Sunday, November 7, 2010

Week One Preview, or, "Let's get ready to rumble!!!"

The teams are drafted, the injured are injured, bad boys suspended, and we are ready to launch into Week One of the Babble-Ball Competition!

Week One comes in like a lamb but leaves like a lion. The Coaches Vs. Cancer tournament kicks us off on Monday and Wednesday with five players active, and the season kicks off for real on Friday as every player team (except a half dozen) sees action at least once this weekend. With all the pre-season trash talk of who sucks and who doesn't, none of that means shit now. Let's play ball!

Coaches versus Cancer

The preliminary rounds of the Coaches V. Cancer tournament start us off, just window dressing since the four teams that will play in the championship round have been pre-determined, one of the most presumptuous and moronic trends in pre-conference tournaments. #5 Pittsburgh (Jaybird) is the favorite going into the CVC, but face the stiffest first week competition in Jutdog's Rhode Island. Some Guy in Illinois hopes to get off to an early start with #13 Illinois playing UC Irvine and Toledo. Besides Rhode Island, Jutdog has Texas facing Navy and Louisiana Tech, and lastly Maryland (Slake B) takes on Seattle and Charleston.

Weekend Watch

Of course your own teams are the teams to watch, but there are some great matchups this weekend. On Friday we get to see how good the A-10's Temple (Jaybird) really is as they host Jutdog's Seton Hall. We also get to see if Old Dominion (Jutdog) is worth all the hype as they host Georgetown (Gunz). A great mid-minor matchup pits Morgan State (Jaybird) against Loyola Marymount (Boaris) on Saturday, and another one with Weber State (Jutdog) playing Utah State (Boaris). Sunday unveils the Duke Blue Devils (Gunz) playing Ivy League favorites Princeton (Boaris).

Rules for Points

Just to dust off the ole Rule Book, each team will get 1 point for a win, +2 if it is against another player, and +2 more if the win is against a AP Top 10 team. Pre-conference tourneys can net more points for the winners of those. NOTE wins against NON-Division one teams are worth NOTHING, but losses against NON-Division one teams result in -2 points...

Possible points this week:
  • Akaoni 8
  • Babblemur 12
  • Boaris 16
  • The CEO 16
  • Gunz 10
  • Jaybird 19
  • Jutdog 24
  • Mad Mader 11
  • McGrumps 10
  • Mooseye 9
  • Musashisan 11
  • Slake B 21
  • Some Guy in Illinois 9
All games, results, points etc can be found on the Most Illuminating Spreadsheet of Points, which is linked to on the Right Side of this Web Page. If you ever question the accuracy of something there please don't hesitate to speak up.

39 comments:

Ron said...

OK well I'm excited anyway.

By the way, the image above is of Kye Allum, the George Washington women's basketball player who announced that she was transitioning to a man. She will remain on the Women's team on scholarship.

According to ESPN: "Allums started 20 games for George Washington last season, averaging 7.4 points and 4.6 rebounds in 24.9 minutes. Allums scored a career-high 21 points in a 58-50 victory over La Salle on Jan. 24."

Anonymous said...

Curious Ron, now that all the schedules are complete, what is the breakdown across the league in head to heads, and based on the last two seasons what does percentage of head to head matchups mean as far as where you finish at the end of the year. (I mean in case you wanted another graphic for next week for an interesting stat to debate)

-The CEO

Anonymous said...

Good question!

I thought about trying to set up a matrix of player v. player breakdowns, looking for schedule-based rivalries, but that is a lot of work. I'll play around with some ideas during the Rhode Island Pittsburgh game tonight...

~Babs

akaoni said...

Go URI, down one at half vs Pitt.

akaoni said...

I just realized I'm cheering for Jut, but I don't care. I love a good upset.

Anonymous said...

Since jaybird has pit. It is 6 of one half dozen of the other. But Jut gets 5 if RI wins so go pitt!

Ron said...

Yikes for Tennessee, lost an exhibition game against a D-II team: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=5782664

akaoni said...

I believe in last year's pre-season Syracuse either struggled or lost in an exhibition game to a DII team and they turned out to be ok...

Anonymous said...

I think Bruce Pearl had a few of the potential D1 talents from that team over to his house for dinner in the second half, causing Tennessee to struggle, as well as put them at even more risk for probation.........

Anonymous said...

Minus 2 pts for whoever has Tennessee. Babs, mark it down.

Anonymous said...

The CEO's review:

Wow, Pittsburgh, you may not be as good as we all thought, Rhode Island gave you layups all night, had they actually played some transition D, they might have been able to leverage their huge advantage at the 3 pt line to a win, however, you don't win games at any level constantly giving up 3 or 4 on 1's. I give Rhode Island an A- on the offensive side of the ball, and a D on overall defense and an F on transition D. Jutdog, you should call their coach and ask for some type of retribution for his teams horrible effort in transition or their overall lack of conditioning which ultimately cost you 5 pts. For Jaybird, sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Pitt was the better team, but Rhode Island gift wrapped the win for them.

