Learn How This One Weird Trick, Invented By A Dad, Ruined College Basketball Forever!!
Myron Medcalf apparently never learned not to poke a bees' nest. Mark Titus had it right about UVA fans, even if "emotionally fragile" isn't quite the turn of phrase I'd've used. UVA is a school with just enough success to make its fans think it should have a hell of a lot more, and greatly fear losing what we have. We react, I think, more favorably than most fanbases to favorable opinions, and launch more heat-seeking missiles than most fanbases at those perceived to be haterz, whether or not the haterism was the result of malice or negligence. I don't even remember which ESPN writer it was, but when he left Mike Scott off his Wooden Award list, he felt the Twitter wrath so strongly that he felt compelled to jokingly warn another writer (who made the same mistake) that the Mongol hordes would soon descend.
I enjoy this reputation, to be honest. It speaks to a passionate fanbase - one which is absolutely overjoyed to have something worth being passionate about, and sometimes aims that passion in interesting directions. So when guys like Myron Medcalf write articles entitled, "Is UVA's style bad for the game?" (and make no mistake, he wasn't actually asking) it's like chumming for sharks.
I don't know which fallacy to start with in Medcalf's article, so I think I'll start by pointing out that it wasn't just UVA fans blowing up the joint. David Teel let him have it, albeit without actually mentioning him by name. It was worth every word. Kentucky fans did too. The comment section is loaded with people from non-UVA schools saying how stupid this is. My favorite was from a guy Facebook-identifying with Boston University who bought tickets to UVA at Boston College because he wanted to see UVA's defense in action. Keep in mind: BU and BC is to hockey what UNC and Duke is to basketball. This is sort of like if you, the Virginia fan living in DC, actually paid money to the University of Maryland just because you wanted to see Tom Izzo. This is the "casual fan" that Medcalf thinks hates UVA.
Medcalf wrote his column after, and cited, the Pitt game, which ended 61-49. A slow-paced score. BOOORRRINNNG. UVA is about seven possessions a game short of the national median for tempo; we average 58 possessions a game, while the median is 65. Seven more possessions means that game would've finished, oh, about 68-55. WOW SO EXCITING!!!
Let's leave aside the fact that Medcalf essentially said that sound defense and good fundamentals are bad for the game. Even on his terms, the fact is, UVA's system is good for the game, not bad. Inarguably, indisputably so. What Tony Bennett is doing is a boon for the sport - and for the so-called casual fan.
-- It keeps the variety in the game. Listen, the Venn diagram of college basketball fans and NBA fans has a smaller intersection than you think. NBA fans go in for the soap operas and the transcendent athletes. College fans appreciate the variety of styles. If there are differing styles between NBA teams, they're lost on all but the most serious students of the game - and most of those students are studying college ball instead. One reason Kentucky fans think the Medcalf piece was dumb is because they'd love to get a piece of UVA. Really. And for much the same reason as we would love to play them. That particular clash of styles is an irresistable attraction. Both fanbases want to win this year's championship, but both fanbases would love, along the way, to prove their team's style is superior as well.
-- It keeps games closer, and closer games are shockingly more interesting to the "casual fan." Actually, I think this is a bit overblown, but announcers harp on it every time a team hangs close with UVA. Fewer possessions, less opportunity to break open the game, and so on. There's a kernel of truth to it, but there's also this: if the so-called casual fan keeps hearing these announcers blather about it, he's likely to think, "this might be a good chance to see an upset."
-- It occasionally produces circus-freak scores. Like 76-27 or 45-26. That certainly draws attention, yes? It is possible to say with a straight face that this team might one day finish a first half with a goose egg on the other team's scoreboard. I find it hard to believe that wouldn't interest anyone.
-- Finally - and this is absolutely the crux of the argument right here - that "casual fan" that Medcalf thinks dominates the game's fanbase? The one that "cares about entertainment," where "entertainment" means running and scoring? You know the type.
It's a unicorn. It doesn't exist. Medcalf wrote a whole article about his own imagination.
There is such a thing as the "casual fan," yes. That person is a fan of a team, not a sport. (Or they're a fan of an event, specifically the NCAA tournament.) Medcalf thinks Joe Schmo, the "gamblers, bus drivers, CEOs, and salesmen" in his article, will be sitting in their living rooms going, "hmm, I wonder who's playing college basketball tonight" in much the same way they peruse Netflix for a movie to pass the time. They don't. People who are fans of college basketball have a team and they watch that team. The more casual they are, the less likely they are to watch or care about Random Monday Night Game, not more. Duh! (And, obviously, the more casual they are, the less likely they are to notice the difference between Game A and Game B where Game A has eight more possessions than Game B. As well, the more casual they are, the less likely they are to know which team plays what style of ball. Duh, again.) It's the serious fans - you know, the ones that like college basketball pretty much the way it is, that watch random games for entertainment.
