POSTING COMMENTS

GET IT UNDER CONTROL!!!!! Let me make this clear. I will shut down the comments again.
If you guys can't get your language, racist comments, etc under control.

I love your dedication, but this is not intended to be a mini-community for 5 of you to fill your days making comments back and forth to each other. The intention is to foster conversation of Locked on Sports 24 hours a day beyond when the show is on the 950, KJR.

FOLLOW THIS AND WE WILL BE FINE
1) No foul language
2) No personal attacks
3) Stay on the topic

HUSKIES V. SUN DEVILS BREAKDOWN

Huskies head to the desert 3:30 kickoff here on 950,KJR. ASU is in a world of hurt, in fact the Huskies look like they are in good shape compared to the Sun Devils, losers of 3 straight.
· ASU special teams are a mess – 3 punts blocked for 17 points last week. Punt long snapper has been injured and their new guy gets the ball back very slowly. They are trying out a new punter this week. When they do punt the ball they are a mess. Last year they were 116 out of 177 on punt return coverage. This season they have allowed 38 points in seven games because of punting errors.
· Players are questioning the commitment in practice. Back-up QB, yes back-up QB Rudy Carpenter. "I don't see that guys are motivated. Especially in practice. Everybody's coming out kind of soft in practice and not working hard." Senior Leader wide receiver Derek Hagan "I think this team feels like we can flip the switch whenever we want to," "Just turn it on and turn it off. These last couple games, that hasn't been the outcome. We practice well and then we don't practice well. And come game time, it's just a different story”
· Insane injuries on the offensive line . Center Grayling Love and Right Tackle Andrew Carahan are injured, right guard Zach Krula is out and being replaced
· In their 3 losses they have allowed an average of 500 yards a game. 224 on the ground and 275 in the air.
· They have lost their running game in the last three games averaging just 82 yards a game.

However, with all that said I still can’t see the Huskies getting this one. Truly, what we are going to find out is how bad the Dawgs really are. Their offense is only scoring 21 points a game and if they can’t score on the Sun Devils then they can’t score on anyone. On the defensive end, if they can’t win the battle at the line of scrimmage against this depleted line then they won’t all season and if they can’t take advantage of the special teams of ASU then forget it.

COUGARS V. TROJANS BREAKDOWN

This is a great football strategy match-up. The Washington State Spread with their three receivers and their one back against USC and the Pete Carroll 2 deep shell. The depletion of the USC secondary adds a twist that makes this a little more intriguing.
However, the Cougars have not been able to score against the Trojans. The last two years the Cougars lowest point totals have come against the Trojans. Why because they couldn’t run. The last two years the Cougars have a combined –34 yards rushing yes a negative 34 yards rushing over the last two games against the Trojans
Their leading rusher is punter Kyle Basler with 17 yards. Jerome Harrision had 11 carries for 15 yards. No matter how depleted the USC secondary is and no matter how good Jason Hill is if you can’t run the football and get USC out of their 2 deep shell the Cougars don’t have a chance to score.
Needless to say USC will score and will score often. The only good news is the Cougars won’t blow this one in the 4th quarter.

Do Bob Weiss's pair match up by the numbers

Sonics seeing double in frontcourt | TheNewsTribune.com | Tacoma, WA: "Seattle SuperSonics coach Bob Weiss has become enamored of the concept of tandems in his frontcourt.

For instance, Weiss likes the way Reggie Evans and Vitaly Potapenko play together because of the latter’s scoring ability and with the former’s rebounding.

He likes rookie Johan Petro and Vladimir Radmanovic together because of Petro’s defensive focus and Radmanovic’s ability to spread the floor and score from the perimeter.

And he likes the offensive rebounding and defense that Danny Fortson and Nick Collison provide on the court at the same time, the reason Weiss envisions that duo coming off the bench and playing extended minutes."

That is from today's Tacoma News Tribune.
Here is what the numbers breakdown says from last year about Bob Weiss and his playing pairs of big men. Thanks to 82games.com for this information

Weiss likes Radmanovic and Petro – Petro is a rookie so there is no comapirison
Radmanovic and Evans: +11 and the best defensive unit with Radmanovic
Radmanovic and Collsion: +11 and the second best defensive unit
Radmanovic and James last season was the most ineffective line-up with Vlady on the floor

Weiss likes Evans and Potapenko
Evans and Potapenko: -1 - limited minutes but the worst defensive unit on the team
Evans and Radmanovic was the only positive combo for Reggie with a big man last season.
Potapenko and Collison were an awful –7.6 per 48 minutes.

