May 6, 2009

Northwestern Examiner: Northwestern could benefit from Big Ten expansion

There was a time when I though the game had passed Joe Paterno by. I was wrong.

Say what you will about the often gruff coach – he’s old, he can’t relate to kids, the game has passed him by – but he is usually correct. And by the way, like me, you would be wrong on all three counts.

Never one to hold his tongue, Paterno said last week that he would like to see the Big Ten expand to 12 teams, enabling the also-ran conference to create a championship game and play later into the season. The wizened one said he thought that the extra team and game would allow the Big Ten to stay in the minds of the media (read voters) later and possibly get the conference more shots at the National Title.

It is a tough sell, not only because commissioner Jim Delaney has already turned it down, but because the last leagues to try and make waves through expansion haven’t yet shown that it works.

Yet, when Paterno talks, we should listen. After all he was the first to conceive of an East Coast football conference – it became the Big East, but ironically without Penn State.

Plus, with Penn State the relative newcomer to the Big Ten, Paterno can almost speak from an outsider’s point of view. It is not like the Nittany Lions have a strong tie to the Rose Bowl like the rest of the league seems to have.

No, Penn State and JoePa are just the right messengers to push change onto the league that seems perpetually stuck in the 1950s (Now talk about irony!).

Read the rest of this story at Examiner.com.

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April 29, 2009

Northwestern Examiner: Wildcat free agent signings could crack NFL squads

“So you’re telling me there’s a chance”

A chance was all Lloyd Christmas wanted, and he managed to eventually get it.
But for some reason or another, a piddly little chance has eluded Northwestern players on draft weekend over the past three seasons.

Sure Evanston has never been a hot bed of NFL talent, but usually there is one player in every class that is at least worth a sniff. The Wildcats had never gone three straight years without having at least one player draft.

But the last time any ‘Cat heard their name was 2006, which seems likes a distant memory these days. Northwestern had three players get the call that year: defensive tackle Barry Cofield, offensive lineman Zach Strief and linebacker Tim McGarigle.

The best hope this year to break the shutout was Tyrell Sutton, but concerns over injuries and size probably negated any shot of him being “reserved” by a pro team.

But what do pro scouts know? They hit as often as they miss no matter if it is the first or the seventh round. For every Peyton Manning, there is usually a Ryan Leaf.

At least Pat Fitzgerald wasn’t upset about it enough to complain in the media like Mike Leach did. You would have thought Leach had learned to keep his mouth shut after he and the administration battled over his contract in the media at the end of last season.

Still the chance to make an NFL team may not have escaped Northwestern’s graduating seniors just yet.

Three former Wildcats signed free agent contracts on Sunday night, long after Mr. Irrelevant finished his champagne celebration.

Sutton, John Gill and Eric Peterman all inked deals with NFC North squads with the hope of taking their careers to the next level.

Going undrafted probably means it is a long shot at best that a player will see the field on Sunday, but even if it is just for completeness, I asked my fellow Examiners who cover the pro squads to give me their best guess on what – if any – impact that Northwestern’s former stars will have at the next level.

Get all the insight and read the rest of this article at Examiner.com.

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April 7, 2009

MRI 2008 - Tournament Final

North Carolina dominated the NCAA tournament, something that the MRI thought might happen...except for that conference tournament week.

You see, the Tar Heels stumbled during the ACC tournament, allowing Memphis to squeak by them during the final week of the season. That led the MRI to pick the Tigers as the tournament champions.

But things changed quickly. As soon as North Carolina starting stomping opponents, the Tar Heels were slipping back into the lead.

By the time the Sweet Sixteen rolled around, North Carolina was sniffing the No. 1 spot, and Missouri assisted the matter by taking out Memphis in dramatic fashion.

The Tar Heels rolled through the rest of the tournament, extending the lead and trouncing the rest of the field, something that the MRI had thought might happen... well, last year. But this year, they did it right.

Included in the rankings this time around are the winners of the other three tournaments: Penn State, Old Dominion and Oregon State.

Yes, Oregon State, who ended with a losing record against Division I teams took home a tournament title. If I thought that the Penn State NIT title was unlikely, I can't even begin to explain how the Beavers pulled this one off.

Oregon State finished as the No. 192 team in the country, and that is after the tournament win.

Talk about unlikely. But then again, it was the CBI, a tournament that it seemed had trouble filling its field because of the monetary requirement it attached to a home game (Apparently Oregon State didn't have a problem paying.)

But that is a matter for another day. Until then, check out the tournament final rankings of the MRI.

