Ken Williams: You Should Know Better

Ken Williams has done a remarkable job building the White Sox into a World Champion. He was able to do this without his team even being on anybody’s radar screen as recently as a year ago. He hired a young manager in Ozzie Guillen who was the absolute right choice to lead that team to a World Championship. He built a team around pitching, defense, and some offense, especially from Paul Konerko. That pitching performed as well this past postseason as any in recent memory. Ken Williams was the toast of Chicago….and then he opened his mouth.

Two days ago, Williams ripped Frank Thomas apart like a Lion on a Wildebeest. Yes, the same Frank Thomas who starred in a big way for the Sox for 16 long years. The same Frank Thomas who was the face of the franchise when they were not much to look at. Williams called Thomas selfish. He called Thomas an idiot. He said the slugger had a bad attitude and was a whiner. Then he went a step further and put all his players squarely in the middle by saying none of them missed having Thomas around.

Not only is it out of line for a GM to be saying these things about a former star player, but by putting his players in the middle, he risks future acrimony with that group, who ultimately might question he allegiance to his players when he ripped the franchise's brightest star on the way out, or may use this chip when trying to negotiate a few extra bucks during an acrimonious contract squabble. Look, I love when a public sports figure is outspoken and candid, and says it like it is. But you have to be smart about where to draw that line, and use that candor for a purpose.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I am not saying that a single thing that came out of Williams mouth was erroneous. He may well have been right about everything he said. But didn’t his parents do what every parent does, and tell him if he did not have anything nice to say do not say anything at all. That saying should go double when you are the leader of an organization, whether or sports team or something else. It should go triple when the defamed is a guy who was at least at one point beloved in your city and the pride of your franchise.

I am not a Chicago resident, and I am not a White Sox fan, but I would imagine this act of beating a man after he had already been run out of town will gain the Big Hurt some sympathy from the Sox fan base for having his feelings hurt big. Maybe not. Maybe Williams has been anointed in such a way that he can say whatever he wants, about whoever he wants, and get away with it. My guess, even if the latter is the case, is that in a few years, when the wins slow down, and Frank Thomas again is viewed fondly as one of the best players ever to don a Sox uni, that this tirade will resurface and burn Williams.

If I were sitting down with Williams and interviewing him, I would have but one question for him. Why? What were you hoping to accomplish with your comments? Wouldn’t you have been better off just letting this pass? Thomas is gone, what could he gain by getting into this nastiness now? Yes, I realize that was four questions, and not one, but you get my point. Take the high road, Ken. You are already at the top of the mountain, there is nowhere to go but down. Stay there as long as you can and enjoy the view.

Now, can we put this behind us so we can focus on college basketball. March starts tomorrow!

Note: Picture courtesy of whitesox.com

Schoettle's Take: Mike Brey, To Stay or Not to Stay: The State of Notre Dame Basketball

Today, Stitzer's old roommate Dan Schoettle (pronounced shut-lee) has agreed to weigh in with his take on Notre Dame basketball. ND is having a basketball season that is as frustrating as almost any in recent memory, losing 9 big east games by a total of 27 points. So, instead of getting ready for the NCAA tournament, they are on the outside looking in....at the Big East tournament. Schoettle is as passionate a fan as I have run across, so I know this is hurting him, and is why I asked him to contribute, which he graciously agreed to do. As a special bonus, Mr. Stitzer has written an introduction so that you can understand the source of what you are about to read. Maybe this will lead to a big win today over Marquette, maybe not. We will see. I give you Andrew B. Stitzer:
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Person: Dan Schoettle

Phylum: One Of Best Guys Ever and One of the Best Roommates ever

Habitat: south side if Indianapolis, but has been known to roam the southwestern states, especially the San Diego region

Diet: Wings (made by himself in his fry-daddy), Negro Modelo (been known to consume 18 – only when Colts lose at home to Titans in playoffs), IU hoop fans (he used to root for Russia when they played exhibition games), all “anti-Catholics” that root against his Irish

Allegiances: Reds (but has given up on baseball), Notre Dame, Pacers, Broncos, and Colts (Stitzer note: Indy did not have a football team until 1984, so Schoettle became enamored with Denver during the Orange Crush year of 1977). When Colts play Denver, Schoettle roots for Broncos (Dils note: so you see he entered college hoops season in a bad mood, when his teams, seeded #1 and #2 in the AFC, both lost to Pittsburgh)

Quotes: “Andrew has finally met his match, I have never seen 2 guys (Schoettle and his brother Nick) drink more beer in my life. And Dan makes Andrew looks like a mute when he watches games.” (Paul Stitzer, circa 1999). Then standard Schoettle reply is “I love it, Stitz’s Dad thinks I am worse than he is, but Stitz has had the cops called on him twice while he was watching sporting events.” (That is a different story for a different day).

In closing: You are about to hear from one the most passionate and knowledgeable sports fans I have ever come across. Strap yourself in and get ready for a fun ride. And now; Dan Schoettle......
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I would like to thank Dils for giving me the opportunity to express some thoughts on his highly esteemed blog. He has stressed to me that I need to keep the language PG. Being that I am a first time contributor and in respect to Mama Dils, I will bite my tongue and comply.

First, I would like to introduce myself to those who don’t know me. My name is Dan Schoettle (pronounced Shut-lee) and I am an Indianapolis native and currently reside there. From 1998 - 2000, I lived in San Diego where I lived with blog legend and the highly combustible Andrew B. Stitzer. Stitz introduced me to Dils and several other readers of this blog during that time either in SD or Vegas at the annual March Madness outings. I am a 1993 graduate of the University of Notre Dame which leads me to the subject of today’s column….the state of Notre Dame basketball.

The Irish currently reside at 13-11 and 4-9 in the Big East which is good for 14th place in the 16 team league. It is well publicized that those 9 BE losses were by a total of 27 points. These include two OT losses (@ L’ville and @ UConn) AND two Double OT losses (@ Pitt and G’Town). In addition, ND lost 2 point games @ Marquette and to Villanova. In out of conference games, the Irish lost a four point game to Michigan, beat Wofford by 3 and IPFW (Indiana University – Purdue University at Fort Wayne for you non-Hoosiers) by 2. This gives the Irish a 2-10 record in games decided by 6 points or less.

Are the Irish “unlucky” or “snakebitten” as all of the talking heads are saying? After all, being a good Catholic boy, I had my rosary out for the UConn game to no avail. Or are they just good enough to get beat with the other team proclaiming “I feel really bad for that hard luck team”? Is Mike Brey the coach of the year as Rick Majerus suggested this week? Or are they a bunch of underachievers? Can things get worse? Can this program succeed? Or is ND just a football school that should be happy to be playing in the powerful Big East?

I would like to focus on the latest game at UConn as I see it as a microcosm of the season. Surprisingly, I did not wake up any of my kids (three boys-4, 2, 8 months) with my tirades during the game. I was only able to watch the last few minutes on ESPN, the rest of the game I was “watching” on the internet. Hitting refresh every 10 seconds and cheering when I saw Cornett with a defensive rebound.

If you looked at the stats you would see this: the Irish committed only 4 TO’s. They outscored the larger, lankier, more athletic Huskies 34-24 in the paint. The ND bench outscored UConn 23-8. How can they get beat with stats like this against the 14.5 point favorite?

Well, it is pretty evident if you have seen the Irish play this season. The Irish play loose and free for most of the game. When they get down to the last few minutes they hold the ball until there are 8-10 seconds on the shot clock and then Quinn will drive and either A) throw up an off balance shot or B) kick to a jump shooter who has to take a hurried, off-balance, contested shot. Here are some more stats: when ND went on an 18-0 run they took their first shot on average within 11 seconds. On 6 out of the last 7 possessions in the 2nd half, ND shot their first shot with less than 10 seconds on the shot clock.

It would also help if UConn would have expelled all players (Williams and Price) who stole laptops. Calhoun has absolutely no conscience. Of course, he will say that he is giving the kids a “second chance” and that the program punished the players. I don’t want to take a holier than thou attitude but go ask Doug Gottlieb (ESPN analyst and former OSU Cowboy) what happens when you steal credit cards at ND. Hint: Student Affairs, not the coach, kicks your ass out of the university. Ask Michael Stonebreaker (starting linebacker on 88 NC FB team) what happens when you get too many PARKING TICKETS. You get suspended for a year. Ask Rashon Powers Neal (starting FB on last years FB team) what happens when you get an inseason DUI. You get suspended for the rest of the year (including the SC game). Do you think RPN would have dropped the pass that freshman replacement Schwapp did against SC and might have cost ND a National Championship.

Also, I know that UConn is a great shot blocking team but how do our three guards who played an average of 42 minutes shoot just one foul shot while the Huskies blocked 19 shots? The Huskies only fouled 4 times in the act of shooting. There is a reason they are a great team (Hint: increase sarcasm meter). But I digress……….

Assuming ND does not make the Tourney this year it will be a three year drought. In other words, of all the students on campus next year, no class will know what it feels like to be in the NCAA’s. Digger got fired for making the Tourney 6 out of his last 10 years. Brey will have made the Tourney 3 out of 6 years meaning his full recruiting classes have not made it.

I will evaluate Brey on what I see as the three main parts of coaching: recruiting, development of talent, and in game strategy/X’s and O’s. I will also take a look at the environment/support of the Athletic Department.

RECRUITING:

Brey has brought the first two Indiana Mr. Basketballs to ever sign at ND: Chris Thomas and Luke Zeller (who beat out Carmel HS grad and Duke freshman Josh McRoberts). Thomas was seen as a break through recruit-an Indianapolis McDonalds All American who picked ND over the likes of Duke, IU and Purdue. He rewarded the hype with a first ever triple double in his first game with the Irish. ND also signed Torin Francis out of Massachusetts-a Parade Magazine player of the Year. In the last few years, Brey has inked strong recruiting classes. In addition to Zeller, Brey signed Kyle McAlarney-the all time point leader of Staten Island, although that might be like my ND roommate who was All State in Wyoming. The Irish have another big man Hoosier from Andrean High School coming next year – Luke Harangody who should be able to contribute right away. I don’t think ND will ever be the type of school that will have a bunch of early entry players. They will recruit kids that will be four year players that may not be the best athletes but will be smart players who can shoot and will play hard. They will fit with the most recent style of play. Good examples include Matt Carroll, Chris Quinn, and Chris Thomas.

