a game where he started at least 4 out of 6 from the field and a 'cold' start as when he started 2 from 6 or worse.
Not necessarily perfect but not a bad system.
Over the season, Gordon had 27 games starting at least 4 of 6 (interestingly, none where he started 6 of 6) and 33 where he started 2 of 6 or worse (4 games of 0 of 6).
If the hot hand existed then it would be expected that on games where Gordon started hot, he would continue to shoot as well or at least at his long term field goal percentage. If cold, he would shoot as badly or no better than his long term field goal percentage.
In fact, the opposite happened. In the games Gordon started hot, he shot 43.3% for the remainder of his shots. In games he started cold he shot 48.9%.
His field foal percentage across the entirety of these games was 45.4%, as expected this is very similar to his season percentage of 45.5%.
This seems to confirm the evidence from the study; not only does making one shot lessen the probability of making the next shot and missing the previous shot enhance the probability of making the next shot, shooting well for several shots lessens the probability of shooting well for the rest of the game and starting badly increases the likelihood of shooting better for the rest of the game.
The seemingly obvious conclusion is that players who start well believe they are "hot" and consequently settle for worse shots/take harder shots and players who start poorly believe they are "cold" and consequently are more careful to take better shots.
Tom later did similar research into Ray Allen and Mo Williams. "Found very similar results," he e-mails. "No evidence of a hot hand, Allen was slightly worse both when hot and cold -- maybe he just shoots better at the start of games and Mo shot almost exactly the same after starting hot or cold -- maybe evidence that he is better at maintaining his view of what is a good shot."
Percy is going to be available on the “green” edition of the game, being sold at exclusive glass accessory shops around the Gainesville and Virginia Beach areas.
Hillbilly Fidel will live another hundred years. Perhaps he’s more Kim Jong-Il-ish, actually: they have the same physique and bumbling offspring, though as far as we know Terry Bowden’s never been kicked out of Tokyo Disneyland like Kim’s son was. (Height requirement joke goes here.) Further evidence that Bobby Bowden is the Florida State football program, and that the whole thing will go down like one huge sucking wreck when he does: FSU files its official appeal with the NCAA based pretty much on the notion that they deserve credit for cooperating in an academic fraud case of very large magnitude, and that Bobby Bowden is a legend, blah blah blah.
PIssing intensity. The Solid Verbal podcast has Will Leitch on, who discusses many things [REDACTED] in an amusing fashion, even if he gets the reasons for the lack of a playoff totally wrong.
• Ernie Els records a 94. But it's for his wine, so that's a very, very good thing. Nice job, Ease! [Local Knowledge]
• Todd Hamilton raked his own trap at the Zurich. Caddies the world around wept in grateful disbelief. [The Golf Watch]
• Charlie Wi is leading the Zurich Classic. Man, how sweet would that be if both he and Michelle Wie won this weekend? I'd get three weeks of headlines out of a Wi-Wie combo! [PGA]
One might suspect this to be an inside threat from the same people who basically operate the selection committee that left SDSU and New Mexico on the sidelines for the NCAA basketball tournament after the MWC presented their BCS proposal.
Long version:Darth Prather unleashed
End of summer Summer 2008: Darth Prather encounters December 2008: Darth Prather, brandishing a new concept, emerges in the lull between Bowl selection and actual bowl games to awaken the boiling post season structure debate. Wrestling with Jedi Regan, on and off line, only left the concept stronger.
March 4th: Days before Darth Prather was ready to send his first distillation of his concept to BCS authorities the MWC generates a buzz with a proposal of their own. Darth Prather delays his concept to make presentation changes in his distillation.
Spring Break: From his parents beach house in Panama City Beach, Florida, Darth Prather takes the week to make phone calls and submit his proposal to significant parties.
March 30th: Bill Hancock, the BCS administrator, is reached by phone and found to be surprisingly pleasant to talk with. Darth Prather e-mails his proposal to Bill Hancock and John Swofford for consideration.
