Depending on who you ask, Xaviers win probability bottomed out at or slightly after the final media timeout. NumberFire puts the Musketeers down to their last 2.92% when Parker Jackson-Cartwright jarred the second of the two free throws he earned right before the break. KenPom doesnt label each play, but he had Xavier down to right around 3% when Kadeem Allen made a layup with 2:52 to play. When Allens layup went through the strings, Xavier was down to its last breath in a shootout that had seen Arizona not be able to pull away despite averaging 1.29 points per possession in their 55 trips down the floor to that point. To get back on top before time ran out, Xavier would need to outscore Arizona by at least 8 in the remaining 2:52. With the tenor of the game to that point, scoring 8 was always going to be the easier part. Then the defense went to work. Xavier was in a 2-3/1-1-3 here with JP and Q chasing all around the perimeter. That obviously left some gaps when the ball rotated quickly, and with 10 seconds left on the shot clock, Trier tried a long three that would … Continue reading →

New York Times Sarah Dunn on the Anatomy of an Open Marriage New York Times It's every married couple's fantasy, at least in theory: You get to have sex with anyone you want, no questions asked. I'm saying let's both do it, and let's swear to keep our mouths shut about it for the rest of our lives, says the wife in Sarah ... Continue reading here: Sarah Dunn on the Anatomy of an Open Marriage - New York Times … Continue reading →

Poor Meredith Grey (Ellen Pompeo) has the worst luck with planes. You may have already heard that "Grey's Anatomy" Season 13 has an upcoming episode "set entirely on a commercial airliner as a crisis unfolds mid-flight." TVLine revealed a photo from that April 13 episode, "In the Air Tonight," directed by Chandra Wilson (Miranda Bailey). As you can see below, Meredith and Nathan Riggs (Martin Henderson) are seated next to each other on the plane, and Mer already looks troubled: TVLine didn't have any other details, so we don't know if the crisis is a problem with the plane -- like fans could handle another crash after the Season 8 finale took Lexie Grey -- or a crisis with one of the passengers, and Grey and Riggs have to step in to help. For all we know, there could be other doctors on that flight with them, although it kinda looks like maybe they are getting away together. If so, their expressions don't suggest a romantic start. They both look a bit alarmed, no? Or wary, at least. Mer does not look comfortable. Are her eyes red, or are we just reading too much into it? The woman next to … Continue reading →

Masked Scheduler's Ratings Smackdown Starting to see some cracks in Shondaland. To finish up on why the networks will survive well into the future, I want to add three more factors to yesterdays discussion of retransmission fees and ownership of programming by the sibling studios attached to the networks. A lot of network audience erosion is a result of the untethering of shows from the linear schedule. Whether it's DVR playback, VOD, or Hulu et al, combined with mobile devices, as this viewing is captured and monetized the networks will offset the traditional ratings declines. For quite a while the dance was, as ratings declined, the CPMs (cost per thousands) for ads would go up. It was the classic law of supply and demand. That is no longer the case, so capturing all viewing to a show will offset a flattening of CPMs. The network syndication goal used to be to get to 100 episodes of a show and sell it to stations or station groups. Basic cable offered another platform, and now we have streaming services. As a result of all this, the old "wait for 100" model has given way to more immediate repurposing of product. Of all … Continue reading →