Overall Recruiting Grade: B+

DEVELOPMENT OF TALENT

Under Brey, ND has had first round draft picks Troy Murphy and Ryan Humphrey. Brey inherited these players and I will not give him credit for their development. Most observers will say that Chris Thomas regressed under Brey. On the surface that may appear true, but a knee injury, I believe, stunted his growth more than anything. I think his explosiveness seriously suffered with the injury. I can say that Chris Quinn has developed into a potential first team all BE selection. However, Colin Falls has not progressed at the same level. Neither did Torrian Jones or Jordan Cornette. Russell Carter looks like he may be the real deal. Torin Francis and Rick Cornett have taken serious steps backwards. Big men under Brey do not seem like they have progressed recently. ND had Harold Swanagan and Tom Timmermans who were role players and helped ND get to the Sweet Sixteen. Recently, it appears Brey does not have a sufficient rotation/scheme to fully utilize his Bigs including the failed experiment with Arizona transfer Dennis Latimore last year.

Overall Development of Talent: C+

STRATEGY

Obviously, with all of the close losses, you have to look at the end of game situations. ND has played not to lose without being aggressive in most cases. The lack of blocking out cannot, I believe, be blamed on coaching. The lack of timeouts can be traced to coaching. Brey has a maddening habit of using all his TO’s with 2 minutes left. Also, Brey does not seem to be able to find a consistent rotation. Torin Francis (also known as Edward Scissorhands) seems to play more than the more productive Rick Cornett. Brey’s schemes do not seem to work with 2 bigs in the lineup at the same time. Spacing can be a problem. Is Brey flexible enough to fully utilize his team’s talent? Sometimes/sometimes not. Brey has somehow gotten this year’s team to keep on trucking. With all of the close losses, this year’s team has refused to quit (like last year and all of Ty Willingham’s teams). They have been beyond resilient. This is a credit to the coaching staff and Chris Quinn.

Overall Strategy: B-

ENVIRONMENT/ATHLETIC DEPARTMENT SUPPORT

Notre Dame is considered a football school. However, during the late 60’s until the mid 80’s, the Irish hoops teams were considered contenders. ND stopped the UCLA win streak at 88 games in 1974 (probably the biggest BB win in the history of the school). The Irish were regulars in the top 25 during this time period. Austin Carr scored an NCAA record 61 points in 1970. The Irish went to the Final Four in 1978. ND’s Student Body was awarded “player of the game” honors twice in high profile games in the 70’s. The student body used to stream toilet paper down after ND scored their first hoop. In other words, the ND students were the “Cameron Crazies” before the Cameron Crazies.

The momentum from the past years has clearly been lost. The atmosphere at ND games could not be more different these days. There have been several thousand empty seats at some Big East games this year. Students are not showing up and when they do they are not creating the intimidating home court advantage that once existed. The Irish clearly should have joined a conference (in basketball) sooner than they did. The last years of Digger’s regime and the McLeod years were abysmal.

Plans have been on the board for a new/renovated arena for several years. For some reason this has not been done yet. The Joyce Athletic and Convocation Center (JACC) is a relic of the past. It only seats a little over 11,000 and some of the upper level seats are push back bleachers you could find at any high school gym. The seats are not even the same color. They are a collage of colors-orange, yellow, red and green. Father Jenking has clearly shown he has the courage to do the right thing. He fired Willingham even when faced with the ever tiring and absolutely incorrect calls of racism (a column for another day.) The basketball facilities are subpar at ND and should be updated as quickly as possible. A multi BILLION dollar endowment should allow this to happen immediately.

Overall Environment/Athletic Department Support: C

OVERALL:

Brey did a good job initially of winning and made the Tournament his first three years including a Sweet Sixteen run. With this winning came raised expectations. NIT berths in three straight years in clearly unacceptable. Although ND has brought some good talent into the program, there has been a clear lack of development of the big men. There has also been uneven playing rotations and questionable late game strategy. However, Brey has kept the team together and they have not quit on the season. The administration could help the program by committing to new/renovated facilities. Brey appears to be a good institutional fit at ND. I am not ready to call for his head. However, if a third straight NIT turns into a fourth straight NIT bid, it may be time to look elsewhere for a head coach.

Overall: C+

Note: picture courtesy of www.ndnation.com

Prince Alwaleed, Lee Nailon & Curling: When's the Last Time You Saw Those Three in the Same Sentence: Friday Odds & Ends

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the Saudi Arabian multibillionaire, is planning an IPO for his holding company. he question I pose is this: would you be willing to invest money in his holding company, assuming you thought it was a sound financial move for your individual needs? I am very interested to see some debate on this topic.

Does anybody watch Squawk Box on CNBC? Can you tell me what happened to Mark Haines? He used to be the anchor of the whole show, now he does some reporting from Wall Street. This strikes me as the biggest demotion since Aaron Brooks lost his starting quarterback job to Todd Bauman. Would appreciate any insight on this thing. Haines was a little crotchety, but he kind of kept the whole show together. Liked it better with him quarterbacking from the studio....

Are the Olympics over yet? They have been entirely uninteresting and unwatchable this year, despite some strong storylines like Bode Miller sucking really, really bad, and the catfight between Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick, and Sacha Cohen falling down yet still somehow winning a silver medal (shouldn't this be illegal?). I do, however, have one question. Is Curling a sport that some drunk guys made up one night after a few too many in the pub. As near as I can tell, it involves people sliding a stone and a guy in a tight outfit running down the ice with the stone and smoothing the ice to clear a path for the stone. This is like shuffleboard but on ice and somehow in the Olympics. I could see it being a good drinking game, but an Olympic sport? And you wonder why the Olympics got whipped by American Idol and other shows this week.

I will have the priviledge tomorrow of watching J.J. Redick break the all-time ACC scoring record in person. Considering the zone defense that Temple plays, the odds of them holding J.J. to leass than the nine points he needs to set the record are roughly the same as my winning a Gold Medal in Curling in the 2010 Olympics. In other words, not good. So of everyone who has ever played in the ACC, including Bias, Jordan, Daugherty, Worthy, Perkins, Dawkins, Price, Thompson, Laettner, Price, none has scored as many points as J.J. Pretty good stuff.

Do you remember the song "Insane in the Membrane" by Cypress Hill? Good. Now you can try to get it out of your head, since I am having no luck doing the same.

One thing that really bugs me about reality shows is when there is a 34 year old punk contestant with tattoos all over his body and they label his profession as "Marketing Executive." Who are they kidding? If by marketing executive they mean guy in the customer service department who makes $8 an hour answering customer complaints, I understand. But having played in themarketing world for a good ten years, there are no marketing executives that match that description. Just call these people what they are Survivor and others.

This is a new one. The Sixers traded Lee Nailon and a second round pick for a second round pick. Cleveland has a better record than the Sixers, so the pick the Sixers will get is a worse pick than the one they gave up. So, in summary, the Sixers gave up a player AND a draft choice advantage in the same deal. That is a brilliant move! I would make an Isiah Thomas comparison here but I do not want to step on the Sports Guy's toes, and he owns that one.

Note: Picture courtesy of MSN Money

Early preview: Jimmy Rollins, Bobby Abreu, Brett Myers & The Fightin' Phils: Is there a reason for Optimism? Nah....

Spring training. Gotta love it. Pitchers and catchers reporting represents the coming of spring better than Punxsatwany Phil and speedos combined. It brings about a sense of optimism, as everyone is 0-0, and dreams are focused on playing well into October. When you are the Philadelphia Phillies and you are coming off an eight year reign of terror by the Ed Wade regime, you should be giddier than two twelve year olds who just got their braces locked during their first make out session. The new GM, Pat Gilick, is a proven winner who has built championship and contending teams in Toronto (where he dashed the Phillies last hope for a title in '93), Seattle, and Baltimore. He immediatelty doused a fire on the optimistic expectations in the offseason when he declared that the Fighin Phils were not yet ready to win a playoff spot. Ouch.

Full AL and NL previews will be coming just before the season starts, but for now, here is a state of the Phils entering the spring...

Offense: The top 2/3 of the Phillies lineup has a great chance to be as good as any in the league, and overall the offense will score runs. Some keys:

• Can Jimmy Rollins continue to be the type of offensive player that he was in the second half of last year? He enters the season with an active 36-game hitting streak. If he were to hit safely in the forst 21 games of the season, he would break the most unbreakable of all hitting records, Joe D's 56 game hitting streak from 1941. But lost in all that excitement is the fact that he still does not walk a lot, has a lower than ideal on-base percentage for a leadoff guy, and does not utilize a hitting style that best leverages his strengths as a hitter. It will be interesting to see if Jimmy can evolve.
• Will Chase Utley and Ryan Howard continue to grow as hitters. Utley and Howard have developed quickly at the major league level. Utley could become the best overall second basemen in the game as early as this year, and Howard could hit 35+ home runs if he can avoid the dreaded sophomore slump.
• Strikeouts. These guys all seem to have too many holes their swings, and this team strikes out way too much from the top of the lineup to the bottom. They do not seem to be able to play sound, fundamental offensive baseball. They do not move runners up, hit to the right side when they need to, put the ball in play with two strikes, etc. Rollins, Burrell, Abreu, Howard, and Lieberthal will all strike out way too much.
• The bottom third of their lineup stinks! Lieberthal, Bell/Nunez/Perez/Gonzalez, and the pitcher provide the opposing pitcher with an inning off. These guys are just inadequate to play at the major lague level on an everyday basis.
• Bobby Abreu. This guy puts up the most empty stats in the game, and that includes the choke artist A-Rod, who couldn't hit a beach ball in a big game. Abreu is a lock most years to hit .300 with 25+ homers, 30+ steals, 100+ RBIs, and 100+ runs scored. The problem is, when the game or the season is on the line, he disappears. He hit .241 in September last year when the Phillies chased Houston in the wild card, and his performance, while I do not have stats other than what I have seen with my own eyes over the past eight years, is that when the Phils are tied or down in the 7th inning or later, Abreu's numbers fall of the cliff. There is a reason the Phils desperately tried to trade him in the offseason.

