The Cowboys' Draft.

I still haven't watched the majority of the Draft.  I will, but wanted to go ahead and post some thoughts.

Here's the deal.  From everything I've heard, the Cowboys' scouting department loved Shariff Floyd.  He fell to them at 18.  A good organization snaps him up.  If you instead get bowled over by an offer (like SF at 31 and their 2014 R1 pick), you do it.  If, however, you get a ho-hum offer, you turn it down and take the player.  The draft pick value chart is not hard and fast, but it agrees with me in this case that you didn't get value.  Then, at 31, you pick a player you could have picked later, again giving up value.  If you constantly spend your $1 on someone with an $.80 value, eventually you can't make that up, no matter how well your scouting department does.  If your scouting department ALSO struggles (and/or you ignore their advice), you're in too deep of a hole to recover.

We've all seen the Mel Kiper criticisms.  But, what he lacks in an eye for talent (he seems to just filter information instead of making his own judgments, although he does this incredibly well), he makes up for by understanding how to work a draft.  If you can get the Honey Badger in the 3rd round, you CAN'T take him in the 1st, no matter how much you love him, Jon Gruden.  It doesn't matter how good he is, because now you're using your 3rd round pick on someone other than him instead of your 1st round pick on someone other than him.

NBA Playoffs

I think the Lakers can beat the Spurs, but won't.  I think the Spurs can beat the Heat, but won't have the chance.  I think the Pacers have the best chance of beating the Heat.  But, realistically, I think the Heat are about a 9-1 favorite to win it all.  Just sayin'.

Crown Rule

The NFL passed a new rule today.  You're not allowed to lower your head to hit someone with the top of your head.  This rule makes no fucking difference, yet Emmitt Smith, Matt Forte, and others seem to be making a big deal about it.  I don't like the pussification of football either, but nobody does/should use the top of their fucking head anyways.  Fucking dumb.

Close

We're close to a playoff spot.  Good win tonight in ATL.  This team is currently about the 6th best in the West, and a top 10 team overall.  So, anyone that says they suck is wrong, in my humble opinion.

Mike James couldn't get a job in the NBA and is now starting for us.  Delonte can't get a job in the NBA and would be starting for us if he hadn't had problems.

There is a finer line in the NBA than you may think.

I want Dwight.  I don't want Dwight.  We need Dwight.  Ugh.  Why couldn't we have re-signed Tyson?

Mavs

Another frustrating loss today.  OKC wins by 6, but it was close throughout.  Dirk didn't get a single shot in the 4Q.  We got out-rebounded and out-free-throwed (despite going 16/16).  The intensity was good.  Having Matrix there would have been nice.  This team is not as far as people think.  Charles Barkley said even with Dwight, we wouldn't be top 3 in the West.  That's silly.  If the plan had worked, and we had Deron and Dwight, we'd be the best in the West.  Unfortunately, I don't see that kind of upgrade coming down the pipe.  So, we have to get next year's Lillard in the draft (not likely).  Very frustrating.

KD and Westbrook are both amazing.

The whole reason I made the trip to SA was to see Tim Duncan, and it was worth it.  He played fantastically.  And, as always, he made it look easy.  He's not as graceful as he once was, but he's still awesome.

Seeing Kobe, Dirk, Duncan, KD, and Westbrook and their ability to do these incredible things makes me glad to be a basketball fan.  And, to be honest, makes me happy to be an NBA fan.

San Antonio

I drove down to SA and back to watch the Mavs on Thursday.  Traffic in Austin at 2:30pm and 11:30pm was dumb.  Losing by 1 was dumb.  But, I'm glad I went.  Mavs win over Cleveland on Friday was pretty cool.  OKC today is pretty important.  I still can't see us making the playoffs, but it should be fun to watch.

I was thinking last night that the tourney was going to come down to KU, Duke, IU, and maybe L'ville.  Then, I see that those are four of the top five seeds according to projections.  Awesome.  Looks like I'll be going chalk.

Played live poker again Friday night.  Won $21.  I'm the man.

The picture that currently resides on the top of this page is from my wedding day.  We celebrated our 2nd anniversary this weekend.  I'm a lucky dude.

Update

I knew it had been a long time, but I didn't know it had been over a month.

The Mavericks are 30-33 and playing well.  They've got 19 games left.  I think it will be difficult but doable to go 11-8 and end the season at .500.  In some years, that'll get you in the playoffs.  But, realistically, this year, they probably need to get to 45 wins which means 15-4 down the stretch, which I can't see happening.  Sucks.  I'm an NBA nut, so I'm enthralled either way.  Cutting DJ was an interesting move.  In the summer league last year, he was definitely the focus.  I think he was a problem behind the scenes, and you can't be that if you're not a star on the court.  

