Derek Jeter's playoffs heroics and Cole Hamels pitching woes

After watching the first round of the MLB playoffs I was incredibly irritated. Not only did the umpires get every other call wrong, but the players made way too many mental mistakes. There were many baserunning mistakes including Colby Rasmus trying to take third, Molina getting thrown out trying to take third on a groundball to short, and Nick Punto getting thrown out because he took to big of a turn at third base. I've been trying to figure out why so many "professional" baseball players seem to making terrible baserunning mistakes that little leaguers know not make. I figured out my answer when looking at Derek Jeter's flip against the A's in 2001. Yes the play was amazing, it was a perfect flip to Posada but there is one major problem with it; Jeter was completely out of position. On that play Jeter is supposed to be covering second base so that if Terrance Long tries to take third base and goes to far he will be caught in a rundown. But, like many plays these days Jeter moves completely out of position to field the overthrow and flip it to Posada. Yes the play worked but this is not a smart baseball play. This play shows perfectly why baseball players make so many silly mistakes. The players want to make the highlight reel, they want to be the star and make the game winning play. However, baseball is won by smart baseball not bad/lucky baseball which is what the Jeter play was.

This is not to take anything away from the fact that Jeter made an amazing, perfect flip to Posada, but if he is 1/2 a second slower or it is an inch farther from Posada then it will not be looked at as a sensational play. Everyone would have been talking about how Jeter was out of position

NFL Blacking Out Games

Big news of the day is that NFL blacks out NFL games in local markets if the game does not sell out 72 hours in advance. Both Cincinnati and Arizona are in danger of having this happen to them. This rule of blacking out games if the games do not sell out is absolutely ridiculous. The NFL is basically saying that they don't care about any of the fans who want to watch their team on television but can't afford to go to see them play live. So they force their fans to have to buy tickets or else the fans won't get to see their hometown football team's game live. The fans will have to wait for the replay on live television.

The NFL needs to change this rule. In an economy like this it's unfair to try to blackmail fans into buying tickets by telling the fans that they need to sell out the game or else they won't get to see their favorite teams. This is a heartless ridiculous rule by the NFL and absolutely needs to be changed.

Alex Rodriguez

Just finished watching the epic thriller between the Red Sox and Yankees. This is just a short post since it's pretty late. Alex Rodriguez just hit a homerun to end a 15 inning game against the Yankee's arch rival. If that isn't clutch then I don't know what is.

6/26 NBA Draft Recap

Here's a quick recap of the NBA Draft.
1 - Blake Griffin - Best available player in the draft - no brainer
2 - Hasheem Thabeet - Best shot-blocker inside defender in the draft, pick makes sense in this weak draft
3 - James Harden - Very Talented but can he be a great defender considering that he has never played man defense in college
4 - Tyreke Evans- Tons of talent. Is he a true point guard?
5 - Ricky Rubio - Tons of talent. Only 18. Will probably play in Spain for 1-2 more years.
6 - Johnny Flynn - Although to many this pick does not seem to make sense and many people believe that Rubio or Flynn will be traded I disagree. I think this pick makes a lot of sense.
Here's what i think Minnesota is going to do. Let Rubio stay in Spain for this year and let him continue to improve his game. Then let Flynn play on the T-wolves and develop in the NBA. Next year re-evaluate the situation and if Rubio comes to the US then consider trading him or Flynn. This scenario is what seems to make the most sense to me
7 - Stephen Curry - Good fit for Nelson's shoot first system, however, will Ellis want out, will they trade Curry and will Curry be able to guard anyone in the NBA.
8 - Jordan Hill - Finally the Knicks didn't do something horrible with their pick. I like this pick a lot because Hill was the best available player on the board and is an uptempo forward he will be able to play well in D'antonis systm.
29 - Toney Douglas - Again the Knicks took the best available player left on the board. Douglas is a scorer who should be a nice spark off the bench for the Knicks and maybe will be able to turn into their point guard.
56 - Patty Mills - Since I went to St. Mary's I was quite nervous when Mills kept slipping farther and farther down in the draft. Good value pick for Portland. From everything I've been reading Portland will probably have Mills play overseas and then bring him into the mix next year if he plays well. They really don't have a roster spot for him and have already said that they think they'll be bringing in two rookies to camp Jeff Pendegraph and Dante Cunninhgham (Villanova).

6/25 USA All The Way!

