WHY DIDN'T YOU JUST MAKE HIM SHOOT INSIDE THE ARC?!

Well, Kyle McAlarney got high off the 3 to the tune of 9-11 from beyond the arc, and ended up with 30 points (he was 0-2 from inside the arc, and 3-3 from the stripe. The odd number of free throws? DONTE GREENE FOULED HIM ON A 3! AND HE MADE THE 3! WHAT THE FUCK?!??!?!) Paul and Arinze were great, Ed Hightower proved himself to be one of the more terrible refs in the Big East (if he works one of the three 'Cuse games with Cahill and Burr, I will throw up at tip-off; that is a guarantee). Johnny and Donte were freshmen. Nothing was falling for the Orange (a lot of rim-out lay-ups), and they both had terrible games. Johnny at least showed some effort, while Donte went 2-7, caused a 4-point play, and fouled out and walked off the court like his lunch money got stolen and he couldn't afford the sloppy joes. Harangody gets away with a lot, and when he flops once, Ed Hightower seems to come over and give him a body massage. I didn't get the memo that Notre Dame would be getting games called their way so much because the football team sucked this year, but Harangody had an obvious charge into Kristof just become a no-call. Scoop was pretty solid, and I actually think he should replace Donte in the starting lineup right now. Donte is obviously coming back next year, but he should try to improve on his game right now instead of waiting for the summer to put in work at Manley. This is starting to look like 2002, where an injury (2008: Rautins and Devendorf, 2002: Shumpert's eye) has negatively affected the team, and the women's team (made the tournament for the first time I can remember in 2002, 2008: currently ranked #24) has shown some sort of superiority. Every regular season game the rest of the year is must-win for Syracuse, and it looks like 2 wins in the BET will be necessary for a NCAA invite even with that. 

On a broadcasting note, Bob Wenzel thinks he is Bill Raftery, and I have news for him: you are a terrible analyst, and I did not hear you utter one intelligent comment that whole damn game. If I hear you analyze another game terribly while pretending to be Bill Raftery, I will circle a petition for your firing.

In other news, Penn basketball lost at Harvard. I guess I can make travel plans for Spring Break that don't include watching a 1st round NCAA loss!

There will be 6 days to try to get things right for Pitt's appearance at the Dome. The crowd will be out for that game, I expect at more than 30,000, and they will be pivotal in helping to motivate this young team. Hopefully Levance Fields doesn't hit his stride until after he leaves the Dome.

HALFTIME!

So, no word on where Cybill Shepherd is sitting, but I think Erin Andrews got her some nosebleeds with punches as well as the elevation above sea level of her seat. Lots of foul trouble for Tennessee as Chris Lofton and Jajuan and Ramar of the Smith trio and JP Prince each have 2 personals. Memphis is not letting Lofton get any open looks, starting 0-2 from the field, 0-1 on 3, and 1 point. Bruce Pearl thought that the refs were missing calls on Lofton being physically held to that 1 point, but I think Calipari was ready for him. Tennessee is only down 35-34 right now, so they can definitely get back in the game. Pearl should call for some staggered screens to be completely sure that Lofton isn't being hounded at all, which should give him the green light of comfort with his shot that should help him catch fire (in a good way). Memphis is playing good D right now, and if they keep it up and also get Dozier and Dorsey a little more involved with some drive-and-dish if they want to blow this one out.

Kansas lost to OK State? Wow. Saw UConn lose to Nova at the Wachovia, and it was all about the fact that Jeff Adrien was the last guy to shoot free throws for UConn. They should be putting the ball in Austrie's hands late. I really can't keep up with BracketBusters, but I had to watch Drake-Butler, which was the only matchup of ranked teams (#18 and #8, respectively). This game was neck-and-neck the whole time, which is exactly what you look for in BracketBuster excitement. Drake got bailed out on a wild shot by Josh Young that earned him 3 free-throws (of which he made 3) that sealed the game. This definitely put Drake in the tournament, and they can thank the MVC for not having the drop in competition that Butler had in the Horizon League. I'm done writing for the night, I'll be back with a wrap-up after 'Cuse-Irish tomorrow. Have a good night, ya'll. And if Pearl doesn't run staggered screens, I'll write a column about him. A mean column.

So Big that Cybill Shepherd Barely Got a Ticket

Right now, Memphis leads 31-26 at FedEx Forum, and the barrage of 3s that started the game were very high on the instant classic scale. No Cybill Shepherd sightings yet, I think that is due to the fact that Erin Andrews hated Moonlighting because she thought her skills as a Dazzler would have helped the series run longer.

I fucked up yesterday. I went to a bar to watch the Syracuse game today, and it turns out that it was on Sunday (2PM start time to allow for some Sunday mass attendance. Donte, Scoop, and Rick went to Catholic high schools, but something tells me that they probably won't be in attendance at the Notre Dame church tomorrow). For pre-game thoughts, look here.

Back to the game...

A Few Things

I'm sick, so I was prescribed Weezy F.'s favorite prescription medication. I can't wait to try that shit tonight.

More importantly, the 6PM SportsCenter today was CRAZY! Bill Walton started the craziness by bringing a birthday cake out for "Dr." Jay Harris, who shares his birthday with Julius "The Doctor" Irving. Walton sang an extended version of the American birthday song, which, I suppose, he learned to jam on from his deceased friend Jerry Garcia (or maybe Bob Weir taught him, I don't know). Walton's act was continued by John Clayton, who had chocolate cake at the NFL Combine as a part of his little act on the Bears keeping Rex Grossman but also having Kyle Orton, using the phrase "I'm having my cake, but eating it too." Brian Kenny called out Clayton on continuity issues as Clayton had chocolate cake. Turns out the cake was chocolate, as both Walton and Stephen A. had some as they were previewing the NBA games tonight on ESPN. All I can say is that I wish this was how my birthday was celebrated, minus Stephen A. Smith.

