100 Free Throws - Calvin Murphy Edition

So, you mean to say I'm left-handed? What?!? Well, well, well...it's about damn time!

Yep - I've finally made the change. The change to shooting like a REAL basketball player. I mean, I've been left-handed all my life, and it's about time I utilized that hand to make some shots. Let me explain...

As a kid, I was puny. Not too much different now, but I did grow a little bit. But when I was younger, I wanted more range, so I developed a two-hand shot from my chest. As I got older, that shot evolved into a two-hand shot from my head/shoulder area, as I simply just raised my release point. I've been doing that since middle school or so, and I never changed. My shot resembles something between Reggie Miller's slight two-hand release and a pile of dung. And I have become incredibly more streaky in the last few years. Not to mention, I can't hit a free throw in games. Currently 1 for 10 on the year.

I know I have the strength, and now I'm finally realizing I can trust that strength. The technique is actually already there, as I've shot that way in Nerf ball all my life, believe it or not. And I have been taught the correct way in places like Rollie Massimino's Day Camp and high school ball. I just never applied it. Until now.

Here are my makes per 10 below:

4,4,4,5,7,4,5,4,6,8 = 51

I'm on the other side of 50! And look how strong I finished, too. If that doesn't scream upside, I don't know what does. Feels damn good. And my misses were easy to diagnose, too. This feels like such a breakthrough. I knew I had it in me, but I was just too stubborn to make the change. Now, it'll take a lot of practice to get this going during games when I'm not on the free throw line. I can accept that, as I didn't attempt a 3 in my last game and I'm not confident at all right now. But now I can go to the basket even stronger knowing I have a good shot at making my free throws if I get fouled. My range will come in time. But now I can take that step or two in from the 3-pt line and nail a 15-footer. It's like a new lease on my career. I'll take it!

100 Free Throws

Today I got out in this wonderful 60+ degree weather and shot around some more. 100 free throws were shot. Here are my makes per 10 below:

3,2,4,4,3,5,1,6,3,4 = 35

Improvement! Hey, I'll take a +4 any day of the week, especially if this is only 6 days after my first 100. Of note: I shot my best round out of 50 so far, making 19 of my last 50. BOO YA.

Without that lame 1-for in the 7th group, I'd have hit closer to 40. No excuses there. Just didn't concentrate, I suppose. I was all giddy after making 5 out of 10.

Anyways, here's to making 40 the next time out. Aim high, Forbesy!

100 Free Throws

I hit the basketball court for about an hour today to work on my shot. Specifically, my free throw shooting, which has been atrocious. I play in an over-30 league (many blog postings to follow) and my free throw percentage has been around the 30% mark over the span of three seasons. So, after a season off, I'm back at it tonight for Game 1 of the 2010 Spring season.

I shot 100 free throws today. My goal is to do this throughout the season and chart my progress. Check out my makes per 10 below. I can only get better, right? Right?

3,2,2,7,3,3,2,3,4,2 = 31

31??? THIRTY-ONE??? That's worse than Shaq! That's worse than Shaq blind-folded! At least I'm consistent with my performance over the last 3 seasons, eh? Yeah, shooting by myself with no pressure is a lot like real game situations. FML.

That 7 looks promising. We need that to be a rule more than a blatant exception.

Nap time. Gotta rest up to fail miserably tonight!

My 2 Minutes of Fame...

Helping out the State Schools

I touched on this during my uni tourni. Both Washington State and Mississippi State have such annoying clusterfucks on the front of their jerseys.

Couldn't Mississippi State have tweaked this?














And why couldn't Washington State have made this simple adjustment? (Please excuse my horrible editing skills. As a popular YouTube videographer has said, I suck at photoshop)
















It's really not that hard to make a solid uniform.

Bracket Stab Stats

The tourney is ON! I'm pumped, as I hope you are, too.

Below are my stats on how well I predicted this year's field. Important to note - my last "stab" was made at approx 3am on the morning of Selection Sunday. I was out having a few cold ones and watching the championship games at a bar, so missing Georgia was something out of my control. I'm not sure who I would have dropped out with them taking another at-large away. Looking at my last four in, it would probably have been VCU or Dayton, but who really knows?! Anyways, next year I'll try to spend all of Selection Sunday at home, so I can get as close as possible.

Out of 65 teams, I correctly predicted 62. I missed Oregon, Villanova, and Georgia. Instead, I put in Dayton, VCU, and Illinois St.

Here are my seeding stats:

Exact seed: 30 out of 65 (46.2%)
1 Seed Off: 21 out of 65 (32.3%)
2 Seeds Off: 9 out of 65 (13.8%)
3 Seeds Off: 1 out of 65 (1.5%)
4 Seeds Off: 1 out of 65 (1.5%)
Missed Altogether: 3 out of 65 (4.6%)

So, I nailed 51 out of 65 within 1 seed. I can live with that. Of note, I also nailed 2 exact pairings, with the Vandy-Siena and Memphis-UTA pairings. When the brackets were announced, it was like deja vu up in this mother!

Now, let the real March Madness begin...

