Gopher Basketball
* As I was watching Dan Coleman miss three free throws towards the end of yesterday’s game, I came to realize that he is the epitome of what the Monson years were at the “U”-a local kid who originally committed elsewhere but came home; has some stretches where he tantalizes and makes you think perhaps he has the talent to reach new heights, but ultimately falls short; and his play at times makes you question his mental toughness. You have a year and a half D.C. to change your legacy to something else other than what I just rattled off.
* After having the chance to watch one of the first practices of the year down in Rochester, when Coach Molinari was running the team ragged on defense, I was confident that the team would come out strong yesterday. As the game progressed, the limitations of the players became noticeable, particularly against the press, and I came to realize it’ll be a tough year, no matter how much Molinari coaches ’em up. That being said, I’m anxious to see how this team develops as we progress towards March. As already pointed out by several posters, I think we’ll be seeing a lot of Jonathan Williams, I think Kevin Payton will be getting a lot of on-the-ball training as the team’s primary lead guard, and I think as the season develops we’ll see a more fundamentally sound team.
* There was a lot of speculation earlier this week on the ‘Hole of who might not return to campus under the new coach, but I hope the trio of Brandon Smith, Damien Johnson, and Payton will remain on the team. Each of these guys intrigue me in their own separate ways, and each have a lot of eligibility left.
* Perhaps the guys with the biggest question marks surrounding their fate are the assistant coaches, who I’m certain won’t have the fallback of buyout money to lean upon. Whatever fate falls upon him, I hope things work out well for Vic Couch who I have only met twice, at a HS game and at a practice, but each time he was extremely kind and personable, and I was just some fan in the stands (self-revelatory note-I don’t go around wearing a “I am Coolhand” sweatshirt when out in public). His public persona represents the “U” with class.
* Since it seems everyone and their mother has some sort of ridiculous suggestion for the next head coach for the Gophers, I’m going to suggest the following-bring a blank check out to UCLA’s Ben Howland and if he turns it down, head to the other coast and offer that same blank check to Villanova’s Jay Wright. If both these guys turn the job down, travel down Highway 52 to Rochester Community and Technical College and offer the job to Brian LaPlante who as recently as last year took the Yellowjackets to the Division III Juco Championships in New York. (If Sid can pimp his close, personal friends for the job, why can’t I? And my guy has never thrown a chair across a basketball court or tried to stuff a rival fan in a garbage can either).
* As talk of Monson making his way out to Idaho hit the rounds yet again this week, it finally sunk in-Idaho’s nickname is the Vandals-have you heard of a worse nickname for a college team? Did they feel that the Thieves or the Rapists was too hard core in their focus group? And why are they talking about Monson coming to campus-these guys should be trying to lure Jerry Tarkanian out of retirement and putting together a package to bring Dennis Erickson to the football facilities.
* So, with a first mortgage now existing in Coolhand’s world (don’t you hate jackasses that talk in the third person?), I had to make some tough decisions about which games I could afford to attend at the Barn this season. I made the easy choice and settled upon the February 19th date vs. Ohio State. Let’s just say, no matter how well Molinari does between now and then, I’m preparing to witness a feat of athleticism by the Buckeyes. I know Art was touting the young Buckeyes, but I figured heading into Chapel Hill, we would see these guys get exposed with Greg Oden wearing street clothes, but I was blown away by the likes of Ron Lewis, David Lighty, Daequan Cook and Mike Conley Jr. flying all over the court and hitting from long distance. I recall someone from last spring claiming that the Buckeyes freshman class was overrated besides Oden, but I sure didn’t see any indications of that on Tuesday night. I really like what Conley brought to the game, he’s got some impressive point guard skills, and I would suspect that the blending of Oden into the Buckeyes fold will be greatly enhanced by his high school point guard running the show for the team (in addition to the universal accounts that Oden is a great, unselfish kid). I thought the mentions of Ohio State as national championship contenders was all hype, but there’s no doubt they belong in that conversation.
* As we all know, beyond the Buckeyes and Bucky, there seems to be a likely scramble for the third spot in the Big Ten, but I think Purdue is the first team rising up to stake that claim. They have had impressive non-conference victories versus Virginia, Oklahoma, and DePaul with veterans Carl Landry and David Teague bouncing back strong from season ending injuries last season. Let’s not forget, next season is when Matt Painter is bringing in four top 100 recruits also. I think they are back on track in West Lafayette.
* In watching Illinois yesterday versus Arizona, two thoughts emerged-one, Warren Carter is the closest approximation of Eddie Murphy’s Buckwheat from the old Saturday Night Live days that I have seen in a long time; and two, Bruce Webber might have a tough time getting the elite recruits, but can he ever coach. With Brian Randle and Jamar Smith out with injuries yesterday, they were completely outclassed athletically by the Wildcats, but they took it to them in the first half and just lost out at the end. They run some of the prettiest half court sets you’ll ever see and can lay it on teams on defense too. The Illini will be a factor in the Big Ten race this season.
* For the past two weeks, I have meant to write about the Missouri Valley Conference, but I have had too much material and I have pushed it out (much like how Matt Damon keeps getting cut out of Jimmy Kimmel’s show). Last year, the MVC emerged on the national scene as a combination feel-good/controversial story with their four NCAA bids, Jim Nantz’s petulant pouting about those bids, and Bradley and Wichita State advancing to the sweet sixteen. This year, they’re obviously off to a great start, lead by Wichita State, Creighton, Southern Illinois, Missouri State, and Bradley. While many may look at this as a nice little run for the historic conference, I think we could be looking at the emergence of a consistent “major conference” on the NCAA basketball scene. I recall reading an article last year where MVC Commissioner Doug Elgin had told his constituents they were expected to play difficult non-conference schedules if they wanted to remain in the conference. Wichita State and Northern Iowa are sporting either renovated or new arenas. Creighton and Southern Illinois have been some of the more consistently excellent teams over the past decade or so. Bradley possesses one of the top traditions in college basketball history. Of course, all these things do not lead to consistent basketball excellence, but when you consider that the league is a basketball conference first and foremost (about half of the league doesn’t have football teams, and the other half plays at the D-1 level), has a strong commissioner, plays in a region of the nation where basketball has strong prep roots, and also can be the primary show in town, I think it sets the MVC apart from other conferences such as the MAC or Atlantic 10. As Gonzaga is no longer considered a mid-major team, I think in a few years the MVC will no longer be identified as a mid-major league.
* I don’t think any team has had a more impressive preseason than Wichita State, having gone on the road to defeat George Mason (at their Final Four banner unfurling), LSU, and Syracuse. That newly renovated arena of theirs will likely be pretty barren before conference play begins for years to come, as no one from a power conference will want to take it on the chin in Wichita.
* This has a bit of a football slant to it, but how impressive is Iowa State’s new athletic director, Jamie Pollard? Last year he decisively ousted basketball coach Wayne Morgan and aggressively pursued Greg McDermott, perhaps sizing up that he needed to move fast to get McDermott before regional challenges developed at Iowa or Minnesota. This week, he made the football hire of Gene Chizek, Texas’ outstanding defensive coordinator and recruiter, getting Chizek on board before some of the higher profile positions were able to set their agendas. Who knows how these hirings will work out, if these coaches are in Ames for the long haul or just as a stepping stone, but it is impressive to see an athletic director who will not accept the excuses why you cannot win in Ames (and if there’s excuses in Minneapolis, there are certainly excuses in Ames) and decisively makes moves to improve his athletic department. Turns out Pollard is a former assistant athletic director at UW-Madison also, like our guy Maturi.
* You know, typically when a McDonald’s All-American point guard lands on campus he takes on the role of Big Man on Campus from the start, but this is a pretty unique year, as there are four such point guards who are not even the most heralded recruits on their respective campuses-Texas’ DJ Augustin (Kevin Durant); UNC’ Ty Lawson (Brandon Wright); Georgia Tech’s Javaris Crittendon (Thaddeus Young); and Ohio State’s Mike Conley Jr. (Greg Oden). It speaks to the incredible talent of this freshman class, as I have had a chance to watch each of these guards play and they all are incredibly talented-still figuring some things out, but I think they’ll be wowing the competition come February and March.
* Two teams that were looking to slide off the bubble gained some redemption this weekend with DePaul taking down Kansas and Florida State prevailing over a flu-ridden Florida team tonight. I would think both programs have quite a bit to work to do after some tough early season losses, but beating Kansas and Florida, respectively, is a good place to start.
* As for Kansas, consider this-they are a three-pointer off the rim from Corey Brewer from sitting at 5-3 with losses against Oral Roberts and DePaul, and two big collapses in the second half against Florida and DePaul (for those who watched the KU-Florida game, I thought it was amazing that KU allowed Florida to get the game into overtime). In reading accounts of the game against Florida, it was reported that after their sluggish win the previous night against Ball State, the team was involved in a loud shouting match about who bore responsibility for their poor play. Monson used the term “fragile” to describe the Gophers; it seems like an appropriate adjective for this supremely talented bunch also.
* I don’t know about the rest of you, perhaps I’m just getting older, but Dick Vitale seems to be getting worse and more difficult to listen to with each college basketball season. In the UNC-Ohio State game, there was a point where the Tar Heels had just made a nice run, got the Dean Dome rocking, and Vitale was screaming into the microphone something along the lines of “youth over experience! youth over experience! youth over experience!” An incredibly entertaining game was muted because of this caricature.
* Another non-basketball book reference-The Blind Side by Michael Lewis. You know Lewis from Moneyball, and his most recent effort is a look at how the left tackle moved from anonymity to millionaire because of the evolution of the passing game and the likes of Lawrence Taylor. While that aspect of the story is interesting, the meat of what I enjoyed about the book was the story of Michael Oher, a huge, athletic high school kid from Memphis who by luck was able to evade the treacherous life of the slums, land with a rich white family in Memphis, and evolve into the type of prospect that sends pro football scouts into spasms. The human interest aspect of this book made it one that I had difficulty setting down.
* With this recent cold stretch, it’s not a bad time to think a little bit about baseball-and what I’m thinking is the so-called braintrust of the Boston Red Sox is seriously stretching the boundaries of such a designation. First, the $51 million to merely negotiate with the Japanese pitcher who’s represented by Scott Boras and now their inking of perennial Tin Man JD Drew to a contract with rumors that he’ll taking Manny Ramirez’sspot in the lineup and the field. After the BoSox won the World Series, Theo Epstein should have pulled a Costanza and walked away-cause he surely hasn’t made any moves that make you think “boy genius” since then. Of course, it’s not exactly breaking my heart-I was happy for the Red Sox and their fans when they finally won their World Series with all the subsequent happy stories for the long-suffering fans, but it quickly turned to annoyance with this bunch, who seem to have forgotten all their struggles for so many years and continue to whine and continue to look up at the big, bad Yankees.
* Okay, it’s late on Sunday night and I have the working week staring me in the face, so it’s time to call it a Ramble. The last topic of the night is tied into the topic matter that has dominated the Off Topic board now that the political season has passed, and that is music. I was driving around the other night, heard one of my all-time favorite songs, and thought, ‘I always love hearing this song, no matter how often I hear it’. So, here’s a list of Ten Songs That I Never Get Sick Of, I’m going to copy this onto the Off Topic Board for hopefully further discussion-I’m always looking for fresh new songs for my IPod or some good old songs that have slipped my mind. Here’s my ten, in no particular order:
The Seed-The Roots (w/Cody Chestnutt)
Dry the Rain-Beta Band
One-U2 (the aforementioned song that spurred this list)
Wish You Were Here-Pink Floyd
Let’s Do It Again-Staple Singers
Honestly-Zwan
Watching the Wheels-John Lennon
Family Affair-Sly & the Family Stone
California Stars-Billy Bragg & Wilco
Jack & Diane-John Cougar Mellencamp
* Alright, have a good week everyone and here’s hoping we see a 3-0 week from the Gophers.