'Cuse had Louisville whoop them in the second half on Monday, and John Cahill and Jim Burr continued to amaze me. Johnny Flynn was thrown to the ground on a drive in the 2nd half and was called for a charge. Why not run out the clock? Because he is a douche. There were many other terrible calls, and it was no help that Syracuse only had 7 players (the Cavs will have one less than that for tonight against the Wizards, so will the Wiz be able to run it down their throats? Can LeBron play all 48 minutes? We shall see.) Jerry Smith is very hated right now by 'Cuse fans for his dunk with 3.6 seconds left to give Louisville an 11-point lead. Real classy. Th ball could have stayed in the backcourt to end the game, but Smith caught a long pass and had to have 7 points to keep his average at 11PPG. A complete lack of class, a total douche. The Notre Dame is going to be fucking hard, and with the way Luke Harangody is playing, if Arinze and Rick Jackson don't keep up with him, Sean Williams will see his first minutes of Big East action. This game is not necessarily a must-win for the Orange, but it will lead to less games needed to win at the Garden during the BET. For some reason, the CBS affiliate in Philadelphia is showing a SEC game at 2PM tomorrow, so now I have to go to a sports bar to watch the game. I'm not sure how to react to this, but then again, how can you not support a TV affiliate that hates pigs as much as someone who keeps kosher.

Uhhh...the Willie Mays highlight was not shown on SportsCenter the night it happened because SportsCenter didn't exist. Berman did, and he was a fat, ugly baby at the time. Still, this is bullshit. If you want to talk about the greatest highlight, it has to be during the time your show existed. And Berman has reacted to the videos of himself scolding people on the set of Monday Night Countdown! His reaction sounds strangely like some shit that went down in Washington,  DC in 1953-4.

If anyone has a chance to see Will Leitch speak at an Atlanta bookstore, please do. John Rocker and his black, fitness model girlfriend, both of whom were interviewed by Leitch, will be in attendance and might even reenact it with Leitch. This could be the video of the century if it is caught on film of some sort.

I'm going to try to find some Hawaiian Punch to go with my cough syrup, but I might just stick with some orange juice. PEACE

Uhh...Dwight Howard Forgot to Dunk

So, as Deadspin wonders if Howard will receive fair judgement, I say the legendary judges were like Fox News talking about Bush with their praise of Howard. Let's return to what happened on the "Superman" "dunk." First, the theatrics as Howard took off the Magic jersey, revealing a Superman shirt, and donned a cape provided by Jameer Nelson. The crowd gets completely caught up in it, and then Howard catches an underhand toss from Nelson and throws it into the hoop. He DID NOT dunk the ball. It was NOT a dunk, and Kenny Smith and Sir Charles began to wax poetical about how Howard revolutionized the dunk contest. Gerald Green had 3 great dunks, while Howard's first was enough to convince the judges that Howard was a god. Each judge endorsed Howard and his love of Soulja Boy, but Julius Erving sounded like Alan Colmes, wasting 1:30 seconds of the last five minutes of voting talking about how Gerald Green was very impressive, but in the end Howard was just better for no reason, drawing boos from the crowd for his long-winded pedagogy. The judges should have been able to see a replay of Green blowing out the candle on his dunk, which probably would have made them give him a perfect 50. 

The skills challenge was kind of exciting as Deron Williams set a record on the obstacle course. Dwyane Wade was extremely disappointing, losing the ball on a dribbling slalom and just mailing it in the rest of the way. Is that the type of reputation Miami wants right now, because they're also mailing it in to the tune of 24 losses in 25 games coming into the All-Star break. I don't think it was such a great idea to put that type of effort into an event for the All-Star weekend; it just makes terrible publicity for this franchise that no one is trying at anything. Hopefully they manage to get the lottery pick...

One more thing: nickname idea: Kristof Ongaenat: "The Gent from Ghent." etymology: Rafterian.

It's a Mini-Horse Competition Highlight Reel

Wow. But who didn't see this coming? After the Rivalry Week meeting where Syracuse barely lost, don't you think that Boeheim and his young guns had this team figured out. For the first 16 minutes it certainly looked like it, as Syracuse took a 21 point lead against the #8/#8 team in the country in the first half. Vanderbilt had taken a 41-11 lead on Kentucky earlier in the week, but Kentucky gargles balls right now. The Hoyas were struggling, as seen with their 2nd half 20 point lay-down-and-die trick against Louisville, and needing John Cahill (I believe I remember correctly) to call a very ticky-tacky foul with .1 left to beat a Villanova team that some may say have been roughin' it as of late. 'Cuse was coming off a terrible loss to South Florida on the road, and they knew they needed this one. Paul got in the flow tonight and hit a 3 in the first half, which led me to rub my eyes to see if I was actually awake. Johnny and Donte ("Don'te Leave" is the best advice he received today) struggled from the field, but they hit some big shots, especially Johnny who along with Paul made free throws late as fake Jonathan Wallace dropped many a bomb from 3. The zone gave up a lot of threes, but Georgetown had all their other shots challenged, leading them to shoot 40% from inside the arc.

ESPN put up a stat that just summed up how badly Georgetown had lost it after starting with an 8-4 run. Whole Georgetown had 0 2nd chance points and 0 points off turnovers, the Orange had already reached double digits in the first 12 minutes. Other highlights for SU fans included a Pat Ewing, Jr. rim check, Arinze getting #2 called on Hibbert with the basket a little more than 3 minutes in. Looks like Arinze stopped being scared of tall dudes from the absolute domination of fear by Hasheem Thabeet a week before this past Wednesday. 

The Wednesday to Wednesday schedule didn't seem to work too well for Syracuse, as they never had a chance to shake off the dust against another team before South Florida beat them. It was a trap that Admiral Ackbar could have seen coming. South Florida had put up a good fight in the Dome in January, and no one wants to take on a not-so-good team at their place after barely beating them. The UConn game before was a letdown, as Hasheem blocked 7 shots and Arinze began to remind some a soprano in the Harlem Boys Choir...one that is at least 13, as he pump faked, some Thabeet, and immediately threw the ball out to the perimeter instead of taking it at him. 

