Sports, entertainment, business, whatever

Games, names, and LeBron James

2010-07-18T17:38:00.000-07:00

Much has been made of the hour long special "The Decision," aired by ESPN in an attempt to turn LeBron James' next career move into a television spectacle. Most people seem to believe that this was an arrogant, stupid way to simply slap all of his Cleveland supporters in the face, while at the same time getting the hopes of all New York and New Jersey fans sky-high by making the announcement in Connecticut, only to spurn them for the chance to play with Dwyane Wade in Miami. And while people may be correct in their assertion that this was one of the most ego-centric, narcissistic moments by an athlete in the past 20 years, I think the real story is what it says about James the NBA player, not the person.

Maybe LeBron James just isn't all that competitive.

I wouldn't go as far as Dan Gilbert, who claims LeBron gave up against Orlando and Boston in the last two Cavs playoff exits, but would Michael have ever considered leaving Chicago in the early 90's if he were without a ring? Would he have said "I'm taking my skills to the Motor City" and just given up on beating the Pistons to join them instead? Of course not. The cliche "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" is not supposed to apply to the great athletes in the world. It should be "if you can't beat 'em, get better so next time you can beat 'em." Overall this is sort of a mockery of the whole league, and probably will result in a lot of fans tuning out next year. Sure I'll watch them for a few games, but I'm pretty sure it will be a quick descent into boredom with their games. I mean, there are only so many variations on the alley-oop.

UNRELATED: Apparently Nate Montana (son of Joe Montana) was arrested last night in South Bend along with a bunch of other Notre Dame athletes for drinking underage. I thought Notre Dame football players were immune from that sort of thing. I guess Irish football isn't as meaningful after 16 wins in 3 years.

ALSO UNRELATED: The Tour de France is in the Pyrenees. Absolutely brutal. I know most sports fans in the United States have no interest in watching professional cycling, but it's remarkably impressive how well some of these guys manage upwards of seven or eight thousand feet of sun-drenched climbs in a stage. Most impressive was Alberto Contador's stage 12 attack in the Alps. Dude is a beast.

Somewhat related to the previous paragraph, my 2008 Scott Speedster is awesome.

Boom.

The one program in the country having it harder than UMass in 2009

2009-03-03T18:25:00.000-08:00

I've been pissing and moaning all year about how bad T Boone Pickens screwed UMass. How he bought our coach for his alma mater (which is noticeably better than they were a year ago under Alcohol and Pills Addict Jr.). I've really never shut up about it. UMass is sitting on ten wins, and without a win tomorrow night against George Washington will likely miss the Atlantic 10 tournament for the first time in 39,000 years (ever). However, that is nothing compared to the team I saw playing on ESPN tonight.

Kelvin Sampson massacred one of the most storied programs in history and left the team in ruins entering this season. Eric Gordon had declared for the NBA draft after his freshman year. DJ White graduated. Terrell Holloway transferred to Xavier. Eli Holman to Detroit Mercy. DeAndre Thomas was dismissed dismissed from the program. After ugly divorces from the school, guard Armon Bassett landed back with Mike Davis at UAB and Jamarcus Ellis is no longer with the team. Yet a group of walk ons and freshmen (two star freshmen at that) had the premier team in the Big Ten on the ropes for all but about 12 seconds of their game tonight.

I speak, of course, of Indiana, which appears it will end the season with six wins, one in the Big Ten. If I were to rank the programs in the Big Ten based on a tradition, it would look something like this:
1: Indiana
2: Michigan State
3: Illinois
4: Michigan
5: Purdue
6: Ohio State
7: Minnesota
8: Iowa
9: Wisconsin
10: Penn State
11: That team that has never been to the NCAA tournament.
Indiana is to the Big Ten as Kansas is to the Big XII, or as UCLA is to the Pac 10. To see them suffer like this is difficult. The amazing thing is that Assembly Hall is going nuts for this team. They love supporting these guys. It reminds be of a situation a few years back when St. John's had to dismiss basically their scholarship players (minus Kyle Cuffe) due to a sexual assault fiasco that occurred during a road trip in Pittsburgh. Much like Indiana, the once-proud program was a wreck. Much like Indiana, they managed to win one game in their conference, at home over Georgetown.

It was impressive watching guys who may not have been the best players on their high school teams giving Michigan State all they wanted. Sad to see them fall short, but fun to watch them compete at such a high level. It also serves as a reminder that the great programs, as tough as times can be, will always be back.

Indiana University, 2015 NCAA Champions.

Thanks Muskies

2009-02-05T17:41:00.001-08:00

Remember 2004, when the Big East died as a football power conference? You know, when the ACC proved to the rest of the college sports world that sports are indeed about nothing except money. They raped and pillaged and came away with the two programs in the eight-team Big East that could really compete for national championships, Miami and Virginia Tech. That season, Pitt earned the tie break as quad-Champions in the seven team Big East (UConn played their first season as a member, Temple and Boston College their last). In the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl, the Panthers got to play the first ever BCS-buster, Utah, and boy oh boy did that go badly. The Utes smacked Pitt around for four quarters, throwing occasional salt on the wounds with things like a hook and ladder play for a touchdown.
With Temple being excused from the conference after years of failing to produce a competitive 1A program, and BC joining the other backstabbers in the ACC, the Big East was left with just five programs. So what did they do? They turned to Conference USA, and did to those guys what the ACC had done to them: Show your flashy "power conference" perks and steal the best talent. Ultimately, Louisville, Cincinnati and South Florida hopped over to the Big East (as well as Marquette and DePaul in non-football sports, though I still can't figure that one out). Coming off of that horrendous showing in 2004, fans had to be skeptical about whether or not the conference really deserved their automatic bid in the BCS anymore. I mean, they were represented by a four-loss team which lost by four touchdowns to the champions from the Mountain West. That's pretty disastrous.
Adding insult to injury, the one newcomer that people thought might be the solution (Louisville) dropped their first conference game to a heavy underdog (USF), 45-14.
So what happened? Well one team that hadn't really been a national title contender in recent years, but had been a consistently decent program, truly stepped up, and did it behind a slew of talented underclassmen. Freshmen Pat White and Steve Slaton, and sophomores Owen Schmidtt and Darius Raynaud led Louisville to an improbable 11-1 season and a birth in the Sugar Bowl, being played at the Georgia Dome due to the damage Hurricane Katrina had done to the Louisiana Superdome. Making their task in the Sugar Bowl more difficult was that their opponents, the Georgia Bulldogs, champions of the mighty SEC, now almost had a home game.
But West Virginia did not seem starry-eyed on prime-time national television. In fact, they didn't seem affected at all. The Mountaineers came out and put up 38 points on the Dawgs before sealing their 38-35 win with a successful fake punt in the final minutes. The win was a statement for the Big East: Yes, we will compete and we will win big games now and in the future.
The thing about it is... Louisville didn't make that statement. Pittsburgh didn't either. Nor did Rutgers, Syracuse, USF, UConn or Cincinnati. West Virginia single handedly saved the Big East. They made it so that people had to respect the teams in their conference while those other teams rebuilt to the point where they could defend themselves.
Doesn't that seem ridiculous?
That is why today, I think that it is important for UMass basketball, along with Temple, Saint Joe's, George Washington and URI to say THANK YOU to Xavier, for keeping Atlantic 10 basketball relevant for the past few seasons. Dayton is winning as well, but when those programs get back from obscurity, they'll be damn lucky to be in a conference that a few people still give a damn about, and they owe that to the X-men.

So Xavier, from a man who desperately wants his alma mater to be a contender again: Thanks.

RIP, Kay Yow

2009-01-24T07:52:00.001-08:00

Kay Yow won over 700 games (she is fifth all time in major women's college basketball). She had a plethora of 20-win seasons and sweet sixteen appearances while the head coach at NC State. She led the Wolfpack to the final four once and led the US Women's Olympic team to a gold medal in 1988 in Seoul.
However, her greatest impact was as an ambassador for the fight against cancer, and a board member of the V Foundation -- named for fellow former NC State coach Jim Valvano. Jimmy V lost his battle with cancer fifteen years ago. Today Kay Yow, who was fighting breast cancer for the third time, passed away at the age of 66.
R.I.P., Kay Yow. No one did a better job of carrying Coach Valvano's message to my generation.

BCMess Redux

2009-01-07T10:26:00.001-08:00

The amazing thing about the BCS is that it really doesn't seem like anyone is happy with it.
Honestly, who hasn't been screwed over by it? Last year, there were a number of good two loss teams heading into bowl season, vying for the second spot in the title game against Ohio State: LSU, Georgia, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, USC, Missouri and Oklahoma. Kansas actually had only one loss, but it was in their only notable game, and as a result they were relegated to the Orange Bowl. Missouri and Georgia failed to win their conferences, so they enjoyed trips to the Cotton and Sugar Bowls, respectively. Virginia Tech and West Virginia were out of the ACC and Big East, so they went to Orange and Fiesta. USC and OU were the two with the biggest gripes, and USC thrashed Illinois by 32 points in the Rose Bowl (OU lost to WVU in the Fiesta Bowl), leaving people to wonder who the real national champ should be after LSU finished off Ohio State in New Orleans.
Then there was Hawai'i. I wrote about the Warriors last year before the Sugar Bowl, accurately predicting that the Warriors would be trampled by Georgia. This coming one year after I strongly rooted for Boise State's upset of Oklahoma. The reason Hawai'i didn't belong in that game was simple: They were a gimicky team (see: 2008 Texas Tech Red Raiders) that won games over bad opponents and beat their only true test (Boise State) on their little island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, which is one hell of a home field advantage. Not surprisingly, Georgia rolled.
This year, I figured Utah would fare better in the same game, but didn't anticipate them winning. But guess what? One quarter into the Sugar Bowl, Utah led the mighty Tide 21-0 on their way to a 31-17 triumph. Utah's win gives them wins over four legitimate opponents this year: Oregon State, 9-4 with a win over USC and a Sun Bowl victory; TCU, 11-2, with wins over BYU and Boise State and their only other loss coming at Oklahoma; BYU, who finished 10-3 and in the top 20; and Alabama, 12-2 after spending five weeks as the #1 team in the country.
I don't like Utah. Their fans are generally backward, homophobic Mormons, their coach is from the tree of Urban Meyer, and their marching band is downright dreadful. However, I've seen enough of this game to know that, had Michigan played the exact same schedule -- put TCU in Ohio State jerseys, there isn't much of a difference -- and gone 13-0, they would be the undisputed national champions of college football.
That being said, arguments can certainly be made for Southern Cal and Texas as well. So, I'm going to refer back to the tried-and-true method I've used each of the past several years. Who did you beat and who did they beat and who did they beat, etc.
UMass beat Holy Cross
Holy Cross beat Lafayette
Lafayette beat Liberty
Liberty beat Elon
Elon beat Georgia Southern
Georgia Southern beat Austin Peay
Austin Peay beat Eastern Illinois
Eastern Illinois beat Illinois State
Illinois State beat Youngstown State
Youngstown State beat North Dakota State
North Dakota State beat Southern Illinois
Southern Illinois beat Northern Iowa
Northern Iowa beat UNH
UNH beat Army
Army beat Louisiana Tech
Louisiana Tech beat Mississippi State
Mississippi State beat Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt beat Ole Miss
Ole Miss beat Florida
AND!
Ole Miss beat Texas Tech
Texas Tech beat Texas
AND!
Texas beat Oklahoma
AND!
Oklahoma beat TCU
TCU beat Stanford
Stanford beat Oregon State
Oregon State beat USC
See? UMass wins again. This year's was a little tougher. Because... you know... we didn't win any games against good teams. Plus you have to throw out Utah. Because... you know... they didn't lose...
Okay, I'm done.

Super Arenas of the Atlantic 10

2008-12-25T01:08:00.001-08:00

So when the conferences realigned in 2004 and 2005, the Atlantic 10 conference decided to do what all the cool kids were doing: Screw someone over. Due to the ACC stealing Miami and Virginia Tech from the Big East in 2004 and following suit with BC in 2005, the Big East suddenly needed three new football programs to get their membership back up to eight (really the smallest a power conference can logically be for football). How did the Big East do this? By stealing Louisville, South Florida and Cincinnati from Conference USA. That should have been where it ended, but it wasn't. For some reason, they brought in two other schools for non-football sports (even though the Big East is already massive for, say, basketball). They grabbed Marquette and DePaul, two very storied programs, away from C-USA just to rub some salt on the wound.
The A-10 apparently thought this seemed like a lot of fun, and invited Charlotte and Saint Louis from C-USA, increasing the number of teams playing hoops in the A-10 to 14, and leaving Memphis without any real conference competition (no offense to Houston and UAB).
One thing that St. Louis and Charlotte have brought to the A-10 are a couple of first-class facilities that bring the total number of high-end arenas in the A10 to eight. Six schools: George Washington, St. Bonaventure, St. Joseph's, La Salle, Duquesne and Fordham basically play in glorified high school gymnasiums (though St. Joe's is renovating Alumni Fieldhouse, so we'll see how that goes). The schools that make the cut are, in reverse order:

#N/A: Saint Joe's: Temporarily at the Palestra
This one doesn't count, it just gives me a chance to talk about the Palestra. There are some venues that are timeless, and therefore can't be measured the same way as most other places. This is the perfect example of one of those places. The official home of Penn, the temporary home of Saint Joe's and the unofficial building of the Big Five, this place is appropriately referred to as "a basketball cathedral" by many. It is an icon in college hoops.

#8: Chaifetz Arena - Saint Louis University
The Billikens moved out of the Scottrade Center this season and into their own arena. And while it's always exciting for a school to ditch their dad's Porsche for their own Cadillac, I don't love this one. After the home opener, I went through photo galleries of the arena, and it really has nothing interesting about it. It's a cookie-cutter arena that is just one consistent deck of seats around the floor, with no suites or other especially interesting aspects to it.

#7: Robins Center - University of Richmond
Very similar looking to the previous venue, but with a permanent floor and some suites around the perimeter of the stands. Doesn't it just have a better feel to it?

#6: Halton Arena - University of North Carolina, Charlotte
It seems like forever since the 49ers were major players in the NCAA picture, but they do have a nice pad, and at least judging from their home game against UMass in 2007, they can still fill it up.

#5: Ryan Center - University of Rhode Island
Very cool arena, and it's more or less brand new. However, I have a few beefs with this place. First of all, the seats are spread way out so that even though the capacity is only about 7,600, it looks as big as some of the places on this list that are about 50% bigger. This means a lot of fans are a lot further from the action than they need to be. Secondly, I don't know about the big CVS decals on the floor. Not as tacky as, say, Texas Tech, which covered their floor in ads a couple years ago. But still, it's not the CVS Center.

#4: Mullins Center - University of Massachusetts
Yeah baby. And unlike my list of football venues, I'm actually serious about this one. Great place to catch a game, especially if BC or a big conference opponent is in town. The house that Marcus, Harper and Jon built.

#3: Liacouras Center - Temple University
The top three are really in a different league, meaning that this arena would suffice in the ACC. Fortunately, it's all ours. A lot of people probably saw it for the first time a couple weeks ago when Temple smacked Tennessee, providing pretty good evidence of what kind of home-court advantage the Owls have there.

#2: Cintas Center - Xavier University
The Muskies have been the most visible program in the A10 this decade, and they get some great support in this place. They actually lost at home last night to Butler... not good timing for my selfish purposes.

#1: UD Arena - University of Dayton
One of the top dozen or so facilities in college hoops. This place hosts the NCAA tournament play-in-game every year and often two rounds of the tournament itself. It's bigger and nicer than any other arenas in the league despite also being one of the oldest.

Probably no more entries for a while just due to the holidays. Hope everyone has a great Hannukah, Christmas, Kwanzaa or whatever else you may celebrate.

UMass spearheads a great day for the A10

2008-12-13T19:25:00.000-08:00

ESPN billed their college hoops doubleheader today as "two games between Atlantic 10 schools and national powers". What it turned into was "Temple and UMass show the country not to sleep on the A10", capped off by an evening match up between Xavier and Cincinnati which the Musketeers won on the road. Per usual, North Carolina rolled again.
The two early showcases for the Atlantic 10 were Temple hosting #8 Tennessee, and UMass playing #23 Kansas in Kansas City. The Temple game was impressive for a number of reasons. First of all, it showed that the better teams in the A10 should still be getting home-and-homes against the country's elite, based on talent and the fact that there are some excellent facilities including the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia. Temple, behind 30 second half points from Dionte Christmas, won by 16. Christmas is an absolute freak.
UMass's game was awesome. Here's my rundown of how the two decided on a venue for this game:
UMass AD John McCutcheon: We've had a great couple of years and feel that in order to take our program to the next level, a home-and-home with a school like Kansas could really help.
Kansas AD: John I'd love to help you, but I don't think we can schedule a home-and-home right now. We may be able to play one game though, neutral site.
McCutcheon: Oh that's fantastic. Somewhere like the Meadowlands?
Kansas AD: Hmm, that might work. I say we go with Kansas City.
McCutcheon: Done! But only if it's during our finals.

So, this game is going under the "neutral" column in the official books, but in my books, we won on the road. There were over 17,000 fans at the game, and about 25 of them were in maroon and white. In fact, if I heard the commentators correctly, KU's season ticket holders got tickets to this game, which really should make it an official home game for the Jayhawks, who also had their own band and cheerleaders on site. Anyway, I was terrified the whole game that something would go wrong and in the end my fears were more or less confirmed when Chris Lowe missed three straight free throws, giving KU a shot to win in the final seconds. Fortunately, unlike C-Lowe, some of the UMass players have stepped up this year, and no one has been better than Tony Gaffney. I don't believe Gaffney is a speck bigger than 6'7, 205, but he took on Cole Aldrich all day and then got a fingertip on Sherron Collins' final shot, and UMass was able to keep the Jayhawks from getting another shot off to close out the win, 61-60.
Electrifying win for a passionate UMass alum. I was ecstatic. An hour or so after the game I checked the school's athletics website, and much like I saw earlier in the year when we took on Texas Tech in football, I found some issues that I wasn't too happy about. The front page brief on the game read as follows:
"Behind a 17-point effort by Ricky Harris and another stat-stuffing performance by Tony Gaffney, UMass upset the defending national champion #25/23 Kansas, 61-60, at the Sprint Center on Saturday afternoon. The Minutemen used a 55.6 percent shooting performance, while holding the Jayhawks to 28.6 percent shooting, to knock off the defending champ for the second year in a row. Derek Kellogg's Minutemen improve to 3-6 with the win, while Kansas falls to 7-2."
There are a couple of problems with that. Problem 1: UMass shot 45.8% from the floor. Kansas shot 33.9%. The numbers mentioned in the brief are only for the first half numbers. This doesn't require much fact-checking, and just looking at the numbers should inspire someone to double check the box score. Because if UMass was one possession from losing a game in which they were +27 in FG pct, there would need to be a federal investigation.
Problem 2: Ricky Harris had 18 points. Not really sure what led to that mistake, just a typo I suppose. The point is, the UMass website is no longer a good place to go to get information about a game. UMasshoops, on the other hand, is a great one. It's a fan-run site that hosts message boards and has articles about virtually every game from the past 15 years.
I digress, it was a great win for UMass and coach Kellogg's first big one at the helm of the Minutemen. UMass is now 5-1 all time against defending national champs, including two in the past nine months. The last one was probably the most fun I've ever had at a game:

UMass beats Florida at MSG.

Xavier's win was a little on the ugly side. Five technical fouls including two for Derrick Brown, my early pick for A10 player of the year (still slightly ahead of Christmas), who acted like a complete idiot before getting tossed. Nonetheless, a win over cross-town Cincinnati is always nice for the X-Men, who are still unbeaten heading into their showdown with Duke next weekend. So of the four games on ESPN/ESPN2 today, three were big wins in the A10, and the fourth was some school from Chapel Hill winning another game by 16.

Lost and Found

2008-12-08T23:20:00.000-08:00

Until maybe a year ago there was a YouTube video of the classic USC-Notre Dame game from 2005. The highlights were two-sided (I hate game films on YouTube that only show one team's plays) and the song was a spinoff of USC's fight song "Victory". I was disappointed when the video vanished, but thanks to Google and MySpace, I was able to track it down. Here's the full video:

Just a follow-up

2008-12-06T01:47:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to a comment I made about how Notre Dame's schedule seems to be getting a little on the ridiculous side, I'd like to offer the following visual aid (since Epic Fail Demotivational Posters seem to be all the rage these days):I wonder if the Sun Bowl is actually still considering inviting this disaster to El Paso. We'll see in a couple days.

Random Thoughts

2008-12-04T23:03:00.000-08:00

The title was right, that's all this is. Bullets from here on out:

- Mike Teel threw three TDs in his first seven games. Huge disappointment, right? Fortunately, college football seasons are now twelve games, and Teel threw 20 TDs in his final five games as a college player.

- ESPN keeps joking about how tonight's Oklahoma-USC basketball matchup would be a dream game in the BCS... No it wouldn't... Remember the last time we thought these two teams were great? 2004? Heisman winner Jason White and Adrian Peterson against Heisman winner Matt Leinart and Reggie Bush? Remmeber that? Does 55-19 ring a bell? Yeah.

- Why is Boise State paying for what Hawaii did in 2007 instead of being rewarded for what they did in 2006? When the BCS announces in two days that Ohio State is getting the 10th spot instead of the Broncos, I'm going to jumpkick the next baby that I see.

- Once known for playing the hardest schedule in the nation annually, Notre Dame's 2009 slate includes Nevada, both Washington schools, and UConn, not to mention their perennial opponents who suck (Michigan, Purdue, Stanford and Navy)

- Dustin Pedroia's new deal signed this week pays him an average of 6.7 million dollars a year. Edgar Renteria's pays him 9 million. Something's wrong here.

- North Carolina is so good that Notre Dame lost to them by 15 and actually moved up one spot in the polls.

- Wayman Tisdale has gone through hell in the past couple years and no one knew about it until ESPN wrote a story this week. Please read it. It's actually pretty moving.

- 45-35.

- Plaxico Burress had a handgun in the waistband of his sweatpants in a nightclub. While walking into the VIP of said club, his gun slipped out of his waistband, into his pants. To rectify this problem, Plax grabbed the gun through his pants... what happened next is up for debate. My feeling is that Plax had the safety off because he honestly thought he might need to engage in a firefight. When the gun slipped he grabbed the trigger (obviously by accident) and thus shot his thigh. Jon Stewart had his own theory, that Plax's penis had actually undone the trigger. We may never know. Nonetheless, Mr. Burress shot himself in the thigh. Now he is being charged with numerous things in New York, including carrying a concealed weapon. To this charge, he is expected to enter a plea of 'not guilty'... What?

- Yeah. What?

The birthplace of Killer Slacks

2008-11-24T19:06:00.000-08:00

Most of my friends have no idea where the name of this blog originated. The truth is, it is the work of a fairly brilliant friend of mine, George Anognostakos. George and I worked together to write, direct, produce and edit a short film a few years ago called "The Alter Ego". It was part of the UMass Film Studies program, and it actually got nominated for an award (The Michael S. Roif Award in Film Studies). While coming up with a few absurd lines which appear in the middle of the film, George threw out "killer slacks broseph". And so the name was born. After about a year and a half, I've finally uploaded the film on YouTube. So, here it is, where Killer Slacks humbly began:
The Alter Ego Part 1

The Alter Ego Part 2

I'll post some of George's other work soon. Hope you enjoyed the film.
Tonight from Amherst: Jacksonville State 75 UMass 74... Seriously.

Why Phil Knight should be publicly beaten

2008-11-16T06:57:00.000-08:00

I will never feel bad speaking out against someone who is worth more than ten billion dollars. The thing about the economic crisis is, if you have ten billion dollars, you can lose 99.99% of your wealth and you're still a millionaire. Good stuff. Anyway, the reason Phil Knight is such a terrible human being is what he is responsible for doing to college football. There are two great philanthropists in division 1 ball: T Boone Pickens and Phil Knight, both of whom have given hundreds of millions of dollars to their alma maters (Oklahoma State and Oregon, respectively). Pickens' dollars have been used largely to renovate the facilities in Stillwater. Knight's influence, on the other hand, goes well beyond the expansion of Autzen Stadium. See, Phil Knight is the chairman of this little company called "Nike". And he has turned Oregon athletics into a walking billboard for his company. And nowhere is this more disturbingly evident than on the gridiron, where last night was the last straw for the Ducks.
See, over the last decade or so, Knight's influence on the aesthetic appearance of the Oregon football team has been great. They regularly try new things, virtually all of which make the person watching the team want to puke. Here's a look at the evolution of the Ducks' football attire:
Back in the 90's Akili Smith's Oregon teams had fairly ordinary jerseys. Yellow helmets, yellow pants, and green jerseys with yellow numerals at home, white jerseys with green numerals on the road. Very standard. Functional. That was the last time those two words could be used to describe Oregon's jerseys. Because in 1999, the Smith era ended, and the metallic era began.
The next era was the Joey Harrington era. This included the purchase (by Oregon, I believe, not Knight, though we know where the money comes from) of enormous billboards in major cities, trying to promote Harrington (and their new look). The era also included the introduction of the new-look helmet (ooo, shiny), a darker shade of green worn by the team, a change in the athletic logo, and the start of a new trend of using a ton of black in their jerseys.
After Harrington's years came the Kellen Clemens era. This is where shit just gets downright stupid. Random spots start showing up on the shoulder pads, and instead of piping on the pants, it's just sort of globs. Nice. But wait, it gets better.
Next is the Dennis Dixon era. More metal. Now the shoulder and knee pads have this fun new design that is supposed to look like steel, but instead just makes it look like the jerseys were made by Tibetan babies. Oh, right. And what the fuck is that font? Anyway, this era also ushered in the introduction of several new alternate options. In fact, in 2007, the team made sure to have a different look in every single game they played. This required the use of three different helmets, and various jersey/pants combinations. You may notice that only two helmets appear in that photo. Well, the third is fairly disgraceful.
This year, they had more or less followed the trend of 2007. That is, until yesterday, when they came out against Arizona in uniforms that are so far removed from anything that could be called a football jersey it almost made my head explode.

Nice compression sleeve, jackass.

First of all, their primary color is green, and green does not appear on the jerseys. Green and yellow with white trim would be the most reasonable thing for Oregon to wear at home. These are black with silver numerals and a little bit of yellow in various places. I'm sorry, Mr. Knight, but this needs to stop.
Even further, the whole trend of wearing black alternates at home during any game that anyone might consider a "big game" should probably stop, too. Programs like USC, Florida, Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma don't do it, so why do FSU, South Carolina, Oregon and Maryland? Wear your school colors. That's why schools have colors.
Like UMass. Who lost 52-21 at UNH this weekend wearing maroon and white.
Basketball (1-1) vs. Memphis on Monday night should be a doozie.

