Bittersweet Symphony

Thanks to several successful bids at cigarbid.com, I've added a couple of new cigars to my humidor. I recently smoked a K.Hansotia Symphony Robusto. K.Hansotia is the maker of the Gurkha Class Regent line JMitch was raving about. So I was excited to try out his signature named line. I was not disappointed.

I pulled the K.H. out of the humi and was concerned that the cigar seemed a little smushy to the touch, especially at the head of the cigar. But, my hygrometer read a solid 68%, so I was hoping that it would burn ok. In fact, it lit and burned perfectly, probably the best burn I've every had for a cigar, no need to correct the burn the entire time I smoked. The ash was a medium gray and the draw was perfect, making this the "easiest" smoke I've ever had.

The Symphony has a Connecticut wrapper, Dominican binder, and Nicaraguan filler. The wrapper had a mild flavor, but, unlike the Fonseca I smoked recently, upon lighting the flavor was smooth, solid, and slightly spicy throughout. The Symphony produced volumous smoke and packed a little punch, so I would categorize it as mild/medium. The cigar's label is silver and black, with K.Hansotia's signature in script, with the words "A Century of Tradition, Silver Edition" below his name. This robusto measures 6" in length and has a 50 ring gauge.

I married my cigar with Boulder Beer Company's Mojo India Pale Ale, an enjoyable IPA that provided a nice bitter complement to this smooth, enjoyable smoke.

I imagine Tom Hagan would have a couple of these sticks in his humi to enjoy. I look forward to enjoying the other four in my humi, but won't hesitate to pass one to a good friend, especially if they enjoy milder smokes or don't have much cigar experience. Plus, at less than $2.50 a stick via auction, adding some more down the line is likely option.

On my scale, the K.Hansotia Symphony Robusto receives a 4 out of 5.

Here's how fellow smokers rated the Symphony Robusto at top25cigar.com.

#49

Apparently Friday afternoons CAN be very productive, despite what Ted Ferguson says. I just found out that I'm the #49 most frequent poster of all time on the BHF messageboard. I don't believe I've posted anything there for about 2 years. To quote Paul Barish as he responded to Tommy Callahan after being informed that his mother was named "Boner of the Month"...I'm honored.

Suck It Creighton.

I don't know him, but GA Hill at Heavy Soul just became my new best friend.

No, I'm not obsessed with the RPI, but...

I can't help but continue to think that Nebraska may have a decent resume to make the NCAA tournament if they finish the season with 6 wins in their last 10-11 games (9 in the reg season remain, 1-2 in the Big XII tournament, I assume). That would put them at either 9-7 or 10-6 in conference and 20-10 or 20-11 overall (more on the chances if that happens here).

While they've now jumped into the #82 spot in the RPI (prior to Thursday night's games), they still have a distinguishing amount of games and success against RPI top 100 teams when compared with their RPI peers.

One side note, yesterday was something of an historic day as the NCAA for the first time ever made their RPI calculations public. This used to be only available to the folks on the selection committee, which made people like Jerry Palm money. Palm will still probably be OK though, as the NCAA is only releasing this weekly, while sites like his and several others still update daily.

Back to the Huskers, though. Nebraska is currently 2-3 vs. teams in today's RPI top 50 and 4-3 vs. teams with an RPI from 51-100.

I know I've harped on this not long ago, and maybe I'm just grasping at straws, but this compares favorably to teams that Nebraska might have to battle on the bubble if they finish 9-7 or 10-6 in conference.

Teams with 10+ RPI games against top 100 RPI teams and a .500 or better record in those games:

Team Record (RPI)
Duke 11-1 (1)
Memhis 10-2 (2)
Villanova 9-2 (3)
Tennessee 7-3 (4)
UCONN 10-1 (5)
Illinois 11-2 (6)
Michigan St. 6-5 (7)
Pitt 9-1 (8)
Texas 9-3 (9)
Iowa 7-5 (10)
UCLA 6-4 (11)
Wisconsin 9-4 (13)
Ohio St. 7-5 (15)
Arizona 7-5 (16)
Michigan 7-3 (17)
Creighton 8-3 (18)
Indiana 6-4 (21)
LSU 6-5 (23)
NCSU 7-4 (26)
Wich. St. 6-5 (28)
Marquette 6-6 (29)
West Va. 7-3 (31)
Seton Hall 6-5 (33)
Kentucky 7-6 (34)
North Carolina 6-5 (36)
Bradley 5-5 (54)
Iowa St. 6-5 (58)
Kansas 6-6 (64)
Arkansas 5-5 (65)
Hawaii 6-5 (79)
BYU 8-4 (80)
Nebraska 6-6 (81)

That's the end of the list. Notice that of the 50 teams between 40 and 90, only 7 of them are in this group. Thus, Nebraska is going to have a leg up on any other teams that make a similar charge onto the bubble.

The reason Nebraska's RPI is so low is because they have only played 6 road/neutral games and only won 2 of them and, to a lesser degree because they played 7 games against teams with an RPI higher than 201.

On a related note, while looking at the records against RPI top 100s, it may be a good time to start pre-picking NCAA First Round upsets victims--its never too early to thinking about the bracket strategy. Here are some teams that may be a little overrated coming down the stretch:

Team: Record (Conference Record), RPI

Oklahoma: 14-4 (5-2), 19.

Only one team in the RPI top 40 has fewer games against RPI top 50 teams than Oklahoma (the Sooners had 3, Wisconsin-Milwaukee has had 2). In the RPI Top 40, only 8 teams have one or fewer victories over RPI Top 50 teams than Oklahoma, and OU is the higest ranked of that group of 8. Imagine what that would look like if they hadn't beat Texas.

Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 15-4 (9-1), 22.

Now these guys will probably be a facing a higher-seeded team in the first round, but will also be everyone's upset special. Don't buy it. Not only did they already use up all of their luck last year, which will probably jack up their seeding, but they also have 0 wins against RPI top 50 teams in two attempts and have losses to two 100+ RPI-rated teams (Wisconsin Green Bay and Tennessee Tech)

Maryland: 13-5 (4-2), 25.

Only win in 5 attempts against RPI Top 50 teams was a 2-point nail-biter at home against shaky Boston College in early December. Only one legit away game victory this year, which was against the ACC's worst team, Georgia Tech.

George Washington: 16-1 (6-0), 45.

Everyone likes to get on GW's bandwagon because they've got a guy with a really cool name, not to mention only one loss, and I can see that happening even more in March. But GW has gotten fat on a whopping 10 games against teams with RPIs of 201+. That makes Barry Collier's schedule look the NBA playoffs. OK, that's going a little far, as Longwood may not be able to compete in the Atlantic Division, but this is the worst schedule of any NCAA at-large contending team in the nation.

Here's me going out on a limb: If I were a betting man, I'd be all of Xavier -3 against these guys tonight. I'll make it my lock of the season.

Another Unremarkable Signing Day

I've never been incredibly gung-ho about signing day like some people are, and yesterday was no exception, as I didn't realize it was that day until halfway through the morning. I've never understood the excitement for signing day press conferences and TV specials to rehash recruits that most of us die-hards have known everything we care to know about those guys for months.

The small exception to the snoozefest is when there's unexpected good or bad news (as a Husker fan, I can't remember too many good signing day surprises, but I do remember Stanley Daniels, Ronald McClendon, etc.). Other than that, the predictibilty and rehashing of information that has been discussed for months is a little boring.

That said, it looks like the Huskers didn't have quite the unbridled success that they did last year as Scout.com currently ranks them at #29, CFN at #23 and Rivals at #20. Apparently ESPN now uses Scouts, Inc. to provide their exclusive recruiting rankings as they were on the crawler non-stop last night during Duke's fast-break fest against BC, but you've got to be an insider to see them.

On a side note, either Scout.com or Scouts Inc. needs an attorney to get crackin' on a cease and desist letter. Last night, I was confused for most of the night as it appeared that ESPN was promoting Scout.com on Sportscenter, when in actuality it was Scouts Inc.

Pope will be proud...

In addition to having what is easily the coolest website I've seen in a long time, I like what I've heard so far from the Raconteurs, which is a side project of Jack White along with Brendon Benson (of Pope's best of 2005 fame), Patrick Keeler of the Greenhornes and another guy named Jack Lawrence, who I admittedly know nothing about. I was all over Jack White last year as I think "Get Behind me Satan" was the best album released in 2005, so I was excited to hear this. You can check out MP3s here. But more than anything, cool website.

Another Article Worth Skipping

I've never liked Skip Bayless. I think it started when he was substituting for Jim Rome's radio show in September 2003 and cliaming that the Kansas City Chiefs had no chance of making the playoffs that year.

Things escalated for me when he penned this gem prior to the Rose Bowl. I've already went on a diatribe about that one (scroll down to see it) so I won't bring up the fact that he actually expressed frustration that ESPN was overhyping Texas before the Rose Bowl.

Well Skip's got another beauty of an article today, and this time, the line to whack Skip is getting longer and longer and longer and longer.

Here's some of my favorite piles of crap from Bayless:

1/31/05: "The problem here is that, for the first time, the Super Bowl features two underdogs, two Cinderellas, two teams that came from nowhere on destiny-kissed rolls."

The Seahawks were the #1 seed in the NFC, were favored in every one of their playoff games, and played each of those games in front of what you describe as the largest homefield advantage in the NFL. Wow, if the Panthers or Skins had made it through, we might be in Hoosiers territory.

This is a game without an established superstar -- unless you count Seattle left tackle Walter Jones, the lone cinch Hall of Famer. Pittsburgh's Jerome Bettis is not -- not after never leading his league in rushing and never having transcendent postseason impact. Bettis, a six-time Pro Bowl player, has been very good. Not great.

Skip counts Walter Jones as an established superstar to make a point and fails to mention that the NFL's MVP happens to be suiting up for one team, while last year's rookie of the year is the leader of the other team's offense. Never mind that Seahawks are littered all over the 2006 Pro Bowl NFC Offense.

Skip on Ron Artest: First, NBA commissioner David Stern got away with suspending him for 73 games -- the rest of the season! -- after Artest didn't land a single punch in the stands at Detroit last year and threw only a couple over his shoulder in self-defense. Now, Larry Bird has managed to turn poor Artest into the bad guy when the real bad guy all along was Bird.

Let me get this straight--Artest gets hit with a beverage, charges in the stands and tries to beat the hell out of a dude who was uninvolved and looked like he was going to crap himself, and Skippy is claiming that his actions were mitigated because he didn't land a punch and because, and I can't even type this with a straight face, there was self-defense involved?

Skip on Bob Stoops suspending Adrian Peterson against UCLA: No, I readily accept that many football players consider OU mostly a proving ground for the NFL. If they want to attend classes -- and want to excel academically -- that's great …

… as long as they excel on the field.

To me, they're little more than unpaid pro football players, and it's absurdly unrealistic to expect they can put in the necessary hours on the practice field and in the weight and treatment rooms and still attend every class.

Its getting more and more clear that Skippy likes to take positions that are simply going to get him reactions like I'm providing right now. His coninued mastery of this worthless incindiary journalism, whether its on ESPN.com or when he's annoyingly bantering with Woody Paige (I never thought Paige would be my favorite person in a room), is starting to get noticed. Honestly, no one likes this guy. Its starting to seem like ESPN is just using him as a villain like they did with Trev Alberts.