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Hurricanes’ Pata shot to death

November 8, 2006 / Anthony Stalter

ESPN.com is reporting that Miami Hurricanes defensive tackle Bryan Pata was shot and killed outside of his apartment Tuesday night. Investigators don’t have any leads to Pata’s assailant at this moment, but have already ruled that the shooting was a homicide.

According to teammates, family members and friends, Pata was a soft-spoken young man who was well liked and had dreams of playing in the NFL. Nobody could grapple with the fact that Pata possibly had any enemy who would want to do this to him.

“Brian was cool, calm and collective,” Telfort told ESPN’s Joe Schad on Tuesday night. “He would do anything for his friends. He was a guy everybody loved. Bryan never got in trouble with anybody. I have no clue who would do this to him.”
“But I know the streets and to my knowledge he had no conflicts in the streets,” Graham said, sobbing. “Maybe someone was jealous. Maybe someone tried to rob him. I have no idea why he was shot. I just know he was shot. I didn’t know anyone that disliked him.”

This is now the University of Miami’s fourth death in one decade. Former safety Al Blades and linebacker Chris Campbell were killed in two separate car accidents within a year of each other. In 1996, reserve linebacker Marlin Barnes was murdered in a campus apartment while just a few months ago, reserve safety Willie Cooper was shot in the buttocks in an apparent robbery. Current starting safety Brandon Merriweather apparently shot and missed Cooper’s assailant. Since then, head coach Larry Coker has restricted his players from keeping guns (legal or not).

It’s sad that another young man has perished so early in his life. It’s also just as sad that the University of Miami is involved in another one of these situations.

College Football

NBA: Quicker whistles and the new ball

November 7, 2006 / John Paulsen

“Zero Tolerance”

In the preseason, the NBA changed the way its officials call the game. Players can no longer question a call with emotion, or else they’ll be given a technical foul. This rule is not new, but the fact that the refs are using a “zero tolerance” guideline is causing problems for players. In Detroit’s first game, Rasheed Wallace was ejected after garnering two technicals in 23 minutes (without scoring a single point). Thus far this season, there have been 0.0025 technicals per minute, which is about 83% ahead of last year’s rate. So almost twice as many technicals are being called as compared to last season.

I love this rule. Over the past several years, the NBA had become a gripe-fest. One player or another had something to say to the officials after just about every single call, and it bogged the game down. You’ll notice that there aren’t very many complaints from coaches; they are perfectly happy with the rule, because it forces players to get back on defense instead of complaining to the official. Players simply need to adjust to the rule. When a call goes against them, there’s no use in showing frustration towards the official. You can turn your back and bitch all you want, but if you show up the ref, you’re going to get a tech.

Certainly players should be able to speak with the officials, to question a call in an adult manner. Maybe they’ll learn something that way. But this should be done at a time out or during free throws so as to not interrupt the flow of the game.

Palming and Traveling

There are no stats I know of to substantiate this, but the league seems to be cracking down on palming (carrying) the ball and, to a lesser extent, traveling. The offensive player gains such an advantage when they are able to carry the ball from one side of their body to the other, so it’s simply not fair to let it slide. I doubt we’ll see a lot of these calls in the fourth quarters of close games, but the hope is that if they can clean it up for 40 minutes, the players won’t abuse the rule for the final eight.

The New Ball

The most publicized change this offseason was the use of a new ball. Shaquille O’Neal railed on the new ball in a press conference saying, “…to change it now, whoever that person is needs his college degree revoked. It’s a terrible decision.” He went on to say that he looks for “shooting percentages to be way down and turnovers way up.”

So after a week’s worth of games, what’s the effect? Well, field goal shooting is actually up a smidgeon, from 45.4% last season to 45.5% this season. Free throw accuracy is down from 74.5% to 73.2%, but both of these changes are well within the margin of error for such a small sample size from this season. Turnovers per minute are up 16% from 0.057 last season to 0.066 this season. But part of this increase can be attributed to the stronger emphasis on palming and traveling, so Shaq can’t blame it all on the new ball.

Fantasy Basketball, NBA

NFL: Pretenders vs. Contenders

November 7, 2006 / Anthony Stalter

With the ninth week already in the books (why does the NFL season go so fast?), I think it’s finally safe to start talking about potential playoff teams.

