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Anmeldt av en hotels.com-gjest den feb 27, 2013
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""Anmeldt av en hotels.com-gjest den feb 21, 2013
Bra hotell til grei pris, med sentral beliggenhet i rolig strøk
Anmeldt av en hotels.com-gjest den feb 18, 2013
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"Svært godt og rimelig"Anmeldt av en hotels.com-gjest den feb 14, 2013
Fine lokaliteter, godt renhold og hyggelig betjening. Minus for AC på rommet som ga mye lyd fra seg. Sentral beliggenhet, men et stykke å gå til "inner Stadt"- undergrunn greit alternativ. Flott frokostbuffe!
Det kan pålegges gebyr for ekstra personer, og dette gebyret kan variere avhengig av hotellets egne regler.
Legitimasjon med bilde utstedt av offentlig myndighet, og kredittkort eller depositum kreves ved innsjekking for diverse avgiftsbelagte tjenester.
Spesielle forespørsler avhenger av tilgjengelighet ved innsjekking og kan føre til tilleggsgebyrer. Spesielle forespørsler kan ikke garanteres.
Dette hotellet tilbyr ingen tilgjengelighetsfasiliteter. Velg et annet hotell dersom du ønsker å bestille et rom med tilgjengelighetsfasiliteter.
Fritidsaktivitetene som er oppført nedenfor, er tilgjengelige enten på hotellet eller i nærområdet. Avgifter kan tilkomme.
Om ikke annet er angitt inngår ikke kostnadene nedenfor i romprisen. Dersom de ikke inngår i prisen, må gjesten betale ved innsjekking eller utsjekking. Kostnadene kan variere avhenging av blant annet oppholdets lengde eller romtypen som bestilles. Vi har blitt informert om at du kommer til å debiteres følgende:
Vi har tatt med alle kostnadene hotellet har oppgitt til oss. Kostnadene kan imidlertid variere, for eksempel avhengig av lengden på oppholdet og rommet du bestiller.
Følgende gebyrer og depositum kan pålegges av hotellet på tidspunktet for tjenesteytelsen, ved innsjekking eller ved utsjekking.
Listen over er ikke fullstendig. Det kan hende at gebyrer og depositum ikke inkluderer skatter og avgifter, og det tas forbehold om endringer.
Det kan pålegges gebyr for ekstra personer, og dette gebyret kan variere avhengig av hotellets egne regler.
Legitimasjon med bilde utstedt av offentlig myndighet, og kredittkort eller depositum kreves ved innsjekking for diverse avgiftsbelagte tjenester.
Spesielle forespørsler avhenger av tilgjengelighet ved innsjekking og kan føre til tilleggsgebyrer. Spesielle forespørsler kan ikke garanteres.
De fleste som reiser til Wien, vil tilbringe mesteparten av tiden med å utforske Innenstadt (sentrum). Sentrum er ryddig avgrenset av Ringstrasse, og er hovedsakelig stengt for biltrafikk, med smale brosteinsgater og middelaldertorg. Byens viktigste landemerke er det gotiske spiret på Stefansdomen, og blant hovedattraksjonene kan nevnes Hofburg slott og den spanske rideskolen.
se alle hotellene i Wien"Sjarmerende hotell med personlighet"
Bra hotell med særpreg. Meget god beliggenhet, gangavstand til flytog, U-bane, trikk, buss etc. Gangavstand også til sentrum (noe lenger).Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Super beliggenhet. Koselig hotell."
Alt i alt var vi veldig fornøyd med dette hotellet. Frokosten var super, service tilfredsstillende, rommene var koselige, om enn kanskje noe lytt (men ikke helt krise) og beliggenheten er genial i forhold til sentrum. Ligger i gåavstand til alt.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
Ok Hotell, men frokostfasiliteter var ikkje gode.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Rimelig ok hotell"
Ok rimelig hotell. Koselige rom. Ikke kjøleskap på rommet. Særdeles lytt mellom rommene og ut i korridoren, alt hørtes inn på rommet. Alt i alt helt ok i forhold til pris.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
Veldig fornøyd! Flott, hyggelig rom og bra beliggenhet.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Hotel Pension-Arenberg, Wien"
Sentralt og billig. God service og frukost. Ulempen for meg var at rommet var rett ved sidan av resepsjonen, der ogso frukosten inntas. Pga dårleg lydisolasjon, vart eg vekt før kl.06.00 om morgonen av støy i samband med tillaging av frukost etc. Viss bedre lydisolerte rom, ville eg valt hotellet igjen.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Hotel-Pension Arenberg - meget sentral beliggenhet"
Dette hotellet ligger langs den indre ringveien, i gangavstand til Wiens historiske sentrum med mange severdigheter, restauranter osv. Hotellet er lite og trivelig med svært hyggelig betjening og god frokostbuffet.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Good breakfast poor wifi"
The hotel is about 10 minutes walk from the airport train terminal. Access to reception is awkward. Reception is on the 2 nd floor of an apartment building and the door to the building is locked. It is necessary to ring reception from outside first. Breakfast excellent. The room was clean and comfortable. The wifi reception was poor. None at all from […] my room, sporadic from the reception area. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"congress in vienna"
the hotel is situated in a convenient place very close to the center, but compering with other best western hotels the comfort is not the sameVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"very helpful staff"
We were very satisfied with the hotel service and locationVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Nice hotel conveniently located."
Thoroughly enjoyed staying at the hotel with my 9-year old daughter on her first visit to Vienna.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Convenient location, friendly staff"
Convenient location, friendly staff and good breakfast Free Internet, however wifi signal was weak/unreliable Very limited parking availableVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Nice hotel, good location, ok staff"
Stayed at this hotel in May 2013. The hotel was in a great location, within walking distance of all the main areas but still in an area that was quieter. Breakfast had lots of options and was good. Coffee is available during anytime of the day/night (big bonus for us). They don't have much information on guided tours like some other hotels. The rooms […] were nice and spacious, we were on the first floor of the hotel. We had a balcony but the building was under construction while we were there so we didn't have a view. The staff at the front desk was not very friendly, especially the lady in the mornings. She was not helpful, a little rude and didn't seem to have time for any of the guests, we were not impressed. But the lady helping out with the breakfast was very helpful and friendly. Les merVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"you get what you pay for"
The main advantage of this hotel is its price - it was cheap. Otherwise it's borderline acceptable - you get what you pay for.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Nice Hotel"
Nice Hotel, reasonably good location. It's on the 2nd and 3rd floors of an apartment block so it feels a bit disjointed. The bed was a slat bed which had seen better days but still comfy enough. No hot water during the weekend. They didn't appear to call a plumber until the Monday morning.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Overall Disappointed"
I had a lovely view of a concrete wall. Saw the featured room pictures so I wasn't expecting a fabulous room. But even then I was pretty disappointed. The bonus is at least having a washroom to myself.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
We have just come back from a long weekend in Vienna, I chose Best Western Hotel-Pension Arenberg because of location' I have to say we were not disappointed, the hotel is very central to all the sights, bars, restaurants and public transport, the staff are excellent friendly and very helpful, the room was spacious and spotless clean' and as for the […] breakfast, they had everything you could possibly want. I would definitley give this hotel a big big thumbs up :)))) Martin Les merVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Nice and cozy hotel with ideal location."
Very beautiful and cozy hotel, very nice and friendly cleaning staff. Reception staff however is not so friendly and a bit heavy mind sometimes, e.g. they were unaware about Best Western brochures suggesting to become members of Best Western (we found them in the room set of brochures, catalogs and guides).Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Very Small Rooms in the hotel"
The hotel is conveniently located however the rooms are very small and cramped up, for the price you would not want a very small room. Also the kettle is not available in the room so one cannot have tea or coffee and have to go to the dining room to get hot water etc. The breakfast is good but again the dining room is very small. The reception is located […] on the 3rd floor of the hotel. The first 2 floors are office. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Don't let the entrance scare you away."
