What follows is a fundraising request, so be forewarned. Since I consider the Rev a friend of mine, I included him on a solicitation for a fundraising event that I'm participating in next month. He thought it would be something worth sharing with the community, so here goes.

Short synopsis: A friend of mine, Jim Colton, is a member at golf club in Colorado called Ballyneal. Last year, after a caddie was critically injured in a skiing accident, Jim pledged to walk 108 holes of golf to raise money for his care. Jim didn't just succeed, he walked 155 holes! Through his efforts, he raised over $100,000. This year he's taking it national.

Earlier this year I joined a club in Kingsley MI, just south of Traverse City, called the Kingsley Club. On June 25th, four of my fellow Kingsley Club members and I will be attempting to walk at least 100 holes by participating in the inaugural addition of the Hundred Hole Hike, an event in which golfers across the country will attempt this feat in order to raise money for selected charities. More after the jump!

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Let's be honest. The saves record isn't the most impressive record in baseball. It's incredibly team dependent, and as a measure of who is truly a great reliever, single season saves don't show you very much.

But, it's not every day you see records that have stood for more than 10 years get broken. This will not go down as Frankie's best season. This will not go down as the best relief season in history. Frankie has arguably not been the best reliever in baseball this year. But he is a very deserving holder of this record. Probably, when careers are accounted for, more deserving than Roger Maris was when he set the single season home run record.

Maris had three seasons with more than 30 home runs, and the only one with more than 40 was the record breaking year. He was a good hitter, a 127 career OPS+ is nothing to sneeze at. But without those 61 homers in a park that played easy for lefty sluggers, he's an afterthought in MLB history.

Frankie is still early in his career. He's only 26, but he has over 200 saves. He's been one of baseball's best relievers from the day he was called up into the big leagues. He's been one of baseball's best closers since he took over for Troy Percival four seasons ago. It's the type of record where you may pick out three or four guys who are deserving, and he's certainly in the picture.

There will be a lot of talk about Frankie this winter. My thoughts are fairly clear. I think that the closer role is somewhat overrated, but Frankie Rodriguez is unfairly maligned because of his status as a closer. Look around at how many relievers have been dominant over a similar stretch of time. Baseball is littered with reliever who looked great for a year or two at a time. Very few have done it year after year after year. You would be hard pressed to find four or five relievers who have been better than Frankie since he came into the league.

As for next year, you can argue all you want about opportunity costs. What position is the most valuable, and how important is it to go after a reliever when you have a first baseman and possibly another starter to sign. But the market, imperfect as it is, is the market, and Frankie will have a few teams willing to offer him what he wants. Personally, a 15MM per contract is simply a raise over what he's currently making (it's not 15MM over their current payroll), and they're financially successful enough to sign Teixeira and re-sign Frankie. He's on pace for another excellent season. He's added a pitch to his repertoire, and he's even starting to throw that change up against righthanders with success. And I have no doubt that he'll learn a splitter or cutter (or both) over the next five years. On top of that, he's an Angel lifer, and 10 more solid seasons makes him a nearly automatic hall of famer, and he'll go in with an Angels cap, something you currently can't find in the HOF.

So congratulations, Frankie. You've earned it. Now you can rest and get ready for the post-season.

Cross posted at my site.

This is cross posted at my site, but I figured there's more discussion here, so I'm cross posting.

My last two posts (regarding the impact of the Teixeira trade) have prompted comments regarding the potential (probable?) departure of Frankie Rodriguez following this season. MSS thinks his leaving will be good for the Angels, as he is apparently no longer the "great reliever he once was". Meanwhile Anonymous thinks we won't miss his antics after all of those saves "he almost blows".

