Dave Sez

Virginia To Independence Bowl?

update: Nevermind. Check this post instead.

As I wrote about yesterday, Virginia's decision not to play in the Champs Sports Bowl, or any other bowl during exams, made a mess of the ACC bowl selections. The Champs Bowl didn't want Georgia Tech (the only other ACC school they had to pick from and the MPC Bowl in Boise didn't want UVA (and vice-versa, I'm sure).

It was going to take some other bowls without ACC ties to get into the picture. That appears to have happened. The Independence Bowl seems set to match up UVA with Oklahoma State. That's actually a pretty good game. The game is on December 28, and it's in Shreveport, LA, so it's not terribly attractive to traveling fans, but it should be fun to watch.

Harvard Sucks

Yale and Harvard, much like Cal Berkeley and Stanford, have a long tradition of pranking each other before their yearly football game. This year, Yale got off a great one. Several Elis (is that a dumb nickname for a college of smart people, or what?) dressed up as members of "The Harvard Pep Squad" and passed out red and white placards. They told the Crimson (OK, that one's almost as bad) fans that the signs would spell out "Go Harvard." They lied.

The signs instead spelled out "We Suck." There are pics and a video at that link.

I wonder if any ACC schools could pull something like that off?

Blogging on ESPN?

I'm not really sure what to make of this, but a guy who runs a pretty decent blog apparently works at ESPN.com and is soliciting opinions about Insider. He wants to know why you don't subscribe.

For me, I don't because I just don't like the idea of paying for web content. Let me rephrase that - it's not that I don't like the idea, it's just that I don't think they have anything I really need that I can't get elsewhere for free. I'm all for pros getting paid for their stuff, but I'm used to free content and as long as I'm still getting it (and I am - way more than I could ever read), why would I pay for it?

Coming Up Sevens

Virginia jumped into the AP poll this week at number 24, meaning the ACC has seven ranked teams. That ties a record set three times before, once by the ACC and twice by the Big Ten.

On note about this is that expansion has nothing to do with this, as obviously neither Miami nor Virginia Tech is ranked (nor will be for a long, long time) and no ACC team has had the pleasure of walloping them.

Bayless On Artest

I've bagged on Skip Bayless a few times on this site. I think he's an attention-starved blowhard. I mean, good lord, the man's on Cold Pizza every day!

So, I've taken my shots at him. And he's deserved them. It's only fair then to point out when Bayless gets it right. His espn.com article on the Pistons-Pacers riot is a the best I've read. He's the only reporter I've seen who rightly points out that Artest never hit the fan he charged after in the stands. In fact, it probably wouldn't have gone any further if fans hadn't closed in and Stephen Jackson hadn't gone Rambo.

ACC - Big Ten Challenge Previews

The sixth annual ACC - Big Ten Challenge gets underway tonight when Purdue pays a visit to NC State. Honestly, I should have put the word Challenge in quotations, "Challenge." Is it really considered a challenge when one side wins every time? In five previous "challenges," the ACC has won five times. The margins were 5-4, 5-4, 5-3, 5-4 and 7-2. Notice that last one - the ACC won 7-2 last year!

I wouldn't bet that the ACC will win by the same margin again this year, but it wouldn't surprise me. The ACC is stacked this year, but there are a few (OK, two) good Big 10 squads as well. My prediction is 6-3 ACC. I also think there will be a couple of blowouts in the ACC's favor - keep an eye on NC State, UVA and UNC.

Here are some previews links (there are surprisingly few):
The Duke Basketball Report
The Charlotte Observer
ESPN.com (shockingly bare)
CBS Sporstline (Gregg Doyel)

Oh, by the way, while we are comparing conferences, unless I'm missing a game, the ACC is currently 3-0 against the Pac 10 this year, with two lopsided wins (UVA over Arizona and UNC over USC).

A Victory For Integrity

Virginia played their annual rivalry game with Virginia Tech this weekend. This year's game had unusual importance, in that it was not only a conference game this time, but the ACC title and a possible BCS bid was at stake (in part). It was a tight game for most of the contest, but late in the game, the Hokies seized control and won handily 24-10.

But still, Virginia is a winner.

They are winners because after the game, Virginia President John Casteen announced that UVA would not accept a bid for any bowl game played during exams, a period between December 13-21. The key here is that the Cavaliers, as I predicted, were in line to get a bid to the Champ Sports Bowl in Orlando. That bowl is played on December 21.

Kudos to UVA! What a great message for college athletics. Remember these players (and band members, cheerleaders, student-trainers, dancers, etc.) are all students first. Football is an extra-curricular activity, so let's not forget (as the SportsProf wrote) the curricular.

At bigtime D1 programs, bowl games mean a lot. They mean money, a nice trip for the players and their families, a validation of the season, recruiting ammo, and a month or more of extra practice. For coaches, those extra practices are particularly valuable.

When Virginia said no to the Champs Sports Bowl (and hell, that name alone should have been a good enough reason to reject them), they took the very real risk that they'll not go to any bowl game. Some are trying to "trade up" to the Peach Bowl, but that's extremely unlikely to happen. More likely, UVA will have to travel to Boise, or it's still possible that they'll get shut out altogether. It's not likely given the relatively small number of eligible teams nationally, but it could happen.

So kudos to the University of Virginia for striking a blow for academics against the big business of college sports. It probably only amounts to a drop of water against a granite boulder, but over time those drops could make their own bowl.

ACC Bowl Projections

The ACC has official tie-ins with six bowls, the BCS and five others The five bowls are the Gator, Peach, Champs Sports, Continental Tire and MPC Computers Bowls. They select in that order. Other than the BCS, there is no real rule on what team the other bowls have to select. The Gator and Peach are required to select a team one game within the highest ranking available team, but that doesn't really limit their options too much. No, the five "at-large" bids go only partly based on season records. Just as important is national recognition (read: TV revenue) and number of fans projected to buy tickets and travel. Remember bowls aren't so much rewards for the teams as they are marketing vehicles for the host cities.

There are really just two games that matter to ACC bowl picks, Virginia at Virginia Tech this weekend and the Hokies at Miami next weekend. While those two games can produce four different outcomes, only three possible ones matter. If Miami beats Tech, they'll go to the BCS and Tech will be picked ahead of Virginia, regardless of who wins that Cav-Hokie battle. Why? Because Tech's fans are known to be very loyal and to travel. It's not like they care about basketball season.

