Wednesday, December 29, 2010
In all likelihood, the BETTER military bowl...
Saturday, December 18, 2010
The Title of this is NOT "Unplugging the Fridge"
It's been a big week in Maryland football. By the looks of it, the biggest in at least a decade. Yesterday OC James Franklin, the teams contractual Head Coach in Waiting, left the program to become the Head Coach at Vanderbilt. While it had looked very unlikely that he would actually succeed Ralph Friedgen ever since Kevin Anderson became the school's new AD, he was still the man who the coaching staff could point to for continuity given that the Fridge's coaching days were coming to a close irrespective of his success.
Apparently that was just the tip of the iceberg as I came home today to the news that not only was Franklin officially gone after a week of back and forth, but it looked like the team would have a new head coach as well in the coming weeks. Apparently Franklin's departure, along with the pending departure of several assistant coaches who would go with Franklin, as well as Fridge's lack of contract past next season, has set off a chain of events where the ten year coach is going to be bought out by the school in the coming weeks.
Needless to say, this is shocking, intriguing stuff, especially on the heels of Anderson giving the Big Man an explicit vote of confidence assuring his return next season. It isn't official (although Chick Hernandez has reported it as fact and ESPN has picked up on it as well), but the fallout here will be amazing.
Clearly with Fridge enjoying a resurgence and winning the ACC Coach of the Year award, and a young team that will likely start next season inside the top 20 as possible Atlantic Division favorites, Anderson and, let's face it, Kevin Plank, need to have a plan. Early indications are that former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach may go from message board fantasy and blog banter to reality in the coming weeks. Leach and Maryland are a match that has made sense given Plank (and TT's) Under Armour ties (not of the neckwear kind), but we will know for sure. For now there are two emotional sides to this: the Fridge side and the Leach side.
Say what you want about Fridge, but the man ressurrected football at this school. The team finished above .500 just once in the 15 years before Fridge, and even that was a 6-5-1 season that ended in an Independence Bowl tie. Fridge one from day one, and while he would never match the success of his first three seasons that included 31 wins, a National Coach of the Year award, and an ACC title, the team won much more than it had in its recent past. His current record is 74-40, and he's an alumni coming off a season where the team nearly stole a share of the Atlantic Division. It simply doesn't feel right for him to be forced out, at least not now. Not this year.
On the other hand, there is more than a little bit of excitement in a possible move. It's certainly clear even to the those with the most severe cases of Fridge Fever that the program had plateaued (at best). Football will always likely be second best at Maryland, but there is no reason that the program should have as little buzz as it does right now. Hiring Leach, a guy who has succeeded in the Big XII and excited fans with his preposterous Air Raid Offense, signals not only a commitment to winning by the school, but perhaps more importanly by Kevin Plank. We got that UA money now, bitches. Oregon and their second rate sweatshop using clothier can GTFOOH.
But of course there's some apprehension. Kevin Anderson, by making a move, damn well had better do it right. Anything less than Mike Leach as the replacement, if it happens this month, is an utter failure. Other names being bandied about (Ty Willingham and Mike Locksley) are probably just idle speculation, but they are scary idle speculation. Even Leach is far from teflon as a candidate. He won 10 games just once at Texas Tech and went a combined 5-15 against Texas and Oklahoma during his tenure there. Tech was good, but they were clearly second tier in their conference. And, oh yeah, he got fired for unapologetically locking the concussive son of Craig James is a dark shed after a practice. Not that I particularly care about players getting locked in sheds as long as he wins 9 games a year here, but it probably warrants mentioning.
So stay tuned. This is bittersweet. Farewell Fridge...maybe.
Apparently that was just the tip of the iceberg as I came home today to the news that not only was Franklin officially gone after a week of back and forth, but it looked like the team would have a new head coach as well in the coming weeks. Apparently Franklin's departure, along with the pending departure of several assistant coaches who would go with Franklin, as well as Fridge's lack of contract past next season, has set off a chain of events where the ten year coach is going to be bought out by the school in the coming weeks.
Needless to say, this is shocking, intriguing stuff, especially on the heels of Anderson giving the Big Man an explicit vote of confidence assuring his return next season. It isn't official (although Chick Hernandez has reported it as fact and ESPN has picked up on it as well), but the fallout here will be amazing.
Clearly with Fridge enjoying a resurgence and winning the ACC Coach of the Year award, and a young team that will likely start next season inside the top 20 as possible Atlantic Division favorites, Anderson and, let's face it, Kevin Plank, need to have a plan. Early indications are that former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach may go from message board fantasy and blog banter to reality in the coming weeks. Leach and Maryland are a match that has made sense given Plank (and TT's) Under Armour ties (not of the neckwear kind), but we will know for sure. For now there are two emotional sides to this: the Fridge side and the Leach side.
Say what you want about Fridge, but the man ressurrected football at this school. The team finished above .500 just once in the 15 years before Fridge, and even that was a 6-5-1 season that ended in an Independence Bowl tie. Fridge one from day one, and while he would never match the success of his first three seasons that included 31 wins, a National Coach of the Year award, and an ACC title, the team won much more than it had in its recent past. His current record is 74-40, and he's an alumni coming off a season where the team nearly stole a share of the Atlantic Division. It simply doesn't feel right for him to be forced out, at least not now. Not this year.
On the other hand, there is more than a little bit of excitement in a possible move. It's certainly clear even to the those with the most severe cases of Fridge Fever that the program had plateaued (at best). Football will always likely be second best at Maryland, but there is no reason that the program should have as little buzz as it does right now. Hiring Leach, a guy who has succeeded in the Big XII and excited fans with his preposterous Air Raid Offense, signals not only a commitment to winning by the school, but perhaps more importanly by Kevin Plank. We got that UA money now, bitches. Oregon and their second rate sweatshop using clothier can GTFOOH.
But of course there's some apprehension. Kevin Anderson, by making a move, damn well had better do it right. Anything less than Mike Leach as the replacement, if it happens this month, is an utter failure. Other names being bandied about (Ty Willingham and Mike Locksley) are probably just idle speculation, but they are scary idle speculation. Even Leach is far from teflon as a candidate. He won 10 games just once at Texas Tech and went a combined 5-15 against Texas and Oklahoma during his tenure there. Tech was good, but they were clearly second tier in their conference. And, oh yeah, he got fired for unapologetically locking the concussive son of Craig James is a dark shed after a practice. Not that I particularly care about players getting locked in sheds as long as he wins 9 games a year here, but it probably warrants mentioning.
So stay tuned. This is bittersweet. Farewell Fridge...maybe.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Beating Mumpkins to a Fridge Post
Luckily, I'm just Owl, the art director for this here web-log.
(Click photo for full image.)
I mean, I'm excited, but altogether shocked. I guess that's what we get for turning a two win season (lest we forget) into this year.
Congrats Fridge. Kudos Danny.
(Click photo for full image.)
Congrats Fridge. Kudos Danny.
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
The Fridge
The Terps now hold the Coach of the Year award in both major sports with the Fridge being announced as this year's football winner today. Things are darkest before the dawn, or so they say, and it couldn't get much worse than last year. The team went just 2-10, with a 24-21 win at home against eventual Atlantic Division champ Clemson being the only win in 11 tries against I-A opponents.
Things changed quite a bit this year. After squeaking by Navy in a thriller for the second time in the renewed series, the team did something different in absolutely demolishing Morgan State 62-3. Granted that Morgan is a bad, I-AA football team (they finished 4-7), but the Terps had rarely blown out even bad teams over the past few years. That game was also the dawn of the Danny O'Brien era. After playing one snap (and losing a fumble) in Week 1 against the Mids, O'Brien tossed 10 passes on the day in a backup role, with three of them going for scores.
After getting handled in Morgantown against rival West Virginia, things looked like they were headed south again. The next week saw a two TD win over eventual Sun Belt champ Florida International, a deceptively tough team that had given Texas A&M and Rutgers tough games (losing by a total of 12 points) in its first two contests.
Duke came to town for the first time in years the next week. After an epic tailgate, I can't really break down the game itself, but a late defensive stop sealed it, and at 4-1, many finally began to think the Terps might be bowl bound. A disheartening 31-7 loss to Clemson after a bye week showed the team wasn't quite as good as its early record, but they came back strong to win at Boston College which snapped a ten game losing streak on the road.
Danny O'Brien was officially on his way to a nice season. He threw for three scores again at BC which followed up a turnover marred 300 yard day against Clemson. The next game against Wake was the best yet, a 62-14 homecoming win which sealed the team's bowl eligibility and established themselves as a divisional contender going into the season's last month. O'Brien had four scores and the Terps tied the school record for most points in an ACC game, scoring 60+ in a game for just the fifth time since joining the league.
A late loss to a freshman-QB led Miami team was disappointing though promising considering how highly the Canes were thought of and the fact that it was a road game. After three quarters of a back and forth game in Charlottesville, the Terps scored three late touchdowns to win going away and position themselves for a chance to win the ACC Atlantic with a win in each of its final two weeks.
That was not to be with a loss to Florida State in a game where the team was driving with less than a minute to go before a pick deep in the drive sealed their fate. Even without a chance to win the division, the team bounced back strong behind 400 plus yards from DOB in the team's final home game.
The team is now 8-4 with its first winning conference record since 2006. After an offseason of what seemed like the entire fanbase wanting the Fridge (and James Franklin) tarred and feathered, he showed the fans he still had something left in the tank. I can't say that I would have been especially broken up to see Fridge voluntarily retire last year, but the way the fans turned on an alum just a year removed from back to back bowls was pretty disheartening. He may or may not have deserved to keep his job, but he at least deserved some respect.
His job is no longer in jeopardy, of course. Kevin Anderson announced several weeks ago that he would be back, and now with an 8 win season and a possible national ranking pending a bowl win, the only question is how long he's guaranteed to be here for after this season. The most exciting thing is the youth of the team with DOB, unsurprisingly, being named the league's ROY. He threw for 21 touchdowns despite starting just nine games on the season. Given that pace and given that he is, of course, a freshman, he's well on his way to owning every single school record. The only real question is where he ends up in the conference record book. Phillip Rivers is the freshman (25) and all-time (95) TD leader. The first mark probably won't be eclipsed by O'Brien while the latter could certainly fall.
Vets Torrey Smith, Kenny Tate, Alex Wujciak and Tony Logan made the All-ACC first team. Joe Vellano made the second team, and Paul Pinegar made the honorable mention list. Smith in particular had a monster game against NC State with over 200 yards receiving and may have played his last game at Byrd Stadium. As much hype as DHB got during his time here, his actual production pales in comparison to what Torrey has done the past couple of seasons.
Now it's time for the bowl. Unfortunately, the destination sucks. The team gets rewarded for its 8-4 season by going to the Military Bowl, the destination for the league's eighth pick. The opponent is even worse, 6-6 East Carolina from Conference USA, a decidedly not-at-all-sexy opponent. So for improving by six wins and finishing over .500, the team gets to go five miles down the road to play in freezing weather against a team that may be one of the worst three or four teams to make a bowl this season.
Of course Virginia Tech is going to the Orange Bowl, and naturally the Peach Bowl selected Florida State, a team that finished as the conference's runner-up and which probably has the most passionate fanbase in the country. After that, things got weird. The Champs Sports Bowl took NC State despite its late loss to Maryland to wrap the season up. The Terps were then passed over for the Sun Bowl for 7-5 Miami to set up a "dream" match between the Canes and Notre Dame, despite Miami struggling to end the season and firing its coach. Scandal ridden North Carolina got taken by the Music City Bowl to face Tennessee and 6-6 Clemson, another team that finished weakly, got selected to play in Charlotte and 6-6 Georgia Tech went to the Independence Bowl as the seventh selection, one that the Terps apparently had little interest in.
It really sucks that the team might finished ranked but got no respect in the bowl selections, but either way, it shouldn't diminish an awesome turnaround season. With almost all the key players returning next year (pending early departures by Smith and/or Tate), a big win and a top 25 ranking would go a long way to building momentum and fan interest (which was sorely lacking this season) for 2011.
Things changed quite a bit this year. After squeaking by Navy in a thriller for the second time in the renewed series, the team did something different in absolutely demolishing Morgan State 62-3. Granted that Morgan is a bad, I-AA football team (they finished 4-7), but the Terps had rarely blown out even bad teams over the past few years. That game was also the dawn of the Danny O'Brien era. After playing one snap (and losing a fumble) in Week 1 against the Mids, O'Brien tossed 10 passes on the day in a backup role, with three of them going for scores.
After getting handled in Morgantown against rival West Virginia, things looked like they were headed south again. The next week saw a two TD win over eventual Sun Belt champ Florida International, a deceptively tough team that had given Texas A&M and Rutgers tough games (losing by a total of 12 points) in its first two contests.
Duke came to town for the first time in years the next week. After an epic tailgate, I can't really break down the game itself, but a late defensive stop sealed it, and at 4-1, many finally began to think the Terps might be bowl bound. A disheartening 31-7 loss to Clemson after a bye week showed the team wasn't quite as good as its early record, but they came back strong to win at Boston College which snapped a ten game losing streak on the road.
Danny O'Brien was officially on his way to a nice season. He threw for three scores again at BC which followed up a turnover marred 300 yard day against Clemson. The next game against Wake was the best yet, a 62-14 homecoming win which sealed the team's bowl eligibility and established themselves as a divisional contender going into the season's last month. O'Brien had four scores and the Terps tied the school record for most points in an ACC game, scoring 60+ in a game for just the fifth time since joining the league.
A late loss to a freshman-QB led Miami team was disappointing though promising considering how highly the Canes were thought of and the fact that it was a road game. After three quarters of a back and forth game in Charlottesville, the Terps scored three late touchdowns to win going away and position themselves for a chance to win the ACC Atlantic with a win in each of its final two weeks.
That was not to be with a loss to Florida State in a game where the team was driving with less than a minute to go before a pick deep in the drive sealed their fate. Even without a chance to win the division, the team bounced back strong behind 400 plus yards from DOB in the team's final home game.
The team is now 8-4 with its first winning conference record since 2006. After an offseason of what seemed like the entire fanbase wanting the Fridge (and James Franklin) tarred and feathered, he showed the fans he still had something left in the tank. I can't say that I would have been especially broken up to see Fridge voluntarily retire last year, but the way the fans turned on an alum just a year removed from back to back bowls was pretty disheartening. He may or may not have deserved to keep his job, but he at least deserved some respect.
His job is no longer in jeopardy, of course. Kevin Anderson announced several weeks ago that he would be back, and now with an 8 win season and a possible national ranking pending a bowl win, the only question is how long he's guaranteed to be here for after this season. The most exciting thing is the youth of the team with DOB, unsurprisingly, being named the league's ROY. He threw for 21 touchdowns despite starting just nine games on the season. Given that pace and given that he is, of course, a freshman, he's well on his way to owning every single school record. The only real question is where he ends up in the conference record book. Phillip Rivers is the freshman (25) and all-time (95) TD leader. The first mark probably won't be eclipsed by O'Brien while the latter could certainly fall.
Vets Torrey Smith, Kenny Tate, Alex Wujciak and Tony Logan made the All-ACC first team. Joe Vellano made the second team, and Paul Pinegar made the honorable mention list. Smith in particular had a monster game against NC State with over 200 yards receiving and may have played his last game at Byrd Stadium. As much hype as DHB got during his time here, his actual production pales in comparison to what Torrey has done the past couple of seasons.
Now it's time for the bowl. Unfortunately, the destination sucks. The team gets rewarded for its 8-4 season by going to the Military Bowl, the destination for the league's eighth pick. The opponent is even worse, 6-6 East Carolina from Conference USA, a decidedly not-at-all-sexy opponent. So for improving by six wins and finishing over .500, the team gets to go five miles down the road to play in freezing weather against a team that may be one of the worst three or four teams to make a bowl this season.
Of course Virginia Tech is going to the Orange Bowl, and naturally the Peach Bowl selected Florida State, a team that finished as the conference's runner-up and which probably has the most passionate fanbase in the country. After that, things got weird. The Champs Sports Bowl took NC State despite its late loss to Maryland to wrap the season up. The Terps were then passed over for the Sun Bowl for 7-5 Miami to set up a "dream" match between the Canes and Notre Dame, despite Miami struggling to end the season and firing its coach. Scandal ridden North Carolina got taken by the Music City Bowl to face Tennessee and 6-6 Clemson, another team that finished weakly, got selected to play in Charlotte and 6-6 Georgia Tech went to the Independence Bowl as the seventh selection, one that the Terps apparently had little interest in.
