Follow me to Victory!!!

Wow, what a game last night for the Jackets! I completely missed the first half, and have yet to see it on tivo. But that second half, I have not seen defense like that since the Ish and T-Mac days, nor have I heard the Thrillerdome that loud since Bynum and Ish used the rim like a bars on a jungle gym.

Without a doubt, we won this game with defense. Guys were flying around on the floor, hustling for loose balls, grabbing boards. No easy layups in that second half, which has been our M.O. all year. I bang on D'Andre Bell alot, but he played a great game. When Rio picked up some fouls, D'Andre stepped in and played great D on Atsur. Atsur's line of 1-9 from the field and 6 T.O.'s says it all.

It has become clear to me that this team lives and dies with J.C. Another fantastic game for Crit on both ends of the court. He is becoming so much more efficient, taking care of the ball, taking higher percentage shots, and his defense has stepped up a level.

I'm gonna rip off your Ear!

Speaking of stepping it up a level, Thad Young did exactly that last night. He was so much more aggressive offensively and most impressively was flying around on defense, 2 steals, a block, and 7 boards. We should post this guy up all day. No ACC small foward can stop him down there.

Where has Aminu come from??? I don't know, but I'm glad he's contributing! For the second straight game he has brought energy and 10 pts to the table. He was lost a couple times on D last night, but I'll let that slide for now. I'm glad he's in the rotation.

I always hate playing State in hoops. They seem like they own us despite having equal or inferior talent. When we get our asses kicked by Dook, I understand, cause they bring in 5 All Americans a year, but State we SHOULD beat. I really thought we'd have our hands full with NC State, and we did. They are clearly a different team with Atsur, victories over V-
Tech and UNC prove it. I was unsure if the W over Clemson was a fluke, we just matched up with them well, just our lucky day etc. But I think the light has come on for us. I'm still not too confident we can dig out of this grave we've been digging for ourselves to get to the tourney. The biggest test is next week in Talahassee, see if we can get rid of that albatross that is winning on the road.

Finally, while myself and pretty much everyone around me has beaten up Coach Hewitt, he did a great job tonight. Didn't see the first half, so not sure what adjustments he made, but they worked, and he had us fighting and scrapping. Heats not off you yet, but great job Coach!

I Want to Throw Up...

...after watching my Jackets crap the bed on the road AGAIN vs. the Twerps. Ok, where do I begin? First of all Paul Hewitt is responsible for shaving about 5 years of my life from the stress of watching this team attempt to play.
What went right

• Thad Young looked like a stud on the offensive end...too bad it could end up in him leaving.

What went wrong

• We still can't take care of the G.D. ball. We give away turnovers around like halloween candy.
• 6-16 from the line...ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!!!!!
• While I love his hustle and his defense hustle, Mario is being forced to play WAY too many minutes. He clearly is neither a passer or a scorer. He is PERFECT as a spot defender and an energy guy. He is just being asked to do way more than hes capable.
• D'Andre Bell is a effing ZERO on the offensive end and he should NEVER touch the court. I know he's a guy that hustles his arse off in practice, but eff him. Sounds mean, but I hope he transfers. This is not the first mean statement of my life, so I don't feel bad.
• Muha is a lock for crapping the bed in the spotlight. He's a great athlete but consistently looks afraid out there.

I am pretty much unhappy with the entire team including our coach. I know how supremely talented they are, but how they continuously let me down. Reminds me alot of a certain #1 that took snaps the last 4 years. I didn't expect us to beat UNC on the road, they are a great team. But I expected us to AT LEAST be competive at UMD. When I check into AA, send Coach Hewitt the bill.

Picture of the Day

I don't know where to start with this one. Agent Zero is the best offensive player in the league this year (along with the Mamba, of course). Which was better: He's nasty game WINNER last week or the way he mean mugged it off the court? How many of these ABSURD buzzer beaters can one guy make, even if he is a wizard? Absurd is obviously nothing new to Gil...all I'm saying is how can you have a huge tattoo of wildcat on your chest and not use your nipples for the eyes or your bellybutton for the mouth? Mindboggling. Also, a fun game is to count the number of hearts on his torso. I get 6 assuming that the mess on his left peck says "I 'heart' L.A."

Gangsta Note: Taking your shirt off and posing for a picture with an enormous bobble head of yourself is the most ballinist thing you can do with an enormous bobble head of yourself.