Syracuse now has their tournament destiny in their own hands with 5 games left, all on national TV, and I'm not sure anyone wants to play them. Louisville and Notre Dame welcome 'Cuse in on Monday and a week from tomorrow, respectively, Pitt comes to the Dome in 2 weeks, a trip to Newark to play Seton Hall 4 dys after that, and finally, Marquette three ays after that comes to the Dome for Senior Day. Syracuse's main objective in these five: DON'T LOSE TO SETON HALL, win at least 3 against the other teams, and DO NOT MISS THE BIG EAST TOURNAMENT. Doing these things will definitely ensure a tourney invitation, but would be helped by a win or two at the Garden.

Since I've been alive, there have been a few exceptional meetings in the Hoya-Orangemen rivalry. My top 5:

1.) Barely holding on against Georgetown at home in 1995. It made one thing certain: Allen Iverson would never beat Syracuse in his Georgetown career.

2.) Senior Day, 1998: LaSean Howard, who would transfer to Howard after the season because he never got any playing time, made a huge 3-point play in overtime (playing for Marius Janulis, who hurt his hand earlier in the game) to beat the Hoyas. Syracuse fans already hated Georgetown for being Georgetown, but when Georgeton players ogled the Syracuse dance team, walking through their performance formation (if this is the terminology used, wow is all I can tell myself), and receiving a chorus of boos from nearly 30,000 people. I went in the locker room after the game, and LaSean was autographing programs from another game that he was on the cover for, trying to promote his case for more playing time.

3.) 2003 Sweep: Syracuse had never beaten Georgetown 3 times in a year before the Year of the Chip. Carmelo probably shit-talks to Iverson a lot about how he couldn't lose to Georgetown and Iverson couldn't win against Syracuse.

4.) 2007: As I watched on a borrowed television, Demetris Nichols had his best game of his career and gave one amazing memory to his fellow 2007 seniors, Terrance Roberts and Mookie,  who never won a tournament game.

5.) 2008: They learned their lessons in DC, and they used them to get a win they needed a lot. Possibly Paul Harris' best game so far at Syracuse.

Last night I had the greatest musical experience of my young life as I got to see Levon Helm and his band play at the Electric Factory. I don't know how good Levon's new stuff is, but damn, the guy can't stop smiling. His voice is a little weird from the throat cancer, but the man put on a clinic on the skins as well as the mandolin. Mckee may have called put him in an equation as equal to Roger Maris, but I think Maris should be taken out and replaced with Steve Nash, because he just facilitates others and directs the magic. Dr. Dog opened and talk about how happy he was to have free tickets to see "Luh-von," which was stupid. And with the average age at this place at around 45, I got to witness a guy have a heart attack and try to start human dominoes from the front row. The Factory did have bleacher seats set up for the old crowd, but they were not used by this guy, who couldn't take the wait through the opening music. And good news for Levon: his daughter had his first grandchild on Wendesday, and he is baby Levon (her band Ollabelle played with a replacement and did an awesome "Ain't No More Cane" after realizing that they didn't sound very good). I expect baby Levon on a kit no later than his fifth birthday and for some Jason Bonham style tapes to come out of the kid playing like his dad no later than 2014.

That's all for today, I might get a short entry in after Syracuse-Louisville on Monday, otherwise look sometime on Saturday for a two-game wrap-up. Midterms galore make me angry as hell. Until next time, peace.

Comedy with Lesley Visser

I'm not usually honored on a regular basis these days, but Lesley Visser sure is. My favorite Lesley Visser honor? That would be top right, "One of the five guests at an ideal dinner party." It was a great space filler. Also, I wouldn't be so proud of interviewing Terrell Owens once. You may have interviewed him, but you didn't try to change his perspective on life like this guy did.

What a Combination of Yesterday and Today

As I predicted at the end of my post yesterday, Jay Bilas found out in an exclusive interview with Robert Montgomery that this is not a permanent retirement...by any means. Pat Knight should hope that dad doesn't find a job in the Big 12 and make his favorite Indiana Hoosier of all time his easiest win.

ESPN is drawing my viewership tonight with ease: Syracuse welcomes #19 UConn as part of rivalry week. UConn is ranked for the first time since Hasheem Thabeet drunkenly asked a Penn student from Connecticut for an empty can of Sprite to play with. Syracuse is playing its first game against a non-Jesuit school for the first time in 3 weeks. Then, at 9, Dickie V returns from vocal cord lesions to have them explode on national TV as he watches and yells about Duke playing at North Carolina, which will be a delightful game of hoops.

If I'm the Suns, I DO NOT take the deal for O'Neal. There has to be something better for Marion out there, and the trade deadline is not that close.

And finally, this:

"When you're at a picnic, and a bunch of ants are going after your food, you know what you do? Stomp 'em out!"

The Greatest College Basketball Coach...EVER

No offense to Jimmy B, but this is "the dude." 3 national titles, 902 wins, countless NCAA and school administrators made queasy by his antics; these are the things that made Bob Knight great. He also was a great teacher of life (see: Landon Turner, a great player who was paralyzed in a car accident the summer after the '81 title, but to this day keeps a positive outlook even without basketball; also, Knight was known to punish players who missed class) and the game (he sold millions of his pamphlet that taught his basketball philosophy of unselfish ball movement and tough defense).

As well, Knight had his fair share of tirades

And my personal favorite:

Besides all this, there is also my favorite reality show of all time: Knight School. I'm actually friends with Arvin Zeinali, a runner-up on the show who Knight told, "You dribble the ball too damn much," on facebook, and I almost accepted an invitation to his birthday party, but was unable to go due to lack of transportation to Lubbock. The show gave some funny looks into Knight's personal life as his son hit him in the groin with a wiffle ball and he went to shoot some stuff. Knight also introduced his toughest player, a 6'5" center from his time at Army named Mike Gyovai, whose only available highlight showed him getting swatted on a lay-up and then getting beat back down the court for a lay-up on the other end. For all these pieces of unintentional comedy, the program managed to show Knight's appreciation for hard work as well as a basketball genius that is often forgotten when he reportedly assaults a Texas Tech official at a salad bar or chokes a player. Knight's life is basketball, and he lived and died with every bit of it he had. I'm sure he will continue to go to Tech games to watch his son Pat coach, as well as to keep track of his grandchild that he brought to a press conference (how hilarious it would be if that was just some random toddler he found in a hallway that he brought to distract the press). He'll probably start missing it all and go find another job.

