marcus williams a me piace tantissimo, e anche agli scout.. è molto versatile anche se a volte a certi cali di rendimento inspiegabili (vedi partita contro memphis)
non son molto d'accordo su camby-noah. camby un piazzato dai 4 metri lo prendeva, noah non gli ho visto far partire un tiro in tutte le partite dove lo ho guardato.
poi i muscoli di noah son sospetti, quelli di marcus erano un altra roba....
A me Marcus Williams lascia qualche dubbio, non vedo in lui le potenzialità della point forward che molti vedono in lui. Certo, a questo livello (ed è la cosa più importante) è un califfo.
UCLA va dove la porta la difesa, imo. Ieri erano in netta difficoltà in attacco, ma ad inizio secondo tempo hanno chiuso il lucchetto, e Washington State ha passato quasi 4 minuti segnando solo 2 punti, permettendo ai Bruins di andare dal -7 al pareggio.
Howland è un maestro di questo tipo di basket.
Assolutamente d'accordo. Howland ha tirato su una squadra poco spettacolare, a tratti noiosa, ma con una difesa organizzata in maniera illegale per questo livello. L'africano e Afflalo son due difensori di categoria superiore, i meccanismi son ben rodati (e quest'anno non c'è nemmeno un buco nero come Farmar da proteggere, anche se manca forse un intimidatore come Hollins, che pure era giocatore molto discontinuo). Finchè si trovano avversari di poca consistenza si può anche realizzare molto, ma quando le avversarie iniziano ad essere più toste, per la propria fisionomia di gioco, Ucla è una squadra da partite da 100-110 punti totali.
Incredibile partita al Cameron, dove Virginia Tech batte Duke 69-67 all'OT. L'anno scorso Duke vinse con una tripla da metàcampo di Dockery, quest'anno non c'è stato niente da fare. Partita pessima di Duke (ho visto dal secondo tempo in poi) con una miriade di palle perse ed errori banalissimi, Paulus peggiore in campo. VTech è sempre avanti, a 18 secondi dalla fine Nelson (unico positivo per i Blue Devils) mette la tripla che manda tutti all'OT... Dove gli Hokies sbagliano i tiri liberi sul +2 a 7 secondi dalla fine, McRoberts spara la palla in faccia a Paulus che tenta un tiro disperato da nove metri che viene stoppato da Deron Washington, fantastico atleta.
Peccato, brutta sconfitta (seconda stagionale).
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
Incredibile partita al Cameron, dove Virginia Tech batte Duke 69-67 all'OT. L'anno scorso Duke vinse con una tripla da metàcampo di Dockery, quest'anno non c'è stato niente da fare. Partita pessima di Duke (ho visto dal secondo tempo in poi) con una miriade di palle perse ed errori banalissimi, Paulus peggiore in campo. VTech è sempre avanti, a 18 secondi dalla fine Nelson (unico positivo per i Blue Devils) mette la tripla che manda tutti all'OT... Dove gli Hokies sbagliano i tiri liberi sul +2 a 7 secondi dalla fine, McRoberts spara la palla in faccia a Paulus che tenta un tiro disperato da nove metri che viene stoppato da Deron Washington, fantastico atleta.
Duke è stata tradita dalla classe dei freshman. Henderson doveva spaccare il mondo ma ha dimostrato di non essere per niente pronto (mi fa sorridere chi a inizio stagione diceva fosse più forte dell'ex compagno Ellington), Lance Thomas va a sprazzi, Zoubek meglio di quanto pensassi ma non può contribuire subito. L'unico che si salva è Scheyer che porta il tiro in dote.
Per il resto Paulus deprimente, Mc Roberts sembre bene, completissimo, ma non indirizza le partite, bene Nelson...
Those brainy Beavers of Caltech finally won an NCAA basketball game, ending an 11-year streak of futility.
Travis Haussler had 27 points and eight rebounds, and Matt Dellatorre added 24 points and eight rebounds Saturday night to lead the California Institute of Technology to an 81-52 victory over Bard College of New York.
The win halted a 207-game NCAA Division III losing streak, dating to 1996.
"We expected to win a game, but not like this," Caltech coach Roy Dow said of the surprisingly one-sided victory.
