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He spent four years in Las Cruces.From ESPN-
New Mexico State fired coach Hal Mumme on Monday after a 3-9 record overall and 1-7 in the WAC this season.
New Mexico State lost the last seven games of the season. Mumme, the former Kentucky coach, was 11-38 in four years.
His contract was set to expire in 2010.
Which probably means Mumme will spend 1.5-2 years earning money for doing nothing. Not too bad for someone age 56. Why can’t I get fired by a college before my contract is up?
He took the school now known as Texas El Paso to an improbable major championship in 1966. Forty years later a movie, ‘Glory Road’, was made about Haskins and his team. The AP obituary is below the fold. RIP Coach.
EL PASO, Texas — Don Haskins, credited with helping break color barriers in college sports in 1966 when he used five black starters to win a national basketball title for Texas Western, died Sunday. He was 78.
Texas-El Paso spokesman Jeff Darby said the Hall of Fame coach died Sunday afternoon. He had no other details. UTEP was previously known as Texas Western.
“The word unique does not begin to describe Don Haskins,” former Texas Tech coach Bob Knight said. “There is no one who has ever coached that I respected and admired more than Don Haskins. I’ve had no better friend that I enjoyed more than Don Haskins.”
Haskins was an old-time coach who believed in hard work and was known for his gruff demeanor. That attitude was portrayed in the 2006 movie “Glory Road,” the Disney film that chronicled Haskins’ improbable rise to national fame in the 1966 championship game against Kentucky. The movie, which was preceded by a book of the same title, also sparked renewed interest in Haskins’ career.
“The myth that surrounds Don Haskins in the movie ‘Glory Road’ and what he did for black players is better said that he cared like that for all his players. To me that tells me more about the man than anything,” Knight said. “There was never anyone like him before and there will never be one like him again.”
Former Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton said Haskins “had a tremendous impact on the college game. Anybody who’s been around college basketball dating back to those days, they’ve seen how it changed after Texas Western won the national championship.”
Sutton said he hadn’t talked to Haskins for at least six weeks.
“Don had not been in good health and was having a hard time,” Sutton said. “He’ll be dearly missed. He was a great basketball coach.”
During his career, Haskins turned down several more lucrative offers, including one with the now-defunct American Basketball Association, to remain at UTEP as one of the lowest paid coaches in the Western Athletic Conference.
Haskins retired in 1999 after 38 seasons at the school. He had a 719-353 record and won seven WAC championships. He took UTEP to 14 NCAA tournaments and to the NIT seven times and briefly worked as an adviser with the Chicago Bulls.
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The Golden Rainbow finish their Cinderella season by overcoming a 21-point deficit.
Honolulu, HI (Sports Network) – Colt Brennan threw for 442 yards and five touchdowns, and Ryan Mouton intercepted a Jake Locker pass in the end zone with three seconds remaining as 11th-ranked Hawaii overcame an early 21-point deficit to beat Washington, 35-28, ending its regular season undefeated for the first time in school history.
Hawaii (12-0) took the lead with 44 seconds remaining on a five-yard pass from Brennan to Ryan-Grice Miller, but just 20 seconds later the Huskies were threatening with a 1st-and-goal at the four. Locker was dropped for a two-yard loss, then tossed the interception, which was tipped in the air in front of Mouton.
Brennan completed 42-of-50 passes for Hawaii, which clinched its first outright Western Athletic Conference title last Friday and is now certainly headed to a BCS bowl game.
Hawaii is a Division one school, they went undeated. No one else can say that. Am I missing something, but is there a team out there with one loss?
So the Golden Rainbows should be in the title game. They won’t, which tells you the BCS is screwed up.
The California wildfires have forced half a million people to flee their homes, so football is certainly low on the totem poll of concerns in the situation. Still, the San Diego Chargers have had to deal with the effects of the fire on their families, the use of their stadium as an emergency housing facility, and travel to Arizona so that they could practice for their “home” game against the Houston Texans in breathable air. Now, it looks like they’ll have to play their “home” game in Texas.
