Maroon and Gold
jlynch | September 7, 2008
Male Flame Skimmer, Libella saturata (source)
We had one of these sit on an agave in our back yard for about three hours yesterday afternoon. Beautiful looking creatures.
Last seven days were busy here. New classes to prepare and other stuff left little time for blogging and suchlike. Don't know if things are going to improve next week.
ASU's football season has started with two wins against NAU and Stanford leading to a #15 ranking. Last night's 41-17 win over Stanford was satisfying. Up next is UNLV before the big home game against #2 Georgia. And things don't get easier after that -…
jlynch | February 10, 2008Last time I wrote about ASU basketball was early January when we beat the University of Arizona Wildcats 64-59 in overtime to go 3-0 in Pac10 play. Much moaning came from Wildcat supporters with claims that, had they had their phenom freshman (Bayless) the score would have been different.
Soon after that game the Sun Devils entered a tail-spin and went to 4-5 in conference before finding themselves today facing the full strength Wildcats away from home. Wildcat supporters predicted a massacre. Well, guess what? ASU came back from a sixteen point deficit to win 59-54. I wonder what the…
jlynch | January 17, 2008Coming on the end of the week here and all is good. My classes look sharp, so it should be a good semester of teaching. Various non-teaching bits and pieces have clicked together over the past few days, so it looks like a good semester.
And ASU basketball has done it again - beating Cal 99-90 in double overtime to go 14-2 (4-0 in the Pac-10). Up next is Stanford (14-3, 3-2) who beat Arizona tonight to send the Wildcats to 11-6 (1-3). Could we even imagine that ASU would go to March Madness and Arizona end up in the NIT? Only time will tell.
Good times.
jlynch | January 9, 2008I wouldn’t have believed it had I not seen it with my own eyes, but ASU beat Arizona 64-59 in overtime. That after being behind by 12 points and seven at the half. That after scoring only six points (and shooting 15%) in the first ten minutes. To put this in perspective, Arizona had won 24 of the last 25 meetings and is ranked #25 in the ESPN/USA Today poll.
ASU go 13-2 (3-0 in conference play) and get their ninth straight win, taking the lead in the Pac-10. Arizona fall to 10-5 (1-2).
What makes this even more enjoyable was that throughout the football season, Wildcat fans were continually…
jlynch | January 7, 2008The final AP Poll standings have been released and unsurprisingly, LSU finds itself in the #1 slot, followed by Georgia, USC, Missouri, and Ohio State. ASU find themselves at 16 and two other Pac-10 teams are ranked (Oregon @ 23 and Oregon State @ 25). Predictably, Hawai’i slid to #19 and Illinois to #20.
Next season will be interesting for ASU. USC are likely to be strong and we play them and Cal back-to-back in California. We also have a non-conference game against Georgia. Yikes!
jlynch | January 7, 2008I’m not a college hoops fan, but this is surely a sign of something. While neither team is ranked in the AP Top 25, Arizona State got more votes (53) that the University of Arizona (26). ASU are 12-2 (2-0 in the Pac10) and face Arizona on Wednesday.
jlynch | January 1, 2008It’s not like ASU did wonderfully against Texas (losing the Holiday Bowl 52-34), but at least they turned up to play somewhat (albeit not in the first quarter). The same can’t be said for Illinois in the Rose Bowl (49-17 to USC) and Hawai’i in the Sugar Bowl (41-10 to Georgia). Clearly neither of the teams deserved a BCS slot and Hawai’i (and Colt Brennan) showed itself to be nowhere near being able to play outside the WAC.
Those BCS games are really working out well - two down, two blowouts. Methinks something is amiss with the system.
jlynch | December 2, 2007As I stayed up late last night to watch Hawai’i stumble past a mediocre Washington team (who are last place in the Pac-10), I got to thinking. Sure, Colt Brennan is a very talented kid who has been able to work well with some good receivers, but the Warrior’s record of 12-0 is vastly overrated and not deserving of a BCS bowl slot. They took on a single ranked opponent (Boise State) but the rest of their schedule was powder-puff: Northern Colorado (1-11), Louisiana Tech (5-7), UNLV (2-10), Charleston Southern (5-6), Idaho (1-11), Utah State (2-10), San Jose State (5-7), New Mexico State (4-9…
jlynch | December 1, 2007The Territorial Cup is the oldest college football trophy game and the 81st edition of it will be played tonight at Sun Devil Stadium when ASU (#13, 9-2, 6-2) take on the University of Arizona (5-6, 4-4). Depending on the result (and that of other games), ASU could still make either the Rose or Fiesta Bowl, and seal their tenth 10-victory season in school history. UA are trying to snap an eight year bowl drought and are coming off three consecutive wins, the latter two of which (UCLA & Oregon) were games in which their opponents were largely without their starting quarterback.
Weather…
jlynch | November 25, 2007The Sun Devils (9-2) dropped to thirteenth in the BCS after their loss to USC Thursday night. No surprises there. Had the second half been closer a higher ranking would have been possible. But no point dwelling in the past as a number of possible scenarios are possible for the future:
A trip to the Rose Bowl is still possible if we beat U of A and UCLA surprises everyone by defeating USC.
