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Thoughts on the Notre Dame Loss

Posted by Trips Right on November 26th, 2008 under Basketball

The first word that comes to mind is frustrating. Texas did some solid things on the defensive end the entire night. Offensively, the Horns flashed some things that could have led to a comfortable win had they been more consistent. The end of the game was solid evidence that Texas could be an effective pressing and trapping team if they really wanted to. Here are my thoughts.

First, lets get one thing straight before we nitpick this thing. Notre Dame is about as good an offensive basketball team as Texas will face this year and certainly a better scoring team than any we’ll face during our conference slate. The Irish can put 4 legitimate perimeter shooters on the floor at any given time, and five when Tory Jackson is hitting. Harangody is a poor man’s Blake Griffin in the sense that he can do damage by taking bigs off the dribble ten feet in and he provides some unique matchup issues.

Defensively, the Irish will struggle mightily when any kind of quickness is deployed in either the backcourt or frontcourt. They have a difficult time staying in front of folks on the perimeter, and they struggle defending the post pre-post entry and after the ball is entered. The point is, they’re not very quick or athletic 2-5. Their biggest deficiency, however, is rebounding the basketball, especially after they’ve been broken down off the dribble or after helping and recovering to a variety of screens, cuts, and ball reversals a disciplined offense might throw at them. Again, they lack the athletes that can consistently close out possessions unless they have proper block out position.

Texas Defense. The Horns played good enough to win the ballgame on this end of the floor.

In the first half, Texas did an outstanding job of keeping Haranagody out of his comfort zone by forcing him to take contested 15 footers. For the most part Luke’s damage in the paint with a variety of moves around the basket was limited. Harangody got loose in the second half but that’s to be expected with the Irish perimeter game hitting on all cylinders.

Texas did a solid job on Tory Jackson even though he did hit two 3’s early in the half. The senior guard was limited in his drive and kick game.

Against Kyle McAlarney, my scouting report called for getting on the senior’s shooting arm the second he stepped on the floor, and I’d call this the Horn’s only short coming defensively. You have to make him put the ball on the floor and beat you going to the basket or with his midrange game. If he’s catching and shooting you’re dead.

Defensive rebounding wise, you couldn’t ask for a better game. The Irish finished with 6 offensive rebounds and half of those were long rebounds off of missed 3’s.

Texas Offense. To put it nicely, our offensive identity is a Robin Williams’ stand up routine. It’s all over the place and not very funny. Sometimes we get out and run. Sometimes we look to enter the post. Sometimes we ball screen. But when we’re not doing that, we’re pulling from 22 feet ten seconds into the shot clock. And this lack of identity ended up being the Horns demise vs. Notre Dame. The Irish should have given up a hundo to a team with the collection of athletes that Texas has. Any kind of dribble penetration or passing machinations on offense got the Irish so out of position that they became 3 to 1 underdogs to rebound any offensive miss the Horns put up given the size and athletic ability Texas had on the floor at any given time.

The first half bore that out with Texas having a 22-6 points in the paint advantage even after taking 8 or 10 shots without running any kind of offense. The rebounding and interior advantage so thoroughly confounded Notre Dame, that it was forced to go zone despite the fact that Texas had four legit perimeter shooters on the floor in Abrams, James, Atchley, and Mason. I’ll say that again for AJ Abrams, Notre Dame had to go zone because Texas was clubbing them over the head with offensive put backs that were the direct result of running offense and getting Notre Dame out of position.

And with the second half, that interior advantage was gone. No more points in the paint. No more offensive rebounds. No more scrambling out of position defense. No zone. Texas, for reasons I’ll get to later, stopped running any semblance of offense in half court possessions and effectively bailed out an Irish team that would have given up 30 offensive rebounds if the Horns showed any discipline. Hell, it got so bad that the Irish switched every screen for the final 10 minutes of the ball game. Guard to Guard, Forward to Forward, Guard to Forward. It didn’t matter. You’d have Harangody on Abrams, and Jackson on Atchley at some point in most offensive possessions.