Wrap-Up Part Deux: EXCEPT in 1972

I just realized: the Patriots choked, and I think it's the biggest choke-job ever. They were RIGHT on the edge of history and they fucked up. Sure, the Yankees took a week to die in 2004, but the Patriots died in front of an international television audience. Even the English are probably substituting Beckham and Rooney World Cup red cards with empty Tom Brady to Moss hail marys as the preferred sports analogy for failure, and being slower than Seau and Bruschi's 40 times as a sports analogy for inability to read. Even Dolphins fans can mock them next year, with history on their side, and I mean 35 years ago, not this recent 1-15 job. Mercury Morris sure is starting to:

If I had control of some of Mercury and the Dolphins' champagne, I'd be sending some Eli's way, but Morris won't because of his superiority  complex towards defeated teams. Somewhere in Anaheim, Torii Hunter is wondering if he can somehow go undefeated so he can send champagne to someone who defeats a team that tries to go undefeated in that same discipline.

Super Bowl Wrap-Up

First off, some girl was in my apartment yesterday and said the following: "I want the Giants to win because I like their colors." This girl must be colorblind, because, if I'm not mistaken, the Patriots and the Giants both wear red, white, and blue, the Patriots with more silver. Is silver really that important of a factor in that jersey? Bitches.
Anyways, the point of this blog is this: will Eli be better than his brother? And I don't mean Cooper with the narrow spinal cord and 4.58 40 speed. I mean Peyton, who just reeks of endorsements now, and also of looking like a giraffe looking out for predators as its young bend down to drink water as he watched his brother play. Let's harken back to last year: Peyton finally beat New England in the playoffs and then finally won a Super Bowl and got the MVP award. Fast forward to the playoffs this year, and no one there for the RCA Dome's end knew the Heimlich and as they did two years before, Peyton and the Colts bowed out after having a bye. This year, Eli played the underdog role and won the best Super Bowl I've seen since the Pats beat the Panthers in Houston along with the MVP. Before that, Eli couldn't throw a touchdown pass and but could throw 4 picks in 2 losses.
This might seem a little rash, but I'm going to put it into bold to emphasize it: ELI IS GOING TO BE BETTER THAN PEYTON. Look, he's going to do way less commercials than Peyton, and for that reason, has more time to focus on football. Because he is lower on the face time, he has time to focus on football. He also didn't fuck up like Peyton did in the Super Bowl. Eli's pick was a dropped pass by Steve Smith How stupid does Tiki Barber look? He doubted Eli, questioning his leadership skills, which probably motivated Eli this year. He did pretty damn well with no timeouts left in getting them the lead with 35 seconds left. Good for Eli for starting to step up in the playoffs after Tiki retired. It completely discredits the basis of his announcing career.

As an Eagles fan, I hate to do this, but it's a bigger commitment to Syracuse: Tom Coughlin, an alum, with the W; David Tyree stepping up for the first time since 2003 when he had 5 receptions for 106 yards against the Eagles.

E*Trade had dope commercials with the baby, and the cheese party Bud Light was dope.

Funniest Super Bowl related link of the day: David Tyree: Funniest Black Man in America. That was Google's third result for "david tyree."

Tom Brady has RED: Romo erectile dysfunction. Why are all the quarterbacks unable to perform in front of their fucking hot girlfriends? The NFL needs to get some quarterbacks with balls, not all these pussies.

And, of course, Mercury Morris and my boy  Larry Csonka can open up their champagne bottle.

