Someday, It Will Happen: A 16th-Seed Victory
03/17/2009
Ben is a writer who's been all over the place, but he did begin here at the Bleacher Report.
He writes about Virginia basketball at www.dearolduva.com.
He's also been featured at rushthecourt.net.
Many of his articles feature a statistical bent on College basketball, but he's been known to come up with an article or two made up of satire.
Good guess, Brey is coming up soon but not the next one (partially because I throw up a little just thinking about this as an option). Guess you'll have to check it out tonight :-).
242 days ago
Got a chance to see Blake Griffin and bounce a few questions off him this weekend...
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/143820-getting-to-know-blake-griffin-two-sides-to-the-terminator
243 days ago
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/142411-oklahomas-jeff-capel-angrily-reacts-to-takedown-of-blake-griffin
247 days ago
I wanted to continue our conversation board to board considering the Memphis message boarders will jump at anything I see and plaster it all over the comments.
My question is was my sample relatively close enough to get a reasonable margin of error? The four games I chose, I chose four two reason. The first when combined they create a SOS closest to CUSA's. The second was, those four games were the only four Big East games against lower opponents that SU wasn't missing key players. I'd have to double check again, but I'm pretty sure Memphis hasn't had to fight through injuries during this streak they are on. So in the games that SU has been healthy, they are romping on these teams which is why I felt that were as accurate a sample as I could get (using conference games) with those teams.
269 days ago
Wow ... it's hard to really argue much when one of the best coaches in the country (in my opinion, anyway) has such high praise for it and actually CHANGES some of his game planning because he think it accurately reflects information about his team.
I think we actually agree on a lot more than you think about it. That article I posted from rivals.com (Yeah, I know, I know ... ;) really was all that guy wrote on the subject ... and I've seen so many "blog entries" like it that I see there's this chunk of people totally "abusing", for lack of a better word, the Pomeroy stats.
Gaudio, like a good journalist, was using them with lots of other context (e.g., it pointed him toward using video to break down games) -- what I've taken issue with is when someone questions (this is just an example), "Why do you have St. Mary's as a 12 seed but LSU as a 6 seed?" and the answer the person gives is "LSU's offense and defense are both higher in the Pomeroy rankings, as is their overall Pomeroy ranking". (I don't know if they are; I just used an example).
They definitely are HELPFUL and USEFUL ... probably even more so to a coach than to say, the Selection Committee. I would just want someone to use them in ADDITION to other factors and not in place of those other factors. Kind of like if you used RPI by itself (especially in January!) And, like you said, every "rating system" has its flaws. I wonder if the Selection Committee intends to use any of that information in the process; that would be very interesting to hear.
I really appreciate you posting the article (I thought it was going to be one you wrote! -- which would have been fine, too). Good stuff. Thanks Ben!
297 days ago
Hey Ben—Dave Mo here, a Bleacher Report Community Coordinator.
I've been spending time on our UVA pages and read a couple of your old articles. Really on-point analysis...you do good work.
Given that you haven't written in a while, I thought I'd check in and see if you're interested in picking up your coverage again. What do you say?
If not, it would be great if you could give me some feedback on why you decided to stop writing and what we could have done to better serve you. If you wouldn't mind, please shoot me a line at dmorrison@bleacherreport.com with any thoughts.
Thanks so much,
Dave Mo
349 days ago
I figure you and BHall must have the kind of friendship where pantsless jokes are taken in stride...
474 days ago
Thanks Ben,
I was lucky enough to cover Virginia basketball last season and it was just an amazing experience. I think you and I both know how amazing a guy Sean Singletary is, I just thought everyone else should know too.
GO HOOS!
474 days ago
Hey, man. Haven't seen you on here lately.
Other than barely sleeping, I've been able to get my B/R fix when little man is eating, and when things go well, sleeping.
Saw a new writer who seems interesting, funny, "controversial," etc: http://bleacherreport.com/users/28277-Billy-Buckles
Check out his stuff.
Hope all is well.
501 days ago
No problem. I'm just sitting around waiting for articles to edit.
520 days ago
Dude!
Sweet! Many propers to you. Congrats.
Still waiting on the little one to show up...
529 days ago
Ben-
I just posted the first St. Louis Cardinals Roundtable, check it out!
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/28850-St-Louis-Cardinals-Roundtable-Week-One
Ben
529 days ago
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Jameson Fleming said...
DeleteHow is Mike Scott looking? I had him as a potential break out player thinking Bennett's love for offensive efficiency would really benefit him. The stats look pretty good, but is Bennett featuring him more in the offense.
BTW, I don't think I told you this, but Scott's dad emailed me after I wrote the article thanking me for the recognition I was giving his son. The Scott family seems like a pretty nice bunch of people.
2 days ago