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Slainte! Beyond Green Beer on St. Patrick’s Day – Wall Street Journal (blog)

Thursday, March 17th, 2011

By Charles Passy

Say goodbye to the green beer.

That’s our quick piece of advice to St. Patrick’s Day revelers. The fact remains that Ireland is a country with a serious sipping tradition, especially when it comes to quality whiskeys and brews. And each year sees plenty of new bottles to try. With that in mind, Speakeasy surveyed the Irish liquid landscape to find these five recent or noteworthy releases As they say in Ireland, “Slainte!” (That basically means”cheers” or  “good health,” and you can say it before you toss one back.)

Jameson 18 Year Old ($87): John Jameson founded his namesake Dublin distillery back in 1780 – and the company is still turning out wonderfully approachable whiskies to this day (unlike its Scottish counterpart, Irish whiskey is generally made without peat, so that smoky taste is noticeably absent). This 18-year blended version qualifies as a first-rate whiskey – Irish or otherwise – and is notable for its subtly beguiling sweetness. (The brand’s tasting notes boast of “fudge/toffee, spice, gentle sherry” flavors.) Don’t waste this one on Irish coffee – it’s far better to enjoy solo.

Bushmills Malt 21 Year Old ($90): Bushmills is Ireland’s other big whiskey brand — it takes its name from the Bushmills region – and it’s been pushing its higher-end expressions of late. The 21 Year Old is a single malt – less common in Irish whiskies – and a distinctive one at that (the new packaging alone, replete with a sturdy case, tells you this isn’t your everyday spirit). The overall impression is of fruit – “dried fruit,” the brand asserts (think raisins) – with an assertive finish.

Michael Collins 10-Year-Old Single Malt ($40): Michael Collins proudly points to the fact it’s the last independent, Irish-owned whiskey maker in Ireland (and for those lacking in a knowledge of Irish history, Michael Collins was a famed Irish political leader, killed in 1922 during the Irish Civil War). The 10-year is another single malt – more affordable, but nicely complex all the same, with a surprising hint of smoke.

Guinness Foreign Extra Stout ($9.49 for a four-pack): Sure, we all enjoy a well-poured pint of Guinness at our local pub — call it the Irish “bread of life.” But the venerable Irish brewery crafts several varieties of beer and this one has just been re-introduced to this country (for the first time since Prohibition!). It’s a hoppier version of the traditional Guinness draught and a bit more alcoholic, too – certainly worth a try.

Magners Pear Cider ($7.99 for a four pack): Looking for a sweet sip on St. Patrick’s? Then consider this truly delicious and newly released cider – like a pear soda with a mildly alcoholic kick. The Irish enjoy it over ice – just as they do with the 75-year-old brand’s traditional apple cider. But we prefer chilling it in the fridge and not diluting that fruity essence. Either way, enjoy.

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Irish whiskey: the spirit of St Patrick – The Guardian

Wednesday, March 16th, 2011

A selection of Bushmill’s Irish whiskey. Photograph: Paul Faith/PA

Go into any pub this St Patrick’s day, and you’d be forgiven for thinking the scourge of Ireland‘s snakes was born in St James’ Gate, so cannily has a certain Dublin brewery leaped on the emerald green bandwagon with shamrock bunting, shameless hats and merchandising. Despite its considerable clout at the pumps, Guinness is not the only stout in the world though – and stout, as pleasing as it is, is emphatically not the only Irish drink worth toasting old Pádraig with, on this or any other day.

If Ireland’s cornered the market in beer as black as a boot, Scotland – the likely birthplace of yer man Patrick, as it happens – has established a near monopoly on uisce beatha; they traded a saint for a holy spirit, and seem to have got themselves a bit of a bargain. The scotch whisky market is worth £4bn a year, the Irish one considerably less but, after decades in the doldrums, it is at last rallying: exports were up 30% last year.

The Scots may be the ones making the money, but Ireland has a fair claim on the copyright. The art of distillation is thought to have been introduced to the Emerald Isle by monks after spreading the word of God, and, with abundant supplies of barley, water and peat to power the stills, they were on to a winner – with the whiskey at least. There was certainly a distillery in County Westmeath by the 12th century: the first record of whisky production across the water in Fife doesn’t appear until 1494 (although given it’s a receipt for enough malt to produce 1,500 bottles, it seems unlikely this was the purchaser’s first foray into the market).

Pot stills at Bushmills distilleryPot stills at Bushmills distillery, Co Antrim. Photograph: Felicity Cloake

For much of its history Irish whiskey was regarded as the superior spirit – Elizabeth I certainly seems to have appreciated it, if shipping documents serve correct – and by the end of the 18th century, there are thought to have been 2,000 distilleries in Ireland; one for every 2,000 people. Most were probably tin pot affairs, but the industry was still perfectly placed to take advantage of the phylloxera epidemic that devastated European vineyards in the mid-19th century. With the world’s brandy drinkers left thirsty, the Victorian period was a boom time for Irish whiskey, which enjoyed a huge export trade around the Empire: tea was planted, sheep tended and the local workforce subdued with the help of Jameson and its ilk.

Perhaps inevitably, the infamous luck of the Irish eventually caught up with their whiskey industry. It was a Dublin man, Aeneas Coffey, who perfected the design of the modern continuous still, making distillation cheaper and more efficient. Local distillers pooh-poohed his idea, so he took his invention over to Scotland, where they seized upon its money-making potential immediately, enabling them to embark upon grain whisky production and to finally beat the Irish at their own game.

