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canid-slashclaw · 4 years

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The Outliers - A Guild Wars Love Story

Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7, Chapter 8, Chapter 9, Chapters 10 and 11

Chapter 12

Amalthia My Love,

I can't wait to see you again! As I'm writing this letter, I've been reading up on your peoples' mating habits and learned that grooming is a female's way of signaling she is available. Had I known you were available, I would have been ready and willing to perform my duties in a heartbeat. I did the measurements and we are pretty close to the same size so I don't think "that" will be much of an issue.

Sorry if I come off as sounding lustful. It's just that I can't get that image of you out of my mind. Even my sisters are complaining that I'm spending too much time in the bathroom.

Okay. Okay. I should probably close that "sinful" book for awhile and take a cold shower. Anyway, you are always on my dirty mind...

Your not-so furry "friend",

Kaleb

Amalthia rested her chin against the palm of her hand as she let out a wistful sigh.

You poor boy... one of these days something vital is going to explode if you keep thinking about things like that.

The doorbell whistle sounded as she heard the shuffle of a very familiar set of footsteps.

Kaleb!

She quickly threw on a light overcoat then slipped into her most comfortable pair of silken breeches and finally laced up her favorite pair of open-toed boots. Like any good engineer, she brought along a few gadgets as well including a micro spanner and butane torch.

One never knows when such things will come in handy. Especially when an event is run by a bunch of cheaters and riff raff.

As she came down the stairs she saw Kaleb standing by the door holding a bouquet of freshly cut lilacs. He smiled at her then handed her the flowers along with another folded letter.

"This is just a 'thank you' gift for all that you've done for me," he smiled as he handed her the flowers.

She took the bouquet, looked over it for a moment seemingly puzzled then gave him a quick hug. "Dead flowers that will never grow and wilt within the next three days. How thoughtful of you!"

"Well, I had considered snagging some half-rotten fish that had washed up along the shoreline. But then I thought about it and said, 'nah... she would think me a cheapskate if I didn't spend an excessive amount for a bushel of dead, overpriced flowers," Kaleb chuckled.

"Seriously, they're lovely. Flowers are used as tokens of affection in our culture as well. They are pretty universal, I guess." Amalthia took the bundle, dunked them in a decorative metal cylinder then filled it up with water from the faucet behind the meat counter.

"Where's your father? He's always been by the counter to greet me whenever I come here." Kaleb looked around and neither saw nor heard any trace of him.

Amalthia waved for him to come up the stairs. "He's sleeping at the moment. I'll explain more once we have a little more privacy."

Kaleb pursed his lips and nodded as he followed her up. Once they were both in her room, she closed the door then walked over towards the workbench and handed him the two pistols she had modified.

"I cut the handles down considerably. The center of gravity shifted so I added some extra weights to compensate," she said as she watched Kaleb getting a feel for the newly modified weapons.

"Wow! The balance on these is to a tee. I can't wait to fire them. Hey! Are you still up for the carnival?"

"What a silly question. Just let me grab my coin bag and broadsword then we can both be on our way." She smiled as she strapped the heavy sword to her belt buckle.

"Don't worry about the coinage. That's on me. Father and I made quite a bit this past week from one of our clients, so we are all good in that department."

The two of them headed out from the upstairs loft exit then headed down towards the center of the town square. Amalthia's braided golden mane fluttered in the breeze, her brass ankle circlets jingling in rhythmic steps to the tempo of a minstrel band far off in the distance.

"So what's up with your father? It's odd not seeing him there to greet me when I come in," Kaleb said with concern.

Amalthia shrugged her shoulders. "I'm not really sure. Shortly after you left, he seemed really down about something. When I opened the cooler this morning, a whole cask of mead had been consumed. We just bought the thing the day before yesterday and it's already gone."

"Oh no. Maybe it was all the war memories that were dredged up following what happened yesterday."

"I don't believe it's that, quite honestly. There is something else afoot." Amalthia pondered.

"Yanno. I wish we could at least hold hands. I hate not being able to show any open displays of affection towards you."

She gave him a reassuring look. "Kaleb. Don't go there. Remember what we talked about. Let's enjoy the carnival, as friends."

Yeah. "Friends", he thought as he turned away with a disappointed expression.

The carnival atmosphere was thick with a crescendo of noise and the aroma of cheap foods. As the pair perused the various entertainment booths, Kaleb happened to spot a shooting gallery nestled in between two eateries. He tugged her shirtsleeve then pointed towards the booth while giving a thumb's up gesture.

"Wanna try?"

"Kaleb. Those things are rigged!" She protested.

Pointing towards her pocket, he winked at her. "So rig it in our favor."

She placed her clawed index finger next to her upper lip as she thought about it for a moment. Upon seeing the array of prizes that were available, she suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

"Okay! I just give me a few," she loped briefly on all fours then stopped by the booth, stood up and scanned the targets that were arranged in the shooting gallery.

The carnival attendant stood half slouching looking as if he had smoked one too many bundles of prairie weed. Amalthia began counting her footsteps as she started walking from the back of the pavilion to the front.

"Ten and a half yards. Remember that number, mouse."

"Uhh. What?" The dreary-eyed kid said with a half-attentive look on his face.

"I wasn't talking to you, mouse. Kaleb. You got that?"

"I do," he smiled, deducing what she had in mind.

"Pink quaggen plushie, please."

"Umm. You gotta hit the targets first uhhh... sir? Miss?"

"Don't worry... won't."

"Uhhh. What?"

"Miss."

"Amalthia - shame on you for confusing this poor creature. Can't you see he is bereft of his intoxicant?" Kaleb said mockingly.

"Coin first, kitty cat. Then you can play," the irritated tenant grumbled.

"Gun, please. Thank you," Amalthia said as she tossed three pieces of silver into a bucket then snatched the popgun and percussion caps from off the table.

She loaded the first shot, aimed at the nearest target then fired. The shot missed.

"Point zero five degrees deviation at four point eight yards," Amalthia said as she laid the popgun back onto the table.

"Paper, please," she asked the tenant.

"Why do you need paper?"

"To wipe myself with, what else!"

Kaleb was barely able to contain his laughter.

"Are all charr this rude?" Grumbled the tenant as he filched out a scrap of parchment the tossed it to her.

"Do all humans swindle their customers this badly?" She said as she unrolled the crumpled mass then pulled out a stylus and began working out some calculations.

"Hey sir, missy... whatever you are. I'm an honest man. I've never cheated a customer in my..."

But before he could finish his words, Amalthia raised the popgun then fired an aim-corrected shot. The target fell back with a thud. Then in quick successive rounds, she felled five more targets.

"Quaggan plush, please. The pink one," she said with a wide smirk on her face.

Amalthia shoved the oversized plush toy into Kaleb's arms. "It matches your shirt quite well."

He just smiled trying to get a firm grasp while leaning over so he could see where he was walking. "I almost felt bad for that kid."

"I don't. He was trying to rip us off."

"Key word is 'almost'. Hey! Now there's something I might be good at," Kaleb said as he pointed towards a banner that read, Dolyak Shoeing Contest.

The master of ceremonies announced for men and women of all ages to compete against the so-called world's fastest farrier. Standing next to a blacksmithing smelter, stood a massive norn who looked to be at least eight feet tall. The MC boldly stated that there was no one on the face of Tyria who could shoe a dolyak faster than Halig the Great.

"He's almost as big as Ulfgar. But I bet with the right tools, I can beat 'em," Kaleb said as he pointed towards Amalthia's pocket.

"Your torch. It burns much hotter than that smelter and that will allow me to reshape the shoes much faster."

Smiling with glee upon Kaleb's clever inspiration, Amalthia handed him the torch. "I know you can beat him."

"Who amongst you has the courage, the will and the speed to challenge the mighty Halig?" The MC announced as he pointed at the audience.

Several brawny men, a char and two Asura, raised their hands. As they were ushered towards a large smelting pit, the enormous norn shook his head and laughed as his braided locks of hair flailed about.

At the last moment, Kaleb stepped through the crowd as he shoved his way towards the rest of the contestants. The top hatted MC looked at him for a moment before continuing his monologue.

"All of you grab your hammers and tongs and find the nearest available anvil that is located by each respective dolyak. At the count of five, the contest will commence. The first one to successfully forge four shoes from their respective strips of scrap iron, and can successfully place them upon the hooves of their respective beast shall be declared the winner."

"Are there any questions? If not then good luck ladies and gentlemen!" The master of ceremonies queried as he raised his hand to begin the count. Kaleb activated his torch.

When the countdown ended, every one of the contestants' hammers began pealing away as they frantically raced against each other to be the first to shoe their dolyak. For his part, Kaleb deftly began forging the strips into clean horseshoe-shaped forms as he took advantage of the blowtorch's higher output temperature.

Amalthia cheered wildly along with the rest of the crowd hoping that her man would win the contest. She saw how the sweat that covered his body helped to accentuate the definition of his rippling muscles. A lifetime of heavy lifting and athletic prowess had sculpted his body in ways that made her swoon with desire. She imagined resting her head against his firm chest and hearing the rhythmic beating of his strong heart. Her mind raced with fantasies of what it would be like to have him inside of her.

I want that more than you can imagine, she mused quietly as she gazed upon the human she loved.

By this time the norn had already placed three shoes on his dolyak. Kaleb was running a close second, but was still behind by one shoe. Thinking back to one of the techniques his father had taught him, he realized that it was possible to molten glue the shoe onto the dolyak instead. His dad mentioned that this was a common practice when nails were in short supply. The trick was softening the shoe up enough so the weight of the animal could cause the semi-soft metal to flay out. As it did, the ferrier had to work quickly to crimp the soft edges around the edge of the hooves.

This blowtorch is perfect, he thought as he began to soften the shoe with the orange flame. Remembering the dangers of looking directly into a blue flame, Kaleb pulled out a pair of welding goggles that Amalthia had given him. Once fitted, he switched over to the hotter blue flame as he proceeded to make the metal soft and pliable.

Halig was about to hammer in his final shoe. If Kaleb was to overtake the norn, he had to act fast. Grabbing the red-hot shoe with his tongs, Kaleb raced toward the dolyak, raised its foot using his free hand then quickly placed the molten item upon the base of the hoof. Using a combination of tongs and torch, he managed to crimp on the third shoe.

The massive norn was now only two nails away from finishing the contest. Undeterred and focused, Kaleb raced to heat up the last shoe to repeat the process once more.

Everything was down to the wire and Halig was about to drive the last nail home. But as he brought the hammer down for one final blow, the MC shouted to the top of his lungs.

"Time! We have a new winner."

The norn looked dumbfounded upon seeing the young human who had just beaten him.

"What is your name young man?"

"Grimwald, sir. Kaleb Grimwald."

"Well, ladies and gentlemen. It looks like this handsome young man has upended our current champion. The cash prize of fifty gold goes to the new winner."

"That is bullocks! He cheated! I could have easily won if that boy didn’t use that darn torch," Halig roared as he flung his hammer down in disappointment.

Kaleb spoke up. "Mighty Halig. I respect your sportsmanship in not taking a cheap shortcut in order to win the contest. Your technique was good, but mine was faster."

Several charr, except for Amalthia, bellowed in rage claiming the human had cheated as well. The humans disagreed and soon, a massive shouting match began to erupt amongst the crowd as tempers began to flare.

In an attempt to calm the raging carnival goers, Kaleb gave a very brief history lesson to everyone. "The kursikan molten fold technique has been used throughout Tyria since the Krytan civil war. Not many even use it any more, but my family has always passed it down from father to son. The Grimwalds, my family, are one of the few families in Kryta that still knows this ancient technique. Let's all just have a good time."

Within a short span, the anger began to subside. Many of the attendees who were familiar with the ancient technique came to realize that it was, in fact a bona fide farrier art.

Halig the Great conceded the title without further protest then went over to the young man who had beaten him and gave him a hearty handshake. Kaleb returned the favor by offering to buy his vanquished opponent a tall stein of mead. Never being one to turn down a strong drink, the norn gladly accepted the offer.

As their day at the carnival began to draw to a close, Kaleb and Amalthia had amassed a rather large cache of prizes. By the time they departed, Amalthia had garnered three giant stuffed quaggans and several various small stuffed animals. Kaleb, for his part, gained two quaggans plus the title of being the fastest dolyak farrier in Kryta.

"Blue, green and black - all mine!" Amalthia grinned as she stuck her tongue out at Kaleb.

"I'll trade ya the pink one for the black one." He said as he tried carrying the two monstrous plushies on either side of his hips.

"But the pink one compliments the color of your eyes and outfit so well," She said with a laugh.

