SB Nation User Blog: soundchaser

EJ Woods: Transformer

soundchaser — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:05:40 -0000

Bumped...Ironic isn't it? - P

I know some of you like to see what the sports fans across town are talking about so it won't surprise you that EJ Woods is no longer a great prospect but suddenly a bad person. And what brought about this transformation? Maybe it was the fact that he mentioned wanting to come to USC! If you look thru the chatter about EJ you'll see the following:

1) where he was once one of the top DB recruits in SoCal NOW it's a joke that he wants to be like Troy Polamalu

2) where he was once a kid with a 'legal situation' NOW he's another punk

3) where he once was innocent until proven guilty NOW the only way he can get out of his trouble is thru corruption of the legal system

I suppose these kids across town are upset because they were just saying a few months ago that EJ wouldn't leave and they were happy with how 'crn' disciplined him. at one point they wished EJ luck with his academic issues, now he's the plague and they can't get rid of him fast enough.

Conspiracy theories and lazy fact checking

soundchaser — Sun, 24 May 2009 13:53:36 -0000

When people are looking for the truth, a lot of them end up cultivating conspiracy theories.

Here is an interesting comment from the Blog across towN. (my emphasis added)

Ten days ago, Yahoo Sports broke the story, which I thought was pretty big: A direct, specific allegation that Tim Floyd was seen giving at least $1,000 to Rodney Guillory as a payoff for directing OJ Mayo to the Trojans. Floyd has said nothing in the interim. Garrett has said nothing in the interim. USC’s lawyer said what lawyers always say – “We can’t comment” meaning she didn’t want to comment.

In the past ten days, the Times has done essentially nothing. There was a story on the story – with a question mark in the headline. Then there was a Q and A between Adam Rose (USC alum) and Craig Penrose (USC Alum). What a shock – Penrose saw absolutely nothing wrong. There is a nice children’s story called “The Emperor’s New Clothes” which was a lot like that interview. We also heard it a lot from Sgt. Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes.

That's from an email sent by one the resident legal scholars over there to Plaschke attempting to take the LAT to task for not "reporting" the Floyd story.

I'm wondering where they get was seen; where has that been reported? That's right, nowhere! This is an utter fabrication and exposes an obvious bias, not that we should be surprised.

But wait! It gets better: Plaschke responds not once but twice and his responses are surprisingly sharp and informative (emphasis added to drive the point home)...

From: “Plaschke, Bill” <Bill.Plaschke@latimes.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 1:08 AM
Subject: RE: USC Basketball

“the charges were made by a felon who is trying to sell a book…he is the only source…I’m not personally involved in it, but I’m guessing that we need more than one biased source to publicly crucify a man..if it were your reputation on the firing line, you would feel the same way..”

Ouch!

That is pretty significant, wouldn't ya say?

Here is Plaschke's second response after the sly old fella tries to bait Plaschke by "dressing him down" in response to Plaschke's response (again, emphasis added)...

“From: “Plaschke, Bill” <Bill.Plaschke@latimes.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 23, 2009 7:26 PM
Subject: RE: USC Basketball

So you think we’re NOT pursuing the story?..You think we HAVEN’T been calling people?…You assume that because we don’t write a story, we’re not checking out all leads?..We chase things hard, and it’s a sign of the potential weakness in this story that, for all our chasing, we have yet to find someone to corroborate.
…
Where have I been on this? I’m the Times’ lead general sports columnist, meaning I cover the biggest story. If you read our newspaper or website, you would know that the Lakers are my town’s biggest story. If I’m not covering them through the playoffs, then THAT’S a story.… I’m sorry you are so bitter about this, and cannot afford me the same respect that I have afforded you, but, hey, I understand, that’s how the world works these days

plaschke."

Game over!