The other team of significance is Florida State who has already completed their season. They can't get to the BCS, but you can be sure that they'll get picked high among the next three teams.

I'll run down the six bowls and list the possible ACC team in each, with the most likely team listed first.

BCS - Miami, Virginia Tech, Virginia
Beat the Hokies and Miami is in. Otherwise, the winner of UVA-VA Tech likely gets the nod, although it will depend on the BCS standings. It's possible that UVA could beat Tech but still lose out if the computers and humans give the Hokies tons of credit for beating Miami.

Gator Bowl - FSU, Virginia Tech
Honestly, it's hard to imagine any team other than FSU playing here, but it's possible that the folks in Jacksonville like the concept of a large group of fans traveling from out-of-state. A lot of Nole fans would make day trips, depriving Jacksonville of hotel and meal money that the Hokies would provide.

Peach Bowl - Virginia Tech, FSU, Miami
If Miami gets the BCS bid, the Peach will take whichever team between VT and FSU that the Gator doesn't pick. If the Hokies beat Miami, then the Hurricanes are headed to Atlanta.

Champs Sports Bowl - Virginia, Miami
The only way this spot doesn't fall to the Cavs is if they snag the BCS bid. Virginia is used to falling to the last possible bowl. They have a rep for not traveling well, even if the recent numbers don't support that theory. One reason their numbers may not always be as good is that their fans are routinely disappointed when teams they beat and finished ahead of get picked for the better bowls. It seems to happen every year.

Continental Tire Bowl - UNC
This one's already a done deal.

MPC Computers Bowl - Georgia Tech
It's hard to imagine how this could work out any other way. And hey, the Yellow Jackets have played on the blue field last year, so they should be comfortable.

Carolina Rolls To Finals

Carolina looked impressive for the second game in a row last night against Tennessee. They built a 20 point lead in the first half, further rinsing out the bad taste left from their loss to Santa Clara.

It's too bad that Iowa beat Texas in the other semifinal. I was looking forward to a Tar Heel - Longhorn matchup. There would be plenty of intrigue in that game.

The most obvious storyline would be revenge for the Tar Heels. Texas knocked them out of the NCAA Tournament last year.

Then there's the pretty strong rivalry Texas and coach Rick Barnes built against Kansas in the Big 12 while Roy Williams was the coach there.

On top of all that is the old, bitter rivalry that Barnes had with Dean Smith when Barnes was at Clemson. He was the the first coach since Krzyzewski to really verbally challenge Dean, and it got ugly at times. Roy Williams was long gone by then, of course, but he always stayed very close to his mentor and surely harbors some resentment towards Barnes. In fact, I believe Ol' Roy's son was on those Carolina teams when they had the Clemson run-ins.

Ah well, it's not happening. Instead, UNC will play Iowa for the title. The only coaching tie there is that Alford was a freshman on the Indiana team that upset UNC and Michael Jordan in '84. Roy Williams was an assistant on that Carolina team. Pretty weak, I guess, but they say that revenge is a dish best served cold, right?

He's A Big Fan

Ron Artest just kills me. Kills me. If the various interviews yesterday weren't enough, with his constant pimping of his new album and record label, this quote just, well ... I don't even know what to say about this one. Read to the bottom.

BTW, do you think Artest spelled his company that way on purpose to be cool, or do you think he just doesn't know how to spell 'Warrior'? I wonder if Dwyane Wade's mom helped him?

Oh, one more thing (I really could go on all day, but I'm restaining myself) - could this guy be any more oblivious to the world around him? Smiling and holding up his CD on the Today Show while being interviewed for starting the biggest brawl in American pro sports history? The scientists at the Carnegie Mellon Institute For Advanced Cluelessness couldn't engineer a bigger rube.

Defending Joe Pa

This is becoming a running theme here. The SportsProf writes a great article about Joe Paterno and I link to it.

Hey, it's been a successful pattern, so I'm keeping it up.

ACC Hoops - Early Lessons

The first week or so of the college hoops season has come and gone. As always, there were a few surprises. Instead of addressing each separately, I'll just mush 'em all together in here.

NC State is better than expected
Of the six ranked ACC teams, NC State is the lowest. They were picked by the writers to come in fifth in the conference, although basically they and Maryland were tied. The reasoning behind putting them behind those other teams, several of whom they finished above last year, is that State lost Marcus Melvin and Scooter Sherrill, two critical seniors from last year's team.

Well, after what I've seen in the first three games, State is better than last year. Melvin was an underrated player last year, contributing in many ways, including scoring, rebounding, interior defense and three-point shooting. Sherrill too was a guy who's contributions in defense and ball-handling were under-appreciated.

So far, those losses seem to be more than offset by the continued improvement of Engin Atsur and Ilian Evtimov. Both players are multi-skilled and seem to fit in so well with Herb Sendek's high-motion offense. The real key to this year's good start though, may be the play of Georgetown transfer Tony Bethel. Bethel has started at the point and played very well so far, including scoring 22 points against East Carolina the other day. I made fun of Julius Hodge's saying that Bethel was one of the best points in the conference, but maybe he was right. The ACC is absolutely loaded with point guards this year (more on that below), and it looks like Bethel can hold his own.

A good point guard can make all the difference in college basketball. This year, that may be more important than ever in the ACC, because if you don't have one, your opposition will and they'll eat you up on both ends of the floor.

Carolina is more vulnerable than expected
We all knew that the one position where UNC is most vulnerable is at the point guard spot. When Raymond Felton is hitting shots and concentrating on defense, there's no better player in the country, not even Chris Paul. That's great for the Tar Heels. What's not so great is that they basically have no backup for him.

I thought that that weakness might cause them some trouble later in the season. I had no idea that it would show up so soon. Felton was suspended for Carolina's first game for playing in a Chavis League game (the league failed to file the paperwork to be sanctioned last summer). Without their leader, the Tar Heels crumbled, playing awful ball and losing to Santa Clara. While I don't think the loss means that much in the grand scheme of things, they have to be concerned that one player means so much to a team that is supposed to be loaded with talent.

To underscore the difference with and without Felton, he played last night against BYU, and Carolina destroyed them, leading 48-18 at the half. They are going to need to find a way to train Quentin Thomas to take over when Felton is out or they will underachieve this year.

