AI returns to Philly

The most beloved figure in Philadelphia sports' past ten years came back for the first time since he was traded, and as the first Denver player introduced, received a 2 minute standing ovation and seemed to be in tears as he saluted the fans from every angle he could. AI was the hardest working athlete in Philadelphia, even as he avoided practice; he put his body on the line every night as he threw himself at NBA 4s and 5s trying to draw fouls, and Philadelphia fans like sacrifice, even though it was a terrible ending when he didn't attend fan appreciation and was indefinitely suspended. Fans knew AI wanted to win, and it wasn't the Sixers' time.

Now fortunes have traded places. Andre Miller, one of the players the Nuggets gave up to get AI, went 13-21 from the field and finished with 28 points and 12 assists to lead the Sixers on his 36th birthday. Iverson finished with 32, but he couldn't get one to fall on the Nuggets' final possession of the game, and the other AI, Andre Igoudala, dribbled out the clock for the streaking Sixers, winners of 10 of their last 11. The Sixers have energized their fan base and seem to be working up quite the following after a few years of mediocrity. This could be the year that fills up some of the luxury boxes that were abandoned after 5 year deals ran out in 2006 (they were bought in 2001 after the run to the Finals), and this young team is playing pretty damn well. Judging from last year, you would expect the Nuggets to run all over the Sixers, but the Sixers picked their spots to run the break and milked the shot clock as much as they could.

The Nuggets, on the other hand, looked pretty crappy. Carmelo continued to cherry pick and avoid playing defense, and no one else on the Nuggets was too concerned with defense either.

However, Samuel Dalembert goaltended a Carmelo lay-up near the end of the game, and I think that might be reviewed later and lead to the game being replayed before the season ends. The Nuggets need everyone they can get, especially with how tough the West is right now.

NCAA Picks:

East

2nd Round: 

UNC over Indiana, Washington State over George Mason, Louisville over St. Joe's, Tennessee over Butler

Sweet 16:

UNC over Washington State, Louisville over Tennessee

Elite Eight:

Louisville over UNC

Midwest

2nd Round:

Kansas over UNLV, Clemson over Vanderbilt, Wisconsin over Kansas State, Georgetown over Davidson

Sweet 16:

Kansas over Clemson, Georgetown over Wisconsin

Elite Eight:

Georgetown over Kansas

South

2nd Round:

Memphis over Oregon, Pittsburgh over Michigan State, Marquette over Stanford, Texas over St. Mary's

Sweet 16:

Pittsburgh over Memphis, Texas over Marquette

Elite Eight:

Texas over Pittsburgh

West

2nd Round:

UCLA over BYU, UConn over Drake, Xavier over Purdue, Duke over West Virginia

Sweet 16:

UCLA over UConn, Xavier over Duke

Elite Eight:

UCLA over Xavier

I want to clear something up with you as you read these picks: I AM NO RICK NEUHEISEL. I am not good at picking these things, I have good years, but this year is so wide open. I'm really excited for this tournament. I'll end with my favorite tourney "fun" fact:

FUN FACT: Power forward Rob Jones, a 6-5, 230-pound freshman, turned down football offers from such traditional powers as Notre Dame, Miami and Oregon to pursue a basketball career. He is the grandson of Jim Jones, the leader of the Jonestown jungle compound where more than 900 people were killed in 1978 in a mass murder/suicide.

Good dancing to one and all!

"Next year" is all I can say

I don't think anyone can describe my excitement after the Marquette game. Kristof showed some non-Europeanness as a players, Donte Greene realized that he was 6'11" and his defender was 6'3" so he (/GASP!) started posting up, Johnny was on fire, Arinze was on fire, Scoop and Rick were playing well off the bench, and Paul Harris was getting his. And a chance to play 'Nova at a neutral (Wachovia Center in Philadelphia is essentially a neutral site, with a 1:1 'Nova: visitor ratio)? If I were Terry Schiavo, this would be the time to check if I needed a change of pants (Luckily I did not). So Wednesday came, and Syracuse shut down as it always does when Syracuse has a game during the day on a weekday: no one at Wegmans (source: mother) and people staying home from work (source: Steve, who hosted my viewing of the contest), as well as classes not being taught (source: Steve's brother, who provided text message commentary, and came up with the idea that Harris gets his in order to pad his stats). The ugliest start to a college basketball game I've seen (no score until 17:43 left and just a ton a loose ball scrums and terrible shots) led to Syracuse getting control with 28-19 lead with 2:27 left. And then the second epic collapse went down. 'Nova scored eight unanswered to end the half. The second half started with a little back and forth, but 'Nova was hot, and Syracuse was not. They shot 8-9 from 3 in the second half. Every team has trouble shooting free throws at that clip, and they were hitting 3s like they were lay-ups. Not to mention that Paul Harris set a career-high for 3s in a game with 10 minutes left in the first half, so he stopped driving and started to settle for jumpers, taking away more chances of a comeback. Not to mention that panic mode started with about 8 minutes left, and panic mode got ugly. Steve went to work and I left with 3 minutes left. The NIT is next, and I ain't too happy, but this team literally had nothing to be expected of it. Two ACL tears, one aloof point guard, and only 8 scholarship guys left, one who isn't allowed to play because he is that bad (I'm talking about you, Sean Williams) and you have a worst-case scenario for a season, and you can't ask a team to be the best. I'm proud of the effort, and I really can't wait for next year with Devo and Rautins back, Mookie Jones hopefully being good, and Donte learning how to do more stuff than Steve Novak does (Yes, I believe his year made him the new Steve Novak, another guy who settles for 3s despite a height advantage), Johnny Flynn being able to take a few breaks (even though he could play every minute next year, but he'd probably burn out pretty damn fast), and Arinze hopefully learning to make shots outside the lane. This is going to be a damn good team, and I think they should have a bye in the BET next year as well as a more comfortable position for an at-large to the Dance.
I'll be back for some bracket analysis on Sunday, along with some terrible picks that will make you lose all your money. Until next time, don't try to fuck prostitutes without condoms. Spitzer learned how risky that business is, and I hope I'm not the one who teaches you that lesson. It should be his idiotic speeches given beside his wife and past as being "hard on johns" that hammer that lesson in. And knowing Bill O'Reilly had to change his pants after this story broke and probably forced an assistant to do it.