Nice Guy Note: The topless picture may have been taken after a game since he gives his jersey to a fan after every home and away game.

Picture of the Day

Not that the Cavs would, but you can imagine...if the Bulls could package Duhon, Nocioni, and P.J. Brown for Lebron the Cavs would be deep, but the Bulls might put 5 or 6 more banners in the rafters. Your 2007 Bulls lineup:

1. Kirk Hinrich
2. Ben Gordon
3. Lebron James
4. Luol Deng, Tyrus Thomas
5. Ben Wallace, Martynas Andriuskevicius

Picture of the Day

The Weblog Awards

The results for the 2006 Weblog Awards are out. You can check out the top 10,000 blogs on the web, including the finalists for such categories as Sports, Media, Law, Culture, Gossip, Music, and Video to name a few. But don't forget about the LGBT blog, or Rosie O'donnell will beat you up.

Kissing Suzy Kolber cruised to victory in a very tough sports category. Deadspin, Baseball Musings, True Hoop and Full Throttle were all included in the finals. I checked out KSK's site and it is pretty good. I love their post on the Weblog Award and their mailbag. Rex Grossman can only be mentioned as Rexstacy from now on!! And the question about hypothetical bar fight is priceless.

Money on the Cowboys!

Yesterday on Seattle radio, Jim Mora announced that he would rather coach a below average Pac-10 college team than an NFL playoff team with Michael Vick and an owner willing to spend big money on players and facilities.
After stating that he "sincerely" wanted the Washington job yesterday, today Mora claimed that it was all a joke. If you've heard the audio playback, you know it was not a joke, but a lame attempt to endear himself to the Washington fans and potentially cover his ass after the Falcons underachieve for the second season in a row. If you are Arthur Blank, how do you keep this guy around when he told the whole world that he really isn't that focused, has time to do a 20 minute interview with a Seattle station the week of the biggest game of the season, and would rather be somewhere else? What a disappointment. At least in Atlanta we've learned how to cope. Go Hawks!

Watch Out For Your Cornhole!

A young athlete's life hangs in the balance as the courts in South Dakota determine whether or not "checking oil" is a legitimate wrestling move. keloland.com
And now for the strange twist: Two of the cases happened outside of the ring...on the bus ride home after a match. Honestly son, you must have learned in primary: "You can goose your teammate, you can goose your rectum, but you can't goose your teammate's rectum." Especially while they are sleeping on the bus after a tough meet.

And please pass this along to J. Garcia as well. Thanks, ASB

Picture of the Day

Philly fans are confused. They have a shot of getting into the playoffs with Garcia playing well, but...can they bring themselves to cheer for this guy? Are you currently, or have you ever been, a gay?

I think T.O. expressed it best: "Like my boy tells me: If it looks like a rat and smells like a rat, by golly, it is a rat."
He then followed up with general comments on having a gay teammate. "I probably wouldn't say anything right off the bat. I'd just see what everyone else has to say. I'd probably keep my distance and, hopefully, he would keep his. Just don't ask me to play center. I'm a receiver. Wait, that didn't come out right. I just want to win, play hard, and catch lots of balls. Damn it. That still sounds gay." OK, I added that last bit.

Hey T.O., what's up with the rat reference? Were the Niners into organized crime? The more traditional (and appropriate) saying is quack like a duck, right? And by the way, aren't you the one that's single, obsessed your body, prances around in tights, and shakes pom poms when you're excited?

Parcells Is a Good Interview

Writer this week to Parcells on the upcoming Saturday game with the Falcons: "Do you talk to your defense about playing under control and containing Mike Vick?" [paraphased]

Parcells: "No, I just tell them to run wild and let him go where he wants."

Injury by way of PlayStation 2

Joel Zumaya's post season injury was attributed to PlayStation 2. Zumaya had inflammation of the right wrist and forearm during the ALCS and was unable to pitch. After being checked out by team doctors and receiving treatment by the trainers, they were confused by the area and motion that caused the pain. Apparently, it was a guitar motion that caused the most pain. Zumaya was an avid Guitar Hero player at the time. After being instructed to stop playing video games, Zumaya experienced no pain during the World Series.

I can see this becoming a more popular injury in the future...especially with the new Wii system.