The Madness is Here

2008-11-12T08:20:00.000-08:00

After adding my little snippet about Montana State's stadium expansion plans, I also found something on renovations taking place at SIU in Carbondale (I was only looking into SIU because UMass plays them in hoops tonight with the winner ultimately facing Duke at Madison Square Garden). My guess is I could find similar things on any number of FCS programs' websites, so I'll just leave it alone. The point is, not every facility at this level of football is a just few pieces of aluminum around a patch of grass.
Speaking of UMass-Southern Illinois, college basketball season is officially underway, though in the tamest of manners. The most intriguing game to this point has been IUPUI and Northeastern. That being said, the UMass-SIU game will officially be the game of the year to this point! Sadly, that still doesn't get it any television coverage. UMass's following game, however, will be seen nationwide when they go to #12 Memphis on Monday night. Even without CDR, Derrick Rose and Joey Dorsey, Memphis still has Antonio Anderson, Robert Dozier, and Tyreke Evans, and that means bad things for my alma mater. But on to more important issues, the national picture:
UNC has received every single first place vote in both the AP and Coaches' polls. Makes sense, seeing as they were 35-3 last year and return virtually every important piece from that team. In fact, Ty Lawson, Wayne Ellington and Tyler Hansbrough could potentially all be first team all-ACC. Wouldn't that be lovely. Really the only thing I care about is that Psycho T finishes his career 4-0 at Cameron Indoor, and the Dookies get laughed out of the NCAA's before the sweet 16 for the third straight year. Who knows, maybe 2nd seeded Duke will lose in the second round again, this time to an upstart, 10th seeded A10 school from New England (and ideally that wouldn't be URI). Anyway, here are a dozen names worth watching this year from teams other than UNC:
1 - Stephen Curry, SG, Davidson. We all got to know him last March, and thankfully he elected to stay at Davidson for at least another year. They lost their point guard, so hopefully someone else can step into that role so that Steph doesn't have to create his own shot all year, though he's more than capable.
2 - Antonio Anderson, SF, Memphis. A huge bulk of last year's scoring is gone from the Tigers. Anderson, who was more of a Josh Pace type on that team, could step into a starring role this year.
3 - Tyler Smith, SF, Tennessee. Smith overtook Chris Lofton (who we later found out had been diagnosed with cancer - a fairly legitimate excuse I'd say) as the go-to player for the Vols last year. That team lost a lot of talent, but Smith is back and should keep UT in the top 25 all year.
4 - Darren Collison, PG, UCLA. The Bruins are going to try to start two point guards this year in Collison and hyped freshman Jrue Holiday. If Holiday can basically be Russell Westbrook 2.0, they should be fine and Collison could end up being an All-American.
5 - Hasheem Thabeet, C, Connecticut.

For three years, 7'2 Roy Hibbert manned the middle for Georgetown, daring Big East foes to attack the basket. When he first arrived, he was raw, but had potential. You know how much he improved from his first game to his last? About 0.3% according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The 7'3 Thabeet, on the other hand, went to UConn with even less prior basketball experience, but by the end of last season (his second in Storrs), Thabeet was more feared than Hibbert. If he continues to improve at that pace, the Huskies are going to be scary, because this kid is an absolute matchup nightmare.
6 - Jeff Pendergraph, C, Arizona State. Pendergraph almost tip-slammed ASU into the tournament last year before a whack call saved UCLA's ass (where have I heard that before?) This year he and guard James Harden (also a stud) will have ASU probably as the only challengers to UCLA in the Pac 10. And yes, I just called out USC, Arizona and WaSU.
7 - Jeff Adrien, PF, Connecticut. You know how guys like Paul Millsap, Leon Powe, Carl Landry and Ryan Gomes always seem to have great college careers, but for one reason or another get overlooked on draft day and then turn out to be great role players that make their teams way better? Yeah. This is one of those guys.
8 - Chris Lowe, PG, Massacusetts.

A four year starter at point guard is rare, but C-Lowe has been well worth it. In the first year of the Travis Ford era, Lowe had to play over 30 minutes a game as a freshman due to the dismissal of Maurice Maxwell. He's been a stud ever since. Reading some of the previews on CBS sportsline, I noticed that Lowe wasn't listed as one of the top 40 point/combo guards in the country. However, Tyrese Rice is up there, and is also "under serious consideration" to be an All American according to their expert, Gary Parrish. Hmmm, Lowe is a pass-first point guard (crazy thought, isn't it?) who averaged 12 and 6 last year for a team that went 25-11 (and is 50-20 since the start of 06-07). Rice averaged 21 a game last year shooting 43% (mmm... LOTS of shots) for a team that went 14-17. Good standards, Gary.
9 - Terrence Williams, SF, Louisville. Williams will benefit from the presence of Earl Clark, who Andy Katz aptly calls a "matchup nightmare", to get some freedom on the wing. Williams does most of his damage slashing and in transition, which makes sense because the kid is an absolute athletic freak of nature. Louisville vs. UConn at Freedom Hall, February 2nd. Mark those calendars.
10 - Dionte Christmas, G/F, Temple. This guy and Derrick Brown of Xavier will be the two stallions of the Atlantic 10 this year. Christmas was born to score points, and that's what he does. He actually had a better sophomore season than junior year, but that may only mean that he's going to be more motivated this time around. Temple should be able to compete with Xavier and UMass for the A10 crown again this year.
11 - Eric Maynor, G, Virginia Commonwealth.

The man who sunk the Duke ship in the 2007 Tournament is back for his senior year, and while I'm not suggesting he's anywhere near as talented, I see some similarities between him and Stephen Curry. He's basically a natural two guard who is undersized but can create his own shot off the dribble and is a scoring fiend. Without question my pick (and pretty much everyone else's) to win CAA player of the year.
12 - Sharron Collins, PG, Kansas.

With Russell Robinson, Sasha Kaun, Darnell Jackson, Brandon Rush, Darrell Arthur and Mario Chalmers all gone from the Jayhawks, Collins and Center Cole Aldrich are the only two players back from last year's 8-man rotation (and Aldrich... not really). If Kansas is going to be any good this year, Collins may have to shoulder the load for a while. Oh, and if you're like me and saying, "Jesus, how did Kansas have so many studs on one team last year?!" Keep this in mind: JR Giddens and David Padget were both seniors last year, playing for New Mexico and Louisville, respectively, having transferred from Kansas (probably because Giddens is a poor man's Rush and Padget was tired of Jackson dunking on him in practice). That Bill Self sure can recruit.
So that's more or less my outlook for the season. I didn't bother putting a 25 together because, having seen the polls already, I probably would have used those way too heavily and not been very original.
As always, Go UMass.

Sorry Bozemanites

2008-11-10T08:07:00.000-08:00

I feel it is my journalistic duty to amend my list of the premier stadiums in the championship subdivision. Since posting said list, I have educated myself a bit more and found out about an expansion project for Bobcat Stadium at Montana State University. Currently, it is a fairly ordinary stadium for this level of football, seen here:
However, the expansion project looks absolutely awesome. Dear UMass: Follow the leader! Check out the video showing the entire project step-by-step.

And the finished product:

Top Stadiums in the Championship Subdivision

2008-11-07T09:23:00.000-08:00

This past weekend UMass went down to URI and absolutely knocked the slop out of Rhody. It's always nice to see my alma mater stick it to the only school it faces annually in both football and basketball (Richmond is also in the same conference in both, but the Spiders compete in the CAA South for football so we only see them every couple of years). The game was at the Rams' Meade Stadium (right), a nice little facility that sits adjacent to their new basketball arena. While it's a perfectly suitable place to see a football game, Meade Stadium joined some of the other facilities I've seen UMass play at that just weren't particularly impressive. UNH and Northeastern suffer from a similar affliction. Especially Northeastern, who basically plays at a high school field. So I decided to compile a list of the premier stadiums in the championship subdivision. Admittedly, I have only been to a few of these, but based on tradition, television coverage and a few other factors, I think I can make a fairly educated list.

Honorable Mention:
McGuirk Stadium, University of Massachusetts.I don't actually feel this way. In fact, I hate McGuirk. I wish Jack Welch would just step up and offer 50 million dollars to help the school build a new stadium. Maybe that's what I'm putting here: The stadium that would exist if UMass elected to throw tens of millions of dollars into a new facility. Sure. That's it.

Finley Stadium, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga.The site of the Division 1 Football Championship since 1997, Finley Stadium is a nice, average sized FCS facility. About 22,000 spectators can attend the biggest game of the year at the 1-AA level, which UMass has participated in twice (1998, 2006).

Top 10:
10 - Harvard Stadium, Harvard University.This place was built 105 years ago. That would explain the mass of concrete. However, it's still one of the most aesthetically pleasing stadiums at this level. At points, including when it was home to the Boston Patriots in 1970, the stadium went all the way around and seated up to 57,000. Today, it holds about 32,000. Of course, it doesn't come anywhere close to that number against anyone except Yale.

9 - Paulson Stadium, Georgia Southern University.Georgia Southern was the Appalachian State of FCS not so long ago, with guys like Adrian Peterson trampling people en route to multiple championship game appearances. Today, the Eagles are more of a middle-of-the-pack team in the Southern Conference, but their stadium still holds up to its billing as "The Prettiest Little Stadium in America".

8 - Delaware Stadium (Raymond Field), University of Delaware.UD has one of the more passionate fan bases in FCS, and they regularly pack this place. Now if they would just man up and play those pesky cross-state rivals on a regular basis.

7 - Princeton Stadium, Princeton University.This place is awesome. It's one of a small number of multi-tiered stadiums at this level, and is done beautifully. This is what UMass needs to have in mind when they get that 50 mil from Jack Welch.

6 - Bridgeforth Stadium, James Madison University.This place is pretty awesome. I hadn't really seen it before UMass played the Dukes this year, but I'm sure most people became familiar with it during the JMU-App State game, when in the midst of Madison's enormous comeback, the fans got so fired up that the stadium was literally shaking.JMU has also announced some expansion plans for Bridgeforth (above), which look absolutely awesome.

5 - Franklin Field, University of Pennsylvania.For not playing particularly good football, the Ivy League has some awesome old stadiums. The Philadelphia Eagles actually called this place home for a while, and it is where the film "Incredible" was shot (probably because The Vet had been demolished).

4 - Fargodome, North Dakota State University.
Generally speaking, I hate dome stadiums. That being said, when your school is in Fargo I'd say you have a fairly legitimate excuse. In addition to that, it's actually a pretty nice place, and NDSU is building a monster program.

3 - Yale Bowl, Yale University.
Much like Franklin Field and Harvard Stadium, this place also was home to an NFL franchise (New York Football Giants). It is enormous by FCS standards, though much like Harvard Stadium, it doesn't get all that many spectators except for "The Game".

2 - Kidd Brewer Stadium, Appalachian State University.
App State clearly has become the beast of this level of football. Appropriately, they have expanded Kidd Brewer Stadium to hold over 20,000 fans. However, because they have a "hill" on one open end of the stadium (much like Virginia's Scott Stadium, Missouri's Faurot Field or Colorado State's Hughes Stadium), many more fans than that can attend games. And they do. On multiple occasions this season, App State has broken 30,000 in attendance.

1 - Washington Grizzly Stadium, University of Montana.
Still the most impressive facility in the championship subdivision, and with its new expansion, it will be even better. The fact is, the Grizz never lose at home, and while many factors go into that, a great stadium is a big part of any home field advantage.Of course, they aren't quite invincible in this place: While they haven't lost a home game in the regular season since October 15th, 2005, they've bowed out in the playoffs the past few years in dramatic fashion. Nonetheless, Montana continues to be an elite program at this level with a stadium to match.

The home stretch

2008-11-02T15:52:00.000-08:00

People, the biggest election in this country in a long time is in two days. If you didn't register to vote: You suck. If you did but aren't going to vote: You suck. If you did but plan on voting for Ralph Nader, Ross Perot, Woody Hayes, Susan B. Anthony, Geraldo Rivera, Keith Olberman, Tony Kornheiser, Nick Saban, or Stephen Colbert as a write-in: You suck. If you're going to vote for John McCain... well... you know.
In all seriousness, I think that John Cleese has hit the nail on the head here. Some would argue that it's none of his business as a Brit to endorse one candidate or the other, but I disagree. After all, if the republicans piss off Britain, who do they have left to alienate?
Mr. Cleese?

Guy knows what he's talking about. Plus, I mean, come on. He's John Cleese.
So I guess it's fairly evident where I stand here. But politics aren't my thing, so moving on to the weekend.
Michael Crabtree officially became the front runner for my Heisman Vote last night. Of course, I don't have a Heisman vote, but if I did, he'd be up there, even ahead of his quarterback, who reminds me way too much of Colt Brennan, only he has a great offensive line and can throw to Michael Crabtree. While Tech did impress me in their win, I don't agree with the AP voters putting them ahead of Penn State. The best team Tech has beaten on the road is Kansas. The best team Penn State has beaten on the road is Ohio State. That's a big difference. Winning at home in the biggest game in school history is impressive, but let's be honest, the 'Horns almost definitely win that game at a neutral site. Fortunately, we get another month to sort this thing out (or create an even bigger mess).
Other awesome, crooked scores from the weekend:
#2 Appalachian State 70 #3 Wofford 24
#15 Massachusetts 49 Rhode Island 0
FBS #4 Oklahoma 62 Nebraska 21
Also, a quick note on non-BCS conference teams trying to crash the party: Assuming Boise State wins out, I have no beef with them getting to a BCS game. I certainly imagine that they'll be able to play with whoever wins the ACC. And assuming that the winner of the Utah-TCU game also wins out, I'm also fine with that team getting in, and I'm sure they'll be able to compete with the champions of the Big East, even though TCU already has a loss (at Oklahoma). Meanwhile, there is still one other unbeaten school out there: Ball State. Ball State cannot join the party, because Ball State plays in the MAC. This means that they play nobody in their conference schedule, and let's just look at their nonconference wins: Navy, Indiana (Big Ten doormat), Northeastern (FCS) and Western Kentucky (transitioning from FCS to FBS). Sorry, Ball State, but even though ESPN is carrying your next four games on the family of networks, the fact that those games are on two Tuesdays and two Wednesdays says everything that needs to be said.
Lastly, congrats to James Ihedigbo - known largely in UMass circles as J Diggs - for being activated to the New York Jets' active roster this week. When was Diggs' first game action? Opening kickoff, as he played special teams throughout, but hopefully gets some time at safety in the near future. Making Amherst proud.

Thank you, Happy Valley

2008-10-25T22:02:00.000-07:00

Well, this year will not be a repeat of the last two. Penn State ended Ohio State's national title hopes by effectively sealing their own Big Ten championship. The Lions beat the Bucks 13-6 in the Shoe in a game that saw more commercial breaks than first downs. Hey, I'll take it.
Thank you, Penn State.
In other news, Duke beat once 5-0 Vanderbilt today to improve to 4-3, 1-2 in the ACC. They Devils now have a better record, both in conference and overall, than once-top-ten-ranked Clemson. Amazing. Also amazing how easy it is to root for Duke football and David Cutcliffe despite loathing so many other things about the school.
UMass 42 Bryant 7... that game shouldn't even count.
James Madison won another miracle game too.

I wonder who plays Senator Obama...

2008-10-23T18:02:00.000-07:00

Apparently this is pretty old news to a lot of people, but not to me. Hustler legend Larry Flynt has produced a new video starring Lisa Ann called either "Who's Nailin' Paylin" or simply "Nailin' Paylin". This has the potential to be the greatest MILF flick in the history of the industry. Nina Hartley, who is now 49 years old, will play the role of Hillary Clinton. This will mark my first time (I think) hyperlinking to adult content. I'm proud it could be because of this.
Fortunately I didn't let this new discovery take over my entire day. Sports Illustrated's annual NBA Preview issue came in the mail today, and I had the pleasure of reading about how severely the Celtics are going to own the Eastern Conference again. SI appears to also be on the ever-growing Sixers bandwagon. I'm not sold on them quite yet, though I do think they'll be dangerous with Brand. The one thing that irks me about this issue is that SI, much like the fine folks at ESPN, seems to think that the loss of James Posey is going to be huge for the Celtics. Believe me, I was a Posey fan, but the guy was just a role player. After seeing the athleticism displayed by Billy Walker during the preseason, I feel very comfortable with Walker and Doc's personal favorite, Tony Allen, filling Posey's shoes.
And I know I've written about this before, but does anyone realize how young the Blazers are? Look at this! (Potential 12 man roster)

Blazers Depth Chart Age on 01/01/09

PG Jerryd Bayless 20
SG Brandon Roy 24
SF Martell Webster 22
PF LaMarcus Aldridge 23
C Greg Oden 20

G Steve Blake 28
G Sergio Rodriguez 22
G Rudy Fernandez 23
F Ike Diogu 25
F Channing Frye 25
F Travis Outlaw 24
C Joel Przybilla 29

Ridiculous! That is absolutely frightening. This team may be on the verge of winning about five championships in the next decade. There was another team that caught my eye because of their youth: Memphis. This team, according to SI, will start Mike Conley Jr, OJ Mayo, Rudy Gay, Hakim Warrick, and Marc Gasol. Yikes. That could easily be a 60-loss club.
As for SI's award picks for the year, they were remarkably creative. They have Kobe as MVP and KG as Defensive POTY... oh wait, those are last year's actual winners. To be even less creative, check out their first team All NBA: Chris Paul, Kobe, Lebron, KG, and Yao. The only difference from the '08 All NBA team is Yao subbing in for Dwight Howard (who SI has on the second team). Nice, fellas. Way to go out on a limb.

A couple of less happy notes: Today, Lute Olsen stepped down as head coach of Arizona. To be honest, I don't know how much his heart has been in it since his wife passed away. Last year, he took a leave of absense and ultimately divorced the woman with whom he had remarried. It's a shame, but hopefully Lute finds some happiness in retirement. He's been a staple of college hoops for my entire life.
Troubling news for New England Patriots fans, as apparently Mr. Brady is experiencing some technical difficulties post-surgery. An infection has needed to be operated on multiple times and ultimately Brady may need to have the initial surgery done all over again. I can definitely foresee Brady choosing not to return to football. Hopefully his overall health doesn't become an issue, as these infections can get pretty serious.

And finally, a happy note. I was perusing YouTube today, as always, and came across this video:

It's baaaaaaaaaaaaaack.

The point of no return

2008-10-22T14:51:00.001-07:00

In the past two weeks I've really been pushed over the edge. I graduated in May with basically the same degree from a better institution than Sarah Palin, yet while she somehow has spent the 20 years since her graduation working her way to becoming a vice presidential candidate, I have spent the five months since mine receiving rejection letters from potential employers. I'm not being especially greedy, applying for gigs I'm underqualified for. These are entry level jobs, most of them in sports media relations, though lately I've been branching out a bit. I really hit a breaking point a few days ago when I got a call from a potential employer who I'd interviewed with (driving over 500 miles round trip to do so) earlier this month for a position that would pay me a $10,000 stipend for the year with no help with housing, life insurance, etc. In other words, this company was going to have me do probably about 60 hours of work per week, yet compensate me in an amount that would keep me below the poverty line, and I was still strongly considering taking it. Yet to my surprise, there was a much more qualified candidate. Someone much more qualified, meaning they'd probably already worked in an SID's office for a year and gotten their BA in communications or sports management or something along those lines, was going to get paid ten grand to keep statistics at D3 women's tennis matches. What is wrong with this picture?

Yeah, I'm pissed. Fuck it. Vote Obama, please. The cat has an outside chance of getting us some jobs back. Otherwise I'm going to have to join the military, and I don't especially want to do that.

Anyway, on to the recent issues in the world. The Red Sox blew it in Game 7 against the Rays, though I maintain that they really blew the series in Game 2. That sets up a pretty odd matchup in the fall classic between Philly and Tampa. Both teams have likable players (J-Roll, Ryan Strikeout Howard, Shane Victorino, BJ Upton, Longoria), likable managers, and not-so-good ballparks. Philly gets the overall nod because their fans aren't as bad as Tampa's, and The Bank isn't nearly as bad as The Trop. However, the Rays will probably win, because they play in the AL, and the AL is the NL's daddy.

College football has a couple top 10 matchups this weekend. #1 Texas and #6 Oklahoma State. Mike Gundy is still OK State's coach. Texas by three touchdowns. And #3 Penn State vs. #9 Ohio State. Please, for the love of God, Penn State, win this game. If you don't, people are going to say "Ohio State is BACK", and they will meander their way up to #2 by late November and find themselves in the BCS Championship Game. And they will lose to Alabama or Texas or Florida (again) or USC (again). And it will be 42-17. Please Penn State. Don't let that happen.

What do Dunkin Donuts and Audi have in common?

2008-10-09T11:05:00.000-07:00

They both have totally unoriginal advertising ideas. Beyond that, they steal from the same place. I mentioned in an earlier post how severely Audi ripped off Sigur Ros in their recent A4 spot. Now, Dunkin Donuts has done the same thing, taking the visual component of the Glosoli music video and claiming it as their own. Dunks had a good stretch of ads in recent years when they had a deal with They Might Be Giants, but now that they're back on their own, it appears that any originality is out of the question.

Sigur Ros, Glosoli:

Dunkin' Donuts, Uphill Battle:

Pretty blatant if you ask me, but then again I get easily excited over these things. And believe me, I appreciate good advertising, so long as it's creative as opposed to larcenous.

On a different topic, I'm sure everyone by now has seen at least some of the Vice Presidential debate from last week, as well as the SNL skit that followed. Can these campaigns just continue forever and ever? I know we're in a true economic crisis, and at war, and have plenty of unresolved social issues -- but really, isn't watching Tina Fey as Sarah Palin totally worth postponing the election?
Eh - maybe not.
Oh, and congrats to Vanderbilt for knocking off Auburn to improve the smart kids of the Big Ten and SEC to 10-0! Unheard of. Unfortunately, I see it ending this week with Michigan State beating Northwestern. NU is good, and could win ten games, but Javon Ringer is a BEAST. Guy will carry the ball 40 times a game, put up 200 yards and you won't hear a peep out of him. Reminds me of another running back who recently came out of that area, Chris Perry. Unfortunately, every carry they force on Ringer now is one off the end of his career, which means he's probably hurting the longevity of his NFL career. However, I don't think Javon really cares about that. His team has Rose Bowl aspirations, and he holds the key.
Early Heisman picks:
#1 Javon Ringer RB Michigan State
#2 Chase Daniel QB Missouri
#3 Sam Bradford QB Oklahoma
#4 Daryll Clark QB Penn State
No Tebow, no Moreno, and absolutely NO Max Hall. I want the guys who have produced, not the guys gettin' the hype. When Hall beats a real opponent, we'll talk... Oh wait, BYU doesn't play anybody. And don't say UCLA, Washington or Utah count. No way.
I already see it coming: The 2009 Orange Bowl -- Clemson 38 BYU 21. Just remember Hawai'i, everyone. Remember Hawai'i.

In case we needed another reason to hate OSU...

2008-10-02T20:34:00.000-07:00

Terrelle Pryor appears to be exactly the type of player they love in Columbus. An athletic freak who also happens to be borderline mentally retarded. Seriously, I actually have evidence here. The kid went to his press conference last year, which he had plenty of time to prepare for, and in a very awkward manner announced his college plans. He didn't read an eloquent explanation of the process, concluding with "it is for these reasons that I will enroll at the Ohio State University" -- but rather said "If everyone is here, University of Ohio State". First of all, that's some shitty sentence structure. Second of all, what school is that?
Anyway, I've probably ranted about this before, so I'll get to my point. This week, Pryor was noticably upset about a very non-inflamatory comment by Mark May. Mayday basically said, let's wait before declaring Pryor a savior in Columbus. Pryor's response? Nothing short of awesome:

"If we would lose that game, we would get stuff talked on us, but if USC loses, they don’t get stuff talked on them.People like Mark May, he said ‘let’s see how he plays on the big stage,’ and we’re going to see next week... The media, ESPN people, sit there and talk stuff on our team and say we’re dead. We’ll find out this week coming up who’s dead. We’re out to show the world something, and we’re going to."

Terrelle, what the hell does it mean to "talk stuff on [OSU]." However, I guess I shouldn't be surprised. This isn't the first stud freshman who came into Jim Tressell's program, played like hell but wasn't one with the words. What prison is Mo Clarett in again?

The unfortunate thing about this is that Pryor may not be the biggest crybaby in football this week. As most of us are now aware, Lane Kiffin is out of a job in Oakland. What some people do not know is that one of Al Davis's former head coaches took greater exception to the firing than Kiffin himself. Mike Shannahan apparently feels that Kiffin should have been let go a long time ago, saying "I was a little disappointed, to be honest with you. When you take a look at it, I was there 582 days. Lane Kiffin was there 616 days. So, what it really means is that Al Davis liked Lane more than he liked me. I really don't think it's fair. I won three more games, yet he got 34 more days of work. That just doesn't seem right." Okay, so Shanahan was kidding, but seriously dude. The guy just lost his job, and Al Davis is now saying he won't even pay him the remaining salary he is owed. Al Davis is funny. And by funny I mean senile.

In unrelated news, the Sox look poised to go back to the ALCS after an excellent game 1 win in Anaheim. The Cubs, on the other hand, do not appear to be in such good shape. They're currently trailing the Dodgers 6-0 in game 2, having already dropped the opener. Man, what did Chicagoans do to warrant this kind of fan torture. Even when they're excellent, they still suck. Also, when has there ever been a post season with this many awesome managers? Pinella, Torre and Scioscia are awesome, and Maddon and Francona are solid. I know nothing about Charlie Manuel, and Ozzie Guillen and Dale Sveum are borderline inhumanly stupid. But still, five very good managers of the eight teams still playing baseball. Reminds me of the NBA conference finals when the coaches in the western conference semi-finals finals (Phil Jackson, Greg Popovich, Jerry Sloan, Byron Scott) made the ones in the east (Mike Brown, Doc Rivers, Flip Saunders, Brian Hill) look like my seventh grade AAU coach.

Also, a few quick shoutouts. First, to Sarah Palin and Joe Biden for thoroughly entertaining me tonight. By entertaining, I mean giving me something to flip to during the commercial breaks of the Cubs game. But seriously, this election is big. I'm not endorsing anyone -- for now -- but I do hope and expect more than the 110,000,000 or so votes that were cast in 2004. And because I can count on roughly five people to read this, then I feel I'm fulfilling my civic duty by posting this:

Finally, a congratulations to my cousin, Jill, who will be marrying her fiancee, BC, in about 17 hours. Very awesome people, should be a fun night.

Well, today was a shit sandwich

2008-09-29T20:19:00.000-07:00

Today, Americans lost trillions of dollars. Trillions. Like, thousands of billions. The stock market lost seven percent of its value. Individual families are losing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Not just wealthy ones either, there are people who are truly being financially destroyed by this. And while I'm not making any comments about the presidential candidates, I'm sure as hell not going to worry about bad-mouthing the people who are already in office. Thanks, A-team. I have to admit, I feel bat for Henry Paulson. The man probably hasn't slept a wink in months trying to resolve this mess that's been created.
Oh well. I guess I don't have to worry as much since I'm broke, unemployed and living out of a cardboard box.