EHHHHHHHHHHH

If this blog had a mood option, I would make sure it indicated Jim Boeheim's mood after that game. Tonight's victory over Seton Hall: shitty. Scoop played well and did what no one else would do: dribble against the weird zone press. Arinze was strong, Tim Higgins' nose is purple, Donte is sort of/kind of improving, but not really. It looked like a repeat of Saturday was in store, and Bob Wenzel and Dave Pasch sure wanted to make sure, if you were just tuning in, that SYRACUSE CHOKED ON SATURDAY! Replays, 18-2 run by Pitt to end the game, when will it stop? This is just another example of ESPN talking down to people. Anyone who watches this game is the following: not from Jersey unless they have some sort of association with Seton Hall or a Syracuse fan who already knows about the worst loss since the DePaul drubbing of 2006. In terms of disheartening. Bob Wenzel might know a lot about basketball, but he gets extremely confused some times, like when cross-promoting to talk about the NBA's "deadline of the day of trade." He is a poor man's Bill Raftery who should only be on ESPN Regional coverage, not nationally televised games. Unless sounding extremely stupid is the goal of ESPN2 basketball coverage. 

Officiating was sloppy once again. On Donte Greene's 4th foul, Brian Laing caught the ball, turned around, and jumped. When he landed, Greene reached for the ball. Now, when he lands, usually a referee will call traveling. Somehow, not one referee could think of that. A bad sign that the college game is evolving to be called like the NBA. It should be different, otherwise I'm not sure I can stomach watching games played the same damn way. I gotta piss. I hope to be at the BET next week, but I probably won't be able to make it. In any case, Saturday is a game that Syracuse NEEDS to win, and I think you will see at least 30,000 there. In desperation, 'Cusans will unite. 

And Semi-Pro is the worst basketball movie ever made. Using the alley-oop as a comedy ploy? I didn't ruin that movie for anyone, I SAVED them from it. Will Ferrell needs to work on his consistency, he's beginning to look like the Donte Greene of acting.

Genius!

Caught this in my Sports Industry class daily e-mail:

Fathead today at the NFL Hardlines Summit in Miami unveiled its line of “Fathead Tradeables,” which consists of 5-by-7-inch variations of its life-size Fathead products (Fathead).

Wow, giant trading cards! Much more portable than a Fathead, but much less portable than a regular size trading card! I see no appeal and Fathead shortly forgetting about it.

"Hey, Coach! Play this kid!"

Thanks to Awful Announcing for posting exhilarating CBS footage of today's Georgetown-Marquette game. 

This video is enough evidence to put a memo on Les Moonves' desk recommending that Gus Johnson be teleported to games with exciting finishes. But who gets people more pumped for March? Not even Pitino, the master motivator. And especially not Jim Nantz and Billy Packer. If there is an exciting Final Four game this year, and Moonves doesn't make this move, I pray that Gus just shows up in San Antonio, knocks out Nantz with a blow dart, and just steals the show. That would kind of take away from the student athletes, but I'm all about the entertainment. I'm off to check out Semi-Pro.

Funnier things

To go against my post about the Pitt game (I'm still irrational, so I can't even talk about the time before the meltdown in any way because it meant nothing.), I bring you this video from IFC's 

Framed. 

I saw this on IFC without seeing the opening credits about two months ago, and I figured out it was Baron and I lost it. This shit is just ridiculous.

BULLSHIT! 100% BULLSHIT!

I just watched an 11-point lead go down the drain with the help of three officials. There was too much good play from Donte, Paul, Johnny, and Arinze earlier in the game, but I have forgotten it after Keith Benjamin received his 3rd no-call of the game (he basically committed 2 fouls within the first minute, and when Johnny Flynn grazed him while jumping for a loose ball near midcourt, it was enough to warrant a call even though the game that was being played was of MEN'S BASKETBALL)  as he obviously fouled Paul Harris before getting the ball out of his hands and got it back to make the go-ahead lay-up. He essentially held Harris as he reached, and it was if the referees were oblivious to the basketball game going on. It might be my partisanship, but that really does need to be reviewed by some higher-ups, because 'Cuse got HOSED! I was actually excited to not have Burr or Cahill working this game, but I guess Donato, Hess, and whoever the fuck the other dude was also wanted to see how much they can fuck with Syracuse fans. What a joke.

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.