March 31st: Darth Prather receives email:
"Darth Prather,
Got it; thanks. Will take some time to look it over and will let you know if we have any questions.
Bill"
and
"Darth Prather,
Wanted to let you know that John Swofford received your e-mail as well, and he has asked me to thank you for sending it.
Bill"
Darth Prather continues to contact MWC's Javan Hedlund about their proposal and is surprised to find out how intent they are about pursuing it. Attempts to contact the WAC failed. Content with the contact with Bill Hancock, urgency diminished and an attempt to consider revenue sharing was pursued.
April 3: The following e-mail is sent to Charles Bloom of the SEC:
"Thank you for your time. I am asking that you consider whether the following three ideas to improve the BCS system warrant forwarding on to the appropriate SEC representatives. They involve the limit of each conference to two teams, revenue sharing, and the structure itself.
Two team limit
In 2007 the BCS made a mid season executive decision to expand the list of eligible teams to the top 18 if not enough teams could be found in the top 14. In 2008 it was decided that a conference could have three teams if they had the top two teams in the BCS standings, neither of which are the conference champion.
The 2007 ruling allows for the possibility that certain events may occur that would lower the bar for the most prestigious games. I suggest the following rule to handle both cases:
A conference may have at most two teams eligible for a BCS bowl unless 1) they have the #1 and #2 team in the BCS standings and a third team is determined to be the conference champion or 2) their would not be enough eligible teams in the top 14 otherwise.
Revenue Sharing
The BCS is criticized for its revenue sharing plan, but what criteria is used to measure a conference's value? The BCS's revenue comes primarily through TV contracts. The TV contracts are supported by advertisers. Advertisers are drawn to games with lots of fans. If the revenue is to be distributed in a way to promote the kind of competition that is going to increase the value of the BCS, it needs to be tied to the fan base of each conference.
The bowls generate revenue that is incrementally increases at a reasonable rate until the BCS bowls are reached. Conference payouts comparable to these values would be 9 million for the first team and 4.5 million for additional teams from each conference or any independents. The remainder of the revenue should be distributed according to each conference's fan base.
This would amount to 54 million from the six automatic qualifying conferences plus 9 million from the at-large conferences. One should expect one at-large conference to participate each year, making 54 million a typical figure.
I have used NCAA average attendance figures over the last four years in the attached calculations. It is clear that the Big East's value to the BCS is closer to C-USA or the MWC than the SEC, Big 10 or Big 12.
A more robust system would allow season ticket waiting lists to be included if an annual fee or booster membership charge is required to maintain a place on the list. No fan could count for more than two seats regardless of the number of seats requested.
Post Season Structure
University of Georgia President Michael Adams and University of Florida president James Bernard Machen have expressed a desire for some form of change in the current structure. Formidable obstacles stand in the way.
Attached is a structure that:
** Maintains the current scheduling limits.
- Stays within the December 19th through the second Monday in January bowl window.
- Does not allow any team to participate in more than 16 games total.
- Does not reduce the current length of the regular season.
** Increases consensus at the cutoff.
- Allows all undefeated teams to participate.
- Keeps the number of teams small.
- Uses gaps in the average rather than ordinal values to determine eligibility.
** Adds transparency to the high profile decision making process.
- Explicitly specifies what warrants a particular designation.
- Explicitly states how changes in designation are handled.
** Restores college football traditions.
- New Year's Day once was a celebration of elite college football.
- Bowl timing once represented each bowl's level of prestige.
- Conferences and bowls tie-ins once had a competitive incentive.
** Minimizes impact on existing structures.
- Maintains the existing BCS bowls through 2014.
- Maintains the existing rotation of the National Championship Game through 2014.
- Improves the significance of conference tie-ins.
- Does not interfere with the regular season or conference championship games.
- Defines a role for bowls outside the BCS.