Moving on, I wanted to bring some attention to something I noticed last night while watching the Eagles-Bears game. During a commercial break, an ad came on for the new Audi A4. Nice looking car. However, I wasn't paying so much attention to the visual attention of the ad as I was the audio. The music sounded incredibly familiar. So I went to my iTunes and found a song a friend had recently sent to me by Sigur Ros, a group from Iceland. Lo and behold, it's a blatant ripoff. However, not wanting to jump to conclusions, I figured that Audi may have collaborated with the band for the ads. Apparently not. I mentioned it to my friend, who apparently had also noticed, and she sent me this: apparently I'm not the only one who noticed. See what I did there, Audi? I gave someone else credit for doing more research than I did on the subject. I offered a mere hyperlink to someone else's website. I didn't act like this was an entirely solo effort.
Reason #4,591 I won't buy an Audi in my lifetime.

As for recapping the weekend in American gridiron football -- what a Saturday, eh? Vanderbilt is alone in first in the SEC East (4-0, 2-0 SEC) while Northwestern sits alongside Penn State as the only overall unbeatens of the Big Ten (5-0, 1-0). Smart kids keep on rollin'.

Didn't happen...

2008-09-25T21:33:00.000-07:00

A few people asked me about a recent post (from Wednesday) that deleted. By a few, I mean two, or about 50% of my readers. Anyway, the removal came for a number of reasons, but it was mainly because I called out people, by name, for doing a poor job in their writing. Calling people out on their jobs isn't what I'm here to do. I'm here, of course, because I have a lot of thoughts.
Anyway, maybe the article will be amended in the next few days and put back up. In the meantime, Oregon State just beat USC, which means that this whole post must not actually be here. I must be in a total dream. I will not believe that I just saw USC lose to the team I watched blow it against Stanford in week one. Didn't happen.

If I'm better than you at your own job, then you're pretty bad

2008-09-23T18:26:00.000-07:00

Editor's Note: This was originally printed on September 23rd, then removed because I didn't want to bash people and use names, and now is being reprinted because I have decided I just don't care.

So I more or less gave up on the dream of being an SID. Not completely. I mean, if someone called me tomorrow and asked if I wanted a job in that line of work, I'd be interested. However, I'm not trying day in and day out to get a job in that field.
Nonetheless, it still irks me when I see someone in a good position - say, SID at a great division 1 university - doing a crappy job just because they either don't pay attention to detail or are lazy. So you can imagine my reaction when I was looking over the press release from UMass Athletics prior to the UMass-Texas Tech game this past weekend, and came across some glaring errors. I mean, these aren't typos, they are truly egregious mistakes that should never be made in a serious athletic department. Without further ado:

Glaring Error #1: "2007 was a year of the upset for the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA). There were eight upsets of Football Bowl Subdivision teams, most notably Appalachian State defeating then No. 5 Michigan in Ann Arbor, 34-32 on Sept. 1. From the CAA Football conference, Delaware beat Navy, 59-52 on Oct. 27 and New Hampshire defeated Marshall, 48-35 on Sept. 15. In 2007, FBS teams were 51-7 against FCS teams. The other wins by FCS teams over FBS teams in 2007 are: Nicholls State over Rice (16-14), Northern Iowa over Iowa State (21-13), Southern Illinois over Northern Illinois (34-31), McNeese State over UL-Lafeyette (38-17) and last weekend North Dakota State over Central Michigan (44-17)."

Okay, first the article says that there were eight FCS over FBS upsets, then it says FBS was 51-7 against FCS. Well, where did that eighth upset go? It was NDSU beating Minnesota in the Metrodome. Also, it shouldn't say that NDSU's win over CMU was "last weekend", because it was last year. This is clearly an example of someone copy-pasting from an old press release.

Glaring Error #2: "UMass began the 2007 season at 4-0 for the first time since 1986, losing to Boston College, the current second-ranked team in FBS, by a narrow 24-14 score in Chestnut Hill."

Oh boy. Again, an issue of copying and pasting from an old release. Boston College is not number 2 now, they have not been ranked this year, and they were not in the top 10 when UMass played them last year. This release came from around the time BC played at Virginia Tech and at home against Florida State, which I believe were their two weeks at #2.

Glaring Error #3: "As a freshman in 2006 playing behind four-time 1,000-yard rusher and current Arizona Cardinal Steve Baylark as well as Lawrence, Nelson gained 235 yards on 47 carries for a 5.0 average."

In 2006, the depth chart did not include Matt Lawrence at halfback, who spent the year as Steve Baylark's lead-blocker. In 2007, Lawrence moved from fullback to halfback, and Nelson remained second in line.

This was only about half way into the release, at which point I jumpkicked my desktop and was unable to continue reading. Anyway, the point is, UMass is a great university with a wonderful athletic department. John McCutcheon is a great athletic director and has overseen several teams, from football to basketball to soccer to softball to lacrosse, become perennial winners. However, it is really inexcusable for the press release for a huge football game to be factually inaccurate. Jason Yellin may be a good SID, but he certainly dropped the ball here.

Anyway, that's enough for that rant. On to happier topics: The Boston Red Sox clinched the playoffs tonight and are still very much alive for the AL East title (2.5 back, 5 to go). They also reached the postseason by beating the Indians and Cliff Lee, who is now 22-3. Might as well beat the best, right?
Speaking of baseball, a wonderful piece by UniWatch writer Paul Lukas the other day about the closing of Yankee Stadium. Obviously I wouldn't have appreciated this article if I were a Yanks fan, but I like the comparisons he draws from that organization to our country. It's definitely worth the read.
Also, quick promo for Bev Freeman, a friend who is running a presentation at the Harvard School of Public Health on some of the issues surrounding the recent catastrophes in the Gulf Coast region. A lot of very interesting speakers are coming to speak from various institutions, including LSU and the Mississippi Interfaith Disaster Task Force. More details can be found here.
And while we're here, another shameless plug for yours truly: Check me out! Sorry. That's all.

That dumb ad campaign

2008-09-21T18:33:00.001-07:00

I recently wrote about a really awful ad campaign for Buffalo Wild Wings. Here's one example of the fans stabbing their team in the back. If I find the other I'll post it.
There is another current ad campaign that may challenge BWW for being total nonsense. It's Microsoft's series of ads with Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. However, I'll say the verdict is still out, because I have a feeling they're going somewhere with this. Plus, they just came out with an ad countering the "I'm a Mac & I'm a PC" ads which is a pretty good response.
In the meantime, how about them Miami Dolphins. I'm still trying to figure out if the offense they ran with Ronnie Brown in the shotgun was a zone-read, sort of like what West Virginia runs, where he has the option to hand it to Ricky Williams coming around, or if where Brown goes with the ball is already determined when they break the huddle. Either way, it was very cool, and he scorched us.

More to chant about than SAT scores

2008-09-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

It wasn't always like this. The SEC and Big Ten weren't always just about 40,000 student public universities with 100,000 seat football stadiums. In fact, there was once a time when the University of Chicago was a conference rival of Illinois, and Sewanee: College of the South would have conference battles with Alabama. It was a different era.
Then the second World War happened, and college sports more or less went on hiatus. When the war ended, schools had the opportunity to re-evaluate what they wanted for their athletic departments, and schools like Chicago and Sewanee got out of the big time. Since that time, those two conferences have as much history to brag about as any. Virtually all of the current 23 schools in the two leagues have rich football traditions with 60,000+ seat stadiums, 25,000+ person student bodies and countless bowl victories.
With two exceptions.
Vanderbilt and Northwestern, two almost-Ivy private schools have had some of the most incredible stretches of futility in all of college football. Northwestern once had an NCAA division 1-A record 34 game losing streak from 1979 to 1982. We're talking three straight years without a win here. That's tough. Vanderbilt, on the other hand, has not been to a bowl game in twenty six years. Considering that the majority of the FBS competes in bowl season these days, that's fairly atrocious. But oh, how times have changed.
Today, with wins over Ohio and Mississippi, these two long-time doormats both improved to 4-0. And while they've played only two conference games between them (Vandy is 2-0 with wins over South Carolina and Ole Miss, NU starts their conference slate next week with Iowa), there is reason for optimism at both schools.
For Northwestern, the news is excellent. Assuming Tyrell Sutton isn't too banged up (he has a lower leg injury following today's game according to WGN), they'll have a shot to go to 5-0 against Iowa next weekend in Iowa City. After that they'll have their first big test with Michigan State. However, of the five toughest teams in the Big Ten, Northwestern does not have to play Wisconsin or Penn State (talk about luck), and gets MSU, Ohio State and rival Illinois all at home. The stars may be alligning for Northwestern. They aren't going to be making any trips to Pasadena in January like they did in their miracle season of 2005, but for this team to be able to look realistically at a 9-win season is fantastic.
For Vanderbilt the news is not as good. The 'Dores are in the SEC East, which means that they still have to play Florida and Georgia, plus they draw Auburn from the West, and go to Wake Forest for their finale. Assuming this team doesn't pull any top-10 upsets, and that just doesn't seem terribly likely, especially since they're getting some attention, this probably wont be better than a 7-5 season in Nashville. But hey, that's progress.
Northwestern had the first miracle season of the lovable losers that I can remember, coming in '95 when Darnell Autry and Pat Fitzgerald let the Wildcats to a Big Ten title and an appearance in the Rose Bowl against USC. Two years ago Rutgers tried to duplicate such an accoplishment by coming within one play of a Big East title which would have sent them to the Orange Bowl. However, in both cases, the teams were back to their old selves shortly thereafter, including this year's Scarlet Knights, who look just awful.
The lesson? Enjoy the success your teams are having in Evanston and Nashville. They could be back in the cellar at any time, so as long as they're winning, no empty seats should be tolerated. I mean, these are schools that play high profile games in relatively small venues (Vanderbilt Stadium holds about 39,000, Ryan Field around 49,000). Get out there and support them. Vandy's fans are doing pretty well. But NU? Come on, today there were 22,069 fans out there to see your school start 4-0 for the first time in 46 years! That's putrid! I mean, it's better than the 19,062 that showed up to your last home game and 20,015 who came out to see the season opener, but for chrissake this is major college football, not division II lacrosse.
Support your student athletes. They're earning it.

Also, nice job by the Minutemen today. Really. Great stuff.

Taking the eggs out of the basket

2008-09-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

First of all, big, BIG ups to Carlos Zambrano for no-hitting the Astros last night in Milwaukee. Sure, the 'Stros can continue to bitch about how these games shouldn't be played in a venue that is so accessible to Cubs fans, but they haven't even shown up for these games. Today, Ted Lilly took a no-no for the Cubbies into the seventh. With the Astros losing back-to-back, and Milwaukee reeling, It appears as though the National League wild card is going to be Philadelphia's to lose. That is, of course, assuming the Mets can hang on to the east.
As for the American League, it was nice to see the Red Sox show some life in Tampa tonight, opening up a can of you-know-what on Scott Kazmir (who looked just awful). The Sox were 0-6 in the Trop this year before tonight. I'm still worried when Dice-K goes out and needs to throw this many pitches to get through innings.
Of course, I'm only bantering about baseball because of how badly the weekend went in football. Sure, the Patriots are 2-0 and USC thumped Ohio State, but that's basically where the happy news ends. UMass (#3/#5 entering the weekend) got absolutely housed at James Madison and have now given up 94 points in two weeks entering next week's showdown with Texas Tech (#10/11 in the bowl subdivision). If Tech, which had nearly 700 passing yards against SMU this weekend, is firing on all cylinders, they could easily hang 60 on the Minutemen.
As for the NFL, my picks to play for the Super Bowl aren't looking so hot right now either. Of course the Patriots were my pick to win it at the beginning of the year, but in the "I shouldn't pick them because them I'm probably being a homer" world, my secondary choice from the AFC is the Pittsburgh Steelers. While they've played well for two weeks, my NFC choice has not. Minnesota couldn't convert any of their drives into touchdowns and blew several chances to put the game on ice this weekend against the Colts.
Game of the weekend was probably the Monday Nighter between Philly and Dallas. Something tells me that these will look like the two best teams in the NFC in November, but neither will make the Super Bowl. Other than that, it's good to see some points being scored (sans Patriots-Jets).

Huge games this week for the Red Sox in Tampa and Toronto. Stay tuned.

Southern Cal > Ohio State... and Ohio State < an arm pit hair follicle

2008-09-13T21:28:00.000-07:00

There are very few chances I get to enjoy myself like this, but what USC did to Ohio State tonight was just delightful. The Trojans appeared to be on a totally different level than the Bucks. This is the third consecutive year that a team with great speed has made OSU look totally incompetent. We're talking top-10 vs. FCS type dominance. Man. USC didn't look this good against Idaho last year (or two years ago... whenever they played). But they made it happen tonight.

In other interesting games, South Carolina was the latest in the "STOP TRYING TO STRETCH THE BALL OVER THE GOAL LINE WHEN IT'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN" club, joining Oregon, Oregon State, and several other teams in the past year. And the crazy thing is that UGA's 14-7 win was a high-scoring affair compared to another SEC battle today. Mississippi State must have joined a very small group of teams today when they held Auburn to three points AND got scoring help from their defense AND lost. Yup, the last part is correct -- they lost. 3-2, to Auburn. I love coach Croom, but he went 7-5 last year with nothing but defense. He'll need to find people who can play offense if he wants to get to the 10-win territory.
But anyway, I'm getting back to this great Wisconsin-Fresno State game. A weekend recap should be up tomorrow or Monday.

Friday update

2008-09-12T13:08:00.000-07:00

Just a few quick items today. First of all, someone has put a clip of the police brutality at ECU on YouTube. This shows one of the two really bad parts I saw on ESPN, which is the totally intense throwdown, but it doesn't include a different cop repeatedly punching a student (possibly in the head) who is laying on the ground. Nice job. This is why law enforcement has gone from a respectable field to one that is on par with prostitution.
This reminds me: Be sure to check out the work of Grant Cerulo, a friend and old classmate of mine at UMass who is currently working in New York. He became famous in UMass circles for his video game "Riot UMass" following the Red Sox riots of 2004, and has gone on to do some other very neat work.
And on a personal note: How can a pair of $150 headphones have such a simple frigging flaw that never gets dealt with? The Bose Triport headphones are absolutely wonderful. They cancel out most noise and sound terrific. However, the plastic just above the earpieces is very flimsy and breaks. I got a pair for Christmas a few years ago and they broke. I was able to get a new pair under warranty, which also broke. Finally the third pair bit the dust in the exact same way. This time, rather than bugging the company about it, I've gone with the superglue route. Still, pain in the arse.

The dumbest ad campaign in recent memory

2008-09-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

Has anyone else noticed this? In the new "Buffalo Wild Wings" commercials, the restaurant patrons get to have a say in a baseball or football game's outcome. In both cases they do something to prevent their own team from winning. The rationale is that they don't want the games to end because they're not ready to leave yet. Seriously, the idea is that sports fans would prefer to have a game go into overtime so that it will end at the same time they finish their lunch, rather than having their team win in regulation. This is supposed to sell chicken wings and beer.

Tomorrow will either be awesome or terrible.

2008-09-09T14:38:00.000-07:00

So for those of you who don't know (and I admit, I didn't until recently), tomorrow will be the first attempt to circulate a beam at the Large Hadron Collider, a Particle Accelerator in Switzerland. Unfortunately, it's been about five years since I saw the Nova program "The Elegant Universe", so I can't remember exactly what we hope happens here, but I'm pretty sure the concern is that the world might explode. That wouldn't be worth it for anyone, now would it.
In all seriousness, super colliders are actually pretty neat. We're talking about a multi-billion dollar facility in which physicists hope to create the Higgs boson, and then take steps towards proving superstring theory, and then ultimately the grand unifying theory. One of the knocks on string theorists to this point was that their ideas were untestable, therefore the entire concept is actually more philosophy than physics. Hopefully the result isn't an enormous black hole that eats the earth and spits it out in a distant galaxy. Unless that galaxy is totally livable and has other nearby planets with lot of fun alien species we can hang out with.

In unrelated news, ESPN showed footage from this past weekend's East Carolina-West Virginia game of police officers (I think they were rent-a-cops) beating the living you-know-what out of ECU students. More on that as soon as more videos circulate.

A fan's worst nightmare

2008-09-07T20:38:00.000-07:00

Right now, somewhere in sunny Southern California, Bill Simmons is writing an article about his feelings on the injury Tom Brady sustained today. Unfortunately, his feelings are going to be the same as those of about three million Patriots fans, regardless of what he says. See, about a year ago, my buddy Matt pointed something out. I was ranting about how useless Simmons has become as a writer, and Matt basically said; "the most annoying thing is that whenever he writes something, it immediately becomes what all of his readers believe". He's right. Most Simmons fans are actually sheep who regurgitate whatever he writes.
So anyway, before all of New England says either "this is no big deal", or "this is the worst thing ever", I thought I'd give my own two cents on the issue.
First of all: I didn't like the hit. I don't know what Bernard Pollard was trying to do, but he wasn't going to sack Brady, and he was on the ground, so the likelihood of anything good coming of the hit was pretty much zero. I'm not saying Pollard is a dirty player, and had Morris done a better job in pass protection, it might be a moot point. Just saying it wasn't as clean as Dan Dierdorf seemed to believe.
As far as moving forward, I'm going on the assumption that the reports about the injury being season-ending are true. Matt Cassell came in and frankly did a nice job controlling the game. What does that mean? It means he didn't turn the ball over, he made a few plays with his arm as well as his legs, and he won the game. I think it's a virtual certainty that Cassell will be starting next week. However, there are some questions about what will happen next. Reports are that Chris Simms will be coming up to Foxboro for a physical this week and should soon be a Patriot. Ugh, what a disaster. Are we seriously considering having Chris Simms play quarterback for the New England Patriots? The kid who only got to play at Texas, over the more effective Major Applewhite, because his name was Chris Simms? The kid who couldn't beat Oklahoma? The kid who hasn't started more than ten games in a season? The kid who has never won a playoff game? I mean, isn't it better to start someone who is unproven (though looked good this week and knows the offense) as opposed to someone who is proven as someone incapable of winning big games? Come on. The kid's best known career highlight was a pick-six in college. Need me to refresh your memory?
Anyway, my hope is that Matt Cassell is the starting quarterback for the New England Patriots. No one is going to replace Tom Brady, that's obvious. But Cassell has been around this team for three-plus years now, and he's the best prepared to take the reins of this offense. Chris Simms can go do color commentary for high school games in Texarkana.

Also, quick props to East Carolina for quickly becoming this season's media darling, and deservedly so. Other team's of note improving to 2-0: BYU on a terrible call, UNH with another FCS win over a BCS school, UConn, and of course UMass.

Quick self-promotion: My search for permanent employment now has a home. It's pretty amateur, but such are my abilities with UNIX and Dreamweaver.

The best and worst of a relatively boring first weekend

2008-09-02T17:43:00.001-07:00

I admit, I was mistaken. Appalachian State didn't really "bring it" when they visited Baton Rouge this weekend. However, you have to admit, they looked pretty good on their first drive. Okay, they got taken to the woodshed, but who cares. LSU wasn't the only SEC team that put a hurtin' on their opponent this weekend. In fact, some of the performances were downright scary.
1 - Alabama: Yep, they did it. Their fans chanted "SEC" on College Gameday, which the Clemson fans tried to counter with chants of "ACC", but the two sound so similar that it didn't make much of a difference. Besides, Clemson fans had absolutely nothing to cheer about by the time 'Bama had made it 20-3. This is a team that was expected to be in the middle of the pack in the SEC absolutely trouncing a supposed national title contender. Things did not go well for the ACC.
2 - South Carolina: 34-zip in another ACC waxing, though this one was already discussed as it took place last Thursday.
3 - Kentucky: Both U of L and UK are rebuilding this year after losing their quarterbacks to the NFL draft, but I don't think anyone expected the 27-2 drubbing the Wildcats put on their in-state rival. That's two in a row for the folks in Lexington.
4 - Florida: June Jones isn't walking through that door. Colt Brennan isn't walking through that door. And if they were, it wouldn't matter. Florida is loaded.
5 - Ole Miss: The Houston Nutt era might be a good one. While Arkansas struggled with their FCS opponent, the Runnin' Rebels put up 40 points for the first time in almost five years in beating Memphis.
Arkansas, Vanderbilt, Georgia, Auburn and LSU also had victories against lower-profile opponents on opening weekend. In all, the conference went 10-2 (though it should be mentioned that they were two baaaad losses) and dominated in almost all of their wins. It's also nice to see that one of the few schools that struggled was Arkansas and new coach Bobby Petrino. If they have a tough year, in what week will he quit? I'm putting the over-under at eight.

The game of the weekend (though can we really call it that when it ran from Thursday to Monday night?) was the last one, and one of the SEC's two losses. UCLA, which lost a game to woeful Notre Dame last year by turning the ball over seven times, overcame four first half interceptions to beat #18 Tennessee 27-24. This game had a lot of components to it, including several periods when Vols QB Jonathan Crompton looked completely incapable of hitting his receivers, either overthrowing or underthrowing by bizarre distances. Another was the play calling by Tennessee, who, despite being ahead for most of the second half, only handed the ball to Arian Foster thirteen times (he gained 96 yards on those 13 carries) while throwing 41 times (Crompton finished 19 for 41 for 189 yards and a pick). Nonetheless, it was an exciting game as each team took the lead once in the final two minutes before Tennessee sent her into overtime with no time on the clock. In the end, both teams played nauseatingly conservative football in OT, and UCLA won when UT missed a 34 yard field goal. Cheers to Rick Neuheisel, who has been unjustly criticized for his issues at Washington (fired over an NCAA office pool, are you kidding), and somewhat fairly criticized for what went on at Colorado, where he had some recruiting violations. He's not a bad guy, and it definitely a capable college football coach who will have UCLA back in the mix in no time.
In more important news, UMass beat NEC favorite Albany 28-16 behind 172 yards rushing from former Clemson commitment Tony Nelson. Up next: Holy Cross.

And they're off!

2008-08-29T05:49:00.000-07:00

What an amazing start to the 2008 college football season!

Okay, so last night didn't include any marquee match ups, but it was a nice way to ease into a weekend that should have a few solid games. The most impressive performance of the night probably goes to Steve Spurrier's boys at South Carolina, who seem to play on the opening night of college ball every year. The Cocks beat down NC State 34-0 in a game that saw virtually no offense until the fourth quarter, when SC put up three scores. An interesting moment came toward the end of the game when the home fans (the game was in Columbia) began to chant "S-E-C! S-E-C!" That's the first time I've ever heard any university's fans chant for the conference, but I like it. If the SEC dominates nonconference games the was I suspect it will, it would be interesting to see fans across the deep south following suit. Sort of a unifying effect before the bad blood of UGA-Florida and LSU-Arkansas and, of course, the Iron Bowl. Pity that the big nonconference games this Saturday are all either on the road (Tennessee at UCLA, Kentucky at Louisville) or at a neutral site (Bama and Clemson in Atlanta). Although my guess is that about 25,000+ Tide fans will make the trip, so that could work.
Speaking of Alabama football, I was thinking last night about the best entrance in college football, and here's what I came up with:
#5: Notre Dame players touching the "Play like a champion today" sign exiting the locker room.
#4: Michigan hitting the "Go Blue" banner.
#3: Va Tech (the pick of one of the ESPN analysts, can't remember who) with their "Enter Sandman" gig, which would be cooler if it weren't also what Mariano Rivera enters to. Minus points for lack of originality.
#2: South Carolina's "2001 A Space Odyssey". Minus points because 68,000 of the 80,000 fans in attendance don't know what 2001 A Space Odyssey is.
#1: Clemson running down the hill and touching Howard's Rock. I know, it's stupid to have two South Carolina teams here, but I don't know enough other team's traditions. Also, apologies for the "east coast bias".
Here's what would excite me: Alabama's home opener is in one week against Tulane under the lights. I'm not sure if they've ever run onto the field to Hans Zimmer's "Roll Tide", but wouldn't that be appropriate? It could be gawdy and overdone, with John Parker Wilson weilding an American flag and Nick Saban running into a sharp, metal object... Okay, so I don't like Saban. But wouldn't that be pretty tight? The song is the one used in this tribute to Texas's 2005 title run (best 0:45-3:30).
Anyway, Connecticut and Wake Forest (#23) were the two relevant schools besides South Carolina that had wins last night. All three of those teams will be ranked in the next week or two. Here's looking forward to the Tennessee-UCLA, Alabama-Clemson, Illinois-Missouri, and Albany-UMass games.

Bikes are going to save the world.

2008-08-27T16:47:00.000-07:00

Shortly after graduation this past may, my friend Ross and I boarded a plane to Frankfurt, Germany. For one month, we backpacked around Central Europe (Brussels, Brugge, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Berlin, Prague, Munich, Stuttgart, Bern, Interlaken, back to Frankfurt - in that order) having the time of our lives. One of the things we noticed on this trip was the cost of gas, which was close to ten USD per gallon! That's not a typo folks, while we're complaining about the prospect of paying over four bills a gallon, they're paying through the keyster for the stuff.
The next interesting thing of note was the way a lot of people dealt with this. It's actually a fairly incredible concept. Some people just don't drive that much. Amazing concept, right? Propane costs a ton, so people consume less of it. This was especially true in a few cities, and none more so than Amsterdam, where it seemed everyone got around via bicycle. So I was fairly inspired by these people's willingness to use an alternative form of transportation, and when I got back to the states I went to my garage and pulled my old Gary Fisher Gitche Gumee out from the cobwebs that had engulfed it over the past few years, and cleaned it off, lubed the chain, pumped the tires and took her for a spin. I have to tell you, it's an addicting activity. In terms of the impact that riding a bike has on an individual's lifestyle, I enjoyed this little shpeel from the Godfather himself.
So now that the Gitche has proven a useful enough means of getting around, I'm feeling like I need to up my high. I need something that can get me around more effectively. Riding from Needham to Belmont takes me around 45 minutes on a mountain bike, but it's all on roads, so why not cut down that time and get a road bike? I did a little research, and let's just say that for someone who still hasn't landed his first professional job, this is about as unrealistic as being AD at UCLA by 25. Okay, not that unrealistic, but I can't afford a new road bike.
The alternative routes are somewhat interesting. The specialty store in Belmont has a little annex that sells refurbished old bikes, although those still cost a pretty penny (the last time I was in, everything was still north of $500 with the exception of a few fix gear fellas, which aren't really what I'm looking into). Then of course there's Craigslist, which certainly can yield some winners at the right time. Then there's the option of finding my dad's old road bike from when he was in grad school and trying to refurbish it, which is something I lack the competence to do, but therefore really want to give a shot.
Anyway, the point I was going to make before going on that tangent is that restoring an old beater of a bike is fairly badass. And since Mr. Fisher himself would be proud of it, I think I'll give it a shot. If that falls through, I'll wait until I get a job and then invest in this quasi-reasonably-priced beauty.
And on an unrelated note, my alma mater is apparently in the middle of a bit of controversy. No, it isn't because US News ranked us about thirty spots too low for the nth consecutive year: It's about the name of the school. It's such a dumb argument that I'm not even going to explain it, I'm just going to offer the link: UMass Amherst moniker downplays the school's status, critics say.
Sox looking to take the second of three with the Yankees tonight. Let's go Jed Lowrie.