Pitching & Defense: Jon Lieber, Brett Myers, Cory Lidle, Ryan Madson and Ryan Franklin do not a strong rotation make. Some thoughts:

• Brett Myers remains the guy with the best upside. He has the stuff to be a #1 starter, and overall he pitched pretty well last year (very well in spurts), but he has not yet put it all together for a whole season. He took exception to some of Gillick's off-season remarks, so maybe he is exhibiting some of the maturity and fire needed to put all his talent together to perform at a high level.
• If Myers could take it up a notch and be a #1, Lieber becomes a solid #2 starter (he is not a good #1 by any measure).
• The remainder of the rotation is laughable. Cory Lidle may be the worst #3 starter in the major leagues. The fact that he is the #3 tells you all you need to know about the #4 and #5. Ryan Franklin is a guy that Gillick probably signed based on potential he had when they were both with Seattle, but he has never been able to win at the major league level. A lot of people are high on Ryan Madson since he has pitched pretty well out of the pen, but I do not believe he has the stuff to be a strong contributor to a major league rotation.
• The one thing the Phils do have is depth at the starter position. Rob Tejada pitched pretty well last year by starting about half the season, and in my opinion should be in the rotation ahead of Lidle, Madson or Franklin. Eude Brito also pitched fairly well on occasion, and Gavin Floyd continues to have the skills needed to win in the bigs. I would bring Floyd and Tejada into the rotation, with Brito as the 6th guy if one of them falters. Let Madson return to the pen where he has proven he can be effective in the 7th inning, and tell Cory Lidle thanks, see you later, don't let the door hit you on the way out.

While the starters are average on their best day, the bullpen is below average and has taken a huge step back from last year. They signed Tom Gordon to be their closer replacing Billy Wagner, even though he has a) not closed since 2002 and b) has been awful in the playoffs the last couple years. Oh, and by the way, he is 38. At this point, anyone as old as me should retire! Some other thoughts on the pen:

• Arthur Rhodes was not a bad acquisition as a set up guy. He will be just as effective as Uegeth Urbina was last year, and his odds of being convicted of murder are significantly lower. Rhodes also has some experience closing games with 26 career saves so that when Gordon has a stroke or heart attack from old age, Rhodes at least might be able to step in. By comparison, he is a young 36!!!
• Rheal Cormier is also very old (he will be 39 in April - that is older than me!), and coming off a terible year with an ERA of almost 6.0, so you can understand why they are basically promoting him to a set up role (the 7th inning that Madson used to pitch). Argh!
  The rest of the pen (Geary, Fultz, Santana, Brito and Tejada if not in rotation) is uninspiring but adequate.

Defensively, the phils have some good and some bad:

• Jimmy Rollins is underrated defensively. He has never won a gold glove, but in my opinion is one of the top 2 or 3 defensive shortstops in the game
• The best move that Gillick made in the offseason was trading old, broken down Jim Thome (who could be OK in the AL when he only has to hit) for Aaron Roward, a gold glove caliber center fielder who will be a he upgrade over Lofton/Michaels.
• Pat Burrell has a great arm in left, although you would never call him a great left fielder. So he will butcher some plays, but will throw out quite a few baserunners trying to take an extra base.
• Bobby Abreu is the laziest outfielder of all-time. He loafs around and lollygags out there, shows no effort, and in general, is a worse role model than Charles Barkley.
• Mike Lieberthal may throw out a baserunner a month.
  

Overall:

Overall, the Phillies have terible leadership on the field and off. Charlie Manual, if he is not the worst manager ni the history of the game, is certainly in contention with other Phillies managers such as Nick Leyva and Lee Elia. His lack of strategic abilities is so evident that my 5 year old daugther can recognize his gaffes. She understands a double switch better than old Chollie ever will.

On the field, the Phillies have lacked leadership since Dykstra, Daulton, Kruk and Schilling left town. They have quiet guys like Abreu and Burrell who just are not the type of clubhouse presence the Fightins need. Utley could be that guy, but he is still young enough that he will probably have to defer to the vets. I think Howard and Utley and even Brett Myers could be the nucleus of a championship team that Gillick puts together, but their chances in 2008 are a lot better than 2006.

Predicted Record: 84-78; third place, National League East, no playoffs

Note: picture courtesy of www.phillies.com

TWP3's Take: Gary Bettman, OLN, Sidney Crosby & Shootouts: Can the NHL Be Saved?

My brother in law, Ted W. Price III (sometimes known on this site as Paul Winston), was born and bred in Louisiana. Somehow, he became the biggest hockey fan I know. Last year, during the lockout or strike or whatever it was, he got so depressed he started watching Oprah. Everything has bounced back nicely for TWP3 this year. He and my sister in law are expecting their first child, his alma mater, the University of Texas, won their first National title in 36 years and he went to the game, and hockey is back. Or maybe everything is not as great as it would seem on the surface. I asked Ted to do a column talk about his take on the state of hockey, where he sees it going, and what he would do if they would finally let him be NHL commissioner. My only complaint is that my own brother in law does not realize that THERE IS ONLY ONE L in Dils (I had to correct his spelling!). You would not see Getson or BP make that mistake!!! Anyway, here are his thoughts.
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First off - thanks to Dils for giving me the soapbox and providing a break from Duke basketball on this blog. OK, OK, OK, we get it - Duke is the bestest most powerful force in the known universe. Coach Kasuhoieuhnfski is the second coming. We get it! Now, on with the rant:

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Oh, who am I kidding - these are the WORST of times. It was bad enough that the NHL killed any momentum or fan goodwill by taking a year off to accomplish absolutely nothing except pissing off those of us who still cared about the sport. What's worse is that the league is back - and no one seems to care. I mean, here we are taking two and a half weeks off in the middle of the season so NHL players can be showcased in the Winter Olympics - and no one cares. It's especially upsetting when you consider fans of most of the major American sports are ripe for the picking: baseball is in the midst of a scandal it may take years to clean up, the NBA is, well, the NBA, and the granddaddy of them all, the NFL, is close to being a parody of itself. I mean, did you watch any of the playoffs this year? Of course you didn't because every game from the wild card to the Super Bowl was un-watchable.

The NHL was billing this year as the league's renaissance - a return to glory and a relevance it hadn't experienced since the mid-90's. The new rules really do make the game more exciting (thank you Brendan Shannahan and friends). Eliminating the two-line pass was long overdue, keeping the team that ices the puck from substituting forces teams to take the puck out of zone themselves thereby keeping the intensity level up, and bringing the shootout to the NHL level has been fantastic. If you are ever fortunate enough to be in the arena for a shootout, you are in for a treat. Each round is like the bottom of the 9th with two on, two out and two strikes. Everyone is standing, cheering, praying (and this is for a game in November!) And you know that you are either going home happy or feeling like you were punched in the gut. But at least there is an outcome.

Alas, the NHL has become the proverbial tree falling in the proverbial forrest - kinda like the Pittsburgh Penguins. Something needs to be done, or we may really be seeing the beginning of the end of one of the major sporting leagues in the world. So, stealing a line from the league's current marketing campaign, here is MY NHL (thank you Dils for asking):

Sidney Crosby/Alexander Ovechkin: Remember when NBA commissioner David Stern rigged the draft in the early 80's so that the New York Knicks could get Patrick Ewing? Stern knew he had a good thing going with Bird in Boston and Magic in LA, but he also knew in order for his league to return to prominence, he needed a big star in the Big Apple. So, he made sure that happened. Bettman should have done the same. Sidney Crosby is being touted as the league's saviour - and he may be - but it is ridiculous that he is playing in Pittsburgh. The same goes for Ovechkin in D.C. Do yourself a favor and watch either of these guys play (oh, I forgot, most of the country can't - more on that later). This is what needs to be done: Crosby needs to be moved to the New York Rangers and Ovechkin to the Toronto Maple Leafs. That way, you have the league's two biggest rising stars in the league's two biggest cities. Have those two teams play each other 12-15 times a year creating a bitter rivalry in cities that thrive on that. Every game would be on national television And then there's this: you know how the rest of the country can't stand professional sporting teams from New York and their sense of entitlement? That same view is held by the rest of Canada towards Toronto! Imagine an entire country tuning in to cheer for the team from the other country. As much as it pains me to say this, but a sports league is only as strong as its New York franchises. When the NHL was at its peak (early to mid-90's) who was winning Stanley Cups? The Rangers and the Devils. (Editor's note: that goal by Ovechkin from behind his head while he was lying on the ice was the greatest hockey goal I have seen)

TV Deal: Did you know that NBC will be showing more Arena Football games this season than hockey games? ARENA FOOTBALL - are you kidding me? Oh, well, at least there's The Outdoor Life Network - home of Ted Nugent and the Tour de France. I get that the league was in a tough spot - the lockout ended at the last possible moment so there wasn't much time to line up any deals. But come on - OLN? That's the best Bettman could come up with? OLN is owned by Comcast who says they want to use this as an anchor to build up their channel and compete with ESPN. Hey Comcast - why don't you do that with someone else's league. You know why no one competes with ESPN? Because no one can. It's like saying Dils wants to be the sports leader on the Web - can't be done (editor's note: just watch me, baby!). Did you know that in Canada, they have the NHL Network (one step further - in Toronto, they have the Blue and White Channel - 24 hours of nothing but Leafs Hockey. Canada's version of the YES Network - and you wonder why everyone else hates them)? Same concept as the NFL Network and NBA TV, except for the fact that you can't get it in the US. There's another opportunity wasted. Wouldn't want to showcase your league in the country that has 80% of your teams. I bet you if the NHL Network were to come to the US, it would be on more cable systems than OLN is on right now. I also think as a show of goodwill, the NHL should have worked with the satellite and cable companies to make the NHL Center Ice package free this season - get people watching again and reminding them why they loved the game in the first place.

Contraction: I was a shocked as you were that every team came back from the lockout. The salary cap will help - but financial reasons are not the point. Some markets just don't deserve teams. I advocate getting rid of 8 teams, but to be more realistic, I will propose eliminating 4: Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers, Phoenix Coyotes and Anaheim Ducks. All are in markets that are not supporting their teams - and let's face it - all are in markets that just have bad sports fans in general. Miami won't support their baseball team that has won two World Series. Atlanta fans won't go to Braves playoff games, no one is originally from Phoenix, so their allegiances are elsewhere, and don't get me started on LA (that's another guest column). By the way, the other 4: Carolina Hurricanes, Nashville Predators, Pittsburgh Penguins, Columbus Blue Jackets. And Bettman - if you are reading this, please make sure that when the Penguins do leave, they don't go to Kansas City. The last thing you need is another small to medium market. Have them move to Houston creating a natural rivalry with the Dallas Stars or Seattle creating one with the Vancouver Canucks.

