UMFan83

It's pretty amazing that the team that has played the most road games in the NBA so far is about to embark on a 9 game trip. 2nd half of the schedule is going to be awesome for the Bulls. At the end of the trip they will have something like 13 road games left vs. 23 home games.

I gotta admit its really really enjoyable to watch the Knicks lose. Tonight they lost at home to the Suns, who last night lost by 20 to a Bulls team without Derrick Rose and were 4-9 overall. Also, Washington randomly beat OKC.

They are really ripping on Pat Kane in the intermission report on VS. They are right though, he doesn't look nearly as dynamic as he's been in the past - and the numbers show it.

Such a [expletive] screw job. I have never seen a team get screwed out of as many goals as the Hawks. Not just close calls that go against the Hawks, I'm talking about legit goals that are called off because of either a super quick whistle, or a ref not seeing obvious icing, or whatever the [expletive] happened here. I cannot remember any time where the Hawks benefited from an iffy goal counting or not counting. I'm sure it's happened, it just doesn't happen with nearly the frequency of it going against the Hawks.

It would be his first NHL assist.

Hayes gets in on the act now!

I don't think fans of both sides care much anymore. I gotta think they could just keep saying they are slowly negotiating for the rest of history and fans would just be 'meh'. I'm sure Sox fans are more interested in this than we are but from looking at their board, they are sick of it too and resigned to return being minimal.

ANOTHER goal for Shaw. Man is raking.

This is why I think "bad losses" is a rather overrated factor. Who cares? At least for the teams not at the top of the bracket, every NCAA tournament game is against a good team (though, obviously, the tournament has been partially watered-down, but still). Showing an ability to beat good teams should be the most important factor. I think that's largely a different issue all together. Best wins give a measure of how good a team can be at their best. Bad losses give a measure of how bad a team can be at their worst. Both are valid considerations for at-large worth. Of course, how applicable a bad loss or two in Vegas six months before tournament selection is to a team's at-large worth is a separate discussion... Yup, well its been said that the committee weighs the last 10 games more than the first ten, but I'm sure they put all of a team's 'quality wins' and especially 'bad losses' on an equal level. Now I'm almost certain they don't consider that anymore. It's a ridiculous metric to use with such wildly different schedules within a conference, let alone across conferences. I don't know exactly what is used, but I remember people talking about Michigan's tournament chances being better last year because they were hot at the end of the season and that's where I read that the record in the last 10 games is part of the process. But they could have been talking out of their asses. The argument was that if comparing teams on the bubble, they would favor the team that is playing really well at the end of the season, as they would hypothetically make a tougher team come tourney time. I do hope that's bs because like you pointed out, there are too many differences in schedules to use it as a tool to compare teams. Otherwise, the team that gets a healthy dose of Penn State and Nebraska at the end of their season gets a boost over a team that has Duke and UNC multiple times in the last 10 games.

This is why I think "bad losses" is a rather overrated factor. Who cares? At least for the teams not at the top of the bracket, every NCAA tournament game is against a good team (though, obviously, the tournament has been partially watered-down, but still). Showing an ability to beat good teams should be the most important factor. I think that's largely a different issue all together. Best wins give a measure of how good a team can be at their best. Bad losses give a measure of how bad a team can be at their worst. Both are valid considerations for at-large worth. Of course, how applicable a bad loss or two in Vegas six months before tournament selection is to a team's at-large worth is a separate discussion... Yup, well its been said that the committee weighs the last 10 games more than the first ten, but I'm sure they put all of a team's 'quality wins' and especially 'bad losses' on an equal level.

Are you just ignoring that Michigan has a road win over Oakland this year? Not exactly the most quality of opponent (RPI in the 120s I think) but you make it seem like Michigan hasn't won on the road all season. They are 1-3 with 2 of the 3 losses coming to top 20 opponents. Also, going with your argument that home wins are [expletive] and road wins are everything, where do you put a neutral victory over a NCAA bound Memphis team? No one is making the argument that they are a final 4 team or even a contender for the Big Ten, just that they are building an NCAA quality resume. Although a big road win would obviously validate them more (thought we were close when we lost by 2 in Bloomington), as others have pointed out, teams that have had success in the tournament have gone all season without a good road win in the past.

What were the others? Memphis (RPI: 28) on a neutral court, Minnesota (38), Northwestern (25), Wisconsin (46), and now Michigan State (6). Also since they were talked about above, the great Iowa State (51). RPI is stupid but the selection committee thinks its important. Those are really not that "quality" of wins at all. Memphis sorta sucks, Minnesota does suck, NW is OK, WIsky is meh especially on the road. MSU is a good but somewhat expected win. They are quality in terms of RPI which is quality to the NCAA committee which is all I was saying. Also that's kind of weird to say beating MSU is not a quality win because it's "expected".

For the Bulls I'd rather go after Allen. Pierce kind of looked bad the 2-3 times I've seen him play this year.

What the?

What were the others? Memphis (RPI: 28) on a neutral court, Minnesota (38), Northwestern (25), Wisconsin (46), and now Michigan State (6). Also since they were talked about above, the great Iowa State (51). RPI is stupid but the selection committee thinks its important.

Hah, that would be embarrassing for the Bears to lose their brand new offensive coordinator in the same offseason he was given the job.

Vintage Boozer right there. Don't care if it's against a bad team, he needs to have a game like this to show that he still has that ability. The key for the Bulls to win without Rose: Never miss any shots. Bulls shot 67% in the 1st half.

Yeah I just watched the replay. When I was watching it tense as all hell it looked like he got right into the middle of the paint and didn't have anyone challenging the shot. Watching it after the fact tells a different story and makes sense that he missed it because it was a rather tough shot.

Defense really stepped it up at the end after MSU went on their insane run. I do think Michigan can win at MSU again this year. Other then MSU randomly catching on fire from 3 Michigan really outplayed them IMO

Oh thank God. Green misses a wide open look at a 5 foot jumper and then misses the tip off the front win as the clock expires. Michigan collects another NCAA quality win. 3 wins in a row for UM over little brother.

OK, some facts wrong. Michigan was up 11 with 12 minutes left. Here are the MSU possessions from then to now (3:30 left) 3 pointer made 2 pointer made 3 pointer made Missed shot 3 pointer made (and 1) 3 pointer made 2 pointer made

Jesus Michigan was up 12 over Michigan state and then randomly MSU hits 5-6 3 pointers in a row without a miss. Every possession was a 3. Now they are winning.

Damn that's crazy. Of that, I think the Colts/Baltimore think is the most interesting. Super Bowl week will be full of cheesy interviews with 60 year old guys remembering the pain they felt when the Colts left in their Mayflower semi and how meaningful it will be for their new franchise to win it on the Colts field. Oh well it's not gonna happen.

I read somewhere that the Yankees are only have around $1-2 mil for a potential DH, making an option like Pena or Soriano very unlikely.

Damn, the division is extremely bunched up now. Nashville is now in the mix after winning 5 in a row. There are two entire divisions where the leader does not have as many points as the 4th place team in our division. The leader of the Southwest Division, Florida, has 51 points while Nashville, has 56. Blues 60 pts 45 GP Hawks 60 pts 46 GP Wings 59 pts 45 GP Preds 56 pts 45 GP