So for MSS, is a 26 year old closer with almost 200 career saves who, by the way, just learned a new pitch no longer dominant, even while still saving well over 90% of his chances? He just dropped his ERA to 2.42, saving a 1-0 game, while retiring the games best player, and one of the AL's best hitters in the process. He made A-Rod look stupid on a 3-2 change up, a pitch he didn't even know how to throw before this season. Does anyone doubt that in a year or two, he'll probably also add a splitter to he repertoire? He is not only still dominating, he's learning while doing it. Oh, and for good measure, one of the guys you'd probably list as dominant, Mariano Rivera, he couldn't get it done tonight. Big L next to his name in the box score.

And Anonymous, does this count as one of the saves he "almost" blew? I mean, he did throw three balls to A-Rod before making him look stupid in the process. And those two fly balls he gave up were only about 70 feet from going out.  Yes occasionally Frankie makes things more interesting than we'd like.  What closer doesn't?  Troy Percival, God love him (heck, I sponsor his B-R page) wasn't always without drama.  Bryan Harvey seemed like he always walked the bases loaded before striking out the side.  But I think there's a tendency to remember the drama, and unfortunately the failures, more than the successes.

You can count on one hand the guys who have been dominant over Frankie's tenure in his role. Rivera, maybe Wagner, Nathan, and who else? Frankie has been part of that group for four years now, and he's much younger than all of them. Though his save totals have been high, his work rate hasn't been outrageous. You have to ask yourself, why are there so few guys on that list? It's because it's not easy to perform at that level year in year out. That's why guys like Derek Turnbow and Joe Borowski can look great one year, and get cut the next. There are very few closers with long track records of sustained success. And of those three mentioned above, Wagner's got an ERA over 8.00 in the post-season.

So you can cheer the departure of Frankie all you want, but it will, without a doubt, weaken the Angels. They will be worse without him.

I've said this so many times I may as well get it tattooed on my forehead, but here it is again, in boldface. The comparison is not between what Frankie is and what Frankie could be, or was for one great season, or what you wish he would be. The comparison is between what Frankie is and what currently exists in the game. Regardless of the fact that he no longer mows through three innings in 25 pitches with six strikeouts, like he did in 2002, he's still at the top of an elite group of players who, night in and night out, answer the bell in the last inning and deliver their team to victory. If you can't see that, then I guess I can't help you. But facts are facts, and the fact is Frankie is one of a select few that turns the vast majority of games he enters into eight inning affairs. And yes, that's a very, very valuable commodity. The Angels will regret the day he signs with someone else.

Bumped. Congrats to our boys for bringing home Bru-103. Click on the graphic for official recap. GO BRUINS. -N

Amazing finish.  UCLA led Stanford by three with Erik Flores on 18 and Kevin Chappell on 17.  Flores bogeyed 18.  Chappell dunked it in the water on 17.  He dropped, hit his next shot into the rough, which is about four inches deep where he hit it (more on that below).  Chappell stepped up and holed his chip for bogey.  They took a one shot lead to 18 where Chappell smoked his drive down the middle, knocked his second shot on the green, and two putted for the team and individual championship.

The 17th hole is a par three, and it looked like they were playing from the back tee, which puts it around 220.  Water all down the right hand side, Pete Dye railroad ties and the whole bit.  It's a really tough hole, but it looked downwind today.  The wind usually blows the other direction.  He need a par on 18 to win, and 18 is about a 470 yard par four.  Again, it's manageable when it's downwind, and impossible when it's into the wind.  Walking away with par there is quite a feat, especially with two championships on the line.

Full disclosure, I'm about a four handicap, and I play all over the Chicago area (my avatar is tee shot on #13 at Cog Hill).  I get down to West Lafayette to play the Purdue course about twice every summer.  I played there two weeks ago right before they closed the course to prepare it for the tournament, and they were promoting it as a chance to play it under the conditions they have at the NCAAs (in retrospect, it may have actually been a warning).  The rough was practically unplayable.  The first cut was over three inches, and a few yards in, it was about seven inches.  Just brutal.  It already has a course rating of over 76 from the tips (7,450 yards), and it was probably playing 2.5 strokes above that with this rough.  On the first day, the second player of the day to tee off hit his ball five yards into the rough.  Three players, and two spotters (who are out there to do nothing other than find balls in the rough) couldn't find his ball, and he had to re-tee with a two stroke penalty.  I hit one in that rough two weeks ago, lost it, dropped, hit that ball about 30 feet, and almost lost that one too.  It's that deep and thick.  There are five par fours over 470.  Under those conditions, it's probably the toughest course I've ever played.  For Chappell to play it two under for the week is awesome.

