Recruiting

Note: Because of NCAA rules, I can't mention names of recruits and/or their high schools. That is why some of the information is vague.

After our last practice of the semester on Friday, I headed to a game to watch one of our top recruits in Wisconsin. Though I wasn't able to watch him play, it was great to make contact with him after the game. This recruit has told us that we are one of his top two schools. He is hurt right now, with a broken ankle. I think it says a lot about how much we want him if we see him when he isn't even playing. Hopefully, the visit went a long way.

After watching that game, I traveled to my hotel outside of Chicago. The Chicago area was getting the western part of the storm that buried the East Coast. The roads weren't too bad but it's always interesting to see how people drive in that type of stuff. I arrived around midnight and went straight to my room to get some sleep.

In the morning, I was able to catch a practice near Evanston. It is always good to watch how different coaches approach practice. It was the night after a game for this team and their two best players (one of them, a kid I was watching) barely practiced. They had a tough game on Friday night and play at 9am on Monday morning. Once practice was over I was able to talk with our recruit. It was the first time I was able to meet him in person and it's always good for him to put a face with a name he has heard on the phone a bunch.

After watching practice, I headed back to the hotel and watched a bunch of college games including the Texas-UNC matchup. I'm a huge UNC fan and Texas just flat out beat them up. The Tar Heels rely on a lot of younger guys and they didn't exactly respond to the physicalness that Dexter Pittman and Longhorns brought. I thought it was very similar to how our Hamline team is. We both can get stops but second opportunities hurts us. I won't compare Nelson or myself with Roy Williams but I think both teams will be much better down the road.

I got sick of sitting around and decided to head down to the North Central part of Illinois. There was a local eight team tournament that one of our recruits was taking part in. I wanted to check out the 3rd place game and the Championship game. You just never know what and who you will see. Both Nelson and Jamison were able to watch the kid I was looking at this summer, so this was the first time I have been able to lay eyes on him. Needless to say, I was very impressed. Once again, I talked to him for the first time in person yesterday and I was very impressed with him as a person and how he interacted with everyone from his community. He is getting recruited at all different levels and rightfully so, hopefully we can be involved until the end.

Now, I'm sitting in the hotel room watching a replay of the Whitewater-Mount Union football game on tv. Today is a off day as far as watching hoops but I get my fill tomorrow at the Wheeling Hardwood Classic starting at 9am. It should be an interesting day and a lot of sitting on my rear end.

To everyone, have a great Sunday and a Merry Christmas. This will be my last post until we get out to California.

Concordia-Moorhead

We had our first overnight trip this past weekend and headed to Moorhead to face the Cobbers of Concordia. It was the first true road trip for our freshmen and it is always good to see how they react to be in different settings and staying in a hotel. We decided against a shoot-around in the morning because we felt the guys needed some sleep. I also heard something about the Celtics not doing shoot-arounds anymore because there was a study saying that performance was better with more sleep. Looking back on it now I'm not sure we made the right decision. It's always good to get some shots up before a game. The problem was the only time available was too early. We can always change that.

The game started off really well for us as we opened up 10-3. Concordia got back in the game and ended up three at the half. We looked really sloppy and weren't moving the ball or penetrating like we should have been. We were lucky to be down only three. One good thing we did in the first half was limit their second opportunities. We rebounded really well but just couldn't make shots.

In the second half, the Cobbers came out with a bang and went up early. We battled back and tied the game several times and might of been up at one point but it wasn't for long. We just couldn't make shots when we needed. It didn't help that we only got to the line 14 times to their 34. I thought we were somewhat aggressive to the basket and passing to the post but things just weren't going our way. We certainly didn't think we got a fair shake but at the same time we can't put ourselves into that situation.

They ended up with four guys in double figures while we had two. We have to be able to find that third and fourth scorer behind Carl and Ray. In the games that we have been successful, we have had that. We also have to be more aggressive to the basket and get to the free throw line. If you make more free throws than your opponent attempts then you are doing a good job (like Concordia did).

Hopefully this week's practice will be super intense. We are hoping that we can string these practices together before we face #8 Wheaton out at Cal Lutheran. We head out to the California on the 26th to play on the 29th and 30th.

To add a laughter to a tough end of the first semester, here we go...

St. Olaf

We had our first road of the year on Monday and it certainly didn't end the way he would've liked. We by lost 7 and once again got killed on second opportunities just like the Elmhurst and Augsburg game. We seem to want to use our youth as an excuse and I'm sick of hearing that. Yes, we do have nine newcomers to our team and yes, we have seven freshmen. We need to take care of business.

We started off pretty slow and never really came around in the first half. Olaf finished with 11 offensive rebounds in the half and probably scored on seven or eight of them. That's unacceptable. Carl Hipp had a tough half and missed a bunch of chippys early on. He definitely was frustrating and when we have an emphasis on getting the ball to him and he isn't scoring, that's definitely not a good thing for us. We ended up being down three at the half after playing awful.

We got back into the game with more intensity in the second half, but we still couldn't stop Mark Torell. He finished with 27 and we were supposed to focus on him early. We held the conference's second leading scorer, Alfie Jaryan, to one field goal because of the defense of Brandon Rieg and Jordan Schmidt. We need to be able to focus for longer stretches on defense and make sure their best players don't beat us.

We actually had the lead with 1:51 left in the game with the ball. We called a timeout and we going to look for the backdoor and if it wasn't there, an iso play for Ray Brown. Victor Easter, who played great in the second half, made a bad pass and the play went out of bounds. They come down, score, and get the momentum. They made their free throws down the stretch and ended up winning by seven.

It was another learning experience for our guys. We can't expect to give teams so many second opportunities (or timely opporunities for that matter) and expect to win. One thing that I noticed is that everything seems to snowball for us. If we make one bad play on offense then we make a bad play on defense, so on and so forth. We can't continue to do that and win in this conference, the guards are too good.

One thing about Nelson's teams is that we have always played well at the end of the year. Last year was a great example but we dug ourselves too big of a whole in the middle of the conference season. I told our guys that my senior year with Nelson at Brockport, we were 7-6 to start the year and then went on to win 15 straight and made it to the NCAA Tournament and the "Sweet 16." I think this team is capable of that, we certainly have enough talent. We'll see how much heart we have.

Up at Concordia-Moorhead on Saturday in our last game before break.

Augsburg and MAC

We started off the week with a Wednesday game against Augsburg in our first conference game of the season. Augsburg is always a tough matchup because they always play hard and they always have good guards. In the first half we took control of the game and led by five at the half. We should've been up at double figures. We shot the ball over 50% while they shot 26%. The biggest problem was that we had 12 turnovers and only got to the free throw line twice.

In the second half we took control again and got up as many as ten. We had a couple of opportunities to push the lead further but couldn't finish. There seemed to be a couple of calls that could've went either way and both went Augsburg's way. That is certainly the nature of the game though. I believe Augsburg took their first lead of the game with about three minutes to play. We had several opportunities to get the lead back or make a push and just couldn't do it.

Hopefully, we can learn from this game. We did do a good job defensively on their three guards. We held them to 13-39 shooting but they still made some big shots. We also beat them up on the glass by 12 but they got to some loose balls and had some timely offensive rebounds that they kicked out for 3. We held them to 36% shooting and outrebounded them. We still gave them too many second opportunities whether they be loose balls or offensive rebounds. These games are too important for us not to get better at those things.

We had our second conference game against a much improved Macalester team. They lost to St. Mary's by three on Wednesday and we were expecting a good one. The problem with playing a team that was as bad as Macalester was last year is that our guys know that and they have the tendency to take it easy and that definitely happened in the first half. We were down by three at the halftime buzzer after we went on a little run to finish the half. As a coaching staff, we were not happy at all.

The biggest issue was that the guys were playing tight. They didn't want to be the first team in our conference to lose to MAC. We got a good start to the half when Ray Brown got a steal in transition and had a pretty nasty dunk. That got everyone else going and our defensive intensity was sky high. We got a couple more buckets and pushed the lead to ten to fifteen for the rest of the game. Ray led us with 20 points and five boards. Carl Hipp finished with 19 and 7 (season low) while frosh Noah Aguirre had his third straight double figure game with ten to go along with three offensive rebounds. Nick Carroll played a great game with seven assists and two steals. I told him before the game, when he plays well, we do well. Hopefully, he keeps it up.

We have St. Olaf tonight in Northfield and then head up to Moorhead to play the Cobbers on Saturday. This week should be a good test for our boys.

Buena Vista Game

After the Northwestern game I wasn't sure how our team would react to our next one against Buena Vista. We had a 12 day layoff (from games) and Thanksgiving in between. I was hoping our bodies were rested and ready to go for the rest of the season. We got off to a decent start in our first game with Ray Brown starting. He still isn't back to 100% but he certainly made a difference in our performance.

