Hammer and Rails

SB Nation Bubble Watch

2012-02-10T19:58:33Z

SB Nation Bubble Watch

SB Nation thinks we avoid Dayton... for now

Profiles In Badassery: Janice Voss

2012-02-10T18:00:10Z

Purdue University has produced 22 astronauts, including both the first and last men to set foot on the moon. These incredibly brave people are among the select few that have been able to say, "You know what, screw this planet. I'm leaving for awhile." After hearing about David Wolf's sphincter-tightening exploits while on Mir I have no desire to venture into any situation that can remotely involve the words "explosive decompression".

This week on Monday the Purdue astronaut family lost one of those 22 space-farers who looked at the danger of venturing into a place that has no atmosphere or protection from cosmic radiation and laughed. Janice Voss, 55, passed away from breast cancer this week in Scottsdale Arizona. Voss was one of only six women who have been into space five different times, serving on STS-57, 63, 83, 94, and 99.

Seriously, she laughed at danger:

Like a good science fiction story, Voss's missions have not been without their element of danger. On her third flight, ground operators detected voltage irregularities in one of the Space Shuttle's three electricity-generating fuel cells. Fearing an explosion, they cut the mission to a "minimum duration flight," descending after five days instead of the planned 16. Was Voss worried? "Actually, I was on my sleep rotation when the problem was discovered," she says, "By the time I woke up the decision to move to minimum duration flight had been made." While initially disappointed, the crew and the experiments flew again for a full 16 days a few months later, resulting in total space time permitting more science than would have been possible in the original mission.

Voss' background:

Janice Voss is an Indiana native and the kind of woman that dads wish their daughters could grow up to emulate. It is a shame that so many girls today would be more interested in the latest vacuous exploits of the vapid Kardashians than in women who loved science and wanted to help mankind, but I digress.

Born in South Bend, Voss completed her high school requirements at Minnechaug Regional High School in Massachusetts. After her 1972 (at age 16 because, as they say in Massachusetts, she was wicked smaht) high school graduation she attended Purdue, earning a bachelor's degree while doing a co-op at the Johnson Space center in Houston. She would later earn a Master of Science degree in Electrical engineering and Computer science from a little place called MIT in 1977. Ten years after that she earned her doctorate from MIT in 1987.

NASA work:

In 1990 she became part of Astronaut Group 13, known as The Hairballs. Since the number 13 has unlucky connotations and NASA didn't exactly have a great success with Apollo 13, the group jokingly took a black cat as their mascot. Voss would train as a mission specialist, eventually going into space five times. Her New York Times obituary describes her work with NASA:

(On STS-94) Dr. Voss in charge of experiments as payload commander, the crew set more than 140 small fires in insulated chambers to test the behavior of fire in weightlessness. The tests were intended to gain a better understanding of how fire and heat work on Earth and also to address safety concerns after a 90-second fire flared aboard the Mir station five months earlier. She also coordinated experiments on how plants react in space, using a greenhouse containing about 50 spinach, clover, sage and periwinkle plants.

Her desire to start fires in space could not have been satiated without the tragic death of Purdue's first astronaut, Gus Grissom, who died in a fire to teach us that having a 100% pure oxygen pressurized environment isn't the best idea.

Voss was heavily involved with Spacelab on her flights, and on her final mission in February 2000 she and her fellow crew members worked continuously in shifts to produce what was at the time the most accurate digital topographical map of the Earth.

Even after he final mission she worked with NASA as the director of the Kepler Space Observatory, which is designed to look for extra-solar planets. This was launched in March 2009 and is still functioning today. She also helped train newer astronauts at how to run experiments in space.

All told, Voss spent over 49 days in space, traveling almost 19 million miles in space around the earth. She was one of the first extraplanetary pyromaniacs and dedicated her life to science from age 16 forward. She is the first former astronaut from Purdue to die of natural causes, joining Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee (who never made it to space) who were killed in the Apollo I fire. More importantly, she was an example of how daughters can grow up as badasses in the world of science.

