From my position as sports editor this year, I got to see Gaucho sports in a way only a handful of people do. Unlike a school that attracts a handful of fans purely for athletics, UCSB fans tend to come here for the academics or the parties, only realizing later that, “Wait. We have Division-I sports here?”

Mark Bogard

When ESPN’s Jim Rome visited our campus on Alumni weekend at the beginning of the month, Mark and I were invited to his reception at the Intercollegiate Athletics building.

Mark Bogard

Massari was pissed. The Nexus had just recommended students to reject his DARE referendum proposal, which would have allocated way too much of students’ funds over decades to improve athletics facilities. Needless to say, DARE didn’t pass.

Rob Gym was leaking, the baseball field relied on Andy Gumps instead of real bathrooms and our track was deemed unusable by the Big West. Massari wanted to know how the school’s athletic program would get better without better facilities.

He was right. Our facilities suck. Community colleges look better. Isla Vista Elementary looks better. Even Cal States look better — a fact that escapes the Gaucho Locos that chant “if you can’t go to school, go to State!” like we’re actually superior.

Continue reading...

On Wednesday, staff writer Paul-Michael Ochoa sat down three members of the Gaucho baseball team: Senior outfielder Mark Haddow, senior pitcher Nick Capito, and junior pitcher Matt Vedo. The team has seven games remaining this regular season, but here, the players got a chance to talk about something else for once.

What is your most embarrassing moment on the diamond?

Vedo: I would say my embarrassing moment would be pitching a complete game at Northridge with a big hole in my pants. I had my ass showing the whole game. I just went with it. It worked.

Capito: When I used to play the outfield in high school I was running down the third base line to score. I was a good 10 to 15 feet from the plate and I tripped and fell on my face and got tagged out.

Do you have any pre-game rituals? Who has the weirdest on the team?

V: My better outings before the game I’ve tripped on something by accident and just fallen on my ass or hit my head or something. That would be my go-to pre-game ritual.

Continue reading...

As surprising as it may seem, I don’t spend all of my time thinking about fantasy baseball. I am a man of Isla Vista, and as such, many subjects occupy my thoughts, from sports to politics to what I should have for dinner (tonight feels like cheeseburgers).

In my pondering, I tend to make predictions. More often than not, I end up being right. Today, I’d like to recap some of the things I’ve gotten right and wrong this year, both baseball-related and otherwise.

I was wrong that pitching was far more important than hitting in fantasy baseball. Quality pitching is scarcer than quality hitting, but it is important to have top-tier hitters. My new strategy is to stock up on pitching, but to take hitters if I think a run is starting.

I was right that my pitching was going to be awesome. Josh Johnson, Jon Lester and Roy Halladay have been knocking down fools like bowling pins all season. And since my hitters can’t find their swings, they are the reason my fantasy team is still doing well.

Continue reading...

Phil Jackson was fined $35,000 for his verbal criticism of the officiating during the Mavs’ sweep of the Lakers. For the elbow to Maverick guard JJ Barea’s ribs, Laker center Andrew Bynum was fined only $25,000.

An elbow to the ribs with the sole intent of inflicting pain should be penalized more than a verbal jab. In an informal poll of the people in my living room, all agreed with this notion except for the one guy who disagrees with everything to get attention.

Where does this leave us?

I began this column with the intention of taking a stance against the strength of the referee union. But I didn’t, because I did some research and the amount a player or coach is fined is more arbitrary than I thought. Where the money goes after it’s collected is an even shadier issue — the NBA and the NBPA (the players’ union) split the money and each give the money to charities of their choices, which the NBA does not disclose.

Continue reading...

After an incredible undefeated season, the Gauchos (10-0) will face Bowling Green University (9-0) in the Final Four this afternoon at Steuber Rugby Stadium at Stanford University to fight for the title.

This is the first time in Gaucho history that the men’s rugby team has progressed this far in the U.S.A. National Collegiate Rugby Championships. The squad has failed to make it to nationals since 2006, yet has made an astonishing comeback season this year with the senior leadership of Captain Mitchell Raisch and President Ryan O’Leary.

“Given the amount of hard work and sacrifices the team has put in to the season, it was nice to get the results. That’s what we’ve been working towards.” Head Coach Kevin Battle said.