The last paragraph is classic. Bitterness consumes this crowd to no end. After a while, listening to these guys is like hearing one hand clapping. I only bring it up because Plaschke articulates what many SC fans have been trying to say. I don't even consider myself a huge SC supporter; in fact, I was raised a UCLA fan by my UCLA-grad dad but some of the bile over at the Blog across towN is just pathetic. I don't want to be part of that crowd and just reading some of their posts is enough to make me feel like I need a shower. As Paragon has said many times, they have a great history and are a fine university with nothing to be ashamed of and plenty to celebrate. It's beyond me why some of their supporters act so insecure. But it's this kind of insecurity that makes fertile ground for these lame conspiracy theories.

I don't often agree with Plaschke; in fact, I frequently despise his goofy one-line paragraphs and may never forgive the way he ran a previous Dodgers GM out of town. But I have to admit he is dead on here. No worthwhile news organization is going to ruin their own reputation without having backed up a story of this magnitude with legitimate sources. And the LAT will not sit around and do nothing if there was a legit story of this magnitude. Plaschke does an excellent job of exposing this guy as nothing more than a hater with an agenda... is anybody here surprised?

CC basketball tourney group

soundchaser — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:47:43 -0000

Once again I've created a group where those of us who frequent this fine site can compete to see who has the best bracket in the NCAA Tournament that starts next week. No experience w/ college hoops is required and in fact that may hurt your chances... if you'd like to join:

1) Go to Yahoo! Sports

2) Group ID # is 60188

3) Password to join is "floyd"

The more the merrier so come on and join the fun!

Predicting success

soundchaser — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 16:00:49 -0000

Since we just had signing day last week, this article I read a while back came to mind. It's about predicting future success in two different jobs: quarterback and teacher. It also came to mind a couple of weeks ago when Petros was talking about how the two big stars from the 2006 Rose Bowl haven't (yet) achieved the same success in the pro game. It's a bit of a read, but well worth it:

Most Likely to Succeed

Schadenfreude watch, 11/7/08

soundchaser — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 17:37:26 -0000

It's been a few weeks and we've one month left. Some rankings have changed, so let's give it a go!

#1 Alabama is playing #15 LSU this week. I heard something about there being some drama with this game...? After this week, they have Miss St and Auburn; Bama did almost lose to Mississippi and Kentucky last month, so these games aren't gimmies.

#2 Texas Tech gets #6 OK and #9 OK State before finishing with Baylor.

#3 Penn St. gets Iowa and Indiana before #18 Michigan St.

#4 Texas is done with ranked opponents, but have to face Texas A&M at the end.

#5 Florida has no ranked opponents until the end of the month when they face #24 Fl State.

#6 Oklahoma will meet both #2 Texas Tech and #8 OK St after Texas A&M this week.

#7 USC has #21 Cal this week and some big rivalry games at the end, ND and UCLA. SC could be helped out a lot if Oregon and Cal both win out the rest of the year. At least that's what Petros thinks...

#8 Utah is undefeated, tho they almost lost to Michigan in week 1. They'll get #17 BYU after they party down at San Diego St. next weekend.

#9 Oklahoma St. has another one of those big finishes to their schedule, with #2 Texas Tech and #6 OK coming up.

#10 Boise St., Lords of WAC! They're playing Utah St, Idaho, and Nevada before facing a competitor in Fresno St. Hopefully they'll get their 7th bowl game in a row.

If you like looking back, you can check out the last two posts.

Schadenfreude watch, 10/12/08

soundchaser — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 13:34:29 -0000

Since my last post there've been a few losses in the top 5, which should not surprise anybody. OK, LSU, and Missouri have all fallen and of them, I'd be surprised if OK wasn't the only one still in the top 5 seeing as how they lost to a highly ranked team.

Moving on to other top 10 teams and their remaining schedules:

#6 Penn State has tOSU as their highest ranked opponent but they did beat Oregon State earlier this year. Their closest win was against #22 Illinois and they'll get #23 Michigan State at the end of the year.

#7 Texas Tech needed overtime to get by Nebraska yesterday, which may not help them out a whole lot. And they'll get both OK and Texas later this year, not to mention #16 Kansas and #17 OK State.

