Lets Get off the Sub-Continent

As far as batsmen go, my vote has got to be for Brian Lara.  Not only did he set the record for most individual runs in an innings once, but after his first record of 375 was broken, he re-set it at 400.  The two innings both came against England, but were separated by 10 years.  He has also scored a phenomenal 20% of the West Indies runs.  And speaking of Tendulkar, Lara is tied with number of innings to reach 10,000 runs (one of only five crickiters to reach this total).  His average, over 50 runs puts him in the ranks of the great Garfield Sobers (considered by many to be the best West Indian all-rounder ever).  He also captained the Windies on many different occasions, leading them to the the semi-finals of the world cup in 1996.

Tendulkar vs. Khan

From Wikipedia, an impeccable source: Tendulkar's two tenures as captain of the Indian cricket team were not very successful. When Tendulkar took over as Captain in 1996, it was with huge hopes and expectations. However, by 1997 the team was performing poorly. Azharuddin was credited with saying "Nahin jeetega! Chote ki naseeb main jeet nahin hai!," which translates into: "He won't win! It's not in the small one's destiny." Imran Khan, on the other hand, had a "career-high as a captain and cricketer ... when he led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 ICC Cricket World Cup. Playing with a brittle batting lineup, Khan promoted himself as a batsman to provide stability in the top order together with Javed Miandad, but his contribution as a bowler was minimal. In the final match, at the age of 39, Khan scored the highest runs of all the Pakistani batsmen and took the winning last wicket himself." Arsalan wants me to point out that Imran Khan was a fine example of a captain translating his smart cricket thoughts and moves to practical execution. He was brave to take uncomfortable decisions and base his cricket on aggression. It was either playing for a win or a loss, never to draw games. Raskin, if you get a chance, you should post a photo of Morris in the Tendulkar jersey! I would love to see it.

Back to cricket

This is not a joke: coincidentally my son Morris went to nursery school today wearing a Sachin Tendulkar shirt that I got when I was in India a couple years ago. Tendulkar would get my vote for best cricket player, not to start a little India/Pakistan rivalry on sMaCkDOWn or anything. I have played cricket once, in Australia, in 1997, with Dave Leonhardt's ex-girlfriend; I found it fun but totally weird and yes, kind of slow moving. Which is probably how she found Leonhardt, come to think of it. Is he even on this blog? Can you talk smack about someone who's not here? Doesn't seem quite fair, but then that is incentive to get your picks in on time next year.

Non-math guy speaks

This is from a guy who had to talk his way out of a D in physics in college (I was taking it credit/D/fail), but isn't the problem with Lauren's calculation just this: it relies on a proportionality that evaporates in later rounds. In the early rounds, with many games at ten points each, there are many different score levels one might come in at. What I mean is, if someone got 70% right in the first round and say there were a hundred points at stake (10 games x 10 pts per game), then one got 70 points. But in later rounds, where there are fewer point slots, doesn't that 70% rating Lauren gave you just turn into 50 points in the semifinal round (because - with 2 games x 50 pts pers game - in that round one can get either 0, 50, or 100 points, and nothing else). So if someone got only 60% right in the earlier rounds, shouldn't that also slot into the 50 point slot in the semifinal round? I can't express the point well, but it seems to me that her numbers will have to be way off because of this kind of thinking. If someone can explain to me why my thinking is d-u-m dumb, or can explain it better, I'd be grateful. Of course, Lauren is still a genius... for having so magnificently stroked Dodie's ego.

Late entry into the smack talk arena Nell (not Nellie !!)

This is the not a great year for smack talk, but I was so impressed with Lauren’s formula to predict who would win the brackets that I suggest that we just start a new poll to see who can come closest to predicting who will come closest to predicting.  Surely we could be more successful at that we are at actually predicting the results of the games.  Or maybe we could have Lauren develop a formula for predicting the game scores.

