Spring Practice On Tap

Spring football practice is slated to begin at Dartmouth today with the forecast calling for 54 degrees and partly sunny skies.

Although Big Green Alert Premium has shut down, the site has a 1,200-word spring practice preview available to everyone. To access the preview as well as all of last season's stories, which are no longer behind a paywall, click HERE.

The plan as of now is to post another story at the mid-point of spring practice, with a final story summing up the offseason sessions sometime after they wrap up with the Green-White game on May 4.

Editor's Note: The current BGA Premium site will return a 404 error code within days so be sure to return to this page for information about where to access whatever content is posted in the future. As noted in this space earlier, there will be at least some coverage of Dartmouth football in the fall – although exactly what that will entail remains to be seen.

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From The Athletic's Steelers Mailbag column comes this question and answer (LINK):

Will there be another Rooney in charge of the Steelers after AR3? — Gregg W.

It appears it will be Danny Rooney, Art Rooney’s 33-year-old son, although nothing has ever been said publicly. He played football at Dartmouth and went on to have many jobs associated with the NFL on and off the field since college. He also has a degree from Penn’s Wharton School of Business. He’s a really good guy, so the Steelers will be in good hands for the next 40 years.

Find former Big Green quarterback Dan Rooney's Dartmouth bio HERE. 

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Matt Kaskey '19 and the Birmingham Stallions opened the United Football League season with a 27-14 win over the Arlington Renegades in a battle of the reigning USFL champions from Alabama against the reigning XFL champions from Texas.

Kaskey is one of just four FCS alumni on the Stallions. The others hail from North Dakota State, South Dakota State and Southern Illinois.

There are four Ivy League alums playing in the UFL as of this writing. In addition to Kaskey they are:

• Quarterback EJ Perry of Brown (Michigan Panthers)

• Defensive end Prince Emili of Penn (San Antonio Brahmas)

• Linebacker J.T. Tyler of Princeton (Houston Roughnecks)

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With two new coaches at Dartmouth this spring and two others beginning their second season you may not be sure who to contact if you know of a talented player from your area. That being the case, here's a look at who is recruiting where for the Big Green these days courtesy of the program's social media:

Click to enlarge.

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EXTRA POINT
Watching the Iowa-LSU women's basketball game last night I was reminded of one of the most valuable courses I took in my journalism graduate studies. It was in statistics and offered hints on how to know when they are being misused.

Caitlin Clark is a wonderful player but there's one aspect of her game that is frequently misrepresented, as it is for a lot of players. Broadcasters love to tell us that Clark, or whatever player, had a hand in X-number of a team's points. It's true, but it's also a little misleading.

I'm going to make this as simple as possible.

Let's assume Iowa scores 50 points in the first half and Clark scores 22 of them, with six assists. The announcer may tell us that she has had a hand in 34 of Iowa's 50 points (22 points of her own and 12 by teammates on her six assists).

While it's true, it also is misleading. Here's why.

Let's now assume that Player 2 for Iowa has 16 points and dished four assists to Clark. Using the same metric, she's responsible for 24 points (16 of her own and eight from Clark's baskets).  Player 3 is the only other Iowa player to score and she finishes the half with 12 points and two assists, so she's responsible for 16 points.

Add up those "points responsible for" and there are 74 (Clark's 34, Player 2's 24 and Player 3's 16.)

With 74 "points responsible for" available, Clark's 34 represent 45.9 percent of the total. That's hugely impressive but it's not the 68.0 percent the analyst is crediting her with by saying she had a hand in 34 of Iowa's 50 points.