Thank you for your time. I can be reached at darth.prather@sethlord.com or by phone at (###)###-####.
Sincerely,
Darth Prather"
April 4th: Contact with PAC 10 and Big 10, the most prominent obstacles, fails. Input regarding the possible small impact of this proposal on the Rose Bowl was worth avoiding having teams like USC unhappy with their inability to get a game with SEC teams or Michigan getting left out of the title game was requested.
April 15th: Email from Charles Bloom:
"Darth Prather - I'll pass this on to Commissioner Slive in advance of next week's BCS meetings. Take care. Charles"
April 20-22nd: BCS meets and get nothing accomplished.
Future: Darth Prather's stadium sized BCS death ray under construction...
The truth is out there. Other than names, e-mail and phone numbers (to protect the true identity of Darth Prather) and the removal of some white space, the email's above are genuine. Death ray plans to be announced soon.
“One of the guys that worked there asked me to sign one of the walls, so I did it. It wasn’t like I was walking around with a sharpie in my pocket,” Gooden told the Daily News on Monday. “They asked me to sign the wall as a favor, as something for the fans to see. I was in there watching batting practice and they had fans taking pictures with me by my signature and I thought it was a fun idea.”
Said the Mets:
“It’s a brand new building, whether it’s Doc or any other player, it wasn’t meant to write all over the walls,” public relations director Jay Horwitz said. “We are going to do things to celebrate our history, but this wasn’t the right way to get that started. If we allow this precedent, people will be writing all over the stadium.”
And please try to pee in the toilet. This isn’t Shea Stadium you know!
The place is already vandalized with its name. I hardly think Doc Gooden signing the wall of a restaurant is a big deal in that context. I think someone needs to tell Horwitz that he is in New York city where graffiti will overrun the new Citi Field in about three months regardless of what they do.
Update!!!!
It seems that Horwitz and other Mets officials have seen the light and will allow Gooden’s signature to stay where it is after a backlash of fans. Plus an unshaven, malnourished Daryl Strawberry was seen writing on the outside wall of Citi Field.
Monday night, however, PR honcho Jay Horwitz said the wall will be removed from the club, preserved behind Plexiglass and moved to an undisclosed area at Citi Field that is more accessible to all fans. He added that the Mets plan to procure similar autographs from other popular ex-Mets such as Tom Seaver, Darryl Strawberry, Mike Piazza and Mookie Wilson and display them around the concourse.
“We’ve listened to our fans on this,” Horwitz said. “The last thing we want is for them or Doc to be upset. We just didn’t want everyone to think it was OK to start writing on walls all over the stadium.”
Hooray! Now Doc can go back to fighting the police and doing cocaine.
Posted in Citi Field, Doc Gooden, Major League Baseball, MLB, New York Mets Tagged: Citi Field, Doc Gooden, Major League Baseball, MLB, New York Mets
Denis Kang gave some subtle hints about who he would like to face next while speaking with MMAWeekly:
I need to take a little time off to rest my body and we’ll see who’s going to be next. I know I’m not in line for a title shot yet, but there’s a couple of other 185ers who got wins that night (UFC 97) so maybe the UFC will line me up with that, but I do need a little break.”
Well, it's not to difficult to figure out. The only two middleweights to get a win at UFC 97 were Ed Herman and Nate Quarry. The more exciting fight would probably be Kang vs. Quarry, but I would be interested in a Kang vs. Herman fight as well. Simply because Herman is prone to getting subbed and Kang is well versed there. A win over Quarry would be more beneficial to Kang, especially since Quarry just took out Jason MacDonald. Which fighter would you like to see Kang fight next?