Vote In The Xfinity Social Media Contest

2012-02-10T12:00:24Z

Have you ever watched one of those TV shows where from thousands of hopefuls, one star is born? Well, Hammer & Rails readers, here's your chance to play "starmaker" and help pick the new voice of sports in social media!

XFINITY is looking for the next renowned sports social media star through its Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest. The winning candidate will serve as the new voice of XFINITY in the sports social media space and go behind-the-scenes at some of the biggest sporting events in 2012, sharing exclusive insights and updates with fans.

From February 9-19, you can review qualified entry videos and vote for the contestant you'd like to see advance to the finals of the XFINITY Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest. The five entrants with the most votes will advance to the final round of the contest where they will cover one of five premier sporting events the weekend of March 8-11. Fans can head today to Facebook.com/XFINITY and click on the Ultimate Sports Social Media Job contest tab to vote for your favorite personality (once per day)!

Will you choose the brainiac with the encyclopedia of stats, the former jock who knows the game inside out, or the corporate type who gets the marketing side of the business? You decide. Vote today at Facebook.com/XFINITY!

Big Expectations For Purdue Baseball

2012-02-09T16:51:22Z

Believe it or not, college baseball is just about a week away. Purdue begins its schedule next Friday in the Big Ten/Big East Challenge at 1pm against Cincinnati. The Boilers also play Connecticut and Notre Dame in the event. The first home game is against No. 24 Louisville on March 27, and they even have a date at Victory Field in Indianapolis on April 4^th.

This will be the final season at Lambert Field (no, really!) as the athletic department recently announced that the new Alexander Field project will not be finished in time to have any regular season games this year. I don't if the season goes exceptionally well and Purdue is asked to be a regional host if it can be ready in mid-May, but that is too far ahead.

It isn't that farfetched, as this year's baseball team has an excellent chance of being the best in school history. Reliever Nick Wittgren is considered one of the top closers in the country, while the excellent blog College baseball Today has Purdue as one of the Big Ten favorites:

The Good News:

37 man. Thirty-freakin-seven. Last year's win total equalled the school's high-water mark for a single season. Niiiiiice. But the Boilers are looking for even more in 2012. I had this PU squad picked 8th in the 2011 Big 10 pre-season rankings, just imagine what they can do this year after being selected in the 4-slot going into the season? Nearly every piece of the puzzle is back in the field and batting order with a heavy junior-senior team. The Boilermakers hit .309 last year (and .402OB% as a team) and six of the returnees went .300+. Also, the infield of 1B Cameron Perkins, 2B Eric Charles, SS David Miller (.281, 41BBs, 10SBs) and 3B Barrett Serrato (though he switched between 3B and OF last year) could be as good as there is in the Big 10, sure to improve its .967 defense. And catcher Kevin Plawecki is solid, committing just 3Es last season and had a big time summer in the Cape Cod League too. RHP Joe Haase (6-5, 3.39) will assume the ace role on the staff and will have RHP Robert Ramer (5-0, 4.91) and Calvin Gunter (5-3, 6.75) behind him. In the ‘pen, Nick Wittgren led the Big 10 in saves in his first year on campus. Look for more from the big righty in 2012, which would be a huge boon to the Boilermaker arms staff. One returner not listed above that will play a big role will be two-way threat Angelo Cianfrocco, who hit .308 in 26 starts, but also began pitching last May and became the first reliever out of the pen by the Big 10 Tournament. And on top of all this, the Boilers are also slated to move into their new home in April of 2012, the Northwest Complex, a state-of-the-art stadium that should raise the profile of the program. Can't wait to see where this goes.

That is a great summation of what the Boilers have going into 2012, and a conference title absolutely should be the goal. Purdue has not won the Big Ten since 1909, and has come within a game or two of it at least five times since 2001. It's time to end the drought. We also have not made the NCAA Tournament since our only trip in 1987.

A big reason Purdue didn't make the tournament last year despite tying the program record with 37 wins was our RPI. Essentially, we beat no one. Our best wins were Connecticut and Louisville, who were both disappointing. This year the schedule is much more difficult and the NCAA has decided to reward teams for road victories:

For years, Northern coaches have griped that the RPI is inherently biased against them, because the cold weather early in the season forces them to play a preponderance of their nonconference games on the road, but the RPI formula weighs road games and home games equally. Long-term NCAA data shows that home teams win about 62 percent of the time, so the committee decided to compensate for that home-field advantage by modifying the RPI formula.

"You've got some teams that play virtually all their nonconference games at home, and others that play virtually none at home," said long-time NCAA statistics director Jim Wright, baseball's RPI guru. "If you play 80 percent of your games at home, that's a pretty big advantage over a team that plays 20 percent of its games at home."

The RPI is a major tool used by the committee to fill out the NCAA tournament field. A team's RPI is made up of three components: its winning percentage (which comprises 25 percent of its RPI), its opponents' winning percentage (50 percent), and its opponents' opponents' winning percentage (25 percent). Under the new formula, that first 25 percent-a team's winning percentage-will be calculated differently. Road wins will now be worth 1.3 victories, while neutral-site wins will be worth 1.0 victories, and home wins will be worth 0.7 victories. Conversely, home losses will count as 1.3 losses, and road losses will count as 0.7.

This is a huge boost for Purdue, as the Boilers play only 17 games at home compared to 29 on the road and eight at a neutral site. If Purdue gets back to 37 victories it will have a much higher RPI because of this and the difficult schedule.

In the ESPN/USA Today preseason top 25 we have four games against ranked teams. The home opener against Louisville and a three-game road series in the middle of Big Ten play against UCLA.This is a series I love, and I have tried to get a Twitter campaign going for a grassroots Big Ten/Pac12 baseball challenge. My reasoning is simple. Each conference has only 11 baseball playing schools with Colorado and Wisconsin not fielding programs. That means one team each week has an open series. If you schedule the open teams against each other you solve part of the Big Ten's problem of little to no marquee non-conference home games. Expect this going forward with the new Big Ten/Pac 12 scheduling agreement across all sports.

Purdue has several games against teams in the "others receiving votes" category. There are single games against Connecticut, Southern Miss, East Carolina, Missouri State, three games with Illinois, and four games with Wichita State. All of those are away from home except Illinois, so they will greatly help in the new RPI formula.

Fellow members of the Big Ten should help raise the strength of schedule as well. Defending champion Michigan State has a 3-game series at Texas A&M, who played in last year's College World Series. Illinois is going out to Oregon to play Oregon and Oregon State. The addition of Nebraska, a solid program, helps everyone, and they host California early on. Ohio State will play at Georgia Tech and Oklahoma State, while Michigan convinced Coastal Carolina to play four games, two at home and two away, as a marquee opponent.

In conclusion, all the pieces are there for Purdue. The offense and bullpen should be excellent. The starting pitching is dicey, but that is true almost anywhere in college baseball. If Purdue and replicate last year's success the RPI should be strong enough to merit at large consideration, and with fellow Big Tne favorites Illinois and Michigan State coming to Purdue, the time has come to end that pesky 103 year Big Ten title drought.

The Cheese Stands Alone: Wiggs sole Boilermaker invited to NFL Combine

2012-02-09T16:08:44Z

The Cheese Stands Alone: Wiggs sole Boilermaker invited to NFL Combine

I have little doubt that the Wiggy Bank will simply attempt his kicks from Ross-Ade, facing southeast towards Indy.

Welcome Back, Good Purdue

2012-02-08T13:57:33Z

I feel somewhat vindicated by last night. I took a lot of criticism for still believing in this team and for thinking we actually had a chance last night. While I am disappointed that this feels like a missed opportunity for a huge win, mostly because the officials just whistled a foul on me for thinking about Jared Sullinger in a negative light, I am encouraged that we came back out and finally started playing Purdue basketball again.

It's about damn time.

