Happy to Thanksgiving to Nova Nation! Special thanks goes out to our military members overseas and on assignments which keep them separated from their families. Special thanks also goes out to the Nova players, staff and coaches for giving up the time today that they could be spending with their families and friends to compete for Nova and to entertain us. In this strife filled world taking the time today to give thanks to God for the blessings he has provided and for the opportunity to enjoy sharing time with our families while watching the Nova game are so important to keeping life in perspective.

Go Cats!

This board seems like the perfect place for this question. I've accumulated quite a few AMEX points, and I'm wondering if anyone has found anything interesting or different to do with them. I can just transfer them to SkyMiles or whatever, but that seems boring. Whatcha got?

Called them my sleeper this year, and after watching them dismantle UMASS tonight, I'm sticking to it. These guys are well coached with a lot of shooters and good ball movement.

Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian strike aircraft near the Syria-Turkey border.

I wonder if tjc has any doomsday prepper advice?

Both look pretty good going in.

nm

Joe played for Nova from 1968 to 1970. The 70 team went 9-2 under coach Lou Ferry. Joe also played for Coach Jack Gregory. After VU Joe started his career as a football coach and teacher before he transitioned into healthcare technology industry for 30 years. Joe was 65. Cause of death pancreatic cancer.

Good one on ESPN by former Grandland writer Zach Lowe, who I think is one of the best writers on Grandland before it went under. It's not insider, but it's a long piece so here are some snipits...

• "That's not something we're going to do," Vogel said of using [Paul] George at center. "But whether or not it's insane, I actually don't know."

• During a wave of injuries decimating Boston's big men last season, Stevens decided to use Jonas Jerebko at center with Jae Crowder at power forward. And it worked. "It was quick and fast and hard to play against," Stevens said. "There were things we struggled with, but that's part of the game. I never lose sleep over size," Stevens added. "I lose sleep over speed and skill."

• Kidd has already (briefly) used a big-man combination of Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jabari Parker, and Kidd is confident the Greek Freak can guard most centers -- with help from a swarming defense. "You're going to see more of that," Kidd said. There just aren't a ton of back-to-the-basket scorers skilled enough to scare teams out of guarding them with smaller guys.

• One obvious antidote Golden State has so far survived: Bigger teams need to slaughter small-ball opponents on the offensive glass. Oklahoma City has rebounded 32 percent of its own misses so far, the highest mark in the league by a mile, and the Thunder surge toward 36 percent -- a ridiculous number -- when Kanter is on the floor, per NBA.com research. "It's just a matter of maintaining integrity on the boards," Budenholzer said. But there's a flip side here, too: If a big-ball team crashes the glass and comes up empty, the small-ball enemy will be racing down the court on a 5-on-3. "If you don't get that rebound, you're in for a long night," Kidd said. "You might go on a 6-2 run, but we're going on a 10-0 run with 3s and layups." Kanter would be helpless defending Golden State's super-small groups in the half court; can you imagine the carnage if the Warriors jumped out on the break three possessions in a row?

• Studies of rebounding in the SportVU era have found that most boards are snatched about 8 feet above the ground, where players of any height should be able to battle for them. "A guy like Gobert will get some you can't reach," D'Antoni said, "but the others, you should at least have a fighting chance." That's especially true for the Warriors, a ferocious gang-rebounding team. Again: If you're going to build a smaller team, you'd better find taller wings who love to play inside.

Pretty good stuff. http://espn.go.com/nba/story/_/id/14209124/is-small-ball-dominance-golden-state-blip-trend

They have us ranked 2nd behind Kentucky and Daniel as the #4 ranked Center in the Country.....
We are good,but not #2 good at this point. No disrespect to DO,but until he starts taking those 2 foot rebounds back up and either score or get fouled,he's not the 4th best center.
Didn't mean to imply that Eric was our "homer"....I think his write ups are Very Fair and accurate.