CelticsBlog.com: "I have to admit to being a little giddy this morning. Like every once in a while, when no one is looking, I break into a mini Walker Wiggle just for fun. Am I over-reacting to a first round game? Maybe, but it just feels so good. This win lifted a huge weight off my shoulders in a way that I didn't really even expect. There was so much doom and gloom after the first two games. So many questions. So much doubt. I knew that the Celtics were the better team but they weren't playing much like it till last night. [...] Pierce was a monster. Rondo was unstoppable. Ray was bombing away. Baby played out of his mind. Perkins was surly (in the best possible way). We even got a fantastic game out of Stephon Marbury. Doc made all the right adjustments. The defense stifled any run the Bulls made. We dictated the tempo. We just crushed them."
Blog a Bull: "I had a feeling the Bulls homecourt advantage was nothing special, and that they may get down double digits early. That's happened before. Maybe they'd stay reasonably close and make a game of it, or maybe they'd always be at arms length and lose. Paul Pierce put them in the early hole, but that wasn't insurmountable. What really took the game from 'uh oh', to 'oh [expletive]' was a Celtics run to end the 2nd quarter that put them up 22 at the half. It was as if the Bulls were waiting to regroup at halftime and forgot to play the last several minutes of the half first. [...] Nearly everyone was awful, but I was really dissapointed in Tyrus and Noah. They looked so overmatched physically tonight it's enough to question their long-term viability as a tandem. It was that bad. So many times they fumbled passes, or got stripped, or were pushed out of the paint. By a decimated Celtics front line."
Celtics Hub: "During the game, a friend — a Bulls fan — emailed me to ask whether the Bulls offensive problems were more the result of their own sloppiness or the Celtics defense. I didn’t have an easy answer. The Celtics didn’t do anything special on defense tonight, and at times looked a bit more disorganized than usual. They went to outright switches more than is typical for them. Derrick Rose made a jumper over Glen Davis early, Rajon Rondo spent a possession covering Tyrus Thomas (who was invisible tonight, by the way) and the Celtics were generally scrambling to keep up with the Bulls basic screen/roll offense. But they scrambled effectively, and they clogged the lane whenever the Bulls penetrated. They owned the lane tonight. Glen Davis blocked a Joakim Noah shot at the rim tonight. That is lane ownership, baby, and boy did it feel good to see Noah rejected by a shorter, fatter man."
Sportspolymath: "The Chicago Bulls were looking to throw a dagger tonight, but instead they took one right in the heart. Blame it on the Bulls marketing department, who decided to cover the courtside seats with rose petals (to honor Rose's Rookie of the Year award), they thought they were marketing geniuses. Instead, it had the reverse effect, as Rose was covered like a blanket the entire night."
Marc J. Spears, Boston Globe: "To help find his offensive stroke, (Paul) Pierce noticed some things by watching film of the first two playoff games, like being more aggressive and staying away from defensive traps. 'It was watching tape, seeing how they were playing me, picking my spots,' said Pierce. 'I definitely wanted to come in [aggressive], especially on the road. You can come out aggressive and kind of set the tone early and kind of take the crowd out of the game, that's what we tried to do. I just took advantage of the opportunities. I just tried to go a little bit faster when I got the ball. During the first two games, I thought I was holding the ball a lot, allowing the trap to come instead of attacking it, taking it on and if the shot wasn't there finding other guys.'"
John Jackson, Chicago Sun-Times: "We should have known. During the regular season, whenever it seemed the Bulls had turned a corner and were on the verge of developing some consistency, they usually produced a stunningly bad performance. Why should we have expected anything different in the postseason? We shouldn't have, but the toughness and inspired play the Bulls displayed on the road during the first two games of the first-round series with the Boston Celtics fooled us all. It was easy to believe the Bulls had the upper hand with the series shifting to the United Center for Game 3 on Thursday night, but I thought there was a good chance the Bulls might lose. Still, I never suspected a 107-86 rout by the Celtics — or that Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro would empty his bench with more than eight minutes left in the game with his team trailing."
