Die Chilluminati » things. But, in this one way to look at things, I t

East Lansing, MI (SportsNetwork.com) - Texas Southern did not take its first lead of the game until there was only 1:26 remaining in regulation, but the Tigers were able to force overtime and pull off a 71-64 upset win over No. 25 Michigan State on Saturday. Jason Carters 3-pointer capped a 7-0 Texas Southern run to give it a 53-52 lead, and his bucket the next possession helped push the game to overtime. Texas Southern (2-8) hit 12 free throws in the extra session to record its second win of the season. Chris Thomas led all scorers with 22 points for the Tigers, while Malcolm Riley added 20 off the bench. The Spartans (8-4) got 17 points and 10 rebounds from Matt Costello, and Denzel Valentine chipped in 15. Michigan State was just 4-of-21 from long distance. Nike Air Jordan Shoes Uk . Rudy Gay made the tying basket in regulation and a 3-pointer in overtime that gave Sacramento the lead for good, and Fredette scored a career-high 24 points to help the Kings beat the Knicks 106-101 on Wednesday night. Nike Air Jordan Sale Uk . Jacob Jacques, Andrew Ryan and Jonathan Drouin also scored for Halifax (37-18-3), who outshot the Islanders 40-26. Kevin Darveau stopped 25 shots. Bradley Kennedy had the lone goal for Charlottetown (18-33-5), which has nine losses in its last 10 games. http://www.wholesaleairjordanuk.com/ .com) - Nate Buss 3-pointer with 5. Air Jordan Uk Online Shop . Not that he was complaining. Davis had 13 points, nine rebounds and a career-high eight blocks, and the New Orleans Pelicans emphatically snapped a three-game skid with a 135-98 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday night. Nike Air Jordan Cheap Wholesale . -- Phil Hughes ended a personal losing streak that dated to last July, pitching into the seventh inning Sunday and helping the Twins top the Kansas City Royals 8-3 to avoid a three-game sweep.How do you tell an impossibly patient fan base that they need to exercise more patience? Its hard not to be sympathetic with Edmonton Oilers fans right now. They have endured at least three separate rebuilds, which varied in degrees of futility. An off-season of expenditures and the furthered development of a few of their young superstars at least created an avenue for the Oilers to finally emerge from hockey darkness. Then, the team ran off a 7-19-5 start to the season, and here we are again, talking about the draft lottery in December in Edmonton. The team fired head coach Dallas Eakins on Monday morning, likely for the same reasons that applied in Ottawa – the front office felt or feels as though that coaching has been a drag on the collection of talent, and that the current roster should be outperforming its 0.61 point-per-game pace. Whether its a defence of Eakins or a defence of MacTavish, though, theres one thing to consider about this years Edmonton Oilers team – theyre better than teams in the past. Its extremely important to note a couple of things here: one, the bar has been set so pitifully low, its hard not to be better; two, this isnt suggesting that the current team is any good – just simply an improvement over teams of yesteryear. First, lets look at the score-adjusted possession numbers for the Oilers since the 2008-2009 season. One would assume that this years team, who has won just one of their last sixteen games, would be one of the franchises worst in recent history. 50% is break-even here, signaling a team that basically controls possession as much as their opposition does over the course of a season. As you can see, Edmontons been abysmal for seemingly forever. But, this years team is probably the first team thats not getting absolutely smoked at 5-on-5. And remember, we care about possession because (a) its a repeatable skill; that (b) is a strong predictor of future goal-scoring (and, consequently, winning hockey games). A quick look at this graph, and its hard to ignore that the teams made definitive improvements for the first time at controlling play from a territorial aspect. Its still ugly, but less ugly than what were accustomed to. So, how exactly is an improving possession team getting absolutely slaughtered in the standings? Thats tied up in the percentages. Lets look at Edmontons PDO over the years. Remember, PDO is simply the sum of the teams shooting percentage and save percentage, expressed as a whole number like 1000. 1000 is where most teams regress to long-term, because both shooting percentages and save percentages are primarily luck-driven, or largely out of the teams control. Ive chosen to use a 25-game moving average to smooth out wild game-to-game fluctuations. Ive also provided a vertical cut-off line to signaal the start of the 2014-2015 season.dddddddddddd. As you can see, theres really no pattern here. The teams probably spent a bit more time under the 1000 mark than above it, primarily because the goaltending has been so shoddy for years. But, for the most part, PDO bounces around in Edmonton like it does everywhere else. I know this because I look at the last five low points – identified for your convenience through those red-colored arrows – and watch PDO continually regress back to the league average. However, whenever a number is absurdly low – as is Edmontons 9670 PDO right now – I think it always warrants further investigation. I have heard the shot quality arguments the same as anyone else, that the goaltending simply cant be that bad, and that the team is quite possibly hanging out the goaltender to dry. Heres a third graph/table to consider: hexagonal bin plots provided by War on Ice to illustrate shot distance against and shooting percentage against Edmonton this season. Intuitively, one would think that if the team was hanging the goaltender out to dry, there would be a surplus of shots against from dangerous areas. On both graphs, you have red and blue bubbles. Red is bad – on the left graph, it means a higher than average propensity of shots are being generated from that area, and on the right graph, it means a higher than average propensity of shots are being scored from that area. Blue is good – on the left graph, it means a lower than average propensity of shots are being generated from that area, and on the right graph, it means a lower than average propensity of shots are being scored from that area. I dont think this is a cut and dry argument – its one way to look at things. But, in this one way to look at things, I think you want to point the finger at poor goaltending. Thats not to say the defense has been good – again, we know Edmontons still a negative possession team, and theres a very real possibility that some of the regular skaters are negatively influencing scoring through poor defensive play. That said, on our ‘defensive graph (left), we see an Edmonton team thats actually done OK at limiting scoring chances in the low/middle danger areas in front of the crease. On the other hand, look at the right graph – Edmonton goaltending has stopped shots at a subpar rate at every area of the ice, including those of shots taken from outside of the scoring chance area. In summation: (1) Edmontons likely improved this season; (2) The teams improvement is being masked by brutally unfavorable percentages; (3) It is possible that subpar talent in net is partially contributing to the teams ugly PDO. And, unfortunately, (4): Edmonton, as a proximate result of the miserable start under Dallas Eakins, will miss the post-season. Again. ' ' '