“When your enemy’s making mistakes, don’t interrupt him.” —Billy Beane

As a die-hard sports fan, Moneyball was enjoyable on a slew of different levels, and this quote was my hands-down favorite. I’m a firm believer in the sentiment, but there are times—serious times—when you need to break this rule.

Thuuz: We’re worried about you.

We’ve told you before about the danger of relying solely on algorithms to calculate game excitement, and…

Wait, no, don’t leave! Please sit down, Thuuz. All of us came over today to talk to you. Just hear us out.

…

First off, we love you. I hope you know that. We were elated when you first got started—what better demonstration of a rising tide lifting all boats? You were brash, and noisy, and plucky, and everything else we love about young startups. The Kansas City Royals are the most exciting team to watch in baseball? Umm, sure! Why the heck not! You guys were so adorable!

I know it has been a while since we’ve hung out, but we’ve been keeping a keen eye on you. We remember how hard it was just making it to year two, and we’re proud of you for making it to that milestone. Nobody is perfect (RUWT?! definitely had its year two issues), but what we’ve been seeing lately makes us worry.

You completely ignored us when we confronted you about the UAB Blazers being the most exciting team in college football. You’re an adult, that’s your choice.

But Monday’s NBA game between the Grizzlies and Warriors getting a perfect score? Last week’s San Diego State Aztecs and New Mexico Lobos 83-62 blowout was as exciting as the unbelievably epic Game 6 of the World Series? Really?! Are you hearing yourself?!

Wait! I’m sorry I raised my voice. Please sit back down.

…

I got off track there, I’m sorry. The reason why we’re here today is because of the NFL. We saw your stats about the most exciting teams this season, and we’re…confused.

Guys @Thuuz say the most exciting NFL teams to watch this year were: 1. Giants, 2. Pats, 3. Panthers, 4. Raiders, 5. Lions

— darren rovell (@darrenrovell) January 24, 2012

It’s mostly good—the Giants, Pats, and Lions are spot on. But the Panthers? The 13.06 average point differential Panthers are in your top 3? Okay, fine, Cam is pretty fun to watch.

But gosh, where are the Broncos? It doesn’t matter if you’re on Team Skip or on Team Steven A., if you don’t think “Tebow Time” was one of the most talked about and exciting storylines of the season, you’re not paying attention! Heck, even Thuuz employees are Tebowing!

We’ve been telling you from the start, algorithms are not enough. Just think, if you incorporated even the slightest bit of human interact…wait! Stop! Where are you going?!

…

Dangit. Sorry guys, I’m just no good at these interventions. I’ll call you when it’s time for the next one.

Most Exciting NFL Teams for 2011-2012 Regular Season, ranked by Are You Watching This?!

1. New York Giants (213.63)
2. Denver (208.72)
3. New England (203.94)
4. Dallas (193.81)
5. Green Bay (195.00)
6. Detroit (172.41)
7. New Orleans (183.50)
8. Pittsburgh (181.82)
9. Arizona (166.00)
10. San Francisco (173.17)
11. New York Jets (166.19)
12. Baltimore (169.67)
13. San Diego (159.63)
14. Minnesota (154.81)
15. Oakland (149.81)
16. Cincinnati (144.94)
17. Philadelphia (153.69)
18. Atlanta (147.53)
19. Kansas City (143.75)
20. Buffalo (143.31)
21. Chicago (146.00)
22. Washington (136.81)
23. Houston (131.39)
24. Indianapolis (130.75)
25. Cleveland (128.56)
26. Tennessee (130.88)
27. Miami (131.75)
28. Seattle (127.69)
29. Tampa Bay (124.31)
30. Carolina (123.75)
31. Jacksonville (123.00)
32. St. Louis (97.69)

Teams are ranked by average excitement rating minus one-quarter of the standard deviation.

Today, its #1 spot is in jeopardy.

Download Are You Watching This?! for Android

High Resolution Screenshots (.zip):
- Smartphone
- Tablet
- Google TV
- Options Screens

We’re way overdue for a Pick ‘Em challenge on the site, so we’re going big for this week’s slate of NFL games!

The top 20 Who You Got? pickers (that’s right, 20!) of this week’s NFL games will have their choice of a $25 AmEx gift card or a world-famous, handmade RUWT?! T-shirt. End up on top of the stack? Say hello to 10 roots status for the next 12 months.

Scoring is dead simple: 1 point for each correct pick, with the Sunday Night and Monday Night games counting double. Check out Small Business Saturday and get started with those picks!

Just how good was it? I can’t see how Gerald Laird’s celebration isn’t enough to convince, but for the stat-heads out there, I’ve included the full list of the 10 top-rated games in our history below, including last night’s epic that slid into the #6 spot.

World Series.
Game 7.
Less than an hour.
Let’s do this.