UCSB came back from a 17-0 deficit to defeat Stanford University 33-17 on May 1 at Harder Stadium. Freshman wing Jonathan Prickett, sophomore flanker Hunter Sapp, and Junior wing John Gallo’s tries and conversions put UCSB ahead in the second half.

“Initially we weren’t executing the plan, we weren’t moving the ball well, so we just made a couple of adjustments with some personnel,” Battle said. “The boys never gave up, and once we got things to click we stayed on top of things.”

Continue reading...

There are a lot of things that go into successfully managing a fantasy baseball team. One of the least obvious, yet most important, is having trust in your players to perform when you need them to.

However, if a player who no one expected to do well suddenly starts performing like a superstar, that player is almost certainly engaging in trickery and mischief with the intention of causing your fantasy empire to crumble.

That’s why you must work the waiver wire cautiously. Here are five players who are doing well right now that I believe are due for major regressions.

undefined | Daily Nexus

I’m sorry to those of you who like a good comeback story, but asking me to believe that big, fat Bartolo Colon can come back after being out of the league for two years and maintain a 37 to seven strikeout-to-walk ratio and a 1.23 WHIP is too much. The last time he pitched a full season was back in 2005, when he posted a 1.16 WHIP and a 3.48 ERA. Since then, he has not been able to log more than 99.1 innings in a season and has managed an ERA under four just once, when he pitched seven games for Boston in 2008. Maybe this is the second coming of Bartolo, but I think he is going to start to regress, and soon.

Continue reading...

This edition of Hoop Dreams is a product of Twitter.

Dmoses3, a UCSB student, tweeted @thenexus_sports 22 consecutive times about LeBron James’ dominance and NBA columnist Ravi Bhatia’s stupidity, because Ravi had written that Blake Griffin could win a championship before James (amongst other things). Before saying “goodnight,” Dmoses3 also suggested we hire his friend, Twitter user Teehayy.

Intrigued by Dmoses3 recommending a friend rather than himself, Ravi challenged Teehayy — actually a UCSB junior named Tyler Hayden — to a LeBron v. Kobe faceoff.

This is Ravi’s Kobe column. Tyler’s LeBron article was in yesterday’s (May 10) edition of the Nexus. The full Twitter battle can be seen @DMoses3, @thenexus_sports and @Teehayy.

There’s no denying the athletic talent of LeBron James.

Ian Sander | Daily NBut a comparison of “who’s better?” between James and Kobe Bryant — two potential first-ballot Hall-of-Famers — requires a higher level of scrutiny than an examination of their athletic abilities or individual statistics. Hell, Phil Jackson once said Dennis Rodman was the most athletic player he’s ever coached. Not MJ.

Continue reading...

Scottsdale, AZ — No. 6 Colorado State beat No. 7 UCSB 10-7 in the WCLA National Championship Tournament semifinals at the Scottsdale Sports Complex this Friday, making it the second time that CSU has eliminated the Gauchos from national championship contention. The Rams won 8-7 over UCSB in the quarterfinals last season.

The Gauchos were down 3-6 at the half and responded with three straight goals to tie the game at 6-6 with 12:50 remaining. UCSB held the Rams scoreless for more than 20 minutes until CSU finally broke through to score and seal the 10-7 win.

Junior goalie Jeni Centner had 12 saves, while senior middlefielder Alyssa Nelsen lead the team in scoring with two goals. The Gauchos were six for 15 on shots from the field and one for eight on free position shots.

“We did a great job on defense and in the cage for the majority of this game,” Head Coach Paul Ramsey said. “But really we needed to finish more of our opportunities on offense.”

The Gauchos beat No. 10 University of Texas 16-10 on Wednesday night before defeating No. 2 Florida 12-11 after an improbable comeback in overtime on Thursday night.

Continue reading...

This article is a product of Twitter.

Dmoses3, a UCSB student, tweeted@thenexus_sports 22 consecutive times about LeBron James’ dominance and NBA columnist Ravi Bhatia’s stupidity. Ravi had written that Blake Griffin could win a championship before James (amongst other things).Dmoses3 also suggested we hire his friend, Twitter user Teehay.

Intrigued by Dmoses3 recommending a friend rather than himself, Ravi challenged Teehay —actually a UCSB junior named Tyler Hayden — to a LeBron v. Kobe faceoff.

