Thinking out loud…while wondering if honesty is the best policy, isn’t insanity still the best defense?
I’ve come to the conclusion – not that this is any big revelation – but analytics creeping into the sports world simply suck the fun right out of the game.
They’re also part of “The Big Lie.”
Look, I loved “Moneyball.” Billy Beane’s story and accomplishments at the beginning of all this “statistical stuff”…plus the continued use of the science behind the sport is understandable. Hey, it’s probably used in many places, and still benefits sport and team and coaches and athletes.
Somewhere, maybe.
But it’s just too much these days. Numbers dictating (or not dictating) relative strength or worth, based on some mathematical equation? It’s arbitrary. What you see isn’t always what you get, and vice versa.
We’re becoming lazy. We won’t watch players, or teams, or sports events to actually SEE someone perform when the pressure is on, or off. No, instead we’ll rely on the metrics to tell us what was good and bad.
And that makes you an expert? Sure. If you’re into shoveling s*** for a living.
We’re now relying on geeky stat nerds to tell us who is playing well, who isn’t, and how we can correct things? Please. Nothing that a few good sessions in the weight room can’t fix if you ask me.
I’m particularly peeved at Ken Pomeroy and college basketball’s NET rankings this week. I cannot for the world understand what they can see (without their own eyes, btw) that I cannot. College basketball teams are rewarded, fairly or not, for stronger schedules when often those strong schedules end up beating them to a pulp.
I give you UConn. And maybe Creighton, too, as examples. Those are two very good teams. What about Villanova? Where is the credit for teams that develop later in the season? For teams that start slowly and improve?
Even Creighton’s Greg McDermott has admitted he might have over-scheduled his team this year…and add a key illness or injury (like Ryan Kalkbrenner) plus little developing depth…you’ve got issues on your hands.
How about teams that hit the conditioning and weight rooms? Yes, like PC. You can tell who does, and doesn’t, do that. In the overtime periods Tuesday night at the AMP, the Friars had their legs. The Jays had little left in the tank.
That’s where the real strength in a schedule comes from.
Providence won the game, even if they lost the metric war. Creighton was 14 in the NET Wednesday morning. Providence was 40. The Friars are 26 spots BELOW a team they just beat? That’s some funky math.
It’s certainly tough to see ‘em all, sure. But only by watching the games, rather than losing yourself (and your mind) in some math formula, can you really see what’s going on.
Metrics make us lazy. What you see…isn’t what you get. Rant over…for now.
Not for nuthin’, but I was told after just barely scraping by in high school trig there would be no need for complicated math for the rest of my life. Somebody lied to me.
My buddy “Big E” sez he always sez ‘mornin’ to people instead of ‘good morning.’ Because if it was a good morning, he’d still be in bed and not talking to people.
This week, #1 Alabama suffered the eighth loss this season for an Associated Press top-ranked team. That’s the most losses for a #1 team in a single year since 1993-94. Oh yeah, this thing is wide open.
The Friars’ double OT win over Creighton, while exhausting for everyone, does prove staying power is prevalent within the mindset on that bench. PC is 9-1 in their last 10 OT games.
Fox Sports and The Sporting News’ Mike DeCourcy told This Week in the Big East that the PC-Creighton game was the best game he’s seen all season in college basketball. It would be tough to argue his point, with 20 lead changes and 17 ties in that one.
This Week in the Big East features Creighton’s potential player of the year Ryan Kalkbrenner, Big East associate commish Stu Jackson and Fox’s DeCourcy. Find the show on Sirius 134, XM 201 and Online 964 at 11:00 am ET Saturday, and online at westwoodonesports.com and bigeast.com.
More difficulty in the nation’s capital at Georgetown…Qudus Wahab, who was a part of the Hoyas’ winning the Covid Big East tourney title two years ago, transferred to Maryland and then transferred back to Georgetown for this season…has left the program. Again.