The real casual fans, not the ones that exist in Myron Medcalf's head, are interested in seeing their team do well. That team is not likely to be Kentucky or Duke or Kansas. There are 351 teams in the country, of which maybe eight are considered royalty of the game. Chances are extremely good that their team isn't one of them. Tony Bennett gives them hope. Because Tony Bennett is proving you can be elite without recruiting Burger Boys, as long as you have a system. If college ball encourages running and hyper-scoring, it means the only way to succeed is with elite athletes, and the only schools that can recruit elite athletes are the royalty. Fans of UVA and Wisconsin and Baylor and Utah and Wichita State and Iowa State (and so on and so forth) want to know their team has a shot at hanging a banner. If college ball listens to the Myron Medcalfs of the world, and NBA-ifies the game, the Final Four will be four of the same eight teams, every year.
Nobody wants that. Any drooling idiot can see that the thing that makes the NCAA tournament interesting to the "casual fan" (the one from above that's a fan of the event) is Cinderella. Hell, Cinderella is probably one of the major forces that has helped keep the NCAA together.** That's the one thing the "casual fan" likes above everything else.
One could go the cynical route and suggest that Medcalf is fronting for his employer, an employer which holds a vested interest in TV ratings. ESPN isn't a neutral observer; they want games to be as interesting as possible. Maybe Medcalf is just mouthpiecing the results of some focus group that got latched onto by the C-suite at Disney. I say, never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. Hanlon's razor. Medcalf wrote something dumb because it'd been percolating in his head for a while now, and he's surrounded by groupthink in his media bubble. As we've seen, actual college basketball fanhood reacted to it as they should've.
**The Power 5 conferences might have made a stronger move to break away, if the NCAA tournament weren't such a money machine, and it's a money machine because Lehigh over Duke.
Showing posts with label please spare us the crap ESPN kthx. Show all posts
Showing posts with label please spare us the crap ESPN kthx. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 18, 2015
Thursday, October 6, 2011
project
Instead of writing, I decided to work on a project today: a highlight video to get you started on football season. No, nothing from this football season. Our wins haven't been where I can get my claws on them. Two on ESPN3 and one on the Big Ten Network, and yes I have BTN but the powers that be decided that despite the fact that both Indiana and Virginia are closer to this town than Nebraska is, this town would be more interested in Nebraska anyway. I hate the powers that be. So no IU highlights.
I digress. I had this video sent to me by an interested viewer and hope to get more in the future; it is, even as I type, undergoing its final processing into the usual highlight video. You can find it in the video library, but just to be nice and not a total pageviews whore (it ain't like I'm ca$hing check$ off it, after all) I'll link it right here, the new highlight video I've spent today working on:
1995 UVA vs. Georgia (Peach Bowl)
Yesssssssssss more Welsh era stuff yessssssssss. It's an ESPN Classic broadcast so it's a little strange-ish because they've already taken out what they see fit to, so the highlight flow is a touch different from what I'd like. But you'll watch anyway because you want that good-times remembrance of when we could expect to win games.
Astute readers will do a little math in their heads and recall that this game was almost 16 years ago, and I've only been a UVA fan for 11 years, so a little subtraction will tell you this predates my affiliation. In fact, I'd never seen this game. So that made it kind of a fun experience, actually, in a different way than you may approach this. Or maybe you're a newer fan than I, in which case, rock on and enjoy. I can't help a little editorializing about the game, though, namely:
- Astroturf underneath a badly-lit sanitized NFL dome is and always has been a poor way to play college football. I must say it takes something away from the experience.
- UGA coach Ray Goff was coaching his final game, having been fired midway through the season but allowed to finish it out. The loss dropped Georgia to 6-6. It's kind of quaint seeing signs in the stands supporting the fired coach and wishing him well. This is, you see, from before the Webz took hold of college football fandom and consequently, before the days of firethatfuckingshitbag.com.
- You'll see a lot of Goff in the highlights. This may be before the days of burning coach hatred, but it is not before the days of disgustingly biased announcers. They talk about the time they spent with Ray Goff prior to the game and it clearly gave them a rooting interest - the play by play guy could not be less enthused about watching [really exciting and decisive Virginia play redacted in case you haven't seen this or don't remember] if it was instead a word-for-word recitation of the Unabomber manifesto. (You like my period reference, by the way? That was slick.)
Anyway, enjoy the highlights. With a little luck, more history may be on the way.
I digress. I had this video sent to me by an interested viewer and hope to get more in the future; it is, even as I type, undergoing its final processing into the usual highlight video. You can find it in the video library, but just to be nice and not a total pageviews whore (it ain't like I'm ca$hing check$ off it, after all) I'll link it right here, the new highlight video I've spent today working on:
1995 UVA vs. Georgia (Peach Bowl)
Yesssssssssss more Welsh era stuff yessssssssss. It's an ESPN Classic broadcast so it's a little strange-ish because they've already taken out what they see fit to, so the highlight flow is a touch different from what I'd like. But you'll watch anyway because you want that good-times remembrance of when we could expect to win games.