It really sucks that the team might finished ranked but got no respect in the bowl selections, but either way, it shouldn't diminish an awesome turnaround season. With almost all the key players returning next year (pending early departures by Smith and/or Tate), a big win and a top 25 ranking would go a long way to building momentum and fan interest (which was sorely lacking this season) for 2011.
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
College Basketball Boxer Report 11/24
This is the PREMIERE EDITION of the College Basketball Boxer Report! Why is it called that, you ask? Because it's being written as I sit here in my boxers having just watched the Terps beat Delaware State. Pants are far too formal for this blog post!
Anyway, the Terps are 4-2, having lost the games you'd expect them to lose while winning the others (though not without some hariy moments against the College of Charleston). Now that we're about 1/5 of the way through the season, let's look at the players - who is playing well and who is pissing me off enough to want to launch my cell phone through the TV.
So far Cliff Tucker has been excellent. He's winning acclaim for his defense and has scored in double figures every game. His outside shooting looks solid and his midrange game looks Dixonian when the Flex offense gets going. It's still too early to say he's headed for an All-ACC season (he doghoused himself late against Illinois), but he has been as good as could be hoped for. Jordan has also been spectacular, but that goes without saying. Even though he started slow in the Coaches vs Cancer games in MSG, he still managed a double double on both nights due to his second half performances.
The other starters have been up and down. Bonecrusher has outright sucked for most of the season aside from the Seattle game. He looks slow and lethargic which is the most disappointing part. Bowie has been more Adrian than Anthony this season, scoring in double figures just once while carrying an unacceptable A/TO ratio. Dino Gregory started off slow but has put together back to back outstanding games (10/10 against Illinois and 14/8 against Delaware State) while averaging 2 blocks a game.
The freshman have, of course, been up and down. Stoglin looks like a gunner - but mostly in a good way. I'm sold on him as a future big time scorer because with some guys you can just see they have the skill and the lack of conscience needed to put points on the board. Pe'shon Howard had that game winner in his second game, and while he hasn't exactly followed it up, he's been fine for a guy six games into his career. Hawk Palsson has no position but looks like he has a high basketball IQ. Berend Weijs has played pretty well for a stick figure and might be taking some of Padgett's minutes if the Inspector doesn't turn it on. It's not that Padge has been bad, it's just...he hasn't been particularly good either. I'm perfectly indifferent to all aspects of his performance aside from his odd gait which makes him look about 90 years old. That I do hate.
So all that being said, it's easy to be optimistic. That's because the ACC absolutely sucks. It's putrid. It might be the worst thing ever, and even then it may not even qualify as a thing. Is AIDS a thing? I don't know.
Duke is going to be awesome and give Dickie V many, many orgasms this season, but after that, it's questionable at best. UNC, for all their undue preseason hype, lost two games in Puerto Rico to Vandy and Minnesota. Both are solid teams, but if North Carolina wants to live up to the ranking and the name on the jersey, they absolutely have to win one of those. Virginia Tech, another presumed top three team, got handled pretty well by Kansas State. NC State's freshmen look good, but they also lost by a fairly comfortable margin to Georgetown in their tournament this weekend. Virginia lost by over 40 to Washington in Maui last night. Wake Forest has already lost to Stetson, VCU, and Winthrop. Boston College lost to Yale. Georgia Tech got handled by double digits at Kennesaw State. Rutgers crushed Miami. Like I said, it's ugly, and even with two losses in NYC, the Terps have passed the Look Test better than most of the teams besides Duke and perhaps FSU, which hasn't been tested yet against weak competition.
Something I realized last night is that I love John Cal. Sports is theater, and it's fun to have a bad guy to root against. As far as villains go, John Cal is somewhere between The Joker and Hans Gruber. It's one thing that he's a cheating scumbag. There are plenty of those, from Jim Calhoun to Bruce Pearl, and I hate them. On the other hand, John Calipari is so blatant and over the top with it that you can't help but respect it. The NCAA pretty clearly won't do anything but "strip" him of his Final Fours and wins, so why not just do whatever you have to do to win? I bring this all up because Kentucky just beat Washington behind 16/17 from freshman Terrance Jones, a guy that Cal pretty much stole right out from under Washington after Jones had committed there. Gotta love it.
Kemba Walker is much the best player I've seen so far this season. Granted that he's only been in four games so far, but he's averaging over 30 a night for UConn. That will come down, but it's pretty crazy. He scored over 40 once already and had an insane game yesterday where he almost singlehandedly led UConn over Wichita State.
There were only 64 undefeated teams coming into tonight according to kenpom. God I love kenpom. And speaking of kenpom. his rankings (which also factor in a preseason forecast) have the Terps at 31st in the nation. Not too shabby. He's also giving Duke a 1-in-20 shot at going undefeated through the end of the regular season.
How is Kansas State a top 5 team? They just got beaten easily by Duke and struggled with Presbyterian - the mighty BLUE HOSE. Frank Martin pretty much strikes me as a guy whose greatest talent in life is getting perilously close to an anuerysm and/or killing a player over every minor infraction, plus losing Denis Clemente has to hurt them. Sure, they beat VT, and sure, the top tier is wide open behind Duke especially with Robbie Hummell's knee being died again, but it doesn't seem like they're going to repeat last year's success. At least I hope not with three of their key players coming from DC (what up Dalonte Hill?!)
And that's that.
Anyway, the Terps are 4-2, having lost the games you'd expect them to lose while winning the others (though not without some hariy moments against the College of Charleston). Now that we're about 1/5 of the way through the season, let's look at the players - who is playing well and who is pissing me off enough to want to launch my cell phone through the TV.
So far Cliff Tucker has been excellent. He's winning acclaim for his defense and has scored in double figures every game. His outside shooting looks solid and his midrange game looks Dixonian when the Flex offense gets going. It's still too early to say he's headed for an All-ACC season (he doghoused himself late against Illinois), but he has been as good as could be hoped for. Jordan has also been spectacular, but that goes without saying. Even though he started slow in the Coaches vs Cancer games in MSG, he still managed a double double on both nights due to his second half performances.
The other starters have been up and down. Bonecrusher has outright sucked for most of the season aside from the Seattle game. He looks slow and lethargic which is the most disappointing part. Bowie has been more Adrian than Anthony this season, scoring in double figures just once while carrying an unacceptable A/TO ratio. Dino Gregory started off slow but has put together back to back outstanding games (10/10 against Illinois and 14/8 against Delaware State) while averaging 2 blocks a game.
The freshman have, of course, been up and down. Stoglin looks like a gunner - but mostly in a good way. I'm sold on him as a future big time scorer because with some guys you can just see they have the skill and the lack of conscience needed to put points on the board. Pe'shon Howard had that game winner in his second game, and while he hasn't exactly followed it up, he's been fine for a guy six games into his career. Hawk Palsson has no position but looks like he has a high basketball IQ. Berend Weijs has played pretty well for a stick figure and might be taking some of Padgett's minutes if the Inspector doesn't turn it on. It's not that Padge has been bad, it's just...he hasn't been particularly good either. I'm perfectly indifferent to all aspects of his performance aside from his odd gait which makes him look about 90 years old. That I do hate.
So all that being said, it's easy to be optimistic. That's because the ACC absolutely sucks. It's putrid. It might be the worst thing ever, and even then it may not even qualify as a thing. Is AIDS a thing? I don't know.
Duke is going to be awesome and give Dickie V many, many orgasms this season, but after that, it's questionable at best. UNC, for all their undue preseason hype, lost two games in Puerto Rico to Vandy and Minnesota. Both are solid teams, but if North Carolina wants to live up to the ranking and the name on the jersey, they absolutely have to win one of those. Virginia Tech, another presumed top three team, got handled pretty well by Kansas State. NC State's freshmen look good, but they also lost by a fairly comfortable margin to Georgetown in their tournament this weekend. Virginia lost by over 40 to Washington in Maui last night. Wake Forest has already lost to Stetson, VCU, and Winthrop. Boston College lost to Yale. Georgia Tech got handled by double digits at Kennesaw State. Rutgers crushed Miami. Like I said, it's ugly, and even with two losses in NYC, the Terps have passed the Look Test better than most of the teams besides Duke and perhaps FSU, which hasn't been tested yet against weak competition.
Something I realized last night is that I love John Cal. Sports is theater, and it's fun to have a bad guy to root against. As far as villains go, John Cal is somewhere between The Joker and Hans Gruber. It's one thing that he's a cheating scumbag. There are plenty of those, from Jim Calhoun to Bruce Pearl, and I hate them. On the other hand, John Calipari is so blatant and over the top with it that you can't help but respect it. The NCAA pretty clearly won't do anything but "strip" him of his Final Fours and wins, so why not just do whatever you have to do to win? I bring this all up because Kentucky just beat Washington behind 16/17 from freshman Terrance Jones, a guy that Cal pretty much stole right out from under Washington after Jones had committed there. Gotta love it.
Kemba Walker is much the best player I've seen so far this season. Granted that he's only been in four games so far, but he's averaging over 30 a night for UConn. That will come down, but it's pretty crazy. He scored over 40 once already and had an insane game yesterday where he almost singlehandedly led UConn over Wichita State.
There were only 64 undefeated teams coming into tonight according to kenpom. God I love kenpom. And speaking of kenpom. his rankings (which also factor in a preseason forecast) have the Terps at 31st in the nation. Not too shabby. He's also giving Duke a 1-in-20 shot at going undefeated through the end of the regular season.
How is Kansas State a top 5 team? They just got beaten easily by Duke and struggled with Presbyterian - the mighty BLUE HOSE. Frank Martin pretty much strikes me as a guy whose greatest talent in life is getting perilously close to an anuerysm and/or killing a player over every minor infraction, plus losing Denis Clemente has to hurt them. Sure, they beat VT, and sure, the top tier is wide open behind Duke especially with Robbie Hummell's knee being died again, but it doesn't seem like they're going to repeat last year's success. At least I hope not with three of their key players coming from DC (what up Dalonte Hill?!)
And that's that.
Monday, November 22, 2010
KEY MOVES: COROLLARY III
It’s that time of year again. That’s right, that favorite time of year for both you and me!
KEY MOVES TIME!
(Considering we have never done “key move” posts with any sort of schedule or regularity, ignore the aforementioned “time of the year” horse manure.)
Without further ado:
KEY MOVES: COROLLARY III
I.) Using roman numerals for the sheer sake of perceived classiness is a key move. Might they think that you are channeling your inner Plato and Socrates? You’d like to think so. But they aren’t.
II.) Another key move is hatching plans. If you know a better way to plan, I’d like to hear it. Until then, let me tell you friends, hatching is the way to go.
III.) Being Jordan *expletive* Williams is DEFINITELY a KEY MOVE! Sadly, none of us at Says Thing blog or elsewhere in the entirety of the known universe can scratch this surface. Thus, leave it to the one that does it best. Do not try to be Jordan Williams, do not even think about trying to be Jordan Williams. If you do, you WILL suffer the most epically painful brain aneurysm ever experienced. You are a mere mortal, a futile human. Deal with it.
IV.) Now, this might be a bit convoluted, but making key move corollaries is a key move.
V.) In the same vein, being incepted into the bundling level is a key move.
(***Addendum: Being incepted is only a key move given the dream within a dream within a dream is executed by highly professional inceptors who understand the process of kicks as to revive you back to consciousness and not force you into limbo and thus turn your brain into mashed turkey jowls.)
VI.) Using machetes and other unnecessarily large knives to cut anything is a key move. You think that firewood is going to chop itself? You think that pumpkin is going to destroy itself? Think again, friends. Think again.
VII.) Another key move is throwing up the Roc symbol to assert your dominance over most any situation, finding commonality amongst like minded rap loving brethren, and reminding others that your knowledge of the HOV is deeper than their own.
VIII.) Having proficient amounts of lumens is a key move, for obvious reasons. If you need to put lumens on things in the daytime to make them even brighter than what the sun provides, you have GOT to be prepared. For example, check out this guy's excessive lumens! He is made in the shade...er...sun. Moving on...
IX.) Taking your pants off in public places and social situations, otherwise known as “dropping trou,” is a key move. Show off your naughty boxers with pride. No one will be weirded out, as long as you exude confidence and remember to do your laundry with relative frequency.
That's all dear readers. Until next time, may all your moves be key.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Friday, November 12, 2010
The O's Season Review Hot Stove League Preview Many Part Poorly Spelled Grammatically Incorrect Run-on Two Years in the Making Extravaganza: Catcher
To put it bluntly, the Dave Trembley era of the Orioles should have never happened and needs to be buried as quickly as possible several miles beneath the Earth's crust where it can join our knowledge of MJ's Wizard excursion, Johnny U's time as a Charger, Joey, Sarah Jessica Parker's face (covered in more detail here by one brave soul willing to scour the internet for visual proof), Fat Orson Welles, Fat Marlon Brando, Fat Vince Vaughn (pre-emptive), and this Simpson's couch gag (that was a thing). While we're at it, let's throw in the Ray Miller, Mike Hargrove, Lee Mazzilli, Sam Perlozzo, and Juan Samuel (its probably unfair to include this, but it happened) timeshares as well. In fact, the O's haven't played baseball since 1997. It's the truth, look it up. That team you thought you were watching, just a whole bunch of hermits Peter Angelos found living in mountain caves somewhere along the Pakistani border (ladies and gentlemen...we got him). This was all just a terrible nightmare, within a nightmare, within a Field of Dreams where Leo incepted Angelos into owning the team and running it into the ground. But maybe, just maybe, we've made our way out of limbo and the top of mediocrity has stopped spinning (or not, we may never know) and we're on the path to happier times, even though Leo's kid's still look the same age (BBBBAAAAAHHHHH).
Since we haven't played baseball in the last thirteen years, I'm going to look at our options, position by position, moving towards next season. In doing so I'm going to try to be objective as possible, which is harder than it sounds. It's too easy to throw stock into the Buck O's and think that the team we saw the last two months is going to be the one we get for a whole season next year. While its true those games were a good indicator of our potential next season (we had a winning record in a span where we played 14 out of 18 series against teams that were .500 or better), the key word there should be potential. This is still a very young team who were poised to make a run at the 2003 Tigers before Uncle Buck took the reigns and had just about every person in the clubhouse playing for his job. That being said, its still hard not to be excited for the possibilities next year brings.
So, without further adieu, my triumphant return to writing. Let's breakdown the O's current roster and the things they should and shouldn't do during the hot stove league to improve the team for next year while sticking to the long term plan.
Catcher
Out of all the young players on the roster, Wieter's 2010 season had to have been the most disappointing. We all probably got carried away with this, this, and who could forgot this? But, honestly, at what point did anybody think we would get this? And it gets worse. If you prorate Craig Tatum's PA to Wieter's (126 to 502; basically multiply everything by four), Tatum actually would have scored more runs, hit for a higher BA and OBP, and was better on the bases. Jake Fox, if you prorate him x5 (105 to 502) would have hit 25 homers (vs. 11 for Wieters), scored more runs, still slug .065 points higher (.440 to .377), and been *better on the bases. In short, we could have replaced Wieters with the other two and gotten relatively the same offensive production. Underwhelming only goes so far to describe this.
*Side Note - Has there ever been a slower athlete, who wasn't fat, injured, or old, than Matt Wieters? Seriously, Wieters is so slow on the basepaths that he has the opposite effect of Superman in Superman: The Movie and actually slows down the earth's rotation so much that time goes faster, instead of backwards. I would almost prefer that he was fat, old, or injured just so I could use that as an excuse when he can't get from 1st to home on what would otherwise be a triple.
Still, even after a down year, there's no reason to jump off of the Wieters bandwagon. The kid's only had a year and a half of major league experience, and a grand total of three seasons in professional baseball. Let's not forget that this is the same player who put up Babe Ruthian numbers in the minor leagues, numbers that had him rated as the top prospect in all of major league baseball heading into last season. He is still an above average defensive catcher with an elite arm, something that still separates him from the from the other catchers on our roster. Perhaps it was too much of us to expect him to put everything together right away, a la Buster Posey and others. Some guys fly through the minors and struggle at the majors for a little while before the light switch flips on in their head. Major league pitching is just simply a different animal from the minors, especially in the AL East, and it may take some time to adjust.
The first step should be to spend the off-season shortening that ghastly long swing of his. It's fine when Ernie Els swings like that at a stationary object, not so much when its moving 87 mph and sliding two feet across the plate and towards the dirt. A more compact swing will keep his bat on a more level plane and prevent him from opening up so quickly, relying on the rotation of his upper body to provide power and bat speed. He needs to spread out his legs a little more on both sides of the plate, thereby allowing him to take a more athletic stance, to transfer his weight better, and to use his trunk to rotate his body instead of his chest and upper torso. This will help him stay on top of off-speed pitches and to drive more fastballs on a lower trajectory, instead of the lazy flies to the opposite field that so often come off his bat.
