Predicted Big 10 Standings (Actual Standings)
1. Ohio State (T-1)
2. Wisconsin (T-1)
3. Iowa (T-4)
4. Penn State (T-4)
5. Michigan State (T-1)
6. Michigan (T-7)
7. Purdue (T-9)
8. Northwestern (T-7)
9. Minnesota (T-9)
10. Illinois (T-4)
11. Indiana (11)
I think that's pretty damn good. The teams I only really missed were us and Illinois.
Heisman Race
I predicted Kellen Moore, Terelle Pryor, and Mark Ingram would be the finalists with Moore taking home the trophy. He is the only one of the bunch who will make an appearance in New York but Cam Newton will be named the winner.
National Championship
I predicted Boise St vs. Oklahoma (or OSU if Boise lost). I would take pride in the fact that they are all ranked in the Top 10 at this point (and all have a shot at winning their conferences) but they were ranked top 7 in the preseason. The fact that Landry Jones isn't even being discussed for Heisman is ridiculous. Compare his stats to the ones that are.
a. 3,947 yds, 34 TDs, 10 INTs Landry Jones - Oklahoma
b. 3,269 yds, 30 TDs, 5 INTs Kellen Moore - Boise State
c. 3,051 yds, 31 TDs, 7 INTs Andrew Luck - Stanford
d. 3,590 total yds, 42 TDs, 6 INTs Cam Newton - Auburn
Not to be overdramatic, but this Saturday has the potential to blow up the BCS. If Auburn loses to South Carolina, the voters will either have to put TCU, the lesser deserving of the two "undeserving" teams, in the championship game OR the team currently ranked 5th. Auburn and Stanford wouldn't be allowed since neither will have won their conference. On one hand, Wisconsin is the hottest team in the country according to most analysts, could provide a powerful enough offense and defense to stop Oregon, and would provide a traditional Pac 10/Big 10 match up. On the other, allowing them to bypass TCU negates the need for the past half-season of rankings (neither team plays a game, but all of a sudden Wisconsin is better than TCU?) and essentially proves that the BCS is a collusion among the 6 conferences (which could strengthen the government pressure college football has received).
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Championship Thoughts
-This was definitely the year to take advantage of the opportunity and I am thrilled with MSU's end result, even though we are tri-champions and won't make a BCS game. We had an experienced quarterback and receivers, veteran defense, and a favorable schedule. While the talk of other opportunities will start soon for Coach Dantonio, and it is highly likely one of our assistants will earn a head coaching job soon, I think that he is in it for the long run and his staff will continue to benefit from consistency. Next year will be extremely tough, but I am more confident about our chances.
-I was extremely happy to see MSU come out strong and build an early lead yesterday. Defeating Penn State in Beaver Stadium was a significant "monkey off our back" type of accomplishment. The resounding statement from MSU has been "we're not the same old Michigan State anymore". While that is correct, they haven't completely absolved themselves of some of their negative traits. I said it before - you have to learn how to win and be a champion consistently. When teams like Ohio State lose games, it is because they were outmatched or had a lapse in effort. They don't, however, get cocky and make stupid plays when they have a game in hand. How many people were screaming at their tv "take a knee!" when Trent Robinson intercepted that pass in the end zone? The fact that he fumbled it seemed like the foregone outcome of that play. Hopefully they will learn from that experience so they play more disciplined in tough games.
-The sole intent of the BCS is to identify the top two teams to play in the National Championship. It is very inappropriate for it be used to select the "real" conference champions in the event of a tie. Yes, our conference championship game next year will bring more clarity to the process, but look at the Big 12 South where the BCS will determine the division winner. The Big Ten elimintated a very courteous "gentlemans rule" in that the team with the longest Rose Bowl drought gets the honors in tie situations. The BCS is an unfair conference tie-breaker because it does the opposite - encourages dominance by the consistently successful. I think that Wisconsin needed to win by the large margins that they have in the past few weeks because I think Ohio State would have overtook them otherwise. Even though Wisconsin was the victor in their head-to-head matchup, the powerhouses always seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Going into this week, LSU was the top ranked 1 loss team, Alabama was the top ranked 2 loss team, and Iowa was the top ranked 4 loss team. However, by the end of the weekend, they all fell.
-Is the reason why we are ranked lowest in the BCS among the conference co-champions because we lost the latest? Because we lost by the largest margin? Because we lost to the lowest ranked team of the three? Any of those are logical reasons, but what about the fact that OSU lost to Wisconsin who lost to us?
