Ryne Ween

Within 1-2 years they will be selling kids on returning PSU to glory. They will struggle with depth over the next few years due to the scholarship crunch but they will still keep getting top tier talent. NFL scouts will still watch, they'll still be on national TV, and if the current coaching staff stays they have NFL guys to coach up the players. Athletes from Texas, Florida, California and the delta born in 1997-2000 most likely wont have an appreciation for returning PSU to glory when O'Brien is working on his 2014-2016 hauls. Unless Obrien can work miracles Penn State is going to be pretty bad for the next 3 years.

They lost 20 scholarships per annum during the probation period. It will take at least 6 years for the program to be on a level playing field with the other big time programs. I dont think it will, but penalties as harsh as PSUs are very capable of destroying a program for good.

Because college presidents like to hide behind the cloak of "purity and amateurism" the NCAA provides. I could see the PAC16 being miffed enough about the many, many millions that the NCAA cost them because they were embarrassed that a couple of yahoo sports interns made them look inept. NCAAs 5 year investigation dug up what we alreadfy knew from the yahoo article and that a tennis player made some long distance phone calls. Im sure the PAC wants to get out in front of the Oregon sanctions also. The big 10 I am sure wants to vacate the penalties against penn state and osu that were similiarly heavyhanded. Not that the conferences would blow up the ncaa to lift in-place penalties, but the spectre of the NCAA being able to hand these things out in a Goodellian manner has to bug them more than the cloak of purity makers them comfy. The schools collectively choose the penalties themselves, the NCAA enforces the penalty. The NCAA isn't some power hungry organization that hands out penalties left and right for the hell of it. The schools altogether decide the punishments, idk why some people don't get that. Not sayign the NCAA is 'power hungry' but I think it overplays its charge in the interest of appearing stern on violations to the integrity of college sports, which Im pretty sure everybody has considered a lost cause since the early 80s.

The schools dont choose the penalties they accept them from the infractions committee and they have no choice but to accept them. Im not sure what you mean in your posts. There is no way that the PAC would impose the same penalties on USC that the NCAA did, which is my point.

Because college presidents like to hide behind the cloak of "purity and amateurism" the NCAA provides. I could see the PAC16 being miffed enough about the many, many millions that the NCAA cost them because they were embarrassed that a couple of yahoo sports interns made them look inept. NCAAs 5 year investigation dug up what we alreadfy knew from the yahoo article and that a tennis player made some long distance phone calls. Im sure the PAC wants to get out in front of the Oregon sanctions also. The big 10 I am sure wants to vacate the penalties against penn state and osu that were similiarly heavyhanded. Not that the conferences would blow up the ncaa to lift in-place penalties, but the spectre of the NCAA being able to hand these things out in a Goodellian manner has to bug them more than the cloak of purity makers them comfy.

In a megaconference scenario... why wouldnt the 3-4 powerful megaconferences effectively dissolve the NCAA in favor of an oversight body they control. Sort of like a BCS that that controlls all of collegiate athletics. Im not saying I want this or even care if they did this, but the NCAA does not have to exist and if 3 conferences cornered all 'profitable college sports' why wouldnt they just leave the NCAA, establish their own oversight and then bully the rest of the universities into joining it?

So chizik gone would leave les, saban and mack brown as the 3 coaches with national titles at their current school.

when you add in nova, gtown, marquette and st johns it becomes a very good basketball conference though.

Back to backs early in the season seem to be tougher though I have no data to back that up. If they can win 3 out of these next 4 I will feel good about this team. Saturday night wa just a horrendous shooting night. Boozer Noah Hinrich and rip aren't gonna be that bad on the same night often.

The celtics haven't beaten a good team in a playoff series since lebrons cavs.

Luol is fine offensively but definately not "above average" relative to starter level NBA 3s. Noah's offensive game is less limited than I thought but for the most part his contributions offensively are energy put backs, somebody creating something and finding him, and the open 12 footer. Taj's offensive game is energy put backs. Boozer is a much better player than Taj and Im not sure how you come to a different conclusion. Taj's D is definately better but the difference between the two players offensively is massive.

So this means they have to shed Deng because a frontcourt of Noah, Taj and Luol is horrendous offensively. the bottom line is boozer is a far better player than taj and although $8mln/yr is about what ok NBA bigs get, it kinda means our gameplan going forward is to get worse. The bulls FO is taking a #1 seed team and turning them into a #5 seed team. Instead of finding another decent player through the draft or combo of draft and vet min that might replace taj's 20 minutes (and spend elsewhere), you pay taj and play him 32 minutes.

Asik's deal scares me about the value of guys who can play center in the nba. Noah is a guy we will always be ablwe to keep/resign. Something would have to go very wrong for him to not be worth the rest of his deal. Deng I would trade if we could get value.

I wonder what Jared Dudley thinks about Steve Nash's FA choices.