Is Virginia a sleeper?
You may recall that Virginia ended the ACC season last year about as hot as any team in the country. They finished with wins over Georgia Tech, Wake Forest and North Carolina. In three of their late season wins, Todd Billet hit game-winners in the final seconds. Because Billet hit all of those shots, he got the attention, which sort of obscured what was really going on with the Cavs. The real reason they started winning was the play of freshmen guards TJ Bannister and JR Reynolds. Reynolds, a shooting guard, took over as one of Virginia's top scorers. Bannister took over the point guard duties and completely changed the face of a team that had relied on players like Billet, Keith Jenifer and Roger Mason, Jr. to play the point in recent seasons. The change was marked. Bannister can't shoot, so didn't score much, but he protected the ball and ran the offense which made all the difference.

In addition to those to frosh, Virginia got solid, if uneven, seasons out of freshmen Gary Forbes, a high-flying wingman with an allergy to defense and Donte Minter, a wide-body PF with nice post moves. Also, Devin Smith, Virginia's best player, played the last couple of months last year with a herniated disk in his back. Smith didn't even practice the last two months of the year and coaches never knew if he could play until just before tipoff. A healthy Smith is an All-ACC-caliber player.

All that said, Virginia looked to be, at best, an average team. A team that would struggle against a league stacked with giants this year. Well, not so fast. It turns out that they now have a new weapon, one that may be the best they've had in years - freshman point guard Sean Singletary.

Singletary was expected to be pretty good, but he didn't have the national rep that many recent ACC recruits have had. Well, so far, he looks like a steal for Pete Gillen. In his first game, Singletary unseated Bannister as the starter (they often play both together now) and tied a UVA freshman record with seven assists. Fine, that was against Robert Morris (the school, not the Founding Father. I think Singletary would have done even better against the guy.).

In his second game, Singletary was matched against Arizona's Mustafa Shakur, one of the best guards in the country and a nominee for the Wooden Award. All Singletary did was put up a line of 15 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists and 6 steals. He ate Shakur up in leading the Cavs to a resounding win.

If you think the win was fluky because the Wildcats just shot poorly, consider this - UVA hit only 4 of 17 three pointers, but still won by 18 points. This game was no fluke; it was a statement game. Pete Gillen's coaching success has always come when he's had quick guards who can play his pressing scheme (i.e God Shammgod and Donald Hand). He hasn't had that recently at Virginia, but with Singletary and Bannister (who had 4 steals against Arizona), he does now.

Does this mean that Virginia will challenge for the ACC title? No, of course not. But the league will likely earn seven NCAA bids this year, and the Cavs already have one statement win that they can use to make their case at the end of the season.

Is Florida State that bad?
I didn't see the game, but good Lord, an ACC team should never lose to a team with a name as long as Texas A&M Corpus Christi. Hell, losing to the main Texas A&M is bad enough. Texas A&M Corpus Christi? I'm embarrassed for the Seminoles.

I mentioned that seven schools will probably get bids this year. There are six likely for-sure teams (the six that are ranked right now) and then two likely bubble teams in UVA and FSU. Let's see, UVA just spanked #10 Arizona, while FSU lost to a glorified community college. Gee, I wonder who has the early lead?

Cars For Coaches

Yoni found a story about something I'd never really heard of. It's pretty surprising that this is such a secret, because evidently every D1 school has a similar program. Apparently, athletic departments have deals set up with car dealerships to provide coaches and their wives with new, free cars. In return, the dealers get season tickets, ads and other perks. I guess I knew that coaches often drove loaners from local dealers, but I had no idea it was so organized.

What's a little shady about this is that we all know that many star players mysteriously drive very nice cars. It seems a fairly small step to go from providing for coaches to providing for players. I wonder if a dealer wouldn't rather set up Mr. All-American QB than the golf coach?

Clemson Bags Bowl

In a stunning act of accountability and good sportsmanship, Clemson and South Carolina have each agreed not to accept any bowl bids this year after their brawl on Saturday. What a great step by the Presidents and ADs of each school. The fight, particularly coming less than 24 hours after the big NBA donnybrook, was ugly and needed to be dealt with quickly.

Big props to the those involved with making this choice.

ps. I guess this means Clemson won't steal UVA's bowl this year!

Shooting Over Making

Ken Pomeroy says that the numbers show him that it's more important to get to the line to line to shoot free throws than to make free throws. In other words, the percentage a team makes, while important, is less critical than just creating the opportunities.

Makes some sense, actually.

He also points out that that popular notion that free throw shooting is a lost art is a myth. Teams shot the third highest percentage ever last year.

Detroit Riots

I often avoid writing about the "big" topics of the day, because you're gonna read all about it, facts and opinions, everywhere else. I can't compete with espn.com, so I don't try. In this case, I'm going to make an exception. I saw the Friday Night Fight not too long after it happened, and have had it bouncing around my head all weekend. May as well dump my thoughts here.

BTW, you can catch the video and some pics here.

First off, I want to see that as bad as this whole scene was, it wasn't unthinkable. In fact, we've been building to this for a while. Fan behavior has been getting worse and worse over the years. At the same time, arenas have been putting more and more fans closer and closer to the field of play. There have been several less serious incidents in various leagues and arenas for years now. A brawl was inevitable.

In this case, the right ingredients happened to all be in the same place at the same time. The Perfect Storm of immaturity. You had two physical rivals meeting to establish regular season pecking order. You had the visiting team winning handily. You had an on-court altercation between the toughest players on each team. The player on the visiting team is perhaps the most volatile and least-liked player in the league. The situation was ripe for trouble.

I'll walk through the progression of events.

The foul
Ben Wallace went up for a layup in the last minute of the game. The outcome of the game was no longer in doubt. Artest gave him a hard foul, swinging both arms down and catching Wallace in the head. It was definitely an intentional foul, but I'm not sure if it would qualify as flagrant, as Big Ben wasn't flying down for a dunk or anything. To me, Artest was probably just trying to make a point - no free buckets against us, even when they don't matter. It's a point Wallace should understand - he's committed countless similar fouls in his career.

The foul was unnecessary, but in today's NBA, not that uncommon.

The reaction
Obviously, Ben Wallace didn't take to kindly to the shot to his well-froed dome. He is used to being the intimidator, not the intimidated. On top of that they were losing, and of all people to hit him, it was crazy Ron Artest. So Wallace turned around and jacked Artest in the face and throat with both hands, sort of a cross between a shove and a punch. Not only that, but Ben wanted more. He went after Artest, while teammates on both sides separated them.

