Wisconsin vs. Davidson?
Wow. Davidson was down by 17 in the second half but made a huge run and went on to beat, 2nd seed, Georgetown by 4. They'll move on to face Wisconsin in the Sweet Sixteen. I was really looking forward to seeing Georgetown play against Wisconsin, as they're two of the best defensive teams in the country, but I won't complain about Wisconsin playing against a smaller team (height-wise) like Davidson.
Also in Wisconsin sports, the Badger men's hockey team somehow fumbled their way into the NCAA tournament... and got a 3 seed. For those of you that don't follow college hockey, which I assume is almost all of you, there are 16 teams that make the tourney field. There are a few auto-bids that go out to the smaller conferences, so there are usually 12 at large teams that make the field.
College hockey uses a system that is kind of like the RPI, called the PWR (Pairwise Ratings.) The thing about the PWR is that it is how the field is set. There are no smoky rooms where people pick teams and seeds. It's THE system that picks the teams. This year really pointed out the flaws of that system. The reason why? Wisconsin made the tournament... and is 1 game below .500. The team that they beat out to get into the tournament, Minnesota State - Mankato, went 2-1-1 against them.
So let's recap from the Mankato perspective, you took 5 of a possible 8 points when you played against a team, had a better conference and overall record, and yet they get into the tournament over you.
Oh, one other thing... Wisconsin hosts the regional next weekend, so they get a home game out of it. Pretty fair system, huh?
Wisconsin really didn't deserve to make the tournament, they lost 4 of their last 6, and finished below .500 on the season. Sad, but I get to watch more Badger hockey, which is a good thing.
Riding the Pines – Episode 15
Dan and Glen are back again discussing the following...
Hot Shots Golf 5
Pro Evolution Soccer on the Wii
More on MLB08: The Show
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 5
March Madness
Enjoy the show!
Feel free to comment on the show here or in the forums.
Saturday thoughts
- Well, I guess Wisconsin is just proving to be the team that I thought they were. They really made Kansas State look incredibly undisciplined today, beating them 72-55. Beasley looked like an impressive player, but he was almost no factor in the 2nd half when the Badgers began to run away with the game. I actually can't wait to see this Wisconsin team match up against Georgetown (if they beat Davidson.) I just think that will be a terrific game.
- The brackets are still pretty wide open. For example, I'm in 13th place and yet I have the potential to have the 2nd highest score, because I only have one sweet sixteen team knocked out thus far. We should have a pretty good picture of the field by the end of the day on Sunday.
- Dan and I recorded the podcast last night, so with some luck I'll have it up tonight. We'll just have to see how things work out. It's a quality show... and has to be edited a touch due to an interuption from my daughter. heh.
Friday Happy Fun Time!
First, Bouncy Bill Abner let's us know that Garnett Lee doesn't know baseball games. You see this "person" is a reviewer at 1UP, and now you can see why they are bankrupt becuase they obviously have no clue. Read this turd of a review for yourself. Then compare it to this amazing review, not that I'm biased or anything. Why not use some cliches in your review like "does it swing for the fences" or "does it hit a home run or strike out" or "I am such an idiot to say that if you like football games you won't like a baseball game." Now I remember why Craig and I started a sports gaming site. I'd love to see what that guy thinks of 2K8.
Siliconera has a great post about how there's one benefit of the declining dollar vs the World, and that's the fact that currency conversion has made video games in Japan cheaper. Although that really doesn't make sense to me. It used to be 100 yen per $1, now it's like 95 yen per $1, so even though $1 doesn't buy you as much yen , apparently that makes prices fall? Someone help me out here...still they have the proof in the numbers...
Late Thursday night update
- 7-10" inches of snow by Sunday. F' you weather. That'll put us over 100 inches of snow for the year. Roughly 20 some inches more than the record for snowfall here.
- Wisconsin pretty much played their game tonight and forced Cal State Fullerton out of their offense. CSF averaged well over 80 a game all season, and was held to 56 tonight.
