Well, we’re finally here. After two whole semesters worth of posting, we’re onto the final post of the Bauer Power Blog. It’s been a fun ride for these past eight months, but all good things must come to an end.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with how my blog turned out. If you didn’t know already, I’m looking to pursue a career in broadcast journalism, particularly in sports. I’ve had other opportunities to write and talk about sports in clubs like CommRadio and PSSN, but a lot of it has been mostly factual information. It was nice to have another medium where I could get my thoughts about the sporting world out there without having to put a professional spin on it. I’m definitely going to continue down this path, and I think this blog has helped to reinforce that idea.

Anyway, that’s the end of it. Reflection over. Let’s talk about sports one more time!

For those of you who don’t know, I’m from the Pittsburgh area. I live in Valencia, PA, which is about 40 minutes north of Pittsburgh. As such, I’m a big Pittsburgh sports fan. However, one team really stands above the rest. I love the Penguins, but I really only get into hockey when the playoffs come around. I love the Steelers too, but considering how much I know about every single team in the NFL, I feel that love is a bit diluted.

All things considered, I’d have to name the Pittsburgh Pirates as my favorite professional sports team. Baseball has pretty much always been my second favorite sport after football, and it just so happens that Pittsburgh has a historic baseball team. (It also helps that my dad works at an energy plant in Pittsburgh so we get free tickets to a couple games at PNC Park every year).

Coming into this season, I was not particularly excited for the Pirates. I thought for sure this was going to be a rebuilding year. After all, we sent two of our best players to other teams during the offseason. Center fielder Andrew McCutchen got traded to the San Francisco Giants, and starting pitcher Gerrit Cole is now playing for the Houston Astros. Both of these guys have been all-star players recently, so I was surprised to see them go.

But it’s been even more surprising to see how well this team has been playing so far! As of today, the Pirates are 9-3, with series victories over the Reds, Cubs, and Tigers. It’s only been a couple of weeks, but things are looking exciting for the Pirates right now. The hitting has been absolutely incredible; in their first 10 games, the Pirates scored 116 runs, the most for the team since 1923. Of the eight main starters, all have a batting average of .240 or higher, and half of them are hitting above .300. The starting pitching has been on point too, especially Jameson Taillon, winner of the NL’s Player of the Week last week after a complete game against the Reds. He’s looking like he could be the Pirates next ace.

We have a deep roster, but I am worried that we won’t be able to maintain this pace for the entire season. It’s a long way until October when the playoffs start. Thinking have looked promising so far, but I’m still crossing my fingers!

That’ll do it for this blog post, and this blog. Thanks for reading!

*Note: For some reason, it wasn’t allowing me to add pictures to my blog last night. So it’s unfortunately just a long read of text. Hope that isn’t too much of an issue for you readers!

Well, it’s finally over. After another fantastic season of college basketball, we’ve reached the end. Congrats to the Villanova Wildcats on winning their second title in three years!

I think it’s safe to say that Villanova was the most deserving team to win the championship. They beat all seven of their opponents by double digits, and by a combined 106 points! That’s dominance if I’ve ever seen it. So once again, congrats ‘Nova, you deserve it.

Man, Philly is really rockin’ the sports world this year. First the Eagles win their first ever Super Bowl in February, and now Villanova is claiming the basketball title just two months later. I doubt the Flyers or Phillies will have the same luck, but you never know.

No doubt that the MVP of the title game was Villanova’s sophomore guard Donte DiVincenzo, who absolutely lit the scoreboard on fire, scoring 31 of Villanova’s 79 points. Perhaps the most impressive part of this is that he scored all those points off the bench; he didn’t even start the game!

Nova isn’t the only college basketball team in Pennsylvania celebrating though. Our very own Penn State men’s basketball team won this year’s NIT, which is a nice consolation prize for not being selected to the main tournament. After struggling to get our footing in the game against Temple, Penn State really displayed dominance for the rest of the tournament. Penn State went into South Bend and beat #1 overall Notre Dame by 10. Then we went into Marquette and won by five (though the game only got close in the final few minutes). But the real dominance was on the grand stage in New York. At Madison Square Garden, Penn State crushed Mississippi State 75-60 (read my previous post; I went to the game!). Then in the NIT title game, Penn State dominated Utah, 82-66.