Imran Khan has a mullet

By the way if you do a google image search for Todd Keithley, the 8th thing that comes up is this:





Looking good, Todd!


And, yes, if you search for Piers Turner, it doesn't take long before you get to this:




This dissertation has taken its toll!

Stew-Baller

Check out the new poll: who has the best nickname?

I'm a fan of Stew-Baller. I was curious what a Google image search on "stew baller" would find. I was kind of worried that it would get me in trouble at work, but this is what turned up:



P.S. One nickname is missing from the poll: Captain Lose.

Cricket Talk

We have seen a decent number of bollywood movies here, and one of the better ones is Lagaan. The IMDB synopsis is this: Sometime during latter half of the 19th century, a small village in North India is facing drought conditions. Captain Andrew Russell, the British captain of the nearby cantonment, demands double of the usual land tax (lagaan) from the villagers. When the villagers' representatives go to meet Captain Russell to discuss the situation, Capt. Russell challenges them to a game of cricket with his team after three months. A young villager Bhuvan accepts the challenge and starts to build his team of villagers for the showdown with their colonial rulers. The movie is fair, but as the villagers learn cricket, so does the movie audience. If anybody needs a not-so-quick primer, it's available from Netflix. And it's about 3 1/2 hours long. I'll have to check with Anwar, our driver, about cricket smack-talk. We'll see who HE thinks is the best cricketer of all time (though I can already guarantee he'll play for an Indian team). Mook

Imran Khan

Sadly, we haven't been able to make it to Thanksgiving in a long time, and Meredith's schedule this fall will be the most inflexible of her residency. But if we make it down, count us in for cricket. My co-clerk, Arsalan, is a huge cricket fan and we've actually followed it here in chambers. We're fans of Imran Khan, who, according to Arsalan, is the greatest cricketer of all time. Nowadays he's an opposition politician in Pakistan, and we were on the edge of our seats last year when he demanded the death penalty for Musharraf, was put under house arrest, and then escaped!

How 'bout we keep talking cricket until the basketball tournament resumes? Anyone have any thoughts about which stat is more important, wickets or balls bowled?

Cricket - I'm in!

CS:
If you'd like to learn cricket, that can be the activity for Thanksgiving '08.  Hell, one year you guys built Thomas's deck.  Anything's possible over a long holiday weekend.  Bring your laptop, an external hard drive, and the latest version of excel.

 

-Diego 

Cricket?

CS:

I can't pick teams for the NCAA basketball tournament.  I played basketball (in elementary school), I managed the basketball team (in junior high - no jokes Dodie about "managing") and kept score for the team in high school.  It is the only sport I enjoy watching live or on TV.  And you want me to learn CRICKET??  Are you insane?  It takes more than one day to PLAY the sport.  It's slower than baseball (you wanted smack CS, you got it!).  I don't think so...

Thanks for the "suggestion" but I'm going to pass.  In fact, in order to evade suggestions of learning about cricket, I think I'll just leave India at the end of May...

 

But I do agree with you that there has been a disappointingly low amount of smack talk.  What has happened??

 

Mook  no-freaking-way-I'm-learning-cricket  Rincon

It's a Good Thing Piers lives in Chapel Hill, not Syracuse...

If he ever wants to see his top-seeded home team win in a tournament.

Ricky Harris scored 23 points as Massachusetts rallied from 17 points behind in the final eight minutes and defeated host Syracuse, 81-77, on Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the National Invitation Tournament....No team had beaten Syracuse twice in the Carrier Dome in the same season until the Minutemen made their stunning rally.

Piers, sorry that there was no juice in the Orange this year.

-Dode

November 08?

Is Clarkson running for office?

It looks like this blog has turned into a fan-page.  What happened to the sharp-tongued smack-talkers of old?  What happened to the stinging criticism, once feared by all those has-been and never-were bracketeers?

I may be tied for 14th with a few others, one who's new main sport ought to be cricket. But it won't stop me from doing a bit of taunting as my final four advance onward, much to the dismay of the Hoyas, Blue Devils, and Tigers (the one's with the purple jerseys).

