My Life Blog

The six year losing streak ends at Austin. 

Varsity’s horns are sawed off…and this delights me to no end. 

Who should get the better bowl game?  Each team is 9-3 with the Aggies holding the head-to-head edge.  I’m unsure whether two one point losses to OU and Nebraska will factor in.  We’ll see.

Should Fran still be fired?  Yes.  But its assured that he won’t be now.  Let’s see what he does with this positive momentum.  Tennessee blew us out in our last bowl game.  Let’s try not to repeat that.

My MVP: Stephen McGee.  Wow!  I’ll take him over Colt McCoy any day.

Its mere minutes after the Aggies 28-27 loss to Nebraska, so my emotions are still very raw.  But I think I will read what I am about to write tomorrow or the next day and feel the same way.

Coach Fran must go at the end of this season.  I’ve seen enough.  Sure, he’s resurrected the team from last year’s 5-6 record and he’s made the team more competitive, but he can’t win the big game.  I’m convinced that even if he has the athletes that he is still apt to continue to lose.

Today, A&M rallied to take the lead 27-21 late in the fourth quarter, then intercepted the ball in Nebraska territory with around 3 minutes to play.   A small ball-control drive and a field goal at the least would have iced the game.  However, Fran went conservative.  He ran the ball outside and our running back wasn’t smart enough to stay in bounds.  That saved Nebraska at least 20 seconds.  Seeing his mistake, he runs the ball straight up the middle for no gain.  Now its third and long and he needs to at least get within range for a field goal.  A QB scramble then sets up what would be the longest FG this year.  But alas it was blocked.  Nebraska’s ball with a little over two minutes left.  They drive 71 yards with no timeouts, score the TD, and kick the extra point to win by one.

Like last week, the Aggies faces a 3rd and 2 in the late third quarter.  Instead of running Javorskie Lane, he calls a passing play just like last week.  To be fair, the pass should have been caught, but it wasn’t and that set up fourth down.  What does he do?  Field goal.  At that point in the game, still down by  8.  As poorly as they had played up to that point, a TD is what they needed.

The FG scenario today reminded me of the game last week against Oklahoma where he had 3rd and goal at the 2 and then threw an incomplete pass.  He then kicks the FG to trail by a point with three minutes remaining.  A&M never got the ball back.

The point I’m trying to make is that Coach Fran plays too conservatively.  Unlike Coach Stoopes at Oklahoma, Coach Fran has no guts whatsoever.  His conservative calls today cost the team another win.  It should be noted that some of the players play stupidly too.  Running out of bounds when you need to run the clock.  Taking a roughing-the-passer penalty when it was going to be 4th down.  That’s poor coaching.

You could look at the 8-3 record and wonder why I am complaining.  But realize, we almost lost to Army — had to get a late goal line stand to preserve the victory there.  Against Kansas, a basketball powerhouse, but not a football juggernaut, we trailed the whole game until a TD in the last 30 seconds of the game won it.  Missouri could have beaten us if their opening TD drive had not been scuttled by a flukey goal line fumble turned touchback.  We needed a one-handed grab on 4th down to prolong a game-tying TD drive against Oklahoma State.  That game ended miraculously with a blocked extra point in OT for a 1 point win.  The most solid Big XII win would seem to have been the Baylor game, but even that game wasn’t settled until 6:34 left in the fourth quarter.  So the bottom line is that the record stands at 8-3, but could easily be as bad as 3-8!

This week I heard a rumor on the radio that Coach Fran needed to win out against Nebraska and Texas to keep his job.  At first, I thought this was absurd.  After all, we were sitting with an 8-2 record with a narrow 1 point loss to Oklahoma.  But as I analyze the record, its really pretty flimsy.  Take away a few plays and calls and we could very well be looking at something similar to last year’s 5-6.  And that’s not good enough for a coach in his fourth year.

So my opinion: Coach Fran must go!