Mike Montgomery signed the deal with Berkeley too soon.  Trent Johnson is leaving Stanford and taking the LSU job.

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Bumped. -Menelaus

UCLA just put out a release stating that Walker is staying as defensive coordinator.  

UCLA just released this - DeWayne Walker is staying as UCLA's defensive coordinator.

UCLA head football coach Rick Neuheisel is announcing that DeWayne Walker has agreed to be a part of Coach Neuheisel's first UCLA staff as defensive coordinator.

In addition, defensive line coach Todd Howard and linebackers coach Chuck Bullough will continue in their current positions.

Other staff decisions have yet to be made.

Linebackers coach Chuck Bullough is also staying, so I'm not quite sure what this means, if anything, for Norton.  

Personally, I stand by what I said before.  If Walker has agreed to work under Neuheisel and isn't going to rock the boat, then this is good news.  First and foremost, the whole staff has to be on the same page.  And if this is an indication that these two are on the same page, then this is an excellent development.  Either way, the "I hate Walker" contingent, and the "I wanna have Walker's babies" contingent will need to learn to live with one another for a while.

Thought I'd get some thoughts down on this one before I get too drunk to remember what happened:

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NFL Adam over the Hater Nation, long time Angels fan and Dodger not-liker, has come up with a novel way to show your support this post-season:  The Playoff Mustache.

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Moved Over From The Diaries...

Just a quick lesson for the chicken littles in the game threads.

2005:
May 7-9: Three game losing streak against the crappy Tigers (2) and decent Indians (1).
July 7-10: Four game sweep at the hands of the crappy Mariners.
July 24-28: Four game losing streak, including a sweep by the below average Blue Jays.
August 25-30: Five game losing streak, including a sweep by Tampa Bay. Tampa. Freaking. Bay.
September 12-15: Four game losing streak, including a sweep by Seattle, and a loss to the Tigers.

2004:
April 18-20: Three game losing streak
May 24-28: Four game losing streak, including a sweep by the Blue Jays who were even crappier than they were in 2005.
June 4-9: Five game losing streak against mediocre Cleveland and crappy Milwaukee.
June 16-18: Three game losing streak against Pittsburgh and Houston.
June 29-July 1: Four game losing streak, Dodgers and Oakland.
July 18-21: Four game losing streak, Boston (1), Cleveland (2), and Texas (1).
September 21-24: Three game losing streak, Seattle and Oakland.

2002 - Not even counting the awful start:
June 15-19: Four game losing streak, St. Louis and Dodgers.
June 24-25: Three game losing streak, all Texas, two in one day.
July 13-15: Three game losing streak, two against Kansas City.
August 7-9: Three game losing streak, Chicago and Toronto.
September 21-25: Four game losing streak, Seattle and Texas.

Sometimes a team goes through a rough stretch. Even very good teams. It's not the end of the world.

Per MLB.com and they've got something up on Athletics Nation as well.  Apparently he had a bit of a dust-up after the game last night.

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Jeff's career got off to a pretty impressive start (if you stop counting at 14).  So did Jered's. Since Jered just finished up start #25, I figured that would be a good time to compare.  Couple of caveats:

1. Jeff was a year younger when he made his debut.
   
2. Jeff's first 25 starts all came in the same season.
   
3. Jeff pitched for a really crappy team.  

Let's get to the numbers:

Jeff:  25 starts, 8-10, 5.23 ERA, 144.2 IP, 101 K, 1.304 WHIP, 22 Homers
Jered: 25 starts, 13-5, 2.79 ERA, 155.1 IP, 135 K, 1.127 WHIP, 18 Homers

If we dig a little deeper, we find that Jeff was 6-3 with a 2.93 ERA after 14 starts.  Jered was 9-2 with a 2.33 ERA.  Both look pretty damn good.  But one of the main cries of the skeptics has been "wait 'til the league sees Jered twice".  Assuming that MLB teams actually have an advanced scouting budget, I'm guessing that most teams are prepared for Jered at this point.  So let's see how each fared over his next 11 starts.