The win is bittersweet, however. Sure, we get another banner to raise in the BJC, but we’re losing two of our star players. Shep Garner, the team’s only starting senior, will be graduating. Shep has been absolutely clutch for us, often grabbing us a led or putting a game away with a monster three-pointer. No doubt he’s one of the all-time greats in Penn State basketball history, and no doubt he’ll be missed greatly.

Shep may be the fan favorite, but the loss of Tony Carr is arguably more important. Tony Carr was undoubtedly our best player this year, earning honors as one of the Big Ten’s top players. He was too good though. On Monday afternoon, he announced in a press conference his intent to declare for the NBA Draft and hire an agent. I certainly wish the best for him and hope that he gets drafted, but it’s sad to think how great we could have been next year if he decided to stick around. We were predicted to be a preseason Top 25 team with Carr returning, but that sadly seems like it won’t be true now.

Even without Carr, I still have faith in this team. Three of our five starters (Mike Watkins, Lamar Stevens, and Josh Reaves) will all be returning with another year of experience under their belts. We also have two great recruits joining the team in Rasir Bolton and Myles Dread, so that’s something to be excited about. As for the rest of the team, I think John Harrar stands out the most. Harrar had an excellent NIT, filling in for the injured Watkins. I think there’s a good chance he joins the starting five next year if he keeps it up.

Regardless of what happens, I’m proud of this team for what they’ve accomplished, and I’m looking forward to basketball’s return in the Fall. Until then, we can hang onto the fact that ESPN’s bracketologist Joe Lunardi projects us to earn an 11 seed in the tournament next year. Obviously this is completely arbitrary as no teams have played any games in 2018-19 yet, but it’s nice to see that I’m not the only one who believes this team can be good. If we do get into the tournament, it would be our first appearance since 2011.

But until then, I bid you adieu, college basketball. See ya in November.

We’re finally here, folks: the Final Four. After two basketball-filled weekends of March Madness, we’ve whittled the field down to four teams. Before March closes, let’s take one final look at the madness.

It’s safe to say that this has been a mad, mad March. Title contenders like Virginia, Arizona, Michigan State, Cincinnati, and Xavier were all taken down before the first weekend was up, busting millions of brackets in the process (including mine). The real cherry on top is the appearance of 11-seed Loyola Chicago in the Final Four. In the history of the tournament, only three other 11-seeds have ever gotten this far. I had the Ramblers in the Sweet 16, but not even I could have seen them in the semifinals!

The Final Four of Villanova, Kansas, Michigan, and Loyola is a rather bizarre one. Of over 17 million brackets on ESPN, only 550 of them had the correct Final Four (0.003%).

I was not one of these 550 lucky entrants, but that doesn’t mean I’m not looking forward to Saturday night. Both Final four games will be airing on TBS. Michigan vs. Loyola Chicago starts at 6:09, and Villanova vs. Kansas will follow at 8:49. The winners of each game will meet on Monday, April 2nd at 9:20 PM on TBS to play in the 2018 NCAA Championship game. No seed lower than 8 has won the title, so I’ll be rooting for Loyola to make history!

As exciting as the Final Four is, I can tell you that it won’t be the highlight of my week. That would have to be my trip to New York City last Tuesday! As I mentioned in my previous post, I bought tickets to attend the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden to watch the Penn State basketball game. Penn State went on a run in the NIT, defeating Temple, Notre Dame, and Marquette en route to a trip to the NIT semifinals for the first time since 2009. I don’t know if I’ll ever get the opportunity again to watch Penn State basketball live in New York while I’m a student here, so I couldn’t pass up the opportunity!

The buses left on Tuesday at noon, and we arrived in New York around 5. I had never been to New York before, and I was quite impressed with the size of the city. But what really got me is Madison Square Garden, a true spectacle of a sporting arena. I’d seen multiple games played in MSG on TV, but never had I seen one live before! It was incredible. Our seats were pretty good too; I was in the third row behind the hoop!

