Tag Archives: Andrew Murawa

THREE FOR BART: Louisville, Pac-12 Basketball, Zito

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  1. Former Louisville recruit about his visit: ‘It was like I was in a strip club’ – Sportscenter was moved up an hour this East Coast morning to break this story. If that doesn’t suggest that this is a big deal – college basketball moving ESPN programs in the heart of NFL season – then let me tell you its time to start paying attention. Katina Powell, no matter what you think of her credibility, has been vetted by a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist (Dick Cady). Even if you think she’s 90% full-of-it, then 10% of her allegations are true and wild at that. Her television appearance begins to name names (we love names, right? Russ Smith, Motrezl Harrell – players with championship rings). Alas, this isn’t about the players, it’s about those at the helm and the age old question: How much did he know? As in, which of these allegations – if true or even partially true – did Rick Pitino know about? Further, who was indeed propagating this? Andre McGee is the most named culprit, a graduate assistant at the time (now an assistant at UMKC). And maybe these aren’t the right questions at all? Sure we’re fascinated by college basketball and scandal in general, but what of a mother shopping her teenage daughters like this? That’s a sad reality amongst all of this as well. This isn’t a good story – for anyone – and its likely only to get worse.
  2. Things we think we know in the Pac-12 – Fellow Pac-12 blogger, Andrew Murawa, takes his first crack at 2015-16. In this post, Drew runs through some of the knowns and unknowns of the Pac-12 season. It’s a great composite of the innumerable questions begging to be answered about this odd Pac-12 season. It additionally begs the question: Don’t we know nothing? Is that why we like college basketball? Is that why other people hate it? I think about these things.
  3. What Baseball Taught Me – A lot of thoughts here but namely that the early-2000s A’s were the reason for the only piece of baseball paraphernalia that I own: A green Oakland A’s cap. Now this Player’s Tribune (a hit-or-miss publication) piece by Barry Zito takes a turn I didn’t expect but it’s thoughtful and bold. In there he writes, “At some point, even in the ethers of their mind, everyone has thought that they could maybe, just maybe, square up a 90 mph fastball.” I’m here to tell you: You cannot square up to a 90 mph fastball. Neither can you throw one.

PacHoops Power Rankings: Bring Your ID to the Airport

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Because I left my ID in my running shorts I was forced to fly standby to Seattle. In order to arrive by the 6pm tipoff, I needed someone also headed to Seattle to pass in the last second on their seat. Turns out that happens a lot. I made the flight. Basketball-wise, have the Bruins really jumped into the Dance? Do the Cardinal not want to dance? Can Zack LaVine fly? Do you think Kevin O’Neill saw 50 Shades? March approaches and it’s going to be tough to find two-and-a-half hours to watch both parts 1 and 2 of the SNL 40 special.

12) Washington

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Q&A with Connor Pelton: Oregon State is paying a return visit

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Connor Pelton is a long time friend of the program. I use the term colloquially because I don’t really know how long he’s befriended PacHoops. What I do know, however, is that Connor is a helluva Rush the Court contributor, a House of Sparky staple, and a lifelong Beaver. So with the latter (lattermost?) of Connor’s areas of expertise headed to the McKale Center, I thought we’d let CP scratch the curiosity itch.

My questions. Connor’s answers:

What is Oregon State missing in Victor Robbins?

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THREE FOR BART: Upshaw, Saviano, Pace

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  1. Huskies center Robert Upshaw dismissed from the program for violation of team rules – While this is a significantly damaging blow to Washington’s season, it’s an even rougher hit to Upshaw. There’s no secret surrounding Upshaw’s troubled path to where he is today. But it most certainly seems he’d begun to turn things around and for one of the most high character coaches around:

    Yes, I hope the young man figures out whatever he needs to figure out. And when reporting on the matter, I hope we all have a little more discretion:

  2. Roberto Saviano: My life under armed guard – Speaking of reporting, this is a fascinating first-hand account of the power of story telling. The life Saviano now leads – whether he chose it or not – is complex. I don’t get a good grasp of how he weighs the good he’s done with its cost. Nevertheless, his life will never be the same at the hope of making the lives of others better. Could you live like that?
  3. Fixing College Basketball: On Pace of Play and End of Game Scenarios – From Andrew Murawa comes a delightful account of his undelightful experience with the end of a basketball game. To paraphrase: S-L-O-W. Drew takes the measured effort of outlining how he’d improve the game with an admitted deference to brighter minds (of note: Drew knows hoops, he’s being humble). Well it was this piece that inspired my Marching to Vegas column to recount how our precious Pac-12 became a conference of slower pace and the logic behind that. To paraphrase: Damn you Tony Bennett.

THREE FOR BART: Titus, Newcomers, Soul

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  1. Titus’s Top 12 NCAA Power Rankings: Want Heartbreak? Play Arizona – Forget that. Want heartbreak? Root for Arizona. Outside of that, I think this is the first time two Pac-12 teams are in the Titus rankings. UCLA might’ve squeaked in at some point last year but definitively Utah is in there now. And now you’ve got to read Titus’  Utah blurb.
  2. Pac-12 Burning Questions: Favorite Newcomer? – Over at the RTC microsite, we answered questions about our favorite newcomers. I think this is going to spark a bigger profile of Gary Payton II. Nevertheless, gotta read this thing for Danna’s bit on Poeltl.
  3. CONGRATS, SOUL BRO! – I’ve never taken one of these classes, specifically, but I have been in this situation. You might have, too. Luc captures the scene perfectly. And uncomfortably.