Jered: 66.1 IP, 3.26 ERA, 9 HR, 61 K
Jeff: 58.2 IP, 8.59 ERA, 16 HR, 40 K

So, how many starts until we stop hearing the "Jeff got off to a great start, too" argument?  30?  50?  100?

Does anyone out there still think Jered is destined to be another Jeff?

According to Maury Brown, the business of baseball guy over at Baseball Prospectus, the Extra Innings package may be for DirecTV subscribers only:

John Orerand and Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal have reported that MLB is in advanced talks with DirecTV to make the satellite television company the exclusive provider of MLB Extra Innings. While Extra Innings was initially only offered on DirecTV in 1996, the package has been available on cable since 2001, and on Dish Network since 2004.

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This is gonna read like a blog post, because it's cross posted at my blog.

Baseball Prospectus has a new blog section called Unfiltered. I imagine you have to be a subscriber to get access to it. I'm a subscriber, so I get it.

Anyway, the other day, Nate Silver did a bit on "The Most Underrated Pitcher in Baseball":

PECOTA says that he's the 20th most valuable pitcher in baseball long-term, more valuable than Roy Oswalt, Dontrelle Willis, or Justin Verlander. He's one of just eleven pitchers to post a VORP of 40 or higher in each of the last two seasons. He pitches in a major media market, is in the prime of his career, and has no red flags in his injury or health performance record. And yet, he's never received a vote for the Cy Young award, never made an All-Star team, and has barely one-fifth the Google hits of Barry Zito.

Who is he?

Well, assuming you read the title of this post, you know who it is. It's John Lackey. Included in that entry are the ten other pitchers who hit the VORP requirement, and of those ten, Lackey's last two seasons have been at about the bottom of that list, behind all but Brett Myers. Anyone who's been reading this site a fair amount over the last couple of seasons is aware of my frustrations with John Lackey. I love the guy, and I think he's a great pitcher. But he's incredibly frustrating to watch. He's got a horrible habit of getting ahead of guys 0-2 or 1-2, then taking about 10 more pitches to finish guys off. As a result, he'll routinely hit the 100 pitch mark around the sixth inning. Now, Nate and I know each other fairly well. He's a Chicago guy, and we knew each other through Primer before he started writing for Prospectus. I sent him a quick email with my observations, and he did a little digging, resulting in today's post, which I'll excerpt with his permission:
...Lackey has wound up walking the batter 4.7% of the time that the at-bat starts out with an 0-2 count. That struck me as a high percentage...and in fact it is. I took a sample of 25 arbitrarily-selected starting pitchers,....[O]nly two of these pitchers walked the hitter more often than Lackey. [ed. note: the list contained all quality starting pitchers, ranging from Johan Santana at the high end of the ability scale down to probably Eric Milton at the low end]

Score one for our Angels fan [ed. note: Woohoo!]....

But is walking the hitter following an 0-2 count a bad thing?

Lackey's OPS allowed following 0-2 counts is .405, which is a low number; the average for pitchers in this sample is .465....

It turns out that there is a correlation between walk rate on an 0-2 count and OPS allowed, but it's quite weak (.26).... Lackey's hyperaggressive strategy when ahead in the count might be frustrating to his fans and his managers, but there's no evidence that it's poor pitching.

That's a great point, and as I responded to Nate, my problem isn't so much that Lackey gets hurt more often than he should when he gets ahead, but rather that he sends his pitch count to a level that leads to Scioscia bringing the hook early than he might want to (and definitely earlier than I want him to). For what it's worth, I have no recollection of complaining about Lackey giving up too many two out hits (though for all I know, I may have complained about this before).

