BuffOrange

These are both compelling arguments. You probably have some nostalgia from having grown up in the NBC era w/ the cool theme music and all (I do too). But Hall of Fame players lose in the NBA playoffs every year. In the two years Jordan took off the title was won by a historically mediocre (by championship standards) Rockets team with one great player. The East Finals in '94 - while compelling tv due to Reggie Miller & Spike Lee - was played between teams whose 2nd best players were Ric Smitz and Charles Oakley (the Jordan-less Bulls were actually hosed by the refs vs NY in the 2nd round). Not sure I'd say that era was as full of great teams as you'd suggest. Also, there is inherently way more luck/variance in baseball than in basketball so it's sort of ridiculous to compare winning %'s. Whaat? Being a football factory over an extended time period doesn't mean you belong in this discussion. Flordia & FSU never even had an undefeated season in those years. Texas was a non-factor in those years. Maybe there's an argument for the 70's Oklahoma/Nebraska teams... I know this much - the guy never met a camera he didn't like. Holy attention whore.

I picked Miami over Chicago & OKC in couple 'last longer' side-bets with some friends because I was so sure they would win the whole thing. Now I'm not sure what to root for 'cause I hate them like everyone else. I am shocked by last night's game. I'd be tempted to write it off as a fluke if they were up 2-1 and got blown out, but Game 3 in 1-1 series is usually a defining game in the nba (last year's finals being an exception). Even if they get by this series I don't see them going the distance. Spurs are now officially the favorite in vegas btw.

Why is that hard to believe? If you switched the location of that game we'd have been 3.5 dogs.

Well it's not my opinion but since you asked, equal 'action' ie $, has absolutely nothing to do with 50% of people on both sides, so it's not similar to what he said at all. I can pick 1-2 nfl games every week and tell you which side 90% of schmucks will take (invariably it will be a road favorite and be labeled by most dimwits as a 'trap game/line' of which there is no such thing). That hardly means 90% of the $ is going to be on that side. Moreover the books are willing to take sides on certain games - they don't make the same amount per bet every game, every year. Everyone always says they don't predict the scores/lines, and yet not a single person/system has ever shown they can do it better over a significant sample. Sagarin and Pomeroy ratings for college basketball are about as sound as any metric is for any sport, and even they can't do better than the vegas lines. But yeah I'm sure it's easy as "a bunch of idiots are skewing this line so it must be wrong" - betting sports would be like printing $ if that were the case.

Bob's #'s may not be exactly right but his basic point pretty much is. The D did directly generate 7 points in Miami on MNF on a Marino sack/fumble/TD return - one of the biggest games/wins of the year in a 23-18 win (Wade brilliantly remarked "well we didn't stomp on a can of hairspray" when asked how important of a win it was). But anyway even if you count that play as offensive production, the Bills offense failed to reach a meager 17 pts in 5 of 8 road games that year. A sack & forced fumble of Tony Banks set up the game winning score in Baltimore in a 13-10 win where the offense was an abortion all day. Before Vinaterri was Vinaterri he missed three FG's in NE in a 13-10 OT win (Flutie made sure to point out after the game that he "played flawlessly" in the 4th Qtr in OT and by all accounts he was actually serious). We were also shut down at home by a Giants team whose secondary was ravaged by injuries late in the year. So 6 sacks or 60 sacks, 16pts against a Titans defense that was the best we'd seen all year and 8-0 at home was hardly any sort of outlier for that season. I remember that play. For you wrestling fans it was the heyday of Degeneration X and Moulds actually did the 'crotch chop' to the crowd after scoring. If I wasn't a fan of Moulds already I sure was then.

Last year I guess was an exception but the consensus 2-4 predictions are wrong pretty much on an annual basis (eg when Miami is supposed to suck they finish 2nd, when they're supposed to be decent they suck). Basically all 3 teams have had some major holes for a long time (particularly at the most important position) and the order typically comes down to health and a few chance bounces/turnovers. So I guess I don't much care about the Jets or Fish. That's not say I think we've surpassed them as an organization because of a few offseason moves but the bottom line is if we're ever going to be the team we want to be we need to go 3-1 and finish ahead of such mediocre clubs. It really sucks but until Brady is over the hill or we find an elite QB ourselves (I'm guessing the former will happen sooner) the division will always be about them.

No he's not. Death, taxes, and guy on message board who has no clue about point spreads lecturing people on how point spreads work.