Bracket Stab - Selection Sunday!

It's really late in the evening or really early in the morning - depending on how you look at it - but one thing is for certain...it's Selection Sunday! It's finally here! Seriously, this day is 10 times better than Christmas.

Below are my final predictions for the tourney. After posting this, I'll get some much needed rest and then just wait and see how close I really got to nailing these. Perhaps I'll put those stats up on Monday.

Lay your eyes on these....

East Region (Charlotte)

Raleigh
(1) UNC vs. (16) Coppin St. /Miss. Vall. St. (play-in game)
(8) Texas A&M vs. (9) St. Mary's

Tampa
(4) Vandy vs. (13) Siena
(5) UConn vs. (12) Oral Roberts

Washington, D.C.
(2) Georgetown vs. (15) Cornell
(7) USC vs. (10) Temple

Omaha
(3) Wisconsin vs. (14) Winthrop
(6) UNLV vs. (11) Miami, FL

West Region (Phoenix)

Anaheim
(1) UCLA vs. (16) Portland State
(8) Oklahoma vs. (9) Kent State

Washington, D.C.
(4) Pittsburgh vs. (13) Kentucky
(5) Indiana vs. (12) VCU

Birmingham
(2) Tennessee vs. (15) Mt. St. Mary's
(7) BYU vs. (10) Arizona

Tampa
(3) Xavier vs. (14) Austin Peay
(6) Marquette vs. (11) South Alabama

South Region (Houston)

Birmingham
(1) Memphis vs. (16) UT-Arlington or Northwestern St. (Southland Champ)
(8) Davidson vs. (9) Arkansas

Denver
(4) Michigan State vs. (13) George Mason
(5) Butler vs. (12) Baylor

Little Rock
(2) Texas vs. (15) UMBC
(7) Notre Dame vs. (10) West. Ky.

Anaheim
(3) Stanford vs. (14) Boise St.
(6) Clemson vs. (11) Illinois St.

Midwest Region (Detroit)

Denver
(1) Kansas vs. (16) Cal St. - Fullerton
(8) West Va. vs. (9) Miss. St.

Omaha
(4) Drake vs. (13) San Diego
(5) Washington St. vs. (12) Dayton

Raleigh
(2) Duke vs. (15) American
(7) Gonzaga vs. (10) Kansas St.

Little Rock
(3) Louisville vs. (14) Belmont
(6) Purdue vs. (11) St. Joe's

Last 4 Teams in:
Dayton
Baylor
Kentucky
VCU

First 4 Teams Out:
Oregon
Arizona St.
UMass
Villanova

Who's the Best in the Big East?

Simple question, right? As Lee Corso would say, "Not so fast my friend!"

Much has been said about West Virginia's "weak" Big East conference schedule, so I decided to see for myself just how weak that is compared to the other teams in the Big East. While crunching the numbers for this answer, I also went a little further and calculated the RPI for the Big East only, as if they were the only teams in Division 1. Here's what I found below...

Team	W	L	Pct	SOS
Notre Dame	12	4	0.750	0.546
Marquette	11	6	0.647	0.535
Villanova	7	9	0.438	0.520
Connecticut	12	4	0.750	0.515
Pittsburgh	9	7	0.563	0.507
St. John's	5	11	0.313	0.503
Rutgers	2	15	0.118	0.498
DePaul	5	11	0.313	0.494
Providence	5	11	0.313	0.494
Seton Hall	7	9	0.438	0.491
Syracuse	7	9	0.438	0.489
West Virginia	9	7	0.563	0.486
Louisville	14	3	0.824	0.484
Georgetown	14	3	0.824	0.484
Cincinnati	8	8	0.500	0.477
South Florida	3	13	0.188	0.452

Out of 16 teams, West Virginia has the 12th toughest schedule. So, yeah, they've played a pretty weak schedule in conference and they only have 9 wins to show for it.

So who's the best in the league? It ain't Georgetown, as most may think. Notre Dame has separated themselves as the team to beat with the highest RPI achieved against the toughest schedule. I say, look out for the Fighting Irish in the coming weeks.

Team	W	L	Pct	RPI
Notre Dame	12	4	0.750	0.586
Louisville	14	3	0.824	0.573
Georgetown	14	3	0.824	0.573
Connecticut	12	4	0.750	0.570
Marquette	11	6	0.647	0.554
Pittsburgh	9	7	0.563	0.519
West Virginia	9	7	0.563	0.510
Villanova	7	9	0.438	0.494
Cincinnati	8	8	0.500	0.481
Seton Hall	7	9	0.438	0.480
Syracuse	7	9	0.438	0.478
St. John's	5	11	0.313	0.453
DePaul	5	11	0.313	0.451
Providence	5	11	0.313	0.449
Rutgers	2	15	0.118	0.402
South Florida	3	13	0.188	0.397

Create-a-Conference

With so much flux happening in the past 15 years or so with college conferences, I think we need some even better solutions. Some conferences have gotten way out of hand - St. Louis in the Atlantic-10? Marquette in the Big East? Just crazy to me. I think it's time to restore order in the world. I think it's time to create-a-conference.

