TheTastyGreek

Pumpkins are notoriously fickle, negative fans. This doesn't mean anything. Bananas are optimistic... Always smiling. Once I see a banana has lost faith in Dodge, then maybe I'll take notice.

That "a**clown" is a current student. He's not giving in the tens of thousands or more, because he's still in school.

If there's one guy in the world I know can make a defense not just work, but dominate given the recruiting talent, facilities, and everything else that comes in package with North Texas, it's Gary DeLoach. We've been pretty bad the past few weeks, and we were pretty bad last year. But if DeLoach can't get it done here, now... I don't think there's anyone else who can. I don't know WHY it's not coming together for him yet... But whatever the reason is- if he can't do it, I don't know who can. I also believe that whatever it is that's keeping him from putting a strong defense on the field... If he's allowed to handle it the way he believes is right, he'll get it fixed faster than anyone else we'd bring in here could.

Just for the record... If we do manage to beat Troy today, Dodge will have finally achieved as many D-1A victories through 31 games in more than 2 and a half seasons as we earned in that one year that was so bad we fired the coach. That was not a good year by any stretch of the imagination. But it reminds me of the Chris Rock routine about the civil rights movements, where he says that the fire hoses and dogs of the 1950's looked like white people being nice compared to the 20's, 30's, and 40's. It all sucks.

One downside of signing with Missouri- logjam of young guys means minutes might be tough to come by for a year or two. Kim English - 6'6" guard, sophomore, 111th nationally in 2008 per Rivals. John Underwood - 6'9" freshman, 3 star in 2009 per Rivals. Tyler Stone - 6'7" freshman, 3 star in 2009 per Rivals. Laurence Bowers - 6'8" sophomore, 3 star in 2008 per Rivals. None of them are as highly ranked as Mitchell, but that's still a lot of well regarded guys to have to fight through for playing time. Come here, with Tramiel set to graduate, and you're almost certainly in the starting lineup within the first month of the season.

Message board fodder from some of the other schools that pursued him... Mom is the reason he bailed out on K-State, because she wasn't involved in the decision. Apparently, she's the one driving the bus on the new recruitment process. She says he'll make his decision after Thanksgiving. If Mom is such a major factor in this choice, and we're the only school within 400 miles of home... That's a very encouraging sign. Also, Missouri has two scholarships left to give. Out of four, they've already got commitments from a 3 star SG and a 4 star PG, Phil Pressey from here in Dallas. Other uncommited frontcourt prospects with offers from Missouri: Tarik Black, 4 star Center 47th ranked nationally by Rivals Titus Rubles, 3 star forward Kadeem Green, 3 star forward

An interview where he talks about decommitting from K-State and explicitly says we're on his list. Apparently, based on his comments and his top 4 at the moment, Missouri is/was the frontrunner two weeks ago. LINK

Mitchell on ESPN. They had him at #57 in the country and recent updates seem to indicate that his stock is rising from there. That writeup talks about his outside shot and about him guarding Vince Carter at a camp. One discouraging note... He apparently doesn't want to sign anywhere until spring. EDIT: It also says he decommitted from Kansas State. That's probably got something to do with Freddy Asprilla's transfer. If we somehow land this guy, it would, to some degree, be indirectly thanks to FIU for hiring Isiah Thomas.

Sorry, man... It's my hypothetical dream world, and it's 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday, November 11th. All three are asking you to fax them a LOI to sign. The first exhibition game of the season isn't for 12 hours, so all you have to go on in projecting our current roster's development is previous seasons and the past month of practice. Gotta pick two.

Also, he's on the same AAU team as Ross-Miller. Either the recruitment of one has given us a line in on the other (maybe we'll get both as a package that want to stick together, like Holman and his friend originally committed to Centenary?) or we've got a connection to that AAU squad. I am very, very excited about early signing period.

