The Bill Walton Champion, 2016-2017

[uh_no]

It's time for the best metric for evaluating the top team: The walton title!

backstory:
http://forums.dukebasketballreport.c...611#post701611

Last year:
http://forums.dukebasketballreport.c...t=walton+title


TLDR: the title belt stays with whatever team has it and only moves on when that team is beaten. So the current holder is

Villanova


The title will likely move on by the time nova plays creighton at the start of the year (simply looking at KP win %). The best chance of it coming to duke before the national title game (right now) is for ND to beat nova at the beginning of december...which would make it likely to end up in the ACC, and perhaps stay there through the rest of the year.

[killerleft]

Whoa, it's too early! I was in scan mode and thought this was an obit for half a sec. Whew!

[BigWayne]

Only non-conference game Villanova is likely to be threatened in is Notre Dame on Dec 10th. Otherwise, it likely will move around in the Big East unless Villanova survives until their trip to Charlottesville Jan 29.

[juise]

I feel like there should be a corollary to the Walton title in which the preseason #1 starts with the title and it goes from there. So Ft. Wayne holds the corollary title right now. This might be a fun thing to track if the actual Walton title doesn't budge for a while.

[mr. synellinden]

I feel like there should be a corollary to the Walton title in which the preseason #1 starts with the title and it goes from there. So Ft. Wayne holds the corollary title right now. This might be a fun thing to track if the actual Walton title doesn't budge for a while.

Wouldn't Kansas hold the title right now? Indiana beat Kansas before Duke played them.

[BLPOG]

I feel like there should be a corollary to the Walton title in which the preseason #1 starts with the title and it goes from there. So Ft. Wayne holds the corollary title right now. This might be a fun thing to track if the actual Walton title doesn't budge for a while.

ChristopherLambertHighlander.jpg

(also, you've got your dates/ordinality confused)

[pfrduke]

Hinkle Magic gives Butler the Walton Championship Belt for the time being.

[Turk]

Hinkle Magic gives Butler the Walton Championship Belt for the time being.

"Trust the Process!" (oh wait, wrong guy...)

[Troublemaker]

Hinkle Magic gives Butler the Walton Championship Belt for the time being.

Huge for Duke, too, in our race with Villanova for the 1 seed in the East. Oh, yes, I'm thinking about that again. I'm greedy!

[ChillinDuke]

Speaking of Walton, did anyone catch the intro to the Washington v Oregon game last night after ours? It was fantastic on so many levels.

[Some background for those of you that don't know, Dave Pasch is Bill Walton's often-paired play-by-play colleague. The two have a funny chemistry, because, well, Bill Walton.]

First off, we have the welcome segment. I don't remember exactly the quote so I'm paraphrasing, but Pasch kicks off the broadcast with an incredible self-deprecating line, something on the order of: "Hello folks, and welcome to the end of my life. Alongside Bill Walton, I'm Dave Pasch." Pasch seems to be forewarning about the next sequence of events...

Next, there's this graphic: ESPN Announcer Graphic

So they publish this hysterical graphic - which in and of itself would have been superb television. But wait there's more...

Next, Walton proceeds to enter into some semi-scripted intro segment where he pretends he doesn't know who Pasch is (the two are paired almost daily). Sort of playing into the graphic - so I think this whole bit was purposeful. Which is even more hysterical. Pasch can't do much but smile and ponder how it all came to this. Which finally leads me to...

ESPN exits the pregame segment with the normal outro "College Basketball on ESPN" or whatever. And up pops a Bill Walton cartoon in the bottom left corner of the screen wearing a tie-dyed shirt that reads, "Walton's World." So apparently ESPN is now explicitly producing and branding Walton's games?

Perhaps this hysterical insanity has been going on all year with Walton's games. But for those that didn't see last night, it was one of the most absurd Walton-isms I've seen to date. Which is saying something.

- Chillin

[uh_no]

it looks like the belt will stay in the WCC, as I don't see anyone playing further OCC in that league. Shame. What a boring year for the belt!

[pfrduke]

it looks like the belt will stay in the WCC, as I don't see anyone playing further OCC in that league. Shame. What a boring year for the belt!

You mean the Big East? There could be a scenario where it gets to the ACC (if it gets back to Villanova before the UVA game and then Virginia wins) but I haven't looked at what needs to happen for that to work.

