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The East Coast Bias Is Moving/ On Hiatus
The St. John’s portion of The East Coast Bias is moving to a new home:
Check it out, comment, link, tweet about it. Spread the word! The East Coast Bias will take a short break, but will be back in some form in the near future – as in May/ June.
Big East Roundtable: Are your bloggers on Twitter?
Now that we’ve discussed the serious questions of collage basketball, I asked my fellow Big East bloggers about communication – do they use Twitter? Twitter has become the way that athletes get in trouble for being prima donnas and jerks, where they make the off-color jokes no one ever told them were not funny, and where reporters break news or add pithy commentary. 140 words is a tiny limit, but as a device to let readers know when something hot is going on… maybe it has some merit.
Orange 44 (Syracuse) – O44
Hoya Prospectus (Georgetown) – HP
I Bleed Blue and White (Villanova) – IBBW
Villanova by the Numbers – VBTN
Eye of a Panther (Pittsburgh) – EoP
Black and Green Irish Blog (Notre Dame) – B&G
Chicago College Basketball (DePaul) – CCB
The East Coast Bias (St. John’s) – TECB
There are 7 questions in total in the roundtable, and they will be up in the next day. It’s a big league, after all, and large group of participants. Enjoy, spread on the message boards and forums, and comment freely (but with civility). Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 were published earlier, go take a look!
Q. Twitter has become influential in broadcasting basketball/ sports information. What’s your opinion of the service? Have you adopted Twitter for your blog? What have been the plusses and minuses?
IBBW: I was the most anti-Twitter blogger you could find at it’s outset. But then after watching it on SportsCenter every morning, I realized it was here to stay. It’s a great way to get updates from people and news outlets you are interested in without having to click refresh every 10 minutes. I’m welcomed Twitter on IBBW and I’ve found that I’ve been able to reach a bigger group of people.
O44: I had been really down on twitter until around last May, when every blogger friend of mine basically demanded I jump on Twitter. I took the New York Bar Exam this summer, so once that was concluded I joined Twitter (@BH_Orange44). So far it has been great, especially during the Orange football debut this past weekend. I was tweeting from the Carrier Dome, and following several friends as we all shared in the collective experience of watching the game. A lot of fun. The plusses are that you have instant interaction and can pass along comments and news instantly. Even faster than a live blog. It is boiled down to good, simple information due to the character limit. The minuses are that it can limit you if you have something long and relatively important to say. Also, while trying to keep up with tweets you are not really paying close attention to the game, which can defeat the whole purpose of your afternoon.
HP: Twitter serves a purpose – spontaneous thoughts, breaking news, etc., but the wheat/chaff ratio can be frustrating. We haven’t adopted Twitter for our blog as we normally don’t break news and aren’t very spontaneous. Other Hoya blogs with boots on the ground use it, to better purpose than we ever could.
VBTN: I like it, though I use it only “situationally”. I followed the World University Games via twitter, having the final scores hours before they were published by the news services. I have not adopted it for Villanova by the Numbers. In the days before I actually began the blog I spent time considering what I wanted to accomplish with VBTN. I decided to focus on the numbers, the state of the team (and program…and the game), more on the “play” rather than the “players”. Twitter is more valuable to me as a “news source/news alert” for events that I know will not get a lot of media attention initially.
B&G: Twitter is decent for sports reporting, but I’ve had such an aversion to it due to its usage as a tool for reporting every aspect of one’s rather uninteresting life. I don’t have an account and likely never will.
CCB: I really like Twitter (@Chicolball). I think that it allows you to share short opinions and links that you would normally write about. While most college basketball coaches use it as a way to broadcast boring messages, some of the good coaching Tweeters actually give relevant information.
EoP: I’m not personally a Twitter fan, but I’m surprised at how much actual news is broken there. It makes sense for athletes and celebrities because they can spread news without having to run a website or go through the media. Other than that, I’m not sure I ‘get it.’ I don’t use Twitter – I’m not sure I’m important enough to have people ‘follow me.’ And while I like the idea of athletes telling me what’s going on during a game, not sure why their coaches would allow it. I’m also amazed that athletes will ‘spill the beans’ on Twitter while giving nondescript answers during interviews.