USA 2 - Spain 0
In a shocking upset, the United States pulled of an improbable victory over Spain the #1 team in the world. Jozy Altidore scored a great goal in the first half and then Clint Dempsey added a garbage goal in the second to give the US the victory. The game against Spain was the best the US has looked in a very long time. Although Spain was on the offensive a lot, the US's defense did not crack and played extremely well. Every ball in or around the box was contended. The US proved once again that they can play with the best teams in the world and can win.

LSU 11 - Texas 4 - College World Series
The College World Series has come to an end and it was an exciting College World Series. Not too much to say about it just that this is one of the most exciting sporting events of the year and does not get nearly enough fan support.

Wimbledon 2009
Federer, Djokovic, Roddick and Murray have all advanced and are playing extremely well. Also of note Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt has struggled and contention in tennis for the past couple years and has seemed to refind his game. Hewitt played great today in his win today.

6/10

MLB Draft Continuted

  Just a quick post today. I am happy to report in Round 12 St. Mary's College's own Kyle Jensen was drafted by the Florida Marlins. Also, in the 44th round my fellow St. Mary's grad Joel Staples was drafted also by the Florida Marlins. 

MLB Draft 6/9

Today was the MLB Draft. Yes I know most of you don't care but this is important stuff people. As expected Stephen Strasburg was the first player taken in this year's draft. He's expected to get around a 50 million dollar deal, which is absolutely absurd, for an unproven player. Most experts are saying that this is the signing that will cause the MLB to completely renovate the draft process. However, i do not agree. The reason that this won't happen is because baseball's management has no idea how to run the sport, so obviously the smart idea will be thrown out and they old outdated draft will be here to say.

Interesting side note; ex yankee prospect and now pittsburgh starting pitcher Ross Ohlendorf wrote his college thesis on how to fix the MLB draft. How cool is that!

NBA Finals 6/4

Tonight is the first night of the NBA Finals. Before we get to that let's talk about Lebron James for a second.

After their final loss of the season Lebron James showed no class. First, he didn't shake hands with the other team which is completely and totally unsportsmanlike. Then he didn't talk to reporters after the game. Now for your everyday average player I probably wouldn't have that big of a problem with this, but this isn't some random basketball player, this is the one of the most recognizable basketball players in the world (who happens to be considered by many to be the best in the world). He is getting paid millions of dollars a year by advertisers but he is too good to adress the media and the general public who are the reason that he gets paid what he does. I don't understand how he can be ok with taking all of this endorsement money and then as soon as the going gets tough he suddenly doesn't want to deal with the media. When you take all the credit you have to be willing to take the criticism and right now it seems like Lebron is not willing to do that. 

5/30/09

Just a quick post today.

Stephen Strasburg struggled giving up two earned runs yesterday leading to a San Diego State showing that he is in fact human and can actually lose a gam. Also, it shows that he may in fact need the minor leagues so he can face some better competition.

Andy Roddick advanced to the fourth round of the French Open for the first time in his career. Roddick is playing great tennis and could be a real contender for the title this year.

College World Series 5/29/09

Sorry for the absence. My apologies.

So the NCAA baseball regionals have started again. For college baseball fans this is the best time of year. (Yes i like college baseball even though I didn't go to one St. Mary's baseball game while I was there.) The beauty of college baseball is it the ultimate college team sport. In the first round it is best of 3. The reason I like this so much is because it makes teams have more than one player who can beat you. The best example of this is San Diego State. There team is one of the top 25 in the country but they are only a number three seed. They need to win at least 1 game in the first round series that their ace (Stephen Strasburg, the best pitcher in the country). Let's compare that to other sports. In other sports you don't get to see other players have to step up and be the difference maker. This is not a knock on other sports I'm only trying to show that the beauty of baseball especially college baseball is there is so much strategy involved that other sports don't have. While the actual baseball might be boring, the strategy is thrilling. The coach has to make a decision for every batter, every pitcher and in every situation. Because of this, baseball's strategy is excilerating and if you understand it, can make it the most enjoyable sport to watch in the world.

Also, the hotel I'm staying at has ESPNU which is definitely my new favorite channel. For the last two days they've constantly been talking about college baseball and that is awesome!

P.S. Stephen Strasburg starts today. If anyone wants to watch a pitcher who is the most dominant college athlete in any sport, you should tune in to the game.

Oakland A's Game 5/6/09

Went to the Oakland Athletics game 5/6/09. Listened to the director of finance speak, she was interesting and then took a quick tour of the stadium with their stadium operations manager who was also really interesting.

