Comments on: ATB: Northwest Passage

By: Nuss

Nuss — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 22:26:04 +0000

What a gigantic win for the Cougs! I wish more of the country could have seen it — I had to go over to the house of a friend who has satellite.

It wasn’t so much the pace of play that allowed Gonzaga to stay in the game. It was the Cougars’ poor offense. That was easily their worst offensive performance of the year (poor shooting, silly turnovers, etc.), yet they were in control the whole way. I mean, it never even really felt like Gonzaga was ever really a threat to take that game.

WSU’s offensive efficiency was seventh in the nation going into last night. This is a pretty good offensive team, despite conventional opinion that is swayed by the raw ppg numbers. That ought to be a scary-as-hell thought for everyone else because if the Cougs had shot the ball even average last night — 46% eFG last night vs. 55% normally — it would have been a 20-point blowout.

I am so fired up it’s ridiculous.

By: rbk

rbk — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:41:46 +0000

rtmsf, it makes me wonder if the intention is for both leagues to be able to prop up their top teams’ RPI in a given year. This year, the Big East gets the boost by getting wins over average-to-bad SEC teams. Maybe next year UT, UF, UK, VU will get a similar boost.

And of course that totally defeats what’s so great about one of these league challenges. We’ll just have to wait and see how the two leagues handle the schedules in future years, but you’re right . . . this one was a dud.

By: rtmsf

rtmsf — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 16:16:01 +0000

Ty: Ha. We had some family stuff going on Tues. night so didn’t get to see any Jimmy V stuff and really didn’t feel up to the task. Saw some replay footage yesterday and it was stupid ugly for sure. Memphis is going to get screwed by their foul shooting somewhere along the way in March. And Mayo’s shot selection was atrocious down the stretch.

Rbk: Actually, we agree that the idea of the Challenge is a great one. If we could get all six bcs conferences doing this the same week of the year, that’d be fantastic. But yeah, 4 games a year is a joke. Esp. given the types of teams they picked. We would have been ok with Tennessee, Kentucky, Vandy and Florida, as an example. But jeez, it seems as if the SEC tried to send its worst teams this year.

By: rbk

rbk — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:24:08 +0000

The Big East/SEC thing would be better, too, if there were more than 4 games in a given year. I don’t mind it being a copy of the ACC/Big Ten Challenge, as that’s just a really good idea, and sometimes it’s good to copy really good ideas. But that is a major event each year, with ESPN keeping a tally. You going to keep a tally with 4 games each year, and with these matchups? How pointless. It’s barely a blip on the radar. This is a good idea but the details need to be reworked.

By: Ty Keenan

Ty Keenan — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 10:25:08 +0000

Any thoughts on the USC/Memphis game, or was it too ugly to discuss?