bukie

It's February, so it's time to take a look at the current state of basketball and see what the tournament field looks like according to Pomeroy. Here is a bracket based on strict KP efficiency numbers as of now: EAST 1. Villanova (BE) 16. Texas Southern (SWAC)/North Carolina A&T (MEAC) 8. Miami FL 9. Texas A&M 4. Clemson 13. Murray State (OVC) 5. Nevada (MWC) 12. Loyola IL (MVC) 2. Kansas (B12) 15. Bucknell (Pat) 7. Florida State 10. New Mexico State (WAC) 3. Tennessee (SEC) 14. UC Santa Barbara (BW) 6. Michigan 11. Kansas State SOUTH 1. Virginia (ACC) 16. Winthrop (BSth)/Wagner (NEC) 8. Louisville 9. Rhode Island (A10) 4. St. Mary's 13. Vermont (AE) 5. West Virginia 12. Louisiana Lafayette (SB) 2. Gonzaga (WCC) 15. Northeastern (CAA) 7. Oklahoma 10. Houston 3. Auburn 14. South Dakota (Sum) 6. Creighton 11. Missouri MIDWEST 1. Purdue (B10) 16. Stephen F Austin (Slnd) 8. Seton Hall 9. Texas 4. Ohio State 13. East Tennessee State (SC) 5. Arizona (P12) 12. Boise State/Syracuse 2. Michigan State 15. Iona (MAAC) 7. Arizona State 10. Virginia Tech 3. Xavier 14. Buffalo (MAC) 6. Butler 11. SMU WEST 1. Duke 16. Florida Gulf Coast (ASun) 8. Florida 9. Maryland 4. Texas Tech 13. Montana (BSky) 5. Wichita State 12. USC/Western Kentucky 2. Cincinnati (Amer) 15. Princeton (Ivy) 7. Kentucky 10. Notre Dame 3. North Carolina 14. Northern Kentucky (Horz) 6. TCU 11. Middle Tennessee (CUSA) Last 4 out: Baylor Arkansas Marquette SMU Conference representation: ACC - 10 Big 12 - 7 SEC - 6 Big East - 5 B1G - 5 Pac 12 - 3 American - 3 WCC - 2 CUSA - 2

Barry Bonds had more career WAR than Chipper Jones and Jim Thome combined.

This is a better option than John Fox.

For a Kyle take, sure.

[tweet] [/tweet]

On the plus side, Raptors fans are now terrified of the scenario they get the 1 seed while the Bulls sneak into the 8 seed.

As stupid as it would be for the Bulls to somehow sneak into the 8 seed again this year, it would be hilariously fun to watch and would serve the front office right. Unfortunately there is no option available that would clean out the front office. Lose and it's expected, win and it makes them somehow look better. Maybe the best scenario for cleaning house is ending up with the 12th spot in the lottery or something.

Dunn out tonight with a phantom knee injury, still might not be enough to lose to Indy.

Bulls are now 9-8 against the East, which is kind of hilarious. Also, even with this 7 game winning streak, the Bulls still have the worst point differential in the conference overall.

Related note, home teams are 6-1 in the challenge so far.

I know it's only two weeks in, but CBB competitive balance seems to be at an all time low this year, with jist two teams outside the power 7 conferences in the KP top 50 (aka at large consideration worthy), and just 10 of 32 conferences registering above mean efficiency margin -- Big 12, Big East, SEC, ACC, Pac 12, B1G, American, MWC, MVC, and A10. There was already an absurd gap between power conference teams and lower conference teams, and the size of division 1 is getting stupidly large. I think a D1 split would be good for the competition as a whole, and instead of going to a 96 team tournament, just go to 64 for the D1 top half and 32 for the D1 bottom half.

Well, the Michael Porter era at Missouri was an eventful 2 minutes. Can't wait until the Bulls draft him and he ends up playing half a season.

It's pretty obvious that the primary reason that letter went out is that there is a real possibility that Clemens and Bonds get enough votes this year.

Illinois is more fun to watch so far, but it's been 4 games against varying C and D level competition, so 4 wins was the bare expected performance. Concerningly, the only game they looked better than advertised was against Southern, letting UTM back into thw game in the last 10 minutes, struggling to put away DePaul, and coasting midway through the second half against Marshall. There's also an argument that the Illini only had the best player on the floor in two of the games (Alstork against Southern, Smith against DePaul), giving up huge games to guards on cupcake teams otherwise is a bad omen for upcoming games against quality guards.

Illinois just shot 4-21 from 3 point range and won by 47.

Well, I'm old now. Frank Williams' son, D'Monte, is playing his first game for the Illini tonight.

Personally, I'd be all for aligning the MLS calendar with other club soccer calendars, but the stadium infrastructure in the northern cities isn't there at this point.

So this version of the playoffs assumes the home games will all be in Texas, southern California, or Florida. It doesn't go any later in the year than the current format. It gets away with that by eliminating 2 playoff teams per conference. It also backloads the games after mid-November, so instead of a max 2 games played at a specific venue after this weekend, now you are potentially looking at 4-5 games at one venue in a potential winter climate.

So this version of the playoffs assumes the home games will all be in Texas, southern California, or Florida.

CFP rankings get released on Tuesday, but to get an idea of where teams sit objectively, here is Sagarin's top 25 as of this week's games: 1. Alabama 2. Ohio State 3. Penn State 4. Georgia 5. Notre Dame 6. Clemson 7. Washington 8. Auburn 9. Oklahoma 10. Oklahoma State 11. Wisconsin 12. Virginia Tech 13. TCU 14. Mississippi State 15. UCF 16. USC 17. Stanford 18. Miami 19. Iowa State 20. Texas 21. Georgia Tech 22. Michigan 23. NC State 24. Washington State 25. LSU

He should be in Portugal next month.

Wow what a terrible play call that was.

If you include Baez in that group(even though his odds of getting dealt are near nil), then it's him. After that, it's probably very situational depending on a team's evaluation and their needs. There's arguments to be made for Schwarber, Almora, and Happ. Would arguments for Russell be lower than any of them? Starting to wonder if the FO likes Baez at short.

Also, Russell was worth fewer WAR because he missed like 6 weeks with injury, so he had less time to accumulate it. Numbnuts.