We had a great stay here. The staff were great and very helpful.The food was great!The front entrance is small dark and the stairway is unlit. This needs to be resolved as it causes discomfort on your first entry. There were 5 of us and we would recommend it highly. SusanVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Great breakfast - but tiny cramped room for solo"
Its in a great location. As a single traveller, my room was tiny and cramped with no real window and therefore I would say very overpriced for what it was. Air conditioning was good and a relief. Breakfast was the highlight - great variety and choice.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"disappointed with best western for the first time"
in the extreme heat of july the remote control for the airconditioning unit was missing. the room was completely airless. after an hour of trying to sort out the problem they gave us a remote from another room which proved the system was working but then they turned off the air con and took the key away. we had to leave the hotel after that as my 80 […] years old mother was nearly passing out. staff could see my motherˇs condition but refused to assist us with finding another hotel or calling a taxi. Les merVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Good location close to ferry and underground"
Only downside was reception on second floor of apartment block.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
It is really a small apartment hotel and if classed as that it is very satisfactory. Location is excellent. It falls far short of a real four star accomodation.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Incapable receptionist"
The receptionist was unable to transfer calls to my room, because (I was told the next morning) they had not been trained properly to use the equipment.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
Good and would like to stay there again. The decor with tapestry in the room is quite nice. We do not have much negative impression. Perhpas the breakfast room is a bit packed with very little space. It would be good to have a shower curtain instead of a shower screen, because the screen is undersized and water comes out and makes the floor wet.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Not fantastic for a relaxing short brake"
Some hotel staff were friendly and helpful, some were awful. Lady at breakfast begrudged to give us fresh coffee and hot drinks were an issue. Good location by the Danube. Had to walk a bit to find a decent restaurant. Breakfast and room was nice in the hotel. Very strange layout and a funny sort of atmosphere there though ,that will not attract us […] back. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Nice pension, Ringstrasse location"
This was a nice pension and clean. Walls were rather thin but guests seemed middle aged and quiet. I didn't get breakfast but was told it was 18 euro which seems pricey, but it did look like a nice spread. Staff were polite and helpful. Location is a bit of walk to city center (or cathedral) but taking the RingTram was very easy. Free internet worked […] well. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Quiet, comfortable hotel in a great location"
Great location and warm welcome. The room was very comfortable and well furnished - with a luxurious bathroom including bath and separate shower cubicle. The selection and quality of the breakfast was excellent. This small friendly 'Pension' is well worth a visit and makes a pleasant change from larger hotels. There are plenty of restaurants in walking […] distance and the No 1. and No 2. trams stops are only a short walk away - ideal for exploring around the RingStrasse Les merVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Pension Arenberg in Vienna - conveniently located"
Once I got used to being at a hotel on the second and third floors of an old office building, I enjoyed the hotel very much. Because my room faced the back, away from the Ring road, it was very quiet. The staff was very friendly and accommodating. Their breakfast buffet offered an amazing variety of choices and was quite delicious. This small hotel […] is very close to all the sites. It's a 5-minute walk to the Schwedenplatz underground station, and trams pass in front of the hotel which stop near the parks and the museum quarter. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Not Impressed"
First time traveling in Europe, so maybe it is my issue with not understanding the local customs. The hotel concierge was unavailable and the "in case of emergency" helper did not speak English and was no help at all. Toilet (water closet) was the smallest closet I've ever seen. My knees hit the pipe from the sink and my nose was in the door while seated. […] Then the flush resulted in water splashing up and down my legs. Not good. The bedding was a nice comfortable down blanket, but that was the only cover available. If you are taller than 5'4", then you will have a problem with your toes cold in the winter. The blanket was short so I could not cover my arms/shoulders as well as my feet/toes unless I curled into the fetal position. Les merVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Best Western Hotel-Pension Arenberg in Vienna"
This hotel is clean and located in very convenient downtown location. All the stuffs are polite and nice. The rate is reasonable. Will stay again and Will recommend to others.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Small and Friendly"
Good location for both underground and airport [MAT] train. Walking distance to old townand all the central sites plus local restaurants to the hotel if you are tired. Staff very helpful and friendly.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
This hotel is not 4star, closer to a poor 3 or 2 star, even removed our curtains on the last night for drycleaning hence no curtains to block morning sunlight out. Milk sour at breakfast, good choice at breakfast but some of it was sour or off as not refridigated, just left out in a warm lobby. waitress at breakfast rude, reception did try with the […] curtain situation but could not address this issue as all curtains had been removed in every room. Internet service very very poor. Would not recommend this hotel to anyone & suggest expedia do not market it Les merVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Hotel-Pension Arenberg"
Very good location, if a little hard to get to at first, since it's on the third floor. Concierge service isn't that great.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Great deal"
This hotel is a great deal. While it is on the second and third floor of a business building, it has the feel of a bed and breakfast (and a great breakfast, by the way). Staff are very friendly and helpful. Rooms normal size for European hotels. Great location and easy 15 minute walk to Stephenplaz, 10 minute walk from airport bus stop and 10 minute […] walk from underground. Very close to boat that goes to Bratislava, Slovakia (try it--great day trip). If you want a great hotel in Vienna and want to save your money for food and other things, then try this one. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Beautiful Boutique Hotel, Not "Chain Hotel""
This little hotel is far more of a boutique hotel-pension, just as the name implies. There is nothing chain-like about the Arenberg, despite being assoicated with Best Western. The hotel is on the 2nd and 3rd floors in an older building, and while the interior is elegant, the rooms are up to date with very comfortable beds and a great shower. The reception […] staff speak English and are helpful. The breakfast buffet which is included in the room price, is stupendous. On nice days you can eat out on the small terrace, although there are only three cafe tables. The U-Bahn nearest is the Schwedenplatz station and it is very easy to use to get around the city. We made two trips out to Schonnebrun Palace while in Vienna, as well as around the city. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
I was virtually forced to check out early before 12 PM because they were expecting a guest then. Also they quoted a different price to hire a taxi from the hotel. When I reached the airport, the taxi driver demanded a different rate than agreed upon.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"great location"
beware two nights into the stay they attempted to move me to accomadate another traveler, i refused to move and was able to stay in my room. great locationVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Best Western Hotel-Pension Arenberg"
Located within walking distance of the CAT, Hotel Arenberg was ideal for a business stay. The location was within about 15 minutes walking distance of key sights, and the staff were pleasant and helpful. It was a little hard to find initially, as it is located on a one way system - if on foot, DON'T follow the signs and you'll be fine!Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Good Value Good Location"
Was in Vienna for 3 nights with my parents. I picked the hotel based on price and location. Both me and my parents thought the hotel was a good value and especially enjoyed the selections at their breakfast buffet which was included in the price of the room. The location was an easy walk to St Stephan's and many of the sights.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"Small and cosy hotel"
The hotel is very clean and rooms are small but well organized and you don't feel like sleeping in a box. The are is very quiet, no noises from outside. The breakfast is very good and varied. It's very close to the city center, a 10 min walk.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
afordable place to stay. Too small room.Verifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
"B.W. Pension Arenberg- small hotel good location"
Once we got our accomodations straightened out we were comfortable in the Queen rooms. Small hotel with mostly good service. The rooms and bath were clean. The non-smoking room I had smelled of smoke and I had to leave the window open. Not necessarily smoke in the room but not good separation of smoking/non smoking. Breakfast included was good. Location […] was very good - we could walk to most of the attractions. Staff mostly helpful. Self serve mini-bar in lobby on the trust basis. However we were followed and watched when we used it at night. Did not appreciate that. Overall our stay was more positive than negative. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
Ganz gut, central gelegen, sauber. Surpier bequeme Betten, wertvolle Bettdecken und Bettwäsche. Weich und sauber. Gerne wieder.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Junior Suite was excellent choice with 2 children"
Perfect fit to our needs with 2 children. Getting around was easy with trams driving right across the street. Breakfast buffet exceeded all expectations.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
schlechte Betten, sehr abgewohnt, werde ich sicher nicht mehr buchen. Die Lage des Hotels war aber super.Virkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"2 single beds put together is not a king size bed!"
Two single beds put together is not a king size bed! Nice room & good location, great breakfastVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Hyvä hinta/laatusuhde"
Erittäin hyvä yhteys lentokentän ja Wienin keskustan välillä. Mahdollisuus valita joko "cat Express " tai paikallisjuna. Raitiotievaunupysäkki hotellin edessä. Maanalaisen pysäkki parin korttelin päässä. Aamiaistila ei kovin suuri, mutta siisti ja valoisa. Aamiaisbuffet erittäin monipuolinen ja laadukas. Huone korkea ja tilava. Kylpyhuone erittäin siisti. […] Henkilökunta palvelualtis. Les merVirkelige gjesteanmeldelser
"Trevligt hotell"
Lite hårda kuddar och internet, LAN som Wifi, i stort sett oanvändbartVerifisert Expedia-gjesteanmeldelse
Anmeldelser og vurderinger som finnes på dette nettstedet, er kunders og leverandørers personlige oppfatninger. De representerer ikke, og reflekterer ikke, standpunktene til Hotels.com. Verken Hotels.com eller de involverte partene som har levert anmeldelser, skal holdes ansvarlige for eventuelle skader av noe slag som følge av disse anmeldelsene.


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First Presbyterian makes community donations
Russ Naaktgeboren (left), evangelism and mission chairman for the First Presbyterian Church of Princeton, presents a $500 check to Wyanet Food Pantry Director Kathy Crayne for additional supplies for the food pantry. The First Presbyterian Church group distributed $2,000 equally between the food pantries in Spring Valley, Princeton, Sheffield and Wyanet. The church also gave $500 to the Tri-County Opportunities Council to help people with rent or heat needs; $500 to a special needs adult program to buy new tires for a van; $300 to the Bureau County Young Life program; $250 to the Bureau County United Way; $500 to the Princeton Ministerial Association to help individuals and families in need; and $500 to Aaron and Brittany Teske for medical needs for their daughter, Lilly.
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After getting vaccinated, all you can do is hope for the best. Actually, there's plenty you can do. Wash your hands frequently and use a disinfectant to wipe down any shared spaces. If you notice that someone is sniffling, stay about 10 feet away and politely decline shaking hands with or hugging that person, Tierno suggests. And take care of yourself: Getting enough sleep, exercising, and eating a healthy diet will keep your immune system strong, helping to fend off germs.
[See Beyond College Immunizations: How Students Can Avoid Getting Sick.]
Only high-risk folks need the flu shot. False. Everybody needs it. The government recommends that all Americans 6 months and older get vaccinated. It's particularly important for young children, older people, and those with weakened immune systems. "Sometimes the vaccine isn't a perfect match, but at the very least, it provides partial protection," Schaffner says. "That's very important because it keeps a mild illness from turning into a serious one. We see gravely ill people coming into our ER and being sent to the intensive care unit because they weren't vaccinated. If they had been, they might have been at home miserable—but they wouldn't have been on a stretcher or [been] put on a ventilator."


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Mt. Juliet Cafeteria
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Location Details
Fabulous Fern's Bar & Grill
400 Selby Ave
Saint Paul, MN 55102
(651) 225-9414
Saint Paul, MN 55102
(651) 225-9414
Welcome to Fabulous Ferns. Her name sake Fabulous Fern's Bar and Grill is described by the St. Paul Convention and Visitors Bureau as, " Simply the Finest Neighborhood Restaurant and Bar in St. Paul". It began with a photograph by the artist Brassai. Among his well-known images is that of La Mome bijou, or Miss Diamonds, a bejeweled barfly whose life was something of a mystery. "Fern" a woman, part real and part fictional, has become the restaurant?s matriarch. Fern's life revolved around the fine food, beverage, and the love of the nightlife with friends. Nightlife in Paris was full of street fairs with carousels. Fabulous Fern's has been inspired by the history of Fern and the Carousel Horse. Fabulous Fern's offers a wide array of classic dishes, pastas, entr?e salads, and delicious sandw
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The Lounge
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Just over two-and-a-half years ago, Tulsa's police helicopters couldn't get off the ground.
Budget cuts made fueling and maintaining the aircraft difficult to pay for, and the vehicles weren't used for eight months.
"But at the same time, there was a travel funding increase," recalled Councilor G.T. Bynum, who worked to make cuts in travel spending and other areas to ensure funding for the helicopters.
"Ever since that time, I've really made it a point to be a stickler on our employee travel," Bynum said.
