While We’re Waiting serves as the early morning gathering of WFNY-esque information for your viewing pleasure. Have something you think we should see? Send it to our tips email at tips@waitingfornextyear.com.
What a huge, shocking win for the Bucks: “The jury has been out on the Ohio State Buckeyes. But after weeks of deliberations in Central Ohio a verdict has been reached. The Buckeyes are for real. Jumping out to a 29-8 first-half lead, Ohio State withstood a furious second-half rally by No. 2 Michigan to hand the Wolverines their first loss of the season, 56-53. Michigan, the lone remaining unbeaten, was attempting to become the No. 1-ranked team in the country for the first time in 20 years.” [Kyle Rowland/Eleven Warriors]
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Now from a national angle, why was Michigan so happy about the loss? “The No. 15 Buckeyes, ravenous for a signature win this season, subsequently held on with four clutch free throws, and No. 2 Michigan — the nation’s final undefeated team — swallowed a bitter 56-53 loss. And yet there was a wizard’s glint in Beilein’s eyes after his team fell to 16-1, one day following North Carolina State’s upset of top-ranked Duke.” [Todd Jones/SI.com]
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Looking at some advanced stats for the Cavs’ outside shooting and more: “Take out Kyrie and CJ, and the remaining rotation players provide 41% eFG from the perimeter. Last night’s front court combines for 34%. With a big man rotation consisting of no threat to reliably knock down a jumper, opposing coaches will instruct their teams to pack the paint…and scoring may be tough. The Cavs bench is thin. What can be done? Obviously nothing dramatic, but here are some hopes & ideas.” [Cavs: The Blog/Kevin Hetrick]
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This tremendous read was all the buzz on Twitter on Sunday: “Dolphins legend Jason Taylor, for example, grew up right before our eyes, from a skinny Akron kid to a future Hall of Famer, his very public path out in front of those lights for 15 years. But take a look at what was happening in the dark. He was just a few blessed hours from having his leg amputated. He played games, plural, with a hidden and taped catheter running from his armpit to his heart. His calf was oozing blood for so many months, from September of one year to February of another, that he had to have the equivalent of a drain installed. This is a story of the private pain endured in pursuit of public glory, just one man’s broken body on a battlefield littered with thousands of them.” [Dan Le Batard/Miami Herald]
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Argument on why Weeden could continue to succeed: “I will say this about Rob Chudzinski being hired as the Head Coach of the Cleveland Browns: if you’re going to give Brandon Weeden another year to prove whether or not he can play in the league, going with Chudzinski and with Norv Turner as offensive coordinator is about the best possible scenario. Weeden looked like a fat man in a Speedo trying to run the WCO of Pat Shurmur last season. It was that ugly. Now, a lot of that has to do with the fact that Weeden was a statue in the pocket, wasn’t the sharpest pencil in the drawer and the aforementioned Shurmur did nothing to play to what strengths Weeden does have. I will now list those strengths in order.” [Brian McPeek/The Cleveland Fan]
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Was very sad to see this late injury in the Texans-Patriots game last night. Wishing this former Buckeye a speedy recovery for 2013. [John McClain/Houston Chronicle]
Devier posey suffered a torn Achilles tendon.
— John McClain (@McClain_on_NFL) January 14, 2013
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Finally, nothing quite like a movie debate: “Now, I’ll allow, easily, that “Field of Dreams,” the film my friend and MLB.com cohort Jordan Bastian is so passionately defending, isn’t anywhere near as bad as “Vibrations.” It had a bigger budget, bigger stars and, of course, has a much, much bigger following. “Field of Dreams” is routinely listed among the best baseball-themed flicks of all-time.
One issue with “Field of Dreams,” however, is that its supporters are so fiercely devoted to its father-son sentimentality and tear-jerking homage to the glory of the game that they lose all sense of rationality and reason. To rail against the movie, as I did in a recent column, is, in their eyes, to demystify a legend, to desecrate a sacred social institution, when, in fact, all those of us in the anti-“Field of Dreams” camp are doing is pointing out that the plot is preposterous, the sentimentality is silly and Kevin Costner is annoying (the movie poster alone is annoying).” [Anthony Castrovince/CastroTurf]
