Coach C

I don't think the Cubs are planning to move Lee anytime soon, since there were some talks of JH and Lee's agent on a contract extension. I guess that depends on if Lee's contract getting extended. And if Lee is putting up numbers like last year, I doubt Lee is going anywhere.

Sounds good. I am impressed on his ability to knock down some tough pitches, and taking a peek at the runner while trying to get the ball at the same time.

Dusty was being well-praised for his sensible neck attire on the TV broadcast of the game. I used to wear such a thing. I do too, whenever I am mowing lawns in a 90 degree heat, so that I won't get sunburnt on the neck.

Buuuzzzztttt. I'm sorry, but the answer is wrong. California, Kentucky, Oklahoma to name a few. Sure they got blown out at Austin aganist Texas, but then, their run at the Big XII pretty much put that to rest. Not to mention that KU's defense is forcing opponents to shot 36.6% from the field.

Tavarez in.

3-1 Puerto Rico now.

Maybe it meant 9:00 CT/10:00 ET? I guess not, since I found the bracket. http://www.cstv.com/auto_pdf/p_hotos/s_chools/nit/genrel/auto_pdf/cumulative-stats

Strikeout/throwout. Pudge still has a good arm. Good job by the 2nd baseman to shield off the base from the baserunner.

They played tougher top 50 teams than Air Force did and lost to the eventual BE champion in the last second. Show me how Air Force is better. Air Force at least has wins against Miami and and Georgia Tech, two decent power conference teams. I think they key difference is that while they lost their last game, they didn't get blown out, like SMS did, I'm guessing. *shrug* I get a kick out of that. A M-M plays 2 average or below average ACC teams and get more credit than Florida St does for beating Duke and going over 500 in the ACC. I'm not arguing with you coach about this justwondering how the committee came to the conclusion on how Air Force is better than Cincy, Florida St, Michigan or Missouri St. and despite the non-conference light-weights, how is FSU's SOS so bad when they have to play over 1/2 their games against the ACC? I'm guessing it's becuase they are scheduling teams that are very very weak, like Alcorn State, Louisiana Monroe, Texas Southern, Bowling Green, Stetson, and Campbell. right, I know, but so do many people (need I drag out the Illini's non-con games?). I'm just saying playing Duke twice automatically gives them a tougher schedule than most MM or small conference teams You've just got to be really clever about scheduling your pansies. Make sure that you schedule the 1st or 2nd place finisher out of the Southland conference or the Big Sky instead of #7 or 8. Ok, so generally, (leaving out the home-road distinction for the sake of simplicity) RPI= 1. Your win pct (25%), 2. Your opponents' win pct (50%), and 3. your opponents' opponents' win pct (25%). Here's Mizzou St.'s nonconference opponents for example _______________________ N. Illinois RPI 126---(15-10; 1st in Mid-American Conf.-West) Ark. St (twice) RPI 224--(10-18; 3rd Sun Belt West) Ga. Southern RPI 161--(18-9; 1st in Southern Conf.-South) T A&M C-C--RPI 202--(16-8; Independent) Oral Roberts--RPI 131--(17-11; Mid Con Conf.T-1st) Detroit--RPI 180--(14-16; T 3rd Horizon Lg) Arkansas (L) RPI 50--(20-8; 3rd, SEC West) Wisc-Milwaukee--RPI 58 (18-8; 1st Horizon Lg) ___________________________________ For a nonconference RPI of #6 in the country. Yet that's all the teams they played. It's based purely on record. They went (8-1) against this schedule, so that's 25%. and then if you add up the records, then that's (128-88) a 60% win pct., which is 50% of the RPI formula. Let's compare that to a team that did a poor job scheduling their "pansies". How about Kansas (RPI 41)? __________________________________ Idaho St. RPI 201--(11-14; T-last in Big Sky) Arizona (L) RPI 18--(18-10; 4th in PAC-10) Arkansas (L) RPI 50--(20-8; 3rd, SEC West) Nevada (L) RPI 27--(22-5; 1st WAC) W. Illinois RPI 321--(5-20; 8th Mid-Con Conf.) St. Joseph's (L)RPI 46--(14-12; 5th Atlantic-10) California RPI 61--(17-9; 3rd Pac-10) Pepperdine RPI 242 (7-20; last West Coast Conf.) N. Colorado RPI 327 (3-24; Independent) N. Orleans RPI 254 (8-18; 5th, Sun Belt West) Yale RPI 190 (15-13; T-3rd Ivy League) Kentucky RPI 31 (19-10; T-2nd SEC East) _____________________________________ For a nonconference RPI of #138 in the country. They went 8-4 against this slate for the first 25%. Then adding up thier records, you get (159-163) a 49.3% win pct. for the second 50%. Scheduling a team like N. Colorado (3-24) in this regard kills this stat. A RPI of 327. If they had just replaced them with Hofstra (22-5) for example, they would be at (178-144) and probably at least be in the top 100 in nonconference RPI. Additionally, for the RPI, scheduling a team like Kentucky at 19-10 gets you the nearly same benefit in the first 2 categories as Tx A& M Corpus Christi, and as long as that team didn't schedule too poorly, then the 3rd category shouldn't hurt you too badly. Not to mention you don't take the risk of losing and hurting the first category (which offsets the 3rd a bit) So, from what I can tell, If you do a good job of scheduling the right pansies, you can make out like a bandit. Basically, I guess the key is just to not schedule the big time losers.

