Georgetown loses, Ernie laments

G'town didn't even make it to the Sweet 16. I almost don't want to watch the tournament anymore. Well, that's not true, but I was sad to see them lose and no less to a team led by someone who looks like a cross between a 14 year old and E.T. With three quarters of the field watching from home I would like to consider a couple things from the first weekend:

Vandy Impressive In Just How Badly They Stank
Butler got jobbed being given a #7 seed and played Tennessee--a once #1 team in the land--to a great overtime finish in the second round supporting they were legit. As much as they were underrated, and showed it, Vanderbilt was an overrated #4 and showed it. As my colleague Schmitt would say, Vandy shit the bed...oh man did they shit the bed. Blitzed by Siena in a game that was never close. Definitely the most lopsided upset so far.

Duke--as overrated a 2 seed since Iowa State in 2001; UCLA rewarded with a cake walk
Duke showed they aren't just weak when they can't shoot, they are actually a sub-par team. Scraping by Belmont then getting taken to the house by WVU. Paulus is really wishing he took the ND quarterback gig right about now. The #2 (Duke) and #3 (Xavier) from UCLA's region are weak as those seeds to begin. After Drake and UConn screwed the pooch and bowed out early they have to beat only W. Kentucky to face either Xavier or WVU to move to the Final Four. By far they have the easiest road among the 4 #1 seeds remaining.

A pair of 12-13 second round matchups...great!!
Through close games, except Vandy v. Siena, a pair of 12s (Villanova and WKU) and 13s (San Diego and Siena) advanced to play each other. 'Nova is a good school having a bit of a down year, but played well and moved past Siena easily--making you wonder even more just WTF with Vandy. I have no idea who W. Kentucky is but they knocked out Gumbercules' national champion pick (Drake) so I'll root for them against UCLA as they scraped by San Diego.

Washington St. wakes up at halftime against Winthrop
10 of the 12 top 3 seeds made it to the second weekend. If you said only one #4 seed would be in the Sweet 16 I would have bet money it would not have been Wash. St. Since they were tied with Winthrop at half they have outscored their opponent 93-52 over 3 halves. That 52 points allowed over three halves is super impressive. They may have a shot against UNC who has decided that instead of playing defense in their first two games they would just play at a pace that neither opponent could match. Good defense beats good offense...and vice versa.

The landscape of contenders didn't change too much except G'town and apparently Drake are gone. I think UCLA and UNC still are poised to dominate. Kansas has played well, but they're really good at finding ways to fuck things up. It's ironic how Memphis has fewer losses than any team in the land and yet few people talk about them as possible champs. That trend continues here, too.

Surgery hurts like I imagine that scene from American History X and that guy with his mouth on the sidewalk hurts.

Gumbercules, much love for the thoughts. I took the liberty of editing this post. For such an amazing feat of injury I just want to thank God, through him all things are possible. My actual x-ray looks like this:

I am now officially bionic with a plate and EIGHT screws holding my collarbone together. The incision for the surgery was a mere 6 inches.


The injury, of course, happened like this:


Get well soon! I have nobody to drink with.

With Favre's Retirement Vinny T. Has Eyes On The Prize

"Let's see...I wear black so throw to white!
Haha, another one for The Testaverdenator!"

For those doing the retiring, retirement means ending an era, allowing that what has been will no longer be. For those who have competed with an individual who is about to retire, that individuals retirement means something else. Opportunity. Favre retires holding most major records for a quarterback, including the most interceptions thrown, all-time. Looming in the shadow of that record is a curly-haired, former Heisman winner from the sometimes school most times site of illegal activity, Vinny Testaverde.

That's right, Vinny T. currently trails Favre by 21 career interceptions. While it might actually be difficult to throw 21 interceptions and still hold a job in this league, typically you'd be benched before accomplishing such ineptitude, Vinny T. has shown an admirable resiliency to such blatant measures of inadequacy. Vinny T. has eclipsed 21 interceptions in four seasons throughout his career and still manages to find a team that is willing to pay him money to run their offense. Look for Vinny T. to latch on where he can to show, once and for all, who's the boss of throwing to the wrong team. Some athletes stick around well past the prime of their careers to pad the productivity stats. Vinny T. never experienced a prime of his career and all he's got to go for is an ironic accomplishment where longevity and productivity clash. I say, play the hand your dealt, and go for it Vinny! The Testaverdenator rules!

