tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25387984066768637212023-06-20T21:01:59.565-07:00The Sports Spoteem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.comBlogger29125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-72824019516097715002012-05-10T15:16:00.002-07:002012-05-10T16:30:20.534-07:00Rod CarewMy younger brother started playing football in the 4th grade. Back then, when the boys were first learning the game, it wasn't especially serious. I remember the day it became serious. In 6th grade, my brother was an average height and weight for boys his age, which meant he was slightly smaller than most of the other football players. He was stick thin and weighed roughly 90 lbs. On offense, he played quarterback. On defense, he was a linebacker, not because he was a particularly good tackler but because he was fast. One day that fall, while on defense, the opposing team's 220 lb left tackle caught him from behind. His helmet dug in my brother's lower right back, somewhere around where his right kidney would be found. He fell to the ground in pain and the game stopped. "I can't feel my legs," he moaned, and for several minutes nobody moved him. Eventually, his immediate shock wore off and he crawled off the field, where he lay for another 15-20 minutes, icing his back, before finally standing up and walking off the remainder of the pain and the fear. I most clearly remember those first few minutes, when he lay unmoving on the ground, as the first time I seriously worried about my brother's safety playing sports.<br />
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Next fall, my brother will likely play for his freshmen football team. In the last two years, he's put on some weight, he's gotten faster, and he's found out that he's much better suited for a wide receiver than a quarterback and for a cornerback than a linebacker, which is fine by me. Every time I see a quarterback get tackled, I thank God that my brother catches the ball and runs. And when I hear about Junior Seau's suicide, I'm grateful that Jacob, my brother, is no longer a linebacker.<br />
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Junior Seau was a linebacker for the USC Trojans and a first round draft pick in 1990 for the San Diego Chargers, who he played with for 12 seasons before spending two years with the Miami Dolphins and three years with the New England Patriots. He was a 12x Pro-Bowler, the 1992 Defensive Player of the Year for the NFL and the AFC, the AFC Player of the Year in 1994, and a member of the San Diego Chargers Hall of Fame. He owned a successful restaurant in San Diego and his Junior Seau Foundation helps youth through child abuse prevention, drug and alcohol awareness, and multiple educational programs as well as anti-juvinile delinquency programs. After three years of retirement from the NFL, Junior Seau shot himself in the chest and died on May 2, 2012 at age 43.<br />
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The last eight days have left the sports world numb and questioning the role of football in Seau's life. This, and 68 lawsuits from over 1,800 retired NFL players, claiming that the league failed to offer them proper medical treatments for concussions or failed to inform them as to the extent of dangers that concussions pose, have people questioning football in general. They're mourning Seau as a tragic victim to a game that he loved. They're concerned that football players are slowly killing themselves, either with shots to the chest (Seau being the 3rd retired player within 15 months to choose this method of suicide, along with former safeties Dave Duerson and Ray Easterling) or by constantly subjecting their bodies to brutal beatdowns on the field. They're worried about their sons and their futures in the sport. I'm looking at the situation in a slightly different way.<br />
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I'll take this on one concern at a time. Junior Seau's death is tragic, but not in the way that some people are treating it. It's sad because someone died; it's sad because three children lost a father; it's sad because many people lost a friend and many more people lost a role model. But Junior Seau didn't die a hero, the way some people are treating him. He didn't die after a courageous and hard fought battle with an overpowering disease. He killed himself. He <i>chose</i> to die. He <i>decided</i> to leave all these people behind. It's sad that he felt he had no other choice, but it was a choice. And when I see a video of his <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7U0Z4rT5P4">mother</a> or a picture of his <a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/.a/6a00d8341c630a53ef0163051f89b5970d-640wi">father</a>, I can't help but think that he caused it. He ended his suffering only to begin the suffering for the people that loved him. And that's selfish. After Seau severely pulled his right hamstring in 2000, one of many injuries throughout his career, he refused to sit out the remainder of the game or any games following it. He played through the pain. When asked about that decision later, he said, "You know what this game's about? Respect. The respect you can earn only between those white lines. The game is still about hitting. It's still about blocking. It's still about courage." Courage. That's what Junior Seau played for and that's what he lost on May 2. So, yes, his death is sad. But it's not a courageous death. It's selfish.<br />
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This leads to the next concern mentioned above. What happened to Seau that could transform him so completely? I'm not here to speculate as to what caused Junior Seau to pull the trigger, but it's hard to deny that football played some part in that. Nobody who knew Seau saw it coming. He was always happy; he was beloved in San Diego; he had plans for the following weekend. It's also possible that he had CTE: chronic traumatic encephalopathy, "the buildup of protein in the brain that has been associated with dementia in football players" (That definition was provided by David Epstien from <i>Sports Illustrated</i>.) It damages the part of the brain that causes impulse control as well, which may be one explanation as to why Seau acted so impulsively. Scientists don't know to what extent football harms the brain, but they know that it does. Yet players continue to play knowing they're endangering themselves. And that's why our concerning ourselves over the health of these players is pointless. I don't mean to sound crass; the brain damage football can cause is obviously a serious problem. But these players know that and they continue to play. Some people in the sports media have been speculating as to whether we should support them as they self-descruct and the answer is yes because the players <i>know</i> the risk. The play because they love the game and if they are willing to put themselves in the front line then we, as fans, should have no qualms watching them do so. It's our choice, just like it's theirs. Just like it was Seau's.<br />
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Which leads me to the point: what's going to happen to football? As scientists gain more understanding about the dangers of football, could we find ourselves in a football-less world? I don't know. I don't know if the dangers from football will ever exceed the joy it bring the players, the joy it brings the fans, and the revenue it brings to the sports world. Has a sport ever just disappeared? I don't know. But I've seen, on a very small scale, the effect Seau's death is having on the parent's of boys in football and I can say this much: it's not good. And I'm glad my brother prefers basketball to football.<br />
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Rod Carew wore the #29 for both the Minnesota Twins and the California Angels (now Los Angeles Angels) from 1967 to 1985 as a first and second baseman. He was inducted to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1991, his first year of eligibility. He was born on a train in the Panama Canal zone, so he is officially known as a "Zonian" and is named after the doctor on the train who helped deliver him. He immigrated to the United States when he was 14.<br />
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Don't be a stranger, now.<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-64455501036235932152012-04-28T17:27:00.002-07:002012-04-28T20:58:50.174-07:00Harrison SmithIt's been 26 days since the end of the 2012 college basketball season, although it's been 28 days since I stopped caring about it. Since then, I've been a little lost. I pick up a basketball every now and again and toss it hopelessly at the hoop, trying to fill the emptiness in my stomach. I scan the headlines briefly each morning before moving on to read far more <a href="http://now.msn.com/entertainment/0428-kristen-stewart-lonely.aspx">intellectual articles</a>. I've found myself aimlessly flipping through sports channels, only to get to the end and repeat the process, searching for something I won't find for roughly 6 months. When I reach ESPN, I hear a snippet of conversation between the announcers, which includes "point guard". I flip back quickly, my hopes impossibly restored for a moment before I realize that I'd rather go watch "Storage Wars" with my brother than what they're suggesting: the NBA.<br />
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Perhaps I'm one of the few who feels this way, but nothing the NBA does can convince me to watch any of the games. Jeremy Lin? I'll catch the highlights. Michael Jordan's Charlotte Bobcats? Who'd want to watch them? Lebron James? I see enough of that drama on Sportscenter. Ron Artest/Metta World Peace? That's so <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cu5bprqdUgY">November 19, 2004</a>. So 26 days after the college basketball playoffs ended, the NBA playoffs have begun. In fact, as I'm writing this, the Indiana Pacers-Orlando Magic game is playing on the screen next to me....on mute....unnoticed. What is it about college basketball that makes it so much more appealing than the pros?<br />
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I'll tell you what it is for me. I'll start at the bottom: the length of the season. In college basketball, I have time to watch my favorite teams play. My time is invested in my favorite team and a few others that I watch on a fairly regular basis. I know all the wins, all the losses, which games are considered "big", and which games I can predict the outcomes for without checking the score. And I have time for that because there are only so many games during the season. I can't keep up with the NBA. They play too often for too long. I can remember the outcomes of the last two or three games for one or two teams but that's it. The significance of each game is downplayed for me because I don't know what's at stake. But, really, there's not much at stake. With 82, teams can lose 11 of 14 games and still make the playoffs (Hello, New York Knicks, I'm looking at you).<br />
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Reason number 2: the drama. And the NBA has more <a href="http://aol.sportingnews.com/nba/story/2012-04-12/nba-drama-rankings-lamar-odom-dwight-howard-carmelo-anthony-andrew-bynum">drama</a> than a soap opera. I'm not saying there aren't divas in college basketball - but those divas aren't paid (right?). Grown men who make millions playing a game for a living do not earn my sympathy when they miss the playoffs due to a back injury when they've spent the entire season demanding to be traded to another team. The sense of entitlement that comes with these 'superstars' in the NBA makes them impossible to root for. I recently read "The Punch" by John Feinstein. In his book, he tells of an exchange between Kermit Washington and his agent shortly after Washington was drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers in 1973. During the exchange, the agent explained to Washington what was meant by a "guaranteed contract" - that he would received four hundred thousand dollars over the next four years regardless of whether or not he played. Washington refused. He said, "No, I don't want to do that. I don't want to be paid for not working. If I'm not good enough, they shouldn't have to pay me." Legally, Washington had to accept the 'guaranteed' part of his contract, but Washington wasn't entitled. He was good and he wanted to prove he was good and if he wasn't, he didn't want to be treated any differently. Can anyone imagine an NBA player today, mere months after a disagreement about salaries between players and owners caused a lockout and a 66 game season, saying such a thing? Turning down money because they wanted to prove themselves? Playing only because they were passionate and talented? Today, the Lakers pay Kobe Bryant $25,244,000 a year. Kermit Washington hesitated to take $400,000. Times have changed.<br />
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Which brings me to my final reason: I missed the great age of the NBA and I'm resentful of that. The NBA had great players and the players today can never live up to those standards. They'll never have the same passion, the same drive, the same love of the game that players like Magic Johnson and Larry Bird had. Bird and Magic <i>made</i> the NBA. They made people care. And they didn't do it for attention or for money - they did it for respect, they did it for the sport, and they did it because they hated losing. Everyone loves to win, but what players and teams today lack, I think, is that hatred to lose. That willingness to do anything to avoid losing, even if it means not being the star. Bird and Magic didn't have that complacency - Knicks executive Donnie Walsh said the difference between those two and everyone else was that "Everyone says, "I don't want to lose." Magic and Larry said, "I'll kill you if I lose". Players today are complacent - they make their money even if they don't play, their teams make the playoffs, if not, there's always next year. College players don't have that privilege or the complacency that comes with it. They have 4 unpaid years of playing with passion to accomplish their goals....before they get sucked into the NBA.<br />
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With the 29th pick in the NFL draft, the Minnesota Vikings select......Harrison Smith from Notre Dame University. Therefore Harrison Smith is my 29th blog honoree. Smith is 6'1 7/8", 213 lb, has an arm length of 32.5", and a hand size of 10.2". In his college career, he forced 2 fumbles and recorded 85 tackles. His new team, the Vikings, acquired Smith by trading their second round pick (35th) and fourth round selection (98th) to the Baltimore Ravens. They still came away from the draft with 10 new players on their roster, including another safety from Notre Dame, Robert Blanton.<br />
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cyal8er<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-34863400551617575472012-03-03T15:37:00.002-08:002012-03-03T18:38:33.609-08:00Brian RafalskiIt's been nearly twenty years since Christian Laettner's game-winning <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY-iq58_oz4">buzzer beater</a> in the semi-finals of the NCAA Tournament against Kentucky shocked the nation. No doubt that shot will be shown countless times in the next month to the point of extreme annoyance. But it wasn't just that shot that made the Duke-Kentucky game so incredible; the 64 minutes and 57.9 seconds leading up to helped make it one of the greatest games in college basketball. In the end, though, what 98% of people remember is Christian Laettner's shot sending the Duke Blue Devils to the Final Four. Not Kentucky fans, though. Those fans remember it for something, or, to be more precise, a few someones, entirely different.<br />
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</div><div>Richie Farmer. Deron Feldhaus. John Pelphrey. Sean Woods. The four seniors on that Kentucky team had been through a lot. After their freshmen season, their head coach, Eddie Sutton, was forced to resign following an NCAA investigation of several violations, including alleged cheating of a former player on his college admission exams and cash payments to the father of another player. The investigation was carried out throughout their freshmen season (1988-1989) which, due to several key losses, was Kentucky's first losing season since 1927. A ban was placed on the school that prevented them from playing any televised games during the next season or from any post-season play during the next two. Most of the Kentucky team of 1989 left when Sutton did. Those four didn't. The four soon-to-be-sophomores stayed with Kentucky and entered uncharted territory - no coach, no team, and, it appeared, no future. In the only NCAA Tournament they were able to shine in, they led the Wildcats in a remarkable run to one of the greatest games of all time. Following the game, the university retired their <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/91/Unforgettables-jerseys.jpg">jerseys</a> while they were still in school. They were the Unforgettables. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Flash forward to 2012. Kentucky has six freshmen, three sophomores, two juniors, and two seniors. Last year they had seven freshmen - four left to play professional basketball. At the bare minimum this year, one freshmen (Anthony Davis) is expected to leave this year as well. But it's ok - Head Coach John Calipari already has two five star, top 20 recruits ready to replace him. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Kentucky has entirely transformed itself in the last twenty years. They've always been a national powerhouse, but under John Calipari they are doing something that's never been done before in college basketball - they've become a "One-and-Done" factory. Five-star recruits come in for their mandatory one year of college basketball, play for Calipari, leave for the NBA, and are replaced. Lather, rinse, repeat. And who can blame Calipari? His team has lost one game this season, they're ranked #1 in the country, they'll get the #1 overall seed on the NCAA Tournament, and most analysts predict they'll win the NCAA Tournament (not that that really matters - <a href="http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/tournament">last year</a>, a grand total of two analysts predicted that eventual champs UCONN even would reach the Final Four). Calipari is taking good advantage of a broken system. </div><div><br />
</div><div>In 2006, the NBA increased the age limit of the draft from 18 to 19 and required U.S. players to be one year removed from high school before playing in the NBA. This means that stars like Derrick Rose, Kyrie Erving, and John Wall are forced to miss a year of basketball or, more likely, take their talents to a school for one year before moving onto the NBA. This rule benefits no one and harms everyone. There are numerous arguments that could be made against the rule:</div><div><br />
</div><div>1) It makes the term "student-athlete" a complete joke. One-and-done players come into college knowing they'll be leaving at the end of the year. That requires them to make good grades until the end of basketball season. They don't need to challenge themselves. They don't have to take their education seriously. A valuable privilege that should be graciously accepted and taken advantage of becomes an obligation, a chore, a mere stepping stone on the way to the NBA.</div><div><br />
</div><div>2) It puts the athlete in an unfortunate situation. Student athletes will tell you that, while the prospect of going to the NBA for the love the game is appealing, the idea of getting paid makes it even better. For some that's a bonus; for some it's a necessity. A lot of student athletes don't come from upper class families; going to the NBA is a way to provide their families with the kind of financial support that that they've never had before. At the same time, an extra year of playing basketball is an extra year of risking injury and preventing that NBA dream from ever coming true. Take Kyrie Irving: he was a one-and-done for Duke in 2011. While playing at Duke, he broke his toe. Fortunately for him, the toe healed and he was still drafted #1 overall by the Cleveland Cavaliers but he is an excellent example of why the age limit is dangerous for players: if Kyrie Irving had broken more than his toe, his entire career would have been on the line or maybe even over before it started so he could...play basketball at college for his mandatory year off before going pro? </div><div><br />
</div><div>3) It puts coaches in an unfortunate situation. As if recruiting wasn't difficult enough, the age rule adds an extra factor to the equation. Coaches now have to figure how long they'll have a player for and how they can recruit around that position and that player. </div><div><br />