Mavericks 0-3 on the young season.  Someone please explain what’s wrong with this team.
Aggies lose to Oklahoma by a single point.  If only Franchione were as brave as Stoopes.
Cowboys lose to the Redskins in the weirdest ending I’ve ever seen.  Three FG attempts in the final 30 seconds!
Stars lose in the last minute to Vancouver.  Well, this makes up for the win in Edmonton which definitely was not earned.
But I did see that the Fightin’ Texas Aggie basketball team debuted in the rankings at #13.  You could only understand how monumental this is if you had first gone a couple of decades without ever seeing them in those rankings.  Looks like we’re in with the Big Boys now, so that’s pretty exciting!

Consider what you might think if your wife gives you ten sessions with a personal trainer for your birthday.

Do you wonder if she thinks you are out of shape?  As in, is this some kind of message?!

Well, this was Suzanne’s gift to me for my recent birthday.  I turned 42 and its fair to say that my level of fitness has been better.  When I was 37, I was probably in the best shape of my life.  However, in the five years since, I’ve let my diet and my exercise regimen slip.  So training sessions is just what I need right now to get back my mojo.

To clarify, it wasn’t a message on her part, but rather a creative gift.  She definitely got for me what I would not have gotten for myself.  I have had a fear of submitting myself to a personal trainer for fear that they would run me ragged.  As it turns out, I have just had my third session and this hasn’t been the case.

What I’m learning instead is that I still have a pretty good basis strengthwise and that much of my previous research has been confirmed.  But more than that, I’m getting the benefit of someone educating me on my technique and designing a different kind of workout.  This is really important because it helps to optimize your workouts.  I think many of my past workouts haven’t been very efficient.

So I’m highly recommending anyone who works out to give a private trainer a go sometime to explore these possible improvements in your own workouts.

I just stumbled across an interesting post detailing some of the calls that went for Dwyane Wade in Game 6.  Its interesting to watch these a few days removed from the event.  You can see them here.

Seeing them again and in aggregate frustrates me all over again.  My frustration is not that these bad calls might have contributed to a Mavs series loss, but rather that the NBA really does have a problem.  Wade is very talented and can score well on his own.  As a scorer, teams are going to try to defend him closely.  But its not fair to the defense if the guy is going to draw phantom calls.  The NBA must restore some fairness in these types of situations.

To be fair, Dirk gets a lot of calls as well.  I’m not a big fan of his clumsy drives to the lane or his flops.  He’s talented enough to score well without any of those elements in his game.  You can even argue the Mavs benefited significantly from a close call at the end of Game 7 in regulation against San Antonio.  But when compared to some of Wade’s fouls it was definitely legitimate.

I feel like I haven’t made my point very well.  I guess the bottom line for me is: let’s quit giving the superstars the calls.  They’ll score well enough on their own.  Let’s even up the playing field and see who legitimately wins games.

Since I defended against the San Antonio conspiracy theory, I cannot play the conspiracy card for the Mavericks as an explanation for their loss tonight.  But I can certainly question several of the foul calls.  At the very least, the NBA has a ways to go on their refereeing. 

Watching Dwyane Wade initiate contact and get the foul makes me crazy.  He did so with Devin Harris and it was blatant.  There was another case where he was untouched and drew the foul.  And then there was the foul where he pushed off on Dirk and drew the foul.  Its certainly true that the league’s stars get the calls, but let’s at least keep it reasonable.  Geez.

And though it wouldn’t have helped the cause, did anyone notice the shirt-grab on Jason Terry on the last shot?!  How do you have a fist full of jersey and not draw a foul? 

Oh well.  The Mavericks had a winnable game and their refusal to go to the rack doomed them.  They settled for outside shots and though they had early success, they soon went cold.  The chill prevailed throughout the evening.  In my opinion, when you go cold from the outside, you have to find another way.  Drive the rack, boys! 

Player of the game for the Mavs:  Daniels.  Wow.  And I wanted to see less of him.  I got my wish for Van Horn who ended his year with a DNP. 

The worst part of this is that Antoine Walker gets a ring.  He’s the most selfish player in the league and somehow gets rewarded.  It makes me question my religion.

