The following article is brought to us by Hoosierfan:
In response to Bill Simmons' article on who is underrated, and on how the players become overrated as a result of being underrated (e.g. Ben Wallace), I am going to proffer one who is underrated: Zydrundus Ilgauskus.
Yes, Big Z was an All-Star, sometime before the Cavs had LeBron, and were wasting picks on doofuses like Derek Anderson & Dajuan Wagner.
Everyone has been talking about how Mo Williams was shafted in the pick for the All-Star game. Some had talked before that about both Z and Williams. Perhaps Z was ignored after that because he made the All-Star team (approximately) 8-10 years ago. His $10 million contract seems like a bargain right now, whereas people had moaned about the difficulties of dumping him over the past several years. Perhaps Zydrunas was ignored because he's completely: UNDERRATED.
I would like to point out a trend on the previous several championship teams... with the possible exception of the Lakers who had the entertaining Kobe-Shaq soap opera, every team has had a big man who can step out and shoot... in addition to his necessary posting up and rebounding.
Example: Duncan... Garnett... Rasheed Wallace... every good team seems to have that threat... including Z and the Cavs.
Zydrunas is money - he can hit the outside shot; he comes up with several tip-ins per game, he spreads the defense, and if truly necessary, he'll come down with the boards - but he's always played with a big rebounder like Ben Wallace, A. Varejao, or Boozer. However, Zydrunas owns the Cavs record for the most rebounds... usurping Brad Daugherty.
If you compare him against the true centers of the last 20 years.... he comes out pretty well. He was a teammate of Danny Ferry - who is now GM of the Cavs! Zydrunas has staying power and he has my vote, for the 2nd most valuable player on the Cavs for the last 30 years - perhaps above Mark Price & Brad Daugherty, Ron Harper & Larry Nance & World B Free.
Showing posts with label Hoosierfan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Hoosierfan. Show all posts
Sunday, February 01, 2009
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
The Arrogant Eagles
As we begin a full BSD push to the NFL season (a little over a week away)... Hoosierfan has provided some thoughts on the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles have been at the top of, or near the top of their division for the past decade. That said, they have faltered in recent years, and it was only the year when they had T.O. as a playmaker, that they were able to make the Super Bowl. Each year, McNabb yearns for a WR who isn't going to drop his bullet-like throws. Each year, the Eagles draft a rookie who does not have that ability.
Fast forward to this year. McNabb says he needs a playmaker. The Eagles do nothing. Kevin Curtis is now injured with a sports hernia, and Andy Reid says the team will stay put, leaving the McNabb throws in the hands (or off the fingertips / shoulder pads / chest of) of Hank Baskett, Reggie Brown, DeSean Jackson, and Jason Avant - all 3rd - 4th receiver caliber players. (Jackson is a Rookie, so who knows, but the Eagles track record with rookie wide receivers has been abysmal). Meanwhile, they have Lito Sheppard, a 2-time pro-bowler sitting on the bench, taking up $3.5 million in cap space, and they have yet to trade him.
Furthermore, Anquin Boldin has demanded a trade, Chad Johnson previously demanded a trade, and Joe Horn has been cut for cap reasons. Why don't the Eagles do anything?
The Eagles have been at the top of, or near the top of their division for the past decade. That said, they have faltered in recent years, and it was only the year when they had T.O. as a playmaker, that they were able to make the Super Bowl. Each year, McNabb yearns for a WR who isn't going to drop his bullet-like throws. Each year, the Eagles draft a rookie who does not have that ability.
Fast forward to this year. McNabb says he needs a playmaker. The Eagles do nothing. Kevin Curtis is now injured with a sports hernia, and Andy Reid says the team will stay put, leaving the McNabb throws in the hands (or off the fingertips / shoulder pads / chest of) of Hank Baskett, Reggie Brown, DeSean Jackson, and Jason Avant - all 3rd - 4th receiver caliber players. (Jackson is a Rookie, so who knows, but the Eagles track record with rookie wide receivers has been abysmal). Meanwhile, they have Lito Sheppard, a 2-time pro-bowler sitting on the bench, taking up $3.5 million in cap space, and they have yet to trade him.
Furthermore, Anquin Boldin has demanded a trade, Chad Johnson previously demanded a trade, and Joe Horn has been cut for cap reasons. Why don't the Eagles do anything?
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Olympic Sports: The 20km "Walk"
Hoosierfan is back again to give his take on the absurd Olympic event of the 20km walk. That's right, walk, not run.
The racewalk, or the 20km Walk as it is referred to officially, is a kind of strange event at the Olympics.
