State of the Blog Address
Posted by kj on Friday, February 1st, 2008
It’s now been a little over two months since I started this endeavor, and I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for continuing to stop by and read the insights I have to offer (and by “insights,” I mean “paragraphs of densely-packed statistics with a few actual independently-derived observations thrown in”). Thanks, in particular, to those who have taken the time to comment.
Readership is on the upswing. The blog has been getting roughly 250-300 hits per day over the last week. Previously, things were topping out at about 200 hits per day. A number of links from other blogs have helped lead people here, but I’d be remiss if I didn’t note that a link from the main MGoBlog page has been a real boost. We’ll take all the help we can get–even it’s from nominally enemy territory.
I was also pleasantly surprised when I discovered today that a couple people have bought stuff from the links at the bottom of the sidebar on the right. I’ve only racked up enough Benjamins to buy a couple beers at the sports bar to date (and it’s still below the threshold to actually get paid out on), but it’s an encouragement nonetheless.
Related to buying stuff, Amazon.com now has an expanded selection of DVDs of past NCAA tournament games available. In addition to the 2000 championship game, I’ve posted links to the following two games:
- 2000 Regional Final vs. Iowa State–the game at the Palace in which Cleaves threw the greatest alley-oop in Spartan history to Peterson.
- 1999 Regional Final vs. Kentucky–the game that propelled Izzo to his first Final Four.
I haven’t purchased either DVD yet, but I’m pretty sure these are games any Spartan fan would enjoy watching again.
In actual basketball-related news, the Big Ten Chronicle has a nice tempo-free recap of last night’s IU-Wisconsin game. A classic Wisconsin win: they slowed down the pace, didn’t turn the ball over, and scored from the free throw line. Our Spartans now find themselves in a three-way tie for first place in the conference–a four-way tie looking at only the loss column. Still, I’m having a hard tame shaking the sense of dread about playing the other four top-tier teams five times in our last eight games, four of them on the road. Must . . . think . . . positively . . .
Filed in generalComments Off
No Responses to “State of the Blog Address”
Nateon 01 Feb 2008 at 3:58 pm 1Hey!
Great site, after watching the IU-Wisky game last night, I’ve found out how to beat IU. Let White get his points and do everything to shut down Gordon, thats a two man show.
Huberton 01 Feb 2008 at 4:56 pm 2Keep up the good work. Please put your statistical expertise to the following task: why does MSU not seem to get any respects from Refs, and why, on the other hand, does Wisconsin always shoot so many more foul shots than its opponents? test competing theories: is it true that Bo Ryan somehow trains his players not to foul? or, on the other hand, are there reputational effects, much like in the NBA, that some schools like Wiscy benefit from?
murphon 01 Feb 2008 at 9:19 pm 3Hey, just wanted to let you know that i’ve really been enjoying your blog and it really seems to have filled the void that was left since the wonk decided to jump ship onto the steaming pile that is Basketball Prospectus (how could 2 guys who had such great blogs combine to have such a crappy single blog?) … anyways.. keep up the good work
.
Nickon 01 Feb 2008 at 10:55 pm 4Since the state of the blog is the topic–the state of the blog is fantastic. Thanks for the all the good work. I feel simultaneously enlightened by your commentary and embarassed at how lazy I must be to comment so infrequently.
And murph–you have smitten the goddam nail through the board. Whatever happened to the genius behind Big Ten Wonk? Thanks much to kj (and to uncle lar over at Happy Valley Hoops)
And my own small insight on MSU hoops–I was able to watch the MSU-UM game, one of the few I’ve actually been to see on the west coast with no cable tv of my own. Something that struck me was that there was a point in the second half when I could smell blood. MSU was up by about 17 (up from maybe 13two possesions before), the tempo was up a bit, and MSU had just gotten a defensive stop. It felt to me like a blow out was imminent–and MSU rushed things, made several sloppy passes, and ended up turning the ball over. I was left with the impression that MSU had let youthful exuberance overcome disciplined play–that in general the team is prone to letting the feeling of the moment overcome the cool decision making process.
But it is hard to fault youthful exuberance. It is one of the joys of the college game.
kjon 01 Feb 2008 at 11:28 pm 5Hubert, I think it would be really tough to figure out the Badgers’ ability to shoot so many free throws using purely statistical means. I would note that MSU actually has a slightly better offensive free throw rate this season (27.5% vs. 27.0%). I’d actually expect Wisconsin to get to the line more because they post up so much–particularly posting up opposing guards, who generally don’t have to defend the post much at the college level.
The gap is really on defense (FT rate of 28.8% for MSU; 24.4% for Wisconsin). Not sure how to explain that, as both teams play pretty physical defense. One possible factor: MSU has a significantly higher block rate, indicating our big men may be a little more aggressive than theirs, leading to more fouls.
As for the Artist Formerly Known as the Big Ten Wonk, I’d cut him a little slack. I think the folks at Basketball Prospectus are getting their footing this season trying to cover all of the college basketball landscape–a tough task given 300+ teams, a much higher number than any other major sport in this country. Ultimately, having a website like Baseball Prospectus or Football Outsiders devoted to basketball will be good for the sport.
But we all certainly miss the Wonk . . .
DAKon 02 Feb 2008 at 12:10 am 6Hey, KJ, did you see that Greg Anthony over at Rivals.com ranks Neitzel as the best shooter in college hoops? Check it out at http://collegebasketball.rival.....CID=768972
kjon 02 Feb 2008 at 12:14 am 7Nifty. His ability to shoot coming off screens is certainly unparalleled this side of J.J. Reddick.
I do have to say Eric Gordon’s jumpshot is quite remarkable–very consistent for how quick his release is off the dribble.