</div><div>4) Why is the rule even there? Some of the best players in NBA history - Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Kevin Garnett, Dwight Howard - came straight from high school.</div><div><br />
</div><div>5) It harms the university and this is where we come back to Kentucky. The Unforgettables of 1992 were something special. They stayed with Kentucky because they loved Kentucky. They could have transferred; they likely would have been successful wherever they went. And, to be honest, they weren't high priority recruits for Kentucky; they were kind of the runts of the litter. But they loved that school and they couldn't imagine playing anywhere else. They stuck with Kentucky not because it was great (and it wasn't great, at that moment) but because they wanted to make it great again. The one-and-done rule makes the university a stepping stone, an obstacle to overcome before the real work begins. There's no undying loyalty to the school, to the fans, to the history of the program. It's disrespectful and diminishes the work that past players and coaches have done. </div><div><br />
</div><div>1989. Four Kentucky freshmen remain with their team despite the uncertainty of the program's future because they love the Wildcats. 1992. They're honored as the Unforgettables, the heart and soul that brought the Wildcats back to national relevance.</div><div><br />
</div><div>April 2011. The Kentucky Wildcats lose in the Final Four to UCONN. June 2011. Four Kentucky freshmen are drafted in the first round. November 2011. Six new freshmen enter Kentucky. Begin again.</div><div><br />
</div><div>2012. A lot can change in twenty years. And a lot can be changed going forward. Here's what I think should be done. It goes without saying that the age rule should be abolished. Players should be able to chose whether to go pro straight out of high school or to go to college. If they chose to go to college, though, make it a three year commitment, minimum. This ensures that players who actually <i>want</i> to be student athletes have that opportunity and those who don't are forced to go to school; only the athletes who care would come and isn't that the kind of students colleges want? Coaches wouldn't have to plan every recruiting class around guess work of how long a player will stay. Players might put more thought into the school they're going to because they'd be there longer. The players that want/need to go to the NBA can do so without being penalized with an extra year of waiting and warding off injury. And the NBA gets great players a year sooner than they normally would. Everyone wins. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Brian Rafalski is an American hockey defensive player with jersey #28. He played college hockey for the University of Wisconsin but was not immediately sought after by the NHL. Instead, he traveled overseas and played in Sweden and Finland, and became the first non-Finnish player to be voted best player by his peers. In 1999, he was declared by Sporting News to be the best hockey player not playing in the NHL. That same year, he was signed by the New Jersey Devils as a free agent. He played with the Devils until 2007 when he was signed by the Detroit Red Wings. In 2011, he retired due to knee and back injuries. During his 11 NHL seasons, he qualified for the post season every year. He played in five Stanley Cups and won three. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Thank you for your time.</div><div>The Sports Nerd</div>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-70562893813894263012012-02-09T17:05:00.003-08:002012-04-28T20:53:45.135-07:00Brandon Jacobs<b>#1: The Syracuse Orange</b><br />
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I'm going to go out on a limb here: come March, Syracuse will not make the Sweet Sixteen. Of the <a href="http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/bracketology">current</a> number 1 seeds projected by Lunardi 2 days ago, (Missouri, Ohio State, and Kentucky being the other three), Syracuse is by far the weakest, despite being the overall #1 seed. I'm not a big fan of Ken Pomeroy's basketball rankings (#1 reason why: Michigan State, 18-5, strength of schedule: 11, is ranked one below Wisconsin, 18-6, SOS: 31, whom the Spartans defeated earlier this season. I have other reasons, but that one best exemplifies my opinion) but I'm going to be citing him a lot in this entry because his rankings are easy to compare. Syracuse is ranked #6 by Pomeroy (below both MSU and Wisconsin); they have a strength of schedule of 55 and here's why: they have played 3 ranked teams this entire season. Ohio State, ranked below Syracuse in the AP poll but above them in Pomeroy, has played 7. Michigan State has played 7. Wisconsin has played 6. Northwestern, who I've argued <a href="http://eem1919-thesportsspot.blogspot.com/2011/12/darrelle-revis.html">before</a> would make the NCAA tournament if they were in a different conference, has played 5. <i>They</i> have a higher strength of schedule at this point in the season than the #2 team in the nation. It's easy to 24-1 when you play below the best of your abilities.<br />
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Syracuse's games against ranked opponents so far this season have been against Florida, Marquette, and Georgetown and they've won them all. Against unranked opponents, they've won by an average of 19.5 points; against ranked opponents, they've won by an average of 4.6. When they've played against formidable opponents, Syracuse has struggled. This is part of the reason that I think they'll struggle in March. <i>Everyone</i> will be good. Syracuse has two games remaining against ranked opponents, both of which are against Louisville. It's a shame that Marquette won't get the chance to play Syracuse in Milwaukee this season; if they did, I think they would win. With any luck, they'll get that opportunity during the Big East Tournament instead.<br />
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<b>#2: The Officials</b><br />
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I'm not the only person who, after watching a game end with an outcome different from what I want, would be happy to blame the officiating. Most of the time, that's a coping mechanism: it's reassuring to blame your team's poor performance on that guy on the sidelines with the <a href="http://t3hansen.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/eddy3.jpg">ridiculous facial expressions</a> and <a href="http://t3hansen.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/eddy4.jpg">over-the-top gestures</a> that the cameras show as much as the players. Sometimes it's accurate. And when it's accurate, we're left with this question: to what extent can we place blame on the referees?<br />
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On January 28, with 26.3 seconds to go at home against West Virginia, the Orange (Oranges?) found themselves up by two with the ball in the hands of the Mountaineers. After an airball, Deniz Kilicli of West Virginia grabbed the rebound and put the ball back up with 11 seconds left only to have it blocked by Syracuse's Baye Kieta and, after a Syracuse miss and a failed desperation three by the Mountaineers, Syracuse won. Here's the thing: it wasn't a block. It was <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNz317rDinY&feature=player_embedded">goaltending</a>.<br />
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This brings us back to the question of how much blame can be placed on the officials or, to phrase it differently, how much responsibility should the officials take for blown calls? We have no idea what would have happened in the remaining 11 seconds of that game. Perhaps the shot would have gone in and Syracuse would have hit a buzzer beater at the end to win it anyway. The blame can't be placed squarely on the officials. West Virginia could have done more to guarantee that the game didn't come down to the final possession: they could have shot more than 40.7%; they could have held Syracuse below 46%; they could have made one of the 12 threes they missed, Kilicli could have gone more than 1-5 from the free throw line.<br />
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At the same time, maybe the game would have gone to overtime and West Virginia would have gone on a 13-4 run to win. As coach Bob Huggins said afterwards in reference to the goaltending call, "Do I think it was? No. I know it was. I saw the replay. It's hard. You've got 30 seconds and you're trying to get the refocused and they're all thinking about other things."Once a chance like that is taken away, through no fault of your own, it's hard to concentrate on anything but how unfair that is. Sure, they had a chance after the game but that was the momentum changer, the moment where they could say, "Even when I do the right thing, it goes against me." At the very least, this should have been acknowledged. Someone should have come forward and apologized. It's been done before after blown calls and this was undoubtedly a situation where one would be applicable. No such apology was given.<br />
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After mistakes like these, defenders will rush to the sides of the referees and say, "No one's perfect" or "That's a tough call" and they're right. But making those tough calls, and making them correctly, are their <i>jobs</i>. If the officials can't make the right call at the end of a close game, why are they still officials?<br />
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<b>#3: The Iowa State Cyclones</b><br />
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<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2P86C-1x3o">And now for something completely different!</a> I'm kidding; there is a connection between all of this, I swear. The Cyclones are currently 17-7, 7-4 in the Big 12. They made national news recently after defeating #5 Kansas, but I've been watching them for reasons entirely unrelated for some time now.<br />
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42% of Iowa State's playing roster are transfer players. That's 5 of their 12. What's more, 3 of those 5 are from the Big Ten - Chris Allen from Michigan State, Chris Babb from Penn State, and Royce White from Minnesota - and they have at least one more Michigan State transfer (Korie Lucious) redshirting to play for them next season. Head Coach Fred Coiberg has one of the most unique recruiting strategies in the country - take a hodge-podge of talented players who didn't quite fit in with their past schools and put them together in the hopes of making a talented basketball team. It's working.<br />
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Individually, the players are flourishing. A rough freshmen year at Minnesota, which involved clashes with head coach Tubby Smith as well as legal problems, led to White leaving the team before the season started. Kentucky coach John Calipari offered White a spot on the squad - not surprising, as White was Mr. Minnesota and one of 20 players chosen to play in the 2009 Jordan Brand Classic - and White was prepared to accept until he thought about the plane ride it would take to get there. White's fear of flying, coupled with an anxiety disorder that began at age 10 after watching his best friend nearly die of a heart condition, caused him to cancel his flight and end his opportunity to play with the Wildcats. He ended up in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa, where he's the team's leader in scoring, rebounding, and assists per game. His anxiety problems still wake him 4-5 times a night and leave him questioning simple decisions for hours, but he's gaining control - with under 2 minutes left in the Kansas game, following a night that involved waking from a nightmare about missing a free throw and running to the gym in the early hours of the morning for practice, White hit 2 critical free throws to give the Cyclones a 5 point lead.<br />
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White's is just one of the transfers success stories. Following an unexplained dismissal from the Spartans, Chris Allen trails only White in points and assists per game. The 3rd highest scorer is Scott Christopherson, a transfer from Marquette and the 4th is Chris Babb from Penn State. 4 of the 5 starters from Iowa State are transfers.<br />
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Iowa State is 17-7, 7-4 in the Big 12. They've played 4 ranked teams thus far (more than Syracuse) and beaten one (Kansas); they still have 3 more left to play. They're ranked 37 by Pomeroy with a SOS of 38 (compared to Syracuse's 55). They haven't lost by more than 10 points this season (vs Iowa and Michigan) and their worst loss of the season, at Drake, came by 9 in the first weekend of the season. They've split games this season with Texas and Oklahoma St and defeated Kansas St in their first matchup; these are the other 3 Big 12 bubble teams.<br />
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Here's my other prediction for March: Iowa State <i>will</i> make the Sweet Sixteen. Here's why: 1) they don't do anything great, but they do everything well. They shoot 45% from the field and they rank in the top hundred for assists, points, and rebounds per game. 2) They've played a challenging schedule. Not only do they face ranked teams in their conference, but they willingly challenged themselves in the non-conference schedule as well. They haven't won many of these games, but they've been competitive in all of them. They're prepared for anyone. 3) For whatever reason, this team has chemistry. Maybe it's because they live in the middle of no where and have nothing else to do besides spend time together or maybe it's because many of them have been redshirted for a year before they started playing so they had time to prepare or maybe it's because they appreciate the importance of second chances and are trying to make the most of theirs; whatever it is, it's working. The team plays well, the play competitively, and they play together and that's what they need to go on a run in March.<br />
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<b>#4: The Grand Conclusion</b><br />
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Syracuse and Iowa State are about as opposite as they can be. Syracuse is overrated, Iowa State is underrated. Syracuse is ranked nationally despite only playing 3 ranked teams while Iowa State is just beginning to receive national recognition for defeating one of the 4 ranked teams they've played so far. Syracuse is better, but Iowa State is better prepared. At this moment, Joe Lunardi currently has Syracuse as the #1 seed and Iowa State the #9 seed in the east - meaning that, right now, they are projected to meet up in the second round to determine who goes to the Sweet Sixteen. My prediction stands. Iowa State goes to the Sweet Sixteen. Syracuse doesn't. Unless the officials have something to say about it.<br />
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<b>#27</b><br />
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Brandon Jacobs wears jersey #27 for the New York Giants, Super Bowl XLVI Champs. He's a 6-4 running back from Southern Illinois University. He played in 14 games this season and started 6, but the Super Bowl was not one of these 14. That didn't stop him from getting some attention from the media, though. After Tom Brady's wife, Giselle Bundchen, said, "My husband cannot ... throw the ball and catch the ball at the same time. I can't believe they dropped the ball so many times", Jacobs jumped to the defense of his opposition and told Bundchen "to be cute and shut up". He apologized for the latter part of the comment...unnecessarily, in my opinion.<br />
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Bon voyage!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-37038971946308941862012-01-23T15:37:00.004-08:002012-03-06T07:28:21.214-08:00Joe PaternoIf you're anything like me, the announcement of legendary Penn State coach Joe Paterno's death was met with mixed emotions when you turned on <i>Sportscenter</i> on January 22, 2012. First, I was a bit stunned (though I would have been more stunned had CBS not inaccurately reported his death the night beforehand). Yes, Joe Paterno was old and sick, but Joe Paterno has been around <a href="http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/paterno.jpg">for</a><i> <a href="http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/multimedia/photo_gallery/0910/joe.paterno.rare.photos/images/joe-paterno(13).jpg">forever.</a> </i>There were times when, following a press conference, I would find myself thinking, "How is this man still standing, let alone coaching?". That's not meant to be funny or rude; it's just the truth. Joe Paterno was old, but he was omnipresent in college football, especially in the Big Ten. Everything changed on November 5, 2011, when sexual abuse charges were first brought up against Paterno's former assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky. The number of people involved in the scandal eventually increased to encompass Paterno himself, leading to his firing on November 9, just four days after the scandal was revealed. Less than three months later, and before his testimony could be used against Sandusky, he was dead, leaving the sports world reeling over how to remember one of the greatest college football coaches of all time, and also one of the most disappointing.<br />
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The Kubler-Ross model was first proposed by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross in her 1969 book, <i>On Death and Dying</i>. She based her model off research and the experience of over 500 dying patients that she interviewed. The model she proposed is better known as <i>The Five Stages of Grief</i>.<br />
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<b>Stage 1: Denial</b><br />
Nobody wants to think ill of the dead. It would be easy to concentrate solely on Joe Paterno's accomplishments because there are so many of them. The 2011 season was Paterno's 62nd year with Penn State, his 43rd as head coach, making him the longest lasting head coach at a single school in history. He ended his career with 409 victories and 24 bowl victories (the most of any coach in history) out of 37 bowl appearances, and also as the only coach to win each of the four major bowls - Rose, Orange, Fiesta, and Sugar - as well as the Cotton Bowl Classic. Under Paterno, Penn State won at least 3 bowl games each decade since 1970. He had 2 national championships (1982 and 1986), 5 undefeated seasons, and won the Big Ten championship 3 times since Penn State joined in 1993.<br />
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But his accomplishments are more than just on the field. Paterno announced his plans to conduct a "Grand Experiment" immediately following his hiring in 1966, in which he planned to make academics just as high a priority for student athletes as athletics. Penn State students have all finished above average academically in comparison to other D1 schools and the 78% graduation rate is higher than the 67% average for D1 athletes, second only to Northwestern in the Big Ten.<br />
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Paterno donated over $4 million to Penn State since his hiring and, in honor of the $13.5 million he helped raise for the expansion of the library in 1997, the expansion was named Paterno Library.<br />
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A <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/63/Paterno_memorial.jpg">statue</a> outside Beaver Stadium exemplifies the important impact that Joe Paterno had on Penn State. This is also demonstrated by the rallies held by students on Paterno's lawn the night of his firing as well as the ongoing candlelight <a href="http://www.nypost.com/r/nypost/2012/01/22/news/web_photos/APTOPIXPennStatePaterno122617--520x350.jpg">vigils</a> being held after his death. Amongst the student body, he was a person to be honored and respected. Amongst his players and former players, he was family. Former player Matt Millen said, "I am numb...Forget the football aspect. We just lost a great contributor to our society. He was more than a football coach...He was a teacher who affected thousands with life-long lessons." Forget football? Ok, that brings us to....<br />
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<b>Stage 2: Anger</b><br />
Paterno's role in the Sandusky sex scandal cannot, should not, and will never be overlooked. Here's what happened: Jerry Sandusky was the assistant coach under Joe Paterno from 1969-1999, 23 years of which he also spent as the team's defensive coordinator. In 1977, Sandusky founded "The Second Mile", a charity to help troubled young boys. In 1998, he was investigated by multiple sources for sexual abuse but no charges were filed. He retried in 1999 but remained at Penn State in an office position for the football team.<br />