At this point, the refs should have jumped in and called double technicals. In fact they may have, but no one's going to remember now.

The scrum
As is seemingly the script in the NBA, the two teams now got together for a bunch of jawing and shoving. Nothing too unusual. Clearly, Big Ben still wanted a piece of Artest, but Ron wanted none of it. Some people say it's because he's scared of Wallace. I think it's more likely that he just wanted to avoid being suspended for the jillionth time. Guys like Ron Artest aren't scared too easily. I think he also liked being the punk. He seemed to be smirking while watching Wallace try to get to him.

It was at this point that Artest laid down on the scorers table. He clearly was trying to achieve two goals here. He was making it very obvious that he wasn't trying to fight - probably being as blatant as possible so that the league got the hint. He was also being a bit of a prick - showing off and basically saying "nyah, nyah, can't touch me," like an eight year old.

Evidently, Wallace didn't like this act too much.

The towel toss
It seemed fairly benign at the time - the kind of thing that, again, happens all time. Wallace couldn't get to Artest, so he threw a towel in his face. In most cases, that's no big deal. In this case though, I think it was a key trigger. Fans on the other side of Artest were just as close to him as Wallace was. They saw the hated Artest lying there and were furious. They didn't like him to begin with, but now he was just taunting them. Then, they saw Ben throw his towel at Artest. Click. Now the thought and precedent was out there. Obviously, for one person, that was enough. He (or she maybe) threw his beer.

And then all hell broke loose.

The first charge
From Artest's standpoint, he felt like he was doing well. He had managed, for once, to avoid escalating a situation. He had resisted the urge to fight. I'm sure he was feeling pretty good about himself, but probably still full of adrenaline. He could hear the fans and Pistons all around him shouting at him, calling him every name in the book. For a guy like Artest, who can barely fight off the demons on a good day, this was remarkable restraint.

And then that cup hit him in the face.

Now when something hits you in the face, particularly when you know it was thrown at you, you get a charge of testosterone, of anger. You can literally feel it. In this case, it was the one critical chink in the faulty wall Artest had hid his anger behind. It reminds me of those cartoons where Bug Bunny blows up Blacque Jacque Shellacque by removing just the right rock. Once you weaken the critical part, the whole wall explodes with violent force. And Artest was off.

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Artest charged the wrong guy. A big clue should have been that the guy was still holding his beer, but Ron missed that. Lots of people are saying (and I think Jim Gray started this) that it was the guy in the blue shirt and white hat who threw the beer, but I'm not so sure. When Artest jumped up, that guy had his hands in his pockets. I'm wondering if it wasn't actually the woman who was right there screaming at Artest.

Either way, Artest went after the wrong guy. It looked like the guy was just yelling at the wrong time (did you see his face when he realized what was happening?). Artest saw him and heard him and zoomed in. The thing is, he didn't hit the guy - he just shoved him down, but by now everyone was too worked up. The crowd moved in, Stephen Jackson came flying in and popped yet another guy. Riot on, fists and beer everywhere.

As for the two tubby Hispanic guys who got hit by Artest and then Jermaine O'Neal - I say they got what they deserved. You simply do not go on the court or field and start yelling at players, particularly when there's a brawl going on. When Artest turned on the first guy (and you could see the guy change his attitude pretty quickly at this point - too late) and then punched him, his buddy tried to tackle Artest. I think O'Neal saw that and came in and just nailed the second guy in the face. That dude might have had some injuries. I feel bad for those guys, but not too much. Once they crossed that line, they took their chances.

The aftermath
In the end, I think the NBA has taken the right steps so far. David Stern is a great commissioner and he's showing why. His suspensions were very tough, but appropriate. He had to make a statement and do what he can to keep the players under control in the future.

The next step is Detroit taking steps against fans. They need to strip season tickets from every single person they can identify who was throwing anything or wading into the conflict. That was a disgrace and the team needs to do what it can.

For a legal standpoint, people need to be prosecuted. All those same cup throwers should be charged with inciting a riot. Anyone who threw a punch should be charged with assault. Anyone on the court? Trespassing. Make an example. Fans have GOT to learn that they are not part of the game. They have no business throwing stuff or going on the court.

I don't think the city needs to prosecute the Pistons for fighting, but I won't be surprised if they do. To me, the heavy suspensions are punishment enough, but I'm sure there are others who think otherwise, particularly that first guy who got jumped.

Lastly, the NBA needs to change rules and set some standards for fan behavior. They allow fans to get too close to the court and players. They also allow way too much verbal abuse. The ushers at all arenas should have the authority to kick out any fan who yells offensive stuff at any player, home or visiting. It's just gotten too bad. People shouldn't be afraid to bring their kids to games lest they learn some new words and physical acts. This is an opportunity to clean all that crap up. Just because you bought a ticket, you don't have a license to be a subhuman.

Maybe, in the end, some good can come out of all of this.

A Monument To Cheating

This is great. You may recall the hubub in the Show Me State when huge donors Bill and Nancy Laurie pitched in $25 million for the Mizzou basketball arena. The controversy wasn't over the donation so much, but because the Lauries, Wal-Mart billionaires, decided to name the arena after their daughter! Yes, the new arena will be the Paige Sports Arena, named for Paige Laurie.

If that weren't great enough on it's own, there's the little fact that Paige didn't even go to Missouri. No, she recently attended and graduated from UCLA.

But wait, it gets better! It seems that Paige earned her degree in college largely by paying her former roommate over $20,000 to write all of her papers for her.

So, what you have now is a huge, new arena named after a young heiress who didn't attend that school and who blatently cheated her way through the school she did choose to attend. Beautiful. Truth really is stranger than fiction.

A big thanks to Yoni for digging up this story and a bunch of relevent links.

Chris Chase's College Hoops Preview

Like the Sports Guy and the NBA, Chris Chase writes his best stuff on college basketball. Both guys write about baseball and the NFL and do so pretty well, but hoops brings out their best. Or maybe I'm just biased.

Either way, Chris has a very nice little preview of both the national rankings and the ACC. He has some good anti-Swofford rants as well, which is always nice.

ACC BCS Scenarios

Mike Boone at Fanblogs.com wrote up a nice synopsis of the various possibilities for who will get the BCS bid out of the ACC.

In my opinion, and you know I'm never wrong, Florida State and Miami are locks for tying for the lead. The winner of the Virginia - Virginia Tech will share the conference championship, but will have no shot at the BCS bid. I'll have a pick for that game as it gets closer, although I'm leaning towards the Cavaliers right now.