"My skin tone begs to differ. Besides, I'll never hear the end of it from Rachel if she sees me bringing home a giant pink quaggan."

"Yer just bein' greedy!"

"Am not!"

"Are too!"

"Do you still have my torch?"

"I put it in your pocket, remember?"

Amalthia felt her pockets for a moment then confirmed that the device was still present.

"You forgot to close the valve. Didn't you? Now the butane is all gone."

"I thought it contained ahceedaa... how do you pronounce it again?"

"That's only used for my workstation torch, dummy! And it's pronounced A-ce-tyl-ene."

"Fine, fine. I don't care so long as it wins me titles and gold. You want the red quaggan?"

"No. They are evil." She pleasantly scolded him as they both laughed.

Dusk had approached as the pair arrived back at the butcher shop before sunset. Amalthia looked up at the stairs leading to her loft then decided that it would be better to simply go through the main door instead. "We'll definitely have to do this again. Are you sure you don't want to trade?" Kaleb asked as Amalthia led the way through the front door.

Turning quickly around, she said to Kaleb. "On second thought, I'll take the red one."

"But you said that's the evil one."

"I know," she said as she swung her head forward, "and, oh... hi mother."

Kaleb froze in his tracks.

Mother?

Standing in front of the counter with her arms folded, stood a charr with cold green eyes and a vicious looking upturned scowl the likes of which sent chills through the young man's veins.

"Oh... hi... ms.. Blastforge..." Kaleb said in an uncharacteristically nervous tone. "Nice to meet you, ma'am."

"Fuze - Blast...fuse," came her deadpan reply as she gave the young man a cold, piercing stare.

"Kaleb. I think now might be a good time for you to leave."

He was about to say something in a barely audible whisper when Amalthia interrupted him.

"Have a good evening!" She said as she made a grimacing face hoping that Kaleb would understand that she would talk to him during a better and safer time. She handed him the green giant stuffed quaggan. He nodded in acknowledgment then gave her a reassuring wink before heading out.

Once the door was shut, Amalthia turned around and took in a very deep breath hoping it would calm her for what she was about to endure.

"So this is what the dear little runt does in her spare time... squandering her combat skills collecting cuddle toys and hanging with humans. Did you finally complete your little menagerie fluffy bunnies and koda bears?" Her mother said in her characteristic, derogatory manner.

"Oh yes mother. I saved the red one just for you. It has a face like a hylek. When I saw it, I just had to trade it out as its face reminded me so much of yours," Amalthia retorted with a mocking smile.

"Then give it here, child. I would certainly love to cuddle with it."

Her daughter flung the stuffed animal towards her mother with all her might. As soon as Siri caught the toy she promptly tore its head off then flung the pillowy remains across the floor.

"Well, perhaps an undead hylek will do that to your lovely face one day!" Amalthia snapped as she tried her best to contain her rage.

"I was merely expressing how I felt about you child. Try not to take it so personally. Anyway, if you are through with that forked tongue of yours I have some news you should be happy to hear."

Moments later, Ludrick ambled past the meat counter doors as he tried to steady his balance.

"Your mother does have something very important to say, Amalthia. Please listen," he said in a very somber tone.

"So you finally decided to get off your drunk, sorry tail and listen to the good news I bring forth? Good! Now maybe this little lush-of-a dingbat will take heed and try to amount to something for once," Siri spat in disgust as her pupils dilated.

"I would knock your teeth out right now, woman, if I were able. Just say your peace and get the hell out of my house!" Ludrick said in a hoarse voice while trying to hold his head up.

"Fine, fine. Both of you will think I am the best parent in the world when I say that I've finally found a warband that is willing to accept this loser-of-a-cub of mine as one of their own."

For the first time in a while, Amalthia was left speechless.

"Don't try so hard, cub, to contain your excitement. You have no idea the strings I had to pull in convincing one of the warbands into accepting your sorry tail into their ranks. With all that I've done, I would at least expect a big, wet slobbery kiss, dear cub."

"How about a hug instead?" Amalthia countered.

"Try it and I'll claw your damn eyes out."

"Oh good. Then at least I won't have to look at that hylek face of yours anymore."

"I'm sorry, Amalthia. But we think its what's best for you," Ludrick stated glumly.

"So now you're on her side too, sire?"

"I'm sorry, cub. But there is an inescapable reality that you have been bereft of being with your own kind. As much as I appreciate all that your friend has done, I think you need to broaden your horizons. I can't give that to you if you stay here."

Amalthia looked at her father visibly hurt as she tried her best to maintain her composure. "So this is what it has been about the entire time? Kaleb. It bothers you that we are hanging out together."

"Stop it! Even the mere idea is making me nauseous. Mice are to be eaten and slaughtered, not fondled over and befriended. Cub, I'm offering you one last chance, from the bottom of my generous heart, for you to redeem yourself from your current pathetic existence. There are more important things in this world than going to carnivals, getting sloshed and cavorting with hairless rats."

"That 'rat' was responsible for saving my life!"

"So the human saved you. That's what soldiers are supposed to do. Good little mouse... here's some cheese," Siri said dismissively.

The rage built inside Amalthia until she could contain it no more.

"I've had it with you, mother!" With those words she drew her shortsword then charged headlong towards her mother. As she swung her blade downward, an enormous sword parried her attack. Standing at the other end, stood her father. With the wave of his massive hand he calmly gestured for her to stand down then gently clasped hold of her weapon as she fell to the floor weeping.

Siri stood and laughed. "I honestly didn't think you could still swing one of those old man. Impressive! Hate me even more, cub, because that's what will eventually turn you into a good soldier."

"Stand down, Amalthia. She is just trying to mess with your head," Ludrick said as he withdrew his massive sword back into its scabbard.

"You have no clue ex mate-of-mine. The fun is only starting. Cub - three days from tomorrow, report to Iron Legion headquarters in the Black Citadel. Be there at zero eight hundred sharp or face a firing squad for desertion of duty. I don't care what happens to you so long as your actions do not reflect badly on the legions, or myself."

Ludrick tried his best to muster a bellowing tone. "You've poisoned this house with your tongue long enough. Just leave and never come back!"

Siri just shrugged her shoulders, walked toward the front door then turned around to hurl a few more barbs before leaving. "Suits me fine. This cub may be a sniveling pathetic wretch who is bawling on daddy's floor now, but given a few months of tough love with some real warriors, she will be more of a charr than you ever were. Until then, try not to let yourself suffocate in your own piss and vomit."

When her mother left, Amalthia just laid on the floor curled up in a ball as crystal drops flowed freely from her eyes. Her father sank down next to her, buried his head between his hands and unleashed a stream of salt water from his own eyes as well.

(Chapter 12 is also up on Google Docs.)

#gw2 fanfic #the outliers #kaleb and amalthia #human and charr #interspecieslove #tyriaslibrary

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schraubd · 5 years

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What Eight Great Teachers Taught Me About Teaching

Last night, I was reflecting on how lucky I was to have had so many great teachers in my life. From pre-K to post-12, I've been blessed to have had an overwhelmingly positive educational experience. My time as an official student isn't quite over yet, but it is winding down, and soon I will be a full-fledged member of the teacher's side of the podium. So I thought I'd share some of what I've learned about teaching from my very best teachers. * * * Ms. Curry: Elementary school is a pretty fuzzy memory at this stage, but I remember adoring my First Grade teacher Ms. Curry. She saw the very earliest flickerings of my political self when I did a report on Jackie Robinson, and mostly managed to keep a straight face when I sternly informed the class that "nobody should be aggravated on a bus!" From Ms. Curry, I learned that both teaching and learning can be joyous, and that joy can be both very deliberate and very unintentional. Ms. Skelton: By any objective measure, I was a good and well-behaved student in high school. Always got good grades, never once got a detention, never got called into the principal's office. Subjectively, and on reflection ... I was probably a handful to deal with for a lot of teachers. I had a contrarian streak a mile wide, and I had opinions about pedagogy -- to wit, if I didn't understand why something was useful to learn, I didn't want to learn it. And no class was the subject of this wrath more than English. I believed then -- and to some extent believe now, though slightly less dogmatically -- that the only purpose of writing was to clearly communicate and persuasively justify ideas. Faced with English classes where we read a ton of literature that, to me, seemed like exercises in willful obtuseness justified because it uses "metaphor" or "connotative language", and I was effectively in open rebellion. In my first essay for Ms. Skelton in 11th grade, I wrote an extended diatribe about why most of the focus of the class -- "analyzing" the use of language rather than evaluating the content of the work -- was useless and pointless. I don't have a copy of it anymore, but with the benefit of hindsight I'm absolutely sure it was self-righteous and obnoxious (really, how could it not be?). I'd written essays like this before -- and since I was a good writer, in spite of it all, I usually got a good grade with perfunctory comments. But Ms. Skelton did something none of my other teachers had ever done before: She responded. She wrote extended comments on the paper, taking my position seriously and making her case for why I should, indeed, care about this material. She didn't persuade me. But she did earn my undying loyalty that day. From Ms. Sketlon, I learned that if you take your students seriously, and treat their contributions as worthy of respect, they'll be willing to explore nearly any horizon you place in front of them. Kim Smith: There were three types of political science classes I took at Carleton. There were required courses. There were courses I took with visiting faculty. And there were courses I took with Kim Smith. This wasn't exactly intentional -- it's just that Kim Smith happened to teach pretty much every interesting class I wanted to take in the entire department. Constitutional Law and African-American Political Thought! Impossible combination to beat! I took four classes from her -- tied for the most of any Carleton professor. I did well in her classes, but Kim was notoriously unsparing in her comments on essays submitted to her class. I have distinct memories of entire paragraphs circle or crossed out with "oh please" or "that's lame" written next to it. Some people were terrified of her, but I thought it was fabulous. And there's no doubt she made my writing better. And of all my college professors, she's the one with whom I have the closest friendship with to this day. Kim once told me her teaching philosophy was "it's better to be feared than loved". That doesn't give her enough credit though; I would say that from her I learned instead that if you play your cards right, you don't actually need to choose. Louis Newman: Louis Newman was one of the very first people I met at Carleton. Somehow, my dad found out about him -- in retrospect, that he found the head of Judaic Studies at Carleton is probably not coincidental -- and we were introduced before I even attended my first class. He actually persuaded me to drop my freshman seminar and instead enroll in his upper level Jewish Ethics class. Again, that actually might not have been the best advice in the abstract, but in my case it worked out great. He's the other professor I took four classes from; if Carleton had a Judaic Studies concentration, I would have done it. Louis was distinctive in the degree to which he cared about his students as human beings, not just as students. He was a warm and paternal, but never paternalistic figure. From him I learned that the best teachers care about the whole student, not just their submitted work. Melvin Rogers: Melvin is my great "I knew him when" story -- I knew Melvin Rogers when he was a post-doc at Carleton, just starting out his career. Even then, everyone knew he was brilliant, and everyone knew he was going to be something special. Carleton basically hacked together a position just to offer it to him, and his job talk was something else. Most job talks have one, maybe two students in attendance, quietly listening in the back corner. Melvin's job talk was given to a packed room, with several of us literally holding a "We Love You Melvin Rogers!" banner against the back wall. It didn't work, he ended up going to UVA, and given how his career subsequently took off I can't say he made a mistake. But certainly we pulled out all the stops, and were right to do so. Again, everyone knew he was a brilliant scholar. But he was also a brilliant teacher. Those two qualities aren't always associated together -- but I think that's a mistake in our profession, and one we should work harder to rectify. From Melvin Rogers I learned that brilliance in scholarship is wholly compatible with brilliance in teaching, and nobody should tell you that greatest in the one is an excuse to neglect the other. Martha Nussbaum: Martha Nussbaum is a very famous, very important person. I am not a particularly famous, particularly important person. And while I was technically one of her "students", in practice I took two of her law school courses that each had at least 30 students enrolled. She had no ongoing obligations towards me, and certainly had and has enough on her plate not to bother with me. She would have been well within her rights never to have once thought of me after handing in my final grades. And yet. Martha Nussbaum has written me letters of recommendation -- repeatedly, for several different types of positions. She's read drafts when I've sent them to her, she's met with me when I've returned to Chicago. She's even shot the breeze with me over email regarding our shared interest in Project Runway (she's worn Season 7 winner Seth Aaron Henderson). I was and am little, and she was and is big, and yet somehow she's made time to be a mentor for me -- for no other reason than that I took a couple of her classes and did well in them. Martha Nussbaum is another example of someone whose brilliant scholarship pairs with brilliant teaching. But from her, I also learned that even the most successful, amazing, prominent figures still can find time to care about and mentor their students -- and if she can do it, we all can. David Strauss: I once joked that there was a period where every idea I had for a law review article had already been written by David Strauss between 1985 and 1997. It was disappointing, in a way, but it was also a sign that I had good ideas, at the very least -- just a generation too late. He provided a model for me regarding what good scholarship was and what good teaching was. There's probably nobody on earth of whom I'm more clearly a "disciple" of than David Strauss. And on top of that -- he was a great teacher, in a completely different way from Kim or Martha or Melvin. The fact is, I'm probably not and will never be as scary as Kim Smith. I'm much too goofy for that. But then again, so was David, and he commanded classroom attention just fine. From David Strauss, I learned that the best way to be the best teacher and scholar I could be, was to be me. Sarah Song: And now we get to my current adviser, Sarah Song. When I was applying to law schools, I was admitted to Berkeley's Jurisprudence and Social Policy program, and had I enrolled Sarah would have been my Ph.D. adviser in that program. Six years, five cities, four jobs, and one degree later, and I end up in a Ph.D. program with Sarah Song as my adviser. For a Chicago grad, I'm not always efficient. There is an academic adage I didn't learn from Sarah, but which very much applies to her: "Everyone in academia is smart. Distinguish yourself by being kind." Sarah Song is very smart, and very talented, and very everything one would want a great professor to be. But she is distinguished by being, without question, one of the most singularly kind people on the planet. From her I learned just how important that kindness is as part of being a great professor, mentor, and scholar. And I'm grateful to have it and her in my life every day. via The Debate Link http://bit.ly/2R9SRj7

#education #Personal

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junker-town · 4 years

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Tua Tagovailoa entering the draft is great for the Dolphins (and the NFL)

Tua Tagovailoa will be one of the top prospects in the 2020 NFL Draft.