Loverman

I have long admired Clarkson's profile.

Do we all need to see this again?

Who is viewing Clarkson's Profile?

It could be the other members of the rap music affinity group he joined.

Clarkson's profile

I was also procrastinating on the day's work, and saw Todd's post below about Clarkson's profile. (It is funny.) As of right now, Clarkson's profile has been viewed 38 times! Who are all those people?

Happy Birthday Alison!

I realize that Alison is not an official member of McDow Hoops, but I wanted to use this forum to wish her a very happy birthday!!

-Mook

Clarkson's Profile

Procrastinating on the day's work, I checked out Clarkson's blogger profile. Take a look. It's pretty funny.

Lauren's Pool

Dodie-

I can't second your motion to just scrap the pool - I'm not ready to give up the smack-reading.  I'm pretty much out of the talking business; though I do have Memphis in the final game (unfortunately, I thought they'd be getting beat by my recently adopted Hoyas).  But we could always start a side pool...  An opportunity to see who else can predict the sMaCkDOWn winner based on current selections.

 

Just a thought...

 

Mook

Alive: Will, Davidson, Hope; Not Alive: lots of people, Duke, Piers' Bracket

It's late and I gotta go to bed. But I've been in the wilds of Southern Va for several days and then actually working for most of today. I like Lauren's predictions even though they would leave me in fifth place. Here's why: it preserves marital bliss on Urban Ave (though I guess Leslie wins the tiebreaker, Tenn & Davidson v. Duke - ouch); it allows father in law to win even though he will never know it because he can't log on to ESPN (Jim, can you read a blog yet?); and perhaps most importantly, Piers (like Hillary) does his best smack talking when on the ropes. Finally, Hillary choose ND over UNC for the Catholic vote, the Indiana vote and knew she was going to lose NC anyway. Did she pick Ark or Indiana? That'll be a measure of politics over hometown roots. Will Update: My political analysis is off: she choose Duke over Purdue. It's a case of bad-picker. Everyone knew Duke would lose to WVa.

Lauren is clearly a genius

I just read her post and I now see what an enlightened thinker she is, able to apply accurate formulae to predict the future.  This is science.  And based on her calculations, maybe we should just save ourselves some time and call it quits on this contest.  Can anyone second this?

(To say that I see in her the same thing that the President's Scholars Selection Committee did not so long ago would besmirch my honor, not to mention my relationship with my brother.  Let's just say they girl is smart.)

Backup quaterbacking

Clarkson, I agree that PPR is a very important measure, but we've all already proven our inability to land all of the possible points at each phase. Here are my projections of the final standings, based on a formula I just made up (it isn't perfect, but I think it's more accurate than simply adding current points to PPR): ((Current points divided by possible points so far which is 640; this is each person's winning proven winning percentage) x (PPR)) + Current points Dode, D. McDow 1129 Will, karma stinks, M. Gumbinner 1103 Hipster Pickster, C. McDow 1102 Jim Goff, W. McDow 1100 Will_McDow, W. McDow 1075 Leslie McDow, W. McDow 1075 Crawford 1, L. Crawford 1073 Keithley, T. Keithley 1069 Jenkins 1, M. Jenkins 1051 Frank Maguire was right!, J. Gumbinner 1051 RPI or RIP?, C. McDow 1050 Lauren's picks, L. McDow 1028 Yankee Interloper, G. Raskin 1021 Nellie, N. Jenkins 994 Turner 1, P. Turner 926 Defense Wins, C. McDow 925 Molvig 1, O. Molvig 897 Norris Turner 1, A. Norris Turner 879 Jenkins 1, N. Jenkins 840 rincon 1, m. rincon 820 Igo 1, S. Igo 713 Offense Wins, C. McDow 562 US News, A. Norris Turner 540 Maggie Lou, D. McDow 489 Franklin, D. McDow 325 Go Dodie! Cheers, Lauren

Hillary's Bracket

The Democratic establishment has spoken, asking for Hillary's bracket. It is true that the blogosphere has been extremely, perhaps unfairly, favorable to Obama. I've heard rumors that some blogs have even included subliminal pro-Obama messages toward the bottom of the posts.