TECB: I am on Twitter and have found it very useful; it brings eyes from the East Coast Bias twitter page to the blog and allows me to write “micro” posts when a full blog posts seems indulgent and unseemly. The minus is that Twitter becomes another online location to check, and in truth, I still think it’s kind of silly. It really tends towards some of the dumber aspects of people’s communication, trolls, nasty one-sided invective… it ain’t deep. But then, some things are best when succinct.
St. John’s credentials microblogger for college basketball next season
I’ve been reading Peter Robert Casey‘s stuff for a while on his blog and on his twitter. Now he’s caused a buzz by becoming the first person to get a press pass to St. John’s games to twitter his reports.
Often, I would look at this with skepticism, but for basketball, I’ve found that twitter is bringing more eyes to this blog and allowing me to follow others. And Peter’s stuff is very good. Congratulations to him and to Mark Fratto, Associate Athletic Director for Communications at St. John’s (who seems to be pretty responsive, as well). St. John’s twitter account is http://twitter.com/STJ_Basketball; and big props to getting the St. John’s name out. That’s how it should be; N-Y-C should be in the forefront of cutting edge communications.
More coverage from Mashable, and ESPN, and ESPN’s Andy Katz again.
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Keep the eyes moving all summer: link dump!
What I’m reading these days:
While you try to figure out why teens are not tweeting; why passengers were stuck on an airplane for a full night on the tarmac; why in heaven’s name Kathy Griffin was at the teen choice awards, and why with Levi Johnston (you may know him from the Palin Family Values campaign tour); why Nancy Grace is writing a fictional book 
about… herself.
Or maybe you’re fixated on why “town hall” meetings have not only erupted into (planted) shouting matches, but now include anti-health care reform icons who need to solicit donations for their own health insurance costs, while Sarah Palin is channeling the best of Phyllis Schlafly… as Chuck Norris is ANGRY about lengthy LOGICAL LEAPS he has MADE from a few words of a document?!!
We live in a ridiculously partisan country. And celebrities are selfish, Ayn Rand-loving morons.
I am wondering how someone came up with the idea of a hand cream against sex trafficking… I think it was intentional. And the Chevy Volt’s “230 miles per gallon” number may be a bit exaggerated, dependent on where/ how far you are driving. Still, it may be time to go get your hybrid on. Please enjoy a “what Pico is reading” update, and a picture of Party Down’s Lizzy Caplan looking skeptical below. My wife doesn’t think she’s very cute, I disagree.
But this is a sports blog, and I am following a few other blog for sports news; I will be returning to the 2008-2009 player in review posts for St. John’s basketball. Technical difficulties got in the way. So to pass time in the slow part of the summer for college basketball fans, I’m checking out…
MLB’s online baseball package… soon coming to the Roku, which I own.
Rush the Court‘s “Teams of the 2000s” series, starting with #10, Maryland and #9, Syracuse. I wish I could have convinced people to use the term “the naughty Aughts” for the “zeros” or the “first decade,” but I gave up my crusade in about March of 2000.
Vegas Watch is doing a series of ratings/ previews based on Pomeroy’s Pythagorean winning percentage in 2009, returning minutes, and returning points, starting with the ACC.
Villanova By the Numbers is taking a Big East-wide look at returning minutes broken down by returning minutes by year and last year’s Pythagorean winning percentage.
From Rivals.com – who do you think are the best basketball tacticians? I like Matt Painter in this list. And what is the best team outside of the Big 6 conferences?
From Welsh-Ryan Ramblings, what does need to happen for the perception of Northwestern basketball to change?
College Chalk Talk is assessing the team by team losses in the Atlantic 10: Part I and Part II.
Gary Williams speaks to Mike DeCourcy of Sporting News. He is aiming at the ACC title next season (every coach is, that’s a non-story), and talks about his incoming size (Jordan Williams and James Padgett) and the criticism he received last year.
NBE Basketball has started a brilliant staff support series, with interviews with the assistant coaches who do some heavy lifting in near-anonymity.