Shortened Season: Every year for Memorial Day, I join my wife's family in Indianapolis to witness the Greatest Spectacle in Racing - the Indy 500. I shouldn't be seeing the ending of the Conference Finals or the start of the Stanley Cup at the same time. It is ridiculous that any games are played in late May not to mention June. Shorten the season and have the playoffs over before Memorial Day - I would prefer before the end of April, but I am flexible. And now there is talk of some owners wanting 10 teams in each conference in the playoffs. Are you kidding me? 2/3 of the league in the playoffs? Not only would that render the regular season pointless, but the Stanley Cup wouldn't be over until my birthday in August. Shorten the season - make the games count - and get out before the ice melts.

Bigger Ice: This is the one that I KNOW will not happen, because it means removing seats (the expensive ones) from the arena. But, if you watch the olympics, you will notice the ice surface is much larger. This gives a lot more room to your faster, more talented skaters creating a more exciting product. More skating, less grinding. If this won't happen - the league should consider going to 4-on-4 during regulation. Watch a game in overtime - the pace is quicker, there seems to be more room and there are fewer whistles.

I love hockey. I think it is the most beautiful, exciting, fastest, most demanding - physically and mentally - sport we know. It pains me to see the best talent in the world wasting away on a network no one watches and in a league no one cares about. They say if you take someone to one game live, they are fans for life. We need that now more than ever. I realize all of this comes and goes in cycles. Every league has been down and up again. After the baseball strike, it took two steroid-enduced home run-only hitters to bring people back. Maybe Crosby and Ovechkin are our version (minus the juice and having actual talent). Something needs to happen soon... real soon.

Farewell to Curt Gowdy, Bode Miller Stinks, J.J. Redick Does Not, and Other Mumbo Jumbo Like Why Couldn't We See Barry Bonds Head Explode

The fact that nobody cares about the Winter Olympics is probably saving Bode Miller from going down as the biggest failure in the history of U.S. Olympic athletes. The guy was an overwhelming favorite to win multiple medals, and to date is 0-for-4 in his events. On top of that, he opened up his fat trap one too many times prior to the games and said all the wrong things. The lack of attention on his failings certainly illustarte the fact that more people are watching the Westminster Dog Show on tv than the Winter Olympics.

Speaking of the Olympics, speed skating may actually draw me in to watch on Tuesday night. Shani Davis became the first African American skater to win a gold medal when he won the 1,000 meter event. Great story, right? The problem is that all his temmates, especially star Chad Hedrick, pretty much seem to despise this guy more than brocolli (yuck!). I guess he is a weird dude, and on top of that he turned down a request to skate for the U.S. relay team in one of the events, which likely cost them a medal. Nothing like a fight among speed skaters on the same team to bring a little excitement into the Olympics. If I were the programming head at NBC, I would have Hedrick come out of nowhere during the 1,500 event while Davis is skating and clobber him over the head with a chair. Think about it, everybody wins. NBC's ratings go through the roof. The audience would be talking about this for years. Popularity in the Olympics would go to an all-time high. And Davis and Hedrick could go on to huge careers in the WWE. I am not merely suggesting this happen, I am begging for it.

Barry Bonds says he is (maybe) going to retire after this season, whether he breaks Hank Aaron's record for Home Runs or not. Look, Barry Bonds is one of the all-time great players, but who clearly cheated by using steroids at some points during his career. Unlike McGwire and Sosa, who were both basically useless and worthless without steroids, Bonds was one of the all-time greats with or without them. At this point in his career, he should be in the American League, where he is still one of the game's best hitters, but does not have to move. In retrospect, it is too bad they instituted steroid testing. Think about it, if they could have just let this go on for about two more years, Bonds' head would have clearly exploded one day. And that my friends, would have been a great opening story on SportsCenter, and an even better skit on Saturday Night Live. My point, I guess, is that I really do not care if Bonds plays again after this year. It does not matter if he breaks Aaron's record, because it was clearly accomplished with illicit aides.

Speaking of Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire, if these clowns make the Hall of Fame they should just stop enshrining people. I mean McGwire had basically become a .200 hitter with no discernable skills except the occasional home run before he found the golden juice. Any writer that votes for the Hall that says there is no definitive proof that he used, after watching his embarrassing performance on Capitol Hill, is either dumber than Jim Carrey as Lloyd Christmas or does not care about the integrity of the game. Same goes for Sosa, who not only juiced but also cheated by corking his bat. These two disgust me.

If you read my Nascar fantasy draft posting on Friday and then quickly went back to forgetting that Nascar existed, I just wanted to let you know that my drivers finished 11th, 38th, and 43rd (out of 43 total) on Sunday. Carl Edwards, as I predicted, sucks. If I would only listen to myself once in a while I could avoid some of my roblems. I am happy to report that I am currently in 8th place out of 8. At this pace, I can be mathematically eliminated before the Final Four hits Indianapolis, and yes the season goes until November.

Speaking of the Final Four, J.J. Redick became Duke's all-time leading scorer last night. He has more career points than Johnny Dawkins, Christian Laettner, Danny Ferry, Mike Gminski, Grant Hill, Gene Banks, Jim Spanarkel, Art Heyman, Dick Groat, and everybody else that has worn the Royal Blue and White. This is a pretty special accomplishment. All the while, he has behaved with class and dignity, and been a model part of the best program in the country. The kid has probably maximized his ability based on sheer talent as much as any player in college hoops in the past 40+ years. Hopefully, J.J. has 13 games still to go in the Duke threads, and hopefully his last game will be a win! Redick needs 30 more points to become the all-time leading scorer in the ACC, which is unbelievable when you think about the players that have played in this conference! Hopefully he will have only a mediocre Redick night on Wednesday at Georgia Tech so I can see him break the conference record in person at the Wachovia Center on Saturday against the Owls of Temple.

The NBA All-Star game was last night. I did not even realize it had taken place until I watched Sportscenter this morning. My point, as always, is that the NBA is irrelevant.

John McEnroe won an ATP doubles title at age 47. This is an incredible story. McEnroe was the World's best doubles player for more than a decade, teaming mostly with Peter Fleming. This says two things about tennis. First, McEnroe was if anything underappreciated for how great he was/is, particularly in the game of doubles. Second, for a 47 year old to win a professional tournament in something other than golf, or bowling or pool, it just shows how bad the state of the game of tennis is right now. Bad stuff....

Rest in Peace, Curt Gowdy. It is tragic that we have gone from identifying announcing with great voices and talents like Curt Gowdy or Harry Kalas or Vin Scully to boneheads of today like Mike Tirico or Doug Gottlieb or Stuart Scott.

Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch & Kasey Kahne: The Keys to a Nascar (Fantasy) Championship

Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines. Nascar starts this week with their Super Bowl, the Daytona 500, and do you know what that means????

At the risk of being ridiculed by my massive readership, I am in a NASCAR fantasy league for the third straight year. I do this league for a few simple reasons. First, I worked on NASCAR stuff for General Mills when I worked there so this is an easy way to keep up with it. Second, besides baseball and college hoops, there is not a lot worth paying attention to in the sports world before football heats up in like August. And finally, now that I have the blog, what better reading material for you than a re-cap of draft proceedings.

We have 8 guys in our league: KMart (the redneck Nascar super fan who did a Nascar preview for this blog), JPL, James "don't call me Osama" Mills, Bangle, Immel, Cobes, and Jimmy B, in addition to myself. When nobody sent out any correspondence on the league by Wednesday, with Daytona and the opening of the Nascar season only 5 days away, KMart started convulsing like a snake with its head cut off and sent out an email, practically begging everyone to do the league again, and even offering to do the dreaded commissioner duties (the lesson, of course, is if you wait KMart out, he will do all the work).

All 8 guys agree to do the league again. Kmart, thinking he is being helpful, publishes suggested rules, including a draft order that is based on inverse finish from last year. As you might guess, under that scenario, I would be picking 2nd! However, it is a big disadvantage to be picking early in the draft (just trust me...you do not want the details). So I make a stink about not wanting to pick second, and that I should be helped, not hurt for finishing so poorly last year. So of course this starts two days of half hearted debate. After enough whining, I get my way, and the draft order is set as follows: Jimmy B, KMart, Mills, Cobes, Dils, Bangle, JPL, Immel.

This is all great except for one slight problem. After Tony Stewart and a few others, I have no idea who the best drivers in Nascar are, as evidenced by my 7th place finish last year. So I quickly pulled two lists from Sports Illustrated and espn.com. The problem with these lists is that neither went beyond 20 spots. With this in mind, you should expect me to ask questions like this in the 4th and 5th rounds: Is Cale Yarborough still available?

Jimmy B opens with Tony Stewart, which seems like a good pick since he won the whole thing last year. At that point, you could actually see KMart start hyperventilating as he got to pick Jimmie Johnson, the man on whom he has had a non-sexual (I think non-sexual) crush for several years. Mills then selects Jeff Gordon, which also seems sensible to me. This all goes into my plan, as it looks like I will get my man Greg Biffle, the guy I would have taken with the second pick, with the 5th pick, and I will be set up much better for later rounds. With the 4th pick, Cobes takes....Greg Biffle. And you wonder why he managed to finish behind me last year.

I first ask if we can go back to the original drafting order. After a motion to kick me out of the league fails by a thin margin, I need to make a pick. I am now of course screwed. My two collective lists have Carl Edwards as the next guy by a wide margin. I know these guys who did these lists know a lot more about Nascar than me (and maybe even more than KMart), but I just know Carl Edwards, who has been doing stuff like dating Amanda Beard and filming guest appearances in my favorite show '24', is due for a huge sophomore slump (I know technically he was a rookie in '04, but '05 was his first full year). I can only hope some of Jack Bauer's magic rubbed off on him....I pick Carl Edwards.

Earnhardt went next, and I was quick to pounce with my "Senior or Junior?" joke. I may have picked him 5th instead of Edwards, but I wanted to be sure I could use the joke! After Earnhardt, Newman, Martin, Kenseth, McMurray, and Elliot Sadler get picked, putting me back on the clock. Of course the next guy no my list is one of those Ricky Watters-types, a cancer in the locker room than can just destroy a team from the inside: Kurt Busch. But, since I am from Philly and I could openly root for T.O., I of course quickly snap up Busch, telling the guys in my league that the inside talk around the garage is that Busch is expected to return to the championship form he showed two years ago. Everybody, of course, ignored me.