It took me a long time to be convinced the actual Dan Gilbert open letter was real.

They're up 3-1 because of anomalies that occur in four games. Roll players exceeding their typical production in big playoff games on great teams is not an anomaly. Its typical.

OKC held opponents to 34 percent 3-point shooting during the regular season, which was 9th in the league. Since Game 2 they've held Miami's best 3-point shooters (Miller, Chalmers, Jones) to 6-22 shooting. I somehow doubt one of the better teams in the league at stopping those 3's suddenly forgot how to do it when the Finals started last week. Is your argument that OKC is the better team and that the heat are up 3-1 based on fluky 3 point shooting from shane battier?

Miami has held the lead, it seems, for about 90% of the series' gameclock thus far and has a 3-1 lead. Shane Battier is getting wide open looks, mario chalmers (who has big games like last night from time to time) is the benficiary of playing with some premier offensive players.

OKC matches up better than most teams in a 3-1 hole. There havent been many opportunities for this to happen, and even fewer where the team down needs to win 1 road game to get it home for the final two. Dallas punked Miami three straight to close last year.

I love that. OKC won 4 stright against a great SAS team. Lebron might be slowed down. They need to win a road game 5 and then go home for two. They have not played great games and have been in possision to win all but one of these games at the end. Id take OKC at 9:1 and then lay a huge Heat hedge on game 6.

What are the odds on OKC winning the championship at this point?

The Thunder are going to win game 5. Lebron's body is wearing down, I doubt he comes in strong. Everybody on that team but Westbrook played like trash (durant not trash but not his game) and they still came an NBA player dribbling off his foot away from winning the game. You had to expect this to be a 3-1 lead after Miami won game 2 but I expect the Thunder to spoil the home closeout and take it back to OKC. OKC could win 2 straight at home if Lebron isnt healthy. But probably still Heat in 6. Mario Chalmers is kinda cold blooded.

Wow man. Is the default position that you have to hate James and the heat, and when you dont you are a huge fan? Im simply stating an obvious, given a 1-1 series and 3 straight in miami, the heat have a significant edge. Same as I did when I said Bosh's jumper could stretch the boston D and that the Heat would take that series when they were down 3-2. And per lebron, im not gonna hate on a guy's game because he announced his free agency decision on live tv. I dont understand the point of refusing to recognize what he is doing. I would have said the same on here about Kobe in 2009 or Dirk last year. LBJ is the best of his generation and playing at his best right now.

Durant and LBJ are playing unreal ball out there. This is awesome. Its been a fun season and this series is about all we could have asked for. Shane Battier is my least favorite player in pro sports but its pretty badass for a ring gunner to come in and win a finals game. When the Heat have needed a win Lebron has come out like a man possessed. I expect that the heat will take 2/3 in this residency. The Heat are incredibly good at home, I just cant see OKC taking 2/3 and I cant see the Heat taking 3/3 so this should go back to OKC with the Heat up 3-2. It will be on OKC to win back to back at home. I dont understand the OKC fans posting here saying they are confident. I think the Thunder had the opportunity last night to win the series by winning that game and going 2-0 up. Its nearly impossible to beat a team of the Thunder's caliber three straight games (even at home). With a win they would have virtually assured themselves two HCA opportunities to win a championship. Losing that game really hurt. Last years finals the Mavs played those two incredible fourth quarters to even the series at 1-1 and then 2-2. They played perfect and miami didnt get anything going. It was partly great team play and partly lebron sucking. Without those two quarters it'd probably been the heat in 6. Right now Lebron looks like a top 5 player of all time at his absolute best with D Wade and Bosh on his team. I just dont see the Thunder pulling it off. The Heat probably do this in 6, maybe 7.

If anybody even dreamed of suggesting the NFL did something to alter its competitive balance on air to Goodell, they would be in serious professional trouble and I would guess NFL Security would follow him around or something. I dont think Goodell even does unscripted live interviews. ESPN pumps the cult of personality out except Goodell is more of a khrushchevian thug with zero consistency apart from a preference for whites. Say what you will about stern but hes overseen a tremendous, worldwide growth in popularity for the sport and I think has pretty much done a good job through some challenging environments while maintaining fairness to the players. He goes on Rome to promote his league and knows hes gonna have to deal with some BS and he deals with it. He dealt with Billy Hunter for a longtime. Remember when he said "I know where the bodies are buried" to Hunter, im positive he was saying "dont keep being a jackass or i will leak to the press that you use the NBAPA are personal petty cash fund for you and your family". Anybody that would suggest the NBA would rig a lottery to pump the value of the league owned team knows absolutely nothing about valuation. The #1 overall pick vs the #2 overall pick in a deep draft without a Lebron James type is a rounding error in the sale of a team (if any needle movement at all). The fact that the league negotiated a great labor deal and then had a hugely successful season is why they flipped the Hornets for a gain. Not securing the #1 pick.