As far as back-ups go, we could do worse than Craig Tatum. There's no reason to look for another catcher unless they want to find a grizzled veteran that may be able to handle the young staff better should Wieters get hurt. That being said, Tatum appeared to handle the staff rather well, and it'd be damn near impossible to find a back-up who could better handle the bat. I grant you that Tatum's only hit that high once in his two years at the major league level, but there's no reason to go spend 1-2 million on someone else when we need help at so many other spots.
No matter what, I expect Wieters to be much improved under the tutelage of the new staff coming in to aid Uncle Buck. It probably won't be the Mauer (with power) numbers we all want, but a .280 BA and OPS of .800+ is a fairly tame expectation for next year. Either way, Wieters is pretty much assured of being the opening day starter next season.
Best Case Scenario: Wieters plays fully up to his potential and competes with Mauer for the starting spot in the All-Star lineup.
Worst Case Scenario: Wieters has a repeat of this year, leaving us all to question the hype
Expected Scenario: Wieters improves significantly from last year, starting the season inconsistent at the plate before steadying out and hitting .295 in the second half.
P.S. - There, I posted. Look forward to doing so again in two years time...but hopefully more like over the weekend.
Since we haven't played baseball in the last thirteen years, I'm going to look at our options, position by position, moving towards next season. In doing so I'm going to try to be objective as possible, which is harder than it sounds. It's too easy to throw stock into the Buck O's and think that the team we saw the last two months is going to be the one we get for a whole season next year. While its true those games were a good indicator of our potential next season (we had a winning record in a span where we played 14 out of 18 series against teams that were .500 or better), the key word there should be potential. This is still a very young team who were poised to make a run at the 2003 Tigers before Uncle Buck took the reigns and had just about every person in the clubhouse playing for his job. That being said, its still hard not to be excited for the possibilities next year brings.
So, without further adieu, my triumphant return to writing. Let's breakdown the O's current roster and the things they should and shouldn't do during the hot stove league to improve the team for next year while sticking to the long term plan.
Catcher
Out of all the young players on the roster, Wieter's 2010 season had to have been the most disappointing. We all probably got carried away with this, this, and who could forgot this? But, honestly, at what point did anybody think we would get this? And it gets worse. If you prorate Craig Tatum's PA to Wieter's (126 to 502; basically multiply everything by four), Tatum actually would have scored more runs, hit for a higher BA and OBP, and was better on the bases. Jake Fox, if you prorate him x5 (105 to 502) would have hit 25 homers (vs. 11 for Wieters), scored more runs, still slug .065 points higher (.440 to .377), and been *better on the bases. In short, we could have replaced Wieters with the other two and gotten relatively the same offensive production. Underwhelming only goes so far to describe this.
*Side Note - Has there ever been a slower athlete, who wasn't fat, injured, or old, than Matt Wieters? Seriously, Wieters is so slow on the basepaths that he has the opposite effect of Superman in Superman: The Movie and actually slows down the earth's rotation so much that time goes faster, instead of backwards. I would almost prefer that he was fat, old, or injured just so I could use that as an excuse when he can't get from 1st to home on what would otherwise be a triple.
Still, even after a down year, there's no reason to jump off of the Wieters bandwagon. The kid's only had a year and a half of major league experience, and a grand total of three seasons in professional baseball. Let's not forget that this is the same player who put up Babe Ruthian numbers in the minor leagues, numbers that had him rated as the top prospect in all of major league baseball heading into last season. He is still an above average defensive catcher with an elite arm, something that still separates him from the from the other catchers on our roster. Perhaps it was too much of us to expect him to put everything together right away, a la Buster Posey and others. Some guys fly through the minors and struggle at the majors for a little while before the light switch flips on in their head. Major league pitching is just simply a different animal from the minors, especially in the AL East, and it may take some time to adjust.
The first step should be to spend the off-season shortening that ghastly long swing of his. It's fine when Ernie Els swings like that at a stationary object, not so much when its moving 87 mph and sliding two feet across the plate and towards the dirt. A more compact swing will keep his bat on a more level plane and prevent him from opening up so quickly, relying on the rotation of his upper body to provide power and bat speed. He needs to spread out his legs a little more on both sides of the plate, thereby allowing him to take a more athletic stance, to transfer his weight better, and to use his trunk to rotate his body instead of his chest and upper torso. This will help him stay on top of off-speed pitches and to drive more fastballs on a lower trajectory, instead of the lazy flies to the opposite field that so often come off his bat.
As far as back-ups go, we could do worse than Craig Tatum. There's no reason to look for another catcher unless they want to find a grizzled veteran that may be able to handle the young staff better should Wieters get hurt. That being said, Tatum appeared to handle the staff rather well, and it'd be damn near impossible to find a back-up who could better handle the bat. I grant you that Tatum's only hit that high once in his two years at the major league level, but there's no reason to go spend 1-2 million on someone else when we need help at so many other spots.
No matter what, I expect Wieters to be much improved under the tutelage of the new staff coming in to aid Uncle Buck. It probably won't be the Mauer (with power) numbers we all want, but a .280 BA and OPS of .800+ is a fairly tame expectation for next year. Either way, Wieters is pretty much assured of being the opening day starter next season.
Best Case Scenario: Wieters plays fully up to his potential and competes with Mauer for the starting spot in the All-Star lineup.
Worst Case Scenario: Wieters has a repeat of this year, leaving us all to question the hype
Expected Scenario: Wieters improves significantly from last year, starting the season inconsistent at the plate before steadying out and hitting .295 in the second half.
P.S. - There, I posted. Look forward to doing so again in two years time...but hopefully more like over the weekend.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Black Greivis!
Pe'Shon Howard lived up to his appointed nickname by hitting the second game winner on the Terps' last possession in as many years at Comcast (see Tucker, Cliff vs GT). I'm not forgetting GV's epic shot over Scheyer-face, which was basically a game-winner, but it wasn't on the Terp's last possession...
The game was entirely too close for comfort, with the Terps trailing almost the entire game thanks to pre-season Southern Conference POY Andrew Goudeluck who dropped 27 on MD, seeming to hit almost everything he threw up there. It didn't help that the Terps missed 13 of 18 FT, but WACJFW added 26 and 15 boards (season averages: 21.5 ppg 15 rpg) and was the only offense the Terps seemed to have at times. It looked bleak for the good guys...
"But that was before Pe'Shon Howard struck." Very reminiscent of the title of this blog, no? Pandemonium in the stands! There may or may not have been some awkward jumping up and down while embracing between good friends and loyal Terp fans in Sec114 row 5... wait what? Hell yeah! GO TERPS!
Tape Delay Blog, Terps vs College of Charleston
I couldn't watch the game tonight on account of class. Or at least I couldn't have watched the first hour and twenty minutes of it, so I taped it. Dusted off the old VCR and then settled back to watch the game on a two hour tape delay. Due to the volume of late game text messages I received, I was sure that this was about to be a patented nonconference loss, by the home team in the ACC. Towards the end of the first half, I was sure that was the way it was going so I decided to blog about it as a source of humor and catharsis. What follows are the in-game neuroses of one man and one man only, though my dear readers will surely be able to empathize. So here we go, Bill Simmons style!
6:30 - Dino gets stuffed on a dunk attempt. Luckily Wooden Award Candidate Jordan Williams is there for the stick back. Thank God for him.
6:12 - Classic mid-major turd Goudelock hits another 3 - he has 10. Cougars by 8. There has to be a wing of the Naismith HOF for random mid-majors who pwn us. Remember Reggie Holmes?
6:00 - Another turnover on a pass to no one. Pretty sure that's a new wrinkle Gary installed into the flex this season.
5:12 - We have our first Gunnar Stahl sighting of the night!
4:59 - Jordan Williams with another slam. Early theme here is that Jordan Williams is the only good player on the floor for white.
3:57 - Bowie stripped on the fast break. I'm not sure he's cut out for this dribbling thing.
3:35 - A slam off the inbound pass for CofC coming out of the media timeout. That play is only a shade better than our inbound play, informally known as "hold the ball for four seconds then launch into the backcourt for a guard to run down".
3:18 - THE ICEMAN! Another great pass, this time to Bowie for a finish inside. This guy can play, even if it does look like he has church lig athleticism.
2:31 - Goudelock hits a DEEP three and now the Terps are down by nine. It's pretty clear that we're simply not winning this game. On the bright side, your announcers tonight are Rob Stone and Ja(y)son Williams. When you are down nine - at home - to a Southern conference team, even Jay Fucking Williams is a bright spot.
2:14 - OMG Jordan. Another slam. He used the pump fake to get his man off the ground and then sent it in WITH AUTHORITY. Our frontcourt is going to suck next season once he goes to the lig.
1:36 - Tucker throws up a Tinkerbell shot on the fastbreak. It never occurred to him that he has numbers so he might want to pass.
1:36 - Jordan misses a FT then...misses another. 0/4 from the line is marring a 12/7 game (already!) from him.
1:15 - Terps are now 0/5 from the line and down by 5. Rob Stone announces that, had we made our FTs, we would be winning. He must have graduated with one of those three year Sociology degrees from Duke like his color commentator.
0:27 - ESPNU is too bush league to even give me tenths of a second as the clock ticks down under a minute.
0:00 - HOLY SHIT Pe'SHON! He steals the ball on the press and wisely pulls it out. Then he lets the clock run all the way down, doesn't panic, and dishes to an open Weijs to hit the game tying shot as time expires. Over/under Black Greivis starts in New York?
19:22 - Jordan Williams with another basket on the inside. This could be like putting Babe Ruth on the '61 Mets.
19:02 - Jordan picks up a missed CofC FT. For those of you scoring at home, it took him less than 21 minutes to get to a double double (14/10 currently).
17:08 - Bowie from deep! Our first sighting of Anthony this season.
15:53 - Jordan Williams slam count is at 4, if my count is right.
14:55 - Current lineup is Mosley, Stoglin, Howard, Weijs, and Pallson. Very interesting look.
14:03 - A look which probably gives us little to no rebounding, by the way it seems.
13:24 - Terps now 1/9 from the line. This is most certainly what it feels like to descend into the ninth circle of hell.
12:33 - Jordan Fucking Williams with another putback on the break. I'm pretty sure that the Chronicles of Jordan Fucking Williams would be more badass than the Chronicles of Riddick. FAR more badass.
10:29 - Goudelock hits his 5th three. Cougars back up by three. If I don't make any posts for a couple minutes, I'm building a concourse level in my house.
10:15 - Mosley misses a FT before making the second. This...could be a problem going forward.
9:57 - Goudelock hits a shot. Book this one to the Cougars.
8:16 - Jordan hits a sick fallaway shot and then dives on the floor for a loose ball on the other end. SAT analogy time! Jordan : 2011 Terps :: Greivis : 2008 Terps
6:09 - Jordan got stuffed. It is now officially women's soccer season! NUMBER ONE SEED BABY! SUCK ON THAT HATERS! MARYLAND I'M ALL BEHIND YOU.
5:29 - Do I really want to go to New York to watch us play next week? It has to be a better idea to just eat the cost and stay at home. Or maybe go and just get some good pie. Or just wander into the Marcy Projects after we lose for the second night in a row and see what happens. We are now 3-14 from the line, btw.
4:57 - Four of sixteen. FOUR of fucking SIXTEEN.
3:37 - John Wall is averaging six turnovers a game. Suck it John Wall/Wizards fans.
1:53 - We're about to lose to the college of goddamn charleston.
1:27 - ONIONS from BG!! (aka Pe'shon in the corner)
16:9 - Terps down 1 with the ball in the frontcourt. Timeout. There is ABSOLUTELY NO SHOT that we hit a shot here and win the game. Less than zero chance. I have a better shot at growing a legit, Turd-caliber beard than seeing us hit a shot here. And yet I'm still being suckered into getting excited. This is battered wife syndrome.
And just like that...my tape CUTS OFF. Yes, I should have a DVR. But who fucking cares? Pe'shon is here to TAKE SOULS and save Gary from a verbal tongue-lashing on This Very Blog that would have made George Carlin blush. Thank God.
6:30 - Dino gets stuffed on a dunk attempt. Luckily Wooden Award Candidate Jordan Williams is there for the stick back. Thank God for him.
6:12 - Classic mid-major turd Goudelock hits another 3 - he has 10. Cougars by 8. There has to be a wing of the Naismith HOF for random mid-majors who pwn us. Remember Reggie Holmes?
6:00 - Another turnover on a pass to no one. Pretty sure that's a new wrinkle Gary installed into the flex this season.
5:12 - We have our first Gunnar Stahl sighting of the night!
4:59 - Jordan Williams with another slam. Early theme here is that Jordan Williams is the only good player on the floor for white.
3:57 - Bowie stripped on the fast break. I'm not sure he's cut out for this dribbling thing.
3:35 - A slam off the inbound pass for CofC coming out of the media timeout. That play is only a shade better than our inbound play, informally known as "hold the ball for four seconds then launch into the backcourt for a guard to run down".
3:18 - THE ICEMAN! Another great pass, this time to Bowie for a finish inside. This guy can play, even if it does look like he has church lig athleticism.
2:31 - Goudelock hits a DEEP three and now the Terps are down by nine. It's pretty clear that we're simply not winning this game. On the bright side, your announcers tonight are Rob Stone and Ja(y)son Williams. When you are down nine - at home - to a Southern conference team, even Jay Fucking Williams is a bright spot.
2:14 - OMG Jordan. Another slam. He used the pump fake to get his man off the ground and then sent it in WITH AUTHORITY. Our frontcourt is going to suck next season once he goes to the lig.
1:36 - Tucker throws up a Tinkerbell shot on the fastbreak. It never occurred to him that he has numbers so he might want to pass.
1:36 - Jordan misses a FT then...misses another. 0/4 from the line is marring a 12/7 game (already!) from him.
1:15 - Terps are now 0/5 from the line and down by 5. Rob Stone announces that, had we made our FTs, we would be winning. He must have graduated with one of those three year Sociology degrees from Duke like his color commentator.
0:27 - ESPNU is too bush league to even give me tenths of a second as the clock ticks down under a minute.
0:00 - HOLY SHIT Pe'SHON! He steals the ball on the press and wisely pulls it out. Then he lets the clock run all the way down, doesn't panic, and dishes to an open Weijs to hit the game tying shot as time expires. Over/under Black Greivis starts in New York?
19:22 - Jordan Williams with another basket on the inside. This could be like putting Babe Ruth on the '61 Mets.
19:02 - Jordan picks up a missed CofC FT. For those of you scoring at home, it took him less than 21 minutes to get to a double double (14/10 currently).
17:08 - Bowie from deep! Our first sighting of Anthony this season.
15:53 - Jordan Williams slam count is at 4, if my count is right.
14:55 - Current lineup is Mosley, Stoglin, Howard, Weijs, and Pallson. Very interesting look.
14:03 - A look which probably gives us little to no rebounding, by the way it seems.
13:24 - Terps now 1/9 from the line. This is most certainly what it feels like to descend into the ninth circle of hell.
12:33 - Jordan Fucking Williams with another putback on the break. I'm pretty sure that the Chronicles of Jordan Fucking Williams would be more badass than the Chronicles of Riddick. FAR more badass.
10:29 - Goudelock hits his 5th three. Cougars back up by three. If I don't make any posts for a couple minutes, I'm building a concourse level in my house.
10:15 - Mosley misses a FT before making the second. This...could be a problem going forward.
9:57 - Goudelock hits a shot. Book this one to the Cougars.
8:16 - Jordan hits a sick fallaway shot and then dives on the floor for a loose ball on the other end. SAT analogy time! Jordan : 2011 Terps :: Greivis : 2008 Terps
6:09 - Jordan got stuffed. It is now officially women's soccer season! NUMBER ONE SEED BABY! SUCK ON THAT HATERS! MARYLAND I'M ALL BEHIND YOU.
5:29 - Do I really want to go to New York to watch us play next week? It has to be a better idea to just eat the cost and stay at home. Or maybe go and just get some good pie. Or just wander into the Marcy Projects after we lose for the second night in a row and see what happens. We are now 3-14 from the line, btw.
4:57 - Four of sixteen. FOUR of fucking SIXTEEN.
3:37 - John Wall is averaging six turnovers a game. Suck it John Wall/Wizards fans.
1:53 - We're about to lose to the college of goddamn charleston.
