Avinash Kunnath › Comments

Good article on Chris Henry - Avinash Kunnath

If there's a "Secret" to book writing, too, then which player is Simmons? A Vince Carter, who has the tools but doesn't care? I don't think so. A Patrick Ewing, laboring indignantly above his natural level? Nah. I think he's—yes!—Allen Iverson, blessed with a crazy oversupply of Secret-defying capacities utterly irresistible to put into action and, for many, irresistible to behold—until the day comes when they suddenly rankle. No wonder Simmons burns his thesis to make room for Iverson—that was what Iverson would do if he were writing a book. It would make a highlight film, and then someone would point out that the team lost the game that the highlight came from. - Avinash Kunnath

Let's give Dr. Dre the George Washington slot and call Rakim the John Winthrop of rap (DJ Kool Herc = John Smith; musical forebears like James Brown and George Clinton can be American intellectual forebears John Locke and Montesquieu). Tupac is Thomas Jefferson, both because he's Dre's greatest contemporary/associate and because, with those well-exercised abs, he probably slept with more black women than anyone on this list. Biggie, as the greatest rapper, and one who brought salvation and direction to a troubled genre, is obviously greatest-president-slash-civil-rights-godfather Lincoln. Who's the fourth? We think there's only one choice in the Teddy Roosevelt spot — the category for someone charismatic and wildly popular whose career reached tremendous early heights but nonetheless limped to a conclusion, leading everyone to look back 25 years later and think "maybe we should've picked someone else" — the maniac in black, slim with the tilted brim on 20-inch rims, Snoop Dogg. - Avinash Kunnath

"I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!!!!" - Avinash Kunnath

Football and the brain. - Avinash Kunnath

Use for the Holiday season. - Avinash Kunnath

sweeeeeet - Avinash Kunnath

We owe it to ourselves. It is the right thing to do. It will promote the general welfare. It will assist in our pursuit of life and happiness. The arguments against it come disguised in ideology designed to conceal their common motivation: Selfishness. - Avinash Kunnath

The basics for aspiring writers are still in place: read as much as possible, figure out what's working for writers that you like, work at a style that combines all of those things, keep writing, keep reading, never settle for being average, and don't just say what you think but say it in a way that's fun to read and is constructed in a thought-provoking way. I - Avinash Kunnath

Dallas Christian scores and weekly updates, with some Adcock stats and mentions. - Avinash Kunnath

Save this for a Bears in Pros piece - Avinash Kunnath

Recruits Considering Cal - Avinash Kunnath

List of current Cal commits for 2010 - Avinash Kunnath

For following tidbits on Cal recruits, verbals and possibles. - Avinash Kunnath

Bear Insider Archive--plenty of recruiting/general news - Avinash Kunnath

Big 10 recruiting - Avinash Kunnath

His game is built around speed, opting to put the ball on the deck a large percentage of the time in the half court offense. Randle possesses fantastic handles, able to weave his way through traffic, often burning several defenders on his way to the basket. By combining these skills with his excellent hesitation moves, Randle is able to get into the lane almost at will when he chooses to. This has allowed him to be not only a dynamic scorer but an equally as dynamic playmaker, dishing out five assists per game last season, with nearly a 2-to-1 assist to turnover ratio. While he does struggle to finish at the rim given his smaller stature, the upperclassman has developed a very soft runner which he is able to hit from a variety of angles depending on where he is attacking from. - Avinash Kunnath

Heavily reliant on his jump shot for his production, Christopher improved his scoring rate per-40 marginally last season, though his shooting percentages dipped slightly. Always fairly erratic with his shot selection, Christopher attempts and makes some very tough attempts from the field. With nearly a third of his total shot attempts coming from three-point range, his tendencies as a scorer lead to some questionable decisions. In 2009, Christopher was a bit more aggressive, and less consistent, off the dribble than he was as a sophomore, but compensated with improved consistency in catch and shoot situations. Many of those catch and shoot chances opportunities came on plays where Christopher was running off screens to get open, a promising addition to his game looking to the next level. - Avinash Kunnath

For happy themed post. - Avinash Kunnath

I don't think athletes should be thugs or criminals. I also know it's unreasonably, and possibly irrelevant, to expect everyone else involved in sports to get more civil. But as Jordan showed us last weekend, and as Serena's defenders will no doubt say, no one ever conquered a sport by being nice. - Avinash Kunnath

Breakdown of USC formations. - Avinash Kunnath

Great look at how Ohio State bungled what should have been a headline victory. - Avinash Kunnath

Great profile on Ron Gould. Good look at running backs and blocking strategies he teaches too. - Avinash Kunnath

Good tool. - Avinash Kunnath

Welcome to the USA of the 2009. Where the government, both Republicans and Democrats, thinks that doing nothing is a far better alternative than being productive and gaining experience ! Where our politicians would rather see you pay out of your pocket to go back to school rather than get valuable on the job experience. - Avinash Kunnath

I’m pretty much in the opposite camp as you. I think Oregon got exposed yesterday. Boise didn’t beat them on flukes, trick plays, or by injuring all their QB’s – Boise beat them while playing a sloppy game themselves because they pushed Oregon around and dominated them on the line on both sides of the ball. They were simply the better team out there, and if it wasn’t for Moore just dropping the ball onto the field, or a few missed field goals, we’d have the perception that Boise smoked Oregon, instead of just beating them in a sloppy game. ~Missing Barry - Avinash Kunnath

First of all, it’s pretty obvious that Oregon embarrassed themselves in pretty much every way it is possible for a football team to embarrass themselves on the field (and no, the all-white unis aren’t bad, the the wings really do look that stupid). However, while it may be time to ratchet down expectations for the Ducks, I don’t see that it’s time for them to panic at all. Their offensive line had a terrible, terrible game, and it ruined Chip Kelly’s offense, but it’s not a dire, throw-out-the-playbook sort of situation. Masoli runs the spread very well (go back and watch the 2008 Holiday Bowl if you don’t believe me), though he’s still not much of a downfield passer, and Boise’s disruption up front lay waste to their offensive game plan before it ever really got started. I expect Oregon’s offense to get better as the line gets more experience, but that may not happen for a while. ~ragnarok - Avinash Kunnath

there’s a deception to what they do, and when it works, it puts their skill players in advantageous 1-on-1 matchups. take, for example, Oregon’s 2-point conversion, where a really, really excellent fake allowed Masoli to walk into the end zone untouched. also, with that O-line? running north-south wasn’t going to get them anywhere. ~ragnarok - Avinash Kunnath

As far as what works against the zone-blitz, that is still an ongoing battle between offenses and defenses. Zone-blitzes are malleable — one reason I said they were conservative is that zone-blitzes almost always play with three deep zone defenders, which is a very conservative strategy. But overall one reason you see so many screens these days is because coaches feel that these harm zone-blitzes: with all the movement before the snap and various guys rushing (and sometimes defenders in pass coverage who aren’t used to it), the offense feels like it can win if it sucks the rushers upfield while getting a receiver and blockers on a limited number of pass coverage defenders. The other issue is protection again: if you can figure out how to block the defense’s five blitzers (or even figure out which five guys are blitzing), then you should be able to hit a pass downfield against the very soft and not crowded zone defense. But that’s a big if. - Avinash Kunnath

If you don't like a picture on Flickr for any reason, you can just have it deleted by sending a DMCA take-down notice. We can only hope that Flickr will institute a better verification process in the near future. - Avinash Kunnath