here's a little snippet from Tim Donaghy after game 7...
"The big thing that stands out about the series is how dramatically the officiating changed after the first two games. In Games 1 and 2, the referees handed out fouls like candy — 54 were called in the opener, 58 in the next game. Over the remainder of the series, refs called an average of 44 fouls. What happened? Well, I can say from experience that it had nothing to do with the play on the floor and a lot more to do with what happened in a hotel room the morning of every game.
Here's how it works: In the playoffs, three refs and an alternate meet in a hotel room with a group supervisor before a game. The league office e-mails the supervisor a list of things it wants the officials to concentrate on, and the supervisor relays the message to the refs in their meeting. When I was in the league, the memos — hot off the desks of the likes of Stu Jackson, Ed T. Rush, or Ronnie Nunn — would usually detail what kinds of fouls needed to be better addressed. The message would be something like, Team X is getting away with an enormous amount of handchecking, or Shawn Bradley is hanging out under the basket, not really defending anybody. He's committing a defensive three-second violation. The goal was to set the tone for that night's game and, even more broadly, for the series. An extreme example: the 2005 Dallas-Houston matchup. I was the alternate for Game 3 and sat in on the meeting with the group supervisor. We were told explicitly to start calling moving screens and traveling violations on Yao Ming. (Jeff Van Gundy would later complain publicly that referees were targeting Yao; he got fined for it.) Houston was up 2-0 at that point. Dallas wound up winning in seven games."
can't post in the mains, and i'm not making a thread for idiots in the PB... but this needs discussion... tomorrow is the last day of the gambling season for the year (i consider the start of the gambling season to be week 1 of CFB)... so after tomorrow i am a ghost... but before it ends, i'm very curious to get anyone's feedback on this...
from Sportsbook.com... odds to win MVP (from this morning)
Kobe (-300)
Gasol (+2000)
Garnett (+2000)
Pierce (+300)
Rondo (+400)
Allen (+180)
Others (irrelevant for this discussion)
now, let's take a few assumptions, and see if we agree...
1) IF the Lakers win game 7, a Laker will FOR SURE (100%) win MVP (i.e., Rondo won't be winning MVP unless Boston wins)
2) IF Boston wins game 7, there is a very small chance (less than zero) that Kobe could still win MVP in defeat (ala Jerry West in 1969)
3) IF the Lakers win game 7, Kobe has AT LEAST a 95% chance of winning MVP... probably more
if we agree on all of these, we are stuck with a dilemma... a sportsbook will definitely screw people on prop odds... however, they will not put up a prop with odds that are unbettable, and they have done that in this case...
consider... if you think a Celtic will win MVP (meaning you think Boston will win game 7), you can have the following options: (a) Ray Allen (+180)... (b) Paul Pierce (+300)... (c) Rajon Rondo (+400)... (e) all of the above plus the rest of the Cs roster (+280) by taking Boston ML...
here's the point... they made Ray Allen unbettable... it's one thing to try to scare people off... it's another thing to make it unbettable... nobody with any brain cells will bet Ray (+180) when they can have Boston's whole team (+280)...
you can't use the argument that they are just skewing the odds in extreme fashion... because if they are, why can you get Kobe (-300), but the Lakers (-350)... ?
both of these statements in bold, in and of themselves, don't add up... when you put them both together... i guess that's what they mean by the "new math"???
any thoughts?
SEC
Pac 10
ACC
Big East
Big 12
Big 10
MW3
Boise
10-4
SEC
2-1
5-2
2-0
1-1
0-0
0-0
0-0
7-6
Pac 10
1-2
1-1
0-1
1-0
3-1
1-0
0-1
10-12
ACC
2-5
1-1
3-2
2-2
1-0
1-2
0-0
7-8
Big East
0-2
1-0
2-3
2-0
2-2
0-1
0-0
4-8
Big 12
1-1
0-1
2-2
0-2
1-1
0-1
0-0
4-7
Big 10
0-0
1-3
0-1
2-2
1-1
0-0
0-0
4-2
MW3
0-0
0-1
2-1
1-0
1-0
0-0
0-0
1-0
Boise
0-0
1-0
0-0
0-0
0-0
0-0
0-0
hope this works... included the Mountain West 3 (TCU, BYU and Utah) and Boise, just for the hell of it...