 

The great part about getting there before 7 is that we got the opportunity to watch both NIT semifinal games. Utah and Western Kentucky tipped off at 7, and they played a great game that resulted in Utah winning 69-64. At 9:30, the main event started, as Penn State took the floor against Mississippi State. And it wasn’t even close. Penn State won 75-60 in a great game that included a 24-0 run in the second quarter. And I got to see it live! I think a big reason for the dominant performance was that this was basically a home game. 90% of the crowd must have been rooting for Penn State. Every time someone initiated a “We Are” chant, the responding “Penn State!” could be heard throughout the entire arena.

Now, Penn State plays Thursday night, tonight, against Utah in the NIT championship. I would have gone to this game too, but I couldn’t miss my classes again. At the time I’m writing this, I don’t know how the game ends up, but by Friday morning when you’re reading this, we’ll find out!

One more to go and we’re NIT champs for the first time since 2009. We Are!

Welcome back to March Madness, Part 2! My previous post on this blog highlighted my bracket picks. Now that the first weekend is over, it’s time to reflect on those picks and look to ahead to the future.

And… it happened again. After four days of basketball, my bracket is busted. As a self-proclaimed NCAA bracketology expert who was able to accurately predict almost the entire field of 68, it’s disheartening to see my predictions go down the gutter once again. But, hey, that’s what so special about March Madness! No one can be sure about anything.

In fact, I and 17% of ESPN users predicted that #1 overall Virginia would take home their first title thanks to a dominant defense and excellent coaching from Tony Bennett. Instead, the Cavaliers made history by becoming the first ever 1-seed to lose to a 16-seed in the opening round. Ain’t it funny how that works?

That’s not the only madness that has happened though. Plenty of other shenanigans found only in March have occurred this year. 11-seed Syracuse, a team that many thought should not even have been in the tournament, won both of their opening weekend games, defeating #6 TCU and #3 Michigan State en route to a trip to the Sweet 16. Another Sweet 16 bid was earned by another 11-seed, the Loyola Chicago Ramblers. Loyola Chicago defeated both #6 Miami and #3 Tennessee on buzzer-beaters just two days apart. (Lucky for me, Loyola was my Cinderella team! I picked them to get the Sweet 16… and they did!)

Perhaps the most notable underdog is the 7-seed Nevada Wolf Pack. In their first game, Nevada came back from 14 down early in the second half to defeat Texas in overtime, 87-83. But the magic didn’t stop there. Just two days later, Nevada did it again in incredible fashion. With just 11 minutes to go, #2 Cincinnati led the Wolf Pack 65-43, a 22-point margin. It looked over, but Nevada did not give up. Nevada finished the game on a 32-8 run to defeat the Bearcats 75-73 and advance to their first Sweet 16 since 2004.

The madness begins again on Thursday night, as the underdogs Loyola Chicago and Nevada play each other at 7 PM.

That’s it for my wrap-up on the Tournament’s first weekend, but what about Penn State?

Penn State, of course, did not receive an invitation to the NCAA Tournament. Instead, the Nittany Lions were selected to play in the NIT, a tournament for the best teams that did not reach the main tournament. And Penn State has been killing it.

The last time Penn State was in the NIT, 2009, they won the thing. And it looks like they could do that again. After starting off slow in their first game against Temple, Penn State came back to win 63-57 in what was their final home game of the season. But they didn’t stop there. The Nittany Lions went in to South Bend, Indiana to play Notre Dame, the #1 overall NIT team, and won 73-63. Then they rolled on to win at Marquette, 85-80.

Penn State now heads to the NIT semifinals at Madison Square Garden in New York City, where they just played a few weeks ago in the Big Ten Tournament. They’ll take on Mississippi State, a team that has interesting ties to Penn State in terms of football, as head coach James Franklin’s former offensive coordinator Joe Moorhead now coaches the Bulldogs. It’s irrelevant to basketball, but it’s fun to note.

