Florida coach’s advice ultimately helps Butler into the Final Four

When Butler started the season 4-4, coach Brad Stevens looked to his coaching friends for help.

He was in uncharted territory. He'd never come off a national championship appearance and been so highly rated to start the year. The Bulldogs played a tough early schedule, which included Louisville, Duke and Xavier, and it wasn't handling the pressure or hype very well.

So Stevens turned to Florida coach Billy Donovan, whose Gators had played in back-to-back national championships in 2006 and 2007. Little did Donovan know that his pep talk would not only get Butler out of its funk -- it's gone on to win 23 of its last 28 games -- but that it would also ultimately help the Bulldogs knock the Gators out of the NCAA tournament.

Butler defeated Florida 74-71 in overtime to notch their second consecutive trip to the Final Four.

"I was just asking him what it was like to go and come off of those national championship game appearances and he's had a lot more than we have," Stevens said in the interview with CBS that was taped Friday. "Certainly there's something to be said about a person who's been through that and understands what that target feels like. "

Neither Donovan nor Stevens got into any of the specifics of the conversation and I doubt that Donovan pointed out any of the current weaknesses of his program that could have helped Butler to Saturday's win. But it's interesting that what was an innocuous conversation in December ended up playing a pivotal role in Butler's confidence heading into the tournament and the game, and probably gave Stevens enough confidence to help lead his team to yet another improbable win.

"My responsibility as a coach is to try and help other people," Donovan said during the interview. "I love talking back and forth. I don't know if I helped Brad or not. He's done a great job with his team."

Related: Butler Bulldogs

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Big smile, cool nickname not enough for ‘Bruce Leroy’; Semerzier cruises at UFN 24

The cute stuff may work on reality television, but Alex "Bruce Leroy" Cacares was badly outclassed by WEC veteran Mackens Semerzier. In what was probably a must-win situation, Semerzier steamrolled Bruce Leroy winning via rear-naked choke in just 3:18 at Ultimate Fight Night 24.

Semerzier (6-3, 1-0 UFC) scored three powerful takedowns. He got the first just 57 seconds into the fight. Cacares got up with 3:30 left in the first and hit the deck again with 3:18 left. The final time he went down with 2:40 left, started the beginning of the end.

Semerzier fell right into the mount position and starting pounding away. Bruce Leroy turned away from the strikes and gave his back. Semerzier flattened him and even when Cacares threatened to slip out the backdoor, the Army veteran was able to get him back down and finally apply the finishing choke.

Cacares, who came up with the "Bruce Leroy" moniker himself, was a villian of sorts during Season 12 of TUF. He ruffled the feathers of eventual finalist Michael Johnson and several other fights from the show.

Tonight, he walked to the cage with Taimak, the original "Bruce Leroy" from the 1985 movie "The Last Dragon."

Hathaway bests McCray at his own game

Kris McCray is a one-trick pony and tonight in Seattle he got schooled at his strength. John Hathaway outwrestled McCray, taking him down repeatedly throughout the fight. The young Brit got a split decision victory, 28-29, 29-28 and 29-28.

McCray never came close to threatening a finish. Hathaway did in the opening round with a nasty toe hold. The 23-year-old from Brighton, England worked and twisted McCray's foot for 45 seconds. McCray held out and fought on.

"I was real close. I heard a couple pops and creaks," said Hathaway.

With better cardio, Hathaway (15-1, 5-1 UFC) sealed the fight in the third. He simply did more, staying active when he had top control. It wasn't the most spectacular victory, but proved Hathaway, without much of a wrestling background, can grapple on a high level.

After posting a huge win over Diego Sanchez at UFC 114, Hathaway was upset by Mike Pyle back in October at UFC 120. Including the "TUF 11 Finale," McCray has now lost all three fights in his time with the UFC.

Busted up eye causes Madsen to lose his first to Russow

Mike Russow isn't the prettiest fighter, but the guy finds ways to win. The Chicago cop won another fight, this time by ending the unbeaten run of Jon Madsen. On the advice of the doctor, the referee stopped the fight before the beginning of the third round because Madsen's left eye was nearly closed. Russow (14-1, 3-0 UFC) got the victory via TKO.

