jonvalk's Wallpaperpalooza (1/4)
Things in the Past. There were some great diaries that would have been required reading if this was yesterday. Papspreviewed Wofford (this you saw on the front page), Erik_in_Dayton tackled the history of 15 seeds upsetting two seeds; it's happened seven times since 1991. That may be more fun to visit now that the danger is passed, if only to relive 2012 Duke.
The game was played only 55 miles from Duke’s campus, but it was also the site of the first round game for UNC. Tar Heel fans gladly joined in rooting for the Mountain Hawks.
Oh man, Duke. That was two years ago. Is it still acceptable to laugh about it?
It is considered acceptable to still laugh about this game.
Lol Duke.
Speaking of way-back, remember the Big Ten Tournament? LSA has stats on that.
Meanwhile MGoBlueline put a ton of effort into reintroducing the hockey team for the Big Ten Tourney and then who-knows in the plinko playoff system. But those guys lost to Penn State in double-OT (finishing 2-3 on the year against the hockey equivalent of our lacrosse team) and will need to be lucky to earn a tourney bid. There were plenty of things to go wrong, including really bad turnovers and the now-requisite game-winner that almost went in but didn't.
The hockey guys (Brian, Center Ice and Blueline) will cover the most unsurprising upset ever in more detail, but there was one thing that infuriated me all game, and that was Penn State's defensemen were pinching despite being rather bad backwards skaters, and only a few times did Michigan challenge this by speeding through the neutral zone. When they did move up-ice with any kind of urgency in the 3rd period, DeBlois and Nieves split defenders and got off great scoring opportunities.
Since we're now left watching tourneys and hoping the unworthy don't steal autobids, here's a handy graphic of the tournaments.
Things in the Future or Never. Interesting, quickly consumed diary by saveferris looks at the history of 1-4 seeds in the NCAA tournament. Survey says:
| Semi-Finals | Finals | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seed | W | L | Pct. | W | L | Pct | |
| 1 | 27 | 20 | 57.40% | 18 | 9 | 66.70% | |
| 2 | 12 | 13 | 48.00% | 4 | 8 | 33.30% | |
| 3 | 9 | 5 | 64.30% | 4 | 5 | 44.40% | |
| 4 | 3 | 10 | 23.10% | 1 | 2 | 33.30% | |
I just stole his lede here, so I'll tell you that there's a Burke gif at the top if you take the link. My guess is the closer seeds are to each other the more this will look like 50-50, i.e. the reason two-seeds won just 4 of 12 Finals games since 1985 is only 12 two-seeds have made the Finals.
 |
| The other Sierra (soph. OF Sierra Lawrence) has a .462 OBP going into Big Ten play. |
And Softball. I could probably say this about the softball team most years, but I really really mean it this year: pay attention because they're on a new level of awesome fun awesome. They've carried a 19-6 record so far through an epic brutal schedule. South Bend Wolverine provided the update as the team is (finally) going into Big Ten play.
Thing to Know 1: Pitching is huge in softball; one great one will put a team in the Top 25. Michigan has three(!) such towers. I'll stop comparing junior Haylie Wagner to Verlander because her 0.93 ERA/13-0 record is more like Walter Johnson. Freshman sensation Megan Betsa has 63 strikeouts in 49 innings. Something's been off with junior Sara Driesenga, who was All-Big Ten both previous seasons, and picked up the slack last year when Wagner was out. If Sara returns to form the pitching is just going to be unfair.
Thing to Know 2: Star shortstop Sierra Romero's looks like Miguel Cabrera at the bat and in the field; in the comments Hail to the Blue points out her glove is fine but her arm's been erratic.
[Jump for Best of the Board]
LOTS OF OFFENSE, itty bitty D
Soulfire found a guy on Reddit who compiled a list of how teams with great (top 30) offenses and not-great (>100) defenses do in the tourney, by way of questioning the standard logic about defense's association with championships. The seeds are listed so if someone can put that in spreadsheet instead of a screencap we can determine the real meat question (did they go further than expected?) rather than simply how far they went.
A TERRIBLE OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF MAD COW DISEASE AND GIBBONSGATE
I've been very frustrated with the coverage of the Gibbons story, and that's why I let yesterday's "I know I am but what are you?" thread stand.
So here's a little parable: say scientists discovered that a small % of cows have a disease that could be transferred to humans in their meat, and that 50% of those cows exhibit noticeable symptoms. The fictional nation of Andor decides to spare no expense in testing every cow and removing all of those from the food supply chain that they even suspect have the disease, in order to best prevent people from getting sick. The neighboring nation of Cairhien decides to test only cows exhibiting symptoms. A third nation, Tear, doesn't do anything.
What happens: Andor finds several instances of the disease in its meat and takes a lot of it out of production, a crippling blow to their economy. Cairhien finds the disease is isolated and reports all those they found with it were caught. Tear reports no problems. What gets reported: Andor's meat makes you sick.
That's not exactly how Mad Cow went down, but it's about how the Gibbons thing went down. Michigan was among the first to comply with the White House's mandate (via the Dept of Ed via Title IX) to round up sexual assaults that went unpunished after victims of apparently unpunished sexual assaults at Missouri and ND committed suicide. The reason Michigan found one is because they're testing for it.
CRAFT APPRECIATION IS NOW COOL
When announcers do it it's still uncool, but now that the Craft era is finished you are allowed to appreciate the parts of Craft that are appreciable. Like that he's by all accounts a good guy and a great student. And that by accounts he likes to have the ball in his hand when the game is on the line. And that by accounts when the ball is in his hands with the game on the line he tends to completely screw the pooch.
Viva Craft. Let us never let Dakich near him again.
OH NO MAIZE JERSEYS!!!!!
Here's how you know these won't be worn in any game: they're actually yellow, not neon highlighter.
Just practice. Practice. Not a game. Practice. I mean: practice!
POOL NAMES
Mine are "=$B$1" because the pool manager uses excel, is bad at excel, and puts "Winners" in cell B1, and "La Di Da Di We Likes to Potty" because I have a 2-week old daughter and my life is full of diapers right now. Better ones:
- Crisis LeVerted
- We're the Mighty Ospreys
- Crimea River (also was the name of a guy on the liveblog yesterday)
- That Shit is Creigh (southernor picking Creighton to win it all?)
- Bee-line to Dallas
- Glass Case of Emotions
- Malik McDowell’s Mother’s Mission
- CJK5H
- Reggie Theus Drives a Prius
- GR3 Pointer
ETC. When fortune smiles on something as violent and ugly as revenge, it seems proof like no other, that not only does God exist, you're doing His will.
Your Moment of Zen: