Basketball/Volleyball Brackets > 2016 GO FOR THE GOLD play off's

Events
Women's
United States   VS   Spain     go for the gold  

1:30 PM  August 20


Mens >
Serbia     VS     United States    go for the gold
1:45 PM  August 21


Australia   VS     Spain    go for the bronze
9:30 AM August 21


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EVENT >
Women's Volleyball >

China    VS   Servia    go for the GOLD
8:15 PM August 20



Netherlands   23-27-22-19
WOWsers ...this was a hard fought game; loads of drama from the referee's - some ODD calls but USA fought to the very end and came away with the win.



MENS Volleyball >

Italy  VS  Brazil  Go for the GOLD  **this will be a huge-loud engaging game**
11:15 AM August 21
United States   VS  Russia   Go for the Bronze
7:30 AM  August 21

The guys playing for the US are all professionals, playing for the NBA.  Like pro-wrestling, the NBA rigs games.  How could they help themselves, with so many fouls being called.  Now they have flagrant and super-flagrant fouls, by which they suspend players for crucial games.

By removing highly talented players, you inevitably affect the outcome of the game.  The NBA would have you believe that it never enters into their mind that they are foreordaining the outcome of games, but **nudge-nudge** they still do it, and they are hardly stupid.  They rig their games that way.

By rigging their games the NBA can write the scripts that come out in the press, and engineer their own greater esteem.  If, for example, a highly popular team is in contention, and the NBA sees a profit in having that team win, what do you think?  It's a flagrant foul here, and a flagrant foul there, and voilà ... the right team wins.  And sometimes they go behind closed doors, days later, and determine that it was a flagrant foul, when it wasn't called on the floor.  What do you think they are discussing behind those closed doors?

I like the freshness and untainted nature of the college games.  They don't have heavy-hitting owners calling the games after-the-fact behind closed doors, and reaping the profits.  

Oh, and um...Go Arizona!

   party pooper!

4EVER2 wrote:   party pooper!

I've not been a fan of the Olympics for some 16-years, because of the crass commercialism.

But professional basketball has the added taint of the corrupt NBA, which sacrifices the spirit of competition for bland scripts and manufactured drama.  We all remember the NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who was indicted in 2007 for fixing games:

Wiki wrote:On June 10, 2008, Donaghy's attorney filed a court document alleging, among other things, that Game 6 of the 2002 Western Conference Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and Sacramento Kings was fixed by two referees. The letter states that Donaghy "learned from Referee A that Referees A and F wanted to extend the series to seven games. Tim knew Referees A and F to be 'company men', always acting in the interest of the NBA, and that night, it was in the NBA's interest to add another game to the series." The Lakers won Game 6, attempting 18 more free throws than the Kings in the fourth quarter, and went on to win the 2002 NBA Finals. The teams were not named, but the Western Conference Finals was the only seven-game series that year. The document claimed that Donaghy told federal agents that to increase television ratings and ticket sales, "top executives of the NBA sought to manipulate games using referees". It also said that NBA officials would tell referees to not call technical fouls on certain players, and states that a referee was privately reprimanded by the league for ejecting a star player in the first quarter of a January 2000 game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Donaghy

Doesn't give you a whole lot of confidence, does it?  Last year, during the play-offs, the wife of a star player affirmed that the league was still rigging games.  The outcome of that series was just as she predicted, even though the winner of the series overcame an unprecedented 3-game deficit.   http://www.stltoday.com/news/steph-curry-s-wife-says-nba-games-are-rigged/article_475e9c64-be0b-5c5e-b9ff-b6efcb8dde2e.html  The NBA got its script.

But that isn't to say that I don't love the game.  At the college level the competition is real and above suspicion.

GOOD GRIEF, Quill ...you and I had this very discussion about the NBA back in March when I'd asked if anyone was interested in doing a March Madness Pool/Bracket.   And yes, we kicked around the same issues at that time; but this is the OLYMPICS ...can't you just set aside your angst about that issue and pick up something 'FUN' to watch and cheer on regardless of the stilted - possible homefied way that some of the referee's are behaving? 

You've only have today left to find some rallying spirit...FFS! 

4EVER2 wrote:Events
Women's
United States   VS   Spain     go for the gold  

1:30 PM  August 20

USA = 101  ...**GOLD**

Spain = 72  **SILVER**

France  63 VS  Serbia =  70 **BRONZE**

Mens >
Serbia     VS     United States    go for the gold
1:45 PM  August 21


Australia   VS     Spain    go for the bronze
9:30 AM August 21


*********************************


EVENT >
Women's Volleyball >

China   19-25-25- 25 **GOLD**
Servia  25-17-22- 23 **Silver** 
USA       25-25-25- 25 **Bronze**

WOWsers ...this was a hard fought game; loads of drama from the referee's - some ODD calls but USA fought to the very end and came away with the win.

MENS Volleyball >

Italy  VS  Brazil  Go for the GOLD  **this will be a huge-loud engaging game**
11:15 AM August 21
United States   VS  Russia   Go for the Bronze
7:30 AM  August 21

Australia   VS     Spain    go for the bronze
9:30 AM August 21 

4EVER2 wrote:GOOD GRIEF, Quill ...you and I had this very discussion about the NBA back in March when I'd asked if anyone was interested in doing a March Madness Pool/Bracket.   And yes, we kicked around the same issues at that time; but this is the OLYMPICS ...can't you just set aside your angst about that issue and pick up something 'FUN' to watch and cheer on regardless of the stilted - possible homefied way that some of the referee's are behaving? 

You've only have today left to find some rallying spirit...FFS! 

First, I have absolutely no interest in the Olympics, let alone Olympic basketball.  Second, I love the game of basketball and I can't wait for the college season to begin.

The University of Arizona has two remarkable incoming freshmen, shooting guard Rawle Aikins, of Middle Village, New York, and 7-foot power forward Lauri Markkanen, from Vantaa, Finland, who will light up the court at McKale Center.  Lauri might otherwise go to the center spot, were it not for 7-foot Serbian Dušan Ristić, already playing at center.  

This might be the season when Arizona again wins the National Championship.  Big, fast and skillful...they seem to outclass the class of the nation.

   Guess the topic title was confusing

What??  We're talking about basketball.

Kerri Walsh got a new partner in volleyball this year; whatever happened to Misty May?  Those girls tore up the Pac-10 when she was at Stanford, and at beaches around Los Angeles.

Original Quill wrote:What??  We're talking about basketball.

Kerri Walsh got a new partner in volleyball this year; whatever happened to Misty May?  Those girls tore up the Pac-10 when she was at Stanford, and at beaches around Los Angeles.

Well, see ...if you'd cared enough to watch & support those woman with your viewing time you'd know >. 

Kerri Walsh Jennings, April Ross would not go back to old partners

By Nick Zaccardi. Sep 8, 2014

• Imagine this scenario: Misty May-Treanor decides she wants to unretire and go for a fourth straight Olympic beach volleyball gold medal. The first person she calls is her old partner, Kerri Walsh Jennings, who is currently playing with new partner April Ross.A similar instance occurred before the 2011 season. May-Treanor decided in 2010 she would take the next year off and was uncertain about her future, so Walsh Jennings partnered with Nicole Branagh.  
  But May-Treanor had a change of heart and told Walsh Jennings she was coming back, either with Walsh Jennings or with a new partner if she had to. Walsh Jennings made a friendly split with Branagh, teamed up with May-Treanor again, and they won a third Olympic gold a year later in London.
  
  

So, what would Walsh Jennings say if May-Treanor, retired since London, called her with comeback plans again?  “I would say, thank you for calling me, I really appreciate that and tell her good luck,” Walsh Jennings said.
http://olympics.nbcsports.com/2014/09/08/kerri-walsh-jennings-april-ross-beach-volleyball-misty-may-treanor-olympics/  

Walsh and May were the pair that defined the game. I only ask because of that.

I loved Bridge over Troubled Waters, written by Paul Simon and sung by Art Garfunkle. Do they hate each other today? I don't care. It was a great recording.

I thought Walsh and May would go on forever. I was wrong.

Original Quill wrote:Walsh and May were the pair that defined the game.  I only ask because of that.

I loved Bridge over Troubled Waters, written by Paul Simon and sung by Art Garfunkle.  Do they hate each other today?  I don't care.  It was a great recording.

I thought Walsh and May would go on forever.  I was wrong.

Well you weren't the only one ...that's why the commentator's kept taking about it soooo much that first night that Walch played; then suddenly it was like someone had turned their questions 'OFF' ...no more talking about it - no questions about May to Walsh during those rest of the nights of the Olympics!  Very Odd

4EVER2 wrote:

Original Quill wrote:Walsh and May were the pair that defined the game.  I only ask because of that.

I loved Bridge over Troubled Waters, written by Paul Simon and sung by Art Garfunkle.  Do they hate each other today?  I don't care.  It was a great recording.

I thought Walsh and May would go on forever.  I was wrong.

Well you weren't the only one ...that's why the commentator's kept taking about it soooo much that first night that Walch played; then suddenly it was like someone had turned their questions 'OFF' ...no more talking about it - no questions about May to Walsh during those rest of the nights of the Olympics!  Very Odd

It's to be expected.  The Olympics have gone to crass commercialism, just like professional sports.  Select the winners.  Orchestrate the officiating.  Censor the announcers.  It's all part of the same plot to assure a good show for the public, with a pre-determined outcome.  

Notice the Americans got 121 medals, tops in the competition...guess which country yields the most profit in TV revenue and other income for the Olympics?

Veya and I were just kicking the LIAR OF RIO - Mr. Locke around on that other topic! 
How long the anger and shame will be his guilt to carry or will he be as with the 'boys-will-be-boys' attitude that blessed M. Phelps during his BAD BOY PHASE?
I'm thinking Ryan Locke won't be made to suffer unduly long and he'll be making the tour with ALL OF THE GOLD MEDAL WNNERS ...his apology tour.

Locke showed himself to be a selfish, bad-boy during the London Olympics. He reminds me of Ethan Couch...someone who can only think of himself.