'Cuse finishes off Jesuit trip 3-2

It helped to play Providence and then DePaul before seeking revenge against Villanova, but the Wildcats just lied down and let the citric acid slowly burn their eyes to extend their double-digit losing streak to 4 (Rutgers among the lucky ones, and Greg Schiano wasn't coaching!). Nova started out 10-12 from the field to get a 24-13 lead, and they had assists on 8 of 10 field goals, but Flynn, Greene, and especially Harris just went off and 'Cuse went on a 21-3 run and took a 44-39 halftime lead (almost was 42-39 until Rick Jackson got his second buzzer-beater putback of the year). The second half was all Syracuse all the time. Nova seemed to threaten, but could never take a lead, and Johnny Flynn hit a floater with 1:41 left to give the Orange an 80-68 advantage, with some harm provided by Reggie Redding. After landing, Flynn turned his goose head follow through into a wave to the Nova fans who made the 20 mile journey to what turned out to be a Syracuse home game for the last 3 minutes. Paul Harris, a year after "the dunk," provided a career-high 28 points with ONLY 7 boards, Donte was 5-11 (3-7 on 3) for 17 and grabbed 7 rebounds, and Johnny Flynn, despite a 3:6 assist to turnover ratio, managed to score a ridiculous 24 (8-11 from the field, 7-9 from the line), many of which came in the first half as he kept Syracuse in the game by answering every Nova bucket with a coast-to-coast lay-up each time. And I believe I saw Johnny block a jumper by Corey Fisher, Nova's only bright spot.
Arinze had his worst game of the year, as smaller Nova players were able to bully him, driving him to a technical foul and only 3 points and 4 fouls. Scottie Reynolds looked nothing like the player I remember, as he hit all of his 3s with the game already in Syracuse's hands.
How about Kristof's parents (Kristof played pretty damn well with 12 points, including a 3 to beat an expiring shot clock in the 2nd half, and 5 rebounds) paying $600 for a cab to the Dome to see their son play after missing their connection from NYC to Syracuse after a flight from Belgium. That's dedication, Holmes. I wish they could have seen their son play his best game of the year in Philly. And Scoop, welcome back! Len Elmore didn't go into what you actually did, but it helps that Nova fans aren't into the whole taunting chants thing (Jesuits!).
The zone was awesome. My friend Steve always references the Oklahoma Elite Eight game in 2003 as the game that made him believe in the zone. If he ever needed reassurance of its power, today was that game. Weak sides were cut off, Donte and Kristof used their length to discourage skip passes, and collapsed well to prevent weak side passes on penetration. Nova managed only 22 rebounds, only 7 of those on offense. Although Nova plays a damn small lineup, they couldn't penetrate and kick successfully, and their big men were not ready to handle the high post, meaning they were just winging it every time down the floor. Nova has already lost 2 at the Wachovia Center this year, a venue that was essential to their #1 seed and Elite Eight berth in 2006 (their first and second round NCAA games were played there). When they can't hold it down you know they are having a tough time, especially since 2 of those losses have come in their last 3 games.
Doug Gottlieb said the craziest thing I've ever heard. As Ben still refers to him as the resident Syracuse hater at ESPN, I could not believe my ears when he said, and I kid you not, "Syracuse is in the tournament right now." I'm pretty sure he meant NCAA, but he could have meant the Big East? Anyways he continued on about how they needed to win today to not have a Nova sweep tarnish their resume. Wow. Supportive words for Syracuse from Doug Gottlieb, the first I've heard from him since after Syracuse won it all, and that lasted about 5 minutes.
Anyways, Super Bowl is tomorrow, so I have to get some work done, but chew on this, Kimbo Slice: Syracuse is tied for 3rd in the Big East right now, SUCKA! UConn on Wednesday in the Dome (rivalry week) and then the Wednesday after a trip to Tampa to take on South Florida.
Almost forgot: Penn is 1-0 in the Ivy League with a 73-69 victory over Tommy Amaker's Harvard squad. Fuck you, Bianca! I guess Tyler Bernadini is all go-to guy and shit like that. Cem Dinc, Amaker's Turkish whirling dervish, played one minute and missed a shot. Only 6 more wins until .500, can you handle it, Glen? Or will FireGlenMiller.com become a sad reality? Funny note: my Sports Industry Professor said close to no one used godaddy to buy a domain name after seeing the commercial, they just went to see some boob (that was paraphrased). I guess I am in the demographic "close to no one."

A Few Thoughts For the First TV Timeout as 'Cuse plays its Fifth Straight Game Against a Jesuit School

1.) For some reason, Jay Wright wasn't satisfied with winning by only 10 at the Dome, so he's subbing guys in like he's coaching the Flyers.
2.) John Saunders called the 2-3 zone a matchup zone, which is completely incorrect.
3.) Is Scoop playing? Will he admit to getting the munchies to order hundreds of dollars of food with his cousin and two girls? We shall see, he is wearing a jersey.
4.) Jay Wright doesn't want to get sweat on his suit as he tries to fuck up cancer in his sneakers. Boeheim looks classier.
5.) Syracuse just looks tired as hell. Johnny Flynn hasn't missed a minute since...the last time Syracuse played Villanova.

What 'Cuse Needs a Lot of Tomorrow

I just remembered this dunk. Paulie got the fuck up. I was sure he could put a sticker on the top line of the backboard square, and remember, he is definitely overlisted at 6'4".

Great, snakes on crack!

I missed the DePaul game, but I am damn happy with the result, and I might go tomorrow to the Wachovia Center to see 'Cuse take on Nova. However, I might not, because people are still saying that Donte Green will be a top 5 pick (nbadraft.net, I'm talking to you). Once he declares his intentions to be a sophomore at Syracuse University will I go to another game.
As anyone who reads this blog would know, I made some shitty playoff picks as the New Year rolled around. Here is my shitty Super Bowl lock of the week/year/month: Patriots cover, 28-14. And as an added benefit of taking The Sports Industry this semester, I present you with Super Bowl counter-programming:
ABC

“America’s Funniest Home Videos” rerun and “Meet The Fockers”

8:00-11:00pm

CBS
“60 Minutes” and “Shark” and “Cold Case” reruns

7:30-11:00pm

NBC

“Biggest Loser” marathon

7:00-11:00pm

Animal Planet

“Puppy Bowl IV”

3:00pm-3:00am

Bravo

“Law & Order: Criminal Intent” marathon

6:00pm-2:00am

ESPN

ISU European Championships

9:00-10:00pm

ESPN2

“World’s Strongest Man Competition” marathon

6:00pm-5:00am

Food Network

“Food Network Challenge”

3:00-9:00pm

Hallmark Channel

“Murder She Wrote” marathon

8:00-3:00am

Lifetime

“Football-Free Movie Extravaganza”

11:00-2:00am

Oxygen

“Deion and Pilar: Primetime Love”


Spike TV

“MLE Chowdown Championship: Ham N’ Egg”


Speed TV

“Lucas Oil on the Edge,” “Monster Jams” and “PINKS: All Out” episodes

2:00pm-4:00am

TBS

“What Women Want” movie marathon

Noon-midnight

TLC

“Miss America Pageant” re-air

6:00pm-2:00am

TNT

“The Closer” marathon

Noon-midnight

Travel Channel

“Tribal Odyssey” marathon

7:00pm-3:00am

USA Network

“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit”

6:00pm-3:00am

WE

“Rich Bride, Poor Bride,” “My Big Fat Fabulous Wedding” and “Platinum Wedding” marathon

4:00pm-5:00am

My pick is definitely Spike TV, due to my love for breakfast food, and my intentions to drop out of school and join the competitive eating circuit. As Eater X mimics Ultimate Warrior with the face paint, I will wear a leather mask to mimic Mankind. Some more analysis: women! TBS is trying to steal as many women who hate football as humanly possible with the Mel Gibson chick flick from hell with bleeding Jesus and a dude getting his face eaten off by Helen Hunt, but I digress. Oxygen, the women's network, with the Deion Sanders reality show pilot? Seriously? I have no response, but I can say with confidence that Noel Devine made the right decision in abandoning Deion's adoptive efforts.
Final thing before I go back to sleep for 10 more hours: the Lakers will NOT win the title this year. Pau Gasol is great and all, but he is still pretty soft. But keeping Bynum and Odom and GETTING RID OF KWAME BROWN (the capital letters show you how happy it makes me for Kobe) will definitely help the Lakers get at least 2 rounds farther in the playoffs this year.
To build on McKeever's post before mine, must-see movie is Coal Miner's Daughter. Sissy Spacek is nasty as Loretta Lynn (she won a damn Oscar), but my highlight was seeing some great acting work from Levon Helm as the Coal Miner. Levon basically got to play himself for a little while, and then play a dead guy, but while his character was alive, he really contributed some great work to this movie.