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Incredibile! Una striscia di sconfitte di 11 anni!
But Walker's work is now done for the season, shelved for the next six to eight months with a ruptured ACL in his left knee
espn.com
ovviamente il Walker è Bill.
brutto colpo per Kansas State, ma soprattutto per il ragazzo che già ha messo in pericolo la sua carriera. SE non sbaglio questo è il secondo infortunio del genere che subisce;stando ai medici un altro gli sarebbe fatale (ovvimamente cestisticamente parlando).
Peccato, perchè di talento ne ha. E anche tanto.
Last edited by Gian Marco on 09/01/2007, 23:04, edited 1 time in total.
"Jason, do you think God likes football?"
"Son, I think everybody loves football."
qualcuno ha visto le ultime 2 mostruose prestazioni di Kevin Durant per caso?
"There's so many emotions at the end of the season. And nobody likes to talk about it, but one of them is ROMBOFIGA. But me, I like the ROMBOFIGA" Lebron James
Virginia Tech miete un'altra vittima illustre, dopo Duke è la volta di UNC! 94-88 il punteggio finale e seconda sconfitta stagionale per i Tar Heels. Gli Hokies a questo punto guidano l'ACC insieme a Boston College.
"It's not the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog."
intanto carolina va nel deserto e piazza il più classico degli "statement game": 92-64 senza frasor, gynard e soprattutto brendan wright
Ci sono squadre che a certe temperature si squagliano, altre che lievitano. Classe, storia: Milan. "mr.kerouac [...] sa essere cattivo con pochissime parole". (Angyair)
Select company Twenty media members got a rare taste of what it's like to choose the field for the NCAA basketball tournament
By Mark Blaudschun, Globe Staff | February 10, 2007
INDIANAPOLIS -- Selection Sunday. For hundreds of players and coaches, and millions of college basketball fans, it is one of the most magical, and sometimes controversial, days on the athletic calendar.
It is the day -- March 11 this year -- when the 65 teams in the NCAA men's college basketball tournament are announced.
But what about selecting the field, a process that has often been cloaked in terms such as Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), "quality losses," and, of course, "on the bubble"?
What about the stories of how the 10-member selection committee favors the "power conferences," such as the Atlantic Coast, Southeastern, and Big East, with multiple bids, and overlooks the merits of the so-called mid-majors?
What about the stories of teams that are given high seeds simply because they have high RPIs, a mathematical formula that uses wins, losses, strength of schedule, opponents' records, and the record of opponents' opponents to determine quality?
What is fact? What is fiction?
For years, no one has known because the NCAA has kept the process under a veil of secrecy. The committee starts meeting on Wednesday at the Westin Hotel and doesn't emerge until the selection show on CBS Sunday evening. The mantra of the committee has long been, "What is said in this room stays in this room."
This year, the NCAA decided it was time for a change, or as NCAA senior vice president of basketball and business strategies Greg Shaheen said, to "demystify the process."
With that in mind, the NCAA, in conjunction with the United States Basketball Writers Association, invited 20 media members from around the country to take part in a mock selection process.
Everything that will be available to the committee next month was made available to the mock committee. Every bit of information needed to identify the 34 at-large teams that would join the 31 teams receiving automatic bids as conference champions. Even the meals and snacks would be the same.
The only difference was that instead of a five-day marathon, this selection would be condensed into a one-day session, lasting approximately 12 hours.
Wednesday, 1:30 p.m.
The mock committee gathers at NCAA headquarters. Two media members will represent each of the 10 members of the actual committee. Pat Forde of ESPN.com and I will represent University of Virginia athletic director Craig Littlepage. We are functioning under the premise that the regular season and conference tournaments are over in some cases, and still under way in others. The NCAA has told us there will be upsets that will challenge the committee's decisions and cause it to make late changes.
We have been told that 13 conference tournaments have already been held and a few upsets have occurred. Evansville, a team not on any lists of NCAA Tournament contenders, has won the Missouri Valley Conference, and Wright State, another team not highly regarded, has won the Horizon League tournament.