A healthy Tagovailoa could be Miami’s franchise quarterback.

Tua Tagovailoa feels confident his injured hip will be back to full strength in 2020. He proved as much by declaring for the NFL Draft.

The Alabama quarterback, a Heisman Trophy runner-up in 2018 and a prime candidate last fall before a dislocated hip ended his season after nine games, formally ended his college career at a press conference in Tuscaloosa. That cleared up any uncertainty about his immediate NFL future — and gave the Dolphins an obvious next step in their ongoing rebuild.

Miami’s five-win season may have exceeded expectations (and ruined the Patriots’ championship hopes), but the Dolphins’ tanking plan may not have been totally derailed by fleeting moments of overachievement. Joe Burrow’s ascension to the presumptive top spot after a breakthrough at LSU means Tagovailoa — whose latest medical check-up saw him healing nicely — could be available when Miami makes the fifth overall selection in this year’s draft.

That would be a boon for the Dolphins, and the rest of the league could benefit as well.

What can Tagovailoa bring to Miami?

The Hawaiian would be the sun around which head coach Brian Flores’ solar system revolves. He’d be an immediate focus for the Miami offense, though Ryan Fitzpatrick’s presence (he’s under contract for a reasonable $8 million next season) would allow him extra time to adjust to the NFL — and get his bad hip back to 100 percent —without having to start right away.

He’d be the Dolphins’ latest attempt at a homegrown franchise quarterback, something the team’s lacked since Dan Marino retired. Since 2001, Miami has drafted passers like John Beck, Chad Henne, Pat White, and Ryan Tannehill. None of those players would go on to start a playoff game for the club, though Tannehill was the impetus behind 2016’s 10-6 season before suffering an ACL tear late in the season.

Tagovailoa could change all that. In three seasons and 32 games with the Tide (including 24 starts), he won a national championship, played in another NCAA title game, and compiled a stellar 87:11 touchdown-to-interception ratio. He threw for at least three touchdowns in more than half his college games. While some of that success can be attributed to a receiving corps loaded with first-round talent — some of which could be targeted by the Dolphins this spring later in the draft — it’s clear he has the arm strength, accuracy, and decision-making ability to transform an offense.

He’d be the latest young star in Miami’s scraggly constellation. DeVante Parker has been a revelation now that he’s been freed from former coach Adam Gase’s influence; his 802 receiving yards in the final eight weeks of the season were second only to Michael Thomas. Mike Gesicki has come on strong as a pass-catching tight end. A combination of draft picks and salary cap space could fill in the massive gaps around them (especially at tailback, since the 37-year-old Fitzpatrick was the team’s leading rusher in 2019).

Would Tagovailoa be available when the Dolphins make their first choice? Barring any major trades, it seems like a solid bet. Here’s how the top five shakes out in terms of quarterback need in 2020:

1. Bengals. Do they need a QB? Yes, and they can choose between Heisman winner Joe Burrow, Tagovailoa, or any other prospect who may rise through the pre-draft process.

2. Washington. Do they need a QB? No. They drafted Dwayne Haskins with the 15th overall pick in 2019.

3. Lions. Do they need a QB? Not really. Matthew Stafford will only be 32 years old next month and was having the best season of his career before a back injury cut it short.

4. Giants. Do they need a QB? No. They drafted Daniel Jones with the sixth overall pick in 2019.

5. Dolphins. Do they need a QB? Yes, and they’d be happy to draft whomever the Bengals don’t.

But even if another team threatens to jump the line, Miami has the assets to move up the draft board. Trading away young talent in Minkah Fitzpatrick, Laremy Tunsil, and Kenny Stills net the Dolphins a pair of extra first-round picks this spring. If the Dolphins have their hearts set on adding Tagovailoa, they’ll almost certainly be able to.

What does Tagovailoa’s declaration mean for the rest of the NFL?

While the Dolphins, as a quarterback-hungry team drafting in the top five, stand to benefit most from Tagovailoa’s decision, his entry is a rising tide for needy teams across the league.

The Chargers, making their selection one spot after Miami, could select the draft’s third quarterback if they decide they need to find Philip Rivers’ replacement, or they could luck into whatever position player the Dolphins pass up by drafting Tagovailoa.

Colts general manager Chris Ballard has already said quarterback will be one of his team’s main focuses this offseason following Jacoby Brissett’s concerning decline to finish up the 2019 season. He could now find himself able to draft a franchise passer in the Justin Herbert/Jacob Eason/Jordan Love mold when Indianapolis is called to make the 13th pick.

The Lions, who hold the draft’s first real wild card after probable slam dunk picks at No. 1 (Burrow) and No. 2 (Ohio State wrecking ball pass rusher Chase Young), will be able to ask for a bigger return in a potential trade down now that Tagovailoa’s in the mix.

It’s bad news for what stands to be a banner crop of talented, but flawed free-agent quarterbacks, however. Passers like Jameis Winston, Marcus Mariota, Teddy Bridgewater, Ryan Tannehill, Drew Brees, Rivers, and even Tom Brady are all set to see their contracts expire this offseason. Other starters like Cam Newton and Andy Dalton could join them.

Tagovailoa presents a high-upside option in a league with only 32 starting jobs. He’ll also be dirt cheap over the course of his rookie-scale contract. Would you rather bet on Tua’s potential for four years and roughly $30 million (with a team option for a fifth), or sign someone like Winston for two years at the same price (using Brissett’s recent contract extension as a template)?

Tagovailoa’s decision to dive into the draft waters is great news for the Dolphins, good news for the NFL, and another obstacle for the league’s veteran quarterbacks looking for one more shot at a starting job. He may just be the light at the end of Miami’s tunnel; as long as he’s healthy, he’s tailor-made for the franchise QB-shaped hole in the middle of the team’s foundation.

His announcement suggests he’s on track for a full recovery — and while his departure is a rough blow for Alabama, Nick Saban’s loss is the NFL’s gain.