This is Tyler’s LeBron Column. Bhatia’s Kobe response will be in tomorrow’s edition of the Nexus. The full Twitter battle can be seen @DMoses3, @thenexus_sports and @Teehayy.

Tyler Hayden

LeBron is more talented, athletic and efficient than Kobe. It is no fluke that LBJ has led the NBA in Player Efficiency Rating in each of the last four seasons. He has better shot selection, vision and is the ultimate team player. The King attacks the rim more violently than anyone, forcing defenses to collapse while freeing up open looks for his teammates. He is the most gifted passer for his size — ever.

Continue reading...

Hey there sporty people. I decided to take a little break from baseball this week and talk to you a little bit about the NFL. Not the labor dispute in the lockout.

But that’s not what I want to talk about. The 2011 NFL draft took place over the weekend and, as usual, there were some big surprises. I’ve picked four drafts to talk about, the two that I think are the best and two that I think are the worst.

Worst

Carolina Panthers:

First round selection: QB Cam Newton

Like the Patriots, the Panthers failed to address their most pressing needs in this year’s draft, namely speed at wide receiver and a first or second-round pass-rushing talent. What they did get was Newton, an egomaniac who will need at least two seasons to prepare before he’s ready to compete at the NFL level. Even then, he’s not guaranteed to fit into an NFL system. For a team that gave up the second-most rushing touchdowns and was last in almost every passing category, drafting a developmental quarterback and no significant defensive help will certainly come back to haunt them in the upcoming season.

Continue reading...

This week’s Tweet of the Week:

Dmoses3 [April 19]: “The dude just said Blake griffin will win a championship before lebron, case in point why Ravi Bhatia needs to write about women’s basketball”

Dmoses3, I actually know less about women’s basketball. But thanks for capitalizing my name and not LeBron’s.

Here’s my logic: even considering the Big Three’s relative youth and their six-year contracts, I give the Heat a two-year window to win a championship. Contracts don’t dictate team chemistry, and the bond between the three might be too weak for them to keep playing with each other for the span of their deals — especially if the Heat don’t win when they’re the favorites, which they’re likely to be next season.

All bets are off about Miami’s dynasty chances if they win this year, but they currently don’t have the depth to beat out any contender from the West in a seven-game series. If they don’t win now, LeBron James won’t be able to handle Dwayne Wade being the man in the long term. He’s too immature to be the leader himself and to accept the fact that he isn’t. He’s not enough of a competitive asshole to carry a team on his shoulders and win it all like MJ and Kobe Bryant, but he’s too much of an asshole — and too good — to step aside and let Wade lead them there.

Continue reading...

If you are in a fantasy baseball league that isn’t rotisserie style, you’re doing it wrong. That’s just a fact.

Unfortunately, rotisserie style fantasy baseball can either be one of two things: horribly frustrating or downright infuriating. It’s the points system.

At first glance, rotisserie play seems to be designed to make fantasy owners pull out their hair in blind fury just so the good people at ESPN can share a malicious smirk in between talking about Brett Favre for no reason and making fun of the Oakland Raiders.

| Daily Nexus

A closer inspection, however, reveals that there actually is a somewhat coherent method to ESPN’s scoring system. In rotisserie play, you gain points based on how well you do in the various scoring categories compared to the rest of the teams in your league. If you do better in a category than your opponents, you gain points. If you do worse, you lose points. How you rank in the individual categories also affects how you obtain points. For instance, if you are ranked No. 1 in a certain category, you won’t gain any points for doing well in that category because you’re already ranked first. You can’t do any better in that category.

Continue reading...

John Hollinger’s Player Efficiency Rating pissed me off more when it was used to prove LeBron was better than Kobe a few years back.

It doesn’t annoy me as much as it used to. I’m now satisfied with believing that LeBron’s the better athlete while Kobe’s the better player — putting aside his recent struggles handling the ball. But it worries me to think that people are looking only at PER to determine a player’s value or using the stat to judge high school and college talent. It worries me more that it’s become so mainstream and that other columnists use it to measure a player’s success in the same way they use points scored.

An ESPN columnist himself, Hollinger developed PER to standardize the measure of a player’s total performance. He combines the individual player’s statistics with team statistics, weighting each individual stat differently. With some help from PEMDAS, the numbers plug into the formula to yield a number rounded to the hundredth. Hollinger sets the average PER in the NBA to 15.00. The best players have PERs in the 20s.

Continue reading...