The Chargers expect to hear today from Mayor Jerry Sanders whether they can play their scheduled game against the Houston Texans in Qualcomm Stadium, and they are narrowing down contingencies for playing elsewhere. “The Chargers are working closely with Mayor Sanders and the fire and police departments to determine how best to deal with Sunday’s scheduled NFL game at Qualcomm Stadium,” the team said in a statement. “Protecting the public safety is the mayor’s top goal, and the Chargers will continue to cooperate with the mayor to achieve this goal.”
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Among the issues with playing the game at Qualcomm Stadium are air quality, the availability of police and other support personnel and the fact that several thousand evacuees are currently housed at the stadium.
The Chargers and the NFL are also considering whether playing the game in San Diego is in the best interest of the community. It appears likely the Chargers will end up playing in Texas Stadium, home of the Dallas Cowboys, if they can’t play at home, sources said last night. The Cowboys have a bye Sunday. Dallas makes sense because the game would likely draw more fans than would a game in Arizona, which would ease the financial losses the Chargers will incur. Also, the Chargers would count on the fact LaDainian Tomlinson is from Waco and went to school at nearby TCU, as well as Dallas fans’ acrimony for Houston, to ensure the crowd is not pro-Texans.
The Chargers do have an insurance policy that covers lost gate receipts, but the deductible is extremely high. The team can generally expect a home game to bring a gate of more than $7 million.
Team President Dean Spanos has met several times over the past two days with league Commissioner Roger Goodell, as well as other league and network executives. All are in Philadelphia for league meetings.
The commissioner said yesterday the Chargers and the league are also considering playing in Los Angeles, Phoenix or Houston.
The chief issues working against the game being in Los Angeles are the unpredictability of the Southern California fires and the logistics of staging a game in a non-NFL stadium. An NFL game requires high-definition replay equipment for game officials. The same would presumably be an issue at Arizona State’s Sun Devil Stadium. The Chargers played at ASU in 2003 when the wildfires in San Diego forced them to move a Monday night game against the Miami Dolphins, but Sun Devil Stadium was then the home of the Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals’ University of Phoenix Stadium is not available Sunday because it is the site of a motorcycle convention.
The game could be played at Houston’s Reliant Stadium. That would likely guarantee a big gate, but the Chargers are concerned about the competitive disadvantage in making the Texans the home team and “would like to avoid” playing there.
A wag at Football Outsiders wonders, “Is there any way we can get the NY Giants an extra home game out of this situation?”
The easiest path to a mythical college football national championship is to go undefeated. The easiest way to do that? Not play anybody Mark Schlabach gives his take on the teams that have the weakest opponents:
1. KANSAS: The Jayhawks’ nonconference schedule includes more cream puffs than your favorite bakery: Central Michigan, Division I-AA Southeastern Louisiana, Toledo and Florida International (all at home). Kansas doesn’t play Texas or Oklahoma in Big 12 Conference play, and the Jayhawks will face Nebraska in Lawrence, Kan., and Missouri in Kansas City.
Nonconference opponents: Central Michigan (home), Southeastern Louisiana (home), Toledo (home), Florida International (home)
Toughest game: at Texas A&M, Oct. 27
Easiest game: vs. Southeastern Louisiana, Sept. 8
Hawaii 2. HAWAII: Warriors quarterback Colt Brennan won’t have many problems putting up Heisman Trophy-like numbers against Hawaii’s schedule. The Warriors play two nonconference games against Division I-AA teams Northern Colorado and Charleston Southern, along with a road game at UNLV and home game against Washington. The Warriors’ WAC schedule includes home games against Fresno State and Boise State and road games at San Jose State and Nevada.
Nonconference opponents: Northern Colorado (home), UNLV (road), Charleston Southern (home), Washington (home)
Toughest game: vs. Boise State, Nov. 23
Easiest game: vs. Charleston Southern, Sept. 23
Arkansas 3. ARKANSAS: The Razorbacks’ slate is a perfect example of why SEC teams have a poor reputation when it comes to out-of-conference scheduling. The Hogs will get fat on a nonconference schedule that includes home games against Troy, North Texas, Division I-AA Tennessee-Chattanooga and Florida International. SEC road games at Alabama, Tennessee and LSU prevented this from being the country’s easiest schedule.
