LouisEly

Marquette has two scholarships available now (only 11 current players on scholarship) - Thomas is either not on scholarship or is only on a one-year scholarship, thus why they have five guys signed for next year. I think it's 50/50 if Mayo comes back - he was on academic suspension at the beginning of the season, didn't see much playing time towards the end of the season, and will be competing with Johnson and Ferguson for backup SG minutes next year. I think Buzz would love to have Otule back - he provides a great offensive/defensive platoon with Gardner. He's no slouch on the offensive end though - shot 63.4%, which would have ranked 7th in the nation if he had enough attempts to qualify. The problem is going to be two years from now, when Otule, Gardner, and Wilson will be gone. Taylor and McKay will be the only current players on the team 6'7" or taller. Any other players 6'7" or taller will be true freshmen or first-year transfers.

Harris can score, that's never been in question. The question is whether he can play defense. His last two games have been against Washington and Charlotte; I imagine this late in the season with neither team having any playoff chances that there isn't a lot of effort being put into defense. He had a decent game against Miami, but against OKC in a close game he was 3-17, fouled out, and had three turnovers. Against the Knicks he had 5 turnovers, against Indiana he was 3-13, and against the Bucks he fouled out in 32 minutes. He seems to be racking up the big games against bad teams with nothing to play for, but isn't quite so good against the good teams. Daniels isn't a good comparison; Daniels has been playing SF lately because LRMAM is injured and because Daniels is a better defensive player than Dunleavy. Daniels got minutes in December by default when Udrih was injured, but they were at SG not SF. Look at the game logs; when LRMAM was healthy and the Bucks had healthy backup guards Daniels got very few minutes.

Just don't lay the plasma down flat when you are moving it. Must be kept upright. I have a 50" LED and I'm not disappointed at all. Great viewing angle. Unfortunately it does not have VGA-in and my laptop does not have HDMI or DVI out, so no running laptop through TV.

This. The one good minor league season Hunter Morris had was the one where he played in his hometown/where he grew up, and I believe he lived at home with his family. Keep in mind, unlike Fielder, Hart is above average defensively and with more playing time there will likely get even better.

Looks like Miami's version of Davonte Gardner, the 6'10" and (generous) 290 lb Reggie Johnson, is out for the Sweet 16 game having undergone a minor surgical procedure. Glad he's out, but I was kind of looking forward to the announcers gushing over Gardner versus Johnson banging it out in the paint. Marquette was really going to have their hands full with three guys 6'10" or taller in Miami's rotation, plus three guards 6'5" or taller. Lockett, Blue, and Anderson are going to have to play lock-down defense on Scott, Jones, and Brown.

"Wait did you just try to compare this thought of mine on a Team that had Super Roided Barry Bonds leading the way? The guy had near a .600 On Base% in those years." Barry Bonds was not on the 2010 Giants team that won the World Series. The point I was making was that the Giants won the World Series five years after giving up three premium draft picks to sign free agents. The Giants also had six - count 'em, six - first round draft picks in 2007. But only two have made the major leagues (one by default), and five of the six project to be less than replacement level or not even make the majors.

A little history. In 2003 the San Francisco Giants won 100 games, but lost in the NLDS. Hoping to get over the hump, they sacrificed their first round pick in 2004 to sign Michael Tucker from the Royals. That draft pick hurt his arm his second year and never made it past A-ball. In 2004 the Giants won 91 games, just missing the playoffs, primarily because of a poor bullpen. So the Giants gave up their #1 pick in 2005 to sign Armando Benitez from the Marlins. That draft pick was subsequently traded, claimed off of waivers, and pitched a total of 7.2 innings in the majors with an ERA of 7+ and a WHIP of 2.40+. The Giants also gave up their 2nd round pick to sign Mike Matheny; that pick, a high-school pitcher, looks to have gotten hurt his second year also and in five seasons never made it past A-ball. Five years later the Giants won the World Series. One draft pick is not going to make or break a franchise.

"So, as I put it earlier, we just dropped a 20% chance for improving the team long term" So doesn't this mean an 80% chance for not improving the team long-term? If this is Vegas, I know which one I'm putting my money on.

I would say Mike Trout defies that logic. Mike Trout, or any single person that TLB listed, on a team of average ballplayers is not going to make that team a World Series contender. You need to have 3-4 All-Stars on the team along with a handful of other above-average players. It took the Giants three years to get Lincecum, Bumgarner, and Posey. It took the Brewers five years to get Fielder, Weeks, Gallardo, Braun, and the players traded for Sabathia.