Free agency began in the NFL today.  I've got plenty of thoughts, but will be most interested to see where Welker ends up.  Maybe, as I start to look at the draft I'll do some sort of post about free agency. 

I have thoughts like that all the time - maybe I'll do suchandsuch post.  It happened constantly at the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston March 1 and 2.  It was my second Sloan.  It's a meeting of sports dorks, mostly kids going for MBAs and people already in the industry.  It's not really for fanboys like me, but I enjoy it.  

I got to play live poker Saturday and yesterday, which is a rarity.  I won the home game I play monthly on Saturday, which was nice.  I played well, ran better, and won.  It felt really good.  I went up to Winstar and played yesterday.  I made 165 playing 1/2 waiting for the tourney.  As expected, the tourney did not have a good structure, but at 100+15, it's still good value.  The same guy beat me three times (KJ > AK aipf, 77 limps my A5 bb gets in on an AT9 flop hits a 7, then KJ > A9 to knock me out) to send me out in 8th when 6 of the 59 runners got paid.  Frustrating, but it was nice to play some.  

Tiger won this weekend.  Masters is coming in April.  Also, the draft is in April.  NBA playoffs.  French Open at the end of the month.  March Madness starts next week.  Lots on the sports calendar.

More coming soon.

Live!

I am not sure what it is about an event being live, but when I watch something that is over, I am not as interested as when I watch it live.  There are obvious exceptions to this.  Generally, however, it's true.  I watched much of the L'ville/ND bball game the other night while flipping channels.  When the Mavs game ended, though, and L'ville was up 7 with about six minutes left, I made the decision to start watching my UNLV Rebels take on UNM, which I was recording.  I did not watch it with nearly as much attention as I would have if it was live.  I did not know the outcome (it was actually not over when I started it), yet simply knowing that what I was watching was not "live" made a difference.  Then, when I found out L'ville/ND went to 5OT, I recorded the replay to watch what I missed, but it was unwatchable.  I just didn't care.  It's an interesting phenomenon - at least it's interesting to me.

Yep.

My break has stretched from one week to two on here.  As I've mentioned before, it's very easy for me to ignore this.  That said, Chris Paul and Billups are about to play in Miami, so I'm gonna watch that.

The only really blog worthy item from the last couple of weeks (besides my Mavs and the Super Bowl, of course) is that I went to the Tech recruiting recap the other night.  Spike Dykes and Kliff Kingsbury talked.  It was nice.  But, the overwhelming feeling I experienced was not good.  It should have been, but it wasn't.  It was the same feeling I had when I went back to Berkner a few months ago.  I haven't achieved the level of success I assumed I would when I was young, and revisiting that isn't comfortable for me.

Ok, before I get too far into a pity party, I'm going to go watch this game and then start my busy Saturday (running???, working, and playing poker).  I'll try to post the gold later.

Break

I'm sure all of my readers will miss my content in this, the week leading up to the Super Bowl.  But, I'm taking off of betting, posting on facebook and twitter, and posting here this week.  I'm just going to work, work out, and watch basketball for fun.  See you next week after the big game.

Spurs/Mavs

I know it is after the fact that you're reading this.  I'm probably dead, and somehow someone has dug up my initial efforts at writing to try to understand how I became the eloquent sage the world knows.

That said, I'm going to do this anyways.  I'm not at the Spurs/Mavs game tonight, so I'm going to "live" blog it.  It will lead to a rambling, long post.  That's just what I feel like doing.

The easiest way to do this would be to interview myself, but that always feels wrong to do to me.  The second easiest way would be a slightly edited stream of consciousness.  I'm going to go with that.  Surprise.

I like the AT&T guy sitting in a suit talking to kids about how fast their service is.  He's straight face sarcastic, and that always gets me, even though there's no way those kids get it.  I remember Steven Wright being a fucking revelation.

I'm not at the game tonight, because I sold my ticket.  My plan was to buy a better seat for tonight.  I thought it would be cool to see Pop coach up close and see Tim Duncan for maybe the last time.  Luckily, I hadn't bought my ticket yet when they both sat out the other day and then announced they weren't making the trip tonight.  So, I'm home.