Also: the Big East is looking to eliminate the double-byes from the conference tournament, instead pitting the #1-4 teams against the 13-16 squads… Linas Kleiza, former Mizzou Tiger, signed with Greek team Olympiakos instead of taking the Denver Nuggets‘ qualifying offer… Jamie Dixon and Pitt got a transfer from Centenary College who is eligible to play point guard this year due to Centenary’s dropping down to Division III… former Knick GM, coach, and pariah Isiah Thomas got a big-time recruit to commit to Florida International… and USC‘s football team breaks into song in a meeting:
The East Coast Bias now on Twitter
You can follow me @ECoastBias on Twitter. Even if I think the product is a wee bit overhyped, Twitter is good for passing along short posts I see from around the web when there isn’t enough interesting stuff for a link dump. Even if there is little St. John’s news on Twitter…
Also, you can reach the twitter feed from my sidebar on the right of this blog. Check it out when you come to visit.
Head in the Game, Lions Logo, Alex-Rod: A Link List!
Hey, where’s the AIG facade? They’re changing the company name… The Onion on the Morning After Burrito, the contraceptimelt… Open up borders to skilled immigrants – opinion pieces in the Wall Street Journal and from the NY Times’ Thomas Friedman… some completely bizarre “perks” in Josh Freeze’s "pay what you will" pricing, especially compared to Radiohead – including lunch, a day at Disneyland, his Volvo, and the opportunity to have a song written about you… China’s central bank is talking about a new reserve currency…
And now… sports.
+ Eric Devendorf – punk or not? Read the take on Rumors and Rants, and the take on Ballin’ Is a Habit (which is sensible). And a defense here. Personally, I just think his mind thinks of plays his body can’t finish; he’s gotten better at matching his actual talent with his imagined talent, but watching some of his drives, truer words were never spoken than Sean McDonough’s "Devendorf’s the kind of player that keeps both teams in the game."
+ Jonny Flynn’s going to return for his junior year, supposedly.
+ Pitt Blather will be hosting a roundtable discussion on Big East domination of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament.
+ Patty Mills gets the best of Stephen Curry and the Davidson Wildcats in their matchup at St. Mary’s, which was the best NIT game I have seen since St. John’s beat Georgetown in 2003. And that wasn’t actually a good game. Mills has a far better supporting cast, and doesn’t turn the ball over 6 times in a game with a questionable dribble and ill-fated passes.
+ Is Steph Curry going pro? Is that the last we see of him?
+ The Big Lead rips on Gonzaga’s Austin Daye and his disappearing act on the court.
+ Missouri’s Mike Anderson’s trying to stay focused on the upcoming game against Memphis, and not on the talk of him possibly going to Alabama to coach the basketball team. He’s high on my list of coaches who might be switching jobs. CBS Sports reminds us that it would be much worse if he lied, instead of saying that he doesn’t want to talk about the future.
+ Alex Rodriguez. More high-end blonde hookers. Making fun of him is just boring at this point. At least he went to one of Eliot Spitzer’s trim suppliers.
+ The new women’s soccer league is confident despite the recession. I’ll be checking it out; women’s soccer in the US has to be better than the men’s pro league, MLS.
+ The corny new Lions logo. Dammit, I meant to keep opinion out of it. From mlive and profootballtalk–
CBS Sports Bloggers’ Blogpoll, Week 6
The honest truth is that I don’t value conference tournaments very much. The spectacle of the best teams playing a knockout tournament, NCAA bids on the line, the cream rising to the top and all, sounds nice. Great for television. But watching an SEC Tournament final with Tennessee and Mississippi State (MS State won to earn a 13 seed in the tournament)? A Temple vs. Duquesne final in the Atlantic 10 (Temple won, got an 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament)? Clemson, Kansas, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh losing early in their conference tournaments?
You can’t tell me that Kansas is any worse than they were all year. Or Oklahoma has serious flaws. I have no data on this, but I think top teams sometimes just tank their conference tournaments. Not entirely; I don’t think the coach stands in front of his team and says "lay an egg out there, fellas, stink up the joint like you just had that too-spicy burrito."
But I do think that the effort is not equal for all teams. Maryland had a lot to gain by making it to the final; Clemson, a bit less. They’ve done enough, they’re in the tournament. For Pittsburgh, the same. And they get a benefit. Those teams who stop their conference run early get a few more days rest, a little less wear and tear, some time to go to class, or practice, or meet some trim, whatever it is they do with their non-practice time.
Conference championships are nice. But the NCAA tournament, doesn’t it pay more, benefit more, increase the school’s and coaches’ rep? There is much more incentive to save the legs for the "most wonderful time of the year" than there is for the conference championship.