Perspective

Samuel Wanjiru is arguable the greatest young long-distance runner ever. By age 18 he had set the world-record in the half-marathon and has since re-established the world-record twice (for a time the great Haile Gebreselaisse held the record). He has run a half-marathon in 58 minutes and 33 seconds--that's a 4:28 mile more than 13 consecutive times--faster than anyone in history and he did so at 20 years of age. Now 21, he competed in and won a marathon race held last weekend at which the winner was awarded $300,000!!! There has never been more money given to the winner of a single race. His response when asked what he intended to do with the money: buy his mother a tractor. That's right, for his single mother who has done so much for him and owns a few acres of farmland he will help repay this debt and buy her a tractor and hire someone to drive it. I don't know the conversion of $300,000 to the Kenyan currency--I'm not familiar with the metric system or any other foreign language, but that sounds like a lot. There are people in this world that have totally different ideas of what wealth means and the first thing that comes to mind when they think of what wealth can get you. It's interesting to think about.

Lloyd released by Redskins: Dan Synder proves up to task of overpaying for underachievers, yet again!

There's a reason why I had to use a photo of
him making a catch with San Francisco.

The Redskins released Brandon Lloyd after two years of such unparalleled lack of productivity coupled with amazing financial reward. During this two year stint with the Redskins he earned ~$11 million between a signing bonus and salary. Let's get a breakdown of just how much the Redskins paid for his productivity:

-25 games "played": $440,000.00 per game

-14 games in which he actually caught a pass: $785,714.29 per game where he actually did something

-23 catches (total, over two season): $478,260.87 per catch

-379 yards receiving: $29,023.75 per yard receiving

He was able to earn all this money from a team where he was still able to do things such as:
1) Blow up at the WRs coach during OTAs--it's OTAs, easy buddy.

2) Throw his helmet on the sideline during a game--okay, I
am inclined to think this happens often, but he must have thrown it at Joe Gibbs' wife or something because he was able to get himself benched for the game that followed and from then on lost his starting position.

3) Wouldn't learn certain receiver routes and expressed his discontent with being asked to run certain routes--Mr. Lloyd, you get to "play" football for a living. I would gnaw off a finger for the abilities you have and the chance that affords to play in the NFL. Perspective.

Lloyd is probably a nice guy and if karma is the bitch she claims to be then he'll go to Philly and catch 15 TDs next season. Either way, Brandon Lloyd got a nice bit of sweet cash for doing basically nothing for two years.

"Sucks to be you. R-O-T-F-L-M-A-O!"

I wanted to write something funny about Devean George being the one to nix the Jason Kidd to Dallas trade, but then I came across this and realized it had been done well enough that any further contribution would just detract from this hilariousness.

Read this...fucking hilarious

Kelvin Sampson: You're a Giant Bag of Douche

Kelvin Sampson has not only been associated with NCAA violations at his new home, Indiana University, but has also lied about his infractions. What are you good for if you can't keep your nose clean after leaving an institution at which you committed NCAA violations and then lied about doing things you were specifically told you could not do because of previous NCAA violations? Read either account below for details, but they are simple things like participating in three-way conference phone calls with recruits and being present when an assistant coach makes a phone call to a recruit when he was explicitly not allowed to do so as part of his punishment. Someone please get this guy out of college basketball.

ESPN account

Washington Post article

Ref screws the pooch with last second foul in G'town-Villanova game

Last night the 8th ranked G'town Hoyas eeked out a win against the unranked Villanova Wildcats 55-53. This leaves the Hoyas (20-3, 10-2) tied with Notre Dame (WTF?!) in the loss column of Big East play. Additionally, it removed any chance for 'Nova to get a much needed win as they currently are tied for the 12th and final tourney spot in the Big East--sidenote: the fact that not every team goes to the tournament is retarded. Thankfully, someone realized this and it will change next season with all 16 teams making post-season play.

As much as I am a G'town fan, been one since when they still used fruit baskets for hoops--yeah, I'm old, Villanova got jobbed last night. 53-53 with a few seconds left in an exciting, but super ugly Big East prototypical game and G'town plays great defense on the Wildcats holding for the last shot. Jonathan Wallance, G'town senior guard who got into their law school--ranked top 10 in the nation, picked up the loose ball and headed up sideline. With a bit of contact the ref blew the whistle, which being in the double bonus meant two free throws, with 0.1 seconds left. Wallace, a career better than 80% FT shooter nails both and the game is over.