Before arriving in Indianapolis, each mock committee member was sent a worksheet listing all Division 1 schools eligible for the tournament. We were instructed to be ready to submit two ballots upon arrival. The first would include the 34 teams we considered to be locks, even if they don't win their conferences. The second was for teams that should be considered for at-large bids.
Shaheen, who is a savant in dealing with the vagaries of tournament selection, talks about the process, as does selection chairman Gary Walters, who has just finished a two-day preliminary meeting with the actual committee.
"The serendipity of the tournament itself," Walters says with a smile. "Things just happen."
We will learn that soon enough.
The preliminaries over, we begin selecting the tournament field. There is an air of anticipation, if not excitement. This is an inside look at a tournament that is scrutinized and analyzed as much as any event in sports. For many, the perception is that the committee simply goes league by league and selects teams that are locks, on the bubble, or not worthy. That eventually happens, but in a far more painstaking method.
The first ballots are turned in, and 22 teams have berths: Duke, Kansas, Marquette, North Carolina, Pittsburgh, Texas A&M, Wisconsin, Air Force, Southern Illinois, Oklahoma State, Memphis, Butler (despite not winning the Horizon League tournament), Nevada, Washington State, Southern Cal, Oregon, UCLA, Kentucky, Florida, Indiana, Ohio State, and Virginia. (Any team that received at least eight of 10 votes in the at-large category made the field.)
"About average," says Shaheen with a laugh. "Let's do it again."
So we continue, ballot after ballot as teams from the "under consideration" list -- 54 to start -- are debated. Boston College and Arizona get in on the next vote, as each committee member again lists the eight teams he feels should be in the tournament. Again, eight out of 10 votes gets a team in. The top eight teams receiving votes on each of the 10 ballots are to be considered. Another ballot is taken, asking members to rank the teams in order of preference.
And so it goes for four hours. Evaluate and vote. The process includes instantly available electronic data comparing the teams. Ask to look at a pair of teams and two detailed pages are shown right away that include color coding for home, away, and neutral games, common opponents, and records against opponents as rated by RPI.
We have 37 teams selected and have truly just begun. By the end of the day, we will have voted 28 times. The actual committee votes more than 100 times over four days.
The debates bring more questions. The only provision is that if a committee member represents a team being discussed, he must leave the room. He also can't vote for that team.
Early in the process, the merits of SEC teams such as Vanderbilt, Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia are discussed, which means conference commissioner Mike Slive (represented by Steve Wieberg of USA Today and Tony Barnhart of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution) is spending a considerable amount of time in the hallway.
By 5 p.m., the at-large field is nearly filled. Nevada-Las Vegas, Creighton, Stanford, and Florida State are joined by Clemson, Tennessee, Villanova, Kansas State, Brigham Young, and Missouri State.
The goal is to have more than 34 at-large teams because spots will open as teams in the at-large category win conference tournaments, thus qualifying for automatic bids. We soon have 36 at-large bids, quickly joined by 14 conference champions. Now we must wait for other conference champions to be decided. The biggest debate is whether Texas is worthy.
Some point out the Longhorns' lack of quality wins, others the losses -- Oklahoma State (in triple overtime), Tennessee (in overtime), and at Villanova. Neither Texas nor Georgetown, which most people projected as solid choices, is yet in the field. But eventually they both make it.
Good progress, and now it's time for dinner.
Shaheen tells us it is Friday evening in the real world of the selection committee.
Wednesday, 7:30 p.m.
Shaheen informs us the dinner break is just that -- a break. No politicking for teams. It might happen, but it is rare.
With the field basically set, after dinner it is time to start seeding. The teams are seeded 1 through 65. The overall No. 1 seed is placed in the same region as the lowest No. 2 seed, and the top No. 3 with the lowest No. 4.
There are restrictions prohibiting teams from the same conference from meeting until the regional final, a rule that states the first three teams from each conference must be in different regions. But those debates will come later. Now it is time to seed the tournament from top to bottom.
As is the case throughout, we go with secret ballots. The instructions are simple: Rank your top eight teams. The teams receiving the most votes are the No. 1 seeds. Once they are determined, another vote is taken to rank the top seeds. UCLA, North Carolina, Florida, and Wisconsin are the No. 1 seeds, with UCLA the No. 1 team in the tournament.