And finally, now we all know that you don’t plan the parade after your 2nd win.  The Basketball Gods are so unforgiving of such egregious sins. 

And so it ends for the Mavs; a much better playoff run than the Stars who have been golfing for two months now. 

Next up, Aggie football where I do not expect to be blogging about a championship game. 

What a storied series this has become!  And unfortunately, the lead story tonight is only partially what happens on the floor.  I must say that I’m disappointed in the organization as it misbehaves in front of all to see.  Both Cuban and Johnson should know better.

But here we are and the Mavs still have homecourt advantage.  What do I predict?  A Mavs win, of course.  If this team is not sufficiently enraged by Stackhouse’s suspension and all the bad calls from Game 5 then they are a team that cannot be motivated by anything.

Some quick hits:

Dwyane Wade is not Michael Jordan.  He may have superior Finals stats, but just looking at the highlights, I’m reminded at how special Jordan was.

Dirk Nowitzki is the best Maverick player, but he must take it to the rack and he must hit his shots.  He’s been unable to pull it together in this series.  He has two games to restore the lustre on his playoff career.

Jason Terry will probably be the key player.

Stackhouse should go off after the bitterness of the suspension.  I’d like to see him also take it to the rack with avengance.  And when he gets there, let’s get the dunk to fall down.

Devin Harris better make the layups.

Please, very little Marquis Daniels and even less of Keith Van Horne.

And if the Mavs do lose, let’s all be good sports.  And if the Mavs win, let’s all be good sports too.

99-85 and it wasn’t even that close.  Garbage time began in the 3rd period after the Mavs rolled out to a 28 point lead.  They attacked in waves.

The referee conspirators meanwhile called 27 fouls on the Mavericks and only 23 on the Heat.  And the Mavericks had 18 fouls called on their starters compared to 12 from the Heat.  Of course, the Heat starters sat most of the second half, so I guess its hard to conspire against a team when they lay an egg.

Shaq was held to 5 points on 5 shots after scoring 2 points on the very first play.  There is no conspiracy here, the Mavericks just are a deep team that plays team defense.  And oh by the way, the offense isn’t too bad either.

If the Mavericks go on to win, will we have to asterisk the championship in order to appease those who still cling to the conspiracy theory?  I personally don’t think so.  If they win the championship, it looks like it will be earned to me.

It was suggested to me either seriously or in jest today that the Dallas Mavericks made the NBA Finals this year to accommodate the NBA’s need to restore big market teams into their premier event.  In short, talent and superior preparation alone weren’t the reason the Mavericks advanced to the Finals.  Rather, its an NBA conspiracy.

To me, this is baseless and reeks of sour grapes.  So let’s take a look at the teams that the Mavericks eliminated and do some analysis.

The regular season lasts roughly six months, while the playoffs last a little over two months.  In the regular season, the NBA and the TV networks have the ability to showcase any team in the league.  But curiously, the Mavericks come in fourth among the Western Conference playoff teams.  The leaders were the Lakers (34), Phoenix (33), and San Antonio (30).  The Mavericks were seen 27 times.  Memphis came in 7th with 7 viewings.  Based upon these numbers, the Mavericks were at best the fourth choice among the available Western Conference teams.  So far, it doesn’t sound like a conspiracy.

If there was ever a media darling, it was probably the Lakers as they held the biggest market.  But somehow the league could not engineer a Lakers upset of Phoenix in the first round.  I will grant you that it was a close series (4-3). 

Note also that the Los Angeles market had a second chance with the Clippers.  Again, down they went to the same Suns, this time in the second round.  And again, a close series (4-3).  So far, still no proof of a conspiracy.

The series in question is the San Antonio series.  Again, San Antonio should be the preferred team based upon the stated regular season preference.  But if the preference of the alleged conspirators had flip-flopped then how would they get the Mavericks into the Finals?  Its doubtful you could manipulate players in the 2nd round; just look at the key players and tell me who you’d have to buy out.  So there’s no way that could happen.  The only other people on the court are the referees.  So let’s take a look:

PF = Personal Fouls
SF = Personal Fouls by Starters
NP = Number of players to get in the game
W  = Win followed by point differential.