Astute readers will do a little math in their heads and recall that this game was almost 16 years ago, and I've only been a UVA fan for 11 years, so a little subtraction will tell you this predates my affiliation. In fact, I'd never seen this game. So that made it kind of a fun experience, actually, in a different way than you may approach this. Or maybe you're a newer fan than I, in which case, rock on and enjoy. I can't help a little editorializing about the game, though, namely:
- Astroturf underneath a badly-lit sanitized NFL dome is and always has been a poor way to play college football. I must say it takes something away from the experience.
- UGA coach Ray Goff was coaching his final game, having been fired midway through the season but allowed to finish it out. The loss dropped Georgia to 6-6. It's kind of quaint seeing signs in the stands supporting the fired coach and wishing him well. This is, you see, from before the Webz took hold of college football fandom and consequently, before the days of firethatfuckingshitbag.com.
- You'll see a lot of Goff in the highlights. This may be before the days of burning coach hatred, but it is not before the days of disgustingly biased announcers. They talk about the time they spent with Ray Goff prior to the game and it clearly gave them a rooting interest - the play by play guy could not be less enthused about watching [really exciting and decisive Virginia play redacted in case you haven't seen this or don't remember] if it was instead a word-for-word recitation of the Unabomber manifesto. (You like my period reference, by the way? That was slick.)
Anyway, enjoy the highlights. With a little luck, more history may be on the way.
Monday, January 17, 2011
the waiting is the hardest part
It's not that hard, seeing into the future. You just have to know where and when to look. Basketball games these days are a good start. The Future Channel doesn't come in HD, of course; it's a staticky, broken-up picture. Sometimes it's there, sometimes not. It's clearest when you see things like aggressive close-outs that follow a crisp, well-executed double team; it fades out again when the ball is heaved carelessly out of bounds on the ensuing possession. The future is right there on your TV, but it's like listening to the radio on the very edge of the broadcast radius, with other stations fighting to be heard on the same frequency, replacing your Aerosmith with local community college talk radio every time you drive underneath a power line.
We're getting there, of course. It just sucks to wait. It's frustrating to watch this team play like a talented ACC powerhouse for 30 minutes, only to be foiled when the opposition realizes what it's dealing with. UVA had Duke fooled for a half and then some. They played exactly the aggressive, close-out defense I wanted to see. They forced entry passes to be caught too far outside the paint to be of any use and then double-teamed the shit out of the post man. They cheated outside the pack-line just enough to hurry Duke's three-pointers and eliminate the mid-range jumper that they've feasted on since about 1991. On offense, Jontel Evans and Mustapha Farrakhan drove with authority and kicked out to wide-open three-point shooters. Assane Sene somehow knew when to be on the offensive glass and when not to be.
And then it all went to shit when Duke remembered they were Duke and further took note of where Mike Scott was. The lack of anyone at all who can reliably score from inside affects everything on offense. There's nowhere to pass to except around the outside. You can drive, but Duke was basically playing an inverse box-and-one: four guys running around playing man-to-man and one seven-foot lummox stationed near the basket to discourage any thoughts of driving the lane. The lack of a respectable big man not only takes away your plays for scoring down low, it takes away most of your guards' options too because there's no good reason to respect anything you'll do within twelve feet. Duke simply deployed Ryan Kelly and/or Mason Plumlee around the basket and told them to swat any flying round objects. UVA's guards got the hint and ceased all attempts at aggressiveness.
Still: the future. So many pieces to a successful basketball team are missing from this one. No respect-at-all-costs scoring threat. No size. The future is visible in those glimpses of what's being accomplished despite that. Any team that can be leading Duke, by nine, at Cameron, in the second half, is a force to be reckoned with; give it back its best player, add a couple highly talented recruits, and give it a year to grow up, and you've got the reason Tony Bennett was hired. It'll be worth waiting for. It just sucks having to slog through the static to get there.
*************************************
Other stuff from the game:
- Didn't hear much out of Kyle Singler on Saturday. Part of that was because Duke was riding Nolan Smith's hot hand, but UVA did an excellent job defending Singler, holding him to his third-lowest scoring total and second-lowest rebounding total of the year. Singler's a matchup nightmare - he's Will Sherrill with athleticism and a better jump shot. Holding him to 13 and 4 is outstanding work.
- Mike Patrick and Len Elmore are supposed to be pretty good broadcasters, but they sounded like local radio. Basic knowledge of the visitor's roster was horrendous. I don't even know what Jontel's last name is any more; Patrick and Elmore offered a number of different suggestions, trying out "Jontel Harris," "Jontel Evans," "Jontel Davis," and "Mustapha Farrakhan" with equal emphasis throughout the course of the broadcast. That's when they weren't calling the real Mu "Mustapha Farracan." Small wonder people think the Worldwide Leader exists to cater to certain teams only.
- Speaking of hilarity from the WWL, it made me giggle to listen to the broadcasters praise Mike Kry-whatever for remaning calm in the face of adversity to provide his team with a "teaching moment," only to watch Coach K go apeshit in the very next timeout. I would make some kind of a comparison to Tony Bennett's timeout demeanor during the game except there were never any cameras on him. Duke, you see.