Guess how many fouls were drawn on the Irish? Four. Pathetic. And there’s your problem in a nut shell. Texas continued to settle for jumpers that allowed the Irish to switch with impunity with the added bonus of keeping blockout position to close out possessions. No help and recover, no attacking the weakside on missses with our superior athletes. I present to you the skeet offense and popular method of contraception folks. Pull and shoot.

There are 3 issues causing our offensive problems as I see it. In the order of culpability, least to most.

Lack of a true point guard. There are solutions to this problem. Hell, look at most Big 10 teams, and their lack of a truly dynamic lead guard. Texas has Mason, the ability to get out and run, a hybrid forward in Damion James, and some viable post options that can be solutions to half court woes. It’d be nice to have Chris Corchiani, but we don’t NEED him.

Lack of a true identity. This problem will solve itself before conference play. Barnes is a great coach, and he’ll push the right buttons. Finding it sooner rather than later can be the difference between a 5 seed and a 2 or 3 seed. Are we going to press and run? Or are we going to hammer people with our bigs and offensive rebound? Should we do both? Do we trust our kids to know when we’re doing which?

AJ Abrams. Quite frankly the kid is killing Texas’ continuity on offense. The obvious fallout from his quick catch and shoots are, well, quick catch and shoots. They bail out inferior defenses and rebounding teams, play away from Texas’ strength on the interior, fail to get other good offensive players involved, and generally hurt team chemistry which leads to another concern which I like to call the blackhole or magic trick affect.

Right now, AJ is playing for a contract. And as a teammate, I know everytime Abrams touches the rock, it’s going to disappear. That’s tough enough on patient, unselfish players like Justin Mason and Connor Atchley, but for another player in a contract year like Damion James, it’s downright killing him. It’s the sole reason he’s taking so many horrible midrange shots or out of rhythm 3’s. Damion knows he’ll never get the rock back if he gives it up. And in Damion’s mind, he’s got to get his. Throw in the fact that our talented bigs don’t get but one or two entry passes a game, and you can see how AJ’s lack of involving other players is killing this team.

But, it’s one game, and I’m certain Barnes will get it fixed. It wouldn’t be the interwebs without a little bitching, though. On to Oregon…

Thoughts?

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29 Responses

  1. Minnesotahorn said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:11 am

    “To put it nicely, our offensive identity is a Robin Williams’ stand up routine. It’s all over the place and not very funny.”

    Beautiful.

    Thanks for your thoughts and they’re pretty much in line with my own. We simply can’t allow AJ to monopolize the offense. Mason, Balbay and Ward all present their own deficiencies (although Mason looked pretty damned good last night) but none are as poisonous to our team as AJ’s. He (and his dad) won’t like it but he needs to be relegated to his previous role as off guard sharpshooter. The frustrating part is that he’s not a terrible distributor when he’s actually inclined to act like one.

  2. srr50 said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:15 am

    Totally agree with you Trips.

    A true point guard and Notre Dame is out of their zone in about two minutes. I never saw such wide spacing down low in a zone. Hell, even we attacked it a few times during that 9-0 run in the first half.

    A.J.’s Allan Iverson imitation is already running thin.

    Frankly I expected that kind of performance, it fits Barnes pattern. His teams usually have a game or two early on where the lack of identity is apparent. It also follows that he uses the losses to his advantage is teaching.

    It is one thing to hammer on kids for their mistakes when it is on tape against Stetson. It is quite another to bring it to their attention after a loss.

    I like his quote this morning. He said,

    “We’re not nearly as good as we’re gonna be.”

  3. CallKevin said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:17 am

    Interesting. I was far more frustrated with DJ’s poor shot selection and turnovers than with AJ, but you know more about what you’re watching than I do.

  4. Stephen Hawking said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:36 am

    I am glad AJ came back. I need another year to test my theories on black holes.

  5. scottyc5 said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:41 am

    All that being said, and I agree with it, Notre Dame is a legit top 10 team which Texas played to a one point loss when its offense was far from clicking (but still scored 80). If the team gets an offensive identity this year that’s not dependent on 20/night frm AJ, they could be really, really good.