Hardwood Paroxysm: "No one has a bead on this series. Not Boston, not Chicago, not the media, not even KD. We don’t know if tonight was the best the Celtics can possibly play without Garnett, or just a matter of them shaking off the playoff rust. We don’t know if this is the worst the Bulls can play or just what happens when you put an unproven seven seed with VDN as coach against the savviest team in the league. Honestly, would anything surprise you about Game 4? Boston crushes them? 'Well, Chicago had two good games, Boston adjusted, goodnight moon.' Bulls blowout C’s? 'Hey, they’re down 2-1 in a must win at home after an embarrassing result. That’s what playoff teams do.' Same thing with a close game. Celtics win: 'They’re the champs.' Bulls win: 'This team is too talented and Boston’s too injured and old to come ever night.'"
Talk Hoops: "Most interesting aspect from this series so far has to be the will of the Celtics defense and how they've adjusted in guarding Derrick Rose. Kendrick Perkins was mocked slightly because he has no upper lip and primarily because he claimed that Derrick Rose wasn't going to have another game like Game 1 against Boston. We laughed and chided him for mocking the next Jason Kidd. But the Celtics turned their attention to him, took away his scoring opportunities and essentially took away his Game One swagger. Part of that has been Rajon Rondo stepping up his defensive effort and making life difficult for Rose. But an even bigger part of that has been a gameplan designed by Tom Thibodeau to double when he drives to the middle and keep the paint packed in so he can't drive so freely. Three nights before, that meant Ben Gordon was able to take his team down to the wire. But in Game 3, it means that the Bulls had absolutely no comfort on the offensive end of the floor."
By The Horns: "... Vinny isn’t Coach of the Year material quite yet. (Sorry, Peter Vecsey.) To the casual and slightly inebriated observer, it looked like the Celtics came to Chicago with a solid game plan, whereas it seemed like Del Negro just told his guys: 'Keep doing what you’ve been doing, only rebound better. Now go get 'em!' It’s funny how poor preparation becomes exceedingly glaring when Rose and Ben Gordon (15 points, 5-for-13) aren’t having career games. So now the Bulls are behind 2-1 in the series, only it feels more like they’re down 8-1. That’s how discouraging this defeat was."
Evidently, the all-time winningest goalie isn't good enough. Neither is one of the best young American-born players in the game.
Instead, the National Broadcasting Company -- better known as NBC -- is keenly aware of the fact that there are only two teams in the NHL that you care to watch. If they're not playing, you'd rather watch poker than watch anyone else.
The assumption that Bulls executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson is leaving the organization at season's end, after persistent speculation that he nearly quit after the trade deadline, is still out there. But it really shouldn't be.
Sources with knowledge of the Bulls' thinking indicate that Paxson, while still very eager to relinquish day-to-day duties in Chicago's front office in spite of the Bulls' recent return to semi-prominence, is expected to stay in the organization as its senior basketball voice without losing much (if any) influence in big-ticket decision making.
In a scenario relayed by a few of his peers, Paxson would move into a still-to-be-defined role as a top adviser to Bulls chairman Jerry Reinsdorf, with director of player personnel Gar Forman taking over as the every-day personnel chief.
Such an alignment -- similar to Michael Jordan's arrangement in Charlotte, where Rod Higgins handles the daily duties -- would allow Paxson to continue to participate in the major trade and draft matters he enjoys while relinquishing the management headaches that have increasingly unsettled him. Shifting those duties to Forman would continue the expansion of a role that began to take shape last summer when Forman was asked by Reinsdorf to step in for Paxson on a good chunk of the Bulls' negotiations to re-sign forward Luol Deng.
"The best way to describe it," one insider says, "is that John is going to be moving up, not out."
(Emphasis mine, because that really tickled me.)
Man I hope this playoff run lasts a while, because I am not looking forward to whatever mess this team will make of itself between the offseason and when they fire Vinny this Christmas.
Though you never know, maybe the new alignment works. I'll give them a chance. To front office amalgam Gar Paxdorf!