It was a back and forth game to start with not a lot of defense being played. I think that played to our advantage because Buena Vista wasn't use to playing at that speed. We ended up scoring 56 points in the first half, and that was with 12 turnovers and going 6-16 from 3. I think that's a very scary thought that we can score that much without playing to our potential. We settled for a bunch of early 3's and made several bad passes. Noah Aguirre, a freshman from California, led the charge with 17 points in the half.

In the second half we went on a run to get things going and push the lead to 20 points. Buena Vista answered right away and got it back to 11. After this scare we got it back to a comfortable lead and ended up winning 107-84. We were led by Aguirre's 27. Also hitting double figures we Ray Brown with 19, Carl Hipp with 18 and nine boards, and Brandon Rieg with 13. We also outrebounded a taller team 42-28. We still need to work on our rebounding, we are relying on our athleticism too much. Obviously, our defense needs work but I thought we took them out of their offense and made them uncomfortable. We played a style they weren't use to and they couldn't keep up.

We have a huge game tomorrow night against Augsburg in our first MIAC contest. It should be interesting to see how we match up with their three shooters that all play significant minutes. I would not be surprised to see their suspended player play against us. We certainly have something to play for after hearing some recent comments about our team. I'll just leave it at that.

Elmhurst and Northwestern Games

Our first game of the season against Elmhurst didn't go the way we had planned. Our shooting percentage overall and from three was downright awful. The sad thing is that we still should've won the game. Carl Hipp had a monster game with 24 points and 20 boards, ten of them offensive. He just didn't get any help. Levi Wenrich went from 11 and all of those were from the line. I was disappointed in our overall effort. We can make as many excuses as we want about being young but it wasn't a problem vs. MCTC or St. Cloud. Hopefully, this game was a wake up call for our guys.

I think that we learned a lot about ourselves during this game. We found out that we have to defend for a full 35 seconds on every possession and that we can't rely on Ray Brown to bail us out of certain situations on offense (he's hurt with a torn pec muscle). We did outrebound Elmhurst but we rarely boxed out. If Carl didn't play, we would've gotten murdered on the boards. We also made more free throws than Elmhurst attempted, which is a sign of a good team. We need to give ourselves better opportunities on offense by spacing out more and by always being ready to shoot.

The Northwestern game was quite the barnburner. We enjoyed an eight point lead during the first half that slowly dwindled away because of lack of focus. We ended up three at the half. Northwestern then came out and blew our doors away to start. It wasn't exactly the way we wanted to start. We quickly dug ourselves a hole and got out of it later.

After being down as many as nine points in the second half we battled back and got the lead after two Carl Hipp free throws with about 30 seconds left. This was after Carl made a great block along a great rebound that he couldn't have made last season (strength and confidence). We then played solid defense and recovered a loose ball for a jump ball with four seconds left. We had it being our ball as did the official scorekeeper. The only problem was the arrow on the scorer's table had it Northwestern ball. It was fixed and it was our ball. We got the ball inbounds to Levi Wenrich (one of our best FT shooters). Levi missed both shots and Northwestern called a TO. They drew up a play and their guys fumbled the ball a bit, we recovered, and came away with a 79-78 win.

It was a great win for us because it was our first and because it was the first time since I've been here that we won a close game that we battled from behind to win. Carl Hipp had another monster game with 25 and 12. Frosh Jordan Schmidt had 16 and fellow frosh Christian Taber was a great spark off the bench with 11 and three 3's.

I'm looking forward to Ray being 100% and our team battling on a nightly basis. Hopefully, that will come soon. Our next game is the 29th vs. Buena Vista at home at 3pm. Hope to see you there.

First Scrimmage

We had our first scrimmage on Saturday and it turned out fairly successful. We scrimmaged MCTC, who is ranked #1 preseason in the NJCAA D3 poll (which really means nothing). We started off a little slow and then our "second group" came in and had a ton of ball pressure and really pushed the tempo. Guys were communicating and really getting after. That group's pressure turned our whole half around. We ended up winning the first half handily.

At the start of the second half, we were scoreboard watching and our lead fell very quickly. Though, we didn't play particularly well, we still won the scrimmage (if you can do that). I always think its difficult for a young team to develop that killer instinct to beat teams when they are down. It is something that we will have to develop in order for us to get to where we want to be and that is the NCAA tournament. I give credit to Coach Jay Pivec and his players for coming after us after a lackluster first half. I won't go into specifics about players but we had four players in double figures with two upperclassmen and two freshmen.

This afternoon we watched the film and there is still a ton for us to work on. We were a step slow in many of our defensive slides. We must get more ball pressure and force the offense into making rushed decisions. Hopefully, we will learn from the film and keep working at it.

After watching film, we headed over to former Piper great Howie Schultz's viewing. It was great to interact with former Hamline players, I just wish it would be been in better circumstances. I know these viewings (or wakes) of Joe Hutton Jr. and Howie Schultz don't hit home with our players as much as they probably should but it's great for them to see the history of the Hamline basketball program. My condelences go out to his family. We are looking forward to honoring the past Hamline teams with a great season this year.

Congrats to the football team in their great win against Carleton on Saturday.

More Sad News

More sad news coming for the Hamline Basketball community today. Howie Schultz passed away earlier this morning. Howie was on the first National Championship team in 1942. After his playing days he played for the Brooklyn Dodgers in the MLB as well as the Minneapolis Lakers in the NBA. He won an NBA Championship in 1952 with fellow Pipers Joe Hutton and Vern Mikkelsen. Howie also preceded Jackie Robinson as the first baseman for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Had another spirited practice today. Can't wait until tomorrow when we scrimmage MCTC. Looking forward to playing someone else.

Wonderful News and Great Practices

Ray Brown was cleared by the MIAC on Tuesday and is completely eligible now to compete this season. There was a little question whether the four person committee would deem him ineligible. I'm glad it didn't have to go that route because it would have been a disaster for our conference. It would be like the Supreme Court making a ruling and then a county court reversing that decision.

Practice has been going very well. We have a couple of guys dinged up right with Jordan Schmidt out with a IT Band pain and Andy Voigt, with a broken nose (surgery yesterday and it went well). So, we are practicing with 12 guys and they have been getting after it. It's nice to look and see the guys playing hard on just about every possession.

Now it's time to play someone else. We scrimmage MCTC on Saturday morning. It's a great scrimmage for us because they will be extremely athletic and we know that their guys will play hard on every possession. On Nov. 9th we scrimmage St. Cloud State up at their place. We played well against them last year but their size and strength wore us down at the end. Hopefully, with our more talented players that won't be the case. They are predicted to finish first in the NSIC this year.

Great News and Sad News

I'm going to start with some great news for our basketball program. Ray Brown was deemed eligible to play right away by the NCAA. We are still awaiting word from our league, the MIAC, and what they rule but it would certainly be tough to turn him down after the NCAA already ruled him eligible. Ray gives us probably the most talented player in D3 and one of the best frontcourts (I think) in country with Ray and Carl Hipp.

Practice has been going well. We are leaps and bounds ahead of where we were last season. We can actually score in tough situations and we have a bunch of guys that can create for themselves and for teammates. Hopefully, their hardwork will continue as the season progresses.

Some sad news in the Hamline basketball community as Joe Hutton Jr. passed on Monday. Joe was an integral part of the great Hamline teams in the early 1950s. He also played for the Minneapolis Lakers and won an NBA championship while playing with George Mikan. Joe was around as much as he could. He would sit down talk about the program and he was very supportive of us turning the program around. There is more information about him at the Hamline athletics website.

Day 1

And so it begins. Guys were really anxious and ready to go. Right from the get go guys were getting after it and really pushing themselves. They then hit a wall, not so much a brick wall but a cement wall that was thick as can be. They weren't ready for all the running and the intensity of practice. They will get better as time goes on.

It was nice to see guys flat out make some plays. We didn't have that last year. Though things are moving a little too quickly right (at least in their heads) our guys are making plays that we couldn't make last year. At some point things will slow down and we will be able to just play instead of thinking all the time. Hopefully, by the middle of next week we will have most of our drills down as well work at the intensity that we are looking for.

Still no ruling on the big transfer for us. It's been a long time coming and it's very annoying not to know where he stands. Hopefully we'll know by tomorrow.

First vomit victim of the year goes to Charlie Choiniere.

NY over MN

After watching the Yankees overcome the Twins, I've decided the Yanks will win the Series this year. No doubt in my mind. They just have too much firepower and just when you think you have them, they make a play. Just ask Joe Nathan. The Twins put themselves into position to win during the last two games and blew it with terrible baserunning and untimely errors. They succumbed to the pressure and that was blatantly obvious.

As much as I don't like ARod, he has come up HUGE in this series. Two big RBI singles in Game 1. Huge homer to tie it in Game 2. And not but certainly least, a huge homer to tie the game in Game 3. I'm not sure what Kate Hudson is doing but it's certainly working.

I'm looking forward to a great series with the Angels. You never know what will happen but I think the Yanks automatically have the advantage thought the Angels are playing with a lot passion and with a heavy heart. Yankees in 6.

We start practice on Thursday. Can't wait. Looking to keep 15 guys this year. All of the guys have been working hard and there is a distinct difference from last year. We are expecting to win. More updates coming in by the end of the week.