That makes 2-of-3 fights with the promotion that he's won via KO or TKO. In his previous 11 wins, he scored nine of them by submission.

Russow said he caught Madsen (7-1, 3-1 UFC) with an overhand right in the second and that's what made the eye blow up.

Related: Ultimate Fight Night 24, Korean Zombie, Leonard Garcia

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How Keyword Research and Competitive Search Fuels Display Campaigns

Posted By Jaime on Mar 4th, 2011

This article by Hollis Thomases originally appeared in ClickZ on February 22, 2011.

Traditionally, the worlds of online display advertising and search marketing have mainly operated in silos. The two tactics may both be part of the bigger online strategy, but the people involved with search generally do not really work in or understand display and vice-versa. Lately however, it feels like there’s a greater interest in fusing the two worlds together, maybe fueled by the diversion of traffic away from search and into social media and/or Google’s rebranding of its Content Network into Display Network. Regardless, when the search and display professionals come together, a lot can be gained from the sharing of information. Today, let me give my media planning brethren some tips from the search side.

Keywords Tell a Lot

For the online media strategist, an existing PPC campaign can be a goldmine of information. Keyword performance can help sculpt various directions of the campaign from its creative concepts, messaging and copywriting to identifying sites to target for placements or new niche opportunities. Don’t have an existing PPC campaign to turn to? Consider a bit of keyword research in the vein of a start-up PPC campaign for all the same insights mentioned previously.

Begin by using the same keyword research tools a PPC specialist would:

Web analytics: Understanding what keywords are already driving traffic to the site and where that traffic travels throughout the site and if that traffic converts into the desired action can be quite revealing. Doing a gap analysis of the advertiser’s objectives versus what they’re actually achieving should provide the media strategist with some informative insights and direction.Google’s AdWords Keyword Tool: The “granddaddy” of free keyword research tools, this tool allows you to gauge the popularity or importance of a keyword or keyword phrase based upon its search volume, while at the same time identifying other related keyword phrases. The tool lets you manipulate your query in all sorts of ways, for example, limiting results by geography, by type device accessing the search, by product category, and more. Once served, you can also manipulate and sort the data. In the below example, limiting results to the Anti-Aging category, I queried for some skincare keywords as searched for on mobile devices within the U.S. and then sorted by the most popular U.S. searches.

You can take your favorite keywords from this list and toggle over to the Traffic Estimator to get some projections on volume and cost, both of which the media buyer might want to use for perspective if you’re trying to deliver a direct response campaign through display advertising and needs to negotiate CPMs on an eCPA basis.

Google Trends: Media buyers looking to do mass marketing naturally gravitate to popular content for all the eyeballs it attracts. Similarly, Google Trends tracks and showcases what’s “hot” in search at the moment. You can capitalize on these trends if you can move quickly and have ad creative and budget at the ready.Twitter Search and Trending Topics: You can also gauge the current pulse of a keyword, especially more unique ones, by seeing how many tweets mention it. Do these tweets link to sites that might be useful for your media plan? Use Advanced Twitter Search to pinpoint more specifically if appropriate. Twitter’s Trending Topics – though often a jumble of nonsensical hashtags plus celebrity names – may also help identify opportunities for quick of-the-moment ad buys.

Useful Information From Competitive Search

In addition to datamining existing advertiser and generic public assets, it can be useful to apply the same techniques as above to some of the free and paid competitive search tools. Google AdWords’ Analyze Competition feature, SEMRush, and SpyFu are all free or quasi-free tools. The Search Monitor, a for-fee platform, gives all kinds of juicy information about competitors as well as trademark infringements and affiliate miscreants. AdGooroo, also a for-fee platform, has some similar elements as The Search Monitor along with a “Display Insight” feature which can definitely be exploited by a media planner/buyer.

Another Thing You Can Do With Keywords

I’m a big fan of contextual advertising, much of which is based on keywords, so your campaign may only perform as well as you’ve compiled a sound list of proven keywords to provide to your vendors. Your contextual network representative can tell you not only how many impressions they estimate, but also what related keywords you might have missed and other opportunities to exploit your list.

Want to hear more on this topic? Come hear me speak on the “Crossing the Digital Divide: The Leap from Search to Display” panel at the Search Engine Strategies Conference in New York next month!