1. Benny the Bull:
We all remember the incident last April with KG and Posey, perhaps things have escalated further in the delusional mind of Benny. “I felt threatened,” said Posey at the time. Looking back at the story, “unresolved for a over a year” seems to tie Benny in. I mean its not like the guy has a history of violence or attacking police officers, right?
2. Commissioner David Stern
The man has been throwing Gang Signs around for years and was curiously in-house last night with a team of security guards separating him and Tony. The man is ice cold and when he wants something taken care of, its taken care of. Once again you can point to some strange bedfellows from the past as well. I’m not sure what T.A. did to piss him off, but beware of Stern-O’s wrath.
3. The Chicago Dance Team:
This is an insult to humanity, not just Tony Allen, But fittingly depicts the general population of Chicago and thus any one of these men could be the culprit.
4. The Dude Behind the Toine and Eddy Curry Robberies:
Here’s a real conspiracy theory, sure they caught 4 young guys and charged them, but do we really think they acted alone?
5. Sideshow Bob:
The guy was always making threats against Bart Simpson, this would be nothing new.
about 11 hours ago:
Missouri defensive tackle Evander Hood reacts as he talks on a cellphone with the Pittsburgh Steelers after they selected him 32nd overall in the first round of the NFL Draft during draft watch party at the Ambassador Hotel in Amarillo, Texas, Saturday, April 25, 2009. (AP Photo/The Amarillo Globe News, Michael Norris)
The Steelers pulled off a very solid day one. I have been full of Ziggy-love since I started looking into the DL prospects, and we got him while staying put. There's a lot to like about him: he's got good size for a 3-4 DE (it'd be nice to have another inch or two, but he still has long arms), he was productive in college, he stood out among top competition at the Senior Bowl, he had absolutely fantastic tests at the combine (which tells me he has a ton of upside), he could grow into both a good pass rusher and a good run stuffer, and he should be able to drop into coverage on occasion, too. Nothing has stood out more to me, though, than how coachable and how good of a teammate everyone says he is. I think he's an absolutely perfect fit as a Steeler and as a one gap 5 technique 3-4 zone blitz DE. He was a very solid value at one of our biggest needs.
Now onto the trade.
When you say "a 2nd and a 4th for two 3rds", it sounds like a wash, but here's another way of saying it: we traded the 64th and 132nd picks for the 79th and 84th picks. Yet another way: we traded down 15 picks into the third and up 48 picks from the 4th. The infallible "draft value chart", which means a lot more in later rounds than in the first, says we traded 270 + 40 = 310 points for 195 + 170 = 365 points. But it gets better. The best prospect we could have drafted at a position of need at 2.64 was probably Jarron Gilbert (who I know gets some people's hearts pumping around here), but we just got Hood, and it would be a lot nicer to get some OL's and DB's. With William Beatty and Sean Smith going right before our pick, there wasn't a great value there. Jamon Meredith would have been a decent pick, but instead they traded for 2 picks the middle of the 3rd, which also coincides with a very nice value pocket of OL's. Whatever they're looking for, it should be available around those picks. If they want maulers, Robinson and Johnson may be there. If they want tackles, there's Cadogan, Kropog, Tupou, Fulton, and maybe even Meredith. There are two solid centers likely to be there, Luigs and Caldwell, and a handful of other IOL's as well. Not only did they get better picks in the trade, they maneuvered to a position were the best values coincide with their biggest need. We're in a place where we'll probably be able to draft 2 OL's in our next 3 picks without reaching. It's hard to be sure what's going to happen in the next 14 picks, but this could look like a brilliant trade in a few hours.
My only regret for the day is that they gave up the pick they'd probably have to use to draft the other DL I've been pimping, Roy Miller. I'm also not sure who they'd target as a possible DB in the third if they're looking for a Madden Curse contingency plan, although there are probably some decent options.
Bill Parcells has a history of being aggressive, and the results suggest he knows what he's doing. He's taken five different teams to the playoffs as either a coach or front-office type, and is the NFL equivalent of Mr. WhiteWinston Wolfe: he solves problems.
