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18/21 K-State Returns Home To Face Texas Wednesday
18/21 K-State Returns Home To Face Texas Wednesday
Jan. 29, 2013
Game Notes | Live Stats | Live Audio | ESPN3
Game 20
No. 18/21 Kansas State (15-4, 4-2 Big 12) vs. Texas (9-10, 1-5 Big 12)
Wednesday, January 30, 2013 * 7:05 p.m. CT
Manhattan, Kan. * Bramlage Coliseum (12,528)
Television: ESPN2 (ESPN3.com and WatchESPN app)
Bob Wischusen (play-by-play); Stephen Bardo (analyst)
National Radio: ESPN Radio
Dave Armstrong (play-by-play); Will Perdue (analyst)
Radio: K-State Sports Network
Wyatt Thompson (play-by-play); Stan Weber (analyst)
Satellite Radio: Sirius 96/XM 192 (home broadcast)
Live Stats: http://www.kstatesports.com/multimedia/ksu-gt-live-stats.html
Live Audio: http://www.k-statesports.com/allaccess (free)
Twitter Updates: twitter.com/kstate_gameday
vs. Big 12: K-State trails 440-451 (241-162 at home)
vs. Texas: K-State leads 13-10 (7-3 at home)
Last Meeting: Texas won 75-64 (2/11/2012 in Austin, Texas)
18/21 Kansas State (15-4, 4-2 Big 12)
Head coach: Bruce Weber (Wisconsin-Milwaukee `78)
School Record: 15-4 (1st season) * Career Record: 328-159 (15th season) * vs. Texas: 0-1
Texas (9-10, 1-5 Big 12)
Head coach: Rick Barnes (Lenoir-Rhyne `77)
School Record: 351-147 (15th season) * Career Record: 553-281 (26th season) * vs. K-State: 9-7
No. 18/21 Kansas State (15-4, 4-2 Big 12) will look to snap a two-game losing streak on Wednesday night, as the Wildcats play host to Texas (9-10, 1-5 Big 12) at Bramlage Coliseum at 7 p.m. The game will be the first of two nationally televised contests on ESPN2 this week with Bob Wischusen (play-by-play) and Stephen Bardo (analyst) on the call. K-State will look to keep pace in the Big 12 title race, as the squad is in a third-place tie with Iowa State and Oklahoma with a 4-2 record, just two games behind conference leader Kansas (18-1, 7-0 Big 12) and one game back of Baylor (14-5, 5-1 Big 12). The Wildcats, which won a season-best eight in a row prior to its two-game skid, will look to get back to their winning ways at home, in which, a 12-game home winning streak and perfect 11-0 mark at Bramlage Coliseum was ended in last week's 59-55 setback to current No. 1 Kansas. The squad is 99-18 (.846) at home over the past seven seasons (2006-07), including a 35-14 (.714) mark in Big 12 play. Wednesday's contest will match two of the better defensive teams in the Big 12, as K-State ranks first in the league in scoring defense (58.2 ppg.) and turnover margin (+2.3) and second in 3-point field goal percentage defense (29.3), while Texas is first in 3-point field goal percentage defense (25.1) and second in both field goal percentage defense (35.3) and rebounding (39.0). The Wildcats are 14-1 this season when scoring 65 or more points, including 10-0 at home, but just 1-3 when being held to 59 points or less.
K-State remained ranked in both major polls, falling to seven spots in The Associated Press Top 25 poll to No. 18 and dropping eight spots in the USA Today Coaches poll to No. 21 on Monday. It marks the sixth straight week that the Wildcats have been ranked in the AP poll, while last week's No. 11 ranking was the highest in the AP poll since also placing 11th on Dec. 20, 2010. The program has now been ranked in the AP poll at least one week in each of the last four seasons, a feat which has not happened since doing it six consecutive seasons from 1972-78. K-State has a 244-93 (.724) all-time record as a ranked team.
Texas (9-10, 1-5 Big 12) snapped a five-game losing streak on Saturday, as the Longhorns knocked off Texas Tech, 73-57, at home. The squad, which is without All-American candidate Myck Kabongo until Feb. 13, is one of the youngest in the country with three true freshmen and two sophomore in the starting line-up. Texas, which is 0-4 on the road this season, has played one of the nation's toughest schedules with games against Georgetown, Michigan State, North Carolina and UCLA. Six of its 10 losses this season (including four of its five in Big 12 play) have come by 10 points or less, including overtime setbacks to Baylor and West Virginia. The Longhorns are averaging 64.4 points on 40.9 percent shooting, including 30 percent from 3-point range, while holding opponents to 61.9 points on 35.3 percent shooting, including 25.1 percent from beyond the arc. A balanced squad with five players averaging seven or more points and seven averaging at least three rebounds, Texas is led by the one-two scoring punch of sophomores Sheldon McClelland (14.8 ppg.) and Julien Lewis (11.8 ppg.). Freshman Javan Felix has a Big 12-best 5.9 assists per game average to go with 8.4 points per outing, while sophomore Jonathan Holmes is tops in rebounds at 7.1 per game to go with 7.7 points per contest. Head coach Rick Barnes has won over 553 games in his 26-year head coach career, which includes a 351-147 mark in 15 seasons at Texas. He is 9-7 all-time against K-State, including a 3-4 mark at Bramlage Coliseum.
J'Covan Brown led four Longhorns in double figures with a game-high 23 points, as Texas split the season series with Kansas State, 75-64, in the team's last meeting on Feb. 11, 2012 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin, Texas. The Wildcats won an earlier meeting at Bramlage Coliseum by a score of 84-80 on Jan. 18, 2012 when Rodney McGruder posted a career-high 33 points on 11-of-17 field goals, including 4-of-6 from beyond the arc. In four career games against the Longhorns, McGruder is averaging 19.3 points on 56.3 percent shooting (27-of-48), including 52.9 percent (9-of-17) from 3-point range.
This will be the 24th meeting between K-State and Texas with the Wildcats holding a 13-10 advantage in a series that dates back to 1971. K-State won the first five games in the series with Texas posting a 10-8 edge since the start of Big 12 play. The Wildcats have won four of the last six meetings, including two straight in Manhattan. K-State is 7-3 at home in the series, including 5-3 in Bramlage Coliseum. Head coach Bruce Weber is 0-1 in his career against Texas, a 90-84 overtime loss on Nov. 18, 2010.
--Kansas State's 15-4 start ranks as the eighth-best start in school history and the best since the 2009-10 team produced a 16-3 start after 19 games. The 1957-58 and 1958-59 teams all posted the best start after 19 games (18-1), while the 1918-19, 1950-51 and 1961-62 squads were just one game back at 17-2 and the 1947-48 and 2009-10 teams were 16-3. The 4-2 start to Big 12 play ties for the second-best since the league's inception in 1997 and the best since the 2009-10 team also went 4-2. The Wildcats saw its season-best eight-game winning streak end at No. 3/2 Kansas on Jan. 22, which was the longest winning streak since the team won 10 in a row from Nov. 21, 2009 to Jan. 3, 2010. Three of the team's four losses are to Top 10 teams in No. 1/2 Michigan, No. 2/1 Kansas and No. 7/7 Gonzaga (all current rankings). The team faced three Top 15 teams (No. 4 Michigan, No. 14 Gonzaga and No. 8 Florida) in non-conference play for the first time in school history. K-State posted double-digit non-conference games for the seventh straight season, including its first regular-season Top 10 non-conference win (No. 8 Florida) since 1981.
--Bruce Weber's 15-4 record is the second-best start by a first-year K-State head coach in the program's 109-year history with only Zora Clevenger (15-2, 1916-17) posting a better mark. The best campaign by a first-year head coach in school history is still held by Clevenger, who led the Wildcats to a 15-2 (.882) mark in his inaugural season in 1916-17. The eight-game winning streak was the second-longest by a first-year head coach in school history and the longest since Clevenger's 1916-17 squad ended the year with 13 consecutive wins from Jan. 25 to March 6, 1917. Clevenger made most of his impact on the gridiron, where he was later inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame and was the founder of the East-West Shrine game.
--K-State is having a stellar start to the 2012-13 athletics season, as the Wildcats have one of the best records among BCS schools when combining football and men's and women's basketball. As of Monday, the school's 38 wins tie for 16th nationally and its .731 winning percentage (38-14) places 19th. K-State is one of 16 BCS schools (along with Baylor, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State) with 35+ combined wins among its three major sports. The football team produced its second regular-season 11-win season and advanced to a BCS game (Fiesta Bowl) for the first time in eight years, while the women's basketball team (12-8) has won two of its last three, including a 76-70 overtime win over No. 12/11 Oklahoma State. If you take into account the success of the volleyball team, which won 20 matches and advanced to NCAA Tournament, the Wildcats are 59-23 (.720) since August 24.
--Eleven of the 19 games have been at home (including a home game vs. No. 8/9 Florida in Kansas City's Sprint Center), where the Wildcats saw its 12-game overall winning streak (including 11-game streak at Bramlage Coliseum) end in a 59-55 loss to No. 3/2 Kansas on Jan. 22. The 11-game winning streak tied three other teams for the fourth-longest (Feb. 23, 2005 to Jan. 11, 2006; Dec. 9, 2007 to Feb. 25, 2008; March 4, 2008 to Jan. 10, 2009) in the arena's 25-year history, including the longest since K-State rattled off 14 consecutive wins (ties for the longest) from Jan. 15, 2011 to Jan. 7, 2012.
--K-State received its first national ranking of the season on Dec. 24, appearing at No. 25 in The Associated Press Top 25 with 152 points, and held its best ranking at No. 11 (with 927 points) on Jan. 21. The No. 11 ranking was the highest since also checking in at No. 11 on Dec. 20, 2010. The Wildcats dropped to No. 18 in the AP poll and No. 21 in the USA Today Coaches poll on Jan. 28, which marked the fourth straight week the team has been ranked in both polls. K-State has now been ranked in the AP poll at least one week in each of the last four seasons. The Wildcats have a 244-93 (.726) all-time record as a ranked team since first being ranked in 1949-50, including an 18-9 (.667) mark as the No. 18 team in The Associated Press poll.