Hillary scores a 390 so far. She's down there with Captain Lose. Obama has 420.

No idea what Hillary's PPR is -- Clarkson, I leave that calculation to you.

Who's "out of it", Grampa?!

Listen, Clarkson: you seem to have disregarded my chances (390 points, 880 PPR, 18th place), but who else has Louisville and Memphis in the final? Hmmm? Did you see the way Louisville played yesterday? Who will rack up all of those points? Me! ME! I come in from doing yardwork (remember the great Voltaire wrote: "we must take care of our garden") only to find this rubbish on the blog. I'm golden, I tell you, golden! And yes, Syracuse plays the UMass Minutemen tomorrow night in the NIT, in a rematch of a classic earlier this season. As many people will watch this one as the previous one, I'm sure. And yes, I also like this post-only method. Kudos to Todd!

All Blog vs. Comments

Just wanted to weigh in and say that I like this all-blog format.  MUCH better than digging through comments.  What do others think?

Mook

Monday Morning Quarterbacking

I know better than to use a football metaphor on a basketball blog but this is Monday. A review of the standings and the remaining possible points shows who is really in this game. This post did not review the method picks and some of the people who appear out of it. There are no warranties express or implied as to the accuracy of these figures, but combining points earned to date with remaining possible points shows that the potential winner is Dodie who could amass 1470 points. He is closely pursued by Maggie with 1460 possible points and in third place in the possible points derby is yours truly the no longer "sicker picker" but now touting himself as possibly the "slicker picker" with 1430 possible points. Back at 1410 is Jeff and M. Jenkins (who I believe to be the bracketologist formerly known as "Catfish." Jim Goff could get back in the race with his 1400 possible points and Will remains a possbility at 1390. The allegedly "Mysterious Mr. Crawford" remains high in the actual points but is lagging on possible points at 1360. Rumors are that he is consulting legal advice on defamation suits against some of the posters on this blog. Todd who is second in the actual standings is way back in possible points at 1330. Our current winner and only one in the pool who loves the ACC more than Billy Packer is Lauren. In remaining possbile points she has only 123o. Reports are that she is now saying, "It is the W's that count not the possbile W's." There are a couple of points that were overlooked in the excitement about the actual games. Why have the high point people been so quiet? Why does Gregg Raskin talk about pulling for the underdogs and pick Georgetown over Davidson? Why does Jeff name his bracket "Frank McGuire was right? Why did no one post Hillary's bracket? Will she disclose it when she discloses her income tax returns? Or did she not want to publish a bracket taking a stand on the Arkansas - UNC game? Who is Leslie going to pick when Tennessee comes up against the Davidson Wildcats? Is Piers following his beloved Syracuse in the NIT? The SEC has really been a bust and Tennessee is lucky to still be alive this morning. They have had four teams go home after two games and are now tied with the Southern Conference and the A-10 with one team remaining. Is there is anyone out there who will not be pulling for the Davidson Wildcats to win a couple of more games? Clarkson

Was it all a bad dream?

While it's just now late evening for you east coasters (and ealier for anyone further west), it's already morning here in smoggy Mumbai.  I slept terribly last night, tossing and turning.  Guess I must have been sleep walking when I got up to eat my Hoya-flavored crow...

 

Maggie, it's very true - you must smack talk while you can...