  6. CallKevin said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:48 am

    Looked at the box score. Apparently, I was watching another game. 4-10 for Damion, 1-2 from 3-pt land, 2-2 free throws. 8-27 for AJ, 5-17 from 3-pt land, 2-2 free throws, ZERO assists. You take 27 shots as a guard and you have no assists? Absurd. Mason had 12 shots, 7 assists. Hell, no one else who took more than 4 shots had 0 assists.

    Damion did have his 4 turnovers, which was frustrating, but I offer up my humble apology to him for thinking he was the one taking ill-advised shots.

    17 three point shots. That ties the record for most 3-pt FG’s taken in a game. The difference is that when Travis Mays took 17 of them, he made 9. I remember AJ’s sophomore year, when he showed some shot selection–he hit .423 from 3-pt range. Last year he dropped down to .382.

    5-9, 3-8, 4-7, and then 5-17. Yeesh.

  7. uthookem said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 5:50 am

    Agreed, and great article. Also, sorry to sound like such a pussy, but this is a better loss for this team now than getting face-raped by UNC…which is about to happen to ND.

  8. Kansas Horn said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 6:05 am

    Great write up Trips. Totally agree with you. Whats frustrating is AJ acts like he is the only guy on the team that can score, and feels he has to keep jacking up shots instead of moving the ball around for a better shot. There are plenty of others that can score besides him and it seems that he messes up the offensive rhythm. Didn’t really mind his shooting last yr b/c Augustin created for him and he did have decent looks. With being such a great FT shooter, you think he would try to drive a bit more to try to get to the line.

  9. Mysterious Package said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 6:06 am

    5-17…pathetic. AJ needs to come off the bench. Leave that effing sleeve in Maui. Damion is always going to be out of control as well. He is a loose cannon with the ball but the advantages far outweigh the bad. When AJ is off he is going to kill this team and when we get to March there is no way he can string together 6 quality games…I will leave it at that.

  10. RansomStoddard said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 6:12 am

    Good analysis. 1. AJ is not the only one playing for a contract. DJ has decided he needs to convince the NBA that he is a shooting forward and feels obligated to jack up off-balance 20 footers. He killed the offense as much as anyone. 2. When I played, briefly and poorly in high school, our coach would time how long we had to get the ball to our bigs when they flashed and it had to be within “one second of their hands” or we got an ass-chewing. Our bigs constantly flash and IF they get a look from our perimeter guys, its at least 2-3 seconds into their move, negating any advantage they have over the defense. I just don’t get it.

  11. huge said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 6:17 am

    i watched the game with a ND fan. in the second half he was killing me with “get the ball to abrams” and “ABRAMS IS OPEN, KICK HIM THE BALL”

    he recognized that our offense was dead once that happened and they could collapse and rebound.

    frustrating.

    oh and that harangody prayerbomb ended up playing a pretty big part.

  12. ChrisApplewhite said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 6:46 am

    I was actually hoping AJ stayed in the draft. It would’ve given us no real shooters, and every team would zone us to death, but would we really have been worse off?

    The guy can shoot, but he has no idea how to help this team.

  13. RRR said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 6:56 am

    Great analysis Trips. I agree that Barnes should be able to get AJ to play team basketball eventually, but if it’s true that other players already distrust AJ’s agenda, that shit can linger all year, and show up late in big games.

    I don’t believe post-entry passing is an innate skill, but I see fewer and fewer guards who can do it. It’s kind of depressing to watch a big man fight for good position and either get looked off or tossed some crappy pass that ruins his leverage.

  14. Nordberg said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 7:08 am

    At some point you have to come to the conclusion that Abrams is doing exactly what Barnes wants him to do.

  15. The General said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 7:12 am

    The post entry pass has been a problem throughout the Barnes Era. It is not getting better anytime soon. Mason has mastered the DJ look off a post in good position.

    I am convinced that Barnes condones AJ’s jacking up 3′ in the first 3 seconds of the shot clock. He doesn’t light him up for it or look pissed when it happens.

  16. SL Xpress said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:16 am

    Among Damion James, AJ Abrams, and Connor Atchley, the only player I’m going to miss next season is Atchley. I might miss James a little, except Hamilton will be an upgrade.