Wednesday, 10 p.m.
The Texas debate has been resolved. The Longhorns are in the tournament, but what seeds do they and the rest of the field receive? The amazing thing is that we have been at this for nearly nine hours and the issue of how many teams are in the field from each conference hasn't been mentioned.
There is a simple explanation. There simply isn't time to break down the tournament by conferences. Each team being considered has been paired with another team. Match play. The qualifications of the teams on the computer screen in front of us are studied and debated, and then a vote is taken. Winner makes the tournament, loser must wait for another chance or be cast aside if it doesn't receive enough votes.
We are informed that the seeding process will be similar. Examine the qualifications of teams and rank them. We also are told that since it is now Saturday in the real process, we will have several more conference tournaments decided.
Upsets are possible and that could mean trouble for the last teams we have put into the at-large pool. We learn this quickly as the results come in, including Houston (a team not in anyone's early projections) winning Conference USA's automatic bid with an upset of Memphis. One spot gone, one team's bubble burst.
The task goes slowly. Line by line, votes are cast on merit, but it's also subjective. One committee member questions whether Florida deserves to be a No. 1 seed. Another argument is over the merits of Duke. The Blue Devils are being considered as a fourth seed simply because they are Duke. Still, the Blue Devils cling to a No. 4.
Thursday, 12:05 a.m.
We are informed that it is Sunday morning in the actual process, and we are still seeding the tournament. The CBS selection show is hours away, conference tournament finals, including those in the SEC and Big Ten, are being held, and we haven't begun to put a bracket together.
Unusual? "Not really," says Shaheen. "It generally starts around 4:30 [for the 6 p.m. show]."
Thursday, 12:30 a.m. This committee is going slower. We will take 1 hour 50 minutes to bracket the field. "The 2008 selection show will begin shortly," jokes Shaheen, who shows not the slightest sign of fatigue.
Thursday, 1:35 a.m.
Finally, the bracket is complete, ready to be unveiled, scrutinized, criticized, and analyzed. The feeling is one of relief as much as satisfaction with the way it turned out.
Mistakes? We probably made some, particularly in the seeding, but some misconceptions were cleared up. First and foremost, the process has so many fail-safe systems that any kind of prejudice toward conferences never appears. Second, the RPI is truly just a tool, not a measuring stick. The key element is simple: Who did you play? Who did you beat? Road wins against Top 50 in RPI competition is perhaps the most impressive credential any team can have on its résumé.
It will all unfold next month in real time with real consequences and rewards.
Five bracketology misconceptions
Myth: Conference affiliation matters
Reality: With all of the information that is compiled, the number of teams from each conference is not considered. Teams are simply teams when they are competing for one of the 34 at-large slots. That changes slightly in the seeding process when, for example, a 10-6 record in the Atlantic Coast Conference is compared to a similar record in the America East Conference.
Myth: The Ratings Percentage Index is a big factor
Reality: More important are common opponents and road wins against ranked teams.
Myth: The bracket comes first
Reality: The rule of thumb is to make sure the top 16 teams (first four seeds from each region) are correct, and everything else will take care of itself.
Myth: The committee likes certain matchups
Reality: Matchups sometimes are forced by restrictions, such as placing the first three teams from one league in different regions. But with numerous conferences having multiple bids, sometimes the committee is forced into matchups that appear to be planned.
Myth: CBS plays a role in picking teams
Reality: CBS representatives are allowed in the "war room" for approximately 30 minutes Sunday afternoon, but at best the network will get news on the field 30 minutes early to allow it to prepare for its Selection Sunday show. But sometimes even that isn't possible since most years the bracket isn't put together until 4:30 that afternoon.
http://www.ncaasports.com/mmod?refcode=es_nslist
Anche quest'anno possiamo vedere gratuitamente i primi tre turni del torneo NCAA in streaming.
Se Sportitalia replica l'offerta dell'anno scorso siamo a posto.
What should a man do with the sword of Welleran?
The pellet with the poison's in the vessel with the pestle; the chalice from the palace has the brew that is true!
"There's so many emotions at the end of the season. And nobody likes to talk about it, but one of them is ROMBOFIGA. But me, I like the ROMBOFIGA" Lebron James
