Kellie Harper out as head coach of Tennessee women’s basketball.
108-52 in five seasons.
Archive for the ‘Sports’ Category
Firings watch.
Monday, April 1st, 2024Gonzaga!
Saturday, March 30th, 2024Oh, well. There’s always next year. And maybe next year, Lawrence and I will be able to pull it together and make a bet on the games.
Norts spews.
Friday, March 29th, 2024The baseball season started yesterday.
As we all know, Bob, this means the Astros won’t be able to sell beer at Minute Maid Park the rest of the season…
…because they lost the opener.
(“222 best dad jokes to tickle everyone’s funny bone“. See also.)
In case anyone was wondering, Gonzaga plays Purdue tonight. Purdue is a pretty heavy favorite, but we’ve seen a lot of favorites get knocked out this year. I wouldn’t count Gonzaga out just yet.
Obit watch: March 27, 2024.
Wednesday, March 27th, 2024Daniel Kahneman, psychologist and winner of the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel.
I’ve heard some people endorse Thinking, Fast and Slow. I’ve heard other people say it is overrated and much of the research cited has not been replicated.
Much of Professor Kahneman’s work is grounded in the notion — which he did not originate but organized and advanced — that the mind operates in two modes: fast and intuitive (mental activities that we’re more or less born with, called System One), or slow and analytical, a more complex mode involving experience and requiring effort (System Two).
Others have personified these mental modes as Econs (rational, analytical people) and Humans (emotional, impulsive and prone to exhibit unconscious mental biases and an unwise reliance on dubious rules of thumb). Professor Kahneman and Professor Tversky used the word “heuristics” to describe these rules of thumb. One is the “halo effect,” where in observing a positive attribute of another person one perceives other strengths that aren’t really there.
Ron Harper, actor. Other credits include “FBI: The Unheard Music Untold Stories”, “Dragnet” (the 1989-1991 version), “87th Precinct” (he played “Bert Kling”), and “Walker, Texas Ranger” (the Chuck Norris one).
Richard Serra, sculptor.
Mr. Serra enjoyed both great notoriety and great fame over the course of his long career, with notoriety coming first. In 1971, a rigger was crushed to death when one plate of a piece being installed at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis accidentally came loose. Many people in the art world — artists, curators, critics, museum directors — urged Mr. Serra to stop making sculpture, even though an investigation revealed that the crane operator had not properly followed the rigging instructions.
Mr. Serra’s early public pieces sometimes met with opposition, most famously “Tilted Arc,” commissioned by the General Services Administration and completed in 1981. The work — a gently curving, slightly leaning wall of rusting steel 12 feet high and 120 feet long — was installed in a plaza in front of a federal office building in Lower Manhattan. Some people who worked there regarded it as an eyesore and a danger and petitioned to have it removed. A hearing was held to consider arguments pro and con, after which the G.S.A. decided in favor of removal.
Dismayed and infuriated, Mr. Serra sued the government to keep the work in place, vowing that he would leave the country if it were dismantled. He lost his suit, and “Tilted Arc” was taken down in March 1989. But he continued to be based in New York.
Peter G. Angelos, former owner of the Baltimore Orioles. (He and his family made a deal to sell the team earlier this year, but it hasn’t been approved by MLB yet.)
Gonzaga!
Monday, March 18th, 2024It has been a while since I’ve done this. And, as y’all know, I have almost zero interest in basketball. But I do love saying “Gonzaga!”.
There was a lot of talk about Gonzaga being on the bubble, and possibly not even making it in to the NCAA tournament. But it looks like they’ve pulled things together, have been on kind of a tear, and are in as a lower seed.
I actually think this is good. In past years, they’ve been a top seed, which put a lot of pressure on them. The combination of them being a lower seed (less pressure) and having some momentum going makes me think this could be their year to Go. All. The. Way.
We shall see.
Firings watch.
Friday, March 15th, 2024There’s been a lot of activity over the past two days. I guess the period between the end of the tournaments and Selection Sunday is the NCAA basketball equivalent of the NFL’s “Bloody Monday”.
Why don’t we get to it? In violation of my general rules, I’m using ESPN links mostly because I just don’t have time to go through the local papers.
Juwan Howard out today at Michigan. 8-24 this season (3-17 in conference), and an overall record in five years of 87-72.
