Sure, PSU and IllinoiS did the Big Ten no favors last night with their awesome display of awesomeness in Champagne (maybe I caused this by bashing women's basketball last week?), but I'm still tired of the Big Ten taking shots from people who should know better.
This morning, Seth Davis was on the Dan Patrick Show and he was first asked about the 38-33 Naismith-esque game between the Kittens and the Illini. His response? Why, to take a shot at the Big Ten in general, of course:
"When I saw that, I wondered if they had gone back to the old rules where you had to have a jump ball at center court after every basket. Although that would have maybe been an improvement in the Big Ten this year."
The hell? Frick you, Seth Davis. You and your haughty, ACC-leaning self. He also went on to talk about how those in "lesser" conferences are sometimes in better position for the tourney because they're not grinding out tough games like those teams "in the ACC and Big East."
One of the things I recently discussed with Boilerdowd was how the mass media don't have any clue WHY the scores are generally lower in the Big Ten. It's not that it's weaker -- it's that our conference does this little thing called DEFENSE.
Did anyone watch Duke-UNC last week? There wasn't any defense in that game. They just ran up and down the court, nobody was even getting their hands up on defense, and when you have two teams full of all-American shooters, well, you KNOW they're going to score. And then -- presto! -- you've got a 90-80 kind of game. It's not rocket science.
Oh, and if you still think (and I know none of you do) the Big Ten is "weak," let's take a look at the conference RPI ratings.
Huh. That's funny. It looks to me -- and I'm no Seth Davis-level genius -- like the Big Ten is ranked the #2 conference... ahead of the Big (L)East and mere thousands of a point behind the ACC.
Do you know how long it took me to do that research? Four seconds. Sure, I'm biased, too, but I don't get paid to be knowledgeable on the subject.
13 comments:
I heard part of that interview...he's a bag.
Problem is, The Big 11 constantly blows the challenge with the ACC each year. Duke came to Purdue and handed our Boilers their ass on a platter. That is all guys like Davis need to see for their "research".
Dowd -- I don't know about you, but I was annoyed as much by his comments as his constant gagging and coughing during the call... what was he doing, eating insulation or something?
I agree that the Big Ten is a strong conference - with the class of coaches we have now, the Big Ten might very well be the best conference in the land in another year or two. But the ACC plays plenty of defense, too. In fact, Duke is a top-5 defensive team this year. They give up a lot of points - and score a lot of points - not because of shitty D out East, but because they play a fast-paced game, with offense designed to work on 15-second possessions, instead of 30-second possessions. As we know, Purdue's defense is one of the tops in the country - even better than Duke's by the numbers. But saying they don't play defense in the ACC is just as ignorant as saying the Big Ten is a weak conference.
Go to kenpom.com and Basketball Prospectus - they're doing some cool things with tempo-free stats, which can tell you infinitely more than "per game" stats.
Seth Davis has lacked credibility with me when he said two seasons ago that Purdue wouldn't make the big dance; we did make it and thumped Arizona in the first round and we didn't hear much out of Seth Davis after that.
I greatly discount anything he says and it isn't personal - I just think his opinions are generally misguided and that he isn't well-versed.
On the Bright Side, The Big 1(11)0 did get some rare love from Dick Vitale at the MSU thrashing.
I think it was in the second half when Purdue first went up by 10, Vitale remarked about defense in the Big 10, saying that "a 10-point lead in the Big Ten is the same as a 20-point lead in the ACC."
I was all smiles when Dickie V made those comments at the PU-MSU game. The 10pt-20pt lead comment was brilliant, and he also went into a little detail about how aggressive our defense is compared to the rest of the leagues, I even think he mentioned the ACC.
Seth Davis is nothing but a Bucket O' Fukk.
I watched part of the ND-Syracuse game sometime mid-Jan. There were 5 straight possessions consisting of an umimpeded PG dribbling up the floor, one pass to a guy that chucked up an uncontested 3. It was pathetic. I later realized why teams like Louisville and UCONN were doing so well in the Big East-they actually play D. I really hope that our thoughts on the increased strength of our conference show through this post-season and that we surprise a lot of people. I would love to see that Big Ten really screw with the "experts" brackets!!