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mitchbeck · 5 years

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CANTLON: NIGHTHAWK GREAT ANDERSON ENTERS AHL HALL OF FAME

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings SPRINGFIELD, MA - John Anderson's road to the AHL Hall-of-Fame is a true hockey journey. Beginning with his captaincy during his junior days with the first edition of the Toronto Marlies of the OHA (now OHL). He was a first-round pick and spent eight years with the Maple Leafs. His journey continued for a brief one year stay with the Quebec Nordiques, who had drafted him during their WHA days. Anderson then had a strong four-year run with the Hartford Whalers. While in the Connecticut capital, Anderson would score the game-winning goal that gave the Whalers their one and their only division title. After leaving the Whalers, Anderson headed for Europe, which didn’t make me him happy. “I really hated it. I wanted to come back. The following summer I had worked as hard as I could, but I got no tryouts to any training camps and I have to admit, I was angry with the game at the point. Then, I got a call from an old friend, Gabby (Bruce Boudreau) to come to Ft. Wayne. He said, 'Play with me. We'll have some fun again.' I asked him, 'I’m not much on geography where is Ft. Wayne?'” After a season with the Ft. Wayne Komets (IHL) and listening to Boudreau, it was his best hockey decision. “It was a great piece of advice that I listened to. I was worried about riding the bus everywhere and the whole nine yards. It was the best thing I ever did. It was such a close-knit group. Everybody checked their egos at the door. I appreciated those guys giving me back the love of the game. It was a very special group.” Anderson would then begin to make his AHL mark with the New Haven Nighthawks as a Player/Assistant Coach a year later. “I really have to thank the New Haven Nighthawks. They made an old hockey player feel good and resurrected. It could have been over for my career. That was a very good group of players we had that year. It made me, an old player, feel a bit young again.” Anderson captured the Les Cunningham AHL MVP Trophy that season playing with a team that was half a crew of refugees from the Quebec Nordiques. The team they assembled was one of the last two Independent AHL teams. The line he was a part of, was one of the most fearsome in league history. Anderson played on the left wing. Stan Drulia manned the right wing while Paul Willett was the center. The group compiled 277 points in 1991-92. Drulia had 102 of those points. He was one of only two players in Nighthawk history to top the century mark in total points. Willett had 80 points. Anderson had 41 goals and a team-leading 54 assists (95 points) and a plus-42, as the trio blitzed goalies in what was then, just a 15-team AHL. Putting that in perspective, it's less than half of today’s what today's AHL landscape encompasses. Interestingly though, the line almost never happened. “I was injured late in the year in Ft. Wayne and didn’t play in the playoffs, I had a bad charley-horse. In fact, they thought it was broken. It actually laid down extra calcium (similar to Cam Neely’s career-ending injury). It never really healed in the summer, I barely trained, so I walked into camp, literally walked in, as a free agent. The only other person who had a worse camp than me was Stan. I saw him play one game the season before, you noticed him. "Dougie Carpenter (the team's head coach) wasn’t going to sign him and he had like 140 points the year before (with Knoxville ECHL). I said he had something special and I really lobbied Carpenter to sign him. Drulia took a pay cut to play in New Haven. He was being offered $1,500 a week to play in the East Coast League that year. "Then there was a shooting in the mall (Chapel Square Mall) around the corner from the arena (New Haven Coliseum) during camp. His wife was like, 'What are we doing here?” said Anderson. The AHL minimum at the time was far below what it is today ($70K) and this was just before the first rise in salaries that started with the 1994 NHL work stoppage. Anderson mentored many of his teammates. One of those he taught, Trevor Stienburg, has for the past 17 years, been a head coach with the St. Mary’s University Huskies (AUAA) in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Stienburg was one of the ten players on that Nighthawk roster who were Quebec Nordiques prospects assigned to the team. Another ten were an assortment of AHL free agents of which Anderson was one. “John was such a good guy and a great teammate. He is so worthy of the honor,” Stienburg said in a phone interview from Halifax. "John’s style at that time might not fit the way hockey is structured today, but it was highly effective back then. “John played hockey like some people play basketball. He would set picks for others. He was the dean of subtle obstruction. When I would have the puck in the offensive zone, he would skate to me trying not to get open, and then at the last minute he would shake his coverage with his pick and he was open for the pass or created an open lane for you to shoot. He would always say, 'Act like an object'" The seeds for the second half of Anderson’s AHL career as a head coach were planted in New Haven. “John was the MVP of the league in so many ways. He always took the time to teach guys. He was maybe one of the very first player-assistant coaches in the AHL. He and Doug (head coach Doug Carpenter) were a good team and he gave him a lot of opportunity. "I would be a veteran at the point, and to be honest I wanted to be in Halifax. So, when I went to New Haven with that group, it felt like a demotion, because it was. To be honest, I was down emotionally. As we grew as a group, it got better each day and John was a big part of that. He was open. If you didn’t understand something, he would say, 'Come over here, I’ll show you.' He made me receptive to learning new things. That really helped me at that point in my career and down the line. "As my skating started to suffer late in my career, I always remember what John taught me and others in New Haven. I teach that to my players now just, in a bit more of a modified approach.” Anderson was an important part of the fabric for that edition of the Nighthawks. The Nordiques didn’t think they were prospects to be with the Halifax Citadels, the primary farm team for the Quebec. “He was the centerpiece of the team; a natural born leader, and he has accomplished a lot in this game. He is a Hall-of-Famer in my book,” said Stienburg. For Anderson and that team they started off quite poorly at 3-14, but his troublesome charley-horse finally began to heal and the trio started to click and collect points. They turned their record around with an inverted 14-3 run. “Stiener was one of funniest teammates I ever had, and he and all the guys made me feel so welcomed. He was the reason we turned it around had such a good year. We had so many good players in that group. Scotty Arniel, Brian Dobbin, and Lou Francheschetti were on the other line. Once, I got healthy, and guys got to know each other, we got better as the season went along. "All of the guys on that team got an NHL contract to sign except me,” Anderson said with his huge broad smile and a laugh. It was in New Haven that Anderson caught the bug for coaching which would be the other half of his sterling AHL career with the Chicago Wolves. “Doug never called me his assistant coach, he called me his little helper. We went up to Adirondack together to watch a pre-season game there to see if we might be able to pick up a couple players for us. We were up in Lake George. It was a beautiful fall day and Doug says, 'Do you want to sit in the restaurant?' I said, 'No, let’s go on the tour boat.' Doug was kind of a staunch guy, I was a bit (adventurous), but we're symbiotic as coaches together. That year he lost his mother which was very hard for him, but he was a great coach because he let me do my thing." He remembers his last AHL game in Springfield as a player vividly. “We sit down after the Star Spangled Banner. I see guys at the end of the bench to the right are laughing. I look left the guys are laughing and our head coach, Dougie Carpenter, is behind me. He’s laughing, and so I Iook at Stan Drulia and said, 'What the heck is so funny?' He said, 'Look behind you. "A guy came down behind the bench with a huge sign the size of a bedsheet: 'Anderson: Caution Microwave In Use.', "I wish he were here today because I have a new pacemaker and its microwave proof - Ha!” Chicago is where Anderson made a tremendous mark with two of the three last IHL Turner Cups, and their first year in the AHL won the Calder Cup over Bridgeport in five games. “We had all the ingredients. Kevin Cheveldayoff (the GM) has more rings than fingers, who might get one more in Winnipeg was great and he just let me coach. The owners, Don Levin, and Buddy Myers gave me all the tools I needed. And by tools I mean money.” Anderson said chuckling. The Wolves captured two titles in the AHL and the two in the IHL for an impressive seven-year run and add in the United Hockey League title he won in Quad Cit,y Anderson’s resume had the word winner stamped on it." The team also helped Anderson with their affiliation with the now-defunct Atlanta Thrashers where he eventually got his first NHL head coaching gig. Teaching others came naturally because of his strong competitive desire. “I really wanted to win that year. It was important to lead by example with such a diverse group that we had in New Haven. Being personable with players was a big thing. It doesn’t take much but finding out how a guy is doing. Bruce Boudreau and I have the same philosophy. What we always talked about was talking to every player, every day, because you don’t know what is going on. His kid might have been sick, or something else going on. It went a long way with players.” After two more years playing with San Diego, he began his hockey coaching odyssey in the Southern Hockey League in 1995, a six-team reincarnation of the mid-‘70’s version that lasted all of one year. Anderson had a tale from his Winston-Salem Mammoths days that brought the house down. “There was a lot to learn you had to do a lot yourself there wasn’t an assistant coach at the time. I even learned how to put up signs on the dasher boards. I learned a lot valuable things. "I was at the dinner table with my (unofficial) assistant coach Victor Posa, and I get a call from Walt Podubny (Ranger from the 1980s), the head coach of the Daytona Beach team. "We start discussing a trade. He wanted a guy we had on defense, and I wanted one of his offensive defenseman. We talked about 20 minutes and I ended it, 'Hey Walt, We're set. We have a deal? Yes, we do. "Next morning, he calls me and says his owner won’t let him make the deal, so the deal is off. I said, 'OK Walt if anything changes and you can call me.' "We have a game that night. We're playing great. We were down to four D as one player got sick before the game. So we're ahead in the third period, and one of my guys punches a guy in the head, the defenseman I was going to trade. So he gets tossed and we're down to three D and are shorthanded the rest of the game. "So, my youngest, Spencer, was six at the time, and he hung up things in the locker room and he goes in there and the player is throwing a fit. He’s throwing everything, gloves, helmets, and shoulder pads. "Spencer asks him, 'What’s wrong, Travis (Hulse)?' "Your father is gonna kill me if we lose this game. He’s going to be angry with me. It’s gonna be horrible.” "My son gives him a Gatorade and says, 'Don’t worry, Travis my Dad is going to trade you anyhow.' "Note to future coaches never discuss work at the dinner table.” Going to the AHL was always a place of last resort for hockey players in his day. “Everybody says I don’t want to go the American League till you get there. I look back as a player and a person how necessary and vital it was to go there to grow and develop personally. I realize just how vitally important the AHL is and it made me a better coach and a better person in being honored today says everything for me.” John Anderson has shown just how valuable the AHL is, and how valuable he has been to the modern era of the AHL as he proudly takes his place the Hall of Fame. Read the full article

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ladystylestores · 4 years

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where security forces may be more deadly than coronavirus

Eric Mutasiga’s mother, Joyce Namugalu Mutasiga, has to support his family after he was killed by police

In Uganda, at least 12 people have allegedly been killed by security officers enforcing measures to restrict the spread of coronavirus, while no-one has been killed by the virus itself. Patience Atuhaire has been meeting some of those affected by the violence.

Joyce Namugalu Mutasiga speaks to me as she fries small pancakes, known as kabalagala, over a woodfire, her words coming out in short, crisp sentences punctuated with long silences.

“Somebody is moving away from you and then you shoot him? At least they would have said sorry, because his life will never be back, and now I am going to struggle with the children,” she says, straining to bottle up her emotions.

The 65-year-old is now the main bread-winner for a family of eight.

Mrs Mutasiga wants the police to apologise over the death of her son

Two of her grandchildren, aged three and five, too young to grasp the full scale of what has befallen them, run across the yard pointing to a car in the yard: “Take a photo of daddy’s car!”

In June, nearly three weeks after he was reportedly shot in the leg by a Ugandan policeman, Eric Mutasiga died from his wounds. His last moments were in an operating theatre in the country’s Mulago Hospital, according to his mother.

The 30-year-old headteacher was one of those allegedly killed by security forces enforcing a coronavirus lockdown.

Members of the security forces have been enforcing the lockdown measures

The killings are believed to have been at the hands of policemen, soldiers and members of an armed civilian force called the Local Defence Unit (LDU).

Since March, they have been jointly manning roadblocks to ensure that people stick to the control measures, including a ban on motorcycle taxis (known locally as boda bodas) and a dusk-to-dawn curfew.

Many Ugandans are wary as they approach these roadblocks not knowing what might happen, but on 13 May trouble came to Mr Mutasiga’s home.

As well as running the Merrytime Primary school, the father of three had a small shop next to his home on the edge of Mukono, about an hour’s drive east of the capital, Kampala.

On that Wednesday, policemen and members of the LDU were arresting people found breaking the lockdown rules by working after 19:00.

Story continues

‘You didn’t train me’

Mr Mutasiga’s employee, a young man working at the chapati stall outside the shop, had just been detained.

“I begged [the policemen] to forgive him. The two officers debated amongst themselves whether to let him go,” the headteacher later explained to local journalists.

Then, as people gathered round, things got heated.

“One of the policemen started to say I wasn’t the one who trained him. He said he could even shoot me.

“As I turned to leave, [one policeman] shot in the air. I turned to see what happened, and saw him aim directly at me.

“The bullet went right into my left leg and I fell. They got on their motorcycle really quickly and rode away.”

He made those comments as he was being wheeled into hospital – the police have not verified his account.

“Some family members have suggested we go to court. But the police have not revealed the shooter’s identify, so who would I sue?”https://ift.tt/2HfCbR7;, Source: Joyce Namugalu Mutasiga, Source description: Victim’s mother, Image:

His family had hoped that he would make a full recovery.

“We stayed in hospital awaiting surgery, but every time we asked, the health workers told us that the wound was bad, they couldn’t operate,” his mother says.

Mr Mutasiga was eventually taken to the operating theatre on 8 June where he died, she adds.

The death certificate shows that he died directly from gunshot wounds.

Mrs Mutasiga stares at the ground, taking a moment to compose herself.

She feels let down by the entire government system, saying: “Some family members have suggested we go to court. But the police have not revealed the shooter’s identify, so who would I sue?”

Short presentational grey line

Farida Nanyonjo is angry.

Her brother, Robert Senyonga, died after being beaten.

Around midday on 7 July, she received a call from his employer. She was told that she had to get to the eastern city of Jinja fast, as Mr Senyonga had been repeatedly struck by the butt of a gun wielded by someone believed to be from the LDU for riding a motorcycle.

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Liverpool can still break one Man City title record this season, but does this obsession with greatness reflect a worrying trend in football?

July 16, 2020 10:41

Thankfully in England, we’re not quite yet in that territory as, of course, the fact that Liverpool have won their first league title in 30 years this season is enough of a story in itself, and we had the Leicester City miracle of 2015/16, but in general the same clubs tend to dominate the top four spots and the domestic trophy wins; in the last twenty years of the FA Cup, once lauded for its ‘magic’, the final has been won by one of Manchester United, City, Chelsea, Arsenal or Liverpool on all but just two occasions, with one of those teams also being the runner up on eight occasions. It’s a similar story in the League Cup, which, paradoxically, has never been particularly highly valued by the biggest clubs, but as such has almost grown in importance as part of the collection, as part of a ‘domestic treble’ because winning a league title on its own is no longer exciting enough.

This is even more true in other leagues: Bayern Munich have just won their eighth Bundesliga title in a row, something that had never been done before, with four different teams winning the eight titles prior to that; in Serie A, Juventus are probably going to make it nine titles in a row this term. When winning what was once considered the most difficult and impressive trophy become so routine, it’s little wonder it no longer feels that satisfying.

It’s telling that there was never really any talk of points totals, winning streaks or unbeaten runs until the super club era really took off in the last decade or so.

This interaction between Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane earlier this season sums up how much the conversation has changed.

When Carragher talks about this Liverpool team finishing on more points than United’s treble winners, Keane responds: “Let’s not go down that road. That’s ridiculous. You talk about points, but the bottom line is that when you win the trophy, you get one medal. You don’t turn the medal over and it tells you how many points you won the league by.”

It feels like this Liverpool team deserves to go down as one of the greats, and it might still take one more record to cement that, but fans should relish this team’s success regardless, or we’re perhaps all guilty of feeding a footballing culture that could soon suck all the joy out of the game.

The post Liverpool can still break one Man City title record this season, but does this obsession with greatness reflect a worrying trend in football? appeared first on CaughtOffside.

#CaughtOffside #Blog

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maysoper · 5 years

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The Rundown - Eight Remain

The championships in all four conferences have been played. The champions and three of the four finalists will converge on Charlottetown with the hosts from PEI taking the final spot at the U SPORTS National Championship this week in a tournament where winning is everything and losses end dreams. Of the eight teams heading to Charlottetown, five of those teams have won the National Championship banner in the last six years, and three of the teams have stood atop the mountain in the last three years. In short, the field is stacked for this year's tournament, so let's take a look at who's headed to Prince Edward Island in this week's edition of The Rundown!

National Ranking: 1 Team Offence: 2.57 gpg (10th) Team Defence: 0.84 gapg (1st) If defence wins championships, the top-ranked team in U SPORTS may have already written themselves into the record books. The Alberta Pandas pitched 13 shutouts in the regular season over 28 games while adding another another two shutouts in the Canada West playoffs. They enter the U SPORTS National Championship with Kirsten Chamberlin holding a perfect 11-0-0 record through the regular season and 4-0-0 in the playoffs. In short, this team is nearly impervious when playing in their own zone. Couple that amazing defence with the fact that they also have the Canada West Player of the Year in leading goal-scorer and leading scorer Alex Poznikoff, second-leading goal-scorer and scorer Autumn MacDougall, and the Canada West Coach of the Year in Howie Draper leading the program to a 23-win season, and the Pandas seemed poised to capture their ninth U SPORTS National Championship. GAMETIME: Friday, March 15 versus Toronto at 3pm AT/11am PT.