--K-State ranks in the Top 50 in seven categories nationally, including 20th in scoring defense (58.2), 21st in assists (15.9), 26th in 3-point field goal percentage defense (29.3), 27th in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.31), 35th in offensive rebounds (14.2), 42nd in rebounding margin (+5.4) and 48th in scoring margin (10.2). Will Spradling (19th, 2.86) and Angel Rodriguez (38th, 2.44) rank among the Top 40 nationally in assist-to-turnover ratio (3.0). The Wildcats rank in the Top 5 in 18 of 21 Big 12 categories, including first in scoring defense, turnover margin, assist-to-turnover ratio and rebounding defense and second in assists, offensive rebounds and 3-point field goal percentage defense. In Big 12-only games, the squad ranks first in field goal percentage (45.6), assists (15.8), turnover margin (+2.2) and assist-to-turnover (1.5) and second in 3-point field goal percentage (37.5).
--K-State is 3-1 in true road games this season, winning contests at George Washington (65-62) on Dec. 8, West Virginia (65-64) on Jan. 12 and TCU (67-54) on Jan. 16 before the 73-67 loss at Iowa State on Jan. 26. The loss snapped the Wildcats' six-game winning streak in road games, including five-game streak in Big 12 play, which dated back to last season and was the longest since 2010. The Wildcats have improved their play on the road in the Big 12, posting a 26-25 record over the past seven seasons (which began in 2006-07) after winning just 10 of 80 road games in the league's first 10 years (1997-2006).
--The Wildcats have been one of the best first-half defensive teams, holding its 19 opponents to just 25.1 points on 38.1 percent shooting, including 28 percent from 3-point range. It has held four opponents to 20 points or less in the first half. In contrast, the squad is allowing 33.2 points in the second half on 42.5 percent shooting, including 30.5 percent from beyond the arc.
--The Jan. 19 meeting with Oklahoma marked the 10th time K-State has faced a former head coach (Tex Winter, Lon Kruger and Bob Huggins) with the Wildcats winning for just the third time (including the second time this season) in those occurrences. Prior to wins over West Virginia and Oklahoma, the last win over a former coach came in a 95-80 win over a Kruger-coached UNLV squad on Dec. 12, 2009. The team will play at least two more such games (at Oklahoma on Feb. 2 and West Virginia at home on Feb. 18) this season. K-State lost twice to Winter (Washington in 1971 and Long Beach State in 1978), while the Wildcats are now 3-4 against Kruger in his stops at Texas-Pan American (1986), Illinois (1999), UNLV (2009, 2010) and Oklahoma (2012, 2013) and 1-1 against Huggins at West Virginia (2011, 2013). Interestingly enough, the Wildcats are 6-0 against head coaches prior to them coming to K-State. The school went 1-0 against Winter at Marquette (1953), 3-0 against Jack Hartman at Southern Illinois (1964, 1968 and 1969), 1-0 against Kruger at Texas-Pan American (1986) and 1-0 against Huggins at Akron (1988).
--The 67-61 win over No. 8/9 Florida in the Hy-Vee Wildcat Classic on Dec. 22 was the first regular-season, non-conference Top 10 victory since knocking off No. 8 Minnesota at home, 62-52, on Dec. 21, 1981. Overall, it was just the 12th non-conference Top 10 win in school history (and the first since defeating No. 3 Purdue, 73-70, and then assistant coach Bruce Weber on March 25, 1988 in the NCAA Tournament), including the seventh in the regular season.
--K-State had a tremendous semester in the classroom, as the team had a cumulative 2.839 GPA (the highest in 12 years) during the Fall 2012 semester. A program-best eight players - Adrian Diaz, Rodney McGruder, Angel Rodriguez, Brian Rohleder, Ryan Schultz, Shane Southwell, Will Spradling and Nino Williams - were named to the Fall Big 12 Commissioner's Honor Roll on Jan. 9. Rohleder was one of 31 student-athletes to post a perfect 4.0 GPA during the semester.
K-State has proven to be a balanced team across the board with six players averaging five or more points, including just one in double figures, and six averaging three or more rebounds per game. Senior Rodney McGruder (15.3 ppg.) is the only Wildcat to average in double figures (ranks third in the Big 12 in scoring), while five others - Angel Rodriguez (9.4 ppg.), Will Spradling (8.5 ppg.), Shane Southwell (8.3 ppg.) and Thomas Gipson (6.8 ppg.) - are averaging better than six points per contest. The team has seen nine players collect 51 double-digit scoring games with McGruder (15) leading the way, while the squad has seven players with 35 or more field goals made with McGruder's 114 makes tops in the Big 12. Only Baylor and West Virginia (10) has more players with double-digit scoring efforts in the Big 12 (TCU also has nine different players with 10+ points), while K-State, Iowa State and West Virginia are the only league schools with seven players with 35 or more made field goals. In all, the Wildcats have had six players lead or share the lead in scoring led by McGruder (nine). Gipson (5.5 rpg.) paces the squad in rebounding despite leading in a game just four times, while McGruder (5.2 rpg.), Jordan Henriquez (4.6 rpg.) and Nino Williams (4.3 rpg.) are averaging better than four rebounds per game. The team has had eight players either lead or share the lead in rebounding with Gipson and McGruder leading four times and Henriquez, Southwell and Williams doing it three times each.
The Wildcats have also been diverse in other categories, including seven players with double-digit assists and double-digit steals. Rodriguez has dished out a team-best 83 assists (36 in Big 12 play) with six players either leading or sharing the lead in assists. Rodriguez also has a team-high 23 steals (13 in Big 12), while eight have either led or shared the lead in steals. Four players -- McGruder (32.3 mpg.), Spradling (30.8), Rodriguez (24.1) and Southwell (22.1) -- are averaging more than 20 minutes, while seven others are averaging 10+ minutes. Seven players have at least one start with McGruder and Spradling starting all 19.
K-State has continued to be one of the best defensive teams not only in the Big 12, but nationally, where the squad entered the week ranking 20th in scoring defense (58.2), 26th in 3-point field goal percentage defense (29.3) and 42nd in rebounding margin (+5.4). In all, the Wildcats rank either first or second in five Big 12 defensive categories, including first in scoring defense, turnover margin and rebounding defense, second in 3-point field goal percentage defense and third in rebounding margin.
The 1,106 points surrendered through the first 19 games are the fewest in the shot clock era (1985-86) and the fewest since the 1982-83 squad allowed just 1,055 points (55.5 ppg.) through the first 19 games. The team has held 14 of its 19 opponents to 65 points or less, including eight to 55 points or less, while seven have been held to under 40 percent shooting and four to under 20 percent shooting from 3-point range. The defensive effort was nearly historic in the 87-26 win over Alabama-Huntsville on Nov. 13, as the 26 points allowed were one shy of the Bramlage Coliseum record of 25 set against Savannah State on Jan. 7, 2008. The Chargers' 16.4 field goal percentage (9-of-55) was only surpassed by Savannah State's 15.5 percentage.
A trademark of Frank Martin-coached teams were their ability to score points off of opponent's mistakes and Bruce Weber has continued that legacy. The Wildcats are out-scoring their opponents, 305-211 (an average of 16.1 points per game), through the first 19 games in points off of turnovers. The squad has posted 10 or more points off of miscues in 16 of 19 games, including 20 or more points on four occasions, with a season-best 34 vs. Lamar on Nov. 12. The team scored 20 or more points in back-to-back games in wins against TCU and Oklahoma (out-scoring them 46-12). They are 12-1 when scoring more points off of turnovers. The Wildcats are out-scoring their opponents, 262-156 (an average of 17.5 points per game), in points off of turnovers in their 15 victories, while are being outscored 55-43 (an average of 10.8 points per game) in points off of turnovers in their four losses.
K-State is forcing its opponents into 14.5 turnovers per game (third-most in the Big 12), including a season-high 26 by Lamar, while turning the ball over an average of 12.2 times per game (lowest in the Big 12). The 1.3 assist-to-turnover ratio ranks 27th and first in the Big 12 with Will Spradling and Angel Rodriguez boasting the league's top-2 assist-to-turnover ratios with Spradling ranking 19th and Rodriguez 38th nationally. In Martin's five seasons, the Wildcats averaged 18.2 points per game off of turnovers. Nearly 25 percent of the points scored in that period came off of offense generated from miscues. The school has scored 500 or more points off of opponent turnovers in six straight seasons, including 577 (17.5 average per game) in 2011-12.
Rebounding had been a source of strength earlier in the season, but has now become a source of concern since the start of Big 12 play, where the Wildcats rank seventh in rebounding margin (-2.3), eighth in defensive rebounds (21.7), ninth in rebounds (30.3) and 10th in offensive rebounds (8.7). Since switching to a four-guard line-up 10 games ago, the squad is averaging 33.5 rebounds, including 10.5 offensive rebounds, with opponents posting 30.9 rebounds, including 10.0 offensive rebounds. In the team's first nine games, they averaged 42.6 rebounds, including 18.2 offensive rebounds, with its foes posting 34.1 rebounds, including 11.3 offensive rebounds. K-State out-scored its opponents, 153-99 (+54), in second chance points in its first nine games, but has since been out-scored 116-101 (-15) in second chance points in the last 10 games. However, since the change to the four-guard line-up, the team is shooting 45.4 percent from the field, including 35.5 percent from 3-point range, in the last 10 games compared to 40.8 percent, including 33.3 percent from beyond the arc, in the first nine contests.
K-State still boasts solid overall rebounding numbers, where it ranks second in offensive rebounds (14.2), third in rebounding margin (+5.4) and sixth in rebounds (37.8) in 19 games. Overall, the Wildcats have out-rebounded their foes by a 718-616 margin, including 269-202 on the offensive end. The squad is 14-0 this season when out-rebounding its opponent, but just 1-4 when it is out-rebounded. K-State has at least 10 offensive rebounds in 16 games with a season-high 29 against North Florida on Nov. 18. Sophomore Thomas Gipson (5.8 rpg.) ranks 17th in the Big 12 in rebounding, while he is fourth (2.7) in offensive rebounds. The team has collected 40+ rebounds in seven games, including a season-best 55 vs. UAH on Nov. 13.