Jerry Stackhouse fired yesterday at Vanderbilt, also after five seasons. 9-23 this season (4-14 in conference).
Jerod Haase out on Thursday at Stanford. 14-18 this season (8-12 in conference) and 126-127 overall in eight seasons.
Mike Boynton out at Oklahoma State after seven seasons. 12-20 this season (4-14 in conference).
I think that covers all the firings. If I’ve missed any, please leave me a heads-up in comments.
Firings watch.
Wednesday, March 13th, 2024Kenny Payne out as head coach of men’s baskeball at Louisville. ESPN for the archive challenged.
12-52 in two seasons, with one road win. 8-24 this season, 3-17 in conference.
Firings watch.
Monday, March 11th, 2024Roberto D’Aversa has been fired as manager of Lecce. Lecce is a team in the Italian Serie A soccer league.
This is not ordinarily something I would take notice of, but the reason for his firing is interesting:
Hellas Verona was the opposing team, and is in 13th place in Serie A. Lecce is in 15th place.
That old devil is at it again…
Monday, March 4th, 2024More tags that I do not get to use often enough.
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024Even better, this is sort of a Texas story.
For decades, countless articles and videos using similar verbiage have boasted of their creators gaining unprecedented access to sumo. What follows is inevitably a mishmash of cliche, misinformation, outdated statistics and the all-too-common confusing of amateur sumo with professional.
The reality is that ōzumo, for all its pageantry and uniqueness, is actually one of the most open and accessible top-level professional sports in the world, particularly for amateur athletes from overseas.
Summary: guy up in Dallas runs a sumo club, club holds first tournament successfully, everyone celebrates and places long distance call. Lots of great stories start out this way.
It happened.
And one thing led to another.
Emboldened by that positive experience, and their growing friendship with Gagamaru, Morrison and Sauer decided to make a sumo-centric visit to Tokyo this month to coincide with the retirement ceremony of another Georgian rikishi — Tochinoshin.
With little more than a “why not” attitude and a handful of social media connections, the Texan managed to have a deeper and more all-encompassing sumo experience over the course of two weeks than most do in a lifetime.
Morrison also took advantage of former Texan rikishi Wakaichiro’s coincidental visit to the capital by tagging along to watch training at Ikazuchi stable. Morrison was delighted when the stablemaster — who had extensive experience in amateur and international sumo — agreed to let him join practice.
“I barely even have time to stretch and, before I know it, my first bout is against Ikazuchido, who I’ve rooted for on TV and I’m like ‘what the hell is happening.’ It was surreal.
…
The whole story reminds me of “Genghis Blues“, except with sumo instead of Tuvan throat singing. Brings a smile to my face, it does.
Obit watch: February 28, 2024.
Wednesday, February 28th, 2024Ole Anderson, one of the Four Horsemen.
That’s the Four Horsemen of professional wrestling.
Through the 1970s and early 1980s, he was a member of the tag team known as the Minnesota Wrecking Crew, which over the years included Gene, Lars and Arn Anderson, who called themselves brothers and were popular around the Midwest. They were part of regional circuits like Mid-Atlantic Championship Wrestling and Georgia Championship Wrestling that were united under the National Wrestling Alliance, which regularly crowned them tag-team champions.
In the 1980s, Mr. Anderson teamed up with Arn Anderson, Ric Flair and Tully Blanchard to become the Four Horsemen, who went on to dominate the N.W.A. and later World Championship Wrestling, which competed with the W.W.F.
…
…
Brian Stableford, noted author, passed away a few days ago. I don’t have a direct obit I can link, but Michael Swanwick posted a nice tribute to him on his blog.
Obit watch: February 26, 2024.
Monday, February 26th, 2024I was running pretty much flat out from mid-Friday afternoon until late Sunday night, so this is the first chance I’ve had to post anything. But: the NYT finally ran an obit for Chuck Mawhinney. (Previously.)
After graduating from high school in 1967, Chuck wanted to become a Navy pilot. But a Marine Corps recruiter won him over by promising that he could delay his enlistment by four months, until the end of deer season.
The Marines had not had dedicated snipers since World War II, but by 1967 the corps had changed its mind. Mr. Mawhinney was among the first to complete the new Scout Sniper School at Camp Pendleton, a Marine Corps installation in Southern California. He graduated at the top of his class.