I loved the announcers during the game. "Wisconsin just doesn't block many shots," was heard no less than 3 times during the broadcast. They finished with 7 blocks. That seems like a pretty good amount to me.
People might call the Wisconsin system boring, but I'll be damned if it isn't effective. Incredibly solid man-to-man defense, without any reaching or grabbing, and a solid offense based on posting up and finding the open man when doubled. They have a good challenge against Kansas State on Saturday, so we'll see how they match up against a quality big man then.
- Speaking of the tourney, we have one person with a perfect bracket thus far, and 4 people with only 1 wrong. Not a bad start. Should be fun to see how it all shakes out tomorrow.
Thursday night updates
- Damn... Duke almost got beat... probably should have been beated, but they squeaked out a 1 point win over 15 seed Belmont. Funny thing is no one on the blog picked Duke. Big shock there.
Oh, and I had to talk one of our readers into filling out an entry for the contest as he lives in England and has no knowledge of basketball... he's only got 1 wrong thus far. Gotta love that.
- There is a PYS 5 gameplay video available on Youtube if you're curious. It looks like they've added to the Spirits mode, as well as added some more animations. To me, it's still the best looking sports game on the market.
- I'm grabbing the Sega Superstars Tennis demo for the PS3 now as well. I'll have some comments on that tomorrow.
- Wisconsin women's hockey team advanced to the NCAA championship tonight. If they win, that'll be three years in a row. I'm sure that none of you care, but it's Wisconsin sports... and it's hockey, so I'm all over it.
- Time for the Badger basketball game. Back later.
Total Pro Golf 1 is now freeware
I know that this happened a few weeks ago, but thanks to loyal blog reader Jesse L, we now see that Total Pro Golf 1, by Wolverine Studios, is now freeware. It's a great introduction to the series and you can't beat the price.
You think you’ve had a bad day?
I'm bringing some LCD monitors back to the office after picking them up at a supplier and the tailgate for my station wagon pops open and two monitors slide out onto the road. A person swerves out of their lane... to run one of them over.
So, I get back to the office, slide the monitor out of the box and find that, amazingly, it only had a slight crack in the corner. It was run over by a mid-size SUV, for cripes sake.
Seems to be working just fine.... so my boss got a new monitor, and I seem to still have a job.
Ok, time to watch some basketball... and probably start drinking.
Thursday Thoughts
- Those of you with PS3s will be the first to experience Blu-Ray 2.0. A new firmware update will be relesaed in the the next week or so that will make your PS3 Blu Ray 2.0 compliant. Yay! It's about time that BD is almost up to the spec of HDDVD. No I'm not bitter. You know, USA Today had an article about this on Wednesday about how many people won't have ethernet near their Home Theater. They are right, that's why a PS3 is still the way to go - -it is wireless!
- While we're on the topic of improving things, there's a significant patch for Rock Band which will now allow you to purchase songs from within the game. Very cool. On a tangent, have you read the Guitar Hero: Aerosmith interview in the new Game Informer? I'm looking forward to that game.
- If you haven't picked up MLB Power Pros, you need to get it . It's $20! Come on!
Time for March Madness
If you like college basketball, then the next 4 days are like Christmas... Basketball from around noon until you go to bed. Great stuff.
- The bracket group filled out nicely. I wish you all the best of luck. It's been pretty entertaining to see how people are picking the tourney. Nice to see that some people have Wisconsin making a run.
- The Amazon Gold Box has MLB Power Pros for $19.99 for the Wii today. Very good deal there. They will also have 4 basketball games throughout the day. College Hoops for the PS3 is out there now and March Madness for the 360 will be coming in about 2 hours.
NBA2K8 codes
Thanks to 2K Sports for sending this along, but if you have NBA2K8 here are some cool codes to input into the game to add some new uniforms and teams. Enjoy!
