Top 25 talk

[PeterEscobar]

Babson beat Albertus Magnus, Endicott, Tufts, and lost in double OT to Amherst. Albertus is the odds on favorite to win the GNAC and get to the NCAA Tournament where they have historically won games. Endicott is the same team that reached the round of 32 last season, added a talented crop of freshman, and are favorites to win the CCC and return to the NCAA Tournament. Tufts was top 5 in the country when Babson beat them and Amherst was number 1 in the country when they lost on a buzzer-beater. Stop with the Babson played nobody lines... Their strength of schedule according to the DIII efficiency ratings (http://detroitjockcity.com/division-iii-mens-basketball-efficiency-ratings/) is 33 out of 400+ teams.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

Albertus Magnus is ranked 197 by Massey. Endicott is 90 (so like 7th or 8th in the OAC, or worse than everyone in the WIAC), Tufts is down to 59 and their schedule stinks at 191. Their best win is either home to Worcester Tech or at MIT. Tech is 80th and was at home. MIT was 105 and away. We've seen in the past day a team get disparaged for losing a road game to a team in the fringe of top 100. So in the next day are we supposed to give credit for beating one? Can't have it both ways, can we? It can't both be a bad loss and a good win to do basically the same thing.

And they lost to Amherst, who hasn't played anyone else really either other than St. Lawrence, and they just lost to a bad team. Brandeis is Amherst's third best win. They're ranked similarly to Wilmington, who obviously at least one poster here thinks isn't worth a pitcher of warm spit.

So we're back to trying to have it both ways.

Babs and Amy need to toughen up. If you're going to say Whitewater hasn't proven anything yet, you have to say the same thing about Babs and Amy.

[Pat Coleman]

As usual, Spence, you're bending over so far backwards to make a point that your hair is going to get stuck in your shoetops behind your ankles.

Why the hell would I read anything beyond this? What the hell gives you the right to be at utter pill and then think your opinion means jack?

You've been reported, again. I'm done suffering fools. Pat said something yesterday about this and apparently you can't listen.

Funny how you complain about me, but you're being more of a jerk than I ever was. I can't make a post without you or some similar dumbkopf having something snide to say and then blaming me for the aftermath.

You got a problem with me? Come up to Minnesota and say it to my face. Otherwise, shut up and stay on topic if all you can do is personally insult and attack me.

You apparently can't read, either. I already covered all the etta stuff with Pat, quite thoroughly, I thought.

This is the last time I say it because I end up spending more time dealing with this crap than anything relating to the topic. I'm just going to start wearing out the report button and Pat can decide what to do from there.

Personal threats are not necessary.

Honestly -- if you want to be a lightning rod then you have to understand that you're going to get hit by lightning.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

As usual, Spence, you're bending over so far backwards to make a point that your hair is going to get stuck in your shoetops behind your ankles.

Why the hell would I read anything beyond this? What the hell gives you the right to be at utter pill and then think your opinion means jack?

You've been reported, again. I'm done suffering fools. Pat said something yesterday about this and apparently you can't listen.

Funny how you complain about me, but you're being more of a jerk than I ever was. I can't make a post without you or some similar dumbkopf having something snide to say and then blaming me for the aftermath.

You got a problem with me? Come up to Minnesota and say it to my face. Otherwise, shut up and stay on topic if all you can do is personally insult and attack me.

You apparently can't read, either. I already covered all the etta stuff with Pat, quite thoroughly, I thought.

This is the last time I say it because I end up spending more time dealing with this crap than anything relating to the topic. I'm just going to start wearing out the report button and Pat can decide what to do from there.

Personal threats are not necessary.

Honestly -- if you want to be a lightning rod then you have to understand that you're going to get hit by lightning.

Are you talking about him or me? I'm just trying to have on topic discussions and can't make a post without people losing their heads now being useless trolls under the guise of "poking the bear" or "bullfighting" or some other garbage that obscures that they're really just being gormless twits.

I never wanted to *be* anything. Other people are the ones making me *be* something, whatever that is. I did nothing to invite anything that has happened this weekend. This started with me making one post about an in-game score. Then everyone piled on from that.

If that's my fault, then I don't know what isn't my fault.

[Pat Coleman]

I guess I'm not surprised you disagree, but yes, you act like a lightning rod and you have in every iteration on our boards over the past however-many-years it has been. And it's interesting that even though it is a different subset of posters, it still happens, whether it's baseball fans, OAC football fans or now national men's basketball fans.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

I guess I'm not surprised you disagree, but yes, you act like a lightning rod and you have in every iteration on our boards over the past however-many-years it has been. And it's interesting that even though it is a different subset of posters, it still happens, whether it's baseball fans, OAC football fans or now national men's basketball fans.

Because there's a culture norm set that it's ok to attack me, and so people do it. No points for guessing who sets that norm.

Funny how yesterday you correctly said people were in the wrong, but today it's me when nothing has changed -- same crap.

Btw, it wasn't OAC football fans. It was St. John Fisher football fans that couldn't handle the truth. Just like now it's Amherst and Babson boosters that can't handle the truth about how their teams have proven nothing.