Jesuits beat Nonsectarian Private School not to a Pulp, But to Hopelessness

The season looks bleak for SU basketball right now. NIT is the three letters no one wants to hear, but Saturday's loss to Nova and tonight's loss to Georgetown really put that abbreviation into perspective. Three things were particularly effective in bringing me to this:
1.) Johnny Flynn getting into it with Jeremiah Rivers
So, you were beating them up, and you had a lead, but you need to finish the game, Johnny, and not worry about one-on-one games. It's 5 on 5, and as Johnny became score-first for 2 or 3 possessions, Georgetown slowly pushed their way back into the game. And he kept the hogging going in overtime. Terrible choices that will hopefully be out of his system after practice tomorrow.
2.) Scoop Jardine
Not an offensive threat in any way. Bricked the first shot of overtime. Played real sloppy, as did Paul Harris
3.) Donte Greene
This one goes out to nbadraft.net, who currently have Donte predicted to go 5th to the Knicks: HE IS NOT THAT GOOD! If he knows best, he'll stay at Syracuse for at least another year and get to work. Here's a checklist to start on:
-Inconsistency: TERRIBLE against Nova, 1-11 in the first half against Georgetown. As I have pointed out before on numerous occasions when comparing him to Carmelo Anthony: If Melo fucked up one game, he took it out on the opponent the next, something Donte has yet to discover. It is also known as "killer instinct," and if you don't have it, you should not be considering going pro at all. Not even in the back of you mind.
-Robotic offensive game: Really, you need to not shoot two threes and then drive, shoot two threes, then drive, etc. Donte needs to get the basket and try to get to the line against smaller guys, like every person that guarded him tonight besides Hibbert.
-DEFENSE: I talked to a few people about this tonight, and we all agree: Donte just doesn't play defense at all. He is the least active person I have ever seen in the zone. Ever. Think of other people who have played 2-3 zone at Syracuse: Billy Celuck, Craig Forth, Elvir Ovcina, all big, goofy, white guys, all better defenders than Donte Greene. Donte likes to block one shot and then relax for the rest of the night. That is definitely not helping the zone.
Conclusion: Donte should go undrafted if he declares this year. He has a ways to go.
In other news, Arinze put up a great fight on Hibbert, putting in 12 and grabbing 13 boards. his free throw shooting along with Donte's in OT really ended the game. But Arinze also set a career-high with 5 assists. And we're talking about passing out of a double down for an open 3 as well as finding cutters down the lane. Really impressive stuff.
And congratulations to Johnny Flynn on his first dunk of the year! Took him a while to learn how hard it is to do in traffic, as he scored lots of 2s tonight on a floater instead of attacking the rim (ridiculous bounce on one over Hibbert).
And the officiating? Well, according to a source of mine, Jim Burr and John Cahill are golf buddies with Boeheim, and that's why they give him such terrible calls all the time. I really don't know about that, but they really let it be a physical game. Especially under the basket, where Georgetown could be watching out for some lawsuits involving priests. A lot of stuff should have been called, but it's in the books, and no one can change that. Except the Miami Heat.
Also, congratulations to the Memphis Tigers for finally getting that #1 ranking. Barring an uprising from the "untouchables" who make up the rest of C-USA, the caste system should remain and Memphis should roll to the overall #1. Well, watch out for Bruce Pearl sweating.

Till next time...

Pats-Jags final analysis

The Patriots may never lose again in their history after Brett Favre storybook ends his career in XLII. But the game with the Jags game was the closest any team will get to New England. They just put too much on the table for Jacksonville to deal with. Watch Randy Moss with double coverage, but leave open Stallworth and Welker for short passes that have lots of YAC. Garrard attacked the Pats defense well except for his fumble and the pick. Otherwise, he was the model of how to play the Pats...in the 1st half. Belicheck obviously was prepared to make a half-time adjustment that made Garrard ineffective in the 2nd half. And the running game never got going, leading the Jags to rely heavily on Garrard's arm.
The Jaguars should be looking forward to next year. Their D is good enough to definitely increase their wins next year, but for now, it's the Patriots' time. And Tom Brady is still a choke in my heart.

All Praises to the PlayStation!