It sucks the ref decided the game on a ticky-tacky foul when for the most part of the game they allowed a good bit of contact. The game was physical, but the last second foul was certainly not necessary. The only logical defense I can provide for the ref is Wallace steps on the sideline after the contact, something which the ref could absolutely see given his perspective. My notion is the ref called the foul because if he doesn't he felt he had to call the out-of-bounds even though Wallace going out of bounds was absolutely because of the defensive contact. It's shitty and the ref should have let the play go and the clock expire. Though the ref who made the foul call cannot be expected to know this, the Villanova guy who had the ball immediately before Wallace scooped up the loose ball definitely stepped on the end line. You make that call and it's G'town ball with 5 secs left and they can start from half-court. Maybe they hit a game winner there, maybe not. You never want to see a close game get decided on a call like that. Tough break for the Wildcats.

Nevada High School Standards Under Scrutiny After Student Behaves Like A Moron on National Signing Day

In a gymnasium filled with eager yokel townies from Not Las Vegas, NV, a high school football player from Nevada accepted a scholarship to play football for Cal-Berkley, deciding against U. of Oregon. It was later learned he did not have offers from either of these schools and in fact was not offered scholarships to any D-I schools he claimed to have been considering. It sounds like he may have been duped by someone posing as a recruiter. It may also be the case he accepted money from this person--God knows why--and allegedly repaid him in excess--again, WTF? At the signing ceremony he talked about interacting with Cal head coach Jeff Tedford and how that personal communication was influential in his decision.

Huh?

Okay, we have now officially gone from a plausibly honest case of getting fooled, albeit pretty badly, to this kid flat out lying. Because this kid is still in high school and high schoolers are by definition morons I am inclined to cut him some slack. I hope he comes out and says, "Ha! I fooled all you fuckers!" This would be a good counter to the general stupidity that is "National Signing Day". I am all for a bumblefuck town embracing their first D-I football product since that would eclipse their previously greatest event in town history--the installation of their one and only stop light. Be proud of where you come from and who comes from your town. But this national attention paid to 17 and 18 yr olds deciding where they are going to play college football seems a bit much, no? On some level this reminds me of the twistedness of adolescent beauty pageants.

Still, this is a pretty funny story. How the fuck did the head coach for this kid not realize something wasn't right?

Eli Manning to Tiki Barber: HOW DO YOU LIKE ME NOW?!

Great game. For this past Super Bowl we got a great defensive matchup for most of the game then the two offenses picked apart each other's defense methodically in a thrilling last quarter. Tom Brady engineered his game winning drive with a story-book ending touchdown pass to Randy Moss in the corner with less than 3 minutes to play. Unfortunately their defense couldn't hold and Manning put together one of the best one-upper's in SB history. It was great to watch. That not withstanding, the pass from Manning to David Tyree was a prayer. If that gets picked and the Giants lose Manning gets railroaded for breaking under the pressure and regressing to old Eli's ill-advised throws into coverage when it counted. So it goes. Manning's elusiveness on that play was amazing but he threw a jump ball. It went his way. Good for him. The Pats can now enjoy being the second team to finish a season 18-1, but the first among them to NOT win the Super Bowl. Does this mean SportsCenter is going to be looping clips of Mercury Morris rapping about how his now 35 years gone Dolphins are still the best? Why do people insist on paying attention to an annoying, senile, old man?

Redskins to interview Mariucci; Synder determined to interview whole US population for this job

The Redskins are going to interview Steve Mariucci next week. People are saying that like the 75 other candidates our precocious owner, Danny Boy, has interviewed over the last few weeks since St. Joe Gibbs announced his re-retirement Mariucci represents a possible "good fit". No shit, if it wasn't obvious that he could possibly be a good fit merely granting him an interview would be stupid, wouldn't it?

Psst...This is the same owner who hired Steve Spurrier, fired Marty Schottenheimer and paid Brandon Lloyd $85 bazillion to catch three passes.