So, we know Notre Dame’s Mike Brey is leaving as head coach of the Fighting Irish at the end of their season. What we didn’t know…until this past week…is that he still wants to coach. He’s 63 years young.
Is there a place for him back in the Big East? Georgetown? St. John’s is unlikely to make a move on Mike Anderson – still too much on his present contract to pay out, I’ve heard. But never say ‘never.’
The story at New Mexico State is stunning. Head coach Greg Heiar was fired this week, after the program threw in the towel on the season last week. That’s right, they shut it down.
Since Heiar’s tenure at the school began a year ago…one of his players allegedly killed a student at New Mexico, three other players hazed a younger fourth player, and the program stopped playing before their season was completed.
The team was 2-16 in the WAC, so it was probably already over. And this program beat UConn a year ago in the NCAA Tournament.
URI this week decided to part ways with guard Brayon Freeman, who had transferred into Rhody from George Washington. After having some apparent difficulties with the coaching staff, head coach Archie Miller pulled the plug on his time in Kingston.
Sometimes, when changes occur at the top, the chemistry just doesn’t work. Reportedly, he’ll stay in school to finish the current term.
URI lost a tough one at the buzzer to VCU this week, 55-54, with VCU’s Rams closing the game on a 24-10 run. Rhody’s Rams host UMass Saturday and will hold a “Ring of Honor” ceremony at halftime to recognize Silk Owens, Tom Garrick and Kenny Green…all on that 1987-88 Sweet 16 team.
The Rhody women…are still not ranked in the AP Top 25. But they did receive votes this week for a second straight week. URI continues to set the pace in the Atlantic-10 but dropped from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten with a loss to UMass Thursday.
A rare home loss at the Ryan Center for Tammi Reiss’ Rams…who were 15-39 at home in the four years before she arrived as head coach. Since then, these Rams are 41-9, even with the Thursday loss.
Brown’s big weekend last week gets another major test this week, as the Bears push toward a potential postseason berth in the upcoming Ivy League Tournament. With four games remaining, the Bears are 6-4 and one game out of first place…tied with Penn for third. They play at Princeton and at Penn this weekend.
And congrats to head coach Mike Martin – who became Brown’s all-time winningest head basketball coach with the win over Cornell last week. It was the 134th of his career for the ’04 grad.
Bryant hit a roadblock this week on their way to another potential NCAA tourney ride. The Bulldogs lost to UMass-Lowell at home and are now 7-6 overall in America East play, tied for fourth. They have this Saturday off before playing at NJIT next week.
Former Friar big man Marcus Douthit has almost completed his first season as head basketball coach at CCRI. The Knights are riding a three-game winning streak at midweek going to Northern Essex, and are 14-12 overall on the year.
Friar hockey has a home-and-home series with UMass-Lowell this weekend that could very well be a make-or-break weekend. UML is just ahead of PC in the Hockey East standings, and a couple of wins would help not just for momentum, but also for potential postseason play.
Don’t look now, but that’s the Providence Bruins also grabbing a share of the spotlight in the AHL, just like the big club. The PBruins lead the Atlantic Division with 67 points, and presently hold the third best record overall in the AHL behind Toronto and Calgary.
Georgii Merkulov is the reigning AHL player of the week – and the PBruins rookie has scored a goal in five straight games with nine total points in that span. He also has four game-winning goals in his last five games. Smokin’ hot.
Even with their recent “mini slump,” Boston’s Bruins are still on schedule for one of the best regular seasons in NHL history. Their win over Dallas this week was their 40th of the year, tying the 2015-16 Washington Caps for fewest games needed in a season to reach 40 wins.
It took them 53 games to get there. Slackers. Boston also tied the 1979-80 Philadelphia Flyers for most points in the first 53 games of a season, with 85.
Tweet of the Week, from @BostonSportsInf: “NHL best points %: 1. Bruins (40-8-5, .802) NBA best record: 1. Celtics (42-17 .712) - Celtics head to the All-Star break with the best record in the NBA.”
