Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

I'll say it here for the first time. Something I've believed for a few months now. Something I'll probably repeat over and over through this spring and summer.

Sarah Anderson needs to get back to skipping and needs to do it fairly soon.

I believe that it is Sarah (not Corey) who has the strategic mind and house skills and steady demeanor to keep the USA Women on the podium in years to come. Undoubtedly, Corey has the shooting skills to do the same; but if I was picking one...it would be Sarah Anderson.

So split up the Junior silver medalists? Maybe. Have Sarah shoot for a more seasoned skip for a year or two? Maybe. My preference would be to have her skip a Women's team soon or very soon or starting right away tomorrow.

Oh, and someone needs to get that fishtail out of Sarah's delivery right now. She's starting to look like Heater McCormick out there. Oh, and Sarah needs to keep her twin sister on her team. Taylor is actually a better thrower than Sarah right now.

Ben Tucker

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Registered: Jun 2007
Location:
Posts: 440

I am quite reasonably certain that Sarah and Taylor will not accept being split apart, under any circumstances, HPP or otherwise.

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Registered: Dec 2014
Location:
Posts: 206

quote:

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Originally posted by AlanMacNeill
Well yes...but...they also want medals...and I'll bet good money that if you ran a regression on World's success, you'd find that average age of team was the best predictor of success (okay, maybe total years of curling experience, but that is likely darned close to the same thing).

So if you take a team full of 20 year olds...you are likely to have success over a team of 16-18 year olds...all else being equal at least.

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Registered: Dec 2005
Location: St. Thomas, North Dakota
Posts: 2613

With Christensen, The Tiny Terrorists, Mackensie Lank and Jenna Haag, the HPP was blessed/cursed with a flood of talent born in a short period of time. Once the decision to hand-pick a Junior team was made, the die was cast and going into next year in rebuilding mode was foreseeable. Not much else anyone could do about it. Kind of like a great college team dominated by seniors who entered together as freshmen. Bench some and play sophomores so next year goes better? I think not.

The boys are in a slightly better situation. We have our silver and bronze medalists ready to go. Some on the bronze medal team have World experience.

I'm not saying that the cupboard is bare for USA Junior Ladies, but the silver and bronze medalists were nowhere near this graduating team. Clawson, Dudt, Violette and Stopera are very close to Dropkin, Howell, Fenner and Fenson...or will be given a year of funding and experience.

Quite the graduating class. For those with short memories, don't forget Jenna Haag who aged out last year. If her life allows her to remain dedicated, she throws well and sweeps well and has house skills and was willing to take on any role that furthered the team.

Ben Tucker

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Registered: May 2014
Location: Joliet, IL
Posts: 629

http://www.multichannel.com/prfeed/...ionships/403531

From the article:

"NBCSN’s 12 Friday night Curling Night In America telecasts averaged 101,000 viewers, up 28% vs. seven Friday night Curling Night telecasts in 2015 (79,000). Six of NBCSN’s 12 Friday night Curling Night In America telecasts drew more than 100,000 viewers, including the most-watched telecast on Friday, February 12 (157,000 viewers), following NBCSN’s Fenway Big Air telecast."

Ratings are up on CNIA. Hopefully the live broadcasts from Worlds will draw decent as well.

It's far from perfect, but considering what we had last year having several live games on TV is huge.

Unlike the rest of the world, where ratings don't translate into participation, the more curling on TV in the US the more people are interested in playing, and the more people do go out and play.

Even the Canadians are taking notice:

http://www.torontosun.com/2016/03/2...y-growing-in-us

And hey, Team USA is on a bit of a winning streak and still in the hunt for a spot in the playoffs!

__________________
Recreational curler & resident armchair curler at Windy City Curling Club.

Co-host of the NerdCurl podcast & occasional blogger.

http://www.nerdcurl.com

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Registered: May 2014
Location: Joliet, IL
Posts: 629

quote:

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Originally posted by DRCars
Yes, All 2 live games were an improvement. That's a shame as compared to the opportunity to show many more.

Actually, I should be glad they didn't show more. Because if NBCSN had shown more live games, I wouldn't have been able to legitimately watch on World Curling TV. Don't have NBCSN or Universal.

DRCars

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__________________
Recreational curler & resident armchair curler at Windy City Curling Club.

Co-host of the NerdCurl podcast & occasional blogger.

http://www.nerdcurl.com

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Registered: May 2014
Location: Joliet, IL
Posts: 629

Brown & Shuster are in the Players' Championship in Toronto in two weeks, and Brown & Clark are in the Champions' Cup in about a month.

Strong fields, good competition, arena ice. The more experience our teams get in these situations the better. Plus, great opportunity to earn OOM points and continue to qualify for these events.

And hey, in the immediate future Team Shuster starts playing in Basel in a few days...who knows what will happen there?

Good things people, good things.

Edit: Apparently Pat Simmons is going to be subbing on Team Shuster in Toronto. Interesting.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/e...-165439080.html

Sounds like Landsteiner can't make it.

__________________
Recreational curler & resident armchair curler at Windy City Curling Club.

Co-host of the NerdCurl podcast & occasional blogger.

http://www.nerdcurl.com

Last edited by Phil_D on 03-30-16 at 02:12PM

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