Well, when you consider that I guess this is both unusual and a positive step to interview a "good fit". I'm glad we're trying to get a good fit in Washington because it would be stupid to say, let a really good defensive coordinator leave even when players have voiced their support for his promotion to head coach--even offensive players. Additionally, after few years it would be stupid to let an offensive coordinator go who runs a rather complicated offense that may take a few years for a team to grasp especially when they have, say, a rookie QB.

Psst...Danny Boy is doing just that.

For real? It couldn't possibly be the case that the success the Redskins had with Tom Collins running Saunders' offense was that he, unlike Campbell who is understandably learning the offense, is a master of it thus can probably execute it more effectively at this point. So that was a bit of a taste of what to come with Campbell's development? Nope! Fuck it, let's scrap the whole playoff-bound-out-of-the-best-overall-division-in-the-NFL mess that was last season and start anew. Glad we're working towards a "good fit", Danny.

Dan Synder may love the Redskins and want to see them do well. But he also seems to insist this is some video game where you can trade pieces at will and expect instant results. This is exactly why someone who made his billions selling vacation packages to college students should not own a professional football team. There was a clause in Gregg Williams' contract wherein he was to receive $1 million if he was NOT named head coach if St. Gibbs retired. What owner allows that if they don't intend to hire the guy? What the fuck?

Washington Post article

Johann Santana promoted from AAAA to the Major Leagues

Johan Santana, arguably the most dominant pitcher over the last 6 years, was traded yesterday from the Minnesota Twins to the New York Mets for four prospects that may or may not pan out into anything worth a major league uniform. The Twins urge to trade Santana before the season started rather than have him certainly walk away from the organization as a free agent at the end of the season for deserved big money is understandable. I don’t really have a problem with the behavior of any parties involved, they participate within the system, it’s more the general notion this reinforces: the AAAA farm-system that is small market major league teams.

Teams like the Pirates, A’s, Twins and Royals have pretty much sucked for a good portion of the last 15 years because they cannot spend with the Yankees, Red Sox and Cubs of the league. As a result they scout like hell and develop young talent like maestro’s with the hopes they can hang onto to enough of them long enough to make one or two good runs. This results in the flash in the pan Twins of the last few years, A’s of the early 2000s and D-Backs and Rockies of last year. When their work pays off and they produce a star they trade him away for prospects to avoid getting nothing from his development and the cycle repeats. Teams like the Marlins spend like nuts for one or two years in conjunction with good young talent and produce a contender with a legitimate shot at the WS only to explode the team in a fire sale as soon as they are on the down slope. This style of management makes me want to vomit like that girl in that video with that cup. Ick.

You might say, “What about the Rockies and the D-Backs this past season? Two small market teams finding success.” The D-Backs being anything above .500 last season was a statistical “What-the-fuck?” First off, the NL sucked last year. The AL had 6 teams with better records than the Cubs so it didn't matter whether you were small market, no one wanted to win. Every good predictor of team W-L records had D-Backs as not being that good. Yeah, they beat the Cubs in the NLDS, but God hates the Cubs and will do anything to see them suffer, even have them lose three in a row to a team that can’t score. Same thing with the Rockies, they played strangely out of their gourds against a weak NL West schedule down the stretch and moved their way through an NL playoffs wherein they and the afore mentioned D-Backs were the league leaders with 90 wins. My point is they were not that good even though they found success. They and other small market teams will never find consistent good fortune as long as the Yankees and Red Sox of the league have their spending arms race.

Possible Solutions:
1) Contract both Florida franchises. Letting them play is basically just driving up the win percentage for everyone else in the league. Their attendance records are putrid. I’ve had deuces that look better than Tropicana Field and Joe Robbie. The state gets half of MLB there every year for spring training; let’s leave it at that.
2) Employ some form of revenue sharing. NY is so big it can actually accommodate 40,000 people attending 162 games over a summer (81 home games for both the Mets and Yankees). Places like Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Cleveland have less than 1/20th the population to work with and their residents are relatively less wealthy. It’s no wonder they aren’t able to generate enough revenue to keep good talent. Let the Yankees spend what they want but distribute some of their revenue to help small market teams retain talent and hopefully not suck so consistently for the greater benefit of the league.

I also would have accepted “kick Peter Angelos in the balls”. Watching Angelos let good talent that wanted to stay in Baltimore walk while signing underachievers and shitbags for too much money is certainly deserving of a pecker punch.