Nonconference opponents: Troy (home), North Texas (home), Chattanooga (home), Florida International (home)
Toughest game: at LSU, Nov. 23
Easiest game: vs. Tennessee-Chattanooga, Oct. 6
Indiana 4. INDIANA: In a season in which the Hoosiers don’t play Big 10 heavyweights Michigan and Ohio State, they beefed up their nonconference schedule with the likes of Division I-AA Indiana State, Western Michigan, Akron and Ball State. Indiana plays rival Purdue and Penn State at home, but travels to Iowa and Wisconsin. Thanks to the soft schedule, look for the Hoosiers to play in a bowl game for the first time since 1993.
Nonconference opponents: Indiana State (home), Western Michigan (road), Akron (home), Ball State (home)
Toughest game: at Wisconsin, Oct. 27
Easiest game: vs. Indiana State, Sept. 1
Connecticut 5. CONNECTICUT: The Huskies might have put together a tougher schedule by returning to the Atlantic 10. Their nonconference schedule includes games against Division I-AA Maine and two of the worst I-A teams — Duke and Temple. The Huskies play seven of their 12 games at home, including key Big East dates against Louisville and Syracuse.
Nonconference opponents: Duke (road), Maine (home), Temple (home), Akron (home), Virginia (road)
Toughest game: at West Virginia, Nov. 24
Easiest game: vs. Maine, Sept. 8
Navy 6. NAVY: The Midshipmen play only four Division I-A teams that finished with winning records last season: Rutgers, Wake Forest, Notre Dame and Northern Illinois. Five of Navy’s 2007 opponents won four games or fewer last season, including Duke (0-12), Temple (1-11), North Texas (3-9), Army (3-9) and Air Force (3-8).
Toughest game: at Rutgers, Sept. 7
Easiest game: vs. Duke, Sept. 22
Northwestern 7. NORTHWESTERN: The Wildcats could see a big turnaround in coach Pat Fitzgerald’s second season, thanks to a not-so-daunting schedule. Nonconference games against Division I-AA Northeastern, Nevada, Duke and Eastern Michigan (at Detroit) are potential victories. Home games against Minnesota and Indiana could bring the victory total to six, making Northwestern eligible for a bowl game.
Nonconference opponents: Northeastern (home), Nevada (home), Duke (home), Eastern Michigan (neutral)
Toughest game: at Ohio State, Sept. 22
Easiest game: vs. Northeastern, Sept. 1
Texas Tech 8. TEXAS TECH: Give the Red Raiders some credit for scheduling a pair of nonconference road games … at SMU and Rice. A home game against UTEP might be challenging, but a Sept. 29 game against Division I-AA Northwestern State will be a rout. Texas Tech plays home games against two of the Big 12 conference’s most talented teams, Texas A&M and Oklahoma.
Nonconference opponents: SMU (road), UTEP (home), Rice (road), Northwestern State (home)
Toughest game: at Texas, Nov. 10
Easiest game: vs. Northwestern State, Sept. 29
Ohio State 9. OHIO STATE: The Buckeyes won’t miss Heisman Trophy winner Troy Smith and the rest of their departed stars during the nonconference schedule. Not against Division I-AA Youngstown State, Akron and Kent State, anyway. At least a Sept. 15 game at Washington will be played outside the state of Ohio. The Buckeyes play two of their most difficult Big 10 games on the road, at Penn State on Oct. 27 and at Michigan on Nov. 17.
Nonconference opponents: Youngstown State (home), Akron (home), Washington (road), Kent State (home)
Toughest game: at Michigan, Nov. 17
Easiest game: vs. Youngstown State, Sept. 1
Texas 10. TEXAS: The Longhorns get kudos for scheduling a home game against TCU, a possible BCS sleeper. But the rest of the schedule sets up very well for coach Mack Brown. The other three nonconference games should be routs, against Arkansas State, Central Florida and Rice. The Longhorns play top Big 12 foes Nebraska and Texas Tech at home, along with the Red River Shootout against Oklahoma in Dallas.