Adding to the K-State's balanced attack is the production it's getting from its bench, where the Wildcats are averaging 21.4 points, including a 406-291 edge over foes. The team has collected at least 20 points from its bench in 10 games, including a season-high 45 points vs. North Dakota on Nov. 9. Reserves have scored nearly half of the team's points four times with Thomas Gipson tying for the scoring lead against North Dakota and Delaware and Shane Southwell leading the way with a career-best 16 points vs. Alabama-Huntsville. Nino Williams posted a career-high 17 points off the bench in the win over No. 22/21 Oklahoma State. The rebounding leader has come from the bench in eight games with D.J. Johnson posting a team-high vs. North Dakota (9) and Lamar (8), Southwell recording a career-high nine boards vs. UAH, Adrian Diaz grabbing a career-best 10 vs. North Florida, Gipson tying Will Spradling for the rebounding lead (6) vs. Delaware, Williams snagging seven boards vs. No. 8/9 Florida and Jordan Henriquez posting the team-high against West Virginia and TCU. Over 40 percent (298) of the team's rebounding total and nearly 35 percent (416) of the scoring total has come from the bench.
Although they have dropped the last two games by a combined 10 points, the Wildcats have been successful in close games this season, posting an 8-2 record in games decided by 10 points or less and a 5-2 mark in games decided by six points or less, including three of its four Big 12 wins. Junior Will Spradling, who went 10-of-10 in the last 35 seconds in wins over Delaware (66-63), George Washington (65-62) and Texas Southern (78-69), paces the team in both free throws (19) and free throw attempts (24) in the last five minutes of games. Sophomore Angel Rodriguez (11-of-14), senior Rodney McGruder (10-of-13), junior Shane Southwell (8-of-10) have all been solid in the last five minutes of games. In the 65-64 win over West Virginia on Jan. 12, Southwell knocked down two free throws in the last 21 seconds and also blocked the game-winning shot with one second left.
K-State is starting to find more of an offensive rhythm in Big 12 play, where the Wildcats rank first in field goal percentage (45.6) and second in both 3-point field goal percentage (37.5) and 3-point field goals made (8.0) after six Big 12 games. The squad has connected on 44 percent or better from the field in five of its six league games, including better than 50 percent against West Virginia and Iowa State, while the 149 field goal makes are the league's Top 4. The team has shot better than 35 percent from 3-point range in four leagues with nine or more 3-point makes in three contests. Rodney McGruder ranks first in Big 12 games in scoring (18.7 ppg.) and 3-point field goals made (3.2), while he is third in field goal percentage (50.6) and fifth in 3-point field goal percentage (44.2). Angel Rodriguez is tops in league-only games in both assists (6.0) and assist-to-turnover ratio (3.6). Shane Southwell is 12th in Big 12-only games in scoring (11.8 ppg.) and third in 3-point field goal percentage (48.0).
K-State has been solid protecting the ball this season, as the squad ranks first in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio (1.3) and turnover margin (+2.3). Thus far, the Wildcats have produced 12.2 turnovers per game (ties for lowest average in Big 12), while forcing its foes into an average of 14.5 turnovers (third-most in the Big 12). The team has 14 or fewer miscues in 13 games,while they have forced their foes into 19 or more turnovers four times, including a season-high 26 by Lamar on Nov. 12.
Seven Wildcats have posted an even or positive assist-to-turnover ratio this season, including its four primary ball-handlers (Angel Rodriguez, Martavious Irving, Shane Southwell and Will Spradling) combining for 224 assists to 94 turnovers (2.38 ratio). The current ratio for the quartet is a solid improvement after posting a 1.4 ratio (302 assists to 211 turnovers) as a group in 2011-12. Spradling (2.9) and Rodriguez (2.4) rank first and second, respectively, in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio, while Spradling places 19th and Rodriguez 38th nationally. Spradling, who has 60 assists to just 21 turnovers, led the team with a 1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio a season ago, while Rodriguez has made a notable improvement (83 assists to 34 turnovers) in the area after posting a 1.2 ratio (101 assists to 85 turnovers) as a freshman. Irving has also nearly doubled his ratio (2.5 from 1.5) with 43 assists to 17 turnovers, while Southwell has a solid 1.7 ratio (38 assists to 22 turnovers) after posting a 1.6 ratio last year.
McGRUDER AMONG ELITE COMPANY
Senior Rodney McGruder (1,319 points & 565 rebounds) became just the 11th player in K-State history to crack the 1,300-point plateau against Kansas on Jan. 22, while also passing Ed Nealy (1,304 points) into the school's all-time Top 10 scoring list. He is now one of just six players in school history with at least 1,300 points and 500 rebounds in a career, joining Rolando Blackman (1,844 points & 607 rebounds), Bob Boozer (1,685 points & 824 rebounds), Cartier Martin (1,546 points & 546 rebounds), Ed Nealy (1,304 points & 1,069 rebounds). He ranks in the Top 10 of 10 other career categories, including consecutive starts (86, 3rd), 3-point field goals (167, 5th), 3-point field goal percentage (38.9%, 6th), 3-point field goals attempted (429, 6th), minutes (3,150, 6th), games (119, 8th), starts (86, 8th), consecutive games (95, 8th), field goals (478, 9th) and double-digit scoring games (72, 9th). He ranks first in scoring in Big 12-only games (18.7 ppg.) and is third in overall scoring (15.3 ppg.), while he leads the team in scoring, field goals and double-digit scoring games. He ranks in the Top 20 in five Big 12 categories, including scoring (3rd), field goal percentage (4th), minutes (7th), 3-point field goals (9th) and 3-point field goal percentage (10th).
McGRUDER NAMED PHILLIPS 66 BIG 12 PLAYER OF THE WEEK FOR FOURTH TIME
Senior Rodney McGruder earned Phillips 66 Big 12 Player of the Week honors for the fourth time in seven weeks on Jan. 21 after helping K-State run its winning streak to eight games. McGruder's four Big 12 Player of the Week awards break his tie with Michael Beasley (three, 2007-08) for the most by a Wildcat in a single-season, while McGruder's five overall weekly awards are the most-ever by a K-State player in the Big 12 era. He first won the weekly honor as a junior on Dec. 26, 2011 then this season on Dec. 10 and 24, 2012 and again on Jan. 7. McGruder posted back-to-back 20-point outings for the first time this season, as he averaged a team-best 20.5 points on 55.6 percent shooting (15-of-27), including 46.7 percent (7-of-15) from 3-point range, with 3.0 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.0 steals in 36 minutes per game in wins over TCU and Oklahoma. He has now scored in double figures in 10 consecutive games with an average of 18.3 points per game. McGruder opened the week with a 21-point effort in a road win at TCU then followed with his fifth 20-point outing of the season in a win over Oklahoma. It was his 17th and 18th 20-point games of his career with the Wildcats posting an impressive 16-2 mark in those contests.
Junior Shane Southwell has made quite the jump in his productivity in year three, as he is averaging 8.3 points on 50 percent shooting, including 46.8 percent from 3-point range, with 3.9 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 22.1 minutes per game with 10 starts in 17 games played. That production has been even more of factor during the team's last 10 games (of which the team is 8-2), as he is averaging 9.7 points on 47.4 percent shooting, including 44.1 percent from 3-point range, with 4.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 26.7 minutes per game in 10 starts. Southwell had a huge game in the win against West Virginia on Jan. 12, as he knocked down two free throws in the last 21 seconds to give the Wildcats the lead then blocked the game-winning shot with just one second remaining. After a career-high 19 points against Kansas, he posted 11 points against Iowa State on Saturday to
give him double-digit points for the 10th time in his career (8 K-State wins), including the sixth time this season. He entered the 2012-13 campaign averaging just 2.5 points on 36.1 percent shooting, including 25 percent from 3-point range, with 2.1 rebounds and 1.7 assists in 14.8 minutes per game with 62 games played and 19 starts during his two-year career.
Despite missing the last two non-conference games, sophomore Angel Rodriguez has continued his improvement from his freshman season in 2012-13, as he ranks first or second on the squad in six categories, including first in assists (83) and steals (23) and second in scoring (9.4 ppg.) and double-figure scoring games (9). He has helped the Wildcats rank first in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio and turnover margin and second in assists, while he places in the league's Top 15 in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.4, 2nd), assists (4.9, 4th) and steals (1.4, 7th) and paces the league in conference-only assists (6.0) and assist-to-turnover (3.6). He has scored in double figures nine times, including a career-best 19 points vs. Lamar to go with game-highs at George Washington (17) and Gonzaga (14). He nearly had his first career double-double against Oklahoma with 12 points and a career-high nine assists before posting 12 points and a game-high eight assists against Kansas. He was named to the NIT Season Tip-Off All-Tournament Team after averaging 11 points and 5.5 assists in New York, as the team finished in second place.
Junior Will Spradling has been a model of consistency from the free throw line, knocking down 33-of-38 opportunities, including going 10-of-10 in the last 35 seconds in wins over Delaware, George Washington and Texas Southern. His effort has raised his career free throw percentage to 83.0 (161-of-194), which is the second-highest in school history behind Steve Henson (90.0; 361-of-401; 1986-90). Spradling has not only been stellar on the free throw line, but he ranks 19th nationally and first in the Big 12 in assist-to-turnover ratio (2.9). He also places ninth in the Big 12 in assists (3.2 apg.). He ranks first on the team in 3-point field goals (30), second in assists (60) and double-digit scoring games (9) and third in scoring (8.5 ppg.) and steals (19), which includes a season-high 17 points in the win over No. 8/9 Florida on Dec. 22. He rebounded from his scoreless game against Kansas on Jan. 22 to post a team-high 15 points at Iowa State, which included a career-tying four 3-pointers.
After playing in just 15 games his first season (including a medical redshirt in 2010-11), sophomore Nino Williams is starting to emerge as an impact player for K-State. He has played in 18 of 19 games with the third-most starts (11), averaging 5.7 points on 44.9 percent shooting (44-of-98) with 4.3 rebounds in 15.5 minutes per game. He is fourth in rebounding (4.4 rpg.) and sixth in field goals (42), while he is one of seven players to average more than four points per game. He had career week in wins against South Dakota and No. 22/21 Oklahoma State, in which, he averaged 16.5 points on 66.7 percent shooting with 6.0 rebounds in 22.5 minutes per game. He tallied a career-best 16 points vs. South Dakota on 7-of-10 field goals before eclipsing that mark with 17 points off the bench against OSU on 7-of-11 field goals. If you include the Kansas City game, he averaged 13.7 points on 51.5 percent shooting with 8.3 rebounds in 25.7 minutes per game in a three-game period from Dec. 29 to Jan. 5.