1:27 - ONIONS from BG!! (aka Pe'shon in the corner)
16:9 - Terps down 1 with the ball in the frontcourt. Timeout. There is ABSOLUTELY NO SHOT that we hit a shot here and win the game. Less than zero chance. I have a better shot at growing a legit, Turd-caliber beard than seeing us hit a shot here. And yet I'm still being suckered into getting excited. This is battered wife syndrome.
And just like that...my tape CUTS OFF. Yes, I should have a DVR. But who fucking cares? Pe'shon is here to TAKE SOULS and save Gary from a verbal tongue-lashing on This Very Blog that would have made George Carlin blush. Thank God.
Monday, November 8, 2010
Terps beat old nemesis Cancer, 105-76
The Terps tipped off in the Coaches vs Cancer tournament tonight for the third time in its history, this time against Seattle. This was, I suppose, the first round of a four game tournament, but in reality the Terps are guaranteed to play in the semifinal round at Madison Square Garden (I'll be there!) next week regardless of what we did against Seattle or College of Charleston.
It wasn't pretty for much of the game, but the Terps won big. On the other hand, it was VERY pretty for large portions of the games. I think I called a 26 point win, so even though I'm irrationally pissed that we let slip away a 30 point win at the end, it was a better outcome than I had expected. So what about the good, bad and ugly of the game? Well here it is.
The Good:
Sean Mosley: I'm still baffled that people think that somehow this guy isn't going to rack up a lot of points for the team over the next two seasons. Just because he can do it all doesn't mean he forgot how to score. He's never going to be a guy who can aqua velva it from deep, but he's going to clean up on the midrange. And that pump fake and drive late in the game was a thing of beauty. If Bonecrusher wasn't such a great nickname we'd have to call him Old School.
Jordan Williams: Wooden Award Candidate. Jordan Fucking Williams. He had 17 and 15 tonight. From here on out, we don't count "double doubles" for Jordan, we count 15/15 WACJFW double doubles. He even made 5 of 6 FT (miniature sample size alert) and pretty much dominated without dominating. He also had a few thunderous slams. I remember someone complaining last season that he didn't do that enough (I'm rolling my eyes as I type that).
Cliff Tucker: Tucker, for the second game in a row, rather quietly had an outstanding game. He scored, he grabbed boards, and he kept some of the usual headscratchers to a minimum. Cliff will be better this year not only because he's a senior and a primary option, but because a wide open, fast paced game suits his games, and we should see plenty of those this season.
Terrell Stoglin: Put aside a couple of turnovers, and Stoglin had one of the best debuts of any Terp in recent memory. He finished with 15 and 5 and had a phenomenal behind the back pass on the break for a slam by Jordan. What was most noticeable about his game was his quickness and shake and bake with the ball. Literally the only player I can remember with that kind of quickness for the Terps is Steve Francis. I'm not making that comparison at all, just saying that's the dimension he brings to the team.
Pe'shon Howard: Just like Stoglin, he looked like he belonged. He had eight dimes on the night and more than one oustanding, no-look pass. He's built like a college senior already, and he has enough swag to do the #21 jersey justice. It's going to be really fun to watch him and Stoglin play together for four seasons.
Berend Weijs: The Flying Dutchman only got four minutes, but he made the most of them with three blocks and two dunks. He needs to gain about 20 pounds of muscle immediately, but I'm eager to see what he does this season. He's another player that will thrive for a running team as his role will be to block shots and finish on the break. And to his credit, despite lacking bulk, he doesn't seem reticent to mix it up at all.
The Good Enough:
Dino Gregory: Dino still looked spastic at times, and didn't set the world on fire. He made multiple entry passes to the third row. But it was a typical Dino game. He blocked some shots and hit three midrange jumpshots. He's in no way going to carry this team, but he should be more than serviceable in his role.
James Padgett: Padgett only got 11 minutes as the first big off the bench, and grabbed just one board. He did have 5 points though. He didn't set the world on fire, but I'm still pretty confident he's going to settle into a role where he can give us 5/5 on a regular basis off the bench.
Mychal Parker: I've made the comparison to Landon Milbourne before, at least insofar as how his freshman season will go, and I stand by that. Parker does not look very comfortable yet, but as the huge dunk can attest, he has ridiculous athleticism (which is quickly becoming a theme for us). There were no real negatives from his relatively brief appearance, but the depth in the backcourt means he's really going to step up if he is to play a meaningful role for the Terps this season.
Haukur Palsson: I have nothing to say about him other than I heard Gary call him "Haukur Pillson" in the pregame. In other words, he and Terrell Stoggins are going to be a great tandem once Gary figures out who they are.
The Bad:
Ashton Pankey: Didn't do anything wrong, but it's not good when you're getting three minutes in a 30 point win. Who knows what his career will bring, but having watched a scrimmage, an exhibition, and now a real game, it's pretty clear that barring some deep foul trouble, he just isn't an option this season for whatever reasons.
Adrian Bowie: On one level, it's tough to say that a guy who scored 9 points in 12 minutes was abysmal, but Bowie was. On a night when the team had an abysmal 29 turnovers, Bowie was responsible for 7 of them. He found himself on the bench at around the first TV timeout and pretty much stayed there all night. I don't think any Maryland fan was more positive than "wait and see" as far as Bowie running the point goes, but it's a pretty inauspicious start to the Bowie era - an era which won't last too long if Bowie continues to be as thoroughly outplayed as he was tonight.
The refs fucking sucked tonight, largely in the Terps favor. Too many handchecks and small stuff was called, going both ways, but especially on Seattle.
The other bad point aside from the TWENTY NINE TURNOVERS was a 2-8 night from three. It's no secret that this team won't be relying no the three, both because of style and skill, but in games against teams who don't allow so many fast break opportunities, that will hurt the team. Oh, but guess what, we've got Nick Faust pretty much solves that problem, so if Gary can just land one fucking big man he's going to get his fourth final four next season. PLEASE GET A BIG MAN FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
We're one real game and one fake game in and its pretty clear that this team is going to be able to put up a lot of points, putting up 105+ in back to back games. Next up is the College of Charleston, a team coached by Bobby Cremins, formerly of Georgia Tech. They beat North Carolina last season, and also beat the Terps in the tournament back the late 90s as a 12 seed. I have successfully blocked out all memories of that debacle though. Now to work on last year...
Oh, and also, the announcers tonight were fucking atrocious. Michael Reghi, I have not missed you. Not one bit. Stop calling it the "one and bonus" you jerkoff. And Ronnie Thompson, fuck you, call some Georgetown games and stop telling me that Jordan dropped 20 pounds. I GET IT. Can't you go back to coaching and give me back Chick Hernandez?
It wasn't pretty for much of the game, but the Terps won big. On the other hand, it was VERY pretty for large portions of the games. I think I called a 26 point win, so even though I'm irrationally pissed that we let slip away a 30 point win at the end, it was a better outcome than I had expected. So what about the good, bad and ugly of the game? Well here it is.
The Good:
Sean Mosley: I'm still baffled that people think that somehow this guy isn't going to rack up a lot of points for the team over the next two seasons. Just because he can do it all doesn't mean he forgot how to score. He's never going to be a guy who can aqua velva it from deep, but he's going to clean up on the midrange. And that pump fake and drive late in the game was a thing of beauty. If Bonecrusher wasn't such a great nickname we'd have to call him Old School.
Jordan Williams: Wooden Award Candidate. Jordan Fucking Williams. He had 17 and 15 tonight. From here on out, we don't count "double doubles" for Jordan, we count 15/15 WACJFW double doubles. He even made 5 of 6 FT (miniature sample size alert) and pretty much dominated without dominating. He also had a few thunderous slams. I remember someone complaining last season that he didn't do that enough (I'm rolling my eyes as I type that).
Cliff Tucker: Tucker, for the second game in a row, rather quietly had an outstanding game. He scored, he grabbed boards, and he kept some of the usual headscratchers to a minimum. Cliff will be better this year not only because he's a senior and a primary option, but because a wide open, fast paced game suits his games, and we should see plenty of those this season.
Terrell Stoglin: Put aside a couple of turnovers, and Stoglin had one of the best debuts of any Terp in recent memory. He finished with 15 and 5 and had a phenomenal behind the back pass on the break for a slam by Jordan. What was most noticeable about his game was his quickness and shake and bake with the ball. Literally the only player I can remember with that kind of quickness for the Terps is Steve Francis. I'm not making that comparison at all, just saying that's the dimension he brings to the team.
Pe'shon Howard: Just like Stoglin, he looked like he belonged. He had eight dimes on the night and more than one oustanding, no-look pass. He's built like a college senior already, and he has enough swag to do the #21 jersey justice. It's going to be really fun to watch him and Stoglin play together for four seasons.
Berend Weijs: The Flying Dutchman only got four minutes, but he made the most of them with three blocks and two dunks. He needs to gain about 20 pounds of muscle immediately, but I'm eager to see what he does this season. He's another player that will thrive for a running team as his role will be to block shots and finish on the break. And to his credit, despite lacking bulk, he doesn't seem reticent to mix it up at all.
The Good Enough:
Dino Gregory: Dino still looked spastic at times, and didn't set the world on fire. He made multiple entry passes to the third row. But it was a typical Dino game. He blocked some shots and hit three midrange jumpshots. He's in no way going to carry this team, but he should be more than serviceable in his role.
James Padgett: Padgett only got 11 minutes as the first big off the bench, and grabbed just one board. He did have 5 points though. He didn't set the world on fire, but I'm still pretty confident he's going to settle into a role where he can give us 5/5 on a regular basis off the bench.
Mychal Parker: I've made the comparison to Landon Milbourne before, at least insofar as how his freshman season will go, and I stand by that. Parker does not look very comfortable yet, but as the huge dunk can attest, he has ridiculous athleticism (which is quickly becoming a theme for us). There were no real negatives from his relatively brief appearance, but the depth in the backcourt means he's really going to step up if he is to play a meaningful role for the Terps this season.
Haukur Palsson: I have nothing to say about him other than I heard Gary call him "Haukur Pillson" in the pregame. In other words, he and Terrell Stoggins are going to be a great tandem once Gary figures out who they are.
The Bad:
Ashton Pankey: Didn't do anything wrong, but it's not good when you're getting three minutes in a 30 point win. Who knows what his career will bring, but having watched a scrimmage, an exhibition, and now a real game, it's pretty clear that barring some deep foul trouble, he just isn't an option this season for whatever reasons.
Adrian Bowie: On one level, it's tough to say that a guy who scored 9 points in 12 minutes was abysmal, but Bowie was. On a night when the team had an abysmal 29 turnovers, Bowie was responsible for 7 of them. He found himself on the bench at around the first TV timeout and pretty much stayed there all night. I don't think any Maryland fan was more positive than "wait and see" as far as Bowie running the point goes, but it's a pretty inauspicious start to the Bowie era - an era which won't last too long if Bowie continues to be as thoroughly outplayed as he was tonight.
The refs fucking sucked tonight, largely in the Terps favor. Too many handchecks and small stuff was called, going both ways, but especially on Seattle.
The other bad point aside from the TWENTY NINE TURNOVERS was a 2-8 night from three. It's no secret that this team won't be relying no the three, both because of style and skill, but in games against teams who don't allow so many fast break opportunities, that will hurt the team. Oh, but guess what, we've got Nick Faust pretty much solves that problem, so if Gary can just land one fucking big man he's going to get his fourth final four next season. PLEASE GET A BIG MAN FOR YOUR OWN GOOD.
We're one real game and one fake game in and its pretty clear that this team is going to be able to put up a lot of points, putting up 105+ in back to back games. Next up is the College of Charleston, a team coached by Bobby Cremins, formerly of Georgia Tech. They beat North Carolina last season, and also beat the Terps in the tournament back the late 90s as a 12 seed. I have successfully blocked out all memories of that debacle though. Now to work on last year...
Oh, and also, the announcers tonight were fucking atrocious. Michael Reghi, I have not missed you. Not one bit. Stop calling it the "one and bonus" you jerkoff. And Ronnie Thompson, fuck you, call some Georgetown games and stop telling me that Jordan dropped 20 pounds. I GET IT. Can't you go back to coaching and give me back Chick Hernandez?
Monday, November 1, 2010
Fun and/or Gun
A week or so ago, I read an article about the coming Terps season which talked about how the Terps were going to run more this year. Without the three high scorers from last year, it was going to be a new look roster so the team was going to have a new look stylistically to take advantage of the current team's strengths.
When I read all this, I was a little skeptical, first because the Terps were already a team that likes to push the tempo. Always have been under Gary. That's simply the way his teams play. But more than that, it just seemed like one of those articles which gets written addressing a weakness where the coach spins it into a positive. Just like the past few years with a lack of post depth and often talent, we had heard about seeing a four guard, Villanova-esque offense, something that never really came to fruition, at least not as more than a look for a play or two every few games.
But after watching the Terps' destruction of Florida Southern (and, of course, all the standard disclaimers about it being just one game, and an exhibition against a DII team at that, apply in this case), it seems like there might really be something to this fastbreak style we're looking to implement.
How up and down did the Terps play? The 87 possessions were far more than the Terps had even in their fastest game (80 was tops in that ugly 62-53 loss at Clemson) and in fact it was their most since a 103-91 loss at Virginia way back in January 2007. The Terps were able to get out on the break by forcing turnovers against the opposing guards, something they won't be able to do as readily against quality opponents. Still, the team only forced 23 turnovers, which is not an extraordinarily high number. The fast pace was at least as much the result of quick shots out of the half court offense, something the team will have to rely without a reliable point guard game, at least for now.
Anyway, based on the scrimmage and exhibition, I'd rate the six newcomers thusly:
1. Gunnar Stahl - He's shown really good passing instincts as well as the ability to hit the three. I'm not sure where he fits exactly, but he should play.
2. Terrell Stoglin - Really should probably be #1, but the 1/5 A/TO ratio from Monday hurts him. Granted most were late in the game when the team was up 50, but still. Stoglin has shown he can hit a three and has some quicks, so he's going to be a player unlike any we've had recently.
3. Flying Dutchman - Not a bad debut at all. I've been pretty confident that he can be the fourth big man, and so far, I see nothing to change my mind. He's really active and long, and doesn't seem entirely lost with the ball in his hands.
4. Black Greivis - Maybe my expectations were too high (see: his nickname). He played well on Monday, but struggled a lot in the scrimmage. I've been pretty surprised that when he and Stoglin are both in the game, it's Stoglin running the point. Interesting.
5. Get Money - Sick athleticism, a couple good dunks, and a really unselfish pass to Mosley on the break the other night to sacrifice two points for himself. But he really doesn't seem to be in the flow of the offense yet and looks to struggle for minutes.
6. Brooklyn Area Sleeper - He actually looked pretty decent and active on Monday, especially for a guy who missed last year and was also in his first collegiate game. That being said, he's played the least minutes of anyone on the team, and doesn't look like he's going to crack the rotation this season.
When I read all this, I was a little skeptical, first because the Terps were already a team that likes to push the tempo. Always have been under Gary. That's simply the way his teams play. But more than that, it just seemed like one of those articles which gets written addressing a weakness where the coach spins it into a positive. Just like the past few years with a lack of post depth and often talent, we had heard about seeing a four guard, Villanova-esque offense, something that never really came to fruition, at least not as more than a look for a play or two every few games.
But after watching the Terps' destruction of Florida Southern (and, of course, all the standard disclaimers about it being just one game, and an exhibition against a DII team at that, apply in this case), it seems like there might really be something to this fastbreak style we're looking to implement.
How up and down did the Terps play? The 87 possessions were far more than the Terps had even in their fastest game (80 was tops in that ugly 62-53 loss at Clemson) and in fact it was their most since a 103-91 loss at Virginia way back in January 2007. The Terps were able to get out on the break by forcing turnovers against the opposing guards, something they won't be able to do as readily against quality opponents. Still, the team only forced 23 turnovers, which is not an extraordinarily high number. The fast pace was at least as much the result of quick shots out of the half court offense, something the team will have to rely without a reliable point guard game, at least for now.
Anyway, based on the scrimmage and exhibition, I'd rate the six newcomers thusly:
1. Gunnar Stahl - He's shown really good passing instincts as well as the ability to hit the three. I'm not sure where he fits exactly, but he should play.
2. Terrell Stoglin - Really should probably be #1, but the 1/5 A/TO ratio from Monday hurts him. Granted most were late in the game when the team was up 50, but still. Stoglin has shown he can hit a three and has some quicks, so he's going to be a player unlike any we've had recently.
3. Flying Dutchman - Not a bad debut at all. I've been pretty confident that he can be the fourth big man, and so far, I see nothing to change my mind. He's really active and long, and doesn't seem entirely lost with the ball in his hands.
