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They are here.

I'm back from USAV Nationals. I don't have any pictures up yet. But I will soon. Update here when ready.

I just paid $72.21 to fill up my Mo. That's 19.5 gallons at $3.699 per. Whoa.

This is Issac Asimov's favorite short story: The Last Question

Success. Here are the details.

I have an idea for improving the seeding in the NBA playoffs. In the first round let the team with the best record pick their opponent from the other 7 teams in their conference. Then proceed to the team with the next highest record and have them pick their opponent from the remaining 5 teams. Repeat as needed to complete the first round matchups. Repeat again for the later rounds.

I'm certainly no Mavericks apologist, but, didn't they earn the right to not play Golden State in the first round if they didn't want to? The intent of legislating 1 vs 8 is to provide them with the matchup that is to their best advantage. However, the Mavericks probably wouldn't have picked Golden State since Nellie's had their number all year. Another interesting possibility is that a top team might choose to take on another top team if they have significant short term injuries - say Duncan was out for the first round. Would Dallas or Phoenix choose to play San Antonio in the first round? Either way it would probably lead to much good discussion.

The main point I've heard against this idea is that teams 4-8 would have nothing to play for. I can think of 5 things they have to play for:

1. Pride - simple as that
2. The likelihood that most #1 seeds would pick #8, and #2s pick #7, etc.
3. Maybe #1 will pick #2 and #3 will pick #4. Then #5 would get their pick of the rest. Not likely, but, you never know.
4. Similar to #3, what if 5-8 beat 1-4 in the first round. Then #5 would have their pick of the rest.
5. #7 & #8 are probably fighting off #9 & #10 just for the right to make the playoffs.

Another problem with this idea is that all the games (in a conference) from the first round would have to be complete before the second round could begin. This scheduling inflexibility is not TV friendly.

I sent this idea to Henry Abbott at ESPN/TrueHoop. He liked it and posted it. I also sent the idea to The Basketball Jones and they liked it enough to talk about it in the show (12 minutes in).

What do you think?

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Welcome to my blog. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to use this... but my general intention is to not stick to a regular posting schedule or set of topics. I do plan on posting notices when I have new pictures at iToph.com. I have an idea about the NBA playoffs that I'll post soon. I might post work (SQL) related ideas from time to time.