Posts by Shane Ryan

December 2, 2013
Scenes From Duke Football’s Joyride

I watched the Duke-UNC game at Kenan Stadium in Chapel Hill with two friends, one of whom was French and still a little rusty on the rules of football. It took a while, for instance, to explain why a team would ever choose to decline a penalty. That established, I turned to the cultural side, […]
November 13, 2013
10 Takeaways From a Wonderful, Frustrating Night of College Basketball

The Champions Classic is in the books, with Michigan State surviving against Kentucky and Jabari Parker defeating Andrew Wiggins (historical footnote: Kansas would win the actual game), and, in the true spirit of college basketball, it was both joyous and aggravating. The basketball was transcendent at times, in a way we don’t often see at […]
November 8, 2013
Mark Your Calendars: An Immersive Guide to the Week in College Hoops

College basketball is back, and life finally makes sense again. Questions like “Where did all my money go?” and “Why am I such a disappointment?” and “How did I end up in this Dumpster?” no longer matter. Nothing matters, actually. Our salvation has arrived, and if you think I’m being overly dramatic, then you can […]
November 7, 2013
College Basketball’s New (and Necessary) Growing Pains

Last May, the NCAA Men’s Basketball Rules Committee met with a chance to rescue college basketball from its ongoing doldrums. The aesthetic quality of the sport had hit rock bottom, with scoring dropping to its lowest levels since the 1951-52 season, according to the NCAA record book (page 44 [PDF]). An NCAA press release, and […]
November 4, 2013
An Idiot’s Guide to the Tiger Woods–Brandel Chamblee ‘Feud’

Hey there, casual golf fans! Have you seen strange references to Tiger Woods and someone called Brandel Chamblee as you’ve browsed ESPN over the last two weeks? Are you kind of curious as to what it’s all about, but would rather not chase a series of links down the Internet rabbit hole until you reach […]
October 23, 2013
Frank Haith Gets a Five-Game Suspension, and More College Hoops News You Can Use

We’re now less than a month from the tipoff of the 2013-14 season, and schools all around the country have held their various Midnight Madness celebrations (though a 2013 rule change meant that teams could begin practicing as early as September 27 this year). It’s almost time for college basketball, but before we ring in […]
October 10, 2013
Phone Transcripts: The USC Football Coaching Hoax

Lane Kiffin was fired as USC’s head football coach on September 29, and by now, you’ve probably heard of the alleged con artist who impersonated a USC official and called Tony Dungy and Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio, pretending to discuss the football team’s coaching vacancy. Dungy revealed he had been contacted on a […]
October 4, 2013
Six Takeaways From Last Night’s NLDS Doubleheader

The NLDS began Thursday night amid anticipation and excitement for two seemingly evenly matched series. Instead, we got two blowouts. Michael Baumann and Shane Ryan break down the Cardinals’ 9-1 win over the Pirates and the Dodgers’ 6-1 victory over the Braves.
October 2, 2013
MLB Playoff Hate Primer: The Best Player to Despise on Each Team

The playoffs are a time for triumph and joy, and in a month our lasting image for the season will be some team celebrating a World Series win with champagne and goggles. But it would be wrong to ignore the flip side of that coin. Wayyyy more teams will lose, and their fans will suffer […]
October 1, 2013
Game 163: Five Takeaways From Rays-Rangers

In a reversal of past failure, the Rays finally took down the team that has absolutely dominated them in the postseason (read: beat them two years in a row in 2010 and 2011 by narrow margins) to advance to the wild-card round. They weren’t fazed by the return of Nelson Cruz, or the icy glare […]

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