March Madness 2007 edition VI

Well, two games left in both the mens and womens games. Here we go, Florida beats UCLA by 1 thanks to a missed shot by UCLA at the Buzzer. Georgeotown, out works OSU and goes to the finals setting up a big east / SEC for all of the marbles. Oh, yes, Donovan takes the Kentucky job on tuesday.

For the women - Tennessee beats Rutgers for the entire thing. Working on a couple of things, see you later.

Women BB march madness III

Well the women will have two teams in their final 4 decided tonight. Personally, I think that the UCONN-LSU game will be quite good especially since it is a rematch from earlier this year. Here's my picks for this round

2007 Womens NCAA Elite 8 Round

Dallas	Dayton	Fresno	Greensboro
UNC	Tennessee	UCONN	Rutgers *

* - Originally I had Vanderbilt going to the finals.

The Ole Miss - Tennessee game should be interesting, but HOF Summit will rocky top her way to another Final 4.

March Madness 2007 edition V

Well, missed the A & M and Pittsburgh games (only because Law missed that layup). Still, looking good over all since 3 of the 4 I originally picked to make the final 4 are still playing (barely). Should be 2 very good games today and tomorrow.

2007 NCAA 4th Round

Midwest	West	East	South
Florida	Kansas	Georgetown *	Ohio St.

* - Originally I had Texas going to the finals.

Only one conference has a chance to get 2 teams in the final 4, that being what I considered a weak overall conference in the Pac 10. Would be an unusual tournament if they missed out since it seems like lately there is always one conference that gets 2 into the last weekend.

Women BB march madness II

So, started off 25 and 7 in round one only to go 10 & 6 in round 2. Now, here it is sweet sixteen time for the women and even though I have 7 of the great 8 teams alive, I've already lost a final four team in Vanderbilt. Still, a c+ for the picks so far.

Just because I am in a blogging mood today I will go ahead and post my great 8 picks for the women:

2007 Womens NCAA 3rd Round

Dallas	Dayton	Fresno	Greensboro
UNC	Tennessee	Connecticut	Duke
Purdue	Oklahoma	LSU	Bowling Green*

* - Originally had Vanderbilt
This is chalk so far except for Bowling Green.

March Madness 2007 edition IV

Well, lets see, I got 10 of the sweet sixteen. Not good, a c+ average. Unfortunately, I lost one of my final four teams (Texas). Still, I have a chance to do well since 5 of my great 8 teams are still in the mix (grrr, Louisville).

For this next round I have the following picks:

2007 NCAA 3rd Round

Midwest	West	East	South
Florida	Kansas	N. Carolina **	Ohio St.
Oregon *	Pittsburgh	Georgetown	Tx A & M ***

* - not my original (notre dame was supposed to be here).
** - Freaking Texas
*** - Louisville had this game, but you know I am impressed by Law IV.

Should be some good games tonight.

Women BB march madness I

Well, here are the womens picks for the first round. Not going to go into a lot of background right now. Will post later hopefully. On to the picks:

2007 NCAA Womens First Round

Dallas	Dayton	Fresno	Greensboro
UNC	Tennesse	UCONN	Duke
GW	Pittsburgh	New Mex.	Temple.
Tx. A & M	Mid Tenn	Baylor	Mich. Stat
Washington	Ohio St	N.C. State	Rutgers
Georgia	Marquette	Xavier	Louisville
Depaul	Oklahoma	LSU	Arizona St.
Purdue	TCU	Florida St..	Bowling Green
Notre Dame	Maryland	Stanford	Vanderbilt

more later sometime today, right now I have to get some sleep.

March Madness 2007 edition III

Well, so much for my Razorbacks. Geez it sucks being a razorback backer right now. 4 straight losses in the NCAA's. Time to fire Stan Heath. Still, I did go 23 - 9 first day, which obviously won't get me any big time prizes but hey what are you going to do right. So, on to the 2nd round which leads to the sweet sixteen.

The good news about my misses only one did I have going further (thanks ND). Heres the 2nd round picks:

2007 NCAA 2nd Round

Midwest	West	East	South
Florida	Kansas	N. Carolina	Ohio St.
Maryland	So. Illinois	Texas	Tennessee
Oregon *	Pittsburgh	Vanderbilt	Louisville
Wisconsin	Indiana	Georgetown	Memphis

Again not a lot of upsets, will post more today about why I picked who I picked.