Here are some I came up with...

• All Saints Conference (St. Louis, St. Mary's, St. Francis(Pa), St. Francis (Ny), Mount St. Mary's, St. Joe's, St. Bonaventure, St. Peter's)

• Wildcats Conference (Villanova, Kansas State, Arizona, Northwestern, Kentucky, Weber State, Davidson, New Hampshire)

• The Bulldog 10 (Butler, Citadel, Mississippi St., Georgia, Fresno St., Drake, Gonzaga, Yale, Samford, UNC-Asheville)

• The People's Conference (Sam Houston State, Stephen F. Austin, Oral Roberts, Lamar, George Mason, William & Mary)

Give it a try yourself. Could be a funny conference (e.g., the "Four Letter School Conference"...Duke, Iowa, Rice, Iona....) or a more common sensical regional conference (e.g., the "Really Big North"...Montana, South Dakota, Minnesota, Wyoming, Idaho, Canada....). Whatever floats your boat...

Best State in College Basketball

The question was posed on Around the Horn yesterday which state was the best in college basketball right now. I was curious myself, so I went back to ol' Ken Pomeroy's site (www.kenpom.com) to check the current RPI and did a little math action myself. I decided to take the top 4 teams from each state that made sense to me and average their RPIs. Here's my top 6 based on this calculation (State, RPI Avg, Teams):

1. Indiana, 22.25 (Indiana, Butler, Notre Dame, Purdue)
2. California, 22.50 (UCLA, Stanford, St. Mary's, USC)
3. Tennessee, 28.50 (Tennessee, Memphis, Vandy, Belmont)
4. Ohio, 29.50 (Xavier, Dayton, Kent St., Ohio St.)
5. North Carolina, 31.00 (Duke, UNC, Davidson, Wake)
6. Texas, 33.50 (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Houston)

On ATH, they were big on Tennessee and Texas, but there is a drop off after those top teams. And one would think North Carolina would be in the mix, and one would be right, but once again there is a drop off after Duke and UNC.

I'm still working on the calculation for Alaska and Hawaii. Check back for updates.

Bracket Stab - February 18

I wanted to post my first stab at the brackets today. I didn't go so far as to place teams in their proper pods, but I did seed by region.

I decided to project out the rest of the season, and this bracket reflects that. I used Ken Pomeroy's site (www.kenpom.com) and his projections for the remainder of each team's schedule. Sometimes I disagreed, but for the most part, I followed his individual game projections. So, instead of saying "this is how the brackets would look if the season ended today", it's more of a "this is how I think the brackets will look on Selection Sunday". For the one-bid conferences, I simply put in the current leader of the conference, and went with my gut for any current ties.

Last teams in:
Arizona St.
Florida
Miami (Fla)
Baylor

First teams out:
UMass
UNLV
Oregon
Mississippi

South Region
(1) Memphis vs. (16) CSU-Northridge
(8) BYU vs. (9) Dayton
(4) Notre Dame vs. (13) Oral Roberts
(5) Indiana vs. (12) Miami (Fla)
(2) Texas vs. (15) American
(7) Clemson vs. (10) Syracuse
(3) Stanford vs. (14) UMBC
(6) Pitt vs. (11) St. Joe's

West Region
(1) Tennessee vs. (16) Morgan St./Alabama St.
(8) Wake Forest vs. (9) Ohio St.
(4) UConn vs. (13) Boise St.
(5) Kansas St. vs. (12) Davidson
(2) UCLA vs. (15) Belmont
(7) Maryland vs. (10) West. Va.
(3) Xavier vs. (14) Cornell
(6) Gonzaga vs. (11) Florida

East Region
(1) UNC vs. (16) Robert Morris
(8) Marquette vs. (9) Arkansas
(4) Michigan St. vs. (13) Western Ky.
(5) Butler vs. (12) Baylor
(2) Georgetown vs. (15) Rider
(7) St. Mary's vs. (10) Oklahoma
(3) Wisconsin vs. (14) Austin Peay
(6) Washington St. vs. (11) Mississippi St.

Midwest Region
(1) Kansas vs. (16) Portland St.
(8) Rhode Island vs. (9) Arizona
(4) Vanderbilt vs. (13) Kent St.
(5) Purdue vs. (12) VCU
(2) Duke vs. (15) Winthrop
(7) Texas A&M vs. (10) USC
(3) Louisville vs. (14) Stephen F. Austin
(6) Drake vs. (11) Arizona St.

The Big East is too Big

So, why not break it up into two equal pieces, like this?...

Church		State
Georgetown	7-1	Connecticut	5-3
Notre Dame	4-2	Louisville	5-3
Marquette	5-3	Pittsburgh	5-3
Seton Hall	5-3	Cincinnati	5-4
DePaul	4-4	Syracuse	5-4
Providence	3-4	West Virginia	4-4
Villanova	3-5	Rutgers	2-7
St. John's	1-7	South Florida	1-7
Total	32-29	Total	32-35

Looks even, but the Church Division might be a little stronger. Discuss...