Back at school after a nice visit to Los Angeles. Favorite part to share with my nearly-nonexistent loyal readers: watching the writers strike. My brother put it best when he said, "they don't really have that hard-hat, lunch-pail image that gets to the public." Boy do they not. First, there is a gigantic lunch buffet next to the picket line outside CBS's Los Angeles studios, which takes away the necessity of the lunch-pail. Second, they don't put much time into it. Most started showing up at around noon (when traffic is definitely not as high), and they also only picket for about 4 hours tops per person. Of course, they probably have some witty remark to shoot back at me, but we all know they work for 10 hours a day, of which 7 hours is somehow taking a break.
I really don't think I could live in LA with the way ESPN fits into daily life. Basketball games at 4PM? I need to get home from work, silly Digger! And PTI at 2:30? No wonder kids from LA here at Penn have some unfamiliarity with what I consider ESPN's #2 program, even in front of MNF, NFL Countdown, and College Gameday.
Anyways, all hope is lost for Syracuse basketball. WVU fucked them up on Sunday, and never has any team been slowed by the mixture of slime from Bob Huggins' hair and sweat from his suit (http://thesportshernia.typepad.com/blog/2008/01/bob-huggins-lau.html). So where to go from here? Hell, I'm still going to watch every game and be just as much of a fan, but I think tournament is going to be a hard path to get on for this team. Donte was like Bob Dylan on Sunday: not there. 3-12 from the field and only 10 points? I don't think he is going to be thinking about going pro if he has another performance like that. Carmelo could afford it because he was always able to bounce back, never putting up less than 20 points in consecutive games (besides the beginning of the tournament). And Scoop, isn't it really easy to score 18 when no one is guarding you? Well, now people are guarding you, so you better get that jumper going. Rutgers comes to the Dome tonight, and god damn am I worried.
Playoffs! I was 1-4 on Conference Championship participants. My bad. I thought Indy learned their lesson last year on how to win in the playoffs, but I was wrong. They learned how to win as an underdog, not as an overrated team. And Phillip Rivers? DBOTY mean douche bag of the year, and I think you'll win it for 2008.
Oh, man! TO! I almost forgot, but you really can't. He actually supported his quarterback after a terrible performance! I thought the apocalypse was coming. TO? Supportive of a teammate? Only talking to a Mexican reporter about his injury who probably can't understand him (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN8MtNEpy9U)? Wow. But seriously. After bashing Jeff Garcia and Donovan McNabb, TO puts his support behind Romo, who definitely made a terrible decision in going to Cabo with Jessica Simpson and the rest of her family of idiots. And Jason Witten. Romo cried like a baby to the refs, yelled at his offensive line, and was basically ineffective in the second half. Eli outperformed him...yes, Eli Manning, and it was definitely the 40 second touchdown drive that tied the game with 7 seconds left in the first half that turned the tide.
But back to TO. He always gets the embarrassing defeat from Garcia and McNabb. TO's criticism of McNabb was completely hypocritical in blaming Don for the Super Bowl loss. How about thanking him for getting you to the Super Bowl? You certainly didn't help in the NFC playoffs, even if you did have a towel and stood on top of a bench waving it. You didn't play football. TO can't take over a playoff game, and unless he has a good quarterback (Tony Romo is NOT that guy), maybe he could win some games. Imagine if he did play the whole playoffs for the Eagles that year. They could have been even better together in the Super Bowl with some familiarity, and we'd be talking about an Eagles title. And the past two years, McNabb and Garcia, as Eagles quarterbacks, have terrorized Owens in games at Dallas. McNabb helped start the slide that led to Dallas' playoff exit this year with the 10-6 win in Week 15. And Garcia quarterbacked the blowout that made Tony Romo look like he needed more Pepsi Max last year. In conclusion, TO is not going to win a Super Bowl in Dallas unless Tony Romo is told to sit on a bonfire.
Everyone wants to write a movie about Brett Favre's season this year, so look for a script from Tony Kornheiser, Joe Buck, Mark Schlereth, and Sean Salisbury. Let's have the guys who directed Remember the Titans, Glory Road, We Are Marshall, and Radio direct it. It will be the biggest blockbuster in the history of sports movies. It will make Rocky look like he raped babies AND aborted fetuses. Look out for 2010's first hit movie, The Untitled Brett Favre Project, which will win 30 Oscars and get Jake Gyllenhaal his first Oscar and probably make people not think so much about Brokeback Mountain, but probably still think about Brokeback Mountain. Because JP Losman once said of Brett Favre, ""He invited me into the house for a little bit. There he was with his tight little shorts, no shirt and his little red hat. He was doing some farming or something. He was covered in dirt. It was awesome."

On that note, 'till tomorrow...do something else? But come back tomorrow...PLEASE.

PS:

in Good Hands™

It's the night before the Allstate BCS Championship Game, and you know something? Despite all the doomsday predictions, and despite the fact that the Buckeyes are going up against a loaded LSU team with scary parallels to last year's Gators (playing basically a home game), I still feel confident as an OSU fan. To answer the question frequently posed by Allstate: yes. Ohio State is in good hands with Jim Tressel.

Don't get me wrong, I watched the same game you did last year. I watched the Dream die, swimming in jungle juice, as Ohio State get curb-stomped by a faster, meaner, hungrier Florida team. It still hurts to think about: the pre-game buildup during that now-infamous 51-day layoff between V-UM Day and D-Day, the preemptive congratulatory phone calls after Ted Ginn's opening kickoff return, the first round of drinks to celebrate our good fortune. We were on top, we were golden, and Florida could start the buses. We chanted it to them, just to let them know.

And then, the undertow: Teddy goes down with the foot injury. Florida scores. Florida scores again. Nobody can tackle Megatron, Tim Tebow; meanwhile, Ohio State's front five look like matadors against Jarvis Moss and Florida's front four. Troy gets sacked, Troy fumbles, Troy gets picked. The all-too poignant halftime show, with the Ohio State marching band recreating the sinking of the Titanic- that invincible, perfect, glittering vessel that folded impossibly in the night.

In the high times leading up to that Monday night, there wasn't a soul on campus who would have even imagined the kind of spanking Florida would give us. Judging by the team's performance that night in Glendale, we fans weren't the only ones that bought into the relentless media hype. A paunchy Troy Smith clearly bought it, as did a lethargic Buckeye secondary (seriously, how do you get picked apart by Chris "Allen Strange" Leak?) It seemed, to our horror, that even the infallible Jim Tressel had bought into the hype, and as they say: Buy the ticket, take the ride.
http://vmedia.rivals.com/uploads/1004/36787.JPG
http://www.donandmurph.com/thejourneyofalenstrange.JPEG

My point is this: this year, Jim Tressel isn't buying it. This year, the media is selling the Buckeyes as no-names, as underdogs, as just happy to be there. It's true that this year's team lacks the star power of last year's. The important thing to realize is that after last year's shellacking, that's a good thing. This is a team built in Tressel's own image, a team that exudes quiet confidence in the face of a challenge, plays conservative, fundamental football, demands accountability for blown assignments, and stays humble. Last year's team relied on big names to make big plays in big situations. No one player has been asked to shoulder the load this year, and as a result, Tressel has been able to forge a squad that plays the truest form of team ball. In Jim Tressel's world, Faceless is good. Depth is good. Interchangeable is good. Flexibile is good. Etcetera. Ohio State lost 9 of its 11 defensive starters from last season, including the NFL-bound Quinn Pitcock. The result? A No. 1 ranked defense that has improved by nearly 50 yards per game while allowing only two rush TDs all season.