UMass falls to #102. Balls.

2008-08-24T22:42:00.000-07:00

For some inexplicable reason, I let this get to me. Rankings have some absurd impact on me and I just can't begin to figure why. It upsets me that UMass never broke the Top 25 in hoops while I was a student, it drove me batty when UMass fell from #2 in the football polls after losing at Boston College last year, and it makes me see red to read that UMass has dropped from the top 100 schools in the country according to US News. I have no idea what validates these rankings, but maybe it's the fact that people such as myself and countless local journalists take them so seriously. Nonetheless, for UMass to go up, someone else would have to go down, and then a different group of alums are just as annoyed as I am now. Oh well, Princeton Review rankings come out soon, so we'll keep an eye out for those.
Notables:
#1 Harvard
#2 Princeton
#3 Yale
#T4 Stanford
#T4 MIT
#T6 Cal Tech
#T6 Penn
#T8 Columbia
#T8 Duke
#T8 Chicago
It's the same top ten as a year ago with very little fluctuation amongst the schools. The only notable change is that Harvard and Princeton have once again swapped the top two positions.
#21 UC Berkeley, I still find it baffling that this is as high as the premier public school in America can get.
#51 The U, I just hate that a school known more for the criminal activity of its football program than for the school itself actually has some respectable academic numbers.
#96 Northeastern, If not for Michelle Bonner, I would truly have no respect for this school. But they are apparently better than My State U.

Maybe the reason that U of M is ranked so low is because so many of its graduates are still unemployed... hmmmm, I might want to worry about that before complaining about the accuracy of US News and World Report's college rankings.

Football at its finest

2008-08-20T21:18:00.000-07:00

Last year I wrote a piece that served basically only one purpose: To trash MLS. I had several reasons, like how stupid the uniforms and team names are. Yeah, it was catastrophic. After taking some time to reflect on that, I've come to the same conclusion I come to hundreds times during the course of a year: I am an idiot.
The only point I stand by from my previous article is this: teams need their own stadiums. It's smarter for a variety of reasons. First of all, after the cost of building such a venue is paid (and generally this is largely covered by the corporate sponsors who want their names associated with the project), all of the revenue generated can go directly to the club. For teams like the Houston Dynamo who are currently playing stadiums primarily intended for gridiron football (Houston plays at the same site as UH football), that revenue goes to paying to play there. It's like owning a home versus renting. If you're only planning on being around for a few years, renting makes sense, but if you're in it for the long haul, it's smart to consider buying.
The good news here is that several teams that don't already have their own place are already planning or constructing stadiums. Red Bull Park, Real Salt Lake Stadium, and perhaps Poplar Point Stadium are all going to be in the mix in the near future, and the Kansas City Wizards and San Jose Earthquakes have some plans developing. However, the home team (New England) still hasn't made any moves to get the team in its own place. There are a handful of problems with the Revs playing at Gillette Stadium. First of all, it's in Foxboro, which flies with the Patriots because let's face it, people in this region would drive to Vancouver to see a Patriots game. The fan pool that the Revolution have is much smaller, so if they could relocate and be closer to the city, the casual fans in Boston would be much more likely to come to their games. Last year I proposed a move to Nickerson Field, but now I'm not sure that's a great idea. Somerville, however, sounds like an interesting possibility. I was at the final two matches of Superliga, and neither drew 10,000 fans. It's really a shame, too, because they play at a pretty damn high level. Particularly the championship game (New England vs. Houston) was extraordinarily exciting. The fans who take in the game in the general admission area (known as "The Fort") create all the atmosphere, but I can't help but think about how much more daunting it would be to opponents if the games were played in a smaller, more intimate stadium with more fans.
My other arguments, against the uniforms and names and such, are totally absurd. My argument could have been rewritten as the following: MLS should try to imitate the English Premier League in every way. Totally remove the league from its roots.
See? Moronic. The names of American teams in all sports are like this. Kansas City Wizards is a very American sports name (Washington Wizards?), and San Jose Earthquakes, Colorado Rapids, New England Revolution and Chicago Fire (and I'm sure I'm forgetting others) all have names that relate directly to where they are located, which is nice. And as for the uniforms, I don't even know where to begin. They're fine. Really. I just bought a Revs jersey, and I'm glad it doesn't have a huge "Gillette" across the front (though I do maintain that having more of a classic font might work better).
So hopefully the league continues to make more money and attract more big name players. Cuauhtemoc Blanco and David Beckham do just fine for themselves, but very few players in the league, only four by my count (via mlsplayers.org) are making seven figures annually. What's worse is the bottom-feeders of the league who are making less than $20k annually. It's tough to entice top talent when the discrepancy in salaries between leagues is that large. It will also help if the dollar can rebound a bit, but I won't get into that.
Next home game for New England: April 30th against Becks, Landon and the Galaxy. Hopefully I'll be able to make it down to the razor.

International hoops, football, and fashion

2008-08-18T16:45:00.000-07:00

The Olympics haven't been of too much interest to me in recent years, but at least the summer games include two biggest international sports as well as track & field and some guy named Michael Phelps. This year, however, I'd say I'm more interested than I've been in any of the past games I've watched for one reason: USA men's basketball. Not only is this team fantastic, but they're likable. Well, for the most part. After some piss poor efforts in the 2004 Games and the 2002 and 2006 World Championship, this team reminds me of the highlight reels I always see of MJ, Magic and Bird (sans a back) from the '92 games. Also, the first five games have really convinced me of a few things: 1 - Lebron James has surpassed Terrell Owens as the most inexplicably perfect physical specimen on the planet. 2 - Is Dwyane Wade great? I really believed between late 2006 and about a month ago that he was hugely overrated. Now I'm feeling stupid. 3 - Kobe can be a team player when his team is seven times better than its opponents.
So the US now gets Australia, who they struggled against in a game just before the Olympics. Still, with how they've been playing, it seems far stretched that the Aussies can make this game interesting. And speaking of Australia, what's with the men's national team wearing relatively normal (though still fairly ugly) jerseys while the women continue to wear the same spandex disasters they've had for the past several Olympics. The only bright side is getting to see Lauren Jackson's butt.
As for football (soccer), it's excruciating to see the United States, who are trying to establish themselves as a respectable national soccer team, blow it as badly as they did at the Olympics. I know that this isn't the real clubs, it's U23 with three player exemptions. Nonetheless, there are plenty of high profile guys in this tournament (Messi and Ronaldinho, arguably two of the top five players alive, included). The United States won their first game, giving them a chance to lock up a spot in the quarterfinals with a win over the Netherlands. Leading the Dutch into stoppage time, the Americans gave up a free kick, and consequently a goal, in the 93rd minute. Then, still with a chance to clinch a spot in their group stage finale against Nigeria, they stumbled again (already playing without Bradley and Adu because of multiple yellows, then getting a red card and playing a man down just three minutes in). It was awful. Oh well, maybe we'll represent ourselves a little better in South Africa in 2010.
Stay tuned for the US News rankings... meanwhile, Forbes did their own little rankings, but those are of no interest to me.

An Admittedly Biased 2008 NCAA Football Preview

2008-08-17T21:09:00.000-07:00

And we're back, just in time for the kickoff of the 2008 college football season. So while Athlon and Street & Smith and Sports Illustrated and ESPN and Fox Sports and everyone else and their mothers are putting up their own college football previews, here is a unique view of the upcoming college football season. Most importantly, it comes with the following disclaimer: I am biased. I have no problem admitting that. I will never predict Ohio State to win the national championship (although after the last two years, isn't that just being reasonable?) and I will never predict that UMass will lose a game. Well, almost never. SO, without further ado, this years top 25:

#1: Georgia - I was very excited to see both the coaches and writers get this one right. Anyone who saw this team at the end of last year knows that this is a smart pick. That being said, I'm not sure the Miami Dolphins could go unbeaten against this schedule. Borderline unfair, though if anyone can do it, Knowshon Moreno, Matthew Stafford and UGA can.

#2: USC - Pete Carroll and Jim Tressell like to play tough games. Remember a few years ago when the Trojans had a home and home with Auburn? Well, he's at it again with a September 13th game against Ohio State. This year's game is in LA, which is huge, because Mark Sanchez probably isn't ready to play in the 'Shoe just yet.

#3: Florida - Think about the games this team won and lost last year. They lost to LSU, barely, in Baton Rouge. They lost to Auburn (again) at home on a last second field goal. They lost to Georgia in that bizarre team-dance-party game in Jacksonville, and they were a total no-show for the Citrus Bowl, or whatever the Citrus Bowl is called now. Fix a few things, and this is a powerhouse team with Tebow and Percy Harvin.

#4: Missouri - People don't know how good Jeremy Maclin is because Missouri was on TV an embarrassingly small amount last year. The kids a freak of speedy nature. Oh, and that Chase Daniel kid isn't too bad at getting him the ball. Only question marks will be at tailback.

#5: Ohio State - Okay, I can't justify knocking this team down any further. James Laurinaitis and Malcolm Jenkins are the best in the country at their positions. However, did anyone else see Terrelle Pryor announce his decision to attend "The University of Ohio State"? Fortunately they have good tutors at Ohio State, who can help him out just like they've helped out other star freshmen.

#6: West Virginia - This would probably be my #1 team in the country if Steve Slaton had stayed. I don't actually think that the departure of Rich Rodriguez will have much of an impact this year, because the players they have can run the spread offense, and they will continue to have that type of offense in year one After Rich. Even without Slaton or Owen Schmidtt, Pat White will have a great year, and if Noel Devine can carry the ball 15-20 times a game without getting hurt, this is a dangerous team.

#7: Oklahoma - Sam Bradford is great, and he's got a plethora of talent around him (DeMarco Murray, Juaquin Iglesias, Allen Patrick). However, this team has really blown it in big games lately. They've lost two of three to Texas, and are getting embarrassed in BCS games.

#8: Texas Tech - This team will probably score 52 points per game and allow 30. That's a great recipe if your goal is to win 10 games, it's not a great strategy if you want to win a national - or even conference - championship. They also have one game I fear they may be overlooking in Lubbock.

#9: Auburn - The first of the Tigers is Tommy Tuberville's bunch. These guys are incorporating a new spread offense this year, so it should be interesting to see how that pans out. Really though, isn't the SEC a crapshoot? I mean, if Auburn played Georgia ten times, Georgia would win six, maybe seven times. Don't you feel bad for Vanderbilt? ... Me neither.

#10: Wisconsin - One of only two teams with a realistic shot at beating the Bucks in Big Ten play this year (the other being Illinois). PJ Hill was a dump-truck running back his freshman year, then lost some weight and was more of a finesse back last season. Hopefully this year he can make the switch back and roll over OSU.

Hey, I told you I wasn't objective. Now, for the rest.

#11: LSU - I'm not putting a team without a quarterback in the Top 10. Oh, and GO APP STATE.

#12: Clemson - Everyone's saying this team is going to be great this year. Don't we say that a lot in August? Not so much in November? Yeah.

#13: Texas - Colt McCoy had his sophomore slip-ups, but he should be strong this year, although what's this about him having to split time at the position this year?

#14: South Florida - Matt Grothe has another year under his belt, and if USF can beat the Mountaineers for the third straight year, this team might crash the BCS.

#15: Illinois - Juice Williams has a lot more on his shoulders without Rashard Mendenhall.

#16: Arizona State - This team won a huge portion of its games in the second half last year, but with Cal and Oregon falling off this year, they should be able to break 10 wins again in 2008.

#17: South Carolina - Someone is going to emerge as a surprise team in this conference this year. I heard some "experts" on ESPN today picking Ole Miss to win eight games. I see SC winning nine. Just a hunch.

#18: Penn State - JoePa is catching some flack for not having control of his program. Seriously? JoePa is expected to have control of a hundred 18-24 year olds? The man is 81 years old for chrissake! Oy.

#19: Kansas - I'm being generous here, I really believe this team was a flash in the pan.

#20: Virginia Tech - Yes, they've lost a lot of athletes, but this team is always in the mix. An ACC title wouldn't surprise me at all.

#21: Tennessee - Always in the mix. And remember, this team, not Florida and not Georgia, won the SEC East last year.

#22: Alabama - I loved seeing this team fade last year. But Nick Saban has a year under his belt now, and I don't see it happening again.

#23: BYU - I hate admitting it. They're good.

#24: Pittsburgh - They've been disappointing ever since the hired Dave Wannstedt. I haven't seen much of Lesean McCoy, but a lot of people are very high on this guy and if his numbers are any indication, he is one hell of a player.

#25: Appalachian State - Tell me they don't belong. Do it.

So there's my top 25. And while Appalachian State isn't the only FCS team that deserves some mentioning here, they're clearly the most legit. Armanti Edwards is an absolute monster, and he'll be even better this year. LSU had better be ready for the Mountaineers, just as UGA had better be ready for Georgia Southern, just as Texas Tech had better be ready for UMass. Otherwise, it'll be 9/1/07 all over again.

Stay tuned, the US News College Rankings should come out this week, and you know I love those.

Mr. Shuttlesworth is BACK

2008-05-28T22:43:00.000-07:00

ESPN ran a column on Wednesday about how the Boston fans hadn't turned their backs on Ray Allen. Chris Sheridan was the author of the article that was trying to find a reason for the lack of criticism against Ray. His reasoning ranged from the fact that the C's have yet to trail in a series to the fact that Allen is on the better side of 32 years old.

"There's an old adage in the NBA that nothing ages faster than a shooting guard on the wrong side of his 30th birthday. So is that what we're seeing from the eight-time All-Star and 2000 Olympic gold medalist who will turn 33 this summer?"

I don't dislike Chris Sheridan one bit. In fact, he's one of the ESPN NBA columnists I enjoy reading. However, unlike Boston's fans, he turned on Ray a little too soon. Here is my theory on Boston's patience with Mr. Allen:

Boston sports fans are not one dimensional: These are people who grow up loving, and often playing several sports. We are fans of the Sox, Patriots AND Celtics (and then there are those guys who care about the Bruins or Revs or Cannons, but we won't get into that). The passion that the people of London put into rooting for Arsenal, we put into rooting for EACH team, we don't divide it.

Thus, we're used to being patient. The Red Sox won a World Series in 1918, then waited 86 years for the next. The New England Patriots didn't win their first championship as a franchise until February 3, 2002 (about 90 minutes before my Sweet 16th). We are professionals in patience as fans.

Beyond that, Terry Francona has exercised fans' patience by sticking with players through extremely long slumps. If anyone remembers last year, they'll remember how bad Julio Lugo and Dustin Pedroia were at points throughout the season. Ultimately, Lugo was a major contributor and Dustin was rookie of the year for a team that won a world championship.

We've learned. This is the new Boston sports fan.

And tonight, Mr. Allen came up big. 29 points, and led the Celtics to their biggest win perhaps since June 8th, 1986. I was four months old then.

Well done, Ray.

Also, I notice that you, sir, wore a sleeve. The most OCD shooter I've ever heard of wears a sleeve and then goes off... how about that. Ray is BACK baby.

So all the haters, a.k.a. Bill Simmons (bandwagoneer) can stop saying Ray is a useless liability to the C's.

Keep it up #20.

Can't wait for Friday night.

After a long hiatus...

2008-05-28T22:28:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it's been since bowl season. What can I say: It was my last semester in college. I was trying to finish strong and get a job (which I failed to do, by the way). Anyway, I recently posted a note on facebook, and I feel like it's worth putting up here as my first post back. So, here it is:

--

There are four days left before we, the class of 2008 graduate. At this time, I felt the need to get a bit nostalgic. So, here are the most vivid memories I have of my four years at the University of Massachusetts.

I will remember my first day coming here. I'd watched Mean Girls the night before in a hotel room.
I will remember giving some random guy from West Point named Joe Modugno a ride to East Longmeadow at 9 am with a hangover.
I will remember going to Belchertown with my best friend at this university, Matt Garland, in a car full of strangers, with a handle of cheap rum, and I will remember what a great night it was.
I will remember the Red Sox winning the 2004 World Series, and trying to run down to campus but only making it about 25 feet because I had strep throat.
I will remember 4/20 from freshman year, going down to Southwest with Matt, and throwing up. A lot.
I will remember "Alternative Spring Break" making me want to punch babies.
I will remember my friend Dan Lawner visiting, and then sleeping in a hallway while I rode a bike down a hill and ultimately broke my face.
I will remember screwing myself into living in Sylvan for a year.
I will remember Vince Young, who had nothing to do with UMass, making me respect Texas.
I will remember moving into North and thinking it was the greatest place on the planet.
I will remember Matt breaking his ankle in a pickup game, then the two of us wrapping it in duct tape and going out that night anyway.
I will remember going to UMass vs. UNH football twice in one fall, and winning both times.
I will remember performing Brahms requiem, and realizing it was the first time I'd ever seen my dad cry.
I will remember James Ihedigbo knocking the snot out of Armanti Edwards.
I will remember Stephane Lasme winning A10 player of the year, then getting the flu along with the rest of the team and bowing out of the A10 tournament.
I will remember drinking moonshine with my friends after a chamber choir concert.
I will remember drinking moonshine with my friends after a chamber choir concert again.
I will remember Sut Jhally making me feel bad about the world.
I will remember my most hated NFL franchise winning a Super Bowl on my 21st birthday.
I will remember making The Alter Ego, and it being awesome.
I will remember visiting NYU and Bowdoin, Syracuse and Northwestern, UVA and Michigan. Okay, so Michigan was more just passing through.
I will remember moving into my apartment, with Matt Garland and Joe Modugno, and thinking it was 50 times better than North.
I will remember my apartment being 40 degrees in February, and missing North.
I will remember Men's Lacrosse and Softball sophomore year, Football and Hockey junior year, and Men's Soccer senior year for making my school the school of not-quite-champions.
I will remember UMass vs. Florida, my first experience at Madison Square Garden and one of the best of my life.

I will remember Seven O's. Every form of Seven O's.
I will remember Mike Carnaroli's cookout. Actually, I will remember some of Mike Carnaroli's cookout.
I will remember Benjamin Bailey, Roger Rideout, Wayne Abercrombie, Stephen Olbrys, Bruce Geisler, Sut Jhally, Stephane Lasme, Gary Forbes, Steve Baylark, James Ihedigbo, Rasheed Rancher, Brandice Balschmitter, Sean Morris, Doc Schneider, Jon Quick, and anyone at this school who was real with me.
And I'll miss all of it.

Peace, I gotta study for my Jhally final.

--

So yo, that was a week ago. In case you're wondering, I nailed the test. Now that my days at the University of Massachusetts Amherst are done, let's move on to the Celtics run. AAAAHHHHH.

BCMess

2007-12-05T12:18:00.000-08:00

Several months ago I wrote an entry explaining ten ways college football could be improved. One of the selections I had was to keep the Rose Bowl a Pac 10 vs. Big Ten game. After the BCS selection show, I realize that I was as wrong as can be. The committee chose Pac 10 champ Southern Cal (as they should have) and Big Ten runner-up Illinois. Here's where this creates a problem: Teams ahead of Illinois, including the same Missouri team that beat the Illini this year, are going to non-BCS games with about a tenth the payout. The thing is, this year there was virtually no chance for the system to get anything right. For example, how do you determine that an SEC school with two losses (LSU) should be in the national title game, playing in their home state no less, while another SEC school with a nearly identical resume (UGA) goes to the Sugar Bowl to play the joke of the year?
And don't give me the old "but Hawai'i is the only school in the country without a loss!" nonsense. I'll put my life savings on the Dawgs in that game. This isn't last year's Boise State, this is a team with an arrogant coach and an overrated system-quarterback.
Anyway, there are a number of new problems that need to be addressed after seeing what happened with the BCS this year. First of all, the Big Ten can no longer play this "we can't play after mid-November! It's tradition!" game. Get the top two teams in the conference on a neutral field and force teams like Ohio State to validate what they've accomplished this year. Either that, or don't screw Missouri for having a 13 game season.
Consider this: The school Ohio State would probably have had to play in a Big Ten title game is Illinois. Illinois is the only school who beat the Bucks in the regular season, just like Missouri had their only regular season loss come to Oklahoma before their San Antonio rematch. It's pretty stupid that one team had to play the team that handed them their only defeat for a second time, while Ohio State got to chill out with their feet up.
Then again, what do I care? The real National Championship game is in two days in Chattanooga Tennessee.

Go App State.

Santos' Curtain Call

2007-11-21T21:51:00.000-08:00

Since the last posting on this blog, several things have changed in the college football landscape, both FBS and FCS. Boston College is now twice beaten, as is Oregon. Ohio State fell to Illinois, and all of a sudden the national championship game is likely to involve some combination of LSU, Kansas, West Virginia and Missouri. So as we enter the final games of the regular season, and then the conference championship games, we can reflect on what we've learned this year in the season of the upset.
First and foremost, both Kansas and Missouri are for real. Does this mean OU couldn't possibly win the Big XII Championship game 49-17? Nope, that is still a possibility. Of course, the Sooners aren't even guaranteed a spot in the game; but start to finish, even with debacles in Boulder and Lubbock, they've been the best team in the Big XII South. If they beat Oklahoma State in the Bedlam Bowl, they're in. If not, they'd need Texas to lose to A&M in College Station, and even then it's a 3-way tie with some whacky tie-breakers. I'm not going to even try to figure that one out.
Second is that the Big Ten is bad. I mean, it's really bad. So bad that Michigan, who lost to Appalachian State and Oregon while giving up 73 points in those two games, was still alive for a Rose Bowl birth. So bad that Northwestern, a team that went 3-5 in the conference, lost to Duke. Losing to Duke in football is considerably worse than losing to Appalachian State. And ASU wasn't the only FCS school to beat a Big Ten team: North Dakota State handed it to Minnesota in the Metrodome too (NDSU is a transitional school right now, but still technically in the FCS). What does all of this mean? That these bowls are entirely possible:
Rose Bowl: Arizona State 31 Ohio State 17
Citrus Bowl (Capital One... whatever): Florida 49 Michigan 7
Outback Bowl: Auburn 24 Wisconsin 10
Alamo Bowl: Missouri 46 Penn State 6
Champs Sports Bowl: Clemson 28 Iowa 0
Motor City Bowl: Central Michigan 24 Michigan State 16
Sun Bowl: Oregon State 35 Northwestern 13
The thing that sucks? Every single school in the Big Ten is bowl eligible except Minnesota! That's because the 10th place team in the Big Ten went 3-5 in the conference. I say the NCAA boycotts Big Ten schools in bowls. Do I hate Ohio State and Michigan that much? Apparently. Have a nice life, Lloyd Carr!
Moving on. Let's talk championship subdivision for a moment. Remember the whacky tie breakers that would be needed to figure out the Big XII North champ if the chips fall a certain way? Well, the CAA had that this year. Richmond and UMass both finished 9-2 overall, 5-1 against common opponents, 7-1 in the conference (they did not play one another), and 0-1 against FBS teams. I didn't understand how they figured this one out, but UMass got the automatic bid to the 1-AA Playoffs (for simplicity's sake). Richmond not only got a bid as an at-large, but a home game as well. Delaware will host Delaware State (more on that later), and James Madison and UNH are also in the party. That means that a total of five CAA schools are in the 16-team field, including a four-loss team in New Hampshire. When Ricky Santos and the Cats lost at UMass a couple weeks ago, I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one who thought that was the final nail in the coffin. But bravo to the selection committee for giving them an invite. That's a team that could give Northern Iowa a scare. Anyway, without further ado, my games to watch this weekend (both divisions).
FBS:
#2 Kansas vs. #4 Missouri (at Kansas City)
Yep, this is the battle for the Big XII North. Who would've thunk it. I watched the Hawks drop 76 on Nebraska a couple weeks ago, which was incredibly impressive until I realized that 76 on Nebraska's D is like 30 on Oklahoma's. Nonetheless, both offenses are awesome. Todd Reesing vs. Chase Daniel, and the victor might be earning a trip to New York.
Kansas 38 Missouri 35

#8 Virginia Tech at #16 Virginia
The most meaningful Commonwealth Classic in a LONG time, and certainly the biggest since Tech joined the ACC. No team has more "what ifs" than UVA, whose two losses have come to Wyoming in the season opener, and NC State. Tech lost that early game to LSU in a rout, and the heartbreaker to Matt Ryan and Boston College. If the Hokies win, they'll get a rematch with BC in Jacksonville. If not, it'll be Hoos and Eagles for a trip to the BCS.
Virginia 20 Virginia Tech 17

Arkansas at #1 LSU
The Battle for the Golden Boot looks lopsided, but it isn't. The thing is, no one can run on LSU, but no one can stop Darren McFadden (or Felix Jones for that matter). Something's gotta give, and if you know Darren McFadden's game, you know better than to doubt him. A damn shame this game isn't in Fayetteville.
Arkansas 30 LSU 24

#6 Georgia at Georgia Tech
Good, Clean, Old-Fashioned Hate has to be the best name of a rivalry game. This year, Reggie Ball isn't around to win it for the Dawgs (for those of you who forget, Ball was the GT quarterback who threw the ball away on fourth down in a loss to UGA). However, that won't make much of a difference. It's a shame Tashard Choice didn't have a team around him this year.
Georgia 37 Georgia Tech 10

Alabama at #25 Auburn
The only game that might be a bigger rivalry in major college football is Ohio State and Michigan. Unfortunately, neither of these teams is especially this good. I mean, Alabama lost to Louisiana-Monroe last week. I'm pretty sure Bobby Boucher left that school for South Central LSU, but I can't quite recall. Anyway, I'm excited about the possibility of Nick Saban not having a winning season.
Auburn 31 Alabama 17

FCS:
#16 UNH at #1 Northern Iowa
Northern Iowa was dominant this year. No one played better from start to finish than the Panthers. You know how the Cy-Hawk Trophy is played between Iowa and Iowa State to basically determine the college football championship of the state? Well, Iowa State won this year, but they weren't so fortunate against UNI, the actual champs of the Hawkeye State. The thing is, if any team can have a total explosion in a game, it's New Hampshire. Ricky Santos beat THREE bowl subdivision teams in his time at UNH (Rutgers in 2004, Northwestern in 2006, Marshall in 2007), so there's no question he can handle high profile opponents. It's not likely to happen, but if it does, a UMass UNH rematch is possible in two weeks. Also, remember that when UNH was the #1 seed in 2005, it was Northern Iowa who knocked them off in Durham. Let's see if the 'Cats can return the favor.
New Hampshire 35 Northern Iowa 30

#12 Fordham at #5 UMass
This game is totally uninteresting. Yes, Fordham has won six of seven, but if UMass doesn't win by two touchdowns or more I will be completely shocked.
Massachusetts 41 Fordham 10

#9 Delaware State at #8 Delaware
By far the most interesting game of the weekend. In 1891, Delaware established "The State College for Colored Students". In 1947, that school became Delaware State College, and finally Delaware State University in 1993. The school's football program has been around for decades, yet for some reason has never been able to get their fellow state university on their schedule. Not once have the two schools, the 1st and 2nd largest in the state, played one another. They are located less than an hour apart, and are the two main public institutions in the state. So why, when DSU has tried repeatedly to play the University of Delaware, has a game never been played between the two? To quote ESPN's Jeff Pearlman; "The University of Delaware's persistent refusal to face Delaware State University in football is cowardly, pig-headed, self-righteous and, worst of all, oozing with racism." Somehow, BC and UMass manage to play every few years. Forget that we aren't in the same conference, we're not even in the same division! Somehow Georgia and Georgia Tech get it done annually. Amazing, isn't it?
Well, DSU finally got the game, but it wasn't up to Delaware. Once again, a great job by the selection committee. I hope I'm not alone in cheering on the Hornets this weekend, and it won't have anything to do with UD's football players.
Delaware State 30 Delaware 28

Enjoy the games as well as the Turkey everyone.