- The refereeing brought zero complaints from me, which is weird for a UVA game and really weird for one in Cameron. I thought it was very even-handed, actually, which probably means it was tilted in UVA's favor. At any rate, they failed to give Duke the platinum-membership treatment they're accustomed to, which helped the first half go as well as it did.
**************************************
I don't know when this week I'm going to be able to get to this, so now's as good a time as any to update the recruiting board. This is in advance of what shapes up to be a huge recruiting weekend. Practically this whole class committed before official visit season began, so most will be in town, along with a couple of the biggest of the biggest targets on the board. Ahead of the weekend, it's time to whittle a few names off the board and get ready for the homestretch. Updates:
- Removed DE Horace Arkadie from blue - he committed to Arkansas. That's one of the main five targets down, though Arkadie was almost certainly fifth of five on the wish list. Mainly that's a function of space and already-committed players, although it's always hard to get a Texas kid out of the southwest.
- Removed WR Brandon Reddish from yellow - Syracuse commit.
- Removed LB Nick Menocal from red - looks like a definite to stick with Miami.
- Moved LB Curtis Grant from green to blue. Remember how I've been saying UVA would at the very least be one of the hats on Grant's table? Well, here we are: Grant will take an official visit to UVA, a change from his earlier stance of figuring he'd been to Charlottesville enough. That's good enough to move him up. Bleacher Report thinks he's down to Florida and Ohio State only, but that report was derived from the rectal extraction tables.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Curtis Grant just can't stop hanging out in Charlottesville. I like our chances just as much as OSU and UF like theirs.
- Lastly, Daquan Romero now shows up in the database, a week following David Watford, so his status is changed to "enrolled."
The 2012 board is thisclose to being ready to go. Really I'm just waiting for a good chance to unveil it. If not this week, and this week is likely, then next. Possibly the weekend.
We're getting there, of course. It just sucks to wait. It's frustrating to watch this team play like a talented ACC powerhouse for 30 minutes, only to be foiled when the opposition realizes what it's dealing with. UVA had Duke fooled for a half and then some. They played exactly the aggressive, close-out defense I wanted to see. They forced entry passes to be caught too far outside the paint to be of any use and then double-teamed the shit out of the post man. They cheated outside the pack-line just enough to hurry Duke's three-pointers and eliminate the mid-range jumper that they've feasted on since about 1991. On offense, Jontel Evans and Mustapha Farrakhan drove with authority and kicked out to wide-open three-point shooters. Assane Sene somehow knew when to be on the offensive glass and when not to be.
And then it all went to shit when Duke remembered they were Duke and further took note of where Mike Scott was. The lack of anyone at all who can reliably score from inside affects everything on offense. There's nowhere to pass to except around the outside. You can drive, but Duke was basically playing an inverse box-and-one: four guys running around playing man-to-man and one seven-foot lummox stationed near the basket to discourage any thoughts of driving the lane. The lack of a respectable big man not only takes away your plays for scoring down low, it takes away most of your guards' options too because there's no good reason to respect anything you'll do within twelve feet. Duke simply deployed Ryan Kelly and/or Mason Plumlee around the basket and told them to swat any flying round objects. UVA's guards got the hint and ceased all attempts at aggressiveness.
Still: the future. So many pieces to a successful basketball team are missing from this one. No respect-at-all-costs scoring threat. No size. The future is visible in those glimpses of what's being accomplished despite that. Any team that can be leading Duke, by nine, at Cameron, in the second half, is a force to be reckoned with; give it back its best player, add a couple highly talented recruits, and give it a year to grow up, and you've got the reason Tony Bennett was hired. It'll be worth waiting for. It just sucks having to slog through the static to get there.
*************************************
Other stuff from the game:
- Didn't hear much out of Kyle Singler on Saturday. Part of that was because Duke was riding Nolan Smith's hot hand, but UVA did an excellent job defending Singler, holding him to his third-lowest scoring total and second-lowest rebounding total of the year. Singler's a matchup nightmare - he's Will Sherrill with athleticism and a better jump shot. Holding him to 13 and 4 is outstanding work.
- Mike Patrick and Len Elmore are supposed to be pretty good broadcasters, but they sounded like local radio. Basic knowledge of the visitor's roster was horrendous. I don't even know what Jontel's last name is any more; Patrick and Elmore offered a number of different suggestions, trying out "Jontel Harris," "Jontel Evans," "Jontel Davis," and "Mustapha Farrakhan" with equal emphasis throughout the course of the broadcast. That's when they weren't calling the real Mu "Mustapha Farracan." Small wonder people think the Worldwide Leader exists to cater to certain teams only.
- Speaking of hilarity from the WWL, it made me giggle to listen to the broadcasters praise Mike Kry-whatever for remaning calm in the face of adversity to provide his team with a "teaching moment," only to watch Coach K go apeshit in the very next timeout. I would make some kind of a comparison to Tony Bennett's timeout demeanor during the game except there were never any cameras on him. Duke, you see.
