Add/Drop/Trade/Kill/Destroy*

Just wanted to remind everyone that the guys from my fantasy football league and I work on a separate blog, one centered around our league and also focused on the larger scope of fantasy football.


The Official Unofficial Blog of the Cavalier Keeper League -- the best fantasy football league on the planet:

Add/Drop/Trade/Kill/Destroy*

I'm not begging for your clicks, just wanted to let you know that if you play fantasy football or follow the NFL in general, you might enjoy the blog.

Up now is a great piece from Paul about the weird dismantling of the Super Bowl Champion Baltimore Ravens.  Go check it out.  And enjoy!

CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK!

So...

Because I love Championship Week (and hate trees*), I decided to print off the brackets for all 30 conference tournaments and post them on the wall outside my office.  It's become an office-wide "team builder" to meet up every morning and update the brackets and track the results.  HR UPSIDE YO' HEAD!

Proof:

Special thanks to my friend Jon for the pictures.


*And by the way, here's why I hate trees:

And then...

...there is THIS.

God bless March Madness.  Long live insanity.

Six Days 'Til Destiny...

In our current status (see right), I am saying "we ARE the bubble."  What that means is that by my precise triangulation, we are either the last team in the Tournament or the first team out of the tournament.

Take a quick look at The Bracket Matrix.  Of the 92 on-line bracketologists they track, Virginia appears in 27 of the brackets.  That's 29%.  Which tells me, we have a shot if Selection Sunday were today.  But since there are more games to play, we have a chance to play our way to firmer footing... or off the bubble completely and into the NIT.

On Friday at approximately 2:30, we'll be playing the winner of NC State/Virginia Tech.  If it's the Wolfpack, it gives us a golden opportunity to notch another RPI top-50 win, on a neutral court, and I think a win puts us into the NCAA Tournament (regardless of what happens Saturday, unless we lose to BC or GT if either of them can slip past Miami.)

The homer in me says that this ACCT sets up extremely favorably for the Hoos, if we can carry our defense from the second half of the Maryland game to Greensboro, and can rediscover our shooting touch -- which might just be contingent on a little rest for some weary legs.  Anyway, NC State is extremely beatable, and I relish, RELISH another crack at Miami (who I will be sorry to see not receive a 1-seed in the NCAA Tournament, as I was super excited to see the first-ever 16-seed upset over a 1-seed).

Anyway, we need to leave Greensboro with at least a win over State or Miami (or Duke or UNC if things go really wacky and we play VT and then BC/GT to get to the championship game).

All of that being said, here are the pros and cons of our current résumé:

PROS

• 21-10 overall record.  20 wins is no longer the gold standard, but this is still a solid record for a power conference team.
• 11-7 in the ACC.  Unless Virginia Tech did it in one of their spectacular tournament snubs, I can't really remember an ACC team that finished four games above .500 missing the NCAAT.  The committee "doesn't consider that," but still.
• Joe Harris.  He gained some national acclaim in the win over Duke, a little star power, a little marketability.  The committee says all they care about are blind résumés and fair bracketing, but I call horseshit on that.  Don't be naive.  It behooves them to create good, compelling television, and a rising star like Joe can help us make the cut.
• 4-2 against the RPI top 50.  No other bubble team can boast the wins we have.  We have the prettiest pelts.
• 8-3 against the RPI top 100.  This is a number of a 4-, 5-, or 6-seed, not a 12-seed play-in team.
• Eyeball test.  Yes, we've looked bad at times.  But the times when the eyeballs were really on us - in Madison, against NC State, etc. - we played well.  Nobody saw us choke on the ODU chicken bone, but everyone saw us beat Duke.
• Some of our bad losses - Wake, Clemson, GT, BC - are not as bad as the RPI indicates.  I think the committee knows that all four of those teams have flashed some impressive play at times, especially at home.  Wake beat Xavier, NC State, and Miami.  Clemson played Gonzaga and Arizona tough, and nearly beat Miami.  Georgia Tech took down Miami.  Boston College nearly sprung upsets over NC State, Miami, and Duke.

CONS

• Seven bad losses, including four REALLY bad losses and one PUTRID loss.  I could kill Old Dominion right now.  If we had won that game, I think we're talking about a 9- or 10-seed right now, instead of sweating the bubble.
• 6-4 in our last 10 games, which doesn't look so bad until you consider the fact that we're 4-4 in our last 8.  .500 ball down the stretch doesn't inspire the committee.
• Trouble away from home.  We're 18-1 at home, and just 3-9 away from the JPJ.  We won't play our NCAAT games in the JPJ.  (The good news is that all of our fellow bubble teams similarly suck away from home.)
• Style of play.  If I list Joe Harris and his rising star as a pro, I have to list our ugly-to-the-untrained-eye Bennettball system as a con.  Games played in the low 50s are not attractive on TV.
• Last year's nosedive against Florida.  They aren't supposed to consider previous seasons, but they do.  And we looked really bad in last year's first round game.

Add it all up, and I'm still pretty bullish on our chances.  Like I said, nobody else on the bubble can boast the wins we can.  And ultimately, I think that - plus a decent showing in Greensboro - will put us into the Dance.

Grit.

Win over NC State on Friday or not, NCAA Tournament or NIT, whatever...  I just love this effing team.  WAHOOWA.

Day of Reckoning

It is here.  Win, and our NCAA Tournament hopes stay alive.  Lose, and they die.

To avoid talking about basketball...

...I'll say this: I'm surprised how many people asked me about NCAA Football (the video game) after I mentioned it in the America 12 post yesterday.

When it comes to that game, here's my m/o: I only play single-player dynasty mode, I only play on Heisman difficulty (not trying to brag, but I like it to be really hard, if possible), and I only coach shitty schools.  Over the course of the last decade, here is the exhaustive list of teams I have elevated to elite status and a national championship.  In no particular order...

Virginia, multiple times (of course)
Baylor (pre Art Briles, when they were super-crappy)
Iowa State
Temple
Purdue
Indiana
Washington State
Vanderbilt
Kansas

Here's where it gets really fun...
Memphis
UAB
SMU
Rice
Tulane
Army
Bowling Green
Akron
Eastern Michigan
San Diego State
Wyoming
Colorado State
UNLV
Hawaii
Middle Tennessee
Louisiana-Monroe
Utah State
Idaho

Currently working on: New Mexico

Some superlatives from the last decade or so of wasting copious hours of my life playing the various annual iterations of this game...

Toughest place to win: Army
Second toughest: Idaho
Top five favorite rags-to-riches schools: Memphis, Tulane, UNLV, Utah State, Wyoming

Sweet, sweet Green Wave

Longest non-Virginia coaching tenure: Memphis (~10 seasons)
Wackiest in-game realignmageddon: guiding Idaho into the Pac-10
Second wackiest: Memphis into the SEC
Third wackiest: Army into the Big 10
To-do list: Virginia (always and forever), Navy, Ohio U, Buffalo, UMass, Toledo, Western Michigan, Louisiana-Lafayette, FIU, FAU, South Alabama, San Jose State, UTSA
#1 lesson learned: I hate the Big 10
#2 lesson: develop recruitng pipelines in Florida, Texas, and/or Cali
#3 lesson: recruit running backs and convert them into defensive ends
#4 lesson: once winning gets easy, jump ship to the next challenge, never overstay the challenge
Uniforms I liked at first but then learned to hate: Indiana, Army (with the camo), SMU, Vandy, ULM
Uniforms I was meh about at first but then learned to love: Tulane, UAB, Memphis, Utah State, UNLV

Biggest self-indulgence: Writing this Wahooze post.