Friday, March 6
Sometimes You Forget: When T.O. Wasn't a Punk
In the aftermath of Terrell Owens being cut from the Dallas Cowboys, we revist the moment when he became a superstar wide receiver. Watching this video really sends you into another era of the NFL. One were a young T.O. was trying to simply make a name for himself in the league, Steve Young was still slinging passes for the Niners, instant replay was not around to fix (some) blown calls, Brett Farve had not hampered his reputation, and San Francisco was a hosting a playoff game.
Some things of note in this one. Pat Summerall and John Madden had the call for FOX; this was before Summerall was ushered out and Madden became completely hurtful to the ears. When he was with Pat, I never really minded hearing John engulf his words in his own gullet. Also, enjoy small FOX on-screen This was the ending of Mike Holmgren reign in Green Bay, they had won the Super Bowl two years ago and barely lost the previous one to the Broncos. Holmgren bolted for Seattle after the next season. Brett Farve would continue to make the playoffs in Green Bay but fail to make the Super Bowl like he did with Holmgren. This season was truly the beginning of the end for Jerry Rice as he tore his ACL early even though he did play in this game and made a crucial fumble a few plays before this one in which he was ruled down but replay showed he clearly fumbled. Instant replay was not around back then, and this play was a catalyst for instituting it back into the league. Rice moved onto Oakland in 2000 after Owens shoved himself into the forefront as the alpha dog in San Fran. Rice was productive in Oakland for a few years because of the John Gruden offense and because he is Jerry Rice. Owens eventually blew up that entire team: Steve Mariucci was fired, Jeff Garcia was eventually run out of town after he took over for Young, and Rice skedaddled across the bay. I love how Mooch and the coaching staff are so adamant about the team going for 1. Coaches in general love thrusting that single finger up after a big score, I guess it is their way of calming themselves down. "I'm excited as hell, but look I'm still coaching!"
Not only did the Packers blow this playoff game but also remember the 4th and 26 in 2003 in Philadelphia.
Also of note was that Owens had several key drops in this game before he was able to hold onto the game-winner and then proceeded to cry like someone just insulted Tony Romo.
Freeman, Griffin & Hansbrough: Occam's Razor
Hey look, a magazine with Blake Griffin on the cover! CBS's Mike Freeman has again taken aim at Tyler Hansbrough (although this time, he's letting commenters do the work of playing the race card, but Freeman does highlight the comment). Freeman bemoans that Griffin doesn't get credit for being hardworking and gritty unlike Hansbrough.
"Why aren't we seeing constant replays on television of Griffin diving onto the floor or scrambling for loose balls..."
SportsCenter, the night of the Texas Tech game where Griffin flew over the scorer's table to save the ball, showed the dive no less than 11 times (not an exaggeration) and had analysis of Griffin's effort from at least six analysts (not an exaggeration), including some of their non-basketball analysts Steve Phillips and Mark Schlereth. Everyone was gushing about how hard he plays and rightfully so, but to acknowledge that would take away from the article, so pretend like it never happened, right Mike? When you're hurling accusations, you should probably watch.
As for the issue of the magazine covers, here's the simple explanation: Carolina basketball sells magazines, Oklahoma does not. It's the same reason Notre Dame always has high-rated recruiting classes in football, it's all about capitalism. Has there not been someone that played as hard as Griffin and Hansbrough at a lower level? Why did they not get the coverage? If Griffin was at Duke, he would be on the cover of every magazine Hansbrough was on, and when Hansbrough was on the cover of SI's basketball preview this season, Griffin was on the Big 12 regional coverage. Hansbrough has been on four SI covers and Blake Griffin has been on two. One of Tyler's was when he was selected POY, a cover Griffin will get this season and another was when Carolina went to the Final Four. If Griffin leads the Sooners to the Final Four, there's a good chance he'll get on a cover, thus tying Tyler. Mike, since you deemed this an adult conversation, can we please use facts?
Mountain West Conference Wants to Play
A college football post just days before Carolina v. Duke? When it involves a playoff system, our focus can be shifted. The Mountain West conference is taking the banner of smaller conferences themselves to the BCS ivory tower. They propose that conferences that have a better than .400 winning percentage against the BCS conferences over a two-year proposal, a new system that would grant only themselves an additional automatic bid. They also suggest a tremendous shift in the selection of the teams, moving away from polls and the computers to a 12-man selection committee.
