August 2007 - Posts
My company just released the first private beta of our flagship communications software LifeMate.
We went out for dinner and drinks afterwards to celebrate the release (it's been a long time coming, trust me). But even during the celebration, there was a bit of an undercurrent of "still a lot to do."
Which is true. We have a lot to do. And about 10 days in which to do it (a few of us leave for London on the 31st).
Game on!
Still no official word about whether Vick's "time has passed" in terms of whether he can accept a plea agreement. With the RICO charges right around the corner, I'm rather surprised we haven't heard that he accepted a deal. Maybe the feds are being too harsh with him?
At one point today while discussing this, someone comment "Well, Vick is dumb, we already known that." Whether that's true or not doesn't really matter. What does matter is this: I'm confident that his lawyers are not dumb and would not be turning down a plea agreement unless they had a good reason to.
This is going to be an interesting case to watch unfold, that's for sure.
And now we have the answer to the question... Seems Olu Hall will not be with us in the fall. As the number one player in the state out of high school, I was really looking forward to seeing what this kid could do for us. Maybe next year.
The debate now is centering on how he managed to be eligible by U.Va. Standards but not by NCAA standards. Most likely answer? Academic progress... Stay tuned...
TheSabre has started its 10-Day Hoo Preview '07.
They happened to do it on one of my busiest weeks of the year. I can't wait to dig in.
There are rumblings all over the UVA sports world about a possible academic casualty for the football team.
I won't post a name until I hear more info - Al Groh has a press conference in 15 minutes - but everything that I'm hearing is... not good.
Good thing I haven't finished my schedule preview, because this might change some things...
Just testing adding a video to this post. Using a funny video that Tiki sent me.
Format: wmv
Duration: --:--
Yesterday marked the first day of fall training camp for UVA football. The team had a no-pads, night time practice just to get back into the swing of things.
It was a closed session, so there's not a whole lot of info coming out of it.
Even so, Virginia Sports TV has a video and some pictures up and TheSabre will be posting some pictures soon.
Al Groh also had a press conference this morning (I'm assuming its already over) and I'm sure we'll get some more info out of that as the day goes on.
The opening game is just over 25 days away... the excitement is building...
WESTENDHOO has another quality post up on his blog. Quick read, and well-worth it for anyone who wants some positive spin on UVA sports.
I just wanted to highlight one part of his post and expand it for some of the lesser-informed. WESTENDHOO took the top 15 players on the team and broke them down into 3 teams, apparently randomly. The point of this was to show that we have quality depth all the way down to player 15.
Here was his list:
SS/JJ/AJ/LM/RP
CB/MD/WH/MS/TS
SZ/MF/ST/JT/JM
Now, for the people who don't know quite as much about our team and our depth, I'll expand that a little bit (positions are taken from the official roster):
Team 1:
Sean Singletary, Senior Guard
Jeff Jones, Freshman Guard
Adrian Joseph, Senior Forward,
Laurynas Mikalauskas, Junior Forward
Ryan Pettinella, Senior Forward/Center
Team 2:
Calvin Baker, Sophomore Guard
Mamadi Diane, Junior Guard/Forward
Will Harris, Sophomore Forward/Guard
Mike Scott, Freshman Forward
Tunji Soroye, Senior Center
Team 3:
Sammy Zeglinski, Freshman Guard
Mustapha Farrakhan, Freshman Guard
Solomon Tat, Sophomore Guard/Forward
Jamil Tucker, Sophomore Forward
Jerome Meyinsse, Sophomore Forward/Center
Granted, none of those combinations are perfect - they were random after all! And that last team is a little low on experience. But it contains at least three players I expect to get quality minutes this year (Sammy, Tat and Tucker). That's quality depth right there.
(TheSabre is down for 30 minutes today so I had to find a way to entertain myself. How better than by writing another blog entry about UVA sports?)
A poster on TheSabre, bourbonstreet, made a post today about UVA being a 3.5 point favorite against Wyoming in the opener.
He didn't post a link to a website showing that, so for the moment, I'll assume he's correct.
First thoughts:
- It's a road game... why are we favored?
- It's played in the highest Division I football stadium in America, a place we've never played before... why are we favored?
- It's against a mid-major school... we should be favored!
- OK, I guess 3.5 points is about right.
I started thinking about it some more, however, and realized I actually think the spread is too low. If you assume that home field advantage gives you an extra 3 points on the spread (thus bumping our neutral-field margin up to 6.5) then let's go ahead and say that playing @Wyoming is really a 4 point swing because of the thin air (thus bumping our neutral-field margin further to 7.5).
Anywhere else in the country we should beat them by 10 points, in my opinion.
I'm aware that we barely escaped with a win, on our own field, last year. Trust me, I'm painfully well aware. But these teams are different. Our offense should not be nearly as inept. The defense that held Wyoming to only 6 points in regulation last year returns almost completely intact - and likely even better than last year.
I may be setting myself up for disappointment. As a UVA football fan, that tends to happen. But I think we cover that spread and walk out of Laramie with a convincing W.
Random Sidebar: On the official scoring summary from last year's game, it lists the weather as "sunny, delightful." Delightful? I don't remember anything delightful about that day...
A few minutes ago, Vandy-Hoo added me to his blogroll and introduced the blog to TheSabre community. He did the same for Tiki.
I guess that means I've gotta keep up the postings now. I feel like I've been published...
For all the Sabre-ites that make their way over here now - go easy on me, I'm no guru. I just live in the shadows of Scott, Klockner, Davenport and JPJ and rarely miss a sporting event... That said, feel free to leave comments on anything you see. I appreciate the feedback.