They also head to the break with a full-time coach, as Johnston’s Joe Mazzulla had the interim tag removed from his job description this week. He’ll ‘coach’ Team Giannis at the All-Star game in Salt Lake City – making him only the third first-year coach in the last 24 seasons to lead an all-star team.
How quickly things can change. A minute ago, we’re all Patriots and Red Sox. Now, it’s all about the Celtics and Bruins. We’re fickle. But we also know what we like – winnahs.
Time passages: 1960’s and ‘70’s sex symbol movie star (ok, maybe the ‘80’s, too) Raquel Welch passed away this week at age 82. For those of a certain age, she’ll forever remain a pin-up superstar. What say you, fussy britches?
And baseball Hall of Famer Tim McCarver died of heart failure at age 81. Yes, he was a pretty good catcher with the Cardinals, behind the plate for guys like Bob Gibson…and he was one of the few to play in the majors over parts of four decades…including with the Red Sox.
But he’ll probably be remembered most for his announcing career with the Phillies, Mets, Yankees, Giants and Cardinals…plus network gigs with NBC, ABC and with Fox. You knew it was a big game with Tim at the mic.
McCarver received the ultimate broadcasting honor from the Hall, the Ford Frick Award in 2012, before he retired in 2013.
Pitchers and catchers reported to Fort Myers this week? YAWN. Did anyone show up to do live training camp reports? TV or radio?
If that isn’t a warning siren for Sox hierarchy, it should be. Hey, if they’re yelling at you, or yelling about you, at least they care. When they don’t show up, they don’t care.
The phantom runner lives for extra innings. Bases that look like pizza boxes. First instinct is, as a baseball “purist” – this is awful.
But upon further reflection, baseball needs a kick in the seat. Something to move games along, shorten the interminable length and keep the action moving on the field.
The pitch clock will probably irritate the hell out of pitchers. Good. I’m willing to give that a shot.
Another warning shot fired baseball’s way – if the regional sports channels carrying major league games (fortunately, the Sox don’t have this problem with NESN…yet) are forced into bankruptcy, there may be a short term gain for baseball fans through increased coverage in streaming contracted games.
But…teams will lose a large chunk of revenue. Which will affect everyone. Including the fans paying the freight.
As the numbers settle in, Super Bowl LVII came in as the third-most watched championship game ever, with 113 million viewers. Numbers One and Two? XLIX (Patriots-Seahawks) and LI (Patriots-Falcons).
Guess the Chiefs still have some work to do to match those dynastic Patriots, amiright?
The TV audience last week actually averaged over 118 million viewers when Rhianna came on to shake her, um, booty at halftime. Whether you liked it or not – clearly, someone else sure did. Just sayin’.
Best commercial? C’mon. I just wish I had known Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez would be pulling up to work at the Dunkin in Medford that day.
Seven million bucks for that 30 seconds of exposure. And we’re still talking about it days later. Grab me a glazed, will ya?
The draft order is set (NE will pick 14th) and the Patriots cap space is pretty much determined ($34 million-ish sez our buddy Patscap). Who’s ready to wheel, deal and legally tamper with free agents?
As long as we’re dreaming about Deebo Samuels or Tee Higgins, can we also throw in a wistful thought or two about Jalen Ramsey?
Reveling in some of the Eagles’ fans misery last weekend, I was reminded of a pretty cool fact: The city of Philadelphia suffered THREE championship losses in the 2022-23 sports year – the Eagles, the Phillies and the Philadelphia Union in the MLS Cup final all lost championship games.
Maybe the Sox will stink. And maybe the Patriots need a dose of talent and vitality. But here’s another pretty cool fact: No matter how bad you think you might have it, someone else always has it worse.
Adding insult to injury, Angelo Cataldi, a URI grad and former Providence Journal reporter who was actually present for the longest game in baseball history at Pawtucket’s McCoy Stadium…hosted his final radio show Friday in Philadelphia after more than three decades of ratings success.
Thanks, Philly. I feel a little better now.
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