    Bradley is going to be so much better than Abrams it won’t be funny. Did anyone notice how many of the open looks McAlarney was getting were off screens where the 5′9 Abrams couldn’t get out to contest McAlarney’s shot at all?

    It’s a fun team to watch in many ways, but this isn’t an elite team. A Barnes’ offense needs playmakers, and there simply aren’t any on this team. Not the kind that Barnes needs.

    The loss sucks for seeding, because unless St. Joe’s and Oregon are better than I think they are, UNC and Notre Dame are the only tournament teams in Maui.

    They simply cannot lose to the Ducks. That would be unacceptable.

    They can still beat UCLA in a couple of weeks. UCLA doesn’t have the shooters that Notre Dame does, they don’t have a Harangody, and while they have some good ball handlers, they’re going to turn the ball over more than the Fighting Irish did.

    I’ll be so happy when Abrams is out of this program. He’s the definition of fool’s gold as a player. He’s good, but depending on him in a primary role just makes the team worse.

  17. Kafka said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:23 am

    A key factor in Barnes’ success is his ability to recruit 5 star players. One of the ways to persuade these guys to select UT is to showcase them when they get here (ala Durant and Augustin).

    Another way to persuade recruits to select UT is to show them how many of Barnes’ players had had successful pro careers.

    When you have 3 guys playing for a pro contract, there just are not enough shots for everybody. Barnes’ star players have tended to look selfish for at least the last couple of years. On D, the horns play as a team. On O, not so much.

    I think that Barnes encourages Abrams to jack it up. Given how easy the college 3 was in past years, it made shooting the 3 point shot very rewarding.

    You can’t play Abrams at PG. He has the skill set but is probably never going to be a pass first guy (at least not this year).

    Mason is the most likely PG. He is a team first guy and is good at penetrating and finishing (when he wants to). It is going to take some time for Mason to develop his PG skills because he has so little experience at PG. I was encouraged by Mason’s performance last night.

    Damion deserves patience. He is making the switch from power forward to small forward this season and it is going to take a while before he has mastered the new skill set required. His ball handling has to improve a bunch and so does his shooting.

    Barnes is an outstanding coach but nobody is perfect. He is great at recruiting, defense, and physical development. He is not so great at coaching offense (especially post offense).

    For example, the horns don’t seem to have a clue about the proper way to make post passes. They don’t know the proper place from which to make the post pass and there is no synchronization between the post passer and the post player.

    It may take quite a while for the horns to get the offense running in an optimal way because the horns have:
    * 2 key players learning new positions
    * 3 players playing for contracts
    * a coach who is not into structured offensive schemes or focusing on post man offense
    * no experienced point guard

    Because it is difficult to block out when playing a zone, it can be tough to rebound effectively when playing a zone. Barnes is one of those rare coaches who is able to teach his players how to block out effectively when playing zone D.

    Typically teams will play a zone when they want to stop penetration and also to hamper the post offense. Teams which play zone are daring you to beat them from outside. Connor and Abrams are good 3 point shooters (typically) but Mason and Damion are less dependable as 3 point shooters (so far).

  18. 8straight said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:27 am

    Good stuff. As frustrating as it was to see Damion not use his athletic ability it was great fun seeing Gary J, Alex W and Mason hustle their asses off.

  19. lawdog13 said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:32 am

    AJ jacking up threes for an NBA contract is akin to me doing situps to impress Jennifer Aniston. Hate to see us design our offense around unobtainable goals.

  20. Kansas Horn said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:43 am

    AJ making it on an NBA roster is a pipedream….
    He’s 5′9” and 155 soaking wet. He can shoot, but who can he D up?
    He is a very poor man’s JJ Reddick(and that may be a stretch). At least Reddick is 6′4”

    If he does what he did last night jacking up shots like that, all he is doing is hurting us. If he wasn’t focusing on his pipedream, we could probably get the ball to DJ with better looks so he wouldn’t have to take off balanced 20 footers…. DJ at least has a chance at being a pro

  21. Crown & Coke said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 9:12 am

    Excellent job as always Trips.