The Lions Win, THHHHHEEEEEEEE Lions Win

And finally after a 19 game losing streak, my favorite football team The Detroit Lions won a game. I was on pins and needles watching the upper right corner of the screen during the Vikings game. I did see the great throw by Brett Favre and the better catch by Greg Lewis but I wasn't exactly concentrating on that game. Lions have a big game coming up at Soldier Field against the Brian Urlacher-less Bears. Confidence is a wonderful thing.

The pennant races are basically over now. The Tigers have all but clinched the division while splitting their four game series with the Twins. The Twins still have a slim chance but still have to face Cy Young front runner Zach Greinke, they aren't winning that game. That means the Tigers only need to win one game in their next series. The winner of the division will then play the Yankees at Yankee Stadium.

Great jestures by the Phillies and Angels after winning their respective divisions. The Phillies paid tribute to Harry Kalas, best announcing voice ever, by everyone on the team slapping the memorial for Kalas in the outfield. The Angels one uped them by doing the same thing to the Nick Adenhart memorial as well as drenching Adenhart's jersey get drenched by champagne in the locker room. Great story to overcome a lot of adversity this year for the Angels.

Nice to see my close to hometown university has taken a stand when it comes to idiots on the basketball team. Binghamton University decided to kick off a bunch of their male basketball playes this past week. Tiki Maybe was arrested earlier in the week with 3.5 grams of cocaine. I don't know if that's a lot but he being charged with a felony. Nice to see he turned his life around after many fiascos in high school. DJ Rivera was also booted, he was their leading scorer last year but wasn't all conference because he was academically ineligible at his last school (coaches voted for the all conference picks). Corey Chandler, who just came to Binghamton from Rutgers was also booted. I understand second chances but when your team is full of those guys, you are going to run into trouble. Kevin Broadus did exactly what he was told to do when he got the job, he won. He made it to their first NCAA tourney and now he had "no control" over the program. I blame him and the now departed athletic director, but it shows how much pressure there is to win even at Binghamton. My guess Broadus will be out after this year and King Rice (former Binghamton HS star, UNC Player, and Vanderbilt assistant) will take over and bring his hometown school to prominence.

Two weeks from yesterday, the Hamline Pipers will start practice. I certainly can't wait to get started. The guys are working really hard and are getting after it quite a bit on the court and in the weight room. It's great to see each guy challenge each other in weight room. Everyday, as I'm walking to and from our mail room I can hear the basketballs bouncing in the gym. Even right now from my office I can hear guys working out. We didn't have that last year. Hopefully, this means we can turn things around this year.

Plax, The Pennant Chase, and...

The one and only Plaxico Burress is now holed up at Riker's Island undergoing physical and psychological testing. After shooting himself in a Manhattan club, he will now serve two years on a variety of charges which mostly include carrying a concealed weapon without a permit. This whole ordeal still doesn't make sense...

Plax shoots himself and gets 24 months, Michael Vick gets roughly 20 months for killing a bunch of dogs (I know I make it sound harmless but it's not), and Donte Stallworth kills a woman while driving drunk and gets 24 days. Justice is served to say the least (I need that sarcasm button to work).

The Yanks just clinched a playoff berth last night. Great day to be a Yankee fan. The recession proof club made a huge signings this past winter and they are obviously paying off. CC is in a three horse race for the Cy Young. Mark Teixeira is in a two horse race for the MVP with his teammate. AJ Burnett is doing great as long as Molina is catching him. Nick Swisher has brought a deal to the team as far as the clubhouse is concerned and has played a fantastic right field. It's hard to ask for much more from the new guys as they have already given. The RING is the only thing that seems to be left.

It's a great race for the AL Central. The Tigers are hanging on by the thread to keep the Twins out of the playoffs. I've always been a big fan of Jim Leyland chain smoking in the dugout, hopefully we'll see it come out in the next week if the Twins overtake them. It's great to see the Twins still competing with Morneau out for the year. The media left them out to dry when he went down. Mauer has really stepped up and put them in position to win a lot of games. Either way the division unfolds, they are going down in the first round.

Just spend Sunday evening in Northern Chicago (Deerfield) to check out the Joy of the Game Fall League. Definitely some good players down there. Hopefully we can get an "in" sometime soon and get another good player from the state of Illinois. I'll probably head over to Minnehaha Academy to check out Sean Kruger's Fall League before our football team takes on St. Thomas on Saturday. Our football squad lost another heartbreaker in double OT to Gustavus. Hopefully they can pull one out this week and start winning.

Recruiting

Just headed up to St. Cloud this past weekend for the Comets Fall Exposure Camp. There were a bunch of kids that we were already recruiting that were there as well as a bunch of new faces. Hopefully, we can get these kids on campus sometime soon to catch a football and/or play with our guys. Our guys seal the deal for the most part with any of these kids. I will probably check out the MBA Fall League over at Minnehaha Academy on Saturday. Again, there will be a bunch of kids we are already one, hopefully we find a diamond in the rough there as well. I'm off to Chicago on Sunday to check out a couple of leagues, the Joy of the Game Fall League as well as the Full Package Fall League. We got a lot of interest last year from those leagues, hopefully it will help again.

How about the US Open Final on Monday. Roger Federer had the title in his hands fell apart mentally and physically to lose to Juan Miguel Del Potro. Del Potro was very good and never backed down. I was very surprised to see Federer falter. He didn't look like he normally does. His backhand had zero pace to it and Del Potro pounded out winners on it. I wouldn't exactly count him out next year but time is catching up to him, at least in tennis years. I look for him to bounce back big time come Austrialian Open time. He is like Tiger Woods, once someone questions his ability, he works on that part of his game and then dominates from there.

Congrats to Derek Jeter on becoming the all time hits leader in Yankees' history. Still amazing to me how that organization has never had a guy get 3,000 hits. Once again, Ichiro has gotten 200 hits. That's nine straight seasons of 200. Just amazing. He is the best hitter in baseball regardless of what anyone says. Plus, he thinks that "Chicks dig the longball" was just a fad, they like the infield hit now.

And School Begins...

After what seems like 19 months, school has finally started again on the campus of Hamline University. Our freshmen have been through orientation and couldn't stand it. What a great way to start college. We have brought in eight freshmen and here they are (in alphabetical order)...

Noah Aguiree Fillmore, CA Fillmore HS
Charlie Choiniere Oakdale, MN North St. Paul HS
Victor Easter Minneapolis, MN Minneapolis South HS
Billy Pinz Eugene, OR Sheldon HS
Jordan Schimidt Northbrook, IL Glenbrook North HS
Christian Taber Brooklyn Park, MN Park Center HS
Andy Voigt Cottage Grove, MN Park HS
Nick Wegner Maplewood, MN Hill-Murray School

We are definitely looking forward for practice to start. We think this a talented bunch and they are going to help us win a lot of ballgames over the next four years. These guys will go with our returners.

Sr. Nick Carroll
Sr. Dan Andersen
Jr. Carl Hipp
Soph. Levi Wenrich
Soph. Brandon Rieg

We also have a transfer that is enrolled at classes but is not eligible at the moment for competition. He could be a huge part of our program and will make us immediately better. We will need to file paperwork and get some things taken care of before he offically becomes a Piper. We are certainly crossing our fingers.

We will several non-conference games against nationally ranked opponents who include Elmhurst, Buena Vista, and possibly Wheaton and Cal Lutheran. We could have one of the toughest non-conference schedules in the country. We certainly think our guys are up for the challenge. It will hopefully set us up for a NCAA tournament bid.

Rick Pitino and his Mess

This whole Rick Pitino fiasco is quite funny to me. To many of these high profile Division One coaches, they feel as if they are untouchable. It just doesn't make sense to me how you could do that to your wife and family. Don't think that this is the first time Pitino has had an affair. I'm sure it has happened before but maybe the payout he gave before was substantial enough not to bring anything out to the police or the media. To hear the whole story, it's quite hysterical if you ask me. You get a whole restaurant shut down, have sex in the bathroom with this woman, while her future husband (Pitino's best friend) hears something going on in there. My guess is that she isn't exactly marriage material after that situation, but that's just me.

Pitinorecently come out guns blazin' in a press conference. As history has shown with sports figures, press conferences/interviews/etc. aren't usually a good idea to tell someone you are innocent of whatever you are being scrutinized for. Pitino did admit to committing adultery and paying $3,000 to cover health costs but when you deny and deny that you essentially did nothing else wrong then something is up. It has happened with Barry Bonds, A-Rod, and Roger Clemens. If you just come out and admit what you did it will be forgotten. That has happened with Jason Giambi, Andy Pettite, and Luis Castillo (San Diego Chargers DT, who admitted steriod use before NFL Draft). Personally, I don't think what Pitino did with his press conference was the right thing to do. He should've just sat back and hoped that his family and friends would take him back. The more you make a scene, the more the public feels you are guilty.