Considering the strength of the Angels bullpen over the last few seasons, early removal of a starter who is otherwise pitching well isn't the problem that it would be on a team with a crappy bullpen, so the net result is probably negligible. That doesn't make it any easier for me to watch him pitch. And ultimately (and this goes for Ervin Santana, too), if he could develop an ability to take advantage of those counts and save himself some pitches, he could add 2/3 of inning to his per game average. That's an extra 20-25 innings per year that he could take back from the pen. FWIW, his innings/start is pretty comparable with Zito, Willis, and Brett Myers, although he trails behind Brandon Webb, and that's before taking into account the fact that Webb plays in a league where he may occasionally be removed for a hitter even when he's going good on the mound.

It's nice to see some respect for Lackey from the new media, and thanks to Nate for digging a little deeper into the numbers. I'll continue to like Lackey, and I'll continue to get frustrated with his inability or unwillingness to put guys away earlier in the count, but if he keeps putting up seasons like he has the last couple of years, the frustrations will be fleeting.

It's been that way all season.  They opened the season by becoming the laughing stocks of college football in the Oregon-Oklahoma game.  They further embarrassed themselves in the UCLA-Arizona game when Ben Olson was knocked out with a late hit, and Tuitama was knocked out with a helmet to helmet hit (hey, I call 'em like I see 'em)

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Mike DiGiovanna writes in today's L.A. Times:

In the bouncing ball of home-plate humanity that punctuated the first walkoff homer of Kennedy's career, the Angels celebrated not only a dramatic victory that extended their win streak to four but a game that may have applied a pair of shock paddles to their pennant hopes.

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Congratulations to L.A. Times beat writer Bill Shaikin.

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 From today's LA Times:
You're the Angels, it's the last weekend of the season, and you're leading Oakland by a run in the eighth inning of a game to determine the American League West championship. Whom do you want playing first base? Howie Kendrick, Robb Quinlan or ... Darin Erstad?

Poll

In that situation, who do you want at first base?

16%

Howie Kendrick

14 votes

25%

Robb Quinlan

21 votes

14%

Casey Kotchman

12 votes

4%

Dallas McPherson

4 votes

38%

Darin Erstad

32 votes

83 votes | Poll has closed

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His column in today's Daily News pretty much sums up my feelings.

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Angels first pick in this year's draft.  Here are some profiles:
Baseball Resource
Some dude
Some Brewer's site (cached)
Scout.com

Conger's given first name is Hyun, but he was nicknamed by his grandfather "Hank" after Henry Aaron. The nickname seemed to have stuck in more ways than one, as Conger has developed intriguing power potential and hits every ball he makes contact with very hard. With a strong, compact frame, he employs an equally strong and compact stroke from both sides of the plate.

From the diaries. If there are other pre pre-season 2007 rankings for hoops already out, post them here. -N

Let the pre-season hype begin.  Fox Sports has released their pre-season top 25, and Joe Lunardi has released the first bracketology for 2007.

UCLA is #5 is Fox's rankings, and Lunardi has them as #1 seed in the San Jose regional.

This is from Phil Taylor's article on SI.com:

Memphis center Joey Dorsey might have been the most frustrated Tiger. In addition to being unable to stop Hollins, Dorsey made only one shot, missed a pair of layups, committed a key traveling violation late in the game, and spent most of the afternoon in foul trouble. He was barking at the refs in frustration most of the game, and at one point his teammate Antonio Anderson said to one of the officials, "Don't even listen to him."

Great job, Hollins.  Totally got inside their heads.

Man, I'm still so pumped up about how this team is way, way ahead of schedule.

Go crazy!

