idigTexas

I agree with everything that has been said. Teeny should have just kept adding stuff until the whole structure caught fire. I thought Sam crushed final tribal, and was worried that he was going to actually sway a few people. I don't think there was any way for him to lose Kyle's vote, but I was pleasantly surprised that he didn't get Sierra's. Rachel did a good job of deflecting some of the dismissive comments about all of her advantages, but I wish she had emphasized that she had to win immunity or she would be on the jury. If Sam's game had been as good as hers, then he too would have needed to win immunity to stay in the game. Thankfully, the vote showed just how good this cast was, as they all recognized the game that Rachel played. This will go down as one of my favorite seasons of all time. On a side note, I often have the constant Paramount Survivor stream playing in the background, and seeing how the challenges and casting have evolved over the years is really interesting. They have done a great job of tweaking the game to give the unathletic people a chance to survive the early "keep the tribe strong" stage that we used to see every season. And while there are aspects of the old school "bros and barbies" casts that I miss, seeing the high levels of strategic gameplay that we have now is so much more enjoyable.

THAT's his point. Our "not good" coach has already achieved as much as the coaches that people are wishing we still had here.

Give me the 2-seed in that scenario. I don't consider making the S16 underachieving unless it the the pinnacle of one's coaching career, and only happens once, or very infrequently for coaches that stick around for a decade or more. Underachieving isn't a 2-seed losing to a 3-seed in any given year. It's routinely losing in the first or second round to teams seeded way below yours, failing to make the tournament with stacked talent, and having your teams get noticeably worse during every season's progression. Bill Self and every other great coach have had some real stinker tournament performances, but they get to balance that with success. In Self's case, 2 championships, 3 final fours, and 7 elite eight appearances buys a lot of patience from a fanbase that expects the best.

This tells me how important winning this cup is versus trying to preserve what's left of our health. I would never hope for an Arsenal loss, but this is not one I will waste any emotions on should it happen. There are higher priority trophies still in play. If you have a DeLorean equipped with a flux capacitor and a Mr. Fusion attachment, and can tell me that we for sure aren't winning anything bigger this season, then sure, let's roll with the A team.

I don't understand why we moved on from all those coaches who were underachieving or getting arrested here.

Who is Dickerson?

You are right. For some reason I thought I saw Teeny holding a Genevieve vote during the credits. Never mind. Teeny continues to be completely lost. That makes me feel better about Rachel. I thought telling Sue about her idol might have been a mistake, but it appears that it was the right move.

I did not have "Sue and Teeny sniff out the truth to eliminate Genevieve, leaving Rachel on the wrong side of the vote" on my bingo card. It won't be enough to sway the jury unless Rachel doesn't make the final three, but at least they both finally did something to significantly impact the game. I was beginning to think that we might actually end up with Genevieve versus Rachel at final tribal, which would have been an epic showdown, but no such luck. That's a really good question. For me, an idol only counts on one's résumé if it is played in an impactful way (playing it or threatening to play it to produce a desired vote). Kudos to Sue for finding it and keeping it a secret to all but Caroline, but she missed multiple opportunities to put it to good use and to establish herself as a real player. I'm hoping for an all girls final tribal, just to hear Teeny's and Sue's arguments for winning. It's unlikely, as Sam can probably win a fire challenge, but at least we'll get to hear one of them try to make a case.

What a hitter!

Where are they transferring?

I don't read any fan sites or listen to any blogs, but I'm not sure I agree with him. It really depends on your situation. What if Caroline had won the reward, and taken Andy with her? If that had happened, she is likely still in the game, with either Genevieve or Rachel likely being out. I do not think winning that reward hurt Sam's chances to win at all. In fact, it probably gave him a much better chance to win.

Corrected.

Yep. It's the logical move if Rachel, Sue, and Teeny stick together, especially since they are aware of Rachel's steal a vote advantage. No one knows Rachel has an idol, and now that Caroline is out, I think hers is unknown as well. Sue shouldn't need hers to save herself, but it may still be a factor if someone else can gain her trust.