4. Black Greivis - Maybe my expectations were too high (see: his nickname). He played well on Monday, but struggled a lot in the scrimmage. I've been pretty surprised that when he and Stoglin are both in the game, it's Stoglin running the point. Interesting.
5. Get Money - Sick athleticism, a couple good dunks, and a really unselfish pass to Mosley on the break the other night to sacrifice two points for himself. But he really doesn't seem to be in the flow of the offense yet and looks to struggle for minutes.
6. Brooklyn Area Sleeper - He actually looked pretty decent and active on Monday, especially for a guy who missed last year and was also in his first collegiate game. That being said, he's played the least minutes of anyone on the team, and doesn't look like he's going to crack the rotation this season.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
TERPS!
So now it comes down to the Terps. After a whale of a season last year that included winning the ACC regular season and seeing Greivis win the ACC Player of the Year thanks to a late season surge. Jordan Williams became dominant, Eric Hayes finished out his career as a long distance assassin, and Sean Mosley continued to establish himself as a team leader.
But this season is different. Gone are Vasquez and Hayes, as well as Landon Milbourne. The team will now belong to Mosley and Williams which is at least a little odd considering that the other three starting spots will all likely be filled (at least at first) by seniors with prior starting experience in Dino Gregory, Adrian Bowie, and Cliff Tucker. While their performance and leadership will be crucial to the season's outcome, it seems clear that if the Terps are to make any noise whatsoever in the ACC, it will likely be because Williams and Mosley play at an all-conference level. But without further adieu, a preview!
STARTING FIVE:
PG - Adrian Bowie (aka Big Sexy, Anthony Bowie): Bowie is not the prototypical point guard by any stretch, so although I've been a big fan of his since his arrival in College Park, I'll be more than a little bit hesitant to have him running the show. He's a solid ballhandler and penetrator, as well as a great finisher around the basket, but he hasn't shown nearly the court awareness necessary to run the show the way a Vasquez or Hayes did. His three point shot has been wildly inconsistent - sometimes Bowie hits a bunch in a row while other times he seemingly launches for games at a time without having a prayer of hitting one. With the team's top shooters moving on, it would be nice for him to be at least a bit more consistent in that area.
SG - Sean Mosley (aka Sugar Sean, Bonecrusher): Mosley was perhaps the team's most touted signing since at least the now-infamous Mike Jones recruiting class, and represented a landmark recruiting win for a team that has had so little success in recruiting Baltimore stars since the end of the Bob Wade era. Mosley is making good on all the potential that folks saw in him during his time at Saint Frances Academy and has shown himself to be a prototypical "Gary Williams player". Best described as "heady", at least in basketball cliches, Mosley was one of the most efficient shooters from the field in the country while doing all the dirty work on defense and the glass. Despite being the second leading scorer in Maryland HS history, he still needs to show that he can be a go-to scorer, but there's no doubt that his contributions in every area of the game will make him one of the top dozen or so players in the conference this season.
SF - Cliff Tucker (): Tucker has had an odd career, ranging from hero (game winning three against GT) to Carolina killer to Gary's doghouse. Tucker mixes equal measures of frustrating WTF moments with moments of sick athleticism and tantalizing skill. There is no doubt that he's capable of scoring in bunches, but can he do it consistently (there's that word again)? He'll also have to put forth maximum effort on defense to avoid finding himself with reduced minutes again. To his credit, strength coach Paul Ricci singled him out as being perhaps THE hardest worker on the team in the offseason. And if you've seen the way the Terps are looking swole, that's a pretty good compliment. Tucker is the X-Factor this season.
PF - Dino Gregory: Dino is an outstanding defender, good at both position defense and shot-blocking. He can hit a mid-range jumper and became a lights out FT shooter last season. On the other hand, he averaged about 4 and 3 in 20 minutes a game last season, so his production left quite a bit to be desired. The team has had trouble rebounding for years, and even with Jordan Williams dominating the glass, the Gregory/Milbourne combo at the 4 was not strong in that area at all. Dino is a pretty huge guy physically now, even if he doesn't have a height adavantage over many of his competitors. He's going to have to do better on the boards this year for the team to reach its potential. If he could average 6 or 7 boards while continuing to be very good defensively, he's going to be a valuable piece even with a lack of scoring.
C - Jordan Williams (JWOWW, Wooden Award Candidate Jordan Williams): When did you know? Was it when he had 19 and 12 against a top 5 Villanova team in December? Was it when he came close to 20/20 against Houston in the NCAA Tournament? Was it when he and Greivis were the only players to show up in a crucial come-from-behind win at North Carolina State? Whenever it was, we were all witnesses to the birth of the animal that is Jordan Fucking Williams. He's already the best inside player the team has had since Lonny Baxter, and for most folks, not at least matching Baxter's career will be a disappointment. He's already a Wooden Award candidate, and for most people, not making an All-America team as an upperclassmen will be a bit of a disappointment. Pretty heady stuff for a guy who was not a consensus top 100 player coming out of high school. Bottom line - We all know Jordan is a motherfucking monster, now let's have some fun and see how high the ceiling is for him.
BENCH:
G - Pe'shon Howard (Black Greivis): Pe'shon took Greivis' number. Some people (Bob) may see that as something that shouldn't have happened, but Howard has swag. He showed it off in the first scrimmage at Maryland Madness, and I'm confident we'll see more of that. He's also completely cut for a freshman and has big-game experience from play against and with so many stars at Oak Hill Academy so I have a lot of confidence that he's going to contribute right from the jump. (As a side note, it's interesting how so many of our PGs played big-time hoops before coming to MD - Duane Simpkins went to Dematha, Pe'shon and Blake went to Oak Hill, Greivis played for Montrose, and Terrell Stokes played for Simon Gratz, a nationall ranked Philly team that also featured Rasheed Wallace around the same time. Only John Gilchrist broke the mold, really.)
F- James Padgett (Inspector Padgett) - Apparently the reason that Padgett's minutes were so infrequent during the latter part of last season was not because Gary didn't trust him, but rather because he had some stomach ailment which was apparently never mentioned last season so far as I can recall. This year Padgett will play, and almost certainly will play 20+ minutes. He showed a lot of positives last year - post moves and rebounding especially - so it's not a stretch to see him becoming a very valuable bench contributor, if not more. Who knows how good he can be, but with a frontcourt that is thin on depth and experience after Jordan and Dino, Padgett is going to play a crucial role this season.
G - Terrell Stoglin: So in my mind, not only have I made Pe'shon the heir apparent to Greivis, but Stoglin is the new Hayes. He committed first before being passed on the depth chart (my assumption) before getting here. He's supposed to be a better shooter and has more of a rep of a scorer. He's also probably though of more as a combo guard, which does kind of reverse the roles in that Hayes was the pure PG coming while Greivis was the man of many positions (and to some extent that held true even through their four years). My gut says that Stoglin will find himself riding the bench behind all of the guards on the team, but all he has to do to play big minutes is to beat out Howard for the starting PG spot. If he is the better shooter, that could help him see minutes as the team will be weak in that area.
G/F - Mike Parker (Get Money): Is that nickname gonna stick? Who knows, but I do know that he is the Terps most highly touted recruit, and really, after losing Terrence Ross, he's the only touted recruit remaining from another once-promising class that ended up pretty weak on paper. Parker is a really long athlete, and for whatever reason, since I'm pre-assigning career paths to incoming players, I have him marked down as the next Laron Profit. If he can score a few points, he'll be a valuable addition to the rotation.
F - Berend Weijs (Flying Dutchman) - More comparisons - Boom. Ok, that may be heresy, but hear me out. Both were lightly regarded JuCo prospects and...uh, I've seen Boom and Weijs post on each others' facebooks. So there's that. Weijs averaged over four blocks per game so I'm expecting him to come in as the second big off the bench and just fly around, block shots, and do some dirty work. He's gained 15 pounds since coming to campus, but he's still only at 205 so he needs to get taller. But if he can off the bench and just block shots and play some D, that works. It's not like our most recent successful teams have gotten much production out of their fourth big man (WillBo, anyone?)
F - Haukur Pallson (Hawk, Gunnar Stahl): This seemed like an odd signing at the time. The Terps picked up Pallson late in the recruiting year even though they were well stocked in the backcourt. On the surface, Hawk doesn't seem like a world beater, putting up moderate numbers for a loaded high school team. Still, it would seem that if Gary offered him, he saw something in his play. Not that Gary hasn't been wrong in recent years with recruiting. I don't expect much from the Hawk this season, let's just say that.
F - Ashton Pankey: It's never good when a big man injures their foot before even coming to college. There was talk of a redshirt, but that doesn't seem to be a concern at this point as Pankey is healthy enough to play already. Still, I'd be moderately surprised if he sees significant minutes once we get to conference play.
But this season is different. Gone are Vasquez and Hayes, as well as Landon Milbourne. The team will now belong to Mosley and Williams which is at least a little odd considering that the other three starting spots will all likely be filled (at least at first) by seniors with prior starting experience in Dino Gregory, Adrian Bowie, and Cliff Tucker. While their performance and leadership will be crucial to the season's outcome, it seems clear that if the Terps are to make any noise whatsoever in the ACC, it will likely be because Williams and Mosley play at an all-conference level. But without further adieu, a preview!
STARTING FIVE:
PG - Adrian Bowie (aka Big Sexy, Anthony Bowie): Bowie is not the prototypical point guard by any stretch, so although I've been a big fan of his since his arrival in College Park, I'll be more than a little bit hesitant to have him running the show. He's a solid ballhandler and penetrator, as well as a great finisher around the basket, but he hasn't shown nearly the court awareness necessary to run the show the way a Vasquez or Hayes did. His three point shot has been wildly inconsistent - sometimes Bowie hits a bunch in a row while other times he seemingly launches for games at a time without having a prayer of hitting one. With the team's top shooters moving on, it would be nice for him to be at least a bit more consistent in that area.
SG - Sean Mosley (aka Sugar Sean, Bonecrusher): Mosley was perhaps the team's most touted signing since at least the now-infamous Mike Jones recruiting class, and represented a landmark recruiting win for a team that has had so little success in recruiting Baltimore stars since the end of the Bob Wade era. Mosley is making good on all the potential that folks saw in him during his time at Saint Frances Academy and has shown himself to be a prototypical "Gary Williams player". Best described as "heady", at least in basketball cliches, Mosley was one of the most efficient shooters from the field in the country while doing all the dirty work on defense and the glass. Despite being the second leading scorer in Maryland HS history, he still needs to show that he can be a go-to scorer, but there's no doubt that his contributions in every area of the game will make him one of the top dozen or so players in the conference this season.
SF - Cliff Tucker (): Tucker has had an odd career, ranging from hero (game winning three against GT) to Carolina killer to Gary's doghouse. Tucker mixes equal measures of frustrating WTF moments with moments of sick athleticism and tantalizing skill. There is no doubt that he's capable of scoring in bunches, but can he do it consistently (there's that word again)? He'll also have to put forth maximum effort on defense to avoid finding himself with reduced minutes again. To his credit, strength coach Paul Ricci singled him out as being perhaps THE hardest worker on the team in the offseason. And if you've seen the way the Terps are looking swole, that's a pretty good compliment. Tucker is the X-Factor this season.
PF - Dino Gregory: Dino is an outstanding defender, good at both position defense and shot-blocking. He can hit a mid-range jumper and became a lights out FT shooter last season. On the other hand, he averaged about 4 and 3 in 20 minutes a game last season, so his production left quite a bit to be desired. The team has had trouble rebounding for years, and even with Jordan Williams dominating the glass, the Gregory/Milbourne combo at the 4 was not strong in that area at all. Dino is a pretty huge guy physically now, even if he doesn't have a height adavantage over many of his competitors. He's going to have to do better on the boards this year for the team to reach its potential. If he could average 6 or 7 boards while continuing to be very good defensively, he's going to be a valuable piece even with a lack of scoring.
C - Jordan Williams (JWOWW, Wooden Award Candidate Jordan Williams): When did you know? Was it when he had 19 and 12 against a top 5 Villanova team in December? Was it when he came close to 20/20 against Houston in the NCAA Tournament? Was it when he and Greivis were the only players to show up in a crucial come-from-behind win at North Carolina State? Whenever it was, we were all witnesses to the birth of the animal that is Jordan Fucking Williams. He's already the best inside player the team has had since Lonny Baxter, and for most folks, not at least matching Baxter's career will be a disappointment. He's already a Wooden Award candidate, and for most people, not making an All-America team as an upperclassmen will be a bit of a disappointment. Pretty heady stuff for a guy who was not a consensus top 100 player coming out of high school. Bottom line - We all know Jordan is a motherfucking monster, now let's have some fun and see how high the ceiling is for him.
BENCH:
G - Pe'shon Howard (Black Greivis): Pe'shon took Greivis' number. Some people (Bob) may see that as something that shouldn't have happened, but Howard has swag. He showed it off in the first scrimmage at Maryland Madness, and I'm confident we'll see more of that. He's also completely cut for a freshman and has big-game experience from play against and with so many stars at Oak Hill Academy so I have a lot of confidence that he's going to contribute right from the jump. (As a side note, it's interesting how so many of our PGs played big-time hoops before coming to MD - Duane Simpkins went to Dematha, Pe'shon and Blake went to Oak Hill, Greivis played for Montrose, and Terrell Stokes played for Simon Gratz, a nationall ranked Philly team that also featured Rasheed Wallace around the same time. Only John Gilchrist broke the mold, really.)
F- James Padgett (Inspector Padgett) - Apparently the reason that Padgett's minutes were so infrequent during the latter part of last season was not because Gary didn't trust him, but rather because he had some stomach ailment which was apparently never mentioned last season so far as I can recall. This year Padgett will play, and almost certainly will play 20+ minutes. He showed a lot of positives last year - post moves and rebounding especially - so it's not a stretch to see him becoming a very valuable bench contributor, if not more. Who knows how good he can be, but with a frontcourt that is thin on depth and experience after Jordan and Dino, Padgett is going to play a crucial role this season.
G - Terrell Stoglin: So in my mind, not only have I made Pe'shon the heir apparent to Greivis, but Stoglin is the new Hayes. He committed first before being passed on the depth chart (my assumption) before getting here. He's supposed to be a better shooter and has more of a rep of a scorer. He's also probably though of more as a combo guard, which does kind of reverse the roles in that Hayes was the pure PG coming while Greivis was the man of many positions (and to some extent that held true even through their four years). My gut says that Stoglin will find himself riding the bench behind all of the guards on the team, but all he has to do to play big minutes is to beat out Howard for the starting PG spot. If he is the better shooter, that could help him see minutes as the team will be weak in that area.
G/F - Mike Parker (Get Money): Is that nickname gonna stick? Who knows, but I do know that he is the Terps most highly touted recruit, and really, after losing Terrence Ross, he's the only touted recruit remaining from another once-promising class that ended up pretty weak on paper. Parker is a really long athlete, and for whatever reason, since I'm pre-assigning career paths to incoming players, I have him marked down as the next Laron Profit. If he can score a few points, he'll be a valuable addition to the rotation.
F - Berend Weijs (Flying Dutchman) - More comparisons - Boom. Ok, that may be heresy, but hear me out. Both were lightly regarded JuCo prospects and...uh, I've seen Boom and Weijs post on each others' facebooks. So there's that. Weijs averaged over four blocks per game so I'm expecting him to come in as the second big off the bench and just fly around, block shots, and do some dirty work. He's gained 15 pounds since coming to campus, but he's still only at 205 so he needs to get taller. But if he can off the bench and just block shots and play some D, that works. It's not like our most recent successful teams have gotten much production out of their fourth big man (WillBo, anyone?)
F - Haukur Pallson (Hawk, Gunnar Stahl): This seemed like an odd signing at the time. The Terps picked up Pallson late in the recruiting year even though they were well stocked in the backcourt. On the surface, Hawk doesn't seem like a world beater, putting up moderate numbers for a loaded high school team. Still, it would seem that if Gary offered him, he saw something in his play. Not that Gary hasn't been wrong in recent years with recruiting. I don't expect much from the Hawk this season, let's just say that.
F - Ashton Pankey: It's never good when a big man injures their foot before even coming to college. There was talk of a redshirt, but that doesn't seem to be a concern at this point as Pankey is healthy enough to play already. Still, I'd be moderately surprised if he sees significant minutes once we get to conference play.