Cross posted

Almost one year ago today (just 3 days short), I gave up on a basketball game that I never should have given up on. Thank the Lord that the Deron Williams, Dee Brown, Luther Head, Roger Powell, and Jack Ingram didn't give up. They came back from a 15 point deficit with 4:00 minutes to play and completed one of the greatest comebacks in college basketball history.  Tonight, I almost made the same mistake.  But if I hadn't learned my lesson after last year, I certainly learned it tonight, as the UCLA Bruins made one of the greatest comebacks in college basketball history.

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From the diaries. -N

Cross posted

If the Pac 10 isn't embarrassed about the quality of the officiating for which they are paying, then they truly have no shame. The officiating in the Pac 10 has been awful all season, but it reached a new low today, and I'm not talking about home cooking. It was bad both ways.

It was horribly inconsistent. I defy anyone to explain to me what is and isn't a foul using that game as your visual aid. In the second half, they may as well have just given the Huskies two free throws, run 15 seconds off the clock, and given UCLA two free throws, and repeated the process. One of the big plays of the game was a dunk by John Brockman off a feed from Brandon Roy who was passing out of the double team. It was really the most shocking play of the game, because for the previous ten minutes, every touch by Roy was pretty much an automatic foul on the Bruins. My favorite was the fould called on Aboya who was standing on the OTHER SIDE OF THE BASKET and was knocked down by Roy landing on him AFTER he had laid the ball in the basket.

Aboya, for what it's worth, was fantastic. He was more heralded than LRMAM when this class enrolled, but surgeries on both knees slowed his progress, and he's just now beginning to make his presence felt. He led the Bruins with 15 points and added 8 rebounds (per the box score I'm using - subject to change). He's shown good quickness to the basket at times this season, and if he can get fully healthy, he looks like he can be a real force.

Ryan Hollins added nine rebounds of his own, but fouled out fairly quickly in the second half on some more brilliant officiating. Apparently a 6'10" guy can jump on top of Jordan Farmar to fight for a loose ball, but Ryan Hollins isn't allowed to battle with anyone on the Huskies for loose balls. Of course, Hollins should have been kicked out earlier, but he amazingly kept his cool after being bear hugged by Applewhite under the offensive basket ("inadvertantly" according to Mush Mouth). I've gotta think that if I were Hollins, Applewhite would have been missing a few teeth after that play.

Aaron Afflalo appeard to slip back into a slump, adding only five points on 2-10 shooting. Between the two of them, Farmar and Afflalo shot 4-23 from the field. Brandon Roy wasn't much better, shooting 3-11, but he was given 16 free throws, 13 of which he made. The key play of the game came on a Bruins steal with just over ten seconds to go. They got the ball ahead to Collison who had a chance to tie the game with a lay-up. He missed it, and was fouled, then missed his first free throw, and the Bruins were forced to take a three pointer the other end that Jordan Farmar rushed and had blocked.

And that was really the difference in the end. The Bruins shot just 65% from the line, while Washington shot 82%. The Bruins also turned the ball over 20 times, five more than their hosts. They made up for it on the glass, outrebounding the Huskies by ten at 32-22, inlcuding a 14-7 edge on the offensive boards, largely thanks to Aboya. The Bruins simply didn't shoot the ball well from the field, or the free throw line. Bruins not named Hollins and Aboya shot only 30% from the field. Somewhat surprising was that Michael Fey didn't get into the game, especially when you consider all the foul trouble that the Bruins were in.

It's a disappointing loss to be sure, especially with the opportunities they had. But there's no shame in losing to a good team on the road. This is the first road loss for the Bruins, which is kind of amazing when you think about it. It could have been a huge win, but it will end up being a learning experience. They have a week to get healthy before playing at $C, and with the Oregon schools travelling to Pauley for the next two after that, the Bruins really should win their next three before going to the Bay to end the season. If they can do that, and get a split up north, that should be enough for the Pac 10 championship.

Cross posted.

