Good offseason press

[Afghusky15]

Thought I'd start a thread containing the positive press coverage during the off season. The article below talks about the 3 game series with Nova. It contains positive coverage of the huskies. Highlighting the fact that the matchup contains the national champions 2 of the past 4 years, and:

Next season's game, which will be played Jan. 20 at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut, might be a top-25 affair. Right now, we have Villanova slotted in the top 10. UConn is not ranked, but the Huskies are bringing back good players who missed most of last season because of injury (Terry Larrier, Alterique Gilbert).

http://www.cbssports.com/college-ba...-uconn-and-villanova-arrange-a-3-game-series/

As the offseason progresses I predict we will get more and more positive press for the upcoming season. It will be hard to ignore the sheer talent between Jalen, Alterique and Larrier.

 

[USNA90]

With all the positives this program has experienced over the past eight months, I would expect nothing but good press in the run-up to the season.

 

[Shaggydog84]

?

 

[USNA90]

Sarcasm.

 

[the Blades]

ZZZZZZZZZZ..... no seriously, I'd be happy to add some positive news ( but if you want me to be real, I'm in the "show me" mode on the court for next year or else I'd be fibbing ) ...but here you go:

 

[the Blades]

From the past:

 

[the Blades]

A little more from Kemba on his award:

 

[the Blades]

UConn Men's Insider: Injured Huskies Anxious To Get Back On The Court

 

[the Blades]

Maybe it's time for some more good news and I also heard that CV "did stay at a holiday inn express last night ".... LOL !

 

[permit22]

She's a smoke show...hopefully she stayed at the holiday with CV

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I agree, she is indeed a hottie. I thought so last year too when she was on SNY

 

[the Blades]

I agree, she is indeed a hottie. I thought so last year too when she was on SNY

Yeah, sideline reporter from last year, made some of the games bearable, came over from the Big ten network, she has very good genes......she's an Illini like
her pops, Thomas Rooks, rushing leader @ Illinois, niece of Hall of Famer, Lou Brock and niece of former NFL player, Marv Woodson.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Rooks' Uncle Lou Brock was the best base stealer in baseball in the 1960s and 1970s, until Rickey Henderson and Tim 'Rock" Raines came along in the 1980s to take stolen bases to another level. Unfortunately, the stolen base has become less of a weapon in modern baseball, which favors guys who hit home runs and strike out a ton over good baserunners with less power. That being said, the HR Derby last night was the best HR Derby I have ever seen. I still think there is room in the game for elite base stealers but we are not seeing them on the MLB level at this time. I think part of it is agents are telling players that teams don't pay a lot of money to guys who steal 60 bases but hit only 8 home runs, so guys are changing their swings to uppercut the ball and get it in the air. All you need is one guy like Brock, Henderson or Raines to change things back.......

 

[the Blades]

I hear ya, KSTW, I'm a big baseball stats guy and Strat-O-Matic player/collector. I also think it's as much the manager playing conservative as it is guys who could put up big steal numbers. Billly Hamilton of the Reds has been in the 50's in steals when he played as a regular, since he came up from the minors where he swiped over 100 in 3 different seasons( one year 155). But now these guys want to play station to station baseball waiting for the long ball. Hell even the year Ricky swiped 130 he was thrown out 42 times. Alot of the managers in today's game don't want to turn guys loose, especially when you look at different eras of baseball history.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Blades,

The reason why managers do not turn guys loose to steal bases is because they don't want to take the bat out of the hands of the middle of the order power hitters who are then pitched around or more carefully with a base open. The Yankees have a couple of solid base stealers at the top of their order in Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury, but manager Joe Girardi stopped stealing bases once he moved Aaron Judge to #3 in the order because that just takes the bat out of his hands if they successfully steal whereas If they stay at First Base it's a possible 2 or 3 run homer every time Judge comes up.

Since you are a stat guy at one time earlier this year before Chris Davis went on the DL, there were 5 guys led by Davis on pace to all break the major league record for strikeouts. The others as I recall were Joey Gallo, Keon Broxton, Miguel Sano and one other guy whose name escapes me. Davis got hurt but was on pace for 250 strikeouts which would have smashed the MLB record of 220 by Mark Davis. The others all have a shot at that record although Gallo at some point will get benched because he is hitting around .196 and has a very low OBP making his number of strikeouts unacceptable. However strikeouts are now tolerated if they come with a higher OBP. Aaron Judge is leading MLB in OBP with .449 and could be the first American League Rookie with 100 walks since 1909. In fact only two MLB rookies ever led their league in walks and the other is Joe Morgan who led the NL in 1964 and he is in the Hall of Fame. So for this reason Judge's well over 100 strikeouts are acceptable whereas Gallo's even higher number of strikeouts are not acceptable. But the trend now is a higher toleration for 200 strikeout guys than in past years when they were viewed as "rally killers" and black holes because they couldn't make contact.

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Just an update: Miguel Sano leads all of MLB with 120 strikeouts and the other Davis, Khris Davis with a K, has passed the Chris Davis on the DL and has 117 Ks. These two and Broxton all have a good shot at setting a new MLB record for strikeouts and I just hope Yankees pitching can help them achieve this goal. Aaron Judge with 109 whiffs has less strikeouts than Sano, the man he beat in the HR Derby finals last night.

Strikeouts in baseball are like TOs in basketball. You can sometimes live with them depending on what else the player is doing out there.

 

[the Blades]

Philosophy my man, it's all about baseball philosophy and it changes from era to era.

 

[the Blades]

Back to off season Uconn press....a message from the coach:

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Family is great as long as you just win baby! Otherwise it's a dysfunctional family........

 

[the Blades]

Maybe it's time for some more good news and I also heard that CV "did stay at a holiday inn express last night ".... LOL !

View embedded media

Video feature:
GEICO SportsNite: Vital on how chess helps his game | SNY

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

I was in the Chess Club when I was in high school. I remember when I was a freshman in high school I beat a couple of upperclassmen who were in the Chess Club in Chess pick up games in the school cafeteria. Word got back to the President of the Chess Club that I had beaten some of the members, so he asked me to play him in a match in front of the club. He was a guy who was a senior and had been accepted into Harvard, and was one of the revered Nerds in the school. Everyone in the club expected him to quickly checkmate me. That did not happen. I ended up checkmating him after a long match and was then invited into the club.

It's an interesting game, and has some similarities to basketball in terms of utilizing offensive and defensive formations. At one time I read a bunch of books on Chess written by Bobby Fischer and other all time Chess greats and they favored various openings and formations of the players. Chess at that level boggles one's mind. I pretty much stuck to the basic formations like castling.

 

[the Blades]

 

[KhalidShockedTheWorld]

Blades -

Thanks for posting that article, really good read. I sent it to my father and uncle as they will be pleased to read that.