Avalanche Breakdown

There's a phenomenon in semiconductors known as avalanche breakdown. Normally, a p-n junction (also known as a diode) allows current to flow in only one direction. If you apply a negative voltage to the junction, it doesn't allow any current to flow backwards. To a point. Eventually, if you keep increasing the voltage, the junction begins to fail and quickly breaks down, becoming basically a closed circuit, offering no resistance to the marauding electrons.

That's what happened to Maryland's defense last night against Virginia Tech. Normally a stout defense, the Terps finally broke. All season, they've played hard, gone to the bench and then trotted back out a couple of minutes later after their offense failed to do anything. Last night, they couldn't even get those few moments. Maryland's leading tackler was probably an offensive lineman. It seemed that every other play in the first half was a turnover. The Hokies kept getting the ball deep in Terp territory, keeping the Maryland defense up against their own end zone. They couldn't stop the onslaught and eventually collapsed altogether. I felt sorry for them.

A good team shouldn't lose 55-6 in a conference game. At one point this year, I thought that Maryland was a good team. Even when they turned in stinkers against Georgia Tech and NC State, I thought that they just had to get a bit more consistency out of their young quarterbacks. Well, I guess they did finally get consistency, but it wasn't good consistency. They're consistently awful. If Joel Statham stared at his receivers any longer before throwing them a pass, he'd need to buy them flowers.

Luckily for Statham (and Jordan Steffy wasn't much better), the rules say that after you turn ball over in football, you get to go to the bench. His defense wasn't so lucky. They had to get crushed under the avalanche.

Caw!

I have a friend who is a UNC-Wilmington alumnus. We used to love to joke about UNC-W's programs for the basketball season. They haven't had a very stellar history, so the program included articles on near wins against such powers as Indiana and UMass. Fortunately for the Seahawks, they actually built up a little real history in the past few years (and added one more nearly to their program with the almost win against Maryland in the Tourney a couple of years ago).

Well, now they've taken another step towards the bigtime. Their mascot got arrested for drug possession. Hey, just like the big boys, right?

Maryland Loses A Fan

This is a very interesting editorial in Maryland's student newspaper. Jeremy Craig says he is no longer going to games. He's fed up. He's fed up with the school's crackdown on fans. He's fed up with the sterile environment in the new Comcast Center. He's fed up with the idiot fans. Lastly, he's fed up with the school's ticket policy that makes it hard for a student to get tickets.

That's tough. Schools often forget, but the students are the soul of college basketball. Yeah, the sponsors and season ticket holders make the money, but without the students, the money would dry up. The games wouldn't be as fun.

Now, certainly Maryland has had problems. The administration had to do something after several recent embarassing events that received national attention (riots, the bottle hitting Boozer's mom, the F*** JJ chants, etc). I'm glad they finally acted, after first claiming that the constitution prevented it. But, they didn't necessarily have to drive out the fans. It sounds to me like they've driven away one of the good ones and that's a shame.

Thanks to Yoni for the link.

Paulus Update

I've written a bit before about the curious situation with Duke recruit Greg Paulus. There isn't too much new to report on the story. And that by itself is something. You see, Paulus orally committed to Duke a couple of years ago, but his first chance to officially sign a letter of intent ends today. Today is the last day of the early signing period for college basketball. That it apparently came and went without a signed LOI from Paulus is certainly disturbing to the folks in Krzyzewski Tower.

The College Basketball Blog has a rundown of some of the latest scuttle.

Lovable Losers

I recently found a new blog, The Mid-Majority. It's slick and well-written and as you might guess, it focuses on mid-major hoops programs. It's definitely one to add to your regular reading schedule.

In this article, Kyle makes a great argument that the NCAA Tournament is better for having the at-large bids, even if they devalue many conference tournaments. His argument is that those extra big schools, and they are mostly the big boys, just become the victims of upsets at the hand of the smaller conference champs. We all love those first weekend upsets, right?

Hoops Is Here!!

For some reason, I haven't celebrated in this space yet. Allow me to rectify that - yaaaah, college basketball is here again!

I watched some of the Wake Forest game the other night. It felt good. Wake looked good (and so did GW, by the way. That's a pretty good team). NC State played last night and started very well.

It's the beginning of nearly six months of the best time of the sports year. I'm looking forward to a great season. For the local Triangle teams, basketball season couldn't have come fast enough.

For those teams who aren't in preseason tourneys, the season will start this weekend.

Spurrier To South Carolina?

The rumors have been going strong for a couple of weeks now, but it's looking like it's a done deal. The evil Steve Spurrier is going to Columbia, SC. Sure, they are still hedging a bit, but it sounds like everyone knows what's going to happen.

Lou Holtz will retire after the season and hand over the reigns to The Visored One.

This is bad news for Clemson and its fans. Spurrier may not be able to build a program on par with what he had at Florida (SC talent is good, but not Florida level), but it will still be a powerhouse. Clemson has been uneven in recent years and I bet Spurrier will make a point of targeting his rival on and off the field. Spurrier loves to thrash his rivals and then rub it in with some barbs. Tommy Bowden better get ready for some battles.

It should be interesting.

Sissy Fight

It's nothing like the famed basketball games, but Duke and UNC do still have something of a football rivalry. Recently, it's been a game less about who's better than about who's worse, but still, they don't like each other and that has to count for something, right?

This year, the game has a little extra spice in the flavor of a great pre-game quote. UNC center Jason Brown had this to say of his nearby rival, "Who wants to lose to Duke? You know, that's like getting beat up by a girl."

I guess Matt Doherty would add that it's probably an ugly girl too.

Ivy Hoops!

Alright, let me hear you out there. Who's fired up about the start of Ivy League basketball?!! Huh? Anyone? No? Ah well, me neither. I have nothing against it, mind you, but it is the Ivy League.

That said, the SportsProf wrote up a very long and impressive review of the upcoming season in the Smarter-Than-You League. Give the man some props - he's dedicated.

Whitehurst = Worst?

It seems that Stwart Mandel of Sports Illustrated
thinks that Charlie Whitehurst is the biggest dissapointment in college football. I can't argue with him. In fact, I was thinking that very thing just the other day. It's really hard to explain why he's so bad this year, tenth in the conference in pass efficiency. Lack of receivers isn't really a great excuse considering that Arise Curry leads the conference in both catches and yards per game.