Pretty much why I've become less opinionated on the draft each year unless it's a blatant fail like taking Whitner over Ngata. We can argue all day about which positions we need most but we don't know where the front office has these guys graded. If he's Winfield it's a good pick, if he's McKelvin it's a bad pick. I'm assuming they would've taken Blackmon or Kalil or Kuechly if they were there but they weren't. I'd prefer they didn't reach on Floyd or the Iowa Tackle if they didn't have them graded as high.

Yes I've thought that's the most likely scenario for a while now.

The Bills never actually wore those. It was rumored that the '01 change would be similar to the Sabres metallic red alternates at the time; which of course would've been much better than the Titans-ish garbage they wore for 10yrs.

Not necessarily. This is sports. Lots of coaches have that stupid/macho "we don't care who we play" attitude. Maybe Laviolette is one of them and it's all moot - I don't really know. But anyone with a half a brain knows this stuff matters - Montreal did all of Philly's dirty work 2yrs ago when they went to the finals.

Heading to my first NHL game tonight. Probably gonna wear some 'Cuse orange just to blend in. My Flyers fan buddy says he wants to lose so they can play Florida instead of Pittsburgh in the 1st round. I wonder if the team will take the same approach? Go Sabres

Settled.

That's how I heard it on WGR. You still want them to beat the Caps though (and they have something to play for now).

I take it from the rampant pessimism I've heard that Washington has the tiebreaker?

It is nationwide, it's just not the fox affiliate in every market. That's impossible.

It's amazing they didn't lose more games without either a post scorer or a dead eye 3pt shooter. I don't know if Coleman and Cooney can be those guys but if they can it could be a better team next year; though their record will almost certainly be worse.

No doubt. Considering they were all close games and close to home; Purdue, NC St, and UNC minus their PG was one of the least impressive runs to the F4 I've seen. I was surprised they won on Saturday (Ohio St certainly helped them). I wish it were easier to hate on this Kentucky team, but they actually seem like decent kids and play really hard.

I think media outlets and by extension casual fans have a hard time understanding that not all bad calls are created equal. EG, 1 of the bogus calls against Ohio St was a basket interference play when the ball was off the cylinder. But if you look at it the guy missed the tip and they blew the whistle after we got the rebound. It was like a football penalty that gets declined; the impact of that blown call is zero. The Triche "charge" had a gigantic impact as you say. Somehow I feel worse today watching a Kansas team who I don't think is that good advance. As much as I don't like Kentucky I kinda hope they win it since they're the only team I don't think we could've beaten. I don't have anything against L'ville but them winning it would make me not want to bother with the reg. season anymore (of course i said this about uconn last yr too).

LT is a unique position. If you have a bad one it can kill you and be your most pressing need. But I think there is a lot of value in just having an average/competent player there, which I think we have. There's almost a diminishing returns of sorts based on what you pay for an elite guy. Kinda the opposite of say WR where the value between great and average has a big impact and the difference between average and subpar is minimal (which was one reason the idea of Robert Meachum just didn't excite me).

Other than the bad teams who I knew were never going anywhere, have probably never been less upset with a tournament loss before. Losing Fab and drawing the best 2seed by a mile was just too ****ty of a combo to overcome (honestly we probably make the F4 in any other region). Oh well I think we're getting another title pretty soon here if we keep churning out these teams; maybe we can even have our actual starting 5 as a 1seed for once? GG 2012. Good luck Scoop & Kris. Thought it was very reminiscent of the '04 semi's of Uconn vs. Duke where the refs basically ruined what could've been a great game by trying to be the stars of the show. Just so so bad.

Yah, kinda like when Oklahoma make every 3 vs us and then missed all of the same shots vs unc the next round. Guy missed a FT, it happens. Scoop turning the ball over at the end of the 1st half with the shot clock turned off could've cost us the game too (for the 2nd yr in a row).

One day I'm watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and stumble across Kristin Bell's wiki page to find out we have the same exact birthday - year and all. So should we ever meet, I'll be ready, which is nice.

My favorite was Steve Smith trying to show something on the postgame and they instead by mistake showed the Ashville gift at the end of the 1st half where Trische was fouled with a second on the shot clock; which they then ignored after an awkward pause... Or the lack of replay on a 3pt foul, which may have been a foul, but is 1 stinkin replay too much to ask when you're scrutinizing every marginal call that went the other way with 75 replays? I get that everyone wants to see the upset, but that coverage was pitiful. Definitely a tough game tomorrow. Obv. not expecting this team to go far.

Umm no. Not your fault Reggie Miller & Len Elmore are clueless about the rules I guess.