Unfortunately, it means nothing if we don't continue playing that kind of tough basketball. As mentioned in the pregame, we played a team-oriented offense where people were moving without the basketball and getting open. That led to Kelsey Barlow famously teabagging Sullinger on one play because we cleared space for him instead of standing around on the perimeter. It also led to others getting involved. Sandi Marcius had an easy dunk if he is not fouled (which the officials were extremely reluctant to call). Jacob Lawson had a dunk on a nice cut. Lewis Jackson and GDB got to the rim against one of the best defensive teams in the country. We turned Aaron Craft into a whiny, frustrated turnstile.

It is not like we shot lights out, either. We were only 52% from the field, which is good, but not "everything is falling". We were 11 of 19 from three, but D.J. Byrd was 7 of 9, meaning the rest of the team was 4 of 10 (a much more conservative clip). There is little question the offense was good enough because we finally attacked instead of going conservative. We went right at them, and it paid off.

The difference was on the defensive end. First, you have to tip your cap to William Buford. He did what excellent senior players do in going out to win that game. Despite everything going for Ohio State, it was still tied 73-73 when he hit three dagger shots on that critical 7-0 run with just over four minutes left. He also recovered the critical loose ball with us down five and under a minute to go. That led to a breakaway dunk that all but sealed the game.

The rest of the game had some major defensive issues for us. Again, we failed to rotate out on the three-pointer, turning a team that doesn't shoot a lot from outside into a good one. Buford hit three, Lenzelle Smith Jr. hit two, Deshaun Thomas hit two. Even Sullinger hit one. Folks, we should NEVER allow a guy like Jared Sullinger to shoot a three. That is a defensive failure.

Of course, part of that comes from not being allowed to play defense on a guy like Sullinger. I counted at least four times last night that he got the ball and either lowered a shoulder or swung an elbow into the chest of a defender to create space. Travis Carroll was a victim all night. He had good position and solid defense, but there is literally nothing you can do when you're standing straight up, arms in the air, and Sullinger barrels into you, but you're called for a foul. Lawson was also a victim, as Sullinger twice went over the back on a critical rebound (no call) only to have Byrd called for his fourth foul in the scrum for the loose ball (ridiculous). Lawson also took a swinging elbow to the chest in the first half, only to be called for a foul.

The reaction was there on Twitter, too. Kids, we're getting screwed when Indiana fans and Doug freakin' Gottlieb say the officiating is terrible. Examples:

Doug Gottlieb @GottliebShow

New rule--Stand straight up vs Sully and foul on U--ComeON refs

Greg Compton @ReelCompton (A very good friend and IU fan)

@HammerAndRails since Ohio's Thug Life, ya gotta play Bitch Please defense

It went that way all night. At least three of Carroll's fouls were of the touch variety, where the refs practically went over to check on poor Sullinger to make sure he was okay because that meanie Travis Carroll had the audacity to play defense on him. Dan Dakich's five minute diatribe about getting a make up call on one of the fouls actually called on Sullinger only made the situation more ridiculous.

On the other end, LewJack was practically thrown into the basket support late in the game and there was no call. How bad was it? Mike Tirico didn't believe there was no call. Of course, you know everything you need to know about Sullinger when his 6'9" 265 pound frame crashed into a pick set by the 5'9" 165 pound LewJack. Both go crashing to the ground, and the foul gets called on Sully. LewJack gets up and hits his free throws. Sully tucked his tail between his legs and went to the bench hurt. Poor baby!

Folks, you guys know I don't complain about officiating. There are bad calls in every game, but in 99% of basketball games the officiating isn't biased enough to make a difference. Against Indiana on Saturday we couldn't breathe on Cody Zeller without getting called for a foul, but that wasn't the difference. Purdue shooting 21 of 71 from the field at home was the difference. If we shoot a merely bad 31 of 71 we win the game with ease.

The fouls ended up being 25-16 in favor of OSU. Of those about 3 were at the end when we were fouling to stop the clock. They had nine more free throw attempt. That doesn't take into account defensive adjustments that led to easy baskets once it was decided we were not allowed to play defense without fouling. Some people continued to rip on Carroll last night, but these are people that don't notice what he is doing away from the ball. I felt he did an excellent job last night once it was decided he was going to have to play with four fouls and he would get called for another if he happened to be in the same area code when Sully got the ball on the block.