-Hypothetically - would you rather MSU plays in a BCS game against a less memorable opponent (say TCU or the Big East Champion) or play in the Capital One Bowl against Nick Saban's Alabama team? I think the latter. We are Big 10 Champions, so that gives this team a legacy. Winning a revenge bowl game against Nick Saban gives us a memorable game as well.
-How cocky was it for OSU to be shouting "we're going to the Rose Bowl!" and for their cheerleaders to be holding roses in the 4th quarter yesterday? How ignorant would it have looked if MSU was doing that?
-Iowa... really? Minnesota? Your ONLY significant victory this year was against MSU and that is starting to look worse and worse.
-I was extremely happy to see MSU come out strong and build an early lead yesterday. Defeating Penn State in Beaver Stadium was a significant "monkey off our back" type of accomplishment. The resounding statement from MSU has been "we're not the same old Michigan State anymore". While that is correct, they haven't completely absolved themselves of some of their negative traits. I said it before - you have to learn how to win and be a champion consistently. When teams like Ohio State lose games, it is because they were outmatched or had a lapse in effort. They don't, however, get cocky and make stupid plays when they have a game in hand. How many people were screaming at their tv "take a knee!" when Trent Robinson intercepted that pass in the end zone? The fact that he fumbled it seemed like the foregone outcome of that play. Hopefully they will learn from that experience so they play more disciplined in tough games.
-The sole intent of the BCS is to identify the top two teams to play in the National Championship. It is very inappropriate for it be used to select the "real" conference champions in the event of a tie. Yes, our conference championship game next year will bring more clarity to the process, but look at the Big 12 South where the BCS will determine the division winner. The Big Ten elimintated a very courteous "gentlemans rule" in that the team with the longest Rose Bowl drought gets the honors in tie situations. The BCS is an unfair conference tie-breaker because it does the opposite - encourages dominance by the consistently successful. I think that Wisconsin needed to win by the large margins that they have in the past few weeks because I think Ohio State would have overtook them otherwise. Even though Wisconsin was the victor in their head-to-head matchup, the powerhouses always seem to get the benefit of the doubt. Going into this week, LSU was the top ranked 1 loss team, Alabama was the top ranked 2 loss team, and Iowa was the top ranked 4 loss team. However, by the end of the weekend, they all fell.
-Is the reason why we are ranked lowest in the BCS among the conference co-champions because we lost the latest? Because we lost by the largest margin? Because we lost to the lowest ranked team of the three? Any of those are logical reasons, but what about the fact that OSU lost to Wisconsin who lost to us?
-Hypothetically - would you rather MSU plays in a BCS game against a less memorable opponent (say TCU or the Big East Champion) or play in the Capital One Bowl against Nick Saban's Alabama team? I think the latter. We are Big 10 Champions, so that gives this team a legacy. Winning a revenge bowl game against Nick Saban gives us a memorable game as well.
-How cocky was it for OSU to be shouting "we're going to the Rose Bowl!" and for their cheerleaders to be holding roses in the 4th quarter yesterday? How ignorant would it have looked if MSU was doing that?
-Iowa... really? Minnesota? Your ONLY significant victory this year was against MSU and that is starting to look worse and worse.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Running Thoughts on South Carolina Game
Since the South Carolina game was my first glimpse at the 2010-2011 Spartans, I wanted to share my initial running thoughts as the game progressed.
-Screw Brad Stevens for dragging the Louisville/Butler game on and on. It was bad enough losing to your team in the tournament. Now I have to watch your players foul when they're down by 10+ with less than a minute left? Show of hands: who thought Butler would be as good as last year? Yeah, me neither.
-Green's weight loss is NOTICEABLE.
-This team shouldn't ever have difficulty scoring.
-They need to gel better defensively - I saw a few completely blown assignments.
-After seeing Ohio State and Sullinger, they are CLEARLY our primary competition for the Big 10 Title
-Nix does not look very confident out there.
-At the half: 15 assists on 16 FG? Only 5 Turnovers? Nice.
-They showed a clip of Delvon Roe acting in a Shakespearean play right before the game. Awesome.
-I like that they shifted the Izzone to be in front of the camera. They seem to be on top of their game tonight.
-Izzo's "we're up by 17 at the half but I don't like what I saw" scowl was in midseason form.
-I saw a headline on espn.com that said "MSU" but it turned out to be Mississippi St. Haven't we performed well enough in football and basketball that "MSU" should mean Michigan State? Can't they just say "Mich/Miss St"?
-If the Tyler Hansborough UNC team played this MSU team, I know we would see the same exact outcome- a really good center with a speedy PG will shut us down.
-Sherman and Nix are a combined 0-6 on FT right now. Where is Adreian Payne so far tonight?? Makes you really miss Goran Suton and Paul Davis.
