Cardin Drake

It would be great to be a 3 seed or better. That gives you a relatively easy path to the sweet 16. Once you get there, you can expect nothing but tough games anyway. We are up to 5 in the NET rankings. We should be a 2 seed with a win today, but we would at least be a lock for a 3 seed.

Wow, Iowa State up by 24 on Houston with 8 minutes left.

The line is out already. We are a 5.5 point favorite. Florida is very good, but if we want to go deep into the big dance, we are going to have to beat better teams than them. We just have to come out and hit our shots.

I don't care which one it is in the finals. Either will be tough, and we have some revenge motivation against Florida. And the tougher the game, the better prep for the big dance. Kudos to Miss State for knocking off Tennessee and giving us a tough fight.

This game seems like a step backwards. Last time we beat them by 40. 🙂

Denver Jones is on fire lately. He's hit 59% of his 3's in the last 6 games, and is up to 42% on the year. If that continues, it ups our ceiling quite a bit.

While it's an advantage for Tennessee, it's not the same kind of advantage they have in Knoxville. We can beat them. But first we have to get by South Carolina. (presumably) If I was a betting man, my money would be on us and Kentucky in the final. Well, I wrote the above and I thought I would just look up the Vegas odds. Several surprises to me: Still no respect for SC and we are the second favorite ahead of Kentucky even after they knocked off Tennessee in Knoxville. +175: Tennessee +240: Auburn +400: Kentucky +500: Alabama +1600: Florida +5000: South Carolina, Texas A&M, Mississippi State +10000 to +25000 All other teams

There's cause for optimism, but it's really just too early to tell. I thought Coach Freeze and company did a near miraculous job last year cobbling together a serviceable line. But while the run blocking was pretty good, the pass blocking left a lot to be desired. We'll be better if a few young guys step up and Percy Lewis does a good job at left tackle. But I'm going to have to see it to believe it.

Ah, it's just a quirk of the tiebreakers. For a two team tie, the second tiebreaker after head to head record is won-loss record against the conference champ. For a 3 or more team tie, it is winning percentage against the conference champ. So our record of 0-1 against Tennessee beats Bama's 0-2 in a two team tie, but in a 3 or more team tie, our winning percentage is the same, and it proceeds to the next tiebreaker. It's too bad SC and Kentucky won. The 2 seed would have been nice, with Kentucky and Tennessee on the same side of the bracket. But now either the 3 or 4 seed will have to beat them both to win, just in a different order.

Auburn is the 4 seed; SC is the 5. We should be the 3 seed, but they use some funny math on the tiebreaker.

Well, I hope that lethargic performance cost Tennessee a 1 seed in the big dance. Kentucky 2, Auburn 4. On the whole, I'd just as soon be the 4 seed as the 3. https://www.al.com/sports/2024/03/complete-sec-basketball-tournament-bracket-2024-times-tv-channel-full-schedule.html

You guys do have your talking points down. Biden announced a ban on new drilling on federal lands in 2021. The only reason it's not still in place is Manchin insisted on removing it to get the 1.2 trillion dollar green boondoggle passed. The many regulations he has put in place to hamstring drilling won't show up for 5 to 10 years. New drilling projects take a long time to develop. The production now you can credit to Trump.

Any third party run at this point will not be about winning but about trying to influence the winner of the election.

I'm shocked that government scientists don't disclose the amount and who is paying them royalties, and why. It is potentially a clear conflict of interest. I can't see why anybody, left or right, would be against this https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/03/08/rand-paul-introduces-bill-to-force-fauci-nih-scientists-to-disclose-big-pharma-royalties/

This subject is Regardless of who wins in November. We all know if the republican wins, we will start following the actual law again, and if the democrat wins the law will continue to be ignored unless somehow the democrat base rises up against it. We don't need any new laws for democrats to ignore. The words "shall be detained" is not ambiguous. Why democrats are putting up with this is the real mystery.