-The CEO

Anonymous said...

No, it isn't minus 2 because it was an exhibition game.

~Babs

Anonymous said...

I don't know if anyone can catch Jaybird at this point.

Anonymous said...

From ESPN:

"The Boilermakers almost certainly would've been in our top three before Robbie Hummel retore his ACL on the first day of practice. But why anyone would count out a well-coached team with two All-America candidates is beyond us."

Suck it, Jut. ~Babs

Anonymous said...

Why is no one giving the love to my Illini for their beatdown over the Anteaters?? Watch out, Toledo! I L L - I N I

Anonymous said...

Some Guy in Illinois in second place... fear sets in.

akaoni said...

I'm afraid that a tie for 6th place might be the highest my team is ranked all year...

Anonymous said...

Technically, you're tied for 13th, so you have some hope.

--McGrumps

Anonymous said...

Holy Toledo, SGII, leveraging his hometown boys (potentially the best team Weber has had, at least the best since the Dee Brown/ Deron Williams days), will move to 2-0 tonight. Should be smooth sailing for all teams playing tonight,

Look out, SGII on the move

-The CEO

Anonymous said...

Which player do you think will be the last one undefeated? I think Akaoni and SGII have the best bets to get through to the 17th without losing a game. ~Babs

Anonymous said...

I should add that that is because they have a fluffy cupcake schedule. Just to throw some salt at the above compliment. ~Babs

Anonymous said...

well, how are we defining a loss to ourselves, I play myself like twice this first week.....so I'm guaranteed a win and a loss

-The CEO

Anonymous said...

http://rivals.yahoo.com/ncaa/basketball/blog/the_dagger/post/Vegas-says-your-2010-11-national-title-favorites;_ylt=Ah2N4gXZZH4EjFwlDpHql0Hu0s4F?urn=ncaab-283891

Jaybird is in Vegas, any interest here, anyone, Beuler?

akaoni said...

Charleston up over Maryland by 6 with 2.30 left...could we call that the first upset of the season?

akaoni said...

Boo, Maryland wins.

Anonymous said...

Maryland didn't deserve that win, Charleston was spanking them good. Babs

Anonymous said...

Jaybird is running away with this contest. I don't think we should bother at this point.

Anonymous said...

Kentucky at 10-1, behind only Duke and Michigan St! But, Jut says no chance, and what do those Vegas oddsmakers know anyhow?

Anonymous said...

Before 98% of teams have even played, ESPN has their first Bracketology up:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

I have
Purdue (6)
San Diego St (6)
Georgia (8)
Ohio (13)

Reinforcing the argument that my squad sucks this year and I will finish in 11th place (just ahead of The CEO and Jutdog)

-Babs

Anonymous said...

Huh, no St. Mary's means I got 6 (I didn't figure that Boston College would make the cut). Got seeds 3, 4, 9, 11, 15 and 16. Could be worse.

Justin Mitchell said...

Kentucky not suprising blow with Enes Kanter out..

Anonymous said...

Go back and check the odds now that Kanter out is figured in, I'm sure they'll change significantly, he was projected as the 5th selection in 2011 NBA draft......

Starts getting interesting tonight as all teams will get into the action

Anonymous said...

Well if it's any consolation Babs, I had 7 of 8 teams, only Washington St not making it, and you picked me for last or second to last......

-The CEO

Anonymous said...

This discussion brings up an interesting battle that may be worthy of points for next year: +2 for the player with the most NCAA squads.

Anonymous said...

North Texas is playing a D-2 team today, fortunately the Mean Green are dominating them.

Anonymous said...

Ouch for charlotte, who has them,

Ron said...

Wake lost to Stetson, sucks to be Mooseye (who also has Charlotte)

Anonymous said...

Well Jut got spanked yesterday.

Morgan State and Temple had some big wins.

Three good head-to-head matchups today, mids and minors. San Diego St vs. Long Beach St, Utah St vs Weber St, New Mexico vs. Detroit.

~Babs

Anonymous said...

Babs 1 CEO 0 (In a much needed win more for validation of strategy than anything else, UCSB played a great game but could only muster a turnover down one, with the ball and 13 seconds giving a low tier Major a win over a minor).

Round two is tonight as Wofford goes to Clemson, I'm surprised the Vegas line is 10.5 not in Wofford's favor, thought it might have been closer with Clemson losing Booker and their coach, the line suggests Babs will move to 2-0.

-The CEO