Travel again came up during budget talks last year, when Mayor Dewey Bartlett pushed to increase funds for employee travel, citing the benefits of training opportunities, even those held outside Tulsa.
But Bynum described the discussion as revealing a lack of knowledge about city travel.
"It became very clear that no one actually knew what any of this money was being used for," Bynum said. While Bartlett made the case for more funding for training opportunities, Bynum found the documentation to be lacking.
In response to this concern, a new executive order signed last month requires new forms that must be filed for city employee travel. Bynum worked with City Manager Jim Twombly to develop the forms, which Bynum said will add a layer of information about the actual money spent on travel while also requiring employees to report what they gained from their travel experience.
In the twelve-month period ending June 30, the city spent $532,000 in travel-related expenses for employees in all city departments, with the money paying for 635 trips.
Bynum said he didn't have any knowledge of inappropriate spending by employees, but instead stressed how the new documentation will help better guide future budget decisions.
"The long-term benefit of this will be that it allows policymakers to have a better handle on how funds for employee travel are being used. Rather than us guessing and theorizing, we'll actually know," Bynum said.
Other public agencies have at times found themselves in hot water over travel spending practices.
A state audit released Jan. 22 of the Emergency Medical Services Authority criticized the agency for reimbursing expenses "the general public would consider unwarranted and extravagant," citing expenses the agency's Chief Executive Officer Stephen Williamson incurred such as spa services, subscriptions to satellite radio, and membership to the American Airlines Admirals Club, which allows travelers access to a lounge area at airports.
The audit also criticized more workaday flaws with the agency as it relates to travel. "In many cases we observed a lack of documentation justifying employee expenses; for example, travel reimbursements did not always explain the purpose of the trip or need for items purchased during the trip, and no written justification was provided for use of rental cars," auditors stated.
The new one-page "Post Travel Report" requires city employees to list "any certificates, licenses, or continuing education credits received," as well as to list "sessions, workshops, or training attended."
Asked how the city determines whether travel is necessary, city spokeswoman Michelle Allen provided a statement noting that such travel "is necessary to maintain required licenses, or other professional requirements."
The statement continued: "We also look at if the information the employee will bring back and if it will enhance city operations. We also look at if similar training can occur without travel and if so why is the travel necessary."
Planning for travel expenses varies by department. According to Allen, while most departments have a "travel and training" budget, others do not, and the existence of such budgets varies from year to year.
"Having said that, just because a department does not have money appropriated to a travel account at the beginning of the year, does not necessarily mean travel does not occur. The travel accounts are part of a larger series of accounts (other services) that 'draw' on each other," Allen wrote in an email. "This means a department director can use savings in other accounts to pay for travel and training that was not part of the original budget."
Travel for law enforcement training made up 18 percent of the city's total travel expenditures in fiscal year 2012. Such training also has a sort of built-in fundraising mechanism, however. By state law, Tulsa can use $2.00 from each court fine over $10.00, not including parking tickets, to fund such training.
The city's fiscal year begins July 1 and ends June 30.
Bynum noted that he successfully pushed to keep the city's travel spending from increasing in the current budget. The council voted 5-4 in June to keep budget funding constant, despite protestations from some councilors and Bartlett.
"If we can train our own employees ... we can avoid hiring more consultants," Bartlett told the council in June.
Bartlett did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the executive order, which was actually signed by Twombly acting as mayor pro tem.
The most recent executive order states that it applies to "all officers and employees appointed and supervised and removed by the Mayor of the City of Tulsa."
The policy does not cover the city council, which has its own travel policy.
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text:
Farouk al-Halabi
Afraid of sniper fire, women run near the Garage al-Hajz checkpoint -- the only crossing point in the divided city of Aleppo. Every day people in the war-torn city risk the dangerous journey across the front line to get vital supplies of food and other goods, such as soap and toothpaste.
ALEPPO, Syria – The daily struggle for food has become a deadly game of cat and mouse for civilians in the Syrian city of Aleppo, as they are being forced to dodge sniper bullets to buy bare necessities.
Dubbed the "death crossing" by locals, the front line between forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who are estimated to control just over half of the city, and the rebels seeking his overthrow, has become a no man's land for civilians trying to get to the city's market.
Muzaffar Salman / Reuters
People walk past a makeshift barricade at the Garage al-Hajz crossing, a passageway separating the rebel-controlled Bustan al-Qaser district from the regime-controlled Al-Masharqa neighborhood, in Aleppo on July 18, 2013.
Every day, thousands try to cross the bombed out remains of the city's once vibrant Bustan al-Qaser district, but when they reach the Garage al-Hajz checkpoint – the only crossing point in the city – they know that silent assassins loyal to the Syrian government are lying in wait.
On the ground, people tell NBC News that government snipers are taking potshots at ordinary civilians.
"They killed a lot of civilians and a large number were wounded," a local coordinator in the Bustan al-Qaser neighborhood, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told NBC News. "But people are risking their lives to get food."
Farouk al-Halabi
The road can be open all day or just for a few hours, depending on the activity of the snipers.
He added that residents had implored fighters from the opposition Free Syrian Army to open a small crossing after they moved into al-Rashdeen neighborhood, cutting off the market from people on the regime-held side of the city.
But with fighters from both sides nearby, the danger of being caught in the crossfire from opposition militants shooting back at the snipers is incredibly high.
Mohammed, a lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals, lives on the regime side of the city. He said he witnessed a young man die next to him as his identity was being checked by officials.
"A regime sniper opened fire on the people passing by," he said. "He killed a young man in front of my eyes. I could have been killed instead."
But he added that his critically ill mother is living with his brother on the rebel-held side of the city, so he had no choice but to run the gauntlet.
Farouk al-Halabi
Multiple brands of cigarettes are available for sale in rebel-held districts of Aleppo, but the price has increased dramatically since the start of the conflict.
Nariman, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that when her father and little brother failed to return from a trip to the market, her family feared the worst.
"My mother cried and said goodbye to them as if we would never see them again," said the 24-year-old student, who also lives in regime held territory.
"We were never so afraid, it's too dangerous there," she added.
Fortunately her father had just been held up by army officials and eventually returned with some bread, vegetables, toothpaste, soap and other things.
"I do not even remember the last time I ate meat," she said, adding that inflation is rocketing as supplies become scarce.
Farouk al-Halabi
Many schools in rebel-held areas of Aleppo are closed, with the buildings in use as bases for the opposition Free Syrian Army or as shelters for refugee families. Many children are working to earn money for their families, and some are also having to make the perilous journey across Aleppo's front lines to buy and sell goods.
Even those who manage to cross safely are viewed with suspicion and interrogated when they arrive.
Mohammed said officers on both sides had used "obscene words" and accused him of spying when they quizzed him about his reasons for crossing the city.
"Why would women and children and even elderly people risk their lives?" he said. "I think the answer is very simple. Because you are compelled."
Farouk al-Halabi
An elderly woman is transported by cart in Aleppo. Those in need of medical treatment have to be taken across the front line to hospital in a government-held district of the city.
- Syrian opposition: Assad's forces advance into rebel-held district of Damascus
- Pakinstani Taliban: 'We sent hundreds of fighters' to Syria
- Report: Syria rebels say al Qaeda attack opens new front in war
- 'They can't succeed without us': Women take front-line role in Syria conflict


text:
Shots - Health News
Human Cases Of Bird Flu In China Draw Scrutiny
April 5, 2013 Sixteen cases of a new flu in China have touched off a major effort to determine what kind of threat it might be. Flu experts want to know where the H7N9 virus is coming from and how it gets around.
Shots - Health News
China's Air Pollution Linked To Millions Of Early Deaths
April 2, 2013 About 1.2 million people die prematurely every year in China from exposure to outdoor air pollution. Smog has dogged the country as it grows at an explosive rate and burns huge quantities of fossil fuels. But there are signs that the government is beginning to take the issue more seriously.
The Two-Way
Hard Times At Apple: Apology To China Comes As Stock Slides
April 1, 2013 In an unusual move on Monday, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized to Chinese customers over the company's warranty policy and vowed to improve customer service in the country.
The Two-Way
Emerging Nations To Set Up Development Bank
March 27, 2013 The bank would fund infrastructure projects in emerging and developing countries. But the leaders of the BRICS nations — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — were unable to agree on how much capital such a bank would need.
The Two-Way
VIDEO: Bus Driver Keeps His Head As Light Pole Smashes Through Windshield
March 27, 2013 Surveillance video captured the scary scene when a bus in China came upon a fallen light pole. Driver Mao Zhihao was nearly skewered. But he managed to duck in time, stop the bus and get his passengers to safety.
The Salt
Shanghai's Dead Pigs: Search For Answers Turns Up Denials
March 14, 2013 The discovery of thousands of dead pigs floating in the waters around Shanghai has turned up disturbing reports: of pig dumping and the sale of meat from diseased animals among pig farmers. In the village where some of the pigs came from, we found serial denials.
The Two-Way
Life Of A Chinese Hacker: Work Is Awful, Pay Is Lousy, Boss Doesn't Understand
March 13, 2013 The Los Angeles Times looks at the blog posts written over a 4-year period by "Rocy Bird," who told tales of what it's like inside a People's Liberation Army hacking unit.
The Two-Way
Tibetan Customs Include Horse Races ... And Paramilitary Police?
March 11, 2013 Inside China, Tibetan "customs" include the Nagqu horse festival, complete with state-sponsored repression. At least that's what's on display in an exhibit at the National Museum Of China.
The Two-Way
China's Citizens Hide As Much As $2.34 Trillion In Income, Researcher Says
March 7, 2013 China's citizens do not report as much as $2.34 trillion of what they make every year, hiding "gray income" that represents nearly 20 percent of the country's GDP, Chinese economics scholar Wang Xiaolu says, in a report from the news site Global Voices.
The Two-Way
In China, Baby's Brutal Death Raises Questions For Many About Nation's Values
March 6, 2013 Two car thefts, one in the U.S. and one in China, have transfixed many in China. In both cases, babies were in the vehicles. The American case ended happily when the thief phoned police to tell them where to find the child. In China, the suspect has confessed to killing little Haobo.
The Salt
China's Horses May End Up In Russia's Kabobs
February 28, 2013 The horse meat scandal might be playing out in Europe, but China is the biggest producer in the global market for horseflesh, a new infographic reveals.