A century or so later, while the Irish were still hanging stubbornly on to their old-fashioned pot stills, there came the double whammy of prohibition – which effectively shut down one of their biggest markets – and independence, which prompted the British to slap a great big import tax on their product. As for the GIs who developed a taste for scotch while stationed in Britain during the war, well, by that point it hardly mattered. By the 1970s there was just one distilling business left on the entire island of Ireland.

Thanks to new boy Cooley, the country’s only independent distillery (and, indeed, the only one in Irish ownership) which appeared in 1987, as well as the more recent sale of Bushmills to drinks giant Diageo, there are now three distillers active there. Scotland, meanwhile, has over 100.

But despite what the sales figures may say, and whatever your take on the history, sweet and ever so subtle, Irish whiskey is worth drinking for itself. One word you’ll hear a lot in any distillery there is “smooth”. It seems to have become the industry’s USP, and it’s a fair observation: the vast majority of the output is triple, rather than double distilled, as most scotches are (although, as buffs are always keen to point out, there are exceptions in both cases), a process which helps to rub off those fiery edges and gives a lighter, cleaner final spirit. If you’re a fan of big-hitting Islay whiskies you may struggle to recognise the more subtle Irish version, but Bushmill’s 10 year old, a remarkable delicate, apple-scented, subtly spiced single malt which master blender Helen Mulholland describes as “the backbone of everything we do here”, is the perfect example of the difference between the two spirits.

However, although they now have some outstandingly subtle single malts to choose from, traditionally the Irish favour more boisterous blends of malted and unmalted barley from the round-bellied copper pot stills which once ruled every distillery on both sides of the Irish Sea. Very few 100% pot still whiskies are now made – but Redbreast and Green Spot are notable examples, and well worth a try if you can track them down (some Waitrose shops, and London’s Berry Bros & Rudd have Redbreast). The latter, distilled in Cork for Dublin wine merchants Mitchell & Son, is particularly elusive – try online – but all the better for it: whisky writer Jim Murray has described it as a “beautifully preserved, almost living throwback to the old Ireland.”

In its eagerness to catch up its old rival, Ireland even produces a peated whiskey these days – Connemara, produced by Cooley, gives the lie to the idea that Islay has the monopoly on smoke, although the sweet, slightly grassy undertones give it a distinctively Irish personality you wouldn’t mistake in a month of Sundays.

As we sniff some of Bushmill’s unpeated barley, grown in Co Cork, Helen suggests that the Irish triple distil their whiskey because “we’re always looking for a smoother, clearer flavour”. When I ask why she shrugs – “we just like it that way. You’ll tend to find we do a lot of things just because we like them – many of them make no sense otherwise!”

Felicity Cloake drinks Bushmill's Felicity Cloake and Bushmill’s master blender Helen Mulholland enjoy a drop of Irish whiskey at the Giant’s Causeway, Co Antrim.

The same individualist sentiment could be applied to the master blender’s own “baby”, the Bushmills 1608, a special bottling created to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the distillery licence, which is a decadent riot of dark chocolate, mixed peel and sweet spice. Cocoa is also a feature of the distillery’s acclaimed 16-year-old, finished in three different woods (described by Whisky Magazine as boasting “seismic waves of spicy fruit”) and the satin-smooth 21-year old, which has a distinctly After Eight-like finish. “Other blenders always say they can taste my blends” Helen smiles.

This sense of playfulness is one of my favourite things about Irish whiskey. Because the flavours tend to be cleaner, it seems to work better in cocktails than scotch as well – Colum Egan, Bushmills’ master distiller, likes to drink their feisty Black Bush blend with ginger ale, and Helen favours it with lemon and lime, but I think, after prolonged experimentation, it makes a pretty incredible Old Fashioned.

Alternatively, of course, you can celebrate St Patrick’s Day, US-style, with the utterly revolting sounding “Everybody’s Irish” – whiskey, crème de menthe and green Chartreuse, garnished with a green olive. But if you’re going to do that, you may as well buy a Guinness hat and stick the Pogues on while you’re at it.

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Aflac dumps duck voice actor for tasteless tweets

Tuesday, March 15th, 2011

COLUMBUS, Ga. — Aflac Inc. said Monday it has fired Gilbert Gottfried, the abrasive voice of the insurer’s quacking duck in the U.S., after the comedian posted a string of mocking jokes about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on Twitter over the weekend.

The tasteless tweets are particularly problematic for Aflac because it does 75 percent of its business in Japan. One in four homes in Japan buys health insurance from Aflac. The insurer’s CEO, Daniel Amos, flew to Japan on Sunday to show support for the company’s employees and agents.

Aflac said in a statement Monday that Gottfried’s jokes do not represent the feelings of the company, which previously announced it would donate 100 million yen ($1.2 million) to the International Red Cross to help with disaster assistance.

Story: Japan accident dims odds of U.S. nuclear revival

“There is no place for anything but compassion and concern during these difficult times,” Chief Marketing Officer Michael Zuna said.

The tweets in question were removed from Gottfried’s Twitter feed Monday after Aflac announced it would stop working with the comedian.

Disaster at a glance

Size, magnitude A massive 9.0 magnitude earthquake — fifth largest since 1900 — struck at 2:46 p.m. local time Friday (12:46 a.m. ET), centered approximately 100 miles east of Sendai city on Japan’s main island, Honshu.

Tsunami The quake generated a tsunami of at least 23 feet that swept boats, cars, buildings and tons of debris miles inland in Japan. Smaller swells struck other Pacific Rim countries and even the United States, causing serious but far less extensive damage.

Casualties The death toll from last week’s earthquake and tsunami jumped Tuesday as police confirmed the number killed had topped 2,400. Officials have said previously that at least 10,000 people may have died in Miyagi province alone.

