biittner77

Bubba Watson is fun to watch.

Based on Stan's comments last year, I don't expect them to rebuild. He thinks they are a quick fix or two away from being a playoff team again. He's not wrong. With better goal tending and better luck in terms of shooting % this year's team is still alive and who knows how far they could go. Missing the playoffs *could* be a big motivator for the core.

I can't imagine they'd fire Q. He might resign I suppose. I'm not sure he's the right guy for a rebuild if that's what they decide to do. But I can't see the Hawks tearing it down and starting over.

Bob Newhart is a Loyola Alum. I wonder if he's been watching these games.

Then take the field Back when I worked at a golf course we would have pools for the US open where you'd pick 4 golfers and added up the money they won to determine the winner. It was really picking 3 golfers since everyone always had Tiger as one of their 4. I guess Dustin Johnson would be the closest to that these days. I think Rickie Fowler breaks through this year.

Changing the DOG penalty is a good idea. Getting rid of the salary cap would be interesting. Does the cap really create parity? Not really. Poorly run franchises can have whatever advantages they want, they still aren't winning the cup because they suck at recognizing and developing talent. These same teams don't spend to the cap anyway. Also, in a league where nearly half the teams make the playoffs there will always be some measure of parity.

I don't get why people bet on who's going to win a particular golf tournament. There's at least 20 guys that could win a major tournament.

eh, I never give a horsefeathers about the tourney after the first weekend anyway #IowaBasketball Exactly. Except in the rare case of a team like George Mason making it to the final four as a 27 seed or whatever.

Seeing Tiger Woods yank his tee shot OB makes him seem so much more vulnerable than we had ever seen him before. Up to that point, he had put together a great round then he does what one of us would do. I wonder what that will do to his confidence.

They're pretty bad, though. I think we got so caught up in the "Whatever, they always plug holes" vibe to notice how bad they'd gotten on paper. From last year's team, they dropped Hossa and Panarin (combined for almost 60 goals), Hjarlmarsson (their true second-best defenseman for awhile now), Oduya/TVR/Campbell/Roszvial (the entire back half of their D, more or less), Kruger and Panik (I loved having Kruger on the PK) and ended up losing Crawford to injury. That's two of your best 4 forwards, a top defenseman, most of your defensive depth and a chunk of solid forwards. That's a pretty thorough gutting. Not sure I completely agree on the forwards. They certainly miss Panarin and Hossa but Schmaltz and DeBrincat have made up most of that offensive disparity (61-47). Had Saad been less cursed with bad luck (16 goals) it would have been about a push. Hjalmarson is done. The Hawks were "losing" him a top defenseman regardless of whether they decided to keep him. Murphy has had an uneven season has been mostly not too bad if not sometimes very good. The rest of the back half of their D hasn't been great but neither were TVR or any of the other guys you listed. Better goal-tending could have covered some of these shortcomings. The Hawks have a lot of young guys and young defenemen in particular have lots of growing pains.

12, 14 & 15 were the only seeds that didn't win a game.

UMBC is pretty much a commuter school. It was funny when ESPN went there to get a shot of the whole campus going nuts and they had to gather all 40 people that didn't go home for the weekend together to look like anyone cared. UMBC has a fine chess program.

That's true for most of them.

Lay off Clark. He's Donald Ducking it. It's a classic look.

I don't see how anyone can pick Purdue past the 2nd round given their long history of disappointing exits. I realize that they've looked good but I've seen that movie too many times.

He shouldn’t use his drive much, if at all, at Augusta. He should using his 3-wood or 2-iron off the tee nearly every hole. First thought was that Augusta is a lot longer course than Copperhead, but I looked it up and it's only ~100 yards difference. He should stick with the same gameplan and leave the driver home. Crazy to think that a player can do that on a course that's ~7400 yards long. The guys that he'll have to beat will be using their drivers. Have to believe that at least a couple of them will keep it in the fairway. That gives them a competitive edge over Tiger whose iron play was really good at Copperhead. But it's a lot easier hitting a wedge into a green than a 7 iron. A better question might be if Tiger's ego will allow him to watch as people out drive him all day.