Who lives up to da hype? Halo 3 and BC

2007-10-09T09:32:00.000-07:00

Okay, so a few games have come out in the past couple months that look totally awesome. But seriously, if you've played through the Halo series, and you can tell me that anything tops Halo 3, I might smack you in the mouth. That isn't to say Halo 3 is the best, but rather that I am opinionated, and I love a good franchise. Speaking of which, I still have not yet played Metroid Prime 3: Corruption yet, and that definitely looks awesome. So who knows, maybe I'm totally wrong. My roommate Matt claims that BioShock is better than Halo 3. Matt doesn't get it. But enough about video games, there are more important things to discuss.
How about them Stanford Cardinal! 40 point underdogs to USC in a game that somehow wasn't picked up by ESPN or FSN (sliding to VS.) and they pull off the upset. Unbelievable. Jim Harbaugh (who took some shots at Pete Carroll prior to the season) has plenty to squawk about now. And you know what the amazing thing is? USC's loss might not have even been the worst one in LA on Saturday night! That's right, the Notre Dame Fightin' Irish beat the totally inept Bruins, spoiling the possibility of ND going 0-8 to start the year. Dear UCLA: Fuck yourselves. If they go 8-4, I hope they opt out of bowl consideration. You don't deserve it when you play as inconsistently as they do.
Andre Woodson blew it against South Carolina (three HUGE turnovers), John David Booty threw four picks, and Ray Rice's Knights got up-ended again. DeSean Jackson and Matt Ryan are officially the favorites for the Heisman going into the second half of the regular season. Speaking of which, how crazy is it that a lot of schools are already six games in. Seems like the season just started.And speaking of Matt Ryan, the BC Screaming Golden Eagles are now #4 in the polls, which is exactly where UMass is in 1-AA. Explain this to me. UMass is undefeated in 1-AA, and in their only game against a 1-A team, they played a national championship contender tight for four quarters. We dropped to fourth. I know I ranted about this already, but it pisses me off.
Also, has a Texas vs Oklahoma game ever been as overlooked as the one this past weekend? Seriously. And on an even more bonkers note, it isn't OU and Texas atop the Big XII... but Kansas and Missouri! And the Big East? Not Louisville and West Virginia, but South Florida and Cincinnati! What the hell is going on?
UMass. 2007 National Champions.

#4 UMass... Go Figure

2007-10-02T11:02:00.001-07:00

Alright, so UMass went to BC (ranked #11/#12) and played one hell of a game. Actually, they played one hell of a half. At intermission, BC led 17-0, which was more or less what most people had been expecting. What they hadn't been expecting was for UMass, despite a ridiculous number of penalties and one very questionable overturned call, to make it a ball game in the second half. After two Liam Coen touchdown passes - one a bomb to Rasheed Rancher, the next a quick slant to Jeremy Horne who went all Dexter Jackson on the BC defense - UMass was down 17-14 and the Amherst faithful got the chance to make some noise. But after a long, penalty-aided drive by BC ended with a TD run by Andre Calender, and Coen went out with a knee injury, UMass finished themselves off. A drop on third down by Rancher, and a missed field goal by Chris Koepplin (his first of the year I might add, albeit from 46 yards) were the nail in the coffin. BC won 24-14.

In past years, this would have meant one thing: Absolute scrutiny for the top 15 team, and praise for the team from the lower division for having such a hard fought game. This year, what happens? BC shoots up to #7 in the polls (with help from all those above them who lost), and UMass - get this - FALLS from #2 in 1-AA to #4! They've put up over 30 on every 1-AA team they've played, and handled BC as well as any 1-A team all year, and they're at risk of losing home field for the 1-AA playoffs!

This is ridiculous. I love college football, but if we're judging everyone evenly, then lets even out the money, even out the schedules, and call everyone a winner. Of course, no one wants to do that, so then we move on to plan B. What is plan B?

UMass moves to the bowl subdivision. Otherwise it's going to be same-old same-old. No respect, I tell ya.

PS: How good is your new Heisman frontrunner, DeSean Jackson?

Wofford? How about UMass

2007-09-26T12:18:00.000-07:00

Know what the biggest upset last weekend was? Wofford College over Appalachian State. Hands down, no doubt about it -- anyone in 1-AA beating ASU this year is insane. That's how good the Mountaineers are. As you can imagine, I'm not done with my 1-AA ranting yet. But for now, on to this weekend's big games.

Games that look good but aren't:
#1 USC at Washington. I like Ty Willingham, and I like Washington, and I'd like him to be successful so that Notre Dame will feel stupid. However, this ain't happening.

Auburn at #3 Florida. This game, at the beginning of the year, had some serious hype. The Tigers were the only team to beat UF last year. However, this year they already have home losses to USF and a putrid Mississippi State team.

Games people should be talking about:
#6 Cal at #11 Oregon. The PAC10 will start to get some respect one way or another. If ABC shows some shitty ACC game instead of this, I will lose it. This game may feature the nations most electrifying player (DeSean Jackson) and its most underrated quarterback (Dennis Dixon).

#5 West Virginia at #18 USF: Matt Grothe of South Florida is also in the conversation with Dixon for most underrated QB. In fact, Dixon, Grothe, and WVU's Pat White are three of only six quarterbacks in the country without a pick.

My game:
Okay, so I'm a homer, and I'm more of a homer for UMass than I am for any other team I've ever rooted for. That being said, I think Saturday could be the day. UMass has played eight division 1-A opponents in its history, and has lost eight times. However, they play just a little better each time around. Last season, the Minutemen traveled to Navy, and a late fumble by Matt Lawrence cost them dearly in a 21-20 loss to the Midshipmen. Navy went on to finish the regular season 9-3.
This year, Lawrence is our go to guy. Think he's hungry for redemption? I'd say so. Now the obvious counter-argument is, "You got BC at a baaaaad time". Well, maybe so, but I wouldn't want it any other way. The #11/12 team in 1-A vs. the #2/2 team in 1-AA. Well, correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a similar matchup almost four weeks ago at the most famed stadium in college football (sans Rose Bowl). Yeah... let me refresh your memory.
So this weekend, I'll be in Chestnut Hill, section PP, wearing the maroon #84. I'll be there not to see my school get cremated by BC. I'll be there to see them pull off the biggest win in school history, including the win over Adrian Peterson's Georgia Southern team in the 1998 National Championship Game. I'll be there to see UMass beat a school from the flashy ACC, carrying 85 scholarship players to our 63. I'll be there to see what no one in America is predicting. Go ahead, read the previews. "Boston College's next three opponents are UMass, Bowling Green and Notre Dame. Look for BC to start 7-0." Guess what, we aren't Bowling Green, who struggled with Temple. We aren't Notre Dame, who have been outscored about 1,000 to 3 this year. We are UMass, and we have a good football team.

That's what I'm looking for.

Go U.

Winners, losers, and cheaters.

2007-09-12T21:08:00.000-07:00

College football has its first awesome weekend coming up. At least, I hope it does. Perennial powers collide when Notre Dame visits the Big House at 3:30, and then again when Florida State plays at Colorado at 10. Oh... wait... those teams all suck.
On to the good games.
Tennessee at Florida: It's is a game I'll probably watch for 8 minutes, then get so disgusted with that I throw a baseball through my television. I am frigging sick of Florida, and I know I'm not alone there. That being said, they are definitely better than Tennessee, plus they just own this game. The pick: Florida by 10.
Ohio State at Washington: UW beat Boise State last weekend to end the longest winning streak in the nation. Unfortunately, Boise State is basically the Ian Johnson show this year, so I'm not terribly impressed. I will be if they can win this Saturday. I'll also be thrilled. Hell, I'm takin' 'em. The pick: Washington by 1.
Arkansas at Alabama: I'm really going to enjoy this. Why? Because I can't stand Nick Saban. Don't get me wrong, I think he's as good a coach as there is in the country, but I also think he's an idiot in terms of his decisions on leaving a good situation at Michigan State, then leaving a great one at LSU. Finally he realized that he belongs in the SEC, not the AFC. Still, I'll enjoy seeing Darren McFadden shred his defense. The pick: Arkansas by 14.

Louisville at Kentucky: When you look at the best quarterbacks in the country, a few guys just have to be on the list. Matt Ryan, Pat White and John David Booty definitely, Colt McCoy, Colt Brennan and Tim Tebow probably, and maybe a Nate Longshore here and an Armanti Edwards (yup) there. However, two guys who have to be near the top are Brian Brohm and Andre Woodson. These guys are nice. The problem is, Kentucky's defense is okay, and UL's is frigging atrocious. The pick (UPSET SPECIAL): Kentucky by 7.
USC at Nebraska: This could be a great game. USC could also win 56-10, but judging by how poorly they played against Idaho, I wouldn't count on it. Dear Trojans: Having 9 good running backs isn't better than having two great ones. The pick: USC by 13.
Boston College at Georgia Tech: I really would like BC to start 4-0 so that UMass can make an Appalachian State-esque splash on September 29th, but I just don't know if they can win this game. Tashard Choice is just straight narsty, plus the game is in Atlanta. Hey, what's up with BC playing three ACC games in the first three weeks? Not to mention two of them against the defending ACC champion and runner-up? The pick: GT by 4.

As promised, there is also the loser list. Meaning that there are some games this weekend that are just unfathomably terrible. Here are the worst of the worst in 1-A. No picks here, sorry.
Temple at UConn: Temple lost 42-7 against Buffalo last weekend. That was Buffalo's third win in the past two seasons. Temple also doesn't have a stadium. Too bad the Big Five don't do football. Otherwise Villanova would get to smack the Owls around too.
Illinois at Syracuse: I don't know about the rest of you, but I remember a time when waking up on a Saturday meant turning the TV on around noon and seeing ESPN+ showing Donovan McNabb run the option with Kyle McIntosh. That team was nasty. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Eastern Kentucky at Western Kentucky: Again, I give props to WKU for making the leap to 1-A, and they seem to be doing an okay job. But seriously; who the hell are they playing? Last weekend they beat West Virginia Tech by 87 points. That's not a typo folks, it was 49-0 in the first quarter. Ridiculous.
Notre Dame at Michigan: One of these two teams will be 0-3 by Saturday evening. Here's the matchup: Irish running game (F) vs. Michigan's run defense (F). Irish passing game (F) vs. Michigan's pass defense (F). Michigan's running game (B+) vs. Irish running defense (D-). Michigan's passing game (C) vs. Irish passing defense (D). Looks like Michigan should take this one. If Mike Hart weren't playing, ABC would seriously have to consider pulling this game in favor of whatever the best Ivy League matchup is.

And finally, the cheaters. A moment for me to express myself.

For the past half dozen years or so, the suspicion of players using performance enhancing drugs to gain an advantage on the field has gone from occassional mutterings to the full-fledged outcry and demand that players be banned from their sport. Through this entire time, I held the comfort of knowing that surely it was only guys like Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, Justin Gatlin, David Boston and Shawne Merriman who were doing these substances. Never would such a shadow be cast over my beloved Red Sox or Patriots. Until it happened.
Rodney Harrison did it. He did it, and then he admitted it, and now he is serving his suspension. And to me, it isn't enough. I actually have my own Harrison jersey, though I'll probably throw it in the fireplace the next time I dig it out of my closet. There is only one thing worse than losing in my opinion, and that is cheating. Actually, cheating and lying is the worst combination, but cheating alone is still about as severe an offense as there is in these games. Rodney Harrison will now forever be under suspicion, even though he claims to have only used the substance for a short time. He deserves that suspicion, and more. In fact, I'd say Bill Belichick should release him. At least I had originally thought that, until it came out that he, too, is a cheater.

Yes, the Patriots had someone on the sidelines videotaping Jets defensive coaches signaling in plays. This is about as blatant an offense as there is. The NFL confiscated the tape and confirmed what the Pats have been doing. About as "caught red-handed" as it gets. This turns my stomach. Maybe it's pathetic, that in an offseason that saw Pac Man Jones participate in a strip club melee that resulted in a man being paralyzed, and Michael Vick plead guilty to sponsoring illegal dog fighting, that I am so disgusted by stealing plays. But that is where I stand. I would rather lose than cheat.
Any day.

A Quick Comment on Appalachian State vs. Michigan

2007-09-02T20:44:00.000-07:00

Okay, so everyone's explanation for what happened in Ann Arbor yesterday is, "Lloyd Carr isn't producing, and Michigan was unprepared". I want to make sure that at least someone puts this in writing, so here it goes:

Appalachian State is a great football team. Armanti Edwards is a great football player. ASU won championships the last two years (and will probably do it again this year) because they are a good team, not because they're a 1-AA (or FCS) school. If they joined the ACC today, they would beat a handful of teams in that conference. If they played Michigan 5 times, would they more than once? No, they wouldn't. But it's no more absurd than a team from the MAC beating a team from the Big Ten. Those kids can play.

Everyone got it? Good.

Also, quick congrats to Clay Buchholz for his no hitter against Baltimore. Clay has big balls.

And UMass... awful performance against Holy Cross. 57 penalties and 12 turnovers. Fortunately they were playing a school from the Patriot League so everything is okay. BC in t-minus four weeks.

This is known as "The Happies"

2007-09-01T07:56:00.000-07:00

Happy opening day to all. Big, big Saturdays in Berkeley, South Bend, Chestnut Hill, and especially Blacksburg.

Personally, I'll be heading a tailgate at the UMass vs Holy Cross game (as well as attending) at 11:30. Should be a good game, and by good I mean not-close-with-the-good-guys-on-top.

I have plenty to say about a cetrain Patriots safety later, so if you want my first real thoughts on performance enhancers (I've stayed away from it during Bonds' last month or two), stay tuned.

Enjoy the games everyone, and sorry again about a lack of updates.

Year 1 After JaMarcus (psst: who cares?)

2007-08-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

Major college football begins its 139th season tomorrow, and unlike most seasons there will actually be some teams worth watching on the opening Thursday. Funny thing is, a lot of schools haven't started classes yet. I'm sure that will keep fans in Starkville, Mississippi from packing Davis-Wade Stadium to see MSU vs. LSU... Not. Okay, suddenly the new thing in the SEC is to have a conference game in August. It's never going to be a great game, but it will be one worth watching. I can't recall if it was last year or two years ago, but they started with South Carolina playing Miss. State when people were interested in seeing how the SC offense would look. This year we get a sneak peak at #2 LSU in year 1 A.J. (after JaMarcus).

Fortunately for fans of college football, that's only one of four games involving ranked teams on opening Thursday. Another involves a team I had a chance to watch very closely last fall, #16 Rutgers University hosting Buffalo. Yeah, that's the State University of New Jersey against the State University of New York. This one won't be close.The Big East has another ranked team, #10 Louisville against 1-AA doormat Murray State. How much of a pansy do you have to be to schedule a game like that? I mean, the guys played a home-and-home with Miami earlier in the decade, so I can't really say it's bush-league, but Murray State? Come on.

#24 Boise State is playing a similarly ridiculous game against Weber State. As Sports Illustrated once told us, "That's weeeeeeeber, with a long eeeeeeee". Ian Johnson is really all alone with this team, with Jared Zabransky, Jerard Rabb and Drisen James all gone. Boise and Rutgers somehow don't warrant any television coverage, while Tulsa and Louisiana-Monroe can be seen on ESPN2. This is why Disney should not run the biggest sports entity on the planet.

Because then we wind up with things like "The Bronx is Burning"

A really crummy update.

2007-08-27T15:28:00.000-07:00

Google has optimized Blogspot for Windows. Specifically, they've optimized it for Internet Explorer.

I know -- not good.

Anyway, I'm not going to be on a PC for a while, so articles are going to be without hyperlinks or pictures (maybe) until I get back to UMass. Sorry.

On a happier note, today is the 21st birthday of Kevin M. Wolfson. Kev is a 2004 alumnus of THE Belmont High School and is in his final year as an engineering student and collegiate cyclist at Dartmouth College. He is also capable of decapitating an ornery 390 pound bengal tiger with his bare hands. Happy birthday Mr. Wolfson.

Also a nice note: Team USA faced their first real test of the FIBA Americas Championships last night against Brazil. Actually, it was supposed to be their first test. Brazil has one budding star (Leandro Barbosa), one very solid big man (Nene) and one kid who clearly has game but hasn't appeared in the the NBA yet (Thiago Splitter). However, team USA had absolutely no trouble with this batch and LeBron, Melo, Kobe and company took care of business, 113-76.

USA begins bracket play tonight. This is where they get their shot at Puerto Rico and, eventually, Argentina (though ARG only has Luis Scola. No Ginobili, no Noccioni, no Oberto). Stay tuned.

We're doing Mozart in December!

2007-08-24T06:58:00.000-07:00

The UMass Department of Music and Dance announced today that there will be a performance of Mozart’s Requiem by the UMass Chamber Choir, University Chorale, Symphony Band and Orchestra in December. The venue at this point is St. John’s Church in Northampton (the site of one of three performances of Brahms’ Requiem last year). Next week I’ll be meeting with the choral director Deanna Joseph and a few others to discuss the logistics of the semester, and I plan to express my desire to move the performance to either Greene Hall at Smith College (if they want to keep it in Northampton) or to UMass. A thousand bucks should do the trick, right? Stay tuned for more info on this as it becomes available. I’ll hyperlink to the actual event once it’s up on the UMass website.

Also, a belated congratulations to Thomas Cole, who was named interim chancellor at UMass. Cole comes to us via Clark Atlanta University, a historically black college which he has been associated with for most of his career (including when Clark and Atlanta U were two separate schools). Welcome, Dr. Cole.

Lots of hoop news

2007-08-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Fortunately for team USA, they can make roster changes between the FIBA Tournament of Americas and the actual Olympics. This is opportunity number one for the U.S. to qualify, and almost certainly the only one they’ll need. The team, as mentioned earlier, dropped Kirk Hinrich and Shane Battier in order to pick up “pure shooters” Mike Miller and Michael Redd. Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t Mike Miller the same guy who wears a women’s headband during games to keep his mop from getting in his eyes? And doesn’t he reek at basketball? Oh, fantastic. Just what the doctor ordered.
Some countries, like Argentina, aren’t sending their best players to the FIBA event, which is in Las Vegas for one reason or another, again making it easier for the U.S. to lock up a spot in Beijing. Team USA started the qualifying yesterday with a 43-point rout of Venezuela. Other opponents, such as Leandro Barbosa’s Brazil team and Carlos Arroyo’s Puerto Rico will make for stiffer competition. However, for the time being, the US looks pretty good. This is largely due to the presence of good shooters (Michael Redd, Kobe Bryant) and good defensive players (Kobe again, Deron Williams, and even though I don’t love him on this team, Tayshaun Prince). Last night Kobe and Redd combined to knock down 5 of 7 from downtown, proving that they’re capable of scoring from deep with the 12-seamed international ball. Miller, meanwhile, was 2-for-8 from deep and continues to look like an uglified Rebecca Lobo on the floor. Again, it will be easier to gauge how these guys are doing once they play some of the tougher countries. Stay tuned.
Among other countries, Leandro Barbosa dropped 30 (albeit on 9-for-26 shooting) to help Brazil beat Steve Nash-less Canada. Uruguay beat Panama 88-84 despite a 14 point effort from UMass’s own Gary Forbes! Good luck to Gary and please work on your free throws. Those were killer last year (1/5 last night). Carlos Arroyo went 0-for-10 from the field including 0-for-6 from deep and Puerto Rico lost to a bunch of no-namers from Mexico. Keep an eye on these games, especially when Argentina starts playing. Not because they’re any good, but because I want to see if they come out wearing these atrocities:Speaking of atrocious things – remember when Kentucky bailed on UMass and their early-season meeting? If not, the story is here. Basically UK and UMass signed a contract for a home-and-home series last year. The Minutemen went to Rupp arena on December 22, 2006 and lost 82-68. This year the Wildcats were scheduled to return the favor in a game at TD Banknorth Garden. Except, Kentucky bought out the game for 50,000 bucks. This will wind up costing UM about a quarter of a million dollars. Well – it’s not quite the same, but the University of Houston has agreed to fill the vacancy in our schedule created by Kentucky’s selfishness. Thank you, UH – and does anyone else see this as a great opportunity for adidas (who outfits both schools) to have a throwback night? Come on, you know you want it.And finally some good news from Oakland. The Golden State Warriors have officially added Stephane Lasme to their roster. Lasme will make the minimum this year, with a second year team option making the contract total about 1.14 million bills for two years. Congratulations, Stephane. Get ready to run your ass off with those guys.

I hate spending money -- I don't hate football

2007-08-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

So I took my already overpriced Honda Accord in for its 80,000 mile service yesterday and got some pretty standard work done. New brake pads, CV boots, a new battery and a little work on the door locks. Imagine my surprise when they plopped a $1,500.00 bill on my lap. Thanks, fellas! I really appreciate it! Herb Chambers seems like a cool guy with good taste in cars, but that’s probably the last time I have E.Honda serviced at one of his places. On the bright side, it was immaculate when I picked it up, which is never the case when I take it to a local place. Also, I got the chance to look at the cars in the showroom (this is on Comm Ave, where they have Infiniti, Honda, Mini, BMW, Saab and Porsche). Although it was on the top floor of the adjacent building, it appeared as though there was an old Porsche 959 on the third floor of the BMW/Porsche building. For those of you who don’t know about it, the 959 is the illest car on the planet. Once I graduate and am making $900,000 a year at 24, I’ll look into getting one.
Speaking of graduating, we are now officially nine days away from the start of college football. Who’s excited? This guy sure as hell is. To everyone headed back to school at (and I’m not hyperlinking this many damned schools) Alabama, Auburn, Arkansas, Clemson, Florida, FSU, Georgia, Michigan, MSU, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State, Rutgers, South Carolina, Southern Cal, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, or Wisconsin – be grateful. Those of us at UMass, UNH, Appalachian State, Youngstown State, James Madison, Texas State and Richmond wish we had what you have. In case you didn’t get it, the first schools are the ones where going to a football game is awesome, the second set are schools where it should be but isn’t. And if you go to another 1-A (FBS) school and are currently saying “Hey, what about [Cincinnati, BC, WaSU, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota]”, just realize that no one envies you.
Clearly I had nothing relevant to write about today, so here’s to Thursday -- I'll have a bit to discuss regarding the FIBA Tournament of Americas.

Saying goodbye to the OB (Warning, this is the least interesting thing I've ever written)

2007-08-21T13:02:00.001-07:00

After seventy years in the not-terribly-friendly confines of the Orange Bowl, Miami Hurricane football is moving on out. They will join other elite programs like Temple University, Minnesota, Pittsburgh and USF as the schools too cheap to build and maintain their own stadiums. Much like the others have done with their local NFL Teams, the Canes will invade the space already occupied by the Miami Dolphins. Not only that, but the Florida Marlins – the only franchise in professional sports with a perfect post season series record – also play at Dolphin Stadium (seriously… in their history they’ve only made the playoffs twice, and have won the World Series as many times). So aside from this meaning that serious conflicts between the baseball and football teams will be inevitable for the next 25 years, there are many other issues “The U” might want to consider as it transitions out of their soon-to-be-rubble horseshoe.
(Editors’ Note: Speculation is that if and when the Orange Bowl comes down, a new stadium will be built in its place specifically designed for baseball and will be the new home of the Marlins.)
The Orange Bowl has seen some pretty good teams and some pretty good games over the past several years. It saw two of the three “wide right” games against Florida State (and the one and only “wide left”). It hosted what is widely considered the greatest game of all time in the 1984 Orange Bowl (1983 season), where Miami beat Tom Osborne’s Nebraska team on a last minute stop of a two point conversion to win the national title. It was where Doug Flutie’s Hail Mary pass to Gerald Phelan some how gave BC an improbable birth in the Cotton Bowl. It’s an icon in college football, there is no denying that. I guess Miami decided it was just time to move on.
But why? It doesn’t really seem logical to me. First and foremost, the city of Miami wants the Canes to stay. They offered to back renovations of over $200 million (WHAT?!) for the OB just to keep the team from leaving. That’s enough money to fix every loose bolt, every creaky bench, every leaking sink, and they’d still have enough left over to put up a new jumbotron. They could basically turn the Orange Bowl into an upscale version of (insert other horseshoe style stadium here). Man, they must have really wanted out.
Additionally, how are they going to pack Dolphin Stadium when they can’t even get half the seats in the existing stadium filled? Dolphin Stadium, aside from being located in Miami Gardens, seats more people than OB, and that had already been an issue. In 2001, when Miami had one of the best college football teams ever assembled (don’t argue with me here – I don’t care if you went to ND, Oklahoma, Nebraska, FSU, USC, or anywhere else), they still didn’t fill the place. They failed to get 40,000 people into the stadium in three of six home games, and didn’t come close to capacity in five of six (the only one they sold out was against Washington, to whom they had lost the year before). How exactly is a currently mediocre team going to fill an out-of-the-way NFL facility?
I’m not as invested in this as it seems, in fact I don’t even like Miami football. However, the big time programs should play in their own houses. I know that the University is like eight miles from the Orange Bowl too, but at least that’s their place. Now they’re going to be playing at a stadium with another team’s name on it. It’s just not right, and you sure as hell wouldn’t see it from other colleges. Georgia Tech isn’t going to ditch Bobby Dodd for the Georgia Dome, Rutgers won’t move up to Rutherford, and Washington won’t be leaving Husky Stadium for Qwest Field, even though they were kind enough to host the Seahawks during construction. NFL stadiums hosting NCAA teams always has a lame atmosphere, and I fear Miami might see that when they make this move. Dolphin Stadium may be a hell of a lot nicer, but it can’t touch the Orange Bowl (or Michigan Stadium, Neyland, Ohio, Beaver, Lane, Kyle Field, Mountaineer Field, the Carrier Dome, Bronco Stadium, etc) for atmosphere.
Oh, and once again: The Princeton Review can bite me.

UMass gets no respect from Princeton Review

2007-08-21T07:39:00.000-07:00

The newest edition of “Princeton Review Best 366 Colleges” hits shelves today, and guess who’s taking a few unsolicited shots at the University of Massachusetts? That’s right, a bunch of asshole nobodies in New York (yep, that’s where Princeton Review is. It’s in New York. Not Princeton, New Jersey. It’s in New frigging York). In recent years a point of amusement in Amherst was that UMass was annually climbing the party school rankings, up to #9 in 2006 and #7 going into 2007. This year, however, Princeton Review has dropped UMass from that list, and instead has stuck us on a few less glamorous ones. Let’s take a look:

Long Lines and Red Tape: #17. This is one that I cannot really argue with. The lines at Whitmore for financial aid in September are about a mile long, and signing up for classes on Spire, though it has improved, can definitely make the blood pressure shoot up. Having dickheads like Michael Gargano running the campus doesn’t help too much either.