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In 2008, the mother of a high school freshman boy (Victim 1) reported that her son had been continuously sexually abused by Sandusky since 2005/2006, during which time the boy was involved in The Second Mile and Sandusky was an assistant coach of his school football team.<br />
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In December 2010, assistant coach Mike McQueary appeared before the Grand Jury investigating Victim 1's case and stated that, in 2002, he had witnessed Sandusky abusing a different boy, Victim 2, in Penn State's showers. He reported this incident to Joe Paterno. Paterno, in turn, informed athletic director Tim Curley and Gary Schultz, who was overseeing Penn State's police at the time. The two men, along with the school President, Graham Spanier, told Sandusky not to bring children into Penn State facilities. That was the end of the matter for McQueary, Schultz, Curley, Spanier...and Paterno, but not the end for at least 20 boys who would find themselves victims to Sandusky.<br />
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Paterno, along with the men he informed, insist that the details McQueary gave to the Grand Jury were not the same information he gave them. It didn't matter to the courts, though. The Grand Jury charged Schultz and Curley with failure to report suspected child abuse. Not facing any legal charges, Paterno announced that he would retire at the end of the 2011 season. The Board of Trustees, though, voted to terminate Paterno's job immediately and unceremoniously fired him in a phone call late one night five days into the scandal.<br />
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<b>Stage 3: Bargaining</b><br />
Two months after he was fired, Paterno attempted to explain the position he found himself in: "I didn't know exactly how to handle it and I was afraid to do something that might jeopardize what the university procedure was...so I backed away and turned it over to some other people, people I thought would have a little more expertise than I did." Paterno didn't face any legal obligations, but he did face some moral ones.<br />
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Joe Paterno went to Brown University; he won more games than any other college football coach; he was a smart man. When he says that he didn't know how to handle the situation, I don't believe him. That's an insult to his intelligence and to everyone who heard that statement. When you see someone having a heart attack, you call an ambulance. When you see a bank robbery, you call the police. When you see sexual abuse, you call <i>anyone</i> in <i>any </i>position of power to fix the situation. You could say that he did that by contacting the higher-ups in the school. When they didn't take action, he should have been smart enough to tell someone who would.<br />
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Another reason I don't believe Paterno's statement: Sandusky coached beneath Paterno for 31 years. In 1999, when he retired at age 55, he received the Assistant Coach of the Year Award. Why would he retire so young when he was obviously doing such a phenomenal job? Because in 1998, he was accused of sexual assault but no charges were filed. He remained at the school, just not in as an assistant coach. I think they all knew more than they let on, that Sandusky was forced to retire quietly in exchange for the school keeping quiet themselves. Maybe I'm a conspiracy theorist, but it's not the most far-fetched aspect about this whole situation.<br />
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Matt Millen said that Paterno was a teacher. A teacher generally guides the younger generation by example and through his wisdom and experience. By this definition, Joe Paterno taught the his students to take the least amount of necessary action as needed to clear your name of any legal obligations. It might be irrelevant, though, because the children that Paterno was supposed to be teaching and guiding were the same children that he allowed Sandusky to abuse. Millen said there is more than football and he was right. Maybe he should have told Joe Paterno that.<br />
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<b>Stage 4: Depression</b><br />
Yesterday on the radio, someone proposed that Joe Paterno died of a broken heart. He died of lung cancer, but the idea is still the same. Paterno had been at Penn State for 62 years. Nittany Lion football was his life and the students and players that he'd met during that time were his family and when he was cruelly (?) but justifiably (?) fired over the phone on the evening of November 9, the Board of Trustees did, in a way, take his life from him. He was sick, his reputation was ruined, his career was over - what else did he have to fight for?<br />
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He left behind a wife, five children, seventeen grandchildren, and countless numbers of players and students who loved him as their own family and they are all truly mourning right now. Paterno made inexcusably poor decisions during his lifetime, but dead is dead. His actions don't change the fact that a man died yesterday.<br />
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<b>Stage 5: Acceptance</b><br />
I remember when I first found out that Paterno was involved in the scandal. I've never been a Penn State fan nor a Joe Paterno fan; as I said before, I usually watched his press conference or him with a broken hip on the sidelines and just wondered how he could still do it. But I was stunned and I was sad because, with all the poor role models who are placed in the limelight, it's refreshing to have a person like Joe Paterno, who appears to be the exact opposite and, when the truth came out, it was hard to watch him fall. You can't look at Joe Paterno's accomplishments without looking at his failures, but the opposite can be said as well. Paterno was in imperfect human being whose faults were magnified because he was placed on such a high pedestal by so many for such a long time. He wasn't morally strong, he made bad decisions, he let a lot of bad things happen. He changed a lot of lives, he was loved by a lot of people, and he taught sportsmanship and leadership on the football field. He was human and now he's gone. Joe Paterno was born on December 21, 1926. This is my 26th blog and it is dedicated him. RIP.<br />
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Respectfully,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-63226585177559223142011-12-28T14:42:00.000-08:002011-12-29T19:11:37.715-08:00Darrelle RevisThe Northwestern Wildcats basketball program has existed since 1901. In 1931 and 1939, they were the regular conference champions. According to the Helms Foundation (which, starting in 1939, was a panel of voters who declared one team a national champion each year based on their record as far back as 1901), they were they were the National Champions in 1931. The NCAA Tournament began in 1939. Since its existence, the Wildcats are the only major conference team to have never appeared in a single tournament game. The Northwestern Wildcats consistently rank among the bottom half of the Big Ten. They've had a total of two finishes above fourth place since World War II and none since 1968. They've played in the NIT six times, including 2009-2011. Last January, Drew Crawford stated that a fan came up to him and said, "You've <i>gotta</i> make the tournament this year." Crawford's response: "Yeah, haven't heard that before."<br />
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The strangest thing about Northwestern is that I can never remember them having a really <i>bad</i> team. Let's take a look at their last three seasons, the seasons when they went to the NIT. They've ended each season with winning records and yet still placed 9th, 7th, or 8th, respectively, in the Big Ten. All three years they unexpectedly knocked off at least one top team in the Big Ten (#7 Michigan State, #6 Purdue, and unranked-but-tournament-bound Michigan and Illinois). They have good players: seven players on their current roster are shooting higher than 40%, senior John Shurna, averaging 19.4 ppg and 6.0 rpg, is one of 50 seniors selected John R. Wooden Award and is currently a possibility for the Naismith College Player of the Year Award. The Big Ten has named him one of the top 10 players on the conference. Fellow senior Luka Mirkovic is a 6'11'' center averaging 8.3 ppg and junior Drew Crawford, the team's second highest scorer with 18.1 ppg and 5.0 rpg, scored 34 points in Northwestern's loss to Creighton earlier this week. If star forward <a href="http://www.aolnews.com/2010/07/27/kevin-coble-leaves-northwesterns-basketball-program/">Kevin Coble</a> had remained on the team for his senior season last year, Northwestern more-than-likely would have made the NCAA Tournament last year. But, as has often been the case for the Wildcats, fate intervened and it was simply not meant to be. Their non-conference schedule is always challenging and they perform well enough to leave the season with a winning record overall. So far this season, they're ranked 8th in apg, 89th in ppg, and 93rd field goal percentage. So why doesn't Northwestern make the tournament? Because they're a member of the Big Ten Conference.<br />
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The truth of the matter is, if Northwestern played in a different conference, they would have a much greater possibility of making the tournament. The Big Ten is consistently good, sending <i>at least</i> four teams to the tournament a year. Last year, six of the eleven schools (55%) made it. Take a look at the Tennessee Volunteers of the 2010-2011 season. They're members of the SEC, which sent five of their twelve teams (41%) to the tournament last season, and finished conference play 8-8, 19-14 before the tournament started, a .58 winning percentage and in 7th place. They entered the tournament as a #9 seed and lost to Michigan, who Northwestern beat earlier that year. Northwestern, on the other hand, finished conference play 7-11, 18-13 overall before entering the NIT, with a total winning percentage of .58. They placed 8th out of 12. The real difference between the two teams is conference play and it wasn't even that much of a difference. Because of the way the SEC is set up, Northwestern plays more games and therefore has more opportunities to lose and they're playing more teams that will eventually go to the NCAA Tournament themselves. In another conference, a team with Northwestern's record can and does go on to play in March. In the Big Ten, that's harder to do. Northwestern isn't a bad team; they're just always in a bad situation.<br />
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If Northwestern wants to make the tournament this year, they can't play average; their 'average' is what it would take for many teams to make the tournament, but not the Wildcats. They're playing in a league that currently has five ranked teams. If they want to make the tournament, the Wildcats can't just pull of <i>one</i> upset this season; they need to finish with a .500 or above record in the conference (to go along with their 10-2 non-conference record) and they need some wins over some ranked teams. The way for them to accomplish that is to finish games; Northwestern has always been an entertaining team to watch because, during the first half of every game they play against a ranked opponent, they stay close and make you think they can win. Then, in the second half, they either fail to make the appropriate adjustments or they run out of energy (or both) and lose. If they can play the second half like they play the first half, they can win. They can start that tonight by pulling an upset at #2 Ohio State.<br />
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Earlier this week, the selections for the Pro Bowl were announcers. The Pro Bowl is the all-star game of the NFL, pitting the best of the NFC against the best of the AFC. #24 Darrelle Revis was one of those selected for the AFC defensive team. He plays cornerback for the New York Jets and has made 51 tackles and 4 interceptions this season.<br />
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Unhello,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-3160447277193761272011-12-27T12:48:00.000-08:002011-12-31T13:20:48.039-08:00Roy FinchIn the 2004-2005 season, the Siena Saints finished 6-24. Fran McCaffery took over the Siena Saints in their 2005-2006 season, a year when they were projected to finish dead last in the MAAC. They also came up with major victories against cross-town rivalry, Albany, and against Niagara on Senior Day. That season their record was 15-13. Then 20-12. In 2009-2010, they set a school record 17 MAAC wins during their 27-7 season. Then McCaffery left and came to coach the Iowa Hawkeyes.<br />
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He's only been at Iowa for one season, but it already seems that he might be doing the same thing he did for the Saints to the Hawkeyes. Under Todd Lickliter, the 2009-2010 Hawkeyes finished 10-22, 4-14 in the Big Ten. Last season, they ended 11-20, 4-14 in the Big Ten, 10th place once again. But they also came up with two huge victories during the season - one was a twenty point victory win over Michigan State (which, <a href="http://eem1919-thesportsspot.blogspot.com/2011/12/john-jett.html">in retrospect</a>, wasn't as impressive as it might have appeared to be at the time) and a two point home upset over Purdue on Senior Day. These two victories strangely parallel Siena's two most significant victories during McCaffery's first season.<br />
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The Hawkeyes have started this season 8-5. They open up Big Ten Conference play Wednesday night at home against <a href="http://eem1919-thesportsspot.blogspot.com/2011/12/mike-bibby.html">Purdue</a>. According to ESPN.com, Iowa ranks higher than Purdue in rebounding, scoring, field goal percentage, and assists per game (all based on their games and opponents so far this season). The last time these two teams met, when Purdue was, in my opinion, a much stronger team, Iowa won. Iowa is stronger this season and Purdue is weaker; this should be a good game and I think Iowa has a good shot at winning. If McCaffery's second season at Iowa imitates his second season at Siena like his first season did, Iowa will improve this year. Admittedly, it's not hard to improve on an 11-20 season and I'm not suggesting that Iowa will be in the running for the Big Ten, but, under McCaffery, that could be a possibility within the next few years. The Saints were projected to finished dead last in the MAAC when McCaffery took over in 2005. By the time he left in 2010, they were coming off their third straight conference championship. Iowa was in a better starting position when McCaffery got them - 2nd to dead last - so who's to say McCaffery won't do the same for them?<br />
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Blog #22 is named after Roy Finch, the #22 sophomore running back for the Oklahoma Sooners football team, who has played in all but one game this season. On December 30, the Iowa Hawkeyes football team will play the #14 Oklahoma Sooners in the Insight Bowl. Oklahoma started their season 6-0 before dropping 3 of their last 6 games. They rank in the top 50 for passing yards, rushing yards, points scored, and points allowed (meaning they don't allow a lot). Iowa ranks in the top 50 for points allowed. Iowa is returning to the Insight Bowl for the second straight year and hoping to extend their Bowl winning streak to three against the pre-season #1 team.<br />
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I have to go,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-77313860137985366602011-12-27T07:24:00.000-08:002011-12-27T07:25:12.911-08:00Miles Asafo-AdjeiIllinois entered the season unranked, worked their way into the rankings with nine straight wins, and worked their way back out after losing two of their last three games. Their 1-1 against ranked teams (defeating #18 Gonzaga and being defeated by #8 Missouri), and, though they are not ranked in the top 100 nationally for points, field goal percentage, rebounds, or assists according to ESPN.com, Ken Pomeroy has them making the NCAA tournament. Part of the reason they are projected to make the tournament is Sam Maniscalco.<br />
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Maniscalco played point guard for the Braves of Bradley University for three years and six games of his senior season, before a persistent ankle injury forced him to have surgery and miss the remainder of his final season at Bradley. After Bradley head coach Jim Les was fired, Maniscalco asked to be released to play elsewhere. Despite interest in both Iowa State and Indiana as well, Maniscalco decided to play as a graduate student for Illinois. The timing could not have been better for the Fighting Illini.<br />
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Illinois lost seniors Dimitri McCamey, Mike Tisdale, and Mike Davis, which meant losing 31.7 points out of the average 71.8 the Illini scored a game. The seniors were the leading scorers; the highest returning scorer was then-sophomore Brandon Paul, who averaged 9.2 ppg (which he has increased to 11.3 ppg so far this season). Before gaining Maniscalco, the Illini would have had one senior on the roster, walk-on Jean Selus, who, after joining the team in the 2010-2011 season, had played a grand total of five minutes. What's more, with the graduation of McCamey, the Illini lost their starting point guard. Their other option was true-freshman Tracy Abrams, who is playing 15.2 mpg and scoring 2.4 ppg. While Abrams is a 4-star recruit who's expected to lead the Illini in the future, for the time being he's a freshman who, like any other player, will benefit from playing time and some upperclassmen guidance. At the start of this season, Illinois desperately needed some senior leadership and an experience scorer on the team.<br />
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They found this player in Sam Maniscalco. At first glance, Sam Maniscalco appears to be a steady player on the Illinois Fighting Illini basketball team: he's 6'0'' and generously listed as 230 lbs, averages 10.6 ppg, 2.9 apg, and 27.8 minutes a game, and is an 89% free throw shooter. Steady, but not spectacular. But sometimes statistics don't tell the entire story. Maniscalco is the "glue-guy" that the Illini needed. He's not the leading scorer or rebounder, he doesn't play 39 minutes a game, but he fits in with fellow starters D.J. Richardson, Meyers Leonard, and Brandon Paul to create a balanced, well-rounder group of leaders for the Illini and provides the experience and guidance that this team, especially freshman point guard Tracy Abrams, will benefit and learn from.<br />
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#22 Miles Asafo-Adjei is a junior guard for the Cornell Big Red. He's averaging a career high 17.9 minutes this season as well as 3.8 ppg. He's from Antioch, TN, and is enrolled in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Cornell is 4-6, but ranked in the top 50 for assists per game. They played both Illinois and Penn State this season and lost to both, by 4 and 7 respectively.<br />
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You can go now.<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-38369744106857288392011-12-25T15:18:00.000-08:002011-12-25T15:18:39.916-08:00Jorge Brian DiazThe Big Ten Conference is the oldest Division I college athletic conference. It was originally called the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives and consisted of seven schools: Illinois, Northwestern, Chicago, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Purdue. It became informally known as the Big Nine with the additions of Iowa and Indiana in 1899. Then Ohio State joined in 1912, Chicago left in 1946, and Michigan State joined in 1950. The Conference formally adopted the title the Big Ten in 1987. Penn State was the 11th school in the Big Ten in 1990 and, as of 2011, the Big Ten gained a 12th addition: the Nebraska Cornhuskers.<br />
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The Big Ten announced their decision to expand in December 2009. Though no number was set, many analysts speculated that the Big Ten was hoping to expand to 14 or 16 teams in order to increase the influence of the Big Ten Network and to establish a championship game in football (which they did...with <a href="http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-10/news/30503239_1_bcs-bid-bcs-standings-kirk-cousins">disastrous</a> results). Nebraska first petitioned to join the Big Ten in 1900 and then again in 1911 but was denied access both times. On June 11, 2010, they asked, again, for entry and this time they were accepted.<br />
