An argument for Del Negro

I do not have a good enough basketball eye to be able to judge the ability of an NBA coach. I dont have enough knowledge of what plays they run, what defense they are running, what inbound plays they call(which cubsfan always criticizes). Basically, i dont have a good enough eye to be able to distinguish the difference between players not being skilled enough to execute plays, or the coach not being skilled enough to call/practice the right plays. And obviously many NBA GM's also can't because there have been hundreds of bad NBA coaches. So how can you Sexy Rexy, Cubsfan, or anybody really judge how good or bad Del Negro is?

All you are basing your opinions on is the word of so called NBA "experts". Experts have been wrong before, and they will continue to be wrong for many years to come. Del Negro took the Bulls to the playoffs with a crappy team that didnt even have Deng and almost knocked off the defensing champs. I would argue that Del Negro is no worse than an average coach. The fact that this bulls team has more than 7 wins this year is utterly amazing to me.

Nobody i know is skilled enough to judge the abilities of a basketball coach. The only legitimate reason to fire Del Negro is the negative perception of him that has spread throughout the NBA, such that free agents may shunt the Bulls because of Del Negro's perception. Perception is not always reality, but that may not matter to Wade and Bosh, hence Del Negro has to go.

The Greatest NFC Playoff Run EVER!

How fortuitous that right after I do a brief NFC North post when I was bored, that I come across an SI article predicting every single division, how the playoffs will shake out, and the scores of those games. I wrote a post long long ago back in the day of GOI's origins about just how dumb magazines making predictions are, especially considering they are going to, for a fact, not even be close. Injuries will occur and teams we thought would finish in the cellar will rise to win their division and we'll all throw away all the predictions we had in the beginning of the year (except for the stupid "analysts" who will pick a team only because "they picked them at pre-season" instead of, you know, doing actual analysis and watch games and base teams off of that). And even though I have made meaningless NFL predictions, I fully admit I will be wrong.

But back to the SI article. They say the Bears will go 12-4, win their division, and get the #2 overall seed in the NFC. But the kicker, is that the Viking and Packers will get the 5th and 6th wild card spots, respectively.

This will make for the best NFC playoff run ever.

You see, for the Viking and Packers both win their first weeks while the Bears have a bye. Then the Bears will face the Vikings and beat them. THEN, in the NFC Championship game, the Bears will face the Packers, and of course punch their chesseheads in.

ANDwhileUNFORTUNATELYtheBEARSwillLOSEinTHEsuperbowlTOtheDOMINANTnewenglandPATRIOTS, according to Sports Illustrated, the Bears will have a monster NFC playoff run.

I hope SI is right because that would be AMAZING, but now I just read this article and laugh.

Experts in College Basketball

Every year we here people telling us how to figure out our brackets. During this time of year, there's nothing really big happening in sports (But Sexy Rexy, what about the WBC? 1) That just recently started and it's not every year. 2) Like I said nothing really BIG happening) so ESPN is forced to talk about March Madness. Every single person and their mother is telling us who to pick. This year, the President weighed in on the issue. And every year people are wrong. NCAA places teams unnecessarily too high and unnecessarily too low, the average fan doesn't know too much about any real mid-major teams, and the single elimination format all are reasons that people fill out their bracket wrong and end up ripping it up after the first three days.

Now ESPN sounds like they can have some real nice analysis here. I heard guys like Digger Phelps explain why teams will win based on certain player match ups and certain defenses teams are prone too/ teams can execute. For example, Digger helped me to know that LSU is a good match up for UNC because of the defense LSU players can execute and the lack of defense by UNC (Sure, UNC beat LSU by 14, but who cares about outcomes, right?). However, no matter what, upsets are bound to happen.

But sometimes, as the analysts loves to do, ESPN makes some mistakes. Here's something my brother pointed out to me:

"Bob Knight thinks part of Memphis' problem is that it played mediocre teams to finish the season. Bob feels that this is the best thing that could have happened to the Tigers."