Panther Athletics Update

The freshman Eastern Illinios linebacker recently changed his name to Lucious Seymour. Please update your programs accordingly. Official Name Change Request

Inappropriate Video of the Day

In the spirit of Charlie Brown Xmas comes Suck My Black Ass Charlie Brown. It might forever change how you think of Snoopy and the gang.

I really never thought that I would get the definition of the "flaming amazon" from Linus.

All I can say is wow.



youtube.com

Quote of the Day

Back to Iron Mike for another one of my favorites:
[To a female reporter] "It's no doubt I am going to win this fight and I feel confident about winning this fight. I normally don't do interviews with women unless I fornicate with them. So you shouldn't talk anymore... Unless you want to, you know."

Picture of the Day

Hank Aaron (and really all sports fans) should be angry.

Captions??

"Lennox Lewis, I'm coming for you man. My style is impetuous. My defense is impregnable, and I'm just ferocious. I want your heart. I want to eat his children. Praise be to Allah!...I want to rip out his heart and feed it to him [Lennox Lewis]. I want to kill people. I want to rip their stomachs out and eat their children." -Iron Mike Tyson

Apparently Lennox Lewis has a blond hair causasian son. I don't know why everyone is laughing, that kid is a goner for sure.

Video of the Day

Anyone want to go toe to toe with this guy?

[video]

Picture of the Day

The caption was cut off. It should read Ronde and Tiki Barber babysitting their queer neighbor's dog, Verdell.
Also, isn't that Tiki on the left.

Quote of the Day: Fergie on God

"I may not have the type of voice you like, but I can sing. You can't take that away from me, 'cause singing is a gift from God, and when people say I can't sing, it's kind of like insulting God."
- Fergie tells Vibe magazine

Picture of the Day

For our new segment, we'll start off with some humor. This is Jose's response to Roger Clemens saying of Canseco," When you're under house arrest & you have ankle bracelets on, you have a lot of time to write a book."

Pickle Pranks

If you guys have some time this weekend, I suggest heading down to the park in your best softball league uni and doing this: click this link

Top Ten Dirtiest Names in Sports

10. De'Cody Fagg

9. Homer Bush

8. Albert Pujols

7. Irina Slutskaya

6. Ron Tugnutt

5. Assol Slivets

4. Dick Butkus

3. Johnny Dickspot

2. Dick Trickle

1. Chubby Cox

Please go HERE for pictures and additional information on each athlete.

Question of the Day...

Can you really be an MVP if you are not the go-to guy in the clutch?

I ask because I watched the Spurs vs. Suns game last night. [For those of you not fortunate enough to see the Spurs win this overtime thriller, Fabricio Oberto was 11-for-11 from the field. Impressive, but really not that close to Wilt's record 18-for-18 in '67. Oberto's performance prompted Pops' quote after the game: "He's the ugliest productive player I've ever been around." Backhanded? Also, is any NBA team better at finding these players than the Spurs? Probably not.]
OK. Back to the Question...
Several times in the final minutes of regulation and then in overtime, the Suns obviously needed a bucket. Several times, Steve Nash handed the rock to one of his teammates to take the critical shot. I couldn't stop thinking of Arenas, James, Bryant, and Wade in the playoffs last year. When the game was on the line, these guys had the ball and they certainly weren't dishing to Leandro Barbosa.

So then I began to consider other sports. In baseball, the MVP award almost always goes to the player you would want at the plate when you need a hit and the CY Young goes to the pitcher that gets the ball when it's win or go home. In hockey, wait who cares about hockey? In the NFL, the MVP is similar to the Cy Young - the guy you would give the ball to in a must win situation.

Steve Nash certainly deserves a pat on the back for being a wonderful point gaurd and credit for the statistical improvement of his teammates. However, does Steve Nash deserve the MVP if you can't count on him to win the game in the clutch?

By the way, Nash has been in the league for 10 years now and has failed to guide his team to the NBA Finals, although the Mavs did reach the finals without him in 2006. Give me Wade (ring), Bryant (rings), or Lebron (future rings) all day.

Man, that hater-aid went great with breakfast. At least Nash looks fly with the new bob!

NPH prefers beef

Well, nobody's posted in a while, so I'm going to break the recently formed ice and ruin Mike's afternoon.

Turns out, this quote from NPH is a complete fabrication:
"Yeah, I've been craving burgers, too. Furburgers. Come on, dudes, let's pick up some trim at a strip club." (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle)

Get the whole story about Doogie here.