Here is a look at the contenders and the pretenders at the midway point in the NFL:

Contenders: Indianapolis, Baltimore, Denver, San Diego, New England, Chicago, NY Giants, New Orleans, Seattle.
The Colts are taking care of their own business while the Bears and Patriots will benefit from playing in weak divisions. The Broncos and Ravens don’t come without their flaws on offense, but both defenses are playing at an elite level. The Giants are banged up, but are good enough to survive key players missing time and the Chargers have the most complete team in the NFL – that is if Marty Schottenheiner stays the hell out of the way. The Saints continue to prove every week that they’re for real, but a tough second half schedule is something to look out for. If the Seahawks can hang on for a few more weeks, they should be healthy enough to build a cushion in the division, but the defense has to play better than they have of late (I don’t count the shutout against Oakland).

Pretenders: Minnesota, NY Jets, Kansas City.
The Vikings just lost to San Francisco and lack firepower, while I don’t think the Jets have enough talent at this point to keep overachieving. The Chiefs are playing great and Herm Edwards deserves a ton of credit, but how much longer does that offensive line hold up? Plus, I feel a QB-controversy brewing in Kansas City.

On the bubble: Cincinnati, Atlanta, Carolina, St. Louis, Philadelphia, Dallas, Jacksonville.
All of these teams are still well in the hunt, but all come well packaged with major flaws. The Bengals and Eagles are quickly falling apart at the seams while the Cowboys and Panthers are consistently inconsistent. The Jaguars are all over the board. One week, Jacksonville’s defense looks like world beaters, the next its giving up 27 points to Houston. If the Falcons can get back DE John Abraham in the next few weeks, the struggles in the secondary will probably diminish with the d-line being able to generate pressure again. The Rams have to beat Seattle this week in order to keep pace in the NFC West, or else St. Louis will be on the outside looking in at a playoff berth.

NFL

Week 9 NFL Power Rankings

November 7, 2006 / Anthony Stalter

There was a little shake up at the top with the Bears losing to hapless Miami and the true bottom team returns to its rightful place.

Here is the class and trash of the NFL after nine weeks, with nothing in between:

1. Indianapolis Colts (8-0)
Previous Rank: #2
Indy is the obvious choice for the top dog seeing as how the Colts are the only undefeated team left in the league. This team will lose a game (if not two or three) before the regular season is all said and done, however. That run defense is just brutal and it will eventually catch up with the Horseshoe Heads.

2. Chicago Bears (7-1)
Previous Rank: #1
I bet a lot of the national guys are going to drop the Bears further down their power rankings, but I’m going to try and not overact to what I saw in Chicago last Sunday. While I think the Bears have been exposed a bit, that defense is still elite and the offense is lethal enough to beat above average teams. But now after two absolutely brutal games, fans in Chi-town have to be concerned with Rex Grossman’s maddening inconsistency.

3. San Diego Chargers (6-2)
Previous Rank: #4
Every time I put this team up high, they burn me. But I’ll say it again – San Diego has a stout D, a quarterback that’s playing extremely well and the best player in the league in LaDainian Tomlinson.

4. New England Patriots (6-2)
Previous Rank: #3
I don’t think that New England has that hold it used to have over Peyton Manning anymore. While I still think the Pats are a solid football team, New England now has faced two tough opponents at home and has dropped both contests.

5. Denver Broncos (6-2)
Previous Rank: Unranked
If Javon Walker does at least half of what he did last week against the Steelers, it won’t matter how bad Jake Plummer can look at times.

28. Cleveland Browns (2-6)
Previous Rank: Unranked
I toyed with putting the Steelers in this spot, but I think Pittsburgh will eventually find its way down here eventually. I don’t know, if I were a team looking to get into the playoffs, I don’t think I would want to overlook this team, but it’s hard not to rank the Browns this low with their win-loss record.

29. Miami Dolphins (2-6)
Previous Rank: #31
The Fish get bumped up a few spots with that impressive win over Da Bears in Chicago. But let’s not get crazy here – Joey Harrington is still their quarterback. If Miami keeps getting the effort it got out of RB Ronnie Brown, however, the Dolphins will eventually make it out of the basement of these power rankings.

30. Houston Texans (2-6)
Previous Rank: #28
I don’t think you can take anything away from Houston’s effort last Sunday in New York against the Giants. However, with Miami’s win in Chicago and Detroit’s performance against the Falcons, the Texans have to drop. And I still think Cleveland is a better team than Houston at this point in the season.

31. Arizona Cardinals (1-7)
Previous Rank: #32
Only Oakland’s Monday Night Football Performance in Seattle saved the Cards from the final spot.

32. Oakland Raiders (2-6)
Previous Rank: 29
Every single thing that relates to Oakland’s offense is terrible. From Tom Walsh’s putrid game plans, to Randy Moss’s attitude, to Andrew Walter not being able to hit a receiver, to that miserable excuse for an offensive line that the Raiders have is all absolutely awful.

NFL