Wednesday, March 4

Will Lyons, Academic All Star

Got some great news today regarding the academic and athletic prowess of my cousin, Worcester Polytechnic Institute basketball star Will Lyons:

Babson Park, MA --- Three WPI men's basketball student-athletes have been named to the 2008-09 NEWMAC Men's Basketball All-Academic team.

The Engineers had the most student-athletes selected for the All-Academic team. Ben Etten (Hollis, NH), Will Lyons (Wilbraham, MA) and Jeffrey Robinson (Granby, CT) were selected to the team. It was the first All-Academic selection for each player.

Honorees must have met the following criteria: earned a minimum cumulative GPA of 3.5/4.0 scale or 4.35/5.0 scale after the 2007 fall semester, achieved second year academic status at her institution, and been a member of the varsity team for the entire season. (link)

Well that's settled. I can't shoot and rebound like Will, a 6'4" senior forward, and now I realize that I don't match his classroom stats either.

The Swingman

It bears mentioning that this comes as a bittersweet reward for Will, as he earned this accomplishment on one leg. His hoops career met an untimely end after suffering a ligament tear in his knee earlier in the season.

Geeze, after having one cousin on Who Wants to be a Millionaire last week, and now this, I'm starting to develop a complex. I can't imagine what's next for the Prochilo clan. Maybe I'll try out for Jeopardy or something. Oh, wait, we already have someone in the family that's done that.

WPI enters the NCAA DIII tournament with a first-round matchup against Husson (Bangor, Maine) on Friday at 6 pm at WPI's Harrington Auditorium. An interesting sidenote, the second game of the doubleheader pits UMass Dartmouth against Baruch, setting up a possible second round matchup of WPI and my father's alma mater...

Labels: Basketball, Prochilo

Wednesday, October 29

Look Who's Courtside

Opening night, the champs raise the banner...
Bottom right-hand corner...
To the right of KG and referee Olandis Poole...
Click on the picture and zoom in.

Labels: Prochilo

Wednesday, July 23

Guest Commentary

And the Walls Come Tumblin’ Down
By Dick Lipshitz, SABER Institute Analyst
Special to http://www.morganobrien.com/

NAPERVILLE, Ill.--A recent claim by long-time and newly retired Prochilo family softballer, Charlie Randle, asserting that he batted .550 over his career brought with it questions concerning the validity of the statement as well as a wise crack from Morgan O’Brien stating that the magical .550 number was more likely linked to Randle’s typical blood alcohol level.

We decided to look inside the numbers and we found that the magical .550 was like a house of cards…impressive—yes but also very unstable and easily leveled.

Here are the factors that bring that house of cards tumblin’ down:

The Nepotism Factor
Interestingly, Randle’s career batting average when facing direct descendents and Godchildren is a cool .853. Did Randle’s Svengali-like influence cause the hurlers to groove a few? The numbers don’t lie.

The Juiced-Ball Era
As the old guard is well aware, from ’93-’98 the family picnic softballs were imported from Haiti in an attempt to save a few bucks. Those crazy Haitians wound the balls to a PSI level exceeding that of USA Softball specifications by 39%. Randle’s average during this era was an eye-popping +.225 points than the balance of his career.

The Ballpark Factor
You’ve got to hand it Randle—he proved to be one selective s.o.b. Randel was so selective, in fact, that he chose to avoid batting at the ballparks that didn’t mesh with the slap-hitting/running style that defined his career. At Randle-friendly parks like the Long Beach Rec Field, School #2 Memorial Park (with '650 power alleys), and the now-shuttered Lyons Park at Wilberham, Randle was sure to play and also certain to nose his way to the top of the order so that he could enjoy a few more at bats to build a bridge to the magical .550.

A Statistical Marvel
Never in the history of the much regarded OPS (on base percentage + slugging percentage) had a person had a lower OPS than batting average. In fact, it was thought to be a statistical impossibility. However, Randle blows that theory and we thought we understood about math out of the water as his OBPS sits at .511. What does this tell us? Well, we see that every one of Randle’s hits were one baggers.

Mathematical corrections for the first three factors brings Randle’s lifetime BA down to a more pedestrian .374—a solid career at the plate, yes, but not one of Ruthian proportions. Couple that with the weak OPS and we see a mortal in the eyes of many melt to a man—a man to admire for sure, but not one to define an era by.