Nuclear plants The fuel rods at three nuclear reactors at the Tokyo Electric Power Co.’s Fukushima Dai-ichi plant are believed to be in various stages of melting; authorities have ordered the evacuation of a 19-mile radius around the plant.

Other impacts Transportation and communications systems were largely paralyzed and large swaths of the country remain without power; the Tokyo Electric Power Co. is imposing rolling blackouts in areas that do have power to ensure it can meet demand. Some commodities, including gas, are scarce.

Gottfried has voiced the duck in numerous Aflac commercials since 2000. His career includes a run as a cast member on “Saturday Night Live” and a role as the voice of the parrot in Disney’s “Aladdin.” He has also recorded a 50-minute show of dirty jokes.

The insurer said it will start a casting search for his replacement. The company also noted that Gottfried is not the voice of the duck in Japan. Aflac’s mascot has a softer, sweeter voice in Japanese commercials.

Aflac is gearing up for an influx of claims in the wake of the disaster, though it expects only a minimal financial impact to total results. The company, which has been doing business in Japan since 1974, said less than 5 percent of Aflac Japan’s new sales and in-force premiums come from the hard-hit Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures there.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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USC Off To Dayton To Meet VCU In NCAA Tournament – University of Southern California Official Athletic Site

Monday, March 14th, 2011

March 14, 2011

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USC-VCU GAME — The No. 11 seed USC Trojans (19-14, 10-8) will face No. 11 seed Virginia Commonwealth (23-11, 12-6) in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in one of the new First Four games on March 16 at 6:10 p.m. (PT) at the University of Dayton Arena in Dayton, Ohio. The winner of this game will advance to face No. 6 seed Georgetown (21-10, 10-8) on March 18 at 6:50 p.m. (PT) at the United Center in Chicago, Ill. USC has won six of its last eight games.

BREAKING DOWN THE RAMS — VCU is coming off a 70-65 loss to Old Dominion in the Colonial Athletic Conference finals on March 7. They advanced to the finals by defeating top seed George Mason 79-63 in the CAC semifinals on March 6. VCU has gone 3-5 in its last eight games. The Rams are led in scoring by senior forward Jamie Skeen (15.3), junior guard Bradford Burgess (14.0) and senior guard Bradon Rozzell (11.3). VCU averages 71.5 points per game and has forced 506 turnovers. This is the first-ever meeting between the two schools.

USC FALLS IN PAC-10 SEMIS — Despite finding out just hours before the game that its coach would be suspended for the remainder of the Pac-10 Tournament due to an off-court incident, USC provided No. 1 seed Arizona all it could handle before falling 67-62 in the Pac-10 Semifinals held at the Staples Center on March 11. Associate head coach Bob Cantu guided the Trojans back from a 12-point second-half deficit to within three points at 63-60 with 48 seconds left, but Arizona’s Derrick Williams sank all four of his free throw attempts down the stretch to hold off the Trojans. Williams shared game-high scoring honors with USC’s Marcus Simmons, who had a career-high 20 points and made a career-best three 3-pointers. Nikola Vucevic shook off a slow start to finish with 16 points and 12 rebounds for his 21st double-double of the season.

USC IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT — USC is making its 16th appearance in the NCAA Tournament and sixth time in the last 11 seasons and owns a 12-17 record all-time (one loss in 2008 later vacated due to NCAA penalty, revised record 12-16). USC last appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 2009 and defeated Boston College in the first round (72-55), before falling to eventual runner-up Michigan State in the second round (74-69).

GEORGETOWN ON DECK — The Southwest No. 6 seed Georgetown awaits the winner of the USC-VCU game. After a first-round bye, the Hoyas lost in the second round of the Big East Tournament to UConn, 79-62, and have lost four straight. Senior guard Austin Freeman leads Georgetown in scoring with a 17.9 average. USC has never faced Georgetown.

USC VS. THE FIELD — USC played six teams in the 2011 NCAA Tournament Field and posted a 5-5 record (Arizona 1-2, Kansas 0-1, Tennessee 1-0, Texas 1-0, UCLA 1-1, Washington 1-1)

TROJANS TOPS IN DEFENSE — USC has held the opposition to 62.8 points per game, the fewest allowed per game among conference teams. USC also ranks second in the Pac-10 in field goal defense at 41.2 percent. USC is 13-0 when it holds the opponent to less than 60 points.

USC WEATHERING THE STORM — Despite 3 players leaving early to play professionally and virtually the entire recruiting class leaving before he could coach a game, USC head coach Kevin O’Neill has kept the Trojans highly competitive in 2010 and 2011. USC was in the thick of the 2010 Pac-10 title race until the final weeks of the season, despite taking a postseason ban. USC lost 4 of its Top 6 scorers from last year’s 16-win team and has had to overcome the cumulative loss of 12 players in a one-year span. USC was one scholarship down both last season and this, yet has gone a composite 35-28 in O’Neill’s first 63 games while playing one of the tougher schedules in the country, including posting a 5-4 record vs. ranked teams. O’Neill was able to bridge the gap that created a one-man sophomore scholarship class of Evan Smith (out all season due to injury) by bringing in transfers Jio Fontan this season and Aaron Fuller and Dewayne Dedmon next season. In addition, USC has a top 10-ranked 2011 recruiting class according to Hoopscooponline.com.

USC SEEKS 20TH — Kevin O’Neill has guided USC to a 19-14 record and nearing its 19th 20-win season in school history. USC has reached the 20-win plateau 6 times in the past 31 seasons.

