03.18.2010

How I See This Years Tourney

Why Kansas could win it… Depth, Experience, Senior Leadership, Coaching… Although not as talented through the entire roster this team resembles Kentucky in 1996…

Why The Cuse will not win… Early season loss to a Division two team (it was an exhibition game, but) two losses to Louisville, 1st round loss in conference tourney and Zone Defense only just does not do it for me even if Boheim’s wife if from Kentucky…

Why Villanova will not win… They appear to have gaps of inconsistency… They do have great guard play though and that could spell a deep run… Finished mediocre…

Why Duke will not… Quickness… When they match up against a quicker team they will have problems… They shoot the ball really well actually very well… Their big men are good but not great and they have some depth…

Why Ohio State or Purdue will not win… Purdue is injury related and Ohio State just does not have the depth to pull it off as they only play six… They do have a super start who could take them on a deep run…

Why WVA will not win… Bob Huggins… Huggy can coach with the best but seems to flame out in the tournament… No offense Huggy but you do not look healthy either…

Why UNC will not win… Cause they will not even make the tournament!!! LMAO!!!

Why UK could win… A will to win… A veteran leader like Pat Patterson can take a team a deep… Youth with no fear is a good thing… This team has as much talent as the UK 1996 Champs but they lack the experience that team had…

Why UK will not win (I am going to get a rash of shit for this one)… Youth… Intangibles such as free throw shooting, defensive lapses that allow teams to climb back in games (a lapse like this early in a game like they have done a few times could lead to a double digit loss), understanding how to play with a lead, turnovers, poor shooting from the arc and to many three points shots taken… The second round match up against Texas is scary… If they make it by this game they will run to the final four…

Sleeper or Cinderella… Everybody likes Cornell but I like Butler and I like the region they are in for sure… Cornell looks like a nice team though…

I have picked Kansas to win it in the Pools I am in and have Kentucky in the final…

UK Basketball Summary

I am very much pleased with Coach Calipari’s first year at Kentucky no matter what happens from this point forward…

Like most fans I had questions about what happened at UMASS and Memphis with the vacated Final Fours and was very scared that Kentucky has sold its soul in hiring Cal…

When I did the homework I found that he was never implicated by the NCAA for any wrong doing at all (he was actually the person who turned in the UMASS player to the school for the improprieties uncovered so they could investigate and at Memphis they were given approval by the NCAA to play the player who had had his SAT questioned and were never told they were at risk for playing this player throughout the year)…

I also had the good fortune of (before Cal’s name was even mentioned as a candidate) to be working with a guy from Memphis who was a Memphis fan and asked him to give me the lowdown on Cal… He came back with nothing but high praise for him, thought he had a bar rap from the national media in some areas and said he was most impressed with how Cal conducted himself off the court… He said he was not only an ambassador for the school, but for the entire city… He told me about how both Coach Cal and his wife donated allot of money out of their own pockets to local charities and were very generous with their time in supporting local charities in Memphis…

What I have found in Coach Cal’s first year at Kentucky is all of the things this gentlemen described (the Haiti telethon effort in itself told me allot about his character) but also a guy who knows not on the history of basketball and understands he is to value and carry on this history of this sport… He has is also person who has done his homework to understand the history of Kentucky Basketball all the way back through UK’s first All American Basil Hayden…

Probably one of the most amazing things I heard him talk about was how he discovered that allot of the practice techniques, methods coaching points he used were also ones that a basketball innovator had used years before by a very successful coach named Adolph Rupp… One of the classiest things he did was actually take the UK team to Adolph Rupp’s gravesite along with Joe B Hall to pay their respects, explain what he meant to basketball and the programs and ensure that the team understand how in allot of ways coach Rupp was misrepresented in today’s media…

With all of that said he developed a very young and inexperienced team into SEC Regular Season Champs, SEC Tourney Champs with a 30 and 2 overall record… The team is once again very fun to watch (I love the style of play) and exceeded my wildest dreams to this point as to how successful they can be… I cannot wait until year 3, 4 and 5 when he has more experienced players for his system mixed in with the talent level of player that he will continue to recruit I think Kentucky is in great shape and Cal is set to leave a nice legacy behind…

I also truly believe he is trying to build men of character not only with the players but within the coaching staff and the people associated with the coaching staff… He also thinks allot of Kentucky’s rabid fan base and understand what this program means to these fans… When he had the players and himself deliver food to the people waiting in line for Midnight Madness and then both he and his son went down and camped out one night with these fans to me also says allot about his character…

I hope Kentucky makes a deep run in the tournament and of course win it all but I am a realistic person and know it will take some luck along with some great skills to do that this year… The main thing is Kentucky is back in the conversation, back with the elite teams and will be competitive year in and year out… Like the coach that came after Eddie when he does leave he will leave the program in great standing and I truly believe that not matter what his transgressions may or may not have been in the past…

Maybe Coach Cal is like me and maybe he made some mistakes in his life and had some transgression along the way but one thing I have learned about myself as I have grown older and wiser is a truly good person learns from their mistakes, treats ALL people with respect and dignity no matter who they are or where they came from… The truly golden people in life that are successful in all facets of their lives are people who practice these things and are good to others… I see this same character in Coach Cal today and I can relate to this… We have all for sure made mistakes in our lives but the question is what has one learned from those mistakes and what are you doing now???

