While We’re Waiting…Ahtyba Rubin, Shaq Struggling and Big Ten Expansion
Written By: Jacob Rosen | Category: Best of the Web | Comments: 15While 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.
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Terry Pluto has plenty of encouraging words on the Brownies and highlights this 6th-round pick from ’08: “In the past two games, the Browns have allowed 75 yards (Pittsburgh) and 91 yards (San Diego) on the ground, a dramatic change for a team that had been being run over for 155 yards per game. The Browns believe part of the reason is Ahtyba Rubin taking over at nose tackle for the injured Shaun Rogers.” [Terry Pluto/Cleveland Plain Dealer]
Describing the constant struggle that is the state of being a Cleveland Browns fan: “‘I bleed orange and brown.’ For so many years, and in so many games, the operative word in that phrase was ‘bleed.’ I’ve been slashed, gashed, and dashed upon the rocky shores of despair more times than I can count.” [Clemdawg/Browns 24-7]
A couple days old now, by the hard core stats are back for why Shaq/Z are struggling so far: “Like Kareem, Shaq entered his 30s as a player producing at a rate well beyond what we see from an average player. By his mid-30s, though, Shaq was no longer the same player. Yes, he was still above average. But the 20-something Shaq that dominated the NBA had vanished. Although Shaq has clearly declined, the Cleveland Cavaliers still took a chance on acquiring his services.” [Dave Berri/The Wages of Wins]
Some more basketball statistics to help you cope with the poor start for the Cavs: “First off, we’ve played 8 back-to-backs already, going 5-3. Meanwhile, the Elder C’s and Orlando have only had 5 to contend with in the opening months. Second, we’ve played well vs. the other good teams in the NBA. We are currently 6-2 vs. teams with winning records, while Boston is 4-3 and Orlando is just 3-4.” [Bill Nagel/Stepien Rules]
Cavs travel to Oklahoma tomorrow to see what Kevin Durant is up to these days: “The way the Cavaliers have been playing basketball lately, they will have to come into Oklahoma City today knowing one thing: The Thunder are no longer a pushover in the NBA. Having won their fourth consecutive game Friday night, a season high for the team, the Thunder own a winning record at 12-9 and continue to improve.” [George Thomas/Akron Beacon Journal]
Rafael Perez got a contract offer despite his horrible 2009, but these players could all walk away from Cleveland in the future: “The Indians made right-handers Anthony Reyes, Adam Miller and Jose Veras free agents by not offering them contracts by Saturday’s midnight deadline. Reyes won’t be ready to pitch until midseason following Tommy John surgery on his right elbow, and Miller’s career could be over following a fourth operation on his right middle finger in November.” [Paul Hoynes/Cleveland Plain Dealer]
For those that actually watched the OSU/Butler game yesterday, you saw the Bulldogs tear about the Bucks defense constantly: “Part of the reason the Buckeyes were losing control was due to the way the Buckeyes were playing defense. Ohio State came out of the gate running a 2-3 zone (which later switched to a 3-2 zone) and Butler made OSU look completely stupid for it. I don’t understand why Matta decided to run a zone against a team that had a lot of players that like to jack the 3 pointer.” [Eric/The Buckeye Battle Cry]
Nice synopsis on potential additions to the uneven Big 11 Conference: “A Big Ten Championship game has been something of a holy grail for supporters (including, most prominently, Joe Paterno) for a long time — in terms of the potential venue, ticket sales and TV audience, it could easily compete with the annual blockbusters in the SEC and Big 12. (The ACC is getting there, slowly.) When it comes to expansion, ‘Why?’ has always been the easy question. The roadblock remains ‘Who?’” [Matt Hinton/Dr. Saturday]
Author: JacobRosen
Jacob Rosen is a weekend author for WFNY, the sports editor for the University of Dayton's Flyer News and the current media relations director of the Akron Aeros. Jacob is an Akron native who majors in applied mathematical economics at UD. You can follow him on Twitter @udjrosen or e-mail him at udjrosen(at)gmail(dot)com.Jacob Rosen has written 267 articles for Waiting for Next Year.
I get the nontendering of Reyes and Miller, but I kind of liked Veras’s stuff … I hope that it’s just a ploy to have him take a split contract instead of having to go to arbitration with him.
Pitt or Mizzou would be my choice from Hinton’s list. ND isn’t happening, and WVU probably wouldn’t ad a whole lot. Cincy isn’t there quite yet IMO. Pitt would make a lot of sense with a PSU rivalry game and they could still play WVU every year non-conference.
ND should be the one, but Denny is right that it won’t ever happen. Pitt is probably the most logical choice in terms of getting a team that is both strong in football and basketball and has a big city base that can draw fans to the new Big Ten+2. Cincy would be nice if they could be consistent in both football and basketball, which they haven’t recently (same problem with Louisville football).
Unless something else pops up, all eyes should be on the Cleveland-Orlando game Feb. 11th when it comes to keeping Shaq. I believe the trade deadline in on the 19th, so if the Shaq-Dwight match up falls flat, Ferry should trade Shaq for a better big man.
@CJG – Along with the same note, check out the most recent post about the difficult December schedule for the Cavs. Road contests against Atlanta, Los Angeles, Dallas and Phoenix later this month will help us to learn a lot about this current unit overall.