SC @ Miss State -3.5 Kentucky @ Tennessee -8.5 Surprisingly, Tennessee is a 8.5 favorite over Kentucky. If I were a betting man, I'd take Kentucky. Tennessee is the 1 seed win or lose, and Kentucky is a 2 seed if they win and tied with Florida as a 5/6 seed if the lose. Motivation sure favors Kentucky. If SC and Kentucky lose, we are tied for 2nd with Bama, and should have the tiebreaker over them. (The two team tiebreaker unambiguously says won-lost record of the two teams versus the No. 1 seed) That would be nice; we would then have Miss.State/LSU/TAMU in the quarters and Bama in the semifinals if we win the first one. I think we are 2nd seed even in a 3-way with SC and Bama. We just need Kentucky to lose. So far, it's happening like we would wish. Now just beat Georgia, preferably by 40.

That's a nice concise way of putting it. A trillion dollars of new debt every 100 days will become unsustainable quickly.

Regardless of who wins in November... Republicans and Democrats will continue to spend us into bankruptcy. The Fed will continue to print money and asset bubbles will continue to happen and enrich the wealthy at the expense of the poor and middle class. Congress will refuse to make a meaningful budget, and will pass continuing resolutions instead that allow for unrestrained spending. Inflation will worsen and wages will not keep pace. The government will continue to lie about the inflation rate as the middle class shrinks and poverty spreads. Politicians will keep us arguing about which party is worse and neither party's base will do a damn thing to hold their own side accountable.

Picking up replacements for Broome and Williams in the portal isn't going to be easy. They aren't solid players; they are the strength of this team. Broome has been great this year, but I'm not sure how he looks to the NBA. He's just small for a NBA center. He's probably going to leave, and I'll wish him well, but I hope maybe he'll come back for one more year and keep developing that 3 point shot.

homer/Can't be real. Not on CNN & MSNBC/homer

Well, the first domino has fallen. Despite the fact that it is theoretically possible for the 5 way tie, I'm still hoping for a Tennessee win against SC. That will put us into a 4-way tie for second. If it remains in a 4 way tie after Saturday, the tiebreaker is the record against the other tied teams. The records would be Kentucky 2-1, Bama 2-2, Auburn 2-2, and SC 1-2. Tiebreaker rules say: Three-Team Tie (or more) When three or more teams are tied, the following procedure will be used in the following order until the tie is broken. If two teams re- main tied after a tiebreaker provision, the two-team tiebreaker formula will be used. Best winning percentage of games played among the tied teams (Example: Team A is 3-1, Team B is 2-2 and Team C is 1-3 - Team A would be seeded highest, Team B second-highest and Team C lowest of the three). Best winning percentage of the tied teams versus the No. 1 seed (and proceeding through the No. 14 seed, if necessary). If two teams remain, coin flip by the Commissioner. If three or more teams remain, draw by the Commissioner. So breaking the tie against Bama seems ambiguous. 0-1 against conference champ Tennessee is clearly better than 0-2, but the winning percentage is the same. So If you have to move to the 2nd tiebreaker, we both lost to the #2 seed Kentucky and both beat #5 seed SC. Bama then wins by having a win against #6 Florida, but the dubious prize for Bama would be Florida in the quarterfinals and Kentucky in the semis. Tennessee loses a lot of their motivation if they beat South Carolina tonight. They are the #1 seed and conference champs even if they lose to Kentucky on Saturday. But if they beat Kentucky anyway, that puts us into a 3-way tie for 2nd against Bama and SC. SC is 0-2 and the 4th seed, and we wind up 3rd after tiebreaks.

Florida still up by 15 with 5 minutes left.

If we’ve been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We’re no longer interested in finding out the truth. Still ironic.

In Major Blow To Democracy, Supreme Court Rules Voters Can Vote For Favorite Candidate: https://babylonbee.com/news/in-shocking-blow-to-democracy-supreme-court-affirms-voters-can-vote-for-candidate-they-want#google_vignette