Tuesday (odds of winning) edition: Wha’ Happened?
Posted on April 8th, 2008 – 8:44 AMBy Michael Rand
It’s confession time. When we were younger, math was our thing. We loved numbers even before we started school, and eventually we were part of the math team for several years. Our parents thought we would do something math-related with our lives, like become a statistician. Instead, here we are, using letters instead of numbers and finding Google Images of boots falling from the sky to demonstrate the notion of “odds.” Odds are a tricky thing to calculate. But based on that formula, we’re going to say that Kansas’ chances of coming back from 9 points down with 2:12 to play in last night’s championship game were about 6 percent. That, however, is still better than the likelihood that Fasolamatt would win a prize during a halftime drawing while seated at the head RandBall table of our watering hole of choice. But both of those things happened. Fasolamatt won two T-shirts and a radio (a later winner claimed a DVD player to go with his handsome T-shirts), while Kansas took home a national title for the first time in 20 years. The longest odds defeated, though, still come in at a two-way tie between Fasolamatt getting his kids to go to bed by 8:10 on the night of the title game and the entire bill for our table somehow coming to just $36, despite the fact that there were two appetizers, a full meal and 12 drinks ordered. Fasolamatt had the chicken wings in honor of his brethren at Buffalo Wild Wings in Lawrence. We digress. It was a fine game, a little sloppy, and we all know fundamentals doomed Memphis in the end; there’s nothing a scrappy 5-10 point guard hates more than poor fundamentals, so even though we were going for Memphis and future Timberwolves guard Derrick Rose, we had to admire Kansas for finally exposing that flaw. Back to odds: What are the longest odds you have ever overcome, whether it be to win a prize, win a game, wiggle out of some sort of situation (looking at you, Joker), find your pants, etc.?
*Um, what was up with Roy Williams?
*Do Bobby Jenks and Nick Swisher of the White Sox really have bleached facial hair? If so, Stu wonders, what is up with that?
*Bromance.
*There’s never a good time for an appendectomy, but there certainly is a bad time. It looks as though Nick Schultz will miss the entire Avalanche series.
Fasola-link; the demise of the semicolon.
23 Responses to "Tuesday (odds of winning) edition: Wha’ Happened?"
I am a statistician. You’re better off as a sportswriter.
Do Bobby Jenks and Nick Swisher of the White Sox really have bleached facial hair? If so, Stu wonders, what is up with that?
I’m pretty sure my actual wondering involved the words “douchehammer” and “[redacted],” but yeah, what the hell?
Matt: 8:10? That’s phenomenal. You deserved prizes.
My lady friend beat me in another of my pools, which once again proves I know nothing about sports. Granted she picked Georgetown to win and then defended her pick saying RandBall picked them as well. In another pool, my friend’s 4 year old son won. Why should I be surprised. I should just start donating $20 bucks to charity every March instead of playing in pools.
I have no issue with Roy Williams supporting Kansas. Just because another school now pays him millions doesn’t mean that he can’t support his former employer.
Seriously, when’s the last time you used a semi-colon? Maybe someone should run a marathon in support of it.
Greatest odds overcome: Winning $100 playing a “chicken plop” game.
(100 squares on a board w/ a cage over it. Put chicken in cage. If chicken “plops” on your #, you win.) The chicken hit my number within a minute. I was in grad school at the time, and it was pretty much the greatest thing ever. Went on to win a 2 foot long venison sausage and split 2 decent hauls at the pull tabs that night, too.
I have of course not won a single thing since then.
I guess the greatest odds I’ve overcome was winning almost $300 on a nickel slot at Mystic. I don’t know that I’ve been back since.
I once won in a North Stars jersey when I was 8 in a raffle. In my mind, there were like 5 million other people in the raffle. In reality, it was probably less than half that.
Sports related odds: Playing in a High School Basketball game we were down by 10 with 1:05 left. The other team may have helped out by getting 3 technical fouls in that last minute of play but we came back and won by 4 points. One of the craziest finishes that nobody really cares to hear about. And I was a much better Point Guard than Rand since I am all of 6′1.
Would someone please tell me why Billy Packer hasn’t gone the way of the button fly? I almost had to mute the game last night as I watched. It took Packer 6 possesions before he realized that Kansas was playing a box and one and once he did realize it he blabbed about it for 5 minutes even after Kansas stopped using it. He joins Joe Buck, Bill Walton, Joe Theisman, and One of the Gumbel brothers on my list of most hated Announcers. How do these networks sleep at night?
Billy Packer’s alter-ego is Captain Obvious…
I think that UNC fans need to stop their crying. YOU LOST, GET OVER IT! I think it was a classy thing for Roy to do. He had a lot of successful years with Kansas, and left the program after losing the championship game. In a way I think it was his way of apologizing to the Jayhawk faithful that have been upset ever since.
I’m a UNC fan and I could care less. I wouldn’t have minded if Roy wasn’t wearing a Kansas Jayhawk sticker but other than that who cares. He brought UNC a title and has turned the program around. Now if he had been sitting on the bench, then I might have kicked him in the groin.
Thank you jama
I think Derrick Rose might have dropped a few spots for me in the draft. Do the Wolves really need another guy like him? Please someone convince me. If we do draft him, let’s just hope he doesn’t get cut and need stitches.
The Wolves are trying to fulfill everyone’s dream of a team full of combo-guards, where no one can set-up the option, no one wants to pass, and there are unlimited options for who can take the last shot of the game…
where no one can set-up the option
“Option” was supposed to be “Offense”… Yikes.
Sorry Dave I must have been to busy being pissed at Mr. Packer but didn’t Rose have 8 assists and get accused of not looking for his shot enough? He is not a combo guard at all in my opinion. He is a pass first point guard who can rebound, defend, and has an okay shot. After watching last nights game I am actually leaning more towards taking Rose with the #1 overall pick. Unfortunatley the Wolves will be drafting 5th and taking Eric Gordon aka Rashad McCants Jr.
Rand…you pointed the finger…and I’ll answer. I don’t think of the “hair on fire incident” as wiggling out of the situation. I see it as more of ending the situation all together. Which reminds me, I was up at the Randball HQ on Friday night and saw her out. She’s still mad. Who would have thought?
I think that Rose isn’t Chris Paul or Deron Williams.
He’s more like Mike Conley Jr–he’ll be a fine NBA player, but he’s not going to step in and dominate immediately. Only because he’s so absurdly athletic was he able to get as many points as he did in the second half–that won’t happen against NBA opposition. I don’t think he’s a bad player, but he’s not going to step into a team next year and star.
I think Roy should have gone there and taken notes on how to coach in a big game instead of cheering and wearing stickers. He has always choked during big games and Saturday is another example of that. His players weren’t playing great but it is his job to use timeouts, subs, and to calm his players down effectively and yet again he showed he is not capable of that. His national title came from one of the best college lineups in a long time and only won because he just left them in the game and let them play it out themselves.
Rose was off all the first half and has a sub par night yet his stat line was 18, 6, and 8…solid off night
The City Pages: Way behind RandBall, since 1996.
Heh.
I use semi-colons regularly; they’re invaluable.
Overcoming odds: I once won a signed Kirby Puckett bat from a Cub Foods drawing (I love my Cub - shameless plug). Never mind that I stuffed the box with about 100 entries and the box was very plain on the service center counter. I won that [redacted] fair and square.
