Hi folks,

Anyone know of any really good cheap or free stats software? I'm considering doing an NHL-related project (because I'm a nerd) based on the cap, points, and avg points per team. I have Excel but I'd rather not use Excel. I had a copy of STATA on my comp but it finally realized I graduated from college 5 years ago and it doesn't work anymore. So, if you want to help a fellow Flyers fan and amateur statistician out, please let me know where I can find a good stat program.

 

Thanks!

ETA: I found what I needed offline! Thanks for the replies, though!

Bumped: Thanks to kmblue for setting this up. Sorry I didn't have this up 0.2 miliseconds after the selection show.

Yeah, yeah, the PSU Men's Basket FailBall team was a disappointment this year.  However, it's time for March Madness, brackets, and watching Cinderellas beat the team that we expected would win it all. Or, to find that we picked the wrong Cinderellas and our brackets are screwed after the first round.

I've started a BSD group on ESPN for this year.

Name: bsd2010      Password: zuggets

I promise to do better in this than I did in fantasy football this year. Join and lets get started folks!

The 2006 Orange Bowl, the last head to head match up between Joe and Bowden. Its on ESPN Classic now to 3:00 PM. The epic 3 OT game, Austin Scott's only good game of note, the emergence of Sean Lee after Poz's injury and plenty of kicker fail between FSU's kicker and Kevin Kelly until the last OT. Feel the bliss at the end of the dark years. Ahhhh... I can't wait til Friday!!

IT'S 6:58 PM AND MICHIGAN STILL SUCKS!!

 

It's Hate Michigan week and it's time to get it started. We all know that Ann Arbor is still a dirty whore, that the Referines will be out in force next week, Michigan's better than last year, Rich Rod is a douche, yadda yadda yadda. It's time for your best anti-Michigan jokes, rants, etc until Cairo does his Hate Week post.

 

GO STATE BEAT MICHIGAN!

This loss hurts like hell.

 

It burns. But Iowa was the better team and they deserved this win and their rank now in the Top 25. We were overrated, we all suspected after the 3 creampuffs.

 

But you know what? We have the rest of the season! Yes, it'll be tough, we got @Illinois, Eastern Illinois, Minnesota, @Michigan, @Northwestern, Ohio State, Indiana, Michigan State. No gimmes but I believe that we can go over .500 over the rest of our schedule. Next game is @Illinois and we have to be ready to play. There are more games and more teams will have losses. We probably won't win the Big Ten but you know, if we can play spoiler, so be it.

 

I'm down but I'm still bleeding blue and white.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/rankings

This week, Penn State is #5 in the AP and #4 in the USAToday/tWWL Coaches Poll.

 

Next highest Big Ten team is OSU at 13 in the AP, 11 in the USAToday. The 3rd and last Big Ten team is MIchigan at 23 in the AP, 22 in the USAToday.

USC dropped to 12 in the AP, 10 in the USA Today, the U is now ranked at 9(WTF!!!) in the AP, 13 in the USA Today. Boise State is the only BCS buster left in the Top 10 (next closest is TCU).

Anyway, where would YOU rank PSU this week?

Because I'm anal and I want to nail down a meet up during Artsfest. Please make a poll choice if you're going to be there. Make a BSDiva happy, fill out the poll.

 

Plus, if you going to be in on Thursday, 7/9, feel free to drop a line. I'll be in town but most of my peeps are coming in Friday night so I'll be free to hang out, chill, talk about CORNLEY SMASH and how much Terrelle Pryor sucks.

Poll

Where do you want to meet at the BSD & BSDivas Artsfest meet up?

29%

Saloon @ 6:00 PM on 7/10/09. So we can all watch kmblue get drunk on 1 bongwater monkey boy.

7 votes

58%

Cafe 210, 4 pm on 7/10/09! Because getting wasted while making fun of people while sitting outside is cool!

14 votes

12%

I wanna go somewhere else! Please clarify in a comment.

3 votes

24 votes | Poll has closed

When DWill signed with PSU back in December 2004, four years ago, PSU was in year 5 of the Dark Years. The Dark Years were 2000-2004, 4 seasons of losing seasons with one winning year (2002). That 9-3 team was a senior-laden team that had too much talent to lose to lesser teams but no intestinal fortitude to beat teams that had more talent/more will to win than them. 2004, the team went 4-7, winning the last 2 games after an improbable 4th down stop at Indiana before blowing out Michigan State. All of us point back to that 4th down stop as a turning point but this team needed offensive power. Enter Derrick Williams.

He could have gone anywhere. Many expected he would head to Florida but he decided to come here. PSU, a team that was now living off of its legacy, fallen from the top to the mire. Derrick Williams decided to begin the resurrection of the program and recruited other players to come in with him: Justin King, Sean Lee, A.Q. Shipley. Butler was a redshirt at the time, Norwood came in as a kid that no one else wanted.

With DWill as their leader, these players all played in their freshman year, 2005 as another senior-laden team fueled by the leadership of M-Rob beat OSU, won the Big Ten and the Orange Bowl. In 2006 and 2007, under the non-leadership of Morelli, the team still went 9-4. During these years, DWill was instrumental in recruiting as the 2006 recruiting class was a top 10 class. 2007 and 2008 were good as well, not as highly ranked but filled with guys who were eager to continue putting PSU back on the map.