After that, Cobes was trying to copy me so he picked Kurt Busch's brother, who was followed by Mayfield and Dale Jarrett. After that Harvick was the last pick in the 2nd round followed by Jeff Burton as the first pick in the 3rd. KMart took Mears next, to which I broke out the "Casey, not Rick?" joke. Clearly at this point everybody would like to re-vote on whether they have to keep me in the league at this point. On a more important note, only two more picks until I have to pick yet another driver that none of you have heard of. Please let either Vickers or Kahne last to my pick. Please, please, please....

Mills takes Brian Vickers......UGH! Cobes will surely take Kasey Kahne, there is nobody else even close. When he takes Kahne, I will have to go for either Bobby Labonte, the driver for the kiss of death General Mills Cheerios Team #43, or one of two rookies, Hamlin, or Truex, Jr. (now that they have a rule that everybody in DEI must be a Junior). Cobes somehow takes Denny Hamlin, leaving me with Kasey Kahne. Now that I got him here, I start asking, "what is wrong with him? How come nobody else wanted him?"

Well, now the draft gets basically put on hold while we wait over an hour for Bangle, who must be enjoying a leisurely lunch at the same restaurant where Belushi and Aykroyd go to get the Maitre D to re-join the band...by the way, quick trivia, do you know that Pee Wee Herrmann, when he was just Paul Reubens, is in that scene as their bus boy. Great stuff). Hopefuly Bangle enjoyed his Shrimp Cocktail, and asked at least one table, "How much for the women, how much for the little girl?"

Bangle takes Truex, Jr. Then JPL takes the best quote in any sport since Joaquin Andujar was manning the hill for the Cardinals back in the '80s, Michael Waltrip. Just a joy to watch a Michael Waltrip interview. Almost worth watching a race so he can get niterviewed after he crashes on lap 53...then Robby Gordon goes, putting me back on the clock. So I take Scott Riggs, who is ranked 22nd on my list that actually gives some honorable mention votes. Well, the list must have been written before Daytona qualifying, as it turns out my new team member Riggs will be cheerleading and not racing in Daytona -- he did not make the race. Ugh!

The next few picks featured many household names: Yeley, Blaney, Schrader. After that, we hit another brick wall as Jimmy B is nowhere to be found. But who really cares at this point. The only real mystery for me is whether I will actually draft myself with my last pick. Look for my boys to rock at Daytona this weekend and throughout the year. After all, I cam into this thing praying I could somehow end up with Carl Edwards, Kurt Busch and Kasey Kahne.

Let's go Racin'......Boogety, boogety, boogety.

Fall from Grace

Did you hear why Dick Cheney took so long to come clean on the story of his shooting someone while hunting? He says it is becuase the last time someone got shot in the face at the White House and dick was involved, impeachment followed....

What is going on with college basketball? In less than a week, we have had three big name coaches relieved of their duties for one reason or another. The most shocking of these has to be Eddie Sutton, who a week ago seemed a mortal lock to reach 800 wins, and now is just another unemployed drunk guy. And look at what happened to Mike Davis. Two months ago, he looked like he had a top-10 team, that they would be back in the NCAA tournament this year, and he would stay for the foreseeable future. Now his team has collapsed, partly thanks to teh Indiana fans being so brutal on Davis, and he is out of work like Re-Run after What's Happening got cancelled. As for my man Quin, clearly a change will be good for both Missouri and for Quin, and I hope that he bounces back (after the inevitable year off and stint on espn) and gets his career back on track. However, a couple people who nkow that I am a Quin backer, sent me the following pictures which I thought were too funny not to post, so enjoy...

O.K., I tried, I have watched some of the Olympics, and they are just not that exciting. Although do you think maybe Bode Miller is sitting in his redneck motor home, thinking "maybe if I was going to choke in my first two events and not even medal, I would have been better off NOT making remarks about how I have been drunk and/or hungover while on the mountain before." I did kind of enjoy the downhill skiing and the sheer speed involved, and even though she did not medal, I was rooting for Lindsey Kildow, the American who took a vicious fall, spent 24 hours in the hospital, and then somehow came back to compete in her event 48 hours later. Gutsy!

Just as a lot of college hoops coaches are falling from grace, there are a few other athletes besides Bode Miller whose star has fallen faster than Katrina after she "Walked on Sunshine." To wit:

• Daunte Culpepper. Less than a year ago, he owned Minnesota, was powerful enough to help orchestrate the trade of Randy Moss, and was mentioned as perhaps the best QB in the league. Now he is being shopped by the Vikings, who are willing to go with 73 year old, and former Viking cap casualty, Brad Johnson. Ouch. Probably did not help that Culpepper, coming off a complete disaster of a season and recovering from major surgery, is asking for a raise!
• Darko Milicic. The guy who less than three years ago was picked before Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Bosh, was traded for three cups of coffee, some used office furniture, a redline stapler, and the right to Brian Dilsheimer. Not good times.
• Sammy Sosa. This clown cannot even get a guaranteed contract. Despite 588 home runs, his popularity dipped faster than Steve artman's in Chicago after the corked bat incident followed by a productivity swoon not seen since blogging started. On a personal note, I think McGwire and Sosa belong in the Hall, only if they pay for tickets as a visitor. They have made a mockery of the game and its integrity.

As Bowling for Soup Says, "....Still Preoccupied, with 1985"

Villanova won the National Championship way back in 1985 when they pulled off on of the biggest upsets in NCAA Basketball history.

This morning's post can only be devoted to the great effort by Villanova at the Wachovia Center last night. I may post again later today, if not tomorrow at the latest, with some additional thoughts and observations, but for now, let's stick to the 'Cats. My obeservations from last night's game are first, followed by a Ritterbusch take on the state of the Cats coming into last night's contest....

The Nova/UConn game was so good and entertaining last night that I had to TiVo the beginning of '24' so I did not miss the end of the game. What an exciting game, and a huge win for 'Nova (a 5 point win as predicted on this blog yesterday). Some observations from last night's game:

• We are watching the birth of a superstar in Kyle Lowry over the past few games. This kid is so tough, and combines great hustle with good shooting, tenacious defense, good rebounding for a little guy, and amazing quicklness. How can you not like this kid's game?
• If Villanova gets anywhere close to the kind of performance from Will Sheridan for the rest of the year that they got last night, they could make a run at the National Championship. (I still like the chances of the guys in Durham, however!!!)
• This team should not be followed by any people with heart conditions. Due to their style of play, there will be a lot of ups and downs (for example, they won last night despite giving up separate 11-0 and 15-0 runs). They will make nervous wrecks of their fans and their opponent's fans in the tournament.
• In addition to DeMarcus Nelson of Duke, Villanova has some of the best rebounding guards since Bruce Dalrymple patrolled the courts for the Yellow Jackets in the '80's. This enables them to go small and not get killed on the glass.
• It is kind of tough to watch Jason Fraser play. The kid, who from all accounts is a good kid (maybe we should put him in the Hall of Fame like Jerome Bettis), has just been decimated by injuries, and is playing on sheer fumes at this point. He seems to give his team, however, an emotional lift when he is in there. How can you not root for a guy like this?
• Overall, these guys are very likeable. They play an exciting style of basketball, seem like good kids, and despite their immense skills, somehow take on a role of underdog due to their overall lack of size. Their coach is doing a good job of getting the most of their skills and expoiting advantages, while hiding their deficiencies.

Now, for more things Villanova, here is a take by Ritterbusch on the "state of the team" coming out of the St. Joe/DePaul games and heading into the UConn game last night (note: I have removed his analysis of last night's game since that is now irrelevant, but it should be noted that he did pick Villanova to lose to UConn last night due to size and overall match-up mismatches....

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With the big game but a few hours away I thought it was a good time to offer up some thoughts surrounding our recent efforts as well as some pre-game analysis of tonight’s match-up. I was able to see both the St. Joe’s and DePaul games and I have started TIVO-ing the Jay Wright Show and thus feel more than adequately armed and capable of providing observations on the state of the Cats.

St. Joe & DePaul games:
On the St Joe’s game, I have to start by saying that I loved the atmosphere in the Palestra. Tight, hot/sweaty environment, fans on top of the court, Big 5 schools playing for Philly bragging rights – good stuff. As far as the action, what a horrific first half of basketball. It was hard to watch. Both teams played horribly; the Hawks were just less horrible than the Cats. Thankfully they play two halves. If I was speaking to somebody who missed the game and I had to describe what occurred in one phrase, I would simply say it was another virtuoso performance by the toughest pound-for-pound man in college hoops. Lowry was everywhere in those 20 minutes. He started the half with a steal of their initial in-bound play and he virtually went on to emphatically impose his will on this game. When all is said and done, when Lowry sits back and reflects on his college career, that 2nd half performance in his hometown, against his neighborhood boys and ex-high school rivals will stand up amongst his top handful of memories.

Moving to the DePaul game, this was another pretty sloppy and ugly performance, punctuated by a putrid 2 – 14 from the floor for Allen Ray. The mid-afternoon start, the cavernous arena, the subdued crowd – all of it contributed to a flat performance. Thankfully, Foye and Lowry both had solid games and they essentially saved the day for us. Really, our depth saves us – it is such a luxury to have. Unlike a Louisville (Dean) or a West VA (Pittsnogle), we are able to overcome a dreadful performance by our star (star 1B to Foye’s 1A) because we have others who can shoulder the load. As a sidebar, it should be noted that game announcer Len Elmore (the mild manner, statesmanlike, former U of Maryland star) a man not given to hyperbole, cited that Lowry’s second half performance ranked amongst the most impressive he has seen all year. Lastly, it was good to see some of the lesser known guys (Clark and Benn) get to make a contribution in a tightly contested nationally televised game – this can only help us as you never know when one of these guys might be called upon down the road. Interesting to hear that both of these guys played with Lowery in high school – quite a change from the Rollie Mass days when we couldn’t keep any of the local talent home.

Overall Feel:
My feeling is that Mike Nardi was missed more than expected and/or perhaps even more than people realize. It should be noted that Nardi is the third leading scorer on this team even though he generally get fourth tenor status from fans (including me). Because he is a true point guard he brings a calming influence to the offense. He rarely, if ever, takes a bad shot. This is a very critical component to our ultimate success. Nardi’s heady play and more discerning shot selection should not be underappreciated because it enables us to avoid streaks with too many consecutive possessions that result in a poor shot. He shoots at the right time, and he swings the ball through at the right times (often bypassing his own shot so as to ensure somebody else can catch a rhythm).