Lawrence sent over an obit for Golden Richards, former Dallas Cowboy receiver.
José DeLeón, pitcher.
Jackie Loughery, actress (and Jack Webb’s third wife). Other credits include OG “Perry Mason”, “Surfside 6”, and “Marcus Welby, M.D.”.
Charles Dierkop, actor.
Other credits include “Matt Houston”, “Bearcats!” and…two episodes of “Mannix” (“A Penny for the Peep Show”, season 3, episode 6. “Desert Run”, season 7, episode 6).
Eddie Driscoll, actor. IMDB.
Chris Gauthier, actor. Fair number of genre credits, including “Supernatural”, “Watchmen”, and the “Earthsea” mini series.
Kenneth Mitchell, actor. Other credits include “NCIS”, “CSI: Cyber”, and “Detroit 1-8-7”.
Obit watch: February 22, 2024.
Thursday, February 22nd, 2024The paper of record finally got around to publishing an obit for Niklaus Wirth.
Ewen MacIntosh, British actor. IMDB.
Lefty Driesell, noted college basketball coach.
Robert Reid, one of the great Houston Rockets.
Lawrence sent over two obits:
Paul D’Amato, actor. IMDB.
Steve Miller, SF author.
Net loss.
Monday, February 19th, 2024Jacque Vaughn out as coach of the Brooklyn Nets.
The team is 21-33 this season, and lost their last game before the break to Boston by 50 points. Vaughn was 71-68 in “two plus” seasons, and 0-8 in the playoffs.
In not exactly firings related news that I don’t have another place to put, I didn’t pay a darn bit of attention to the All Star game, but I did read the stories this morning.
The Eastern Conference won, 211-186. Yes, one team scored over 200 points. Yes, Adam Silver is peeved.
And the players still aren’t taking it seriously.
Instead, it was another game with virtually no defense and with little to no life inside the building — to the point that the Los Angeles Lakers’ Anthony Davis said his most memorable moment was when the hype teams from the Chicago Bulls and Indiana Pacers went through their dunk routines between the third and fourth quarters.
“I think the best [moment], we were talking about it, was the Bulls and the Pacers dunkers,” Davis said. “With the trampoline? They were very, very impressive.”
…
Then there was Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, who admitted he wasn’t interested in playing all that hard in an All-Star Game, period.
“For me, it’s an All-Star Game, so I will never look at it as being super competitive,” he said. “It’s always fun. I don’t know what they can do to make it more competitive. I don’t know. I think everyone looks at it … it’s a break, so I don’t think everyone wants to come here and compete.
I actually have a three part proposal for improving the All Star game:
1. Eliminate the All Star Game.
2. Shut down the NBA.
3. Profit.
Alternative proposal: no rules, no penalties, no substitutions, and the teams play until only one man is left standing.
Quick loser update: February 16, 2024.
Friday, February 16th, 2024It looks like the NBA All-Star break is upon us.
How are the Detroit Pistons doing?
Well, at the break, they are 8-46, for a .148 winning percentage. The Washington Wizards are 9-45, for a .167 winning percentage.
Projecting this out, and assuming things remain the same, the Pistons will win about 12 games, and the Wizards 13.7 games.
That’s not good, but is it historically bad?
Actually, maybe, yes.
I had a hard time finding a list of worst NBA teams. You’d think that would be a Wikipedia page, but no. ESPN has one, but it hasn’t been updated recently.
I finally found this page (from December of last year).
The 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks and 2004-05 Atlanta Hawks both went 13-69, and are #9 and #8 on the list. The Wizards could fit comfortably in there.
The 2009-10 New Jersey Nets and 1986-87 Los Angeles Clippers all went 12-70, and are #7 and #6 on the list. Detroit could fit comfortably in there.
If I’m off by one (or two) in my projections, they could match the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets (11-71, #5) and the 1992-93 Dallas Mavericks (11-71, #4). I can’t see either team reaching the heights of the 2015-16 Philadelphia 76ers (10-72, #3) or the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers (9-73, #2, and the team I think most people agree is the worst ever).
#1 on the list is the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats, with a winning percentage of .106. However, there was a lockout that season, and they only played 66 games. As a personal rule, I generally do not take into account strike (or lockout) shortened seasons when I’m looking at this stuff.