Continue reading "MRI 2008 - Tournament Final"

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April 6, 2009

Projecting the Tournament: Finals Edition

For as poorly as the MRI did at predicting the NIT, it did amazingly well at predicting the NCAA tournament so far.

With one game to go (that the computer cannot win), the MRI was at the 73rd percentile at ESPN, having been helped by a number of upsets along the way. The computer needed the help because it landed just one of its Final Four teams predicted prior to the tournament beginning.

Its solid standing is better than a number of the personalities who get paid the big bucks to spout on about sports on a daily basis at ESPN. The computer is ahead of everyone at PTI, a solid three-quarters of Around the Horn, and is hanging in there against the Editorial staff.

Not bad.

Continue reading "Projecting the Tournament: Finals Edition"

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April 3, 2009

Penn State: The Improbable NIT winner

Penn State finished off Baylor last night 69-65 to take the NIT title. While some may mock the winner of this secondary tournament -- calling then No. 66 even though this title brings with it more prestige than dropping a first round NCAA game in an upset -- the NIT has been a stepping stone for many teams moving into the next season.

I wrote about this at Examiner, but here is a list of the teams that have turned recent NIT success into NCAA tournament glory the next season:

Ohio State turned last year’s championship into a No. 8 seed in this year’s NCAA tournament.

West Virginia, the 2007 champion, reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2008. The runner-up, Clemson, was No. 5 seed but ran into a hot Villanova team.

Two-time defending champ South Carolina started the 2007 season 10-3 before getting rolled by a hot SEC conference that ultimately produced NCAA champ Florida.

Ok, so Ohio State's tournament run didn't end with fireworks and parades, but they made the field. That should give Penn State a lot of hope going into next year, even with the loss of Jamelle Cornley.

Continue reading "Penn State: The Improbable NIT winner"

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March 25, 2009

Northwestern Wildcats Examiner: Could Curry become a Wildcat?

Liberty’s season ended Monday, an 88-65 loss to the James Madison Dukes in the CollegeInsider.com Postseason Tournament.

The future of the basketball program ended Tuesday.

Seth Curry, the high-scoring, little brother of Davidson’s Stephen Curry announced his decision to transfer in order to face tougher competition during his college career.

Frankly, the fact that Liberty had this kid for a year is a shock in itself.

Everyone watched the elder Curry light up the league in his freshman season, averaging almost 22 points per game. Then he turned it on for his sophomore campaign, almost leading the Wildcats to the Final Four.

At that point, coaches across the country should have been scrambling to recruit Seth. Even if he were a bust, given the play of his brother, it would have been worth the risk.

It is almost like watching Archie Manning play in the NFL and Peyton tear up the SEC, and then not recruiting Eli.

The family has the genes.

So Liberty got its season of glory, even if that glory ended in the fourth best tournament in the country.
Now where does Seth go?

Read the rest of this story here.

The MRI Rankings are copyright 2009 by MRISports.com. Ben Miraski is a freelance reporter, edits and writes for MRISports.com and is a featured blogger on FanIQ. He also is the Northwestern Wildcats Examiner for Examiner.com. Readers can contact Ben at bmiraski@mrisports.com

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March 24, 2009

Projecting the Tournament: NIT Edition

Everyone has been down on the SEC this season, and for good reason. A bunch of mediocre teams, who failed to win even small games during the non-conference season, doesn't make for exciting basketball.

When you add in that the "normal" names failed to impress, no one was watching.

And no one is watching the SEC anymore, at least in the NCAA tournament. As the second weekend gets set to begin, all three teams from the South have already packed their gear away for the off-season.

But those fans might want to flip the channel from CBS to ESPN. The league that everyone though was way down has actually impressed in that other tournament, the NIT.

Of the eight teams remaining, three are from the SEC, and all three should be favored in their games to get to Madison Square Garden.

Imagine that. We aren't talking about three teams from the supposedly very deep Big East -- it could have happened. We aren't talking about Big XII. And we aren't talking about the little guys breaking through, although at least one of the Final Four spots will be taken by a team with a little chip on its shoulder.

Nope, this is the SEC that is running through what has actually been the more competitive tournament when you look at how fairly matched the teams have been.

As always, let's see what the computer says about who should be headed to MSG on March 31.

Continue reading "Projecting the Tournament: NIT Edition"

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March 23, 2009

Projecting the Tournament: Second chances

Inevitably, the question around the office this morning is “How’s your bracket?”

Most people at this point are probably feeling good. That’s because once again, chalk has dominated the competition.

And there is no surprise in that. The computer was confident that there were four teams better than all the rest. All four of those are still alive and the only team that is starting to look like they could challenge them is Connecticut.