They played tougher top 50 teams than Air Force did and lost to the eventual BE champion in the last second. Show me how Air Force is better. Air Force at least has wins against Miami and and Georgia Tech, two decent power conference teams. I think they key difference is that while they lost their last game, they didn't get blown out, like SMS did, I'm guessing. *shrug* I get a kick out of that. A M-M plays 2 average or below average ACC teams and get more credit than Florida St does for beating Duke and going over 500 in the ACC. I'm not arguing with you coach about this justwondering how the committee came to the conclusion on how Air Force is better than Cincy, Florida St, Michigan or Missouri St. and despite the non-conference light-weights, how is FSU's SOS so bad when they have to play over 1/2 their games against the ACC? I'm guessing it's becuase they are scheduling teams that are very very weak, like Alcorn State, Louisiana Monroe, Texas Southern, Bowling Green, Stetson, and Campbell.

They played tougher top 50 teams than Air Force did and lost to the eventual BE champion in the last second. Show me how Air Force is better. Air Force at least has wins against Miami and and Georgia Tech, two decent power conference teams. I think they key difference is that while they lost their last game, they didn't get blown out, like SMS did, I'm guessing. *shrug* I get a kick out of that. A M-M plays 2 average or below average ACC teams and get more credit than Florida St does for beating Duke and going over 500 in the ACC. I'm not arguing with you coach about this justwondering how the committee came to the conclusion on how Air Force is better than Cincy, Florida St, Michigan or Missouri St. I know you're not arguing with me, and I'm not doing that to you as well. It's just good discussion that we're having. It's just that this whole selection thing made both of us, along with several other people scratch our heads, thinking "WTH is going on here?" I think Cincy should had been in instead of AF.

They played tougher top 50 teams than Air Force did and lost to the eventual BE champion in the last second. Show me how Air Force is better. Air Force at least has wins against Miami and and Georgia Tech, two decent power conference teams. I think they key difference is that while they lost their last game, they didn't get blown out, like SMS did, I'm guessing. *shrug* Of course, Georgia Tech was terrible. If that's the criteria, Creighton should be in. They beat Nebraska, a final four Big XII tourney team, by 26 points.

Man, Tejada is really struggling right now.

Who did Missouri St. beat? Nobody, and I'm aware of that. I'm just saying, if you have the choice of either AF, FSU, or Missouri St, which one would you pick?

I agree that Air Force shouldn't be in. I disagree that UAB are not deserving. UAB is 24-6 and has won 21 of their last 25 games (the losses were @Minnesota, @Memphis, @UTEP which is a tough place to play, and @Memphis in the C-USA Tourney final). The reason FSU got snubbed out is becuase of their SOS. 316 out of 317 NCAA D-I schools. That's awful, and FSU should be out, rightfully so. Now, I think Missouri St. got jobbed. Did they deserve to get in over Air Force and Utah State? I would think so.

Conference record is 12-4 RPI is a 38

Wow.... Cobs get 10 runs? :shock:

I don't know... that line somewhat scares me, especially like overpaying Neifi to name one...

I think this season will determine the future of probably both JH and DB. If the season is a success, the Cubs making it in the playoffs, and (I'm guessing) potentionally in the NLCS, then I'm sure it's more than a lock that they will be extended, per both JH and DB's agreement. If this season repeats like 2004 and 2005, then more than likely they both may go. I'd like to agree with NorthsideAvenger's comments at best. JH may make some questionable moves, but you can't deny the fact that he has addressed those needs in some way.

Maybe Bruce might know that question? *shrug*

Not sure of that one, with the Cubs on the road. Oh ok. BTW, how are you enjoying Arizona? What kind of question is that? :lol: Arizona is good, even with the rain. BTW, Ramirez is back in there tomorrow at third base. That's good to hear. Hope things are going well there Bruce.

I believe McGwire took steriods, but until you can prove it with evidence, he has all the right in the world to go in. MLB can't turn this into a witchhunt. Maybe Kirby Puckett took steriods? Should we leave him out of the HOF? The only difference was he didn't have to go infront of congress and everyone liked him. Frankly, I believe that the MLB didn't test for the drugs because they were fine with the players taking them. More HR's and higher scores mean more fans. The McGwire vs. Sosa homerun-fest sure perked things up for baseball didn't it? All the reporting and speculation, etc... in the world can't allow people to PROVE any of those guys took steriods. You should only be held out of the HOF if you tested positive and were suspended because of it. Baseball didn't test for it until recently (although they still don't test for human growth hormone if I am not mistaken), so they basically were saying to go ahead and do it. It's like asking the catcher to honestly tell the ump if the last pitch he caught was a strike or a ball.

I actually considered abandoning the return portion of the free flight and buying an inexpensive one-way ticket on Southwest, but decided against it when I realized that would also mean paying for an additional day's car rental and lodging. Given the forecast for rain tomorrow I'm glad I decided not to. Glad to see you making it there all right. I hope it was a good experience for ya. :D

Nice win. It's also nice to see Boeheim being his old fiesty self...I missed him acting like that. Man, that was awesome. And he is right. w/o McNamara, Syracuse wouldn't have won those 10 games. *ahem* McNamara overrated? I think not! Man, McNamara is amazing.

Man, 17-0. :shock: Thank goodness for that Mercy Rule. Other than that, the game got pretty boring after it got out of hand.