In a couple years the Athletics will no longer be located in Oakland. There could not have been more than 10,000 people at the game today which is absolutely terrible for a professional baseball team.

Game Summary: Dan Geise pitched had a solid start for the A's giving up just a couple runs and Feldman pitched well for the Rangers. Matt Holiday played terribly. He had one good at bat the entire game and in the 9th against Texas' closer Francisco (who threw fastballs on every single pitch in the 9th inning) had a terrible at bat and struck out. The A's lineup is horrendous. When you have your 2-3-4-5-6 hitters all coming up to the plate and your #2 hitter gets a leadoff hit, someone should be able to advance him at least one base. Holliday and Giambi both got out then Jack Cust hit a single to advance Cabrera to third. Kurt Suzuki then flied out to deep left field to end the game. Now, out of your 3-4-5-6 hitters Kurt Suzuki should not be the one who hits the ball to the warning track.

So far through April, Billy Beane is once again looking like a mediocre general manager. The A's have no offense and a bunch of young inexperienced starters and relievers. This is not a good strategy by any stretch of the imagination. They tried to go out and sign some free agents by signing Holliday and Giambi, but so far neither one of them has delivered.

Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby

Although I didn't get a chance to watch either the Kentucky Oaks or Kentucky Derby live I did get to watch replays of both of them today and I thought I should share my thoughts.

Kentucky Oaks - Like everyone else I was incredibly impressed with Rachel Alexandra. How could you not be. She dominated the end of the race and it wasn't even close. What's more impressive is that some analyst's believe that she should run in the Belmont Stakes or Preakness against the boys because they believe she is THAT good. This would be an incredibly impressive feat if she were able to race against and beat the best male horses in the world.

Kentucky Derby - It was a sad start to the day with the news that I Want Revenge would not be able to race in the Derby because of an injury. This must have been a major letdown for the owner, trainer, and 19 year old jockey. However, they handled it with class and I'm especially impressed with the owners answer about whether or not I Want Revenge would race in the Derby. To sum up his answer, it was that as soon as he heard from the doctors that racing the horse might put it in some sort of danger of injuring himself further he said there was no question that I Want Revenge would not race in the Derby. To me, this was a great answer. The owner may have cost himself thousands of dollars but he knew that the horse's health was more important than the money and that is something to be commended.

On a brighter note let's talk for a second about the awesome ride by jockey Calvin Borel. Calvin Borel who won the Kentucky Oaks as well, took a horse Mine That Bird who wasn't even supposed to be able to contend and raced him amazingly with pinpoint precision. Guiding the horse along the rail he pulled off the miracle and Mine That Bird went to easily win the Kentucky Derby. This race shows how important the talent of a jockey is in horse racing. Without Borel's brilliant ride there was no way Mine That Bird would have pulled off the historic upset and win the 2009 Kentucky Derby.

San Diego St. vs Santa Clara 5/1/09

San Diego St. vs. Santa Clara 5/1/09 - Game Recap

Today was my first chance to see Stephen Strasburg pitch. For anyone who doesn't know, Stephen Strasburg is a starting pitcher for San Diego St. and is the #1 ranked amateur pitcher in the country, and is unquestionably going to be the first pick in the 2009 MLB Draft. Strasburg did not have his best stuff today and his control was shaky at times, but he was still dominant and had 12 strikeouts in eight innings of shutout baseball. Watching him live his stuff is absolutely filthy and he is probably the best pitcher I have ever seen live (that includes the major leagues). Even with his shaky control he was missing the strike zone by mere inches every pitch. San Diego State's lineup played decently, they were able to take advantage of Santa Clara's ace Nate Garcia's struggles. I didn't notice anything special about anyone in the lineup but they played an overall strong game.

Santa Clara on the other hand struggled mightily. Starter Nate Garcia had some impressive stuff at times and looked unhittable with some of his pitches; however, he struggled with his command. Many of the hits he gave up were caused when he would take a little off his pitches and throw them down the middle so he could get strikes. Santa Clara's lineup were able to draw some walks against Strasburg but whenever Strasburg was in trouble he would step up, rear back and get the strikeout or the groundout that he needed.

The one thing that this game did for me was reinforce my point about Stephen Strasburg needing the minor leagues. The reason is that whenever he would get into trouble he would just throw his nasty curve or his incredible fastball. Although this worked in this game I think he will have a lot more trouble getting professional hitters out using this method. If Santa Clara was better this could have easily been a 5-3 or 5-4 game instead of 5-0.