- The refereeing brought zero complaints from me, which is weird for a UVA game and really weird for one in Cameron. I thought it was very even-handed, actually, which probably means it was tilted in UVA's favor. At any rate, they failed to give Duke the platinum-membership treatment they're accustomed to, which helped the first half go as well as it did.
**************************************
I don't know when this week I'm going to be able to get to this, so now's as good a time as any to update the recruiting board. This is in advance of what shapes up to be a huge recruiting weekend. Practically this whole class committed before official visit season began, so most will be in town, along with a couple of the biggest of the biggest targets on the board. Ahead of the weekend, it's time to whittle a few names off the board and get ready for the homestretch. Updates:
- Removed DE Horace Arkadie from blue - he committed to Arkansas. That's one of the main five targets down, though Arkadie was almost certainly fifth of five on the wish list. Mainly that's a function of space and already-committed players, although it's always hard to get a Texas kid out of the southwest.
- Removed WR Brandon Reddish from yellow - Syracuse commit.
- Removed LB Nick Menocal from red - looks like a definite to stick with Miami.
- Moved LB Curtis Grant from green to blue. Remember how I've been saying UVA would at the very least be one of the hats on Grant's table? Well, here we are: Grant will take an official visit to UVA, a change from his earlier stance of figuring he'd been to Charlottesville enough. That's good enough to move him up. Bleacher Report thinks he's down to Florida and Ohio State only, but that report was derived from the rectal extraction tables.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Curtis Grant just can't stop hanging out in Charlottesville. I like our chances just as much as OSU and UF like theirs.
- Lastly, Daquan Romero now shows up in the database, a week following David Watford, so his status is changed to "enrolled."
The 2012 board is thisclose to being ready to go. Really I'm just waiting for a good chance to unveil it. If not this week, and this week is likely, then next. Possibly the weekend.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
it's hard to get angry at a bad team
Toward the end there, I was really starting to want that game. Obviously, you want the win; as a bonus, it would have knocked Boston College mathematically out of the ACCCG, which, sorry BC fans, but a third straight BC trip to that game would be awful for the conference. So there was a nice double whammy going, and damn if it didn't look like it was going to happen for a while there.
Then, of course, reality sank in, and here we are. And it didn't even suck too bad. Which, is that a bad thing in itself? If we were in contention for anything - anything at all - I'd have spent this whole day and probably most of the rest of the week brooding over the myriad single plays that could have swung the game the other way. If Randolph hadn't missed a field goal; if Vic Hall (of all people!) hadn't dropped a pair of passes on the same series; if we hadn't let BC out of a first-and-25 on their scoring drive; and most obviously, if Sewell could have picked up just six more inches. This is the stuff I'd have been brooding about all day. Instead I played a bunch of Civ and watched stock cars go round and round. I've come to the placid acceptance that the season is a wash. That combined with the beginning of basketball season and the happy glow from a surprise ACC soccer championship would seem to be therapeutic.
(The soccer would be a million times more exciting to me if they would ever televise a soccer game, ever. You'd think that's what ESPNU is for, but no, they'd rather broadcast "Inside the Big East" and replays of random shitty MAC games from the previous Tuesday. As it is the best I can do is nod happily.)
Anyway, this newfound numbness over losing is all well and good, as long as it's short-term and followed by a "change in the program's direction" in the offseason. You might remember I once opined that Al Groh's greatest contribution to the program has been to keep our expectations high. He might not always have met them, but he's done more than well enough to keep us wanting more. This is healthy. The last thing we want is to go the way of North Carolina, post-Mack Brown. Carl Torbush came in and let things slide, and people there lowered their expectations and stopped really caring, and it got to the point where six years of John Bunting seemed perfectly acceptable even as he flushed the football team down the crapper. I am hoping that expectations next August do not match those for next week.
*******************************************************
- BC fans ought to be furious this week. Livid. Here they are trying to stay alive for an ACC championship and their coaches came thisclose to pissing it away. I don't know who was calling the defense on our final almost-scoring drive, whether it was Spaziani or DC Bill McGovern, but they need first to be slapped and after that to learn how to scout the opposition. You are up against the second-worst offense in the entire country - worse than all the shitty Eastern Michigans, Washington States, New Mexicos, Ball States, and all the rest - and you have given up three points to that offense all day, and just because there are only two short minutes left in the game, that is the time to switch to a soft prevent zone? We haven't moved the ball like that all year because teams insist on never playing zone against us. Imagine that. It turned out OK for BC in the end, but it damn near didn't, and it would have been the Bad Decision of the Year for the Eagles. Hint to all future opposing defenses: Never ever deviate from man coverage and we will not score any touchdowns.
- Let's just agree to not play any running backs this season except for Rashawn Jackson.