Nope, I'm right there with you. The 17th overall pick in any draft is not going to make or break any franchise. It took the Rays almost a decade of top-10 picks before they became good. It took the Brewers five years of top-10 picks before they accumulated the talent to become contenders. It took the Giants four years of top-10 picks before they accumulated the talent to win the World Series. The Brewers have too much talent offensively to be bad enough to get top-10 picks in the near future, so I say go for it now and then tear down in two years when Hart, Ramirez, and Weeks are gone.

Some random thoughts: 1) Didn't people say the same thing about Ted Lilly two years ago? He was doing just fine until he got hurt, and I assume there is some type of injury insurance in the contract to protect them financially. Point being, Lilly was performing just fine until the injury despite signing a similar contract at a similar age. B) Speaking of Ted Lilly, looking at who the Dodgers traded to the Cubs for him do you think they regret that trade at all? 3) Would anyone have mourned the loss of their 2009 1st round draft pick to sign a type-A free agent pitcher? 4) The Brewers won 83 games last year despite one of the worst bullpen performances in the history of baseball (not to mention trading away an All-Star starting pitcher). Their bullpen pitchers were charged with 33 losses; how Livan Hernandez avoided being charged with any is a miracle. They weren't an 83-win team; they were a 90+ win team that got very unlucky with their bullpen performance.

The Jesus H. Khrys Davis definitely got a laugh out of me. God I missed you, Geno.

#1 - All broadcast media contracts are with MLB and all broadcast revenue belongs to MLB and is shared. Recognizing that some teams may have been purchased or some stadiums built with an understanding that revenue will not be shared, there would be some exceptions where some revenue is not shared but that revenue must be used to pay down debt incurred to purchase the team or build a stadium. At a minimum, 51% of all revenue is shared. #2 - See #1 #3 - Agreed on Giants/A's/San Jose #4 - Tennis has incorporated technology to judge whether a ball is in or out, and tennis balls travel as fast as baseballs (faster on serves - 130mph+). One of the events that sticks in my mind as having a very negative effect on the perception of baseball is Eric Gregg's egregious strike call on Livan Hernandez that was at least a foot off the plate. You can't have something like that on a national stage. But you can't challenge every call - that would bring the game to a screeching halt. Tennis has addressed it by giving players only three challenges (I think it's three) per match. The technology is automated and incorporated into the scoreboard so no manual umpire review - it takes about five seconds to happen. So a team is allowed to challenge three pitches per game by its pitchers and three pitches per game by its batters. Or just make it three events that can be challenged, whether it is pitches, home runs, a runner tagging up early, whatever. Tennis has challenges, football has challenges, the NBA allows reviews of certain calls, the NHL can review goals... why not baseball? #5 - Every team must have at least 2000 seats every game for $9 or less.

I know it's a pain in the arse with commuting, but go without snow for 7 years and you will learn to appreciate it. As far as I'm concerned, it can be 25 and snowing for all of March (or all of winter for that matter), and then jump to sunny and 60 in April. To me, 35-50 degree highs are kind of useless. Not warm enough to melt the snow quickly, not warm enough to do much of anything outside.

Another great comeback by Marquette, but the only reason this game was close was because Butler shot almost 50% from 3-point. Vander Freakin' Blue again with a monster game; we're starting to see him fulfill his potential, and hopefully this continues through the rest of the tourney and into next year.

Yeah, Berggren is/was underrated. If he would have had the same 3-point % as last year (37%) people would have a little different opinion of him. Not sure what happened to Evans this year - he had a very good year last year and most people thought he was ready to break out, but instead took a big step back. At the same time, I think some have a bit too high of expectations. If these guys were as good as some think they should be, they would be in the NBA by now. I wonder if UW's lack of depth, or Bo's lack of confidence in their depth, caused several players to wear down by the end of the season, which impacted their shooting % and turnover rate. Bo is a very good coach/teacher, but I wonder sometimes why very few players make an impact until their junior season. Berggren did nothing until his junior year, same with Evans, and had Gasser been healthy Jackson probably wouldn't have done much this year. Is that because of how difficult it is to learn the system, because Bo doesn't trust underclassmen, or because he recruits players that are raw and need time to develop? Because of that, can we really expect anything from the incoming freshman class next year? Anderson and Dukan have done nothing so far; hopefully they and Jackson can make a similar jump as Berggren and Evans did their junior year.

VANDER FREAKIN' BLUE!!! Wow... unbelievable comeback. Can't believe Davidson shot as poorly as they did from the free throw line.