Fantasyland and the Teammates

I just finished Fantasyland by Sam Walker. It is an awesome book and everyone who has ever played baseball or fantasy sports should definitely read this book. It tells the story of Sam Walker a Wall Street Journal sports writer and his quest to win Tout Wars, the best baseball fantasy league in the world. This book takes you through his first year of playing fantasy baseball and the great stories that go with it. This is an easy/fast read and is a must for anyone who likes a good story or has played fantasy sports before.

I am going through a phase where I am addicted to reading baseball books, so I just started The Teammates by David Halberstam and I've read the first 60 pages or 1/3 of the book and the story is really good and so far I highly recommend it.

RIP Nick Adenhart

Baseball Prospectus Predictions

Baseball Prospectus just released their 2009 MLB predictions. I'm not going to challenge their predictions per say, but I do have a couple of differences in opinion about how the standings are going to shake out.

Let's start with the AL East. BP has the AL East results going like this: 1 - Yankees, 2 - Red Sox, 3 - Rays, 4 - Blue Jays, 5 - Orioles. I agree with the Red Sox finishing 2nd, Blue Jays finishing 4th and Orioles finishing 5th however, I disagree with the Yankees finishing first and the Rays finishing 3rd. The Yankees had an awesome offseason adding Sabathia, Burnett and Teixiera but they still have some major problems. The biggest problem for the Yankees is a lack of depth. They have a decent bullpen but with a few injuries their bullpen will be weak and they may have to put Chamberlain back in the bullpen. This would weaken their rotation and with an injury or two they suddenly don't have 5 quality starting pitchers. Also, they have an aging offense. Jeter is going to turn 35 and can no longer play at an above-average level anymore, Posada has had injury problems in the past, Matsui had injury problems last season. Another problem is what Robinson Cano is going to show up, the second half sensation or the first half struggler. The last problem is that they have very little depth (besides the outfield). Arod's is already hurt so Cody Ransom will be playing everyday for the first month and that's just assuming that Arod comes back healthy as soon as he's supposed to (which is probably never going to happen).

The Rays however do not have these problems. They are younger, less injury prone. Have a plethora of young starters in the minors ready to step-up to the major leagues (David Price. Jeff Niemannin, at some point Wade Davis). Also, they had a huge pickup this offseason in Pat Burrell which will be a big help to the Ray's. Burrell is a really solid hitter and by playing DH he gets rid of all the questions about whether or not he can still be an everyday player. Defensively he was terrible but he won't have to play there on the Rays. Also, the Rays have a much better defense then the Yankees which could prove to be the difference.

For these reasons I see the AL East as 1 - Rays, 2 - Red Sox, 3 - Yankees, 4 - Blue Jays, 5 - Orioles.

Fantasy Baseball

Here is my fantasy baseball team for my money league. I think it's pretty good except I don't have a starting closer.

C - Russell Matin
1b - Victor Martinez
2b - Brandon Phillips
SS - Hanley Ramirez
3b - Alex Gordon
CI - Paul Konerko
MI - Khalil Greene
OF - Carl Crawford
OF - Corey Hart
OF - Hunter Pence
OF - Vernon Wells
Util - Brad Hawpe
Util - Cameron Maybin
BN - Mark Ellis
BN - Josh Willingham
BN - Chase Headley

P - Cole Hamels
P - James Shields
P - Carlos Marmol
P - Scott Baker
P - Johnny Cueto
P - Scott Downs
P - John Maine
P - Brett Anderson
P - Jonathon Sanchez
P - Manny Delcarmen
P - Taylor Buckholz

Jeter and Fantasyland

Today's post is about Derek Jeter and the book Fantasyland.

First my thoughts on Derek Jeter. Today I was reading an article on baseball prospectus about Jeter. It was about whether or not the Yankees should resign him after his contract ends in 3 years. The article came to a conclusion which I completely agree with, which was that they should not resign him. Derek Jeter has been in decline for a couple of years. His defense as he has gotten older has gotten progressively worse and is now below average for a shortstop. Was Derek Jeter a great shortstop at one point, yes, but that point has been gone for a while. The Yankees need to realize when his contract expires that they should not resign him. While many people don't know whether the Yankees will be able to get rid of Jeter I think that they will. My reason for this is because of what happened with Bernie Williams. Williams wanted to come back to play for another season with the Yankees but they knew that he was too old to be a productive player anymore so they let him go. Williams was like Jeter, was a beloved Yankee and a winner but that was outweighed by his age and declining skills. The same goes for Jeter. He has always been a beloved Yankee and a winner (4 world series rings) however his skills are now in decline and in three years he will no longer be a productive starting shortstop anymore.

