Let’s have some fun projecting the NCAA’s top 4 seeds for the Big Dance. This is based on what the Confidential thinks will happen… not going by “if the season ended today.” Projecting out how the regular season tournaments will finish and what the committee will actually do. We limit it to the seeded teams.
30+ years ago, George Brett takes issue with a call by an official.
This author has been following sports for about 40 years now. The officials have always been a subject of controversy in sports. Here is one opinion on the 10 worst calls in officiating. Few are recent. Most of these go back to an era before instant replay, before sports blogs, and before Twitter. Now, as noted by Pat Forde (who this author does not generally agree with): “Twitter, message boards and call-in shows are veritable forest fires of ref-bashing both during and after games.” This is true. If you follow Twitter feeds for two fan bases during a game, you would come to a conclusion that the refs of <insert league> are incompetent and biased in favor of <insert opponent>. Nobody loses anymore, they lose to the opponent and a bunch of bribed, incompetent, script-following officials. Obviously, this is not true. But respected and successful blogger Sean Keeley (Troy Nunes is an Absolute Magician) tweeted a good point:
Re: coaches not respecting referees. Referees should be treated like coaches then and have to face media after games. Level the field.
One of the things that is frustrating is that coaches have to answer to the media after a loss. This can involve judgment calls–why did you call that timeout, why did you not call that timeout, why not play a backup, etc. In general, officials do not. And when Jim Joyce cost the Detroit Tigers’ Andres Gallaraga a no-hitter, his tearful admission of error and apology was, somehow, comforting enough to make it a non-issue. Human beings, for all their faults, are able to forgive someone who admits an error and is sincerely contrite. Are we at a point where there is so much media (formal and social) that officials should want to be in front of the media for their own sake?
The Confidential has devoted a lot of time and space to the Syracuse Orange. Once 25-0 and ranked #1, this made sense. But today’s matchup between the Virginia Cavaliers and Syracuse left no doubt which team deserves the regular season crown. It’s Virginia… who rolled over Syracuse, 75-56, on the way to a 16-1 regular season and championship.
Update: With Credit to Bleedinorange44, and some further analysis by the author, here is a revised version!
With the outstanding ratings being drawn by Syracuse-Duke, the question that begs is whether the ACC can configure the schedule to allow Duke-Syracuse to play annually, without interfering with other obligations and rivalries. The Confidential has a proposal.
One of the great things about all sports is that the result unfolds in front of you. It is not an episode of… let’s just say… Law and Order… where there is an ending pre-written and you just wonder where someone has pre-ordained your emotions to go. No, when it is 8:50 p.m. for a game that starts at 7:00 p.m., the ending remains unknown. Unless, of course, one team has a lead that is insurmountable. Even then, however, there is still the potential for a “moment.” Each season will have some close games. The 2013-2014 edition of Syracuse basketball is seemingly only close games. Last night kept that streak of nailbiters, alive, with Syracuse returning to its winning ways, defeating Maryland 57-55.
It’s basketball season in ACC country, and things are better than ever. Four teams are ranked in the AP poll (#4 Syracuse, #6 Duke, #12 Virginia, and #19 North Carolina), and the league is coming off of one of its most exciting weeks ever. An unexpected roadblock in Syracuse’s quest for dominance has sent them reeling, while the Duke-North Carolina game was, well…Duke and North Carolina. An instant classic. So naturally, the league is doing everything it can to seize this media momentum by calling a press conference today to talk about…football.
Last week at this time, this author wrote that Syracuse was a flawed team that is and deserves to be 25-0. Part of the logic was that a team that captures victory from defeat is deserving of that–even if arguable luck and good calls play a role. Syracuse haters cannot focus on one or two plays. One week later, the only reasonable conclusion is that Syracuse deserves to be 25-2. Again, this author is a diehard Syracuse fan that has been following basketball since, well, forever. Rest assured, it was before the Carrier Dome was even conceived. Much like Syracuse haters could not focus on one or two plays as demonstrative of luck or referees dictating the outcome, Syracuse fans cannot do the same here. It is what it is. The team is a fair and deserving 25-2.
When it was announced that Syracuse was joining the ACC, I was immediately excited. Having grown up with a number of front-running Carolina and Duke fans, I couldn’t wait for the Orange to storm into the conference and make the blue bloods on Tobacco Road rue the day they invited Jim Boeheim and company to the ACC basketball party.
When the conference schedule was released, there was much hand wringing among Orange bloggers I know about how Swofford and his cronies were going to try to screw the newcomers. Sure, they had to be happy a top-tier program like Syracuse was coming into the fold. But the ACC has also lived for decades on the myth that it’s a deep basketball conference, when in reality its been the ‘Heels and the Dookies running things for the better part of the last two decades. Surely they would want the yankees to be put firmly in their place during the first outing.
Following an overtime loss to Notre Dame last season Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino promised his players that he would get a tatoo if they didn’t lose another game. Soon after they won the national championship he got a tatoo on the back of his left shoulder to honor thier accomplishment. To inspire his team to finish strong this season the whole program has decided to stop shaving until they lose. The power of the beard has become a popular and successful practice in sports, mainly in baseball. Only a few games in and Pitino appeares to be sporting a 5 o’clock shadow. By the end of the year I am hopeing they are styleing beards more like ZZ Top than Duck Dynasty.
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The Confidential just spent 1,000 words explaining that Syracuse deserved to be 25-0. They most certainly did–even with their flaws. But those flaws came out in full force in a loss to Boston College last night. And now Syracuse most certainly deserves to be 25-1. Only the specifics of that “1” are such that there is significant cause for concern. And perhaps even relief. Here is why.
The Confidential 