#asmussen

New Post has been published on https://techcrunchapp.com/asmussen-has-the-big-ten-found-the-right-road-sports/

Asmussen | Has the Big Ten found the right road? | Sports

You know that annoying person on the interstate who can’t decide which side of the road to be on? The one that forces you to shout: PICK A LANE!

That’s the Big Ten.

First, it is playing football. Then, it is not playing. Then, it is playing. Then, not playing.

Don’t know about the rest of you, but the dizzying way the conference seems to make decisions is giving me a migraine.

This is not to question the motives or the ultimate choice made by the Big Ten. I will leave that chore to others. Check Twitter. They are out there with all sorts of thoughts, using colorful language.

My problem is not with the message. It’s with the delivery. Here, style is at least on an equal playing field as substance.

In the past, the Big Ten had generally handled its business pretty well.

Sure, you can quibble with some of the expansion picks. I prefer to look at it over the long term. This season’s football doormat might be a power 10 years from now. Don’t believe it? Check out Northwestern football in the 1970s-80s. Or Iowa in the 1960s-70s.

Programs improve. They find their Pat Fitzgerald or Hayden Fry and they start to win. It happens and it’s a good thing. It would be very boring in the Big Ten if Ohio State won every title. Except, of course, to the fanatics in Columbus.

Worst of timesBack to the present-day Big Ten. It is not having a good summer.

The rollout of the new football schedule in early August was fine. Though there was some understandable angst from West schools that “got” to play both Ohio State and Penn State.

Soon, the fairness of the schedule became moot.

On Aug. 11, commissioner Kevin Warren postponed the season and sent conference fans and coaches into a tizzy. Not to harp on it, but the announcement was woefully inadequate in terms of access and transparency. The Big Ten made a major blunder.

Warren should have held a press conference, live (socially distanced) and/or on Zoom. And he should have answered questions for an hour or two or three. Until every raised hand had a chance to be heard.

Maybe it wasn’t Warren’s call to make. Perhaps, the conference presidents and chancellors gave him a directive and he executed it.

At the time, fans and media weren’t told how the school leaders voted. Later, the league fessed up and said it was 11-3.

Another mistake was not having a plan moving forward. Usually, “postponed” is followed with a makeup date.

To be fair, COVID-19 plays by its own rules. It is extremely difficult to predict when and where a surge in infections will happen.

Someday down the road, it will be very helpful for all of us to learn why particular decisions were made.

Certainly, the league will admit to mistakes and want to learn from those mistakes.

Long road backThe Big Ten has been damaged reputation-wise by how it has mishandled fall sports.

The conference is in a difficult spot. Its first obligation MUST be the health and safety of its players, coaches and fans. But there is such a strong passion for Big Ten sports, that the pressure to begin playing football has been tremendous. From the White House on down.

Balancing the two really isn’t possible without the help of scientists. Tada. Fortunately, the Big Ten is loaded with them.

The work done at Illinois by Marty Burke and pals is providing a blueprint for the rest of the Big Ten.

The key to the return of football and other sports is a massive testing program.

If we know Player A is virus-free, he is not a threat to Player B, C and D.

Sure, there will be a few positives that slip through the net. But if the testing is daily, those who get infected will be quickly discovered and be treated immediately.

If the Big Ten feels comfortable with the testing setup, it is possible the games can be played this fall, with reports circulating about a possible Oct. 17 start date. That didn’t seem likely two weeks ago.

If it happens — and we can dive more into the eight-game schedule or 10-game schedule that is possibly being talked about — here’s hoping we don’t spend a whole lot of time lamenting what we missed. Instead, we should celebrate the opportunity to once again enjoy the game.

Fallen Order Gameplay Emphasizes Lightsaber Combat, Says Stig Asmussen

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A lightsaber is a one-hit killing machine. Stig Asmussen, the director of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, reminded me of that when I asked him how his team at Respawn Entertainment was able to make their ambitious new Star Wars game feel so distinctive. “We had to create these systems that would force the player to unlock the enemy to allow for that one hit kill,” Asmussen said. Instead of…

24 Interesting Tidbits We Learned About Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

While visiting Respawn for our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order cover story, director Stig Asmussen and many others gave us lots of interesting details about the game, but over the course of our coverage, we weren’t able to find places to insert every tidbit we learned. This feature represents all the little details we weren’t able to fit anywhere else, but still found interesting, along with some…

New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/gun-runner-passes-final-test-wins-pegasus/75734/

Gun Runner passes his final test, wins the Pegasus

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla/January 27, 2018(AP)(STL.News)— This was the scenario that Gun Runner’s team envisioned a year ago: Get a perfect ride at Gulfstream Park and win the sport’s richest race.

It didn’t get the chance last year.

The wait was most certainly worthwhile.

Gun Runner went into retirement as not only the reigning Horse of the Year, an award he picked up two nights before his racing finale, but now a winner of the biggest paycheck in the game. The 5-year-old pulled away from West Coast in the stretch to win the Pegasus World Cup Invitational on Saturday, taking home $7 million of the $16 million purse and ending his career on a five-race winning streak — all of them Grade 1 tests.

“Just so proud of the horse,” trainer Steve Asmussen said. “What a dream come true he is.”

Gun Runner started from the No. 10 post in a 12-horse field, and typically at Gulfstream starting that far from the rail can prove to be tough to overcome. But jockey Florent Geroux eliminated the problem masterfully and quickly, getting Gun Runner to settle in behind only Collected very early in the race.

From there, Geroux merely bided his time for when to ask the Breeders’ Cup Classic winner for his best stride.

The move came with about three furlongs to go. Gun Runner poked his head to the front, and he was gone. West Coast stayed within 2 1/2 lengths for second place, and Gunnevera was third — albeit more than 13 lengths behind the winner. Gun Runner returned $4.20 for the win, finishing the 1 1/8 miles in 1 minute, 47.41 seconds.

For his career, Gun Runner raced 19 times, winning 12, finishing second three times and third twice.

“He’s improved with every opportunity that he got,” Asmussen said. “Even when he didn’t have success, he moved forward from it. He’s just a special individual and we’re so blessed to be in his presence.” Gun Runner will retire with nearly $16 million in earnings. Only the now-retired Arrogate — Gun Runner’s top rival in 2017 and the winner of the inaugural Pegasus a year ago — won more money in his career.

“There’s no other horse like him,” Geroux said.

Gun Runner wasn’t permitted to run the Pegasus last year because of health concerns. He was stabled at Fair Grounds around this time last year, when some of the barns were under quarantine because two horses were dealing with a contagious virus. Pegasus organizers and Gun Runner’s team never found common ground to get him cleared, so the horse didn’t get to Gulfstream for the inaugural race.

He won’t be at next year’s Pegasus, either. There’s nothing left to prove.

But the race is coming back in 2019, Stronach Group President and Chairman Belinda Stronach said after the race — on a day when Gulfstream saw bettors wager nearly $42 million, up 4.4 percent from Pegasus day a year ago. She said more complementary races may be added to the program but that the biggest-money race of all will be held again.

“Stay tuned,” she said. “More to come.”

The win capped an emotional time for Geroux as well.

Geroux’s father was seriously injured on Christmas Eve and died five days later. Meanwhile, Geroux — who has lived in the U.S. for a decade — was waiting to hear when he would be given the chance to take his U.S. citizenship test. It ultimately was scheduled for Friday in Chicago, one day before the Pegasus. Geroux passed that test.

He and Gun Runner passed with flying colors on Saturday as well.

“A fairytale ending,” Asmussen said, “to a beautiful story.”