Their Students (Almost) Never Study: #5. Thanks, guys. So basically all those kids I see in the library with Red Bulls at 2:30 am on a Wednesday during midterms aren’t studying, they just feel like abusing their bodies. You’re right. We don’t even know how to read. Eat me.

Campus is Tiny, Unsightly, or Both: #12. There is a problem on the UMass campus with a lack of continuity between the buildings, meaning some have a very classic New England feel to them, and some are modern or even space-aged chic. That being said, the UMass campus is NOT unsightly at all.

Least Happy Students: #20. Right, we have the least happy students in the country. Go out to the campus pond on a sunny Friday afternoon and you won’t see 500 kids out there having the time of their lives. Really, we sit inside all day and cut ourselves. We lock ourselves in the bathroom, listen to emo music and cry because our school makes us so damn sad. Seriously, it’s depressing isn’t it?

I understand that with these sorts of things, someone is always going to be upset, but let’s get real. UMass is respected worldwide (#96 in US News, #45 in London Times, #102 in Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s global rankings, #53 in University Metrics’ G-Factor Rankings, #99 in Newsweek’s Top 100 Global Universities, and #124 in the QS World University Rankings). The Princeton Review is making it sound like it rests somewhere between a sewer and a maximum security penitentiary (although, in terms of state budget that’s pretty accurate). The point is that UMass Amherst has happy students who actually do study and enjoy the campus. Someone needs to back the school up, and it isn’t going to be Jack Wilson, so it might as well be me.

Also, in terms of credibility, Whitman College has the happiest students and Holy Cross is among the country’s most studious schools. Hey, Princeton Review, go swim in a pool of gasoline and then play with matches.

Perhaps a less angry tirade when I settle down later.

A really super duper sincere apology

2007-08-20T12:30:00.000-07:00

Okay, so due to public outrage, I hereby retire as someone who will ever mention anything about soccer. Admittedly uneducated on the subject, I took a few shots at MLS and specifically a few franchises that are currently losing money, such as the New England Revolution. Apparently there are more MLS fans who read this blog (six vehemently opposed the entry in the comments section) than there are in the Greater Boston area.
So in summary: You cats are right, the Houston Dynamo is a sweet name. Gillette Stadium is a great setting for a soccer game. The Colorado Rapids could totally take Chelsea. And finally, but most importantly, the LA Galaxy didn’t have to pay a British guy 250 million bucks to help MLS make the sport popular in the U.S., they just felt like supporting a former Spice Girl.
That’s it. From now on, just gridiron football, hoopla, maybe some baseball through October, video games, movies, and a few other random tidbits. That’s all I’m doing. Peace.

UMass actually beat Florida

2007-08-20T09:34:00.000-07:00

As promised, a tidbit on the unveiling of UMass’s new adidas football jerseys. The Minutemen changed the jerseys for all of their sports to adidas in 2005 with the exception of football and hockey, which had separate existing Nike contracts. Now that the contract has expired, the minutemen are wearing jerseys which are almost identical, but have three stripes instead of a swoosh. I have to admit that I’m a fan, especially because there is no longer the dumb loopy line under the back number (If I find a picture showing this I'll add it).
Unfortunate news today out of Virginia Tech, where two kids are in pretty rough shape after a carbon monoxide leak. This coming as students are just returning, having spent a summer reflecting on the shooting that occurred in the spring. Believe me; I’m not speaking in jest when I say this: Virginia Tech is developing a reputation as Tragic U. Fortunately the alumni we call “The Vick Family” is giving some comic relief.
Back to football, I recently saw a Boise State t-shirt which said the following: Boise State beat Oregon State, Oregon State beat USC, USC beat Arkansas, Arkansas beat Auburn, Auburn beat Florida. Therefore: Boise State, 2007 National Champions.
I like the logic here, as it implies that if you beat a team and they beat another, then it’s like you defeated both of those teams. Let’s take a look as how it works for boxing:
Lou Savarese beat Buster Douglas
Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson
Mike Tyson beat Trevor Berbick
Trevor Berbick beat Muhammad Ali
There you have it: Lou Savarese is simply the greatest. Of course there is a better way to look at this, and it’s back in college football:
UMass beat UNH
UNH beat Northwestern
Northwestern beat Illinois
Illinois beat Michigan State
State beat Pittsburgh
Pitt beat Cincinnati
Cincy beat Rutgers
Rutgers beat Louisville
Louisville beat Miami
Miami beat BC
BC beat Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech beat Wake Forest
Wake beat Ole Miss
Ole Miss beat Mississippi State
Miss State beat Alabama
Bama beat Hawaii
Hawaii beat Arizona State
ASU beat Washington
Washington beat UCLA
UCLA beat USC
USC beat Arkansas
Arkansas beat Auburn
Auburn beat Florida
Therefore: UMass, 2007 National Champions.
Amazing, ain’t it?

Superbad is Super-Freakin-Awesome

2007-08-20T07:10:00.000-07:00

So now that UMass football has held its media day and all of the preseason polls have been released, I was going to devote my first entry of the week to the maroon & white. However, after seeing both Superbad and Knocked Up this weekend, I have to share my thoughts on each. Here is my initial statement, starting with Knockage: Knocked Up is a fun movie with a sweet storyline which gets a little bit too “real” at times and doesn’t provide much in the way of side-slitting laughter. Superbad is a hilarious movie which should lead to the FCC or whoever controls this to take American Pie off the shelves of every video store on the planet because it is now so superfluous it’s not even funny. How’s that for a run-on?
Seriously though, my friend Anthony told me that Knocked Up was the best comedy ever. Do you know what I think after seeing it this weekend? I need to get help for Anthony. I need to have him see a doctor. This is nuts. There are so many moments throughout that movie that you just want to scream at the characters in the movie because it frustrates you so much to see the mistakes everyone keeps making. The movie critic website spill.com hits the nail on the head by pointing out that there are some things the viewer likes about the main characters and some things they really hate about the main characters. Perhaps the funniest scene is one that was actually deleted from the movie, where the doctor delivering Allison’s (Katherine Heigl) baby has a mini meltdown – seen here. It’s a good movie, but there are just a lot of components that make it less comedic. I’d give it three stars out of five, but I’m critical of this stuff and if a girl wanted to go see it, I’d go again. Then again, if a girl wanted to go see Underdog, I’d probably go. Because I haven’t had much luck with the ladies, much like the boys in…
Superbad. The funniest movie I’ve seen while in college, hands down. Funnier than Wedding Crashers or Talladega Nights or 40 Year Old Virgin. This movie is the real deal. If you want to laugh your face off, go see this. I’m so tempted to drop about 50 one-liners from the movie it’s scary. I’ll refrain, but just know that I saw it on Friday night and my stomach still hurts from laughing so hard. I refuse to give any spoilers. Just go see the movie. Do it. Go now. Seriously. Five stars.
Update on UMass’s new unis and other stuff later today.

It's the (43rd) Most Wonderful Time of the Year

2007-08-17T07:42:00.000-07:00

This is one of my favorite times every year, when a set of rankings comes out that are so thoroughly dissected by people all over the country, and so severely scrutinized by people whose schools are not on “the list”, that you wonder why we even bother. It isn’t the writers’ top 25 of college football, no. It is the US News and World Report top US Colleges. There is not a single set of rankings I take more seriously in the month of August than these bad boys. That isn’t saying much, but still, I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be left out of this one. Let’s break out our evaluation hats shall we?

Numero uno and nombre deux are, shockingly, Princeton and Harvard. This has been the case as long as I’ve been following these rankings, although they’ll occasionally flip positions or even be tied in some years. They’re always at the top for two reasons: they are incredibly competitive and they have loads of money. That’s right, the wealth of the school is taken into account (UMass is already screwed… we have one three-hundredth as much money as Harvard. That ain’t an exaggeration; it’s about $20 billion for the rich kids, $60 million for us). So we’ll consent to those schools being one and two, but how about the rest of the top ten? Well, first off, here’s the list:
1: Princeton
2: Harvard
3: Yale
4: Stanford
T-5: Penn
T-5: Cal Tech
7: MIT
8: Dook
T-9: Columbia
T-9: U Chicago
That’s right; I cut the Blue Devils no slack on any rankings page. They don’t deserve it. Other than my obvious gripe with their presence at number eight, I can’t really argue with any of these. Stanford should always be in the top five by default just based on how unbelievably spectacular Palo Alto is, and I’m always happy to see the locals (Harvard, MIT) get their due. After the top ten, here are the rankings relevant to yours truly, either because I have friends at the schools, or the school interests me, or because I just feel like rambling about nothing in particular:

11: Dartmouth
My friend Kevin is entering his senior year here, and every year I could depend on the Big Green making the Top-10. It would be nice to vicariously find myself among the elite of the country in something. I’m disappointed in you, Kevin. Your boys (and girls) are slipping.
T-14: Northwestern
Another school attended by a friend of mine. Dan “Dayne Train” Lawner (he used the nickname well before Dane Cook) is here. It appears as though the University of Chicago is establishing some distance as the premier school in the Windy City. This is unfortunate, because frankly no one cares about U Chicago.
T-14: John’s Hopkins
My sister is a 1997 graduate of JHU and my dad went to grad school here. That’s pretty much all I can say about the school. Go Jays.
21: California (Bizzerkley)
The first public school on the list. Does anyone else find it completely ludicrous that they found twenty schools better than this one? When I’m czar of the world, Cal will be top 5 every year, no questions asked. Sorry, Stanford – these cats (er… Bears?) are the real McCoy in the Bay Area.
T-23: Virginia
The second highest rated public school, and definitely one of my favorite schools in the country. I went down to UVA to visit my buddy Ross during spring break of 2006, and the place is unbelievable. Beautiful girls, beautiful campus, fun school.
T-25: UCLA
If I could go to any grad school in the country, this would be in my top ten. A public university in Westwood, California, and a good school at that? Sounds a little too good to be true.
T-25: Michigan
The Wolverines are slipping here, and not surprising. When you employ someone as deficient as Lloyd Carr as long as UM has, bad things are bound to happen.
27: Southern California
I feel like USC students have the same condescending opinions towards UCLA that Stanford kids have towards Berkeley. Well, guess what SC, you’ve been Punk’d (sorry, I didn’t need to go there).
34: NYU
Another personal favorite, and they seem to be around here in the list every year. My friend Pete essentially runs the school and I’m sure he’s pleased with where they are: Not so high that they start becoming flooded with bookworms, but not so low that coke-toting celebrities switch to USC.
T-35: Boston College
My archenemy, and the school that I wanted to go to from age 10 to 16 (before I got real and figured out that it wouldn’t happen).
T-38: Illinois
Another public that I’m a big fan of. Actually, my old man considered taking over the Aeronautical Engineering Department here. Not sure why anyone cares about that, but I just thought I’d throw it in.
T-50: Syracuse
I visited SU three times my freshman year, and I’ll say this: They have a great combination working for them much like UVA. A nice campus with pretty ladies, and going to sporting events is unbelievably fun. The only setback is… well… you’re in Syracuse, New York.
T-54: George Washington
The highest ranking school that rejected me. Wait a second, you mean I don’t get to pay $46,090 a year (that was actually what it was going to cost – and they advertised it) to go to school with a bunch of clove smoking hippies? I’m so sad. Not. I would have been much better off at a place like…
T-54: Maryland
Also a school that rejected me (so I guess it’s the co-first). UMD was actually my first choice, and I have to say, they let me down easy. A professor (Dr. Sylvester James Gates, a somewhat renowned string theorist) whom I mentioned in my application actually called my house to tell me he’d put in a word for me. I’ll always appreciate you, College Park.
T-57: Boston University
The third school of which I am a rejectee. These guys, unlike Maryland, were a bunch of pricks. They sent me a letter basically saying “just because you have ties to our school doesn’t mean you can waste our time”. Well, BU, go f*** yourselves. My SATs are actually higher than the school average, so eat me.
T-64: UConn
The fourth and final rejecter on the list (technically URI should be here too, but I didn’t apply there. They just sent me a rejection letter anyway because it was the chic thing to do at the time). They actually are now public enemy #2 after BC.
T-96: UMass
Up two spots from last year, the second straight year we’ve gone in the right direction. As long as we’re steering away from triple digits, I’m happy. Plus, hey, we should be in the top five in Party Schools when the new Princeton Review ratings come out (currently #7).

What needs to be kept in mind is that for every school that moves up, another moves down. In fact, if you look up the rankings on Google News, there are local papers from all over, griping about how Local State U has fallen two spots from last year. It’s fairly amusing, and might explain why US News does the rankings in August instead of September, when every college newspaper would piss and moan on their front page about how absurd it is that “Central Tech Valley Community College” is #395 and their school is #486.

Also worthy of note on the UMass front is that this year will be the school’s first without Chancellor John Lombardi, who has taken over the Louisiana State system. Lombardi was known for being a funding maniac who wanted to increase the school’s competitiveness, both of which might help explain the school’s improvement from the 2006 rankings (#105) to 2007 (#98) to now (#96). President Jack Wilson has now hired some cat named Thomas Cole, who is going to be Wilson’s puppet for a year. Fortunately, I’ll be gone before any real damage can be done.

I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this later.

A little football talk... nope, not that "football"

2007-08-16T09:40:00.000-07:00

So David Beckham did it. He finally played a decent amount in an MLS game and gave us a look at how he’ll manage playing here. The verdict? Damn son. Guy’s nice. Playing about half of the LA Galaxy’s match against DC United yesterday, Beckham had a goal and an assist to Landon Donovan and looked like he’ll be just fine playing here for the next five years. Of course, this leads to further questions about the impact Mr. Becks will have on the sport of football (soccer – we’ll just call it soccer) in the United States.

First and foremost is the issue of club names. There are some guys in the MLS who can downright play the game. There are obviously solid American players (Donovan, Clint Dempsey, Eddie Johnson) as well as foreign stars (Beckham is head and shoulders above, and then Christian Gomez, Jaime Moreno). The guys are real players, so why do the teams have Mickey Mouse names? Not all teams are guilty here, as the expansion franchises (such as Toronto FC, Real Salt Lake and Chivas USA) have done a nice job. But only one of the founding fathers of the league (DC United) has a name that is acceptable. Please, the New England Revolution? The Los Angeles Galaxy? I’m surprised Bechkam hasn’t demanded an immediate change to something manly, like “LA City”. Okay, that’s a terrible suggestion, but you get my point. Keep the good names, fix the rest. Personally, I’d go see an FC New England match, but I’m not paying money to see a team with “REVOLUTION” written in comic sans font across the front of the jersey. Speaking of which…

There is a major problem with a lot of the jerseys in MLS. I just checked Wikipedia and was appalled to learn that only two franchises in the MLS are currently profitable. Fortunately, the league is going in the right direction, unlike, say, the NHL. But still, that’s not great news for a league that has been around for some eleven years now. So a good question is; what’s a good way for a club to make money? Sponsorship, DUH! How to the European and South American clubs do it? Get a title sponsor, and have their logo on your jersey. It’s become the norm in soccer, and believe it or not, it actually looks 39 times better than the way clubs are doing it now. Well, most clubs. Again, some have it right (see: Toronto FC, DC United… this is becoming redundant). So I took a gander at the LA Galaxy jerseys to see if Beckham made a good choice in his move and, guess what: The team changed jerseys significantly upon his arrival! Seriously, they went from green and gold to navy and gold, got a title sponsor (Herbalife) and put the team seal on the shoulder. It looks really sharp, just as a soccer jersey should. Hopefully the rest of the clubs will follow suit. Suit… suit starts with S… you know what else starts with S?

Pre Beckham 2007 LA Galaxy Jerseys

Post Beckham 2007 LA Galaxy Jerseys

Soccer specific stadiums, or SSS’s for short. These are vital to the success of the league. Why? I don’t know. They just are. Apparently having one has helped LA become the most profitable team in the league though, so it must help. Plus they’re just so much more logical. You don’t want a stadium 5 times bigger than you need for various reasons. First of all, it looks pathetic to have 9,000 people sitting in an NFL stadium, as is the case at Gillette when the Revs are playing or in Kansas City for Wizards games. Plus, the idea of a team having its own venue is a draw in and of itself. If New England renovated Nickerson Field to have stands on each end and a total seating capacity of around 20,000, they’d do much better. A bunch of the teams have already made the switch, some are in the process (New York, Salt Lake), but others (NE, Kansas City) still need to hop on the bandwagon.

If Major League Soccer can make some of these improvements, and I think they will, I’ll start caring. Otherwise, I’ll just continue to cheer on my favorite English teams. Those, of course, are Norwich City (yeah… I’ll explain in a moment) and Liverpool. I’m a fan of the Carlsbergs ever since I educated myself about the Hillsborough Disaster, and I’m a fan of Norwich City because some guy in Malaysia talked me into it in 2005. I was trying to figure out which jersey to buy (they were all bootleg but looked very authentic) at his shop for around 40 ringets (7 bucks), and was initially going to go with Arsenal, but was talked out of it. Malaysians have an affinity for Manchester United, so he persuaded me to go with that one, but I view Man U as being the Yankees of club soccer (though I’ve been told that Chelsea is more like the Yanks in terms of buying whomever they want, and Man U is more like the Braves, whatever that means). Needless to say, I said no thanks. Being an apparent Manchester fan, this bothered the man, and he proceeded to convince me to buy a Norwich City jersey. It was sharp enough, and the corporate sponsor was Proton, a Malaysian company, so I figured it would make a nice souvenir if nothing else. After buying it, I got an English Premier League program and educated myself about the “Canaries”. Apparently in 2004 they won the 1st Division and were promoted to the premiership. Well, I didn’t have an English Premier League jersey for long. After 2005, they were relegated back to what is now the Football League Championship. Oh well, the faux jersey is still pretty nice, even if the ironed-on logo is decomposing.

Anyway, I don’t want this to turn into a Uni Watch rant, so I’ll cut myself off. Although before doing so, I’ll enlighten you all with this fun story about the Norwich club. Nothing quite like getting the runs at a team dinner.

Games of the year in college football

2007-08-15T08:37:00.000-07:00

Each year college football season somehow gets loaded up with these “must see” weekends. The result is that there are some Saturdays when it’s not even worth it to leave your couch, and others when you might as well be mowing your lawn. Here’s a look at the must see game from week to week in college football, as well as one less notable but still very interesting match up. In three cases, the weekend was just so loaded with great games that I had to include them all, so please forgive me for September 15th, October 6th and November 24th. Here they are:

Sept 1st:
Must see match-up: Tennessee at Cal: Last year, Cal was in the top ten to start the season and just got it handed to them in Neyland Stadium. This year the game is in Berkeley, where the Bears have a better shot against the Vols. Still, I’m very hesitant to take any Pac 10 squad not named USC over an upper tier SEC school.
Undercard: East Carolina at Virginia Tech: The Hokies’ first game since the tragic campus massacre. Many ACC schools are wearing memorial decals and patches for Tech, who will be using this as a tune-up for their next game in Baton Rouge.

Sept 8th:
Must see match-up: Texas Christian at Texas: TCU always seems to be a dark horse early in the year. This season they’re in the top 25 and play at Darrell Royal in week 2. As long as Mack Brown’s kids don’t overlook the Frogs, they should be okay, but this is a better match-up than people think.
Undercard: North Carolina State at Boston College: Tom O’Brien makes his return to Chestnut Hill. NC State actually upset the Eagles last year, so there will be plenty of motivation for BC to exact some revenge on the former Chuck Amato boys.

Sept 15th:
Must see match-up: No way am I picking just one game here. Tennessee at Florida, Notre Dame at Michigan, and USC at Nebraska are at the top of the list. However, I’ll be most interested in…
Undercard: Florida International at Miami: The rematch of last years brawl in OB, which saw 13 players ejected, 31 suspended, one color commentator (Lamar Thomas) fired, and Larry Coker even more on the hot seat. Should be entertaining, though it seems Randy Shannon has a better grasp of his players than Coker did.
Sept 22nd:
Must see match-up: Penn State at Michigan: The last time the Nittany Lions were in Ann Arbor, they suffered their only loss in 2005. It wasn’t without controversy, either. Lloyd Carr got two seconds added to the game clock on Michigan’s final drive, which ultimately bought them one extra play. Chad Henne hit Mario Manningham in the back of the end zone, and the rest is history.
Undercard: Temple at Bowling Green: This is the only opponent the Owls have beaten in a long, long time. There’s nothing better than two truly awful football teams going toe to toe in a battle for MAC doormat-ness.

Sept 29th:
Must see match-up: Auburn at Florida: When the Gators went to Jordan-Hare last season, it was the only loss for the eventual national champions. Keep in mind, both Urban Meyer and Steve Spurrier won one national championship in Gainesville, but neither did it while going undefeated. This year the game moves to the Swamp, where the Tigers can’t count on any phantom tuck-rule calls in their favor.
Undercard: Maryland at Rutgers: If the Scarlet Knights can beat the ACC dark horse in this one, look for RU to start the season 7-0 before the most brutal part of their schedule arrives.
Secondary undercard: UMass at Boston College: Okay, so this game is of no interest to anyone. But hey, if it was your blog you could randomly throw your school in too. Plus, you never know…

Oct 6th:
Must see match-up: This actually blows away September 15th, and here they are: Florida at LSU, Nebraska at Missouri, Virginia Tech at Clemson, Georgia at Tennessee, Notre Dame at UCLA, Ohio State at Purdue, Oklahoma vs. Texas in Dallas. Also keep an eye on…
Undercard: Stanford at USC: Pete Carroll and Jim Harbaugh have taken some shots at one another. If the Trojans have a chance to drop 80 on the Cardinal, don’t look for them to hold back in the second half.

Oct 13th:
Must see match-up: Auburn at Arkansas: This will be the Tigers’ second tough road test in three games, and this time it’s against an opponent they lost to last year. Darren McFadden, as we all have learned, is a complete freak of nature and probably the best player in college football. Keep an eye on the Hogs if they can get by Auburn again.
Undercard: Wisconsin at Penn State: Once again the Nittany Lions have a real chance to be the wrench in the gears for the Big Ten’s “Big Three”. It seems unlikely that no one will slip up, and this is a game that Wisconsin had better be ready for.

Oct 20th:
Must see match-up: Auburn at LSU: Holy cow, let’s review this stretch for Auburn. In 22 days they play at the Swamp, at Arkansas, and at LSU with one home game against Vanderbilt thrown in the middle. This is by far the toughest stretch any team in the country will have to face this season, Notre Dame included. Speaking of which…
Undercard: USC at Notre Dame: I think it’s been roughly 97 years since the last time the Irish beat the boys from Troy. Of course, two years ago they came one Bush-push away from doing so. This year should be more of the same, and this almost certainly won’t be ND’s first loss of the season.

Oct 27th:
Must see match-up: West Virginia at Rutgers: The Big East Championship Round Robin Series begins here. Last year Rutgers still had a shot at the BCS when they went to Morgantown, but fell in triple OT. This game has three Heisman candidates (Pat White, Steve Slaton and Ray Rice), two very good coaches (Rich Rodriguez and Greg Schiano), and will probably welcome as big a crowd at Rutgers Stadium has ever seen.
Undercard: Nebraska at Texas: Last year’s win in Lincoln was sort of the “coming out party” for Colt McCoy. Texas is once again the stronger team this year. What the hell has happened to the Big XII North?

Nov 3rd:
Must see match-up: Wisconsin at Ohio State: The Big Ten Championship Round Robin Series begins here (sound familiar?). Does anybody know what Jim Tressel’s record in the horseshoe is? I mean, in six years the only losses I can think of are the Vince Young game and any time they’ve played Wisconsin. It’s weird.
Undercard: LSU at Alabama: I really wish this game were in Baton Rouge so the Tiger faithful could really let Saban have it. LSU is a heck of a lot better than the Tide this year, so Les Miles had better take this game or he’ll be quickly on the hot seat.

Nov 10th:
Must see match-up: Michigan at Wisconsin: I’m giving the Big Ten priority over the Big East here, which is a questionable move on my part, but what the hell. These two schools have played a pair of awesome games in the past two years, and each time the home team has won. Camp Randall will be off the hook for this game.
Undercard: West Virginia at Louisville: Last year Louisville jumped to #3 in the polls after their 44-34 win over the Mountaineers. This time we shift back to Morgantown, where the ‘Eers had a dramatic, triple overtime victory over the Cards the last time they met.

Nov 17th:
Must see match-up: Ohio State at Michigan: In recent years, Auburn’s dominance over Alabama has made this the premier rivalry in the country. Add in the fact that they were #1 and #2 last year, and the fact that the loser was going to the Rose Bowl (not a bad consolation prize), and you have one hell of a match-up. Lloyd Carr is 1-5 against Jim Tressel, so if the Bucks take this one, watch out.
Undercard: Northwestern at Illinois: This is even more shameless than putting UMass on the list. However, I love my friends, and they represent the Big Ten, so here’s Mike Wilbon U versus Chief Illiniwek.

Nov 24th (Many games played on the 23rd):
Must see match-up: The day after thanksgiving always yields some great games, as does that Saturday. Here they are: Nebraska at Colorado, Texas at Texas A&M, Arkansas at LSU, Boise State at Hawaii, Florida State at Florida.
Undercard: Duke at North Carolina: If you don’t love Duke football, you don’t have a soul. They are the most pathetic group of student athletes this side of Cal Tech Hoops. This will be Butch Davis’ first chance to embarrass the Dookies.

Dec 1st:
Must see match-up: Rutgers at Louisville: Last year, 44,111 fans jammed into Rutgers Stadium, including temporary seating behind the usually open end zone, to see the Scarlet Knights pull off the biggest win in school history. It was something else. A school that has been famous for futility on the gridiron toppled the #3 ranked program in the country. This year, RU wants more. They want a Big East title. This game could decide who gets it.
Undercard: UCLA at USC: The upset that kept the Trojans out of the BCS Championship was nice, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. UCLA still was a middle of the pack team in the Pac 10 last year, and didn’t look all that impressive against Florida State in their bowl game. Look for USC to drop 60 in the coliseum.

Of course, the Big XII, ACC and SEC Championships all qualify as “must see”, but we’ll wait until the conference standings take shape before we get into those.