BRING IT ON — USC’s 2010-11 schedule features 23 of 33 games against teams which finished the 2009-10 season with a record of .500 or better. Among the nonconference highlights were games against perennial national powers: at Kansas on Dec. 18 (L, 70-68), at Tennessee on Dec. 21 (W, 65-64) and a home game vs. Texas on Dec. 5 (W, 73-56). Of USC’s 31 regular season games, 21 of the opponents finished at .500 or better for a combined record of 538-410 (.567 winning percentage). Jeff Sagarin and CBSSportsline.com lists the Trojans’ schedule as the 42nd-hardest in the country.

AT THEIR BEST AGAINST THE BEST — With the win over No. 10 Arizona on Feb. 24, USC finished 3-2 vs. ranked opponents during the 2010-11 season. As of March 7, USC was also 5-4 vs. the top 50 teams in the current RPI rankings. USC was also one of only 17 teams in the Sagarin top 100 to have at least 2 wins and be .500 or better (2-2) vs. current top 25 teams. USC is also one of 19 teams in the country with at least two games played against Sagarin top 50 teams and owning an above .500 record (5-4) as of March 3.

PAC-10 PREDICTIONS — USC was picked to finish 6th in 2010-11 in the Pac-10 Conference in a vote by the league media. Washington was picked 1st, Arizona 2nd, UCLA 3rd, Arizona State 4th, Washington State 5th, California 7th, Oregon State 8th, Stanford 9th and Oregon 10th.

A HISTORY OF WINNING — USC has compiled a record of 1,494-1,070* in its 105 years of intercollegiate basketball competition. USC has had a .500 or better record in 76* of the 105 seasons.

TROJANS IN THE RANKINGS — USC is unranked in the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, the AP poll and the CBSSportsline poll. USC did receive one vote in the AP poll on Dec. 27, good for T-46th.

THE GALEN ADVANTAGE — USC is 12-4 in home games this season and is 63-19 in the first five seasons of the Galen Center’s existence.

USC ANNOUNCES PLANS FOR NEW ATHLETIC BUILDING – - On Oct. 30, USC athletic director Pat Haden announced plans for a new 110,000-square foot building that will house meeting rooms, coaches offices and a locker room for the football program, as well as an academic center, weight room, athletic training room and state-of-the-art digital media production facility for all of USC’s 21 sports. It will be built directly west of Heritage Hall on the USC campus. Groundbreaking on the project was on Jan. 12 and construction will take about 18 months. The 2-story building will include a basement, and will feature a brick exterior that matches the architecture of most USC buildings. State-of-the-art technology will be included throughout the building. It will be located on the site of the current intramural field that is adjacent to Heritage Hall and the Galen Dining Center. That field will be relocated just south of its current spot, between this new building and Loker Track Stadium. Fundraising has begun for the $70 million project, which will include the cost of the building, a maintenance endowment, and renovation of vacated space in Heritage Hall.

PAC-10 RETURNS — USC had had to replace a large portion of scoring production from last season as they rank 9th in the conference in returning scoring at 42.8 percent.

ROSTER BREAKDOWN — There are 14 players on the 2010-11 USC roster, including four walk-ons (James Dunleavy, Daniel Munoz, Eric Strangis and Tyler Sugiyama) and one player (Aaron Fuller) who will not be eligible until the 2011-12 season due to transfer rules. The Trojan team by class: Sr. (4): Dunleavy (Rs. Jr.-eligibility), Donte Smith, Marcus Simmons, Alex Stepheson, Jr. (4): Jio Fontan, Nikola Vucevic, Fuller, Strangis, So. (3): Evan Smith, Daniel Munoz, Tyler Sugiyama (Rs. Fr.–eligibility), Fr. (3): Garrett Jackson, Maurice Jones, Curtis Washington.

INJURY UPDATES — Evan Smith had season-ending left shoulder surgery on Dec. 23.

THE FRESHMAN “MOJO” – Freshman point guard Maurice Jones, standing 5-7 and weighing 155 pounds, has been a tower of power for USC. He is tied for fourth on the team with an average of 9.9 points per game and second with 40 three-pointers made, fourth with 2.6 rebounds per game and leads USC with 110 assists and 69 steals. Jones was second in steals and is ninth in assists among Pac-10 players. Jones has scored in double-figures 15 times and has a Trojan game-high of 29 points on Nov. 15 vs. Santa Clara. He was USC’s primary ball-handler the first 10 games and shares the duties now with Jio Fontan and has just five games all season with more turnovers than assists. In his last 24 games, Jones has 75 assists and 40 turnovers, while making 52 steals. Jones posted a season high of 6 steals at ASU on Jan 27. Jones’ 69 steals are the most by a Trojan since Errick Craven had 73 steals during the 2003 season. Jones ended the regular season T-25th in the country and third among freshmen with an average of 2.1 steals per game. His 69 steals are a new USC freshman record and rank seventh all-time by a Pac-10 freshman. Arizona’s Gilbert Arenas ranks sixth all-time among Pac-10 freshmen in steals with 71 in the 2000 season. Jones also ranks on several other USC freshman top 10 lists: assists (5th, 110), 3-point baskets (6th, 40) and free throws made (8th, 66).