The second part of my blog is about Fantasyland. Fantasyland is a book by Sam Walker about a season of fantasy baseball. He has refused to play fantasy baseball for years but is now ready to try to take on the best in the world. He joins a league called Tout Wars which is the all-star league of fantasy baseball players. This league includes players such as Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus, and Jason Grey of Rotoworld. It's the story of Walker's journey to become a fantasy superstar and the events and stories that came out of his crazy fantasy season. So far I have read the first 99 pages and can't stop reading. I'll update this when I finish the book but so far it's a must read for anyone who claims to be a baseball fan.

I wrote my second article for RootZoo. It's about Stephen Strasburg the #1 baseball draft prospect in the country. He is a RHP for San Diego State and has an outstanding slider and a 94-98 mph fastball that can touch triple digits.

Here's a link to my article.
Stephen Strasburg Article

Here's a quick recap of this week's important sporting events.

NCAA Tournament

• North Carolina looked really good by dismantling Gonzaga and then beating Oklahoma. Oklahoma's downfall was their terrible 3 point shooting.
• The Villanova - Pitt ending was awesome. Villanova threw the ball away, Levance Fields hit both free throws to tie the game and then Scotty Reynolds drove the length of the court and hit a layup with .05 seconds, which won the game.
  
• Michigan State pulled the upset over Louisville. Michigan State played the best defensive game they had played in a long time and maybe the best defensive game of the tournament.
  
• UConn played a solid game holding off a dangerous Missouri team that wouldn't go away.

NHL

• NY Rangers have lost 3 of their last 4 dropping to 7th in the east after losing a huge game to Pittsburgh on Saturday. Sidney Crosby scored the game winning goal for the Penguins to beat the Rangers 3-4.
  

NASCAR

• Jeff Gordon has look really impressive this season. In his last 5 races he has finished 2nd - twice, in the top 5 - 4 times and in the top 10 - 5 times.
  
• Jimmie Johnson won this week after finishing 3rd last week. After struggling in the first few races of the season he is starting to look like the 3-time defending champion.
  

Soccer

• United States vs. El Salvador. The United States simply did not come to play for the first 70 minutes of the game. El Salvador went all-out from the beginning of the game and got out to a 2-0 lead. At about the 70th minute the US decided that they were going to try. For the rest of the game the US dominated and scored 2 goals (Altidore and Hejduk) to end the game in a 2-2 tie. This was an OK result considering Onyweu and Tim Howard were both not in the starting lineup.
  

NCAA Tourney 3/26

This is going to be a quick post because I didn't get a chance to watch very much of today's action. Let me start out by talking about Pittsburgh. I have been reading articles about how Pitt has looked sluggish and very nonimpressive so far this tournament. All I have to say to that is they are in the elite 8. Yes they haven't played all that well and East Tennessee State, Oklahoma State, and Xavier aren't the 3 hardest matchups in the world; but they still got the job done and did what they had to do to win. Uconn despite all the off the court distractions played well and handled Purdue pretty easily showing that they are still definitely one of the favorites to win the tournament.

Onto the second set of games. Villanova looked really good and made Duke look ordinary and beatable. Villanova after struggling early in their first game against American has looked like a definite title contender and is playing better than any other team in the tournament right now. They have made their last two wins look easy. Now let's look at the Missouri-Memphis game. Memphis has been struggling this entire tournament; however, they have been able to overcome it because of their atheletic ability. In this game though, Memphis was outplayed again by Missouri. This time however, Memphis was not the more athletic team in this game and Missouri was able to control the game and dominate the second half.

There will be more in depth analysis tomorrow because I will be able to watch all the games.

St. Mary's - San Diego State

This blog post is about the St. Mary's - San Diego St. game in the NIT Tournament. Sadly I will only be blogging about the second half because I did not get a chance to watch the first half (I was doing a cost-accounting project). Fun fact, Marshall Faulk was at the game (how awesome is that). Now on to the game.
Patty Mills really struggled in this game. He couldn't get off very many quality shots and was completely unable to get an easy buckets. Once again Patty decided to be a hero and took way too many 3 pointers. Diamon Simpson played a descent game but really only rebounded well. He was overmatched inside by San Diego State's big men and was really a nonfactor in the game. Omar Samhan played very tentatively. Normally he plays confidently and aggressively but for some reason in the game today he was scared to take on defenders and take his jump shot (which he can make). Carlin Hughes played one of his better games but like the rest of the Gaels did not have his normal 3 point shot working today.
For San Diego State the story of the game for them offensively was their big men. They outplayed Simpson and Samhan and clearly dominated the low post. The unsung hero of this game was Richie Williams. Richie Williams had the daunting task of guarding Patty Mills. Just like in the last meeting Williams came out the victor. Patty Mills shot a terrible 7-24 mainly because of William's outstanding defense.
It was a tough way for the Gaels to end the season but at least it was an exciting finish and a nice farewell tour for the one and only Patty Mills.

