I had completed an entire dissection of the first round of the 2018 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. I had done a thorough examination of the loss by #1 Virginia to #16 UMBC, the first time since the Tournament expanded to 64 teams. I had examined the Power 5 conferences plus the Big East and their bids, noting that only 23 teams of 37 slots made it into the Round of 32. Some were grossly overrated--Arizona, Wichita State and, of course, UVA. I felt that the lack of Power 5 schools being placed no lower than an 11th seed was an injustice to the mid-major schools like Buffalo and Marshall. This created a true lack of competitive balance.
I also observed how Ryan Odom, the UMBC coach, out coached his rival and had picked up a nice $17,500 in bonus money for winning the America East Tournament and picking up a victory in the NCAA's. The new flavor of the moment in coaching vacancies is Ryan Odom. UMBC surely was no #16 seed; UVA was a true #1 seed who faced a team that should have been seeded about 8 or 9.
Seemingly the only seeds that the Committee had right involved the Big Ten after the first round as they went 4 for 4. The ACC and the SEC did not go unscathed but performed better than the Big 12 and the flop of the Tournament, the Pac 12, which failed to send a team to the second round.
I wanted to know when there would be justice for the smaller schools who are constantly forced to play the big boys at the latter's home court, a decided disadvantage, or be shunned completely by the Power 5 and big East so as to not hurt their precious R.P.I. (Ratings Percentage Index), an analytic used by the Committee to assess the worthiness of a team to gain entry into the Tournament. It is simple logic that if you can't play top competition, which includes the strength of schedule inherent in a Power 5 or Big East conference, then your R.P.I. won't be enhanced.
Then I shifted gears to the plight of the Golden State Warriors. Their four All Stars are either unable to play due to injuries: Steph Curry (ankle); Klay Thompson (Broken R thumb); and Kevin Durant (cracked ribs). Draymond Green is playing despite a sore shoulder. As a result the Warriors have lost three straight contests. Plus forward Omri Casspi hurt his ankle in a loss to Sacramento on Friday night.
Given the grueling NBA regular season schedule, the fact that the Warriors had played in three straight NBA Finals while winning two, which has amounted to nearly a full season's worth of playoff games, makes injury and fatigue more likely. It is happening to the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, who are winning less frequently. With the plethora of very good teams in the NBA's Western Conference, it is very unlikely that Golden State would win back-to-back titles even if they were to survive that gauntlet, to face the best team in the Eastern Conference in the Finals.
There are only 17 games left in the regular season. It is doubtful that the Warriors would get the stars healthy and ready to withstand the playoff grind. What they have accomplished over the past 4 years is nothing short of remarkable. Besides winning the two titles, they set the all-time record for wins in a season. Curry became a household name. Other teams gear up for the warriors as if they were playing a playoff game. Night after night intensity. And they continued to win. Amazing.
That's where the blog ended. My computer ate my entire draft. I had been sloppy and not saved the words I had committed to paper. I had seen a warning sign when a blue light started to eat my typing. Stubbornly I had persisted until I looked up from the keyboard to see no more typed page.
I frantically went searching everywhere for my text. Alas, the dog had really eaten my homework. My 12 year old Dell computer had consumed my blog.
There is nobody to blame but me. I had tried to avoid using my new Apple laptop for 2 months. Perhaps out of fear, but more because I was comfortable typing in the solitude of the Man Cave (our converted cellar) and I had unreasonably put the fear of a repeat ingestion of my work in the recesses of my cluttered 67 year old mind.
My modestly large male ego was wounded. It is bad enough that Toby is trailing me by 1 point in our NCAA Tournament contest, and I picked UVA to win it all. Losing the blog today when I had entrusted hours of work and research, all for naught, was reckless and cavalier.
So here I am, pride shot to hell, typing the revised edition on this shiny new Apple. I am still unaware of all its bells and whistles (we had put off scheduling beginners classes) and I hope that I can make it through the end of this blog, save it, and properly load it onto Facebook and emails for my faithful readers.
My mea culpa is to you. I blew it with my impertinence when it came to creating a blog. That will be no more.
So if this blog makes it to you, I sincerely apologize for not giving the in depth analysis that I have developed in my own style during the nearly 3 1/2 years RetiredLawyerSportsOp has existed. From now on, RLSO will come exclusively from my laptop. I will periodically save my writing. I will sublimate my ego--okay, maybe not too much except when it comes to technical computer issues. And we will enroll in computer classes to learn how to operate this modern technological advance, thereby escaping the dinosaur world of the Dell desktop.
It is March 17. St. Patrick's Day. Perhaps a leprechaun got involved. Or maybe because last week I missed the Selection Show for the first time in ages, the Basketball Gods got even with me by destroying my blog, my bracket, the Warriors and having the UConn women score 94 points in the first half in their NCAA opening round game.