VUCEVIC NAMED TO ALL-PAC-10 FIRST TEAM – Junior forward Nikola Vucevic was named Pac-10 Most Improved Player for the 2010 season and continues to take his game to the next level in 2011, this season being named to the Pac-10 First Team and to the FOXSports.com All-America Fourth Team. Through the first 33 games, Vucevic leads USC with 17.3 points and 10.2 rebounds while attempting to become the first Trojan to average a double-double since Jaha Wilson averaged 14.2 points and 10.1 rebounds during the 1994-95 season. Vucevic leads the conference in total rebounds (336) and defensive rebounds (240), ranks second in minutes per game (34.8), is fourth in blocked shots (45) and third in scoring (17.3 ppg). Vucevic has demonstrated an all-around game for USC, leading the team in points, blocks and rebounds, ranking second in free throw percentage (.752), third in assists (54) and ranking third in three-pointers made (29). Vucevic has had 13 20-point games and 21 double-doubles this season. He has averaged 19.2 points and 10.5 rebounds in the last 13 games (250 points/136 rebounds). Vucevic in the only player in the Pac-10 to rank in the top three in both points and rebounds per game. He was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for Feb. 21-27 as he led the Trojans to wins over then-No. 10 Arizona and ASU. Vucevic averaged 22.5 points and 11.0 rebounds in the two games.

SIMMONS NAMED PAC-10 DEFENSIVE PLAYER OF THE YEAR – Senior guard Marcus Simmons was named the 2011 Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year. He has frequently been called upon in his career to guard the opponent’s top scorer, holding most below their season average. On Dec. 5 vs. No. 19 Texas he guarded Texas’ Jordan Hamilton, averaging 21.7 points and 7.0 rebounds per game. Simmons held Hamilton to 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting and limited him to four rebounds. On Dec. 11 vs. NAU, he covered Cameron Jones who was coming off a 27-point performance and averaged 20.0 points this season, 23rd in the country. Simmons held Jones to 10 points on 4 of 14 shooting. He was also matched up against Tennessee’s top scorer Scotty Hopson on Dec. 21 and was part of the reason he was held to just eight points. On Dec. 23 vs. Lehigh, Simmons was matched up against C.J. McCollum who averaged 21.8 points this season (9th in the country) and helped hold him to seven points. On Dec. 31 vs. WSU, was matched on the Pac-10′s leading scorer Klay Thompson who finished with 17 points, but made only 6 of 18 shots. Simmons has started USC’s first 33 games and averaged 5.0 points and 2.8 rebounds. He matched a season and career high with eight rebounds vs. Stanford on Jan. 20. Simmons scored a career-high 20 points in the Pac-10 semifinals vs. Arizona on March 11.

DONTE’S INFERNO — Senior guard Donte Smith torched the nets by making 8 of 12 three-point attempts and finishing with a career-high 24 points, 12 straight in the second half (4 consecutive 3-pointers), on Jan. 22 vs. California. The 8 three-pointers made were the second-most in school history. Anthony Pendleton holds the school record with 9 three-point baskets on Dec. 9, 1987. Smith has made at least one shot from beyond the arc in all but four games this season and ranks 4th in the Pac-10 with 73 long-range makes. Smith now has 105 three-point baskets in his Trojan career, tied for 16th on USC’s all-time list with Rodney Chatman. Against NAU on Dec. 11, Smith scored 14 consecutive points for USC in the second half of the victory after the Lumberjacks had cut the lead to three points. In Smith’s second-half barrage were four three-pointers and a layup which put the game away. Smith scored a then career-high 22 points in the game and made a then career-best five three-pointers. He followed that up with 20 points in 20 minutes at Kansas on Dec. 18, also making five three-pointers and hitting six of eight shots overall. He was held to six points at Tennessee, but hit a big three-pointer at the end of the game. Smith began the season coming off the bench and has started the last 8 games and is averaging 9.9 points for USC, T-4th-best on the team. He leads the team lead with 73 three-pointers made and leads the team with a 84.8 percent success rate from the free throw line. His pair of free throws with 10 seconds left clinched USC’s 60-56 win vs. WSU on Dec. 31. His 73 three-pointers rank tied for seventh-best in a single season by a Trojan.

STEPHESON SHOWS TWO HANDS BETTER THAN ONE — Senior Alex Stepheson scored six points, had three blocks and grabbed 13 rebounds in the season opener vs. UC Irvine on Nov. 13, but also suffered a fracture in his left hand. From that point until the game vs. UCLA on Jan. 9, he wore brace during games and for a time a cast between games. In his first game having the use of both hands on Jan. 9, Stepheson had 13 points and a career-high 16 rebounds and followed that up with 9 points and 8 rebounds at Oregon on Jan. 13. He really adapted after the first five games of the season and has averaged 10.8 points (301 total) and 9.8 rebounds (273 total) in the last 28 games, with 11 double-doubles. Stepheson has had at least 8 rebounds in 23 of the last 28 games. Stepheson ranks second in rebounds per game (9.2), sixth in blocks (35), ninth in minutes per game (32.8) and sixth in field goal percentage (.560) among Pac-10 players. Stepheson scored 25 points and grabbed 16 rebounds in the Bay Area sweep of Cal and Stanford. He then had 27 points and 20 rebounds in the home sweep of the Arizona schools. USC is 11-1 in games Stepheson has a double-double and 13-2 in games he has double-digits in rebounds.

THE FONTAN FACTOR — After sitting out nearly a season and a half following his transfer to USC from Fordham, guard Jio Fontan hasn’t missed a beat, averaging 10.4 points, 4.0 assists in his first 23 games. During the 23 games, he leads the team in assists (92), is third in points per game (10.4), tied for third in three-pointers made (21), fourth in minutes (721) and is fourth in steals (16). Fontan was named Pac-10 Player of the Week for the Week of Dec. 20-26 when he averaged 17.0 points, 4.0 assists and 3.5 steals in USC’s wins vs. Tennessee and Lehigh. Fontan had to sit out the first 10 games of this season due to transfer rules and without its court leader, USC lost to Rider, vs. Bradley (1 point), at Nebraska (2 points) and at TCU.