Can Penn State keep the magic going? I sure hope so, as I’ll be going to the game! This morning, I bought my ticket for the game, which will be played at 7 PM on Tuesday, March 27th. Penn State Athletics has an excellent deal where you can buy a ticket to the game and a bus ride up and back for just $10. I’m not sure if they’re still running the deal, as they opened it at 10 AM this morning. Hopefully you hopped on it quick if you were interested in going too!

This may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for me, so I couldn’t pass it up. Hopefully we’ll win and play the winner of Utah and Western Kentucky in the NIT Championship on Thursday, March 29th. Go Nittany Lions!

March Madness is finally here! We’ve waited a whole year for this moment, enduring a fantastic season of college basketball that began back in November in the meantime. 68 teams all have hopes of claiming a national title, but by early April, only one will stand victorious.

Hopefully you’ve filled out your bracket by now, since the tournament has already begun. How did you fill out your bracket? Did you just pick the team you thought would win? Did you flip a coin for each game? Or did you do some other crazy ritual to predict your bracket? I have a patented method that seems to have the same result every time:

1. Research the bracket. Look into teams’ game logs, statistics, injury reports, etc. Know these teams.
2. Mess around with the bracket. Look at potential matchups, see who matches well against other teams. Make sure to take recent trends and history into account.
3. Finalize your picks. Make sure you’re confident with who you’re picking to win each game.
4. Sit back and watch the Madness.
5. …
6. Watch your predicted champion lose in the first round, and come in last place in your bracket pool while someone who’s never watched a game in their life wins the prize.

Happens every time.

So what does my bracket look like this year? Who are the contenders and who are the pretenders?

Here’s the link to my bracket: http://games.espn.com/tournament-challenge-bracket/2018/en/entry?entryID=2885665

So I have Virginia winning it all this year. Yes, original choice, I know. But I really like this team. I love how different they are from other top teams. They’re a fantastic defensive team, and that’s their main claim to fame. They don’t have the flashy offense that other contenders have and people adore. They’re different, and I love that about the Cavaliers. Of course I made my choice before De’Andre Hunter was injured. It will be interesting to see how the Cavs adjust and if they can still make a run to the title without him.

How about the Cinderellas? Everybody loves a good Cinderella team. When I first got into college basketball in 2011, VCU was the real Cinderella, going from a First Four game all the way to the Final Four before losing in the semifinal. It’s that kind of craziness that can happen all the time in March that makes this tournament something special. In my own bracket, I have three double digit seeds in the Sweet Sixteen: #11 Loyola Chicago, #11 St. Bonaventure, and #12 New Mexico State. As I type this, Loyola Chicago is tied with #6 Miami in their first round game, 28-28 at halftime, while St. Bonaventure and New Mexico State have yet to play. St. Bonaventure did win their First Four match against UCLA, but that result doesn’t matter in the scope of ESPN’s Tournament Challenge. It doesn’t matter to me either, since I picked St. Bonaventure to go to the Sweet 16 before that game was even played!

There’s just something magical about March Madness. It’s fantastic to sit down and watch 68 teams duke it out in a sudden-death bracket: loser going home and winner advancing every time. It’s especially entertaining when you have friends to compete with, as I happen to be in a few bracket pools this year.

Even if you’re not into college basketball, I HIGHLY recommend you buy into the hype. There’s just nothing like March Madness.

There’s no doubt that the Beatles were one of the most prolific and influential artists of all time. Of course, a huge reason for that success was the classic songwriting duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. After the band’s breakup, both Lennon and McCartney would go on to have successful solo careers. Lennon’s career was tragically cut short, but McCartney continued to make great music for forty years and is still performing to this day. In 1999, McCartney was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist. However, this induction is a bit dubious for one reason: McCartney’s backing band from the ’70s, Wings, was not inducted alongside him. Without Wings, McCartney may have never found the same success that he did as a “solo” artist.

