FanHouse's Top Five scans the sports blogosphere for the best posts of the last 24 hours so you don't have to. Got something for this feature? Hit us up at fanhouse@googlegroups.com.
1. Graphical maps have been a useful tool for several college basketball analysts for some time now, offering a standardized, pace-controlled glance at which teams are the most efficient on both ends of the court. NBA bloggers have yet to try a similar tool ... until today. FanHouse's own Tom Ziller, working for Ballhype, has created what might be the first NBA map of that kind. Knowledge is power, especially when it's colored like Christmas! (Or when the quadrant signifying high foul rates is adorned with a "Thug Life" graphic.)
2. In even more quasi-academic news (get hyped!), Sports Business Daily did a calculation of what each major sports network and newspaper (USA Today, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Sportscenter, and FSN Final Score) spent covering each day. The determination: ESPN doesn't seem to intentionally overcover its own licensed events, but that coverage seems to seep through by process of osmosis; USA Today has the most national sports scope available; even in our age of diverse and fractured consumption, it remains incredible difficult for niche sports (MMA, MLS, NHL, AFL) to get coverage in major papers and networks. Who knew?
3. From The Beautiful Game, a discussion of whether the penalty shootout is good or bad for the game of soccer.
4. After his somewhat incredible Hall of Fame induction speech, it looks like Michael Irvin just might -- might -- have saved his broadcasting career. I wish him luck, though I think he might be missing his true calling: motivational speaker.
5. Lil' Romeo is not good at basketball. (Nor, I suppose, at rap.) But that won't stop him from playing for Tim Floyd's increasingly unwieldy USC basketball program.
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