And by the way...  Nice 29 point whipping on Bruce Pearl and that Oragne Team from down south... 

Mason Dixon Games

My buddy Sam Gibbs daughter Jaci was in three events for Henderson County… She was in a relay race, the 60 meter dash and the long jump… She was the anchor leg in the relay race and she came from behind to win that heat… Nice Job…

I was very impressed with this event, how the event was managed, etc… There used to be a college portion to the event but it died several years ago and I am not sure why… I had not been to a track meet in a long time and we enjoyed attending and will attend again…

New Baseball Alignment

There has been some talk in baseball lately about some type of crazy re-alignment that makes no sense at all (teams would choose what division they were in based on whether they chose to be competitive that year)…

All baseball needs to do is the following:

- Shorten the season to 154 games or have each team play eight double headers somewhere in the June and July timeframe… I like the double header idea…

- Move the Houston to the NL West and Arizona to the AL West… This balances out the leagues…

- The last month of the season form the schedule where most of a team’s games are within their own division…

- If you are going to play interleague than each in each division team gets 15 at home and 15 on the road and they rotate divisions each year…

- Expand the first round of the playoffs to seven games playing a 2, 3, and 2 scenarios with only one off day in between the shifts to the other city…

- Championship series is also a 2, 3, and 2 scenarios following the same off day schedule…

- World Series starts on a Saturday and they play day games on Saturday and Sunday of the first weekend and night games the last…

 

Random

- The goverment now wants to step in and dicate what schools get in the NCAA Tournament based on graduation rates for basketball...  First of all GET THE F### OUT OF OUR LIVES and leave these organizations alone...  The data they are discussing is flawed because it counts early departures and transfers as well as people who did not graduate...  Mens Basketball with the new forced one rule is greatly impacted with early departures...  When you look at graduation you need to review all sports not just Mens Basketball...  Also compare it to the percentage of incoming freshmen and what happens to them in four years...  Not allot of difference in mens basketball at most schools and the overall graduation rates... 

- Ryan Howard for Albert Puljos… Not in your wildest dreams… Ryan Howard is great player but he is not Albert… Remember no player in baseball ever has done what Albert has done at this point in their career from an offensive production stand point…

- Don’t count me as a person who thinks that the NCAA tournament should expand to another 32 teams… The format they have is perfect and the conference tournaments are fantastic that feed the tournament the week before… Bigger is not better folks and I am 3000% sure on that one… The bubble teams that do not get in have no chance to win the tournament or make a deep run so why would you add 32 teams who have no chance…

- People are questioning Duke’s and the Cuse easier draw of the four number one seeds… With the Cuse I am not sure why they are even a number one (I thought Ohio State should be the fourth number one)… Duke is a CBS thing because they move the needle when they play on TV and CBS has a big stake in the tournament… I thought Kentucky should be the #1 in the south and Duke #1 in the east, Ohio State #1 in the West and Kansas right where they landed…

- Ben Roethlisberger is for sure guilty of making some bad decisions… Maybe he has a different thing going on than Tiger does which could be a problem… Let’s hope he can get his behavior in line… A very talented player…

- The Fan that Roy Williams had kicked out of UNC game earlier in the year for rooting for the other team at the Dean Dome got a free ticket to Duke vs. UNC at Cameron Indoor… Nice job Duke of rubbing that shit in their face…

- Shake up at the top in Fantasy Golf the last few weeks… Two weeks ago the third and fourth place teams became the First and Second Place teams… My team scored a season high 234 points while the previous leader only got 68 points this week (a season low)… With two weeks to go I am in first place… Luck, Luck and more luck…

- Regardless if UK makes it or not I will be in Indy for the Final Four… They are a great host city for the event and with it this close to hard to pass up…

- I personally think that Tiger is coming back to fast… He has to much to clean up at home in my opinion to come out and try to play golf… Makes me wonder how committed he is to what he needs to overcome in his life… Still rooting for him though and not against him…

- The coach that came after Eddie is poised to take the St Johns coaching job...  Let's see what happens... 

 

Music

Going to see Tom Petty this summer… Always wanted to see him even if he is vintage Tom at this point…