I realize this is a little late in getting posted, but what can I say – day jobs suck. As soon as someone steps up and is ready to pay me for this full-time, I’ll be cranking posts out on weekday mornings by the dozens. Really.
Anyway, on Friday and Sunday I was fortunate enough to attend 2nd and 3rd round NCAA Tournament games at the Bridgestone Arena here in Nashville, Tennessee. What follows are my assorted thoughts and musings on everything from attendance in the Music City (or lack thereof) to a plea for the NCAA to step their game up and finally the saddest thing I saw all week.
West Virginia University and its fans knew the contentious move to the Big XII would come with a hefty price-tag. A nice fat check to the Big East it was leaving, a handful of generations-long rivalries and a touch of bad PR. All damaging in the short term but nothing they weren’t prepared to give up in order to gain the long-term stability that remaining competitive in high-level football required. The cost was weighed, the benefit analyzed – the decision made…..and ultimately finalized. A hefty price but a price worth paying.
But when will it stop?
When can we just sign the damn check and leave this godforsaken restaurant. ’Cause the food sucks.
I don’t really know what you say after a game like that. WVU spent most of the second half in solid control before inexplicably falling apart down the stretch. They couldn’t break the press consistently, couldn’t hit shots, and couldn’t hold off a late Louisville rally that they acted like they knew was coming. I would even argue that they were distracted by the refs at the expense of the focus it takes to execute at the end of big games. More on that later. But the simple fact is they got beat at the free throw line (WVU: 17/27, UL: 13/15) and the three point line (WVU: 7/22, UL: 10/22). I’d love to add this to the list of games refs have cost the Mountaineers, but that simply isn’t the case.
There is frankly a lot to be said about WVU’s loss to 4th ranked Syracuse on Saturday afternoon. Much of that could be about the game, where Syracuse demonstrated as much about it’s newfound mortality with Fab Melo on the bench as WVU did it’s ability to compete with anyone – but not necessarily BEAT anyone. The Orange were mauled on the boards (36 to 20 overall, 15 to 5 offensive) and the Mountaineers failed to execute down the stretch with uneven efforts from 2/3rds of their upperclassmen, demonstrating once again that without the consistant contributions of Deniz Kilicli and Truck Bryant, this is a very good but not-ready-for-prime-time team that is unable to beat high level opponants.
But that’s probably not what you’ve spent the time since that game mulling over.
That’s really the only explanation for why I’ve neglected to post my mid-year analysis of the WVU basketball schedule and a projection forward to postseason prospects. It was one of my favorite posts from last year and, if I may be permitted a moment of hubris, I did a pretty damn good job, – projecting the final regular season record for WVU EXACTLY (20-10) and missing their conference record only by a game (I said 10-8, they went 11-7). They dropped the games I said they would drop, won the games I said they would won (with the exception of the Marshall game) and did a game better than the 50-50 games I thought they had a coinflip’s chance at. I said 60% chance at the NCAA’s and they made it. I’m a smart guy. You should read me more. I DRIVE A DODGE STRATUS!!!
Some thoughts and musings on UK’s gutsy 77-71 win over the Alabama Crimson Tide that preserved the Rupp Arena win streak at 46:
Crunch Time Warriors: The growth of this team continues before our eyes. Today we saw them toughen up in crunch time against a very worthy foe. Alabama played streets ahead (warning: Community reference!) of their putrid performance against Vanderbilt, seeming to punch a hole in Kevin Stalling’s whining theory that Thursday/Saturday back-to-backs affect the performance of teams. Speaking of the biggest crybaby in the SEC…..
Early on in “Jurrasic Park” there is a scene where Sam Neil is talking to one of the island’s lizard wranglers about the velociraptor cage. The wrangler informs him that the beasts never attack the same area of the electrified fence twice. There is a brief pause as Neil contemplates the frightening implications of this revelation, the carnage that could result from the addition of intelligence to such a physically gifted killer. Taking this all in his face betrays the combined horror and awe of the moment before he utters in little more than a whisper “they’re learning.”
Tonight he could have been talking about the young, gifted and most decidedly deadly Kentucky Wildcats.
For evil to triumph, it is only necessary for good men to do nothing.”
-Edmund Burke
Across the nation, the righteous indignation gauge is pegged. Reporters, bloggers, fans and everyday folk who’ve never even heard of a Nittany Lion are venting outrage at the despicable acts which are alleged to have occurred as an entire athletic department refused to act. Every sports talk caller is a hero. To a man (or woman) they know exactly what they would do if put in the shoes of Mike McQueary, coming suddenly upon that grown man violating a defenseless boy in that shower. They would immediately jump to action, grabbing one of those famously plain helmets and become judge, jury and executioner. There is not a doubt in their mind how they would have handled the situation head coach Joe Paterno, athletic director Tim Curley and school president Graham Spanier found themselves in when confronted with McQueary’s revelation. It would have been a short march to the police station to sound the alarm. It all seems so simple. Is it?
ESPN hates your team. ESPN hates your conference. ESPN is an evil corporate conglomerate that exists for the sole purpose of sucking the joy out of your sports viewing life. ESPN pays off refs to get the results they want to make millions all at the expense of your team. They ignore games your team is playing for games that Duke, or USC, or someone else is playing. If it weren’t for ESPN, your team would have built 6 annexes onto the trophy room by now.
They are The Pentaverate:
As long as I can remember, every corner of America has its own story of suffering at the hands of ESPN, and the realignment saga has been no different. Read more »