Sentence needed a reference to his back. I was reading an article in Golf Digest (if you buy anything from Global Golf you get a free subscription) about what people thought of Tiger's chances of winning the Masters. A lot of people were saying that they couldn't see it since he'd have to play great and other talented people would all have to not play as well. It occurred to me that this is true but it's also true of whoever wins. To win the Masters, Tiger will have to be able to hit his driver more accurately.

This story is a bad look for the Dodgers. Justin Turner had to take time away from planning his wedding to go to this meeting. That poor man. As if he wasn't absolutely delighted to get away from all of that.

That's pretty much been the focus during the time they've been together. I'm not really concerned about winning games so much as developing as players. I'm woefully unqualified to teach skills but I have 2 people helping that hopefully can cover that part. I think there are some general principles that will always be true such as "forward" isn't always the direction that the ball needs to move, pass the ball then move to a danger spot for the return pass, trusting your teammate to play his/ her position but putting yourself in a good place to support in case they lose possession. I expect all of these concepts will help them down the road whether it's 5 v 5, 7 v 7 or whatever. Having seen them play for the last 4 months, I think I have a pretty good handle on their strengths and weaknesses. I'm in my 8th year coaching - different teams every year. I would highly recommend focusing on possession - not as a team but as individuals. Shielding, first touch to space, patience, drop passes. What always derails youth teams is kicking the ball away because they are afraid to lose it. This also gives their teammates time to get to support positions. I would not recommend tons of times on skill drills because they get bored and don't focus. Show a technique, have them do it, then move on to an activity where they are playing and using the technique. No lines, lectures or laps. It really is true. Related to the USSF conversation, their new mantra is Play-Practice-Play - meaning get the kids playing right away at practice and let them learn by playing. Seems like a good idea to have them play more and gain some creativity. Trouble I see, is what we really need is to hold training sessions and then let them play on their own the other days of the week. Here is one link I like for ball touches: http://www.progressivesoccertraining.com/faster-feet/ Thanks. I see what you mean about them getting bored with drills. I also dislike scrimmages which seem to devolve into a couple kids dominating everything and the others chasing them around. I think maybe some mini games mixed in with drills might find the right balance.

Why would you hate Scottie Pippen? You're a bartender, server or anyone else that works for tips in the Chicago area. I've heard that he is widely known as "No tippin', Pippen". Which makes him a garbage human being regardless of anything Mr. Pink has to say on the matter.

Seabrook was an Olympian and might very well end up in the Hall of Fame. He's not that guy now but he once was among the top tier of defensemen. If you mean that he was overshadowed by those guys then that's certainly true.

I didn't realize Arod played for the Mets.

How can anyone be upset with the return for Hartman? 2 picks and a prospect? Even if it was just the picks I wouldn't have expected a first rounder for a player like Hartman. I normally don't give Bowman props but this felt like a really solid deal on his end. Hartman is a known commodity so his floor is higher. If Edsjell takes 3 years to develop that *might* be outside of the window for Toews, Keith, etc. Same potentially goes for what could be the 30th pick in the draft. But that doesn't take into account the money they won't have to pay Hartman (probably looking for a deal similar to what they gave Panik). Not to mention that they might be able to package their 2 first round picks to move up into the top 3 to get someone that might be an impact player next season.

I never felt like Hartman was a good fit for what the Hawks do or try to do. He's not a top 6 forward on a good team but probably top 9. They tried him up and down the line up but he couldn't really find a role that he excelled at. A lot of people are unhappy with getting a late 1st round pick for him but the Hawks have 2 guys (Saad, Debrincat) that were essentially late first round picks that fell to the second. I don't know anything about Edjsell but he seems to be playing well in the Swedish league.

i didn't know it was possible not to have heard this story at some point. feels like it's brought up all the time. Yeah, well I didn't know it was possible to not know who Rick Wrona was. When I lived in Champaign it said Wrona on the side of the dumpster outside my apartment on 1st & Green. I always wondered if they were related.