I don’t know what that last guy is talking about…but the ACC title game is not getting there whatsoever, let alone slowly. The game between Cincy and Pitt had significantly higher ratings than the ACC Championship game, and not once has the ACC Championship game sold out its stadium. A championship game is not necessarily a good thing for the Big Ten, and actually I think it would be a big mistake, I see nothing wrong with 11 teams and doing things the way we always do…seeing how the Big Ten gets 2 teams in BCS Bowls every single year and they get all the extra cash that comes with that. A Championship game doesn’t even guarantee you 2 good teams playing each other…see unranked Clemson playing Georgia Tech this year. 12 teams wouldn’t be the worst idea but a Conference Championship game wouldn’t be worth it
Yes, let’s expand the Big Ten into the Big Twelve — distinct from the Big 12, of course — and make two divisions and have our own little championship game and rake in millions because God knows the Big Ten doesn’t make enough money as it is. And let’s get all our teams to dress like Oregon with a hideous new uniform every week. And let’s start playing on Tuesday nights and Wednesday nights and Thursday nights. Yeah, let’s just tart up the whole thing.
The Browns talking about Rubin is just a ploy to make it easier to release/trade Rogers for draft picks and pick pick in the draft. OBSERVE AND BOOK IT
@ Ricky – the ACC game is in no terms a smash hit, but the attendance has been steadily increasing. The problem is the game is not held in a central location, so attendance numbers tend to be poor due to long travel.
It’s true that you don’t get guaranteed a good game, but it hurts the B11 to be out of the limelight for so long. Next year’s schedule being pushed back a week will help that somewhat, and will likely set the league up for a title game in the future, on the same weekend as the other conference championship games.
@ Mr Cleaveland – having a championship has no bearance whatsoever on what days the teams play, andOSU will always play on Saturdays as they have no need for increased exposure (conversely, it was a HUGE PR boost for the Big East to have those Rutgers/Louisville/WVU games on Thursday nights in 2006). The jerseys aren’t going into Oregon mode. Just because the B11 makes millions already doesn’t mean it wouldn’t hurt to make more through a conference championship game. The Big Ten is tradition-rich, yes. But adding another team and having a more full slate of games would work out well for the conference. Even if no championship game is added, the season will work out better (see Pac 10).
As a Pittsburgh native, I never understood why Penn State should have been invited to join the Big Ten in the first place (or even why Penn State sought the invitation). And I don’t care for the sports programs of the Pitt Panthers. But given that Penn State is in and the annual rivalry between Pitt and Penn State used to be strong before conference membership in the Big East and Big Ten, respectively, limited the scheduling options for both teams, I see lots of advantages to adding Pitt.
The only downside for Pitt, however, is that the Big East really is the “Big Least” when it comes to competitiveness among conference members with the six guaranteed slots in the BCS. Why would Pitt want to join a tougher conference when — at least for the foreseeable future — Pitt stands to reap better benefits with Big East membership, particularly given the relatively recent defections of Boston College and Miami to the ACC. In the Big East, Pitt not only has a better chance to snare a BCS bid each year, but also will get a bigger share of the BCS booty than it would receive if it had to share with 11 other teams instead of the seven other football programs currently in the Big East Conference.
All in all, the best bet for recruiting a team to join the Big Ten, therefore, might be Missouri. It has a strong geographic tie to the region in that it is located near Iowa, Illinois, Northwestern, Wisconsin, and even Ohio State. Missouri might be willing to leave the Big 12 and definitely would benefit in terms of recruiting in the Midwest and path to the BCS if a Big Ten Conference championship game were scheduled to feature the winner of a division including Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin, Northwestern, Minnesota, and Missouri (obviously leaving the other division to include Penn State, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State, Indiana, and Purdue). And the Big 12 probably could fill the void with the likes of TCU (most likely), Arkansas (wouldn’t they like to be out of the SEC?), or even a long shot such as Colorado State or Tulsa.
In short, when considering possible expansion, we cannot focus exclusively on the benefits to the Big 10. The impact on the added team’s program as well as the conference that team would leave behind must be taken into account as well.
Denny,
A more full slate of games??? The Big Ten can’t even play everybody in the conference once a year now. Adding a team would make it worse.
And not playing all the teams in the conference once a year has made the Big 12 bad how?
@ Mr C – ‘more full slate’ meaning a 9-game conference slate. As the conference is set up now it’s not doable. By adding a 12th team they’d be able to eliminate one of the uber-fluff games and incorporate an additional conference game, which in theory would up the SOS.
S-Dub- I dont know if thats true. ESPN did a piece about dominant NT and were talking about how these guys need to eat blocks and thats how they succeed. Rogers never does that, as he more is a pass rusher. In Pluto’s article he suggests we’ll see more of Rogers at a DE position, which would be ridiculous. He has the athleticism to do that and make big plays. And if the browns do decide Suh over Berry, then the DL could potentially be Suh, Rubin, Rogers or in a 4-3 have it be Suh, Williams, Rubin, then Rogers.
If they do trade Rogers, I hope its at a king’s ransom and they get a first round and then some for him.
@Bobby – That was the thing that came up in my mind recently as well. Imagine a defensive line with Suh, Rubin, Rogers and Williams in any way. That would probably be enough to make the Browns actually a relevant defensive unit and teams would probably be afraid to run on us. That would make it easier for the skill positions in our unit although we would still need to find some healthy defensive backs so we can limit the amount of time McDonald and Furrey see the field.