Sophomore Thomas Gipson is starting to emerge as the Wildcats' go-to player in the post, averaging 6.2 points on 50 percent shooting (29-of-58) with 5.2 rebounds in 19.4 minutes per game in his last 13 starts. After a poor game against No. 14/14 Gonzaga on Dec. 15, he rebounded to collect arguably his best all-around game of the season vs. Texas Southern on Dec. 18 with a season-high 14 points on 5-of-7 field goals to go with 12 rebounds and career-bests in blocks (4) and steals (3) in 26 minutes. It marked his fourth career double-double, but the first of the season. The 12-rebound effort tied his season-high that he also had against George Washington on Dec. 8. The leader in rebounds at 5.5 per game, he ranks 17th in the Big 12 in overall rebounds, while his fourth in offensive rebounds at 2.7 per game. He had a career-best seven offensive boards vs. Texas Southern.
McGRUDER NAMED PRESEASON CANDIDATE FOR NAISMITH, WOODEN AWARDS
Senior Rodney McGruder was selected as a preseason candidate for two of the most prestigious awards in college basketball, as he was named one of 50 preseason candidates for the John R. Wooden Award on Nov. 8 before he was selected to the early season watch list for the Naismith Trophy on Nov. 12. The preseason lists, which reflects the early frontrunners for two of college basketball's Premier Player of the Year awards, is based on last year's individual performance. McGruder becomes the first Wildcat named to the preseason list for both awards since Jacob Pullen was selected in 2010. He was one of six Big 12 players selected to the Wooden list, which includes Baylor's Pierre Jackson, Kansas' Elijah Johnson and Jeff Withey and OSU's Le'Bryan Nash, while he was one of five on the Naismith list, including Jackson, Withey, Kansas' Ben McLemore and OSU's Marcus Smart.
McGRUDER NAMED TO PRESEASON ALL-BIG 12 TEAM
Senior Rodney McGruder was a unanimous selection to the Preseason All-Big 12 team released by the conference office on Oct. 4. McGruder, who was an All-Big 12 Second Team selection in 2011-12, was one of three unanimous picks by the league's head coaches, joining Kansas' Jeff Withey and Oklahoma State's Le'Bryan Nash. The final two spots on the team went to Baylor's Pierre Jackson and Texas' Myck Kabongo. McGruder is the first Wildcat named to the Preseason All-Big 12 Team since Jacob Pullen was named to the squad along with garnering Preseason Big 12 Player of the Year honors in 2010-11. It marks just the third time that a Wildcat (Manny Dies in 1998-99, Pullen and Curtis Kelly in 2010-11) has been selected to the preseason team.
K-State got a jump start on its preparations for the 2012-13 men's basketball season with its 10-day trip to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from August 8-17, 2012. The NCAA allows teams to make a foreign trip once every four years, but this was the first by the program since playing four games in and around Vancouver, British Columbia in October 2004. Overall, it was the program's fourth trip outside the country, which includes excursions to Japan in 1981 and Finland, the Netherlands and Sweden in 1993. K-State played four games during the trip, posting a 2-2 record as the squad had to adjust to international rules (four, eight-minute quarters among other differences with NCAA rules). The Wildcats averaged 70 points on 41.9 percent shooting (99-of-236), including 31.4 percent (22-of-70) from the 3-point range, while connecting on 75.9 percent (60-of-79) from the free throw line. The team averaged 37.5 rebounds, 15.8 assists, 17.5 turnovers, 4.8 blocks and 9.8 blocks per game.
Sophomore Angel Rodriguez paced all scorers in Brazil with a 10.3 points per game average on 40 percent shooting, including 35.7 percent from 3-point range, with a team-best 4.8 assists and 2.3 steals per game. Three others - Nino Williams, Rodney McGruder and Adrian Diaz - all averaged 9.0 points per game, while junior Will Spradling and senior Jordan Henriquez added 8.5 points and 7.3 points per game averages. Williams led the team in rebounding (6.0 rpg.), 3-point field goal percentage (40.0) and free throw percentage (83.3), while Diaz was tops in field goals (14), field goal percentage (58.3) and blocks (2.5 bpg.). Freshman D.J. Johnson was second in rebounding (5.3 rpg.), while Diaz and Henriquez were third (4.8 rpg.).
K-State starts a two-game road swing on Saturday, as the Wildcats travel to Norman, Okla., to play Oklahoma at 5 p.m. on ESPN2.


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The Grand National attracts a large amount of criticism, however it remains the UK's favourite betting event of the year. As always, the bookmakers are keen for your business and are providing some pretty decent offers to get you to sign up with them. In fact, we've been covering the Grand National for a number of years now, and we reckon this is the year bookmakers have been the most aggressive to get new customers. We have rounded up all of the offers for your convenience.
* Offer: £25 Free Bet – Paying out on 6 places
* Redeem Click here to visit the Grand National betting offer
Bet Victor are giving you punters a free £25 bet if you're a new customer. On top of that, they are paying out on six places and actually are the only bookie to do so this weekend. If you aren't familiar with what 'places' means for horse racing, take a look at our FAQ at the bottom of this blog post, but it's a really good offer from Bet Victor for the 2014 Grand National.
* Offer: £20 Free Bet – Paying out on 5 places
* Redeem Click here to visit the Grand National betting offer
Betfair historically has attracted the more serious gambler with their exchange market, but recently they have broadened their appeal. For this years Grand National, they have a cracking offer, primarily for new customers. They have a bet £20 – get £20 offer for new customers, plus if you horse does not finish in the Grand National, you'll get £10 refunded. They're also running some offers for existing customers for the races leading up top the Grand National which is a bit more rare for a bookmaker.
* Offer: £30 Free Bet – Paying out on 5 places
* Redeem Click here to visit the Grand National betting offer
An alternative to the two above is SkyBet. Normally they have a free £30 bet for new customers, and that stays for the Grand National, but also they have a few more offers for the races prior to the big race. Like Betfair, if you have the time to check it out, take a look.
* Offer: £20 Free Bet – Paying out on 5 places
* Redeem Click here to visit the Grand National betting offer
Straight forward one from Paddy Power. If you bet £20, you will get bets worth £20 free. They're also doing the usual five places and non-runner no bet.
* Offer: £25 Free Bet – Paying out on 5 places
* Redeem Click here to visit the Grand National betting offer
Finally we have Betfred. Normally new customers only receive a free £10 bet from them, but for the Grand National this increases to £25. The improvement happens on Friday 4th April, so hang on before signing up to this one.
That's it. There are a few bookies you might expect to see here, but they are absent because they are taking away their free bet offer on the day of the Grand National. Just to wrap up, we've put together some frequently asked questions that we often see asked at the time of the Grand National.
Some frequently asked questions
When is the 2014 Grand National? – It's at 4:15pm on Saturday 5th of April
What does 'non-runner no bet' (NRNB) mean? – Quite simply, if you bet on a horse, and it does not start the race for whatever reason (maybe it isn't well, or alternative booked a last minute holiday for horses) your bet will be refunded. This year, all of the bookies are offering NRNB.
What does paying on places mean? – There are different ways to bet on horses. You can bet outright on the winner. Quite easy, if the horse does not win, you lose your bet. Alternative you can bet on the horse being placed. If it comes in (typically) the top five places, you still win your bet. It is at reduced odds though, typically a quarter.
What that entails is that if you bet a on a horse such as Tidal Bay to place, (currently 16/1), if it doesn't win but comes in the top five positions, then you will win your bet at a quarter odd the odds, i.e. 4/1. It means you don't win as much, but you are far more likely to win.
What does 'Each Way' (EW) mean? – When you bet 'each way', you are making two bets. So if you bet £2, you actually bet £4. This is because you have bet on the horse to win the race, but also to place (as above).


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text: kurram-agency-fata Published November 18, 2016 at 2048 × 1356 in Beauty of Pakistan in pictures. kurram agency fata Bio Social Latest Posts By: Quzaib I am a a digital marketer, blogger, SEO expert, speak chines and i love my Beard Stay active and healthy during Ramadan by following these three tips10 Interesting & Fun things to do when you are bored at homeInterest free best private student loans in Pakistan for educationDuties of husband: how to treat your wife in Islam with good relationshipAmjad Sabri's Family is being Terrified & want to leave PakistanList and causes of social issues in Pakistan. We Want Change How to make money online in Pakistan on the internetScience Confirms That People Absorb Energy From Others LivingsHow to make changes in your life and thoughtsPakistani Celebrities Who Left Showbiz For The Seek Of Islam and Become Religious See all this author's posts Related


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It's been a while since I've written a Saturday column. Thanks to all the folks who have called, wondering why I haven't been writing and asking if I'm feeling well. First and foremost, I'm great ... very, very busy, but I'm doing well. I appreciate your calls, your concern and your kindness.
Writing this column for the BCR is probably my favorite part of my job, however, it sometimes takes a backseat to other more pressing obligations. As you know, there's been a lot going on. It's been a crazy few weeks, so rather than try to come up with one single idea, I thought I'd just give you a rundown of some of the things that have been swirling around in my mind ...
• The election. There's probably not one among us who isn't absolutely delighted they no longer have to be subjected to campaign advertising. The amount of money raised and spent is mind-boggling, and the real winners were the major market TV stations in nine highly-contested states, including Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Florida. That's where the biggest concentration of dollars were spent.
And I'm not talking just a few bucks, friends. Millions and millions of dollars were doled out to all media markets — TV, Internet, newspaper and radio. Even though it's not a crime, it sure feels like one when many in our own backyards are so very needy. Though I don't want to bite the proverbial hand that feeds me, I have a hard time justifying it all in my mind.
• Citizens First National Bank. When Citizens failed last Friday night, and federal regulators infiltrated this local icon, I don't mind telling you my heart broke. This bank has been a stalwart in our community for many, many years, and its loss will be felt for years to come.
As a little girl, I remember going into the bank with Grandpa. Hand-in-hand, we'd walk to the teller's window, where Grandpa would do his banking, and the teller would give me a sucker. They called my grandpa by his first name, and it didn't matter that he had worn his farming overalls into the bank's lobby. After his banking, we'd always stop outside the bank, and Grandpa would read the most recent obituaries posted on the window. Ironic, yet admirable, that those memories were still being practiced in 2012.