In 1970, McCartney released his first album, entitled McCartney, an album made entirely by just McCartney himself. The album featured a few of his most popular songs, including the ever popular “Maybe I’m Amazed.” The record features plenty of highlights, but McCartney would really burst onto the scene in 1971 with Ram, thanks to songwriting help from his wife Linda. Ram featured McCartney’s first U.S. #1 in “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey.” Later in 1971, McCartney would recruit the assistance of Denny Laine, and thus, the classic Wings trio was formed.

Throughout Wings’ ten-year run, the band’s lineup would change constantly, but the core group of McCartney, McCartney, and Laine would remain consistent.

Wings was quite productive during the 1970s, releasing seven studio albums (three of which hit #1 in the U.S.), one triple live album, and a greatest hits album. Perhaps the best album of this run is 1973’s Band on the Run, somewhat of a concept album which includes many of McCartney’s most beloved tunes, including “Jet,” “Let Me Roll It,” and the title track. As for singles, six would reach #1 in the U.S. The first of these was 1973’s “My Love,” a McCartney-penned tune that was written as a tribute to Linda. Other #1’s would include “Band on the Run,” “Listen to What the Man Said,” “Silly Love Songs,” “With a Little Luck,” and a live version of “Coming Up.” As for the U.K., Wings’ only #1 was the Scottish tribute “Mull of Kintyre,” which remains one of the best-selling U.K. singles to this day. Perhaps the most notable Wings tune is “Live and Let Die,” released on the soundtrack album for the James Bond film of the same name.

Wings would break up by the end of the decade, and McCartney would continue a successful solo career, but he may have never gotten there without the assistance of Linda and Denny Laine.

Of course, McCartney earned his rightful spot in the Rock Hall in 1999, but Denny Laine and Linda McCartney did not receive the same honor. Unfortunately, Linda had died a year prior due to breast cancer, and still has not been inducted into the Hall. Denny Laine finally received recognition in 2018 when he was inducted as a founding member of the British rock band the Moody Blues.

I think it’s only fair to have Laine and Linda McCartney recognized for their contributions to music alongside Paul. Hopefully, the rest of Wings will receive Hall of Fame recognition one day in the future.

Just like last time, I’ll leave you with a list of five of my favorite Wings songs:

1. “Junior’s Farm”
2. “Helen Wheels”
3. “Jet”
4. “Silly Love Songs”
5. “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty-Five”

If you’ve read my previous posts, you already know how invested I get with March Madness. That obsession has increased tenfold this season with Penn State’s successful season. Thursday’s big win over Ohio State has the Nittany Lions squarely on the bubble, and with opportunities down the road at Purdue, vs. Michigan, and at Nebraska, we’ve got a real shot at entering the tournament for the first time since 2011.

Penn State’s success aside, I’ve already made it clear how much I get into college basketball this time of year. On a previous post, I mentioned how much I get into things like the Bubble Watch. In fact, I’m always looking for new Bubble Watch posts from multiple sports sources every single day of the week during February and March.

Shameless plug time; you should check out the article I wrote for CommRadio about the Bubble Watch, if you want to get a sense of where Penn State stands with the rest of the tournament teams: http://commmedia.psu.edu/comradio/story/ncaa-tournament-bubble-watch1

As much I love the Bubble Watch, I love Bracketology just as much. If you’re unfamiliar with the term, Bracketology describes how analysts predict the tournament field of 68 teams will look based on current data. One of the most popular bracketologists is Joe Lunardi of ESPN: http://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology

Compiling brackets is tougher than it seems. There are a lot of rules to follow, as well as a lot of personal judgment calls when it comes to seeding teams and deciding which ones to leave it. It’s a pretty complex process. As such, Lunardi only puts out two updates to his bracket a week.

But one Bracketology is not enough for me! Just like Bubble Watch, I want Bracketology all the time. Fortunately there’s the holy grail of Bracketology: The Bracket Matrix.

The Bracket Matrix is your one-stop shop for all things Bracketology. With 105 total projected brackets displaying which teams are in and out, the Bracket Matrix is a goldmine of bracket data. And with updates daily, you can always get a dose of Bracketology when you need it.