National Ranking: 2 Team Offence: 3.00 gpg (3rd) Team Defence: 1.66 gapg (12th) The Montreal Carabins come into the 2019 U SPORTS National Championship looking to replicate their success from the 2017 U SPORTS National Championship where they won and improve upon their fifth-place finish from last year's championship. Their defence may seem suspect at 12th-best in U SPORTS, but they can score in bunches to help their rookie netminder when needed. Jessica Cormier led the team in goals (11) and tied for the lead in points with Anne Germain (23) in being named RSEQ MVP. Germain led the team in assists, so the majority of the offence runs through those two players as they accounted for one-third of Montreal's goals. In saying that, the Carabins saw six players score six goals or more in their 20 games played this season, so this team has goal-scoring talent up and down the lineup. Teams found out that this Carabins team has scoring as they posted a 15-4-1-0 record and a 4-0-0 record in the playoffs. GAMETIME: Thursday, March 14 versus UPEI at 7pm AT/3pm PT.

National Ranking: 3 Team Offence: 3.29 gpg (1st) Team Defence: 1.37 gapg (3rd) The Guelph Gryphons vaulted up the rankings with an impressive showing in the OUA this season, going 16-4-2-2 and 5-0-0 in the playoffs. They were the highest scoring team in the OUA and in U SPORTS this season as they lit the lamp 79 times in just 24 games while allowing just 34 goals. This team has all the makings of a championship-caliber team if they can keep their impressive undefeated record on the road (11-0-1) intact. This team's backbone is goaltender Valerie Lamenta once again as she led the OUA with a 1.24 GAA and a .952 save percentage in the 16 games she played. What may be deceiving about those stats is that Lamenta was 10-5-0 in those games, so there are times when scoring seemed to dry up for the Gryphons. Kaitlin Lowy led the team in goals (13) and points (25) while Miranda Lantz was the Cy Young winner for the team in scoring 11 goals and adding just four helpers. Only two other players scored eight goals apiece, so those four players account for over half the teams' goals this season. If their opponents can limit chances, the Gryphons will need Lamenta to be at her best. GAMETIME: Thursday, March 14 versus Manitoba at 3pm AT/11am PT.

National Ranking: 4 Team Offence: 2.96 gpg (4th) Team Defence: 1.58 gapg (9th) The St. Thomas Tommies were the AUS champions and the only team from the AUS to earn its spot at the National Championship, so there will be some considerable pressure on the Tommies to try and become the first AUS team to win the National Championship banner. They have a solid offensive game led by their top line, and the defence and goaltending will certainly be good enough for them to win games. Will being at the National Championship for the first time in school history overwhelm the ladies? St. Thomas' first line is rather deadly as Lauren Henman, Emily Oleksuk, and Olivia Reid combined for 39 goals and 88 points in 28 games this season. Oleksuk led the team with 34 points while Henman lit the lamp 18 times to lead the Tommies. Needless to say, a large chunk of their offence is contained within that line. Goaltending was a strength this season when the scoring was held at bay as Abby Clarke was top-two in the AUS for wins, GAA, and save percentage. They'll need all cylinders firing to become the first AUS team to capture the banner. GAMETIME: Friday, March 15 versus McGill at 7pm AT/3pm PT.

National Ranking: 5 Team Offence: 2.50 gpg (11th) Team Defence: 1.44 gapg (6th) The McGill Martlets fell to the Carabins in the RSEQ Final after finishing in third-place in the regular season before dispatching the Concordia Stingers in two-straight games by a combined 11-5 score. Against Montreal, they lost both games by 3-2 scores, so it seems the Martlets are peaking at the right time when it comes to scoring goals and, to a degree, preventing goals. Can they find enough scoring against the rest of the country's best? The Martlets will rely upon goaltender Tricia Deguire who has suited up for Team Canada on occasion. Her 1.46 GAA and .949 save percentage belie her 13-6-0 record, so McGill needs to find scoring. They'll look to leading scorer Jade Downie-Landry with 23 points and leading goal-scorer Kellyane Lecours who notched 10 goals in just 15 games, but they had just three other players who scored six-or-more goals this season. McGill will need to use solid defence and timely scoring to try and win their fifth National Championship. GAMETIME: Friday, March 15 versus St. Thomas at 7pm AT/3pm PT.

National Ranking: 6 Team Offence: 2.79 gpg (7th) Team Defence: 1.49 gapg (7th) The Manitoba Bisons come into the National Championship as the defending champions, but having lost the Canada West Final to the Alberta Pandas. With those two losses, Manitoba is 10-6-0 on the road this season, so there's hope they can find the same magic they produced in London, Ontario last year. There are eight graduating players on this squad, so the chance for them to go out on top is literally staring them in the faces. The "Special K" line of Lauryn Keen, Karissa Kirkup, and Natasha Kostenko has been doing the heavy lifting for this team since mid-January as Keen leads the team in goals (13), assists (13), and points (26). The second line of Alanna Sharman, Jody Zacharias, and Sheridan Oswald seems a little snake-bitten as they're generating chances, but can't find the back of the net. Manitoba's strength was their depth scoring last year, and they need more from their bottom two lines. Defence has been a strength for the team as they've generated a lot of offence from the blue line, but they need to help Lauren Taraschuk in the net as often as they jump into the rush. If they can get their defensive mojo going after dropping two rather ugly games to Alberta, the Bisons might be the darkhorse selection in this tournament after winning it all one year ago. GAMETIME: Thursday, March 14 versus Guelph at 3pm AT/11am PT.

National Ranking: 7 Team Offence: 1.96 gpg (22nd) Team Defence: 1.84 gapg (14th) The UPEI Panthers somehow were ranked as the seventh seed in the tournament despite being the worst team statistically and the only team of the remaining eight eliminated in quarterfinal round of their conference's playoffs. Where they lack in experience and veteran talent, they make up for it with youthful exuberance as they skated 14 first- and second-year players this season. After being ousted by the UNB Reds in the first-round of the playoffs, the UPEI Panthers have had a lot of time to work on systems and get themselves ready for the biggest tournament of this season. The hosts were led by Rachel Colle in goals (10), assists (10), and points (20) while Jolena Gillard was the only other player to manage at least eight goals this season. You wonder if Camille Scherger may have been tired in the AUS playoffs after playing all 28 games for the Panthers this season, posting a 1.84 GAA and a .932 save percentage while going 14-14-0 for the Panthers. I don't believe anyone expects the Panthers to compete with the other seven teams, and that lack of pressure on the hosts may allow them to throw caution to the wind and play like they have nothing to lose. Can they harness the belief in themselves and push them past a few teams? GAMETIME: Thursday, March 14 versus Montreal at 7pm AT/3pm PT.

National Ranking: 8 Team Offence: 2.71 gpg (8th) Team Defence: 1.90 gapg (16th) The Toronto Varsity Blues upset the Western Mustangs to advance to the McCaw Cup Final only to lose to Guelph in the single-game final which still makes no sense to me after they played best-of-three series all the way through the playoffs. Regardless, the Blues come in as the worst defensive team in the tournament, so they'll need to find some improvement there or they'll have to up that goal-per-game total if they want to play for the National Championship banner. The Varsity Blues haven't been to a U SPORTS National Championship since 2001, so liek UPEI they can play without pressure as many wouldn't have thought they'd be in PEI at the end of the season. That being said, Lauren Straatman led the team in assists (15) and points (23) while Kassie Roache lit the lamp 14 times. Christine Chao provides a ton of offence from the back end with her 17 points, but those three also accounted for 45% of the 65 goals Toronto scored this season. They may have a secret weapon in head coach Vicky Sunohara as the long-time Canadian Olympian likely has a few tricks up her sleeves we haven't seen yet, but she's going to have to push her squad to its limits if they hope to compete for a national title on Sunday. GAMETIME: Friday, March 15 versus Alberta at 3pm AT/11am PT.

The brackets have been set for the tournament, and the eight teams begin play on Thursday at Bell Aliant Arena in Charlottetown. Game times are listed above, so please make note of your time zone with respect to the posted times.

The Last Word

If you want to catch the action from Charlottetown, you're going to have to subscribe through the U SPORTS webcast. From the reviews the U SPORTS broadcasts had last year, I'm not certain I'd recommend doing that since they were pretty terrible. That being said, it may be the only way to see your favorite team play, so spend the money if you want to see the games. You may just want to mute the sound if the broadcast team is as bad as it was last year in London. What should make you a little happier is that UMFM has agreed to let Jason Pchajek and myself go out to Charlottetown for the live broadcasts of all the games involving the Manitoba Bisons, so you'll get to hear how the Bisons are doing every time they take to the ice. If you want to listen in for free, you're welcome to do so on the UMFM website or via the UMFM Second Stream. Feedback and comments can be sent to me at any time during, before, or after broadcasts via Twitter at TeebzHBIC. I'll keep an eye on the ol' social media platform while the Bisons play, and we'll do some updates via Twitter as the games are played! Everything starts Wednesday night with the U SPORTS Awards Gala, and I'm sure Jason and I will discuss that on both the hockey broadcast the next day and on The Hockey Show which will be live during the Montreal-UPEI game! It should be a big week of hockey for the Bisons and UMFM, so please join us all week long as we dive deep into the U SPORTS National Women's Hockey Championship! Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice! from Sports News http://hockey-blog-in-canada.blogspot.com/2019/03/the-rundown-eight-remain.html

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jodyedgarus · 5 years

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The NBA’s Southeast Division Is Historically Awful

For the most part, divisions in the NBA have become more a formality than anything else. It’s been four years since the league last guaranteed division winners home-court advantage during their first-round playoff series, and it’s been 12 years since division winners were guaranteed a top-three seed regardless of their record.1 These days, the top team in a division is not guaranteed to make the playoffs at all — the top eight teams from each conference advance to the postseason regardless of division alignment.

If we’re being completely honest, it sure seems like the only real use the league has for divisions these days is scheduling.2 The only other benefit appears to be the occasional excuse to make fun of the lonely division winner banners that hang in the rafters of Madison Square Garden.

But this season, one of the league’s six divisions really stands out — and not for a good reason. Not a single one of the teams in the Southeast is above .500, with the Charlotte Hornets sitting in first place at 27-28.

No division winner has finished below .500 under the NBA’s current alignment, which was established in 2004 when the league expanded to 30 teams and split them into six divisions to accommodate the then-expansion Charlotte Bobcats. Since Charlotte re-entered the league, the worst division winners were the 2005-06 Denver Nuggets, the 2006-07 Miami Heat and the Southeast’s winner from a year ago, the 2017-18 Heat, which each finished with 44 wins and a 0.537 winning percentage.

Only 14 division winners (including this year’s Hornets and Houston Rockets, who are leading their divisions) since 2004 have finished with a winning percentage south of 0.600 — otherwise known as the teams that won fewer than 50 games (or the lockout-shortened season equivalent) and still managed to win their division.

The worst division ‘winners’

NBA division winners (or leaders for the 2018-19 season) with a win percentage of less than 0.600, since the league expanded in 2004

RANK Season DIVISION Winner WIN pct. 1 2018-19 Southeast Hornets 0.491 2 2017-18 Southeast Heat 0.537 2006-07 Southeast Heat 0.537 2005-06 Northwest Nuggets 0.537 5 2004-05 Atlantic Celtics 0.549 6 2006-07 Atlantic Raptors 0.573 7 2018-19 Southwest Rockets 0.582 8 2015-16 Southeast Heat 0.585 2013-14 Atlantic Raptors 0.585 10 2011-12 Atlantic Celtics 0.591 11 2017-18 Northwest Trail Blazers 0.598 2016-17 Southeast Wizards 0.598 2014-15 Atlantic Raptors 0.598 2005-06 Atlantic Nets 0.598

Source: Basketball-Reference.com

There are also signs that this year’s Southeast might be among the worst overall divisions we’ve seen during the 30-team era. The current combined record of the Hornets, Heat, Washington Wizards, Orlando Magic and Atlanta Hawks is just 119-159. That works out to a 0.428 combined winning percentage — worse than all but eight other divisions since the 2004-05 season. So in terms of the ability of its teams to actually win basketball games, the 2018-19 Southeast ranks among the bottom 10 percent of all divisions since the most recent league expansion.