Those long ago Friday nights at Citizens were another hot spot. Friends and neighbors would drive into Princeton and park along Main Street. Everybody would come early and hope to get a parking space in front of Citizens because that's where the center of all the action was, as people walked up and down the street and chatted with their friends and neighbors.
Perhaps my friend, Richard, said it best when he told me, "The loss of Citizens is like a death in the family." Please keep the staff in your thoughts.
• Mark Verstraete. My sympathy goes out to the family of Mark Verstraete, who died at the age of 64 on Tuesday. The BCR and myself had worked with Mark for years, while he served on the Bureau County Fair Board. He was a good man and never failed to engage me in a conversation. He loved the Bureau County Fair. He will be missed.
• Superstorm Sandy. I'd like to tip my hat to the city of Princeton and its Electric Department, who sent four Princeton linemen — Brad Snethen, Toby Lindeland, Joe Law and Kevin Amy — and two bucket trucks to the state of Ohio to help with restoration efforts. Also, applause goes to Lori Compton, director of the Bureau County Red Cross, as well as all the folks she works with for their efforts. A big thank you to all the folks who have donated to the effort, whether through a financial donation and/or a blood donation. The spirit of America always becomes so obvious in times of need. Despite the awful circumstances of that storm, the benevolent actions close to home always warm my heart.
• Veterans Day. Sunday is Veterans Day — a time to reflect on those men and women who have served our country. If you know a veteran, a handshake, a hug, a thank you will mean the world to them. Many towns/villages/schools are holding Veterans Day ceremonies. I urge you to attend and reflect on how lucky we are to have these veterans in our midst, as well as those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice. If you can, please make sure you take the kids/grandkids along. They will be the ones to continue honoring our veterans.
• Illinois Valley Living. The winter edition of the BCR's Illinois Valley Living magazine is headed to the press in the next week or two and will be available the first part of December. Wow! Each edition of this fun-filled magazine gets better than the last, and I'm excited for you to see it.
The craziness and the chaos will, no doubt, continue as the holidays are right around the corner. Please try to carve out some time for you and those you love. Life is short. Breathe. Exhale. And remember ... you are important to me and the BCR.
BCR Editor Terri Simon can be reached at email@example.com.


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This is Huge: Intel Enters Strategic Agreement with Chinese SoC Maker Rockchipby Anand Lal Shimpi on 5/27/2014 12:30 PM EST
60 Comments
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purerice - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkHuge? Perhaps. Long-awaited. Not at all. Intel has had an ARM license for a long time and done nothing with it. The question was not "if" but "when" and the answer is "about time".
This is ironic in a way. Lots of development happens in the "west" and gets fabbed back "east". Now we have "eastern" developers asking "western" fabs to make their chips. Reply
Guspaz - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkThis agreement has to do with producing x86 SoCs, so this has nothing to do with ARM or Intel's ARM license. Reply
purerice - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkYou're right. I had read another article first that had the details wrong. Then I messed up by not reading this one carefully enough. The other point stands. Reply
chubbypanda - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkOther point about '...asking "western" fabs to make their chips.'? According to Anand, it'll TSMC making those chips, "east" in your division. Reply
The Hardcard - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkUnless there is something more than I am seeing in this story, it is not about ARM. It appears that Intel wants to drive into mobile through China, and Rockchip has more pull there, mainly in setting up SOCs the way OEMs and ODMs want them. Reply
Homeles - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkRTFA Reply
purerice - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkEYFP(runes) <3 Reply
DanNeely - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkIsn't that license just a residual asset from before they sold their in house arm line (XScale) to Marvell? Reply
ilt24 - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkIntel only sold the Xscale application processor line to Marvell. They also had Network, Storage and maybe Multimedia lines, which they kept and continued to sell until they were were replaced with atom based versions. Reply
jjj - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkSofia is made at TSMC and should be safe to assume this version is TSMC too, Intel seems unable to integrate it's 3G on 22nm and i doubt they'll do low end on 14nm in early 2015.
Too bad their timing sucks, with the LG G3 launching at the same time. Reply
Flunk - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkThat doesn't sound too likely. Intel hasn't engineered a version of Atom to fab under TSMC's process. Plus, why partner with Intel if you don't get access to their leading fab technology. Reply
ilt24 - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkA couple of things:
Back in 2009 Intel and TSMC announced a deal that would allow a third party design house to use an Atom core along with their own or TSMC IP to make custom SOC's. Due to lack of interest the effort was put on hold in 2010.
Earlier this year is was reported that the first version of SoFIA would be made at TSMC on 28nm and that an in house version would come later on 14nm. Reply
toyotabedzrock - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkSmaller nodes for the radio is a universal problem. I think this deal is about volume and reducing risk since rockchip can reuse their current end user product designs. Reply
extide - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkThe most exciting part about this for me is the possibility of being able to see an Atom on Intel process vs and Atom on TSMC process head to head. Should be interesting! Reply
Krysto - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkIt would finally expose the fact that "x86 myth is NOT busted". Intel is barely competing in the mobile CPU space with 22nm vs 28nm process AND a Trigate (which gives the advantage of a full node shrink).
If Intel made Atom at 28nm with not Trigate/FinFET, everyone would see how far behind Intel's architecture really is compared to ARM, for the mobile market. Reply
IntelUser2000 - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkActually, TSMC's 28nm process isn't far away from Intel's 22nm process in power usage and density. I assume 28nm TSMC is about 30% larger. What Intel had was a transistor performance advantage(and that they come a year earlier), which wasn't much use if the design couldn't take advantage of it. Reply
extide - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkIf you are talking about the old atom (Bonnell core) then yeah, it was very outdated, even when it first came out. The new Silvermont arch is much better, but I agree that it is not amazing. Intel will need to keep iterating on this design, and hopefully, with Atom, they will stick with the 2 year cadence (like core) that they have said they will.
There are a lot of people speculating about how Intel's process nodes stack up with TSMC, but AFAIK there has never before been a single product built at both foundries with which we can do an accurate comparison, that doesn't include other variables. I think people may be surprised by the outcome, but one thing is for sure, it will be fun to watch! Reply
factual - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkSilvermont core is not "barely competing" in mobile, it's best in-class. It's has superior perf/watt compared to all ARM-designed cores. It's also superior to Qualcomm designed Krait core (ARM-compatible).
Intel's problems in mobile have nothing to do with ARM. They have to do with GPU, integration and, most importantly, the cellular modem.
Stop spreading misinformation! Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkThe Cyclone core is ARM based and absolutely trumps Silvermont in every regard, even while made on inferior process.
YOU stop spreading misinformation Reply
factual - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkNo, I did not! I clearly said ARM-designed cores. Cyclone is NOT ARM-designed, it's ARM ISA-compatible, there is a huge difference between the two. Intel is not competing against apple, since it will probably never be able to win a socket in an IOS device (neither will Qualcomm for that matter) . Reply
Wilco1 - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkEven if you just consider ARM-designed cores, Silvermont does not come close to eg. Cortex-A7 perf/Watt, especially on the same process. Reply
MarcusMo - Friday, May 30, 2014 - linkOo-architectures such as Silvermont will always lag behind in-order architectures such as the A7 in perf/watt simply because of all the additional circuitry that needs to be on-chip. Thus the comparison with any in-order core is flawed. They have a different optimization point. Reply
Wilco1 - Saturday, May 31, 2014 - linkExactly, which is why it is so ridiculous to claim Silvermont has best perf/Watt of all ARM cores. There are many ARM CPUs out there optimized for different uses, so one generic CPU can never beat more specialized ones in every aspect.
Note this is not a flawed comparison as A7 is actually fast enough for most tasks in a phone/tablet (many ship with a dual or quad A7). With big.LITTLE you can switch to an even faster OoO core when you do need more performance without reducing the overall power efficiency. Reply
Krysto - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkOEMs considering buying Atom chips for their mobile devices, should consider the fact that Intel is only HEAVILY subsidizing them right now to the point of losing $1 billion dollars every quarter, and they'll throw them under the bus as soon as they get decent market share. Reply
mrdude - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkAsus is an example of the above. Intel subsidized Merrifield last year when Asus was entering the smartphone market, but this year Asus has backtracked and pulled the Intel models in favor of Qualcomm due to the pricing and integrated modem.
I'm not sure adding a middle party between Intel's IP/designs to the end consumer is going to make it more competitive or ensure any sort of significant design wins. To me this seems like Intel is admitting two significant problems with their mobile approach -- 1) Intel's too damn expensive, and 2) They're too slow. I'm not sure how binding themselves to Rockchip at the low end is going to cure either of these ailments. Reply
Impulses - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkIt's all about gaining market share in the short term I imagine... Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkThat's the sole point here.
Intel are dumping the market at all costs..that's the only way they can "compete " Reply
name99 - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - link"More than anything this is a sign that Intel is willing to try something new/different, and that's absolutely what the company needs."
Except that it does nothing to solve Intel's fundamental problem.
The problem is that Intel wants to sell chips at $100 to $3000 --- its entire operation is set up around that assumption. All this does is allow them to sell some chips at $1 to $10.
The problem longterm remains --- how do they sell Atoms that are competitive enough with ARM, but not so competitive that they steal the desktop business? This hasn't been an obvious problem yet, while ARM was taking its sweet time getting to 64 bit and a standard server platform, but all that changes starting this year.
This does nothing to help the situation; if anything it makes it worse, because the more x86 is visible (with a non-Windows infrastructure et al) in non-desktop environments, the more it becomes just one CPU --- and the more it becomes an eminently reasonable assumption for desktop users that they buy a non-x86 laptop. (Chromebooks today, and not very interesting. But 64-bit ARM Android laptops in two years... Or maybe someone puts together a laptop or AIO based on WinRT just to see how it flies.
Intel may think it can compete on performance, and continue to charge its traditional prices for that --- good luck. The story of a dozen RISC companies is that, yes there are a few people who will pay 3x as much for 20% faster, but not enough to sustain a market. Reply
easp - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkI think you misunderstand the larger context. Cannibalization of their desktop and server business is an issue, sure, but the larger issue is that their desktop and server business would be plateauing whether or not ARM was an issue, and that in order to keep if from collapsing completely, they still have to invest in new process technology. The thing is, each generation yields more and more transistors that they have to sell in order to amortize their investment. They can't sell them in their traditional market, because it is mature, so they can't sell more chips, and their isn't much point in selling bigger chips, because of diminishing returns.