He took the Dolphins from a one-win outfit in 2007 to AFC East champs a year later. And if he thinks Pat White is a special player, I'm not going to argue with him.
On Day 1 of the Draft, the Dolphins selected Illinois cornerback Vontae Davis with the 25th pick, and double-downed with White a round later (44th overall). Davis has been described as a top-10 talent, but character issues saw him drop to the end of the first round. But if there's anybody who can keep Davis in check it's Parcells.
Although the Dolphins had a huge need in the secondary, White might be the best value pick in this draft.
The update is that there is barely an update. We do know this that interim commish Bill Douglas is out of the running. According to FightNews.com, Douglas accepted another position within the state's Department of Consumer Affairs Legislative and Policy Review division. FightNews was told:
He was in no way “terminated,” or removed, or asked to resign from his post.
"I don't know how this madness started," Douglas said. "I took a day off yesterday, and I'm moving to a new department next month for career advancement."
Douglas did interview for the CSAC's executive director during a closed hearing earlier this month along with Ron Scott Stevens, Pat Russell and Ron Arnold. Douglas was thought to be the front-runner but for some reason was dropped from consideration. Chances are someone will be given the position officially in June. Also adding to the current confusion is the sudden departure of CSAC inspector Dean Lohuis. Let's hope nothing major arises in the next 60 days because the MMA weigh-in debacle involving Cris "Cyborg" Santos was a potentially danger situation.
These Guys Should Really Do A Tour With These Guys
Washington, DC-based band Deleted Scenes recently released its debut album Birdseed Shirt to much critical praise. Notably, the album recently received an 8.0 rating from tastemaking culture website, Pitchfork Media (LINK). The band is currently walking through that opened door by shining a brighter light on its album – one that reveals a record with a style that has already been referred to to as "an acid-trip that is absolutely habit forming" (Madison Isthmus), "gently glazed with cold medication" (The Onion), and "Steeped in a blurry digital haze" (Washington City Paper).
Don't Email Angry
Angry Man: What does "Voltron-Jew'd" mean?
Me: Voltron was a cartoon series in the 80s where animal robots joined together to make one super robot. I didn't know which executive producer (Bernstein or Greenburg) was responsible for the news so I combined their names together. Hence Voltron Jew'd.
Angry Man: And "jew'd" means they're Jewish? So what? Was Voltron Jewish?
Me:And this is offensive how exactly?
Angry ManIf the producers' names had been Daulerio and Soprano, would you have said "Voltron/wop'd"?
Me: Absolutely
Angry Man: If you're too fucking stupid to realize how that could be offensive.......
Me If you're too fucking stupid to underestimate my fucking stupidity then why have this conversation?
Angry Man "Better to be remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt."
Curt Schilling looks like he's been hitting the all-you-can-eat buffet now that he's retired. Pictured here with REDACTED and superfan Joshua REDACTED, Curt was also seen loading up on sunscreen at Atlantis in the Bahamas last Saturday. There was a Jonas Brothers concert at Atlantis that weekend, but no word on whether the Schillings attended.
One nice thing about the Presidential visits made by college football’s title holders to the White House? If memory serves us correctly, the red peppers of Konami province are among the sweetest and tastiest around. We’re sorry, Iron Chef’s on in the background. If memory serves us, both Presidents Bush and Obama made sure to thank the trainers and little people who make programs run, and that’s always a nice fuzzy tummy rub to get from the chief executive of this badass corn-fed machine-gun sex-missile of a country we have.
