TicketsTerence Somerville ended up right where most expected him to be. That doesn't make his run for an NCAA championship any less exciting.
Somerville qualified in his heat Thursday for the 110-meter hurdles NCAA championship. He will be one of eight runners to line up for the event Saturday afternoon (2:16 p.m. approx start time for those paying close attention). The event will be broadcast live on CBS.
Despite placing sixth of eight runners in the heat times, Somerville's chances are better than the numbers suggest. He actually knocked over his first two hurdles and that slowed him down before he made a late charge. With a clean run, he has a chance to make a championship push.
Soon after Somerville runs, Eric Finan will compete in the 5,000 meters in his attempt to deliver UC its first NCAA title.
Let's eat...
--- Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post thinks Kenyon Martin's time is up with the Nuggets. K-Mart is now 33 years old and with Denver trending toward a youth movement, his presence and massive $16.5 million salary make little sense in the mix.
Martin's numbers have settled into the backside of the career curve -- despite a spike to 11.5 points and 9.4 rebounds in 2009-10. He contributed his lowest average points of his career last year (8.6) and only grabbed 6.2 rebounds a game. Not to mention, injuries have allowed to play in 106 of 164 possible regular season games the past two seasons.
That's nothing to be ashamed of for the developmental project from Texas. His career salary currently sits at $108.3 million. There are worse situations.
Somebody thinking they are close to winning a championship would maybe be willing to deal for Martin and let him play a defensive rebounding role for them off the bench. If that were to happen, all the better for Kenyon who would benefit from the decreased stress on his body over the course of the season.
--- I speculated on speculation here yesterday about Yancy Gates' competition in making the World Unviersity Games team. Mike Miller at Beyond the Arc gave a half-hearted whirl at picking the team. He went extraordinarily small, thus, didn't have Gates among them.
--- Rick Pitino called the SEC a "second-rate conference" during his weekly caravan stop. The quip came in response to John Calipari taking shots at the Big East for getting 19 teams in the NCAA tournament the past two years.
Here was Cal's comments, as taken from Eric Crawford's Courier-Journal blog:
"This is no knock on the Big East but they've had 19 teams in the Tournament the last two years and how many have made it by the first round? How is this happening? When they start playing each other they say the 11th team is really good. What? We have to figure out how you play the best schedule you can play and still win. That's different for all of us. I think that's more important than 16 or 18 (conference) games."
This debate will rage on until Kentucky and Louisville decides to hold college mixers together. Both sides have valid points. It will also serve as a lovely backdrop for the SEC-Big East challenge going forward.
If you are looking at the debate strictly from an NCAA tournament performance perspective, here's what we know.
In the 2011, tournament, the Big East went 13-10 overall (obviously, thanks to the 6-0 UConn run). They upset a higher seed three times (13% of total games) and lost to a lower seed six times (26%). Four Big East teams were bounced in the first round (25%). And, oh yeah, the conference won the national championship, going through the SEC champion in the Final Four.
The SEC went 7-5, upsetting a higher seed once (UK over OSU, 8%) and losing to a lower seed twice (16%). Three of their five teams were bounced in the first round (60%).
To make that easier to compare, here's a table:
2011 tourney Record BeatHighSeed LostLower Out1stRd Final4
Big East 13-10/56.5% 3/13% 6/26% 4/36% 1
SEC 7-5/58.3% 1/8% 2/16% 3/60% 1
2010 tourney Record BeatHighSeed LostLower Out1stRd Final4
Big East 8-7/53.3% 1/7% 5/33% 4/50% 1
SEC 6-4/60.0% 1/8% 2/20% 2/50% 0
TOTALS Record BeatHighSeed LostLower Out1stRd Final4
Big East 21-17/55.2% 4/11% 11/30% 8/42% 2
SEC 13-9/59.0% 2/9% 4/18% 5/55% 1
So, if we are looking at John Calipari's hypothesis that the SEC has been this superior team in the NCAA tournament, or at least on par with the Big East in the tournament, I'd say the numbers prove otherwise, and at the very least show them to be near equals.
By percentage, the SEC participants have been knocked out in the first round at a higher rate than the Big East. For Calipari to be calling out the Big East's first-round failures so loudly, it would be helpful if his conference wasn't being booted on Day 1 at such an alarming rate.