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The Cornhuskers were previously members of the Big 12 Conference (ironically, their entrance to Big 10 brought the membership to twelve while their exit from the Big 12 was one of many changes that brought their membership to ten) and, before that, the Big 8 (which gained four new members to become the Big 12). The Big 10 wanted Nebraska for their football program - 5 national titles, 3 Heisman winners, .702 winning record all time - the basketball program just came with them.<br />
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Nebraska hasn't won a conference title since sharing the title with Kansas and Kansas State in 1950. They haven't won an outright title is 1916. They've appeared in the NCAA Tournament seven times in school history and are one of three BCS programs to have never won a single NCAA Tournament game (the others being Northwestern and South Florida). Their last March Madness appearance came in 1998, two years after their one and only NIT championship. They've played in the NIT five of the last ten years.<br />
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They've started this season 8-3, with losses to Oregon, Wake Forest, and #22 Creighton. According to ESPN.com, they are not in the top 125 nationally for rebounds, points, field goal percentage, or assists per game. According to Ken Pomeroy, they won't be make the NCAA Tournament this year either. Like football, they're first game will be against Wisconsin. Welcome to the Big Ten, Nebraska.<br />
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Since most fans of the Big Ten know little to nothing about Nebraska, this blog is titled after #21 on the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Jorge Brian Diaz. Diaz is a junior 6'11'' center from Puerto Rico. He's the teams second leading rebounder (4.9 rpg), scorer (10.9 ppg), and blocker (2.6); coming into this season, he is 10th on the Cornhusker's all time shot blocker list. Last season, the Cornhuskers were 14.3 when he scored in double figures.<br />
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Ta ta,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-50896779333066108002011-12-25T08:43:00.000-08:002011-12-25T08:43:29.736-08:00Mike BibbySome times the non-conference schedule reveals a lot about a team. Sometimes it doesn't. The Purdue Boilermakers seem to fall into the latter category. They're 10-3 and they could easily be 15-4 (with wins against Iowa, Minnesota, Penn State, and Illinois and a loss to Wisconsin) in mid-January (though this means that the end of their Big Ten schedule will be tough). There's nothing remarkably impressive about their victories thus far. Half have come over teams with losing records, but also had two nice wins over Temple and Iona, both of whom have a chance at winning their leagues and making the tournament come March. They've played two ranked teams (#15 Alabama and #11 Xavier) and lost to both, as well as 6-7 Butler. They've played one game away from Mackey Arena (at Xavier). According to ESPN.com, they are not in the top 50 nationally for points, rebounds, assists, or field goal percentage, but ESPN doesn't have any way to rank defense and Purdue has always been a defense-oriented team. They're unranked in the polls, but Ken Pomeroy has them at 21. There's nothing about Purdue so far that indicates that they will pose their usual threat to the Big Ten this season. There's nothing that says they won't.<br />
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</div><div>The big story so far this season for Purdue has been the return of Robbie Hummel. Hummel joined Purdue as a true freshman in the 2007-2008 season, during which he was the 2nd leading scorer and the leading rebounder on the team and was a first team All-Big Ten selection. Next season, he was made a co-captain of the team and led in rebounding again during a season when he missed five games due to back spasms and a broken vertebrae. During his junior season, Hummel once again led the team in rebounds and was 2nd in scoring when, on February 24, at Minnesota, he suffered an ACL tear near his right knee. He was once again named a first team All-Big Ten selection, but was forced to miss the NCAA tournament after having a season ending surgery, recuperation for which was supposed to be 4-6 months. Hummel expected to return with fellow teammates Et'Twaun Moore and JaJuan Johnson at the start of their senior season. The first practice of the season, Hummel tore the same ACL and took a medical redshirt.<br />
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He returned as a redshirted senior for the 2011-2012 season. Some analysts wondered how he would play after over a year without practice, coming off two knee surgeries. Now they know: very well. Hummel once again leads the team in rebounding (5.9 rpg) and also, for the first time in his career, in scoring (17.5 ppg). He's averaging 31 minutes a game and has the best assist:turnover ratio of his career right now. After almost three injury-plagued seasons, Robbie Hummel has returned for his senior season as a man with a mission: stay healthy and win. Other than a moment at the end of the Xavier game when he collapsed due to dehydration, he has done just that.<br />
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I've said the Purdue's fate this season is still uncertain. Robbie Hummel and his health is a huge X-factor in their conference play, but he might not be the only one. Unfortunately, Purdue's schedule thus far hasn't given me a lot to go on as to determining what those other factors could be. Purdue is typically a very dangerous team; this is the first time in four years they came into the season unranked. Their past non-conference schedules are very similar to their schedule this season with similar results. Chances are, Purdue will once again be a competitive team.<br />
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Today is the start of the NBA season and the first game today is the New York Knicks vs the Boston Celtics. #20 Mike Bibby is a point guard for the Knicks, who lost 4 out of 5 pre-season games to the Dallas Mavericks. Bibby played college basketball at the University of Arizona and was drafted as the 2nd overall pick in 1998 by the Vancouver Grizzlies. He's since played for Sacramento, Atlanta, Washington, and Miami before joining New York for the 2010-2011 season, where he averaged 28.6 minutes and 8.7 points per game.<br />
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So long,<br />
The Sports Nerd<br />
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</div></div>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-3735934950535549442011-12-24T16:46:00.000-08:002011-12-25T17:38:16.942-08:00John JettA tale of two teams. A slight alteration of Charles Dickens' famous novel sufficiently describes the difference between this season's Michigan State Spartans and that of last seasons. After back-to-back Big Ten championships and Final Four runs, the 2010-2011 Spartans finished the Big Ten 9-9, tied for 4th, and desperately searching for a win to make it to it's 14th straight NCAA tournament, which they found over Purdue in the Big Ten tournament, before losing in the first round to UCLA, ending one of the most disappointing basketball seasons in recent school memory. That does not appear to be the case with the 2011-2012 Michigan State basketball team.<br />
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</div><div>After losing their first two games to then #1 North Carolina and #6 Duke, the Spartans have won their last eleven games, including an impressive win at #22 Gonzaga, who have a 92-7 record on their home court, during which senior forward Draymond Green scored a career high 34 points. The Spartans are ranked 6th nationally in rebounding, 12th in assists, 44th in points per game, and 51st in field goal percentage. After starting the season unranked, the Spartans are currently #20 in the country.</div><div><br />
</div><div>So what's the difference between the '10-'11 Spartans team and the '11-'12 one? There were the fundamental problems, of course. A typical MSU basketball team is defense-oriented with a strong post presence, which didn't happen. They're aggressive in rebounding and in loose balls, but that effort wasn't there either. But the fundamental problems stemmed from some larger issues. The first problem with last season's team began before they even set foot on the court: off-court distractions. The summer after their second straight Final Four run, Tom Izzo was heavily pursued by the Cleveland Cavaliers after head coach Mike Brown was fired. The weeklong drama included numerous visits to Cleveland and, finally, a late-night press conference announcing his refusal. The situation, though, planted some seeds of discomfort amongst the team in early July. The drama continued rolling in that summer when would-be senior Chris Allen was dismissed from the team for unspecified reasons and transferred to Iowa State. He would be joined in February by dismissed junior Korie Lucious. Meanwhile, senior captain and point guard Kalin Lucas, after deciding to return for his senior season, continued to struggle and recover from a torn achilles tendon suffered during the Final Four run, junior Delvon Roe fought through chronic knee pain, and redshirted freshman Russell Byrd had yet another foot surgery. As the Spartans were anything but stable off-the-court, they struggled to find stability on the court as well. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Another major problem that factored into the team's struggles was the lack of leadership. Tom Izzo takes pride in having a player-coached team and, under Izzo, the Spartans have had many great leaders: Antonio Smith, Mateen Cleaves, Alan Anderson, Drew Neitzel, Travis Walton. Generally, team leadership (for any team) comes from people who are natural born leaders, talented, and experienced. Last year, the Spartans star senior, point guard Kalin Lucas, was not a leader. Izzo wanted him to be, but it wasn't in his personality to lead. Senior Durrell Summers also didn't have the gumption to lead nor did he have the kind of playing season that would inspire his teammates. The person who <i>did</i> have the natural ability to lead was junior Draymond Green. So last year's team faced another dilemma: to follow the leadership of a senior point guard who didn't want/know how to lead, or to follow the guy who wanted to lead, but was forced to take a backseat to the seniors. Ultimately, no decision was made.<br />
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Last year's team wasn't a team. Players, seniors in particular, focused on playing for the names on the back of their jerseys rather than the name on the front. There was no chemistry, too many distractions, and a sense of entitlement coming into the season, ranked #2 in the country after back-to-back Final Four runs. It's not secret that I'm a huge Spartan fan. My father is a bigger Spartan fan. We turned the games off. We couldn't watch. </div><div><br />
</div><div>That's not the case with this year's team. No dismissals. No NBA flirtations. No injured players. The players aren't selfish (17.5 apg, 12th nationally). Draymond Green is the undisputed leader of the team. They hustle, they rebound, they play in the post. They started the season under the radar and have had to prove themselves to get ranked. The difference between the two Spartans' teams shows how important leadership, effort, and team chemistry is to the game. The skill level of teams isn't dependent on the amount of talent in each individual player; it's what happens when they all play together.<br />
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This entry is in honor of John Jett, #19 punter on the 1999 Detroit Lions football team. He played college football at East Carolina University, spent 1993-1996 with the Dallas Cowboys, winning two Superbowls, and was with the Lions from 1997-2003. This was the Lions last team to make the playoffs. Until tonight. With their 38-10 victory over the San Diego Chargers, the Lions have clinched their first playoff berth in 13 years.<br />
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Sincerely,<br />
The Sports Nerd</div>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-61252632307999927632011-12-23T10:26:00.000-08:002011-12-23T13:26:15.923-08:00Peyton ManningLast year, I <a href="http://eem1919-thesportsspot.blogspot.com/2011/01/jacob-davis.html">predicted</a> that the Penn State Nittany Lions would make the NCAA tournament (and I was right). I won't be making that prediction this year. The Nittany Lions are currently unranked with an 8-5 record, but don't let their victories fool you. PSU has played five above .500 teams; they've lost to four of them. Their wins have come against 0-11 Hartford, 1-10 Mount St. Mary's, 3-8 Bradford, and 4-6, Cornell, to name a few. In the Big Ten, Penn State ranks dead last in field goal percentage (39%), points per game (64.0), and assists per game (11.9). Their poor performance this season hasn't been entirely under their control, however. They've had a lot of distractions.<br />
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The first of these distractions came May 23, 2011, when Head Coach Ed DeChellis announced he would be leaving his alma mater and taking the head coaching job at Navy. DeChellis started at PSU in 2003. During his eight seasons there, DeChellis won the NIT championship (2009), was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2009, and gained an NCAA tournament bid last season for the first time in ten years. Despite this, the school denied DeChellis' plea to provide one of DeChellis' assistants (the lowest paid in the Big Ten) a salary increase as well as his request for a contract extension. Feeling unwanted and unsure of his standing at the school, DeChellis took a $200,000 pay cut and left for Navy. He was replaced by Pat Chambers, who is in his 3rd year of coaching after a successful season at Boston University, during which time his Terriers won their conference tournament, thereby earning a spot in the NCAA tournament.<br />
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Along with DeChellis, PSU's leading scorer and their all-around-do-everything man, Taylor Battle, graduated. Battle averaged 20.2 points during his typical 38.1 minutes per game, but statistics don't describe the role that Taylor Battle played for Penn State. Battle was PSU's Jared Sullinger/Draymond Green/Jordan Taylor, except he didn't have anyone else on his team to help him out. With his departure, PSU returned one starter, Tim Frazier, who, prior to this season, averaged 6.3 ppg; he's increased that to 17.2 points so far his junior season. The point of this is that, with the loss of head coach Ed DeChellis and the team's heart and soul, Taylor Battle, Penn State lost their identity after they were eliminated from the first round of the 2011 tournament.<br />
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Which brings me to another distraction for Penn State this season. PSU has always been a football school first, and, to be honest, a women's <a href="http://www.centredaily.com/2011/12/02/3006282/drive-for-five.html">volleyball</a> school second. Basketball ranked somewhere further down the line for the sports administration department. Even after the best season in ten years, Ed DeChellis couldn't find respect for himself and his program, which is why he left. As the team continues to falter this season, they lose more and more interest from the students and the administration, leading to a further downward cycle.<br />
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And really, the school could use some morale boosting from their basketball team right now. The final distraction for Penn State is probably the most obvious: the sex abuse scandal. I find it hard to believe that anyone <i>doesn't</i> know what this is about so I won't go into detail explaining it. I will say, though, that the loss of head football coach Joe Paterno after 46 years, the bad publicity, and the general horror of the events have put a lot of pressure and added stress on this basketball team.<br />
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To sum up, the Penn State Nittany Lions, with the exception of Tim Frazier, are not having a good season and it probably won't get any better this year. Pat Chambers, though, brought the Boston Terriers to their first NCAA tournament appearance in 9 years, only the 7th in school history, in his second season both at Boston University and as a coach. Tim Frazier is a junior and still has another year to go. Much like Indiana, chances are Penn State will be competitive again very soon.<br />
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I try to avoid using big names for the titles (with the exception of <a href="http://eem1919-thesportsspot.blogspot.com/2011/03/ryan-braun.html">Ryan Braun</a>, which shows how much I know about baseball), but Peyton Manning is #18 for the Indianapolis Colts. For anyone who doesn't know, the Colts are having a horrendous season. After finishing as ACF South division champions and playing in their 9th straight playoffs, the Colts are currently 2-13 and are expected to have the first pick in the upcoming draft. A big discussion topic right now amongst ESPN analysts is whether the Colts will keep 34 year old Peyton Manning (11x Pro Bowl team member, 5x First-Team All Pro Team, Super Bowl 2005 MVP, Colts all time career leader in career wins/passing touchdowns/pass attempts/pass completions/passing yards) as quarterback or select Standford's Andrew Luck with the first pick.<br />
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Sayonara!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-61440009532237233792011-12-22T14:16:00.000-08:002011-12-23T06:27:59.803-08:00Drew NeitzelShane Ryan stole my idea. Earlier this month, Ryan posted an <a href="http://www.grantland.com/blog/the-triangle/post/_/id/12315/wisconsin-the-most-boring-team-in-america">article</a> entitled "Wisconsin: The Most Boring Team in America." I wouldn't have used those exact words (the sole purpose of which were to grab attention, which they did here, in Wisconsin) but the general concept is the same. Since I was planning to write this anyway and you might not feel like reading Ryan's whole article, I'm going to continue my plan and write this blog about the Wisconsin Badgers. Under Bo Ryan, Wisconsin plays a slow, defense oriented style of basketball. It works.<br />
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According to ESPN.com, Wisconsin isn't a top 100 team for average points, rebounds, assists, or field goal percentage per game. Their leading scorer is averaging a mere 12.3 points per game. They average 60.2 possessions a game, the 3rd lowest in the country, and rank 345 out of 345 for adjusted tempo, per Ken Pomeroy. They're also ranked number 1 in the country, per Ken Pomeroy.<br />
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Don't ask me to try and explain Pomeroy's reasoning behind this, because I can't do it. What I can tell you, though, is that the style of basketball that Wisconsin plays, every statistic mentioned above, is deliberate. Prior to the 2012 recruiting class, Ryan hadn't recruited a 5-star player since Joe Krabbenhoft in 2005. Wisconsin doesn't play for flash and pizazz; they play for efficiency and that's exactly what they end up with. They go back to basics: they cause fouls; they make free throws; and they run the shot clock down. They force the opponents to play good, solid defense and then they play tough defense at the other end of the court. Wisconsin <i>intends</i> to be ranked dead last for adjusted tempo; that's their strategy. It's far easier to slow a game down than to speed it up and when Wisconsin forces other teams to play at their speed, they frustrate their opponent.<br />
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Their game plan works. In their 3-point loss to North Carolina, they held the 4th highest scoring team in the nation, averaging 86.1 ppg, to 60 points. This is why Wisconsin has been so effective under Bo Ryan during conference play, acquiring 3 regular season championships, 2 conference tournament championships, and appearing in 13 straight NCAA tournaments (10 under Ryan). They're currently ranked 13 (or 14, depending on the poll) in the nation and will be a definite threat to the Big Ten this season. As always.<br />
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Today's blog is named after former Michigan State point guard, Drew Neitzel. Neitzel was the 2004 Mr. Basketball for the state of Michigan. He's ambidextrous, winning a two-handed dribbling competition at age 12. He played for the Spartans from the 04-05 season to 07-08, becoming the school's all-time leader in career free-throw shooting at 87%. Proving that the Wisconsin method of basketball is not always effective, Neitzel's best collegiate game came against Wisconsin, one day after their first (and last) #1 ranking in school history was announced, during which he scored 28 points. After spending 3 years in Europe, Neitzel was put on the 2011-2012 Dallas Mavericks roster with jersey #17.<br />
