Random Thoughts

Bad News Kansas City Royals fans: Pitchers and Catchers report in 4 days. But there is good news. On this very blog, there will be daily updates of the Royals quest to 100 losses starting with opening day on April 4, 2010, against The Detroit Tigers in Kaufmann Stadium.

UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi was setting up to be a good card with two title fights on April 10, 2010. Late yesterday, it was confirmed that Vitor Belfort will not challenge UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva on the card, as he had to go undergo shoulder surgery. Silva has not defended his title since April and last fought in August, moving up to Light Heavyweight to knock out Forrest Griffin in the first round (one of the best knockouts ever). Silva himself was hurt pushing back this fight and now Belfort is the one with the injury bug. Chael Sonnen, who earned a title shot at UFC 109 just this past weekend, is not able to train until March 9 and suspended from fighting until March 24. One could assume that one month is not sufficient time to train for a battle against “The Spider.” That leaves UFC with two options. Have the winner of the February 20, 2010, contest between Michael Bisping and Wanderlei Silva fight Silva on April 10, 2010, with only 7 weeks between fights or perhaps move Silva up to 205 and have him fight another light heavyweight such as Thiago Silva or Rashad Evans. Dana White has said Silva will remain on the card; however, a suitable opponent for a Championship match in the Middleweight Division may be hard to come by.

Considering the Los Angeles Lakers have won their last 3 games against Western Conference opponents by a comfortable margin without Kobe Bryant, we can now scratch Bryant off as being an MVP candidate. No offense to Kobe, he is still the guy I would want the ball with the game on the line, but Lebron James is well on his way to a second consecutive NBA MVP (with Kevin Durant finishing 2nd).

I understand that Vancouver had an indoor stadium in place with the BC Lions indoor football stadium being used as Olympic stadium; however, not having an outdoor venue for Olympic stadium is a major, major, Olympic fail. Another Olympic fail is having to hear everything pronounced in French and then English. If there is one thing I really want to happen at these Olympic Games is to have The United States defeat Canada in the gold medal hockey game (not gonna happen tho).

On an Entertainment note, it may be too hard to ask Elton John and Lady Gaga to tour together; however, they could cut a record with their pianos and it would be fantastic.

Pac 10 Hoops: What happened this year????

Life on the bubble is especially tough and a gut wrenching experience for many teams, especially during Championship week. Year after year, teams that normally would not qualify for the NCAA Tournament win their conference tournament and steal a bid from maybe a more deserving team. This year, bubble teams will have to focus on one conference tournament in particular, and its not a conference that Butler or Gonzaga is a member (although keep an eye on those as well). This year, the Pac 10 conference is in a position where they may only get one bid, the winner of its conference tournament.

Now, most bracketologists have slotted California as having that bid, and it is with good reason, as on paper, California has an RPI of 26 and a schedule ranked 3rd toughest in the country, according to realtimerpi. Usually a team in a power conference with these credentials is automatically included in the NCAA Tournament. However, taking a closer look at California (15-8, 7-4 in the Pac 10), shows that the Golden Bears are no lock for the big dance, even if they do not win the Pac 10 tournament.

Looking at California’s schedule shows that they have played four non-conference games against teams ranked 10th or higher in the RPI. California won none of these games and lost each of them by an average of 12.75 points. Their most impressive non-conference win was a 75-70 victory over Murray State (90th RPI) and their best wins in terms of RPI purposes was a 78-70 road victory over Arizona State (76th RPI) and a 67-59 home win over USC (80th RPI). Keep in mind that although California leads the Pac 10 with a 7-4 conference record, the difference between first and last place is just 2.5 games. The good news for California is that out of their last seven games, the four toughest will be at home. One can assume that should Cal finish 12-6 in the Pac 10 and have a decent showing in the conference tournament, finish with an RPI in the 30’s, then they will get a bid; however, that remains to be seen. California has no top 50 RPI wins and at most has an opportunity to pick up two or three more top 100 RPI wins.

Ultimately, the bracketologist in me does not see another team from the Pac 10 dancing in March if California wins the Pac 10 tournament. At that point, California’s tourney fate will be in the hands of the NCAA Tournament committee.

Other conference tournaments to watch should the league favorite lose and fall to at-large status. Bubble teams will want to root for these guys. I am not ready to slide a team from the Colonial Athletic conference in here as they have no clear leader and several teams with RPI’s from 35 to 54. I believe the first three teams are clear locks should they continue at their current pace all the way to their conference tournaments and that UAB and Siena are approaching lock status.

Missouri Valley (Northern Iowa)
Horizon (Butler)
West Coast (Gonzaga)
Conference USA (UAB)
Metro Atlantic Athletic (Siena)

Youtube Channel Launch

And here is the first email I uploaded to youtube. This is from October 23, 2008.

The Minnesota Twins needs Joe Mauer and Joe Mauer needs the Minnesota Twins.

I broke a smile earlier this week when news broke that Joe Mauer and the Minnesota Twins had agreed to a 10 year contract. I am not a fan of the Twins by any means; however, I have spent the better part of 20 years cheering on the Kansas City Royals, another small market team, and I was glad to finally read that possibly the greatest player to ever put on a Twins uniform was going to remain in Minneapolis for the long haul. Those reports were quickly refuted and by the end of the day no deal had been agreed upon and that is where things stand right now, just two weeks before pitchers and catchers report for Spring Training. If a contract is not agreed upon soon, Mauer will enter Spring Training without a contract past the 2010 season.