Cal could point to the SEC placing two teams in the Elite 8 each of the past two seasons, but only one of them advanced to the Final 4 with Cal's Wildcats losing to a Big East team to end their season both times. I'm not calling out sour grapes here, but if I were to lose to my Uncle in the family bocce ball tournament two years in a row, I certainly wouldn't be questioning his skills at Thanksgiving dinner.
Granted, the Big East has underperformed in the tournament the past two years compared to expectations. The losses to lower seeds prove that. Too many teams have been upset. But when taking into account the domination the league has consistently shown in non-conference regular season games and amount of wins garnered to place so many more teams in the Big Dance and impress the committee (isn't that the whole point of the regular season?), I have a hard time buying Cal's contention that the Big East has been overvalued.
I don't own the pulpit to call the SEC "second-rate," but I do own the medium to point out the shortcomings in Calipari's criticisms. It's just too bad a depleted St. John's team will be the BE rep playing Kentucky in the BE/SEC challenge this year.
It should be noted, I think Cal is a generally good guy and takes some unnecessary hits to his reputation. Particularly considering all the charity and quality causes he supports like this one. Just pointing out how I disagree on this particular point.
--- Ok, moving on (*slowly kicks soapbox aside)
--- Andrea Adelson updates the rumor stew swirling around Morgantown and Bill Stewart. She rightly points out the No Publicity is Bad Publicity method of marketing isn't helping WVU right now. And decision time needs to show up fast.
--- NCAA Football 2012 has sent out demos and being reviewed right now. Among the changes, conference realignment in the dynasty mode. So, in case you don't get enough superconference talk in reality, you can invent your own rumors.
--- Some randomness...
--- As a big fan of Rounders, I can say a sequel in the post-poker boom world seems like a sure bet. (See what I did there?)
--- Some headlines just demand you read further.
--- Three Heat-Mavs links for you: Great crowd reaction to Jason Terry going all Jet in the final minute.
Tweet of the night from Darren Rovell
The new LeBron James ad campaign.
--- Rap concerts are hit and miss (mostly miss), but Lil' Wayne is coming to Riverbend Sept. 10 and tickets are on sale now.
--- This video is almost certainly a spoof, but the execution is flawless. If you need something to do this weekend, this young lady is looking for a date. It would help if you approached her with a basket full of cats.
Somerville qualified in his heat Thursday for the 110-meter hurdles NCAA championship. He will be one of eight runners to line up for the event Saturday afternoon (2:16 p.m. approx start time for those paying close attention). The event will be broadcast live on CBS.
Despite placing sixth of eight runners in the heat times, Somerville's chances are better than the numbers suggest. He actually knocked over his first two hurdles and that slowed him down before he made a late charge. With a clean run, he has a chance to make a championship push.
Soon after Somerville runs, Eric Finan will compete in the 5,000 meters in his attempt to deliver UC its first NCAA title.
Let's eat...
--- Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post thinks Kenyon Martin's time is up with the Nuggets. K-Mart is now 33 years old and with Denver trending toward a youth movement, his presence and massive $16.5 million salary make little sense in the mix.
Martin's numbers have settled into the backside of the career curve -- despite a spike to 11.5 points and 9.4 rebounds in 2009-10. He contributed his lowest average points of his career last year (8.6) and only grabbed 6.2 rebounds a game. Not to mention, injuries have allowed to play in 106 of 164 possible regular season games the past two seasons.
That's nothing to be ashamed of for the developmental project from Texas. His career salary currently sits at $108.3 million. There are worse situations.
Somebody thinking they are close to winning a championship would maybe be willing to deal for Martin and let him play a defensive rebounding role for them off the bench. If that were to happen, all the better for Kenyon who would benefit from the decreased stress on his body over the course of the season.
--- I speculated on speculation here yesterday about Yancy Gates' competition in making the World Unviersity Games team. Mike Miller at Beyond the Arc gave a half-hearted whirl at picking the team. He went extraordinarily small, thus, didn't have Gates among them.
--- Rick Pitino called the SEC a "second-rate conference" during his weekly caravan stop. The quip came in response to John Calipari taking shots at the Big East for getting 19 teams in the NCAA tournament the past two years.
Here was Cal's comments, as taken from Eric Crawford's Courier-Journal blog:
"This is no knock on the Big East but they've had 19 teams in the Tournament the last two years and how many have made it by the first round? How is this happening? When they start playing each other they say the 11th team is really good. What? We have to figure out how you play the best schedule you can play and still win. That's different for all of us. I think that's more important than 16 or 18 (conference) games."