But then again, most of that is thanks to their record-setting victory over what was the worst MRI-rated team in the tournament, Chattanooga.

If you are keeping track of your bracket at ESPN, a ten-point difference at this point is worth over 400,000 spots in the standings, which makes the computer situation a little tenuous at this point.

You see, the computer has 500 points over at ESPN. After 24 correct first-round picks, the computer swept through the second round, getting all but one game correct that it could. That leaves the computer with 13 of its original Sweet Sixteen picks.

The MRI can still win seven of eight games on Thursday and Friday and three of its Final Four are still alive.

Continue reading "Projecting the Tournament: Second chances"

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March 21, 2009

Projecting the Tournament: 2nd Round

Sure your bracket is busted. I know the MRI's bracket is. The MRI had West Virginia running to the Final Four.

That didn't work out so well.

If it had happened, along the way, the Mountaineers would have needed to win two 50-50 games against Kansas and Louisville. That is tough no matter who you are.

But it couldn't even win its first game, and that is going to make it very interesting as the tournament goes forward. That's because the MRI is usually right in it until the end. The breaking point of the pre-tournament picks doesn't usually come until later in the rounds.

Then again, maybe it was to be expected. The MRI got 24 of 32 games correct in the first round. It was only expecting to correctly pick 25 of the 32 (add up the percentage and you get the expected win numbers for those statistically challenged).

Not too shabby.

That has the computer in the 77.7 percentile on ESPN's Bracket Challenge. So even with the upsets, the computer is beating two-thirds of the country.

We'll see how that goes the rest of the way missing a key piece of the puzzle. I can't imagine it will go well.

So on to the second round, for those of you who are maybe placing friendly wagers. I know that many people also have second-chance Sweet Sixteen brackets, so don't fear, we will give you a sneak peek at who you should be expecting to be in that.

Continue reading "Projecting the Tournament: 2nd Round"

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March 17, 2009

Projecting The Tournament: Official Bracket Edition

Enough messing around with half-cocked predictions based on Joe Lunardi. Come on, the guy only got 64 of the 65 teams correct this year. How can you actually trust someone who isn't right 100 percent of the time?

Of course, I kid.

But the MRI does not kid. It gives it to you straight, albeit with some nice percentages attached to cover its silicon behind.

So what are the chances of your precious school making it all the way through to compete in Detroit (by the way, maybe the NCAA should look more closely at its scheduling. Is Detroit really a "destination location" for anything these days? Even the auto show might be in danger.)?

Well, the MRI can't exactly give you that... at least not yet. That is an off-season Excel programming exercise. But for right now, we can tell you what the computer picks for every game in the NCAA tournament. (NIT picks for the first round are here.)

How is that for a compromise?

Let's go to the brackets. Each team will be listed in the round it goes out (up to the Final Four) with the chance of them LOSING the game. It is simple math to get the chance of them winning.

After each round, we will post updated editions with the chances for the rest of the tournament.

Continue reading "Projecting The Tournament: Official Bracket Edition"

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March 16, 2009

MRI 2008 - Regular Season Final

Woah, look out America.

Memphis has returned to the top of the MRI rankings just in time for the NCAA tournament. Talk about timing!

If you wanted to look for consistency, you wouldn't have to look much further than the Tigers. Although they were not among the best teams in the country for most of the year, they made the charge and benefited from the tumbles of others.

25 wins in a row? Yeah, that's the ticket.

North Carolina's ACC tournament loss cost them the regular season title in the MRI. One more game in the win column, one more game, one more potential big victory all went away with the loss to Florida State.

Pittsburgh tripped up its own chances in the same way, with even greater consequences as there were many more games left in the Big East battle when they bowed out.

And Duke did everything they could but had too much ground to make up.

So congrats to Memphis on winning the regular season crown. Now, can they do it in the post-season where they stumbled over the past few years despite great MRI numbers?

That remains to be seen.

Coming tomorrow, a full tournament projection from the computer. The MRI was shocked at the number of teams ranked 26-45 that did not make the NCAA field. We are talking 10 teams!

That means there is a lot of questionable quality competing come Thursday and Friday. We will let you know who is ripe for an upset tomorrow.

Until then, check out the final regular season rankings of the MRI:

Continue reading "MRI 2008 - Regular Season Final"

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March 2, 2009

Projecting the Tournament: March 2 Edition

Ok, so earlier today, I said that Oklahoma wouldn't make the Final Four. But a lot depends on the seeding...

And it appears that Joe Lunardi decided to prove me wrong and seed Oklahoma as the best team in the South. No team that the computer has better than Oklahoma is in that region, which is a shock since so many teams from the Big East are up there.