Look, I know the Twins are a small market team, and usually small market teams are not able to agree to long term deals that normally the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, and Angels can only pull off. However, Joe Mauer is a Minnesota native, spending his high school days in St. Paul, where he was a three sport star, earning a football scholarship to play quarterback at Florida State (where Bobby Bowden I believe still had that offer upon prior to his retirement). Mauer chose to pass up football and agree to terms with the Twins who took him as the overall #1 pick in 2001. Mauer quickly reached the majors and has excelled in his roll, averaging .327 since breaking into the majors in 2004.

With the Twins set to open a new ballpark, Target Field, Mauer is a must sign. There are talks that some of the money that Mauer will be set to earn could be deferred, with the possibility that Mauer could end up being in the Twins ownership group when his time as a ballplayer is done. Whatever the case, the Twins and Mauer have to figure out a way to come to terms on a deal. This must be done for Mauer, the Twins, and overall the game of baseball. I mean, could all the Yankee and Red Sox haters out there stand the thought of Mauer entering free agency in the winter of 2010 knowing that they would both be gunning for Mauer’s services? I know for one I could not, and I’d much rather have Mauer in Minnesota, playing him 18 times a year as a Royals fan, than watching him play in front of those arrogant, awful, no good greedy Yankees or Red Sox fans.

The signing of Mauer, even to a deferred contract, provides an opportunity for the Twins to build their team around him for the next decade. Baseball fans already know that the Twins have a great scouting department and are very good at developing talent. In the past, when it was time for that talent to move on for bigger paydays, they often made trades for younger players that also turned out to perform very well. Money should not be too much on an issue for Mauer, he already has more than enough. His parents are retired because of him and Mauer even has a cabin in the woods in Minnesota which also has a studio where he records rap demos (I’d love to hear some of those).

So, I doubt anyone from the Twins organization and/or Joe Mauer reads this, but please, do me and all of small market baseball a favor, and get this deal done.

From 65 to 96???????

Upon opening up my Twitter account today, my jaw dropped seeing the report from Sports by Brooks that expanding the NCAA Men’s Tournament from 65 to 96 teams was a “done deal.” (Late edit to my blog post, the NCAA is denying this and saying there is "continuous dialogue about it). Considering that many people already de-value the importance of the College Basketball regular season, I myself started to think this format change would de-value it even more. However, after some thinking, I realized that there could be something positive made about of this probable change.

Currently, 65 teams are able to participate in the NCAA Men’s Tournament. 31 teams receive automatic berths, while a committee selects the remaining 34 schools. The automatic bid from each conference comes from the winner of each conference postseason tournament (usually a 3 or 4 day event) and the other 34 teams are composed of teams from power conferences (much to the delight of Billy Packer, Digger Phelps, and Jim Nantz). This potential change brings into the fold 32 more at-large selections; however, if the NCAA wants to get this right, they don’t necessarily have to have 32 more at-large selections.

Since the NCAA has taken over the National Invitational Tournament (NIT), the regular season champion of a conference that does not win its own conference tournament and is not selected by the NCAA as an at-large selection is automatically invited to the NIT. Now, fans of those “power conferences” will not like this; however, I think more emphasis should be given to those teams who win their conference in the regular season. Regardless of conference, every regular season conference champion should be invited to the NCAA Tournament in the new format.

Now, I know what you fans in the “power conferences” are thinking: “Don’t do that. All these little conferences will have their champion tank in their conference tournament so another team can get in.” Actually, that opinion would be wrong and make you a hypocrite. College Basketball coaches and players have a sense of pride and they are not going to "tank" to let perhaps a bitter rival make the NCAA Tournament.

In fact, I’ll even point you to two power conferences in 2009, where sixth seeded USC won the Pac-10 conference tournament, going from a NIT team to a NCAA team (and no, nobody tanked in order for them to win). In fact, the SEC had a similar tournament, as Mississippi State came out of nowhere to win their league’s automatic bid, and knocking another team out of the big dance. So please don’t entertain me with that thought.

In addition, I checked some records, and only four regular season conference champions in one-bid leagues in 2009 failed to win their conference tournament and were subsequently sent to the NIT: (Weber State-Big Sky, Bowling Green-Mid American, Jacksonville-Atlantic Sun, and UT-Martin-Ohio Valley). Now, I understand four may seem low, so I’ll even be more realistic and go with a number of six to eight in a normal year, but that’s still 24 to 26 extra bids available for those borderline mid-major teams that get squeezed more and more each year since George Mason’s incredible run in 2006 (OK now I’m getting to opinionated) and for any other team that made last year’s NIT. Please see the following link for last year’s NIT bracket. (http://www.gocreighton.com/pdf5/389502.pdf?ATCLID=3691532&SPSID=89381&SPID=69&DB_OEM_ID=1000).

So please NCAA, give the regular season more importance and put the NIT to bed once and for all.

I welcome your thoughts in the common section or on my twitter page at http://www.twitter.com/JoeinBugaha