    Coming into the season I knew we would sorely miss DJA’s ability to penetrate and run the floor, but I really took for granted how well he and Damion complemented one another.

    I could not possibly agree with you more regarding the crippling affect that Abrams is having on this team. It takes a special kind of ball-hog to make one of the conferences’ best interior players completely abandon his bread and butter game under the hoop and start heaving mid-range jumpers.

    If AJ ends up playing us out of the Sweet 16 and costing Damion an NBA career in the process I’m gonna be righteously pissed.

    Also, can someone please give me a legitimate explanation as to why J-Mase is not far and away our best option at PG right now? Sure he doesn’t do the ‘And1′ dribble moves as well as Abrams but at least he understands the concept of distributing the ball and driving the lane to free up open looks on the perimeter.

    Mother of god that game pissed me off to no end.

  22. Bob in Houston said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 9:27 am

    Whoa, whoa, whoa. It’s early yet.

    Let’s see how this team looks in a month… say after Michigan State. It clearly doesn’t have a PG yet, but the ‘04 team made the S16 with Royal Ivey ostensibly at the position.

    I’m sure RB will show James some of his shots, with Jay Bilas’s comments. Something along the lines of, “He can see it, and he doesn’t watch you every day like I do.”

    I would hate for this season to hinge on whether AJ Abrams brought his shot. I don’t think it will, but it’s possible.

  23. Dot Dot Dot said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 9:58 am

    Re: “I would hate for this season to hinge on whether AJ Abrams brought his shot. I don’t think it will, but it’s possible.”

    It Absolutely will. AJ has the greenest of green lights from Barnes, and nothing will change that. Ever. Not when you have a player that can put up 9 points in under a minute.

  24. SL Xpress said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 11:58 am

    Pffft. You mention the 9 points in a minute like there’s no down side, when there are plenty.

    1) he can miss — which he does plenty often

    2) his teammates start standing around instead of working to get open — which happens — because they figure the shot is going to go up anyway

    3) his teammates start shooting when they get the ball instead of working for the best shot possible — e.g. Damion James — because they know if they pass it to Abrams, it’s probably not coming back out

    4) there’s no development of the rest of the offense when Abrams is shooting 27 times. The big men need work, or else they’ll be at the same level with their post scoring efforts at the end of the year that they are now. This was my big beef with the season last year.

    5) no free throw shooting. Abrams isn’t going to get to the free throw line. While the team is not good at the free throw line, they still need to keep getting there. Partly to hopefully get better, but more importantly, to put pressure on the other team by putting pivotal players on the bench.

    Some of this would be different if Abrams could create his own shot, or was a threat to dribble penetrate, but he can’t do either. And he certainly isn’t going to create for his teammates. Zero assists in 40 minutes. That’s unbelievable!

    And he’s still a liability on the defensive end. He tries hard, but in the end he’s still 5′9 155, and he’s not blessed with outstanding lateral speed.

    Depending on an outside shooter who can’t create his own shot, can’t create for his teammates, can’t dribble penetrate, and is only 5′9, is a recipe for disaster. There’s no upside with Abrams. There’s plenty of upside on the rest of the team.

    I can hardly wait until this kid is gone. I can hardly wait.

  25. EggNog said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 12:46 pm

    I wasn’t able to catch the game, but after reading all the comments I can say I’m glad I missed it.

    It has been interesting watching Barnes all these years and the teams he has put out on the floor. Year after year, whatever group of guys he has always seem to hold together as a group. I can’t remember a situation where there was any kind of on court problems as is being discussed.

    Barnes has always struggled to build a capable offense with his teams, but always wins with hustle, rebounding and defense. Even the less talented teams were a joy to watch because they were “playing the right way”. The TJ led teams were our best offensively, his highest assist total was his first game as a freshman against Arizona. Barnes didn’t build that offense, he just let TJ do his thing. The year that Mouton and PJ fought to be the “man” was a great team, but without a real star, but it was a senior loaded team that went to the Final Four the year before. PJ came along and carried us, then Durant and DJ. Those guys all shouldered the load and carried things, allowing the role players to do their thing.