This year, with a real QB, D-Clark, leading the team, PSU went 11-1 again, finally beating Michigan and OSU and is now awaiting USC in the Rose Bowl. The Rose Bowl will be DWill's last game but the legacy of what he has done is now part of PSU lore. 40-10 the last 4 years after going 26-32 during the Dark Years. Renewed national profile, momentum going into the future.

I know people have mentioned him a lot in different comments but I feel that he deserves his own post. He's not God or anything but he has meant a lot to this program.

 

GO STATE BEAT USC!

Continue reading this post »

Posted here because I don't have a link, image, or quote for the fanshots.

 

Rumor: Devon Smith has committed. (no link yet) Plus, JeRon Stokes is reportedly thinking of decommitting from Tennessee. (no link yet)

I think Devon Smith was one of the recruits who was at the Illinois game. I know that the struggles of Tennessee may have made JeRon Stokes reconsider his committment. We have a hole here at PSU at WR in 2009, perfect opportunity for some freshmen to jump in.

I got this off of the EMB where some Scout writers post. I'll update with links when they come out.

http://pennstate.scout.com/2/757215.html

 

Stephen Morris from D$ alma mater, in Greenbelt, MD. Recruit #9, another DB, and yes, an LJ Sr recruit. So far, the team is doing really well in recruiting DBs, its time to start working on getting a QB and some WRs. I wonder if any of the DB recruits have been promised time on O (I know Obeng-Pong(?) has been promised to see reps at RB). Doesn't really matter.

How many schollies are available to give out this year?

First is Darrell Givens, a 4* CB recruit from Maryland who decommitted from OSU to play for the Nittany Lions. He's a teammate of Malcolm Willis who committed earlier. http://pennstate.scout.com/2/753847.html

Second is Stephen Obeng-Agyapong from John F. Kennedy HS in the Bronx. He committed at the Nike Camp. He's a Scout 3* CB recruit who plans to play safety. http://pennstate.scout.com/2/753850.html

The Class of 2009 now stands at 5 with 3 DB recruits, a definite weakness. We now really need WRs and a QB.

 

 

(info originally obtained from the EMB's PSU Football thread)

Bumped from the diaries, reader kmblue gives us the lowdown on the Judicial Affairs punishment for the players involved in the April 1 apartment fight.

I figure I'd post this here since Mike doesn't have it on the blog yet.

Yeah yeah. I was gettin' to it. I'm on vacation for goodness sakes! Seriously though, thanks dude.

"UNIVERSITY PARK -- Penn State defensive back Anthony Scirrotto was kicked out of school until August by the university's Office of Judicial Affairs, while teammate Lydell Sargeant's attorney announced he will fight the same punishment.

Scirrotto, the accused ringleader in an April 1 incident in a State College apartment, has three business days to accept the sanctions handed down Tuesday or ask for a hearing to contest the accusations. Sources close to the case said Scirrotto will serve out the temporary expulsion. About 15 other Penn State football players Tuesday made the same choice, accepting the punishments handed out to them last week for their roles in the incident.

But Sargeant's attorney said he is innocent of accusations he struck people with a bar stool during the incident at a Meridian II apartment and will fight his temporary expulsion.

The four players who were expelled for the second summer semester -- Scirrotto, Sargeant, defensive tackle Christopher Baker and linebacker Jerome Hayes -- were told they would be allowed to return to campus Aug. 6 for preseason workouts, sources said. Normally, expelled students would not be allowed on campus until the expulsion ends, in this case on Aug. 17.

The other players were put on probation, and all were ordered to undergo anger management counseling."

Full Article here: http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/130352.html

I'm surprised that they didn't drop the hammer on Scirrotto like I expected. Joe's preemptive move to announce his own punishments helped.

I wasn't very surprised with Scirrotto's punishment. We know he called his buddies, but so far nobody has testified that he threw a punch in the apartment. Like I said before, I'm betting he only intended to scare Imle or fight him one-on-one. I think Chris Baker was the one that barged in with fists blazing.

In any event, this is good news indeed. All of the players will be back in time for preseason practice. Some of them will sit out the Florida International game. Scirrotto and Baker may sit out a few more after that, but the bottom line is the fight will not have that big of an impact on the 2007 season. You know, I hate to say it, but I told you so.

I think everyone is eager to see this situation resolved as soon as possible. Unfortunately I think the police and district attorney are going to take their time and make sure they sort out all the details. I still believe this will have a minor impact on the team when it's all said and done. I imagine if the players involved have clean records they will drop the felony burglary charges and plead guilty to the assualt charges. They'll have to wear an orange vest and pick up some trash along the highway every Sunday morning for a month or two. But that will be nothing compared to what Paterno is going to do to them. Practice is going to be hell going forward and you can bet he's going to want to know where they are every minute of the day. I believe some of them will sit out just one game. The major players in the incident may get two or three. It's certainly not the first time a football player got in a fight, and I'm sure it won't be the last either.