I am hoping Nardi’s absence was a big contributor to these recent poor shooting percentage games. We will not be able to beat a top 10-ish team with these increasingly often seen prolonged scoring droughts. I looked at some stats and saw that Allen Ray has only shot 50% or better in two games all year. Foye has shot under 50% in 11 of our past 12 games. I don’t expect our guards to shoot over 50% - that is not realistic for a shooting guard/small forward. Further, I understand that a true scorer has to forget about the last shot and be supremely confident that the next one is going in (as Reggie Miller says – “if you want to be a hero you have to take hero shots”; I recommend saving that one for the trash talk Rolodex – obviously only effective in circumstance where you drop the game winning shot so some of you may never have the right circumstance as those days are long gone). Back to my point - I am just saying that we need to start seeing some more 9 for 19 and 8 for 15 type games instead of the more recently seen 5 – 18 type of performances. It is a must if we expect to get to the Final Four.

Nova/UConn, Michelle Kwan, then Stitzer's Takes

In college hoops, Villanova plays UConn tonight in a match-up of two of the top 5 teams in the country. This will be such an interesting game to watch, as it be interesting to see if Villanova with their lack of size, can handle UConn's size and strength on the inside with Josh Boone and Hilton Armstrong. In the meantime, can UConn match up on the perimeter with Villanova's great guard play, especially if they can get good minutes from a banged up Mike Nardi. The emergence of Kyle Lowery gives Nova three tremendous scoring options on the outside. Will Rudy Gay, the most talented player on the court for either team, actually show up and play hard? In this classic battle of good vs. evil (program that does it the right way with players that have not been arrested and a coach you can understand when he speaks against a bunch of thugs with a scumbag illiterate coach), I look at the homecourt advantage plus the difference in heart (who do you think has more heart, Lowery or Gay?) plus the fact that one team plays better together as a team, I pick Villanova to pull the upset. Nova 77, UConn 72. Or maybe we will get lucky and UConn's plane will crash on the way in. Go Cats.

In my January 16th column, I noted that figure skating was not a sport, because any sport makes you earn it on the playing field, and they gave her a spot in the Olypics despite not being able to skate in the qualifying event. Now, Kwan, the selfish skater who has never been able to win gold despite being the best skater in the world for the past ten-plus years, has pulled out of the games with the same bad groin that kept her from qualifying in the first place. Now Emily Hughes, who did earn it on the ice, gets to skate, but has missed out on much of the experience, including the opening ceremonies, and now has to fight through two feet of New York snow to get to Italy for the event. Figure skating has proven throughout this whole ordeal that it is a joke, and the fact that there was never an uproar just shows that everybody considers this just an exhibition, not a real sport. I am sure we will follow this up with a controversial result, since judges decide this subjectively instead of objectively.

I would have more rambling to do but Stitzer just sent me some of his takes, so I will save the rest of mine for later in the week. As always, the viewpoints below represent those and those alone of Andrew B. Stitzer, and do not necessarily represent those of this writer or anybody else he knows.....

• Over the next 4 weeks, get ready for buffoons like Digger, Dick, Andy Katz, etc…to spend 20 hours a week arguing over which 3-4 teams should get those precious last few at-large bids for the NCAA Tourney. And not one of these teams that they spend so much time on has a legitimate shot to win more than 2 games if they get in.
• Another idiotic thing these bozos do when they want to campaign for a BCS conference team to get in is to tell us what their RPI is and what their SOS is. What they fail to mention in their ridiculous argument based on redundancy is that 50% of a team’s RPI is determined by their SOS.
• From the “just when I think I am out, they pull me back in” files, kudos to my St. John’s Redmen. Way to win three in a row, be down by 3 with 7:44 left @ UCONN, get everybody’s hopes up that we might just have this thing turned around, get blow out the rest of the way in UCONN, then lose 4 in a row.
• Kudos also to SDSU, by following their huge W with a bad home loss to Utah, which now makes this Thursday’s game @ UNLV almost a must win if they want to make NCAAs without winning MWC Tourney.
• I think I finally figured out why Liberals and the Hypmocratic party hate the war in Iraq and the President so much: not nearly enough US troops have been killed! Their heroes JFK & LBJ managed to get 57,000 troops killed while never once coming within 100 miles of Ho Chi Minh. Here is what to do W: put Saddam back in power, get 56,000 more troops killed, and spread a bunch of napalm and agent orange around so that the troops that do survive die back in the USA years later, of course, only after being spit on by the their fellow citizens. Now if W can do that, the Liberals will love him.
• During some random game last week, Announcer X said “you just cannot leave player X open from behind the arc.” Really? You cannot leave 75% players open from behind the arc in my Wednesday night Rec league!! The shot has become such a joke, and it does not matter how far back you move the line, eventually, with enough practice, it becomes makeable and part of the offense. The ABA came up with the shot as a gimmick, just like the red, white, & blue ball. The shot has forever changed college hoops for the worse. And do not give me that Dickie V crap about “it gives the little guy a chance for the upset blah blah blah..” Well, just in case you were sleeping for the past 4 years, the best shooter in the country plays for the best team in the country. The better shooters, just like the better players, will go to the better programs. So the “little guys” cannot pack their zones in anymore against the “big guys” because to do so would be to surrender an extra 50% for letting them hit an open jumper.
• Here is how we can ruin football and baseball: any home run traveling more than 400 feet awards 150% of the runs it would have generated had it been less than 425 feet. A 3 run homer would then be a 4.5 run homer. Football: All TDs over 21 yards ((19.9/94)*100) is worth 9 points.
• The dumbest thing about the 3-point line is that you can hit a 3, intentionally foul, and then the most you can give up is 2. How is that fair? That sounds like something the IRS would come up with: penalizing success and reward mediocrity and ineptitude. You play you ass off for 39 minutes to get a lead, and then you are at the mercy of these dumb rules as the other team has a chance to catch-up. If they are not going to get rid of the 3-point line, then the least they should do is change the rules to the following: if you intentionally foul after hitting 3, the other team gets 3 foul shots.
• Have a good week everyone.

MNF Announcer follow up, Missouri coaching

• Just to show you how bad a choice I think Mike Tirico is as announcer no ESPN's Monday Night Football, I failed, in my discussion of this yesterday, to even mention Joe Theisman, who is one of the more annoying announcers of all-time. After Theisman, Mike Patrick, and Paul Maguire made Sunday Night Football virtually unwatchable over the past several seasons, how does even one of them get the Monday Night gig? Disgraceful. On the other hand, I kind of like the Kornheiser pick for the booth. He is both knowledgeable, outspoken, and candid. He will be a good addition. Did the braintrust at Espn not see the obvious addition of WIlbon to complement Kornheiser instead of Theisman? Those two guys would have been great together. And how about Stephen A. Smith as a sideline reporter? He could just start screaming randomly at different people. It would be like combining the NFL and Pro Wrestling...oh, never mind that, I guess they already tried the XFL with no success...
• I hate to say it, but Quin Snyder is all but done at Missouri. I do not think they have won a game since I praised the coaching job he had done this year about three or four weeks ago, and his team is showing strong evidence that they have quit on him, getting obliterated by Baylor, yes, Baylor, two nights ago. I am not sure how Quin can get his career back on track (maybe at a smaller school like Matt Doherty is doing at Florida Atlantic), but I hope he does. He is a great guy, and a bright coach, who made some mistakes and has not been able to recover from them.
• And one more thing about the Snyder situation. Brent Musberger, on whom the odds are 60/40 that he will be implicated in the Tocchet gambling ring, is a weasel and should not be asking Stecve Lavin about whether he will be moving to Missouri. Lavin appropriately said Missouri has a head coach. How would Musberger like it if Katie Couric asked Al Michaels would be taking over Muberger's duties, when he had not been fired yet. Stick to your mediocre announcing and gambling, Brent, you scum sucking maggot.
• A great web site to check the value of your home (or one you are interested in buying) is www.zillow.com. It uses tax records, sales comps, etc. to estimate the value of any home. From the few I plugged in this morning, it seems fairly accurate, and is pretty interesting.

Quick Hitters

• I cannot believe I left one of the biggest sins off my top ten lists last week of public bathroom etiquette (http://dilsmusings.blogspot.com/2006/02/public-bathrooms.html): we can call this rule #1a: Do not, while you are using a urinal, pick a bugger and wipe it onto the wall for me to admire later! Finally, on this topic, my buddy Bill Herrmann sent me a great link which tests your urinal selection knowledge: http://www.flasharcade.com/urinal_game.html (pretty amusing)
• It was great that Duke hung in last night to beat Carolina after blowing a 17-point lead. It is great that they have found a way to win three very tough games in a row that have all come down to the wire. It is great that J.J. Redick is just one of the best college players of our lifetimes and makes big shot after big shot. It is great that Josh McRoberts is starting to play as he was billed coming into this season. But....this team is not going to win the National Championship unless two things change. First, Shelden Williams has to stop taking every third game off, and getting dominated by every good big man he faces. Second, Greg Paulus has to stop turning the ball over every third time down the court. A lot of work to do before March...
• The NFL is laughable. For them to come out and say the game was officiated correctly is a joke. Either say nothing at all or admit that poor calls were made. Saying the public did not see what they think they saw is an insult to the intelligence of their fans. And how can they possibly fine Holmgren when they just set a precedent three weeks ago by not fining the certifiably insane Joey Porter.
• I am fairly certain this Rick Tocchet/Janet Jones gambling story is some complex attempt by the NHL to branch out into either the crime drama or reality television business. What's next? Pelle Lindbergh comes back from the dead to play their mob boss?
• Please, please, please tell me I read this wrong and Mike Tirico is not the new play by play guy for Monday Night Football. I never thought it possible that espn come up with a worse play by play guy than Mike Patrick for their NFL telecasts, but they blew away expectations. Here is what an Eagles game might sound like on MNF next year (yeah, like they are getting a MNF game): That's a great pass from McNabb, who once attended a Bellydancing class at Syracuse, in between lunch at Bubba's Burgers and study hall in the library. When I asked him what his favorite meal at Bubba's was, he told me on Thursdays he liked a double burger with onion rings but on Saturdays he preferred a double dog with a chocolate malt.....my father-in-law may be so upset about this that he may boycott Monday Night Football.
• Dennis Erickson is getting the Idaho Head Coaching job. Is this a better or worse job than Seahawks and Miami Hurricanes?

