Bubblerrific

If you haven’t noticed, there’s been a little bit of anxiety and paranoia seeping into the wondrous columns of Giving 111 Percent.

Well, we may be somewhat naturally aggressive people, but the restless tone is fueled from something other than our normal opinionated convictions. It’s the fact that the schools at which we both reside, Syracuse and Maryland, sport two college basketball squads floating around the NCAA tournament bubblesphere.

Maryland has dropped two straight games to ACC foes Virginia Tech and Miami. Syracuse has done the same, to better competition on the road at Louisville and Notre Dame. Each team finds themselves at 17-11, with Maryland boasting a 7-6 record in a down ACC conference, and the Orange with a 7-8 mark in the brutal Big East. Pretty similar records. Why did we start this blog? This seems like a terrible omen.

Syracuse sits at No. 48 in the RPI rankings, with the eighth best strength of schedule in the nation. The Terps are at No. 67 and 18 respectively. There’s no beating around the bush, both these teams have a ton of work left to do if either wants to find itself being considered for the NCAA tournament. Both teams should try to at least get to 20 wins. If that’s the case, I (Pat) would have to opt for Syracuse over the Terps – because the team has better numbers and overcame great odds stacked against them in a much better conference. But right now, it’s foolish to assume that either of these teams will be dancing. Unfortunately.

The parallels continue. Maryland has missed the NCAA tournament twice in the past three years. Syracuse missed it last year (albeit questionably), and has been on the bubble the two years before that. Maryland was coming off a championship title earlier this decade in 2002. Syracuse won in 2003. The titles obviously affected our school choices, and well, they haven’t exactly paid off. Year after year the fingernails disintegrate and selection Sunday is either doomsday or an unpleasant nerve racking two hours spent staring at Greg Gumbel.

Hopefully both teams can make runs, or this blog could become quite bitter until baseball season starts. Of course, we’ll keep up with the posting and observations as well as we can, but I’d like to avoid the disappointment. And Andrew can at least still bask in the Giants glory – so if it comes down to these two, I’m not going to feel bad for him if the Cuse makes it.

Andrew gave you some Maryland insight yesterday.
Here are some thoughts on the Orange after a tough 94-87 loss at Notre Dame:


- With the loss sending the Orange to 17-11 (7-8 Big East), I believe SU must win out. Winning a game in the Big East tournament would likely shore up a bid. That would equal four more wins. That total is likely the magic number. If the Orange struggles in the upcoming games against Pitt, Seton Hall and Marquette, it will have to make serious noise in the Big East Tournament.

- If Syracuse is hoping to make the run I just mentioned, the team is going to need Donte Greene to show up. I cannot believe what I am seeing out of this guy. I don’t like to be too critical of college players, but he is really driving me insane. The 6’10 Greene came into SU as a great recruit, likely one-and-done. He showed off a nice jump shot early in the year and skyrocketed to the top of the Big East scoring leaders list. But once conference play started, Greene has disappeared. Going into Sunday’s game, the Orange was shooting 29 percent from three-point range in conference play. Greene is not helping that as the team’s main shooter. He’s been very cold, scoring in double figures in only two of the last five games. He looks lost in SU’s offensive sets, and actually has been removed from NBA Draft.net's 2008 mock draft– which previously had him as a top-10 pick. It looks as if the site administrators think Donte will stay another year.
Regardless, this kind of thing happens. Big East play has been tougher than Greene expected, he’s playing a ton of minutes with a thin frame, and he’s not getting a lot of open looks. That’s all fine. He needs more time in the Big East and needs to learn how to cut, drive and do something other than pop three pointers. But what I find unacceptable and infuriating is his effort and intensity. Greene showed zero emotion during the game and when he was picking up several fouls. He was torched by Notre Dame forwards on the perimeter when the team switched to man-to-man defense. He seems very, very out of it. Someone needs to light a fire under him. If SU isn’t going to get offensive numbers out of him, the team needs rebounding and defense. Right now, Greene is offering pretty much none of the above.

