SB Nation User Blog: 58Fan

New Uniforms

58Fan — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 23:33:02 -0000

http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/Fall05/brownlee/cowboys.html

It appears the football team will have new uniforms for next year or maybe even the bowl game. For fun this is the uniform I'd like to see. Like LSU we should basically have one uniform. LSU wears the white jersey at home and on the road. I'm not a Dallas Cowboy fan but I love the uniform. They too generally wear the same uniform with the white jersey. See the uniform on the right at the site.
UK could have silver helmets with a blue UK on the side, and a blue-white-blue stripe from front to back. The jerseys would be white with blue numerals as in the picture with blue-white-blue stripes around the sleaves. The pants would be silver with blue-white-blue stripes down the legs. I'm not sure socks can be worn in college ball, but blue socks with white trim would be good. We would wear this uniform whenever possible. IMO this uniform would look great.
PS Instead of Dallas blue use Kentucky blue.

5 STARS

58Fan — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 00:52:06 -0000

This may be an old discussion but I see criticism of UK because they can't get the 5-star recruits in football. How much does it matter? Shouldn't college footbal players be judged when they're seniors, not while they're in high school? I don't know how many of these players were 5-star coming out of high school, but they should have been.
1)Woodson
2)Woodyard
3)Tamme
4)Burton
5)Johnson,Steve
6)Little
and IMO Jarmon and Lindley as well as others could be added to the list in time.
Aren't the 5-star kids out of high school the early bloomers, kids that are ready made. Even some of these don't pan out.
Let's face it, UK isn't going to get many of these players, at least not soon. What they've been able to do is find some late bloomers, those who haven't grown into their bodies, who maybe have little experience, or maybe were injured their senior year in high school. UK has "picked through the scraps" and found some gems. I'm impressed with Coach Brooks and the staff and their ability to do this.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Field Goal Percentage

58Fan — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:32:39 -0000

(This is my small protest against the use of field goal percentage in newspaper boxscores everywhere. Another measure is needed.)

Believe it was Mark Twain who coined the phrase,"Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics". After watching Jodie Meeks' fantastic shooting performance in the first half of the Pikeville exhibition, it brought back the memory of an old peeve.
We've had the three point basket for many years. Field goal percentage is still used to measure shooting performance or offensive efficiency although it is misleading,sometimes wildly misleading.
As an example, consider a hypothetical game(unlikely but possible)between,we'll call them,the Red Team and the Blue Team. In this game the Red Team had 60 field goal attempts making 30, all two point goals, for 50.0%. The Blue Team also had 60 attempts making 20, all three point goals, for 33.3%.
Current wisdom says the Red Team shot well(50.0%) while the Blue Team shot poorly(33.3%). How can this be ??? Both teams shot 60 times and achieved 60 points.
The problem is FG% is an unweighted average and treats all field goals the same,not taking into account that three is greater than two. What is needed is a weighted average to account for this.
Weighted Field Goal Percentage(WFG%)1.5 times three point goals +two point goals, all of that divided by field goal attempts(FGA). Take that result and multiply by 100%.

WFG%(1.5 X 3FG+ 2FG)/FGA then multiply the result by 100%

In the hypothetical game the Red Team had no three pointers, therefore WFG% is the same as FG%, or 50.0%.
The Blue Team made no two pointers so,

WFG%(1.5 X 20/60)X 100% 50.0%

We have an WFG% of 50.0% for both teams as it should be since both teams achieved the same nunber of points with the same number of shots.
Using WFG% Jodie Meeks' shooting is even more remarkable. In the first half he made 8 out of 10 FGA with 7 three pointers. His WFG% is,

WFG%(1.5 X 7+ 1)/10 multiplying the result by 100%=115.0%
Yes, WFG% may be more than 100%, and this shows the power of the three point basket. Meeks did something no two point shooter can do, he scored 23 points with 10 shots. A two point shooter making all ten shots could only score 20!!
Years ago Travis Ford had several games where he had a WFG% greater than 100%. He was a great offensive performer. In the NCAA tournament,his Senior year, UK was blowing teams out until they met Michigan in the Final Four. They shut him down and won in overtime.