Nonconference opponents: Arkansas State (home), TCU (home), Central Florida (road), Rice (home)
Toughest game: vs. Oklahoma (Dallas), Oct. 6
Easiest game: vs. Arkansas State, Sept. 1
You can’t blame the athletic directors. It’s to each school’s benefit to play weak teams — so long as they don’t lose.
Murray Chass delights in writing about baseball. But Murray Chass loathes the measures employed by younger analysts of the National Pastime. And he makes no bones about what he thinks about sabermetrics and the statistics that have been introduced into the sports lexicon by sabermetricians. Take it Murray:
I receive a daily e-mail message from Baseball Prospectus, an electronic publication filled with articles and information about statistics, mostly statistics that only stats mongers can love.
To me, VORP epitomized the new-age nonsense. For the longest time, I had no idea what VORP meant and didn’t care enough to go to any great lengths to find out. I asked some colleagues whose work I respect, and they didn’t know what it meant either.
Finally, not long ago, I came across VORP spelled out. It stands for value over replacement player. How thrilling. How absurd. Value over replacement player. Don’t ask what it means. I don’t know.
I suppose that if stats mongers want to sit at their computers and play with these things all day long, that’s their prerogative. But their attempt to introduce these new-age statistics into the game threatens to undermine most fans’ enjoyment of baseball and the human factor therein.
People play baseball. Numbers don’t.
How shockingly obtuse. Quickly a primer on VORP. The value over replacement player is a measure of the true value a baseball player brings to his team. To understand the statistic a fan needs to understand what is meant by a replacement player, as well. A replacement player is essentially a triple A callup or a guy the team can claim off the waiver wire at no cost. By definitional, a replacement player is someone who is not on the major league roster on opening day. He represents the minimal acceptable offensive output for a major league baseball player.
To calculate VORP, Baseball Prospectus uses a series of formulae to determine the theoretical statistical profile of a replacement player. That value is then compared to the actual performance of major league players. The idea of VORP is that it can quantify a players performance.
For example, Joe Mauer has a higher value over replacement player than does his teammate Justin Morneau. Mauer’s value is primarily because a replacement player at the catching position is typically woefully worse than a replacement player at first base. A replacement catcher would be Ken Huckaby, who in 161 career games has a line of .222/.256/.281. Mauer’s sparkling .347/.429/.507 is clearly superior. VORP measure how superior it is, while providing an apples to apples comparison for other players. VORP attempts to answer the question of what player made the biggest difference to his team in a given year.
Continuing the Twin theme, was Mauer, Morneau, Johan Santana, Joe Nathan or Francisco Liriano more valuable to the Twins? The answer according to VORP is Johan Santana, followed by Mauer, Morneau, Liriano and Nathan.
The biggest problem with VORP is that Baseball Prospectus keeps it a proprietary statistic. This is reasonable. Keith Woolner invented it and the information of how to compute it belongs to him. There is a downside. OPS, which is an intuitive statistic, has caught on, whereas VORP remains primarily within the parlance of sabermetricians and their mathematically challenged acolytes. This is changing as more and more writers, enabled by the modern free press of the Internet, comment on the utility of VORP and other modern statistical measures of baseball.
Chass’ complaints and snippiness are not solely because he can’t figure out VORP(either its meaning, utility or its computation), however. He is taking his annual shot at sabermetrics (yes, he snipped about Moneyball last February), because alternative ways of approaching baseball diminish his traditional way of evaluating players skill and talent. He sees the players play and therefore his judgment, like that of the all-seeing, all-knowing oracles of lore is unquestionable. Even if his judgment is patently questionable.