(Switched over to Conan during a commercial. When is he going to shave that stupid beard? I thought that was just a "time off from TV" beard)
-DEFINITE lapse of focus around the 15 min mark in the 2nd - Summers with sloppy ball handling on back-to-back plays, Lucious bounces the ball off his foot. - Who regains the momentum with some big offensive and defensive plays?? Appling and Payne. Isn't that backwards???
-Crazy stat: There have been 9 triple doubles in MSU history. Magic has 8 of those. The 9th? I don't know, they didn't say!!!
-It's good to see NCAA Tournament Summers, not 2009 Summers.
-Roe is looking like Raymar, except he can play defense, he isn't making shitty fouls, and he isn't bitching at the refs like a little baby... so basically, just the good things.
-0 pts, 4 fouls, poor ball control.... maybe Izzo should have suspended Lucious for another game....
-MAKE YOUR DAMN FREE THROWS!!!! We would have put this game away a long time ago if we would have made some of these.
-We now have 4 people with 4 fouls. I am really disappointed with their second half performance. They are just coasting, but the lead is down to 8 with 4+ mins left.
-Is it fair to tack some of the sloppy play up to the fact that it is now 12:20am?
-Player of the Game: Roe - 5-6 fg, 15 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk, 1 to OR Green - 5-6 fg, 18 pts, 12 reb, 2 ast, 5 stl, 2 blk, 2 to
-Screw Brad Stevens for dragging the Louisville/Butler game on and on. It was bad enough losing to your team in the tournament. Now I have to watch your players foul when they're down by 10+ with less than a minute left? Show of hands: who thought Butler would be as good as last year? Yeah, me neither.
-Green's weight loss is NOTICEABLE.
-This team shouldn't ever have difficulty scoring.
-They need to gel better defensively - I saw a few completely blown assignments.
-After seeing Ohio State and Sullinger, they are CLEARLY our primary competition for the Big 10 Title
-Nix does not look very confident out there.
-At the half: 15 assists on 16 FG? Only 5 Turnovers? Nice.
-They showed a clip of Delvon Roe acting in a Shakespearean play right before the game. Awesome.
-I like that they shifted the Izzone to be in front of the camera. They seem to be on top of their game tonight.
-Izzo's "we're up by 17 at the half but I don't like what I saw" scowl was in midseason form.
-I saw a headline on espn.com that said "MSU" but it turned out to be Mississippi St. Haven't we performed well enough in football and basketball that "MSU" should mean Michigan State? Can't they just say "Mich/Miss St"?
-If the Tyler Hansborough UNC team played this MSU team, I know we would see the same exact outcome- a really good center with a speedy PG will shut us down.
-Sherman and Nix are a combined 0-6 on FT right now. Where is Adreian Payne so far tonight?? Makes you really miss Goran Suton and Paul Davis.
(Switched over to Conan during a commercial. When is he going to shave that stupid beard? I thought that was just a "time off from TV" beard)
-DEFINITE lapse of focus around the 15 min mark in the 2nd - Summers with sloppy ball handling on back-to-back plays, Lucious bounces the ball off his foot. - Who regains the momentum with some big offensive and defensive plays?? Appling and Payne. Isn't that backwards???
-Crazy stat: There have been 9 triple doubles in MSU history. Magic has 8 of those. The 9th? I don't know, they didn't say!!!
-It's good to see NCAA Tournament Summers, not 2009 Summers.
-Roe is looking like Raymar, except he can play defense, he isn't making shitty fouls, and he isn't bitching at the refs like a little baby... so basically, just the good things.
-0 pts, 4 fouls, poor ball control.... maybe Izzo should have suspended Lucious for another game....
-MAKE YOUR DAMN FREE THROWS!!!! We would have put this game away a long time ago if we would have made some of these.
-We now have 4 people with 4 fouls. I am really disappointed with their second half performance. They are just coasting, but the lead is down to 8 with 4+ mins left.
-Is it fair to tack some of the sloppy play up to the fact that it is now 12:20am?
-Player of the Game: Roe - 5-6 fg, 15 pts, 6 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk, 1 to OR Green - 5-6 fg, 18 pts, 12 reb, 2 ast, 5 stl, 2 blk, 2 to
Sunday, November 07, 2010
Haha
"Nobody agrees with me. I feel like the only person on the planet who likes the future of Michigan basketball. Most people seem to think Michigan will finish 16th in the Big Ten, behind the other 10 teams in the league, as well as Nebraska and Michigan State's next four recruiting classes."
- Michael Rosenberg
- Michael Rosenberg
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