The rules itself, according to wikipedia are:
"The first dictates that the athlete's back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact. The second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes over it. These rules are judged by the human eye, which creates controversy at today's high speeds."
A guy in my fraternity in college was a nationally ranked race-walker, and they walk pretty damn fast - nearly as fast as I run, and probably faster than most decent runners. For instance, at this year's Olympics, the men finished their 20km walk in 80 minutes. That's 4 minutes per mile or rather a little under 6 minutes, 30 seconds per mile... while walking!
That said, I was watching the women's race-walk on Wednesday night- and, after watching for about 20 seconds, I thought, "hey, it kind of looks like they're running, not walking!"
In fact, I was pretty sure that they were all breaking the rules - they look like they were somewhere between a walk and a run, and it kind of looks like they're some weird kind of lemming.
Twenty seconds later, the announcers show close-ups of the walkers to demonstrate that none of them are legitimately walking... and that they are ALL breaking the rules! The announcers' conclusion was that this event completely depends on the judges. Apparently, in the race I saw, the judges did start disqualifying racewalkers. When I went to bed at 2 in the morning, halfway through the race, 3 had been disqualified, and 2 more were on the brink of disqualification! Nonetheless, I say, get rid of this sport, or just call it running.
The racewalk, or the 20km Walk as it is referred to officially, is a kind of strange event at the Olympics.
The rules itself, according to wikipedia are:
"The first dictates that the athlete's back toe cannot leave the ground until the heel of the front foot has touched. Violation of this rule is known as loss of contact. The second rule requires that the supporting leg must straighten from the point of contact with the ground and remain straightened until the body passes over it. These rules are judged by the human eye, which creates controversy at today's high speeds."
A guy in my fraternity in college was a nationally ranked race-walker, and they walk pretty damn fast - nearly as fast as I run, and probably faster than most decent runners. For instance, at this year's Olympics, the men finished their 20km walk in 80 minutes. That's 4 minutes per mile or rather a little under 6 minutes, 30 seconds per mile... while walking!
That said, I was watching the women's race-walk on Wednesday night- and, after watching for about 20 seconds, I thought, "hey, it kind of looks like they're running, not walking!"
In fact, I was pretty sure that they were all breaking the rules - they look like they were somewhere between a walk and a run, and it kind of looks like they're some weird kind of lemming.
Twenty seconds later, the announcers show close-ups of the walkers to demonstrate that none of them are legitimately walking... and that they are ALL breaking the rules! The announcers' conclusion was that this event completely depends on the judges. Apparently, in the race I saw, the judges did start disqualifying racewalkers. When I went to bed at 2 in the morning, halfway through the race, 3 had been disqualified, and 2 more were on the brink of disqualification! Nonetheless, I say, get rid of this sport, or just call it running.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Root root root for the home team and other tales of referee incompetence
Hoosierfan has triumphantly returned from Europe and promptly wrote this detailed report on the Summer Olympics.
How much of a home-field advantage is too much? Since I've returned to the states, I have had access to 24 hours/day HD olympics coverage. I have watched boxing, gymnastics, diving, as well as a mileu of other random sports. In event after event, the Chinese seem to edge the Americans by a tenth of a hundredth, or several hundredths of a point.
Example 1: Alicia Sacramone, who had a nearly flawless vault, was ousted from the medals by Chang Fei, who fell flat on her face and had serious technical flaws in her vault. Amazingly, the Chinese participant was not penalized for these errors as much as is standard. This was followed by a rant from the U.S. gymnastics director, or whoever that Russian guy is who is always on TV.
Example 2: Despite a near-flawless performance by American gymnast Jonathan Horton, on a daredevil high-bar performance, he was ousted by Zou Kai by 2 hundredths of a point, to which the CHINESE crowd booed! (The announcers said - "I believe the crowd is booing the low marks for Jonathan Horton.") As the Chicago Tribune writes - "Of course, it was a man from China, Zou Kai, who won gold." Indeed, the Chinese gymnasts were impressive. And they're performing on their own turf, but do they really need help?
Example 3: Despite Canadian Alexandre Despatie's near flawless dives, the Chinese diver, and in particular He Chong, despite major, major flaws in his dives, continued to receive perfect 10's, to the dismay of the announcers. Needless to say, the Chinese took first and third.