“Stat mongers”, as Chass derisively calls them, are trying to enhance a fan’s appreciation of the game by introducing new perspectives and new voices. The stifling of dissent by baseball writers is common. They preach about their rightness, whether it is that Bert Blyleven doesn’t belong in the Hall of Fame or that winning a baseball game is the hardest thing you can do, even though it happens every time a game is played.
Chass’ comments have drawn a lot of fire in the blogosphere. The younger and more open-minded writers who are willing to give new statistics a chance, understand the nature of VORP and what the statistic was created to do. They want clarity and common sense in their discussion of sport. And most of all they cannot stand pompously ridiculous comments from curmudgeons.
Tim Savage, who tipped me to Chass’ column, wrote this:
Come on! As if legions of fans would drop their beers and run screaming for the exits if scoreboards at major league stadiums started flashing a players’ VORP instead of just his batting average, home runs, and RBI.
Chass’s crotchetiness is perhaps understandable. He has, after all, been doing his job for a long time, and it’s not surprising that he would resist the young whippersnappers who are coming in with all their newfangled computer stuff and taking attention away from the old time beat writers like himself.
What is shocking to me is the level of editorial oversight that would allow a column like this to be published, particularly in a paper that presumes to contain “all the news that’s fit to print.” Here a writer attacked an idea which he admitted he didn’t take the time to even try to understand. Now, I realize that Mr. Chass is very busy these days watching Scott Proctor run wind sprints, but surely he could find five minutes to visit the BP website to find out what this statistic actually is that is making him so apoplectic.
As an editor, I would never allow an article that attacks something without bothering to find out what it is, and ends on a sweeping generalization that purports to speak for millions of other people while providing no evidence of what they actually think. Sure, covering baseball isn’t as important as, say, reporting on the White House’s plans to attack Iraq, but doesn’t the New York Times hold its sportswriters to any kind of journalistic standards? Is there anything Murray Chass might write that his editor wouldn’t print?
The firebrands at Fire Joe Morgan chipped in with:
You can feel the sneer curling on his face as he writes “electronic publication” with a quill pen in Olde English, then rolls up the parchment and sends it on its three-day horseback journey to his publisher, Lord Sulzberger, Jr.
He’s kidding about the e-mail of course. He doesn’t have an “e-mail address.” E-mail is for new age wack jobs.
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I actually believe that goofy, anthropomorphic numbers with arms and legs and silly oversize white gloves play all of the games we know of in what we call professional baseball. Call me crazy, but that is what I believe.
And of course, Baseball Prospectus answered their critic as well with an open letter to Murray Chass penned by Nate Silver:
Fans today have a lot of choices about how they consume baseball in general, and their baseball media in particular. Baseball Prospectus’ mission is to provide them with an informed and independent perspective that helps to accentuate their enjoyment of the game.
I am not sure whether you have made a habit of clicking on those links in our daily newsletter, but if you do, you will find that we are talking about many of the same things that you are. We’re talking about how the Oakland A’s can win the World Series, how the Veterans’ Committee is doing a poor job of recognizing the contributions of players like Ron Santo, and how recent moves in the baseball industry are shoving baseball’s most devoted fans aside.
Many Baseball writers have become tiresome scolds or anachronistic dinosaurs or both. They alienate future readers at their own risk.
A majority of the bowls are now over and I am going to start my rant on the BCS.
[Rant On]
If anyone watched the entire Boise State / Oklahoma game last night you understand why the idea of the BCS is so incredibly flawed. BSU is a non BCS conference school and played a marvelous game yesterday, beating a Big 12 (major powerhouse) school in Oklahoma. It goes to prove that any schools anywhere in the country can play football and just because they are in the WAC, MAC, or Sunbelt does not mean they cannot compete. I get so upset when recognition is not given to conferences, specifically the Sunbelt in this case.
The idea of a playoff system allows teams that have done well throughout the season – and are maybe not an Ohio State, Michigan, Fill in any Big Name School, or Texas have a chance at the National Title.
[Rant Off]
I wrote the above rant about 20 times and figured this was the shortest and got my point across the best. I would love to hear your ideas for another type of post season for College Football.
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