Saturday, October 16, 2010
ACC PREVIEW PART THE SECOND
6. YOUR MARYLAND TERRAPINS! - See separate blog post.
5. Clemson Tigers - You know things are bleak for the long-term outlook of your basketball program when you lose your head coach to Depaul, but that's what happened to Clemson this spring. Oliver Purnell brought them back to respectability, and now the Tigers have to hope they aren't as hopeless as they were for...well, most of their history aside from when Purnell and Rick Barnes coached them. The Tigers also loss the often dominating Trevor Booker from their lineup, so there are some on-court losses too. On the other hand the Tigers return most of their other contributors. Demontez Stitt and Andre Young is a good pair of quick guards, and Jerai Grant and Trevor's brother Devin will be a good combo. If former top recruit Milton Jennings improves on a very mediocre freshman year, this team could do a lot better than I'm predicting them. Clemson has just one new recruit coming in, a lightly regard spring signee, so it looks like the team will have to make do with last year's lineup sans Trevor Booker and David Potter.
4. Florida State Seminoles - I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed with what Leonard Hamilton has done recently with this program. Plus he reminds me a lot of Bunny Colvin. I'm not sure if i thought that up or if Andrew mentioned it previously, but we'll share credit since we pretty much share a brain anyway. The 'Noles lost Solomon "Fawaz" Alabi as well as another big man in Ryan Reid, who inexplicably got drafted after putting up 7/4 as a senior. I mean, he was a nice little ballplayer in college, but come on. I just really have no particularly strong feelings about any of these guys. They're just kind of there. Maybe Chris Singleton will be really good. I honestly have no clue.
3. Virginia Tech Hokies - Now we start getting to the teams I loathe. There's not really a more loathesome trio than Dorenzo Hudson, Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen. I mean between the three players, if you combined their IQ, they MIGHT crack triple digits. But I can't promise. The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing noobish sportswriters that Delaney is a star rather than a turd. The Hokies got real bad news in the offseason when JT Thompson went down for the season with a knee. Tech had already had injuries thin their frontline previously. Transfer Allan Chaney has a heart condition that will likely preclude him from playing, and sophomore Cadarian Raines got Jerome Burney'd. It seems like a few times in recent years VT has had three or four players good enough for them to compete for the ACC title, but not enough depth to be more than a bubble team. That could be the case once again, at least unless Raines comes back strong, or Victor Davila continues improving enough to be a solid frontcourt contributor. Virginia Tech could finish a spot higher, but I have to think that it's actually more likely they drop a few spots down to their usual bubble spot.
2. North Carolina Tar Heels - Is this a tribute to North Carolina or a testament to my stupidity or the weakness of the ACC? It could be any of the three. UNC went 6-10 in the league last year, got dealt several really embarassing losses, and barely made the NIT. Then this offseason they lost their three leading scorers in Deon Thompson (graduated), Ed Davis (drafted), and Will Graves (kicked off the team). They also saw the departure of the David and Travis Wear to transfer. The Heels will really only go eight deep, but it could be an elite eight. The keys are the newcomers. Harrison Barnes was the nation's top recruit (and picked UNC over Duke) while Kendall Marshall will have to play big minutes at the point given how weak Larry Drew II's play was last season. The other player to watch is John Henson who got hyped as the next Kevin Durant/freak of nature but who played, for the most part, just like a freshman especially in the beginning and latter part of the season. If those three meet the lofty expectations folks have for them UNC could go right back to being elite. Those seem like big ifs, but for a program like North Carolina and a coach like Roy Williams, it's best to assume that a bad season is just a blip on the radar and that the good times will just keep rolling.
1. Duke Blue Devils - Could it be anyone else? Duke loses quite a bit in almost-but-not-quite ACC Player of the Year Jon Scheyerface as well as the suddenly surgent Brian Zoubek. But they also have a sick recruiting class coming in, led by point guard Kyrie Irving who everyone is slobbering over and who Dickie V will call a diaper dandy at least 234907 times in his orgasmic, dook slobbering tone. Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith will both be all-ACC, and one of the two is likely to win POY unless Virginia Tech wins enough games for Malcolm Delaney to win it. The Plumlees will be counted on to hold down the inside, and Seth Curry transfers in from Liberty to possibly be the latest Curry to take the basketball world by storm. But all bias aside, this is the team to beat in not only the ACC, but the country as well, particularly now that Purdue's Robbie Hummell tore his ACL again. And don't think for a minute that I won't root for Coach K over Michigan State. I'll fucking do it.
5. Clemson Tigers - You know things are bleak for the long-term outlook of your basketball program when you lose your head coach to Depaul, but that's what happened to Clemson this spring. Oliver Purnell brought them back to respectability, and now the Tigers have to hope they aren't as hopeless as they were for...well, most of their history aside from when Purnell and Rick Barnes coached them. The Tigers also loss the often dominating Trevor Booker from their lineup, so there are some on-court losses too. On the other hand the Tigers return most of their other contributors. Demontez Stitt and Andre Young is a good pair of quick guards, and Jerai Grant and Trevor's brother Devin will be a good combo. If former top recruit Milton Jennings improves on a very mediocre freshman year, this team could do a lot better than I'm predicting them. Clemson has just one new recruit coming in, a lightly regard spring signee, so it looks like the team will have to make do with last year's lineup sans Trevor Booker and David Potter.
4. Florida State Seminoles - I have to admit, I'm pretty impressed with what Leonard Hamilton has done recently with this program. Plus he reminds me a lot of Bunny Colvin. I'm not sure if i thought that up or if Andrew mentioned it previously, but we'll share credit since we pretty much share a brain anyway. The 'Noles lost Solomon "Fawaz" Alabi as well as another big man in Ryan Reid, who inexplicably got drafted after putting up 7/4 as a senior. I mean, he was a nice little ballplayer in college, but come on. I just really have no particularly strong feelings about any of these guys. They're just kind of there. Maybe Chris Singleton will be really good. I honestly have no clue.
3. Virginia Tech Hokies - Now we start getting to the teams I loathe. There's not really a more loathesome trio than Dorenzo Hudson, Malcolm Delaney and Jeff Allen. I mean between the three players, if you combined their IQ, they MIGHT crack triple digits. But I can't promise. The greatest trick the devil ever played was convincing noobish sportswriters that Delaney is a star rather than a turd. The Hokies got real bad news in the offseason when JT Thompson went down for the season with a knee. Tech had already had injuries thin their frontline previously. Transfer Allan Chaney has a heart condition that will likely preclude him from playing, and sophomore Cadarian Raines got Jerome Burney'd. It seems like a few times in recent years VT has had three or four players good enough for them to compete for the ACC title, but not enough depth to be more than a bubble team. That could be the case once again, at least unless Raines comes back strong, or Victor Davila continues improving enough to be a solid frontcourt contributor. Virginia Tech could finish a spot higher, but I have to think that it's actually more likely they drop a few spots down to their usual bubble spot.
2. North Carolina Tar Heels - Is this a tribute to North Carolina or a testament to my stupidity or the weakness of the ACC? It could be any of the three. UNC went 6-10 in the league last year, got dealt several really embarassing losses, and barely made the NIT. Then this offseason they lost their three leading scorers in Deon Thompson (graduated), Ed Davis (drafted), and Will Graves (kicked off the team). They also saw the departure of the David and Travis Wear to transfer. The Heels will really only go eight deep, but it could be an elite eight. The keys are the newcomers. Harrison Barnes was the nation's top recruit (and picked UNC over Duke) while Kendall Marshall will have to play big minutes at the point given how weak Larry Drew II's play was last season. The other player to watch is John Henson who got hyped as the next Kevin Durant/freak of nature but who played, for the most part, just like a freshman especially in the beginning and latter part of the season. If those three meet the lofty expectations folks have for them UNC could go right back to being elite. Those seem like big ifs, but for a program like North Carolina and a coach like Roy Williams, it's best to assume that a bad season is just a blip on the radar and that the good times will just keep rolling.
1. Duke Blue Devils - Could it be anyone else? Duke loses quite a bit in almost-but-not-quite ACC Player of the Year Jon Scheyerface as well as the suddenly surgent Brian Zoubek. But they also have a sick recruiting class coming in, led by point guard Kyrie Irving who everyone is slobbering over and who Dickie V will call a diaper dandy at least 234907 times in his orgasmic, dook slobbering tone. Kyle Singler and Nolan Smith will both be all-ACC, and one of the two is likely to win POY unless Virginia Tech wins enough games for Malcolm Delaney to win it. The Plumlees will be counted on to hold down the inside, and Seth Curry transfers in from Liberty to possibly be the latest Curry to take the basketball world by storm. But all bias aside, this is the team to beat in not only the ACC, but the country as well, particularly now that Purdue's Robbie Hummell tore his ACL again. And don't think for a minute that I won't root for Coach K over Michigan State. I'll fucking do it.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
BASKETBALL SEASON STARTS IN 2 DAYS aka ACC preview
HOLY GOD ITS BASKETBALL SEASON!!
This is the most exciting time of the year for me. At least until Thanksgiving when we have Feast Week, and later on in March when the Madness begins (even though they came perilously close to ruining with their greed). It's college basketball season, and nothing brings the scrillas together like some good, all-american college hoops. This post will not examine the end of Greivis' career, either in general or speficially how it ended. That's still far too touchy a subject, and I will need some time to reclaim my soul before ever discussing that at length.
What this blog post will be is a preview of the upcoming ACC season, with my exclusive, 100% correct picks for things. So let's get to it, in reverse order this time!
12. Virginia Cavaliers - The Cavs started strong last year at 5-2 in the conference despite a bunch of early season non-conference losses, and it looked like Tony Bennett was going to perform a miracle and get his team into NCAA tournament, and possibly even league title contention. But the team started losing, and then kept on losing, a stretch of nine straight to close out the season before beating Boston College in the ACC Tournament. The big story in the late season fallout saw Sylven Landesberg miss most of the stretch before eventually declaring for the NBA Draft. The Cavs also lost fourth leading scorer Jeff Jones, who trasnsferred to Rider. If those two had stayed, Virginia could have used its solid recruiting class to make at least a little noise in the conference, but now they're destined for the cellar. Mike Scott is a pretty solid big man, good enough to make an All-ACC team if he played for a better team, but after that it's pretty bleak. Sammy Zeglinski is the second leading returning scorer, and the other contributors back include Jerome Meyinsse and Mustapha Farrakhan, none of whom are good enough to start for a tournament caliber team. Tony Bennett's first recruiting class is...disproportionately white, to say the least, although it does feature two solid big men (James Johnson and Will Regan) that the Terps recruited. I guess the good part is that if last year's season finale is any indication, the fine* folks in Charlottesville have a good chance at some shitty but free Raising Cain's chicken after the games.
11. Wake Forest Demon Deacons - Dino Guadio made a good sauce, but alas his olive oil skin and guinea charm weren't enough to keep him employed. Instead, Wake Forest elected to go with Jeff Bzdelik of Colorado who had been a pretty spectacular failure (10-38 in conference games) at that school. But even though he's almost 60, he's an old pal of the Wake AD so he got the job. To make matters worse, the team lost a lottery pick in Al-Farouq Aminu as well as the reliable Ish Smith, plus defensive stalwart LD Williams, HOF neanderthal Chas MacFarland, and Tony Woods (to legal trouble). As freshmen, CJ Harris and Ari Stewart were reliable (albeit inefficient) scorers at the guard spots, and Wake does bring in a decent class, headed by forward Travis McKie. But while there may be some promise for the future, the future is not now.
10. Georgia Tech - It speaks to the weakness of the ACC at the bottom that Georgia Tech would be ranked even this high. There was plenty of drama in the offseason when, despite making the NCAA tournament last season, most Tech fans seemingly hoped that Paul Hewitt would leave to go home and coach Saint John's. It was not to be, but it's probably hard to blame fans for being restless. Hewitt has been the coach for ten seasons and despite plenty of talent (Jack, Bosh, Young, Favors, Crittendon, Lawal, Morrow), he's only had one season better than 8-8 in the ACC. At 67-93 overall in the ACC, it's amazing that he's been able to keep his job at a program with as much tradition as GT, even despite making 5 NCAA tournaments and a National Championship Game. As for this year's team, well, it doesn't get easier to win without Derrick Favors, not to mention Gani Lawal. Even with Favors gone, there is plenty of potential in the current sophomore class (led by Brian Oliver and Glen Rice, Jr.) to assist the enigmatic Iman Shumpert. That said, Yellow Jacket teams with more talent and experience than this one have failed to do much under Hewitt, so it while the team certainly has the capability of getting at or close to the .500 mark in the ACC, I'd bet that they fall short of that.
9. Boston College Eagles - Al Skinner was very successful during his time in Boston, going to 7 NCAA Tournaments, winning three Big East regular season titles, and coaching guys like Jared Dudley, Craig Smith, Troy Bell, and Tyrese Rice. Apparently the powers that be at the school thought the program had stagnated, leading them to replace Skinner and his turtle neck with up and comer Steve Donahue from Cornell. The good news for the team is that everyone returns, including Joe Trapani and the emerging Reggie Jackson. The bad news, of course, is that those everyones were rather mediocre last season. The recruiting class doesn't hold much promise for immediate help, although most of Skinner's didn't either and he had his share of success. Jackson was borderline all-conference quality last year (averaging 12.9/5.7/4.5) so he could be the team's next star if he continues improving in his final two seasons. Al Skinner is like a bloodhound finding these diamonds in the rough like Jackson, much as his jowls are like those of a bloodhound.
8. Miami Hurricanes - A year after finishing last in the conference despite a 15-1 overall start, this team seems to be getting more respect than you'd anticipate. They lost their top two scorers, Dwayne Collins and James Dews, so it isn't even a case of a bad team returning everyone. Still, some key guys like JR SF Dequan Jones and SO guard Durand Scott, both of whom were good recruits, have enough experience to drag the team up a few spots. Scott in particular looks like an emerging star after averaging in double figures last season. On a related note, the Fighting Frank Haiths have now dropped two straight to the Terps after dealing us a series of horrific defeats over the past few seasons (see e.g. 2007 at Miami where the Terps shot below 0%, 2007 in the ACC Tournament first round 5/12 game, and 2009 in Miami with a great comeback). Good times!
7. North Carolina State - C'mon! It's Sid Lowe! You didn't really expect that I was going to go with the crowd and pick the friggin Sid Lowe-led Wolfpack to finish in the top half of the division, did you? Sid is great at wearing a garish red jacket to the games, but I'm not sure that anything more complicated than that is within his scope of competence. Tracy Smith is great, but what will the team do without the incomparable Dennis Horner (Kevin Pittsnoggle Memorial White Trash Award winner, 2010) and Farnold Degand (Olu Babalola Memorial Name of the Year Award, 2010)? Plus Sid doesn't know how to use Smith, and I've got the feeling that former-Terp target CJ Leslie is going to be less Shawn Kemp-in-training and more Terrence Jennings (former Maryland commit now at Louisville). I'd say nice things about Javy Gonzalez, but I remember about two years ago when Greivis absolutely abused him for the duration of the game. I think it may possibly have been the epic post-600 win game where he came a rebound short of getting a triple double. (Remember that time Greivis DID get a triple double against UNC and we had an insane OT comeback win!? HOLY COW ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I miss Greivis.)
I'm tired of writing. Top half...later. SPOILER: The Terps figure prominently.
This is the most exciting time of the year for me. At least until Thanksgiving when we have Feast Week, and later on in March when the Madness begins (even though they came perilously close to ruining with their greed). It's college basketball season, and nothing brings the scrillas together like some good, all-american college hoops. This post will not examine the end of Greivis' career, either in general or speficially how it ended. That's still far too touchy a subject, and I will need some time to reclaim my soul before ever discussing that at length.
What this blog post will be is a preview of the upcoming ACC season, with my exclusive, 100% correct picks for things. So let's get to it, in reverse order this time!
12. Virginia Cavaliers - The Cavs started strong last year at 5-2 in the conference despite a bunch of early season non-conference losses, and it looked like Tony Bennett was going to perform a miracle and get his team into NCAA tournament, and possibly even league title contention. But the team started losing, and then kept on losing, a stretch of nine straight to close out the season before beating Boston College in the ACC Tournament. The big story in the late season fallout saw Sylven Landesberg miss most of the stretch before eventually declaring for the NBA Draft. The Cavs also lost fourth leading scorer Jeff Jones, who trasnsferred to Rider. If those two had stayed, Virginia could have used its solid recruiting class to make at least a little noise in the conference, but now they're destined for the cellar. Mike Scott is a pretty solid big man, good enough to make an All-ACC team if he played for a better team, but after that it's pretty bleak. Sammy Zeglinski is the second leading returning scorer, and the other contributors back include Jerome Meyinsse and Mustapha Farrakhan, none of whom are good enough to start for a tournament caliber team. Tony Bennett's first recruiting class is...disproportionately white, to say the least, although it does feature two solid big men (James Johnson and Will Regan) that the Terps recruited. I guess the good part is that if last year's season finale is any indication, the fine* folks in Charlottesville have a good chance at some shitty but free Raising Cain's chicken after the games.