ETA: now I have looked. Simplest way is for Butler to win its games until losing to Marquette on 1/16, then Marquette win until losing to Villanova on 1/24, then Villanova losing to UVA.

[tbyers11]

You mean the Big East? There could be a scenario where it gets to the ACC (if it gets back to Villanova before the UVA game and then Virginia wins) but I haven't looked at what needs to happen for that to work.

ETA: now I have looked. Simplest way is for Butler to win its games until losing to Marquette on 1/16, then Marquette win until losing to Villanova on 1/24, then Villanova losing to UVA.

Since we don't play UVA until after they play Villanova we could reclaim the belt. C'mon Wojo make it happen

[El_Diablo]

Speaking of Walton, did anyone catch the intro to the Washington v Oregon game last night after ours? It was fantastic on so many levels.

[Some background for those of you that don't know, Dave Pasch is Bill Walton's often-paired play-by-play colleague. The two have a funny chemistry, because, well, Bill Walton.]

First off, we have the welcome segment. I don't remember exactly the quote so I'm paraphrasing, but Pasch kicks off the broadcast with an incredible self-deprecating line, something on the order of: "Hello folks, and welcome to the end of my life. Alongside Bill Walton, I'm Dave Pasch." Pasch seems to be forewarning about the next sequence of events...

Next, there's this graphic: ESPN Announcer Graphic

So they publish this hysterical graphic - which in and of itself would have been superb television. But wait there's more...

Next, Walton proceeds to enter into some semi-scripted intro segment where he pretends he doesn't know who Pasch is (the two are paired almost daily). Sort of playing into the graphic - so I think this whole bit was purposeful. Which is even more hysterical. Pasch can't do much but smile and ponder how it all came to this. Which finally leads me to...

ESPN exits the pregame segment with the normal outro "College Basketball on ESPN" or whatever. And up pops a Bill Walton cartoon in the bottom left corner of the screen wearing a tie-dyed shirt that reads, "Walton's World." So apparently ESPN is now explicitly producing and branding Walton's games?

Perhaps this hysterical insanity has been going on all year with Walton's games. But for those that didn't see last night, it was one of the most absurd Walton-isms I've seen to date. Which is saying something.

- Chillin

Walton then proceeds to riff on the "Conference of Champions" and how UCLA is definitely deserving of a 1-seed:

Walton: How is UCLA not a 1 seed? Joe Lunardi just doesn't have a television set that gets West Coast games. You're telling me there's four teams better than UCLA? I don't think so.
Dave??: Well...
Walton: Okay, there's Kansas, of course. They're really good. And Kentucky--they're tough. Maybe North Carolina...?
Dave??: And Villanova.
Walton: Yeah, they're the champion until someone beats them.
Dave??: Duke?
Walton: Uh, I haven't seen Duke play this year.

[Jeffrey]

Say what you will about Big Red, he has great music taste!

[WillJ]

Bill Walton is a nut, albeit an entertaining one. UCLA is also very entertaining...both Lonzo Ball and, especially to me, TJ Leaf are studs. Leaf had the dunk of the year last night.

[sagegrouse]

Bill Walton is a nut, albeit an entertaining one. UCLA is also very entertaining...both Lonzo Ball and, especially to me, TJ Leaf are studs. Leaf had the dunk of the year last night.

Look at it this way: If Bill Walton didn't exist, the NBA would want to create a cartoon of a tall goofy ex-basketball player who clowned around on live TV.

[Indoor66]

Look at it this way: If Bill Walton didn't exist, the NBA would want to create a cartoon of a tall goofy ex-basketball player who clowned around on live TV.

Maybe we can call him "ClaraBill"?

[WillJ]

Look at it this way: If Bill Walton didn't exist, the NBA would want to create a cartoon of a tall goofy ex-basketball player who clowned around on live TV.

Adam Silver is my classmate and a very successful dude, but nothing in his resume suggests the imagination that would be required to create Bill Walton from scratch. Of course, I'm not sure that such an imagination exists outside of Bill Walton's own head.

[uh_no]

You mean the Big East? There could be a scenario where it gets to the ACC (if it gets back to Villanova before the UVA game and then Virginia wins) but I haven't looked at what needs to happen for that to work.

ETA: now I have looked. Simplest way is for Butler to win its games until losing to Marquette on 1/16, then Marquette win until losing to Villanova on 1/24, then Villanova losing to UVA.

sorry...for some reason i was looking at gonzaga's schedule. you're right...oops!