Hypothetical, best-case dream scenario: Brandon Peters K.C. Ross-Miller Alonzo Edwards 2 scholarships to give. Who's your odd man out? Even though he's a JC guy, I'd say Edwards should be one of the two. I think sliding Edwards in to replace Tramiel could give us one more year of potential like what we're looking at for this season. With Tramiel gone and no interior replacement (assuming that Holmen, Knox, and company won't be able to completely replace his presence), next year looks less promising than this one. But if Edwards can do what it seems he can, that could give us the same potential, plus another outside shooting weapon that's very tough to defend on the perimeter. Is getting that for two years worth losing out on one of those four year guards?

Just wait until the National Guard hears about this!

Perimeter scoring coupled with interior size and strength is what makes Desmond Yates arguably the most dangerous player in the conference. If we had a guy with something close to Yates' skill set... I would be very happy.

Gentlemen... That doesn't make it right.

It may have happened when we came back to beat them on a cold, sloppy day at Fouts in 2007, in a game with a postgame fight at midfield. It may have happened a few months later, when they ended our basketball season, our attempt to repeat as SBC Tournament champs, and our hopes of returning to the NCAA Tournament. It may have happened last year, when both teams bounced back and forth in a high scoring see-saw football game that was sealed by a 99 yard interception return as time expired to earn us our only win of the year. It might have happened a few months later, when we went on the road to Diddle arena and blew a lead, but still only lost to WKU when a game-tying shot failed to Drop. Or a few months after that, when with time running out in the SBC Tournament semifinals, A.J. Slaughter put on another a shooting clinic and WKU rallied back to knock us out of the tournament AGAIN, then very nearly went on to the sweet 16 for the second year in a row. Right now, the most nationally recognizable program in the Sun Belt is Western Kentucky. And after the past two years, we have a pretty intense and rivalrous recent history. I'd say that they're my favorite program to play in any sport I follow. Hopefully we'll get a sweep this year.

Woo hoo! Four day weekend!

Well, I was born in Queens, went to Ball state, then made the move to Intercourse, Pennsylvania. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to my vacation at Lake Titicaca.

What kind of man wears Armour hot dogs?

The baby looked at you?!?! EDIT: This isn't bad news (is it?), or we'd make with the soothing haikus. In the absence of a clearly established protocol, I revert to my default mechanism of spewing Simpsons quotes.

Now they know how George Washington felt when he surrendered Fort Necessity to the French in 1754!

I don't get it. A point is a point, but a defense that allows 100 points on 100 drives has been more effective at slowing or stopping a defense that gives up 100 points on 50 drives. Rick was asking about a way to compare defensive efficiency between teams that may spend dramatically different amounts of time on the field. Points per drive is one piece of a puzzle that tries to do that. The meaning isn't that some points are worth more than others, or anything like that... It's that just looking at points as a raw number ignores an important factor in how many points the defense can allow. Take Texas Tech, which has a reputation for throwing the ball a lot, stopping the clock more than a running offense, and scoring quickly. If their defense has to go out on the field 13 times per game while the average NCAA team only defends 12 drives... That doesn't seem like much; only one drive. But over the course of a 12 game season, it's effectively the same as forcing the defense to play a 13th game without counting it. Even if their defense was exactly as efficient as the average team, it would look worse by comparison because of the nature of how their coach approaches the game. If this was a joke that I didn't get, though... My apologies.

All we need now is a public 'vote of confidence' and/or a postgame press conference meltdown, and we're playing in the big leagues!

You'd also need to look at yards allowed per drive, or some sort of secondary measure so you could weight the first stat and control a little bit for field position (and the impact offense/special teams can have on defensive efficiency).

Not in and of itself, because a punt is not the only way to force the opponent to end their drive. You'd need additional context, like giveaway/takeaway information and successfully defended 4th down attempts. Also, allowing two field goals is at least as good or better, in terms of points allowed, than forcing a punt and allowing a TD. If you give up a TD and an extra point, that's worse than giving up two field goal drives, even though the first situation includes a "success" in terms of a forced punt. You'd need a metric for points allowed per defensive drive to look at it the way you're proposing.

My stats are meaningless. I believe Green P1 and Illuvius are tracking the lump situations.