Messages

Thanks, run.  I'll give that a try.

I just found the webpage I was looking for yesterday: http://www.ncaa.com/news/basketball-men/2011-03-08/men%E2%80%99s-march-madness-tv-schedule

This has audio links, which is what I really want at work (I do *not* need to be *watching* while I work, for crying out loud).

Texas is holding Oakland at bay but Reggie Hamilton is starting to heat up a bit.  At the half: Texas 46 Oakland 38.

Go Grizz!!!

P.S. It looks like the IT folks at boeing decided overnight to block the MMOD video streaming anyway

Get back to me when you are able to watch an archived game.

So far, unless I am missing something, I am extremely underwhelmed by the on-line viewer.

I've seen nothing yet to warrant the designation "On Demand".  Nothing available on games already played except for highlights.

I also have a question: is there some way that I'm missing to watch more than one game at a time?

I ask here because the on-line help is atrocious (again, unless I'm missing something).

For rlh, the note on sarcasm was to help you know that my comment about the coaches and players was not to be taken at face value. There tends to be some confusion on this board from time to time about whether people are using sarcasm and whether it is properly recognized. In this case, it was to to designate that I (not you or STL) was not saying that the players couldn't play or the coaches couldn't coach and to avoid going down a rabbit hole on that topic (as you pointed out - "not sure what else is to be said." To be clear, I have generally agreed with your assessment of this year's team.

I took it as simply a signal to make sure I knew you were joking with that final comment about our coaches not being able to coach.  Honestly, you needn't have worried.  As I read it, I could tell anyway.

I have gotten into the habit of writing the way I speak out loud and even picturing myself doing so (comes from writing sermons from time to time), and the phrasing you used immediately struck me as the kind of biting sarcasm one makes at the end of a pointed rant.  It was recognizable.

And I appreciate your take on this stuff.  Knocking Homer for failing to develop bigs is a bit like knocking the dog for settling for scraps that fall from the master's table

What a truely fitting end to the season.  We again drop the ball when it really counts.  I have to ask if something changed in the dynamics of this team at the end.  Somehow we became a very different team with 5 games to go.   I have no inside info whatsoever.  I just feel like for such a promising team to simply bottom out, that maybe something went down late in the season to totally upset the chemistry.  There has to be something more than just a good team suddenly becoming a bad team.

As I say, I think we were playing over our heads earlier.  However, I would also say that this kind of thing is still a challenge that teams deal with all the time, and some of them deal with it better than we did.

But I also think the rest of the league just caught up with us.  We were pretenders, in other words.  The postseason posed it's own challenge.  You lose your opportunity to go to the Dance, then you wait around hoping and praying you'll go to the NIT (because your coach is the eternal optimist instead of a hard-core realist - did anyone really bank on getting the NIT invite?  Not me) -- so much so that your disappointment is too much to recover from.

True?  I have no idea.  Possible?  Perhaps...

Sorry guys - tough loss to end season. I know we didn't see anywhere near your best.
Hopefully, we'll see you guys down the road in the near future.
Come back and take the Horizon next season!

Your team came in well prepared and on fire.  Well done.  Our play-by-play guy thinks you should be able to run the table.

I truly think we spent all our best bullets a month ago and kind of regressed to our mean, as the saying goes.

Folks, it's kinda hard to win when the other team shoots almost 60% from the field and over 50% from beyond the arc.

All through the game, I kept wanting to tell Todd Ickow, you can stop telling us now that so-and-so is not a good FT shooter because that clearly wasn't working either

It was as if our basket was a dixie cup and theirs was the ocean.  Not much you can do about that.

What concerns me are thoughts running around my head wondering if the guys were subconsciously setting themselves up to fail because they were bummed about not getting an invite to the NIT.  I'll never know, but I can't help but wonder.

*If* that were true, it would be a disconcerting sign for the future.

One thing's for certain: Erik Buggs better develop an outside shot over the summer or he's going to fall down the depth chart.  You've got to be able to make the other team guard you.  Maybe he just needs to believe in himself.

The low-post double team that worked so well earlier in the season (including the first half of the regular season) turned out to be a gimmick that was very scoutable.  Down the stretch it started failing epically.

Then there's Brandon Wood's game tonight, which leaves some unanswered questions heretofore alluded to.