The thing is, Whitehurst isn't the only QB having a surprisingly bad year. Darian Durant has been very good at times, but not the star I expected him to be. Chris Rix is the thirteenth most efficient ACC QB ever, yet lost his job earlier this year to the inconsistent Wyatt Sexton. Even early-season stars Cory Randolph and Marques Hagans have fallen off, Randolph even losing his starting spot.

It's been a bad year for ACC quarterbacks.

Cavalier Day

It was a good weekend for Virginia football. No, not American football; the Cavaliers lost to Miami on Saturday. No, it was a good weekend for football, as in futbol. Soccer.

The fourth seed Cavaliers won their ninth ACC Tournament Championship (there have been 18 ACC soccer tournaments), beating Maryland 2-1.

Shortly after Virginia continued its dominance of ACC soccer, DC United, a team with a history full of former Cavs, won its fourth MLS title, beating the Kansas City Wizards 3-2. Two of the three United goals (and very nearly the third) were scored by Virginia product and former ACC Player of the Year Alecko Eskandarian.

DC United won the first three MLS titles behind coach Bruce Arena who previously built a dynasty in Charlottesville, winning five straight national titles. Those original United teams were littered with former Cavaliers, including John Harkes and Jeff Agoos.

Note: I'll be out of town on bidness until Wednesday, so there won't be any posting. Talk amongst yourselves.

Love/Hate Duke

This is a pretty funny (in a cute sort of way) SI piece on the various reasons to love or hate Duke basketball. I'm sure the Duke hates, who are legion, could come up with a few hundred more reasons, actually.

It Gets Worse In Columbus

Things are getting even hairier, if that's possible, in Columbus, Ohio. Jim Tressel has earned quite a lot of leeway and benefit of the doubt there, due mainly to his national title just three seasons ago. The allegations of one disgruntled player, even if corroborated by a few others, probably wouldn't be enough to bring him down.

But now this. ESPN's Tom Farrey has a well-written, longish piece on a very similar story from Tressel's days at Youngstown State. There, he introduced his star to QB to a rich booster who subsequently began paying the player. And these aren't just wild claims, they are testimony from a federal trial.

See the pattern?

On top of that, former star Buckeye running back Robert Smith, who battled with coaches over his outrageous plans to get a real degree, admits that players got paid when he was there too.

If the sordid football tales weren't enough, former basketball coach Jim O'Brien, fired a few months ago for paying players, sued Ohio State yesterday. Nice timing. Evidently his argument is that, yeah I admit to paying a recruit $6,000, jeapordizing the program, but that's no reason to fire me.

Sports Illustrated's Stewart Mandel says the school should give itself the death penalty. Somehow, I don't see that happening, but I also don't see how AD Andy Geiger can keep his job. You just can't have scandals this bad in both of your major programs.

Fire That Man!

As I was parking my car coming back for lunch, I heard one of those Campbell's Chunky Soup commercials. You know the ones, with Donovan McNabb's mom? Well, in this one, she was with "the boys" on a road game trying to keep their spirits high. How did she do this? By starting a sing-a-long to "The Wheels On The Bus." I'm not kidding.

I'm guessing that after Jerome "The Bus" Bettis rolled all over the previously undefeated Eagles last weekend for 149 yards, that's not really the song they want to sing.

I'm guessing that one ad man has got some 'splainin' to do today.

ACC vs. Big East

There has been a long running (but friendly - mostly) feud between me and a couple of my former coworkers. You see, they are both Big East fans, Syracuse fans, to be exact.

When we worked together, we used to get into frequent ACC vs. Big East arguments. Obviously, I (and all the other ACC fans around. I mean this is Raleigh) would win every time. That didn't stop them though, God bless 'em.

We all left the company many years ago, but continued our battles each year when hoops season came around. As you might guess, the fight has gotten a bit tougher in recent years as the Big East finally got good again, winning the last two titles. Of course, the ACC won the two before that.

In fact, those emails were part of the reason why I started this site. I'd put all this time into my responses and then they'd disappear into the ether, only to be read by a few pissed off people. Well, now I'm bringing the fight out into the light.

I got an email this morning, the first volley if you will, sending me the link to an article by some guy (Mike Waters) up in Syracuse who wants to make the case that the Big East is better than the ACC. Better now, this year, even before they add Marquette, Louisville, Cincinnati, Depaul and South Florida next year. Needless to say, the guy's arguments are weak. I'll attack them here.

Here's the article.

First off, let me point out that I don't think the Big East is bad. In fact, I think it's a very strong conference and has been for the past couple of seasons. It's just that the ACC has been pretty damn strong the past couple of years too and promises to be ridiculously good this year. The Big East would be better off comparing themselves to the SEC or Pac 10.

And now on to the article's shortcomings...

Here are two quotes from the same piece:

"I was on record the last few years that the ACC was better at the top, but the Big East was clearly better top to bottom," said ESPN analyst and Duke graduate Jay Bilas. "The Big East has been a more competitive league from top to bottom."

"I thought the Big East last year was very weak from halfway on down," ESPN analyst Fran Fraschilla said.

Nice editing there. There's no better way to reinforce your point than to use conflicting quotes from two analysts. To add even further weight to Fraschilla's argument, this very article talks about how bad Virginia Tech and Miami have been in the Big East. I guess the bottom really wasn't that good.

Now onto some of the points about why he thinks the Big East is better than the ACC this year:
1. The Big East is deeper. "Five through nine, the Big East is rock solid."

Well, five through six of the ACC are ranked. In the top 20, no less. Florida State and Virginia, both bubble teams last year, are the next two. I'm not sure how this makes the Big East better.

To rehash, four Big East teams are ranked and another got some votes. Six ACC teams are ranked and a seventh got votes. Which league sounds deeper to you?

2. "The ACC doesn't have a player from outside its top six teams who will be even second-team all-league."

Does this mean anything? State is picked sixth in the ACC and Julius Hodge was last year's ACC POY. Does it make a conference better if the top six teams can't fill the top ten player positions? In the ACC, it just so happens that the top teams are loaded with potential All-Americans. More on that below.

3. Name players.

Really? The Big East has more name players? 12 of the 50 Preseason Wooden nominees are from the ACC. It looks like the Big East has 8.

4. "The top high school player in each of the last two recruiting classes ¯ not counting those who went straight from high school to the NBA ¯ both play for Connecticut. They would be Charlie Villanueva and Rudy Gay."