DRIVEN BY DEFENSE — USC has held 86 teams to 60 points or less in the last six seasons (196 games), including 15 this season. The Trojans have held 16 teams this season (14-2) to 40 percent or less shooting from the field, 17 last season (13-4) and have held 102 teams (82-20) under 40 percent shooting in the last six seasons. USC held Stanford to 22.2 percent shooting on Jan. 20, the lowest percentage by a Trojan opponent in at least the last 30 seasons. USC held its opponents in the 2009-10 season to a 38.4 shooting percentage, best in the Pac-10. USC currently ranks second in the Pac-10 by holding the opposition to a 41.2 percent from the floor.

TROJANS BOAST TOP TANDEM – Forwards Nikola Vucevic and Alex Stepheson have teamed up to give the Trojans a strong presence in the paint, both offensively and defensively. Vucevic leads the Pac-10 and is 5th in the country with 21 double-doubles, while Stepheson is third in the conference with 12 double-doubles. The tandem also ranks No. 1 and No. 2 in the Pac-10 in rebounding with Vucevic grabbing 10.2 and Stepheson 9.2 rebounds per game. Through games of March 7, Vucevic (16th) and Stepheson (46th) were the only pair of teammates in the country in the top 50 in rebounding.

USC NEARLY UNBEATABLE… — …when holding the opposition to under 40 percent shooting from the field. USC is 14-1 this season when the opposition shoots under 40 percent (only loss at Kansas – .389). California made 42.6 percent of its shots in USC’s win on March 10, just the fifth time this season the Trojans have won when allowing 40 percent or more shooting by the opposition (5-13).

IT’S SIMPLE REALLY… – USC is 17-3 when posting a better shooting percentage than the opposition and 15-4 when getting more or as many rebounds.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES – USC is 5-7 in games played on Saturday and 1-3 in Wednesday games. The Trojans are a combined 13-4 in games played on other days of the week.

CLOSE ENCOUNTERS AWAY FROM HOME — Eleven of the 17 games USC played on the road or neutral site this season have been decided by 8 points or less (L, by 1 vs. Bradley, L by 2 at Neb., L by 2 at Kansas, W by 1 at Tennessee, L by 6 at Oregon, L by 4 at Oregon State, W by 2 at ASU, W by 3 at California, L by 8 at Washington State, W by 2 at Washington, L by 5 vs. Arizona).

THE LONG-RANGE CHANGE — After making just 107 three-pointers last season, last in the conference by a significant margin, the Trojans have already made 203 shots from beyond the arc and rank tied for sixth in that category. Donte Smith leads the way with 73 (4th in the conference and 30 more than last year’s Trojan leader Dwight Lewis – 43), followed by Maurice Jones with 40 and Nikola Vucevic with 29. As a team, USC had made 35.7 percent of its three-point shots, fourth in the conference. USC hit just 29.7 percent from long-range last season.

JACKSON MAKING HIS SHOTS COUNT – Freshman forward Garrett Jackson suffered a fractured nose in preseason practice and eventually had it reset. As a result, Jackson began his college career behind a mask, wearing protective gear until the game at Nebraska on Nov. 27. With the mask removed, Jackson went 3-for-3 from the field and scored seven points in nine minutes. It wasn’t really a big change for the freshman, who after adjusting to the college game and shooting with a mask on, has been one of the Trojans’ top shooters. In his first 32 collegiate games, Jackson has hit 55.6 percent of his shots from the field (45-for-81). He also has hit 9 of 20 three-point attempts (45.0 percent).

SOPHOMORE CLASS HAS SURGERY — Evan Smith, the Trojans’ only sophomore scholarship player, had surgery to repair his left glenoid labrum on Dec. 23 and will miss the entire season. Dr. Thomas Vangsness performed the surgery at USC Hospital. Smith has been sidelined with the injury since early in the preseason practice schedule, but is expected to make a full recovery in time for the 2011-12 season. He averaged 1.9 points and 1.1 rebounds in 8 games for USC in 2009-10. Smith was USC’s only remaining recruit from the 2009-10 class.

MINER INDUCTED INTO PAC-10 HALL OF FAME – USC’s all-time leading scorer Harold Miner was inducted into the Pac-10 Hall of Honor on March 12, during the 2011 Pac-10 Men’s Basketball Tournament. Miner completed his three-year Trojan career atop USC’s all-time scoring list with 2,048 points, becoming just the second conference player to score 2,000 points in three seasons. Miner was a three-time All-Pac-10 honoree and his senior season of 1992 earned him the Sports Illustrated College Basketball Player of the Year award and selection as a consensus All-American.

* 21 wins and 1 loss in 2007-08 later vacated due to NCAA penalty (revised all-time record 1,473-1,069; USC now 74 seasons .500 or better

 

 

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Basketball RPI: Why it’s a lousy way to pick teams for the NCAA Tournament. – Slate Magazine

Monday, March 14th, 2011

John Thompson III. Click image to expand.Georgetown head coach John Thompson IIIOn Sunday, the NCAA basketball selection committee will reveal the bracket for this year’s NCAA Tournament. The lynchpin of this process is the Ratings Percentage Index, a ranking tool that sorts college hoops teams based on wins, losses, and strength of schedule. As Selection Sunday approaches, commentators on CBS and ESPN always discuss teams’ tournament worthiness in terms of RPI—how many wins they have over top-50 teams, losses against teams below 100 in the RPI, and so forth.