Best of All Time

2007-08-14T10:30:00.000-07:00

In a move that was both pointless and unproductive, I've assembled a list of the greatest players in the history of the big three (NBA, NFL and MLB). The one exception to the "no secondary leagues" rule is that Negro Leaguers will be included. USFL/ABA stars will not. Here they are:

MLB All Time Team:
C Yogi Berra
1B Jimmie Foxx
2B Rogers Hornsby
3B Pete Rose
SS Honus Wagner
LF Babe Ruth
CF Willie Mays
RF Hank Aaron

U Ty Cobb
U Ted Williams
U Josh Gibson
U Roberto Clemente
U Ernie Banks

SP Cy Young
SP Walter Johnson
SP Roger Clemens
SP Warren Spahn
SP Nolan Ryan

RP Sandy Koufax
RP Bob Gibson
RP Satchel Paige
RP Steve Carlton
RP Lefty Grove
RP Juan Marichal
RP Tom Seaver

NFL All Time Team (Just the 24 starters, not a 53 man roster):
QB Johnny Unitas
RB Walter Payton
FB Earl Campbell
OL John Hannah
OL Steve Hutchinson
OL Gene Upshaw
OL Dwight Stephenson
OL Lou Groza
TE Mike Ditka
WR Lance Alworth
WR Jerry Rice

DL Bruce Smith
DL Joe Greene
DL Kevin Greene
DL Reggie White
LB Jack Lambert
LB Mike Singletary
LB Dick Butkus
DB Deion Sanders
DB Darrell Green
DB Rod Woodson
DB Ronnie Lott

K Gary Anderson
P Sammy Baugh
-
NBA All Time Team:
PG Oscar Robertson
SG Michael Jordon
SF Larry Bird
PF Tim Duncan
C Wilt Chamberlain

G Magic Johnson
G Bob Cousy
G John Stockton
F Jerry West
F Elgin Baylor
C Kareem Abdul Jabbar
C Shaquille O’Neal

I really have nothing to add to this. Feel free to vent about how strongly you disagree.

USA Basketball is... fun... sort of...

2007-08-14T08:17:00.000-07:00

So it officially appears that Team USA Basketball is headed back to where they were in 2002: The middle of the pack in international competition. After being embarrassed in the 2002 World Championships and finishing in sixth place, they again played poorly in the 2004 games in Athens, finishing with the bronze medal. After dominating the rest of the world since basketball became an Olympic sport, the US had finally reached a point where merely throwing their talent on the floor would not suffice. The low point came with their first game in the Athens games: A 92-73 blowout loss to Puerto Rico which was the first loss since NBA players came together to form the original “Dream Team” in 1992. After losing one arguably fixed game in 1972, and another in 1988, the United States lost three times (5-3) in the 2004 games. Something needed to change.

Editor's note: Keep in mind that Puerto Rico is a commonwealth of the United States. This is like Taiwan engaging in a conflict with China, and the Chinese Government ultimately being overthrown by twelve 5'3 guys from Taipei.)

Enter Jerry Colangelo, former majority owner of the Phoenix Suns and major basketball guru. Team USA brought Colangelo in to assemble a team that would once again dominate the competition. Colangelo started out with a major strike against him: He hired Mike Krzyzewski as head coach of the team. Let’s count all of the times that a college coach leading professional players has been an effective move: ______________. Exactly. Krzyzewski’s first assistant was also Jim Boeheim. Okay, so we have one hall of fame college coach being backed up by another. Fanastic.

Then came the selecting of play, and believe it or not they did a great job here… at first. The problem with the 2002 and 2004 teams is that there were too many people who just wanted to score and not enough all around players. Having Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Michael Finley, Raef LaFrentz and Jermaine O’Neal starting might look great on paper, but who in that group is going to play a morsel of defense? No question about it, the worst decision in this span was putting Richard Jefferson on the floor in 2004. RJ started all eight games for the US, finishing the tournament 18 for 56 from the field (WOW) including 6 for 23 from the short international three point line (eek). The United States as a team shot 31% from the three point line for the tournament; a far cry from the 44% shot by their opponents. So clearly we can see a few problems: Too many hot dog swingmen, not enough distributors, too many crappy shooters, and no one who plays defense. How did Colangelo and his buddy Rudy Tomjanovich fix this? They fixed it by bringing in a few true pass-first point guards (Kirk Hinrich and Chris Paul), some great defenders (Hinrich and Shane Battier) and a few guys who can shoot the ball (Hinrich, Battier, and Carmelo Anthony). Hey, that Hinrich guy seems to be coming up an awful lot. Let’s take a closer look at how he and Mr. Battier did: Hinrich started three games, shot 46% from the three point line, and dished out 19 assists. Battier started five times, shooting 54% from the field, 48% from three, and grabbing 22 boards. Again, they were also probably the two best defenders on this team.

The team still had a few “why are they here?” players on the roster in Joe Johnson and Antawn Jamison, but for the most part the roster was solid. The team rebounded from the 11-6 performance in ’02 and ’04 by going 8-1 in Japan. USA basketball appeared to be on the right track. Now this:

Kirk Hinrich and Shane Battier (as well as newcomer Greg Oden) have withdrawn from USA basketball. Why? Because apparently their roster spots were going to be offered up to two of the following: Hinrich’s for Jason Kidd, Kobe Bryant, Chauncey Billups, Deron Williams or Michael Redd, and Battier’s for Mike Miller or Tayshaun Prince. Nice work, Team USA. Mike Miller for Shane Battier. I hate all things Duke, and even I can’t wrap my head around that one. Let’s just go back to the mistakes that made the United States second fiddle to countries like Argentina and Serbia & Montenegro.

Alright, I should stop complaining and just throw out the twelve man roster that needs to be on the floor next summer in Beijing. After all, I am the smartest person in the world. Here it is:

Deron Williams, PG, Utah

Great defender, great point guard

Chris Paul, PG, New Orleans

Had 44 assists in Japan

Kirk Hinrich, PG, Chicago

Can shoot, can defend, can pass

Michael Redd, SG, Milwaukee

Maybe the best pure shooter in the NBA

Salim Staudamire, SG, Atlanta

I’m not even close to joking

LeBron James, SF, Cleveland

Too much of a freak to cut out

Carmelo Anthony, SF, Denver

Captain of the team, played well in 06

Shane Battier, PF, Houston

Best defender on the team

Elton Brand, PF, LA Clippers

Best face-up post player
-
Shaquille O’Neal, C, Miami

If you’re arguing with this, kill yourself

Dwight Howard, C, Orlando

Shaq the second

Tim Duncan, C, San Antonio
The only effective player in Athens

I don’t think many people can argue with the three centers. Those are guys who can dominate inside. Teams will never outrebound the US. The argument I’d foresee is, “what did Dwyane Wade do to deserve getting cut”. Well, I’d say it’s just that we don’t need him. He’s a 6’4 combo guard who isn’t a great shooter. Of course, he’s also one of the few guys I’m almost certain will be on the team. Oh well.

I still feel that the United States will go into these games as the country to beat, even though they haven’t won in any of the previous three major international events (2002: Yugoslavia, 2004: Argentina, 2006: Spain). Nonetheless, if it’s the same selfish, horsepoop brand of basketball that we saw in the previous Olympics, don’t expect too much from this group. If they play solid, inside-out team basketball, who knows: Maybe it’ll be 1992 all over again. …well, maybe ’96.

Editor's Note: Great input from my friend Matt once again: "I'm pissed about Hinrich leaving because he's the type of player I'd want to see on Team USA in like 2012 too, we need some longevity on a Dream Team."

Eric Gagne blows (more leads than anyone)

2007-08-13T10:16:00.000-07:00

In 1999, a 23 year old flame throwing right-hander made his major league debut with the Los Angeles Dodgers. He made five starts, pitching a total of 30 innings and ended the season with an ERA of 2.10. People were excited about the kid, but the next two years didn’t go as well. In 2000 he made 19 starts and wound up with just four wins and an ERA over five. Things didn’t improve much in 2001, as he went 6-7 in 24 stats with a 4.75 ERA. Finally Dodger management decided to make a change, and they moved this guy to the closer role. It’s something that many teams have tinkered with, but it’s never worked quite like it did here. The next three seasons saw this player save over 150 games and shatter the consecutive save record. Only an elbow injury, which limited him to 16 games in 2005 and 2006, would slow this pitcher down. The player, of course, is Eric Gagne. The question, at least to most fans in Greater Boston, is ‘what the hell is wrong with this guy?’ Gagne (or “GagMe” as he’s being called) has an ERA of 15.45 in Boston after it was just 2.16 in the first half with the Rangers this year. Not only that, but when he gives up runs, they’re costly. In Baltimore this weekend the Red Sox led entering the bottom of the eighth inning on both Friday and Sunday. In both cases, Gagne allowed the Orioles to tie the game. On Friday, in fact, he let them back in it from a 5-1 deficit. The thing about playing in Boston is that you need to have some real cajones. There is a lot more pressure at Fenway than there is in Arlington. Baseball is a different kind of monster in Boston, and historically there are some players who have thrived, and others who have fallen, playing under this type of a magnifying glass. Two years ago, Edgar Renteria took over the role of shortstop and was an absolute catastrophe. He didn’t hit, couldn’t play defense, and just was out of synch. Last year, guys like J.T. Snow and Carlos Pena couldn’t get it done. But look at what those guys do elsewhere; they’re fantastic. We had a young lefty pitcher with a boatload of talent who had already proven he could play at Fenway. Now he’s gone, because we wanted to take a shot at this guy to fill the void left by Brandon Donnelly. Fantastic. Oh, and the lead in the AL East, which was 12 games last month, is down to four. Who’s excited?!
On a lighter note, BioShock is now available as a playable demo on Xbox Live. Apparently the folks at Microsoft and 2K are pretty excited about this game, because they’re building it up as though it will replace Halo as “the game” for this system. We’ll see about that.

Everyone loves a weekend

2007-08-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

Quick update before the weekend: In case you haven’t heard, the Northern Colorado backup punter who stabbed the starter to try and take his position has been found guilty (though not of attempted first degree murder) and will be in jail for five to 16, barring an appeal. People are crazy. On a lighter note, Rush Hour 3 opens this weekend. Who wants to go see Jackie and Chris make 947 race jokes? Me too. It’s weekend time.

Halo 3 looks awesome

2007-08-10T09:08:00.000-07:00

Halo 3 is single-handedly saving Microsoft’s ass on the Xbox 360. Preorders are now up over the 1 million mark. Considering that the game ranges from $60 (standard edition) to $130 (legendary edition), that’s a lot of green coming to a company that just set aside 1.15 billion Washingtons to cover hardware problems on existing consoles. Check out all this info on how much cross-promoting is going on with this system. I haven’t seen anything like this since the Jurassic Park craze of 1993. Also, how crazy is it that Microsoft, instead of suggesting that this release will rival with that of other game franchises (such as, say, Metroid Prime), is going up against major cinematic releases. They’re cocky, but they’re backing it up. Speaking of games, I’ve decided I’m going to write reviews for some of the games I’ve played all the way through starting next week. Stay tuned for that.
Paul Lukas’ Uni Watch blog has had an interesting set of forum posts today. After people began raving over the hidden arrow between the E and the X in FedEx, some astute poster named John (hint hint) mentioned that this isn’t the only instance where negative space is used to show something.

I wasn’t going to write anything on this, simply because it didn’t seem worthy of note, but my friend Matt feels otherwise. So here it is: Butch McRae and Neon Bodeaux, who are most famous for their upset win Bob Knight’s then-#1 Indiana team in 1994, are being reunited in Miami. In terms that non-sports-movie-fanatics will understand: Penny Hardaway is coming out of retirement and he and Shaq will be together on the Heat. The two made the NBA finals in 1995 and the Eastern finals in ’96. In both cases, however, they were swept.
Speaking of a clean sweep, that’s what UConn football can look forward to this September. I might even go as far as to say that UConn has an easier schedule (toughest game is at Pittsburgh) than UMass (at Boston College) through the first month. Let’s ponder the first three games, shall we? At Duke, vs. Maine, vs. Temple. Wow, guys; a 1-AA team and arguably the two worst programs in major college football. Nice.
As for college football sleepers, which seems to be the trendy thing to talk about, I’m going with Georgia Tech. The Wramblin’ Wreck started 9-2 last year, then finished 0-3. First of all, since when do college football teams play 14 games? But I digress. The reason I’m taking GT is the following: Even though Calvin Johnson is gone, the rest of the offense is pretty much in tact. Tashard Choice could put up 1800 yards this year if he’s healthy, and Reggie Ball is gone. Ball may have been the worst quarterback of all time. We’re talking about a guy who threw the ball out of bounds intentionally on fourth down in a do-or-die situation against Georgia a couple years back. Last year he was 135 for 304 passing before getting booted from the program prior to the Gator Bowl. Man, what a terrible career. And speaking of terrible, how the hell did an Iowa team loaded with talent go 6-7 last year? Pathetic. And on an awesome note: Boise State and Oregon are discussing playing a game in China in the future. It would be quite awesome if I do say so myself, and those are two reasonably high profile programs, so people would probably watch. Alright, that’s all for now. Reminder; posts will be very limited over the weekend barring anything crazy happening.

The radio is a fun, fun place.

2007-08-10T06:29:00.000-07:00

So depending on whether or not you listen to Jam’n 94.5 in Boston, you may or may not have heard about this Beyonce concert promo they’ve been doing. Basically they take callers and give them tickets to the concert, and eventually when they’ve given away all their tickets they call back one of the winners and announce that they’ve won the grand prize. Said prize is a swap of the balcony seats they had won for two front row seats, as well as backstage passes to meet Beyonce who will then give the winner the keys to a new Mercedes (though they fail to mention the model, so I’m guessing it’s a 2007 C230 or something). Well, today they made the announcement, and I’m not sure I’ve heard a person this excited since Opie and Anthony pretended to give someone $100,000 (which wound up being a “100 Grand” candy bar). It was quality stuff.
Also from 94.5 this morning, apparently someone got stupid at another concert and threw an empty cup or bottle at The Game. As you’ll recall, someone recently threw a sheet of paper at Akon during a concert, which didn’t end well for the thrower. This time, rather than having the artist throw the guilty party off the stage; the fans around this man simply beat the shnikies out of him. Also, The Game went completely ballistic on a profanity laced tirade about how if anyone else wanted to hit him with something, they should come to the stage so that he could break their neck. Worthy of note is that 94.5 did an absolutely atrocious job of censoring the language in this.
I can’t escape without making a confession. Have you ever watched a TV show and chastised it ruthlessly for being lame, only to come back and watch it again the next week? Well, I’m guilty of such an action. I ripped into NESN for their attempt at a dating show, and I think it was pretty valid. Yet, last night I found myself watching all 30 minutes of episode 2. However, I fell that I have a pretty good excuse here. Turning the TV to NESN just to see what’s on is perfectly acceptable. And can you blame me for keeping it on when the guy going on the three “blind dates” was the person in charge of my orientation group at UMass in 2004? Hell no. This was absolutely hilarious. His name is Amar, but in July of ’04 I believe he went by something along the lines of “Sovereign of Spire”. That means nothing to you if you don’t go to school in Amherst.
And a belated happy birthday to my friend Casey. She turned 21 last night and we hit up Watch City Brewing Company for dinner. I have to say, the Carne Asada was extremely disappointing, but they sure do make a mean stout. Peace out. See what I did there? Rhyming is for champions.

Thursday Rundown: Fuck EA Sports

2007-08-09T12:54:00.000-07:00

EA Sports has really let me down. I wrote earlier about how I have never been a big EA Sports guy, and today I was reminded why. I went down to Best Buy to see if there was any cool new stuff, mainly related to Xbox but I tend to look around pretty thoroughly. I came across the user guide for NCAA 08 and couldn’t help but flip through. Lo and behold, EA went all out with team descriptions for all schools (all 119 FBS programs and the selected FCS teams they’ve included). I found UMass’ section, and let’s just say I had plenty of beef with it. First of all, every single 1-AA program, including Montana, UMass and Appalachian State, has straight D minuses. Excuse me, but our lowly Championship Subdivision programs knocked off plenty of “big guys” last year. Also, UMass gets one star for coach and one for program. Nonsense. Not to mention, our gamebreakers are RB #5 and SS #6 – as in Steve Baylark and Shannon James. Both of those kids are playing professionally now and the folks at EA just don’t care to update the 1-AA rosters. Pathetic. That being said, UMass could also remedy this problem by simply making the switch.
Apparently David Beckham won’t be in action against DC United tonight. So let’s get this straight, the LA Galaxy and MLS are paying a guy $250 million and all he’s done are a couple crappy promos so far? I mean, I know that contract is incentive based, but this is a bit pathetic. If the guy were on crutches I might be a bit more understanding, but you have a sore ankle and this isn’t the NFL. Put on your shin pads and go play. Of course, I guess that this sets him up nicely to make his debut in Foxboro, which would be interesting seeing how New England isn’t a very soccer-friendly region (as evidenced by the attendance at Revs games). He did, however, have plenty of time to have his picture taken at the Rogers Centre with Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez. Yay, A-Rod and Becks, the two softest athletes this side of Sweden.
In other news, the Sox did a nice job of averting a sweep at the hands of Anaheim. Gotta love what Dustin Pedroia has done for this team. I have to admit, I wasn’t huge on the kid at the start of the year, but he can play. I’d go as far as to say he might be more of a budding superstar than his second base counterpart in New York (and no, I’m obviously not talking about Ruben Gotay).
Weekend’s almost here, and I can’t wait to get to the beach (see: sit in my basement and beat Halo 2 on hard). Should be a doozie.

Reggie Miller ain't the Knick Killer anymore

2007-08-08T11:50:00.000-07:00

Okay, I'm a Reggie Miller guy. I had the jersey back when they wore the lowercase "Pacers" italic unis in the early 90's. But this is ridiculous. First of all, Reggie made an emotional speech after his "last game" against Detroit in 2005 where he noted that he would not make a comeback. Second, we already have two guys who just want to knock down threes. Third, he's forty-two years old. I mean, having Allen (32), Garnett (31) and Pierce (29) is one thing... but adding a 42 year old marksman is a bit superfluous. I’m going to rest on the assumption that this won’t happen because Reggie will realize that his ex-wife won't take him back if he returns to the NBA. Either that or his body just can’t take the abuse anymore.

Moving on to football, it looks like Duke’s powerhouse football program (20 game losing streak) will be missing their top defensive player. I’ve been reading previews of the season that say things like “look, Duke is really not far from turning the corner” and whatnot. Okay, look. This may be tough for some of you to understand, but there are some schools that parity just doesn’t apply to. For example: The day Baylor wins the Big XII championship is the day I (enter gruesome act here). This also applies to Duke; in fact, it probably applies more to Duke than to any other school in the country. Last year Wake Forest won the ACC and everyone made a huge deal of it. Hello people, Wake isn’t the perennial doormat of the conference, the boys from Durham are. Steve Spurrier actually gave the Dookies a vote in the coaches’ poll, but that was just out of gratitude to the school, not because he thinks they can play football. Rutgers winning the Big East obviously could happen, Vanderbilt could make a run once the SEC settles down a little, and we’ve seen Northwestern and Stanford both in the Rose Bowl in the last twelve years. Those are great accomplishments for the schools that usually represent the basement of their respective conferences, but Duke is different. It’s like a high school team playing in the AFC South. Not close. Oh, and on a side note: Did anyone realize that last year's K-State team managed only 3 points against Baylor, and dropped 45 on Texas? Seriously, look it up.

Also, Western Kentucky is showing off the renderings of their new stadium. It’s actually just their old stadium with some serious renovating, a good deal of which is being covered by external contributions. WKU will become a full Division 1 Football Bowl Subdivision member in 2009 and they will be joining the Sun Belt Conference. Incredible how simple it all seems, right UMass?

On an unrelated note: Microsoft has made a few announcements about the Xbox 360. The $50 price drop isn’t the only change coming to the 20GB model, as they will be adding HDMI cables to the package. This means that the Halo 3 special edition console is now officially just a green version of the premium model with a $50 markup. Call me crazy, but paying $50 extra for an uglier version of Xbox seems like questionable decision making. That’s all for now. Hopefully the Sox get their you-know-what together tonight in Anaheim.

The Nats, the C's, and the Zoo

2007-08-08T07:34:00.000-07:00

There’s one number listed in the baseball standings that some people might find a bit random. It’s the “L10” or “last 10 games” record. It comes right next to the “streak” number, so just in case you’re too incompetent to tell whether a team is hot or not, you get two chances to interpret these numbers. I went on ESPN and checked the standings throughout baseball today and two my surprise; guess who the two hottest teams in baseball (each 8-2 in the last 10) are? Well, if you guessed the Yankees (obvious) and Nationals (what?!) you’re absolutely right! The Nats have won 8 of 10 including winning at AT&T Park last night amidst Barry Bonds’ feat. What feat? Well, rubbing Icy Hot all over Bud Selig’s manhood (or lack thereof) of course.

What does this all mean? Well, very little actually. It means that the Nationals, who are still in last place, were pretty damn far back two weeks ago. It also means that the Yankees, who were 12 games back of the Sox last month, are now within five games of first place in the AL East and leading the AL Wild Card. Throw in A-Rod hitting his 500th and Roger Clemens winning ballgames, and I might just have to jump out a 12th floor window.

This is too depressing; let’s move on to Celtics news. The C’s signed veteran center Scott Pollard to the veteran exception yesterday. Pollard will apparently receive around $1.5 million instead of the $2.2 million called for in his current contract. With the help of Pollard’s exception as well as Leon Powe’s $432,000 contract, the Celtics’ payroll currently stands at $59.2 million, and may leave open the possibility of adding one more free agent. This is pretty amazing; especially for a team that now has the highest paid trio of any team in the NBA. Also, apparently my boy Allan Ray is headed to the D-League. Poor guy; first Karl Krauser knocks his eye out, then he misses out on the chance to play with Jesus Shuttlesworth and KG.

Also, since Kentucky bought out their game at the Garden (because they’re petrified of having to play at UMass), and UConn will no longer play us (61-59, fellas), UMass is looking for another high-level opponent to face this season. So far we’re going to play Boston College, Syracuse and Vanderbilt, all on the road. Hell, I’d even settle for a home-and-home with another SEC school. Come on, Bruce Pearl. What’dya say?

Quick Tuesday Wrap

2007-08-07T13:48:00.000-07:00

In some very cool geek news, Xbox 360 finally announced the $50 price drop that has been anticipated ever since the Red Ring problem began and Playstation3 dropped its 60 GB model from $599 to $499. Also, Apple unveiled the new iMac. Graduation present perhaps?

Who doesn't love time travel?

2007-08-07T11:57:00.000-07:00

I received a brief but excellent email while at work from one of my roommates, explaining that he was experiencing a “nervous breakdown level of excitement for college and pro football in our apartment right next to Russell’s. I need help in the form of a jump to the future in a De Lorean.” Russell’s, of course, is the mom and pop liquor store next to our apartment. And the De Lorean, in case you suck at life, is the automobile/time machine manufacturer made famous by the Back to the Future series. I can’t really find much relevance in this other than to agree with him. I, too, am very excited about going to football games this fall, to watching football on TV this fall, and to acquiring a time-travel-capable automobile.

It’s true that heading back to school is imminent, and I fell that it is very welcome to most of us. I, for one, can’t wait to get back in the swing of things. There is nothing better, as far as I can tell, than being in Amherst in the fall. Can’t wait. Of course, my first three years got off to shaky starts due to some questionable decision making, but I’m sure I’ll do better this time around.

Another interesting note is that this year, Madden 08 will be the first Madden game I ever own. I’ve had three consoles which support the Madden software (Genesis, PS1, Xbox 360… I have no brand loyalty) and yet the only NFL game I’ve ever owned was Game Day 2000. That’s right, I was a 989 Sports guy. Well, more or less. I never had anything other than their football games (Gamebreaker 98, 99, and 2000 and said Game Day game), but I also never had any EA Sports games after the Genesis. I broke that streak earlier this year when Matt (the roommate with the quote above) brought home a copy of Tiger Woods PGA 07. I have to say, he made an excellent choice.

Tonight Barry Bonds continues to go for some record that means very little to me, the Sox play in the best-vs-best series in Anaheim and the Yankees continue their romp to the finish against the Blue Jays.

Hope I haven’t forgotten anything, because I think it’s time for my nap.

Monday Wrap

2007-08-06T13:28:00.000-07:00

I know I’ve been prone to take some cheap shots at Mitt Romney and Danny Ainge for their religious affiliation, but no one wishes this upon other human beings. I have a good feeling about it though. After reading various reports on this story, I am confident that these miners will be tracked down and rescued. As of this morning, eight people from the I-35 bridge collapse in the Twin Cities were still missing. Not as good a feeling about that one, but we can hope.

In a much lighter-hearted story, a young lady named Michelle Madigan was trying to steal some footage at the Defcon conference for Dateline. This didn’t work out so well and now she probably won’t be able to use her Internet for about 9 years. Read all about this one here. See this is why journalists suck; if she hadn’t made a fuss about her credentials, they probably wouldn’t have figured it out. Though, as others have pointed out, the guys at a place like Defcon have eyes and ears everywhere.

I mentioned Rayman Raving Rabbids in my earlier piece today. Turns out that the folks at Ubi Soft (a company I have a ton of respect for and I see nothing wrong with this decision even as an Xbox 360 owner) have decided to make the sequel an exclusive for Nintendo. This means that the Wii will be the only console to get the game, and it may or may also not be put on the DS. You may not know it, but you’re very familiar with Ubi Soft. They make the first person/third person Tom Clancy games (Ghost Recon, Splinter Cell, Rainbow Six) as well as the Far Cry series and obviously the Rayman games. Check out their website and notice how hard they’re pushing TMNT. Not surprising, seeing as that may be the least enjoyable game in the history of the world.

In other news I caught the premier of Sox Appeal on NESN. I really believed that television could get no worse than “Bonds on Bonds”. Well, at least not sports television. Guess what; Sox Appeal is not only below Bonds on Bonds, but it is on par with all of the nonsensical crap on MTV these days. It could make a man go blind. In fact, I’m blacking out right now. Stay tuned.

Recapping the weekend, and other stuff

2007-08-06T09:52:00.000-07:00

Overall it was a good weekend. Justin turned 21, Julia turned 21, and I beat Halo 2. Also, the Red Sox won on Saturday and Sunday, and Tom Glavine, Alex Rodriguez, and Barry Bonds reached their coveted milestones. I have mixed feelings about all three, though in the case of Glavine only because I wanted to see the Cubs stay in first in the NL Central. In A-Rod’s case, I’m just not a fan of him personally. I think it’s the frosted tips. Obviously he’s the premier player in the American League and he’s given himself a good shot at catching Bonds. Speaking of Bonds, I just ate a really bad sandwich from D’Angelo’s.

The NFL also kicked off its preseason with the Hall of Fame game, where the Steelers played the Saints. I think the Steelers won, but I’m not sure because A: the game was on NFL Network and B: it’s the Hall of Fame game and no one cares. Once the Patriots take the field and score 93 points in their preseason opener, I’ll start gathering some interest.

Also, Rayman Raving Rabbids is now going for under 20 bucks at Best Buy. I probably should make the investment. I’m a little bit Haloed-out after beating Combat Evolved and H2 in the past few weeks. Don’t get me wrong, the games are fun as hell, but I don’t think it’s healthy to play that much of a traditional first person shooter over a short time span. A good dose of Tiger Woods and Rayman for the remainder of the summer and I’ll be all set. Oh and some Table Tennis and NCAA 2k6. Oh, wait. Someone stole those from my apartment. Awesome. In other video game news, GTA IV is being delayed several months (ouch) because Rockstar isn’t ready to support the game on Sony’s blu-ray-toting PS3 yet. Couldn’t they just bring us the Xbox 360 version as scheduled and have the PS3 one come out in the spring? No. Because Rockstar hates Microsoft.