So, the only way they have any chips they can sell for $100-3000, is to find ways to keep their fabs utilized. Reply
name99 - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkI understand the point just fine. This is the mess Intel got itself into in the first place by insisting that its mobile strategy was to make EXACT replicas of x86. Now they have to pay the x86 design fee costs for each CPU, and they are cannibalizing themselves.
What they SHOULD have done is launch the mobile chips using a completely new ISA (ideally one designed by someone who has never set foot on Intel because if there is one thing Intel sucks at, it is ISA design). This would have prevented all the cannibalization issues and allowed them to run at the speed of ARM, without being slowed down by x86 legacy.
A second best alternative would have been to launch Atom as purely the clean x86-64 subset of x86, ditching everything else from MMX and x87 to SMM and 32 bit mode. This would have made the design surface a lot smaller and cleaner (not as nice as ARM, but still a lot less painful) and would have avoided the problems of cannibalization for at least a few years.
The point is, having made this huge blunder five or so years ago, dicking around with these sorts of deals today is not going to solve the problem. When you're in a hole, stop digging! At the very least they should be working on moving to the second strategy I suggest RIGHT NOW. Put everyone using Atoms on notice that, unlike with legacy x86, they're going to be ripping out all the crud very soon --- and if that means Atoms can't run legacy Windows, well, we have this nice i7 we could sell you instead... Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkYou sir, are absolutely right.
I just hope Intel doesn't kill the market with this unfair subsidiary dumping, preventing the natural evolution passing it by.
Good thing is, the odds for that happening are pretty low. Reply
BPM - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkAgreed. What they should have done is launch a new ISA. That's what I've been telling my friends since I got into University. Very good points. Reply
factual - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkAs I have mentioned in another post, Silvermont (Atom's core) has been superior (in terms of perf/watt) compared to ARM-designed cores since it came out at the end of 2013. Intel has already won the CPU perf/watt game against ARM vendors and I expect it to continue to widen the perf/watt gap.
Intel's problems are related to the soc not the cpu. Intel's socs have inferior GPUs, inferior image signal processors, they don't have integrated connectivity and cellular and a lot of other issues.
All this talk about x86 vs ARM is irrelevant. Intel's CPUs are superior to ARM's, and they superiority will only grow over time, but that doesn't mean Intel will succeed in mobile, because in mobile, it's the soc product that matters, and Qualcomm is king when it comes to designing well-integrated, well-rounded, cost-effective Socs for now.
Nvidia has the best mobile GPU, Intel has the best mobile CPU but it's Qualcomm that dominates the mobile market because they have the best mobile SOC. Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkTechnically, Apple has the best mobile CPU.
And I am willing to bet that Qualcomm will have the best one, in years to come.
Atom simply has way too much x86 baggage to compete in non x86 environment..only thing keeping it afloat is the more advanced manufacturing process. Reply
Wilco1 - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkExactly, and that manufacturing advantage is being lost for the Sofia line of SoCs. I agree it's big like Anand says, in the sense of becoming a big flop. Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkFunny thing is, soFIA looked as a flop even a year ago.
https://www.semiwiki.com/forum/content/2962-intel-... Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkCorrection, yes.. half a year ago Reply
factual - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkApple's mobile chip performance is irrelevant to Intel, Qualcomm, Nvidia and the rest of the merchant chip vendors. None of them can win the Apple's mobile socket and none of them will be directly competing against apple in the android space.
I disagree with your claim that x86 ISA is somehow inferior to ARM ISA. ISA has minimal effect on the CPU performance anyways. What determines the performance of a CPU is micro-architecture and manufacturing technology. Reply
Wilco1 - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkAgreed on the first paragraph. As to ISA, yes ISA still matters. Not just in terms of design time (compare how many cores ARM designs each year vs Intel), but the additional complexity of x86 does require a lot more transistors, increasing power consumption and die area. I'd argue that an ISA has quite a big penalty if a 2-way in-oder core is 3.5 times larger than a 3-way OoO core:
http://chip-architect.com/news/2013_core_sizes_768... Reply
Wilco1 - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkActually Silvermont's perf/Watt is far worse than eg. Cortex-A7. It's slower than Cortex-A15, Apple A7 and high-end Krait. Its die area is several times larger than a typical ARM core despite being using a better process.
The hard fact is that Silvermont is by no means the best core in any market it tries to compete. So it is no surprise there are no Silvermont phones yet, despite being on the market for quite a while. 28nm Silvermont will be interesting to see as it will be even harder to compete against far smaller and more efficient ARM cores. Reply
factual - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkNot really! A7 is a different story but Intel has better performance compared to both A15 and the best Krait at the same or lower TDP levels:
And your die size claims are false as well:
Do some research before making false claims! Reply
darkich - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkSo what's the Bay Trail die size?
Forgive me for missing the exact number among 373 pages of material Reply
factual - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linklook at page 355 of the datasheet. Die size is about 100mm^2 (9.7 x 10.4 ). Reply
darkich - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - linkWell I looked and can't see it.
Please enlighten me! Reply
Wilco1 - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkI was explicitly talking about core die size, not SoC die size. Do you actually have a die size estimate for a Silvermont *core*? Here is a link with several ARM CPU die sizes vs previous Atom: http://chip-architect.com/news/2013_core_sizes_768...
Do you think a Silvermont core will be smaller than say a Cortex-A15 core?
As for the Phoronix scores, these don't seem to be just a comparison of CPU performance. For example one is using an SSD, the other slow eMMC flash. Also one is a phone/tablet SoC, the other a desktop part - you won't find the J1900 in phones or tablets...
I haven't seen K1 scores yet, but this is how the lower clocked NVidia Shield does vs Z3770 on Android:
Based on that it's safe to say the K1 will beat Silvermont by a good margin on integer and FP benchmarks. Reply
factual - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - linkI don't know the die size of silvermont itself, but given the fact the die size of the silvermont-based SoCs are more-or-less the same as A15-based SoCs, I would say the die size of the two are comparable. Saltwell is a 5-year-old design on a 4-year-old silicon technology, I'd say its die size is pretty good for what it is!
The phoronix comparison is actually a pretty "just" comparison, if you actually understood the numbers! J1900's TDP is 10W at maximum load, while Jetson's Tegra K1 uses 11W.
So, J1900 has Superior performance while consuming less power.
I tried to stay away from the poorly written mobile benchmarks and reference the accurate phoronix comparison. I can play the primelabs game too ... Comparing power-hungry Nvidia Shield to a low-power tablet is not a real comparison! Nvidia has a 30wh battery, now let's compare it to a device with the same power consumption/battery;
Here, Z3770 completely annihilates Cortex-A15. But let's stick with the accurate phoronix benchmark.
Silvermont is superior to Cortex-A15 by a considerable margin. Now the question is why? Some claim its only due to Intel's superior manufacturing technology, I guess we'll know when Silvermont is manufactured using Tsmc28! Reply
Wilco1 - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - linkSilvermont SoCs are far behind in GPU performance so if the SoC die size is comparable then it's a given that the GPU is smaller, while the CPUs are larger. This is also a reason why TDP for K1 appears high - has an amazingly fast GPU which takes most of the die and power.
Phoronix comparisons have been quite wrong in the past (using old compilers, incorrect options, using different codepaths for x86 and ARM, this has been widely discussed on sites like RWT), and appear to be system benchmarks rather than CPU benchmarks, so the HD performance matters. Calling them accurate is wishful thinking. Or did you really believe that Silvermont is 8x faster doing VP8?
As for your Geekbench link, you deliberately chose a slow Shield score - very unprofessional. I could also compare against the slowest Z3770 score one could find, however lets be fair and compare your Z3770 score with my Shield score:
So a Z3770 is barely faster than Shield on integer (due to using hardware encryption instructions which improves the average score by 14.5%) and loses on FP - despite running at a 26% higher frequency. So that's a huge loss for Z3770. At similar frequencies A15 wins by a big margin. Can you imagine how it will compare with next generation 64-bit ARM CPUs?
When manufactured on 28nm TSMC, Silvermont will obviously lose clock frequency. The question is how much, but it is obvious that it won't be able to compete at all given how much trouble 22nm Silvermont has just keeping up with previous generation SoCs. Reply
factual - Thursday, May 29, 2014 - linkThere is discussion on the die size comparison picture you posted. The A-15 size comes from a doctored Nvidia die shot, and the real A-15 die size is actually 3.1mm^2 :
Bay Trail die area is not just comparable to Tegra's but also exynos's and allwinnder's as well. Silvermont's die area would not be any larger than A15, if not smaller, judging by the SoC die areas.
Phoronix is the gold standard of benchmarks; It's really laughable when you try to question Phoronix's accuracy and post results from Geekbench instead, which is a closed-source, poorly written benchmark, just like most mobile benchmarks. Phoronix is the open-source benchmark which is trusted by engineers and professionals. And yes, silvermont's performance is that much more superior compared to Cortex-A15.
I intentionally posted that primatelabs comparison to show how inconsistent and questionable it is, at best! Here's another one comparing another Z3770 to your Nvidia shield version:
Silvermont annihilates Cortex-A15 again!!
Silvermont's perf/watt is without a doubt superior to A15, by a large margin. Next generation 64-bit ARM will probably catch-on to Bay Trail but by that time next generation Atom (Broxton) will be out which will widen the perf/watt gap even further. But the CPU performance alone is not that important in mobile and that's where intel has been lacking, i.e. the overal SoC's capabilities, and that problem has nothing to do with ARM! Reply
Wilco1 - Friday, May 30, 2014 - linkDifferent processes result in different die sizes, and one can synthesize a core for high performance or low power and get different area. So even if Samsung's A15 happen to be larger on their process, that doesn't invalidate the 1.62mm^2 Hans reported for the A15 in Tegra 4 at all.
Again, comparing SoC area and concluding anything CPU die area is ridiculous fanboi-ism. The hard fact is Atom is several times larger than ARM cores.
"Phoronix is the gold standard of benchmarks"!!! LOL, thanks you made my day - you clearly don't have a clue!
Here is yet another benchmark where 1.9GHz A15 beats 2.4GHz Z3770: http://www.7-cpu.com/
What's the excuse this time?