So, as stated, I don’t value conference tournaments very much. And as such I won’t value them heavily in my rankings. To loosely paraphrase Denny Green, most of these teams are who we thought they were. You won’t see too much movement below.
Asides:
- But I will give a little love to Louisville and Missouri. Syracuse‘s performance gets some major love as well.
- And Clemson losing to Georgia Tech is the turd of all turd performances.
- Wanted to give some love to Maryland, but I like all those other teams better.
- Oh, crap. Illinois on the 5 line in the NCAA tournament… duhDUM.
- That’s better than being in the CBI like St. John’s. Who is playing on the road at Richmond. On the road.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Louisville |  3 |
| 2 | Pittsburgh |  1 |
| 3 | North Carolina | 1 |
| 4 | Connecticut | 1 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | |
| 6 | Michigan St. | |
| 7 | Duke | 1 |
| 8 | Memphis | 2 |
| 9 | Kansas | 2 |
| 10 | Villanova | 1 |
| 11 | Missouri | 3 |
| 12 | Washington | |
| 13 | Wake Forest | 4 |
| 14 | UCLA | 1 |
| 15 | Purdue | 4 |
| 16 | Gonzaga | |
| 17 | Syracuse | 6 |
| 18 | Illinois | 1 |
| 19 | Clemson | 4 |
| 20 | Marquette | |
| 21 | Xavier | 3 |
| 22 | Arizona St. | |
| 23 | Florida St. | 1 |
| 24 | Louisiana St. | 3 |
| 25 | West Virginia | |
| Last week’s ballot | ||
CBS Sports Bloggers’ Blogpoll, Week 5
Does anyone finish well in the Pac 10? Except for Washington and UCLA. There is a lot of mediocrity this year… then again, maybe there’s just a good deal of talent, and less than there was last year. So it goes. This is short this week; I was working on the Big East Bloggers Roundtable, which you should check out…
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 3 |
| 2 | North Carolina | 1 |
| 3 | Connecticut | 1 |
| 4 | Louisville | 1 |
| 5 | Oklahoma | 2 |
| 6 | Michigan St. | 2 |
| 7 | Kansas | |
| 8 | Duke | 2 |
| 9 | Wake Forest | |
| 10 | Memphis | |
| 11 | Villanova | |
| 12 | Washington | 1 |
| 13 | UCLA | 1 |
| 14 | Missouri | 2 |
| 15 | Clemson | |
| 16 | Gonzaga | 6 |
| 17 | Illinois | 2 |
| 18 | Xavier | |
| 19 | Purdue | 2 |
| 20 | Marquette | 3 |
| 21 | Louisiana St. | 1 |
| 22 | Brigham Young | 3 |
| 23 | Syracuse | |
| 24 | Florida St. | |
| 25 | New Mexico | |
| Last week’s ballot | ||
CBS Sports Bloggers’ Blogpoll, Week 3
Notes:
#1: Pitt.
2-5: The great quandary: Oklahoma. They played decently without Blake 
Griffin against Texas, one of the few rivals that Oklahoma has. But I think this Texas team is just not good. Do I drop Oklahoma for losing an away game after an injury to their lynchpin? But I think Texas is better than that inconsistent, Morgan State-losing Maryland Squad. And UNC lost to the Terps. So that closes that case. U Conn’s still a great team, just not as great as the Panthers; is their #1 seed close to popping? I like what Louisville is up to, but I know better than to blow up wins over Providence and Cincy too much.
2-10: I think Duke had an okay week, but I expected them to be much better against St. John’s. I am wildly unconvinced about this team. The win over Wake kept them in this lofty perch.
North Carolina needed to just blow out those Hurricanes and defang NC State. They did not. And then a loss to Maryland? This was supposed to be a “done deal” national championship team? Something smells like cowpies, and that is why we all love this sport. Not the cowpies. The volatility.
Marquette has a serious chance to prove what’s really good about the Eagles – this is the U Conn/ Louisville/ Pitt stretch that could get Marquette a 2-seed if they come out with one loss. I reread that and thought “I drank too much this weekend,” so let me amend that to say that this is the stretch that gives us an answer about how good the Golden Eagles are.
And Nova’s win at Syracuse was a solid road win.
