bmags

I think kenpom is great, I'm just saying this year specifically pointing to a metric and saying "see loyola is good because they were top ten in this metric" is silly. Loyola is good, but the advanced metrics had the same limited data the rest of us had that makes this an especially difficult year, and it's questionable if a one-and-done tourney even satisfies it - but loyola winning the MVC often with good margins of victory and then beating a good team and then beating a great team is more than enough evidence that loyola was a very good team. Doesn't really need a NET rating to prove it. I do think big ten benefitted from there being no tourney last year as many of the teams like Illinois got hot in conference, then had a pretty mediocre non-con this year, then got hot in conference. But I still think Illinois is a top ten team in a normal year, but as others mentioned, teams like the PAC-12 probably ended up on harder draws due to there being so much less cross-conference play this year. And also there were no fans, which may have helped some bad road teams or younger teams not show weaknesses that the fans + pressure of the tournament exposed or didn't let get developed. THat's not an ILL story but could be an Oklahoma State story. Anyway, kenpom is great, NET rating is better than an AP top 25, but this is just a really weird year and i think certain conferences were just inevitably going to be undervalued because of it.

and had Colgate at 9, illinois at 3 and ohio st at 8. I don't think advanced metrics were any more impressive than anything else this year, it was just a very weird year and now there's a tournament where weird things happen and people will work backwards to find what shows it was going to happen that way.

I honestly don't think building an app should have made the top 100 in terms of priorities. The only real issue people have here is that there isn't enough vaccine currently for everyone that wants it. When there will be plenty of vaccine, they'll be able to sign up online for a convenient time at their nearby CVS/Walgreens/Jewel/Costco/Walmart/Local general practicioner or through a local public health designated vaccination center using ZocDoc, or they can call the central hotline or pharmacy. There is nothing particularly bad about Walgreens app, it was really bad initially then they fixed it in weeks. That's actually an impressive timeline for developing something like that. Albertsons (Jewel), and CVS are both good. The Zocdoc app is really convenient. and IL was just able to partner with an existing company vs. developing their own. But they all suck because they are dealing with a small amount of slots and a bunch of traffic. It's the same reason ticketmaster's app sucks. If the government had a singular app, we'd be talking about how it sucks, because it said it was available but then when you got through it was booked - because it would have to balance benefits of a queueing system vs. getting through as much availability as it can per day. They did a good job on getting the vaccine developers resources to develop and get approval, a piss-poor job at anticipating resource bottlenecks and distribution. That was really the only path to a smooth rollout, but the public-private apparatus has mobilized rapidly relative the the size of the problem.

The other thing about walgreens/etc is they actually don't get that much of the vaccines but get a lot of the traffic since they have been the least restrictive (they have followed state guidance rather than county). So, for example, when the state opened up vaccines to high-risk, you couldn't book into cook county's system for any of the dph centers because it only allowed 65+ still. But walgreens you could, and it was slammed for all of that group since it was the one place many in chicagoland could go.

It's hard to make something that works for so many people and connects to constantly changing capacity in just a couple months. It's good to include walgreens/cvs/walmart etc because they already have a lot of real estate with ability to do vaccines. Something more centralized has benefits, but it requires a lot of planning and this was an all hands on deck, get it out fast as possible so it is what it is at this point. CVS's new scheduling has been pretty great.

As I recall, Lopez is the same as Joe Musgrove.

really sucks how little we can hear about the other games but obviously it's for good reasons. We basically only hear cespedes news.

The knockiest on knock on wood statement but I've been pretty surprised how good health has been so far.

Going into the offseason I thought Fuller certainly had a target on his back though I thought they'd be able to trade him to a team with cap space since they'd only take on 13 (11?) million. But making those cuts I thought bears would get a true upgrade out of a position,a nd it's just been turtles all the way down.

Mills is the only later round QB I find interesting. I doubt he’ll be good but he has crazy tools. I think every QB6 and later is suddenly referred to as a 2/3 rounder. I’d be surprised, I think Trask will find a taker but Mond on I would expect 4th round and later. You are either a potential starter on your first contract or 4th rounder or later

What the hell are we doing here

And mariota could enter a free agency where most of the cap is swallowed up vs. bears going after dalton at height of competitive bidding.

Hell yeah though today's numbers were terrible for positives.

Of course

didn't TA play during his extension stuff and strike out like 20 times in only 8 PAs some how

I think it's ok for people that just suffered through a pandemic to be happy that the pandemic looks like it will end even before it ends just like it was ok for people to worry about how much death might come from a terrible pandemic early last march before it had really killed anyone. Like knowing my kids can go to school and see their grandparents without killing them makes me feel happy even though there are people in the hospital suffering.

OTOH a lot of cap would open up starting the next year.

Yeah unfortunately Lonzo/Zion pick and roll success makes it pretty unlikely to me. I think they keep ball, maybe bulls can sign a poison contract but that's a big risk on bulls side.

mainly sounds like they've just not officially made signings official while they work through it.

I like them moving up the timeline both for acknowledging the supply capacity then but also that it is basically a free for all anyway now.

And looks like the tax deadline was pushed into May today (May 17 I think)

Interesting, Illinois is now providing a weekly breakdown of their federal allocation. And this does not include " The City of Chicago receives its own allocation of vaccine and therefore is not included on the IDPH website. These data include vaccine allocated to the state and do not include vaccine that is part of the federal supply, which is directly distributed by the federal government. " http://dph.illinois.gov/covid19/vaccineallocations

I honestly think Bears should just be in a holding pattern and still just keep eyes on one of these two franchise QBs being available. As we can see, there is no real moving the needle much this year with the salary cap the way it is. Maybe a surprise tackle becomes available and you give it a shot. Otherwise it's guys left on the merry-go-round and biding time and hoping that the QBs make it so painful their teams acquisce and the bears still can make it happen. That's the only franchise altering move out there. Maybe trading A-rob for a 1st/high second in hopes of packaging for a QB or just having an extra pick.

Williams was more aggressive last night but really struggled finishing. I both hope it doesn't discourage him while also hoping it doesn't mean he will never be able to get to rim and get FTs.

Imagine had the bulls pulled off that rumored deal that never sounded like it was real: Trade WCJ+4 for the 2nd pick (which was rumored wiseman) but if the bulls got Lamelo. Team outlook would be so different. Regardless of them not taking full advantage of what they could have gotten, still so annoying how terrible their luck was in draft position when they are tanking. If Bulls were as lucky as grizz and got JJJ and Ja instead of WCJ and Coby it's just a different franchise.