Classes begin on the 9th and I can't wait to things started. Our freshmen should be coming in on the 6th for Orientation. Should be an exciting year for the Pipers.

Memphis Hoops and the Pennant Chase

After a couple of months into the investigation, Memphis has now had their 2008 Final FOur taken away. This is all due to the use of an ineligible player (Derrick Rose), that's name was never technically revealed. He took a his SAT several times in Chicago, IL and then when he really needed the score, he traveled to Detroit, MI to take the test. He finally got the required score there. It's very unusual for someone to take a test out of their geographic reason, although I took my first SAT four and a half hours away from home. I was playing in an AAU tourney that weekend and didn't want to miss the tournament so I took it up there. Rose took his test to be closer to the infamous Worldwide Wes, who makes his home in Detroit. Weird how this all works out.

The one nice thing the NCAA did was not to penalize the players and new coaches at Memphis. They weren't a part of the problem and shouldn't get schoalrships taken away or a postseason ban. They did receive three years of probation, which is only a minor problem for the program. The NCAA has to look into John Calipari, he should be punished. This is his second run-in with problems that he didn't take the fall for shady dealings in his program. The first problem was with Marcus Camby at UMass and now the Derrick Rose situation at Memphis. Don't think Kentucky won't be on probation by the time he leaves there. Hopefully, things won't get swept under the carpet like they do at...

DUKE

Duke had a similar situation with Corey Maggette during his one year at the school. It was proven that Maggette took money from an AAU coach (myron Piggie) who was given the money through two different agents. Duek knew all aong and played Maggette throughout the season and didn't receive any penalities for playing an ineligible player. The Final Four banner still hangs in Hansborough Indoor Stadium. This is clearly a double standard in how the NCAA handled the Memphis and Duke situations. Just because Coach K is "Coach K" doesn't mean that he doens't break the rules and obviously he did in this situation. I'm pretending that Coach K is the only one to "severly bend" the rules but he got caught and nothing happened because it's Coach K and Duke. NCAA needs to take away their banner pronto.

Brett Favre is back, blah, blah, blah.

The Yanks took six of their last seven against the BoSox and it looks like there has been a severe reversal of roles. The Yanks played with more energy, danced a little bit in the dugout (ARod looked like a fool trying to join in), and got better pitching (though it wasn't great, it's still better). Matsui is starting to play better and seems to finally use to the DH role, although I still don't like him. Derek Jeter is once again putting up great numbers with his .333 batting average. He has to be the prime candidate for MVP although Texieria will probably steal a lot of votes from him. Texieria does so much for the Bronx Bombers, his timely hitting, his great 'tude, and probably the most important, his fielding.

It's Back

After about a one month hiatus, I'm back and hopefully back to get on this at least a couple of times a week. No internet at home though, we'll see how this works. After a busy eight weeks traveling to Sioux Falls, SD (recruiting), Washington DC (wedding), Vegas (recruiting), and then Myrtle Beach, SC (vacation) I'm finally back and refreshed for the new school year.

We have a great recruiting class coming in along with a couple of other possibilities that we should find out about before school starts. Right now, we have eight freshmen coming in. A big class but we needed it since eleven total guys from last year's team are not with us because of many different factors which include graduation, chasing girlfriends, transferring, and a mutual decision to part ways. I believe we will be more talented, more athletic, tougher, and have a higher basketball IQ than we did last year. Usually that means we will have more wins, but experience plays a huge role as well. So we'll see. We will need to get another class of talented players in order to reach our goals off winning the conference, making NCAAs, and then a National Championship.

Many things have happened since I've been gone and I'll hit as much as I can...

Favre is back, which isn't surprising at all. Everyone up here loves him because he is playing for the Vikes now, they hated him when he was with the Packers. His decision making is simliar to how I figure out which pair of Jordan's I'm going to wear for the day. I start with the white and blue 4's or then flip 3's, or do I surprise everyone with the 23's. Well Brett, you surprised no one. Honestly, I don't care one bit about #4.

LIONS WIN THEIR FIRST PRESEASON GAME!!!!

Usain Bolt is fast, really fast. It's amazing to me to see him run. He is a head taller than everyone else and just seems to be in cruise control while everyone else is running into potholes. Mark my words, he will change sprinting forever. You'll see taller sprinters over time, who will look more like 400 and 800 runners, long and lean.

Yankees are taking over. To watch the Yankees over the past month has been great. They've worn down the rest of the league. Sabathia, Burnett, and Swisher have brought an excitement to the clubhouse and it clearly has made a difference in how the team is. Whip cream pies for game winning hits, personal handshakes, and dancing on homers. This certainly isn't the Yanks of old but it's refreshing to watch guys have fun. Boston is fading and looking like the Yankees the past couple of years. Papi stinks, Varitek stinks, Lowell is old, Papelbon isn't the same, should be interesting to see if they make the playoffs.

Isiah Thomas got his first big time recruit to verbally commit. It should be interesting to see if the kid stays with it because he already committed to Kentucky. Renardo Sidney got cleared by the NCAA. If he didn't, "lawsuit city" to the NCAA. Latavious Williams is the only HS senior planning to go to Europe. He will have his hands full to say the least. Duke got Andre Dawkins to enroll early. He already had enough core courses and did well on his SAT. It gives Duke three guards now to go along with Jon Scheyer and Nolan Smith. Daniel Hackett did this a couple of years ago and did ok. Hollis Thompson did it as well at Georgetown, he ended up redshirting second semester and didn't lose eligibility. I still don't this happening on a regular basis like it does in football. Tommy Anaker is once again making noise with his recruiting. He gets high profile players interested and who wouldn't want a Harvard education? A couple of issues I have with that, can those same players adapt to the rigorous course work and can Amaker coach them to get some wins.

As everyone knows, I'm a big fan of the US National Soccer Team. We did pretty well in the Gold Cup sporting a roster of their "B" team. Got 2nd to Mexico, after giving up five goals in the 2nd half. We then went to Mexico City and lost 2-1 in World Cup Qualifying. We've never won there, that should happened soon. Maybe if Landon Donovan didn't play with the swine flu we would've won. I wasn't able to catch either game (no cable at mi new casa) so I was naturally disappointed in our inability to establish ourselves as a power.

That's it for now, have a good one.

NBA Draft, US Soccer, and Rules of 3

I wasn't able to catch much of the draft because of the basketball tourney I was at but from what I gathered, it was very interesting to say the least, especially for the local Twolves. Why on Earth do you draft two point guards back to back in the draft? I'll let David Kahn answer that one. He said, they can play together. What exactly is he smoking? Neither of those guys want to play shooting guard, they are both pure points at the NBA level. Now onto the even more confusing part...

The Twolves drafted Tywon Lawson as well and then traded him to the Nuggets. Then it was to Lawson's Carolina teammate, Wayne Ellington with the 28th pick. Next up would be Nick Calathes (a combo guard). I just don't get it. Why draft so many points? Why not mix in a DeMar Derozan with the 6th pick? Jonny Flynn will be a very good pro and probably better than Rubio but it doesn't make sense to pick him. It's basically like the Lions drafting Matthew Stafford and Mark Sanchez in the same draft.

One of my favorite players got picked much earlier than everyone expected, at 13. Tyler Hansbrough is going to a part of the first "White Out" since the NBA integrated. Yes, the Pacers have Danny Granger, Jarrett Jack, and Roy Hibbert but they could actually play five white guys on the court at the same. I'm not sure what that says about the Pacers or the state of Indiana but it would certainly be interesting to see.

Patty Mills got hosed. He ended up in a good situation in Portland but there is no way he should've lasted that long. He dominated the US Olympic team in last year's Olympics. CP3, Deron, and JKidd could not contain his speed. He got by them at will. I think he could do that every night in the NBA if he is given a chance. He did have 29 points and 10 assists against Steph Curry and Davidson in one of his last games, and that is after a wrist injury which made him a terrible shooter.

The US Soccer team played well for a half and it wasn't enough against Brazil. They really played hard and played like they are capable of in the first half and led 2-0. It was blantantly obvious to me that the fitness level of the Americans was no where near the Brazilians. They flat out were tired and they couldn't get the balls they were getting in the first half. You can't expect to win big games when you aren't in good enough shape. I know, I know they played a bunch of games before, but so did Brazil. Rule #76 - No Excuses, Play Like a Champion. It's simply disappointing to get teased like we did for 45 minutes and actually see what we are capable of. Benny Feilhaber needed to play all 90 minutes for the US to have a chance. He controls the ball and has a ton of savvy and doesn't seem to be afraid of handling the ball in traffic. His Plus/Minus for the Confederations Cup was extremely high and I'm sure it was tops on the US team.

Onto a sour note. The Rule of 3 apply to celebrity deaths this past week. Ed McMahon, then Michael Jackson, and it ended with Farrah Fawcett. I was a big fan of Star Search growing up and I got to see Ed in action every Saturday morning. Phil Hartman's portrayl of him on SNL was classic. "You are correct, sir!" Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, a what a talented mess he was. He was super weird but his talents were out of this world. No one had ever seen these dance moves before he brought it out on the Mike Douglass Show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sRfqvwgimU. I don't have much memories of Farrah Fawcett but she sure was a beauty. On top of these three, Billy Mays, infommerical great passed away at home this morning.