- Special teams at the beginning of the season were just sort of crummy in a really boring way. Randolph has been near-automatic this year, which is nice, and Howell's a decent punter, but the return and coverage units were just wandering about in the wilderness. Somehow the special teams have made huge improvements and at the same time, regressed horribly. Now we block punts for touchdowns, return punts for touchdowns, and don't kick the ball out of bounds any more. It looks great. At the same time, we negate our TDs with the world's stupidest penalties and rough the punter on 4th-and-22. I don't know whether to give Ron Prince major-league credit for coming up with innovative punt rushes and improving the return blocking as the season goes, or rip him a new one for neglecting to coach his guys not to block in the back and dialing up all-out bumrushes on 4th-and-22.
- Putting us on national TV next week seems like a really nutty idea, but keep in mind: it's all about Clemson. They win, they set up a rematch with Georgia Tech in Tampa. Prepare yourself for the C.J. Spiller Heisman campaign as brought to you by ESPN, and for the announcers to be not entirely sure which team he's playing against. Besides, once you get past the ESPN2 game (BC-UNC) the next three games are disasters. I want to know where I can get the three-way parlay on TFSU, Miami, and Poly to each win by three touchdowns.
- It's basketball season, and Tony Bennett is 1-0.
Then, of course, reality sank in, and here we are. And it didn't even suck too bad. Which, is that a bad thing in itself? If we were in contention for anything - anything at all - I'd have spent this whole day and probably most of the rest of the week brooding over the myriad single plays that could have swung the game the other way. If Randolph hadn't missed a field goal; if Vic Hall (of all people!) hadn't dropped a pair of passes on the same series; if we hadn't let BC out of a first-and-25 on their scoring drive; and most obviously, if Sewell could have picked up just six more inches. This is the stuff I'd have been brooding about all day. Instead I played a bunch of Civ and watched stock cars go round and round. I've come to the placid acceptance that the season is a wash. That combined with the beginning of basketball season and the happy glow from a surprise ACC soccer championship would seem to be therapeutic.
(The soccer would be a million times more exciting to me if they would ever televise a soccer game, ever. You'd think that's what ESPNU is for, but no, they'd rather broadcast "Inside the Big East" and replays of random shitty MAC games from the previous Tuesday. As it is the best I can do is nod happily.)
Anyway, this newfound numbness over losing is all well and good, as long as it's short-term and followed by a "change in the program's direction" in the offseason. You might remember I once opined that Al Groh's greatest contribution to the program has been to keep our expectations high. He might not always have met them, but he's done more than well enough to keep us wanting more. This is healthy. The last thing we want is to go the way of North Carolina, post-Mack Brown. Carl Torbush came in and let things slide, and people there lowered their expectations and stopped really caring, and it got to the point where six years of John Bunting seemed perfectly acceptable even as he flushed the football team down the crapper. I am hoping that expectations next August do not match those for next week.
*******************************************************
- BC fans ought to be furious this week. Livid. Here they are trying to stay alive for an ACC championship and their coaches came thisclose to pissing it away. I don't know who was calling the defense on our final almost-scoring drive, whether it was Spaziani or DC Bill McGovern, but they need first to be slapped and after that to learn how to scout the opposition. You are up against the second-worst offense in the entire country - worse than all the shitty Eastern Michigans, Washington States, New Mexicos, Ball States, and all the rest - and you have given up three points to that offense all day, and just because there are only two short minutes left in the game, that is the time to switch to a soft prevent zone? We haven't moved the ball like that all year because teams insist on never playing zone against us. Imagine that. It turned out OK for BC in the end, but it damn near didn't, and it would have been the Bad Decision of the Year for the Eagles. Hint to all future opposing defenses: Never ever deviate from man coverage and we will not score any touchdowns.
- Let's just agree to not play any running backs this season except for Rashawn Jackson.
- Special teams at the beginning of the season were just sort of crummy in a really boring way. Randolph has been near-automatic this year, which is nice, and Howell's a decent punter, but the return and coverage units were just wandering about in the wilderness. Somehow the special teams have made huge improvements and at the same time, regressed horribly. Now we block punts for touchdowns, return punts for touchdowns, and don't kick the ball out of bounds any more. It looks great. At the same time, we negate our TDs with the world's stupidest penalties and rough the punter on 4th-and-22. I don't know whether to give Ron Prince major-league credit for coming up with innovative punt rushes and improving the return blocking as the season goes, or rip him a new one for neglecting to coach his guys not to block in the back and dialing up all-out bumrushes on 4th-and-22.
- Putting us on national TV next week seems like a really nutty idea, but keep in mind: it's all about Clemson. They win, they set up a rematch with Georgia Tech in Tampa. Prepare yourself for the C.J. Spiller Heisman campaign as brought to you by ESPN, and for the announcers to be not entirely sure which team he's playing against. Besides, once you get past the ESPN2 game (BC-UNC) the next three games are disasters. I want to know where I can get the three-way parlay on TFSU, Miami, and Poly to each win by three touchdowns.
- It's basketball season, and Tony Bennett is 1-0.
Monday, October 13, 2008
weekend review
The game's the thing on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, so here as usual we take a Monday drive to see what we missed.
