Matt Glaude circa 1987.
Orange::44 Pick 'Em Challenge
The final scores have been tallied and the winner of the inaugural Orange::44 Pick 'Em Challenge is . . . Dave Pearson.
Congratulations, Dave. You win a whole lot of nothing. Don't go spending it all in one place.
There was actually a little bit of drama leading up to this announcement. Going into Championships Weekend, Pearson trailed Orange::44 staff writer Brian Harrison by three solid points. All Harrison needed to do was correctly pick the winner in one of the three games on the slate and he could have wrapped up the title. Harrison, however, dropped the ball mightily, tallying an astonishing zero points over the course of the weekend.
The moral of the story: never pick Syracuse to win a game in a big spot. Ever.
Especially against the most dominant team the game has seen in about a decade.
Moreover, Collin Long failed to submit his selections for the Championship Weekend games. As a noted cynic, Long would have certainly picked Virginia to defeat Syracuse in the Saturday semifinal and, more than likely, to come out victorious on Championship Monday. With the 41 points he had accumulated over the two weeks preceding the Final Four, this would have been more than enough to propel Long to this marginally coveted title.
But he failed to come through, allowing Pearson to take home the virtual hardware. For the record, this is how it all turned out:
The final scores have been tallied and the winner of the inaugural Orange::44 Pick 'Em Challenge is . . . Dave Pearson.
Congratulations, Dave. You win a whole lot of nothing. Don't go spending it all in one place.
There was actually a little bit of drama leading up to this announcement. Going into Championships Weekend, Pearson trailed Orange::44 staff writer Brian Harrison by three solid points. All Harrison needed to do was correctly pick the winner in one of the three games on the slate and he could have wrapped up the title. Harrison, however, dropped the ball mightily, tallying an astonishing zero points over the course of the weekend.
The moral of the story: never pick Syracuse to win a game in a big spot. Ever.
Especially against the most dominant team the game has seen in about a decade.
Moreover, Collin Long failed to submit his selections for the Championship Weekend games. As a noted cynic, Long would have certainly picked Virginia to defeat Syracuse in the Saturday semifinal and, more than likely, to come out victorious on Championship Monday. With the 41 points he had accumulated over the two weeks preceding the Final Four, this would have been more than enough to propel Long to this marginally coveted title.
But he failed to come through, allowing Pearson to take home the virtual hardware. For the record, this is how it all turned out:
Pointless Speculation: NCAA LAX Championships | ||||||||
| Game | Glaude | Pearson | Harrison | Long | ||||
| Round 1 Totals | 29 | 31 | 31 | 34 | ||||
| Round 2 Totals | 35 | 38 | 41 | 41 | ||||
| Semifinal/Final Totals | 40 | 42 | 41 | - | ||||
| Total | 40 | 42 | 41 | 41 | ||||
When the blogosphere gets bitchy, that can mean only one thing -- it's the first week of June.
Heisman Pundit, the oft ridiculed writer of all things Heisman, recently published a piece attempting to rank the BCS Conferences. Guided by a grading rubric consisting of coaching, diversity of offensive scheme, schedule strength, competitiveness, and talent level, Heisman Pundit has come to the conclusion that the PAC-10 is the nation's finest crucible for football.
The Big East Conference, despite its underappreciated value, was left off of Heisman Pundit's list.
In response to this essay, Sunday Morning Quarterback struck back, leveling a strong blow against Heisman Pundit's freakishly subjective method of measurement. Even Orson and Stranko joined the fight, posing some interesting punditry of their own.
And, of course, Nathan decided to drop his hands and worry about the most important factor to conference superiority -- mascots.
I have written extensively on conference play in the past, providing objective analysis premised on both conference parity and pythagorean forumlas. As a measure based not on subjective notions of what makes a conference great, I think these methods are the strongest means to achieving the desired end. Hopefully, I'll piece together a new, updated analysis later in the week to resolve this debate once and for all.
Important Things To Read That Aren't Memos From Your Boss
For whatever reason, a lot of people are now reading this notebook on a somewhat regular basis. In fact, the readership has grown to the point where this blog has taken over the 18th slot on a Google search for "Syracuse Orange."
Whether that is a triumph for this notebook or merely proof that nobody on the internets cares about the Orange is yet to be determined.
Anyway, some interesting writers have recently dropped links to this blog and since I'm not a total ass clown, I thought I'd return the favor. Peter Bean and his crew over at Burnt Orange Nation do a terrific job cataloguing all things longhorn. Even if you are not interested in Big XII athletics and the triumphs of Texas, it's still worth a daily read as they do a good job piecing together interesting material.
If you're interested in what the Ohio State Buckeyes are up to, read Matt Barker's blog Buckeye Banter. There is so much information on that site you may have to take it apart in pieces.
Ian Cohen: ChuckleMachine
Like Dave Pearson and myself, Ian attended the Lacrosse Championships down in Philadelphia last weekend. He had this to say about his time at Lincoln Financial Field:
And yes, I went to the LAX championship on Monday. To quote my mans an' 'em Wops, it was "Utah white and Africa hot." For reals, people talk about how its 47,000+ attendance proved how lacrosse is breaking out of its "niche sport" reputation, but I'll tell you this much: it was by far the whitest thing I've ever been to. KKK rallies always have the chance that there's an undercover guy going in whiteface. An Architecture In Helsinki show? Can't discount the possibility of black hipsters. But when it comes to lacrosse, the only black people in attendance have kids on the field or won a radio contest.While Ian brings out the chuckles there, the real gold lies in the comments to the essay:
Ironic that the greatest lacrosse player of all time was one of the blackest men of all time.
JMar 06.04.06 - 7:36 pm #
True, but Jim Brown's greatest legacy to lacrosse is his view on what constitutes proper treatment of a woman.
Ian Homepage 06.04.06 - 8:37 pm #
I rule the school.
I'm pretty sure there are little yellow short buses dropping off students at the institution your purport to rule.
Speaking of anti-sports, dust off that resume, Glaude. SU is looking for a new women's basketball coach.
Easily one of the worst jobs in America.