NBA 2K8 CODES
code description
cpares
agtaccsinr CHA racing uniform
amcnreo Valentine's Day - CLE / SEA
haeitgyebs 2008 All-Star uniforms
uclerehanp St. Patrick's Day - BOS / CHI / NY / TOR
llmohffaae Superstars team
nba2k NBA 2K team
2ksports 2K Sports team
vcteam VC team
payrespect
Afternoon Thoughts
Thanks to Bouncy Bill Abner for this link about the Sony guys talking about the MLB 08 AI over at the Operation Sports forums. I think his jaw dropped as much as mine did. They are answering questions after the release of the game. Shocking! Even though they talked AI, I need to find out about online and I hope they get me in touch with the online gurus. As you heard in our podcast, our experience with MLB 2K8 was atrocious....the Show was probably "bearable".
It's pretty impressive that they are out there -- reminded me of how Mark Dickenson posted in the newsgroups when High Heat originally came out. Also reminds me about how someone else disappears off the face of the earth when their game comes out 
.
Wednesday notes
- Ok. I've sent out a ton more invites. If you participated in the last Blog bracket group, you'll get an invite sent to the email you registered with at that time. Also, if you have registered for comments on the board, you'll get an email invite as well. That should cover almost everyone. Whew... that was a lot of cutting and pasting.
- Did you buy your HD DVD player at Best Buy? If so, you'll be eligible for a $50 gift card, as long as you bought it before February 22nd.
- Since Dan was talking hockey in this weeks podcast, Amazon has NHL 2K8 for the 360 for $24.43. An odd price, but it seems like some people were fans of this edition. I preferred the EA NHL title... but 24 bones isn't a bad deal.
- Also, Amazon is going to have some deals on sports games in their Gold Box section tomorrow. 5 games will be on sale throughout the day, but no info on which games yet.
Lunch Time Notes
- Picked up my copy of Hot Shots Golf 5 (PS3) and PES 2008 for the Wii. I hear the Wii version is drastically different than the 360. I have the 360 version as well, so look for a compare contrast in my 360 review.
- One of the things I really have grown to love about the PS3 is the ability to use anything with it. It makes me wish I did PES on the PS3 because roster updates would be a snap compared to the proprietary crap that is Xbox 360. It also helps when your stupid fake TiVo cable co DVR says "Recording error" when you are ready to sit down and watch an all new Big Bang Theory. Just hit the newsgroup, download the AVI to a USB flash drive and watch it in HD on your PS3. Very nice.
- In American Idol news, if this is the best group ever, I must be getting old as they were pretty bland last night. Randy Jackson is so far up the annoying list it's not even funny. His critiques are as follows: 1. Song ends. 2. People stand up and applaud. 3. Randy moves his papers or pen around his desk while laughing. 4. Randy then asks the contestant if they had fun up there or how they are feeling tonight. 5. If he's keeping it real, Randy informs them they suck. If he's not keeping it real, he says it was hot. I hope it gets more impressive at some point. It's just completely awful. This David Cook guy is just complete bad. Why do the judges love him so much when all he does his Pearl Jam-ize a song. Whatever.
- I started watching the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. That is pretty funny, I love the skits he did -- he does a nice Bono.
- I didn't realize what a chore it would be to find Pinball Hall of Fame for the Wii. It's not even in the computer at GameStop, Amazon says it ships in 2-5 weeks.I have it in my Gamefly queue, but it's "very low" which is aka "no chance in hell." I haven't seen it at Wal Mart or Target either. Have you seen this @#$%ing game? I see it's available on walmart online but I wont' pay $16 to ship .
- 3 out of 4 people think the economy is in a recession. The 4th person is the President of the United States. He reminds me of that Iraq foreign minister. There are no boms here! No one is attacking Baghdad!
Bracket Challenge Prize list
Ok everyone, here's the prize list that I've come up with.
Winner - Game of their choice ($60 maximum)
2nd place - College Hoops 2K8 (PS3 or 360 version, your choice)
3rd place - Uno (Live Arcade)
4th place - Robotron (Live Arcade)
Keep on sending in those entries. Brackets are due at 11 a.m. tomorrow morning.
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