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Be back soon,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-75505483872351240892011-12-21T19:04:00.000-08:002011-12-27T07:28:49.296-08:00Bob LanierThe Minnesota Golden Gophers are currently 11-1, ranked 14th in field goal percentage (50%), and scoring an average of 71.1 points per game despite the fact that their leading scorer, and the apparent heart and soul of the Gopher team, is finished for the season (and likely finished at Minnesota) because of a torn ACL, but more on that later. Minnesota has won the last 6 games since their star was injured and, as is the case with Minnesota seemingly every season, appears to be in an excellent position to enter conference play. They're unranked.<br />
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I've said before that most teams from the major conferences work up to conference play with easier opponents, during which time they establish team chemistry, settle on rotations, and develop some confidence. Most teams will also schedule several games against traditionally challenging opponents as well, though, in order to compare themselves to more talented teams, challenge themselves, and prepare themselves for the type of play they will face in their conference and when/if they play in March. Minnesota is one of two Big Ten teams to play no ranked opponents prior to the Big Ten season, which is why they are still unranked.<br />
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This isn't unusual for Minnesota. Since Tubby Smith took over as head coach in 2007, there's been a distinctive pattern and relationship between their pre-conference and conference play. Take a look at their non-conference results, the results for their first 12 conference games, and their yearlong results:<br />
<b>2007-2008</b> <u>Non-Conference:</u> 11-1 <u>Conference:</u> 5-7 <u>Final Results:</u> 20-14 <u>Tournament</u>: No<br />
<b>2008-2009</b> <u>Non-Conference:</u> 12-0 <u>Conference:</u> 7-5 <u>Final Results:</u> 22-11<u>Tournament:</u> Yes<br />
<b>2009-2010</b> <u>Non-Conference:</u> 9-3 <u>Conference:</u> 5-7 <u>Final Results</u>: 21-14 <u>Tournament:</u> Yes<br />
<b>2010-2011</b> <u>Non-Conference:</u> 11-1 <u>Conference:</u> 5-7 <u>Final Results:</u> 17-14 <u>Tournament:</u> No<br />
<b>2011-2012</b> Non<u>-Conference:</u> 11-1<br />
Minnesota has a history of scheduling easy non-conference games only to falter when conference play begins. They have yet to win a game in the NCAA tournament under Tubby Smith. Unfortunately for Minnesota, history tends to repeat itself and seems to be on track to do so again this year.<br />
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Adding to Minnesota's woes is the injury of Trevor Mbakwe. Mbakwe averaged 15.3 points and 8.7 rebounds last season, making 2nd team all Big Ten. This year, he was averaging 28.7 minutes, a team high 14.0 ppg, and a team high 9.1 rpg before he tore his right ACL in the Gophers' one loss to Dayton. He's set to undergo ACL surgery, which will keep him out for the remainder to the season and, as a 5th year senior academically, effectively end his college basketball career. The Gophers have not spiraled down since the loss of Mbakwe, as many analysts expected, but, for the Gophers, the worst (ie, most difficult competition) is yet to come. If they continue on the path they are currently on and find someone to replace Mbakwe, Minnesota could be a threat to the Big Ten this season. If they follow their usual pattern, they'll be fighting to simply make it to March.<br />
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Bob Lanier is a Hall of Fame NBA player for both the Milwaukee Bucks and the Detroit Pistons, the two teams that I consistently root for (my allegiance for other teams depends on whose playing for them. At the moment, in addition to those two, I support the Mavericks, the Suns, and anyone who plays the Heat. In case you were at all interested). Lanier played college basketball at St. Bonaventure University in New York, was drafted by the Pistons in 1970, and traded to the Bucks in 1980, where he remained until he retired in 1984. He's an 8x NBA All-Star, the NBA All-Star game MVP in 1974, and the winner of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award, an award for outstanding service to the community, in 1970. His #16 jersey is retired by both teams he played with.<br />
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Have a good one!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-65266730209344970442011-12-20T18:12:00.000-08:002011-12-20T20:14:41.794-08:00Kelley WashingtonWhile Indiana has the best record of any team in the Big Ten so far this season, the undisputed leader of the Big Ten is predicted to be the Ohio State Buckeyes. After winning the Big Ten conference championship and the Big Ten tournament, the Buckeyes entered the NCAA tournament last year as a number 1 seed, the favorite to win, and lost in the sweet sixteen. This year, they've returned with a chip on their shoulders and a sense of determination to redeem themselves.<br />
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They're doing a pretty good job so far. Ranked #2 in the nation, the Buckeyes are 10-1, shooting 50%, and averaging 18.3 assists per game, the 9th best assist average in the country. They're winning their games by an average of 26.3 points. Like Indiana, many of their victories have come against small mid-major teams. On the other hand, they beat #4 Duke by 22 and #8 Florida by 7. They lost to #13 Kansas by 13. Their one loss came without Jared Sullinger, whose presence provides the identity of the Ohio State team.<br />
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Don't get me wrong: OSU has a roster full of talented players. Sophomore forward Deshawn Thomas has more than doubled his 7.5 ppg from last season and is contributing 15.9 this season, sophomore guard Aaron Craft leads the teams in assists with 5.3 per game, and the team is led by captain and senior William Buford. But sophomore forward Jared Sullinger <i>is</i> this team. He leads in both points per game (16.6) and rebounds per game (9.3) and is loaded with talented; the mock NBA draft 2012 has him as the 5th overall selection, going to the Sacramento Kings. To emphasize just how important Sullinger is to this team, take a look at their games with and without him.<br />
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Sullinger played the first seven games of the season, scoring anywhere between 14 and 27 points in seven victories. After their victory over Duke on November 29, Sullinger began suffering from back spasms, practicing only periodically over the next two weeks and missing two games - one to Texas-Pan American, which the Buckeyes won by 29, and one to Kansas, which they lost by 11. He returned on December 14 to play against USC Upstate, which the Buckeyes won handily despite only having only 12 points from Sullinger, and started against South Carolina, only to go down after 6 minutes and 3 points with an injured tendon. OSU won that game as well, but only 8 and only in the last 2 minutes of the game. OSU won their first seven games by an average of 29.2 points. Since Sullinger's back spasms began, the Buckeyes have been winning by an average of 12.5 ppg.<br />
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I am by no means trying to take anything away from OSU's basketball team. They're really, really good. They're also much better when Jared Sullinger is healthy. Sullinger hasn't had the best start to the season, health-wise. I hope, for his sake, that the back spasms go away and the tendon problem is nothing serious because, even though it'd be easier for the rest of the teams in the Big Ten to beat OSU without Sullinger, it'd be a lot more satisfying to beat them with him. And he's a blast to watch - he's really, really good too. As I write this, OSU is playing Lamar (who?) and winning by 14. Sullinger is currently 1-4, with 4 points and 5 rebounds.<br />
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Today's post is entitled after Kelley Washington (whose real first name is James, middle name is Kelley), number 15 on the 2007 New England Patriots. He played college football at the University of Tennessee before being drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the 3rd round of the 2003 draft. He played wide receiver for the Bengals from 2003-2006, for the Patriots from 2007-2008, for the Ravens in 2009, and currently plays for the San Diego Chargers. His 2007 Patriots team was the last team to have an undefeated conference season in the NFL and will remain so for at least another year.<br />
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Ciao!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-31230525215541304992011-12-20T12:15:00.000-08:002011-12-20T20:15:46.507-08:00Jalen CourtneyI'd like to be able to say that I have enough knowledge to somewhat intelligently talk about most teams in college basketball right now. That would be a lie. I simply don't have enough time (or enough TV channels) to catch all the games during the week. As a consequence, I admit that, nationally, I only know the big sports stories around the country. On the other hand, anyone who has read this blog before knows that I'm a Michigan State fan and follow Big Ten sports quite passionately. While I can't provide much insight for basketball teams from the SEC or ACC, I pride myself on being pretty knowledgable on the happenings in the Big Ten. As a result, I'm going to do something I've never done before and, in the days leading up to the start of conference play, I'm going to write a blog for each Big Ten team, focusing on their 'big' story of the season thus far and taking a look at how their season has been going. Big Ten men's basketball conference play begins on December 27. That gives me approximately 7 1/2 days to come up with 12 blogs. Let's go.<br />
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I'll start with the only undefeated team left in the Big Ten - the Indiana Hoosiers. Yesterday, I caught the tail end of their game against Howard University. The point differential was 57. A score such as this hasn't been unusual for Indiana in the last few years; they haven't had a winning season since 07-08 and their last three seasons they've finished 6-25, 10-21, and 12-20 and, rest assured, there were some hardy blowouts in there. What made this game so astonishing wasn't so much the final score, but the fact that it was Indiana who <i>won</i> by 57.<br />
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As I mentioned, the last few years have been quite tumultuous for the Hoosiers, but their problems started before the 2008 season. To understand the significance of this win (and others this season), you should probably go back to 1971, the year Bobby Knight first began coaching at Indiana. Under Knight, the Hoosiers were Big Ten Conference champions 11 times, reached the Final Four 5 times, and won 4 national championships. They were undefeated in conference play from 1974-1976 and lost only one game outside of conference during that time as well; the 1976 Hoosiers basketball team is the last NCAA team to finish with an undefeated season. Under Knight, Indiana became a basketball powerhouse.<br />
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At the same time, however, Knight was one of the most controversial coaches in NCAA history. During his time as Indiana's coach, he famously <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvRO2GE4x4M">threw a chair</a> onto the court during a game, to give one example (out of many) of his out of control temper. In May 2000, the school adopted a "zero tolerance" policy for Knight after a video of him choking a former player was aired on CNN. By September that same year, numerous complaints were filed against Knight for breaking the zero-tolerance policy and, after Knight refused to resign, he was fired.<br />
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Indiana has not yet regained their former glory. Since 2000, they've gone through 4 coaches and reached the NCAA tournament only 6 times, winning one game or less in 5 of those years. Tom Crean became the head coach in 2008 after Kelvin Sampson was fired for recruiting violations. That season was the worst in school history. Crean made due with 2 returning players, one on scholarship. They finished dead last in the Big Ten. The following year, adding 4 top 100 recruits to the roster, Indiana finished tied for 10th. Last year, Crean's Indiana defeated their first ranked opponent (Illinois) and followed with an encore six days later (Minnesota) only to finish last in the Big Ten again.<br />
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This season, Crean added 3 five star players to his roster. Yesterday, they defeated Howard University by 57. On December 10, in a game that was not nearly as close as the final score shows, they <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqG7eSRAyfg">upset</a> #1 Kentucky on a buzzer beating 3 point shot from Christian Wafford, their first victory over a number 1 team since 2001. They're 11-0; last time they started a season this well, they won the national championship.<br />
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That's not to say that I expect Indiana to win the national championship; if they do, I promise to put on a gorilla costume (and my family has one) and run around the neighborhood handing out candy. Don't get your hopes up. They're undefeated but, like most teams in the nation, their pre-conference games haven't been the most challenging, Kentucky game aside. They've beaten Notre Dame (which sounds great but the 8-5 team isn't the same as it has been in past years), Butler (who has a similar story to Notre Dame, though did just beat Purdue), North Carolina State during the Big Ten-ACC challenge, and a number of unknown mid-major programs (does anyone know where Howard University is?). The Big Ten schedule is going to be much harder than their out-of-conference schedule. Up until this year, though, Indiana was losing these out-of-conference games to these nobody colleges. And not just losing - they were getting pulverized. Most teams set up easy out-of-conference games, with one or two exceptions, in order to beef up their resume and establish some team chemistry. You're supposed to win most of them. Indiana is finally doing that.<br />
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The good news for Indiana is, despite some easy non-conference games, they are a good team, as the Kentucky game demonstrated. They're also underrated. They're shooting 52%, 4th best in the nation, and averaging 85 ppg, 7th best in the nation. They're one of six remaining undefeated teams and yet they're ranked 18, behind several 1 and 2 loss teams, with substantially better wins than most of them. They should be ranked higher, but sometimes it's better to fly under the radar a little bit. Voters in the coaches poll are hesitant to rank them higher because of their miserable past 3 seasons but my prediction is that soon Indiana will be a definite threat. Eventually, coaches and spectators will have to acknowledge that Tom Crean is bringing Indiana basketball back and, with the incoming recruiting class of 2012 ranked 8th in the nation, it appears that he's bringing them back to stay.<br />
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I haven't done one of these in a while, but <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgfYhexSlQk">here</a> is something for you to watch. The State Street Singer's performed an NFL-inspired version of the "12 Days of Christmas"in Central Park, complete with cartoon drawings. It'll get you all set for the holidays.<br />
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Jalen Courtney is the player today's blog is named after. He's the #14 sophomore forward for the LSU tigers basketball team. I wonder, after football season, does anyone down at LSU have the energy to care about their 8-3 basketball team? But that's beside the point. Courtney is averaging 6.4 minutes per game this season, an improvement from the 4.8 last season. He's a 43% 3-point shooter but averages only 2.1 points per game. He did not play in LSU's victory over Marquette, dropping Marquette down from the ranks of the undefeated.<br />
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Over and out.<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-82138301419497552102011-12-10T21:07:00.000-08:002011-12-23T14:57:13.768-08:00Austin Etherington<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"> </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work. The Heisman Trophy Trust ensures the continuation and integrity of this award." This mission statement was taken from the official Heisman Trophy website. Today was the day when one of five finalists - Montee Ball (Wisconsin), Robert Griffin Junior III (Baylor), Andrew Luck (Stanford), Tyrann Mathieu (LSU), and Trent Richardson Junior (Alabama) - would be awarded the trophy, joining a group of 75 other outstanding football players who exhibited the same qualities (this is the 77th award, but the 2005 winner, Reggie Bush, forfeited and returned his in 2010 due to an investigation revealing broken NCAA policies). Robert Griffin Junior III won, the first player from Baylor ever to do so, and congratulations to him. Today might have been a very ironic day for this award to be given, though, considering all of the other events that happened. While one player was honored for excellence, dignity, integrity, and perseverance, two college basketball teams showed everything but dignity and integrity on the court, while one scandal has the potential to ruin the reputation of a baseball player who most people believed to have all of the qualities of a Heisman winner. <o:p></o:p></span></div><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Most people outside the state of Ohio don't realize the passion beneath the Cincinnati-Xavier rivalry but two schools within 10 minutes of one another are bound to develop some animosity and two upsets pulled by Xavier over No. 1 Cincinnati in 1996 and 2000 and Cincinnati's most recent win by 20 points have added fuel to the fire for both sides. Today, tensions burst. With 9.4 seconds remaining, last years Atlantic 10 player of the year, Xavier's Tu Holloway, and Cincinnati's Ge'Lawn Guyn appeared to have a heated conversation in front of Cincinnati's bench, at which point Xavier freshman Dezmine Wells, apparently backing up his teammate, shoved Guyn. Then all <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OgbvdFW5qoQ">hell</a> broke loose. Both benches joined in the scuffle. Cincinnati's Yancy Gates punched Xavier's Kenny Frease in the jaw and after he fell to the ground it appears that Cheikh Mbodj stomps on his face. The fight began long before the 9 second mark, though. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Leading up to today's game, Cincinnati's Sean Kilpatrick said in an interview that Xavier's Tu Holloway - the Atlantic 10 player of the year in 2011 - wouldn't start for Cincinnati. Trash talking began during the National Anthem. Xavier guard Mark Lyons made some comments to the Cincinnati players on his way to the locker room at halftime with a 9 point lead. And it didn't stop when the referees were forced to call the game with 9.4 seconds remaining, allowing Xavier to leave with a 76-53 victory. In the post game press conference, Holloway called <i>himself and his teammates</i> gangsters - not thugs, but tough guys (if anyone can provide me with the distinction between thugs and gangsters I would be very appreciative). He added, "You don't let people disrespect you. That's what I'm about. I don't regret anything that happened." Cincinnati's Coach Mick Cronin addressed the issue head on in his post game conference, calling it "embarrassing", saying that some players need to "grow up", and that he was "going to decide who is on this team going forward." Here's my question, though: with all the tension leading up to the game, how did this escalate to the point where Kenny Frease had to crawl out of a mob of basketball players clutching his bloody face to avoid being trampled? The signs were there; why didn't one of the coaches or assistants or even one of the officials say, "Cool it" during the 39:50.6 minutes prior to this? <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">My question isn't really the point of all this, though. What matters is what comes next: suspensions and a lot of hard work at restoring the national respect that both these programs lost because a few dumb players lost their tempers and humiliated themselves, their schools, and their sport for a petty rivalry (because, again, who outside of Ohio really cares about the Cincinnati-Xavier game?). <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Which leads me to my second topic. This is breaking news, so I don't have a whole lot to go on at this point (and hopefully it'll all be false anyway so this paragraph will be completely irrelevant). Today Ryan Braun, the face of the Milwaukee Brewers franchise and the National League MVP tested positive for performance enhancing drugs and faces a 50-game suspension in 2012. A urine sample in October revealed elevated levels of testosterone and a later test revealed the testosterone to be synthetic. Braun plans to appeal the suspension, something that no suspended player has successfully overturned as of yet, claiming it to be B.S. And I hope it is. One of the best things about sports is the role models that it provides. Up until now, Ryan Braun has not only been a tremendously gifted athlete, but also a stand out person, a combination that seems to be much too rare amongst professional sports. For baseball in particular, Braun seemed like the start of the post-steroids generation, a fresh slate for the sport. I'd like to think, and I know I'm not the only one, that's it's possible to be an MVP without taking performance enhancing drugs, that people can accomplish great things on talent alone. It gives people hope. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Someone recently asked me what the significance of sports was. Ironically, it was right after I wrote my previous blog, where I praised Tim Tebow as a person and a role model. I love sports, but I realize that it's not a matter of life-or-death. No football game is ever going to lead to a cancer cure, no war will be resolved by a basketball score. In the end, it's not the scores that matter, but what happens off the court and how people react to those situations. I think the importance of sports comes from days and dilemmas like the ones many athletes and coaches are facing today. Sports brings out the best in people - people like Tim Tebow and Robert Griffin III. It shows the value of hard work, how to win and lose with dignity and class, how to be a team player, and it brings people together as a community with a common goal and a common interest. It can also bring out the worst in some people and when that happens, people are challenged to find ways to handle situations, move on, and learn from them. But isn't that how everything in life is? In politics, for every Ronald Reagan there is a Rod Blagojevich. For every Jonas Salk in science we get a Josef Mengele. In sports, for every Tim Tebow there is a Ben Roethlisberger. Nothing's perfect. An ugly street brawl erupts on the court, an MVP tests positive for drugs, and five players are honored for excellence and integrity. Take the good and the bad, because you can learn something either way.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Today's blog features Indiana's Austin Etherington, a freshman forward for the men's basketball team. He did not play in Indiana's buzzer beating victory over No. 1 ranked Kentucky today, the 6th victory in team history over a No. 1 ranked team, the first since 2002, and the 8th straight victory for Tom Crean's undefeated Hoosiers. He did get 5 minutes and 2 rebounds in their victory over Stetson, though. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-autospace: none;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I'm leaving now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Sports Nerd</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-45710240001064270072011-11-18T14:58:00.000-08:002011-11-18T15:06:14.478-08:00Jordan SchultzIn case anyone is still out there, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q2J9F2sJMT4">I'm back</a>.<br />
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Not that I ever left, really. The end of baseball season has given me plenty of interesting things to write about but, unfortunately, school has not given me lots of time to do so. Hopefully this can be remedied because, as I said, there are loads of things going on out there right now. How did I chose what tantalizing topic to discuss today? Not surprisingly, I picked a topic while watching ESPN. It wasn't a specific game or player who caught my eye, though; it was a <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WO8imsZl1F8">commercial</a>. And while it might not have succeeded in convincing me to go out and buy FRS health drinks, it did give me an idea and it's something I've been thinking about for a while now so I'll share it with you.<br />
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The accuracy of this commercial is really astounding. A little history, for those of you who don't know what I'm getting at. Tim Tebow played for Urban Meyer's Florida Gators football team from 2006-2009, starting as quarterback in his second season. He was the team captain his junior and senior seasons and the only Florida player to ever win 3 team MVP awards (2007-2009). The Gators won the National Championship twice with Tebow - his freshman and junior years. In 2007, Tebow became the first ever sophomore (and the first previously home schooled student) to win the Heisman Trophy. Amongst other awards won in college, Tebow was a 2 time winner of the Maxwell Award for the nation's top college football player, winner of the James E. Sullivan Award for the nation's most outstanding amateur athlete in any sport, 2 ESPY's for best male college athlete, the LOWE's senior class award winner, and <i>Sports Illustrated</i>'s college football player of the decade. Just to name a few. He was drafted in the first round of the 2010 draft by the Denver Broncos, the 25th overall draft.<br />
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This season, the Bronco's started off 1-4. In the 5th game of the season, coach John Fox replaced starting quarterback Kyle Orton with Tim Tebow in the start of the 2nd half against the San Diego Chargers. Despite the two touchdowns (one thrown and one run) by Tebow in the 4th quarter, the Broncos still lost. Fox made the decision after this game to start Tebow. That was five weeks ago. In the last five weeks, the Broncos are 4-1 (and that one loss was to the Lions. I had a hard time deciding who to root for.)<br />
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So here's the question: why is the world so determined to watch Tim Tebow fail? Make no mistake, everyone <i>is </i>determined to see him fail. Going back to that commercial from the beginning of this post, Tebow has proven that he <i>can</i> be a starting quarterback in the NFL. This week, Tebow led the Broncos to a stunning victory over the Jets. This morning, I listened to sportscasters now debate whether he can <i>continue</i> to win long-term or whether this is some fluke. The show (which was <i>First Take</i> on ESPN, if you're curious) showed an interesting set of statistics, comparing Tim Tebow to legendary Broncos quarterback and NFL MVP John Elway at this point in their careers: Tebow has more passing yards, more rushing yards, more touchdowns, a far superior touchdown to interceptions ratio, and more wins.<br />
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Now let me share a little bit about Tim Tebow as a person. He was born in the Philippines, the youngest of five children of Pamela (the daughter of a U.S. Army colonel) and Robert Tebow, a pastor. While pregnant, Pamela was infected with a life-threatening pathogenic amoeba, the drugs of which treated her led to a placental abruption. Expecting a stillbirth, the doctors recommended she have an abortion rather than risk her life. She refused. As I mentioned, he was home schooled for high school but a 1996 law allowed him to play for Nease High School in Florida. His home schooling was heavily influenced by his mother's Christianity, which has in turn influenced most of his life, including his football career. During college, Tebow frequently wrote biblical verses on his black eye paint (which often led to numerous google searches after the games. During the 2009 BCS championship, <a href="http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+3%3A16&version=NIV">John 3:26</a> was searched by 92 million people.) This is banned in the NFL, so he doesn't do this anymore, and, coincidentally enough, it's now banned in college football too. The unofficial "Tebow Rule" prohibits the use of writing on black eye paint as of 2010 in order to reinforce the intended use of black eye paint, shading the sun from one's eyes. Tebow starring in a controversial abortion commercial during the 2009 Super Bowl. Recently, the newest Tebow-related fad is "Tebowing" - kind of like planking, but not as <a href="http://thecommedian.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/planking11.jpg">stupid</a>. Tebow often <a href="http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/2011/10/tebowing.jpg">kneels down</a> in a prayer-like position on the field; now <a href="http://www.thefastertimes.com/sportschat/files/2011/11/original-tebow.jpg">others</a> are doing it too.<br />
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Here's the answer to the main question (remember? Why do people want Tebow to fail?): it's because he's different. Tim Tebow is not a typical NFL quarterback, i.e., he doesn't view the game or himself as bigger than anything else in this world. Sure, the analysts can say they're concerned about him because he can't pass, he won't stay healthy, he doesn't have the right personnel to make his offense work; maybe those are legitimate concerns, but why is this question still being asked? Why are analysts still searching for a way for him to fail rather than praising his accomplishments thus far? As Skip Bayless put it, "Tim Tebow is the most over-criticized young quarterback in the history of the game." These people <i>want</i> Tebow to fail because they don't know what to do with him. Give them someone like <a href="http://www.politicolnews.com/roethlisberger-3rd-rape/">Ben Roethlisberger</a>, <a href="http://bleacherreport.com/articles/509389-lebron-james-sparky-anderson-and-thursdays-late-sports-news/entry/26519-cam-newton-arrest-allegations-of-seeking-cash-bring-character-into-question">Cam Newton</a>, or <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/08/brett-favre-scandal-nfl-l_n_756229.html">Brett Favre</a>, someone who <i>is</i> arrogant, who <i>does</i> place themselves higher than the law; those kind of quarterbacks, people can handle because it's so common. It's so easy for athletes to take that route and so it's easy for reporters to find a story or for analysts to to stir up some controversy by overlooking their obvious character flaws because of "what they've done for the game". But give them someone moral, someone humble, someone who is not only a good football player but a good person as well, and they're all lost. There's no story. There's no controversy. So they have to make one. And if the only way they can do that is by his failure, then that's what they're going to hope for. As for me, I've become Tebow's #1 fan. Except when he plays the Lions.<br />
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Today's blog is named after Jordan Schultz, #12 for the Oklahoma State women's basketball team. She's a 5-10 freshmen guard from Claremore, OK and, being a freshmen, doesn't have a lot of statistics to show yet (but just wait, I'm sure they're coming). Mostly this entry is dedicated to head coach Kurt Budke, assistant coach Miranda Serna, and Olin and Paula Branstetter, all of whom died yesterday in a plane crashed in Perry County, Arkansas. Budke was the youngest coach ever inducted into the NJCAA Hall of Fame. Since 2005, when he came to OSU, he was 99-68 and appeared in 3 NCAA tournaments. This was Serna's 7th year with the team. RIP.<br />
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Gotta go!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-64702843882637910612011-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:002011-06-30T17:37:45.140-07:00Zydrunas Ilgauskas<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">While looking at the not-so-recent history on my laptop, I came across a sports website that seemed vaguely familiar. After reading for a few minutes, I realized that it was a blog. It took a few more minutes of reading for it to occur to me that it was </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">my</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> blog.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Obviously, readers, this didn't actually happen. However, it has been a while since I've written and I apologize for that. Life, in the form of 13 final exams, got in the way. But now that they are </span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">done</span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, I have plenty of time to catch you up to everything that has been happening in the sports world during the last few weeks while I've been </span><a href="http://valeriebrooke.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/student-studying.gif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">otherwise engaged</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, studying macromolecules and Serbia's role in World War I and Mozart's Symphony No. 41.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">With this in mind, I recently turned to channel 206 and sat back to watch a long game of......baseball. The next day, I did the same thing with the same result. The third day, hockey was on. Then baseball. I'm not a baseball fan. I enjoy my brother's games and the highlights, but I simply don't have the patience to watch a game and write about it. And since Vancouver did not win the Stanley Cup, any feel-good story I had about them was made irrelevant. I tried to write an argument against the Big Ten's proposal to pay student athletes, but it became extremely complicated and overdone. If you don't know what I'm talking about or are remotely interested, my main arguments can be seen in a simpler way in </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><a href="http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/18/mo-money-mo-problems-big-ten-discusses-more-pay-for-athletes/">this blog.</a></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So I resigned myself to stop searching for a story and wait for one to come to me. And it did as I watched the NBA draft. No, it's not about my belief that Jimmer Fredette will ultimately prove </span><a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/michael_rosenberg/06/21/jimmer/index.html"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">unsuccessful</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> with the Kings. It's not about David Lighty's being the #1 most talented player not to be drafter or what his career hopes are from here. It's not about which Morris twin is better. The story that caught my eye was that of Jimmy Butler, former Marquette small forward and the newest addition to the Chicago Bulls roster.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Jimmy Butler's story started when he was 13 years old and on the streets of Tomball, Texas, after his mother kicked him out with no explanation. With no money, no home, and no other relatives to turn to, Jimmy struggled to survive. Throughout high school, he bounced from one friends house to another to find a place to sleep each night. The one constant factor in his life was the basketball he bounced with him. This continued until the summer before his senior year when a scout pulled him aside.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">It wasn't a college scout, though. It was a freshman named Jordan Leslie, who'd been watching him play, a sports star to Tomball as well. Jordan challenged Jimmy to a 3-point contest and the two quickly became friends. Gradually, Jordan's house became one of the houses that Jimmy frequently spent the night. Jordan and his siblings welcomed him. At first, Michelle Lambert, Jordan's mother, was fine with the situation. However, when the family that Jimmy usually stayed with needed their bed back, Jimmy stayed with the Leslie family more and more often. With four kids from her first husband combined with the three kids her new husband brought with her, money was tight and there were </span><a href="http://www.legaljuice.com/Trouble%20boy%20kid%20child%20mischief%20bad.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">rumors</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> about Jimmy. When he began staying on school nights, Jordan's parents told him Jimmy could stay 'no more than two nights in a row'. On the third night, one of Jordan's siblings claimed it was their night for Jimmy to stay. </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After a few months, Michelle told Jimmy he could stay for good. There were a few conditions, like improving his academic performance, staying out of trouble, meeting a curfew, and being a good role model for the other children. However, she also told him, "</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is not a conditional love. This is forever. We will argue, and I might not agree with you, but there is nothing in this world that you could do that I’m turning my back on you." For Jimmy, who'd spent years with no where to go, it meant he'd found a family.</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Soon after, Jimmy became the star of the Tomball basketball team, averaging 19.9 points and 8.7 rebounds a game. Despite making the all-district first team, he played on no AAU team and no colleges recruited him so Jimmy spent his freshman year at Tyler Junior College. In his first game, he scored 34 points. He led the team for the rest of the year and, by April 2008, had several offers from colleges across the nation, including Clemson, Kentucky, Butler, and Iowa State. Michelle Lambert pushed him to make academics a priority as well and so he transferred to Marquette University.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 18px;"> </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The first season at Marquette was tough. Jimmy went from being the star to riding the bench. He called Michelle Lambert multiple times, frustrated and ready to come home. She told him to deal with it. To be fair, his coach, Buzz Williams, was tough on him. He said, </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #333333; line-height: 17px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">"I've never been harder on a player than I've been on Jimmy. I was ruthless on him because he didn't know how good he could be." During his time at Marquette, Coach Williams put Jimmy in a new role. Sure, he improved his scoring average from 5.6 ppg his first season at Marquette to 15.7 ppg in his senior season, but that came naturally from being a good basketball player. He shed his 'scorer' label and became the 'glue' guy - the team leader. His versatility is what first got him noticed by NBA scouts and what ultimately led the Bulls to select him with their first round draft pick. </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">If you've seen </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Blind Side</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> or read the book (which I recommend), this story might sound somewhat familiar. However, I think it goes to show that it's not an uncommon event. It also shows that there are more than one generous family out there. One last note: The last thing that Butler's mother said to him was, "I don't like the look of you. You gotta go." How much is she regretting </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">that</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> right now?</span><br />