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Video: Oilers goalie Devan Dubnyk’s ‘grand larceny’ glove save

While watching this Devan Dubnyk(notes) save on Olli Jokinen(notes) of the Calgary Flames from Saturday night, keep in mind that the Edmonton Oilers goalie is 6-foot-6 … so this nimble move to snag the puck with his glove was pretty stellar:

There haven't been many "save of the year" candidates recently in the NHL, so this one should be in the mix. If Oilers teammate Magnus Paajarvi(notes) had a vote, Dubnyk would receive it; via CHED's Dan Tencer on Twitter, quoting Paajarvi tonight:

"If that isn't the save of the year, I don't know. He saved me because I was on the ice and would have been minus."

Killer reactions on that play from Dubnyk. This was one of those shots that, in real time, you're thinking is a tap-in for Jokinen. Dubnyk had other designs, apparently.

Related: Magnus Paajarvi, Devan Dubnyk, Olli Jokinen, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, Puck Videos

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“All These Keywords in my AdWords Campaign Can’t Be Hurting, Can They?” WRONG! They Can!

Posted By WebAdvantage.net on Mar 18th, 2011

When managing an AdWords campaign, one of the most common mistakes people make is piling on too many keywords.  Their assumption—that more keywords equals more chances for their ad to be shown and get clicked—seems like a logical one.  However, what they fail to realize is that having too many keywords is most likely dragging their Quality Score down.

These so-called “bad keywords” are easy to spot in your AdWords campaigns by checking the Status column:

The quality and relevance of your keywords and ads are the most important factors in your campaign’s ranking and performance.  An individual keyword’s Quality Score is determined by its click-through rate (CTR), relevance to its Ad Group, historical performance, and other relevancy factors.  Therefore, the higher the Quality Score of your keywords, the less you pay for each click on your ad.

In this light, you can think of your Google AdWords campaign as an equation with the Quality Score being the most important part:

Google’s Quality Score is intended to ensure search users that they will find the information they are looking for quickly and easily by showing only those ads which are most relevant to their search queries.

Here’s the official explanation on Quality Scores from Google:

The AdWords system calculates a Quality Score for each of your keywords. It looks at a variety of factors to measure how relevant your keyword is to your ad text and to a user’s search query. A keyword’s Quality Score updates frequently and is closely related to its performance. In general, a high Quality Score means that your keyword will trigger ads in a higher position and at a lower cost-per-click (CPC).

A Quality Score is calculated every time your keyword matches a search query — that is, every time your keyword has the potential to trigger an ad. Quality Score is used in several different ways, including:

Google recommends that accounts are best organized in the following way:

One campaignSeveral tightly themed ad groups10-35 relevant keywords per ad group2-3 relevant ads per ad group

The best way to improve your keywords’ quality scores is by optimizing your account.  Here are some specific things that you can do:

Make sure that each keyword in each ad group closely relates to the ad(s) and the landing page.Don’t use broad or general keywords since they tend to generate many impressions but very few clicks.Strive to optimize keywords with a low CTR.Vary the match types.Use keywords made up of two or three words.Include relevant variations (plural, singular, synonyms, misspellings, etc.).Get rid of low search volume keywords unless they are: A new productA competitor’s termSeasonalEvent-based keywords

P.S.  If you need help optimizing your AdWords campaigns for higher Google Quality Scores, we offer a full suite of PPC Campaign Management services.  Give us a call at (410) 942-0488 or submit an RFP to learn how we can help.

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Davis outlasts Nogueira to win UFN 24 main event

Phil Davis kept up the winning ways for Penn State wrestlers on Saturday night in Seattle, as he won his Ultimate Fight Night decision, 30-27, on all three cards over Antonio Rogerio Nogueira. His alma mater won the Division I NCAA wrestling championship last Saturday.

Nogueira took the lead early, as he tagged Davis a few times in the first round. Nogueira's takedown defense was markedly improved from his last bout -- a loss to Ryan Bader -- as he stopped every takedown attempt from Davis in the first round. Davis, a Division I national champion wrestler at Penn State, was clearly frustrated by not being able to use his biggest weapon.