He did say he’d prefer a playoff, but save your outrage for something serious, because outrage is so fucking cheap. Splutter is so much better spent on things that matter, like on the coffee table that you stubbed your toe on this morning, or on that fucking fuck driving too slow/too fast/just existing in front of you being old/sporting a lame bumpersticker/driving a car you find contemptible when you have somewhere very important to be (like Chik-Fil-A. That’s important and do not argue this)
It’s emotional junk food for the subretarded regardless of political affiliation. Rage is best spent on furniture, video game controllers, and on the most important thing ever, college football. After all, the last President who knew dick about X’s and O’s was Dick Nixon, a man who shared a mutual admiration with Vince Lombardi, dropped strategy on Don Shula before the Super Bowl, and who ran a nice end-around on both parties by going to China.
(He also was unafraid of the long bomb in Laos and Cambodia and lost his job after losing control of players and being too aggressive in scouting the opposition. Like Switzer in bowling pants, really.)
What the President thinks about college football is irrelevant, especially since he went to Harvard. We’ll start listening to the White House on college football when President Carroll wins the 2016 election on the Win Forever ticket with Will Ferrell as VP. He’ll walk down Pennsylvania Avenue with a SuperSoaker full of Sex on the Beach in his skivvies. Mark our words.
(Please note that the jersey is Percy Harvin’s jersey. Put it over your head and breathe for five minutes and you’ll get a wicked contact high. Oh, and you can redistribute up to 19 points on the margins from Florida to Georgia in the 49-10 final of this year’s game. Take it, we can afford it: even in that scheme you still come up short by a point, though we definitely prefer the free-market genius of annihilating a rival by 39 points and letting it stand that way. BRANDON SPIKES IS HERE ALL DAY IF YOU WANNA PLAY, BOY.)
He was recently arrested while in possession of $24,000 worth of cocaine and an unregistered weapon and he has 22 prior arrests on charges of disorderly conduct, theft and assault. I really don’t want to know why he took his infielders to Columbia, and I really really don’t want to know how he got the cocaine into the country.
Meanwhile the team parents are frantically calling around and leaving cryptic messages on their friends voicemails including phases like “the hookup” and “some shit”
But hey he is a little league coach and that’s a good quality. I guess background checks are expensive.
“It’s expensive to do them, but that’s not an excuse,” said Todd Edge, Commissioner for the Saraland Baseball Association. “We have 150 coaches in the baseball park. I talked to some independent agencies. It’s 40 dollars per coach to do a background check, so you’re talking about six thousand dollars. We don’t get city funding.”
So I guess baseball commissioners at every level make ridiculous excuses for not checking for drug use. Get the kids (or their parents) to kick in $2 apiece as a coach background check fee. It’s pretty fucking simple, isn’t it?
Or your coaches could sell cocaine and pool the proceeds together for the background check. Hey, whatever works!
The coach has been banned from coaching in the league, talk about a harsh punishment.
Posted in Alabama, cocaine, dumbass, Little League Baseball Tagged: Alabama, cocaine, dumbass, Little League Baseball
"I want you to present me the ... award this year. This is as close as you'll get to it," Roach said. "You're never going to win it. Ever."
It's gotten even nastier than that in the past. Both former fighters mock each other for the damage they took in the ring. Mayweather is difficult to understand while Roach suffers from Parkinsons. Both definitely suffer a lack of judgement at times.
After getting shutout on home ice Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins appeared to be in some serious trouble on Saturday afternoon as they spotted the Philadelphia Flyers a three-goal lead early in the second period.
Five unanswered goals, and a couple of key saves by Marc-Andre Fleury later, the Penguins escaped Philadelphia with a 5-3 win, eliminating the Flyers in six games to advance to the Eastern Conference Semifinals.
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We covered the all-time 
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Evidently, the all-time winningest goalie isn't good enough. Neither is one of the best young American-born players in the game. 
We get a massive amount of tips in our inbox each week. Some are pretty interesting, but don't get published for one reason or another. (NSFW)
After getting shutout on home ice Thursday night, the Pittsburgh Penguins appeared to be in some serious trouble on Saturday afternoon as they spotted the Philadelphia Flyers a three-goal lead early in the second period. 