Nope. Villanueva was never considered the top non-pro recruit. In fact, the top recruit went to the ACC. Check the rankings. In 2003, the top non-pro was Luol Deng.

5. "The best big man in college basketball might just be Pittsburgh sophomore Chris Taft. The best shooting guard in college basketball, according to CBS Sportsline's Gregg Doyel, is Syracuse's Gerry McNamara."

OK, so he uses Doyel to rank shooting guards, but casually mentions that Taft "might just be" the best big man, without mentioning that Doyel ranks Sean May as the #1 center, ahead of Taft. For shooting guards, McNamara is #1, but 3 of the top 6 are ACC guys (JJ Redick, Rashad McCants and Justin Gray). The ACC also has the top point guard and four of the top ten (Chris Paul, John Gilchrist, Jarrett Jack and Raymond Felton). Julius Hodge is his #1 small forward. To rehash, the Big East has the top SG and PF (Ryan Gomes), and the ACC has the top PG, SF and C. So how do Doyel's ranking prove Waters' point? Did he even bother to look at the lists, or did he just google on McNamara's name?

Ahh, this was too easy. Look, obviously the Big East is very good and has been having a nice run. I don't question that. But if you're going to say it's clearly better than the ACC, especially this season, you better have some real facts to back it up. Facts that can offset the fact that the ACC has three of the top four and six of the top twenty ranked teams in the country.

Less JJ = More Js?

This is an unusual story. Almost every year, the preseason is filled with stories about basketball players who put on 20 pounds of muscle over the summer. Now that they are big and strong, they'll be better able to make it through the long season.

Well, not this time. This article is about how Duke's JJ Redick lost 23 pounds over the summer. And it's not like he was fat.

The thinking is that he wasn't in good enough shape last year and so needed to drop weight to better be able to run around and off screens. I actually think it's a good idea. Too many guys blindly put on muscle because it looks good, but they lose quickness. Being rail thin hasn't hurt Richard Hamilton any, has it? And Redick's game is pretty similar to Hamilton's. His job is to get open and he didn't do a good enough job last year, particularly late in the season.

Hey, do you think Redick shed the pounds by cutting back on brownies?

Not What It Used To Be

When NC State and Florida State play tonight on ESPN, it won't be quite the same spectacle it has been. In recent years, it was the old and mighty versus the young and frisky. Pupil vs. Mentor. A very Oedipal feel as NC State tried to validate their new "Florida State Junior" attitude by beating the real Florida State. And they did beat them several times.

This year though, not so much. This game seems to be more about who's gonna lose than who's gonna win. If the Wolfpack lose, it'll banish them to their first losing season under Chuck Amato. If the Seminoles lose, it would be their first three-loss ACC season.

Throwing away the larger meanings and just looking at the game, I gotta say this one smells a bit like an upset. I'm not just saying that to appease the few State fans who still read my site after my recent criticisms. It just feels like that to me. The Pack actually made a lot of big plays in the first half against Miami, but offset them by turning the ball over four times and allowing the Hurricanes more than a few big plays of their own. If NC State can make fewer mistakes (no small feat, I know) they can win this one.

Ron Artest: Misunderstood Artist

The NBA is always good for a funny story or three. The league is filled with insular, egotistical, wealthy man-children who routinely commit acts of profound stupidity. And comedy.

But this one tops the cake. I think it may be the funniest NBA story ever.

You may have heard yesterday that Ron Artest was suspended by the Indiana Pacers for two games. They didn't say why, just that it was an internal, personal matter. Considering the fact that Artest is completly nuts, it wasn't really that surprising. He had been playing really well, but like I said, the guy's nuts, so I wasn't shocked to hear that he'd had a run-in with coach Rick Carlisle.

But no, it wasn't a run-in at all. No, Ron Artest asked for some time off because he was tired. Why, you ask? He is tired because he has a rap album coming out in a few weeks and he's just been spending too much time promoting it. It's wearing him down. Or as Artest said, "My body has been aching, I was going to take some time off and I said it the wrong way." I wonder what the right way would be?

OK Ron, appearances on Hot 96 and TRL probably are pretty tiring. How much time do you think you need? A day or two? Nope. "I was ready to take some time off, at least like a month off," Artest said. It would be good for the team, you know, because "it's early in the season, so I feel like I could take some time off early and be ready for the long stretch."

Did I mention that he's only played three games so far this season?

Classic. Just classic. Suddenly, Scottie "I'm not playing if I'm not shooting" Pippen and Cedric "I need a day off to go water skiing" Ceballos look like Cal Ripken.

Ron Artest is my new favorite NBA player, surpassing Damon "Mr Aluminum Foil" Stoudamire and Latrell "Get off my yacht so I can feed my family" Sprewell.

Read the crazy details here.

Filched Faux Furs Fire Furor

Well, well, well. It looks like Memphis coach John Calipari is in a bit of hot water. As the Sports Guy would say, WATFO!

Calipari's a snake. He was a snake at UMass (remember the team GPA that was about the same as their points-per-possession and the whole Marcus Camby scandal) and he still is. I don't trust the guy with his plastic hair and Armani suits any farther than I could throw him into the Mississippi.

His latest scandal is actually kind of funny. It seems that when some Memphis players left their apartment to go play in an exhibition game, someone decided to relieve them of some of their goods, including eight mink coats. Eight!

At first the police report said that the coats were worth $5,000 each, for a total of $40,000 worth of mink. It turns out that that was a mistake though, as the total of all eight should have been only $5,000 (they turned out to be fake furs. I haven't seen pics, but I like to think that they were in bright pimp colors). Calipari seems to think that that correction clears everything up. Apparently, he's ignoring the roughly $30K worth of other stuff that went missing.

Among the stolen goods: $4,000 in custom-made shirts, $6,000 in shoes, $5,000 in pants and $2,150 in throwback jerseys. Damn cuz. Them's some fine-dressed players, no?

Calipari explains all of that by saying that most of these guys get Pell grants, per diem meal money and nice summer jobs - a total of about $12K a year (I guess they don't pay taxes down there). Nope John, that doesn't quite explain it all.

I lived in a fraternity in college with a bunch of spoiled rich boys and no one, NO ONE, had anything near that kind of booty in their rooms. You mean to tell me that a group of college basketball players were living (and dressing) like Tony Montana and we're supposed to believe it's all legit? Knickerbocker, please.

