Jiji

optimism? It's optimism, isn't it?!

I would like to echo the fuck Duke sentiment. Grayson Allen in particular. How disappointing was Wisconsin's offense in the second half? They were settling for bad jumpers, tentative to drive to the basket or feed Frank on the post. It's like their guards didn't think they could lob it in to Frank even though he was covered by somebody half his size. Just weird. I know Duke's strong team defense played a big part in this but even Hayes missed a wide open layup. Where was Sam Dekker in the 2nd? Frank was also hesitant when he got the ball. The idiots on the TSN panel even made a good call in the intermission, noting that there were several times where he would catch the ball and not be ready, allowing the defense to shift. That's not like him, because he almost always gets it, pump fakes and then drives. This hesitancy only got worse as the game wore on. The officials did them no favors but the loss lies primarily on their inability to execute offensively in crunch time. It's too bad we're unlikely to see them in the big 4 any time soon as losing Dekker, Kaminsky, and to a lesser extent Gasser, is a big blow. Koenig and Hayes will be really good but their supporting cast... I get the Big 10 Network for some reason and it's going to be interesting to see how they do next year. I'll watch closely.

Grayson Allen: most punchable face

I think Gregg thinks the Badgers are still coached by Dick Bennett and his slow-down offense. #ILIKECHEESE. Wisconsin had the fifth slowest pace in all of college basketball this season. They hold the ball consistently. I'll give them credit because they make their shots and have a good PPP as a result. Also, they get fouled on over 25% of their possessions. They're Top 40 in the country in that stat, so it's largely a parade to the FT line after they pound it in to Sam or Frank. They seem like a lovable bunch of goofballs, so I'll give them credit for that. But you all need to stop acting like they're Loyola-Marymount or an aesthetically brilliant slow pace team like when Princeton has it going. They what they are. It works, but it's a fucking chore for me to get through. It's a toss-up for me. I mean, I hate Duke like every American should but this is the most enjoyable Duke team ever. They don't have anyone who makes me want to drive to Durham with a prison weapon. In fact, I could not possibly love Justis Winston more. He's one of my favorite big-program college players in years. I think that's a little harsh. They aren't just holding it to wear down clock. The Kentucky game was a great example of constant motion, off and on-ball screens to get mismatches, and consistent attempts at probing from outside (from any and everybody, not just guards). They aren't all that reliant on posting up, even if Bo is a huge proponent of it. I actually felt they should've done more of it during the UK game because of all the mismatches they were setting up. Also, if they have the ball and don't give it away much, it means they are scoring and the opposition isn't. It's like possession tactics in sawker. In my mind, Wisconsin does the half-court game the right way and it's a joy to watch. Maybe if I'm watching all of their regular season games, it may get a bit more tedious, but I'm not.

Hopefully 2K patches their latest patch by the time you receive it because it's FUBAR'd the game pretty badly.

Sometime in 1993 is allz I can find after a quick search. Also, this: #64 for the Montreal Alouettes, Larry Pfohl.

I don't know about the trades. I've run about three half-assed Cubs 2015 seasons and each time I'm able to put together a ridiculous starting rotation after snagging Strasburg for something based around Arismendy Alcantara and once even got Zimmermann as well for not that much more (yeah, he's a free agent at the end of the year but this went down early in the season). And yeah, in the three year save I've done so far with '16, there have been a handful of career ending injuries. The worst was when Yu Darvish retired from his current injury. I do believe you can mess around with injury frequency and severity in the commissioner/league settings, so that would address your issue. I wish the game stored prior season info and playoff history better. From what I understand you can't go back and see past post-season trees, which is a shame.

Pretty damn close. Both are equally as polished and while the in-game stuff is a way bigger part of FM than OOTP, both have incredible immersion. OOTP is more fun, lighthearted, and free in what you are able to do, whereas FM can sometimes come off as SERYUS BUZNIZZ and has a bunch of hardcoded stuff that's very limiting. OOTP is freedom - FM is in the minutiae and control. You can be all controlling with tactics in OOTP but it doesn't come off as a key component like the tactical side of Football Manager does. I really like this year's inclusion of enabling users to choose their role within the organization (manager, general manager, or both). I tend to go with just general manager but watch the bigger regular season games and all the playoff games. I haven't done a game where you start way back when in OOTP. I think the oldest start date I've used was sometime in the '60s. If you go back to the 1920s, are there Negro leagues or is it just the AL and NL? Also, is there any way of getting the NCAA setup in modern games? It looks like there were NCAA mods for OOTP 14. Are they compatible?

Yeah, I'm really interested in Gable. He looked bigger than what he's listed too on that one episode he appeared in. Maybe because the average height of NXT dudes is like 5'7"

Alex Riley, you should SAY IT TO HER FAAAAAAAAAAAAACE with RAGE and stuff.

Dirk made a living (and then some) with that impossible to defend fadeaway. Kaminski doesn't have that. I don't think he's going to be able to take most bigs on the dribble from the 3 pt line like he can in college. That's where he generates half of his offense. His post moves are really good and he's tricky but he won't be as effective.

You can find wondrous things when doing google searches for gifs of Alex Wright dances.

And I'm trying to enjoy Frank the Tank before he gets destroyed by NBA bigs. I want his game to translate but I don't think it will. Speaking of Kaminsky, I thought it was clever of Kentucky to double up on the drive 'n spin move he has perfected. It worked so well for the first half but then Wisconsin made adjustments and he posted up more and they spaced out their offense more, taking away the help D. Brilliant stuff.

King's Soul was hard. Plus the NJPW game on N64 had those sweet instruction booklet cartoons, like this (but on an instructional booklet, not a shirt!): Giant Gram 2000 fucking ruled though.

Don't you have to, at minimum, be two out of three of those things to be a member?

What a tremendous game! Too bad the refs tried to ruin it but I feel like the blown calls more or less evened out by the end. Slapping a dude in da mouf = basketball play now! Who knew?! Dude, that's awesome. Fuck Jim Nance and Grant Hill (commentator, he was a freak player). And Bilas is my second favorite basketball commentator behind Doug Gottlieb. Isn't a Duke/Wisconsin game way more entertaining and engaging than Kentucky demolishing Duke? I don't think Duke would've stood a chance against UK.

Don't hold your breath.

Wait, Dan Shulman doesn't call a game the entire tournament and is doing a Final Four game? Weird but awesome. With Dickie V. This court design looks like dog puke.

Lololol. Jets/Canucks need to play each other in the playoffs.

Yes. That Sedin line change for the 3rd goal was... wow. Whut? They're smarter than that, aren't they (I think)? Edler getting dummied, then spinning around and refusing to get back into the play for the 2nd may be worse. I don't know. Vrbata's pass was money, so IT'S ALL GOOD! *denial nod* Anyway, let's make it a 3 pointer, yeah.

And Lamas was doing so well.

MMAjunkies' rep and MMABrasil.com.br had it for Iaquinta, everbody else in the media had it for Maszvidal. Bloody Elbow's Dallas Winston had it 30-26.

LOL, smart, Al. Good job, good effort.

AAAAH shit! NEW DAY!

Tonight feels like The Empire Strikes Back in terms of results. Chicago downs Van, Flames lose, and the Kings are stomping Edmonton.