* - Had ND in bracket, So Oregon is the blog pick. Would love to see Winthrop move on though. Not sure how much will blog today, you might not have heard but we got around 10 of snow and sleet etc last 24 hours. Even with a blower my back is killing just from manhandling that piece of crap. Oh, well! See you later with the Womens picks.

#38 Strikes Again

Well, Curt has given the low down on his contract and why he became a blowhard (sarcasm is again rampant). Go check it out at 38 pitches. You might be surprised!

As for my feelings on this matter you can find them here, here, and here. I still think we are looking at him moving on after this year. I think the Sox believe that they can get him for 11 million but the market will have him in the 16 - 18 million range. Be honest, would you give your home team a 33% or greater discount?

As for some of the comments on his post people get real!

• Mpalma - have you ever heard of IRONY?
• kazztawdal - Maybe you missed it but in an age where Vasquez and Meche are getting over 11 mil a year the 13 million he offered is a steal. Pay cut, Pay cut. Get a clue.
• sigmapijiggy - Have you ever heard of leverage, he already said he was willing to do a contract this year for 13 million next year (what did RJ get coming off Back Surgery?) and now you want him to beg?
• goldsteingonewild - Atta boy, at last somebody shows some sense.
• jkey - you started off well but your last point misses the mark. ITS CALLED RESPECT and yes ego plays a part, because EGO helps them to be as good as they are, I feel like Robin Williams in one of his movies "ding, thanks for playing".
• strike00 - have you even looked at the better pitchers on the market for 2008? DING
• Tim Daloisio - another atta boy!
• soxsweepagain - you may have missed it but he said if you want the hometown discount then sign me by the end of spring training 07. DING
• ego221 - you came close but I have to give you a 1/2 DING

Still all in all a good post by the Shill.

March Madness 2007 - Day 1 mid day recap

Ok so we have had a few games played (7 of the 8 day games) and I have some thoughts:

1) Texas Tech vs BC game was closer than it looked, but BC was able to pull away due to Tech being totally inept on defense and on the offensive ends.

2) ORU played tough 1st half but then let Washington St. start the second half red hot. No miracles for Bob.

3) I think Bill Simmons was right, a young Maryland team would have played a better over all game if they had been facing a uniform that they respected. Hard to believe that Davidson had an 8 point lead at one time in the 1st half.

4) Best game was the ODU vs Butler game, don't let that double digit fool you, it was close until Butler exerted itself late in the second half. ODU led with 12:22 remaining when Butler went on a 17 - 0 run. ODU kept on getting it back into single digits but couldn't sustain their energy.

5) So far have winners with Butler, Maryland, Louisville, Texas A & M, Georgetown and Vanderbilt is currently winning by 25.

6) Only losses are Texas Tech and ORU. So, so far, so good.

Chow, time to go Chow.

March Madness 2007 edition IIa

Well, we are settled in on the couch and watching day 1 of the greatest 2 days in sports. Am so glad I took the afternoon and tomorrow off from the day job. So far it looks like the games are off to a rousing start with BC leading Texas Tech at the half and Maryland up by one over Davidson at the half (Davidson had a 8 point lead once). Two nail biters and one blow out with Louisville absoutely hammering Stanford (who I thought should have been excluded from the dance).

Promised some thoughts about my picks so here we go:

1) Toughest bracket from an RPI standpoint is the West - if you look at the RPI picking the lowest ones to win their game in the first round all eight total 110 points with the highest being a 29 rating. (Midwest - 130, South - 168, and the East - 195). Tell me again how Florida is the number one seed in the tournament?

2) Personally I thought Syracuse got jobbed - Stanford should not be in with an RPI of 63 (remember there are only 34 at large seeds with 25 going to non power conferences). In my opinion (humble), you have to have an RPI below 50 to be even considered for an at large berth.

3) Xavier got an at large are you kidding me???

4) I think there are at least 10 teams with final four chops and it could easily be one of the best tournaments ever.

5) Arkansas is my number one pick to be the 12 over 5. Lunardi had Arkansas as a solid 11 seed and USC as an 8 seed.