Of course, the usual suspects are at the top. Teams like Virginia, Villanova, Duke, and Michigan State are in every single one of the 105 brackets. Of course, down on the bubble, things are bit more messy. For example, USC is projected to be the last at-large team in, appearing in 62 of the 105 brackets. Syracuse is projected to be the first team out, appearing in 60 of the 105 brackets. When you’re talking about the bubble, this is what you expect.

So where does Penn State land in all this? In the current projection, Penn State appears only once in Haslametrics.com’s bracket as an 11 seed. But with the win over Ohio State Thursday, there’s a good chance that there will be a couple more brackets putting Penn State into the field. And there’s still a lot of time to go! If the Nittany Lions can come up big in the remaining regular season, then pick up a couple wins in the Big Ten Tournament, their name should definitely be in the mix on Selection Sunday.

What are your thoughts about brackets? Do you follow Bracketology like I do? Or do you just fill out your bracket when the final one is released? Do you even follow college basketball at all? Let me know in the comments below.

One week it’s basketball, the next it’s rock music. What can you do? I can’t narrow down a particular focus that I want to take with this blog, so I guess my focus will be me writing about things that I like, as it was when I started this blog.

I’ve already written in previous posts about how I have a love-hate relationship with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They do a nice job of honoring deserving artists, but the way they decide to do it is just infuriating sometimes. There’s no clear rules or system for deciding who gets in; the whole thing is really just a mystery.

I do have to applaud the Hall for getting in four very deserving rock acts this year in Bon Jovi, The Moody Blues, Dire Straits, and The Cars. But, of course, there are always going to be some pretty big omissions. Def Leppard was one of the biggest hair metal bands of the ’80s and an argument could be made that they deserved to be inducted before Bon Jovi. Foreigner was an always original and entertaining rock band that gained a large following, and they should really be in there too. However, my biggest Rock Hall snub of all happens to be one of my favorite bands ever: Supertramp.

So who is Supertramp? Supertramp, a progressive rock band from London, England, was founded in 1969 under the original name of Daddy by primary songwriters Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson. In 1970, the band name was changed to Supertramp to avoid confusion with another band by the name of Daddy Longlegs.

The band released its first album in 1970, the self titled Supertramp. This album and its successor Indelibly Stamped, released in 1971, were both commercial failures. All the original band members, save for Hodgson and Davies, would quit Supertramp.

In 1973, Hodgson and Davies would to recreate the band, bringing in bassist Dougie Thomson, drummer Bob Siebenberg, and saxophonist John Helliwell. These five men would make up the classic Supertramp lineup, as the band would go on an incredible four-album run in the 1970s.

The first of the classic albums was 1974’s Crime of the Century, a masterpiece that perfectly displayed both Davies’ and Hodgson’s songwriting talents, as the duo each wrote four pieces for the eight-track album. The album includes many of the band’s signature songs, including “School,” “Bloody Well Right,” and “Dreamer.”

In 1975, Supertramp would follow up with Crisis? What Crisis? The album wouldn’t receive the same critical and commercial success as its predecessor, but it was still a fine album in its own right.

1977 saw Even in the Quietest Moments…, an album which features what many believe to be Supertramp’s signature tune, the oh-so lovable “Give a Little Bit.”

1979 is when things began to change drastically for the band. Roger Hodgson was growing weary of constantly being in the studio recording music, and he wanted to spend some time with his family. As such, the band became separated, and recording for their new album was difficult to do. Eventually, they came through and released the pop-rock favorite Breakfast in America, which features another handful of Supertramp’s signature tunes, such as “Goodbye Stranger,” “Take the Long Way Home,” and “The Logical Song.”

After the release of 1982’s …Famous Last Words…, Roger Hodgson left Supertramp to pursue his own interests. Rick Davies kept running the show with later albums such as Brother Where You Bound and Free As a Bird, but it was clear that Supertramp was a spent force creatively with Hodgson gone.