Instead of losing 12 over a 4 year period (3 per year) they are losing 8 over a 4 year period (2 per year)

Syracuse, starting next season, can have 11 scholarship players instead of 10, for the next 4 years

http://espn.go.com/ncb/story/_/id/14222207/syracuse-orange-appeal-ncaa-sanctions-rewarded

During the Akron game yesterday, I was chatting with a few board members and one of the topics that was brought up was which former Wildcat will have their jersey retired next.

Personally, I think it's Scottie Reynolds, but Allan Ray or Kyle Lowry could be sleeper picks. Thoughts?

how does the process work in terms of which tournament we end up in? do we have to wait to see who invites us? or do we actively play a part in where we end up? I know we've had a few years where we've played in some good fields, but more often than not it feels like we're in with some pretty weak competition. Is that because we're not as attractive for whatever reason? or do we prefer it that way scheduling-wise? in the last decade, Atlantis is the only tournament I remember us being in with a blue-chip program. It seems like every other time we are with a couple ok mid-majors and middle-to-lower tier power conference teams.

shot in the head

Heldt 6'10" Ellenson 6"10" and Fisher 6' 11"....

Hello, please check out our week 2 College Basketball poll
http://scarecrowgrin.com/2015/11/25/college-basketball-week-2-top-25/

Best player in college basketball. He is the next generational superstar in the NBA. I can see him in his prime winning multiple titles in the NBA and carrying a franchise. Good attacker of the dribble, good defender, and a very willing passer. That's a guy at the next level you play deep into June with. LeBron and Simmions are the best six foot eight plus passers I have ever seen.

If he develops a jump shot watch out....

Thinking about getting this for my dad for Christmas. My parents have a hundred remotes sitting on their coffee table with masking tape on them and labels like "DVD" "Volume" etc. Seems like a universal remote is the ticket. This one is a couple of years old so I'm worried about the quality of the touch screen.

Arak, tjc, thoughts? Can relatively old people who usually use reading glasses figure this one out?

http://www.amazon.com/Logitech-Harm...qid=1448318975&sr=1-8&keywords=harmony+remote

My old roommate is looking for two tickets to the Gtown game in DC. Ticketmaster has seats, but only uppers available. Anybody have anything available? Thanks in advance.

I have 2 extras for Friday's doubleheader at Barclay's. Lower Level - Section 23, row 5.

Email me if interested.

fred.shoop@gmail.com

So about a week ago when we had some heavy winds a dead tree in my neighbor's yard came down and crashed from his side across the back bed of my yard. Now it fell into a mulch bed & not onto the lawn so I'm not worried about it doing any damage to the lawn etc.. However, it's been close to a week and it's been laying there-again no real harm being done but it's an eyesore. The thing is that we are on friendly terms with this neighbor (we don't hang out or anything but a quick "Hi how are you" type thing if they are out in the driveway. I don't want to piss the people off and get into a border war in the future every time a branch falls in the neighbor's yard-however, it's starting to piss me off. I could probably clean it up but that would involve me getting a chain saw and chopping the trunk and branches just to move the thing-it's not that I can't - I just feel since it's not my tree I shouldn't have to do that.

How long do I wait before I knock on the door and ask them to please remove their dead tree from my yard? Is there a delicate way to approach this without it turning into WW III?

Look at the concrete proof of racism in public schools. Disproportionate number of black kids are getting detention and black kids being underrepresented in the gifted program. This is hard evidence of institutional racism in public schools. http://mobile.philly.com/beta?wss=/philly/education&id=353094021

I THINK THIS WILL BE A GREAT GAME......SO....IF YOU CALL TEMPLE AND TELL THEM YOU BELONG TO THE OWL CLUB.....YOU WILL GET A SIDELINE SEAT FOR FOURTY BUCKS......THE SEAT IS WORLD CLASS.....JUST TELL THEM...YOU ARE ANTI NOVA.....THEN FOOL THEM WHEN YOU GET THERE........THEY DONT CHECK MEMBERSHIP........THE END JUSTIFIES THE MEANS........A MANS REACH SHOULD EXCEED HIS GRASP OR WHATS A HEAVEN FOR.........ROBERT BROWNING........

...I still cannot believe we got Rick Brunson's kid...