Other important tidbits from the weekend include Lindsay Lohan heading to a rehab joint that sounds an awful lot like a spa. Plus, the NBA rolled out some very nice desktop wallpaper of the new Celtics stars. Jake Brown took one of the nastiest spills I've ever seen in any context and walked away. Keep an eye out for college football previews, as the Coaches Poll was announced at the end of last week. It’s almost here. More to come later.

Exciting weekend.

2007-08-05T19:25:00.000-07:00

Great weekend involving two amusing 21st birthdays and a lot of good baseball. The Sox finally won some games in Seattle, I think they'd lost nine straight out there. And the Cubs, who just took over first in the NL Central, might be headed for more suffering. Tonight Alfonso Soriano went down with a strained quad trying to go first-to-third. However, Kerry Wood made his return to the mound tonight and looked pretty good. If he stays healthy, along with Zambrano, Lilly, Marquis and Hill, watch out for the North Siders. More to come on all of this tomorrow.

Wramblin' Wreck and then some

2007-08-03T11:03:00.000-07:00

Clearly I can’t help myself when it comes to finding random, interesting stuff online. So you can imagine how delighted I was to learn about the most lopsided contest in the history of college football. Apparently Cumberland University had a football program at the beginning of the 20th century which was competitive in the south with programs like Clemson and Alabama. However, they were forced to scrap the program in 1915, though contractual agreements required them to revive the program briefly in 1916. During that 1916 season, Cumberland’s squad took on Georgia Tech. Long story short, the Jackets won by a lot, and that story is here.

I mean, that’s pretty unbelievable. I’ve seen some serious blowouts in my day (West Virginia hanging 80 on Rutgers, Texas putting up 70 in the Big XII Championship), but that is something else. Apparently in the post-WWII era, the biggest shellacking in major college football came when Houston hung a hundred on Tulsa in the late 60’s. Pretty impressive stuff. Still, there have been games recently where we had to think about the possibility of a team reaching triple digits. In that 2005 title game where Texas had 70, they had all of those points before the mid-way point of the third quarter. Had they been going for it, 100 would have been a possibility. And Texas Tech’s high scoring team of 2006 put up 80 on Sam Houston State, leading quarterback Cody Hodges to admit he’d like to drop a century on their next opponent (TTU would have to settle for 63 against Indiana State).

However, an interesting blowout is only appealing in the sense that you can watch one of the teams and say “wow, those guys are in synch today”. It’s far less interesting than, say, an awesome upset. I don’t even need to go to the internet to know what the greatest upset in college sports history is. If you aren’t familiar with Chaminade, please educate yourself.

I will be making only a couple posts over the weekend unless something monumental happens. In other words, if Chauncey Billups and Dikembe Mutombo sign with the Celtics, I'll be on it.

Akon, JJ Redick, and the rest of my least favorite people

2007-08-03T07:45:00.000-07:00

I regularly learn new things on the morning commute to the office. Today, for example, I learned that Akon is from Dakar. In other breaking news, Akon still sucks. I also learned that Eddie Murphy knocked up Scary Spice. Now, that’s just hilarious for several reasons, but the idea of Scary Spice (I actually don’t even remember which one that was… I just know it isn’t the one who broke off first, or Beckham’s wife) having Eddie Murphy’s illegitimate baby is just freaking awesome. A brief snippet also came on 94.5, I’m sure as a joke, of the Shop Boyz song “Party Like a Rockstar”, only with “Lohan” in place of “Rockstar”. Very amusing stuff.

Also, I heard a rumor yesterday that General Motors is looking for possible suitors for the Corvette as well as the entire Cadillac line up. Something tells me that this isn’t true, at least not yet. Those are the two names GM would surrender last, especially because they are very important cars in the history of American automobiles. I’d be concerned if someone like BMW took control of the Corvette, because there would be too great an opportunity to change the look of it. The great thing about the ‘Vette is that it’s gone through such subtle changes since the Stingray. As for Cadillac, I could really care less. The CTS is nice I guess, but once Deval Patrick bought himself an Escalade, I lost all respect (for Democrats, and for Caddies).

This is very belated news, but as someone who was a Coke person for a very long time, I’m pleased to inform anyone who lives under a rock that Pepsi’s Aquafina label must now inform people that they are simply drinking tap water. I’d be happier about this, but frankly all bottled water is moronic. If you are someone who drinks copious quantities of Evian or Dasani, you’re probably the same idiot who likes Akon.

The Celtics have added Eddie House, who is another sharp shooting two guard, as well as Jackie Manuel. People will remember House from his days in Phoenix where he was basically a poor man’s Raja Bell. Manuel, on the other hand, is coming from the D-League, but I have to say I’m a big fan. He’s the modern day Adrian Griffin. He’ll put up points once I a while but you have him on your team because he’s a lock-down defender. People may remember how severely he shut down J.J. Redick on senior night at Cameron two years ago. Obviously this makes me a huge Manuel fan.

Finally, as I mentioned earlier in the week, tonight is the 21st birthday party of Justin Ito Adler. Though details are still being revealed, it seems likely that bratwurst will be served at the pregame party at the Ito Adler residence. Stay tuned for more on any of these developments.

10 Things I Hate About Drew

2007-08-02T13:16:00.000-07:00

J.D. Drew drives me bonkers. My friend Justin refers to him as Nancy Drew, which I’m a fan of, but I also think that Nancy was too favorable a character to be compared to J.Dickhead. So, without further ado, I give you the list of things about J.D. that make me see red (no pun intended).

1: He is making 14.4 million dollars this year.
There was a time when I wouldn’t have cared about this, but seriously, we’ve gotten to the point where money is just too uneven in baseball. JD Drew’s salary is 60% of the entire Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ payroll.

2: He is batting under .250.
Since when is a player paid this much to have a lower batting average than Alex Cora? Seriously, just answer that one for me.

3: He has 40 RBI.
I’m fine with Drew being behind Lowell, Ortiz, Manny, and even Youk. But behind Coco Crisp, Jason Varitek and freaking Julio Lugo? Give me a break.

4: He’s so injury prone, that even when he’s healthy we need an insurance policy.
After signing him for that ridiculous contract, the Sox still made a run at Jermaine Dye before the trade deadline. Now there’s a J.D. I could root for.

5: His name is David Jonathan Drew.
Think about that one. It will make your brain hurt.

6: He has played 14 fewer games than Manny Ramirez.
The poster child for finding excuses to take days off has actually appeared in 104 games this year. Drew has actually surprised me by making it onto the field for 90, but not all of those (see: today) are games he started.

7: My Trot Nixon jersey is now a JD Drew jersey.
Seriously, this one sucks. Trot was a true member of the Red Sox. He hit the walk off against the A’s in game 3 in the 2003 AL Division Series. He even grew a handlebar ‘stache for the old “dirt dog” look. Now my #7 jersey is tainted because the jerkoff who took Trot’s place in right field decided to be a number-vulture.

8: He’s never gone all out for a fly ball.
Ever notice how often Coco goes vertical trying to get to a ball? Have you ever seen Drew do that? No. And chances are you never will.

9: He’s a selfish crybaby.
Remember the tantrum he threw in Los Angeles over his contract with the Dodgers? Fortunately the Sox probably avoided that by paying him about 90 times what he’s worth. No, seriously, he’s making 50 times more than Dustin Pedroia this year. That’s not an exaggeration. Look it up.

10: He’s a racist anti-Semite.
I actually have no evidence for this, but I don’t like him so let’s just roll with it.

Double A... I mean National League Update

2007-08-02T08:56:00.001-07:00

There are, in my opinion, two teams in major league baseball that are just head-and-shoulders above the competition at this point. The Red Sox are 23 games over .500 and, with the acquisition of Eric Gagne and the return of Curt Schilling, that record will likely only improve over the final 50 or so games of the regular season. The Anaheim Angels (or LA Angels of Anaheim to the assholes who insist on getting it wrong) are the only team that is on that level, and is only 2.5 games behind Boston for the best record in baseball. While virtually no one has noticed, the Angels are becoming a perennial power in the west, and this could be the fourth time in six years they finish the season with over 90 wins (the other two were an 89 win season and a 77-85 tank job after the World Series season). With these teams representing the class of the AL, lets look at a few teams from the other side that are making a move toward the postseason.

Less than two weeks ago, following a 6-2 loss to the Cubs, the Arizona Diamondbacks were treading water at 50-48. Now they are surging, leading the NL West at 60-49. What has been the difference? Starting pitching. The D’Backs haven’t scored 10+ runs in any of the eleven games during this 10-1 tear, but they’ve gotten two shutout performances from Brandon Webb and another from Yusmeiro Petit. The D’Backs have six games remaining against the Giants, six against the Pirates, three against the Nationals and three against the Marlins. Look for the boys from the desert to represent the NL West in October.

Did someone mention the Cubs? That would be, the first place Cubs. Unbelievable when one considers how bad things were looking before (and during) the Barrett – Zambrano fight. But they’ve done it. And when you look at their lineup, it really was only a matter of time. Alfonso Soriano is streaky, but he’s a great player, as are Derek Lee and Aramis Ramirez. The team is loaded with talent, and if the pitching of Ted Lilly, Jason Marquis, Rich Hill and Zambrano can stay healthy, this is a dangerous post season contender. I mean really, do you think the Brewers aren’t going to fold like a map?

Speaking of maps, which way is Queens? I ask only because I’d like to find the Metropolitans, who are definitely the closest team in the NL to the class that the Angels and Red Sox are in. Consider that the left side of their infield is not only the best in the NL (which says a good amount), but probably the best in New York (which says a TON). Beyond Reyes and Wright, a lineup including Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado, and Carlos Beltran can put up 15 runs in any game. Throw in a rotation of Tom Glavine, El Duque, John Maine, and Jorge Sosa, and the Mets are definitely the favorite in the NL.

In the Wild Card, who knows. I’d guess the Dodgers will take it, but the Braves, Brewers and Padres are in the mix as well. Personally, I’d like to see the 10,003 loss (or whatever) Phillies make it just to stick it to ESPN and everyone else who’s put together a montage of their century-long futility. Who knows, maybe we’ll have a Cubs-Phils NLCS, in a pennant battle between the true lovable losers.

Beginnings, ends, and all that stuff in between

2007-08-02T06:18:00.000-07:00

So I severely underestimated the gusto Danny Ainge would show in trading away all of his young talent (Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson, Gerald Green) for one of the best players of the last ten years. There has never before been a trade involving so many players going to a team in exchange for one superstar. Most importantly, it’s what both organizations needed. The Celtics have offered their fans a team that implies “we want to win now”, while the Timberwolves get to rebuild after things with KG clearly had reached a standstill. A starting five of Rajon Rondo, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Kendrick Perkins will be fun to watch in Boston, but so will Randy Foye, Rashad McCants, Ricky Davis, Al Jefferson and Mark Blount in Minneapolis.

Speaking of the Twin Cities, how sad is the story about this bridge collapsing. Generally Boston is the city with these sorts of issues (the tunnel of course is the first thing that comes to mind), but no place is immune, and the fact that as many as seventy people could be dead (the count as I’m writing this is nine with sixty or so still missing) is scary as hell. The Twins have postponed Thursday’s game, as they should, both for the problems the collapse will cause and due to the tragic nature of this incident.

And speaking of tragic: A belated but well deserved farewell to Bill Walsh. Walsh was a Super Bowl winning coach of the San Francisco 49ers, and also held the reins at Stanford University at two different points. Without this guy, college football wouldn’t have as many blowouts, and absurdly high scoring games would be few and far between. The father of the west coast offense and the man known in the football world as “the genius” will be missed.

In baseball, the Red Sox acquired Eric Gagne for, among others, Kason Gabbard. I have very mixed feelings about this move, though after the announcements that Curt Schilling is coming back to the starting rotation, and Brandon Donnelly is out for the season, picking up a solid reliever makes a bit more sense. Nonetheless, it’s tough to see a solid, young left handed pitching prospect like Gabbard go. Much like the Celtics, the Sox are clearly in a “win now” state of mind.

And I’m pleased to report that after an extremely productive and absolutely exhausting day in Amherst, I am back in Boston where I will be giving updates throughout the day as random things unfold. If anything regarding Xbox 360, the Boston Celtics, UMass or Genarlow Wilson happens, I’ll be on it. So stay tuned.

Wednesday Update

2007-08-01T06:42:00.000-07:00

The Yankees hit eight home runs last night. Therefore I must leave the Boston area for a bit. I'll be in Amherst today. More to come tomorrow.

KG Update: My words are delicious!

2007-07-31T17:13:00.001-07:00

Alright, so KG is wearing Celtic green and I feel dumb. Still, could you blame me for being skeptical? Nonetheless, as I said I will now eat my words with a side of crow. It's well worth it.

A plea for UMass to move to the Bowl Subdivision

2007-07-31T12:27:00.000-07:00

The University of Massachusetts football team has made two appearances in the national championship game of division 1-AA (or the championship subdivision) in the past decade. They won the national championship in 1998 and were the runner-up to Appalachian State in 2006. While some schools seem to take pride in being 1-AA powerhouses (Montana, Georgia Southern, App. State), UMass is thinking bigger. Recent moves by schools like Marshall and, more importantly, the University of Connecticut have shown that it is possible to take a program from 1-AA and quickly make it competitive against the big boys. As coach Don Brown has noted, three things are needed: A reasonable operating budget, adequate facilities, and a welcoming conference. Right now, UMass is 0 for 3, but none are impossible to obtain. Since I know almost nothing about the financial implications of making such a move, I will focus on the other aspects of the situation.

UMass has some natural rivalries waiting for it in the bowl subdivision (we’ll stick with 1-A for simplicity’s sake). First and foremost are the in-state rival Boston College Eagles. This year, just as they did in 2004, the Minutemen and Eagles will play in Chestnut Hill. In 2004, BC won by a 29-7 count. We’ll have more on this foe later. In 2005, UMass went to West Point to face Army and lost 34-27, and just last year they played at Navy, losing 21-20. Navy wound up winning nine games and the loss was UMass’s only one until the National Championship. Two other rivals UMass could potentially take on are Temple, with whom UMass has a basketball rivalry, and UConn, who were also basketball rivals until a 61-59 upset in 2004 by the Minutemen reduced Jim Calhoun to tears. Syracuse is also a geographically sensible opponent, and with the Orange and Minutemen facing each other on the hardwood this year, perhaps the AD’s can come together and discuss a possible gridiron meeting.

As far as a stadium, there are a few options. First, there is the option to massively renovate McGuirk Alumni Stadium. This would probably entail breaking down the walls behind each end zone and building 7,000 seat grandstands on each end. This would bring the total capacity to 31,000, which is right around the absolute minimum needed to get serious consideration from the Big East. Of course, the Big East is a stretch to begin with, but since they only have eight teams in football, you just never know. If UMass can be competitive as in independent, maybe there’s an outside chance Randy Edsall or someone else will put in a good word for us. Can you imagine a Saturday night home game against West Virginia under the lights?

Now becoming affiliated with a conference is more difficult for UMass than it is for most schools. The only Atlantic 10 basketball program currently playing in 1-A football is Temple. Aside from the fact that Temple is the opposite of what UMass should be striving for (the Owls went 14-80 in their time in the Big East), it's also worthy to note that TU is now in the Mid American Conference, which is mainly in the Midwest and already has 13 schools. So UMass's only real options here are the Big East and Conference USA (I'm ruling out the ACC already. Everyone knows the ACC won't look at UMass). Conference USA has twelve schools, the closest of which is probably Marshall in Huntington, West Virginia. So on the surface is seems like a terrible fit, but it may be the only realistic option. The Big East, on the other hand has only eight schools, but all of them are in the Big East for a number of other sports, and all of them are among the Big East's 16 basketball members. So if UMass joined, it would either join strictly for football, or it would join under the premise that some other school (cough, cough DePaul) would be moving out.

UConn's move to the Big East was really seamless. They were competitive quickly and have a great fan base. A new stadium was built off-campus in East Hartford, and students take shuttle buses to the games. As it worked out, my visit to UConn when I was in high school coincided with the first ever game at Rentschler Field, so I drove out there with my mom, and it was a blast. UConn blew out Indiana and the students packed the sections behind one end zone. UMass could certainly match this with a slate of relatively high profile opponents and a new stadium. I also drove down from Amherst to see the first night game at "The Rent", when UConn knocked off eventual Big East champion Pitt in 2004. UMass really wouldn't need to relocate, they have the space and could even build around the existing stadium site. Here's a look at UConn's former digs versus their new home:

Memorial Stadium

Home Opener, 2000:

Rentschler Field
First Night Game
2004:As for Boston College, the Eagles’ Athletic Department recently announced that they would not invite the UMass Marching Band to Alumni Stadium as they did in 2004. Steve Buckley wrote a nice article about this situation in the Herald (Article). In it, he notes the possibility of UMass making the jump to 1-A. There is actually already a committee in place to discuss whether or not this is a logical idea. Let this be my soap box: BRING UMASS TO DIVISION 1-A FOOTBALL. Because there's nothing quite like Saturday afternoon on a true football campus, right? I mean, we’re in a much better situation than, say, Boston University. But it could always be better.

10 ways to improve college football FAST:

2007-07-31T09:49:00.000-07:00

These are in reverse order of importance, as the numbers indicate.

10: Let's have a Big Ten/Pac 10 Rose Bowl.
This really shouldn't be an issue, but it is. Since the BCS was formed, the Rose Bowl has twice hosted the National Championship. Now the national title is a fifth game, separate from the old Alliance Bowls. However, aside from the two national title games (2001 Miami vs Nebraska and 2005 Texas vs USC), there have been a few seasons when, puzzlingly, the match up has not been the Big Ten and Pac 10. For instance, in 2002, USC and Iowa met in the Orange Bowl while Oklahoma met Washington State in the Rose Bowl. We wouldn't have even needed to switch the matchups in this case. Also, in 2004, Michigan was expected to play Cal in the Grandaddy, but Cal was snubbed in favor of Texas in the final BCS poll. Fortunately, Vince Young was able to prove the computers right.

9: Have the Iron Bowl in Birmingham.
This game is too big to be played in each team's home stadium. The fans in the state of Alabama should see the game on neutral territory. And don't give us the "we need to make sure each team gets equal home and road games" nonsense, because fellow SEC members Florida and Georgia play in Jacksonville every year.

8: Stop Favoring Notre Dame.
We get it. The NCAA wants the Irish to be a power again. That's great. But stop sending them to Bowl Games they don't deserve to be in. Everyone knew that LSU would manhandle ND in the Sugar Bowl, because the two BCS schools the Irish played in the regular season had done just the same. Notre Dame in the BCS has been blown out by Oregon State and LSU, and lost somewhat respectably to Ohio State. Guys, seriously, just have them play in the Gator Bowl. It will be okay, the fans won't commit suicide. Promise.

7: Throw Southern Methodist a frickin' bone.
Seriously, the only program in the history of college football to receive the "Death Penalty" has had enough. The people who are there now had nothing to do with the scandals of the 1980's. Help them out; get some Mustang games on ESPN in prime time -- preferably the winnable ones -- and let's see if the Ponies can't find their way into a bowl game by 2012.

6: Have a Big Ten Championship Game.
The idea that a conference must have 12 teams in order to have a title game is fine, but there needs to be an exception here. Ohio State and Michigan were both undefeated when they played this year, and fortunately they got the chance to sort it out on the field. However, what if there were a season when the two unbeaten schools never met? This is the only BCS conference where this is an issue. The Pac 10 has nine conference games, so everyone plays everyone, the Big East only has eight schools, and the other three (ACC, Big XII, SEC) have title games already in place. Notre Dame isn't joining a conference any time soon, so let's just have 6 teams in one division and 5 in the other. It will be okay. Promise.

5: Continue to make the BCS more "small conference friendly".
The interesting thing about the BCS is that the "big boys" are 0-2 against teams from smaller conferences. Utah dominated Pittsburgh in 2004 and Boise State of course had the fantastic finish against Oklahoma. Both were in the Fiesta Bowl, and both made it clear that it's not only fair, but also extremely fun to have these David vs. Goliath games in January. It wouldn't even be a stretch to say that a "1 non-BCS program per year" plan could work.

4: Chill out with the celebration penalties.
I understand the crackdown here, and in a few ways I support it. I don't think we should allow players who have just scored touchdowns to rifle the ball into (or out of) the stands. However, there have been points where this has become completely absurd. Jay Cutler almost closed his college career out with wins over Florida and in-state rival Tennessee. Why almost? Well, after Cutler threw a TD pass to cut Florida's lead to 1 in the swamp, Vanderbilt was going to go for two and the win. However, a celebration penalty (and a phantom one at that) caused them to settle for a PAT. The Gators won in overtime. Let the kids play, and it will be okay. Promise.

3: Bring back the Florida Cup.
I still don't understand why this is even an issue. Florida still plays Florida state at the end of every season, and now Miami and FSU play in their ACC opener. So why doesn't Miami just continue to play Florida? It's clear that the Canes aren't afraid of scheduling tough non conference teams. They get Oklahoma this year. Plus those games were unbelievably fun to watch. In 2002, when Miami beat Florida 41-16, sportswriters began muttering about how that team from "The U" might be better than some NFL teams. Plus the 2003 game at the Orange Bowl was an absolute classic.

2: Inform Duke that they have exactly five years to field a respectable program.
Duke football is something else. They play in a horseshoe that would make Buckeye fans chuckle. Actually, it might even make Harvard fans laugh. They have one win in the past two seasons, and they probably bottomed out with a 13-0 loss at home to Richmond. If you play division 1-AA teams at home and fail to score a point, there's a problem. The ACC obviously won't drop Duke as the Big East did Temple, only because Duke helps enormously in basketball (men's and women's) and with academic standards.

1: Add the Cotton Bowl and one other game to the existing BCS, and play a 12 day, 7 game, 8 team playoff.
It's really quite simple. The first slate of games would be December 21st and January 1st, and would include all eight teams playing in the Cotton Bowl, Fiesta Bowl, Sugar Bowl, and the Sun Bowl (or any other that gets promoted to BCS status). Then on January 5 and 6 the Rose Bowl (between the December 31st winners) and Orange Bowl (between the January 1st winners) are played, respectively. Finally, the BCS Championship game is held on January 11th. This idea can be tweaked, but I really don't see any glaring problems with it at this point. And yes, rule #5 is still in effect. A playoff is the only way to get to an undisputed champion. It will be okay. Promise.

The big day of 21

2007-07-31T08:13:00.000-07:00

The 21st birthday is a celebration like no other in the United States. Mine included someone lighting my shirt on fire, another person sneaking a splash of Purell into my drink, and a few other incidents which ultimately led to my head being shaved. Sometimes things don't quite go as planned, but as long as no one becomes seriously ill, it's good times all around. This weekend is a rarety, as Justin Ito Adler turns 21 Thursday and will celebrate on Friday, and Julia Leroux-Lindsey follows suit on Saturday.

So the weekend will be fun, no question about it, and it got me to thinkin', who are the great 21's of all time? Not people who were uncharacteristically successful at age 21, but rather people who donned the number itself. We're talking the athletes who made 21 important, and believe me, there are many, from the great Roberto Clemente to the royal dickhead himself, and everything in between (additional stars here, here and here*)

Of course, the whole point of the 21st birthday is to be legally able to drink. John Mayer recently posted some comments on his blog regarding underage drinking, which apparently is quite popular at his concerts (who knew?). I got a good laugh out of those quips. I have now completely lost my train of thought. Enter abrupt ending: Here.

General News

2007-07-30T17:38:00.000-07:00

First is the important news: So KG becoming a Celtic is apparently imminent (Article). Once again, when the papers are signed, I will believe it. Until then, Danny Ainge is still a doofus. Of course, I have no apprehension about this. If the trade goes down, we have a starting line up that includes three of the premier players in the game. And if you say that Paul Pierce isn't a top tier player, then I have a bone to pick with you. If it doesn't, the C's are still probably a playoff team.

Speaking of the Truth, last summer I went to a Modell's and found that they were selling Pierce jerseys for extremely cheap. My conclusion is that they were trying to clear out the Reebok C's jerseys for the new Adidas ones which include the clover above the player's last name (Link). I'm a bit of a purist, so I don't mind missing that detail at all. Of course, I will now contradict myself and announce that I went with the C's alternate jersey.

The weird thing about this is that Adidas owns Reebok, so why even change who does the NBA's jerseys? I guess they've remained relatively separate, as Reebok has kept the NFL and Boston College, and Adidas has kept all of its schools (Wisconsin, Tennessee, UCLA, etc). Also, when they switched the NBA's jerseys they had a fire sale of the Reebok "Hardwood Classics" collection. The interesting thing about these jerseys are that they're just like the Mitchell and Ness versions with two differences that I can notice: First, the Mitchell and Ness versions appear to be solid polyester, whereas the Reebok ones are mesh. Second, the Reebok ones suffer from what the great Paul Lukas refers to as "logo creep". So I picked up a Bill Russell jersey (which on the M&N website was then listed at $220) and put green dye over the Reebok logo. Overall I'm fairly satisfied with my purchase.
The rest of the collection isn't phenomenal, but there are some high points. There is the Manu Ginobili Argentina jersey from the 2002 World Championships, the Julius Erving jersey from the 1971 UMass team, the Nick Collison Kansas jersey, the awful Boston University throwback, which I believe is supposed to be Tunji Awojobi, and a couple of screened on hoops jerseys. Also in other sports, a Norwich City jersey, a game worn UMass football jersey (from the 2004 season), and a Trot Nixon Red Sox alternate jersey which is now a J.D. Drew jersey.

Wow, got a bit sidetracked there. Let's move forward. I'm pleased to announce that in response to yesterday's article on the three next-gen consoles, Playstation 3 has announced it will be coming out with a new, exclusive franchise in collaboration with Rockstar Games. I still don't get the purpose of selling a console that costs the company $200 per unit, but I guess if they think they can make up the loss with their software it's all good. (Correction: I misspoke, it is certainly not "in response to" anything written on this blog but rather a decision made by Sony for their own reasons.) Plus if the PS3 really takes off, and the price of BluRay technology comes way down, I guess they could start turning a profit on the systems. Stay tuned.

Watch for tonight's Giants vs. Dodgers game. If you've been living in an underwater bubble for the past year, Barry Bonds will be going for home run number 755 tonight, which will tie him for the all-time record. Personally I'm nauseated by the idea that such a vicious cheater can hold such an esteemed record, but it looks inevitable. Hammerin' Hank, here's to you.

Hank of course will not be in attendance tonight, or any night for that matter, to see Bonds tie or break his record. He will not make any statement on his feelings about the record, and as he puts it, by making no statement is making a statement. Baseball has become the centerpiece of the steroid era, even though it may not be the most guilty (see: Tour de France), but that's because it's such an important sport. Major League Baseball has been around since the nineteenth century, and the idea that batting records set in the enhancement era will be as useless as pitching records from the dead ball era is just nauseating. It didn't have to happen.

But it did. Thanks Barry, think of all of us when you cross home plate after 755 and point to God.