    AJ is certainly not the answer, and James might not be either. Barnes has never crafted a great offense, and a bunch of role players won’t get the job done in his “system”. Somebody has to step up, James is our only hope.

  26. Bob in Houston said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Since there’s no Oregon post, I had to celebrate. Varez Ward threw a good post-entry pass!!

    They’ll coach it out of him soon enough, I imagine.

  27. Dot Dot Dot said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

    SL,

    1) Everyone misses. No one is perfect. Are you saying that just because he misses more than half the time he shouldn’t shoot? Wow…

    2) Everyone (except CA) is standing around right now b/c they are not used to playing motion offense w/o DJ. Our spacing is terrible. This is not AJ’s fault.

    3) This is just asinine. Give our players a little more credit than that.

    4) I can say that it is somewhat disconcerting about the apparent lack of development from our bigs. I would hardly blame it on AJ, though.

    5 and on) This is why AJ shouldn’t be playing PG.

    He is catching a lot of flack right now for testing the draft and almost demanding to play PG. However, you cannot overlook what he does for our team. Sure, he will have his off-nights, but to insinuate that we would be better off without him demonstrates your dislike for the kid over your unbiased analysis. Afterall,there is a reason he has been getting 40 mins a game for the last 3 seasons.

  28. Slamma Jamma said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:07 pm

    Now that my man DJ is none off towards brighter pastures, players feel they need to play with that “Superstar” mentality in order to get become a draft pick. This confuses me because it was because of their teamwork within an offense that gave most of these players a chance at the NBA draft.
    When I see players like DaMo and AJ play like it’s their contract year, It pisses me off. Teams with same amount of talent and potential NBA draft picks (Kansas ‘08, Florida ‘07&’06, UConn’06) can all play team basketball without one player having total priority.
    Maybe there is a flaw when recruiting 5 star players as there’s no team chemistry on the court when trying to decide who gets the ball.

  29. Callkevin said:

    November 26th, 2008 at 8:19 pm

    Slamma,

    “Maybe there is a flaw when recruiting 5 star players as there’s no team chemistry on the court when trying to decide who gets the ball.”

    Per Rivals:
    Damion: 5 stars, #17 in 2006
    Mason: 4 stars, #86 in 2006
    Harrison: 4 stars, #96 in 2006
    Gary: 4 stars, #61 in 2007
    Clint: 4 stars, #73 in 2007
    Wangmene: 4 stars, #87 in 2007
    Hill: 3 stars, #127 in 2006
    Dexter: 3 stars, #150 in 2006
    AJ: 3 stars, #103 in 2005
    Atchley, Dogus & Varez weren’t top 150.

    It’s not 5-star talent that’s an issue. Our five-stars (Durant, LaMarcus, Gibson, and Mike Williams) didn’t have chemistry issues.

    UNC seems to be surviving their talent issues.

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    Anytime. How far do you think the Aggies go? A lot of people think Utah State is the most dangerous pure shooting team in the tournament.

  • uthookem commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips   5 hours, 25 minutes ago

    Last year in Vegas, Friday morning, stumble to the line at 8:30 to make my bets, put $20 on a four-team parlay on the four 9:00 am games, nailed it! Three of the four games’ spread was determined in the final 0:30. Walked away with $220.

    Yeah, so what if that is the only

  • James commented on the blog post Sending Aggies to the NFL   5 hours, 26 minutes ago

    Jordan, all just wild, premature conjecture. I’d hedge that only a third of that 2013 list ever makes an NFL roster. It is picking which third that is the tough part.

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  • James commented on the blog post Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips   5 hours, 28 minutes ago

    Very interesting piece. These games can’t start soon enough. Thanks, Scip.

  • Scipio Tex commented on the blog post Final Four Prediction   5 hours, 38 minutes ago

    I have:

    Syracuse
    Kansas
    West Virginia
    Baylor

    These will all likely change 3-4 times before tomorrow morning.

    I don’t have as high an opinion of Ohio State as you do. Evan Turner is fantastic, but I don’t like their odds of taking down Georgetown and KU back-to-back.