This debate will rage on until Kentucky and Louisville decides to hold college mixers together. Both sides have valid points. It will also serve as a lovely backdrop for the SEC-Big East challenge going forward.
If you are looking at the debate strictly from an NCAA tournament performance perspective, here's what we know.
In the 2011, tournament, the Big East went 13-10 overall (obviously, thanks to the 6-0 UConn run). They upset a higher seed three times (13% of total games) and lost to a lower seed six times (26%). Four Big East teams were bounced in the first round (25%). And, oh yeah, the conference won the national championship, going through the SEC champion in the Final Four.
The SEC went 7-5, upsetting a higher seed once (UK over OSU, 8%) and losing to a lower seed twice (16%). Three of their five teams were bounced in the first round (60%).
To make that easier to compare, here's a table:
2011 tourney Record BeatHighSeed LostLower Out1stRd Final4
Big East 13-10/56.5% 3/13% 6/26% 4/36% 1
SEC 7-5/58.3% 1/8% 2/16% 3/60% 1
2010 tourney Record BeatHighSeed LostLower Out1stRd Final4
Big East 8-7/53.3% 1/7% 5/33% 4/50% 1
SEC 6-4/60.0% 1/8% 2/20% 2/50% 0
TOTALS Record BeatHighSeed LostLower Out1stRd Final4
Big East 21-17/55.2% 4/11% 11/30% 8/42% 2
SEC 13-9/59.0% 2/9% 4/18% 5/55% 1
So, if we are looking at John Calipari's hypothesis that the SEC has been this superior team in the NCAA tournament, or at least on par with the Big East in the tournament, I'd say the numbers prove otherwise, and at the very least show them to be near equals.
By percentage, the SEC participants have been knocked out in the first round at a higher rate than the Big East. For Calipari to be calling out the Big East's first-round failures so loudly, it would be helpful if his conference wasn't being booted on Day 1 at such an alarming rate.
Cal could point to the SEC placing two teams in the Elite 8 each of the past two seasons, but only one of them advanced to the Final 4 with Cal's Wildcats losing to a Big East team to end their season both times. I'm not calling out sour grapes here, but if I were to lose to my Uncle in the family bocce ball tournament two years in a row, I certainly wouldn't be questioning his skills at Thanksgiving dinner.
Granted, the Big East has underperformed in the tournament the past two years compared to expectations. The losses to lower seeds prove that. Too many teams have been upset. But when taking into account the domination the league has consistently shown in non-conference regular season games and amount of wins garnered to place so many more teams in the Big Dance and impress the committee (isn't that the whole point of the regular season?), I have a hard time buying Cal's contention that the Big East has been overvalued.
I don't own the pulpit to call the SEC "second-rate," but I do own the medium to point out the shortcomings in Calipari's criticisms. It's just too bad a depleted St. John's team will be the BE rep playing Kentucky in the BE/SEC challenge this year.
It should be noted, I think Cal is a generally good guy and takes some unnecessary hits to his reputation. Particularly considering all the charity and quality causes he supports like this one. Just pointing out how I disagree on this particular point.
--- Ok, moving on (*slowly kicks soapbox aside)
--- Andrea Adelson updates the rumor stew swirling around Morgantown and Bill Stewart. She rightly points out the No Publicity is Bad Publicity method of marketing isn't helping WVU right now. And decision time needs to show up fast.
--- NCAA Football 2012 has sent out demos and being reviewed right now. Among the changes, conference realignment in the dynasty mode. So, in case you don't get enough superconference talk in reality, you can invent your own rumors.
--- Some randomness...
--- As a big fan of Rounders, I can say a sequel in the post-poker boom world seems like a sure bet. (See what I did there?)
--- Some headlines just demand you read further.
--- Three Heat-Mavs links for you: Great crowd reaction to Jason Terry going all Jet in the final minute.
Tweet of the night from Darren Rovell
The new LeBron James ad campaign.
--- Rap concerts are hit and miss (mostly miss), but Lil' Wayne is coming to Riverbend Sept. 10 and tickets are on sale now.
--- This video is almost certainly a spoof, but the execution is flawless. If you need something to do this weekend, this young lady is looking for a date. It would help if you approached her with a basket full of cats.