You can read all about the story and Coach Calimari's excuses here (you can register with frog@sportsfrog.com/sportsfrog - a nod to the site where I found the link).

ps. Is this scandal week or what? I can't wait to see who's next!

Bullseye on Buckeyes

ESPN.com put up some pretty hard-hitting articles today centered on Maurice Clarett's claims that Ohio State paid him money, gave him cars, put him in joke classes and faked his grades. Pretty big time accusations.

You can read the overview here and the detailed Clarett interview here. Ohio State's non-response is here. There is a related story about Maryland running back Sammy Maldonado, who transfered from tOSU with only 17 legit credits after two years. Lastly, this article quotes some other players corroborating some of Clarett's stories.

To sum it up, Clarett claims that he got cash, lots of cash, from boosters for doing very little to no work on odd jobs. He says that when his grades were tanking, the coaches fixed them up for him. He took gimme classes designed for football players and then had tutors and professors do his work for him. Car dealers loaned him car after car for a week or two at a time.

Basically, according to Clarett, the program is as corrupt as they get.

The most obvious response from anyone is that Clarett is not a guy whose stories you can trust. The guy was in trouble from nearly the instant he stepped on campus. He had academic troubles, he took improper money and benefits while in high school and he had that whole reporting-his-car-stolen-but-it-wasn't-really-his-car fiasco. How can we believe this guy? Clearly he's a disgruntled ex-Buckeye, pissed that they kicked him off the team and didn't get his back when the NCAA came investigating.

You could say the same thing about one of the other guys, Marco Cooper, who corroborates much of what Clarett says. Cooper was suspended from the team after being arrested twice for drug possession. Not exactly a star witness.

But here's the thing. The only way you are going to find out about this sort of thing is from someone who's pissed. It's gonna be a disgruntled player, booster or tutor. That's just the way it is. A happy player isn't going to rat out the team that's paying him cash and giving him cars. It doesn't work that way.

No, what you need to do is balance the source with the story. Does it make sense? Is there any hard evidence? Any corroborating stories?

In this case, most people will look at Clarett, always in trouble, and then look at Coach Jim Tressel. Tressel won a national championship! He's an old school guy. He doesn't crack jokes with the media. He wears sweater vests, for God's sake. This guy can't be a cheater!

Well, the thing is, six months ago, you could have said the exact same thing about another Ohio State coach, basketball coach Jim O'Brien. O'Brien was a very well-respected, straight-laced guy. Or so we thought. Then, we found out that he (and his staff) too was paying players, setting up gimme classes, providing tutors who actually did the work, pressuring professors into changing grades, etc. Sounds pretty familiar, huh?

We may never know for sure about the money and cars. According to Clarett and Cooper, there is no money trail. They were paid cash, signed no papers, and never did any of this in front of witnesses.

What we do know about is the classwork. From Maldonado's story (corroborated by Curtis Crosby), we know that Ohio State's academic program for football players is a joke. It's a fraud. They are propping up a fake education for their players to keep them eligible. A sampling of the classes listed - Officiating Basketball, Coaching College Football (taught by Professor Tressel, of course), Officiating Tennis, Remedial Math, Remedial Reading (shouldn't reading be a requirement of graduating high school, much less getting into college?) and Issues Affecting Student Athletes.

To me, any program that's willing to steal the one direct value that players get from their scholarship, their eduction, would see no problem breaking other rules. If you are willing to trick your football players into thinking that they are getting real educations and degrees, it's a pretty small ethical step, maybe even a step backwards, to get them nice rides and cushy jobs.

I think we're gonna be hearing a whole lot more about this story. ESPN clearly put a bunch of work into it already and they aren't going to let it die. If more evidence comes out and it looks like Clarett, Cooper, Crosby and the others are telling the truth, the NCAA needs to be firm and swift. Blow them up. If Ohio State is that corrupt, make them an example. Give them the harshest penalties the NCAA can, so that the Alabamas, Oklahomas, Nebraskas and Michigans (I'm just picking big football schools here - no accusations) of the world get the message - cheat and pay. Screw your athletes by stealing their educations and you pay.

Who ever would have thought that in the 2002 national title game, Miami was the clean program?

Catching Up With Shack

Hey, I found Charles Shackelford! Interestingly enough, he's now coaching high school football in Louisiana. In fact, he coached Peyton Manning. Here's what Peyton had to say last night about coach Shack:

My high school coach used to tell me you have to be amphibious when you're sprinting to your left. I said, 'Don't you mean ambidextrous?' He said, 'No, amphibious.' So I guess I was amphibious on that play. High school is probably the last time I've done anything left-handed.

Indecent Exposure

Here are the yards Miami has given up in its last four games:

Against Louisville, the excuse was well, the Cardinals have a really good offense and they played a great game. Miami showed they can win when they aren't playing their best.

Against NC State, no one paid too much attention because Miami won rather easily.

Against Carolina, people took notice. Everyone assumed that the Hurricanes had learned their lesson. Keep playing like that and you'll lose. Lesson learned, right?

Against Clemson, well, they should have been ready, right? Should have been angry, right? They gave up 371 yards to a team averaging 290 and lost to a middle-of-the-pack ACC team for the second week in a row.

The Hurricanes have been exposed. Their defense isn't that good and the team isn't that good. Good, but not great. If they couldn't use the loss to UNC as a motivator to beat Clemson at home, what will they do against a resurgent Virginia up in Charlottesville? Remember, Virginia walloped both UNC and Clemson. Also, the Cavs are sure to be angry and looking to avenge their embarrassing loss a few weeks ago in Tallahassee.

Could the Canes really drop three in a row? It looks pretty likely, maybe even probable.

We'll see.

Dynastic Blip

Women's college soccer doesn't normally get too much media coverage, and usually that's for good reason. Few people really care that much. But, this weekend there was actually a story worth noting. For just the second time ever, UNC's women failed to win the ACC Tournament. Virginia beat them in a penalty kick shootout to claim the title. The last time UNC lost in the tourney was 1988. That was sixteen years ago!

When they lost in 1988, it was to NC State and that game also went to penalty kicks. Since those games are technically counted as ties, UNC is actually 43-0-2 in ACC Tournament play. Even considering that for a long time, Carolina was the only school to actually devote resources to women's soccer, that's amazing.

Props to the ladies who lost, but still managed to extend their program's incredible legacy.