Darren Collison is a good NBA point guard.  But, he's not Jason Kidd and JJ Barea combined, which is what this team needs.  Actually, I think I'd rather have JJ Barea (not quite as quick, but better vision/body control).  I mentioned the other day on twitter that the Rockets looked better on paper than in person, because they have guards and centers, which most teams need.  It's like OL in football.  There are numerous really good PG in the league right now, but most teams are looking for one.  And, biased as I am, I think you need a good center and most teams are looking for one of those as well (even the Lakers, although they theoretically have two of the best).

Dirk just threw his mic off.  I love it.  It's Spurs 3-0 after almost three minutes.  I don't love it.  Tony Parker is acting like he's badly injured.  I don't love it.  It does look like he got hit in the eye.  I love it.

Jeff Van Gundy is by far my favorite basketball announcer.  And, I'm glad he's back with Breen tonight.  I like that pairing.  JVG will probably get back into coaching at some point, but I think he will be missed calling games.  I suppose it's more and more likely he'll stay with ESPN.

Dallas had four days of rest going into this game, and they still look slow.  I wonder how much Carlisle worked them this week.  I've heard reports that he's been grumpier than usual this year, dealing with OJ and Collison.  I can understand, but he's got to inspire, too.  I wonder if another coach could have gotten more out of Roddy and DJ.  I think Carlisle is an amazing coach, but he seems to do better with veterans.  Specifically, getting veterans to buy in and exceed expectations on both ends.  In hockey, I've heard it called "jump," and the Spurs definitely have it early.  15-8 Spurs seven minutes in.

I think if a jump-shooter initiates contact, no foul should be called.  You don't have to call an offensive foul and slow down the game, but don't reward him for jumping into a defender.

Bennett Salvatore is calling this game tonight.  Fuck me.

The good guys are down 27-20 after the first quarter.  It could be worse.

What do you think the odds are that the league would "let" the Mavs get the first pick?  Would never happen, right?  Damn, looking at draftexpress, I don't really see anyone that would be great, anyways, so maybe they will just to say they did.  The list of names also tells me I need to follow more college basketball.  The two most common names are from Findlay Prep and Bishop Gorman, so I guess that doesn't even count.  ps I miss Vegas.

I've written before about DeJuan Blair (and Kenneth Faried).  If there's a player who was mentioned for player of the year in college and rebounds like a beast, don't let them slip by you in the draft.

I have trouble watching games without constantly thinking about points/minute and o/u pace, which is dumb and has little bearing on anything.

The Spurs are pulling further and further away.  This sucks.  The announcers at the half and now the announcers in the game are talking about how Dallas shouldn't be trying to get up to the 8 seed.  Time to fast forward through this action.

Don Knobler.

They just showed the banner.  So, that's nice.

Ok, I'm done.  Time to get some rest.

Stars

I have watched at least part of all three Stars games so far.  It's kinda fun to be 2-1 and already into the season a bit, but I've found myself not really watching the games.

A year ago, I heard at a technology conference that young people have gotten used to processing multiple streams of information simultaneously.  This is good news for people who advocate multi-tasking.  Many adults, though, often wish the young people could focus on one thing and use 100% on what THEY think is important, instead of the 20% they are getting.  The interesting part was this largely isn't possible.  It's like having five small channels, and you can receive info through all five.  Or, you can receive info from one to four, but you can't dedicate more than one channel to the same information.  You've got five small channels, NOT one large channel that you can choose to dedicate in various ways.  That sucks.

This is how I feel when watching sports now.  At the Mavs games, I'm watching, listening to the broadcast, and constantly checking twitter and reading articles on my phone.  I feel very productive.  I'm constantly on the computer and my phone, and flipping channels while watching at home.  

This is my dilemma.  A decade ago, I watched soccer and hockey and did nothing else.  Now, although I think these sports need my attention, I feel unable to give it.  I want to watch the development of plays and feel the building tension that a goal pays off, but instead I relieve that tension by somewhat tuning out.

It's possible that putting these words into my computer will lead to changing my behavior, but it doesn't feel that way.  We'll see.

Stupid Harbaughs

I generally like the way both brothers coach the game, but I'm not happy they both made the Super Bowl this year.  Maybe I should be.

In other news, I went down to Austin for the KU/UT bball game on Saturday.   I usually go down there once a year to catch a game.  I would love to see more live basketball, traveling around.  UT played better than I expected, but their youth and lack of depth were evident throughout.  KU played worse than I expected, but McLemore is for real.  I think.  He impressed me, but he also got lost at times.  I am looking forward to seeing him more.  I bet on UT and against KU last night and tonight based on the game, and split.