Top 10 worst collective records among NBA divisions since the league expanded in 2004

RANK Season DIVISION WIN pct. 1 2009-10 Atlantic 0.385 2 2014-15 Atlantic 0.395 3 2015-16 Atlantic 0.407 4 2005-06 Atlantic 0.415 5 2004-05 Southeast 0.417 6 2017-18 Southeast 0.420 7 2013-14 Atlantic 0.422 8 2005-06 Northwest 0.424 9 2018-19 Southeast 0.428 10 2008-09 Pacific 0.429

Source: Basketball-Reference.com

The season isn’t over yet, though, which means there’s still time for the Southeast to get even worse. Washington just traded away Otto Porter and Markieff Morris at the deadline after its star, John Wall, suffered a torn Achilles tendon that will keep him out for at least a year. Miami, likewise, shipped away rotation player Tyler Johnson and received very little on-court help in return. The Hornets did not add Marc Gasol, as had been heavily rumored, while the Hawks are finalizing a buyout with Jeremy Lin, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, and could potentially do the same with Dewayne Dedmon. The Magic added former No. 1 pick Markelle Fultz but dealt away Jonathon Simmons to do it, and Fultz is more of a future asset than a present one, anyway.

Accordingly, the FiveThirtyEight NBA predictions expect this division to fall off slightly: The division’s combined projected winning percentage is just 0.420, which would rank sixth-worst among the group of 10 teams listed above. Additionally, the Hornets are projected to win the division with a record of just 38-44, which would fall an incredible six wins short of the 44-win 2018 and 2007 Heat and 2006 Nuggets.

What’s remarkable about the Southeast, though, is that each one of these teams has managed to post a losing record despite the opportunity to rack up wins against other Southeast teams. As a result, the win-loss records might actually undersell how bad the division really is. Consider two more reliable indicators of team quality: point differential and Basketball-Reference.com’s Simple Rating System (SRS). Point differential has been shown time and again to be more predictive of a team’s future performance than actual win-loss record, while SRS takes point differential and adjusts for strength of schedule, then scales that adjustment so the league average is 0 and every point represents one point above or below average.

The 2018-19 Southeast division has the fifth-worst combined per-game point differential of the 30-team era. And when you adjust for those five teams’ relatively soft schedules, they’ve actually been outscored by 3.050 points per game, seemingly confirming this as the fifth-worst division (out of 90) since the then-Bobcats and now-Hornets came into the league. And given the aforementioned roster realities, it’s not at all difficult to see the Southeast sinking further into the depths of despair.

The Southeast is even worse when you account for schedule

The worst NBA divisions by Simple Rating System and point differential since the league expanded in 2004

RANK Season DIVISION Pt Diff. SRS 1 2014-15 Atlantic -3.6 -3.924 2 2013-14 Atlantic -2.7 -3.212 3 2005-06 Northwest -3.4 -3.134 4 2009-10 Atlantic -3.0 -3.066 5 2018-19 Southeast -2.6 -3.050 6 2004-05 Southeast -2.4 -2.646 7 2015-16 Atlantic -2.5 -2.572 8 2008-09 Pacific -2.3 -2.428 9 2005-06 Atlantic -2.3 -2.382 10 2013-14 Central 0.0 -2.314

Source: Basketball-Reference.com

Despite the truly historic nature of the Southeast’s horribleness, the division is pretty much guaranteed to get at least one playoff team this season, sparing it the ignominy of being the first NBA division in history to entirely miss the postseason. The dreadful Bulls, Cavaliers and Knicks will surely finish with the three worst records in the conference, which means the worst the Southeast champ can do is finish eighth in the East and earn the right to be smoked by the Bucks or Raptors in the first round of the postseason. (Even with the newly flattened lottery odds, those three awful teams also have a considerably better chance to land the No. 1 pick and the right to select Duke superstar Zion Williamson, while the Hawks, Magic and Wizards will more likely be left picking in the mid-to-late lottery, possibly dooming the Southeast to even more mediocrity in the future.)

Meanwhile, only one of the Clippers, Kings and Lakers is likely to be headed to the postseason in the West, despite all three teams being projected to finish with better records than every single team in the Southeast. If the season ends with the 38-win Hornets in the playoffs and, say, the 41-win Lakers staying home, perhaps the NBA will finally decide to move to an open-seeded playoff system — with the best 16 teams making it to the dance regardless of conference alignment.

Check out our latest NBA predictions.

from News About Sports https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-nbas-southeast-division-is-historically-awful/

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netunleashed-blog · 6 years

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Open 2018: Jordan Spieth collapse ends attempt to match 149-year record

http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=15936 Open 2018: Jordan Spieth collapse ends attempt to match 149-year record - http://www.internetunleashed.co.uk/?p=15936 Jordan Spieth carded a final round of 76 at CarnoustieThis was not the way it was supposed to be. Jordan Spieth was supposed to win a second straight Claret Jug on Sunday at the age of 24 and match Young Tom Morris in the history books. He was supposed to use his brilliant tactical brain to see off all-comers from his position atop the leaderboard at the beginning of play.He was supposed to crush the field slowly but surely. Tiger, Rory, Francesco Molinari and the rest. Fairways and greens, fairways and greens. No mistakes, no encouragement to the challengers. He was supposed to use his class and his experience in applying the pressure as if he was turning his rivals in a vice.That's what many of us thought would happen, but many of us were wrong. Young Tom can sleep again - still the only man to win back-to-back Open championships under the age of 25. This was a final day with many sub-plots - a magnificent winner in Molinari, a tantalising brush with what would have been golf's ultimate renaissance story in Woods, a pulse-quickening prospect of a win for McIlroy and a collapse from Spieth. A collapse. There's no other word for it. Spieth started the day on nine-under. Had he gone round in level par he would have won The Open. But he didn't. He shot 76. Only two men failed to make a birdie all day long and Spieth was one of them. The most together player of them all eased his way through four holes still in front of the field. It was dull and it was methodical. It was exactly as we expected. The galleries were quiet around Spieth because nothing was happening. In the windiest conditions we had all week, he was grinding.On the fifth, he found sand off the tee and dropped a shot. Down to eight-under now. A roar went up ahead of him - a Tiger roar. The great man was growling again, now on seven-under. Was Spieth put off by Tiger's challenge? Unlikely. But that's when the wheels came off nonetheless. What happened on the sixth, a par-five that Spieth found no trouble with all week was extraordinary. It was shades of his final round at Birkdale last year when he ballooned his drive 100 yards off line and took an unplayable lie on the practice ground. On Sunday, Spieth's drive finished in a gorse bush. Perhaps the prickliest gorse bush in all of Scotland. When he arrived at the scene the American sighed and then called on the cavalry to help him. "All hands on deck," he said, as the galleries were invited to hunt for his ball. A spectator pin-pointed its entry point. "It's 100% here," said Spieth, before sticking his arm into the needles and coming out with a thorn in his finger. He needed something to protect himself before having another rummage. He called on his caddie, Michael Greller. "Michael, get a sweater! A sweater! Michael, a sweater!"Michael was on his way to get a sweater when a Carnoustie member by the name of David Dawson found the ball. Later, Dawson was to say that he had played round here many times and that he was never once in that bush. "It certainly doesn't look familiar," he said. Spieth took an unplayable lie and then began the job of surveying what he had left. "Michael, let's get a number here..." he said, when looking for a yardage."Tell me the number to the hole, Michael," he said again.Greller was up and down the little hill that Spieth was perched on, madly checking the yardage on the fairway and the yardage in his book and adjusting it to take account of the angle his boss was coming in from. "It's 108 (yards)," said Greller."OK, 108," said Spieth, who now had another problem with cameramen in his way. "Come on guys. Can you just get the cameras out of my face."The cameramen moved back, but not far enough. "You're still there. Come on. Respect me here."The tension in these moments was enormous. This was Spieth trying to extricate himself from potential disaster, just as he did at Birkdale a year ago, but only this time there was to be no act of escapology, no golfing Houdini to marvel at.He took seven shots to complete the hole - a double bogey. Later, he spoke about the shot into the bush and the thorn into his thumb. "I cut it a little bit," he said, holding his hand for all to see. "A little bit inside the thumbnail." 'My dad deserves this as much as me' - Open Silver Medal winner Sam Locke 'This is what you dream about'A few holes on, he did something else he hadn't planned on doing.He looked at a leaderboard and what he saw was Tiger sitting on top of it. "I saw it on the seventh maybe. And it was an accident. I looked up and saw Tiger at number one, leading solo, and I went to Michael and said, 'Dammit, I looked at the board, dude'. I was frustrated at myself."He's like, 'He (Tiger) hasn't been in this position in 10 years and you've been here how many times in the last three years'. He was throwing it back at me. I was like, 'I feel fine, it's OK, this is what you dream about anyway.'"Out on the course, the vibe was all about Tiger, then it was about Rory, then it was it about Xander Schauffele, then it was Molinari.Spieth tried to get back in the hunt, but it never happened. Out by ninth hole he faced a birdie putt that might have revived him. On the balcony of a house just beyond the boundary of the course hung a political banner with the word 'Yes' on it. For Spieth, all day long, it was no, no, no. He missed the putt. He was put on the clock leaving the 10th tee. "I actually got a bad time," he said. "I felt like we played really quickly." That was a stretch. "I really rushed the 10th and 11th holes when we were being timed. Looking back, you know, that was a turning point in the round. If you get one-under on those two holes with a downwind par-five left, it's a different story."That was another stretch. Having to rush was not the source of his problem. Spieth had a birdie chance on 11 and missed. He had another on 13 and missed again. The 14th was where it had to happen for him.Sitting on six-under - three-over for the day and birdie-less but still firmly in contention - he had a par-five to come. There were 59 birdies and two eagles on that hole on Sunday. It was the easiest out there. Spieth made par. The game was up then. He knew it. Leaving the green, he slapped his scorecard off his neck and muttered, "Dammit!"Two bogeys in his final three holes completed his demise. He signed for a 76. Of the top 16 overnight on Saturday, his was the worst score. Of the entire field only two guys went round without making a single birdie - Sung Kang the South Korean journeyman and Jordan Spieth the American superstar."It goes your way sometimes, it doesn't go your way sometimes," he said. Philosophical to the last. He paid a warm tribute to Molinari as his last act in Carnoustie. "He's been playing unbelievable golf," he said of the glorious Italian. "He's been working his butt off."Spieth will rise again, that's a certainty. His travails on Sunday will have hurt him, though. Probably more than we will ever know. Source link

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junker-town · 4 years

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The Patriots lost a first-round bye because of ... the Dolphins?

Winslow Townson-USA TODAY Sports

Miami was a 17-point underdog and still ruined the Pats’ bye week plans.

The New England Patriots came into Week 17 with a 12-3 record, the AFC East title, and a chance to secure a first-round bye through the opening round of the playoffs. All they had to do was topple a Dolphins team they’d previously beaten 43-0 on the road.

But Miami stuck around. And stuck around. And finally, after a 75-yard comeback drive from Ryan by-god Fitzpatrick, the Dolphins forced Tom Brady into his first Wild Card Round game since 2009.

Fitzpatrick and his cast of misfit toys cracked the Patriots’ top-ranked defense time and time again in a 27-24 win in Foxborough Sunday afternoon. The loss dropped New England to 12-4 and gave the Chiefs the opportunity to leapfrog the Pats and vault into the AFC’s second seed. Kansas City’s 31-21 win over the Chargers means Patrick Mahomes will have a week off and the honor of hosting a Divisional Round playoff game at Arrowhead Stadium in two weeks — a game that may feature the Patriots.

How did the Dolphins do this?

Fitzpatrick outplayed Brady on a day when he had no help from the league’s least powerful running game (63 yards on 22 carries). The journeyman quarterback threw 41 passes en route to a 320-yard, one-touchdown, zero-turnover performance.

None of those yards were as important as the final 75 he racked up to lead Miami to a come-from-behind victory. A James White touchdown gave New England a 24-20 advantage with 3:56 to play, leaving Fitzpatrick one last chance to push his team to victory in the hostile confines of Gillette Stadium. He responded by completing eight of 10 passes in a 13-play drive, capped off by this touchdown strike to tight end Mike Gesicki.

FOR. THE. LEAD!!!#MIAvsNE #FinsUp pic.twitter.com/ADIv5gqMMO

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) December 29, 2019

That left the Pats just 24 seconds to respond with a last-gasp scoring drive of their own. They couldn’t, and the Dolphins finished 2019 with a 5-4 record in their final nine games and the newfound ability to raise a “shocked the Patriots late in the season, again” banner at Hard Rock Stadium.

Fitzpatrick was only the primary factor in Miami’s win as a 17-point underdog. The Dolphins’ defense stifled New England all afternoon. Former Patriot Eric Rowe stepped in front of a terrible Brady pass to deliver the first pick-six against the future Hall of Famer since 2017, giving his team an early 10-0 lead.