Basically this game came down to who hit their shots and who didn't, and who got the steals and who didn't.  The latter is controllable, the former, not so much.  I don't think there were a lot of lucky bounces, I just think Iona played with a little more intensity defensively and they were very opportunistic (which was richly rewarded).

23-12 is still a mighty fine record.  That and 12-6 in conference are our best yet in the HL.  I think it's clear now just how far we still have to climb on this particular mountain, but I see no reason to give up hope for the future.  It's still doable.

Did you see it?  Very early in the highlight package, after Cole hit one of us layups, the CSU defender was bear hugging the Vermont player who was trying to receive an inbounds pass, daring the ref to call a foul.

Here's what I'm thinking going into this game: The last time the pressure was "off" was the Missouri State game. They played relaxed, got an early lead, and you never got the sense that Missouri State would get back in the game. Homer was able to dust off the play book and use some old plays, like the halfcourt alley-oop play to Rogers that he always used to run with Raitis Grafs. Iona, yes, is supposed to be a good team that is ranked ahead of VU. But so was Missouri State. After they got down, they acted like the ARC was the last place in the world they wanted to be. Maybe that can happen again tonight.

I like the way you think, 89

Still no email, and I still don't see any archives.

My wife thinks I'm nuts, but I might stay up for the game....

Not only that -- and this might seem like small potatoes; heck, it probably is -- but there's no picture in picture available for the game tonight, so I can't keep one eye on the ORU game.

Having watched a couple of games last night, I can report that you won't need WAKE to hear Todd's voice because the Valpo pbp will be heard on the video.

I can't help recalling the CBI game at Houston.  I hope Todd knows that there's liable to be Iona fans hearing his play by play.  One thing I think can be counted on -- he won't disrespect the Iona players the way the Houston announcers disrespected ours that year.  I recall vividly firing off an angry email to the Gazelle Group over that one.

Is there a way to change the font color for threads with multiple pages, so that you know which pages you've viewed? I don't really want to have to guess which page I left off on, if I happen to be gone for a few days, or if the thread didn't have new posts to it for a few days before someone adds to it.

I just click on the "new" icon next to each thread and it takes me right to the first post in the thread that I have yet to read.

Just tried it myself.  I think I'm going to have to make sure I'm watching live tomorrow.

My hunch?  The guy answering emails is working from a script and making his best guesses.  I mean, the responses were prompt, but very cryptic.

It's a wonder that St. Paul Saints owner Mike Veeck hasn't asked the Gaedeles to make an appearance in Minnesota yet.

Story about Mike Veeck in Inc. Magazine
http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050401/how-i-did-it.html

This nut didn't fall far from the tree. Veeck's father, Bill, spent about 40 years tweaking Major League Baseball's stuffed shirts with his legendary promotions -- including sending a midget up to bat -- and bequeathed to Mike an appreciation for the absurd.

I'll never forgive Veeck Sr for polluting Comiskey Park with a promotion by a puny man named Steve Dahl (and I detest disco with every fiber of my being).

From me to support@b2-networks.com:

Buffalo vs. Quinnipiac (CollegeInsider.com tournament).

Wasn't able to watch it at work, want to try it on demand at home (in case there were firewall issues).  I assume it will be available on demand?

Reply:

You must download the following to be able to access the Flash Video Player

(WINDOWS)
http://b2support.com/bband/octosetup.exe
http://b2support.com/bband/flashplayer.exe
http://b2support.com/bband/java.exe

(MAC)
http://support.apple.com/downloads/Java_for_Mac_OS_X_10_6_Update_3
http://www.adobe.com/support/flash/downloads.html
http://www.b2support.com/bband/octoshapemac.dmg (mac users only)


•         If using Internet Explorer, you must have cookies enabled. If you are unsure of whether or not cookies are enabled, please use Mozilla Firefox as your web browser.



If prompted on whether or not to allow these programs to access your computer, you will need to allow it.  Certain types Anti-Virus, Firewall, or Intrusion Detection software may attempt to interrupt or block the operation of the Flash video player.  Please check the settings of these software types to verify that the Flash/Octoshape player is not being blocked. 



If you have just installed any of the programs above, close out of your player and log back in here: http://www.b2tv.com/


If you continue to experience trouble please let us know.

My reply back:

I already had the flashplayer, but for some reason, my McAfee Antivirus software thinks the octoshape plug-in is a trojan horse, and it removed it without asking me.