Duke & UNC: There is no substitute

Purdue v. Indiana. Michigan v. Ohio St. USC v. UCLA. Texas v. Oklahoma. Miami v. Florida St. There are lots of great rivalries in college athletics, but none is greater than Duke and North Carolina. Located less than 10 miles apart, you can throw the record books out the window when these two teams get together. For example, UNC, on their way to a National Championship last year, only salvaged a split against Duke by coming back from 9 down at home in the least three minutes. Even the woeful 13-18 Duke squad from 1994-95 when Coach K was out of action took the Tar Heels to double overtime at Cameron. So the fact the Duke is #1 in the country while Carolina is flirting with the edge of the Top 25 does not matter. Tonight's game will be a war.

20 years ago next month, I was a Freshman at Duke. We were on our way to our first Final 4 under Coach k, a 37-3 record, and a #1 overall ranking at the end of the regular season. But none of that mattered on the first Sunday in March. All that mattered to all of us on that day was avenging at that point one of our only two losses of the season, in Chapel Hill. Duke was ranked #1 in the country, UNC was #3. Spring Break had started two days earlier, but nobody was leaving campus until after the game. We all camped out, ordered pizza, drank beer, and waited, and waited, and waited. At the game we chanted "we're #1, you're #3", "We're Smart, You're Dumb" and other beauties. It was all worth it. Duke went on to beat Carolina. The fact that I still remember the score, 82-74, or running on the court with all the other students after the game, just shows how important this stuff is if you are part of the rivalry (cause I don't remember much from 20 minutes ago, much less 20 years!!!!)

The Duke fans and the Carolina fans get this. Most of us (myself possibly excluded) are normal, productive members of society the vast majority of the time. But when their team, whether it is the Devils or the Tar Hells, lace it up against the other, they morph into a slightly psychotic nutcase that resembles a rabid dog. We desperately want to beat the other one every time. We respect the other's programs, but we do not like each other. It should be noted that Duke men do like Carolina women, as they tend, on average to be more attractive than our own kind. The rivalry has gotten so big and so intense that two books have been or will be published just on the Duke/UNC rivalry: click here for more information: http://www.amazon.com/gp/search/ref=br_ss_hs/104-0308851-8647976?search-alias=aps&keywords=duke%20north%20carolina)

Duke has owned the rivalry lately, winning something like 15 of the last 18 or so. But they are all wars and they are all close and none of the wins ever feels diluted because it has happened more than usual over the past several years. So, tonight, Duke will try to stay unbeaten in the ACC, and Carolina will play with guts and heart and give us everything they have, and maybe a little more. It will be a dogfight. Fans like me will, despite trying not to be too loud so as not to wake the children, rave about bad calls and how much we do not like the other team and the other coach and the other players. We will utter our contempt for the other school on more than one occasion. Depending on our point of view, we will complain that Duke gets all the calls, or that the refs are not giving Duke any calls because of the recent press this topic has received. And, in general, it will be one of the two or three nights a year that all Duke and Carolina fans look forward to, when the best rivalry in sports is reignited.

And come 11:00 pm tonight, we will have kicked their ass!!!! Go to Hell, Carolina, Go to Hell!! Let's Go Duke.

Trip to the Super Bowl, Note of TERRIBLE officiating

I want to focus my post today on a trip to the Super Bowl. Since most of us were not at the game yesterday, my cousin J.B. and buddy Grossy put together a compilation of our trip to Jacksonville last year (written Friday before the game last night). Good times. Before I get to that, however, I will say that the Super Bowl yesterday was just another example of the officials deciding the outcome of a game. This is too important to let this happen. The NFL needs to hire full time officials to run these games instead of full time lawyers and doctors who need a hobby and a little spare cash. For example:

• The Pass Interference call on Seattle was a joke. This was a 4 point mistake.
• Roethlisberger did not get in the end zone. The ref on the field started to marek him down and then changed his mind when he saw the ball a second after he was down. Did he not think the ball could move forward after the runner was down? No indisputable video evidence to overturn, so the call stands. That call could have meant the differnece of 4 or even 7 points, depending on whether or not Cowher would have gone for it on 4th down.
• The pass from Hasselbeck to Darrell Jackson could have been ruled a touchdown as his second foot hit the pylon (7 point decision)
• The pass from Hasselbeck to I think Stevens down to the 1 yard line that was called back for Holding was laughable. Even Madden said this was a ridiculous. This was a 14 point call, as Hasselbeck then threw an INT that turned into a touchdown for Pitt.
• The 15 yards they tacked on by calling Hasselbeck for a block below the waist was absurd. He was making a freaking tackle.
• There were a couple others but these decided the game. Seattle was the better team and was robbed by the officials

Now, onto the Super Bowl, let's pretend it's 2005 again. Here is what a trip to the Super Bowl could be like, with J.B.'s take first and Grossy's reaction second.

One year ago today, my cousin Brian, brother Tom, cousin-in-law Brian Getson, and good friend and trusted environmental counselor Mike Gross (a/k/a Laslow) were living like rock stars. We were just excitedly arriving at the executive terminal of the Philly airport to board our company jet to be whisked away to Jacksonville, FLA to look for land, or to go to the Superbowl festivities, depending on who was asking. I distinctly remember Brian Dils boarding the plane with a large bottle of Captain practically duct-taped to his outstretched paw and his for once appropriately too loud guffaw encouraging us to “get on board!” As the plane banked south towards the big game, we fetched cups, cracked cokes, added ice, and poured ample Captain and slurped into the first drink of our in flight buzz. Even Brian Getson threw caution to the wind, turned off his cell phone, took off his wife leash, and had a pop! Landing amongst the true high brow fliers at the Jacksonville executive terminal, we excitedly scurried and stumbled to our rented mini van – yeh, mini van. I think Brian still had the bottle of Captain duct-taped to his outstretched hand. The southern rock radio station guided us ultimately to our haven in Jacksonville beach: A last minute, reasonably affordable internet find that promised a pleasantly pastel colored condo overlooking the beach. Well, remember where you stayed on Spring Break? This condo was more disgusting than that, but we were so amped and buzzed, we forgot to notice until after the Eagles lost.

Friday night was outstanding! The whole beach area was transformed into Eagles’ nation. Eagles’ fans and enthusiasm were rampant. The whole beach area seemed infused with Eagles fans out to prove that Philly is really the loudest, most obnoxious City in the world. Not wanting to disappoint, we quickly joined in and did our part to keep the reputation in tact. I think the Pats fans were too scared to show themselves, until after the Eagles lost, of course. We were so fired up that we did not even notice that Jacksonville Beach is the asshole of the armpit of America and that our digs was the turd from the asshole of the armpit of America. The whole beach area was cordoned off and the beachfront street was open to drunken Eagles’ revelers. Consistent with the asshole of the armpit of America theme, Brian Dils aptly noted that the party there was nothing more than a “bankrupt Mardi Gras.” Nonetheless, we found our way over the a bar called Sneakers and drank a lot and yelled the TO song – remember that one, now so far from us in these lax, post TO years – “TO, TO, TO, TO, . . . TO, TO.” I guess we should have known then, by the mere quality of our poor, weak chant, that TO would be too good to be true. We are Philly fans, after all, ignoring disappointment even when it stares us in the face. Caught up in the moment, however, it was the best damn cheer since that ridiculous Eagles fight song was written! In fact, I was even captured on t.v. news here live from Sneakers with arms raised, double fisted with Captain drinks and dual sweaty armpits, shouting the TO chant to the camera. Friends called my wife to tell her I was drunk from Jacksonville on t.v. in Philly. Her response: As long as there wasn’t a stripper with her tongue in his ear . . . “ Good thing the stripper was on her knees out of camera range during the filming! Mike, Tom, and I went off to see a concert by one of my favorite reggae bands, Steel Pulse. With the Eagles’ loss, the concert remained the highlight of my trip. I don’t remember much after the concert (and Mike remembers less as I can remember him staggering in the street on the walk home), except that later that night Brian yelled really loudly and profanely at Mike and me for continuing to party in the condo at sometime early in the morning after the concert and after Brian was already stretched out on the disgusting excuse for a couch in our roach filthy pastel condo on the beach.

Saturday morning’s haze burned off of our Captain encrusted brains at our late morning breakfast at a Denny’s or some reasonable facsimile thereof. This upcoming moment was and still is the highlight of Brian’s trip, and most likely even one of the highlights of his entire sordid life too: In a packed restaurant filled with hungover Eagles fans waiting to start drinking again, a guy dashes clumsily, loudly, but swiftly past our table near the men’s room. For the next five-minutes we hear him violently and loudly hurling. I mean seriously violently and loudly hurling! The whole back of the restaurant was cracking up, especially as the suspect emerged from the men’s room, looking worse for wear, wiping vomit ridden spittle from the side of his mouth with the back of his hand, and exclaiming proudly to the disgruntled hostess who was waiting to insist that he leave, that, “It’s all good!” The rest of the day was spent drinking and partying in a crowded Jacksonville. Did I tell you that I am singularly unimpressed with this poor, dirty excuse for a City. And that’s pretty profound when you consider that I live in Philly! At any rate, with the hype of the next day’s game, we still managed to stay well-buzzed and happy. Saturday night we could not buy our way into an over-crowded Ruth Chris’, the only legitimate eatery we could find in a town over-packed with fast food stops. We settled for another disgusting fast food meal, eating Wendy’s, but lying on our cell-phones by telling friends we were at Ruth Chris’.