The problem is that VGA-out is analog and HDMI-in is digital. I have hooked up laptops to projectors many times and used the Function key to toggle the display, but the problem is that the laptop has to send a digital signal out of the VGA port. Most of the reviews of these cables on Amazon say that is not possible with most laptops, and to not buy those cables thinking you can hook a laptop up to a TV. The reviews say you need to have some type of analog-to-digital converter, and the converters (which start around $30) have mixed reviews as well. I think the cheapest and most reliable way to do this is to get a docking station that has a DVI port, and then get a DVI-to-HDMI cable. The conversion to a digital signal is in the docking station.

Well, no, Amazon has the cables but the problem is whether the graphics card can send digital signals through the VGA port. If it can't then the cables won't work.

Dumb question here. I'm trying to figure out if I can connect my laptop to my HDTV; the problem is that my laptop is older and only has VGA and S-Video out, but my TV is new and only has HDMI and Component video in. My understanding in reading the reviews of the VGA-to-HDMI cables for sale on Amazon is that in most cases these cables don't work; the graphics card has to be able to send a digital or component signal out through the VGA port. I've spend the past hour and a half searching the internet and have not been able to figure out whether my laptop can do that. It has an Intel Core 2 Duo 2.40GHz processor with Integrated Graphics; I believe it has the GMA X4500HD graphics card. If anyone would happen to know the answer, or where I could find the answer, I would greatly appreciate letting me know. Thanks!

Don't like this draw for UW at all. UW struggles with perimeter D (see Wragge, Ethan and Gatens, Matt), and Henderson is one of the best outside shooters in the game. If they get by Ole Miss they get Kansas State and the game is in Kansas City - will be almost like a home game for KSU. Interesting that they give Marquette a potential rematch against Butler in the 2nd round; hopefully Marquette can exact some revenge on Butler for making that last-second prayer.

That one issue is why they are a 4 seed and not a 2-3 seed. You can counter that by saying that Marquette was undefeated at home against every possible tournament team. Yes, UW has a better road record but they couldn't take care of business at home against Virginia, MSU, and Purdue, and needed a half-court desperation 3 to avoid a home loss to Michigan. If you look at every other team that is vying for a 3-5 seed you will find similar flaws in their resume as well. New Mexico lost at home to San Diego State, got blown out at SDSU, and lost at Air Force; Saint Louis lost at home to URI and Santa Clara; Memphis' losses have been good losses but had a weak non-conference schedule and their best win was at Tennessee; Arizona lost at home to UCLA and Cal; Marquette swept Pitt.

Small sample, but earlier this year the Bucks took the Heat into OT at Miami (and had a good size lead in that game in the 4th quarter and should have won) and blew Miami out at home. I realize they have two more games and that the Heat are clicking now, but some teams match up better against others. I think the Bucks match up better against the Heat than Indiana, Chicago (with a healthy D-Rose), and Atlanta. The Heat do not have a big bruising C or PF that can take advantage of Milwaukee's lack of physical strength at the 1/2 (like Utah did last night with Favors, Kanter, and Milsap). D-Wade is a smaller 2-guard that has a similar game as Ellis and isn't as tough of a defensive matchup for Ellis. They don't have many taller 3-point shooters like Atlanta that can expose the Bucks perimeter defense. Those are Milwaukee's weaknesses, and the Heat play well into them. Miami's best offensive player (James) matches up with the Bucks best defensive player (LRMAM) fairly well. One of Miami's weaknesses is PG and Jennings can take advantage of that matchup. The Heat are also old - Bosh, Chalmers, and James are the only players under 30 that get significant playing time; the Bucks overall are quicker. Now that Indiana is getting Granger back, I'm not sure I'd rather finish 7th and get the Pacers than 8th and get the Heat.

Yes, and Orlando got blown out at home by Sacramento and was -16 in the minutes that Harris played. His SF matchup, former Buck John Salmons, scored 21 on 7-9 shooting. In the Houston game his matchup Parsons scored 21 on 9-15 shooting. Last night Harris was 3-14 in a blowout loss at home to Memphis. Let's give it more than two games before we evaluate how good or bad this trade was.

The depth chart has been laughably bad since the first tip. And after this deal, it's now worse. We now have a nice backup sg but no backup pg! You guys know that the Bucks also acquired Ish Smith, Orlando's 24-year-old backup PG, in the deal as well, right? And Ellis is a good enough passer that he can play PG (averaging 5.5 assists/game this year). The Bucks traded Udrih and Lamb for Redick and Smith. So no, the depth is not worse; I'd argue, considering that Lamb hasn't played since January 5th, that the depth is better.