A quick way to figure WFG% is to add half the number of 3 pointers made to total field goal attempts and then calculate like doing FG%. For Meeks first half shooting,

WFG%(3.5+ 8)/10 then multiply result by 100%
WFG%=115.0%

Movin On Up

58Fan — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 09:40:25 -0000

Here are four suggestions to help Kentucky football. IMHO

Be a national team
Don't play anyone from your home recruiting area

These two complement one another. Give up playing local teams like Eastern or UofL for that matter. Potential recruits from out of state are generally not impressed by these games. Yes, LSU and Florida play local teams, but they are already established powers and can afford it.
Before UK played UofL the very best recruits in Louisville usually went to a Big Ten school, Alabama, Tennessee, etc., but UK outrecruited UofL for the rest. UK could make the argument that since they were in the SEC theirs was the better program. Once the teams played and UofL started winning that argument was history. Recently UofL has dominated recruiting in Louisville (maybe that will change now) and has made inroads out in the state. Kentucky was the dominant team in the state before they started playing. Never offer your home recruiting area to a local team by letting them beat you, and there is only one way to do that. Don't play them. Get UofL off the schedule ASAP. For all practical matters Cincinnati is a local team. Don't help them recruit in Northern Kentucky by playing them.

Schedule to win
Schedule to recruit

Kentucky is stuck with the SEC schedule leaving four games to play with. Putting these two suggestions together, ideally what we want is to play high profile, beatable teams from within an area where we recruit or want to recruit (not our home area, i.e. Kentucky). What we don't want is low profile teams that can beat us like Appalachian State. Here IMO are some possible matchups which could help the program.
A) NOTRE DAME
This year they are both very high profile and very beatable. The name still has magic, and any team playing them is fortunate indeed. Notre Dame is near Chicago and would help recruiting there.
B) NORTHWESTERN
Being in the Big Ten makes them high profile and it recent years have been beatable. Another team in the important Chicago area.
C) NORTHERN ILLINOIS
Another team in the Chicago area. Believe they have a losing record this year. Both Alabama and Tennessee have them scheduled for next year.
D) GEORGIA TECH
This one is a natural and should replace UofL on the schedule. This game would further help recruiting in Georgia. Couple Tech with Georgia so when we play Georgia in Lexington, we play Tech in Atlanta. Over the last few years would playing Tech have resulted in more losses than playing Louisville? How could it?
E) FLORIDA STATE
High profile and they're not what they use to be. Would help recruiting in Florida. Couple Florida and Florida State, meaning we'd play a game in Florida every year.
F) MEMPHIS
Fairly high profile and beatable. Helps recruiting in the city, north Mississippi, west Tennessee, Arkansas. Couple with Arkansas or one of the SEC Mississippi teams.
G) DUKE or NORTH CAROLINA STATE
Both are high profile (ACC) and beatable. Helps recruiting in North Carolina.
H) TULANE
Fairly high profile and beatable. Would help recruiting around New Orleans and Louisiana. Couple with LSU or one of the SEC Mississippi schools.
I) CHATTANOOGA
Great opener. Would help recruiting in the city, East Tennessee, and North Georgia.

Impossible Dream

58Fan — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 05:48:25 -0000

Next Saturday the #1 LSU Tigers come to town. Here is an edited version of the lyrics to the song, "Impossible Dream" from the Man of La Mancha. Nothing is impossible.

To dream the impossible dream
To fight the unbeatable foe
To bear with unbearable sorrow
To run where the brave dare not go
To right the unrightable wrong
To try when your arms are too weary
To reach the unreachable star

This is my quest
To follow that star
no matter how hopeless
no matter how far
To fight for the right
without question or pause
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause
And I know if I'll only be true
to this glorious quest
That my heart will lie peaceful and calm
When I'm laid to my rest
And the world will be better for this
That one man, scorned and covered with scars
Still strove with his last ounce of courage
To reach the unreachable star

GO WILDCATS