Weiss likes Fortson and Collison together.
Collision and Fortson last season were a +1. They struggled offensive but were good on the D
Collison and Radmanovic was the best combo at +10 per 48 minutes
Collison and Evans were not successful at –3.9
Fortson and Collison was the best defensive unit for Fortson to play with
Fortson and Radmanovic was Fortson best pair at +5.9 per 48 minutes
Fortson and Evans were one of the worst combos on the team at –9.1. They couldn’t score.

HUSKIES OR COUGARS WHO WOULD YOU TAKE?

This is a little debate that we had in the office. If you combined the Washington Huskies and the Washington State Cougars into one football team how many games would they win in the Pac-10 and how many Cougars would start versus how many Huskies would start.

Here is the position-by-position breakdown. I have put in bold who I would start.

OFFENSE (Huskies – Cougars)
QB: Isaiah Stanback or Alex Brink
RB: Louis Rankin or Jerome Harrison
FB: Not applicable
WR: Sonny Shackelford or Jason Hill
WR: Craig Chambers or Michael Bumpus
LT: Robin Meadow or Bobby Byrd
LG: Clay Walker or Sean O’Connor
C: Brad Vanneman or Nick Mihlhauser
RG: Tusi Sa’au or Norvell Holmes
RT: Joe Toledo or Charles Harris
TE: Robert Lewis or Troy Bienemann
P: Sean Douglas (41.9) or Kyle Basler (41.1)
PK: Evan Knudson or Loren Langley

DEFENSE (Huskies – Cougars)
DE: Donny Mateaki or Mkristo Bruce
DT: Manase Hopoi or Aaron Johnson
DT: Wilson Afoa or Ropati Pitoitua
DE: Greyson Gunheim or Adam Braidwood
OLB: Scott White or Scott Davis
MLB: Joe Lobendahn or Will Derting
OLB: Even Benjamin or Steve Dildine
CB: Matt Fontaine or Wally Dada
CB: Roy Lewis or Alex Teems
SS: CJ Wallace or Eric Frampton
FS: Dashon Goldsten or Husain Abdullah

COACHING
Head Coach: Tyrone Willingham or Bill Doba

My breakdown finishes with 17 Cougars and 6 Huskies with one push at punter.

The next question is how many game would this team win?

THNIGS THAT YOU DIDN'T HEAR AT THE WORLD SERIES

A White Sox fan saying ..... "Boy, I wonder where we would be if we still had Jeremy Reed, Miguel Olivo and Mike Morese."

Phil Garner wondering .... "Ingaine if Jamie Moyer hadn't boycotted the trade."

Lou Pinella wondering ...."Do you think Scott Posednick can play in the bigs."

Put your additions in the comment zone.

HOW GOOD ARE THE WHITE SOX?

How do we remember these World Champion Chicago White Sox? In all honesty, even after they finish this sweep of the Astros I have a tough time grasping them as champs. However, if you look at the numbers we should not only look at them as champs, but possibly as one of the best of all time.

Playoff Record: 11-1
Regular Season: 99-63 (at one point 62-29)

Look at what their playoff numbers. They played a very good Red Sox team and a very solid Angels team and the National League Champions .

Overall Score: 67-34
Batting Average: .268
Opponents Average: .202
Home Runs: 18 to 9
Extra Base Hits: 44 to 31

The most amazing thing about this team is their ability to win close games.

One Run Games: 35-19 in regular season -- 4-0 in playoffs
Two run Games: 24-15 in regular season -- 3-0 in playoffs
Overall: 66-34 in games decided by 2 or less

FISCHER DEBERRY COMMENTS

Fischer DeBerry’s comments bring many wide ranging issues to the forefront. Let me address a few of them. There is no question that the comment is totally inappropriate, racist and wrong. The issue is that the Air Force Academy is lacing athletes and they need to recruit better athletes. If those athletes happen to be black then they are the best choice. If you have any doubt about the comment change the word athlete and use doctor, president, lawyer or teacher. Then play around with changing white and black.

With that clarified here are the other issues that jump forward.

1) How much does a body of work count? In other words, how much does one comment outweigh his actions of the past two decades?

2) What was he really saying? If he is venturing down the awful road of we can’t get these guys into school then it is a more significant issue.

3) Is it worse that he clearly had no idea that what he said was wrong? Or is it a sign of innocence?

