Watchman

So I have figured out what the role of this blog is, at least part of it that is. I don’t try to perform much direct analysis of sporting events myself, because people that cover sports for a living do a much better job of it than I (Sports Illustrated, NFL.com, parts of ESPN.com), although there are some obvious hacks out there (Peter King, Gene Wojciechowski). I also weigh in on the good (Gus Johnson, Dan Schulman) and the bad (Mike Patrick, Tim McCarver) of the sports announcing world.

I analyze the analysis. I am the answer to that immortal Latin saying. I watch the watchmen.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? (Who shall watch the watchers themselves?)

Il Oceanlinere

This is a responsibility I don’t take lightly. So let’s get to it and move on to my weekly Peter King bashing.

I have already harped on how stupid it is that King continued to rank his Fine 15 teams throughout the playoffs, so we won’t spend long here.

Like a bad dream, King ranked his Fine 15 after the Super Bowl. He at least had the decency and the sanity to rank Pittsburgh and Arizona 1-2 in the “rankings”. Frankly, I wasn’t sure he was even going to that, but at least he hasn’t gone completely off the deep end.

I wanted to bring up King to illustrate how stupid his rankings were by highlighting how one team moved up and down the rankings, even though they missed the playoffs. Let’s review the New England Patriots.

The Patriots missed the playoffs, so by definition they were not one of the 8 best teams in the NFL. Yes the NFL division and seeding rules are strange so it is possible to argue this, but King ranks the Pats at 7 in his Fine 15 heading into the postseason. Interesting.

The next week, after Wild Card weekend, the Pats moved up in King’s rankings to 6th, even though, yes, they weren’t playing anymore. Ridiculous.

You can see where this is going. After the Divisional Weekend, when the Patriots shockingly continued not to play, King moved them up again, this time to 5th! Bill Belicheck must be more of a genius that I thought. No, it’s just King is that stupid.

For some reason King regained his senses after the Conference championship games and didn’t do his rankings, instead focusing on Super Bowl coverage. The Patriots waited in limbo.

Then after the Super Bowl, King was back with his Fine 15. With giddy anticipation I checked to see where the Pats were. Hilariously, they had dropped a spot to 6! I shake my head in amazement.

To recap, the Patriots went from 7, to 6, to 5, to 6…all without playing a game.

Ladies and gentlemen, Peter King!

Note to the ESPN.com watchmen who write headlines: you need to come up with some better puns with regards to Duke, or stop using them at all. ‘Be-deviled’ really doesn’t cut it anymore, especially when this year I have seen that headline both after a Duke win (Maryland) and a Duke loss (Clemson). Plus this isn’t exactly the first year this phrase has been used. ESPN pun writers, you can do better.

If Virginia is going to win another game in the ACC, they are going to have to stop having awful first halves. Over their last 6 conference game (all losses), the Hoos average halftime deficit is an astounding 15 points. It is almost impossible to come back from that, no matter how well you play in the second half, especially in ACC country. In 4 of those 6 games, Virginia outscored the other team in the second half (Duke and Carolina being the exceptions). Against Maryland, UVA was down 15 at the half, fought valiantly to pull within 3, and ultimately fell by 6. The most recent example was on Wednesday, where UVA fell behind by 20 at the half at home against Boston College, which is in itself inexcusable. Again the Hoos fought back and brought it to within 7 at one point in the second half, before losing by 10. These first half hole diggings are absolutely killing the team.

Another reason the Cavs lost on Wednesday was their inability to play basketball very well. Sylven Landesberg was again fantastic, pouring in 32 points on 56% shooting and adding 6 boards, 3 assists, 3 steals and a block. The rest of the team however, shot a ridiculously bad 21% from the field. As a team, the Cavs went 1-14 from three point “range”. The defense was also bad, allowing the Eagles to shoot 51% from the field. One positive note was after committing 23 turnovers against Duke on Sunday, the Hoos only had 7 on Wednesday. These BC games are the ones we have to win though, as we go to Chapel Hill tomorrow and are most certainly going to get annihilated.

At least the UNC game is on Raycom, so the watchmen won’t be Mike Patrick or Dick Vitale. But don’t worry, I’d be there even if they were.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Il Oceanlinere