ERIC. ROWE. PICK. SIX.#MIAvsNE #FinsUp pic.twitter.com/4HbdX8qXgb

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) December 29, 2019

That defense also held New England to three third-down conversions (on nine attempts) and held Brady to 221 passing yards. That was a statement performance from Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who’d spent his entire coaching career pre-2019 as a defensive assistant under Bill Belichick in New England. Miami came into the season with designs on a rebuild, but that plan may be farther ahead of schedule than anyone would have imagined after late season wins over the Colts, Eagles, and Patriots.

Does this affect Miami’s tanking plans?

Yes, but only a little! The Dolphins and Bengals were locked in a battle for next year’s No. 1 overall pick through the first 10 weeks of 2019. Miami’s sudden competence has meant a drop from the top of the draft to the fifth pick.

That’s going to make the team’s quest to find their franchise quarterback slightly tougher. While Fitzpatrick has proven to be a solid option as a veteran mentor (and the kind of spot starter who can deliver an upset win), the 37-year-old is not the foundation from which the team can build.

Falling from the top pick already meant reigning Heisman winner Joe Burrow was likely out of the picture for the Dolphins. Sunday’s win could make it difficult to secure the services of Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa — who could still be a top-four pick despite the hip injury that ended his 2019 season — without a trade up the draft board. Beating the Patriots may wind up being the difference between the fourth and fifth overall pick, but Miami — loaded with three first round picks next spring — has the assets needed to move up if necessary.

What does this mean for the Patriots?

For the second straight year, a surprising loss to the Dolphins has affected the Patriots’ playoff seed. Last year, the Miami Miracle ultimately prevented New England from claiming homefield advantage in the AFC. This year it means the Patriots will be the No. 3 seed instead of No. 2 — and thus lose the free pass through the Wild Card Round that comes with it.

New England will instead face the AFC’s No. 6 seed to start its playoffs. Depending on Sunday’s results, that will either be the Titans, Steelers, or Raiders.

More importantly, it means New England’s championship-caliber defense is mortal. The Patriots were faced with several high-stress situations where a big stop could stem the Dolphins momentum or, as was the case late in the fourth quarter, deliver a vital win. Instead, that group got gashed by Fitzpatrick, Gesicki, and DeVante Parker. As good as those three can be, they’re no match for the skill players the Pats are slated to face in the postseason.

That only compounds worries about New England’s playoff seaworthiness. The team’s other three losses have all come against the AFC’s other division champions — the Ravens, Texans, and Chiefs. Now the Patriots are looking down the barrel of a three-game run through the conference in order to get to the Super Bowl, and it’s one that would include a must-win game in Kansas City and a likely AFC title game trip to Baltimore.

Normally that’s the kind of lapse Tom Brady could overcome, but the six-time Super Bowl winner hasn’t been himself in 2019. The 42-year-old has struggled, even against a soft schedule this season. His 24 touchdown passes are his fewest in a full season since 2006, and while he’s led come-from-behind fourth-quarter drives in each of his last two games, it’s fair to question how effective he’ll be with an inconsistent receiving corps, leaky offensive line, and a depleted tight end rotation that won’t be able to rely on Rob Gronkowski in tight situations.

The Patriots could have used their bye to stabilize their passing offense and work out the defensive kinks that allowed Fitzpatrick to torch them in Week 17. Instead, they’ll have to figure out those flaws on the fly when they host a playoff game next weekend. That’s another ominous sign in a season full of them that 2019 may be the beginning of the end for New England’s dynasty.

Or, as it has been so many times before, it could all be a harbinger of nothing before another Bill Belichick Super Bowl.

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ultrasfcb-blog · 6 years

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World Cup 2018:

Russia’s emotional rollercoaster – fans go through it as hosts bow out

It has been a wonderful ride, but the remarkable World Cup run that set millions of people dreaming across Russia’s 11 time zones is finally over.

There will always be the memories, and if it had to end at all then at least there was one final glorious moment that no Russian fan present in Sochi on Saturday will forget for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps the giddiest point of the host nation’s trip into the quarter-finals came here, when defeat was still not an option and Mario Fernandes headed an equaliser against Croatia in the 115th minute.

The atmosphere in the ground had been electric all evening, every move up the pitch gaining volume as the match went on before reaching spectacular noise levels with Denis Cheryshev’s sublime opener.

That goal, and Fernandes’ dramatic extra-time leveller, counted for nothing but the memories in the end – as Croatia went through 4-3 winners on spot-kicks.

World Cup 2018: Russia 2-2 Croatia (3-4 pens) highlights

It was a cruel way to end it all, but in the wake of defeat it has to be remembered that these were thrilling moments nobody here had expected to experience.

The last time Russia – as part of the Soviet Union team – appeared in the last eight of the World Cup was 1970, and before the match two enormous banners appeared in the crowd.

They read: “If not you, who? If not now, when?”

At 21:00 local time, in a stadium facing the sun setting on a blue Black Sea, Russia were two victories from a chance to aim for the biggest prize in world football.

Such prospects were simply unthinkable before the tournament.

Russia had failed to win in seven friendlies. There was talk of them becoming only the second host nation in World Cup history to fail to reach the knockout stage.

But then this incredible dream of a journey began with that 5-0 victory over Saudia Arabia on the opening night of 14 June.

World Cup 2018 highlights: Russia 5-0 Saudi Arabia

The TV commentators were screaming – “Five! Five! Five! Five! Five!” – as the camera cut to manager Stanislav Cherchesov’s mischievous moustachioed smile. Perhaps he always knew?

llya Zubko, a journalist who covers the national team for Rossiskaya Gazeta, did believe at least. “I’ve been around the side for a long time and always felt it did have qualities that perhaps had not been showed,” he says.

“But Russia is a country whose football supporters tend to veer between extremes. Everything is either very, very good, or absolutely terrible. So of course nobody was expecting such a brilliant opening result.”

Despite the huge win, there wasn’t anybody among the fans I spoke to in that first week who was settling in for the long haul.

In a country where ice hockey rivals football strongly in popularity, many still refused to accept it was anything more than a one-off. Some would only begrudgingly concede they might watch the next one against Egypt.

I kept telling people: “You’re at home – that changes everything.” And when it did, again, eventually people began to agree. Egypt were swept away too, in a 3-1 win that meant a place in the last 16 was safe.

A feeling England fans know well – the heartbreak of penalty shootout defeat

But first there was the issue of who would finish top. Russia’s final Group A game against Uruguay would settle that. The result sent people’s expectations plummeting downwards once more.

On the bus back from the Samara Arena after Russia lost 3-0, fans got on chanting: “We’re Russia and we’re doomed.” There were those extremes again.

What seemed to be worse than defeat was the fact a knockout game with Spain now awaited.

But this is the land of the hero goalkeeper, and in the city where Lev Yashin built his unmatched reputation, the national team’s 2018 number one, Igor Akinfeev, saved two penalties to send Russia through – into the quarter-finals.

Now we really were in territory unknown. I was back in Samara that evening, watching the match on TV but a witness to the incredible scenes of joy that burst out into spontaneous mass celebrations on the city’s streets.

It was a magical night – you felt the whole country, a nation of 144 million people, was united in smiles.

Then came the rest days. TV montages showing Akinfeev’s save again and again and again. “Before the tournament nobody believed, now they were all heroes,” Zubko says.

President Vladimir Putin called Cherchesov to say well done. “Just an extra boost for us,” the manager said on Friday.

Highlights: Spain 1-1 Russia (3-4 pens)

I noticed parallels with England at Euro 96. Russian fans were even starting to play the song It’s Coming Home.

Denis Kazansky, commentator for Match TV, compared the growing mood to “what happened at the European Championship of 2008, when the whole country celebrated the miracle in Basel, an extra-time victory over Netherlands that sent us through to the semi-finals”.

Then he added: “Except the reaction to beating Spain in Moscow was even bigger. People even named their kids after the players, and Cherchesov was now more than a coach. He became ‘The Mentor’.

“From the first day we had not been expecting much from our team. Then thoughts turned to winning the thing.

“What we have seen is a significant change in people’s attitudes, and in the history of Russian football.”

World Cup 2018: Mario Fernandes levels to send quarter-final into penalty shootout

There were two chapters of Russian football that definitively closed in the wake of Saturday’s loss as 38-year-old defender Sergei Ignashevich announced his retirement and 33-year-old winger Aleksandr Samedov ended his time with the national team.

For Zubko, the development of Russian football from here depends at least in some part on the future of its younger stars, like 22-year-old CSKA Moscow midfielder Aleksandr Golovin.

“After the Euros of 2008, Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko moved to Arsenal and Tottenham respectively,” he says.

“Now we will see if any of this squad make a similar move to leagues of a higher standard than the Russia’s, like in Spain, Germany or England.”

He adds: “But also the team needs continued support to sustain its success.

“After the success of Euro 2008, when the team didn’t qualify for the World Cup in 2010 attitudes changed very quickly.

“Let’s hope that now if they for whatever reason struggle to reach the next European Championship in 2020 that the same thing doesn’t happen again.”

As the dust begins to settle and people begin to look back on these famous past four weeks, there will be time to think about the points raised above. Although there won’t be an awful lot of it – the Russian domestic season starts again in July.

But there is one more scheduled stop for the national team on Sunday. When they return to Moscow, they will visit the fan zone close to the Luzhniki Stadium.

They would have played there next had they beaten Croatia, in a semi-final against England on Wednesday.

Instead it is a final chance to say thank you to the fans, and goodbye to a very special time indeed.

BBC Sport – Football ultras_FC_Barcelona

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365footballorg-blog · 6 years

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The hosts feared a nightmare but Russia lifted a nation's spirits before last-eight exit

It has been a wonderful ride, but the remarkable World Cup run that set millions of people dreaming across Russia’s 11 time zones is finally over.

There will always be the memories, and if it had to end at all then at least there was one final glorious moment that no Russian fan present in Sochi on Saturday night will forget for the rest of their lives.

That goal, and Fernandes’ dramatic extra-time leveller, counted for nothing but the memories in the end – as Croatia went through 4-3 winners on after spot-kicks.[1]

Russia out of World Cup after defeat to Croatia on penalties[2]

Cheryshev rated highest in last-eight defeat[3]

Media playback is not supported on this device

It was a cruel way to end it all, but in the wake of defeat it has to be remembered that these were thrilling moments nobody here had expected to experience.

The last time Russia – as part of the Soviet Union team – appeared in the last eight of the World Cup was 1970, and before the match two enormous banners appeared in the crowd.

They read: ‘If not you, who? If not now, when?’

At 21:00 local time, in a stadium facing the sun setting on a blue Black Sea, Russia were two wins from a chance to aim for the biggest prize in world football.

Such prospects were been simply unthinkable before the tournament began.

Russia had failed to win in seven friendlies. There was talk of them becoming only the second host nation in World Cup history to fail to reach the knockout stage.

But then this incredible dream of a journey began with that 5-0 victory over Saudia Arabia on opening night, 14 June.[4]

Media playback is not supported on this device

The TV commentators were screaming – Five! Five! Five! Five! Five! – as the camera cut to manager Stanislav Cherchesov’s mischievous moustachioed smile. Perhaps he always knew?

lya Zubko, a journalist who covers the national team for Rossiskaya Gazeta, did believe at least: “I’ve been around the side for a long time and always felt it did have qualities that perhaps had not been showed,” he says.

Despite the huge win, there wasn’t anybody among the fans I spoke to in that first week who was settling in for the long haul.

I kept telling people: You’re at home – that changes everything. And when it did, again, eventually people began to agree. Egypt were swept away too, in a 3-1 win that meant a place in the last 16 was safe.

<!–

But first there was the issue of who would finish top. Russia’s final Group A game against Uruguay would settle that. The result sent people’s expectations plummeting downwards once more.

On the bus back from the Samara Arena after Russia lost 3-0,[5] fans got on chanting: ‘We’re Russia and we’re doomed.’ There were those extremes again.

What seemed to be worse than defeat was the fact a knockout game with Spain now awaited.

But this is the land of the hero goalkeeper, and in the city where Lev Yashin built his unmatched reputation, the national team’s current number one Igor Akinfeev saved two penalties to send Russia through – into the quarter-finals.[6]

It was a magical night – you felt the whole country, a nation of 144 million, was united in smiles.

Then came the rest days. TV montages showing Akinfeev’s save again and again and again. “Before the tournament nobody believed, now they were all heroes,” Zubko says.

Putin called Cherchesov to say well done. “Just an extra boost for us,” the manager said on Friday.