What? Is it a problem or not? I'm confused. Plus, my favorite thing about the quote is that when Bob Knight THINKS, Memphis is in trouble. But when Bob Knight FEELS, everything's okay for Memphis. The moral according to ESPN? Don't think, just feel. (The above sarcasm is also from my bro)

Now the Final Four is different. You have to win four games to get there and the best teams, the vast majority of the time, tend to make it to the Final Four. In fact, as this site always loves, you can create statistical analysis to determine the Final Four, The Championship Game, and the Winner of it all. A Georgia Tech professor actually created a formula to determine The Final Four and above

Thus formula over the past few years have proven to be extremely accurate. But again, this doesn't help for the four earlier round where many who can create a points edge on the people in your pool

I understand why ESPN has so much coverage dedicated to March Madness. They have to. They're a 24/7 sports news station. They also have to have analysis and predictions. But what I think is important here, is that you really don't listen to those predictions. There's so many conflicting viewpoints between analysts and the fact it you can;t use any logic or reason to say who's gonna win, at least in the first few rounds. So if you're bracket is still competitive and you enjoy college basketball, have fun for the next few weeks or so. But as for me, I'm going to tune out ESPN and focus all of new attention on fantasy baseball drafting. Only one more week baby!

Maxim Magazine and Sports- An Oxymoron

So at the beginning of the year I bought a Maxim magazine for a school project (I swear it's for this advertising class I'm in. I have a computer, I'd use that instead of waste my money if I wanted to look at hot girls) Anyway, they have this whole section dedicated to the NFL. They have their own NFL Prediction and they created an "All-Maxim Team" where they mentioned certain players and have little interviews with them (they also have interviews with some hot cheerleaders too 'Oh, I'm going to college right now to be a marine biologist" Sure you are sweetie, you're taking classes after football games and before you strip at nightclubs... Anyway, I'm digressing here.)

My point is this (actually I have two). What does it take to really be considered in the "All Maxim Team"? I guess they try and get the best player available at each position? But if that was the case, then why are players like Chris Cooley (TE), Ben Roethlisberger (QB), Haloti Ngata (D) (Wait, his position is "D", what they fuck is that short for? He just plays defense? What!?), Al Harris (CB), Leonard Davis (OG), and Matt Birk (C) considered for this list. I mean they're GOOD, but are they the very best at their position, probably not.
Here are some of the qualifications I think it takes to be on the "All Maxim Team"
1) You have to be available to actually sit down, take a picture, and kind of sort of talk with a Maxim "reporter" (and I use the term reporter loosely)
2) You have to like to look at hot women. Not necessary fuck them, just look at them. With something, just a little bit, covering, all their private parts
3) YOU HAVE TO BE A MAN!
4) You have to look good in a bathing suit randomly running down a sandy beech with a hot girl sunbathing in the distance...
5) You have to have a story that is kind of funny to you and your teammates but when you tell it to a Maxim "reporter" you just sound like a retard

Secondly, what does it take to be an football expert writing for Maxim? Here's the bracket of how they predicted the 2008/2009 season playoffs to shake out

AFC:
1) New England Patriots
2) Indianapolis Colts
3) San Diego Chargers
4) Pittsburgh Steelers
5) Jacksonville Jaguars
6) Cleveland Browns

(BTW, this is what the 2007/2008 AFC picture looked expect replace Cleveland with Tennessee Titans)

Round One: Pittsburgh beats Jacksonville and San Diego beats Cleveland.
Round Two: New England beats Pittsburgh and Indianapolis beats San Diego
Round Three: New England beats Indianapolis

(apparently Maxim is full of pussies and predict no upsets. Maxim, pussies, get it? It's irony)

NFC:
1) Dallas Cowboys
2) New Orleans Saints
3) Green Bay Packers
4) Seattle Seahawks
5) Philadelphia Eagles
6) Arizona Cardinals

Round One: Arizona beats Green Bay and Philadelphia beats Seattle
Round Two: New Orleans beats Philadelphia and Dallas beats Arizona
Round Three: Dallas beats New Orleans

(Ooooh, and upset in the first round! Two of them! Going bold Maxim, Go-ing bold!)

Superbowl: New England beats Dallas

(apparentely only two upsets will occus throughout the ENTIRE playoffs and both will happen in the first round of the NFC playoffs)

So here's what the playoffs are GOING to look like (pretty much)

AFC:
1) Tennessee Titans
2) Pittsburgh Steelers
3) New York Jets/ New England Patriots/Miami Dolphins
4) Denver Broncos
5) Indianapolis Colts
6) Baltimore Ravens

NFC:
1) New York Giants
2) Carolina Panthers
3) Minnesota Vikings
4) Arizona Cardinals
5) Tampa Bay Buccaneers
6) Atlanta Falcons/ Dallas Cowboys

(the order may not be exactly like this because the Carolina Panthers could miracously run the table and get the #1 NFC spot but don't be be too shocked to see the real playoff order turn out like this)

Good job Maxim. Way to really be on the ball on this one. Way to really tell the vast majority of your readers what they didn't already think would happen and gave great insight to predicting the future! Fucktards.