THREE FOR BART: Goodbye, Trolls, Dictatorial

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  1. Journalism professor’s lesson lives on – A Thanksgiving message from Plaschke and a good one. It’s unfortunate that a passing often highlights for us that we didn’t tell those who meant something to us exactly that. Just prior to Thanksgiving we lost my first little league coach and dear friend’s dad. He taught us baseball, the game we’d play into college. He drove us to games and watched me play probably at least one baseball game a year (and many many more than that) from the age of 4-through-19. He was at nearly every practice. Traveling to every tournament he could. Maybe he wasn’t calling the pitches, but he was still Coach Chuck. He’ll be missed.
  2. How to Get the Biggest Stars in the World to Insult Themselves – I found this article to interestingly not note the Supreme Court’s current hearing of online threats in which Justice Elwood went so far as to cite Eminem during hearings. I imagine Kimmel isn’t having celebrities read their death threats or anything that extreme, but as our digital personas are being drawn out from behind their keyboards by Late Night television hosts, so too is the Supreme Court. Both serve as a warning to think twice before you click ‘send/tweet/post.’
  3. Pac-12 Burning Questions: Ideal Non-Conference Opponents – In which Andrew leads with:  “…Adam Butler could not be contained and, given his dictatorial powers and what-not, he prescribed almost entire non-conference schedules for all of the teams in the conference.”

Some Pre-Season, Post-Non-Conference Picks

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With Conference play tipping off tonight last night, the fellas at RTC and I compiled what I would call our Pre-Season-Post-Non-Conference-Schedule predictions. With a twelve-to-thirteen game sampling from each team and player, we made new-ish predictions on how the league is going to shape out. Here is the aggregation of our picks.

As for me, I don’t think I went particularly crazy here. I really think CU edges UCLA out of the second slot and I’m not buying ASU’s hot start. It’s worth noting here that I will forever be sad that Brock Motum won’t realistically win the POY award. Just a bummer cause he’s really good and fun to watch. I just might have a Foster’s in his honor.

Anyhow, here’s how I picked the league and some other All-This-That-and-the-Other Teams:

Conference Standings:

1.     Arizona

2.     Colorado

3.     UCLA

4.     Oregon

5.     Stanford

6.     California

7.     Oregon State

8.     Arizona State

9.     Washington State

10.  USC

11.  Washington

12.  Utah

All-Conference:

  • PG  Jahii Carson
  • G Allen Crabbe
  • F Shabazz Muhammad
  • F Solomon Hill
  • F Brock Motum

All-Freshman:

  • PG Jahii Carson
  • G Jordan Adams
  • F Shabazz Muhammad
  • F Jordan Loveridge
  • C Josh Scott

All-Defense:

  • PG Dominic Artis
  • G Nick Johnson
  • F Josh Huestis
  • F Arsalan Kazemi
  • C Jordan Bachynski

Coach of the Year:

  • Dana Altman

Player of the Year:

  • Allen Crabbe

Freshman of the Year:

  • Shabazz Muhammad

All-Surprise Team:

  • PG Dominic Artis
  • G Jordan Adams
  • F Josh Huestis
  • F Jonathan Gilling
  • C Jordan Bachynski

All-Disappointment Team:

  • PG Jio Fontan
  • G Ahmad Starks
  • G Chasson Randle
  • F Aaron Fuller
  • C Josh Smith

All-Improved Team:

  • G Nick Johnson
  • G Roberto Nelson
  • F Dwight Powell
  • F Carrick Felix
  • C Jordan Bachynski

All-Upside (most room for improvement into conference season):

  • PG Aaron Bright
  • G JT Terrell
  • F EJ Singler
  • F Brandon Ashley
  • F Tyrone Wallace

Game of the Year (to this point):

  • Florida at Arizona: the game was hyped as the biggest of the OOC schedule and lived up to the billing. McKale was rocking as if the ‘Cats were a top-10 tea— wait, they are. OK, so it appeared as if things were back to normal in Tucson until Arizona spent much of the game playing catch-up. With the final possession and the ball in their fearless, gamer’s hands, the Wildcats managed to knock off the Gators.

Game of the Year (in conference):

  • Arizona at UCLA – This should be the game of the year in the second to last weekend with Game Day in town and a whole lot of talent on the floor. I think it’s safe to assume Arizona will be a contender but no one seems to know what we’ll get out of UCLA. If recent history serves us well, this will indeed be a ball game.

The Two Seed Gets Rolling

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If you ask me, when the draft was over, I had compiled the most complete team. Amongst the eight total fantasy squads mine has it all: a Hall of Fame coach, conference POYs galore, NCAA Champions, lottery picks, you name it Team PacHoops has got it. It’s a group that could beat any team whether they wanted to run, slow it down, zone, press, whatever. Buckets for days and defensive disruption for eons.

And so now it begins. The first round of the Pac-12 Fantasy Draft voting has begun and my squad has earned the two-seed and the chance to tip off against Andrew Murawa’s group (the seven-seed).

VOTE

Voting closes Thursday at 2pm, PST so jump on it, share it, and if you need more of a reason to vote for this group beyond the fact that it’s my team, read up on this Dream Team:

My guards.

My forwards.

My centers.

The coach.