<br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This entry is named after #11 on the runner-up NBA champions team, the Miami Heat. The 2010-2011 season was his first with the Heat; prior to that, he played with the Cleveland Cavaliers since 1997. He was the 20th overall pick in the 1996 NBA draft. He's from Lithuania and in 2009 he and his wife adopted twin boys from there. He's an avid reader, especially about military topics, and often reads in the locker room before games. His average points per game (5.0 ppg) was an all time low this season, which might be because he attempted exactly 0 three point shots. I chose Ilgauskas for two reasons: Firstly, to give myself an excuse to mention that LeBron James (and the rest of the Miami Heat) lost to the Dallas Mavericks in the NBA finals. Mostly, though, I picked him because he has an awesome name.</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I'll be back.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sports Nerd</span>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-69884662675628925602011-04-27T16:42:00.000-07:002011-04-28T17:26:32.705-07:00Fran Tarkenton85 scholarship players are allowed on a college football team. No more than 25 new scholarships kids can be brought in every year. When more scholarship players sign than there are scholarships available, many coaches, such as Alabama's Nick Saban and Ole Miss' Houston Nut, will pull scholarships from upperclassmen in order to nab the incoming stars, forcing the veteran players to take a "greyshirt"or a medical scholarship. With a greyshirt, players postpone the use of their scholarship to play football at a later time, but they have to pay their own tuition during the greyshirt period. A medical scholarship allows players to keep their financial aid, but forbids them from playing football again. In basketball, coaches view the Big Ten as the <a href="http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/columns/story?columnist=oneil_dana&id=5398415">cleanest conference</a>. In regards to pulling football scholarships, I think the Big Ten ranks pretty high on the 'cleanliness' scale as well.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Anybody who has read more than one post of mine will have figured out by now that I'm a Michigan State fan. As a fan, I know all about Arthur Ray Jr.'s story, but for readers who <i>don't</i> closely follow all things Michigan State related, I'd like to tell you about it and how it relates to the apparently unrelated information in the first paragraph. Arthur was already the star offensive lineman at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago, IL, his freshmen year. By senior year, he had nine different scholarship offers to chose from before he settled on Michigan State in January, 2007. Prior to his signing, he'd noticed a bump on his right leg, but shrugged it off as a football injury. The bump continued to grow larger until one day, after he signed with MSU, it became so painful that he couldn't climb the stairs at school. Doctors began testing the bump, which they initially believed to be hematoma, or internal bleeding. The day before the Michigan State spring football game, it was revealed that the bump was not hematoma but was actually a cancerous tumor. Arthur was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, a rare bone cancer that about 300 people of the 900 diagnosed each year succumb to annually. The doctor told him, "Throw the football out the window. The most you'll do is run around with your grandkids." </div><div><br />
</div><div>A few days later, a second opinion assured him that he <i>would </i>play football again. The first <a href="http://media.moddb.com/images/mods/1/13/12126/mallet.1.jpg">doctor</a>'s diagnosis was about 3 inches off. That is to say, if the cancer had been about 3 inches higher on Arthur's leg, by his knee instead of by his shin, he would have needed knee replacement surgery and <i>then</i> his dreams of playing football would be through. All he needed, though, was chemotherapy, nine surgeries, and 25 months using crutches to walk.<br />
<br />
In July, 2007, Arthur underwent a 14-hour long surgery to remove the tumor. Rods, screws, and a plate were inserted into his leg to keep the bone in place. The surgery went well and Arthur seemed to be recovering until the doctors found a bone infection. He had another surgery in March, 2008, and this time, his tibia was removed for cleaning and replaced with a cement spacer for 8 weeks until he could have yet <i>another</i> surgery to reinsert the clean bone. This was far from his last surgery - that would be in December 2009, almost three years after his initial diagnosis.<br />
<br />
How does any of this relate to the opening paragraph? Well, Arthur didn't come to school in fall 2007, but since he arrived in 2008, Michigan State has kept him on scholarship. While he was on <a href="http://oversigning.com/testing/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/ncf_rayjr_200.jpg">crutches. </a>When there was a still a chance that he might need his leg amputated. In January, 2011, over a year since his last surgery, MSU asked the NCAA to allow him to play again. On April 7, he put on his <a href="http://rumorsandrants.com/2011/04/after-beating-cancer-michigan-states-arthur-ray-jr-is-practicing.html">number 73</a> jersey and practiced for the first time in his collegiate career. It's unknown what will happen at this point - he might redshirt the 2011 season, play as a 5th years senior in 2012, and apply for a 6th year in 2013. He's determined to play this season. No matter what happens, though, his story has been pretty fantastic and pretty <a href="http://oversigning.com/testing/index.php/tag/arthur-ray-jr/">inspirational. </a><br />
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Something to watch if you have lots of time on your hands (and something to read if you have even more time): <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzjN9cu-TDc">this</a> series of videos and <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Unbroken-World-Survival-Resilience-Redemption/dp/1400064163">this</a> book. Louie Zamperini was an Olympic runner in the 1936 Olympics; obviously, Jessie Owens won that year, but Zamperini (at age 19) ran the last lap in 56 seconds; when Hitler met him, all he said was, "The boy with the fast finish." This was, of course, before Louie became a soldier in WWII, survived a plane crash, 47 days lost at sea, and two years as a POW in Japan. It's a pretty awesome story.<br />
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Today's honorary player is #10 Fran Tarkenton, the quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings from 1961-1967 and 1972-1978 (playing a few years with the New York Giants in between there). He holds the Vikings career passing yards record with 33,098 and the Vikings career passing touchdowns record with 239. Although he was the NFL MVP in 1975 (as well as the offensive player of the year) and went to 9 Pro Bowls (amongst other accomplishments), he never won a Super Bowl.<br />
<br />
Goodbye!<br />
The Sports Nerd<br />
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</div>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-6977174856051042452011-04-17T10:14:00.001-07:002012-03-06T07:36:15.234-08:00J. J. WattCollege basketball is done. The NBA playoffs have begun. Spring football has started. The NFL is in a lockout. The Master's are over. Baseball season is underway. For most sports fans, these athletics take priority over high school cross country. Yet today I saw a special on ESPN on the San Francisco University High School girl's cross country team. And it was probably the most interesting bit of sports news I saw all morning. In case you didn't get to see it, I'll fill you in.<br />
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Since 1995, Jim Tracy has been the coach of boys and girls cross country at UHS. During that time, the teams have combined for 27 conference titles and 21 North Coast Section titles. The girls have won state 4 of the last 9 years and entering the 2010 season with 7 school championships, were tied for most in California history. Trouble began five years ago, when a muscle in his thumb stopped functioning. Two years later, when he was fifty-seven, during one of his daily 10-mile runs, he found that he was unable to lift one of his feet off the ground. In 2009, he finally went to a doctor. At age 60, he was diagnosed with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. Lou Gehrig's disease is a fatalistic disease that affects the neurons in the brain and the spinal cord. As it progresses, voluntary movement disintegrates. In random order, Jim Tracy is slowly losing control of all of his muscles.<br />
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At the start of the 2010 season, tears were shed when his team learned of his disease, and a decision was made. The girls decided that now, more than any other season, they had to win. "Do it for Jim" became their motto. Their determination was put to a test at the championship meet in Fresno last November.<br />
<br />
The race was something special for each girl, and it showed. Sophomore Lizzy Teerlink ran the fastest race of her life by more than a minute and finished 36 out of 116. Senior Adrian Kerester, who had never run in a state final before, finished 25th. At the 100 yard mark, sophomore Jennie Callan fell and landed in last place. She passed more than 150 runners and finished 16th. Junior Bridget Blum, who had never led in a race before, led the entire pack for more than half the race and finish 3rd. When she crossed the finish line, though, instead of being excited, Coach Tracy was concerned. His captain and star runner, junior Holland Reynolds, hadn't finished yet. If she hadn't finished, Tracy assumed that something had gone very wrong.<br />
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At the 2.5 mile mark in a 3.1 mile race, Holland Reynolds was in 2nd place. Then the dehydration kicked in. Breathing became difficult and she slowed down, allowing other runners to pass her. As she approached the final stretch of the race, Reynolds was bent over, running at almost a ninety degree angle as she struggled to finish. With about 10 feet left, she collapsed. No one could help her - the official standing over her told her that if anyone assisted her at that moment, she would be disqualified. She had to walk or crawl to the finish line herself. <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NE0z3LK48Rg">And she did.</a> Agonizingly slowly, Holland Reynolds crawled the remainder of the way to cross the finish line, where she was immediately picked up and transferred to an ambulance to be treated for dehydration. She finished in 37th place.<br />
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The way a cross country team places in a race is determined by the combined finishes of the top five runners. For UHS, this included Holland Reynolds. An hour after the race ended, Reynolds was given the news: by crawling across the finish line, she secured a victory for her team and an 8th state championship for her coach.<br />
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This isn't the first time that something like this has happened, of course. The most memorable incident that comes to mind is Derek Redmond in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, whose father helped him cross the <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BU3jfbb172E&feature=related">finish line.</a> It's pretty inspirational, nonetheless. There's a program to support Jim Tracy and learn more about ALS <a href="http://coachjimtracy.com/">here.</a><br />
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Today's blog is in honor of J. J. Watt. While most mock drafts project Tyron Smith from USC to be selected 9th to the Dallas Cowboys, one version (by Brian Baldinger) has chosen Wisconsin's J. J. Watt. One article actually refers to Watt as the best defensive lineman in the draft because of his great instincts, long arms (34"), and impressive speed for a 290-lb guy. During NFL workouts, he placed first in the vertical jump and three-cone drill for defensive linemen. He's also been described as one of the "cleaner" prospects in the draft. He's kind of a jack of all trades and will play well in a 3-4 defense or a 4-3 defense, making him a very versatile draft pick.<br />
<br />
Cheers!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-32841161837927432352011-03-28T13:25:00.000-07:002011-04-03T09:30:38.335-07:00Ryan Braun<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">On March 13th, so-called experts on different sports shows declared this year's field of 68 to be the weakest in recent memory and they weren't wrong. Not only did this tournament feature the most double-digit loss teams ever, it also contained 5 teams with 14 losses; there have only been a total of 6 teams with 14 losses ever to compete in the tournament since it expanded in 1985. So the experts might have been right - this is the weakest field in recent memory. It also might be the most interesting.</span><br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">A weak bracket should mean that the number one seeds have an easy route to the Final Four. Except not one made it. This has happened twice before: in 1980, with Louisville (2 seed), UCLA (8 seed), Purdue (6 seed), and Iowa (5 seed), and in 2006</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">with Florida (3 seed), UCLA (2 seed), </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGHQ6xpnahI"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">George Mason</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> (11 seed), and LSU (4 seed). However, this year, there are no number 2 seeds either. There's never been a Final Four with a 1 or a 2 seed in it. So much for that 'weakest field' argument. This year's Final Four is UCONN (3 seed), Kentucky (4 seed), VCU (11 seed), and Butler (8 seed). The match-ups this upcoming weekend are interesting for a number of reasons. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">First, a quick look at the first match-up. UCONN and Kentucky already played each other once this year in the Maui tournament (UCONN won 84-67). It's easy to see the draw of the UCONN and Kentucky game. Neither are strangers to the Final Four; this is UCONN's 2nd trip in the last 3 years, Coach Calhoun's 4th trip, two of which have led to national championships; Kentucky hasn't been to the Final Four since 1998, which is when they obtained one of their 7 national championships, but Coach Calipari is now the only coach to take three different teams to the Final Four (even if the first two were vacated by the NCAA). Some people might love this match-up because of the tradition of these two legendary programs and coaches. I'm rooting for UCONN because my little sister has them winning the tournament and she's the only member of our family whose bracket hasn't gone down in flames and because I think it would be a waste of a tournament if Calipari won, only to have the wins vacated later because it's bound to happen eventually. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The other match-up, however, poses a problem for many. Often in this tournament, unless your bracket is still in the running to earn you some money (in other words, unless you're </span><a href="http://www.midwestsportsfans.com/2011/03/perfect-final-4-bracket/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">jspearlman</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">), people tend to root for the underdog. But this is the match-up of the underdogs. An 8 seed vs an 11 seed. Two young, up-and-coming coaches (whose combined ages are less than Jim Calhoun's 68 years). So here's the problem: which bandwagon will you jump on?</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Here's where I try and convince you to root for VCU, the 3rd 11 seed to ever make the Final Four. Butler beat Old Dominion (9 seed), Pitt (1 seed), Wisconsin (4 seed), and Florida (2 seed). VCU beat USC in the play-in game, Georgetown (6 seed), Purdue (3 seed), Florida State (10 seed), and Kansas (1 seed). (On a side note, Kansas has become the dream opponent for mid-major schools. Since 2005, they've lost to Bucknell, Bradley, Northern Iowa, and VCU.) Give credit to both of these teams for making it this far. Just give more credit to VCU.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">From the very moment that VCU's name was announced, they were questioned, particularly from Jay Bilas, who called out the selection committee by saying their choice of allowing VCU into the tournament was "indefensible" and wondering whether the committee "knows if the ball is round". His criticism wasn't wrong - VCU probably didn't deserve their bid and probably robbed either Colorado or Virginia Tech of theirs - but VCU has used it for motivation. They've played five games so far, as opposed to the four that Butler has played, and they haven't just won these games: they've dominated. They beat Georgetown (albiet an injured and struggling Georgetown) by 18 points. They beat an incredibly healthy and incredibly talented Purdue team by 18 points. They just managed to get past another cinderella in FSU in overtime before they beat the Morris twins of Kansas by 10 points, leading at one point by 18. Butler, on the other hand, has edged over their opposition with the help of crazy shots and foul calls in every game except their victory over Wisconsin, with their largest victory being by 7. Don't get me wrong: Butler's a good team and they've played hard. I'm just suggesting that VCU has been a tad more motivated and a bit more impressive thus far. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Butler's had their cinderella story. Brad Stevens got his Bulldogs to the Final Four in their home town of Indianapolis against all odds last year, brought them to the championship game, and was one half court </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQs-d_9iJ14"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">shot</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> away from bringing home their first championship. This year, it's Shaka Smart's turn. VCU had never been past the second round of the tournament until this year. This year, Brad Stevens has shown that he can get it done twice, that he wasn't depending on Gordan Hayward to win last year. This is not the last time we'll see Brad Stevens and the Butler Bulldogs; in fact, I expect him to take home a championship within the next 5 or 6 years. Hopefully just not this year. It's too early to say whether Shaka Smart and VCU will be able to do this again; whether this is the beginning of upward turn for VCU or one anomaly of an otherwise average basketball program. If that's the case, this might be the last chance VCU has for a while. They've been questioned and they've responded without any help from Lady Luck or the NCAA officiating team. They've fought too hard to stop now. If that's not the case and Shaka Smart takes this team to the next level, they're still the underdogs</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> this </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">year. Butler can only win so much before they're not a cinderella story anymore. They've reached that point. Back-to-back Final Fours will do that. That's a good thing - it means that they've established a successful and respectable basketball program. It also means they're not the underdogs anymore. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There you have it. I'm not telling you that you </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">have</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> to root for VCU. If you're a Butler grad or know a Butler grad, if you have ties to the school or if you think their </span><a href="http://blogs.indystar.com/butler/files/2011/03/14_spBUTLER22.1807641-280x337.jpg"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">mascot</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is cute, then by all means root for Butler. But if you're rooting for the underdog, you gotta root for VCU. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Today's blog is titled for Ryan Braun, an outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers. He's from California and attended Miami University in Florida. He made his debut for the Brewers on May 25, 2007. In 2009, he became just the 8th player in MLB history with at least 100 runs, 100 RBI, 200 hits, 30 HR, 20 SB, and a .300 batting average in the same season. He's single and enjoys the beach, water sports, movies, and car. He also has his own batting line (RB8's) and clothing line (Remetee). Baseball's opening day is this Thursday. I'm not nearly as excited as this </span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T1U2KbUbG1Q"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">commercial</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> says I should be. </span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><br />
</span> <br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Hasta la vista!</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Sports Nerd</span></div>eem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-90252350225564144862011-03-20T20:25:00.000-07:002011-03-22T20:12:57.441-07:00Elmore MorgenthalerWith basketball season wrapping up, this may be one of the last posts I'm able to get in about said sport before I'm forced to write about something else. There are so many great moments from this year's March Madness already, and we're only four days in, but writing about the great moments isn't nearly as fun as watching them and, hopefully, most of you have seen most of these moments live anyway so reading about them would just be redundant. If you missed them, I'll let you wait until this year's "One Shining Moment" video to relive them all. In the mean time, I'll tell you a little about some of the great players creating those great moments. Today, halfway through VCU's <a href="http://klownsports.net/2011/03/14/why-in-the-hell-is-vcu-in-the-tournament/">beat down</a> of Purdue, the four Naismith Finalists were announced. None of them are particularly surprising:<br />
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Jimmer Fredette - BYU<br />
Jared Sullinger - (the) Ohio State<br />
Kemba Walker - UCONN<br />
Nolan Smith - Duke<br />