I can't see how to stop McAfee from doing that.

I wasn't having trouble with the player at home, just at work (and there's probably good reasons why it shouldn't work there).  I may have to reinstall it again, but I wanted to know if the events for the CollegeInsider.com tournament will be available on demand or not.

Their response:

At this time they will not be available.

Thank you,

My last reply:

Just a question: my pass says "Live + VOD".  Why does it say that if VOD is not going to be available for this tournament?

Their last response:

They are available for the duration of the pass you have purchased.

Thank you,

Um.....


Huh??  Pick a lane, folks.  Either they will be available or they won't be?

Can anybody by any chance decipher this for me?  I'm afraid if I reply again I'm going to sound pissy and just get nowhere, but I'm sorely tempted to start with "Take me to your leader."

It is free after all, so I'm not pissed if they're not available on demand, but I am kinda perplexed that a simple inquiry brings back such a confusing set of responses.

At any rate, I had to go online and download and install the octoshape plugin.  This time, McAfee left it alone.

I'll try to access the Buffalo game tomorrow and report back if I can watch it.  Otherwise, I'm thinking I have to watch the Valpo game live or not at all.

Hello Valpo Fans!
I am an alum/fan of the Iona Gaels.
I can see we are both somewhat disappointed that we ended here rather than in one
of the higher profile tourneys.
Coming from a 1 bid conference, we knew that we were not dancing when we stumbled
in our conference (MAAC) championship game a week ago. We did however have hopes
for the NIT.
It looks like both of our teams got caught in the perfect storm of season conference champs
falling in conference tourneys - our conference was one of them with our season champ (Fairfield)
losing in our tourney semis.
Since the new auto bid rule was adopted for the NIT, the highest number of autos had been 8 -
this year, I believe that jumped to 14.
Anyway, we are now here. I just wanted to stop by and say HI. Let's have a great game and show
everyone why we both deserved higher consideration.
Good luck to you guys and let's both have some fun!

Thanks, Mr. Doom.  The perfect blend of disappointment and optimism -- I love it.

Both teams should be rested.  I assume we're healthy, but I haven't heard anything lately so I don't know for sure.  What's your injury situation?

In case anyone is interested, here is the CBI field: http://www.collegesports-fans.com/ncaa-tournament/cbi-basketball-tournament.html

www.collegeinsider.com/tournament

This has an interesting article about the tournament.  It also states that we had committed to this tournament last week.  Interesting that we didn't hold out hope for the NIT.

I'm sure our being in the CIT was contingent on not being offered a spot in the NIT.

As stated in that very article, that's exactly what it was.  If we'd been offered the NIT, we would have gone to the NIT with the CIT's sincere blessings.

So...is there a bracket after the first round then?

That's what somebody said on the Valpo Basketball Facebook page.

If they do use RPI after the first round, then if we win it looks like we could get a bye.

Valpo: RPI 71, Sagarin 90
Iona: RPI 68, Sagarin 79

The only team with a higher RPI/Sagarin in the 24-team field is Marshall (54/78)

Obviously, neither rating figures prominently in the pairings.

By the way, the East region gets 1 of the 16-seed play-in winners and one of the At-Large winners, the Southeast gets the other 16-seed play-in winner, and the Southwest gets the other At-Large winner.  The West 2nd round (formerly known as 1st round) is completely set.

I guess I was expecting symmetry, but I suppose there could be a good reason why it shook out that way.

The best guess I had seen for Butler was a 9 seed.  David Woods (I think) was hoping for an 11 seed.

Oakland gets a 13 seed and meets #4 Texas in the first round.

God, Oakland.  PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE take down the longhorns.

PLEASE.

With prejudice, if possible.

That's been one of my thoughts: how embarrassing is it to have the double-bye and then come out and lay an egg in the semis?  It's not *quite* all it's cracked up to be.

I always watch the Summit League tourney.  This year I watched most of it for free.  The only games that weren't on TV or on ESPN3.com were the Saturday games for the men and women and the Sunday women's games.

I'm in, but I'm not too happy that I'll be starting over after obtaining "Gold All-Star" status with 1,330 posts.

Hey, nobody has more reason to be unhappy than the perennial front-runner

I notice this forum allows you to navigate directly from one thread to the next, something I was clamoring for a couple of years ago.  Well done!