The OtherArena

2011/2012 LA Lakers Thread

JAG — Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:41 pm

Author: JAG

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 10:41 pm

Fucking Bynum has too many of these nights for me to believe he's cornerstone player.

Just not good enough right now to win tough back-to-back games.

And Steve Blake can go fuck himself for pump-faking the 3 at 85-79 before missing it.

Lin's a great story.

Jagdip

The Knicks: 2011 and beyond

Paul Jacobi — Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:55 pm

Author: Paul Jacobi

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 9:55 pm

Well, my last post looks totally foolish now ;)
It's been a great week to be a Knicks fan and tough not to get caught up in the Lin story. He's looked better each game and his outside shot, which didn't look that great when I was at the Knicks/Nets game last Saturday was dropping tonight in that nice victory over the Lakers.
I'm still not convinced it's totally sustainable,,, but if he can settle into something in the high teens/low 20's, 7-8 assists and cut the TOs a bit, perhaps he can be the real deal.
Worried about a letdown at Minnesota tomorrow and lets hope the return of Stat and Melo in the next 2 weeks can lead to an extended run for the 'Bockers.

Van Halen Reunited

jdw — Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:35 pm

Author: jdw

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 3:35 pm

It's kind of amazing he doesn't mention Mike in the piece, and puts over Wolfie with a freaking A. The concert review has one mention of Mike, again while putting over Wolfie. Pretty annoying considering Mike's solid bass support over the years and massive hidden strength as the background singer / chorus carrier while Roth was squeeeeeeeeling.

John

Super Bowl XLVI

corrado — Fri Feb 10, 2012 12:46 pm

Author: corrado

Posted: Fri Feb 10, 2012 12:46 pm

Only thing I'll add here is that I was at that Giants/Vikes game and it was the worst football game you could imagine. Just bad football from the Giants.

A miracle they won the Super Bowl after that.

And the Redskins play the AFC North/NFC South teams next year. I dont think we've seen the last of the Redskins doing the honors of the worst loss by a Super Bowl team.

Springsteen tour thread...

Fong — Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:26 pm

Author: Fong

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 6:26 pm

So it's official. A full horn section and a family member will be called on to take Clarence's spot:

Jake Clemons to take his uncle's spot

Ed Manion, who has played with Bruce and Southside Johnny in the recent and distant past, will be a second saxophonist.

Fast-forward to about 3:40 to hear Jake take on a Clarence classic:

Drive All Night

Ed Manion doing Jungleland in a tribute to Clarence

-HJF
(I'll actually have to watch the Grammys for once to see how this shakes out)

General TV Series

jdw — Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:20 pm

Author: jdw

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 4:20 pm

If you like Justified, I recommend Chris Ryan's Season 3 recaps:

Grandtland: Justified

Go to the bottom, then one up for S3E1. The rest are further up the page in order, intermingled with a couple of other articles tagged with Justified.

He has a good feel for the show, has fun with it, isn't shy about poking it... but has a strong love for it in a fun way. Massive spoiler alert, so don't read any before you watch an episode.

John

NFL Coach-Go-Round, 2011-12 Edition

tdcheetah — Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:42 pm

Author: tdcheetah

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:42 pm

tdcheetah wrote:

... THEY SAY WAIT 'TIL NEXT YEAR (or the next, or the next...)

With the hiring trend swinging away from young, hungry *Coords back towards recycled veterans (somewhere, Rob Ryan is sobbing), many of these men are probably considering hiring headhunters for 2013.

**UPDATED 2/9/2012 as the dust settles and so do 2011's firees...

Interviewed some places but no others, no offers yet.

Lee

NCAA Hoops 2011/2012

jdw — Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:19 pm

Author: jdw

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:19 pm

We've had spotty interior scoring for a lot of years, and there perimeter focus has been there for ages. This is perhaps the best manifestation of it despite going 6-11 (Kelly), 6-10 (Plumlee the Elder) and 6-10 (Plumlee the Middle) among the Bigs. Duke just doesn't coach Bigs well.

We've gotten away with some of it over the years by having some guys who could drive into the paint, either drawing the foul or getting easier shots. Lasting year:

* Irving was exceptional at it before getting hurt
* Smith was pretty solid at it
* Singler wasn't bad though he could have been smarter about it

On Singler, in the sense of knowing when his outside shot wasn't falling, drive and draw fouls. He wasn't always sharp about that.

This team? They really miss an Irving who could effectively drive, make shots, draw fouls or dish and/or kick out.

Frustrating team. I thought that last year was a sign of a really positive future for the team in the last stage of Coach K's run at Duke. Now? I'm feeling we're back in the Paulus Era, while UNC is loaded up for another run at a National Title. It's 2-1 since Roy got to UNC... 3-1 would suck.

John

2011/2012 Futbol Thread

jdw — Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:50 am

Author: jdw

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:50 am

Harry Redknapp, Rube of the Year: England's most charming miscreant gets away with it again

A nice piece on what a douchebag Harry has been over the years, which he's managed to keep sweeping under the rug because he's so damned likeable. I'd forgotten most of this.

Usually this would give me another reason to root against England in the coming Euro. The problem is... there might be a fair number of ManU players on the team. :P

John

2012 College Football Thread

jdw — Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:07 am

Author: jdw

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 11:07 am

�Deep South�s Oldest Rivalry� could be the next casualty of SEC expansion

The SEC could always grow some testicles, drop 1 of their jobber games from the schedule, and play 9 conference games. Not going to have much sympathy over Auburn being unwilling to drop games like Utah State, Florida Atlantic *and* Samford to retain the UGA game.

We all know why the SEC is insistant on keeping 8 games:

* Bowl Slots

They wouldn't fill all their current massive number of bowl slots if their weakest teams didn't get 4 jobber games.

* Rankings

South Carolina was a mediocre team this year. 8 games allowed them to avoid both LSU and Alabama. Not saying they would have draw one of them this year... they may have gotten Mississippi instead. But they would regularly have more teams in the other division on their slate, and risk losses.

What changes with expansion?

From:

- 5 games in division
- 3 games other division

To:

- 6 games in division
- 2 games other division

Wait... they're even *less* likely to draw tough teams in the other division?

Yeah... man up and play 9 conference games. It actually benefits the schools and gets more TV $$$. It does risk some in the rankings, but that's just business.

John

2011/2012 NBA Thread

Rian — Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:52 pm

Author: Rian

Posted: Wed Feb 08, 2012 9:52 pm

Don't look now but here come the Spurs. Doing it all without Ginobli too, he should be back this next week.