CWS, Crappy US Soccer, Twolves, and the Draft

The LSU Tigers just took down the Horns from Texas in Game 3 of the Championship Series for the College World Series, Phew. A great series to say the least. I think Paul Molinari's (LSU's coach) wife got more airtime than he did and for good reason, she is pleasing to the eye. It's always interesting to see how players react to a little adversity when the game is just about over. Two Texas players got caught looking at strike three in the 9th inning. I will never understand how guys will continue to get caught looking at strike three, especially when it is away. I'm pretty sure this will not be the last time you see either of these teams heading to Omaha.

I am going to continue to badmouth US soccer because they are all of a sudden playing much better after my rant (and many others). Like I said previously, the US needed to slow the tempo down and makes runs when Spain least expected it. Though, the US won 2-0 I don't think they played the way they should of. Spain totally controlled the time of possession and the game. The US got lucky in part because they played aggressive and with confidence. I can't wait to see how the US reacts to whoever they play in the Championship Round, either Brazil or South Africa. I do know that the US' confidence will be sky high after beating the #1 ranked team in the world. I don't see them having a shot against Brazil but I don't know enough about South Africa to make a prediction.

Once again Demarcus Beasley was on the bench for the whole game. Great decision by Bob Bradley. I'll figure it out for everyone, the score when Beasley is on the pitch the US is 5-1, when he is off the pitch, we win 5-0. Hmmmm. Don't play him next one either. Once again the US defense did a superb job and got themselves out of sticky situations, there can't be sticky situations against the Brazilians. Benny Feilhaber needs to see more minutes. He is a spark off the bench and we always seem to score or at least attack more efficiently when he is in the game.

Michael Bradley, who is basically the Saul Smith (Tubby's son) of national level soccer. He gets overly ridiculed by everyone and sometimes the critics are right. Today, he got screwed. He got a red card for a tackle that he clearly got a piece of the ball. Now, he will be forced to sit out the Championship. Hopefully Feilhaber gets the start and maybe an appearance by Freddy Adu. We shall see...

Let's go the Twolves. They just traded Mike Miller and Randy Foye in order to get three useless bigs along with the #5 pick. Now, they have the fifth, sixth, 18th, and 28th picks in the first round. Rumor has it they want Hasheem Thabeet and Ricky Rubio. We'll see how they end up packaging those picks in order to get a higher pick, preferably the 2nd. David Kahn, the Wolves' new GM wants to pull something similiar to what his former team, the Blazers, have done over the last five years. They need to get rid of the rif-raf and bring in a lot of young guys and a couple of veterans that will be patient with these young guys. Blazers did it with Brandon Roy, Travis Outlaw, and Greg Oden and surrounded those guys with veterans like Joel Pryzbilla and Steve Blake. The only problem the Wolves might have is, who wants to live in Minnesota during the winter (I know I live here but it's not the nicest place on the planet during January and February).

Blake Griffin will not be the best player in this draft. Too many holes in his game right now. He lost a game of HORSE to Jared, The Subway Guy, and they were shooting nothing but jumpers. I hope for the best for him but I'm not exactly sure the Clippers are the right franchise to help him get to the next level. Jordan Hill will be a role player his whole career and isn't worth a top 10 pick, period. Stephen Curry will be a stud if he plays for the Knicks, perfect system for him. Jonny Flynn is going to be a great pro, regardless of who he plays for. Earl Clark will be the next Lamar Odom, kinda of an enigma. He has a ton of talent but we'll never know when he is going to bring it. Not a huge fan of James Harden or Tyreke Evans, but I think they will both be in the league for a long time, plus both are only 19 right now. We'll see how the pieces of the puzzle fit into place tomorrow night.

I'm off to Sioux Falls, SD tomorrow morning to check out an AAU tournament.

Dice K and US Futbol

Once again I'm venturing off into another tangent but this most be exposed. And what I'm talking about is the wonderful Red Sox pitcher known as Dice-K. Like I said when he came into the league, he is overhyped and would only be effective for a couple of years. He is basically Hideo Nomo. Just a flash in the pan.

Pitchers like Dice-K and Hideo are very similar because they are something that the majors hasn't seen before. The novelty of their crazy windup and "great" pitches wears away after a couple of seasons. Major League hitters are too good and technology is too great for these flash in the pan type pitchers to be effective. The game is about making adjustments and after seeing this great "gyroball" that Dice-K throws hitters are pounching all over him. He is 0-5 right now and on the DL. My guess is that he will never have the effectiveness that he had his first year in majors. So much for Scott Boras getting Steven Strasburg "Dice-K" money.

Now I'm going back to US Soccer. After badmouthing the system and the players, they come back and beat the Egyptians 3-0 in the last game of pool play of the Confederations Cup. Now onto the best part, they advanced to play the #1 ranked team in the world, Spain, on Monday in the semifinals because the soccer crazy Brazilians beat up the Italians, 3-0. Goal differential was the difference.

Bob Bradley made his best decision in a year and sat Demarcus Beasley. The US came out and dominated the possession game and controlled the tempo throughout. It was nice to see them play with passion and act like they wanted to be there today. The Epyptians played like they didn't know what hit 'em. It was a totally contrast from the Brazil and Italy games. It didn't look like we wanted to be there during those game. We made great runs throughout the game and didn't seem to take as many unwarranted chances.

Next step versus Spain is to control tempo and make timely runs when we can. There is no reason to try and push tempo when we aren't nearly as talented. We should attempt a Princeton style (basketball lingo) offense in order to dominate the time of possession and take away Spain's attacking. Our best defense will be our offense. It's a very simple strategy and isn't necessarily easy to execute but it will probably be our only chance.

Great day for sports tomorrow. The start of best of 3 Finals of the College World Series and the "final" round of the US Open at Bethpage Black.

US Soccer and Omaha

Ok, so I'm going to venture onto something that isn't exactly on most basketball head's minds but I'm going for it regardless...

I've been a huge fan of the US National Soccer Team for a long time. And now it's starting to be like being a Detroit Lions fan (wait, I am). This whole plan the US Soccer Federation put into place a while ago has become amusing. The original plan was for the US to win the World Cup by 2010. After watching the terrible performance this past week in the Confederations Cup, I threw up in my mouth. We have a zero percent chance of even making the second round of the World Cup if we play anywhere near the way we played against Italy and Brazil. I know Italy and Brazil are two world powers but we weren't close.

It's embarrassing to watch guys like Demarcus Beasley play against these teams. He shouldn't even be on the pitch (yes, my soccer lingo). He hasn't gotten any better since he and Landon Donovan were supposed to be the next best thing after finishing 4th at the U20 World Championships a few years back. If you watch other sports, guys get better as they get older, i.e. Lebron, Peyton Manning, Greg Maddux, but this isn't the case with US Soccer. Beasley and Donovan are perfect examples of that, they peaked at 20 and 21. They haven't gotten any better and are very predictable.

As I was talking to our soccer coach the other day (after we both stopped watching the Brazilians kick our dog) and he was talking about the fake confidence that the US has. They walk out of the tunnel like they have actually beat someone. Congrats, you've beaten Honduras, Trinidad, and Columbia, countries that are more known for their drug trade than soccer. We will never even have a chance to win the World Cup unless these things happen:

1) Kids are forced to be creative. Our teams have zero creativity and it shows against the quality clubs. There is too much coaching at the younger ages and kids are told to reign in the fancy dribbling and creative passing. There is too much emphasis on winning when the kids are 6, 7, and 8 year olds. Obviously, the US isn't Brazil or Italy in soccer but we can actually look at how basketball is in the US. Kids in basketball are forced to be creative because they play "streetball" and are forced to make adjustments on the fly without the help from coaches. The system in soccer is much too structured, let them play and figure things out for themselves.

2) There needs to be more development at the National Team level. Guys can't peak at ages 20 and 21, and if they do they shouldn't even be in consideration to have the honor of having the US on their jersey. It should be a rule, if you aren't play for your club teams then you aren't playing for the National Team (Thanks, Jon Lowery for the idea). There is no way someone who isn't getting any burn has the fitness or the timing to be at the highest level for the US to be successful against the best teams in the world.

3) The biggest argument that I get when I talk to people is that soccer isn't the main sport in the US. That is blantantly obvious to everyone, soccer doesn't get the best athletes in the US, basketball and football do. They could at least do a better job at the younger levels to attempt to get better athletes, instead of the uppity rich kids we have playing now. If you were a kid, do have dreams of playing in the NBA or the NFL? It's certainly not going to be easy, but there has to be an attempt.

4) And last but certainly not least, there needs to be change at the top. There is never new blood. If things don't change, things will always be the same. Bruce Arena and Bob Bradley are both native Americans and have been somewhat successful in regards to pushing things to another level but they aren't great coaches. Why not try to bring Jurgan Klinsmann (I know, I butchered the spelling) over to coach. Yes, he lives in Huntington Beach, CA but he played and coached in Germany. He knows what it takes to get to the next level because he has been there as a player and a coach. Hire him now.