SI.com - Writers - Basketball's new math (cont.) - Friday October 21, 2005 12:51PM

We have been doing this for four years on Locked on Sports and now they are writing about it in SI. The stats revolution is upon us.

SI.com - Writers - Basketball's new math (cont.) - Friday October 21, 2005 12:51PM: "Not until recently, however, did a community analogous to baseball's SABR evolve, when the Association for Professional Basketball Research was founded in 1997. Today, the APBRmetricians -- who are clearly better with numbers than acronyms -- tend to agree on certain truths. For example, a team's efficiency is best measured per possession, not per game (a running team may rack up points but still be an inefficient offensive team), and the one inscrutable player stat is how a team fares when someone is on the court versus when he is off it, because this ties back to point differential. And point differential, obviously, is the end goal."

Locked on Sports: Huskies still lack answers at QB

Locked on Sports Loyalists thanks for your help on this with all of your thoughts and comments in the comment zone. I stole many of your thoughts.

Locked on Sports: Huskies still lack answers at QB: "Blaming Isaiah Stanback for the Huskies' 1-6 record is foolish. On the contrary, search for an offensive bright spot in another dreary season and it is Stanback.

With that said, after seven weeks of watching Stanback quarterback the Huskies, I am not sure he is the one to lead this team out of its doldrums."

SHOULD THE DAWGS MAKE A CHANGE AT QB?

Let’s put the focus on the Huskies QB situation. Stanback’s numbers looked great 14 of 18 for 208 yards and no interceptions. However, I am not sold he is the answer. Let me make this very clear. I don’t believe that the Huskies record would be greatly different if they had a different quarterback. I like what he does most of the time, maybe even as much as 85% of the time.

However, I believe playing QB is a multiple choice question. Let’s say on every play there are 5 choices. 1 of them is the best answer, 3 of them are good answers considering the circumstances and 1 of them is F. That 1 is an inexcusable error. It is a critical error. Quarterbacks can’t give F answers. Stanback gives way to many F answers. Those F answers make me wonder if he wins games even when this team gets better.

Look at Saturday, they aren’t winning under any circumstances. But 4 F answers in the first half changed the game. Score was 14-10 when he throws an inexcusably bad lateral pass to Cody Ellis that becomes a fumble and a quick USC score. That is a mistake a QB can’t make. Next drive, 1ns and 10 they call a screen. USC blitzs the corner and it has a chance to be huge and Stanback panics and misses the pass. These are two easy play calls that the coordinator calls in order to relieve pressure. #3 on the next drive he botches the hand-off with Kenny James. It is not clear where the blame lies here, it looked like Stanback, but James didn’t play again after that play and lastly the most egregious error. 3rd and 11 with :30 on the clock to end the half and Stanback is flushed and runs and he goes out of bounds to stop the clock 4 yards short of the first down. Think about this. The idea of going out of bounds should never cross his mind. First he needs to get the first down, second if he doesn’t get the first down you don’t want to stop the clock, he had no understanding of time and score and those things kill me.

Those F’s kill me. Lastly, and this may not be fair but, QB is the one position that can change a teams mood. Whether or not it is Stanback’s fault the Huskies are losing and need a jolt. Changing QB’s is the only position on the field that can create that jolt. Is it the right answer, honestly I don’t know, but I am not convinced that with the amount of F’s Stanback makes you can win.

DOBA COUG'S IT !!!!

Cougar fans should be outraged. Bill Doba and his staff are happy they are in the quiet homey little area called the Pauolse, because their coaching on Saturday was abominable. The Cougars had the ball with 5:35 left and lead by 10. They are on the Cal 38 yard line and it is 4th and 2. Doba fakes a punt. You can’t do that. It is a terrible terrible decision. Doba lost his football team the game. There is 5:30 left – you lead by 10 – you punt and make Cal who has not scored an offensive touchdown since the 1st quarter drive 80 yards to get within 3. There is no scenario – no explanation of why you would possibly go for it. That is terrible. That is inexcusable. That cost your football team the game. Moreover, we won’t even get into how he went for with a unimaginative QB sneak out of a punt formation on 4th and 2 with a linebacker. That is idiotic.
This on is on Doba – The Cougs are 0-4 in the Pac-10. They have lost three double digit leads in the 4th quarter of games. They are just 3-6 in Pac-10 games decided by 7 or less over the last two years.
Bill Doba’s game management needs to be examined and examined closely.