Media playback is not supported on this device

I noticed parallels with England at Euro 1996. Russian fans were even starting to play ‘It’s coming home.’

Denis Kazansky, commentator for Match TV, compared the growing mood to “what happened at the European Championships of 2008, when the whole country celebrated the miracle in Basel, an extra-time victory over Netherlands that sent us through to the semi-finals”.

Kazansky adds: “Except the reaction to beating Spain in Moscow was even bigger. People even named their kids after the players, and Cherchesov was now more than a coach. He became ‘The Mentor.’

“From the first day we had not been expecting much from our team. Then thoughts turned to winning the thing.

“What we have seen is a significant change in people’s attitudes, and in the history of Russian football.”

For Zubko, the development of Russian football from here depends at least in some part on the future of its younger stars, like 22-year-old CSKA Moscow midfielder Aleksandr Golovin.

Media playback is not supported on this device

“After the Euros of 2008, Andrei Arshavin and Roman Pavlyuchenko moved to Arsenal and Tottenham respectively,” he says.

“Now we will see if any of this squad make a similar move to leagues of a higher standard than the Russia’s, like in Spain, Germany or England.”

He adds: “But also the team needs continued support to sustain its success.

“After the success of Euro 2008, when the team didn’t qualify for the World Cup in 2010 attitudes changed very quickly.

“Let’s hope that now if they for whatever reason struggle to reach the next European Championship in 2020 that the same thing doesn’t happen again.”

But there is one more scheduled stop for the national team on Sunday. When they return to Moscow, they will visit the fan zone close to the Luzhniki Stadium.

They would have played there next had they beaten Croatia, in a semi-final against England on Wednesday evening.

Instead it is a final chance to say thank you to the fans, and goodbye to a very special time indeed.

References

^ Croatia went through 4-3 winners on after spot-kicks. (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Russia out of World Cup after defeat to Croatia on penalties (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Cheryshev rated highest in last-eight defeat (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ 5-0 victory over Saudia Arabia on opening night, 14 June. (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Russia lost 3-0, (www.bbc.co.uk)

^ Igor Akinfeev saved two penalties to send Russia through – into the quarter-finals. (www.bbc.co.uk)

BBC Sport – Football

The hosts feared a nightmare but Russia lifted a nation's spirits before last-eight exit was originally published on 365 Football

#before #exit #feared #hosts #lasteight #lifted #nation&039s #nightmare #Russia #spirits

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honeycreekgcc · 7 years

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Monday Scramble: Something old, something new

Busy week in golf: Tiger has successful back surgery, Rory gets married, Kevin Chappell gets 1st win, to name a few..

With all due respect to the fine folks in San Antonio, the biggest golf news of the week came on Thursday and it did not involve Kevin Chappell.

Tiger Woods has once again gone under the knife, this time for what seems like a much more significant procedure than his previous three surgeries since 2014. An Anterior Lumbar Interbody Fusion brings with it plenty of medical jargon, but it prompts a single question: What now?

By lying down on the operating table, Woods basically chalked up 2017 as his second straight lost season. When he next hits the course, he’ll either be 42 years old or close to it, and essentially two-plus years removed from being competitive on the PGA Tour.

That assumes, of course, that there will be a next time. Woods’ news release was somber enough, but the consistent harping by him and his agent that the procedure addressed “quality of life” concerns indicates that playing competitive golf probably isn’t his top priority right now.

It’s another sad chapter in a book that hasn’t had many highlights since the summer of 2013.

1. News of Woods’ surgery made his appearance earlier in the week in Missouri to announce a new course he’s building – and his participation in a two-swing PR stunt – all the more surprising.

Woods sat next to Johnny Morris, owner of Bass Pro Shops, for nearly an hour answering questions about his latest project, Payne’s Valley, which is expected to open in 2019. He then popped out of his chair and hit a pair of wedges in a “contest” with one of Morris’ young relatives.

The stunt was lighthearted, but it did evoke awkward flashbacks to last year’s Quicken Loans National media day once Woods rinsed his first shot. The second one, though, safely found the green.

But given the fact that Woods knew at the time that he was going under the knife the following day, it’s amazing he even picked up a club.

2. While Woods’ surgery got the brunt of the attention by week’s end, his plans for a new course in Missouri show promise.

Woods spoke at length about his vision as an architect, and it’s a well-crafted one even with only a handful of courses under his belt. He favors playability, creativity around the greens, manageable rough and a layout that keeps lost ball searches to a minimum.

Woods has hit on all those notes in a big way at Bluejack National outside Houston, which I can attest is a treat. If his first public project turns out anything close to that, folks will be flocking to the Ozarks in a few short years.

3. Unfortunately for Woods, his fashion sense hasn’t come along quite as quickly as his design acumen, as evidenced by Tuesday’s ensemble:

Granted, I am far from a fashionista. But the Twittersphere let Woods have it for his…questionable pants selection. But after news of his surgery surfaced later in the week, those same social media accounts were suddenly left to wonder when we’ll even see Woods again.

4. Hats off to Chappell, who finally managed to work his way into the winner’s circle at the Valero Texas Open.

Chappell’s stock has been on the rise for quite some time, as he notably racked up four runner-up finishes last season, including a playoff loss at the Tour Championship. But the titles proved elusive until Sunday, when he won just as all players envision it: by sinking a putt on the 72nd hole. He also added a nice, primal scream for good measure.

“Did you see that?” Chappell wrote on Instagram. “The monkey jumping off my back.”

Chappell played his way onto the Ryder Cup bubble last year, a considerable feat given his lack of hardware. But you should expect that he’ll make his red, white and blue debut this fall on Steve Stricker’s Presidents Cup squad.

5. One of the best aspects Chappell’s breakthrough win? His crunch-time interactions with caddie Joe Greiner.

The two had lengthy consultations over club choice and strategy throughout the final round, many of which were captured by the CBS audio team. It provided welcome insight into the mind of a player trying to close out his first win, as well as that of the man hoping to guide him to victory.

The discussion went all the way up until the final hole, when Greiner was vocal about how to plot Chappell’s par-5 layup options and offered some last-minute swing thoughts. Watching them celebrate the win a few minutes later, it was clearly a team victory.

6. With Chappell’s victory, the highest-ranked American without a PGA Tour win is now … Daniel Summerhays.

Summerhays is ranked No. 88 in the world and has been playing the Tour regularly since 2011. During that time he has compiled a pair of runner-ups and a solo third at last year’s PGA Championship that got him into the Masters.

Next on the list would be No. 92 Roberto Castro and No. 97 Jamie Lovemark, who lost playoffs last year at the Wells Fargo Championship and Zurich Classic, respectively.

7. Brooks Koepka may not have gotten the win in San Antonio, but he’s clearly on the rise.

Koepka struggled out of the gates in 2017, missing four out of his first six cuts without registering a top-40 result. But he won his group at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play, finished T-11 at the Masters and nearly chased down Chappell in Texas.

Koepka is coming off a banner season that included his Ryder Cup debut, and he has one of the highest ceilings on Tour. He also has an understandable attitude about this week’s Zurich Classic, where he’ll pair with his brother Chase, who will make his PGA Tour debut.

“It could be interesting,” Koepka said Sunday. “We could kill each other on the second hole, or it could be awesome.”

8. Speaking of Zurich, the NOLA event gets a makeover this year with a new team format that has attracted an unusually strong field to TPC Louisiana. While the big names will get the early attention, here are a few under-the-radar duos worth the price of admission:

Daniel Berger/Thomas Pieters

Patrick Reed/Patrick Cantlay

Branden Grace/Louis Oosthuizen

Kevin Kisner/Scott Brown

Justin Thomas/Bud Cauley

Conversely, here are a few head-scratching combinations – one of which surely will wind up on the leaderboard come Sunday:

Spencer Levin/Rocco Mediate

Bryson DeChambeau/Rory Sabbatini

Jamie Lovemark/Luke Donald

Kyle Reifers/Andrew Johnston

Whee Kim/Greg Owen

9. Ian Poulter lost his full-time PGA Tour status when he missed the cut at Valero in the last start of his medical extension. But that doesn’t mean the Englishman is heading for the unemployment line.

Poulter has become a polarizing figure in recent years, leading some to bask in the schadenfreude of a former Ryder Cup assassin losing his card by 30 grand. But Poulter still has conditional status, both based on his previous tournament wins and his FedEx Cup standing, and he’s eligible to accept sponsor invites.

Poulter will likely be able to get several starts this summer off those bona fides, beginning this week at Zurich when he teams up with Geoff Ogilvy.

The real test will come in September, when he may have to head to Web.com Tour Finals to regain his card. It’s a scenario he can avoid only by turning his tepid game around in a hurry.

10. Jimmy Walker finally has a cause for the severe fatigue he has felt for months, but unfortunately it’s no easy fix.

The PGA champ revealed this week that he has been diagnosed with Lyme disease, a bacterial infection that comes from tick bites and can have chronic symptoms that are often hard to treat. Walker originally thought he had mono, but received his Lyme test results on the eve of the Masters.

While he refused to chalk up any bad play to his diagnosis, the news does shed some light on Walker’s sluggish performance in the wake of his triumph at Baltusrol. But he has turned things around recently, with five top-25s in his last seven starts, and hopefully is now on the road to recovery.

Get well, Jimmy.

It’s never good when you have to dodge golf balls at the breakfast table.

News broke over the weekend that McCain Foods had started a massive voluntary recall for frozen hash browns that “may be contaminated with extraneous golf ball materials.”

At this point no one has been hurt, which is always good. But we might need to get a Grill Room correspondent on the case to figure out how golf balls end up mixed with breakfast potatoes.

Is the farm next door to a driving range? Did the workers fine-tune their short games while on break? How big was the first “golf ball material” that sparked the recall? Questions abound.

Happy Birthday, We Got You A Caddie: Lydia Ko turned 20 Monday, putting a cap on her teen years that included 14 LPGA wins and two majors. She also announced the hiring of Pete Godfrey as her caddie, the 10th looper she has used since turning pro. They’ll debut together this week in Texas, where a little consistency on the bag could go a long way for the birthday girl.

Rocky Start: Curtis Luck. The top-ranked amateur turned pro last week and signed with Callaway, only to bogey his first three holes and ultimately miss the cut by a shot. No one said it’d be easy, but Luck will have plenty more opportunities – starting with the Dean & DeLuca Invitational next month.

Still Rolling: Bernd Wiesberger. The Austrian has played some great golf with little fanfare in recent months, but he finally broke through to win the Shenzhen International in a playoff over Tommy Fleetwood. Wiesberger now has eight (!) top-5 finishes since his last worldwide missed cut at the PGA Championship in July.

Still Searching: Bubba Watson. Watson made his annual pilgrimage to China for the Shenzhen event, and while he held the early lead, he couldn’t string four rounds together and ultimately tied for 26th. It continues to be a struggle for the two-time Masters champ, who hasn’t registered a top-10 finish in a full-field, stroke-play event in over a year.

Off The Market: Rory McIlroy, who tied the knot with Erica Stoll over the weekend in Ireland. The ceremony was spread across multiple days, held at an Irish castle and reportedly featured performances from Stevie Wonder and Ed Sheeran. Proof, once again, that it’s good to be Rory.

Job Well Done: McIlroy’s team. It’s hard in this day and age to keep anything truly private, but Team McIlroy managed to keep the wedding at Ashford Castle entirely under wraps, with strict security and few information leaks. Even celebrities are entitled to a little privacy on their big day should they so choose, and it’s nice to see that McIlroy got it.

El Campeon: Sergio Garcia, who put his green jacket on display Sunday when he kicked off the soccer match between Real Madrid and Barcelona. As a Madrid fan, Garcia likely wasn’t pleased by Lionel Messi’s last-second goal to give Barca the win.

It’s the Arrow, Not the Indian: Patrick Reed. On the eve of his opener in San Antonio, Reed attributed his recent struggles to the lies and lofts being off in his irons. He declared the issue largely resolved, then missed his third straight cut after a second-round 77.

Game Matching the Hair: Ollie Schniederjans. After contending at Harbour Town, the rookie put up a solid T-18 finish at Valero to crack the OWGR top 100 for the first time in his career. A breakthrough like Chappell and Wesley Bryan had in consecutive weeks may not be far behind.

Blown Fantasy Pick of the Week: Charley Hoffman. After seven straight years as the Can’t-Miss Kid in San Antonio, Hoffman put up a pedestrian T-40 finish with no score lower than his opening-round 71.

Source: Golf Channel

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mccormickcreek · 7 years