1. Packers 31, Steelers 25
Rodgers, Packers beat Steelers in Super Bowl
Final (729)

2. Syracuse²⁰ 127, Connecticut⁴ 117
Sixth OT proves to be charm in Syracuse’s win over UConn
Final – 6OT (692)

3. Auburn¹ 22, Oregon² 19
Auburn downs Oregon on last-second FG for BCS title
Final (661)

4. Giants 17, Patriots 14
Giants win Super Bowl XLII, spoil Patriots’ bid for perfection
Final (635)

5. Packers 42, Saints 34
Packers survive Saints in high-scoring thriller
Final (569)

6. Cardinals 10, Rangers 9
Cards rally to force Game 7 with Rangers
Final/11 (565)

7. Phillies 5, Reds 4
Let’s play 19: Phillies edge Reds in marathon
Final/19 (501)

8. Arkansas 50, LSU¹ 48
McFadden, Arkansas shock No. 1 LSU in triple-OT
Final – 3OT (494)

9. Steelers 24, Jets 19
Steelers ground Jets, reach another Super Bowl
Final (489)

10. Jets 28, Patriots 21
Jets KO Patriots, set up title game with Steelers
Final (489)

Through the fog of sleep, I mostly ignored some mumbling over the loud speaker, but the loud shouting from the back of the plane shot me straight up in my seat.

What’s going on? Is someone sick? Is someone being attacked?

Nope. San Jose just took the lead against Detroit in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semis.

There’s nothing like NHL Playoff Hockey. Nothing. That’s why I’m happy to announce the 2011 NHL Playoffs version of the Game Tracker. So far, three out of five of the Conference Finals games have already gone HOT. In a pivotal Game 3, what will the Sharks and Canucks do tonight?

I want to make sure we have cool data for everyone, so today we rolled out a version of the Game Tracker just for the 2011 NBA Playoffs. Not only can you track all in-progress NBA games, but you can also break down games series by series. There’s tons of great data to sift through, and I found an interesting pattern with the defending champs.

The first round matchup between the Lakers and Hornets ended pretty much the way you’d expect. When you pit the defending champs trying to peak at the right time against a 7 seed with an All-World guard at the point, a Lakers win in six games seems about right. Looking at the series as a whole, there’s a pretty average mix of so-so and great games.

Let’s take a closer look at just Game 1 and 4–the two games L.A. lost. See anything interesting? The graphs are almost exactly the same for the two games where the Hornets prevailed. Coincidence? Maybe. But maybe something much more. In both games, trailing just a few minutes into the fourth quarter, the Lakers let the game slip from a one-possession game to a four-possession game in the blink of an eye. In Game 1 it happened between 8:45 and 7:00 to go, and in Game 4 the spurt was between 9:31 to 8:04.

The Lakers valiantly tried to mount comebacks, but in the 41st minute of each of both games they dug too large a hole–they never got closer than three points. Is it a concentration issue? Have the Lakers gotten too old to mount late game comebacks? Already down 0-2 to the Mavs, does it matter?

Only time and RUWTbot will tell.

What interesting patterns can you find?

Pssst. Hockey fans…stay tuned.

The Desktop App is one of our oldest applications, but sadly doesn’t get the love that it should. Today we’re relaunching it as a fork of our RUWT?! Chrome Web App codebase.

What does all that gobbledygook mean? It means you can have the Game Tracker, Videos, Scores, and all the other features that make it a Featured Web Store App, right on your desktop. What are you waiting for? Install it now!

It may not have a catchy name, but mid-April to mid-May is at the top of my favorite sports “months” of the year. With the NHL Playoffs starting off in style last night, the NBA starting its playoff push on Saturday, and the MLB season in full swing, there are a slew of games each and every day.

Standing against that backdrop of joy makes it that much harder for me to break the following news:

The Sports Ticker that we know and love is dead.

Never to be faulted for effort, that reliable friend seen everywhere from our living room TV to our favorite smartphone app, had dutifully churned through each and every score of the day for decades. Sure, it took up room on your beautiful new flat-screen even when you didn’t need it, and sure, if you missed the actual game you’re looking for it was another 12 minutes before you realized you just missed it again, and sure…well, you get the point.

The cause of death is still being speculated, but the culprit has been confirmed.


I’m thrilled to introduce the Are You Watching This?! Game Tracker, the new application that revolutionizes sports fan multi-tasking. At a glance you can easily track dozens of games at a time, and with built-in TV listings and the ability to rewind individual games back in time (drag the dot), or rewind the whole tracker back in time (click the date), it’s Christmas in April for the Superfan.

Today we’re launching as an embeddable widget, a historic excitement viewer (check out Butler vs. Florida or what a No-Hitter lost in the 8th looks like), and in our featured sports Chrome Web App.

Congrats to Ashley, Angus, and gun.cho. Each wins their choice of a $25 Amazon Gift Certificate, or a RUWT? t-shirt made by yours truly. Extra respect to Ashley for winning the topping everyone–she’ll have 10 roots until we crown next year’s champ!

Ashley	Angus	gun.cho

Just in time for this year’s March Madness, the folks behind RUWT?! launched another sports-related website, I Can’t Find the Game.

The dead-simple site is a gift from the gods for sports fans who need help figuring out which channels to turn to for their favorite games.

Just enter your zip code and choose your cable/satellite provider, and the site tells you the channel you need to watch.

We couldn’t have said it better.