I have begun my penance. I hope that there will not be any more retribution. I have started to remunerate.
I cannot afford any repeat of this terrible episode in my fledgling writing career. After all, in two weeks, the baseball season starts. Then I can settle into a more serious mode.
I also observed how Ryan Odom, the UMBC coach, out coached his rival and had picked up a nice $17,500 in bonus money for winning the America East Tournament and picking up a victory in the NCAA's. The new flavor of the moment in coaching vacancies is Ryan Odom. UMBC surely was no #16 seed; UVA was a true #1 seed who faced a team that should have been seeded about 8 or 9.
Seemingly the only seeds that the Committee had right involved the Big Ten after the first round as they went 4 for 4. The ACC and the SEC did not go unscathed but performed better than the Big 12 and the flop of the Tournament, the Pac 12, which failed to send a team to the second round.
I wanted to know when there would be justice for the smaller schools who are constantly forced to play the big boys at the latter's home court, a decided disadvantage, or be shunned completely by the Power 5 and big East so as to not hurt their precious R.P.I. (Ratings Percentage Index), an analytic used by the Committee to assess the worthiness of a team to gain entry into the Tournament. It is simple logic that if you can't play top competition, which includes the strength of schedule inherent in a Power 5 or Big East conference, then your R.P.I. won't be enhanced.
Then I shifted gears to the plight of the Golden State Warriors. Their four All Stars are either unable to play due to injuries: Steph Curry (ankle); Klay Thompson (Broken R thumb); and Kevin Durant (cracked ribs). Draymond Green is playing despite a sore shoulder. As a result the Warriors have lost three straight contests. Plus forward Omri Casspi hurt his ankle in a loss to Sacramento on Friday night.
Given the grueling NBA regular season schedule, the fact that the Warriors had played in three straight NBA Finals while winning two, which has amounted to nearly a full season's worth of playoff games, makes injury and fatigue more likely. It is happening to the San Antonio Spurs and Cleveland Cavaliers, who are winning less frequently. With the plethora of very good teams in the NBA's Western Conference, it is very unlikely that Golden State would win back-to-back titles even if they were to survive that gauntlet, to face the best team in the Eastern Conference in the Finals.
There are only 17 games left in the regular season. It is doubtful that the Warriors would get the stars healthy and ready to withstand the playoff grind. What they have accomplished over the past 4 years is nothing short of remarkable. Besides winning the two titles, they set the all-time record for wins in a season. Curry became a household name. Other teams gear up for the warriors as if they were playing a playoff game. Night after night intensity. And they continued to win. Amazing.
That's where the blog ended. My computer ate my entire draft. I had been sloppy and not saved the words I had committed to paper. I had seen a warning sign when a blue light started to eat my typing. Stubbornly I had persisted until I looked up from the keyboard to see no more typed page.
I frantically went searching everywhere for my text. Alas, the dog had really eaten my homework. My 12 year old Dell computer had consumed my blog.
There is nobody to blame but me. I had tried to avoid using my new Apple laptop for 2 months. Perhaps out of fear, but more because I was comfortable typing in the solitude of the Man Cave (our converted cellar) and I had unreasonably put the fear of a repeat ingestion of my work in the recesses of my cluttered 67 year old mind.
My modestly large male ego was wounded. It is bad enough that Toby is trailing me by 1 point in our NCAA Tournament contest, and I picked UVA to win it all. Losing the blog today when I had entrusted hours of work and research, all for naught, was reckless and cavalier.
So here I am, pride shot to hell, typing the revised edition on this shiny new Apple. I am still unaware of all its bells and whistles (we had put off scheduling beginners classes) and I hope that I can make it through the end of this blog, save it, and properly load it onto Facebook and emails for my faithful readers.
My mea culpa is to you. I blew it with my impertinence when it came to creating a blog. That will be no more.
So if this blog makes it to you, I sincerely apologize for not giving the in depth analysis that I have developed in my own style during the nearly 3 1/2 years RetiredLawyerSportsOp has existed. From now on, RLSO will come exclusively from my laptop. I will periodically save my writing. I will sublimate my ego--okay, maybe not too much except when it comes to technical computer issues. And we will enroll in computer classes to learn how to operate this modern technological advance, thereby escaping the dinosaur world of the Dell desktop.
It is March 17. St. Patrick's Day. Perhaps a leprechaun got involved. Or maybe because last week I missed the Selection Show for the first time in ages, the Basketball Gods got even with me by destroying my blog, my bracket, the Warriors and having the UConn women score 94 points in the first half in their NCAA opening round game.
I have begun my penance. I hope that there will not be any more retribution. I have started to remunerate.
I cannot afford any repeat of this terrible episode in my fledgling writing career. After all, in two weeks, the baseball season starts. Then I can settle into a more serious mode.
No comments:
Post a Comment