6) I picked Texas Tech over BC becuase I really think BC is a one man team and because I like Bob Knight over Skinner.

7) Georgia Tech may be a sexy pick, but their coach is like 6 and 5 in the tournament with 5 of those wins being in one tournament (the 2004 when UCONN won the title by beating Tech). Sorry, just don't think they have the chops to be a furious UNLV team who has a 10 RPI. Lunardi had UNLV as a solid 4 seed with Tech being a 9 seed.

8) ORU is a good pick in the first round due to having two very good players and personally (here comes the east coast bias) I think the PAC 10 is way overrated.

9) I hope you didn't pick all of the #1's to make the final four because it has never happened.

10) My final 4 is Kansas (by far the shakiest), Florida, Texas and Ohio St. with Kansas cutting down the nets by beating Texas.

Good luck with the brackets and we will see you later.

March Madness 2007 edition II

Well, today is the first day of the 2007 NCAA tournament and I can hardly wait. The number crunching is over, the hours spent looking at common opponents and who beat who are over and done with. It is now time for 64 teams to hit the courts over the next 2 days and decide who moves on and who goes back to school to finish out the semester.

For the last 2 days we here at PLLS have been comparing RPI's, common opponents, who's hurt, who's not and have finally made our picks (ed- who you kidding? I saw the darts). I hope you have made yours and are ready for some good games, some heartbreakers and of course the blow outs. Enough of the blathering though here are my picks for the first round:

2007 NCAA First Round

Midwest	West	East	South
Florida	Kansas	N. Carolina	Ohio St.
Arizona	Kentucky	Marquette	BYU
Butler	Illinois	Arkansas	Tennessee
Maryland	So. Illinois	Texas	Virginia
Notre Dame	Duke	Vanderbilt	Louisville
Oregon	Pittsburgh	Oral Roberts	Texas A & M
UNLV	Indiana	Texas Tech.	Nevada
Wisconsin	UCLA	Georgetown	Memphis

Not a lot of upsets, will post more today about why I picked who I picked.

March Madness 2007 edition I

Well, the brackets are out and we have only tournament winners as the #1 seed. Most surprising omission seems to be Syracuse, I really thought that one win in the Big East tournament would cinch their spot in the tournament, Drexel also seems to have a good beef about being excluded.

Dicky V. is working on his Packer impressions this year. Arkansas may not be the best team in the SEC but they have a good resume this year. Right now they are 35th in the RPI, went 5 and 4 against the top 50 teams, 11 and 10 against teams in the top 100. SOS was 15th and they went 6 and 4 down the stretch. My razorbacks may not be a final four contender, but they can beat USC which would be a change from the last 3 years. Go Hogssssss.

SEC Tourney

Arkansas vs Florida - Its simple, the Razorbacks need to win or its bubble time. Personally, I think they should be in already since they have an RPI in the 30's with the Strength of Schedule being in the 10's. I can remember when 20+ wins would almost guarantee a berth in the tourney for the backs, but in the 30+ schedule of all teams now, that is just not necessarily true anymore. 3.40 left in the 1st half and the gators lead by 3.


Meanwhile in the now I am broke again category we picked up the new car.



<<---Front Side

Passenger Side --->>>

#38 strikes again

Lots of traffic being generated at various sites about #38. He started a blog (omg) the outrage, doesn't he get it that we just want him to shut up (sarcasm is rampant). I think its a good thing. Whether he posts once a week or every day doesn't matter to me, what matters is that he is putting it on the line between the lines and now in a place that allows people like me to see the true Curt. So, far I like it and have added it to the blog roll. Good luck Curt and don't worry about the trolls. Make sure you check out comment #70 on his spring training post. As a former catcher I am always interested in how the two who are involved on every pitch interact (I hated when my pitcher shook me off). Keep up the good work Curt and make sure you stop by and say hello to #38.

As for what is happening here at PLLS HQ, well, the wife and I have been looking at some new cars. So far it looks like this will be the new wheels. Have a good night while I go beat my credit union up for some more money.

Previews for 2007

Via Baseball Musings a pretty good look at the 2007 season at ArmChairGM. Stop by and take a look at the projections.

Update: Also found at arm chair is this preview.