- Paul Harris is a man-child who hopefully won’t even think about moving to the NBA this season. Right now, he’s by far our best player, and is even sinking his jump shots consistently. Harris is starting to shine and become more dependable. Sure, he still has his lapses. But if he stays another year or two, he can be scary good, as can Syracuse as a team. Onuaku, too, was an absolute beast as well. He can outmuscle just about anyone in the Big East, and seems to actually know that after a mid-season slump.

- I think Scoop Jardine has to see even more time. He played well against Notre Dame, and appears to be fully recovered from his suspension. Yet again, he of course has his lapses, but he’s a healthy body and someone who can penetrate and finish on a team with six other healthy players.

- The team still scored 87 points with only five from their leading scorer (Greene). This was encouraging, especially because of all the layups that somehow rimmed out. The problem is there were so many opportunities that a win could have been possible. If SU can play well at both sides of the court like they have shown on separate occasions, the team might be able to make a late push.

Woa. A few thoughts turned into a thorough therapy session. Here’s to hoping the improbable seven man team can make a late run. And if that happens, well, good luck to Maryland as well.

Life on the bubble. You can’t beat it.


-Pat


Photo credits: roanoke.com, sportsnetwork.com

Terps need to turn it around

If the Maryland Terrapins fail to make the NCAA Tournament for the third time in four years, it won’t be hard to point to the game that doomed their season. Wednesday’s 69-65 loss to Virginia Tech at Comcast Center was one of the ugliest games that I can remember. The Terps jumped out to a big lead early, then inexplicably stopped scoring. The game was so disgusting that guard Dorenzo Hudson actually vomited on the floor in the first half. On Saturday, they lost to Miami.

It seems like a lot of fans seem quick to blame the team’s struggles on guard Greivis Vazquez. Early in the game, when the Terps were jumping out to a double digit lead, Vazquez had 11 quick points. He then tried a risky pass and threw it out of bounds.

“Get him off the court, Gary!” yelled a fan, who continued to curse at Vazquez every time he missed a shot.

I know that the guy has more turnovers than a pastry shop, but if not for his play this season Gary would be calling MSG every night begging for NIT consideration. Not only does Greivis lead the team in scoring (17.5 ppg) and assists (6.7 apg), he is the only player that can create a shot. Imagine the offense with Adrian Bowie and Eric Hayes running around for 35 seconds? Vazquez has also had a knack for knocking down the big three pointer.


The biggest problem that the Terps have is their lack of production from the bench. Braxton Dupree, who was supposed to come in and play right away, looks like he is a long way from making any contributions. In fact, if Gus Gilchrist is not the next coming of Elton Brand, the team might have to beg Hassan Fofana to come back. Bowie had a couple big games in January and looked like he was becoming a dependable guard for the Terps. Now, he rarely sees the court.

The bench has been abysmal all year, but with Vazquez, Gist, and Osby dominating Maryland was still winning. The past couple games, Gist has struggled and Maryland was not able to replace his offense. One watching Wednesday’s loss had to wonder if Gist had somehow forgotten how to use his hands, as he not only turned the ball over five times but couldn’t hold onto countless rebounds that were in his grasp. He has seven and 10 points respectively in his last two games, his lowest and third lowest total since ACC play started. Gist has been one of the ACC's best players all season, and the Terps badly need him to step up in the last few games.

The Terps, at the very least, need to split their next two games. They have three games left before the ACC Tournament, and will probably need at least 20 wins to get in. If they win three more games this season, it puts them on the bubble with a decent chance of making it. Four more wins pretty much punches their ticket. Two wins, and Gary can all but book his flight to New York for the NIT.

Picture credit: http://media3.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/photo/2007/01/23/PH2007012301355.jpg

Funny Joke??

I'm not exactly sure what's gotten into Alex Rodriguez, but he had quite an interesting quote in an article on ESPN.com yesterday. Here is the excerpt if you missed it:

Rodriguez also praised teammate Andy Pettitte, who was forced to give a deposition and affidavit to Congress in which he admitted using HGH in 2002 and 2004. Pettitte also said Roger Clemens discussed HGH use nearly a decade ago -- Clemens said Pettitte "misremembers."

"Andy is one of the greatest human beings I've ever met," Rodriguez said. "I have two daughters -- well, I have one and one on the way. If I had a daughter, I would want 'em to marry Andy Pettitte. The age difference might be a little awkward, but in today's day and age anything is possible."

Sure, it's good to see ARod back up one of his teammates, but what?! What did he just say? He would want his daughter to marry Andy Pettitte. Oh, well that's nice. Wait, how old is ARod's daughter Natasha Alexander? Three. Nice. And ARod, although it may not be your style, Andy appears loyal to his wife and four children already. So I guess we'll give ARod credit for toeing the line with a somewhat creepy but funny joke. But the last line is just weird. "In today's day and age anything is possible." Coming from ARod's mouth that just sounds too serious. Anyways I'll give credit to ARod for loosening up and trying to have some fun. Granted, it's spring training, so we'll see how long this mood lasts.


-Pat

Photo credit: lillypulitzer.com

Please ESPN, no more.

So, the other night I (Pat) am up late as usual, and I had been surfing the web with ESPN on the TV in the background. It’s easy to tune it out, because the same news gets recycled every hour or so and they repeatedly hit you with it. Anyways, I’m minding my own business and I look up at the bright flashing lights of the television screen. I was horrified. I looked for the remote faster than I would have if I had seen the Poltergeist fuzzy screen or that mysterious video from The Ring. What had I seen? NASCAR Now - a new segment dedicated to solely stock car racing. The second I realized it wasn’t a Sportscenter segment the television was off. I sat in absolute silence in the pitch black for five seconds thinking about what I had just witnessed. Being that it was about 2:30 a.m. and I had seen the Fresh Prince episode airing (that’s about the best thing on at that hour), I went back to watching South Park on my computer. But I couldn’t laugh. I had been too mortified.

You readers may have had a similar experience, albeit maybe less traumatic. But I think you get the point. For fellow blogger Andrew Vitelli and I have had enough. It may have been because the Daytona 500 was this past weekend, or that we think there’s some bass fishing event coming up soon, but we can’t help but think that there has been a recent onslaught of crappy, uninteresting and well, frankly, redneck type sports programming thrown our way on the ESPN networks. We continue to see ads of men sitting in their hotel rooms at 4 a.m. desperately trying to pick out which fishing rod to use for the day, and then dramatically setting out on the lake for an action-packed thrill ride only the BassMasters and ESPN can bring you. There is non-stop NASCAR coverage. We, along with hopefully many of you, just don’t care ESPN. Sure, there are ratings to be had, NASCAR diehards to satisfy, and well, deluxe lures and sinkers to be discussed. But you know what? Take it elsewhere. And take Blue Collar Comedy Tour with you. Please. We have nothing against the states where this programming may be more popular or the people who enjoy it. You can have your gators and grits, but keep this stuff too.

We all know ESPN is pretty business savvy for the most part. Our solution to this whole ordeal? Simply start a new channel. ESPN South. ESPN Rural. EXPN. Anything. And sure, we know writing this that some people in our home state of New York like this programming. It will still be offered to you, for free or a small charge. But it won’t be on everyone’s sets, because well, we can’t have anyone mistakenly tuning into the ESPN original film “3.”

In fact, while we’re at it, maybe ESPN should take a lot of its dumb programming and dump it onto another channel. There is a lot of useless stuff on ESPN. Some of you may be saying, but then there is going to be more NFL Live reruns in March or more over-discussed stories. We have a solution for that too. It’s called, “ESPN spend some of the billions of dollars you have and buy up Friday Night Lights reruns, some movies, and bring back Playmakers.”

Anyways, Southerners or NASCAR lovers don’t be offended. We don’t just want to single out your dumb programming, there is other crap we want to see gone too. So ESPN it’s up to you. We’ve set the table, and we’ve even laid out the listings for your new channel of crap, EXPN. The only time we want to hear about these sports is if someone passes out during a spelling bee, or if Tony Stewart punches someone. Enjoy, and may we never see another 2 a.m. drag racing competition ever again.

EXPN

Friday
6 pm - World Series of B-List Celebrity Poker
7 pm - NCAA Division 3 Blindfolded Bass Fishing Finals
8 pm – Outside the Lines: The Stump McCrackin Log Chopping Tragedy
9 pm – Cockfight Tonight: Hosted by Pedro Martinez and Juan Marichal
10 pm – EXPN Movie of the Week: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby


Saturday
6 pm – Canine Chess NIT Semi-finals
7 pm – Alabama Spelling Bee (four letter limit)
8 pm – The Y-Games: Drunk Snowmobile Capture the Flag Finals
9 pm – Outside the Lines: Steroids in Bowling
10 pm – Virginia Dog-fighting Championships (postponed)

Sunday
6 pm – Tobacco Chewing Tour
7 pm – Outside the Lines: The Integration of NASCAR
7:01 pm – World Series of Hunting Finals: Randy DeDecker vs. Dick Cheney
8 pm – Daytona 500




Photo credits: www.760kfmb.com/rick_blog, pokerallstar.com, autoracingsport.com, espn.com

Weekend wrap

Huge win for Syracuse yesterday. After a miserable defeat to South Florida earlier in the week, the Orange rebounded by dominating Georgetown on Saturday en route to a 77-70 victory. The win was key for the Orange as it tries to get back into NCAA tournament consideration. The Orange is 17-9 (7-6 Big East). With all the parity in college basketball this year, I’d say reaching the 20 win mark would be good for a tournament berth. So the Orange would have to win 3 of its next 5 games, and possibly a win in NYC in the Big East Tournament to shore up a bid.

Here are SU’s next five games:

Monday at Louisville
Saturday at Notre Dame
March 1 vs. Pitt
March 5 at Seton Hall
March 8 vs. Marquette

That’s a tough stretch, but it also presents quite a few “resume-building” wins. The next two (Louisville and ND) are extremely tough contests. If Syracuse can steal one from either the deep Cardinals (one of the hotter teams in the nation) or the strong inside-out Irish (who have won 35 straight home games) it would be a huge boost. The Orange should be able to then win at least the next two of three. Seton Hall is a game the Orange should win, but it won’t be easy on the road. Pitt and Marquette are both solid squads above SU in the Big East standings, but they have been struggling somewhat, and considering both games are in the Dome, SU should be able to at least split those. So three wins will be tough, but doable. As I said, if the Orange can do that and win a game in New York, I’d find it difficult for the selection committee to once again leave Syracuse out.

As for Saturday, it was an unreal game. It was just about perfect. Attendance had seemingly been falling off a little since Gerry McNamara left, but yesterday there were 31,000 plus howling fans. The atmosphere was great, it was probably one of the loudest crowds I’ve heard in the Dome in the past few years. And an unranked team bursting out to a 26-4 scoring run against a top-10 Hoya squad? As I said, unreal. This team will find it challenging to keep up such intensity with only a seven man rotation, but what the team lacks in a bench, it makes up for with resiliency. This team really never quits, even at South Florida when down 20. Center Arinze Onuaku could have quit after hearing just about everyone harp on his disappearance, but instead he came out and beasted on Roy Hibbert. I will have to take some credit for Hibbert’s poor play – during the shoot-around I was screaming at him about his chicken legs. His teammates must kid him about it and were all laughing, but Roy, alas, was not. Seeing a sensitive side of the big man, I moved on to tell him what a bad idea it was for him to return to college and seeing his numbers fall instead of going to the NBA last year. Sure, it was probably a fine decision, and Georgetown is in the top-10, he’ll still be a high pick, and as long as he doesn’t get hurt another year of college is probably a lot of fun. But of course I had to tell him it was the worst decision ever. I mean, Arinze throwing nearly 300 pounds into Hibbert probably affected the big man’s play, but I’d like to think I may have had a very minimal impact. Probably not though. But I definitely bothered the Hoya fans:

This was the moment I believe when the cop felt bad for them, to which I asked the cop, "When you were twenty did you paint your face? I think not."

Anyways it was great to see the team and the crowd fired up. But there’s still a lot of work left to be done. If the atmosphere against Pitt and Marquette rivals the environment on Saturday, SU could be in business for two big wins as they seem to really feed off the support. So yet again there is life to the season and expectations are again beginning to rise. Although I’ve broken down the next five games, the team has to take it game by game (we saw at USF what happens if it looks ahead). It’s still an uphill battle, but Saturday the Orange made a push towards the summit.

Dunk you very much
Saturday was a great day of basketball, with SU winning, buzzer beaters galore and just excitement everywhere. And the icing on the cake was a fantastic dunk contest. There are a lot of articles out there proclaiming that the dunk contest is back, and I will cautiously say, yes, it is. Eventhough it’s still missing a lot of big names, last nights affair was extremely entertaining. The creativity was off the charts – from blowing out a candle sitting in a cupcake on the back of the rim, to literally flying through the air in a Superman outfit. Dwight Howard put on an absolute show. Despite the fact he didn’t really dunk on his Superman attempt, he had two other unbelievable dunks.

If I were to have one suggestion, other than the common thought to get in bigger names, I’d say have a wild card spot. Open up some sort of competition for an open entry to challenge NBA players. And-1 mix tape players, anyone, can go through a few competitions and qualify for the event. Would it be time consuming and probably logistically impossible? Most likely. But would it be awesome to just up that challenge to NBA players one more notch? Absolutely. Plus, there’s a guy out there who can do a 720. It’s impressive.

Here's a nice compliation


And here could be one of those challengers


-Pat

Nuts and Bolts, Nuts and Bolts, We Got.....

Here are some sports tidbits to hold you over before you’re barraged with 72 straight hours of ESPN coverage of the Roger Clemens congressional testimony.

What game were they watching?
Somehow, inexplicably, the Big East coordinator of officials Art Hyland stood behind the last second call that handed Georgetown a win over Villanova. For those who didn’t see the game, ‘Nova was whistled for a foul as Georgetown recovered a loose ball and started moving upcourt. Sounds OK right? Well, factor in that Georgetown’s Jonathan Wallace was 80 feet from the basket, and there was .1 seconds on the clock, and it becomes a bit murky. Murky enough for the somewhat reserved ESPN commentator Sean McDonough to call it “absolutely awful.”
Here is the play:


This is what Hyland said of the call thanks to an ESPN article:

“There is no force-out rule and if [Wallace] was forced out, he either was bumped for a foul or he stepped out of bounds," Hyland said. "When a kid is bumped and goes out of bounds, you have to make a call. It's a judgment call."

Hyland said the timing of the foul does not matter.

"A foul is a foul," Hyland said. "It's a judgment situation."

I’m sorry, but that is just horrible reasoning. A player got a slight hip check, 80 feet from his basket. Even if he was falling out of bounds, you let the clock run out. There was no way Georgetown was going to score or even get off a shot. No way. At this time, officials always just take the whistle out of their mouths. Unless there’s a clear punch to someone’s face, no fouls are going to be called in such a situation so far from the hoop. Even near the hoop, once the clock gets inside five seconds or so, foul calls are rare. So shame on you Big East officials, that’s one time when a fan actually can definitively point to a referee and say, ‘he cost us the game.’

You stay classy Mr. Stewart
Right off the bat, I don’t know anything about NASCAR and I want to keep it that way. But ESPN, looking for every last viewer on the planet, decides to pound racing coverage into everyone’s head. Thankfully this time it was pretty funny. Tony Stewart, who is almost like the Ron Artest or Stephen Jackson of NASCAR, is always getting in trouble. I don’t follow racing at all, but I feel like every few weeks I hear about Tony Stewart punching someone else. This time it was Kurt Busch who he socked after an on-track incident. First of all, someone needs to man up and just knock him out. Why does he get a free pass to just walk around and punch whoever he pleases? Maybe it’s because he seems to keep piling on pounds like he was trying to qualify for the Heavyweight class. He seems to be getting fatter and fatter each time I see him after punching someone. But as big of a jerk as he seems, he’s just about the only one producing interesting news relevant to NASCAR.


And you too Sports Illustrated, stay classy
I find it hilarious that every year Sports Illustrated, the media company dedicated to hard hitting sports news, analysis and great columns and writing, basically sells a soft core porn issue. The swimsuit edition is just amazingly creepy. I understand, most guys like sports, and those guys also usually like scantily clad women. But SI comes off as a classy sports outlet, with sports all the time and interesting human interest pieces. The formula of guys liking both sports and women is usually saved for the Maxims of the world. But each year, SI seems to throw everything out the window and produce the swimsuit issue. Maybe there is some sort of Title IX thing at SI, where they have to have an equal amount of men and women pictured in their magazines per year, and this is their way of making that even out. Maybe. Or maybe it just sells. Now don’t get me wrong. I don’t hate it. And I might still have a few issues. But I just can’t help laughing at the breasts peering down at an angry Roger Clemens.


Lastly
I’ll leave you with this clip. We’re just about rounding out the time when Giants fans can acceptably bask in the glory of their Super Bowl victory. So as one last entry, I’ll throw this video in. Now I don’t like the Giants, but the lyrics are pretty accurate in hating on the Patriots, which I thoroughly enjoy. Despite the horrific Michael Jackson imitation and the wretched voices of Giants fans, it’s worth watching (thanks to Craig for the tip).




-Pat

Photo credit: si.com, community.foxsports.com/blogs/nascarfan_fanzone

Pedro - no, not the cockfighter

There are some great perks of the college life. We know about the partying, co-eds and such. But one undeniable advantage of attending college is the frequent opportunity to see speakers and figures from all sorts of backgrounds and professions. On Monday night, that guest at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications was ESPN’s own Pedro Gomez.

I figured since there’s not much else consuming my free time these days that I'd wander over and see him speak. I’d seen him before on Sportscenter and believed he had some minor interest in Barry Bonds (link - on the middle of the page to the right).

Turns out, there’s more to Pedro than just the San Francisco slugger. One of the first things the ESPN reporter did Monday was slam Curt Schilling, which meant Gomez was already a good man in my book.

He talked with a moderator for about 30 minutes about various issues ranging from steroids to clubhouse relations to journalism. Then Gomez took part in a 30 minute Q+A session with the audience of about 100 (filled with journalists, sports buffs, and nutcases wearing ESPN hats – yes, I’m serious).

Pedro had some very interesting things to say. Frankly, rather than bore you with a summary and interruptions from me, I’ll list some of his comments (taken with my best shorthand):

On the federal hearings and indictments –
“When you lie to the federal government they don’t take kindly to it, whether you’re Richard Nixon, Marion Jones, Martha Stewart or Roger Clemens.

The government doesn’t tend to indict someone that they can’t get. They have a very high batting average.”

On steroids and its impact on Hall of Fame voting (Gomez has a vote as a member of the Baseball Writers Association of America):
“I personally have a big problem with anyone who used performance enhancing drugs.”

He continued to say that most voters draw the line there, and that he did not vote for McGwire – who received less than 30 percent of the votes (a player needs 75 % to be inducted). Gomez added that he doesn’t ever really see McGwire reaching 75 percent.

"It would be interesting if the all-time hit leader (Pete Rose), HR leader (Bonds), and one of the all-time wins leaders (Clemens) would all be left out of the Hall of Fame.”

On Curt Schilling and his antics during the 2001 World Series when he “held his team hostage” and told his manager he could not pitch game 7:
“Schilling is basically a con-man”

On what is worse: insider gambling on baseball or steroids:
“They both rank high but I’d say gambling.”

On the upcoming 2008 season:
“The NL is just weak. The AL Central should be a great division, I think the White Sox will recover. The East is always the same two teams.”

He didn’t respond when someone shouted out, ‘so who’s going to face the Mets in the World Series?’

Interestingly, Gomez crossed himself a little bit with these next two quotes, which were separated by a few questions:
“I’ve been asked before, ‘straight up did Barry Bonds do steroids?’ I said I wouldn’t answer. If Wolf Blitzer had been asked if Bill Clinton slept with Monica Lewinski, he wouldn’t answer either.”

“I will not vote for anyone I believe took performance enhancing drugs, and I think Bonds did…I don’t know that a lot of these guys will get in.”

Overall it was an interesting talk and fun to see what appears on TV to be a brainwashed ESPN employee in a different setting than on the San Fran infield or outside a stadium filing a report. Gomez cracked a few jokes and was patient and interested in each person’s question. No one pestered him too much about covering Bonds non stop for about two years, but he did voluntarily offer this gem:

“Covering Barry Bonds will be in my obituary, I’ve come to terms with that.”


With that, I'll sign off....Pat DiSalvo, Giving 111 Percent (In that annoying ESPN rhythm)


Photo credits: si.com, the700level.com