10-20: That Michigan State loss at Purdue was… statistically terrible. I will give them a little benefit of the doubt playing on the road against a team that’s better than it appears in Purdue but… ugh.
Despite the ugliest loss I’ve heard about in a while, Illinois has beaten Purdue twice and has more quality wins, so they get the nod.
I realized I have Arizona State ranked too low. And UCLA too high; but I haven’t seen those games so I can’t say that I would drop them out of my top 20. I do have an “East Coast Boas” after all (and have been traveling to see some fam).
20+: Butler, Cal, Dayton – you all disappoint me. Leave my poll. Do the walk of shame. Butler, especially – losing to Illinois-Chicago? I watched Butler eviscerate that same team at Loyola and I have no idea how they could lose to such an inept squad. Beating Davidson brings some props but it doesn’t counter two very bad losses. I wanted to drop Xavier like a naughty habit, but that would have caught me putting in the likes of Siena or Texas, and I am not convinced.
Welcome to Louisiana State and an Arizona team that is coming on strong. But they started so weak that I feel dirty putting them in a top 25.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pittsburgh | 3 |
| 2 | Oklahoma | |
| 3 | Connecticut | 2 |
| 4 | North Carolina | 1 |
| 5 | Louisville | 2 |
| 6 | Duke | 1 |
| 7 | Villanova | 2 |
| 8 | Wake Forest | 2 |
| 9 | Marquette | 2 |
| 10 | Clemson | 2 |
| 11 | Michigan St. | 1 |
| 12 | Memphis | |
| 13 | Missouri | 3 |
| 14 | Washington | 1 |
| 15 | Illinois | 2 |
| 16 | Purdue | 5 |
| 17 | Arizona St. | 5 |
| 18 | Kansas | 2 |
| 19 | UCLA | 5 |
| 20 | Gonzaga | 2 |
| 21 | Louisiana St. | |
| 22 | Xavier | 9 |
| 23 | West Virginia | |
| 24 | Utah | |
| 25 | Arizona | |
| Last week’s ballot | ||
Comments? Gripes with my top 25? Holler at me below. I’m going to sleep.
CBS Sports Bloggers’ Blogpoll, Week 2
Notes about this week’s poll:
+ This week featured a number of top ten teams losing… mostly away from home. Duke. Clemson. Wake Forest. And Louisville. Despite the losses, I can’t drop all of those teams and move in some other squad, because who could I say would beat those teams on a neutral site? Michigan State? Or Villanova, who lost to West Virginia? Of those teams, I could drop Wake Forest – losing to North Carolina State and Georgia Tech gives me reason to wonder.
+ I saw Butler smoke Loyola-Illinois in Chicago a month ago… and losing to a terrible squad at home is a big ol’ RED FLAG.
+ The Pac-10 is rounding into (muddy) shape.
+ I wanted to put Dayton in my top 25 last week, and now that they came out with a wire-to-wire win over Xavier, I have a little justification. They could really stand to score more efficiently, but I love their style.
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| Rank | Team | Delta |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connecticut | |
| 2 | Oklahoma | |
| 3 | North Carolina | |
| 4 | Pittsburgh | |
| 5 | Duke | |
| 6 | Wake Forest | |
| 7 | Louisville | |
| 8 | Clemson | |
| 9 | Villanova | 2 |
| 10 | Michigan St. | 2 |
| 11 | Marquette | 2 |
| 12 | Memphis | 1 |
| 13 | Xavier | 1 |
| 14 | UCLA | 1 |
| 15 | Washington | 1 |
| 16 | Missouri | 1 |
| 17 | Illinois | 2 |
| 18 | Gonzaga | |
| 19 | Butler | 9 |
| 20 | Kansas | |
| 21 | Purdue | |
| 22 | Arizona St. | |
| 23 | California | 1 |
| 24 | Utah | 1 |
| 25 | Dayton | |
| Last week’s ballot | ||
edit: here’s a link to this week’s blogpoll as a whole. I won the “Mr. Stubborn” award for not moving the ACC teams down! Heh. I see the point in moving Wake Forest down a slot or two, but I will be damned if I move a Memphis team up who hasn’t beaten anyone of not on the court (I won’t be rude and say anything about off the court), or Clemson, or Louisville (who I should move down – they are playing very poorly right now). But Wake is flawed, for sure.
the east coast bias 