The Two-Way
In China, Not Everything Has Changed
February 24, 2013 China has transformed itself in recent years. But for an NPR reporter now on his second tour of the country, some things, like re-education through labor camps, remain the same.
The Two-Way
A Chinese Army Outpost That's Tucked Into Modern Shanghai
February 19, 2013 The Chinese military unit allegedly behind cyberattacks on U.S. firms works out of a nondescript office tower in a Shanghai neighborhood that's modern, but considered a little bland.
The Two-Way
Chinese Students Wore Uniforms With Cancer-Causing Dyes
February 18, 2013 Students in 21 schools in Shanghai were ordered to stop wearing uniforms that were found to contain the dye. The incident is the latest in quality-related hazards in the country.
The Two-Way
Chinese 'Pingpong Diplomacy' Player Dies
February 10, 2013 Zhuang Zedong's gift to an American table tennis player paved the way for President Nixon's groundbreaking visit to China. Zhuang was 73.


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bounty program
And I, for one, think everyone got exactly what they deserve.
bounty program
For the New Orleans Saints, it wasn't just if they'd win or lose, but how much money they'd illegally earn for knocking opponents out of the game.
And I didn't stop crying the entire game.
If you root for one team tomorrow, please make it the San Francisco 49ers. DO IT FOR ME.


text:
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basketball wonkery
Unverified Voracity Has Smart, Is Determination
Totem animal qualities. I thought this was an interesting shot from the extensive ESPN galleries put up in and around the OSU/Indiana games. It's a switch board; each player has an abstract quality they would like to embody they are supposed to dwell on:
Yes, it bothers me that some of these things are qualities one can possess—toughness, perspective, pose—and others are not. You cannot have "smart"; You can be smart. One can have determination; you cannot be determination.
Given the WE ON shirts, we can put grammar next to drawing free throw attempts as Michigan's main weaknesses.
Trice nyet. Travis Trice will miss The Big Game tonight. That leaves MSU with little on their perimeter bench other than Denzel Valentine, a slick-passing wing type with a whopping 31 in the TOrate department. So maybe not as slick passing as you'd hope if you're Tom Izzo. MSU also has Russell Byrd, who's like Stauskas if Stauskas was hitting 18% of his threes.
Expect both backcourts to get scant rest, then. Projected MSU minutes without at least one of Appling/Harris: 0. Impact won't be large except in the unlikely event that Harris or Appling gets in foul trouble.
In the negative column, it doesn't seem like Jordan Morgan will be available, either, after Michigan "shut him down."
Foul: nyet? The foul-or-defend up three late discussion has been raging for years, to the point where Ken Pomeroy's effort starts its title with "Yet another. " Most studies show there's little difference; further most give the slight edge to playing D. Kenpom's results:
W L OT Win% Cases Foul 122 5 10 92.7 137 Defend 598 2 77 94.0 677
That gap is narrow enough that the gap could be chance, but you can say that there's no evidence fouling is better in practice. Note that Michigan's recent misfortune does not make these statistics since this data only covers possessions that start with between 5 and 12 seconds on the clock, which will no doubt give our local Bo Ryans the wiggle room to say this does not apply. While I'm still on Team Foul, the margins here are so narrow that it doesn't seem that important. Certainly less important than the pending invasion of the planet.
I mean, NBA types are two of 64 on similar shots since 1996. Debating whether or not that late game strategy is correct is like debating whether the windows are ready for a hurricane when you live in Michigan.
More games: da. We've heard it before only to have it go poof, but yet another round of stories endorsing a nine or ten game conference schedule has burst onto the internet, leaving a legendary trail of leadership viscera behind:
After spending Monday in meetings with coaches and athletic directors at conference headquarters in Park Ridge, Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany told the Tribune the status quo of eight conference games "is not even on the table right now."
It will be nine or 10, with the decision to be made this spring.
Insert the usual AD assertions that without seven home games they will have to dress all of their teams in sackcloth and ashes, but it looks like at least nine games are on the way.
Also on the table: November night games, early conference games, and the usual chatter about having an East-West split. The bizarre bit in there:
Central time zone schools Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Northwestern could be joined by Indiana, Purdue, Michigan or Michigan State. Delany said the conference would try to "figure out a way" to maintain rivalries between in-state schools.
Michigan State keeps getting lumped in with the schools that could be put in the other division… and Michigan is actually in here as well. No further words need to be spent on how dumb it is to have Michigan and Ohio State in opposite divisions; assuming that's not the case, hopefully MSU isn't allowed to nonsensically flee the division Michigan is in and expect to maintain an annual rivalry with them.
A little more detail on the divisions model that seems to have the most favor this instant:
Although the Big Ten presented the athletic directors -- and several university presidents who came to the league office Sunday -- with several models for divisions, don't be surprised if the league decides to keep things simple with an East-West alignment following the additions of both Maryland and Rutgers in 2014. The simplest solution -- one the athletic directors are discussing -- is to assign teams based on their time zone (Eastern or Central).
The lone caveat: there will be eight Big Ten teams in the Eastern time zone -- Maryland, Rutgers, Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana and Purdue -- and only six in the Central time zone (Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Northwestern and Illinois). So one team from the Eastern time zone would need to move.
That article from Rittenberg also plays up the possibility that Michigan State will end up in the other division. This would either stick Michigan with a protected crossover—thus trading games against interesting teams in the other division for constant Purdue/Indiana games—or bust up the in-state rivalry. Neither is appealing. Let us condemn Michigan State's Rose Bowl hopes to death and keep them in the East.
The worst part about this is I can no longer dump on Indiana State as much. Indiana State, of course, submitted an override to the barely-passed multi-year scholarship legislation reading as such:
The current system works. We don't need to get into bidding wars where one school offers a $75% for 2 years and the other school then offers 85% for 3, etc., etc. This puts the kid into a situation where they almost need an agent/advisor just to determine the best "deal." Again, if it isn't broke, don't fix it. [Indiana State]
Since I've used the tree people as the primary example of why the NCAA's governance structure is permanently broken: programs with nothing in common with each other are under one large dumb tent. So I am dissapoint, Big Ten, that you are trying to fight the recent recruiting deregulation:
We are specifically concerned with the following three proposals and ask that they be tabled along with Proposal 13-2:
Proposal 11-2: Athletics Personnel - Limitations on the Number and Duties of Coaches - Elimination of Recruiting Coordination Functions
Proposal 13-3: Recruiting - Deregulation of Modes and Numerical Limitations on Communication
Proposal 13-5-A: Recruiting - Elimination of Printed Recruiting Materials and Video/Audio Legislation
We have serious concerns whether these proposals, as currently written, are in the best interest of high school student-athletes, their families and their coaches. We are also concerned about the adverse effect they would have on college coaches, administrators and university resources.
There's nothing in the first and last proposals that has material impact on prospects or their associated hangers-on, and the horrors of communications deregulation seem eminently preventable. "Hello, Coach X. Please limit your contacts with me to X in timeframe Y, or I will not consider your school." Or, like, turn your phone off when you don't want to use it.
The assertions about "adverse effects" on people in the athletic department who now have to hire "u r gud art fertbar"-texting interns and print glossy media guides are more credible, but shortsighted. If you want to play on level ground on the big stuff you have to let the NCAA dump big sections of meaningless secondary violations.
In the building. Zack Novak returns to the scene of the Aneurysm of Leadership tonight:
"It's going to be so weird, I've only been to one Michigan basketball game in my life watching it, it's going to be odd," Novak said by phone Monday. "But I know this would be a big win for them, and I know they'll be ready to go.
"I know it's disheartening to lose a game the way they did at Wisconsin, but it's a great opportunity for them to go in and get a win on the road at Michigan State. That would totally bring the team's psyche right back to where it needs to be. It'd get their swagger back, and that's big."
His team in Holland has a week break.
Ondre is smaller. Down to 315 from 347.
Etc.: Four down at Alabama, leaving just six left to cut. Tifos at Georgetown. The Daily bombs hockey after suffering yet another sweep. Twice. Michigan's commits are lighting up high school basketball—Derrick Walton has had triple-doubles in two of his last three games, and Irvin puts up 30 a game it seems. Paterno business is "200 pages of nothing." Hate quantified. Players only.
How Much Of A Problem Is Michigan's Defense?
The mantra that "defense wins championships" isn't restricted to football, and that's starting to get kicked around as a potential problem for Michigan when the bullets start flying in March. Luke Winn gets the first kick at the can by leaving them out of a five-deep Prime Title Contenders tier in his recent column:
You might be asking, what about Michigan? If the Wolverines' profile stays the same, they could be the most interesting test-case of this NCAA tournament. They have the nation's best offense but only the No. 45 defense -- not red-flag-worthy, but well worse than any champ from the past 10 years. Michigan cutting down the nets in Atlanta would be a breakthrough statement for the power of offense.
Despite not playing, Michigan has risen to 39th since he put up his column. There is plenty of time for Michigan to get right in this metric.
But let's say they finish the season about where they are now. This seems like something of an issue. Winn assembled the last ten years of Elite Eight teams and found that relatively few found themselves outside of the top 25 in defensive efficiency.
If Michigan was to make the Final Four with its current defensive numbers they would be better than only four teams in the past ten years—the dual outsiders from a couple years back, Dwyane Wade's Marquette team, and TJ Ford's Texas team. Those are kind of grim odds.
However, not many of the teams to make it were the #1 offense in the country, either. And the ranks can be misleading here. As mentioned, they have slid up six spots whilst eating cheeseburgers the last few days, and if they were to shave a single bucket off 100 Hypothetical Opponent possessions, they'd leap up another 11 spots. The margins here are slim.
Meanwhile Michigan is leading the charts on offense by a mile. Their adjusted efficiency is 3.6 points clear of #2 Florida. You could hack off 3.5 points of that, toss it on Michigan's defensive numbers, and come up with a pairing of the country's #1 offense with the 16th-best defense and then you're looking at a tier I contender, no questions asked.
The point is that maybe the margins matter here, and the wheat gets separated from the chaff by differential. How does Michigan stack up there? Pretty well.