The next morning we had an outstanding tailgate party at some offsite parking lot within walking distance of the stadium. Everyone was amped up and the vibe was electric. The highlight of the tailgate had to be the overzealous, young Eagles’ fans across the lot from us who simply abused a Patriots’ fans’ RV with all kinds of offensive and funny slogans painted on to the outside of the RV. Wonder who had the last laugh when the victorious Pats’ fans came back after the game to confirm that yes, Eagles fans are the most loud and obnoxious in the country?! At any rate, the game itself was, well, the game itself. TO played brilliantly for his injury, and reminded us all why we loved that trite and trivial TO chant. Donovan must have been drinking the night before because he kept throwing up during the game. It couldn’t have been nerves, because he is simply paid too well for that, but I leave the sports analysis to my cuz Brian. The game was exciting and, I thought, pretty close. I know the Pats’ fans sitting near me were nervous for most of it. After the game, Mike and I took our lumps and hobbled from our now really gross condo on the beach through the now deserted Jacksonville Beach streets with no Eagles fans to be seen anywhere back to Sneakers for a few misery beers. Pats fans were there, but oddly quiet and unrowdy. I gather that winning several superbowls in a row breeds apathy and expectation. At any rate, the whole experience was once-in-a lifetime for this Eagles’ fan and is fondly remembered on this day, one year later . . . What a difference a year makes . . . Whose playing this Sunday? Where’s my jet? And can I please have a Captain with that . . .AND NOW ONTO GROSSY'S REACTION
_____________
An excellent recap. I respectfully submit the following comments for the sake of completeness:

1. I believe the Southern Fried Rock Station play "Godzilla" by Blue Oyster Cult no less than four times that weekend.

2. Brian's Friday night anger manifested itself in the following events: (1) the threat of throwing my IPOD "into the ocean"; (2) the death of a mostly cooked frozen pizza which was relegated to the condo's plastic trash can; (3) a scared Gross and JB huddling together for safety on the balcony wondering whether it was safe to go back into the condo.

3. The name of the Saturday breakfast spot was Perkins. And since Dils' blog seems to be laden with potty references, we immediately had to find a shitter for T and myself which was unfortunately at the Hess Station.

4. The man who closely resembled Hitler at Sneakers on Saturday night and the guy who kept following him around giving him the "sig heil!" salute. The same sig heil guy lifted up his gal's mini skirt to reveal a Patriots' tattoo on her upper thigh which he smacked as hard as he could.

5. Brian calling the Wake Forrest fan at Sneakers that same night "a cocksucker with ears".

6. The slogan spray painted on the Patriots' fans RV at the pre-game tailgate?: "You've Got A Long Ride Home Bitches!"

7. The TO song on Sunday night at Sneakers turned into taunts at JB and me of "TB...TB...TB...TB..." (you know how the tune goes).

8. The Catfish plane nearly getting decked by a 747 upon our misery landing in PHL on Monday.

9. Brian leaving a bowl of unfinished cereal and milk next to the sink for three straight days. Not good times....

Super Bowl, McNabb, and Duke officiating

There are three topics for discussion today: Donovan McNabb, Duke and the officiating that accompanies their games, and the Super Bowl….

I love Donovan McNabb. In my opinion, he is a great quarterback (I had him ranked as second best in the league behind Tom Brady going into last season, which was lost due to injuries. Peyton Manning did nothing in my mind to pass him because he still cannot win in the playoffs, going 3-6 all time). He is also the only chance my Eagles have of winning the big game any time soon. If he goes in the tank, they will not win in the next 10 years. Period.

However, Donovan looks like a complete idiot this week. First, he keeps his mouth shut all year while T.O. runs roughshot over him, which makes him look weak. But now he comes out three months later to defend himself? Dude, where were you with some piss and vinegar when this was all going down. You wait until T.O. is on the plane out of town to rip him while his back is turned? Cowardly, ill advised, and ill timed.

More importantly, for his to pull the race car and accuse T.O. of black on black crime is ludicrous. Look, I understand that McNabb is rightfully touchy on the race subject since he was called out by a) Rush Limbaugh, a somehow popular talk show host who said he was considered good only because he was black, and b) the local President of the NAACP chapter, who called McNabb a sell-out to his own race. However, it is ridiculous to say that T.O. was using race here against McNabb. T.O. was not even the one who came up with the name of Favre. He was asked about Favre by a reporter, who was repeating what dopey Michael Irvin (who better not get into the Hall of Fame today or I give up). T.O. probably would have said the Birds would have been undefeated with me at QB. It was not a shows of props to Favre as much as it was to say “Donovan sucks.” Anyway, again, wrong time, wrong place, ill advised comments from #5.

Look, I hope McNabb bounces back and has a great and healthy year next year. He is just not showing a lot of sense of leadership or intelligence in how he continues to butcher this T.O. situation.

Everybody loves to complain that Duke gets every call and that is half the reason they win so many games. The BC players and coaches complained vehemently after the game on Wednesday that the refs stole the game and they should have won but got robbed (Duke shot 37 free throws to BCs 13). Of course, as a Duke guy, I think this is ridiculous. But I asked Stitzer, who is not by any stretch a Duke fan, to give some analysis on this topic. Here it is:

Criticizing Duke for getting all the calls is just sour grapes BS - when you dominate, like Duke has for the last 20 years, people are going to cry that "they get every call." Trust me, as a Yankee fan, I am used to that BS. And when that scumbag Lee MacPhail reversed the proper call on Brett's BS home run, it should have squashed that line of thinking forever.

Has Duke gotten some calls over the years? Absolutely, the ridiculous Technical Foul Call on Billy Singleton that resulted in a 6-point play in a 1990 2nd round game when St. John's had them dead to rights comes to mind. As does the NCAA sticking it to Tark & UNLV in the 1991 Semis as one of the worst officiated games ever - almost every judgment call went to Duke - the Officiating was so bad, that an impartial observer, Gene Keady, stormed out of the arena and later said he had never seen a game officiated in favor of one team. If the NCAA wanted to punish UNLV, they should have told CBS to stick it and upheld the probation on UNLV.

Has Duke been on the short-end of some calls over years? Again, absolutely. 2002 Sweet 16, duke down by 1, J. Williams misses foul shot, Boozer clearly got fouled on put-back - no call. 2004 Semis, Duke down by 2, Redick clearly got hit across the arm and there was no call - a "horrible" non-call as Bill Walton would say.

Instead of dealing with blanket statements, lets analyze last night's game, and see if BC claims have any merit. First off, just because Belichick & Kraft are in the building does not mean that you can automatically expect to get every call - like when your DBs mauled Coles & McCaerins twice over the past 2 seasons without a flag being thrown.

For the record, I watched none of the first half, and all of the second half.

• 37 Foul Shots to 13. On the surface, this would appear that calls were one-sided. First, knock about 6 off that tally and make it 31-13 - BC intentionally fouled 3 times while playing catch-up in the last 30 seconds. From what I saw of the game, Duke was hit a lot more around the rim when they had the ball then BC was when they had the ball. BC took a page from Georgetown's offense and put their center at the high post and tried to take advantage of Duke's tendency to over play the ball; when that happens, you end up with uncontested lay-ups; BC had a bunch of those - there is usually not contact on uncontested lay-ups.
• Craig Smith did not take a foul shot. That is nobody's fault but Coach Al Skinners. He put smith at the high post to draw Shelden Williams out of the middle and to take advantage of Smith's passing skills. What you sacrifice with that strategy is Smith's prescience down low. Smith also settled for jumper 3 or 4 times rather than take the ball to the hoop.
• The 2 Blocking Calls that were 5th fouls on Marshall & Smith. First off, Marshall should have fouled long before - the gutless Zebras swallowed their whistles when Marshall chest-bumped and trash-talked Reddick when BC started to make a run - there is no place for that crap in the game, and it will unfortunately continue to be a part of the game until the NCAA and Refs shows some balls (can you imagine if I ran down the hall getting in people's faces because I successfully posted 3 consecutive Journal Entries? Would Vitale defend me by saying "ohhhhhhhh, Finance has to be played with passion and emotion baby!!!?). The call on Marshall was the proper call - he was not set. The call on Smith was a poor call, he was set. Case closed. It is ironic that BC's best or 2nd best player fouled out while successfully taking a charge, as Duke has been the pioneer program in taking charges all over the court for the past 20 years. The Refs got 1 right and 1 wrong.
• Shelden Williams clearly hammered Hinnant with :07 left and BC down 3. Do not know how a foul was not called there. What was a dumber play: BC not taking a 3 there or Williams not just giving Hinnant an uncontested 2? Even if they call if a foul there, the best BC could hope for is a make and either a) a second make and miracle 3 to either tie win game b) a miss, offensive rebound, and put-back. Proper play is to take 3 with less than :03 left - if you score, you leave Duke no time.
  
  In my opinion, the Refs had little or no impact on the outcome of last night's game. The foul shot discrepancy was a product of the offensive strategies of both teams.
  
  One final note: Vitale and Patrick have officially reached "mute" status - just like the Patrick/Theismann/Maguire crew has. And it is more due to Patrick than Vitale! Patrick yells at you for 2 hours and is the master of making shit up. Case in point. Weird miss off a foul shot, BC guys had committed to the air and ball took a weird bounce and falls right into the hands of McRoberts and Patrick says "great hustle by the freshman." Huh? Not everything has to be a great play. Do not sensationalize everything - you lose credibility for the times when you sensationalizing is warranted.
  
  If other programs want to catch Duke, they better figure out how Coach K gets lottery picks to stay 4 years.
  
  Now onto Super Bowl XL, where the seemed to go so far as name the game after Xtra Large Jerome Bettis. You gotta love the NFL marketing machine.
  
  Seems like the public likes Pittsburgh. They are the ones getting all the attention as you would think Jerome Bettis was Mother Teresa. In the meantime, would anybody be surprised if Joey Porter goes on a mass murder shooting spree in a mall one day. You just cannot be surprised that this guy missed time when he got shot in the rear end a couple years ago.
  
  Seattle offensively has a great line that should help contain Pittsburgh’s blitzing schemes. In addition, the running game with Shaun Alexander and the improved play of Matt Hasselbeck should a) make Pittsburgh hesitate before blitzing like crazy, and b) enable Seattle to hit some big plays when they do.
  
  Pittsburgh on offense should move the ball as well. Roethlisberger has proved to big a very good young quarterback, and Ward, Randel El, Morgan, Parker, and the rookie tight end from Virginia Heath Miller give him enough weapons to use.
  
  I look for Pittsburgh to strike first, as Ken Whisenhunt has designed beautiful opening drives throughout the playoffs. 7-0 Pittsburgh on a Roethlisberger to Hines Ward touchdown pass. Seattle will fight back and take a 14-13 halftime lead. Seattle will have an extended rive with Shaun Alexander taking over in the third quarter, and hang on late to win when Grant Wistrom makes a huge sack on Roethlisberger to preserve the win.
  
  Final Score: Seattle 28, Pittsburgh 23.

Enjoy the game...