The rebounding was 31-21 after being tied at the half, but again, there isn't a lot you can do about that when Lawson has position only to suddenly be weighed down by the new Jansport model Sullinger backpack.

Going forward, I am at least encouraged. We showed a lot of fight last night and we win that game without a huge assist from the refs. Even then, we were right there until William Buford went out and won it for them with baby Sully on the bench. If we have this kind of fight in the final seven games I am confident we can get the wins necessary to get into the NCAA Tournament.

By my estimation we need at least four to have a chance, while five wins probably locks us in. If we get five more wins before the Big Ten Tournament we're definitely in, while four plus a win in Indy (depending on who it comes against) would leave us in a very good position. Saturday is an absolute must win at home against Northwestern. Lose it, and we're done unless we spring a ton of upsets. The same is true for the remaining home games against Penn State and Nebraska. We cannot lose those under any circumstances.

As for the fourth win, I am looking at the trip to Illinois as the most likely place for it. We've already beaten them by 15 and they are as inconsistent as we are. Painter's teams usually play well there, too. With a similar effort to last night I wouldn't totally rule out winning at Michigan or even Indiana. The home game against Michigan State is certainly a possible win too with a similar effort. We'd better get it before going to Bloomington because I would much rather have that final game as chance to improve our position than as one we absolutely need to have.

What is critical is replicating last night's effort. That means team-oriented offense where we attack the basket. Everyone has to get involved. We have to keep good GDB, who was excellent last night. Byrd doesn't need to score 24, but he needs to be a consistent double figures scorer. Our free throw shooting was good (for us) but the problem was that the misses were at critical times. Ryne Smith missed two of three when fouled on a three, while byrd, Terone Johnson, and Carroll had key splits where we could have really used both. Still, we were 68% on the night, which is actually an improvement.

Most of all, I liked Carroll, Lawson, and Marcius coming in to the basket on screen and rolls. That is an effective play and it led to a Lawson dunk, a near Marcius dunk, and a Carroll free throw line trip. We should look for that at least 5 times per game.

The offense is working again because everyone is moving without the basketball, setting screens, and flashing to the basket. to those still criticizing Painter, the renewed offensive movement is a result of his coaching.He was still criticized for sitting Byrd for 8 minutes of the second half last night, but I am fine with it. 1. Byrd had four fouls. 2. Byrd can't rebound to save his life. 3. He only had three points in the first 12 minutes of the half anyway.

If we're allowed to play defense again it might even mean some wins against good teams the rest of the way. As long as the offense keeps working like this (and we showed we can be a solid offensive team) we'll at least have a chance the rest of the way. That's all you can ask for.

Last night I got greedy. Just competing is not enough. It's time to go win. Beat Northwestern, Nebraska, and Penn State at home. Give Michigan State fits and see what happens. Beat an inconsistent Illinois team for a sweep. Get some payback for losing close home games to Michigan and Indiana. We can do this.

How do you like dem nuts, Sullinger?

2012-02-08T03:06:46Z

How do you like dem nuts, Sullinger?

An Actual Working Purdue At Ohio State GameThread

2012-02-08T01:00:20Z

There are no crappy videos causing the game thread this week, as promised. Doublegoldandblack created the alternate Game thread for the IU game last week while I was lamenting my existence in Mackey, so he will receive, as a token of my appreciation, the Hope Diamond.

We're going to need to be on it tonight, boys. bring your Yuengling, your lucky socks, and the talisman of choice, because this is a steep challenge in front of us. Nothing is impossible, however. A victory tonight would be one of the most stunning results of hte Big Ten season today, but it also would illustrate exactly why we play the game.

I will be slightly late, as tonight I am playing my my usual Tuesday night basketball game and hoping that my feet decide to hold up through it. The democratic method of the first commenter will be in charge until I get back is in effect.