Team | Conf | Adjusted Offensive Efficiency | AOE RK | Adjusted Defensive Efficiency | DOE RK | Efficiency Differential |
Florida | SEC | 121.7 | 2 | 80.8 | 2 | 40.9 |
Michigan | B10 | 125.3 | 1 | 90.2 | 39 | 35.1 |
Indiana | B10 | 121.1 | 4 | 86.6 | 15 | 34.5 |
Louisville | BE | 115.1 | 13 | 80.8 | 1 | 34.3 |
Duke | ACC | 117.4 | 8 | 83.5 | 4 | 33.9 |
Minnesota | B10 | 118.6 | 6 | 88.1 | 27 | 30.5 |
Syracuse | BE | 114.5 | 14 | 84.6 | 7 | 29.9 |
Pittsburgh | BE | 117.3 | 9 | 87.7 | 21 | 29.6 |
Kansas | B12 | 113.2 | 17 | 84.1 | 5 | 29.1 |
Gonzaga | WCC | 121.4 | 3 | 93.6 | 76 | 27.8 |
Arizona | P12 | 115.8 | 12 | 88 | 25 | 27.8 |
Creighton | MVC | 120.3 | 5 | 92.6 | 59 | 27.7 |
Ohio St. | B10 | 112.7 | 19 | 85.5 | 8 | 27.2 |
Wisconsin | B10 | 112.3 | 22 | 86.7 | 16 | 25.6 |
Kentucky | SEC | 110.7 | 29 | 87.7 | 22 | 23 |
Cincinnati | BE | 108.4 | 43 | 86.3 | 12 | 22.1 |
Colo St | MWC | 113.7 | 16 | 91.7 | 50 | 22 |
Mich St. | B10 | 109.7 | 35 | 87.8 | 24 | 21.9 |
[numbers collected before last night's games, so this overrates Louisville a little.]
Florida has wrecked everyone they've played save K-State and Arizona and are far-and-away leaders here; Michigan is second. This is pretty close to the Kenpom rankings themselves, obviously.
Defense Wins Just As Much Championship As Offense
First: the Defense Wins Championships cliché doesn't stand up. I took Winn's data set, grabbed their year-end adjusted efficiency numbers, and got their efficiency differentials. I gave each team a point for each win they acquired after reaching the elite eight (3 for the champ, 2 for the runner up, etc.), and then acquired r values* between those three metrics of quality and wins. Over the decade-long sample there is basically no difference between offense and defense when it comes to acquiring wins—offense is actually ahead fractionally—and looking at the two metrics together is significantly more predictive:
- AOE R value: 0.28
- DOE R value: 0.26
- Efficiency Differential R value: 0.39
If you were so inclined you could argue that there's a winnowing effect that prevents poor defensive teams from reaching the Elite Eight, but then you're trying to find a mechanism that works for the first three games of the NCAA tournament only to abandon teams in the crunch—not likely.
I like this result. It is intuitive. It implies that scoring two points at one end is as valuable as preventing two at the other. It won't get me on Malcolm Gladwell's Christmas card list or acquire me a professorship at Princeton, but unlike the things that do bring those benefits this result makes sense.
So… as long as Michigan's efficiency differential remains sky high, they've got as good a shot at the title as anyone. Except Florida. Long way to go, obviously; if Michigan ends the season as they stand today they should be amongst the title favorites.
*[A brief word on R values: these are not significant, but something can be suggestive without reaching levels of statistical rigor necessary to declare you've found the Higgs Boson. In this case they're just one datapoint we are making a reasonable argument with, instead of flogging ridiculous things like David Berri does. As always, R can change wildly depending on the parameters you set.]
I took the top eight teams so far this year and threw them in with the 80 teams already in this sample and ranked by efficiency margin. There's good news and bad there. The good: Michigan is a notch above last year's Kentucky outfit! The bad: Florida is #2 in the entire sample, behind only the dominant Kansas title team in 2008 and just ahead of the dominant UNC title team in 2005. Florida is ridiculous right now.
Everyone looks good, in fact. Five of the eight teams from this year are in the top quarter of the sample and all are in the top half. I assume there's a flattening effect that goes on as conference play and mean regression brings high-fliers to earth; also this group of teams has not been ruthlessly culled by the VCUs and Butlers of the world. Strong teams also cry, Mr. Lebowski.
The table is after the jump for anyone so inclined.
Mailbag: Allowing Threes, Height == Rebounding?, Why Pulling Is Hard
As you've referenced with KenPom's research several times, it would appear that the best way to defend the 3 point shot is to keep your opponent from shooting them at all. Unfortunately, according to an ESPN insider article, Michigan is allowing its opponents to shoot them on 36.9% of their possessions, which ranks 295th in the nation. Does this concern you? I think we would all hate to see Michigan beaten in the tournament by a less talented opponent with a hot hand from deep because they can't prevent teams from getting off 3 pointers.
Somewhat. The nice thing about Michigan's defense is how few shots at the rim they give up. Michigan's forcing more two-point jumpers than any team in the league except Nebraska:
Team Defensive Summary
Shot Type |
% of shots |
% of Shots Blocked |
Unblocked FG% |
At Rim |
25% |
62% |
10% |
69% |
2pt Jumpers |
39% |
35% |
5% |
37% |
3pt Shots |
36% |
32% |
1% |
32% |
The conference:
Team | Rim | 2PT | 3PT |
Nebraska | 24 | 46 | 30 |
Michigan | 25 | 39 | 36 |
Indiana | 26 | 37 | 36 |
Iowa | 27 | 38 | 34 |
Minnesota | 29 | 39 | 32 |
Penn State | 31 | 30 | 40 |
Purdue | 33 | 41 | 26 |
Wisconsin | 33 | 42 | 26 |
Illinois | 34 | 31 | 35 |
Northwestern | 39 | 30 | 31 |
Insofar as shots are migrating to three-pointers, they're shots at the rim. So… that's okay. Ideally you'd like to see that Nebraska shot configuration, but to do that the Huskers give up on the idea of offensive rebounding and steals.
I'm not sure what Michigan can do to improve their defense at this point. Forcing a lot of jumpers plus their defensive rebounding and lack of fouls has propped their defense up, and that's about all they can do. They don't have a shotblocker—at least right now, maybe Horford can provide some of that later in the season—or an elite perimeter defender. They rotate out on pick and rolls to prevent guys getting to the basket, and then you have to start rotating away from the corners. Threes inevitably result… if you're not Wisconsin.
As for the tourney, it will be tough for any major underdog to keep up with Michigan's offense, but a second or third round matchup against a good defensive team that takes and hits a lot of threes would be worrisome.
Whenever Michigan gets a 3-star recruit earlier in the process, there tends to be widespread complaining about taking up scholarships that could be filled by more highly rated players. The general response to that is, "I trust the coaches to evaluate players." This got me to thinking that most major programs essentially have their pick of just about any three star player that they want.
My question is, do three star and lower players who go to major programs perform better on average than the total population of three star players?
I understand it would be hard to distinguish between a three star player taken for depth/filling out a roster purposes compared to a three star player who the coaches think are better than their ranking, but I thought it might be an interesting topic to explore.
I'd guess it's actually worse since there's more competition and recruiting sites give recruits at the bottom end of the scale a courtesy bump to three stars 90% of the time a nobody commits to a power program.
At Purdue, everyone is a three-star player and someone has to be relied upon; sometimes you get Kawann Short. At Michigan—at least at Michigan in the near future—the three star is going to have to climb over some other guys to get on the field.
I do think that there is a big difference between a recruitment like Reon Dawson—who Michigan clearly grabbed to fill a previously designated spot that was vacated—or Da'Mario Jones—seemingly offered once Treadwell flitted off—and Channing Stribling, who Michigan liked at camp and then had a very nice senior year. To put in in Gruden terms, did Michigan want THIS GUY or just A GUY?
In your post, "Aging in a Loop", you mentioned how the solid defensive rebounding performance in Columbus proves that we are for real on the boards this year. I agree completely, but it got me wondering how much of that has to do with our sudden ability to actually have three to four non-midgets (relative use of the term, I get it) on the floor at once. I can't remember too many Michigan teams having anything resembling a luxury of length in quite some time.
Have ever looked for or found any statistical correlation between average height and rebounding prowess? Even the least astute observer must realize it will benefit the numbers, but I guess what I'm after is just how much it actually does?
- chewieblue
[Note: since this email came in Minnesota did pound Michigan on the offensive boards.]
While much-improved, Michigan still isn't a very big team. Replacing Novak and Douglass with a couple of 6'6" guys and adding McGary into the mix has pushed them to a hair above average on Kenpom's "effective height,"* but that's in the context of 347 D-I teams. There are entire conferences where the 6'10" guy is a tourist attraction. They remain a lot shorter than Kentucky, Arizona, USC, Miami, Gonzaga, Eastern Michigan, and others. Effectively four inches shorter, in fact.
Michigan's moved up in the world in that stat—they've generally hovered around 250th in effective height since Beilein arrived—but I don't think that's the reason they've been so good at rebounding this year. I crammed together the data available on Kenpom to eyeball an ugly scatter plot, and here it is:
Libre Office makes sinfully ugly graphs yo.
That round ball with a dense central cluster is typical of things that are not correlated. You'd find something similar if you graphed hair color versus desire to eat bananas.
There is no correlation between effective height and defensive rebounding. If you insert a trend line into this—something I don't like to do in low-correlation graphs like because it implies that there actually is a trend—it actually goes down as your height goes up, at a surprisingly steep slope. Some people would try to apply some crazy mechanism to make that make sense here; I'm just going to tell you there is no meaning. There does seem to be some correlation between EH and offensive rebounding, but not much of one.
Anecdotally, that enormous Eastern Michigan team Michigan played earlier this year is below average at both facets of rebounding despite having played only a few games against decent competition. They're hideous on the defensive glass.
In general this is good news for Michigan, a team that trades some rebounding muscle for increased offensive effectiveness. But why are they so much better this year than last? Well:
- Luck, always luck.
- Effective height does not capture the difference between Mitch McGary and Evan Smotrycz very well.
- Michigan has not trudged through their Big Ten schedule yet; IIRC they entered conference play last year in the top ten and ended up 9th in conference, dropping to 99th overall.