A Fiesta Bowl appearance is possible if we win and Missouri beats Oklahoma in the Big 12 title game.
If we win and Oklahoma wins, we’re looking at the Holiday Bowl.
Worst case scenario appears to be the…
jlynch | November 22, 2007ASU dropped to 9-2/6-2 with a 44-24 home loss to an admittedly superior USC team. Disappointing overall, particularly because the running game was non-existent, and this means USC has bested us eight years in a row. A 17 point burst by the Trojans in the third quarter put the game away and an overall inability to tackle and run (and for that matter, punt) hurt us a lot.
ASU will no doubt drop in the rankings and will probably be heading to either the Holiday or Sun Bowl depending on how we handle Arizona next week. While the run for the Rose Bowl is over, the season has turned out better…
jlynch | November 11, 2007Current BCS Rankings
LSU
Oregon
Kansas
Oklahoma
Missouri
West Virginia
Ohio State
ASU
Now, some thoughts.
ASU lost (by 12 points, away) to the then #5 team in the country. OSU lost at home to an unranked team.
Oklahoma lost to Colorado, ASU beat Colorado. Oklahoma’s SOS is lower than ASU’s (68 vs 50).
Kansas’ schedule (e.g. Central Michigan, SE Louisiana, Toledo, Florida International all at home) is weaker than ASU’s (SOS of 73 vs 50). They beat Colorado 19-14, we beat them 33-14.
Just suggesting that ASU should be ranked higher than #8, that’s all.
jlynch | November 10, 2007ASU managed to squeak past UCLA 24-20 to go 9-1 for the season and take the lead in the Pac-10 (Oregon have a bye-week). After years of not winning in California, two straight road wins in that state are welcome.
Next up (on Thanksgiving) is USC followed by Arizona. Both are home games and perfectably winnable. A Rose Bowl appearance against either Ohio State or Michigan is still on the cards.
jlynch | October 28, 2007You are down 13-0 at the end of the first quarter. Down 20-14 at the half. And win the game 31-20. You are ASU playing Cal on Homecoming night in Tempe.
An amazing game saw the Devils go 8-0 and capture the lead in the Pac-10. Two appalling calls by the referees in the first half made life more difficult than it should have been, but overall it was a typical ASU game - let the opposition get ahead in the first half, crush them in the second; we’ve out-scored opponents 153-29 in the second half this season. As Cal coach Jeff Tedford noted, "[ASU] are a great football team and they came out and…
jlynch | October 27, 2007Big game tonight with #21 Cal coming to town for Homecoming to take on the #4 Sun Devils. With #5 Oregon defeating USC 24-17, tonight’s game will be huge for the Pac10 and the BCS standings.
More later.
jlynch | October 21, 2007In a strangely unreal moment - and coming off of a by-week - ASU finds itself ranked #4 in the BCS rankings, reflecting (I guess) the fact that teams we have beaten in turn beat the likes of Oklahoma (#6), Cal (#21), USC (#12) and Oregon (#5).
Up next week is Cal who, because of losing two straight, will be dangerous though I think beatable in Tempe as long as we don’t let them get out of the gates quickly. The real test will then be Oregon the following week, a game that I will unfortunately miss because I’ll be at a conference. And the home stretch (UCLA, USC, U of A) isn’t likely to be too…
jlynch | October 13, 2007On a Saturday in which #1 LSU lost, #2 Cal lost to Oregon State, and USC barely squeezed past Arizona, ASU beat Washington 44-20 after trailing 17-13 at the half- a dominant performance in the second half that nicely illustrated Dennis Erickson’s ability as a coach, particularly considering our top running back (Torain), receiver (Jones) and tight end (Miller) were all injured. Rudy Carpenter went 20 of 31 for 227 yards and two TDs, while the team ran for 296 yards of rushing. Impressive all round (though I will admit to be frustrated at the half).
ASU should crack the top 10 in the polls…
jlynch | October 6, 2007And with the USC and UCLA losses (to Stanford and Notre Dame respectively), ASU finds itself halfway through the season and on top of the Pac-10 standings. Not bad for a team in its first season with a new coach.
jlynch | October 6, 2007A field goal with 55 seconds to go was enough to give ASU a 23-20 away win (their second away win in a row) against Washington State. I missed most of the game due to family commitments but what I saw wasn’t terribly impressive. Still, an away win is good, especially since we haven't had two in a row since 1996. ASU go to 6-0, WSU to 2-4. Next week is Washington (2-3, 0-2) at home.
Oh, and WSU coach Doba’s "second or third best team in the conference" (Arizona) got beat 31-16 by Oregon State.
jlynch | October 2, 2007Apparently Bill Doba, Washington State University football coach, is - how shall we say - "challenged." The Cougars just got whupped 48-20 by University of Arizona (unranked, 2-3) and Doba is quoted in the Tacoma News Tribune as saying:
"Arizona, I said, is the second or third best team in the conference. I still hold true to that. They are talented - I think more than the team [ASU] we’re facing this week."
That’s the 5-0, 18th ranked ASU he is talking about. The one that is being given a nine point spread over his team.
ASU’s record aside, and even if the Cougars beat ASU at home on…