As a digression, how far are we from no longer feeling obligated to give Notre Dame special treatment? They're treated as holier than thou by the BCS and this proposal, which guarantees them a seat at the selection committee table. We've reached the point that no one outside of South Bend expects them to do much, and they can either fall in line or fall further behind. At this point, they're just another program and the top bowls are no better or worse without them.
What about that playoff? The Mountain West offers an 8-team playoff, with the 9th and 10th place teams playing in a BCS bowl, but not part of the playoff. This attempts to keep the "power" conferences appeased, but avoiding a 20th ranked team in the playoff (Cincinnati, they're referring to you). Assuming the seven (if the MWC is added) automatic bids, it would only allow for at most three at-large bids, which is a fair compromise, but that 5th BCS game would be such a scarlet letter for the conferences involved, that no one would go for this idea. The need to include more than eight again points to our suggestion of the sixteen team playoff. Full Proposal
Thursday, March 5
Dancing with the Big South
According to my Ziggy wall calender, it is March. Which means conference tournaments have started! A special focus here on the Big South, mainly because I will be attending the semifinals tonight at Radford's Dedmon Center. Radford is the number one seed but it should be anyone's tournament to win with national PPG leader VMI led by the Holmes twins as the second seed, followed by Liberty who features Stephen Curry's little brother Seth, and UNC Asheville is the improbable fourth seed after going this season without center Kenny George but this is March.
The atmosphere should be electric in Virginia tonight and I cannot wait to see the teams battle it out. There will be no automatic bid from this league, so it is simply winner take all and only one team out of the four will have their dance card punched Saturday. The final is at 4:00 and will be on ESPN2 as they kick off their Championship Week.
Speaking of dancing, the Big South blog has a featured video of the team's mascots dancing on their respective campuses to C and C Music Factory in the link below. It is reminiscent of the Old School dance scene that ends with Will Ferrell going up in flames in a Cougar outfit. No fire in this dance video, but entertaining nonetheless and it certainly gets you in tourney mode.
DANCE!DANCE!DANCE! [Big South SHOUT]
Wednesday, March 4
Moose House On Ebay
Carolina Panther receiver Muhsin Muhammad is putting up his South Charlotte home for sale on ebay. Bidding starts at $1.9 million. I imagine Catfish is scheming his way into the money so we can land the 8,600 sqaure feet pad. [Charlotte Observer via Deadspin]
Duke's Recipe For Home Success
Our Tarheel followers may be upset at a second Duke post in a row, but after watching the Blue Devils' 84-81 victory over Florida State last night despite another big scoring night from Toney Douglas, I feel compelled to share my dismay at the familiarity of what I witnessed last night. Only North Carolina has downed Duke at Cameron Indoor this season and after watching last night's game it is easy to see why. Some of it is Duke's doing and the advantage of playing in the gym they play in.
Keys to a Duke home victory against a tough ACC opponent:
Take at least 25 3-pointers (30 taken last night)
Go into halftime trailing or barely ahead (trailed by 6)
Coach K takes suit jacket off
Second half run made with pressure defense and turnovers forced
Shoot a lot more free-throws than the opponent (31 to 20)
Greg Paulus make ridiculous flop (Well that's really every game)
Opposing team get called for a questionable technical (Alabi at 6 and a half minutes[his second of the season] and another one was called as well)
Opposing star player scores in abundance (Douglas had 27)
EDIT: Can't believe I forgot this one but there was a clock malfunction in the final two minutes.
FSU coach Leonard Hamilton said after the game, "Now, I've got a whole lot I could say. That play was a big play. There's no doubt about that. I saw it differently. ... That was a key play during that particular time. I wish we could have avoided it, and maybe the outcome would have been a little different. But that's college basketball."
It sure is coach, it sure is.
Post-game thoughts: Duke 84, Florida State 81 [The Chopping Block]
Tuesday, March 3
Tale of the Tube: Gerald Henderson vs. Grant Hill
There is a debate going on about just how good the Duke Blue Devils are this year. The certainty is that if they are going to make it to the Final Four in Detroit Gerald Henderson will have to lead them there. There have been comparisons made between Henderson and another athletic Duke great, Grant Hill. This got me thinking of the 1993-1994 season where Hill led a Duke team that was not a heavy favorite in the tournament to the Championship game in Charlotte where they fell to Scotty Thurman and Arkansas. So how do these two match up for this season, which may be Henderson's last at Duke? Since Henderson has yet to play at the next level, Hill's stats are taken from when he was at Duke.