Tournament poobahs have always insisted that the RPI—which has been used by the committee for 30 years—is just one tool of many, both objective and subjective, that go into picking which teams make the Big Dance. Amateur bracketologists, however, have been able to simulate the selection process fairly precisely using RPI data alone. No matter what the NCAA says, then, the RPI is a significant factor in the bracketing process. That wouldn’t be a problem, except that the RPI works against the committee’s stated procedures. The NCAA Tournament selectors are charged with selecting the “37 best at-large teams” after the tourney’s automatic qualifiers have been decided. The RPI, however, is a primitive tool that doesn’t do a good job of accomplishing this task.

RPI is made up of three components: 25 percent comes from a team’s own winning percentage, 50 percent from its opponents’ winning percentage, and 25 percent from of its opponents’ opponents’ winning percentage. Kansas leads this season’s RPI rankings, followed by Ohio State, San Diego State, BYU, and Duke. It’s not an unreasonable top five.

Not every team’s RPI ranking is that sensible. The biggest problem with the metric is how it uses strength of schedule. Theoretically, the best team in the country could play the weakest possible slate of opponents. While playing bad opponents shouldn’t imply that you’re a bad team, three-quarters of the RPI is determined by a strength-of-schedule component. That means who you play is often more important than whether you win or lose.

It’s difficult for a team to have a highly rated schedule and not also have a high RPI ranking. Georgetown, which has played the nation’s toughest schedule according to the RPI, is ranked 12th despite a 21-10 record, which probably overrates them by 10-20 spots. They could have even suffered a few more losses and still had a very nice RPI simply due to the boost they receive from playing good teams.

Because strength of schedule is so important, a team can drop in the RPI by playing an opponent with a poor record, regardless of the outcome. Some coaches, most notably Gonzaga’s Mark Few, have gotten wise to this. Instead of scheduling the dregs of Division I, they play teams that are much, much worse—Division II squads that are off the radar to the RPI, which only counts games against D-I opponents. (It seems these games are ignored by the selection committee as well. In 2009, Utah got a five-seed despite having lost at home to Division II Southwest Baptist.)

The RPI also does not account for context. A loss against a great team is more valuable than a win against a poor team, no matter the circumstances. It’s also undeniable that teams that beat quality opponents by bigger margins are superior to those that win close games. Yet the RPI, like college football’s BCS, does not take into account margin of victory, seemingly because the NCAA’s administrators don’t want to encourage teams to run up the score.

If you want to create a fair bracket, you need to account for how a team wins. Going into last year’s NCAA Tournament, New Mexico was 10-1 in games decided by five points or fewer—one of the best records a college basketball team has ever produced in close games. The RPI formula, though, counted those tight victories just the same as if they were 50-point wins. New Mexico went to the tournament as a three-seed, thanks in large part to a top-10 RPI ranking. New Mexico lost in the second round to 11th-seeded Washington. While using one game as proof of anything is dangerous, it’s telling that oddsmakers actually listed Washington as the favorite in the game. The RPI gave New Mexico full credit for its gaudy win total, but Vegas knew it was the result of good fortune.

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Greg Biffle’s Day At The Races – The Columbian

Sunday, March 13th, 2011

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Greg Biffle sits quietly in his race car, listening to the voices in his head.

The helmet, driver suit, and body-hugging race seat insulate the Vancouver native from the chaotic choreography that surrounds him, while 10 uniformed crew members crowd around his car in a garage so small there is barely enough room to pump the handle on the floor jack.

The men talk to one another on radios, calling out what needs to be done and what has already been accomplished . . . and what they might try if the current round of changes doesn’t make Biffle’s car any faster.

Biffle hears it all through the earbuds in his helmet as he sits, seemingly passively, strapped into the driver’s seat.

There is little he can do but wait until the work is completed and he heads back to the oval for another few laps to see if the changes make the car better . . . or worse.

Two men change the front shock absorbers beneath the raised hood. Another pair work under the rear, checking how high it is off the track surface. Two additional crew members move blocks of lead weight in and out of the car’s frame rails as they try to adjust the chassis to compensate for the worn out surface at Phoenix International Raceway.

Every change, no matter how seemingly insignificant, is documented.

It is Friday of a three-day race weekend at Phoenix, another stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. Some say it is the first race of the “real season,” contending that the Daytona 500 is so different from any other race that it is a season unto itself.

Biffle, 41, is beginning his ninth full year in NASCAR’s top series and his 14th since Jack Roush plucked the talented youngster from a tin-roofed shop on the east side of Vancouver, where he built his own stock cars. It took Biffle three years to win the Craftsman Truck Series title for Roush, and another two to take the championship in the Busch Series. In 2005, he won a season-high six races in the top series and finished in second place, just 35 points behind the Cup series champion.

But past performance is no guarantee of success. Consider that 20-year-old Trevor Bayne won the biggest race of his career on the last lap of the 2011 Daytona 500. Five days later, on the first lap of practice at Phoenix, he slammed the outside wall and his Ford came back into the garage area on the business end of a wrecker.

“There are no guarantees,” says Biffle, recognized as among the hardest-charging drivers in the garage.

Style and substance

That hang-it-on-the-fence driving style hasn’t diminished with age or experience, and it is among the reasons Biffle has developed a cadre of fans who will wake up at 5 a.m. to be first in line at his souvenir trailer to get an autographed T-shirt, or stand for hours in the Arizona sun hoping to get his signature on a “hero card.”

Larry Norman says he spotted Biffle about five years ago when the driver was competing in the former Busch series at Phoenix.

“He’s a hell of a driver,” says the Phoenix fan as he stands in the garage area, hoping to get an autograph.

“I like the way he drives, and I like him because he’s a ‘duner’ who takes his toys out in the sand dunes to play. I also got the chance to meet him at Las Vegas. We played craps with him.