    Baylor scares me. They have no idea what

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  • Kevin Berger wrote a new blog post: Final Four Prediction   5 hours, 42 minutes ago

    Arinze Onuaku’s injury has forced me to turn this year’s bracket prediction into a “Multiple Endings” story. Don’t get me wrong, we’re not hyper-geeks playing Dungeons and Dragons here. We may be wasting billions of dollars in worker productivity, but we’re not killing Orcs with plus 10 vorpal swords of magic.

    So, in

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  • Kevin Berger wrote a new blog post: The Definitive Bracket: 63 Guaranteed Winners!   5 hours, 48 minutes ago

    But only if you call now! I’ve gone 85 percent against the numba for the last two decades!! So picking straight up winners is, bada-boom bada-bing, easy! Only Sammy “the nose” Pistachio and Billy “buttercups” Birmingham can approach this many winnaz! It’s ridiculoso, hermoso!!

    Call now and we’ll throw in an opening round N-I-T super-dupa live dog

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  • Scipio Tex commented on the blog post Making it Official: Tighter Officiating’s Effect on the Tournament   5 hours, 48 minutes ago

    Awesome write up.

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  • Scipio Tex wrote a new blog post: Bracket Breakdown & Gambling Tips   5 hours, 56 minutes ago

    So I’m listening to Bill Simmons’ podcast and he has on Chad Millman, Vegas Insider. Basically, Chad’s job is to interact with the guys who set the line, professional gamblers, sharps, and wise guys. He had some interesting comments about the tournament:

    By the end of the year, markets are fairly efficient as

  • Bob Jones commented on the blog post Math… Everyone’s favorite subject   6 hours, 47 minutes ago

    As a Baylor fan I loathe math: it’s either inexorably against us or when favorable, completely inapplicable.

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  • Kevin Berger commented on the blog post Making it Official: Tighter Officiating’s Effect on the Tournament   7 hours, 29 minutes ago

    Should have that up soon, ts.

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  • Nate Heupel wrote a new blog post: Oklahoma Sooners – Recruiting So Far   7 hours, 29 minutes ago

    I was reading a thread on OUInsider whining about how a beat writer for a UT website seemed to favoring UT recruits. Get the hell out of here with that nonsense. Next, you’re going to tell me that Oklahoma sports media coverage is slanted towards OU.

    While Ketchum’s rankings seemed to be

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  • J Rog commented on the blog post March Mad(nba)ess!   7 hours, 35 minutes ago

    EVERYTHING would be different. Great post!

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  • James commented on the blog post Two Loops & A Hooey – Herm Edwards Edition   7 hours, 37 minutes ago

    ha, nice Tim burn.

    I was wondering where you went Ded. I got sick of looking at the same article everyday for 2 weeks. I’ve been up to Taos a few times this season, but it’s not that far from ABQ. I am absolutely convinced that everyone in Texas has been to Angel

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  • Brownbear commented on the blog post Math… Everyone’s favorite subject   8 hours, 2 minutes ago

    Atleast I was wearing flannel when I wrote it.

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  • admin commented on the blog post Math… Everyone’s favorite subject   8 hours, 13 minutes ago

    Same source or just similar facts: http://fantake.com/forums/topic.php?id=876#post-5197

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  • admin commented on the blog post Bracket Analysis: The Beasts of the East   8 hours, 15 minutes ago

    I think I’m riding the Huggy bear to the Final Four.

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  • ursa major commented on the blog post Math… Everyone’s favorite subject   8 hours, 27 minutes ago

    “in the history of baylor basketball this has never been in discussion”

    except for that pesky final four appearance we made…

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  • Sancho commented on the blog post All Signs Point to March Madness Expanding to 96 Teams   8 hours, 31 minutes ago

    I just had diarrhea in my pants thinking about how many horrible teams would allowed to play

  • Sancho commented on the blog post 2010 Football Schedule Released   8 hours, 35 minutes ago

    8-4 would be pretty good, 9-3 would be stellar, in fact quite amazing. I still say we are two years away from having an impact year in college football, though.

    On another note, the game against tech is gonna be on ESPN. Time for SMU to step it up on the national stage again.