(in case you hadn't heard, #8 is USC. hope you know their schedule)

#9 BYU will only play one ranked opponent this year, #14 Utah, in the last game of the year. They've won all their games handily save for squeaking by winless Washington (who will probably beat Notre Dame!)

#10 Georgia was having a good year until they lost to #2 Alabama. They'll play 3 ranked opponents in a row starting this week, #13 Vandy, #4 LSU and #11 Florida. And then #20 Auburn before the end of the year.

#11 Florida took apart LSU last night so look to see them jump in the polls. BUT, they already lost to Mississippi last month. Before the end of the year they'll get #10 Georgia and #13 Vanderbilt.

looks to be an exciting 2 months!

Schadenfreude watch, 10/1/08

soundchaser — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 10:40:37 -0000

Happy October, everybody! There's about 2 months left and SC is ranked #9 so let's take a look at the chances for failure for the better ranked teams!

#1 Oklahoma handily beat their first 4 opponents. They have 4 ranked opponents ahead of them: #5 Texas, #16 Kansas, #7 Texas Tech and #21 OK State.

#2 Alabama has already beaten the highest ranked opponent of any Top 10 team with their victory over Georgia last week. Looking to the future, they'll be playing #13 Auburn and ...

#3 LSU. The Tigers will also get to meet #11 Georgia in a few weeks as well as #12 Florida before then. Earlier, they won a close game w/ then-#10 Auburn.

#4 Missouri gets to play #16 Kansas at the end of the year. In the first game of the year, they gave up a lot of points to #20 Illinois in a victory. Future ranked opponents include #21 OK State and...

#5 Texas. The Longhorns have maybe the most back-loaded schedule in the Top 5, facing #1 OK, #4 Missou, #21 OK State, and #7 Texas Tech on 4 consecutive Saturdays. And then they get #16 Kansas later.

lots of strong schedules out there, eh?

Schadenfreude watch, 9/27/08

soundchaser — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:40:35 -0000

With SC falling this week, it's time to hope for the worst for the rest of the Top 10 teams. Paragon posted about Florida falling today and you may have also noted that#9 Wisconsin fell to Michigan and with 2 Top 10 teams in the AL-GA game, that means that this week FOUR Top 10 teams will have lost.

and look at this...Bama's spankin the Bulldogs!

And in case you're wondering about the title, get to know schadenfreude!

Elimination watch, 9/24/08

soundchaser — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:09:43 -0000

GOODBYE, YANKEES! Thus falls the 2nd of the Dodgers' mortal enemies, giving us something to console ourselves with should the Dodgers not win the World Series.

With the AL Wild Card race done the only excitement left in the AL is who will win the East (probably the Rays) and the Central (Twins or Chisox).

In the NL, the Astros still have a mathematical chance of getting the Wild Card, but it's really just a race between the Brewers, Mets and Phillies for the last 2 spots.

4 more teams remain to be eliminated.

AL Teams eliminated: Mariners, Royals, Orioles, A's, Rangers, Tigers, Indians, Blue Jays, Yankees

NL Teams eliminated: Nationals, Padres, Pirates, Braves, Reds, Rockies, Giants!, Cardinals, Marlins

Dodgers' best possible record: 87-75
Dodgers' worst possible record: 82-80

Elimination watch, 9/18/08

soundchaser — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 11:28:54 -0000

VICTORY!!! It is now mathematically impossible for the Giants to finish with a better record than the Dodgers this year. That makes it 4 out of the last 5 years they have to look up at L.A. all winter long.

Most teams now have 10 games left and by Monday there should only be a few left. In the AL, Jays and Yanks should be gone soon and then it's just a matter of the Twins or White Sox winning the Central.

The NL West is now down to 2 teams but all the NL Central teams still have a mathematical chance of getting the wild card.

8 more teams remain to be eliminated.

AL Teams eliminated: Mariners, Royals, Orioles, A's, Rangers, Tigers, Indians

NL Teams eliminated: Nationals, Padres, Pirates, Braves, Reds, Rockies, Giants!

Dodgers' best possible record: 89-73
Dodgers' worst possible record: 79-83