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A Bilas layoff would make for one of the more surprising cuts. When it comes to College Basketball, ESPN's primary goal is to promote Duke. Laying off Bilas might take away a bit of the momentum ESPN endlessly spins for Duke. 

To be fair to Bilas, I think even he finds ESPN's clear preference for Duke a little over the top, especially when he's sharing the screen with Vitale. And I've grown to appreciate Bilas' wider spread coverage. He's one of only a few of the bigger media guys that makes a point to study and proactively include the teams out west in his commentary - BYU, Arizona, Gonzaga, UCLA.

One of these was Wisconsin, which they did win. September Maryland.


https://twitter.com/ByPatForde/status/2082874260754661787


https://twitter.com/CSOonX/status/2082937334308216862

Locksley must think the fans are a bit dimmer than himself and the mediots he tries to spin that past

Worth repeating something I read on these boards a decade ago.

A telltale sign of good coaching is a team playing better as the season moves along.

Locksley's teams trend against this sign.

Scheduling plays a bigger part, imo.  If this was true, every Tennessee coach ever was a great one, lol (notoriously weak Nov schedule every year).

All valid points. 

I'd add another one: roster turnover plays a big part.

Teams without great talent but with more stable programs and more consistent rosters can find themselves performing better at the beginning of the year because they have continuity. They're closer to their talent ceiling on day 1 than a team which may have more talent but it's younger and less established... Coaches at the latter program are spending more time in the early games figuring things out. Coaches at the former programs have it figured out, and as the season progresses have little ability to change because they have what they have.

I think of a team like Iowa under Ferentz. What you have week 1 is what you have. It's not like you've got 15 instant-impact freshmen and 40 transfer portal guys. No, you've got guys you've recruited and developed. The team isn't going to magically get tremendously better between week 1 and week 8 because going into the season you already knew what you had. 

I sometimes see this on the basketball side with Purdue. Painter's philosophy of "get old and stay old" isn't the same as some of the blue blood programs who are trying to integrate high talent "one-and-done" type players each year, such as Kentucky under Calipari. So Painter's teams can often be absolute stone cold killers in the early season while other coaches are still trying to figure out lineups, rotations, and effectively learn what they have on the roster. Whereas with Painter if he's got a core of juniors and seniors who have been in the program from the start, he knows what he has. But that means that the in-season improvement for Painter teams is harder to come, because there's less available to change.  

At least that's my $0.02.

I had probably my worst baseball effort yesterday in years, on the ride home I was mulling when I'm too old to enjoy it any more.  I was 0 for 2 with a double play and a K, I hit the ball OK the first time but right at the SS.  I didn't pitch, the team as usual was run ruled, we're really bad.  I understand some of our opponents are in the under 45 class, which I guess is because we don't have enough U55 teams.

They did look pretty young.

Injuries of course ...  I dimly recall the 1969 UGA team that was loaded but injuries derailed the season, and teams back then weren't nearly as deep as now.  Freshmen couldn't play for one thing.

Your memory still had to be pretty good back then. I mean, you were only 54.