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Each one of them is very deserving of the award. I know which one <i>I</i> want to win. Unfortunately, since I'm too cheap to text my pick to 345345 and can't maneuver the darn Naismith <a href="http://naismithawards.com/">website</a> to vote, my opinion doesn't matter at all. However, if you aren't and you can, here's some details that might help you make your final decision.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze504DfQb_M">Jimmer Fredette:</a></u> I talked extensively about the BYU program and Fredette's teammate, Brandon Davies, in my previous post, but I didn't get into too much detail about the team's star himself. James Fredette is a senior from New York and is the starting guard of the Brigham Young Cougar's basketball team. He averages 4.3 assists per game and 3.5 rebounds a game while also shooting 40.6% from beyond the arc and averaging 28.8 points a game. (That's an <i>average. </i>So far in this tournament alone he scored 32 on Wofford and 34 on Gonzaga. He scored 49 on Arizona back in 2009 and <i>52</i> on New Mexico earlier this year.) The average seems low because of the occasional off game. "Off game" here meaning 16 points against Hawaii at the beginning of the season). He came into the spotlight during last year's NCAA tournament, particularly in his 37 point effort that pushed BYU past the Florida Gators in double overtime (who, coincidentally, will be who they play in the Sweet Sixteen next week, the first time BYU has ever advanced this far.) He was the Mountain West Conference's player of the year as well as cbssports.com's national player of the year. Although the Naismith is presented on facts alone, his back <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXE4sicV7Gs">story</a> is pretty interesting as well. In case you don't feel like watching that whole video, it basically shows how his brother used to help him practice by setting up scrimmages for him. With the inmates of a nearby jail. If that doesn't toughen a kid up, I don't know what will.<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.blogger.com/goog_1352761638">Jared Sullinger</a></u><a href="http://ayman.iyobo.com/2DdwVYRIdxs">:</a> Earlier this year, I shared this same video with you. I couldn't find a new one (some OSU fans need to step up and make a new mix). Also earlier this year, I questioned tOSU as a basketball team. I don't like being wrong and, with the except of my terrible bracket this year, I have a pretty good record (EX: Penn State made the tournament), but I was wrong here. Very, very wrong. Ohio State is a great basketball team and, hypocrite that I am, I think they'll win the National Championship because, honestly, who is going to beat them? Part of the reason they're so good is Jared Sullinger (and Aaron Craft, who doesn't get nearly the amount of attention that he should). He's a freshman and he <i>averages</i> a double-double each game: 17 points and 10.1 rebounds. He was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year. He's also very active on twitter (tonight he's having some conversation with Duke's Kyrie Irving. Fraternizing with the enemy.) A few weeks ago, I showed his "Party in the USA" video. Apparently, the whole video was his idea. It's his favorite song (he tweeted that when some girl asked him if he really liked it, he took off his headphones and it was playing on his iPod). In fact, when a Minnesota fan tried to taunt him with a <a href="http://www.cleveland.com/buckeyeblog/index.ssf/2011/02/ohio_states_jared_sullinger_to.html">sign</a> of him, he asked for the poster so he could give it to his mom (the Minnesota fan gave it to him).<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99NUnrqGUr4">Kemba Walker</a></u><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99NUnrqGUr4">:</a> I'd like to point out that one of the very first games that Kemba Walker started receiving national attention for was their victory over Michigan State in Maui. That's not a good thing, but it's where I first heard his name. Walker ranks 4th in the country in scoring with 23.6 ppg. He was particularly important during Uconn's run through the Big East tournament, where he scored 130 points in five games on five straight days. One might think that all those game right before the NCAA tournament might wear him out, but that doesn't appear to be happening anytime soon. He's from New York, says that he always wanted to come to Uconn, but if he hadn't, he probably would have gone to Cincinnati (which is the team that Uconn beat by 11 in the Big East championship game. Good decision.)<br />
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<u><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2q3Rk0UESRg">Nolan Smith:</a></u> Kyle Singler's decision to not live up to pre-season expectations and Kyrie Irving's toe injury opened up a nice path for senior Nolan Smith to average 20.9 ppg, 5.3 apg, and 4.5 rpg, establishing himself as the ACC's player of the year. He was the starting shooting guard last year for Duke's championship run in March and has put the team on his back for most of the year. During the game over Michigan today, he scored 24 points on 8 out of 13 shooting, including a critical stretch where he scored 10 straight points. In my opinion (and, hey, since it's my blog I guess I can put my opinion), he's been somewhat overlooked most of the season. Obviously, he's not <i>too</i> overlooked since he's a Naismith finalist, but a lot of attention was focused on Kyrie Irving. With him gone, Smith led Duke just like an experienced senior should. His dad died when he was 8 years old and he now has a tattoo with the words "Forever Watching" on his arm.<br />
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So there are this year's finalists. I know who I want to win (and maybe you can figure it out too) and maybe this has influenced your opinions; maybe it hasn't; or maybe you don't really care that much at all.<br />
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As for Elmore Morgenthaler, he was the first 7 foot tall (7'1'', to be exact) basketball player. He played at college ball at the New Mexico School of Mines, professional basketball with Providence and Philadelphia from 1946 to 1949, and, despite his height, averaged less than two points a game.<br />
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It should go without saying that the thing to watch this week is the remainder of the NCAA tournament. However, if you happen to be watching a game that the great Gus Johnson isn't calling, then you could always listen to <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfX4WcFcSGo">Oscar Cuesta</a>, the Spanish Gus Johnson. Skip to about :45 seconds in; this guy is so happy he's either crying or laughing maniacally.<br />
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Peace out!<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-46061939326308928252011-03-06T17:29:00.000-08:002011-03-06T19:12:12.816-08:00Julius ErvingThere is a reason for why I haven't written in almost a month. It's not that there hasn't been lots to write about, because there has been. (Quick review: Carmelo Anthony goes to the Knicks, Blake Griffin dunks over a car, Trevor Bayne wins Daytona 500, baseball is in full <a href="http://www.intermediated.org/wp-content/gallery/kfilms/PunIntended.jpg">swing</a>, no NFL lockout....yet, tOSU wins Big Ten). I had plenty of choices. No, the reason I haven't written is because, after my last post, I told myself I would go out on a limb and write about something other than college basketball. Obviously, I've had plenty to chose from. I couldn't do it. I can't write an (interesting) post about NBA trades or NFL drama, my post on the Daytona would have been something along the lines of, "He turned left faster than everyone else", and I can't force myself to watch a full game of baseball; I prefer the ESPN highlights. So I've finally given in and have resigned myself to writing another post on college basketball. This could be a very dull blog after March. I'm not going to write about tOSU winning, though. There's someone far more controversial and interesting out there right now and his name is Brandon Davies.<br />
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A little backstory for anyone who doesn't already know where this is going. Brandon Davies was, until recently, the sophomore forward for the Brigham Young Cougars men's basketball team. He was the leading rebounder, averaging 6.2 per game, and the team's third highest scorer, with 11.1 ppg. At the beginning of the season, BYU caught the media's attention because of their senior guard, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SwMKSwOVMY">Jimmer Fredette</a>, who averages 27.9 points a game and shoots 40% from beyond the arc. By playing (and winning) a decent non-conference schedule and beating then #6 (now #4) San Diego State on January 26th, BYU ended the month of February 27-2, 13-1 in the Mountain West, and ranked #3 in the polls, poised for a number 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Then Brandon Davies was suspended for the remainder of the season for breaking the Honor Code. He had sex with his girlfriend.<br />
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BYU is a Mormon school with a strict Honor Code. When you agree to attend BYU, you agree to that Honor Code, which includes promising to "live a virtuous and chaste life". He didn't. After his suspension, the Cougars lost to New Mexico for the second time this season and then beat Wyoming. They are still ranked #3 and while the Cougars can definitely still make a run in the tournament, this is definitely not a small challenge to overcome. Davies has the ability to score anywhere from 6 to 20 points a game, he started 24 of 27 games, he's had two double-doubles this season, and BYU was already short-handed after an injury to Chris Collinsworth earlier this season. Davies was the main player for Fredette and the team's second highest scorer, Jackson Emery, to feed to, as well as the main distraction that freed up said players on the outside. This will a be a huge hurdle for a team that fell in the 2nd round of the tournament last year and, despite 24 tournament appearances, has never reached the Final Four.<br />
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This is where the controversy comes in. College students have sex. College sports players have sex. College sports players do things much worse than have consensual sex with their significant others and are not kicked off their sports teams. Case in point: Davies' <a href="http://thesundevils.cstv.com/sports/w-volley/mtt/mendivil_danica00.html">girlfriend</a> is a volleyball player for Arizona State and she still plays, even though she slept with her boyfriend. A recent study done by CBS and Sports Illustrated revealed that of the 2,837 players that made up the 2010 pre-season top 25 football polls, 7% had criminal records, including actual sex offenses. (Here's a <a href="http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/the_bonus/02/27/cfb.crime/index.html">link</a> to the results of the study, if you're interested.) Players are paid, breaking NCAA rules, and are forgiven and allowed to continue playing (I really can't go many posts without mentioning <a href="http://www.banditref.com/2010/11/cam-newton-soap-opera-timeline-of-truth.html">Cam Newton</a>). So should Brandon Davies, who did nothing illegal or dangerous, get suspended, when so many others commit worse crimes and get away with it?<br />
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The answer: yes. With all the aforementioned scandals and lack of discipline in college sports right now, BYU should be praised for their ruling. Brandon Davies agreed to that Honor Code. If he didn't want to follow it, he could have attended <i>any other school in the nation.</i> But he chose BYU. And by choosing BYU, he chose to not have sex. Although that might not appear to be a huge misdemeanor when compared to what other student athletes get away with, he's breaking the rules nonetheless. And while other schools allow their players to get away with the crimes without punishment in order to keep their chances of success alive, the BYU administration upheld their values, jeopardizing one of the best seasons in school history. They're setting an example. They're sticking to their morals. Kudos to them.<br />
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What's even better? After their victory over Wyoming on the 5th, securing them the Mountain West title, they allowed Davies onto the floor to cut a piece of the net for himself. Because he is just a kid. And, compared to a lot of other kids out there, he's a really good kid who deserves a second chance. One question left: how the hell did the school find out?<br />
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Today's post is in honor of number 6, Julius Erving. He was born on February 22, 1950 (my birthday, just 43 years early), played basketball for Massachusetts Amherst and was selected as the 12th overall pick by the Milwaukee Bucks. He played in the NBA for 17 years and is considered one of the best dunkers of all time. Recently, there has been some discussion about switching the NBA's logo depicting Jerry West to feature an Erving dunk, but it doesn't seem likely to happen. He was nicknamed "Dr. J", which influenced the nicknames of both Boston Celtics' Glenn "Doc" Rivers (he had a poster of Erving in his Marquette dorm room) and rapper Dr. Dre and the real name of Chicago Bears defensive end Julius Peppers.<br />
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Here's something <i>not</i> to watch: The ESPN documentary on the scUM's "Fab Five". For those of you who don't know, the "Fab Five" was the nickname for five players in Michigan's 1991 recruiting class (Chris Webber, Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King, and Ray Jackson). The five supposedly revolutionized the game of basketball. They never won a championship, though they came close and might have if Chris Webber hadn't called a timeout against UNC in 1993 when they had none remaining, resulting in a technical foul. What they did make popular was trash talking, shaved heads, baggy shorts, black shoes, and high black socks. More often than not, they're associated with the University of Michigan basketball scandal, where scUM booster Ed Martin gave Chris Webber roughly $280,000 in a span of five years. Three other players not from the Fab Five were involved, as was the coach, Steve Fisher (currently the coach of San Diego State. Michigan fired him). The University of Michigan ended up vacating every game in the 1992-93 season as well as 1995-96 through 1997-98, which included the 1992 and 1993 Final Fours, the 1997 NIT title, and the 1998 Big Ten Championship. I'm not sure what exactly the documentary is going to focus on. Yay for cheating!<br />
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Live long and prosper,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2538798406676863721.post-21241022274062345572011-02-17T21:06:00.000-08:002011-04-15T19:22:49.144-07:00Gilbert BrownI find college sports so much more entertaining than professional. I can't give you a real reason why that is except to say that the politics and drama in the pros take the fun out of it. I'm not saying that there isn't drama in college, because there is, but when team's like the Miami Heat form their "dream teams" it seems to take the challenge away. Suddenly, instead of creatively and strategically working with the talent that you've got, teams are put together by whoever can cough up the most cash. It also takes the "magic" out of the game. When the teams are stacked with so much talent, you don't get any 2006 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGHQ6xpnahI">George Mason</a> basketball teams or 1980 <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYscemhnf88">Miracle on Ice</a> hockey teams (that wasn't a college team, but it was composed of college players. After that, they started making Olympic teams with pros). Not to mention that the professional players are playing for money while college players are playing because they love the game (though, admittedly, money isn't far from <a href="http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/report-auburn-qb-and-father-sought-money-from-colleges-110910">many of their minds</a> while they play). Now that I've got that out of the way, I'll say that I have recently begun following professional sports more than I used to mostly because I now recognize many of the players from their college years. (And, of course, this is where I'll make my Super Bowl shout-out: Packers won!)<br />
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In the NFL, I support is the Detroit Lions. In the NBA, I support two teams: The Bucks and the Lakers, the ultimate default team for half-hearted NBA followers. But I'm not one of those. I have reasons. Some people might think that I root for the Bucks because I live in Wisconsin. I'll let them think that but I really just root for the Bucks because they're coached by Scott Skiles, a former Michigan State basketball player. I root for the Lakers because Magic Johnson (Michigan State) played there and Shannon Brown, another former Michigan State player (do you see a trend?), is their resident highlight reel <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p4IKG8DWu2E&feature=related">dunker</a>.<br />
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The Lakers are who I want to talk about. I was listening to the radio this morning and the man was talking about having a strange dream where the Cavaliers beat the Lakers. Of course, that wasn't a dream. My mouth dropped and I honestly laughed out loud. The <i>Cavaliers</i>? The 10-46 Cleveland Cavaliers? Beat the <i>Lakers</i>? The Lakers that, 4 weeks ago, beat Cleveland by 55 points? I'll be honest, I don't know much about how the NBA works. What I do know is that the Lakers have lost 6 of their last 11 games and one was to the Celtics, which I'm sure just kills them. What really gets me about this team is that they should not be losing. This same Lakers team, with very few changes, has been to the NBA finals the last 3 years and are 2 time defending champs. Earlier this season, when they weren't playing well, the media shrugged it off saying, "This is what always happens. They're post season players." Well, to be post season players, you need to survive until the post season. They don't need to be tied for third place of the Western Conference, nine games behind the leader. They have the talent to win, but at the moment it seems that they don't have the heart. And, of course, since the reason I root for the Lakers is primarily Michigan State related, so is this argument. My Michigan State Spartans seem to be in a very similar situation: High expectations after back-to-back Final Fours, excused for poor early performances because they're a "post season team", yet continuing to underperform, not for lack of talent, but of lack of motivation.<br />
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For my sanity, I hope the Spartans, as well as the Lakers, snap out of it.<br />
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Today's title was inspired by Pittsburg Panther's senior forward Gilbert Brown. Brown averages 11.1 ppg, shoots 40% from behind the arc, and had a nice dunk against South Florida that earned him a big picture in this <a href="http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11048/1126045-142.stm">article</a>. I really wanted to bring up Pitt, though, because a few weeks ago I shared my opinions on the top teams in the nation. Being #1 in basketball isn't really that big of a deal; it's not nearly as important as being #1 in football, but apparently the media thinks it's a huge honor because they talk about it constantly now that the Luckeyes have fallen as well as the Jayhawks (Number one for 24 hours! Where have I seen that <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ButhXx--nKE&feature=related">before</a>?). Anyway, everyone seems to think Texas is the best team in the nation right now. My vote would go to Pittsburgh. They're 24-2, both losses came to ranked teams, <i>beat</i> Texas earlier this year, and have a higher strength of schedule than tOSU, Duke, Texas, or Kansas according to Pomeroy. So March Madness, keep them in mind.<br />
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I don't have any videos, but I do have a suggestion. To any of you tweeters out there, follow Auburn football player Jordan Springs if you want a <a href="http://www.barstoolu.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/sprigstweet.jpg">laugh</a>. Not only does Auburn get players illegally, they get stupid players illegally. That apparently have the same moral standings as the coaching staff. I might have to get a twitter account just to see if anything else interesting pops up there.<br />
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That is all,<br />
The Sports Nerdeem1919http://www.blogger.com/profile/13915823606934302780noreply@blogger.com0