Now onto the great play we have seen in the College World Series. I haven't exactly kept up on the games as much as I have in the past because I actually have to work now but it certainly has been exciting. After watching last night's Texas-Arizona State game, it has certainly refreshed my mind into watching college baseball as much as I can. What a game. The Sun Devils go up by one in the 9th after a underused frosh triples to score a guy from second. The Augie Garrido led 'Horns didn't back down from the challenge in the bottom of the 9th. Cameron Rupp hit the furthest homer I've ever seen in Omaha, over the batter's eye in center, to tie it up. Next pitch, Connor Rowe hit a screamer over the left field bleachers to end the Sun Devils' dream season. The #1 ranked Hook 'em Horns now face the #3 ranked LSU Geaux Tigers in a best of three series starting on Monday. Two of the best programs in the country going at it in a winner take all series, can't get any better than that.

It's too bad that the famous Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha will be gone after this year. They are building a new downtown stadium for the Series to continue in Omaha. I'm a big time traditionalist and I understand there are times to build new things but you certainly won't have the same feel in the new stadium. It's kind of like the old Yankee Stadium. Yes, the new one is great and has all the things you would want but why change something that is history. It's what makes Wrigley and Fenway great.

Stan, Kobe, Pens, and the "Next" Phenom

As most of you know, the Lakers won their 15th championship and I think it's too bad. SVG put his team into position to be up 3-1 and they failed, miserably. He set up a play to get Courtney Lee a layup - missed. He had them up 5 with 37 seconds to go, Dwight Howard missed two free throws and then Jameer Nelson decides to barely contest a Derek Fisher 3. And now, because of those losses, Hedo is probably leaving because there is no way the Magic can afford to have three maxed out contracts on their roster (Howard, Lewis, and Hedo). It's too bad because they have a great core and with a healthy Nelson they have a chance to make it back next year.

Now onto Kobe. What an arrogant, self-centered idiot. Be yourself for once in your life. Maybe he has been watching too many Michael Jordan videoes. Did anyone see him after the game, did that not look familiar? MJ did before, just like anything else Kobe does, he copied someone. On top of that, he gets the Finals MVP trophy and shows it off, which is fine, then he gets the Larry O'Brien Trophy (yes, that's the name for it) and lets his childern play with it before any of his teammates get a chance to enjoy the moment. I know it's not the Stanley Cup but you do have teammates and at least let them share the moment. By the way, he has ZERO chance for a championship if he doesn't have Pau Gasol. Gasol was clearly the difference maker with his passing ability and his defense on Howard.

Let's move onto the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The Pens played unreal with in Game 7 and deserved to win. With their young nucleus they can make themselves a dynasty a la the Edmonton Oilers with Gretzky, Juri Kurri, Paul Coffey, and Grant Fuhr. Let's hope Mario can keep them together.

Over the past couple of weeks the sports world has heard all about this unbelievable catching prospect from Las Vegas. He just completed his Sophomore year in high school and is getting his GED and heading to Junior College in order to be eligible for next season's draft. It should be interesting to see how this all works out. Bryce Harper is supposedly the next superstar just like Brien Taylor, Mark Prior, and every other overhyped prospect. I hope him and his family are making the correct decision, only time will tell. I'm surprised Sonny Vaccaro isn't involved, I might be speaking too soon on that one though.

Tim Floyd

I'd like to ask all the people out there, how dumb do you think Tim Floyd is? The answer to that is simple. He is about as smart as the couch that I'm sitting on. How could he honestly think he could get away with all the things he allegedly did at USC? I guess the educational system in Louisiana where he grew up is not very good. Maybe he did the same at Iowa State and/or University of New Orleans. I don't know but I don't doubt it.

After reading several different article over the past couple of days I've come to the conclusion that this scenario is not unusual but a head coach usually isn't the one giving straight cash homie (Thanks Randy Moss) to a runner. You must go through different avenues to funnel money to recruits. I will tell you how they do and how they get away with it.

Here it goes...
1) Player A plays for a non-profit travel team (not going to call it AAU because they aren't necessarily AAU teams). Head Coach at State U wants Player A and they need to figure out a way to get Player A money to entice him to come. State U Head Coach calls one of his prominent boosters and tells him to donate money to Player A's travel team. The booster gets a tax write off while the travel team gets extra money for their funding. This does not necessarily mean State U will get Player A but it will certainly help.

2) Player B plays for a travel team during the spring and summer. The travel team coach is the one controlling Player B's recruitment. Travel team coach decides to help himself out he will start a scouting service. This scouting service will have Player B's info as well as other players on the travel team. Travel team coach will charge anywear from $300 to $700 for this service. So as a college coach the only way you can even get a chance to recruit Player B is get to get his travel team coach's scouting service. Imagine if twenty schools are involved for one player and the service is $500, that would be $10,000 in the travel team coach's pocket and/or in Player B's family's pocket.

The system obviously needs to be changed. One of the things that needs to be changed is that coaches that continiously break the rules shouldn't be coaching in the NCAA.

Game 3, JVG, and Sportsmanship

First it was Pietrus and now Courtney Lee has done a pretty good job on a league superstar. I love Courtney Lee's 'tude. He doesn't back down at all, from anyone. He plays the way it's supposed to be played. Speaking of how it's supposed to be played, Pau Gasol plays how I would want anyone of my post players to play. It seems that good things happen whenever he touches the ball. Therefore, he needs more touches. There are times when he plays a little too European with his antics but on the offensive end he does a great job of finishing as well as passing out of the post.

I don't know if I've ever seen two teams shoot as well as these teams have tonight. It certainly isn't one of those defensive slumberknockers, George Karl should be proud. Once again Joey Crawford is working a huge game during the playoffs, and of course he makes a difference. Kobe proved me wrong on my theory about great players making free throws in the 4th. I guess Kobe's gamefame wasn't intense enough because he didn't play very well in 4th.

Jeff Van Gundy is probably my favorite color guy in the NBA right now. He gives great insights as well as adding a little humor into the mix. Him teaming with Mark Jackson make up my favorite color combo since Bill Walton and Steve "Snapper" Jones. Not too mention he is an Upstate NY guy, makes him even better. SVG (moustache) and JVG (no moustache), what a combo.

As JVG mentioned during the telecast, there is too much sportsmanship going on during the Finals. I wholeheartingly agree. I think sportsmanship is a bunch of bologna. I don't want guys talking to the other team before or during a game, to help opponents off the ground, or to shake hands before the tip. I want guys that would be willing to back me up during a back alley brawl. Once they get in between those lines, it's all business. It doesn't matter if you are thumb wrestling, playing basketball, ping-pong, or chess, you are there to win. It's that simple.

Tim Floyd will have a whole writeup to himself tomorrow.

On Friday, make sure you check out Game 7 of the Stanley Cup. I know it's on NBC and no one cares about hockey besides Pens and Wings fans and the state of Minnesota, the series has been great so far. I'm not a huge hockey fan but I've watched more playoff hockey this year than I have in the past ten years. Crosby, Malkin, and Staal matching up with Zetterberg, Datsyuk, and Lidstrom. Should be a great game.

I'm also going to recommend a movie to you, The Hangover. It has to be the funniest movie of the summer. Too many one liners to remember. Plus, Mike Tyson makes an appearance. He goes on Jimmy Kimmel and he makes it hilarious. He has post fight comments and he makes it hilarious. He makes this movie even more hilarious.

Games 1 and 2 with some Ramblings

I wasn't able to watch most of Game 1 of the Finals because of the extreme hockey presence here in Minnesota. I guess the Pens-Wings series is a little more important, though not in my world. I was really surprised that SVG played Jameer Nelson a lot during game 1. I will never understand why coaches consistently play guys that have been out for extended periods of time during big moments. They are usually not in "game" shape, team chemistry isn't where it should be, and last but not least no reason to risk another injury. Jameer played the whole 2nd quarter, way too long for someone who hasn't played a game in at least three months. The Lakers totally dominated the game and it seemed that the Magic had jitters the whole game and couldn't do anything.

Now onto Game 2 where SVG made a ton of adjustments, which he has all playoffs long, and the Magic seemed to have the game in their grasp. Hedo making huge shots, Rashard Lewis hitting everything, and a JJ's hair sighting. Courtney Lee missed two layups in the last 10 seconds, do I blame him, no but they certainly made a difference. I thought the Magic would win in OT because of the momentum but they had no balance with no point guard in the game. You can play for small stretches without a point guard but not five minute streches. That will be the only time I will question SVG and his coaching. By the way, how many end of game plays does SVG have in his arsenal. They seem to run the right one everytime and get great looks almost everytime. I will definitely add a couple into my notebook.

Once again Kobe is a fraud. This scowl he has developed is such a joke. Check out Bobby Knight's rant about game faces on youtube and you'll see what a idiot Kobe is. Kobe is still probably the best player in the league but enough of the Hollywood acting.

This weekend starts one of my favorite times of the year. The Road to Omaha is complete and the College World Series is starting. I don't think there is a Fresno St. this year but it should be interesting. I watched a bunch of Super Regional games this past weekend and they were all exceptional. UNC, UVa, Southern Miss, Arizona St., LSU, Cal St. Fullerton, Arkansas and the winner of tonight's Texas/TCU all advanced to Omaha.

Officiating and Our Guys

While I am sure everyone is sick of hearing about refs, I'm going to add my seven cents into the discussion after watching the Minnesota AAU state qualifier this past weekend. I wasn't there to watch the refs, I was there recruiting and to watch two of my players coach their MN Magic 17 and under AAU team. What I noticed there was some of the officiating I've ever seen.

In the first game I watched (Magic Elite vs. River City ______), I noticed that there were only two refs while a couple of the courts had three. I never will understand why high school or college games aren't two man crews, especially now with the economic situation (apparently they are moving back to two man crews in MN this next high school season). The two refs were just awful. They decided to explain every single play to the players and the coaches. I have no clue why they even talked to the players. Not only did they make awful calls they also had really bad mechanics. For the people that don't know, when a ref makes a call with a raised closed fist it means a foul and if they open their hand then it a violation (traveling, out of boards, etc...). These two guys were just awful with their mechanics and I had to watch another game because it was really annoying me.

The next game I watched, I see a ref that physically can't get up and down the floor. He shouldn't be doing games, let alone games that give teams a chance to advance to the AAU state tournament. I don't understand how these guys get games. I do understand these guys are trying to make money but the game is for the kids not the adults. The same can be said for some college refs as well. Some can't get up and down the court and shouldn't be assigned to a middle school game let alone a college game. Too many of the refs have been passed by, the speed of the game is just too fast for them to effective in their trade.

Now onto something I should be proud of. Our team won their first game in the MCTC summer league over at 43 Hoops. We only have four returners (Nick Carroll, Dan Andersen, Carl Hipp, and Pierre Harris) playing with 3 deposited recruits (Victor Easter, Andy Voigt, and Charlie Choniere), 2 possible recruits, and one more enrolled student. I wasn't able to make the game but I heard that Nick Carroll and Dan Andersen played well. Victor Easter, one of our top recruits played really well at the point for us. We beat the top 43 Hoops 17 under AAU team. I know they are high school kids but they all are allegedly are going to be Division One players (they might have one maybe two D1 kids). Their coach told Nick Carroll that they were going to beat us by 30. Funny how delusional some of these AAU coaches are.

Sell Your Vitamin Water and Nike Stocks Pronto

So the NBA is not happy at all right, nor is Vitamin Water or Nike for that matter. This reminds me of the old Reebok Dan and Dave commercials from before the Barcelona Olympics (check out youtube for those beauties). Maybe they'll have Lil' Penny make a comeback to harass Kobe.

I'm actually proud of Mike Brown for actually running a play for the first time all series today. Too bad he is still terrible. Reggie Miller commented on what adjustments Mike Brown was making throughout tonight's game. The answer is none, zero, ziltch, nada. If you don't make adjustments in the playoffs you can't win, ask George Karl. At least now we'll see SVG and North Dakota's own Phil Jackson leading their teams to the Finals.

It should be an interesting matchup in the Finals. The Lakers actually have a couple of guys that can matchup with both Hedo and Lewis in Lamar Odom and Luke Walton, who did a pretty good job on making Melo's life difficult in the Western Finals. Pietrus will be able to "slow" down Kobe to a degree just like he did with Lebron. I think the biggest difference is that the Lakers actually run an offense which they can get shots from.

Lakers in 5

George Karlitis and Coach Teflon

It's absolutely amazing to me to watch the Nuggets just completely self destruct yesterday during the end of 3rd quarter and the beginning of the 4th. How can one team go from sharing the ball, getting offensive rebounds, and play their rear-end off to doing nothing but jacking 3's, taking bad shots in transition, and playing no defense? It's what I like to call George Karlitis. He has zero control over his team. I thought I saw a stat during the time when the Lakeshow went on their run, the Nuggets were 1-12 from the field to go along with a solid 0-6 from deep. Here is the game log for the Nuggets during their awful six minute stretch:

Kenyon Martin misses 20-foot jumper
J.R. Smith misses 26-foot three point jumper
J.R. Smith misses 28-foot three point jumper
J.R. Smith misses 29-foot three point jumper - with two seconds on clock for quarter
Kenyon Martin misses driving layup
Kenyon Martin misses 8-foot jumper
Chauncey Billups misses 27-foot three point jumper
Nene Hilario offensive foul
Nene Hilario technical foul
Carmelo Anthony misses 25-foot three point jumper
Carmelo Anthony misses 11-foot two point shot
Carmelo Anthony makes free throw 1 of 2
Carmelo Anthony makes free throw 2 of 2 - Thank you for stopping the bleeding

#1 You have to get to the rim or at least the line, #2 JR Smith should only dress for home games, and #3 Like the Cavs, you can't just expect to give the ball to Melo and hope for the best. You can't have stretches like this and expect to win the playoffs. I don't think the series is over, especially with a game in Denver but the Nuggets need to put together two great games to win the series.

Once again, Coach Calipari is running another program into the ground. He did it at UMass with the whole Marcus Camby fiasco and now allegedly Derrick Rose didn't really take his SAT before enrolling at Memphis. Coach Cal escaped the UMass situation because he was in the NBA failing miserably and now he has moved onto Ashley Judd's favorite team. Though he wasn't named in the report by the NCAA, it still doesn't make any sense that his hands aren't in the middle of it. Kentucky should've done a litte more homework but it's not like they haven't been in trouble before.

Gotta love how the NCAA makes these rulings. The school always gets shafted while the person who is in the center of the situation comes away unscathed (as long as they move to another school). Violations should go with the coaches and not the schools. Steve Fisher never got in trouble at Michigan while he was there but all of a sudden CWebb, Louis Bullock, and "Tractor" Traylor accepted a boatload of money. Michigan gets put on probation for five years and I think received a postseason ban. Steve Fisher is now coaching at San Diego State and I don't even think he got a slap on the wrist for having "knowledge" of the wrongdoings of the the boosters and his players.

Kelvin Sampson at Oklahoma is another example. He leaves after making more phone calls than I can count to recruits and then he gets no off campus recruiting and outgoing calls to recruits while with the Hoosiers. Sampson goes to Indiana and still violates the same rules as before (idiot). Jeff Capel has to handle the 0% graduation rate and possible NCAA restrictions. . At least the NCAA got it right with him. Forcing him not to coach at the college level for five years. The unfortunate thing about it is, Indiana is now on probation due to the mess he left.

Team Lebron vs. Magic

As I mentioned in the last post about the Cavs wearing Lebron's shoes, 8 of the 9 players that saw minutes yesterday were wearing Lebron's shoes. Great marketing scheme for Nike. You can thank Joe Smith for breaking the mold and wearing his Adidas.

Too bad the Magic don't want to go along with the NBA's plan of seeing a Lebron-Kobe final. Did LBJ get fouled in the closing seconds of regulation? The answer is clearly NO, he put his shoulder down and Pietrus did a great job of defending. Did Varejeo fould Superman on the next inbounds play? I honestly didn't think so, Howard grabbed his arm, but there is no way the refs are calling that one against "The Lebrons." Another thing is how is Dwight Howard called for a technical after being wrapped up by Sideshow? He yelled and annouced his presense with authority a la Little Giants and gets hosed by a call. He didn't even direct the screaming at the Lebrons. Now, he could be suspended with one more "T." The NBA has it all figured out. I wonder if they will go back and change that one like they did with Anthony Johnson.

Now onto my Mike Brown rant of the day. Stop putting LBJ on Rafer Alston. Rafer's confidence is now at an all time high and I don't think it's coming down any time soon. I think if that old man pimp in the front row by the Lebrons bench was that open on five 3's he would make at least 2 of them. Why can't the Lebrons play like they did in the 2nd quarter all the time? It's how they played all season. yet now, during the 4th quarter, all they do is watch LBJ. Mike Brown said that, "Bron's our money player, he needs the ball," thanks Captain Obvious. LBJ is basically playing like the best player on a 3rd grade team that goes and steals the ball from his teammates to score, and his dad is the coach, so everything is ok. I know I wouldn't want to play with him in the 4th quarter. Delonte West looks like the only other guy on their team to not play scared and attack the rim. On top of his terrible decision making while coaching, his substituations were brutal. All of a sudden, Wally World and Daniel "Boobie" Gibson are getting tons of minutes while Pavlovic doesn't get any burn. Make up your mind. The Cavs need Larry Nance and Ron Harper to come back and figure things out because Mike Brown is about as smart as desk.

Speaking of LBJ, I know I said a couple of posts ago that we are all Witnesses. Well, we are witnessing him not becoming a great player YET. Great players don't miss free throws in the 4th quarter. Jordan didn't, Magic didn't, Bird didn't, and Kobe doesn't. LBJ might the league's most talented player but he isn't quite the best yet. As Magic Johnson said the other day during pregame, "If I was to build a team right now I'd pick Lebron, but I want Kobe the last two minutes of the game." He is clearly right. LBJ obviously makes great plays and can do things that we've never seen before but he isn't there quite yet.

Refs Taking Control of the Conference Finals

After watching Game 3 of the Lebrons vs. Magic and the Lakers vs. Nuggets I have come to the conclusion that the refs are in complete of the every game. These guys call flagrant fouls like it's their job and also are giving T's like the 4 for $20 sale at Champs. I don't understand it at all. If these same refs were on the Bulls vs. Pistons or any Laimbeer led Pistons' teams, no one would be left to play. Those games were so physical with "hard" fouls all the time. In these series there will be "No Easy Buckets" because winning that ring means so much for these guys. Do they have to meet a quota just like the state troopers do? Now I'm going to throw out examples of ridiculous calls the past two games.

Anthony Johnson goes to the basket with the ball and inadvertantly hits Mo Williams in the eye. Now, Mo Williams did have two nasty gashes underneath and above his eye but it was clearly not intentional. Anthony Johnson intially gets called for a Flagrant 2 which means he gets tossed and I believe gets suspended for the next game. They somewhat come to their senses and only give him a Flagrant 1. The best part of it was that Mo Williams was called for fouling on the first whistle. And now, the NBA reverses the flagrant call on Johnson. I'm banging my head on my desk right now.

Second example is during the Lakers-Nuggets game, JR Smith gave Andrew Bynum a sharp forearm to his back while running down the court. It was clearly a foul, but the one and only Bennett Salvatore gave him a "T." Just call a foul, a "T" is completely unnecessary. I'm just waiting for Joey Crawford to get a Game 7 in one of these series.

Now on to something the refs missed. Dahntay Jones "accidently" tripped Kobe on his way to rebound. Typical Duke move, but it was clear to everyone that he did it on purpose and there was no penalty for it. I don't understand how you miss that. Stevie Wonder was complaining about that one.

It should be interesting to see what happens as both series go on. You know the league wants a Kobe-Lebron final. It will be huge for ratings as well a great marketing scheme for Vitamin Water and Nike. Unless the Nuggets or Magic are just dominant over the next couple of games, it will happen. It will be a similar situation to when the Bucks played the Sixers in the Eastern Conference Finals in 2001. The League wanted to make sure they pitted Shaq/Kobe against the Iverson and Todd MacCulloch led Sixers. The Bucks were a much better team than the Sixers and it was clear until Game 7, the refs made several significant calls against Sam Cassell, Ray Allen (Jesus), and Glenn "Big Dog" Robinson. And guess who coached that Bucks team? George Karl. He might be screwed once again. You can say the refs don't change the game but when they make calls that are clearly wrong over and over again in big situations, it makes you think. Just to let everyone know as well, the refs meet with the TV execs before every game as well...

Now, I like to see teams have fun but what exactly are the Cavs and the Lakers trying to pull. The Cavs were wearing team shoes last night (am I the only one who noticed this?). All the starters and a couple of reserves were wearing the Lebron Soldier 3. The shoe that is black and has a white toe, look for it tonight. Just like the Cavs, the Lakers are doing the same thing with Kobe's new shoe, the Kobe 3. Now, not everyone is wearing the same colors but it's still the Kobe 3. I do like Kobe's shoe but I would never help that fraud in any way possible. I do like Lebron but I have a strict personal policy of never wearing someone's signature sneaker that is younger than me, unless it's free of course.

I am a WITNESS

We are watching greatness. Lebron is unreal. Just when you think that Mike Brown could be the worst coach in the playoffs, Lebron makes an unbelievable shot to win it for the Cavs. Could someone please tell me why isn't Lebron on Hedo? It's obvious the ball is going to him in the last seconds of the game. He is the only one that can create for himself. Mike Jones is not a good coach, but he has a great player to downplay his terrible decision making. I mean the Magic only ran the same play pick and roll with Hedo and Lewis 97 times last night in crunch time and they got a good look every time. Mike Brown should put his telephone number in the newspaper to get some advice on how to make defensive adjustments.

Also, there is no reason for Sideshow Varejeo to be in during crunch time. He can't cover anyone the Magic has on the floor and does nothing offensively. He flops more than Vlade and I would never know if it's actually a foul if I were a ref. Big Z is also struggling, he is a huge liability defensively and is taking really bad shots on offensive. Could they try some other guys? I think so. To defend Dwight Howard all you need to do is foul him (I know, it's easier said than done). He is a 50% free throw shooter. Hmmmm, let him score or make him earn it at the foul line?

As I called it, Sasha Pavlovic got minutes. He played ok. He is more of a valuable defender because of his length but he might have played the most minutes he did all season last night, he looked tired at the end. He would be a better matchup with Rashard Lewis than Hedo. Am I the only one that thinks that?

JJ Redick has basically gotten very little burn this series after playing pretty well against the Celtics. Does SVG (Stan Van Gundy) fear that JJ has put too much time and effort on his hair instead of his game? Something for everyone to think about. And what is going on with Jameer Nelson's tie? It looked like the tie I wore for my aunt and uncle's wedding when I was 3.

Game 2 - Nuggets vs. Lakers and Some Ramblings

The fans of the Denver Nuggets can thank their hometown hero Chauncey Billups for their win yesterday. He saved them. Anytime that Anthony Carter or JR Smith are in position to be in the game at the end you will have a scary situation. I just don't understand George Karl's coaching. Maybe he doesn't have anyone else but Carter or Smith should join Renaldo Balkman and Sonny Weems in a suit for the 4th. Can't Karl go to Jason Hart, who saw quality minutes with the Spurs a couple of years ago? I'm a Carolina guy through and through but he is not a good coach (see USA's 2002 World Championship team).

Carmelo carried the team during the 2nd and 3rd quarters with his pull-up jumpers. Linas Kleiza played a great all around game (amazing to see transformation from his two years at Mizzou when he was a beast inside and now he just shoots 3's). Can someone please tell me how Kleiza isn't getting more minutes. He is the only Nugget that consistently hits 3's. He stretches the defense and opens driving lanes for both Billups and Melo. He needs more burn. Plus his Plus/Minus (yes, hockey reference) for the 20 minutes of work he put in was +16.

Kenyon Martin was his usual self, getting into the middle of everything. KMart needs to understand one thing and one thing only. STOP SHOOTING JUMPERS! He needs to attack the basket, he is so much better that way. Anyone remember when he was in the Finals (against you guessed it, the Lakers) with the Nets and he decided to take the ball to the basket instead of settling for jumpers, he ended up with over 30.

Now, I'm not big fan of the Lakers (because of Kobe) and would love to see them lose but Pau Gasol needs more than eight shots for them to win this series. He finished with a great game with 17 points and 17 boards but he needs the ball more. Nene and Chris Anderson aren't good enough defenders to keep up with him. Kobe needs to stop acting like a baby and just play ball.

By the way, the guys from the Lakers and Nuggets aren't even close to the Europeans when it comes to complaining to the referees. I watched the EuroLeague Final Four a couple of weeks ago and every single play is like life and death there. The coaches are going crazy and just about every player is in the ref's ear even during play. Sarunas Jasikevicius (former Maryland guard and Lithuanian National Team member) is probably the biggest whiner I've ever seen. I don't think he has ever committed a foul and he probably gets fouled on every play. Now I love his intensity, but let a play or two go.

While I was watching the Semis between Greek powers Panathinaikos and Olympiacos Piraeus I noticed a call not go the way American Josh Childress wanted and he decided to desanitize (if that's a word) his mouthpiece and throw it to the ground in front of the ref. He wasn't given a "T" or even looked at by the ref. He even threw in some verbal diarrhea for some good measure and didn't even get a rise out of the ref. So if anyone thinks the NBA guys are bad, just a gently reminder to watch any European basketball and you will mistaken.

Cavs by 18 tonight.

Cavs vs. Magic

LeBron James is the best player in the NBA. Period. There is no question about it. He plays at another level that no one can match on a consistent basis. His team would be a 7 or 8 seed in the Eastern Conference (yes, the Eastern Conference is that bad) without him. I really thought that no one in the playoffs would touch his Cavs.

The Magic. led by fellow Brockport grad Stan Van Gundy and his moustache, surprised me with their play. Rashard Lewis forgot to wear his brown stained shorts for the Celtics series and made a huge 3. Sideshow Varajeo couldn't get close enough to get a good contest on the clincher. The Cavs will struggle when LBJ's teammates are watching him just like I was on my couch. Why go away with what go you there like sharing the ball?

The Cavs should come back on Friday with a 18 point win at Gund Arena, yes it's considered the "Q" by everyone but me. I am hoping that there will be a Sasha Pavlovic sighting to go along with that old guy that always dresses like a pimp.