I played dealer's choice poker that night.  I love poker, but sometimes people play games called poker with rules that make it NOT poker.  I would love to be able to play more real poker, traveling around.

I have seen basically any of the Australian Open.  I miss it.  I would love to be able to watch it more.

I'm glad the Mavs got a few days off.  I think practice and time off will do them good.  I'm excited about Friday's game.  Also, I think there's a decent chance it'll be my last time to be able to see Tim Duncan, one of my favorite players ever, live.  I'm thinking of trading in my ticket and trying to get close to the Spurs' bench.  We'll see.

Harden

James Harden is very quick.  He has amazing body control.  He is young.  He plays decent defense, finishes well, and can shoot.  But, whenever I get to see him play, especially in person, I'm left with the overwhelming sense that he's a bitch.  He flops, he complains, and he walks funny.  His beard seems to be a bit.  It's unfortunate, because with Lin and Motiejunas, I'm predisposed to cheer for this team (when they're not playing my Mavs).

There are lots of players that flop and complain.  Dirk.  Tim Duncan.  Yet, I love the poop out of those guys.  I guess it's a double standard, but I just would never call them a bitch like I would Harden.  Lin is actually a fairly similar player, and I fucking love him.

Whatever.

It was a good win last night.  Four in a row is nice.  Mike James seems to fit in and Darren Collison is playing better.  I'm afraid, however, that tomorrow night against the Thunder is going to be bad.  They are playing really well as well.  We'll see.

The other note from last night is Royce White.  I got to see him play in Ames last year during my Thanksgiving Break.  I got to see him out in Vegas during the Summer League.  He's good.  But, my god, his twitter is amazing.  He is constantly retweeting his haters with a #BeWell added on for good measure.  I think mental health is a topic that needs to be addressed more often and openly.  I also think, though, that he's going to look back on this time with some regret.  We'll see.

UNLV won.  Manti Te'o is dumb or evil.  Lance is not a story.

William James

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude."

Walking down B Hall to my locker, contemplating this quote.  It's a fairly vivid memory eighteen years later.  I've seen other quotes, heard revelations in classes, seen movies, and read articles that have added to it over the years, but those moments in B Hall still stand out.  Whenever you say something is the greatest or the worst, you're probably wrong.  Still, the weight of the truth behind this statement still hits me.

My current problems seem to radiate from a place of not doing the work to alter my attitude(s) about certain things.  I tend to find the low ground on a topic and let my viewpoint settle there.

Hmmm.  I hesitate even now to really tackle an issue.  This is a blog about "sports, poker, and a little bit of craziness."*  It's not a place to ruminate on my own issues.  At the same time, I think there's power in writing and power in putting things 'out there' as they say.

Ok, let me relate this back to poker.  Maybe it'll work out AND be on topic.  I hate running bad, and it always seems to happen when it matters most.  Despite putting a happy face on it and talking up how lucky I am, my true belief is that I am running well below expectation in my poker career.  I have run all the numbers, thought about theory, and play well enough - so why don't I make more money?  Why do idiots always hit?  How can I alter my attitude as a means to an end?  haha- That's awesome.  I'm already laughing at myself.  This is easy.  When I am running good, I tend to believe it's the way things will always go and is a reward for all my work.  When I am running bad, I tend to believe the idiots always hit - which is obviously dumb.  If I take both as an opportunity to really evaluate my play, and that of others, I'll be in position to appreciate the EV.  I have studied the game, but rarely do I break down hands any more.  I'll chime in when other people do, but I've gotten lazy.  There's a good future in there if I take this opportunity.  Thanks, William James.

*This is the tagline that my good friend and my amazing cohost helped me come up with for thejimshow on Big Stack Radio.  I often miss doing a podcast.

NFL Playoffs

I was wrong on both games today.  I keep underestimating the Ravens.  And, wow, I knew the Packers were vulnerable, but the 49ers looked great.  It's good to see Crabtree finally starting to be a good WR in the league.  I love Aaron Rodgers and Michael Crabtree.  I really, really hope the Patriots win tomorrow.  I kinda hope the Falcons win.

Fucking shit, the NHL is dumb.

I want to watch the entire Australian Open.  It's one of the benefits of not having to work.  Oh, wait.  I don't think my boss will be down with that.  Fuck.

I'm going to write a book, and I can't even write a decent blog entry.  This should go well.

Baseball Hall Of Fame

At some point in the player's career, could you have said (with a straight face) that he was the best player in the game?  If so, he should be in.

Bonds?  Clearly, yes.

Clemens?  Yes.