We start with the first news of this type since July: the 20th verbal commitment. Javanti Sparrow is your man. This comes as no surprise: Sparrow had just one actual written offer - ours - and claimed few other verbal ones. He mentioned that UNC, for example, had verbally offered, but a verbal offer is not really an offer. Sparrow is, at the moment, projected as a safety. The recruiting board and depth chart are updated accordingly.
Speaking of UNC, they got awful news this weekend with the loss of Brandon Tate for the season. It is a brutal knee injury. It's always a shame when a guy's senior season is lost to something like this. I feel bad for Tate. I'll start feeling bad for the rest of the Heels after Saturday's game; til then, it's naught but a change to the scouting report. And I'd be lying if I pretended this didn't improve our chances to keep the streak alive.
Clemson also lost a key member of the team, but on purpose. The Age of Bowden is no more in Death Valley. This simultaneously takes care of any speculation as to whether Al Groh or Tommy Bowden would be the first ACC coach fired, and shelves ESPN's plans for BOWDEN BOWL X! - THE WAR-IDA IN FLORIDA!! Seriously, thank you thank you thank you Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips for doing this before the annual tangle with Florida State, and sparing us the Bowden Bowl hype that ESPN foisted on us each and every time the two met. Cullen Harper wasted no time hilariously throwing his now ex-coach under the bus: "It's what he deserved," and "I'd call it karma. I thought it needed to be done," and such. Wow. Think somebody was pissed about being benched? You know, the Tommy Bowden catapult was cocked and ready for some time now, but then again Tommy Bowden hasn't been throwing poorly timed interceptions deep in his own territory in the biggest divisional game of the year, Cullen. Fired coach, fired quarterback - the stage is now set for Clemson to have completed a spectacular meltdown by November 22, which happens to be when we play them. Isn't it funny how two teams can be 3-3 and feeling entirely different about themselves?
ESPNU will be bringing you the Georgia Tech game at 3:30 on the 25th. Hooray for 3:30 starts, and hooray for ESPNU not bringing us Student-Section-O-Vision for the Maryland game as they did against USC.
The soccer team has officially heated up. 4-0 in the ACC with a win over Clemson on Friday, outshooting the Tigers 15-2. Both the number 15 and the number 2 are excellent stats. The end of the regular season will be against Wake Forest on November 7, and both teams are 4-0 in ACC play. A terrific game is brewing if the two teams can remain undefeated.
Recruiting board update! Besides the aforementioned Sparrow commitment, we add Tajh Boyd, who decommitted from West Virginia. Chances rated as low right now; I have no idea if the coaches have even been in contact with Boyd since. He currently claims BC and Tennessee as his two schools of interest based on who's actually talked to him, but considers himself more or less wide open and waiting to see who he hears from. In other words, square one. The board is duly updated, as is the depth chart with Sparrow and the promotions of Austin Pasztor and Patrick Slebonick.
Now for the high schools. What has our freshman class of '09 been up to?
DOMINIQUE WALLACE: 97 yards and 2 TDs in Chancellor's 56-0 rout of Caroline.
ROSS METHENY: 7/15 passing for 130 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT as Sherando knocked off Skyline 44-20.
PERRY JONES: Have we mentioned that Oscar Smith is freaking good? Jones caught two TD passes and ran for another, and potential commit Tim Smith caught two more as OS beat King's Fork 55-0. Jones' play on defense was also highlighted.
Slow week this week. Tucker Windle's team won but with minimal contributions from him. Kevin Royal joined Alex Owah on the injured list last week with a broken arm. Paul Freedman's team lost as did Tyree Watkins'.
Aaaaaaaaand more ACC coverage....
Clemson laid a fat egg against Wake Forest, and Block C compares it to pissing oneself, which is probably apt. He also likes watching his running backs run smack dab into large piles of opposing defenders. Welcome to my world, circa September.
UNC beat Notre Dame 29-24, a nice win for the ACC. Tar Heel Fan has something like five separate posts railing on the referees and replay officials. TarEye or Buckheel? loves him some Butch Davis.
Georgia Tech escaped Gardner-Webb 10-7, and The LegacyX4 couldn't be unhappier with the offense. One sympathizes.
Finally, since I have this soapbox, I'm gonna bitch for a second about Michigan here. You don't have to read, it's cool. I'll just go off for a bit. We lost to Toledo, so....yeah....things are ugly. Any Michigan fan who:
- Wants to fire Rich Rodriguez after half a season and zero games against measuring-stick conference rivals....
- Thinks losing to Toledo is the worst loss ever....
- Is otherwise in a general state of panic, and raging against the "newfangled" spread we now run....
Can eat shit. We will be fine. I just have to come to terms with the end of the bowl streak.
That is all.
Cheers - that's your weekend review. Three weeks ago I was thanking my lucky stars I had Michigan football to make me forget about the horrendous losses we 'Hoos were destined to suffer week after week. Now the situation is reversed. Funny ol' world, innit?