11. Wake Forest Demon Deacons - Dino Guadio made a good sauce, but alas his olive oil skin and guinea charm weren't enough to keep him employed. Instead, Wake Forest elected to go with Jeff Bzdelik of Colorado who had been a pretty spectacular failure (10-38 in conference games) at that school. But even though he's almost 60, he's an old pal of the Wake AD so he got the job. To make matters worse, the team lost a lottery pick in Al-Farouq Aminu as well as the reliable Ish Smith, plus defensive stalwart LD Williams, HOF neanderthal Chas MacFarland, and Tony Woods (to legal trouble). As freshmen, CJ Harris and Ari Stewart were reliable (albeit inefficient) scorers at the guard spots, and Wake does bring in a decent class, headed by forward Travis McKie. But while there may be some promise for the future, the future is not now.
10. Georgia Tech - It speaks to the weakness of the ACC at the bottom that Georgia Tech would be ranked even this high. There was plenty of drama in the offseason when, despite making the NCAA tournament last season, most Tech fans seemingly hoped that Paul Hewitt would leave to go home and coach Saint John's. It was not to be, but it's probably hard to blame fans for being restless. Hewitt has been the coach for ten seasons and despite plenty of talent (Jack, Bosh, Young, Favors, Crittendon, Lawal, Morrow), he's only had one season better than 8-8 in the ACC. At 67-93 overall in the ACC, it's amazing that he's been able to keep his job at a program with as much tradition as GT, even despite making 5 NCAA tournaments and a National Championship Game. As for this year's team, well, it doesn't get easier to win without Derrick Favors, not to mention Gani Lawal. Even with Favors gone, there is plenty of potential in the current sophomore class (led by Brian Oliver and Glen Rice, Jr.) to assist the enigmatic Iman Shumpert. That said, Yellow Jacket teams with more talent and experience than this one have failed to do much under Hewitt, so it while the team certainly has the capability of getting at or close to the .500 mark in the ACC, I'd bet that they fall short of that.
9. Boston College Eagles - Al Skinner was very successful during his time in Boston, going to 7 NCAA Tournaments, winning three Big East regular season titles, and coaching guys like Jared Dudley, Craig Smith, Troy Bell, and Tyrese Rice. Apparently the powers that be at the school thought the program had stagnated, leading them to replace Skinner and his turtle neck with up and comer Steve Donahue from Cornell. The good news for the team is that everyone returns, including Joe Trapani and the emerging Reggie Jackson. The bad news, of course, is that those everyones were rather mediocre last season. The recruiting class doesn't hold much promise for immediate help, although most of Skinner's didn't either and he had his share of success. Jackson was borderline all-conference quality last year (averaging 12.9/5.7/4.5) so he could be the team's next star if he continues improving in his final two seasons. Al Skinner is like a bloodhound finding these diamonds in the rough like Jackson, much as his jowls are like those of a bloodhound.
8. Miami Hurricanes - A year after finishing last in the conference despite a 15-1 overall start, this team seems to be getting more respect than you'd anticipate. They lost their top two scorers, Dwayne Collins and James Dews, so it isn't even a case of a bad team returning everyone. Still, some key guys like JR SF Dequan Jones and SO guard Durand Scott, both of whom were good recruits, have enough experience to drag the team up a few spots. Scott in particular looks like an emerging star after averaging in double figures last season. On a related note, the Fighting Frank Haiths have now dropped two straight to the Terps after dealing us a series of horrific defeats over the past few seasons (see e.g. 2007 at Miami where the Terps shot below 0%, 2007 in the ACC Tournament first round 5/12 game, and 2009 in Miami with a great comeback). Good times!
7. North Carolina State - C'mon! It's Sid Lowe! You didn't really expect that I was going to go with the crowd and pick the friggin Sid Lowe-led Wolfpack to finish in the top half of the division, did you? Sid is great at wearing a garish red jacket to the games, but I'm not sure that anything more complicated than that is within his scope of competence. Tracy Smith is great, but what will the team do without the incomparable Dennis Horner (Kevin Pittsnoggle Memorial White Trash Award winner, 2010) and Farnold Degand (Olu Babalola Memorial Name of the Year Award, 2010)? Plus Sid doesn't know how to use Smith, and I've got the feeling that former-Terp target CJ Leslie is going to be less Shawn Kemp-in-training and more Terrence Jennings (former Maryland commit now at Louisville). I'd say nice things about Javy Gonzalez, but I remember about two years ago when Greivis absolutely abused him for the duration of the game. I think it may possibly have been the epic post-600 win game where he came a rebound short of getting a triple double. (Remember that time Greivis DID get a triple double against UNC and we had an insane OT comeback win!? HOLY COW ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! I miss Greivis.)
I'm tired of writing. Top half...later. SPOILER: The Terps figure prominently.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Things Said Ten Years Ago
From Sports Illustrated, March 29, 1999:
Fifth starter Sidney Ponson is big - 6'1", 220- and slightly roly-poly. He was born in Aruba, where he learned to throw a killer sinker and a curveball that falls off a shelf. The 22-year-old has a veteran's confidence, which is odd, because as a rookie last year he was less than stellar. He did, however, win seven of his last 10 decisions. In the off-season he got in better shape, and got stronger, and he goes into the '99 season with the expectations of a realist: to win 12 to 15 games, pitch 180 to 200 innings and keep his ERA under 4.00. "The thing about Sidney is that he's smart," says manager Ray Miller. "A smart pitcher with a 97-mile-an-hour sinker is gonna get a lot of people out."
It certainly is comforting to note that Sidney was a smart guy who got in shape and had a biting, near 100 mph sinker. The future is bright.
Fifth starter Sidney Ponson is big - 6'1", 220- and slightly roly-poly. He was born in Aruba, where he learned to throw a killer sinker and a curveball that falls off a shelf. The 22-year-old has a veteran's confidence, which is odd, because as a rookie last year he was less than stellar. He did, however, win seven of his last 10 decisions. In the off-season he got in better shape, and got stronger, and he goes into the '99 season with the expectations of a realist: to win 12 to 15 games, pitch 180 to 200 innings and keep his ERA under 4.00. "The thing about Sidney is that he's smart," says manager Ray Miller. "A smart pitcher with a 97-mile-an-hour sinker is gonna get a lot of people out."
It certainly is comforting to note that Sidney was a smart guy who got in shape and had a biting, near 100 mph sinker. The future is bright.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
My Favorite Non-Ravens
Let me preface this by saying that in general, these players all suck and I hate them.
That being said, I must admit, some of my favorite players in the NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE (Copyright 2008 Ron Jaworski) are not Ravens. Mind you, none of them are in the AFC North, but that's more of a result that the Browns and Bengals suck and I hate the Foremans with so much passion that his smug face pisses me off at all times. At all times!
So without further Maurice Edu, and in no particular order, my favorite non-Ravens are:
AFC EAST
Bart Scott - Ok, so this is borderline cheating because he was a former Raven and Ray Lewis junior, but I don't care. After he threw a ref's flag into the stands during the primetime game against the undefeated Patriots, I was forever enamored with him. Sure, he's a pretty good player and all, so it makes it easy, and but he's also a good reminder of how the Jets are now the kid brother of the Ravens, and that makes me smile. So do run-on sentences. (BTW, Rex Ryan lost this game for us due to his untimely time-out call right before a 4th down stop. Now he's a head coach. Good luck New York!)
Randy Moss - Straight Cash Homie
Pat White - He's such a great scrambling quarterba... wait a minute. He signed a MLB contract in August just before the season begins? Right when baseball is winding down? Seriously? I thought West Virginia didn't let in idiots. Guess I've learned a valuable lesson today.
AFC SOUTH
Commerical Pitchman Peyton Manning - Fantastic
4th Quarter Winning Drive Peyton Manning not playing my team - Amazing
4th Quarter Winning Drive Peyton Manning playing my team - SHEEEEEE-IT
AFC WEST
Champ Bailey - First, his name is Champ. Second, his brother's name is Boss. Upon further review, it's only a nickname. I don't like him quite as much now
NFC EAST
Clinton Portis - This
Chris Cooley - He once showed hit dick on his website, just because he could.
Dez Bryant - His mom's a hooker. True story.
Sexy Rexy - I completely forgot that he was with the 'Skins. He makes the list entire only the Rex Grossman Principle
NFC NORTH
Brett Favre - He's just a gunslinger. Such a kid out there, he loves playing the game. I want to have his babies and make love to his stubble, preferably in a pick-up, doing some American things. Good feelings, old people, pie!, bluejeans, David Eckstein, the way things used to be, good little ballplayer, heart, man of the people, love, wrangler, football.
NFC SOUTH/WEST
The Saints are the new Red Sox. Mark it now.
Vernon Davis - THE DUKE. He owns every Maryland weight lifting-type record ever invented. He's also seen Mike Singletary's boxers (we think that's all he saw). If he was a ref, he'd be Ed Hochuli (all praise be upon him)
Everyone else in these divisions is WOEFUL
Well there you have it, I've blogged
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Ravens Listomania by Phoenix
I was driving to class this morning, and once again, there was no music on. I could have - nay, should have - simply plugged in my iPod, but I decided against that route. Instead, I made the sketchy decision to tune into 105.7 to catch some sports talk radio, in this instance Mark Viviano and someone calling himself O-dawg/dog (did not sound like Orland Hudson). Of course they were discussing the Ravens, and the conversation turned to Derrick Mason. At this point, my new pal O-dawg/dog proclaimed his undying love for Mason and said that Mason was one of the top five players in Ravens history.
Whoa.
That can't be right, can it? I love Mason as much as you can love a possession receiver, but he seems more Harold Baines than Jim Palmer. Sure, the Ravens are younger, but really? Clearly the only way to clarify the issue is a LIST of the TOP TEN RAVENS OF ALL TIME. And we're going to START WITH NUMBER 1 HOLY CRAP!!1
1. Ray Lewis - Could it be anyone else. The man has been with the team, and has really been the star of the team, since its first year in Baltimore. He has come to represent his franchise in a way that Cal, Brooks, and Johnny U did in Baltimore years ago, and in a way that few people in modern sports do (think: Jeter, Brady, Manning, Kobe, Pujols...and that's about it). More to the point, the Ravens have always been associated with defense, and probably will be for a long time to come, and Ray has always been the focal point and spiritual leader (if not the best every single year) of that unit. Simply put, Ray Lewis IS Baltimore football in the 21st century.
2. Jonathan Ogden - I have no idea if Ogden was good or not. Literally, no clue. I am man enough to admit that when it comes to offensive lineman, I never even notice them. Sure, Jon Ogden played the role of Mountain of a Man Who Will Maul You Like a Grizzly Bear for a decade, but even Bruce Campbell did that at Maryland sometimes in between not being eligible/hurt. But hey, you don't go to the Pro Bowl eleventy billion times without being pretty good, nor do you get your named tossed around in the GOAT Left Tackle discussions (rare as they are), if you're just some 330 pound floater.
3. Ed Reed - Oh Edgerton. No one takes me from elation to conniption quicker than he does when he hawks the balls, takes it 30 yards downfield, and then tries to make a spectacular lateral because he can't leave well enough alone. Despite any of that nonsense, there's a reason why the re was a Play Like Ed Reed Today sign in 2201E Calvert Hall during the 2007 season - because Ed Reed is fucking awesome. He's the only man besides the top 2 to make the All-Pro team more than once (he's done it 7 times), and like Ray, he's won the DPOY. Who knows if this is the end of the line, but he will be in Canton someday.
4. Matt Stover - Matt Stover was Mr. Reliable. He was the last Cleveland Brown to play for the Ravens, and he last 14 seasons with the team. Then the Ravens let him go because, hey, he's 41, and it's not like the flying Anders(e/o)n brothers played until they were wearing dentures instead of mouthguards. This was, of course, immediately followed by Steve Hauschka, an NC State graduate, blowing every game last season. Matt Stover never did that. Or if he did, I have no recollection of it because there is no concourse level in football.
5. Peter Boulware - Remember this guy? This is the guy. He played for Florida State, back when they were awesome. He was a first round pick in 1997, a year after the Ravens got Ray and JO, cementing Ozzie Newsome's rep as a guy who is going to pwn the draft every year, except when Bizarro Ozzie Newsome kidnaps him pre-draft so as to select Travis Taylor. But I digress. Boulware made four Pro Bowls, back when such a thing meant...well it didn't really mean anything back then, either. But I'm sure Pete loved Hawaii. He also basically only played seven seasons before hanging it up. He's a few months older than Ray, and he was pretty much done by '03. Think about that.
6. Todd Heap - This is probably one of the few Ravens who could be described as "iconic" in the city. Heap has been with team for a decade now, never having played anywhere else. He managed to be the lone bright spot for years in a passing game which featured incompetent QBs and mediocre receivers. Looking over it a bit more, Heap's numbers have, by and large, been a bit less than I remembered. He's had four seasons in his career where he recorded 403 yards or fewer, and that aside, he's never been a great pass blocker. He's also arguably not the best Raven from his school (Arizona State). Which leads us to....
7. Terrell Suggs - TSizzle is, all things considered, not a very good nickname. But at this point, does anyone NOT call him that? There all seems to be some drama following TSizzle. Terrell is holding out. Terrell is giving Tom Brady a cheap shot. Terrell is committing felony assault. Well, you know what, Terrell has 58 career sacks and Terrell is a specimen. Give him another year or two and I'll definitely have him ahead of Heap. He probably should be there already, but give me a break, I didn't actually compile the list before writing the entries, ya dig?
8. Derrick Mason - So he makes the list, I guess. He's actually been here for six years. If this were baseball, and he were, well, let's just say more like David Eckstein, he'd probably be described as gritty. I'm pretty sure he went out there one week with two broken arms, possibly in traction, and hauled in 8 balls just through sheer force of will. Does anyone even remember that he was a Titan? Or that the Titans were probably near as hated around these parts as the Steelers were back then? Now they don't even rate. How soon we forget about that January 2004 playoff game.
9. Jamal Lewis - He had a 2,000 yard season. His legs kept moving. He also went to jail for a criminal fucking conspiracy for helping the New Day Co-Op slang that ye-yo. He kinda didn't do a ton outside of that one season. That's not entirely fair given that he had two more 1300 yard seasons and another over 1,000 in just 12 games. But his career petered out here pretty quickly before he went to Cleveland where he did have a brief rennaissance before playing poorly for the remained of his career. Such is the life of the Modern American Running Back.
10. Chris McAlister - I don't think I've ever made a secret about not really being a huge fan of McAlister's. But he's on here for a few reasons. For one thing, the Ravens D needed at least one more player, and he's one of the few remaining guys who had a long enough tenure here to merit mentioning. For another, he was damned good, even if his occasional boneheaded plays made me angry. Plus I mainly shied away from giving him any props because my dad sang his praises like he was the fucking offspring of Jim Henson and Dick "Night Train" Lane. Yeah, I get it dad, you want to marry him. Chris should probably be ahead of the two guys he's behind if not for that, but hey, them's the breaks. I would give at least three fingernails to see him rather than some of the turds we've trotted out at DB in then recent past.
HONORABLE MENTION: Haloti Ngata, Kelly Gregg, Michael McCrary, Rod Woodson, Adalius Thomas
DISHONORABLE MENTION: Travis Taylor, Mark Clayton, Steve Hauschka, That One Fat White POS Lineman Who I Can't Remember, Mike Carey
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT
Whoa.
That can't be right, can it? I love Mason as much as you can love a possession receiver, but he seems more Harold Baines than Jim Palmer. Sure, the Ravens are younger, but really? Clearly the only way to clarify the issue is a LIST of the TOP TEN RAVENS OF ALL TIME. And we're going to START WITH NUMBER 1 HOLY CRAP!!1
1. Ray Lewis - Could it be anyone else. The man has been with the team, and has really been the star of the team, since its first year in Baltimore. He has come to represent his franchise in a way that Cal, Brooks, and Johnny U did in Baltimore years ago, and in a way that few people in modern sports do (think: Jeter, Brady, Manning, Kobe, Pujols...and that's about it). More to the point, the Ravens have always been associated with defense, and probably will be for a long time to come, and Ray has always been the focal point and spiritual leader (if not the best every single year) of that unit. Simply put, Ray Lewis IS Baltimore football in the 21st century.
