Old guy

Enjoy everybody

Things are the way they are. There is no point in being bitter and upset about something that we have no control over. You do the best you can with the resources available to you and that is the way it has to be. Dreams are dreams, not reality. I think the IVYs make enough income to compete with the power schools but I just do not think they are particularly interested in spending tons of money in sports.

You plainly cannot estimate a time table unless you know what bone/bones were broken, and when they are doing the surgery. See if you can find out. The worst the fracture the less likely you will be able to find adequate information.

We keep on sinking slowly in the quicksand. Our TR ranking went down to 153 after last night's loss. They project that we will win 14.6 games and lose 16.4 games for the OOC and Conference games, not counting the conference tournament. We were as low as 114 before the beginning of the season. I think the options for after the conference tournament are zip.

OK Wiz, my point of view now. I like the way you handle average scoring by a team and by specific players. Of course, no one at all can predict what is going to happen in any given game, or can we. I mentioned before the game that without Parker there was no way we could reach our average scores. Which is what happened. Simply putting it, for those who read and misinterpret stats, we were not going to reach our average scores without Parker, period. Lets talk about Ford, he had to be aware that he had a bad handicap for this game and should have been ready with substitutions and different plays. Was he? It did not look like it to me. I watched the game last night and whenever the camera focused on Ford he was up and complaining to the refs about something or the other. I did not see the other coach doing the same thing, the other coach was busy playing his team. Ford appeared to be busy bitching to the refs. Could this have made a difference in the game? Sure of the top it cost us a number of points due to bad calls. The effect of these bad calls was to demoralize our team, and transfer points to WS. I left the game before it was over, it was clear to me that we were going to lose. From my point of view, we lost the game because we did not have Parker and because Ford' ragging at the refs, which cost us points that we needeed.

I do not try to find explanations for what I see happening, I just say it like I see it.

I do not know how to say it, but I think we will lose this game. Bad first half, bad second half so far.

Honestly, I do not think it is only lack of vision. I think that at least a part of the problem is that the powers that be appear satisfied with the way things are. This is what an administration based upon consensus does. No one wants to do anything different because they do not want to take criticism for trying something that may not work as they hoped it would. Some kind of living by the motto: "do nothing else unless it is absolutely necessary." You could call this the power of the status quo.

Let's talk about Team Rankings point of view about this game for a while. They have WS at 104 ranking, and SLU at 133. Team rankings is giving a 4 pt spread, favoring WS with two stars of confidence as of this morning. They also provide a comparison of the stats for both teams. SLU is ahead in 5 out of the 8 offensive stats provided, However WS is ahead in 6 out of the 7 defense stats provided. Considering that the offensive stats for SLU include the contribution of Paker in prior games, and that he is out of play for now I would doubt that our offensive stats for this coming game will remain the same. I would say it is going to be a very tough game for SLU.

Parker's absence was a major factor in the loss. They shot better than we did and outrebounded us. Even worse, recovery from a foot bone fracture, clean or not, depends on the actual bone/s that was/were broken. Remember Wellmer he would have been great for the team but had a lot of surgery and never recovered to the point that he could play a couple of games. I believe that after a lot of surgery he wound up having a fusion of the ankle, something that does not allow basketball playing.

This post is probably in the wrong thread, but here it goes. Team ranking has us winning the game by 2 pts, and one star of confidence. This meeans any one of the two teams can win it. "We will see what happens.

Bad beginning, good end. We won by 10, nice.

There is a vast difference between real AI and what experts call AI. The so called experts use the word AI as a marketing term because people jstt love the idea that AI will do the work for them

Team Rankings just published their spread, it is 4.6 in SLU's favor. They give us a single star of confidence. This means what we already know, both teams appear to be even and anyone can win the game.

I fully agree we have to play WY all 4 quarters, that is keep the pressure up. I believe that is we do the normal 3 aggressive quarters and the last quarter using decreased pressure, we will lose the game. Who knows what will happen, as you say this is a test.

Hate to tell you HoosierPal but the State of Vermont cannot be bought with a mere $79 M, although you can possibly buy an Island (all of it) for that amount in the Bahamas or something like it. The second thing that comes to mind is that Texans are Texans and that they consider themselves different and quite likely much better than anyone else in the US. I seriously doubt any large donor at Texas A&M would switch support to any school outside of Texas.

I know all the predictive systems are different from one another and use all kinds of variations in the way they determine rankings. This is why you (plural) must get comfortable with one or two systems (the Wiz's and TR's for me) and forget all others, your choice. Just keep this in mind not a single system is correct at the very beginning of the season, and it does not pay to shop around and cone upon whoever it may be that has SLU at the highest ranking level in any particular day.

Restrain yourself Taj.

Not to harp on the rankings, except to say that rankings are a way to express what is expected to happen in coming games considering how a team performs. So, we won last night's game, we went over the Vegas spread and, as far as Team Rankigs is concerned, we went down from 126 to 130 in their rankings. If we continue winning games the way we did last night, we might be closer to a 200 ranking by the end of the OOC play. I am not saying at all that Team Rankings is the absolute authority in this matter, but their opinion of where the Bills are headed is not that good, not so far.

It is not lack of talent or ability by our players that is the problem. The problem is the way the players are used in the 4th quarter over and over again.

Now folks, despite all of the negatives in this game, there was an extraordinary event picked up by the camera in full detail. When the S IL team was in the process of rolling our lead down, this guard came dribbling rapidly to the board to shoot. He encountered TJ holding his ground firmly in defense. Their guard lowered his head and hit Hargrove smack in his mid drift and then he BOUNCED BACK FALLING DOWN AND LOSING THE BALL. Extraordinary scene, reminded me of Conklin standing firm and the other guy bouncing back and falling down. Wow! A most memorable scene. Hargrove is solid, the guy went down like he had hit a brick wall!

I stopped watching after the refs called the flagrant, I was totally disgusted and wrong. We won, by 9. A win is a win, now onto the next one.

The pressure was off in the second half, another example of Ford's style of losing games after the Bills had a hefty advantage. Always the same. Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

I think I can answer my question about Zhang, he can play well enough to have a positive impact upon the game. I the refs were not calling the huge number of fouls they are calling on S. IL we would not have done well in the first half, Zhang or no Zhang.

That channel has a poker competition until 7 when they switch to the game, Bally Sports