Game 1:
  Mavs:  PF(24), SF(14), NP(10)
  Spurs: PF(20), SF(15), NP(10), W+2

Game 2:
  Mavs:  PF(27), SF(15), NP(12), W+22
  Spurs: PF(26), SF(12), NP(12)

Game 3:
  Mavs:  PF(26), SF(14), NP(9), W+1
  Spurs: PF(33), SF(23), NP(10)

Game 4:
  Mavs:  PF(24), SF(18), NP(8), W+5 OT
  Spurs: PF(26), SF(16), NP(8)

Game 5:
  Mavs:  PF(26), SF(16), NP(10)
  Spurs: PF(19), SF(13), NP(8), W+1

Game 6:
  Mavs:  PF(29), SF(14), NP(10)
  Spurs: PF(19), SF(13), NP(8), W+5

Game 7:
  Mavs:  PF(32), SF(21), NP(10), W+8 OT
  Spurs: PF(25), SF(23), NP(8)

I’m using personal fouls as a basis for determining whether referees may have intervened.  I make full concessions that the aggregate numbers may not tell the entire story.  A key foul at the wrong time may be equally as devastating as 5 discretionary fouls throughout the game.  Also, a team can rack up a lot of fouls late in the game as they try to slow the game down to make their comeback.

Turnovers and other judgment calls factor in too, but are not included here.  But if you accept that foul-calling is the primary method for a ref to influence the game, then here you go.

In Game 1, you could argue that the Mavericks were wronged as they have a +4 for fouls in the game.  The starters match fouls for the most part.  To me, this looks even.

In Game 2, SA has fewer fouls called on the entire team and on their starters and they lose by 22 points.  Granted, the starters sat the bench much of the game.  No wrong-doing here.

In Game 3, SA gets into foul trouble and is +7 for total fouls and +9 for fouls by starters.  Early on, this is a suspect game if you are conspiracist.  SA loses by 1 point.

In Game 4, SA is +2 for total, but -2 for their starters.  For the Mavericks, Erick Dampier fouls out coming off the bench.  Diop fouls out as well.  The Mavericks win in OT.  This looks pretty even to me.

In Game 5, the Mavs lose the PF battle 26-19 and have +3 for their starters.  They lose by 1 point.  This game makes up for Game 3’s imbalance.

In Game 6, the Mavs outfoul the Spurs by a whopping 10 and the Spurs win by 5.  Given the disparity, you’d have to feel that the Mavericks are being conspired against.  10 fouls is a huge disparity.

In Game 7, the deciding game, the Mavs get called for 7 more fouls than the Spurs.  Fouls by starters are roughly equal.  Even with the disadvantage in calls, the Mavs push the game to overtime and win by 8.

If there is a conspiracy, the evidence cannot be uncovered through these stats.  To me, this looks like an even series that was decided by the players.  And Dallas was the deeper team.  They consistently played deeper into their bench with more substantial minutes.  The Spurs could only go eight deep and then they were done.

It should be pointed out that foul trouble for SA was a much worse fate than for the Mavericks.  As deep as the Mavericks are, they are better prepared to survive foul trouble.

Sorry guys, myth busted.

re·sil·ient     ( P )  Pronunciation Key  (r-zlynt)
adj.

1. Marked by the ability to recover readily, as from misfortune.
2. Capable of returning to an original shape or position, as after having been compressed. See Synonyms at flexible.
3. Dallas Mavericks.

Wow.  The worst first period I’ve seen in a while, but no give up when down by 18 points.  Or down by 15 midway through the third period.  If you do not believe this team is for real yet, there will be no convincing you.  The evidence is before you in multiples.

A prediction here: the combination of Avery Johnson and Mark Cuban will produce many titles.  Cuban has the resources to go out and get the pieces and Avery knows how to piece them together like no other I’ve seen in a while.  Whether the first title arrives this year is yet to be seen, but there is no reason to doubt it after games like last night.