So Oklahoma proves me wrong and wins the South to get to the Final Four.

Thanks Joe.

I think the most interesting part of today's outcomes is the fate of all those bubble teams.

Choose any of them that you think is close to making the tournament.

Then look for that team in the "One and Done" category; I almost guarantee it is there.

It just goes to show you that no matter how much arguing and complaining you do, most of those teams on the bubble don't belong in the tournament in the first place.

Of course because I wrote that we will have a "George Mason"-like run this season now.

Enjoy the brackets

Continue reading "Projecting the Tournament: March 2 Edition"

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MRI 2008 - Rankings Week 13

With just two weeks to go before the tournament, it appears thing have gotten quite interesting in the MRI.

Pittsburgh stumbled against Providence to knock it back down from challenging North Carolina, who became the first team this season to break the 200-point mark. Pittsburgh is now back within striking distance of other challengers Memphis, Duke and Connecticut, making the run to the Final Four very dependent on how the final bracket pairings turn out.

After those five and potentially Kansas, the rest of the league drops off quickly. So at this point, do we have a six-team race for the title?

I think so. While we can see teams like Oklahoma, Michigan State and dark horse West Virginia going to the Elite Eight, I think the Final Four will only come from the top six teams in the MRI.

Of course, in two weeks, things could be a lot different, but right now, I can't see it any other way.

You might say that Oklahoma with Blake Griffin back is a real challenge. But without Griffin, Oklahoma has looked pedestrian and against the better teams, easily beatable. Shut down Griffin, win the game -- it seems a simple formula.

And past them, I can't see another team that can really challenge. Maybe Marquette before the loss of Dominic James. Maybe Louisville if they didn't have the tendency to implode. Maybe someone from the Pac-10 if I didn't doubt that the strength of the league beyond the first three.

Basically, there is no one.

And even the contenders have their issues so the race is anywhere but finished. But this is a big change from just a few weeks ago when any of the top ten could have made a run for the title.

If you go straight by the MRI, the cut-off for an at-large bid (at least a more likely chance at one) would have been at No. 50.

The computer predicted 69.00 percent of the games this week putting it at 70.56 percent of the games on the season. All-time the computer is 71.51 percent correct.

Check out all the rankings in week 13 of the MRI:

Continue reading "MRI 2008 - Rankings Week 13"

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February 23, 2009

MRI 2008 - Rankings Week 12

North Carolina is getting a reprieve this week. The team may have lost a tough one against Maryland, but they also benefitted from the fact that all of their main competitors lost except one.

Pittsburgh narrowed the gap to less than a single MRI point this week. That means any more bobbles and the Panthers will return to the top spot.

Pitt has been under the radar as everyone has talked about Connecticut and the Tar Heels, but maybe the time for that is over. The Panthers have what it takes to make the long run this year and a lot of that credit has to go to Jamie Dixon who has continued with Ben Howland started (and has kept doing at UCLA) and made it even better.

I am previously on record for saying that the new, bigger Big East is too tough to actually generate a Final Four candidate that has enough gas to win it.

I might be eating my shoe this season. I can honestly see Pittsburgh making the deep run and winning the whole thing. As we saw this weekend, North Carolina has trouble with defense. Duke has trouble with defense. And Connecticut, despite one of the most confounding foul calls contributing, still couldn't stop Pitt.

This is the team we have been waiting for out of the Western half of Pennsylvania for quite a while.

They just didn't quite make it over the hump in the MRI this week.

One more note. In my radio show on Sunday I talked about how I could not believe that the Big Ten had eight teams in the bracket in Joe Lunardi's latest tournament projection. Things are getting back to normal. They are down to seven today, which is still more than I can fathom, but as I have been reminded, the bubble is quite soft this season.

Maybe the MRI is crazy, but it can't see more than five even with the soft bubble, but I think there is a lot of fluidity near the cut-off and this could come down to the Saturday before Selection Sunday before we see all the disputes settled.

A tough week for the MRI. The computer predicted 65.64 percent of the games correctly this week. For the season, the computer has predicted 70.70 percent of the games correctly.

Continue reading "MRI 2008 - Rankings Week 12"

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February 19, 2009

What's that sound? Ben on the radio

I am making a foray into radio in order to up my eyeballs. The first show will be live tomorrow at noon central time. I will be talking with John Templon, who writes the Chicago College Basketball blog. John is a fellow Medillian and has his own take on the state of the game in Chicago.

I will also be talking the Chicago Bulls, and the dearth of Cubs tickets that will be left at noon.

Listen and call in to talk directly to me.

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