Nobody has shown Silvermont to be superior than A15. After all A15 is much faster while running at a lower frequency as all the benchmarks show. I haven't seen detailed perf/W comparisons, but it looks like Tegra K1 should beat Silvermont in perf/W, despite being effectively 2 process nodes behind. A 28nm Silvermont will be far slower and with significantly worse perf/W, and yet has to compete against much faster 64-bit ARM cores like Denver, Cortex-A57 and A53 in the second half this year. Reply
factual - Sunday, June 01, 2014 - linkOf course different processes result in different size! obviously you can synthesize a soft ARM core IP for high performance or low power and get different die areas! That's why your initial claim that cortex A15 had some kind dramatic area advantage over Silvermont, without having any evidence, was so ridiculous!
The so-called Cortex A15 die shot from Nvidia's tegra 4 marketing picture looks identical to the Cortex A9 die shot from tegra 4i, proving it to be fake! Nvidia has been routinely using doctored/fake die shots as pre-release marketing material:
Nvidia using fake die shots for pre-release marketing purposes is completely understandable, but what is not understandable is using these marketing shots to make technical claims about die areas!! Also given the lack of any hard facts regarding Silvermont or Cortex A15 die areas (ones synthesized for similar power specs), comparing SoC die areas, which are actually specified in the datasheet, is the only logical thing to do.
You are the fanboi here, who despite all the evidence, continue your baseless claims regarding the non-existent "ARM advantage"! All the evidence points to absolute perf/watt superiority of Silvermont over Cortex A15 and the claim (often espoused by ARM fanbois who are generally ignorant when it comes to technical knowledege) that Intel woes in the mobile market have to do with the "power efficient" ARM cores is patently false!
I guess it's expected that a fanboi, with very little technical understanding, would "lol" at Phoronix; but developers, engineers and professionals consider Phoronix the gold standard of benchmarks:
Although the Phoronix benchmark is comparing a silvermont core clocked at a lower frequency than the Tegra's Cortex A15, but the clock speed of the cores don't matter at all! Cyclone clocked at 1.3Ghz outperforms both Silvermont and A15. What matters is perf/watt and that's it!
The compression benchmark you posted only shows Silvermont widely outperforming the Exynos cortex A15 but equaling the performance (outperforming compression, under-performing decompression) of an unknown Corex A15 with unknown power consumption ... So what's the point! At least the not-so-reliable geekbench benchmark you posted earlier tested all aspects of the cpu!
While I prefer the reliable Phoronix benchmark due it's known power specs and reliability of the benchmark suite, all the other not-so-reliable mobile benchmark show silvermont wildly outperforming Cortex A15 as well:
At this point the huge superiority of Silvermont over Cortex A15 is undeniable. But educating a fanboi who refuses to learn and is in denial is really impossible. Reply
Wilco1 - Sunday, June 01, 2014 - linkYou're just clutching straws by trying to claim Phoronix is the "gold" standard. Show me a single site that uses Phoronix benchmarks in their reviews of ARM SoCs. I can point out many sites that use GeekBench.
Bringing up AnTuTu really helps your case, it's well known that Intel cheated those. All that is even more proof that you don't have any evidence on your side and have to resort to cheating to make your point.
Clockspeed certainly matters, especially when different SoCs run at different frequencies. To get a fair comparison you have to consider the frequency. Given that a 1.9GHz A15 already matches or beats a 2.4GHz Silvermont on Geekbench and 7-ZIP, we can safely conclude that a 2.3GHz A15 will outperform it by a huge margin. Also consider the fact that not all Silvermonts will be clocked at 2.4GHz, there are many slower parts as well (those are the ones typically used for phones and tablets).
It's undeniable that you're just a fanboi with no technical knowledge at all. Do you even understand why A15 has a superior microarchitecture? Reply
factual - Sunday, June 01, 2014 - linkARM cores are inferior for enterprise use, that's why you don't often see Phoronix used for ARM. Phoronix and Spec are used to for enterprise Linux benchmarking, and ARM is virtually non-existent in the enterprise space.
CPU Clock frequency, when comparing different micro-architectures, does not matter. cpus can increase performance in several ways, including increasing clock speed or increasing issue width (instructions computed per cycle). Depending on the microarchitecture and process technology, a cpu can consume less power than another cpu design while running at similar or higher clock frequency. So what needs to be measured when comparing different microarchitectures is not clock frequency but performance per watt. If a CPU can achieve same power consumption at higher clock frequencies compared to other CPUs, that's a design advantage. All that said, all the comprehensive benchmarks showed so far that Silvermont performs superior to Cortex A15 while running at lower clock speeds than A15, not the other way around!
However, no matter how many times technical reasoning and benchmarks show Silvermont to be wildly superior to Cortex A15, a fanboi in denial will remain in denial! As I said before, educating someone who insist on remaining ignorant is impossible. But just for the record all the comprehensive benchmark (even your favorite, Geekbench) show Silvermont to handily beat Cortex A15 when it comes to performance/watt:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/7314/intel-baytrail-... Reply
darkich - Friday, May 30, 2014 - linkTegra K1 is much better than you think.
http://wccftech.com/nvidia-tegra-k1-performance-po... Reply
name99 - Wednesday, May 28, 2014 - linkI don't believe we have any information proving that Silvermont is superior to Cyclone in operations/watt.
What we have is scattered information that doesn't really tell us what we need. Consider (Because I have the numbers easily available) the MacBook Air (Haswell) vs iPad air (Cyclone).
For Geekbench type benchmarks (and a range of other things, like sunspider) the MBA is about 2.5x the iPad. That's one piece of info. The iPad has a 32Whr battery, MBA has 38Whr, iPad gets about 10hrs of battery life on some sort of "real world tasks" benchmark, MBA gets about 12 hrs.
That's a second piece of info. BUT the important point is that the second benchmark mainly measures the speed and efficiency at which the CPU (and the system as a whole) goes into deep sleep. Going into deep sleep fast is important for battery life, CPU performance is important for snappiness ---both are good benchmarks for the user experience. But neither measures what we want.
What we want is a benchmark that operates like this:
- starting with a fully charged device (with screen off and wireless off), run Geekbench over and over. At the end of each run, Geekbench records to permanent storage an incremented count and a timestamp. The process runs until the battery dies.
From this one can know how many geek benches ran, and how long the took, which allows one to calculate a "Geekbenches per Watt-hour" metric. THAT is as close to "CPU efficiency" as one is likely to get easily, given the realities of different devices, OSs, limited control over the device, etc.
It's not a perfect measure, in particular it's very misleading if one of the CPUs has AES and SHA instructions and the other doesn't, but assuming that's not the case it's about the best we can do today.
THIS would be the interesting metric in terms of quantifying which of Cyclone vs Haswell vs Silvermont is most absolutely efficient. I honestly don't know how it would turn out. Intel have process and circuit advantage, Haswell has the advantage of having thrown vastly more man-hours and transistors at the problem (for which you pay in the dollar price of the part...). Cyclone has the advantage of a substantially simpler architecture which allows you to spend more time optimizing and less time just getting the damn thing to work in verification and debugging --- but of course Apple is not nearly as experience as Intel in managing project of this size optimally.
(If one had this information, there are other interesting things one could also learn. In particular, the graph of geek bench runtimes as a the run count changes could be interesting in terms of seeing which devices are forced to thermally throttle, and how rapidly this kicks in. Of course that effect also confuses the actual number we are trying to calculate, so one may want to do one run with natural cooling, and one run with the device having a heavy duty fan continually blowing chilled air over the device.) Reply
Wilco1 - Saturday, May 31, 2014 - linkPerf/Watt is not a fixed number. So you can indeed test perf/Watt at maximum performance like you state, but that result is not actually that useful. If you say ran at 100%, 75%, 50% or 25% of performance the perf/Watt results would be very different (and one CPU may win at 100% but another may win at 25%). It gets even more complicated for multithreaded workloads as you can choose to run one CPU at 100% or 4 CPUs at 25% - these will get different perf/Watt results depending on the process and microarchitecture.
For phones/tablets the issue is that the average use case is more like 1% of maximum performance, and so testing at 100% performance does not produce a meaningful result. Reply
pauliek - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkThree things:
1. You did not even mention Intel's modems. Rockchip has no modems but will soon need them, and Intel's are actually pretty good. My guess is that the modem in this deal is just as important as the CPU.
2. Intel is famously paying customers to use its tablet chips because its design is too expensive. When they stress that this is "strategic", that probably means it will teach them to design for low cost. Reply
pauliek - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - link3. I deleted the third before posting and can't edit now, sorry. Reply
abufrejoval - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkWhile this is a strategic deal, I'm wondering whether for the first product this is a fab deal or an IP block deal: I guess all Intel mobile IP blocks currently aren't actually fab'ed on Intel, so this would be IP block.
I'm also guessing, Intel doesn't seem to get any significant ROI on their radio stuff, being all discrete outside Intel SoCs and therefore not easily competitive with Qualcom on power terms.
It must be good or at least on par with discrete Qualcom modems, because it's showing up even in Samsung devices paired with Exynos (or Samsung dislikes Qualcom's LTE dominance enough to partner with Intel wherever they can).
But it would certainly be better fully Soc and this may be what this deal is about primarily.
But if this were to be a fab deal, with Rockchip SoCs done on 22nm or 14nm Intel processes, that could make even Apple pale. Don't see how how this could happen inside 2 years, though, because Intel fabs simply aren't open SoC..
On the other hand, they are probably running underutilized and that's hurting...
Please, more information! Reply
mrdude - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkAccording to eetimes, the Rockchip SoCs will still be fabbed at TSMC and any sort of transition won't happen until 2016. These SoCs are low cost (only 3G connectivity), so utilizing a bleeding edge fab process is out of the question.
This seems like a case of eating your toes in order to stave off starvation. Sure, Intel is penetrating the mobile market and gaining market share, but just how much money are they burning doing it? And what about the staggering PC space and decreasing laptop ASPs? All of these moves made toward mobile yet Intel seems less and less likely to ever turn a profit. Reply
toyotabedzrock - Tuesday, May 27, 2014 - linkThey are risking a bunch of jobs if those Cpu designs are stolen. Reply


text:
The Canucks left last night to Calgary after beating the Oilers 4-1 for Calgary for their 5pm PPV game tonight. Ryan Johnson did not leave with the Canucks, so he will not be playing tonight. The lineup should be the same as last night with Luongo back in goal.