Example 4: American boxer, and 2007 World Welterweight Champion, Dee Andrade, loses to Jungjoo Kim (OK, he's Korean, not Chinese, but nonetheless) - despite peppering Kim with punches the entire match. They did not credit Andrade with many of the punches, and Kim pretty much just blocked and cowered the entire bout. I have no clue what the judges were doing - and most of the American boxing team is just as clueless. "Honestly, this don't make other kids want to come here or do this Olympic thing at all," said Andrade, who thought he'd connected with enough punches in the final period to win his fight. "To come here and know you're going to get treated like that (by judges) — what's the point in even coming?" Andrade didn't even stick around for the referee to raise Kim's hand. "It was pointless for me to be in there," he said.
U.S. coach Dan Campbell felt Andrade's pain. "I thought that was totally ridiculous," Campbell said. "He clearly landed more scoring punches. I was talking to the people back in the tape room and they saw the same thing we did. Demetrius should have had at least eight points going into that last round."
In fact, the entire American boxing team did poorly, with only one fighter, Deontay Wilder, qualifying past the first round.
So, who is it to blame for the poor performance by the Americans, and the amazing insurgence of the Chinese? I offer 4 explanations:
1) Home team bias - refs blatantly are biased towards the home team - usually at the urging of a large crowd. Not too much can be done about this - other than to get rid of all the sports that based on human judges, as these are notoriously inconsistent.
2) Poor strategy by the American teams / boxers: In Andrade's loss, it was clear that the judges were not awarding inside punches because those punches are less visible than the outside punches. OK then - change the strategy, start hitting him with outside punches. In fact, Andrade usually fights with outside punches, and it was highly unclear why the strategy was changed for this match (which it was).
In diving and gymnastics, the judges were awarding much higher scores for more difficult routines - which is why Horton was able to break through to silver. Too often, however, the Americans were satisfied with easy dives, and gymnastics routines. The Olympics is a high- risk, high reward venue. You got to go for it all because finishing 4th or 5th, just doesn't really matter. Also, despite not having any diving experience or knowledge, I could tell that the judges were awarding higher scores simply based on how high the diver got on their jump off of the springboard - because that is easily visible, whereas whether or not the feet are together during the somersaults is not so easily visible. So, why do a standing dive? Choose the high-flying dives that the judges (re)ward with higher points!
3) Judge bias based on preconceived notions: OK, so, we read ahead of time that the Chinese diver He Chong is the best diver in the world. So, no matter what his performance is, even if he separates his legs, makes a splash, goes in crooked and veers to the left on his dive, we will give him perfect 10's (this actually happened!). I can imagine a study that would prove this very easily: how many 'ranked' #1 athletes in judged events end up winning, versus how many 'ranked' #1 athletes win in timed events. Even though it should be easier to repeat in a track / swimming event, I imagine that the judged performance events will show greater consistency between ratings before the match, and actual performance. Further, I imagine the variance between judged events and timed events is much smaller.
4) Blatant anti-Americanism / anti-Canadianism. The poor Canadians just get the burden since most people think of them as our northern states. With much of the world despising the U.S. for our foreign policy over the past 8 years, perhaps we will be better off once relations are repaired. But the IOC is taking shots at the U.S. as well: discussions of removing baseball, despite its popularity throughout Latin America, Japan, and the U.S. - because the big names are not there (I don't see how this is different than soccer!?) The IOC is also discussing the removal of softball, due to the American dominance in the sport. Nevertheless, fringe / outdated sports such as fencing, equestrian, synchronized swimming, and the "modern" pentathalon stay on the agenda. Seriously, I would place a bet that more people play Ultimate Frisbee globally, than are modern pentathalon, or synchronized swimming "athletes." Speaking of which, why don't we try to get Ultimate as an Olympic sport??? There are 10 club teams in Berlin, and over 50 in Germany alone, and there is already a bi-annual world championships, with teams from 19 countries represented! Its also considered to be the fastest growing team sport in the world!
Either way, the IOC and the judging here is bordering on offensive. When the controversy arose over the age of the 12-14 year old Chinese gymnasts (who look like they're 8), the IOC decided that because their passports say they're 16, they must be 16. Look at them. And consider the facts that:
a) their old coach said they're not 16;
b) they magically produced a new, revised passport, when old passports said they were younger than 16; and
c) Did anyone consider the idea that the Chinese government could make a new passport for these girls declaring them whatever age they want?
Seriously, the incompetence. The incompetence extends beyond judged events and age discrepancies: the umpires and other referees in the Olympics really make U.S. umps and refs look fantastically competent. Today's baseball game between Japan and the U.S. required a conference among umpires to confirm that there were 3 outs in the inning (despite the scoreboard clearly displaying the correct situation).