Stephen Curry vs. Patty Mills

Last Tuesday night Patty Mills carried the Gaels to a victory over Wash. State and set up a matchup between two of the best guards in the country. Patty Mills vs. Davidson's Stephen Curry. For a mid-major game this was a matchup of the century. Patty Mills the Australian Sensation, who has taken over the St. Mary's basketball program and turned it into a national force to be reckoned with, vs. Stephen Curry who is the nations leading scorer and last year led Davidson into the sweet 16 of the NCAA tourney. The best part of this game was that St. Mary's and Davidson are basically the same team. St. Mary's was going to make the tournament easily until Patty Mills went down with an injury and Davidson was going to make the tournament pretty easily until Stephen Curry went down with an injury. Those two injuries caused both teams to end up here in Moraga, California playing in the NIT, not for a NCAA championship but rather for mid-major pride.
For the most part the game itself was not a letdown. Stephen Curry was slowed down by great defense played by Wayne Hunter and Patty Mills but still managed to score 26 points. Patty Mills went 1 for 10 from 3-point range but scored 23 point and added 10 assists to only 1 turnover. The game was very close until the middle of the second half when St. Mary's slowly started to pull away. The Gaels played a very good game throughout and made Davidson beat them with players other than Patty Mills. Andrew Lovedale, Davidson's best big man played a lousy game. He was dominated by Omar Samhan on the offensive end. Defensively Diamon Simpson played well scoring 12 points while adding 15 rebounds. Overall in this game, Davidson was outmatched by St. Mary's and St. Mary's clearly was the better team.

Side Note: At the end of the game Patty Mills wanted everyone to storm the court because of our victory. This could prove to be symbolic because that gesture quite possibly means that this was Patty's last home game as a Gael. Although it will be sad for St. Mary's when Patty leaves this is probably the best year for him to go to the NBA. The draft is not very deep and right now Patty is playing extremely well. Besides his shooting there is nothing that Patty really has to learn and his shooting can be worked on at the next level. So for these reasons I think Patty is going to go to the NBA draft. (Hopefully he gets drafted by the Knicks so I can watch him play next year, that would be awesome).

First Blog Post

Hello everyone and welcome to my first post as a blogger. I have a couple reasons for starting this blog. This is because I am a huge St. Mary's College basketball fan and am a student there, although this is really fun none of my friends will listen to me talk about the mistakes that the team we are playing is making and the ways they could improve so that they would play better against us. Also, they hate when I talk about our star players and I try to point out their faults. For example our power forward Diamon Simpson tries to dunk most of the time when he is around the basket and usually misses, this is crucial because if instead of trying to dunk he just shot layups he would average at least 6 more points a game.

Now let's talk about the St Mary's - Washington State first round game of the NIT. First let me say that St. Mary's completely outplayed Wash. State and Patty Mills and Diamon Simpson both had great games. With that said, Washington State's head coach in my opinion coached a lousy game. First, #11 Aron Baynes, Wash. State's best player and inside presence should have gotten at least 1 touch on the ball every time down the court. Within 10 feet of the hoop he was outplaying Omar Samhan and could score and get to the line at will. Second, Wash State's point guard Taylor Rochestie played a really good game but was overmatched by Patty Mills. Wash State's coach should have run the offense so that Rochestie would not have had to try to score 1 on 1 against Mills which he had to very often. Yes Rochestie should have figured out how to get open but Wash State should have run plays to get Rochestie free so that he would be able to get open shots. These are the two criticisms I have of Wash State's coach. As a coach it is your responsibility to figure out why your team is struggling and can't properly run it's offense and as the coach he should have realized how to fix these two important problems with their offense. If he had given Baynes the ball more and run Rochestie off screens Washington State would have made this game a lot more competitive than it was.

Also, today I wrote my first article for RootZoo. RootZoo is a sports talk site where users post articles and talk about all different sports. Below is the link to my article about The NCAA tournament selection process.

Here's the link