Although he is best known as the 15-year old M.D. Doogie Howser, he hopes his fans will follow him to his knew role as Doogan Howitzer.

Foley Didn't Get Fondled...

...but he got quite a rub-down.

Could this story get any weirder?

School is not in Robb Dryden's Best Interest

per the AJC, Robb Dryden spills the beans that UGA coaches are only looking out for their student-athletes best interest. (note the new link)


couple thoughts....

1)you think you could graduate more than 9% of your players if they are all child and family development majors.
2) How dare the AJC be negative about the state again. The headline should have read, "UGA Coach looking out for the best interests of player...in basketweaving"

Bevo XIII dies

Bevo XIII, the Texas Lohghorns mascot since 1988, died at the ripe old age of 22. His career highlights include many Texas wins, appearing in President Bush's inauguration ceremony, and taking a huge dump on the Nebraska Cornhuskers' midfield team logo after a crushing loss in the 1999 Big 12 Championship.

The wake will be friday morning at Bevo's private ranch. Remembrance ceremony at 2pm.

Steak dinner to follow.

Much Love for GT

ESPN.com is jumping on the Calvin Johnson/GT bandwagon.

Bruce Feldman puts Calvin Johnson as his Midseason Hot 100 (insider pass needed). Philip Wheeler comes in at number 18!!! Dogs fans have to wait until number 46 to get their first player. Troy Smith, Garrett Wolfe, Alan Branch and Adrian Peterson round out the top five. Other notables: Brady Quinn (7), Erik Ainge (10), and Chris Leak (27). Ohio State, Michigan, and LSU had two players each in the top 20.

Feldman writes of Calvin:

"The most gifted player in college football, Johnson is like the superman player you create on video football games when you want to toss reality aside. He isn't in the most favorable situation for a receiver yet still has 35 catches and 8 TDs and makes Tech a threat to knock off anyone. "

The website's midseason ACC review gives Calvin the MVP and makes GT the favorite to win the Coastal Division, while the Midseason GT Team Review (insider) gives much love to Reggie for playing more consistantly. Is that a kiss of death??

I Didn't Know I Couldn't Do That

So we've all heard about Stephen Jackson and his pistola slinging, "Wyatt F***ing EarP!!!" incident. If it shocked you, you should probably start selling whatever pills you are on, rather than taking them and walking around in oblivion (Mike Tyson shout out). Jackson has been a ticking time bomb ever since he came into the league, but in this blog I'm not gonna make obvious judgements about his actions from this most recent incident. Instead, I prefer to highlight some funny/eye-brow raising things from an article I read about the shooting. The first regards Jamaal "Uncle of the Big Sleepy" Tinsley:

"Officers said they found a small amount of marijuana in the passenger-side door
of point guard Tinsley's car. But no arrests were made because there were three
others in Tinsley's car and police could not determine who had the marijuana,
authorities said."

So wait a second. Are you telling me the "It's not mine" excuse actually worked here? There are four people here. It's obviously somebody's. How 'bout the guy sitting in the passenger seat for starters! Excellent police work fellas.

The second funny thing regards our boy Stephen "Regulator: You gotta be handy with the steel"Jackson:

"The Indianapolis Star reported on Monday that Jackson has had his
probation extended one year after he did not complete the terms of the sentence
he received for the 2004 brawl at the Palace of Auburn Hills."

I feel bad that I didn't see this one coming. His stupidity is shocking and appauling. It's only a matter of time he goes the route of Lawrence Phillips, Maurice Clarrett, and so many others. I guarantee you, that extended probation will come back to bite him.

Excerpts from ESPN story Pacers' Jackson 'happy to be alive'.

Mid-season Heisman Watch

And your mid-season 2006 Heisman Trophy winner is...Garrett Wolfe from Northern Illinois? Through 6 games, the 5'7", 177 lb. senior has amassed 1,343 yrds on the ground and another 162 receiving while scoring 14 touchdowns. For a quick comparison:

• Troy Smith has PASSED for 1,261 yrds through 6 games.
• Adrian Peterson is averaging 5.3 yards per carry. Wolfe's average? How about 8.6?!
• Through Cal's first 6 games, Marshawn Lynch has 605 yards rushing. Less than half that of Wolfe.