The vitals:
Gerald----------------------------------------------------------------Grant
15---------------------------Jersey Number------------------------------33
Caldwell, NJ-----------------Birthplace----------------------------------Dallas
6'4"-------------------------------Height----------------------------------6'7"
215--------------------------------Weight-----------------------------------210
13 year NBA guard------------Father's Pro career-------12 year NFL RB
2nd round--------Furthest Tournament Progression------Champions in '91,'92
Kyle Singler------------Big White Scoring Teammate---------Cherokee Parks
Brian Zoubek--------Big White Non-Scoring Teammate---------Eric Meek
Greg Paulus-----------Annoying Punk Teammate---------------Christian Laettner
11.9--------------------------------Career PPG-------------------------------------14.9
Tyler Hansbrough elbow to face-----Famous Arm Motion--------Pass to Laettner in '92
Mini-Fro---------------------Haircut of choice before shaving it------------Box
Now we get to the Tube. First we have Grant Hill at Duke. This video is from the "Beyond the Glory" series on FSN. It is complete with Chris Collins and Christian Laettner commentary! Sweet headband dude! I chose this one because it has footage of the dunk Hill had against Kansas(and Roy Williams) in the 1991 National Championship game (:53 seconds in, yes Jim I can believe he got that high). For some reason that dunk is hard to find on YouTube. There is also footage from the 1994 tournament and I had forgotten on that run Duke took out one-seeded Purdue Boilermakers which featured Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson.
For Gerald, the dunk he had on Maryland may not be his most impressive dunk, but it is up there and is his most recent:
Here is another video stating his case for this year's ACC POY:
Obviously Grant has the advantage from having won two national championships and almost single-handedly capturing a third, but if Henderson can take over when the tournament comes, he could lead a charge reminiscent of 1994.
Monday, March 2
At Least Some People Understand the Cassel Trade
Yahoo's Dan Wetzel offers a counter to the "Bill Belichick got taken or is in on a conspiracy" theory which further enforces my opinion of the trade. Time for people to realize that Belichick would not make this trade unless he was confident it would help the team. Everyone complained about the Pats getting old and now with 3 picks in the first 80 selections this April, some new blood will be infused.
Vrabel was key to the Patriots' three Super Bowl wins, but he was getting up there in age with a hefty contract. Cassel had a good season last year, but still made mistakes and failed to get the team to the playoffs. In KC, he will not have Moss lined up out wide and more importantly he will not have Wes Welker in the slot. Cassel's average completion was under four yards and with the YAC it turned intop over 7 yards. Also, the offensive line will not be as stout as New England's for Cassel next year.
The Patriots are planning for a big draft weekend and judging from their recent draft history, they will replace Cassel, Vrabel and any other need they do not get from free agency. Pundits may question, but followers of the Patriots know one thing: Bill Belichick knows more about football than us or the analysts.
Belichick hasn’t lost his mind [Yahoo]
Weekend Recap
The snow is still on the ground, but yet into work I went today. After a weekend of much activity which included a nice round of Joseph Brau's at Xtra Medium's place it is time to hit the ground walking carefully through the ice this week.
UCLA beat Cal Saturday night 72-68 to stand alone in 2nd place in the Pac-10. Digger Phelps had a case of Saturday night fever, the Bruins fans are a little too harsh on him, man can move. [Bruins Nation via Deadspin]
Finally, a Mike Tyson comprehensive documentary from a Punch-Out point of view. [The Onion complements of The Concierge]
Are the Patriots making a move for Julius Peppers? [PFT]
Jay Mariotti cries foul in the Matt Cassel deal. Does anyone not understand Belichick, he would not compromise the winning potential of his team for his own son's life. Speculate all you want, but when Cassel has a so-so year next year do not be surprised. [AOL Fanhouse]
You can't teach a rich old dog new tricks, Dan Synder opens the checkbook. [FoxSports]
Catfish will tell you Tyler Hansbrough is getting shortchanged on fouls nowadays, but he is now the all-time leader in NCAA history. In other news, Georgia Tech is bad. [Greensboro News and Record]
Martin Brodeur gets his 100th career shutout and the Devils are back in business. [Yahoo]
More happy feet from the Duke, again not called. [Storming the Floor]
He may get some favorable whistles, but there is no denying Dwayne Wade can ball...and that he does not have Herpes. [Sporting News]
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