- Tim Hardaway is serious, man.
- Some teams are abandoning the offensive boards in an effort to choke Michigan's transition game off.
If you asked me to put weights on these things I would give them nearly all equal weight, which means they can expect some regression as #1 and #3 betray them but should realize a significant gain from last year's 9th-place conference finish.
SIDE NOTE: You'll notice that GRIII > Novak is not on that list. While it's true that GRIII is much better on the offensive boards than Novak was, their defensive rebounding is essentially identical, lending credence to the idea that getting on the defensive glass is a matter of effort and positioning while offensive rebounding is more about being a skyscraper-bounding genetic freak. Holla at yo' Petway.
*[IE, if you have a seven-footer who plays 10 minutes and a 6'8" guy who plays 30, the 6'8" guy counts three times more than the seven-footer.]
Pulling: hard?
Brian, Quite often the site discusses the ability of an offensive lineman to pull. Why is this difficult? My understanding is that pulling requires the lineman to:
(0) (set up:) ignore the guys across from him before the snap, because the lineman is about to pull,
(1) after the snap, back up a step or two,
(2) run sideways behind other blockers, and then
(3) find a guy to block.
So what is hard? I'm not saying there isn't anything, I just don't know what it is. Is finding the right guy to block hard? Or backing up and running?
Also, have you thought about doing a basketball version of HTTV?
Best, PR
One of the major takeaways from the clinic swing I did last spring was that everything is hard on the offensive line. I missed most of a three-hour presentation by Darryl Funk on inside zone because I was at Mattison's thing, and when I came in I was too far gone to understand much. I also sat in with a wizened consultant who scribbled various v-shaped diagrams on an ancient projector and demonstrated how if you stepped like so your world would end, and if you stepped like so demons would pour into the world from outside known space, but if you stepped like so there was a slight chance of you living to see dinner.
All of these steps looked identical to me. Offensive line is hard.
So. Consider the pull. You are 300 pounds, and you are lined up across from men who would like to run you over, and you are trying to get to a hole past other 300 pound men before a 200 pound man lined up a gap closer to this hole can get there. On the way you may encounter bulges in the line you have to route around. When you arrive you have to instantly identify the guy to block, reroute your momentum, and get drive on a guy.
This is a tall order. Michigan particularly had difficulty with step 2 the last couple years. Here's a canonical example from the uniformz MSU game. Watch Omameh (second from the bottom):
"Run sideways" goes all wrong there as Omameh arcs slowly and Denard ends up hitting the hole before he does; Denard has to bounce as a result when a block on Bullough is promising as the left side of the line caves in MSU.
To get to the place you are supposed to be you have to execute a series of steps as carefully choreographed as anything on dancing reality TV and be able to adapt on the fly, and you have to be able to redirect your momentum quickly enough to go in three different directions in a short space of time, with enough bulk to be, you know, an offensive lineman. Getting there in time is harder than anything the tailback has to do.
How does this impact Michigan's search for run-game competence in 2013? I hope it doesn't since I'd rather have Schofield back at right tackle than moving back inside.
Unverified Voracity Debates The Number Three
Brief vacation note. I'll be limited Friday and Monday as I visit some friends. I don't think it'll be that noticeable Friday but it's likely there aren't going to be any major columns Monday or Tuesday. I won't be able to catch the hockey game since they're not on TV, but I will write something up on the Purdue game whenever I get a chance.
Northwestern. Via mgovideo:
Podcast. I guested on The Solid Verbal. They asked me if I could think of anything wrong with Brady Hoke and I came up empty. It's been a good 13 months.
Beilein recruiting vs. development. I'm not entirely clear on whether Dan Hanner's recruiting and coaching rankings have methodology gaps that would particularly affect John Beilien but the general idea is to evaluate a coach's recruiting on the ORtg of his freshmen and his development of players on the movement of that ORtg as the players age. Survey says:
Coach | Team | Tenure | All | Recruiting | Development | Overall |
John Calipari | Kentucky | 3 | 10 | 1st | 35th | 1st |
Thad Matta | Ohio St. | 8 | 10 | 3rd | 12th | 2nd |
Bo Ryan | Wisconsin | 10 | 10 | 17th | 2nd | 3rd |
Mike Krzyzewski | Duke | 10 | 10 | 4th | 18th | 4th |
John Beilein | Michigan | 5 | 10 | 14th | 8th | 5th |
Lorenzo Romar | Washington | 10 | 10 | 19th | 4th | 6th |
Mike Montgomery | California | 4 | 6 | 25th | 5th | 7th |
Bill Self | Kansas | 9 | 10 | 7th | 21st | 8th |
Rick Barnes | Texas | 10 | 10 | 2nd | 37th | 9th |
Jim Boeheim | Syracuse | 10 | 10 | 6th | 29th | 10th |
There are some obvious holes in the evaluations here since they only take offense into account, they assume a guy like Burke's performance is all recruiting and no development when he's had on average a half-year of development by the end of his freshman year, etc. But they do make the case that Beilein's recruiting at Michigan has been horrendously underrated, especially since the defense is more than holding its own in this year's Big Ten. Throw it on the pile of evidence indicating Beilein has a great eye for players.
See also: Trey Burke, nation's #3 freshman according to CBS.
It might behoove us to move to a less three-mad offense. Emphasis on "might"—obviously there is something going on with Beilein's offense that works. But in Ken Pomeroy's ongoing quest to discredit defensive three point efficiency, he's doing collateral damage to offensive three point efficiency:
Oh dear. The defensive plot is just a random scattering of data, as has been discussed previously, but the offensive version isn't much better. If you shot 45% in the first half of the 2011 conference season, you'd be expected to shoot about 35% in the second half. If you shot 25% in the first half, you'd be expected to shoot 33% in the second half. A difference you couldn't notice with your eyes. I don't know exactly what implications this has on strategy, but when evenly-matched teams get together, action happening beyond the 3-point line is like a lottery. You take a shot and a third of the time you have success.
In contrast, two-point shooting correlates well. Pomeroy admits he doesn't know what the impact on strategy is, and neither do I. This could be an argument for Michigan to move its game inside the line, but it's not hard to see Michigan's #6 two-point shooting as a number that benefits greatly from Michigan's long-range bombing. As long as Michigan is going four-out, one-in they're going to have to take a lot of threes to stretch opponents into giving them decent opportunities from two.
Thirty-eight is way too many, though. Right now the Wildcats are obviously right with Michigan; in the future when McGary, Horford, Glenn Robinson, and Stauskas give M a huge size and athleticism advantage bombing it from the outside is asking to get upset. I wonder if we see Michigan cut back on the bombs in their new era of talent superiority.
Meet the new GERG? Iowa's new offensive coordinator:
If you were hoping that the Greg Davis rumors were nothing but smoke and disinformation, well, today is not your day. Kirk Bohls of the Austin American-Statesman, a gentleman who is about as well-connected to the Texas football program as Mack Brown himself, reported today that Greg Davis had accepted the Iowa offensive coordinator position.
Davis was run out of Texas on a rail after Colt McCoy graduated and the offense collapsed. Before that he'd told Vince Young to run around out there to good effect and transitioned to a pretty good McCoy-led passing spread, so this is not exactly hiring a guy whose only success in the past ten years was a one-year blip (Greg Robinson).
Still, a 61-year-old retread who cratered that much talent has Iowa fans shrugging. The consensus at BHGP is "decent"; if things go south this fall they'll turn quickly. Looks like Jacobi had to rewrite his headline after his initial take:
Also on the url of the above Prevail and Ride cartoon as uploaded to SBN:
Mattison is probably not quaking at the hire.
Elsewhere in Iowa blogging. The High Porch Picnic evaluates Michigan's recent recruiting from an Iowa POV and is a bit bothered that Hoke and Ferentz seem to have a lot more overlap than the Hawkeyes did with the previous Michigan regime. If I was Iowa I'd be more concerned with Michigan's sudden relevance in Illinois, a place they've struggled in for the past five years.
This reminds me to elaborate on something I mentioned in passing on the Solid Verbal: the current configuration of offenses in the Big Ten footprint is advantage Michigan recruiting. The two schools who do the best job of competing on the trail, Notre Dame and Ohio State, are now spread offenses. The second tier run pro-styles. Michigan looks like it's in a phase where it's rarely going to lose a battle against the second tier; meanwhile they should have an advantage with certain recruits in hostile territory simply because their opponents won't have a good place to put them.
Michigan's in a good position to starve Michigan State and, to a lesser extent, Iowa of offensive talent while bolstering their class with a guy like Jake Butt who Ohio State might have been pursuing hotly if they were still running a Tressel offense.
Side note: the impressive thing about Hoke's progress in Illinois is beating out ND. Remember when going up against Notre Dame was totally pointless, especially in Illinois? Yeah. We'll see what happens with Ty Isaac and LaQuon Treadwell; if Michigan lands them that will be a huge statement.
List o' jerkos. CBS's Eye on College Football lists the 30 BCS schools who voted to override the multi-year scholarship legislation and points out that their real desire is to avoid giving out multi-year scholarships themselves:
The motivation in Austin, Baton Rouge, Knoxville and Norman isn't that they can't hand out four-year scholarships, it's that they simply don't want to.
Of course, the legislation doesn't mean any school -- BCS, mid-major, or otherwise -- is required to offer multiple-year scholarships. But since that might put the schools that don't at a recruiting disadvantage against schools that do, the Texases (and USCs, and Alabamas) have tried to prevent anyone from offering them.
In short: because these schools don't want to promise their athletes a full four-year college education, they've decided the athletes at other schools shouldn't have the benefit of that promise, either.
But whatever, they failed. Wisconsin was the only Big Ten school to ask for an override. Their football team signed up with most of the rest of the conference in offering four-year rides, though, so why is unknown. IIRC, their hockey team has a bit of reputation for cutting kids loose. That might be it.
Now the Free Press won't exist for anyone else, either. Gannett hastens its own decline:
"We will begin to restrict some access to non-subscribers," said Bob Dickey, [Gannett] president of community publishing. The model is similar to the metered system adopted by The New York Times a year ago, in which online readers are able to view a limited number of pages for free each month. That quota will be between five and 15 articles, depending on the paper, said Dickey. Six Gannett papers already have a digital pay regimen in place.