While this year's Tigers bear a striking resemblance to last year's Gators [a throwing quarterback (Flynn/Leak) and a running quarterback (Perilloux/Tebow) platooning in the backfield, a speedy wideout corps, a dynamic, often overlooked speed back (Holliday/Harvin), and a monster defensive lineman (Dorsey/Moss)], the overlooked truth is that this year's Buckeyes, although lacking the big-name offensive fireworks of last year's team (Smith/Ginn/Gonzalez/Pittman), is not only a more tightly-knit unit, but a better team altogether. (Insert "Creampuff Schedule" dissension here.)(Insert "seven, count 'em, seven, 20+ point blowouts, with the only loss to Rose Bowl-bound Illinois team" counterpoint here.)

There's no getting past the importance of team chemistry, which appears to be the reason that the '07 Bucks have excelled in the absence of NFL-caliber talent. (Ivan "I-Formation" Maisel wrote an article on this for the Worldwide Leader: http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/bowls07/columns/story?columnist=maisel_ivan&id=3183084&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2). Last season, Tressel had to balance his responsibilities to the team's success (maintaining an undefeated season) with his responsibilities to the athletes he promised to take to the next level (making sure Smith, Ginn, etc. got enough attention/touches/pro-style game situations). This season, he has a locker room full of emerging leaders- maturing, team-first guys (Laurinitis, Beanie, Boeckman, Boone, Barton, and possibly Craig Biggio) who haven't hesitated to rise to the occasion, Boeckman's last two weeks notwithstanding.

We're one year removed from "41-14." It's easy to predict another speed-over-power SEC romp, especially in front of a Louisiana crowd. It takes no stretch of the imagination to picture a stoic Jim Tressel shaking hands with a fiery Les Miles after another Ohio State heartbreak. Which is exactly why I don't think anyone in the OSU locker room, least of all Jim Tressel, will let it happen.

Ever scalp a ticket from an old white woman? I didn't think so...

What a crappy Syracuse win. St. John's showed what you need to do to beat this team: foul trouble. With Donte out, 'Cuse couldn't ever get 3 points on a possession because Johnny Flynn, the only guy on the team who could make a 3 refused to shoot one after Donte got his 4th foul; and whenever Arinze got fouled making a shot, he immediately bricked the free throw. The reason Syracuse managed to win was that Arinze could score at will. 11-15 from the field is some terribly good numbers. When they have to rely on him in the Big East, they could run into trouble as he goes up against bigger centers like Hibbert and Caracter. In that case, Johnny is going to have to switch to being score-first. He is quick enough and can pull up on a dime, but he always passes unless the shot clock is running down. If he isn't aggressive the rest of the year, don't look for any Syracuse tourney talk.
And Anthony Mason, Jr. is just his dad's face with a completely different game. Really skilled and big enough at 6'7", but he has to put up bigger numbers if he is going to get to the NBA.
I also have to say I'm quite opposed to the ticket prices I encountered at the Dome. $28 for St. John's? We almost couldn't go, but luckily a woman (title character of this entry) approached us asking, "Looking for tickets?" Not how one imagines a scalper after having gone to many Philadelphia sporting events in the past two years, but she did actually show me the tickets, one thing scalpers don't usually do, and she even promised to sell them for face value, which was only $25. We ended up sitting in the corner near the Syracuse bench in the first row, right near where the players enter from the locker room. Probably the best job I've done scalping in my life.
On to the Quakers. FireGlenMiller.com will be up by the end of the month. I would have given him two extra weeks with a victory at Miami, with the Hurricanes out of the Top 25 and pissed after losing its first of the year to Winthrop (yeah, that Winthrop with Taj McCullough that won a tourney game last year). What better whooping post than Penn, who fell to 4-9 with the loss? None. FireGlenMiller.com countdown is now at 28 days.
Last night, after I got back from the game, my buddy Steve came over and we opened up what turned out to be a gem from days past: a little VHS called Boeheim on Basketball. We weren't sure of its power, but it sure was powerful: Boeheim hitting 30 straight free throws and trash talking Sherman Douglas and Herman Harried. The best quote: "When our big guys get fouled, I should come in and shoot for them." It also includes some stereotypes of instructional films from that era (think Baseball World's Defensive Drills by Tom Emanski), including: MC Hammer instrumentals, Harried sporting a blonde horn at the front of his head, ridiculous freeze frames, Boeheim fighting wind in the intro so as to have the Dome in the background, and some ridiculous film technique by the camera operator, who we guessed was Bernie Fine. During the aforementioned intro, Boeheim said the video would teach fundamentals, as Sherman Douglas through a full court pass as if he were a long-snapper and dished out behind-the-back passes. There was also a section dedicated to the alley-oop. Who else would narrate but Doug Logan.
West Virginia was downright nasty in the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma should never go back to Tempe if they can. They fell victim to a Cinderella story one year, and then they give a guy his job this year. Congrats to Bill Stewart for earning his job and making Rich Rodriguez look like a punk. I bet West Virginians are hoping that Stewart retains Rodriguez's staff that he hasn't hired yet at Michigan. The Mountaineers definitely look like title contenders next year, and I don't think their coach will throw the Backyard Brawl next year to get another job and betray his alma ma...oh, he went to Fairmont State. The Pat White endorsement after the game was also a good signal for the future. Stewart has worked with White the past four years, and I expect him to not make the jump (Slaton too) after the athletic department granted his request.