Seems like people here feel entitled to their comfortable misconceptions, and when I come and smash those down, they last out at me and you make it ok for them to do so. Then I eventually feel like I have to take things into my own hands and you punish me for it.

That's why I'm saying I'm not letting it happen again. But I do need the moderator to actually properly moderate, I guess, or it's all for nowt. But i will be hitting the button to alert to any personal attacks or obviously personally motivated threadjacks in the future. But I suppose you could just find it more convenient to get rid of me and not be getting buzzed anymore and let the mob win. I would hope that wouldn't happen, but it could.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

Interesting analogy though. My understanding of a lightning rod is that it just sits there and does nothing until there's an electrical storm. Then it's there to soak up energy that could potentially damage the house.

So do you blame the rod, or the lightning?

Interesting analogy, indeed.

[Pat Coleman]

I guess I'm not surprised you disagree, but yes, you act like a lightning rod and you have in every iteration on our boards over the past however-many-years it has been. And it's interesting that even though it is a different subset of posters, it still happens, whether it's baseball fans, OAC football fans or now national men's basketball fans.

Because there's a culture norm set that it's ok to attack me, and so people do it. No points for guessing who sets that norm.

Well, if that's my fault, then I don't know what isn't my fault. But the board operates really well across the spectrum of conversations you aren't involved in, so I think your version of the norm is probably not what's causing it. When you have 18-year posters saying something, that does say something.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

I guess I'm not surprised you disagree, but yes, you act like a lightning rod and you have in every iteration on our boards over the past however-many-years it has been. And it's interesting that even though it is a different subset of posters, it still happens, whether it's baseball fans, OAC football fans or now national men's basketball fans.

Because there's a culture norm set that it's ok to attack me, and so people do it. No points for guessing who sets that norm.

Well, if that's my fault, then I don't know what isn't my fault. But the board operates really well across the spectrum of conversations you aren't involved in, so I think your version of the norm is probably not what's causing it. When you have 18-year posters saying something, that does say something.

I don't know who has been here what number of years.

But would this happen to be one of the people that personally insulted and disparaged me with a rather graphic and completely unnecessary turn of phrase?

That says something indeed, that someone that you've let post here that long thinks they're above the rules.

But you might be talking about someone else.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

And what is really well? Because a culture where any new and divergent viewpoint or even an attempt to convey information is insulted and stamped upon doesn't seem like one that works very well for fostering open and honest discussion.

Again, seems much more like people get attached to their comfortable falsehoods and the norm is not to burst their bubbles. But that's not open and honest discussion; that's just platitudes.

And then when they successfully chase off the divergent, they mock him into the interminable future using cryptic initials.

Great system you got there.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

I can see counting on the moderator to be impartial and punish personal attacks against me is gonna go really well.

Oh well, all I can do is take the high road and if cronyism wins out, then not much I can do about that.

[Pat Coleman]

Is this the graphic turn of phrase?

"As usual, Spence, you're bending over so far backwards to make a point that your hair is going to get stuck in your shoetops behind your ankles."

Maybe I'm misunderstanding but he's not saying you have your head ... uhm ... where the sun don't shine. It's descriptive, sure. But not graphic.

And what is really well? Because a culture where any new and divergent viewpoint or even an attempt to convey information is insulted and stamped upon doesn't seem like one that works very well for fostering open and honest discussion.

I think it's been described to you by other people how you come off here. This is not a description that I think most people would agree with.

[ElRetornodelEspencio]

(snipped...disagree I think there was every intent to dance right up to the line, but whatever I don't care)

And what is really well? Because a culture where any new and divergent viewpoint or even an attempt to convey information is insulted and stamped upon doesn't seem like one that works very well for fostering open and honest discussion.

I think it's been described to you by other people how you come off here. This is not a description that I think most people would agree with.

The truth is not a majority vote. It is a fact that I have been insulted and disparaged in response to completely on-topic and timely posts. I don't care who agrees or disagrees, because it's provably true.

Btw, just got a message via email re: moderation referencing the roughness and offtopicness of the thread. Apparently a lot of it has been deleted, as it should be.

So I'll bow out and leave you to hash that out with him.

[Gregory Sager]

The best team Whitewater has played all season is a 4-4 Ohio Northern squad.  Their schedule is terrible.  They might be good, but there's very little way to know that at this point.  I generally don't vote for a team until they have a good win on their books.

One thing to watch with regard to UW-Whitewater is that the Warhawks have just brought in a potentially important semester-break addition in 6'5 swingman Derek Rongstad, who played in 11 games last year and seven this year as a preferred walk-on at D1 Milwaukee. There's always a certain hazard involved in semester-break additions in terms of disrupting chemistry and inadvertently causing disaffection on teams that are already having success, but if his upside for UWW matches his pedigree coming out of high school, he could be a difference-maker for the Warhawks in WIAC play.

[smedindy]

I remember a couple of times Wabash added mid-season players from the football team and it messed things up a bit, and they wound up leaving the team anyway because they didn't anticipate how their professors would react when they had to miss class for basketball and indoor track (which they also did).

Wabash has had dual sport athletes (football and basketball), like many schools, but they were intentional, not join-the-team in the second semester type.