Supertramp’s success may have only been for a short time, but in the span of six years, they released four of the best albums of the 1970s. Their influence on progressive and pop rock cannot be denied, and the fact that they’re a fan favorite of many to this day should be enough to put them in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Of course, words aren’t going to be enough to persuade. Take a listen for yourself! Here’s a brief list of five of my favorite Supertramp songs. Give them a try and let me know from your listens what your thoughts are about this band.

1. “Crime of the Century”
2. “Bloody Well Right”
3. “Goodbye Stranger”
4. “The Logical Song”
5. “From Now On”

Are there any bands or artists that you love that you think don’t get enough attention? Please let me know in the comments below, and I’ll be sure to take a listen!

It’s exciting times for basketball in State College. For the first time in a long time, Penn State appears to have a decent basketball team. With March Madness rolling around next month, there have been talks as to whether or not Penn State will have a good enough résumé to reach the tournament for the first time since 2011. According to numerous sources, the most prominent being ESPN, no one is really giving Penn State much of a chance at all. The official Bubble Watch on the College Basketball subreddit doesn’t even list Penn State as a bubble team. Is this a fair assessment? I decided I would take a look at the data myself and reassess Penn State’s bubble outlook.

With this post, I’m hoping to bring more attention to Penn State basketball and the Bubble Watch, two of my favorite things in sports right now. Hopefully this blog post will be engaging enough for sports fans to enjoy and informative and detailed enough for non-sports fans to learn something new.

Let’s start with a very simple overview by looking at the wins and losses. At the moment, Penn State resides at 15-9 overall with a 5-6 record in the Big Ten conference. These numbers would be rather unimpressive any other year, but with the Big Ten seemingly having its worst season in years, this is actually one of the better records in the conference. Tournament selection history has been quite unkind to teams with poor conference records, however, so the team is going to need to boost that win total in order to be seriously considered for the tournament.

Of course, overall win totals is not the only stat that the selection committee considers. RPI is probably the most prominent stat used by the committee. RPI, short for Ratings Percentage Index, is a measurement used to rank collegiate teams.

Here’s the formula for RPI as stated in simple terms:

“In its current formulation, the index comprises a team’s winning percentage (25%), its opponents’ winning percentage (50%), and the winning percentage of those opponents’ opponents (25%). The opponents’ winning percentage and the winning percentage of those opponents’ opponents both comprise the strength of schedule (SOS). Thus, the SOS accounts for 75% of the RPI calculation and is 2/3 its opponents’ winning percentage and 1/3 its opponents’ opponents’ winning percentages.”

Unfortunately, RPI doesn’t favor the Nittany Lions very much. In the current RPI rankings, Penn State is listed at #110 out of all 351 Division I schools. According to Seed Madness, the highest RPI a major conference team has ever had and made the tournament as an at-large bid (non-conference tournament winner) was Syracuse in 2016 with an RPI of 72. That’s 38 spots higher than where Penn State is right now. So far, it’s not looking good for the Nittany Lions.

The problem with RPI is that it doesn’t take margin of victory into account. Penn State may have nine losses, but they have yet to lose a game by more than 11 points. A lot of late-game collapses have resulted in losses for the Lions, and RPI only looks at those losses, not how much they lost those games by.

There is a bright spot for Penn State, however. RPI is a flawed stat, and the committee has realized this recently. As such, they’re considering moving away from RPI and towards more analytic stats such as KenPom, BPI, and Sagarin. These are much more complex statistics than RPI and typically give a more accurate rating of how good a team actually is. Penn State’s ratings in KenPom, BPI, and Sagarin are far more favorable, as they land at #53, #45, and #49 on those lists, respectively.

(Click here for the full KenPom list, here for the full BPI list, and here for the full Sagarin list.)

Of course, the tournament only selects 68 teams, reserving the lower spots (typically seeds #12-16) for the non-power conference tournament winners. Conference tournament winners get an aut0-bid into the NCAA Tournament, and they, along with many other major conference at-large bids, typically make up the #1-11 seeds. Seeds #1-11 tend to be made up of about 45 teams, so there’s still work to be done.