The Free Press is a Gannett paper, so to get your Drew Sharp fix you'll have to start kicking in subscription dollars. I'm sure the line will be lengthy: Gannett projects they'll increase subscription revenues by 25%—$100 million per year. Think of all the press conference rehashes, trolling, and Mitch Albom columns about angels you'll be missing out on.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! I'm not going to steal Ace's recruiting roundup thunder entirely but just… holy hopping ham sandwiches:
The Levenberry family is looking for a paternal figure to guide son E.J.'s career. It's found him in Ann Arbor.
E.J. Levenberry Jr. said this week that Michigan is the lead school for his services. The ESPNU 150 Watch List linebacker prospect from Woodbridge (Va.) C.D. Hylton referenced Wolverines coach Brady Hoke as one of the primary reasons why.
"He kind of reminds me of my dad, the way he carries himself," Levenberry said.
Add Levenberry, Isaac, Treadwell, and O'Daniel—all players who Michigan reputedly leads for now—and that's nine Rivals 100 recruits, three guys who would be consensus five-stars if rankings hold, and a class that will compete for the best in the country. They'll probably lose at least one of those guys and rankings do not hold*; even so… good God.
*[Because there's not many places to go but down and as the year goes along recruiting analysts will turn up top flight talent they missed the first time around. See: Ondre Pipkins. Even if Rivals's opinion of Jake Butt doesn't change at all he's likely to slide 20-30 spots by Signing Day.]
Briefly. Ohio State fans are now the ones annoyed by the "spread can't work in B10 lol" meme propagated by hobos, people who think wrestling is real, and newspaper columnists—all the same people. They get bonus annoyance because Rich Rodriguez just "proved" this by having a quarterback run for 1700 yards. As I said: people who think wrestling is real.
So they're trying to dispel the Rodriguez stink:
Rodriguez largely failed to evolve his offense past the spread's origins. Chris Brown, for instance, prophetically predicated at the beginning of Rodriguez's Michigan tenure that Rodriguez's passing game lacked the conceptual nature necessary to succeed as teams adapted to the spread's basic tenets. Nor did Rodriguez (for the most part) diversiify his offense in the way an Oregon has to counteract things such as scrape exchanges. Michigan never embraced plays such as the midline option, inverted veer, power or counter trey like others. The upshot is that, while Michigan's offense was largely succesful once Denard Robinson was in place, it never hummed in the way Oregon's offense did (particularly against better teams) to overcome Michigan's defense or special team liabilities.
That's not really true. Rodriguez adapted his system to use Lloyd's collection of tight ends, burned many defenses with plays specifically designed to blow up scrape exchanges, and eventually shelved large sections of the old playbook in favor of having Denard Robinson run QB isos and stretches, pairing those with "aigh he's open" moments when a Robinson run turned out to be a pass. The reason 31 points against Penn State and 28 with a missed chip shot field goal against Wisconsin were bad performances didn't have much to do with the offense.
Rodriguez's offense never reached the high-pitched hum of Oregon's because he never had a returning starter at quarterback and the only non-freshman was a breathtakingly green Denard Robinson. Also his tailbacks were pretty bad. If OSU fans are looking for narratives to combat hobos, "we'll have an assload of talent relative to Rodriguez" is your best bet.
Etc.: Tremendous has an even more detailed breakdown of Hoke's appearance at the Glazier Clinic. Rodger Sherman narrowly survived the Michigan-Northwestern game but the prognosis is grim. Michigan's off to a healthy lead in the name-based recruiting class derby but there's a "Zanquanarious Washington" out there—they will not win. Blue wall! You've already seen Luke Winn's decision to put us in SI's "magic eight" teams from which a national champion will come. That seems like a bad bet to me, but whatever. TTB interviews Jehu Chesson, who I will probably call "Jehuu Caulcrick" at some point during his career.
Unverified Voracity Obeys Senator
Epic fark. There is a Jim Tressel Signing Things fark thread at TigerDroppings featuring frequent contributions from LSUFreek. There's an excessive quantity of lolbewbs but there are also gems like this:
Try to get that out of your head within the next decade.
Refinements. Frequent diarist the_white_tiger has started up his blog, Maize Colored Glasses, and one of his first posts is a refinement of the polynomial graphs purveyed on The Only Colors that show performance trends over the conference season. TWT increased the polynomial count—this allows more "turns" in the graph—and normalized for opponent performance.
Michigan's result won't surprise you but the way they got there might:
There might have been a very slight uptick in the offense; the defense got massively better. The really really high yellow spot on the graph was that Indiana blowout. Horrible team given many points == ugly. From there the turnaround was gradual improvement. I linked one of John Gasaway's "Tuesday Truths" column around the middle of the conference season to point out that Michigan was dead last in defense; the year-end numbers TWT is using show them squarely middle of the road (sixth).
My favorite other graph is Minnesota's:
There should be a vertical line at game seven labeled "Al Nolen explodes, season goes with it."
Burlon status. Brandon Burlon is tentatively expected to play at next weekend's Frozen Four:
After not being able to eat solid foods last week, losing close to 20 pounds and as a result having to sit out during the regional round of the playoffs. Brandon Burlon skated at Monday and Tuesday's practices. He said he's regaining the weight steadily.
Burlon said he expects to play next weekend, but a final determination has not been made.
Twenty pounds seems a little sensational. In any case, getting Burlon back would be huge as Michigan goes up against a Sioux team featuring the best—or, from Michigan's perspective, worst—aspects of the UNO and CC teams they beat to reach St. Paul. Like CC, they have a lights out top line. Hobey lock Matt Frattin is coring at a nearly goal-per-game pace. Like UNO, they have scoring depth. Six forwards have at least 13 goals, a couple more have eight, and two defensemen are putting up Moffie-like numbers. Getting Burlon back gives Michigan the defensive depth to match UND's forward depth.
Hypothetically, anyway. I've been looking at their stats for the past five minutes and feeling deeply unhappy.
Stunning omission. I have beef with The Wolverine Blog's Faces of Tim Hardaway top ten. It omits the face that launched the meme in the immediate aftermath of DEATH TO BACKBOARDS:
That's clearly #3 behind Douglass throwing Tennessee in a volcano and the f-yeah shot from MSU. This concludes my beef.
The only lawyer in America. Someone on the board linked to an article about a lawyer discussing what's going down at Ohio State and if they can expect more than the wrist slap they've given themselves, and I just knew in my bones we were about to get a quote from…
"If I was representing a coach in that similar situation, I would advise my client to expect not only a show-cause order assessed against him or her, but also significant individual penalties that may cause their employer, which is the university, to either terminate their employment or some other significant employment action," said Michael L. Buckner, of Pompano Beach, Fla., whose law firm specializes in representing schools and individuals before the NCAA. "I'd tell them they should be prepared for that."
I like him so much more when he's producing alarmist soundbites about other teams.
Buckner-issued proclamations about Michigan's NCAA foofaraw turned out to be just that but media framing had a lot to do with that—see this article titled "Avoiding show-cause order a must for Michigan, Rodriguez" from Dave Birkett that has Buckner explaining that show-cause is bad, mmmkay, despite the fact that no one thought it was even vaguely plausible once the hype about the initial article was replaced by a general sense that it was crap. In that article Buckner has this to say:
"Michigan would have to make sure that Coach Rodriguez follows the show-cause order," Buckner said. "If he's found to have committed the failure to monitor, issued a show-cause order, and then he goes to West Virginia … and if he's found to have failed to monitor in that case, than a show-cause order can be enhanced significantly."
Buckner said Michigan must "provide as much evidence as (it) can to defend Coach Rodriguez so that (it) can eliminate that failure to monitor allegation."
"Whether or not you can actually do that" remains to be seen, he said.
There's a big gap between "if, if, if" in the latter article—it did turn out Michigan had enough to eliminate the failure to monitor allegation, for all the good that did for Rodriguez's employment prospects—and "expect not only a show cause but significant individual penalties."
FWIW, that's a Bruce Hooley article. Hooley's the guy who went ape on the radio about this whole thing and is apparently going whole hog in an effort to become a guy who makes money by being hated. He's not exactly unbiased.
BONUS: Eleven Warriors is totally right that Stanley McClover claiming he got cash from OSU and MSU isn't going to amount to anything, but I loved to imagine an Ohio State fan who was one of the legion saying "I remember when he decommitted, not surprised there was some funny business going on there" watching the HBO special and going from smug to outraged in the space of an anecdote.
BONUS BONUS: Tressel situation "totally unacceptable," OSU president says!
Oregon State president Ed Ray was executive vice president and provost at Ohio State in 2001, and had input into the hiring of Tressel. He's now chairman of the NCAA executive committee, and told Rachel Bachman of The Oregonian that "this whole episode to me is beyond the pale. It's totally unacceptable. I'm pretty disappointed and startled by it all."
Goddammit, Sporting News headline writers. I hate you so much.
BONUS BONUS BONUS: Is it possible to see Rich Rodriguez these days and not think he's constantly fighting the urge to kill everyone in the room?
Three years ago I was a broken thumb away from a national championship game. I was a hero. I invented the spread offense.
Now everyone in two states hates me and thinks I'm retarded. A month ago I interviewed my replacement—who walked into Denard Robinson and Jim Tressel making my fake NCAA violations look like the Nobel Peace Prize—on television. Right this instant I'm staring at Jason Whitlock, surrounded by men in suits. Jason Whitlock. Suits. Whitlocksuits. whssiiisisfi
FFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU /goes Falling Down on universe
"It is not often that you have to stare the death of your basketball program in the face". Matt Painter's flirtation with Missouri was an earth-shaking event for Purdue fans. For confirmation a quick check of the first two pages at Hammer and Rails will suffice. Open letter: check. Open thread soaring well past a thousand comments: check. Bolded quote: check. Wholesale demolition of your entire athletic department:
Check. The answer is pretty much "yes"; contained within the link is a more comprehensive explosion of an athletic department than you'll find anywhere. IU fans should bookmark it for future e-peen wars. It incidentally makes you go "whoah" halfway through:
Total Number of Big Ten Championships as of spring 2009:
Michigan 347
Illinois 228
Ohio State 185
Wisconsin 180
Indiana 162
Minnesota 154
Iowa 104
Michigan State 81
Northwestern 69
Purdue 67
Penn State 50
Nebraska 0 (obviously)
Michigan has a lot of sports and has been around a lot of years but holy crap, man. That doesn't even include hockey.