- Sweden has released its provisional Olympic roster for Team Sweden and as expected Henrik and Daniel Sedin were named to the roster
- Alex Edler, Mikael Samuelsson was not named to the roster. Alex Edler is not surprising, since he has not played a good season, and with the injuries to the blue line, Sweden may still include him as a late addition. Samuelsson on the other hand was a bit of a surprise as being left out, as he was on the 2006 squad, but then again though he has had a good October has had a lackluster November and December.
- For the first time in what seems like forever, the Canucks have finally won over a team that they should have beat, a 15th place team in the West
- Last night on CBC they were saying that Schneider hasn't been playing because he doesn't feel that he has gotten enough ice time. Seriously? What did he expect? He's old and a little slow. I feel he should have been getting less time than he has received, and that he should only be playing on the powerplay. We'll have to see how this plays out, but now that we have a healthy blue line, perhaps an early retirement?
- And if you have wondered where the green men game from, check out ESPN for the story
Add this to my list of why hockey players are awesome:
Shane O'Brien gets three days off (actually only 2 because he has to fly by on Christmas day back to Van) to celebrate Christmas with his family in Port Hope, ON. So he flies out to Toronto after the Nashville game on a red-eye flight arriving at 7am and he comes bearing a gift: a team signed Canucks jersey. So with his family, he heads to the Hamilton Twp. municipal offices where he donates the jersey for a fundraising raffle that will benefit the Vincent Massey Memorial Arena and Hall renovation and addition.
Stories like this where a player takes time out of short time off with his family to do something for the community he grew up in, makes me think hockey players are awesome.
Full story here.
no comments
You gotta be pretty confident with your body type before you don a suit of spandex such as a the ones these guys did, but the best part about the Kesler v. Weber fight had to be the green men beside the penalty box.no comments
Shane O'Brien had his 1st regular season goal last night against the St. Louis Blues. He looked like the best defensemen on the Canucks team. He hasn't had a single minor penalty in 10 games. Just sayin'.
Now that you're getting good, and Bieksa has taken your spot in the doghouse, MG will probably trade you, but let's give you some love while you're still here.
Woo! YOU SCORED YOUR FIRST REGULAR SEASON GOAL AS A CANUCK!!! Woo!
So when I was talking about one of those games that is a "should win game", tonight's game against the St. Louis Blues is one of those nights. The Blues are having trouble scoring and have just lost to the Tampa Bay Lightning. Yes they really did lose to the Bolts. So tonight should be one of those games where Vancouver should be able to handle the Blues easily.
Before heading into tonight's game, the Blues, whose record is 14-14-5 are sitting at the bottom of the Western conference.With a win tonight (and a loss of Detroit to Chicago) the Canucks 20-15-0 could jump into 8th spot in the West. So will the Canucks be able to get the win tonight? Or will the Canucks be their own worst enemies?
- Tonight is fan appreciation night at GM Place, also known as Jerseys Off Our Backs night
- Michael Grabner has been assigned to the Moose yesterday. He'll need a little time for conditioning to get himself back in to game shape before returning to the NHL
- Demitra has returned home to Slovakia to meet with a specialist that he has used previously. The Canucks claim this does not mean there was a setback in his recovery
- The Canucks have announced that two formers Canucks have been added to the Hockey Operations staff. Dave Babych as Player Developement Consultant and Glen Hanlon as Goaltending Scout
After Friday nights 3-2 win over the Washington Capitals, I have a few thoughts:
- Why is it we can win big games against the best teams in the East, like the Capitals or the Devils, but lose to the worst team in same conference like the Carolina Hurricanes? Or lose to the worst team in the West, the Anaheim Ducks? (twice alredy to the Ducks)
- Along the same lines, we can win against the best in the East, but when it comes to the best in West, the Canucks can't rise up to muster a win over the Sharks? Or the Wings?
- Teams that the Canucks play that should be 'easy wins' are never that. The Canucks will always find a way to lose them
Thoughts from the game:
- Ovechkin playing live is all that it's cracked up to be. To the Canucks' credit, they kept him restricted to only 3 shots on goal and he ended up being a -1 on the night, but man does Ovie ever have a ton of energy. He was a threat and Friday night clearly wasn't even his best game, compared to other games I've watched he was quiet that night. Neverless, every time he had the puck, I was scared.
- Great defensive shutdown by Salo and Mitchell on Ovechkin and Backstrom
- Semin was everywhere on the ice. He had 1 goal, 7 shots, a great shorthanded chance and a penalty shot.
- Luongo got caught watching Tanner Glass put Brooks Laich into the Canuck bench and ended up giving up a goal
- The first 3 goals of the night were all scored by Capitals, but the score was 2-1 Caps
- Who is Chris Clark? Why is he their captain? And why would a captain only skate for 8:31 during the night? Kyle Wellwood was on the ice for longer than the Washington captain
- The first two periods were quiet and filled with tight checking by the Canucks, but the excitement of the 3rd period was well worth the ticket of admission
- Mason Raymond's 1st goal showed such patience and skill
- Raymon has 14 goals so far this season, last year he only had 11 goals all season
- Raymond is on pace for 32.8 goals this season
- Shane O'Brien may have played his best game of the year. Even though he ended up -1 on the night, he had 18:29 on the night and played a good game.
- O'Brien has gone 9 games without a minor penalty
Click here for the rankings and insight from Bloguin's NHL writers
-The Canucks have moved up 3 spots from the last time the power rankings were run and are sitting at #14no comments


text:
If you haven't jumped on the Meatless Monday bandwagon, today is one of the best days of the year to do so. After several days of indulgences, your gut needs a break. A meatless meal on the Monday after Thanksgiving doesn't mean scraping the last bits of sweet potato casserole out of the dish and eating it with a side of green beans with crunchy onions and a stale dinner roll. After all those casseroles, a dinner salad is surely in order. Plus, if you still have Thanksgiving leftovers in your 'fridge, it's probably a good day to toss them.
This Tofu Salad With Chive-Ginger Oil is packed with enough protein to make it a filling main dish and the Asian flavors of the ginger, sesame and miso are the perfect antidote to all of the heavy American fare you've been gorging on since Thursday. Leftovers, if there are any, are brown-bag worthy, but keep the dressing on the side and add if before you eat so the greens don't get soggy.
Tofu Salad With Chive Ginger Oil
Makes 4 servings
3 tablespoons sesame seeds
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 bunch fresh chives, chopped (about 1 cup)
Kosher salt
2 tablespoons finely grated ginger (about 1 ounce)
1/2 cup vegetable broth
2 tablespoons white miso
14 ounces soft tofu, drained, patted dry and cubed
8 cups mesclun (about 3 ounces)
4 cups pea shoots (about 5 ounces)
Put the sesame seeds in a medium dry skillet and toast over medium heat, stirring often, until golden, about 8 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
Puree the vegetable oil and chives in a blender until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the ginger and 1/2 teaspoon salt and pulse just to combine. Set aside.
Whisk together the vegetable broth and miso with a pinch of salt in a large bowl until smooth. Remove 3 tablespoons to another bowl and gently toss the tofu with the dressing. Add the mesclun and pea shoots to the bowl with the remaining miso dressing and toss to combine and coat. Season with salt.
Divide the lettuce among 4 plates and top with the tofu. Drizzle with the chive ginger oil and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
Did you know? It's not just Meatless Monday, it's also cyber Monday, historically the biggest online shopping day of the year. Whether you're shopping for your friends and family today, or taking advantage of the deals to get yourself some pre-Christmas gifts, you shouldn't waste your workday surfing aimlessly. Check out some gifts with purpose:
- 8 Gift Ideas for the Meatless Monday Fanatic
- Gifts for the Health-Conscious Cook
- 32 Gifts for Food Lovers (chosen by Cooking Channel stars and staff)
More Meatless Monday Recipes:
- Veggie Burgers That Aren't from a Box
- Grilled Squash Quesadillas
- Kelsey's Ratatouille Tart
- Zucchini-Pear Soup
- Tomato-Bread Salad (aka Panzanella)
- Rigatoni With Creamy Eggplant and Mozzarella
- Cauliflower Mac and Cheese
- Green Beans With Paneer in Tomato Sauce
- Black Bean Chili
- Wheat Berry Salad
- Pasta With Butternut Squash and Tomatoes
- Carrot Cake Pancakes
- Double-Decker Coffin Sandwiches
- Three Cheese Caprese Calzone
- Vegetable Chow Mein
- Marinara Pasta


text:
MORE than 1,300 desperate people have gone cap-in-hand to Worcester City Council to plead for items like food vouchers, furniture, microwaves and beds in the last year.
Your Worcester News can reveal how a new Government-funded £445,000 pot to help vulnerable people has been inundated with applications.
And rather than easing off, the numbers of people trying to get help from it have surged in recent months, flying in the face of the economic recovery.
One year ago the city council launched the Welfare Assistance Scheme, managing it for Worcester, Malvern and Wychavon.
The fund is worth nearly £900,000 in total and is designed to last for two years, running until April 2015.
It is a discretionary scheme, and offers help with basic day-to-day living for those deemed to be in genuine crisis.
Rather than cash it works around vouchers, which are handed out for food, white goods like washing machines and fridge freezers, and even energy bills.
Up to the end of February 1,371 people applied to it, with 1,287 applications approved.
In May last year just 80 people applied for it, but it has steadily increased since then and hit a record monthly high of 175 in January.
Of the 1,287 successful applicants 946 were from Worcester, compared to just 270 in Wychavon and 155 in Malvern.
The city council now says it expects the cash to be "fully spent" by the end of next year, and is desperate for it to be extended.
Prior to April 2013 crisis loans were issued via the Department for Work and Pensions, but the Government decided to ask councils to take on responsibility amid concerns the old system was not working very well.
The city's Labour leadership says it is alarmed by the findings, as the scheme is considered one of "last resort".
In Worcester 44 per cent of vouchers went towards household items, 31 per cent energy costs and 25 per cent on food.
Councillor Roger Berry, cabinet member for health and well-being said: "I was a social worker for most of my working life and I know how difficult crisis loans were to get.
"The city obviously inherited this scheme from the Government and the fact the money for year one is nearly all gone is a tribute to the staff.
"But the big question is what happens at the end of those two years, we've got to lobby our parliamentarians and I've already written to Robin Walker to ask that it continue."
Mr Walker said: "It's obviously an example of where a scheme has worked well and I'll be happy to take it up with Government."