Pete Rose?  Yes.

All this moral bullshit is bullshit.  I don't understand what's so hard, unless someone in charge of the HOF has decided it's in the Hall's best interest to be controversial.  The baseball writers have turned it into the Jerry Springer show in trying to protect its integrity.

In other news, I know I should be cheering for the Mavs to lose every game, but it's not in me.  I want them to figure it out and play beautifully.

Brian Kelly is not leaving Notre Dame.  I would bet a lot of money on that.  Obviously, I've bet money and been wrong before (and I'm biased here), but I just cannot see it happening.

Notre Dame

"We" lost the national championship.  Badly.  It sucked.  A lot.

Moving forward, I think we're on the right track.  I don't follow recruiting, but I've heard good things.  I think Brian Kelly is improving as a coach.  We'll see.

The toughest part of getting blown out last night was knowing I was going to have to see all the dumb shit people say in the age of Hot Sports Opinions.  Florida got beaten up by Louisville.  You would have rather seen them in the BCS game?  Yes, Alabama was significantly better than Notre Dame last night, but I think they would have been significantly better than anyone last night.  A&M maybe could have competed.  Maybe Oregon.  But, I doubt it.  Saban is amazing.

In other news, I love "The Biggest Loser."  It's a stupid show, but I love it.

NHL is coming back.

I feel like there might be some momentum. I hope so. And, I hope the Stars do well, although I admittedly don't have a sense of how they stack up this year. I know many people will advocate not supporting the product as a means to stick it to the man for not caring about us, but I will be at the AAC and watching for sure.

 Dwight Howard is a great fit here. There are now "reports" that he and Kobe got into it last week. We'll see. I do like Dirk speaking out about the failure the Mavs have been in rebuilding since letting Tyson walk.

 Anyone know about the Genie from directv?

 I'm cautiously optimistic about the BCS game being a good one tonight. Go Irish!

Got the paragraph breaks back.   smrt

Formatting

I can't seem to get paragraph breaks now. That's cool.

Mavs lose in OT - again.

7 out of 34 games have gone to OT this year. The Mavs have lost all 7. They have a 10 game (NBA record tying) OT losing streak. There were some good things about tonight's game, but the end result was frustration. At some point, you have to start thinking about the best way to get pieces going forward. Young pieces. I need to get to a Frisco game to see Cunningham.

 The Hornets - Monty Williams had impressed me in the past, but I don't understand why he didn't play Anthony Davis more tonight. I don't understand their offense right now. I don't know. Most of the good was with CP3, so maybe it was a mirage and they need to move on. With Vasquez, Davis, and Gordon, they could be good.

 The Mavs - I tweeted during the game that it's nice to see flashes of greatness like we did from Brand in the 2Q. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem like this old team can line up their flashes. The Knicks game the night before Thanksgiving is still the best I've seen them play. Dirk missing a FT at the end of regulation was a dagger. Collison has been disappointing, but he's clearly the starter - Roddy is not a PG in this league. It'll be interesting to see if Collison can get some chemistry with Dirk and pick up his defense so that he will be back next year. At this point, I doubt it.

 NFL - I was lucky enough to win both games today. I'm on the Colts and Seahawks tomorrow, so the Ravens and Redskins are probably locks. You're welcome.

 I went in to work for a bit after the game tonight. I have a shitload to do tomorrow. Christmas and New Year's was nice, but it's back to the grind.

2013

I just spent a week hanging out with my parents. We didn't really do much, but it was awesome. Saw three movies, played a ton of games, ate lots of good food, hung out, watched football and the Celtics, and even helped out around the house a bit (a very little bit). The downside of spending a week just enjoying the company of my wife and parents is that I'm bummed about having to rejoin the "real world" now. I've got a Mavs game tonight, and school work to do before then. Schoolwork all day Sunday is likely, as well. Ok, enough complaining. Time to get some sleep and attack it when I wake up.

 Damn it, this is so incredibly uninteresting. This is the social media/blogging that people complain about. Let me link to a couple cool things...

 First, a list that I liked from Cracked; in fact, the first thing on the list is something that has stuck with me the last couple weeks and the reason I didn't just hit enter after the second paragraph above.

 http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-harsh-truths-that-will-make-you-better-person/

 And, second, my go-to when I need a laugh - Mitch Hedberg (click through to part 2 also).

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7auvTMm47uM

 Maybe I'll write some inane blabber about resolutions next. Nah, I'll probably just give some (hopefully valuable) opinions about Hornets/Mavs. See you soon.