And now for a completely different tangent on Painter. I've been annoyed at Braves & Birds' theory that the Big Ten has been disappointing in football because it hires losers like Ron Zook and nuts like Tim Brewster over actual football coaches. Lately I'm just annoyed it's right. It's hard to dispute after the latest round of hires from the Richest Conference In The Universe is MAC and Mountain West guys with iffy records. None of these guys are Bobby Petrino.
Painter has been wildly successful. Missouri is locked into an abusive relationship with Texas and would have punched a swan to get into the Big Ten this summer. Their TV contract sucks. They have little cachet outside their home state. They do not have a network that drops by every once in a while to drop off a new diamond boat. If Purdue had been too cheap to keep him that would have been a stunning indictment of Purdue, and I think that would have bled over into the entire mentality of a conference that really expects people to call its conferences "Legends and Leaders."
As it is the fact that it was even close is a mild indictment.
Etc.: Gasaway on his lack of moral outrage at NCAA amateurism. Incoming goalie John Gibson interviewed.
Unverified Voracity Summons Chris Hansen
So there's this.
Screening. Very cool article from Mike Rothstein on the increasing use of ball screens and pick-and-roll in college basketball going all the way back to the days when LaVall Jordan was helping run it at Butler. It comes complete with pithy epigram:
The ball screen forces defenses to choose where they want to recover.
John Beilein has started using it frequently, getting Jordan Morgan a wide array of dunks and others various open shots—I wonder if that's Jordan's influence? Here is where we compare and contrast Beilein's program reboot after last season with Rodriguez's defensive flailing. [comparison] [sadness/frustration] [basketball team swept state] [woo]
Literally less than nothing. I was away when SI came out with a story about college football criminals heavy on the research and light on the context. The blogosphere duly blew it up. I'm with Braves & Birds in that I'd rather have a big media organization doing research instead of, you know, not doing it, but I'm also with Orson when he rips it. Two main takeaways:
- Journalists are terrible with numbers. It's appalling. I bet there isn't a journalism program in the country that requires a statistics course. They are the equivalent of dog groomers once you bring out a decimal point.
- Journalists will not stand for doing a lot of research and declaring "nothing to see here."
SI found nothing but still made the monkey dance:
Of those seven percent, "nearly 60 percent…were guilty or paid some penalty". If we assume "nearly 60 percent" means 57% (shockingly, the actual numbers and survey methods aren't given), then 4% of players on top 25 football teams have been actually convicted of, or plead guilty to, a crime.
The number of average college students with the same criminal record? According to this article from Corvallis, Oregon's Daily Barometer, 3.45%. That's right: Your typical college football player is one-half of one percent more likely to have a criminal conviction. To put that in perspective, a team of 85 players has half a person more convicted criminals on it than a sample of 85 students drawn randomly. Hide yo kids, hide yo wife.
"Nothing" is actually generous. Consider that the kids on college football teams are disproportionately male (duh), black (45% as of 2006), and poor (presumably, right?) and that male, black, and/or poor groups tend to have more criminal activity. SI really discovered that putting someone on a college football team is a good way to keep them out of trouble. Which, duh. You're giving them something to lose.
Braves & Birds criticizes a lack of "solutions" in the SI problem, but how do you solve the opposite of a problem? (Other than hire Greg Robinson.)
BONUS: Remember the Free Press going ape that Michigan didn't do a juvenile background check on Demar Dorsey? Yeah…
…when the nut graf of the piece mentions that only two out of 25 programs conduct background checks on their incoming recruits, there's two instances of serious slippage here. First, programs probably don't do them out of negligence and cost, not because they know that juvenile records searches are sketchy business at best. Second, they assume this means anything when they also write this in the middle of the piece:
Nor did SI and CBS News have access to juvenile arrest records for roughly 80 percent of the players in the study.
The issue of background checks for most recruits in most states is dead before you finish the first page of the article.
BTW, Feldman's latest features a bunch of quotes($) from coaches and administrators citing the same problems bloggers did.
The way it had to end. MSU's hockey team did get swept in Fairbanks, ending Rick Comley's career, but it wasn't easy. Both games went to overtime. On Friday Michigan State had a potential game-winner ruled out and suffered a seemingly controversial UAs game winner. This caused an epic fit of bitching on MSU player twitter feeds—Derek Grant hashtagged "awful," "embarrassing," and "disgraceful" in a single tweet—that suggested Comley had complained to his players about the call in the locker room. The disgraceful event: the MSU net lifted up momentarily but was settled on its moorings before the shot was taken.
MSU's season ended the next night with another overtime goal, and thus ends Rick Comley's career. That's karma. This is something beyond it:
Michigan State hockey head coach Rick Comley reportedly was involved in a physical confrontation Friday night in the Carlson Center with Alaska Nanooks fans Robert Downes, a Fairbanks Superior Court judge, and his daughter, attorney Amy Tallerico. …
Downes, during a telephone interview Saturday, said he talked to Comley after the game. "It was a comment on his complaining about every goal that was scored," Downes said.
The confrontation reportedly turned physical and Tallerico allegedly was struck. Speaking Saturday night, Tallerico said they exchanged shoves. Her father said she filed a complaint with the CCHA.
I'm not inclined to believe a random fan who dispenses frontier justice over Comley—never been anything but stonefaced in my experience—but for Comley to get into a confrontation with a fan in the last weekend of his career is a weird echo of the Kampfer incident that was the beginning of his end. May it haunt his dreams.
Meanwhile. Other than State getting swept it was a bad week for Michigan on the TUC cliff. OSU and NMU both lost, ending their seasons. Michigan's 5-1 record against them is now gone. Compounding matters, NMU's loss against BGSU sends the Falcons to Yost for a second-round series that can't do much to help Michigan. Sweeping gets them .001 for their RPI.
mfan_in_ohio broke down the comparisons in a diary bumped yesterday, but a brief recap:
- Michigan is still the last one-seed but lost a comparison against UNO. That will be tough to get back unless Bemidji State starts winning games.
- Denver lost over the weekend, keeping them behind M. Michigan can probably stay in front of them by doing at least as well as they do but pulling BGSU complicates things. Denver has a much better opponent this weekend and could pass Michigan in RPI if they win the WCHA.
- Any chance of stealing the BC comparison is gone after the Eagles swept UNH.
- Miami will be dangerously close to passing M if they sweep this weekend but since one or the other will have to lose it's kind of a moot point.
- Ferris is safe as a TUC.
- Lake State can become a TUC by beating ND.
In simple terms, if Michigan wins the CCHA they will very probably be the last one-seed. If they don't they'll be a two.
More dudes. A local newspaper article on 2013 commit Tyler Motte lists offer-type substances:
Motte committed recently to the University of Michigan, choosing the Wolverines over Miami (Ohio), Ferris State, Western Michigan, Ohio State and Michigan State.
It's even more difficult to sort fiction from reality when it comes to college hockey offers since their recruiting cycle is so accelerated, but Miami was Motte's "second choice" so that's probably legit. They're a good team to snatch a recruit from. Knock on wood, but Motte does not sound like he'll give the OHL half a thought. Backing that up: his older brother is ticketed for Ferris.
Michigan continued its run of getting commits from kids who will hit campus after the Mayan apocalypse with 2013's Alex Talcott, a teammate of Alex Kile on Honeybaked's U18 midget major team. He had an 0-10-10 line at the recent Select 15 camp and was the seventh-best forward there according to USHR. All they said was "good hands," though. Michigan Hockey Net has a full googlestalk of Talcott waiting for you; FWIW, The Scouting News claims he's an NTDP "cinch."
This is a bit convoluted. But Simmons's latest column on the NFL is a compelling takedown of the sort of shortsighted thinking that plagues NFL owners specifically and, more generally, anyone who is obsessed with getting the highest Financial Oligarch Pacman score at the expense of the future. That people like Daniel Snyder and Dan Gilbert can own incredibly expensive sports franchises is a condemnation of the whole system. If those comic-sans-deploying, Mark-Shapiro-hiring idiots can make billions of dollars just so they can prove their ineptness in games with a score the idea this is a meritocracy is fanciful, isn't it?
Etc.: Yost introduces $38 "all you can eat" seats. Seriously. Red Berenson will be honored by the Blues today. All Big Ten teams from UMHoops; Morris second, Hardaway third, Morgan and Hardaway all-frosh. Kellen Russell wins a Big Ten championship in wrestling. Even tackles can be too tall.


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So Fabulous Embellished Knitted Tunic (Available in sizes 14-28)
- Price
- £29.00
- In Stock
- Delivery
1 reviewSo Fabulous! Gem Tunic Top
The tunic is an essential piece this season, and we adore the pretty gem embellishments to this tunic top by So Fabulous!
With long sleeves this tunic is a perfect casual piece as we head for cooler days. The length is flattering while the cut is ideal for girls with shapely figures. This tunic is an ultra flattering piece, and the statement gems to the neckline make it a favourite for off-duty glamour. In versatile grey or striking purple this tunic top is a stunning piece of knitwear for AW13.
Wear this gem embellished tunic top with skinny jeans or skim fit combat trousers. Wear under a khaki parka jacket.
Useful info:
- Gemstone tunic by So Fabulous!
- Long sleeves; scoop neckline
- Longer length; embellished neck
- Worn length: 32 inches
So Fabulous Star Sequin Tunic (Available in sizes 14-32)
- Price
- £29.00
- Low stock, selling fast
- Delivery
2 reviewsSequin stars to the front. Worn length: 34 inch.
Colours: Black, Violet. Acrylic. Machine washable. -
So Fabulous Embellished Batwing Jumper (Available in sizes 14-28)
- Price
- £27.00
- Low stock, selling fast
- Delivery
2 reviewsDiamante embellishment to the neck. Batwing sleeve. Worn length: 32 inch.
Colours: Oatmeal, Purple. 70% viscose, 30% polyamide. Machine washable.