I completely agree. They are certainly aware of his game now, and I can't wait to see what he does from here. He has to be seen as the biggest threat, and completely untrustworthy. That is going to make it a lot tougher to convince anyone to work with him, which is why think he is next to go (assuming no immunity win). We'll see. This is the best season in a long time.

That's a good thought, but I have to agree with @UncleSonny on this one. There's no way anyone is throwing an opportunity to win immunity at this stage. They are definitely thinking about end game, but that's not going to outweigh surviving the next vote. The reward challenge is another matter. I know Rachel was relieved to not win it. Did she throw it? I want to believe that Rachel would have used one of her advantages to secure her safety, but I was happy to not test that. We know Caroline and Sue felt safe. Rachel may have as well. Andy, Sam, and Genevieve did a great job.

I dug his rap. Golly.

That was a really good episode, even though I was hoping the plan would fail. They missed an opportunity by not calling it the Italian Job. Being on Team Rachel, I was relieved when she won immunity. Andy finally demonstrated without a doubt that he is playing a really good game, and not just doing so in his head. Most importantly, the jury picked up on it. He joins Rachel and Genevieve in the group who can win. I'm not sure that Rachel or Genevieve would beat Andy if Final Tribal were happening at this point in the season, but it isn't, so I think the presumed showdown we saw in the preview happens after they vote him out (he's probably next to go). I agree on Sue and Teeny playing with too much emotion, but I would not lump Caroline in with them. She was leveraging Sue's emotion to gain her trust to use her vote and advantages. Unfortunately, she did not pick up on the ruse, and did not get to make use of Sue's idol. This actually works out well for Rachel, as I think she has Caroline's vote, and didn't have to get her hands dirty.

There's a solution for that. Unfortunately, it doesn't work worth a shit when people keep quoting him.

I hope so, but any current alliances are out of convenience more than loyalty, and can easily be blown up to further one's game. Even if Caroline, Rachel, and Sue stick together for another week, I could see Genevieve easily convincing Sam, Andy, and Teeny that now is the time to make a big move. She would be right, so it could be an easy sell.

I'm a little surprised that there wasn't more effort to get rid of Genevieve, but Kyle was the easy vote. It also keeps Sue happy, which is especially important for Caroline's game.

I'll give Sark a call and let him know that this game is important.

Tough crowd. I liked all of it. Mavs uniforms and logos have been underwhelming for most of their existence. This combo is one of the better ones.

I wouldn't say that ALL I care about is tournament success. What I have said is that if I had to choose one or the other, I prefer tournament success over gaudy regular season records. Ideally, I would like Texas to have both, as one often translates to the other, and I like winning. I don't see the point in feeling outraged about our schedule, as I have no idea how or why it was determined. We are winning games we are supposed to win, and our conference is plenty good enough to present ample opportunities to test ourselves. Barnes loves a difficult schedule. It can also be said that his Texas teams were worn down by the end of the season. It is probably just a coincidence, but maybe it isn't. How did all of those difficult matchups help his tournament success? I do agree that there is room to improve the competition without having to face ranked opponents every week.

After almost a week of unsuccessfully farming runes for the last one I needed to craft Tyrael's, I decided to go ahead and jump to Torment 3. As was my experience when moving from 1 to 2, it was a bit of a struggle with a few "what the fuck just insta-killed me" occurrences. It was worth it, as got the rune within a couple of hours, and was able to put together a workable Touch of Death build. It uses a lot more uniques than the QV variants, which works better for me, as I have more luck getting those than ancestral legendaries with the preferred affixes. I'm sure something will take me down soon enough, but I don't think I have even taken any damage so far, and Pit levels that were challenging my QV are a breeze. I still have about 80 Paragon levels to go and some equipment upgrades to work on, but I can at least enjoy all that Torment 3 has to throw at me without having to constantly watch my health bubble, which is how I prefer to roll. I think I'm good armor and resistance wise for Torment 4, but will definitely need to up my damage. I don't know if I will reach Pit L150 before the season ends, but that's not as important to me as enjoying the game, which I am. As I'm still relatively new to D4, I'd also like to reach 100% renown in all areas (have only managed Fractured Peaks so far), so I have plenty of diversions to keep the game entertaining. In the least, I should have a lot more crafting materials stockpiled before the next season, which will make things a lot easier.