Davis' movement did not slow in the second round, but he still had a hard time getting inside to land any strikes. Nogueira continued to land punches here and there, just enough to keep Davis at bay. Finally, Davis managed a takedown in the final two minutes of the round. Though Nogueira came close to getting back to his feet, Davis kept him on the ground and punished him. He landed several punches to the head and body, then finished the round by throwing knees into Nogueira's side several times.

Nogueira's takedown defense wilted by the third round. Davis used a single leg to take Nogueira to the ground, and smothered him for at least a minute. Halfway through the round, they returned to their feet, with Nogueira stalking Davis around the Octagon. But Davis returned to his bread and butter and took Nogueira down again. He maintained in that position for the rest of the bout. Nogueira tried to kick Davis off, but couldn't do it.

After the fight, Davis was honest about his training camp.

"I was falling apart in this training camp. I had all types of injuries," Davis said. He wasn't surprised that Nogueira stopped his takedowns. "I know he's tough. He's resilient. He learns."

Heading into this bout, this match-up had been hyped up as a reincarnation of Shogun-Bones from UFC 128, since both Davis and the new light heavyweight champ, Jon Jones, are young, up-and-coming stars with wrestling bases. They were both fighting Brazilians who were stars in Pride.

Davis showed that he still has a while to go until he's ready for a title shot, but there's nothing wrong with that. He still is an exciting prospect in the UFC's light heavyweight division. He is now 9-0 in MMA, 5-0 in the UFC. Nogueira, the twin brother of former UFC heavyweight champ Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, is now 19-5. This is his second loss in a row in the Octagon, as he dropped a decision to Ryan Bader at UFC 119.

Related: Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Phil Davis, Ultimate Fight Night 24

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Foot infection made Zydrunas Ilgauskas’s feet even grosser than usual

Feet are really pretty disgusting, unless you're into that sort of thing, which is fine, because BDL accepts all lifestyles. But most people look at feet and see an unfortunate necessity of human life. Call me crazy, but I'm not a huge fan of a part of the body that stays locked inside a cloth and leather (or whatever your shoes are made of) tomb all day long. There is a reason why only the crazy people in med schools want to be chiropodists.

I mention these topics not to scare you from reading the rest of this post, but to note that feet are already among the worst body parts. So, for a minute, imagine that you had a terrible foot infection that doubled their size. Because that's what happened to Heat center Zydrunas Ilgauskas(notes). From Brian Windhorst for the Heat Index (via Eye on Basketball):

Zydrunas Ilgauskas thought he had a blister on his foot and didn't pay close attention to it. But when he showed up for a game and the foot was twice its normal size and redness was moving up his leg, Miami Heat team doctors sent him to the emergency room.

What followed were a scary couple of days when Ilgauskas learned he had a type of strep infection and perhaps even the dangerous and antibiotic-resistant strain known as MRSA. He said he and the team have not been able to determine the source of the infection.

"I can deal with broken bones but when something from inside attacks you, I've never had that before," Ilgauskas said after taking part in shootaround with the Heat on Friday morning. [...]

Ilgauskas was in the hospital for three days and later had to receive follow-up IV treatments at home to rid the bacteria from his system. He also said he had an important MRI that looked at some hardware in his foot, which was part of a complex procedure to rebuild his foot that saved his career 10 years ago.

Wow, that is extremely disgusting and I'm almost sorry I brought it to your attention. I promise to write a post about puppy dogs and cotton candy for Monday. Don't worry, it won't be forced, because those are Stephen Curry's(notes) two favorite things.

Despite the fact that this story is pretty much the worst and I never want to read about it again, there are some important points to be learned here from Big Z's reaction to the injury. This man has had enough foot problems to test the most patient of souls -- they almost ended his career in the late-'90s -- but those injuries all involved bones. This ailment is far different, so much so that Ilgauskas imagines that it's eating his foot from the inside like some kind of structural defect. He speaks of it as far more insidious than a mere freak injury, even though it's much more a matter of chance than a broken foot.

Injuries are a fact of professional athletics, especially for insanely tall men. However, a new one can surprise even someone who's been through as much as Zydrunas, a man who seems to have come to terms with his weak feet. It's a potent reminder that a career in basketball is an emotional test as well as a physical one.

Related: Stephen Curry, Zydrunas Ilgauskas

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