For all of you nostalgic types, I hope you taped this one, because you got to see what scoring was like before the shot clock, and you almost got to see what it was like before the three point line was added. There were two three point baskets all night long. That's not a typo. 2. Count 'em. I imagine that since the three point line was added some 20 years or so ago, there has to have been games with only 1, or maybe even 0, but there can't be that many. And I'd be surprised if any of them featured a team in the top 25.

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From the diaries - N

Cross Posted

First of all, let me start by saying that someone at Fox deserves to be shot. Repeatedly. Not only do they cut into the game because of freaking women's basketball games that have already been decided, but they also feel the need to take us through all of the post-game handshakes, then we need to see about five minutes of commercials, during which THEY RUN A PROMO FOR THE GAME THEY ARE CURRENTLY PRE-EMPTING!! Then, when they finally get us to the game, it's ONLY three minutes old at that time. Absolutely pathetic. Of course, this is only true for those of us outside of Southern California.

Some times, you don't have to do it with defense. Tale of two halves, really, as the Bruins opened a big lead in the first half before lackluster play in the closing minutes gave the Wildcats some life. The Bruins came out flying in the second half, stretching the lead to a game high 24 points before they decided to sit back and watch Arizona claw their way back into the game, as they trimmed a 24 point lead to 12 in less than five minutes. They didn't stop, trimming the lead all the way to seven points with less than eight minutes to play. But the Bruins finally put on a bandage on the wound and the Wildcats never got that close again. Honestly, after Arizona called a timeout with 18 minutes to go, it looked like the teams switched jerseys. UCLA mirrored Arizona's first half by turning the ball over possession after possession in the second half, which allowed Arizona to get back into the game. But in the end, the Bruins had too much, and the big lead they built was too much for Arizona to overcome. The Bruins improved to 19-4 on the season, 9-2 in the Pac 10. Their resume right now is tournament worthy, and they have seven regular season games plus the Pac 10 tournament left

Aaron Afflalo has apparently shaken his slump. He netted a career high 27 points on 5-12 shooting, while going 13-16 from the free throw line. Good to see him taking the ball to the basket again. Farmar and Hollins also finished in double figures. But the most interesting line of the night belonged to LRMAM, with 11 points and 6 rebounds. On the surface, it's nothing special, but when you consider that he did it in 19 minutes, it becomes more impressive. Still, I question why the hell he was in the game with two fouls and a 19 point lead in the first half, where he promptly picked up his third.

The Bruins really struggled with Arizona's zone defense. They almost looked confused at times, content to pass the ball back and forth up top until they either turned it over, or the clock ran down, where they had to force something. A couple of times, Farmar was able to get the ball into a position for a kick out, twice leading to three pointers, one from Afflalo and one from Bozeman, his only three points on one of the two shots he took all night. Still, I thought Bozeman made a big contribution. He's arguably their best defender, and he moves the ball well on offense without getting in the way. He seems to be just about all the way back. Still, their disappointing play against the zone is the type of thing that other coaches can sniff out. Let's hope they work on that to the extent that they know how to deal with it a little better the next time, because I can guarantee you that they're going to see zone defense again before the season is over.

I've also noticed another trend I'm not to happy about. I don't like the way the Bruins respond to big leads. Last season they made big comebacks against Washington and U$C to win games in which they trailed by large amounts. This year they almost did the same against West Virginia. But their response to big leads that they hold has been a little disconcerting. Today marked the at least the third time they opened doors and let their opponent back into a game that should have not been in doubt. They already lost to Washington in a game where they held a big lead. they almost did the same against Washington State. They have a tendency to play to the level of their opponent, and that spells doom in a first or second round tournament game when they have a high seed target on their back. That's an intensity issue that Coach Howland will have to address.

Don't worry, Arizona fans. The last time you were swept by UCLA, you went on to win the National Championship. For some reason, I don't see that happening this year. But you could win the NIT. That's something, right?

Cross-posted

If you recorded this one with plans to watch it again, erase it. It was not pretty. It felt like the Bruins scored about half of their final total despite shooting almost 50%. But once again, their defense keyed the victory.

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