Seth Davis is an Obama supporter.
So THAT's why he is so excited about distributing huge quantities of points between two teams.
Hey, I'm an Obama supporter too. Doesn't mean I'm sucking the teat of ESPN Big East BS.
I'm also Purdue Econ grad that believes the Keynesian approach to this economic crisis is the correct on. We've run out of monetary policy options and we need to create demand to get money moving again. Ceteris paribus.
This is not a political debate blog. Let's not start this.
說起這位明英宗朱祁鎮 真是好有一比:在北京高峰時酒店經紀段開車:生不完的氣。
先說年號問題，明朝皇帝在位時間再長， 酒店兼差年號也只有一個，惟獨他特殊，在位總共不過十五年，年號卻有兩個，前一個叫正統，後一個叫天順。倒不是因為他非要搞特權，兩個年號之間， 禮服店是由一大堆可氣的事串起來的。
先說正統朝，差不多是地球酒店打工人都知道的，這麼多的忠良幹才他不信任，偏寵信一個教書先生出身的太監王振， 一幹閹党把國家禍害得烏煙瘴氣。後來瓦剌犯邊，忠臣良將的苦勸不聽，偏聽死太監攛掇，非要御駕親徵， 合法酒店經紀帶著幾十萬人牛氣哄哄出了長城，按說既然親徵你就好好 打啊，他不，走到半道又後悔了，連敵人影 酒店工作都沒見著就撤兵，撤兵麼撤得快點啊，跑還沒跑成，讓人家圍在土木堡包了餃子，稀裏糊塗一場 酒店上班混戰，幾十萬大軍全死 光，連本人也當了俘虜。丟人到如此，實在可氣。
英宗被抓到蒙古高原上去啃生羊肉了， 酒店兼職爛賬總要有人收拾。皇帝讓人綁了，敵人打到家門口了，總不成學宋朝 來個衣冠南渡吧！還好喝酒 有他親弟弟給他收拾，弟弟朱祁鈺繼承帝位，改年號為景泰，可氣的正統朝總算結束了。景泰帝信用 酒店PT良臣于謙，成功組織北京保衛戰打垮敵 人，再運用外交壓力，逼得酒店喝酒 瓦剌把英宗放回來當太上皇，總算不用學宋徽宗那樣客死他鄉。折騰半天，祖宗江山差點丟了不說 禮服酒店，皇位也折騰沒了。這樣的鬧劇，怪不 得別人。
雖是傻事敗事一籮筐，但傻人總算有傻福，雖說皇位沒了， 台北酒店經紀
命還是保住了，回來舒舒服服過太上皇的日子倒也 不交際應酬 錯，可他不消停，拉幫結派培植私人勢力，幾年後趁著弟弟病重搞了場“奪門之變”。奪粉味 回了皇位不說，上臺第一件事就是殺掉了功臣于謙。並把當初北京保衛戰 的功臣們來了個大清洗，掌握朝政大權的都是徐有貞、石亨、曹吉祥等一幫姦險小人。雖然過了沒幾年，這幾個人也被明英宗清算，下獄的下獄（石亨），充軍的充 軍（徐有貞） 寒假打工，被殺的被殺（曹吉祥），可明朝的政治氣象，還是一片烏煙瘴氣。
皇位奪回來了，自然就要改年號。於是，明英宗 兼差改年號為天順。從正統年到天順年，打敗仗，殺忠良，寵小人，亂國家，儘是他辦的敗事，每每讀史到此，不知有多少人氣得直哆嗦。
可正統朝的事畢竟年頭遠了，真正給後 暑假打工世攢下麻煩的，是天順朝。
“天順”麼，按字面意思，自然有風調雨順的意思。 打工從這個意義上說，“天順”朝時代的明朝，運氣還真不 壞，別的且不說，單說綁過明英宗票的瓦剌，那在土木堡創下擊敗明朝幾十萬大軍，活捉明朝皇帝偉業的瓦剌首領也先，沒死在大對頭明朝手裏，倒在內戰中被一刀 砍死。到了天順朝時期，瓦剌又和鄰居韃靼打個不停，因此，雖然少了良將於謙，但終天順一朝的邊 酒店境形勢，還算是太平無事。
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