Another problem for Penn State is their lack of good wins and their abundance of bad losses. As of today, Penn State has only one marquee win: a victory on the road over No. 13 Ohio State last week. One good win is likely not going to be enough to win the tournament committee over. Another issue is the bad losses. Teams are generally expected to win their home games. Penn State has lost three home games this year, including a tight 64-63 loss to lowly Wisconsin, a bad 95-84 loss to slipping Minnesota, and an atrocious 71-70 loss to Rider. Rider does not belong to a major conference, so this last-second buzzer-beater loss is going to stick out lick a sore thumb on Penn State’s résumé.

So what’s my final verdict? I’m saying that Penn State has a better chance to make the tournament than most sources believe. They should be considered “on the bubble.” However, this team is not going to get into the tournament unless they pick up some more good wins along the way. Down the stretch, Penn State has plenty of quality opponents, including home games against Maryland, Ohio State, and Michigan, as well as away games against Purdue and Nebraska. While it’s going to be an incredibly tough task to win all these games, winning most of them would be a surefire boost to Penn State’s tournament chances. The Nittany Lions would also likely need to win a game or two in the Big Ten conference tournament in order to catch the committee’s eye. Overall, there’s a long way to go. But in my eyes, Penn State isn’t out yet.

The blog is back after a winter break hiatus. I’ll preface this post by saying that I’m not exactly sure yet what direction I want to go with this blog. I’m hoping I’ll find some sort of pattern along the way so that my posts have some kind of coherence, and I hope I’ll be able to post interesting and discussion-generating content. Let’s see where the semester takes us! And now, onto the post.

I think I’m a bit of weirdo when it comes to sports. I absolutely love sports, but I’m pretty picky about what I watch and don’t watch. I love NFL football, but I was never really a big college football watcher until this year. I closely follow college basketball during the winter months, but I never was too big on the NBA. I really only get into the NHL during the postseason, and I don’t pay attention to baseball unless the Pirates are playing well. Overall, I have my quirks when it comes to sports, and I’m sure a lot of other sports fanatics do as well.

February is a great time to be a sports fan, especially a weird one like me. Of course there’s the Super Bowl, which I’ve watched religiously every year since 2009, just like the rest of the NFL season. College basketball’s powerhouses start to come out in February as the March Madness tournament bracket begins to take shape. It’s a very exciting time. But it’s not just these factors that make February a terrific months for sports.

This is where the “weird” comes in. I wouldn’t consider myself the casual sports fan when it comes to these sports. Yes, I watch the Super Bowl in February just like everyone else, but you’d be hard pressed to find someone who cares about the Pro Football Hall of Fame as much as I do. Every year, on the day before the Super Bowl, the Pro Football Hall of Fame announces its yearly class of inductees, and I’m always there watching intently. I’m absolutely infatuated with the history of the NFL, and the Pro Football Hall of Fame is an excellent outlet for that love. If I had the time, I could probably rattle off every name inducted into Canton, Ohio, as well as plenty of the Hall’s biggest snubs. I certainly think I’m a little bit unique in this regard.

Then there’s college basketball. I love watching the country’s best teams duke it out every year in March, and I’m always there filling out plenty of brackets, but that’s not even my favorite part of the sport. From late January through early March, I’m glued to the Bubble Watch. For those who don’t know about the term, the Bubble Watch is the analysis of which teams are “bubble” teams for the tournament. Bubble teams are those teetering on the edge of either getting into the field of 68 or landing on the outside. I’m not exactly sure why, but I’ve always cared more about these bubble teams than the ones who are guaranteed tournament spots. It’s a little odd, isn’t it?

Based on which things I get excited about in sports, I wouldn’t consider myself the typical sports fan. February is a peak time for me, because these niche factors that I care about are at their most prominent.

And now, I extend this question to you: the readers (especially if you’re a big sports fan). Are there any aspects about sports that you don’t think are particularly popular, yet you follow religiously anyway? Let me know by leaving a comment. I’m very curious to see if I’m not alone in this “weird” way of following sports.