2. Jonathan Ogden - I have no idea if Ogden was good or not. Literally, no clue. I am man enough to admit that when it comes to offensive lineman, I never even notice them. Sure, Jon Ogden played the role of Mountain of a Man Who Will Maul You Like a Grizzly Bear for a decade, but even Bruce Campbell did that at Maryland sometimes in between not being eligible/hurt. But hey, you don't go to the Pro Bowl eleventy billion times without being pretty good, nor do you get your named tossed around in the GOAT Left Tackle discussions (rare as they are), if you're just some 330 pound floater.
3. Ed Reed - Oh Edgerton. No one takes me from elation to conniption quicker than he does when he hawks the balls, takes it 30 yards downfield, and then tries to make a spectacular lateral because he can't leave well enough alone. Despite any of that nonsense, there's a reason why the re was a Play Like Ed Reed Today sign in 2201E Calvert Hall during the 2007 season - because Ed Reed is fucking awesome. He's the only man besides the top 2 to make the All-Pro team more than once (he's done it 7 times), and like Ray, he's won the DPOY. Who knows if this is the end of the line, but he will be in Canton someday.
4. Matt Stover - Matt Stover was Mr. Reliable. He was the last Cleveland Brown to play for the Ravens, and he last 14 seasons with the team. Then the Ravens let him go because, hey, he's 41, and it's not like the flying Anders(e/o)n brothers played until they were wearing dentures instead of mouthguards. This was, of course, immediately followed by Steve Hauschka, an NC State graduate, blowing every game last season. Matt Stover never did that. Or if he did, I have no recollection of it because there is no concourse level in football.
5. Peter Boulware - Remember this guy? This is the guy. He played for Florida State, back when they were awesome. He was a first round pick in 1997, a year after the Ravens got Ray and JO, cementing Ozzie Newsome's rep as a guy who is going to pwn the draft every year, except when Bizarro Ozzie Newsome kidnaps him pre-draft so as to select Travis Taylor. But I digress. Boulware made four Pro Bowls, back when such a thing meant...well it didn't really mean anything back then, either. But I'm sure Pete loved Hawaii. He also basically only played seven seasons before hanging it up. He's a few months older than Ray, and he was pretty much done by '03. Think about that.
6. Todd Heap - This is probably one of the few Ravens who could be described as "iconic" in the city. Heap has been with team for a decade now, never having played anywhere else. He managed to be the lone bright spot for years in a passing game which featured incompetent QBs and mediocre receivers. Looking over it a bit more, Heap's numbers have, by and large, been a bit less than I remembered. He's had four seasons in his career where he recorded 403 yards or fewer, and that aside, he's never been a great pass blocker. He's also arguably not the best Raven from his school (Arizona State). Which leads us to....
7. Terrell Suggs - TSizzle is, all things considered, not a very good nickname. But at this point, does anyone NOT call him that? There all seems to be some drama following TSizzle. Terrell is holding out. Terrell is giving Tom Brady a cheap shot. Terrell is committing felony assault. Well, you know what, Terrell has 58 career sacks and Terrell is a specimen. Give him another year or two and I'll definitely have him ahead of Heap. He probably should be there already, but give me a break, I didn't actually compile the list before writing the entries, ya dig?
8. Derrick Mason - So he makes the list, I guess. He's actually been here for six years. If this were baseball, and he were, well, let's just say more like David Eckstein, he'd probably be described as gritty. I'm pretty sure he went out there one week with two broken arms, possibly in traction, and hauled in 8 balls just through sheer force of will. Does anyone even remember that he was a Titan? Or that the Titans were probably near as hated around these parts as the Steelers were back then? Now they don't even rate. How soon we forget about that January 2004 playoff game.
9. Jamal Lewis - He had a 2,000 yard season. His legs kept moving. He also went to jail for a criminal fucking conspiracy for helping the New Day Co-Op slang that ye-yo. He kinda didn't do a ton outside of that one season. That's not entirely fair given that he had two more 1300 yard seasons and another over 1,000 in just 12 games. But his career petered out here pretty quickly before he went to Cleveland where he did have a brief rennaissance before playing poorly for the remained of his career. Such is the life of the Modern American Running Back.
10. Chris McAlister - I don't think I've ever made a secret about not really being a huge fan of McAlister's. But he's on here for a few reasons. For one thing, the Ravens D needed at least one more player, and he's one of the few remaining guys who had a long enough tenure here to merit mentioning. For another, he was damned good, even if his occasional boneheaded plays made me angry. Plus I mainly shied away from giving him any props because my dad sang his praises like he was the fucking offspring of Jim Henson and Dick "Night Train" Lane. Yeah, I get it dad, you want to marry him. Chris should probably be ahead of the two guys he's behind if not for that, but hey, them's the breaks. I would give at least three fingernails to see him rather than some of the turds we've trotted out at DB in then recent past.
HONORABLE MENTION: Haloti Ngata, Kelly Gregg, Michael McCrary, Rod Woodson, Adalius Thomas
DISHONORABLE MENTION: Travis Taylor, Mark Clayton, Steve Hauschka, That One Fat White POS Lineman Who I Can't Remember, Mike Carey
AND THERE YOU HAVE IT
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Guess Who's Back
back again? Scrillas back. Tell a friend.
So I was just thinking today that I need to bring this here weblog back into production, and the OWL goes and makes a post. Coincidence or sign from the blog writing gods?
It's been upwards of seven months since last we blogged. A lot has changed since...ah fuck it, nothing has changed. We're all still saying things. Maryland suffered one of the worst things to ever happen of all time in March. I'm pretty sure I promised a blog post about that at some point, but I'm still in no mood to revisit that. Greivis deserved better.
The Terps came back to win the Atlantic Division just one year after going 2-10. Now some of you might say that's a bit presumptuous given that all the Terps have this season is a tight win over Navy and a rout of Morgan State, but it would be tough to argue that the Terps aren't on pace to go 14-0. It's definitely probable that they'll lose once on their way to the ACC Championship Game, but for now, 12-0 is a possibility.
And speaking of championship caliber teams, how bout dem O's? The Buck came aboard and suddenly the Orioles are playing like gangbusters! Or maybe it's ghostbusters. I'm pretty sure a rotation of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and That Other Guy could have beaten the Diamond Dave Orioles or even the Juan Samuel "Screech" Powers edition. (By the way I almost referred to both Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd as "Tom Hanks". That's about as bad as calling Rob "owl" or referring to a bus as a computer).
But yeah, that's pretty neat. I'm kinda rambling right now because I'm excited to bring this back. I'm going to have a long ass post on the Wire sometime very soon, just because. And partially to bait turd back into posting something on here. Also on the docket is Bob's finished post about whatever the fuck it was that had something to do with Landon Milbourne that was going to be epic before he totally crapped the bed on it. Also maybe Andrew can rewrite his pretzel post to include the crab pretzel.
So I was just thinking today that I need to bring this here weblog back into production, and the OWL goes and makes a post. Coincidence or sign from the blog writing gods?
It's been upwards of seven months since last we blogged. A lot has changed since...ah fuck it, nothing has changed. We're all still saying things. Maryland suffered one of the worst things to ever happen of all time in March. I'm pretty sure I promised a blog post about that at some point, but I'm still in no mood to revisit that. Greivis deserved better.
The Terps came back to win the Atlantic Division just one year after going 2-10. Now some of you might say that's a bit presumptuous given that all the Terps have this season is a tight win over Navy and a rout of Morgan State, but it would be tough to argue that the Terps aren't on pace to go 14-0. It's definitely probable that they'll lose once on their way to the ACC Championship Game, but for now, 12-0 is a possibility.
And speaking of championship caliber teams, how bout dem O's? The Buck came aboard and suddenly the Orioles are playing like gangbusters! Or maybe it's ghostbusters. I'm pretty sure a rotation of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and That Other Guy could have beaten the Diamond Dave Orioles or even the Juan Samuel "Screech" Powers edition. (By the way I almost referred to both Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd as "Tom Hanks". That's about as bad as calling Rob "owl" or referring to a bus as a computer).
But yeah, that's pretty neat. I'm kinda rambling right now because I'm excited to bring this back. I'm going to have a long ass post on the Wire sometime very soon, just because. And partially to bait turd back into posting something on here. Also on the docket is Bob's finished post about whatever the fuck it was that had something to do with Landon Milbourne that was going to be epic before he totally crapped the bed on it. Also maybe Andrew can rewrite his pretzel post to include the crab pretzel.
Coincidence: Unlikely
Wandering around Borders Books yesterday, I came across this guy...
Now, I'm not saying anything. But all I could think about was this...
and this...
and certainly this...
Now, I know his death is still in fairly recent memory, but, did you SEE the cover and title of that book? Lolz.
Now, I'm not saying anything. But all I could think about was this...
and this...
and certainly this...
Now, I know his death is still in fairly recent memory, but, did you SEE the cover and title of that book? Lolz.
Saturday, March 20, 2010
Monday, February 1, 2010
Losses!
So I got really bored today and counted up all the Terps games I've been to. In my defense, it was a Sunday afternoon, so it's not like I should have been doing something super-productive, but still. Looking at the list I compiled, I realized that I had a pretty distinct memory of every single loss I've seen. So here's a rundown.
sophomore year vs Notre Dame at the BB&T - Turd and I got all amped up for a trip to see a game outside of the Comcast Center. By this point it had already been established that Verizon was a house of horrors for us, but still we went. Well, we went and saw Notre Dame rain threes on us all day. Turd didn't get the food he paid for at McDonald's before the game, and I had to go home and write a final paper for John Newman that was due the next afternoon.
junior year vs Boston College - This would be the game where Jamie Luckey fouled out Greivis on a technical for hitting the basket support after a questionable fourth foul call. That was pretty much all that BC would need to win this game, perhaps the most daggerishly officiated game I've witnessed in person - which is saying something. Zatch and I, as I recall it, walked home cursing the refs and their family before getting CluckU. This was my concourse level debut.
junior year vs Ohio - part deux of the unholy BC/Ohio/American loss troika. Luckily I didn't see the third one. This one was the night before exams started, and we got pwned by Leon Williams, formerly of Cardinal Gibbons. I believe that this was only the third home nonconference loss for Gary since he came to Maryland, after Coppin State way back in 1989 and Florida a few years before this one.
junior year vs Duke - my first Duke game! And we lost. This would be the one where Eric Hayes tried to box out Gerald Henderson to shield him from getting a ball that had rolled into the backcourt instead of, you know, going after this. That would be something of a pattern of behavior for Hayes. Ritchie and I froze our balls off waiting to get into Comcast, and this is how they repaid us.
junior year vs VT - This one was most famous for Turd screaming "FUCK YOU SETH!" at the end of the game, flipping him off, and kicking the seat in front of him at the Comcast Center. I remember this being another dagger game, though I can't say for sure what actually happened other than us blowing a lead. I was more proud of Turd that day than ever before as his tantrum was more like something only Zatchman or I can pull off.
junior year vs Clemson - The worst ever. Nothing will ever top this loss. We blew a TWENTY (20!) point lead in the last ten minutes in a game that would have all but sealed a tournament berth (we didn't make it). I had even sung the "We're going to the lig" song when it looked wrapped up. Honky extraordinare Terrence Oglesby gave the final dagger on a buzzer beating three that we all knew was coming. The five of us walked back separately and didn't speak to one another for several hours thereafter.
senior year vs Morgan State - Just an awful all around game, with Reggie Holmes of Saint Frances pwning us thoroughly. Morgan State was actually decentish, and we made the Lig, so this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still, another blown lead to one of the Little Sisters of the Poor no less? Ugh.
senior year vs Boston College - Blown lead. I don't remember how much it was, but it was probably the worst one at home other than Clemson the previous year. I think it wasn't quite as bad as the one at Miami a few weeks prior to this, but it was close.
senior year vs Duke - Another game standing out in the cold, another loss. 0-2 in Duke games! The game made Bob too physically ill to stay (or possibly it was something else), but this was another game where questionable foul calls against Greivis kept him out of the game. On the other end of the court, as I recall it, Gerald Henderson was allowed to act like a running back to get into the lane, but Greivis got called for crummy fouls on the other side. Duke ref bias much?
senior year vs Wake Forest - SENIOR NIGHT!!!!!! My last game as a student. Dave Neal did his best, hitting like four pick and pops, almost leading me to having a stroke screaming SENIOR NIGHT!!!!, but it was all for naught as Jeff Teague teabagged him on a dunk and the Terps lost by two, despite an awesome buzzer beating three by Dave Neal that cut the lead that far down. God I miss the cyborg. This game also would have clinched a Lig berth.
this year vs William & Mary - The first loss as a paying customer at the Comcast Center. They pretty much worked us. I wasn't really angry, just thoroughly disheartened because we were barely even competitive against a mid-major team on our own home court. I think this game would be the 73rd time I swore off of Gary Williams "for good". I think this one last ten days, maybe two weeks at the most.
And there you have it.
sophomore year vs Notre Dame at the BB&T - Turd and I got all amped up for a trip to see a game outside of the Comcast Center. By this point it had already been established that Verizon was a house of horrors for us, but still we went. Well, we went and saw Notre Dame rain threes on us all day. Turd didn't get the food he paid for at McDonald's before the game, and I had to go home and write a final paper for John Newman that was due the next afternoon.
junior year vs Boston College - This would be the game where Jamie Luckey fouled out Greivis on a technical for hitting the basket support after a questionable fourth foul call. That was pretty much all that BC would need to win this game, perhaps the most daggerishly officiated game I've witnessed in person - which is saying something. Zatch and I, as I recall it, walked home cursing the refs and their family before getting CluckU. This was my concourse level debut.
junior year vs Ohio - part deux of the unholy BC/Ohio/American loss troika. Luckily I didn't see the third one. This one was the night before exams started, and we got pwned by Leon Williams, formerly of Cardinal Gibbons. I believe that this was only the third home nonconference loss for Gary since he came to Maryland, after Coppin State way back in 1989 and Florida a few years before this one.
junior year vs Duke - my first Duke game! And we lost. This would be the one where Eric Hayes tried to box out Gerald Henderson to shield him from getting a ball that had rolled into the backcourt instead of, you know, going after this. That would be something of a pattern of behavior for Hayes. Ritchie and I froze our balls off waiting to get into Comcast, and this is how they repaid us.
junior year vs VT - This one was most famous for Turd screaming "FUCK YOU SETH!" at the end of the game, flipping him off, and kicking the seat in front of him at the Comcast Center. I remember this being another dagger game, though I can't say for sure what actually happened other than us blowing a lead. I was more proud of Turd that day than ever before as his tantrum was more like something only Zatchman or I can pull off.
junior year vs Clemson - The worst ever. Nothing will ever top this loss. We blew a TWENTY (20!) point lead in the last ten minutes in a game that would have all but sealed a tournament berth (we didn't make it). I had even sung the "We're going to the lig" song when it looked wrapped up. Honky extraordinare Terrence Oglesby gave the final dagger on a buzzer beating three that we all knew was coming. The five of us walked back separately and didn't speak to one another for several hours thereafter.
senior year vs Morgan State - Just an awful all around game, with Reggie Holmes of Saint Frances pwning us thoroughly. Morgan State was actually decentish, and we made the Lig, so this wasn't as bad as it could have been. Still, another blown lead to one of the Little Sisters of the Poor no less? Ugh.
senior year vs Boston College - Blown lead. I don't remember how much it was, but it was probably the worst one at home other than Clemson the previous year. I think it wasn't quite as bad as the one at Miami a few weeks prior to this, but it was close.
senior year vs Duke - Another game standing out in the cold, another loss. 0-2 in Duke games! The game made Bob too physically ill to stay (or possibly it was something else), but this was another game where questionable foul calls against Greivis kept him out of the game. On the other end of the court, as I recall it, Gerald Henderson was allowed to act like a running back to get into the lane, but Greivis got called for crummy fouls on the other side. Duke ref bias much?
senior year vs Wake Forest - SENIOR NIGHT!!!!!! My last game as a student. Dave Neal did his best, hitting like four pick and pops, almost leading me to having a stroke screaming SENIOR NIGHT!!!!, but it was all for naught as Jeff Teague teabagged him on a dunk and the Terps lost by two, despite an awesome buzzer beating three by Dave Neal that cut the lead that far down. God I miss the cyborg. This game also would have clinched a Lig berth.
this year vs William & Mary - The first loss as a paying customer at the Comcast Center. They pretty much worked us. I wasn't really angry, just thoroughly disheartened because we were barely even competitive against a mid-major team on our own home court. I think this game would be the 73rd time I swore off of Gary Williams "for good". I think this one last ten days, maybe two weeks at the most.
And there you have it.
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