 

Mook - my winning-it-all team is gone already - Rincon

Elbow room

Well, earlier today I was bunched in with a number of other people, tied at 13th. But now I've separated myself from the pack, at 20th. Thank goodness for Maggie Lou and Franklin, or I'd be in last place (excepting method brackets). For once Butler didn't do it. Louisville looks like they're doing the Big East proud. Pitino was once an assistant under Jimmy Boeheim, and so I'm now fully behind them. In case you haven't appreciated Pitino before, let me help you: Georgetown, on the other hand, should take a couple of extra days before going home. Leslie had a very good day, to say the least. But I'm not spinning Rocky Top again.

Raskin on Underdogs

Raskin, you didn't get enough feedback on your underdog question. All those upsets stole your thunder. Anyway, the fact that you are now rooting for underdogs (and what was Pitt, anyway?) means that, when it comes to sports, you are an incurable and hopeless romantic. Just as you are in real life. By the way, Davidson is a small town in Oklahoma.

Oy.

Well, I may be tied for 5th place, but I don't have that many potential points remaining, so I'm going to continue my underdog rooting. Go Davidson! That Curry guy is sweet! Where is Davidson, anyway?

Moving Up to the Big Time

Dodie and I have moved in a tie for 5th with our prescient pick of the Davidson win. Dodie and I also have more possible points remaining. That will all end for me if Miss State continues to beat Memphis, who I have winning it all.  Piers' UNC team doesn't seem to know how to score but neither does Arkansas.
            Clarkson
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

I hear that they say that you should talk smack while the smack talking is good. My standing might not look so great, but I'm slowly creeping up from behind. How about Davidson!?! I didn't pick them, but I my hat is off to those brave few that did.

Onward and Upward

Just back from Philly, where I was of the off the grid, so I missed Friday's smack.

Let me be the first to congratulate Coach K and the boys for helping bring some much needed change to the coaches attire in the Sweet 16.  The rigid requirements of the coat and tie are too antiquated for the modern game of b-ball.

Sitting in the middle of the pack, but just 60 points out of the lead, and third highest points possible.  Just like an experienced jockey; right where I want to be...

Watch out... Here comes Stewball.

(don't worry mom, I'm still drinking water, no wine for me)

Davidson is King.

      How about the Davidson Wildcats?  That was quite a game.   I doubt that it gets me back in contention, but it was fun watching it  
                       Clarkson
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The Mysterious Crawford

"L. Crawford," most likely an imaginary entity according to the poll at right, picked Butler to beat Tennessee and will pull into the lead if Butler wins. Who is this mystery man, woman, non-human animal, or figment?

Raskin Underdog

Your rooting for underdogs now that Pitt is out reveals that you have no money at stake in McDowHoops. And your pleeding to Clarkson shows you've adopted the underdog mentality even on the blog.

Hey Clarkson

Stop sending abortive half-posts to the blog! You're superseding my interesting "Underdogs" post.

Re: Davidson

I meant to include my name. Clarkson
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----- Original Message -----
From: McDow, Clarkson
To: 'willandleslie.mcdowhoops@blogger.com' <willandleslie.mcdowhoops@blogger.com>
Sent: Sun Mar 23 15:04:30 2008
Subject: Re: Davidson

As you may have figured, that was my post.  At least I am looking good at 14:25. Bad call it should have been a charge.
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----- Original Message -----
From: McDow, Clarkson
To: 'willandleslie.mcdowhoops@blogger.com' <willandleslie.mcdowhoops@blogger.com>
Sent: Sun Mar 23 14:56:07 2008
Subject: Davidson

It is going to be Davidson all of the way. 
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld

Underdogs

Now that Pitt is out, I'm finding myself rooting for all the underdogs even though it could hurt my chances in the sMaCkDOWn. What do you think this means about me?

Re: Davidson

As you may have figured, that was my post.  At least I am looking good at 14:25. Bad call it should have been a charge.
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----- Original Message -----
From: McDow, Clarkson
To: 'willandleslie.mcdowhoops@blogger.com' <willandleslie.mcdowhoops@blogger.com>
Sent: Sun Mar 23 14:56:07 2008
Subject: Davidson

It is going to be Davidson all of the way. 
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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld