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.

Blake Griffin, oh me oh my

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Preserved for those who have not seen it. I was LITERALLY speechless after seeing these dunks.

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.

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.

Long lost brothers?

John Calipari is definitely the Greek.

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.

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!