We start with the first news of this type since July: the 20th verbal commitment. Javanti Sparrow is your man. This comes as no surprise: Sparrow had just one actual written offer - ours - and claimed few other verbal ones. He mentioned that UNC, for example, had verbally offered, but a verbal offer is not really an offer. Sparrow is, at the moment, projected as a safety. The recruiting board and depth chart are updated accordingly.
Speaking of UNC, they got awful news this weekend with the loss of Brandon Tate for the season. It is a brutal knee injury. It's always a shame when a guy's senior season is lost to something like this. I feel bad for Tate. I'll start feeling bad for the rest of the Heels after Saturday's game; til then, it's naught but a change to the scouting report. And I'd be lying if I pretended this didn't improve our chances to keep the streak alive.
Clemson also lost a key member of the team, but on purpose. The Age of Bowden is no more in Death Valley. This simultaneously takes care of any speculation as to whether Al Groh or Tommy Bowden would be the first ACC coach fired, and shelves ESPN's plans for BOWDEN BOWL X! - THE WAR-IDA IN FLORIDA!! Seriously, thank you thank you thank you Clemson AD Terry Don Phillips for doing this before the annual tangle with Florida State, and sparing us the Bowden Bowl hype that ESPN foisted on us each and every time the two met. Cullen Harper wasted no time hilariously throwing his now ex-coach under the bus: "It's what he deserved," and "I'd call it karma. I thought it needed to be done," and such. Wow. Think somebody was pissed about being benched? You know, the Tommy Bowden catapult was cocked and ready for some time now, but then again Tommy Bowden hasn't been throwing poorly timed interceptions deep in his own territory in the biggest divisional game of the year, Cullen. Fired coach, fired quarterback - the stage is now set for Clemson to have completed a spectacular meltdown by November 22, which happens to be when we play them. Isn't it funny how two teams can be 3-3 and feeling entirely different about themselves?
ESPNU will be bringing you the Georgia Tech game at 3:30 on the 25th. Hooray for 3:30 starts, and hooray for ESPNU not bringing us Student-Section-O-Vision for the Maryland game as they did against USC.
The soccer team has officially heated up. 4-0 in the ACC with a win over Clemson on Friday, outshooting the Tigers 15-2. Both the number 15 and the number 2 are excellent stats. The end of the regular season will be against Wake Forest on November 7, and both teams are 4-0 in ACC play. A terrific game is brewing if the two teams can remain undefeated.
Recruiting board update! Besides the aforementioned Sparrow commitment, we add Tajh Boyd, who decommitted from West Virginia. Chances rated as low right now; I have no idea if the coaches have even been in contact with Boyd since. He currently claims BC and Tennessee as his two schools of interest based on who's actually talked to him, but considers himself more or less wide open and waiting to see who he hears from. In other words, square one. The board is duly updated, as is the depth chart with Sparrow and the promotions of Austin Pasztor and Patrick Slebonick.
Now for the high schools. What has our freshman class of '09 been up to?
DOMINIQUE WALLACE: 97 yards and 2 TDs in Chancellor's 56-0 rout of Caroline.
ROSS METHENY: 7/15 passing for 130 yards, 2 TDs, and 1 INT as Sherando knocked off Skyline 44-20.
PERRY JONES: Have we mentioned that Oscar Smith is freaking good? Jones caught two TD passes and ran for another, and potential commit Tim Smith caught two more as OS beat King's Fork 55-0. Jones' play on defense was also highlighted.
Slow week this week. Tucker Windle's team won but with minimal contributions from him. Kevin Royal joined Alex Owah on the injured list last week with a broken arm. Paul Freedman's team lost as did Tyree Watkins'.
Aaaaaaaaand more ACC coverage....
Clemson laid a fat egg against Wake Forest, and Block C compares it to pissing oneself, which is probably apt. He also likes watching his running backs run smack dab into large piles of opposing defenders. Welcome to my world, circa September.
UNC beat Notre Dame 29-24, a nice win for the ACC. Tar Heel Fan has something like five separate posts railing on the referees and replay officials. TarEye or Buckheel? loves him some Butch Davis.
Georgia Tech escaped Gardner-Webb 10-7, and The LegacyX4 couldn't be unhappier with the offense. One sympathizes.
Finally, since I have this soapbox, I'm gonna bitch for a second about Michigan here. You don't have to read, it's cool. I'll just go off for a bit. We lost to Toledo, so....yeah....things are ugly. Any Michigan fan who:
- Wants to fire Rich Rodriguez after half a season and zero games against measuring-stick conference rivals....
- Thinks losing to Toledo is the worst loss ever....
- Is otherwise in a general state of panic, and raging against the "newfangled" spread we now run....
Can eat shit. We will be fine. I just have to come to terms with the end of the bowl streak.
That is all.
Cheers - that's your weekend review. Three weeks ago I was thanking my lucky stars I had Michigan football to make me forget about the horrendous losses we 'Hoos were destined to suffer week after week. Now the situation is reversed. Funny ol' world, innit?
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