“He didn’t have a good night,” Norman says with a smile.

Fans and sponsors, the lifeblood of auto racing, can consume a great deal of a driver’s time and energy.

“A lot of people figure we have a pretty easy schedule . . . we just get to work weekends,” Biffle jokes. But the reality is that the pressures to build solid relations with sponsors and fans can be a huge distraction for a driver.

Retired driver Kyle Petty once said it is the hidden schedule — the Monday post-race meetings, the Tuesday flight across the country for a sponsor appearance, and the Wednesday test session before packing up to leave on Thursday for the next race — that is the real reason many drivers burn out.

And the more successful you become, the more people want a piece of your time.

A few years ago, NASCAR dismissed complaints from drivers that too many fans were clogging up the garage area and presenting a safety issue.

When NASCAR ignored the pleas for tighter controls, Dale Earnhardt Jr., the most popular driver in the series, simply sat down on the tailgate of NASCAR’s mobile office, and smiled as hundreds of fans surrounded the trailer. The crowd of eager autograph seekers brought all official work to a halt.

NASCAR caved in with tighter requirements to get into the garage area when work is being done.

While Biffle isn’t as popular as Earnhardt or Jeff Gordon, he can’t cross from the team hauler to the garage without being stopped for an autograph. He tries to accommodate every fan.

The popularity is a part of racing that didn’t come comfortably for Biffle.

In his early years in NASCAR, he often was considered aloof by other drivers, the media and race fans. While racing at the now-defunct Portland Speedway, all he had to do was show up, unload the car and put on a good show. In NASCAR, it took him years to grow comfortable in his role as a driver/personality.

But he has. Over the years, he has emerged as among the most quoted — and most quotable — drivers in the garage.

“He’s one of the good ones,” says Patti Ennis, a producer for NASCAR’s Media Group. “He’s a good interview and makes himself available.”

He’s also articulate and not afraid of tackling some subjects other drivers shy away from.

A look at the future

Biffle is in the last year of a contract with Roush-Fenway Racing, and he’s enjoying some of the attention that comes with being a free agent.

While there has been no speculation about him and Roush parting ways, the driver has been quoted saying that the days of rich contracts and big sponsor checks are over, at least for now. Sponsorship money is harder to come by, and drivers and teams must be willing to extend themselves to keep the checks coming in.

Racing has done well by Biffle, even though he gets to keep only a portion of the millions of dollars he has won. The money has allowed him to live the life most drivers can only dream about.

He has a beautiful wife, a huge home in North Carolina, and a shop filled with high-speed and high-priced toys. He also owns a mountain retreat within easy flying distance from home, using his own plane or helicopter. Biffle also is part owner of Sunset Speedway in Banks, Ore., west of Portland, and Grays Harbor Raceway in Elma, both small dirt-track ovals.

His passion — one shared by his wife, Nicole — is animal rescue. They have their own nationwide foundation, and each year he and Nicole foot the bill for a calendar featuring NASCAR drivers and their pets. The calendars are made available at no cost to participating shelters, which sell them to raise funds.

The cars, the homes, the planes and the race tracks are the benefits of success, both by Biffle and the team that surrounds his car.

The crew is as tight-knit as any military squad. They travel together, work together, live together. Members are expected to be perfect in the routine of preparing the race car weekend after weekend. Each knows that any failure could spell an early finish on race day, or worse.

Biffle goes out for a couple more laps, radios to crew chief Greg Erwin how the car feels, and then hustles the Ford back into the garage for the next round of changes.

“Greg is very, very good in the car,” Erwin says. “We can’t use any data collection while we are at the race track, so we have to rely on him to tell us what is going on.”

During simulations and testing, the crew can equip the car with sensors that measure every nuance as the car corners, brakes and accelerates.

“What we learned during the times that we can use data sensors, is that Greg will feel really minor things in the car that the sensors will confirm,” Erwin says. “If there is a problem with Greg, it’s that sometimes he is too sensitive.”

Last season, a conflict emerged between what a driver feels and what the data said, and the Ford teams struggled at the early races.

The problem was an issue with the computer simulation used in testing. It said one thing; the drivers said something else.

It was a case of no data being better than wrong data.

“When you get false information and you go to a track — the track’s real green and has a lot of grip — and you go and figure out here’s the right bump stop, here’s the right shock, here’s the right spring. You come back, it’s hot, it’s sunny, it’s slick — all those things are wrong,” Biffle explains. “We would have been better off with no data.”

It was difficult, according to Biffle, not knowing when to trust the computer and when to trust his own instincts.

Looking for an edge

This afternoon, the team is trusting Biffle’s instincts.

On the track, he’s pressing hard to find the limits. With about 10 minutes left in the session, he brings the car back into the garage with a four-foot long scar on the right rear fender, when he kissed the wall.

Roush comes by for a look, grins and says, “That was close. It could have been a lot worse.”

The crew ignores the damage and scurries around the car for one last round of swapping suspension pieces, making adjustments, and checking tire temperatures and pressure. How a tire looks and feels after a hard run is one of the major predictors of how a car will handle on race day.

Then they send Biffle back out for one last round of laps on the oval. At the end of the session, he is 10th-fastest of 44 cars.

It’s good, but not good enough.

They have the rest of the afternoon and most of the following morning to take what they’ve learned and try to make the car better. Erwin and Biffle will trade information with other Roush drivers and crew leaders to learn what they tried and what worked.

The objective isn’t to have the fastest car in qualifying, but to come up with one that will be quick throughout the entire race. To do that that takes experimentation, testing and developing a platform that a crew can work with as the oval changes personality over the duration of the race. While starting up front is nice, finishing there is even better.

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