Further, the ability of athletes to gain passports to whatever country they would like to play in the Olympics is jeopardizing the legitimacy of the sport. You should have to be a citizen for 5 years of a state before you can compete. You should not be able to decide in May to be a citizen of Georgia, and then compete for them in August at the Olympics. I'm telling you, we should all start trying to become Olympic swimmers from Djibouti.
One last point of complaint: Why can't the U.S. be more competitive at sports we should be good at?
1) Handball: We don't even have a qualifiying team. We have so many athletes who would be good at this sort of sport. We need a Jamaican bobsled team type of initiative, where we recruit former collegiate quarterbacks, wide receivers, and running backs, and I'm sure we could destroy the pansy European teams in this sport.
2) Field hockey - especially women's. Don't we have college teams throughout the country? Most countries don't have collegiate sports at all!
3) I'm sure I could think of a few others.
How much of a home-field advantage is too much? Since I've returned to the states, I have had access to 24 hours/day HD olympics coverage. I have watched boxing, gymnastics, diving, as well as a mileu of other random sports. In event after event, the Chinese seem to edge the Americans by a tenth of a hundredth, or several hundredths of a point.
Example 1: Alicia Sacramone, who had a nearly flawless vault, was ousted from the medals by Chang Fei, who fell flat on her face and had serious technical flaws in her vault. Amazingly, the Chinese participant was not penalized for these errors as much as is standard. This was followed by a rant from the U.S. gymnastics director, or whoever that Russian guy is who is always on TV.
Example 2: Despite a near-flawless performance by American gymnast Jonathan Horton, on a daredevil high-bar performance, he was ousted by Zou Kai by 2 hundredths of a point, to which the CHINESE crowd booed! (The announcers said - "I believe the crowd is booing the low marks for Jonathan Horton.") As the Chicago Tribune writes - "Of course, it was a man from China, Zou Kai, who won gold." Indeed, the Chinese gymnasts were impressive. And they're performing on their own turf, but do they really need help?
Example 3: Despite Canadian Alexandre Despatie's near flawless dives, the Chinese diver, and in particular He Chong, despite major, major flaws in his dives, continued to receive perfect 10's, to the dismay of the announcers. Needless to say, the Chinese took first and third.
Example 4: American boxer, and 2007 World Welterweight Champion, Dee Andrade, loses to Jungjoo Kim (OK, he's Korean, not Chinese, but nonetheless) - despite peppering Kim with punches the entire match. They did not credit Andrade with many of the punches, and Kim pretty much just blocked and cowered the entire bout. I have no clue what the judges were doing - and most of the American boxing team is just as clueless. "Honestly, this don't make other kids want to come here or do this Olympic thing at all," said Andrade, who thought he'd connected with enough punches in the final period to win his fight. "To come here and know you're going to get treated like that (by judges) — what's the point in even coming?" Andrade didn't even stick around for the referee to raise Kim's hand. "It was pointless for me to be in there," he said.
U.S. coach Dan Campbell felt Andrade's pain. "I thought that was totally ridiculous," Campbell said. "He clearly landed more scoring punches. I was talking to the people back in the tape room and they saw the same thing we did. Demetrius should have had at least eight points going into that last round."
In fact, the entire American boxing team did poorly, with only one fighter, Deontay Wilder, qualifying past the first round.
So, who is it to blame for the poor performance by the Americans, and the amazing insurgence of the Chinese? I offer 4 explanations:
1) Home team bias - refs blatantly are biased towards the home team - usually at the urging of a large crowd. Not too much can be done about this - other than to get rid of all the sports that based on human judges, as these are notoriously inconsistent.
2) Poor strategy by the American teams / boxers: In Andrade's loss, it was clear that the judges were not awarding inside punches because those punches are less visible than the outside punches. OK then - change the strategy, start hitting him with outside punches. In fact, Andrade usually fights with outside punches, and it was highly unclear why the strategy was changed for this match (which it was).
In diving and gymnastics, the judges were awarding much higher scores for more difficult routines - which is why Horton was able to break through to silver. Too often, however, the Americans were satisfied with easy dives, and gymnastics routines. The Olympics is a high- risk, high reward venue. You got to go for it all because finishing 4th or 5th, just doesn't really matter. Also, despite not having any diving experience or knowledge, I could tell that the judges were awarding higher scores simply based on how high the diver got on their jump off of the springboard - because that is easily visible, whereas whether or not the feet are together during the somersaults is not so easily visible. So, why do a standing dive? Choose the high-flying dives that the judges (re)ward with higher points!
3) Judge bias based on preconceived notions: OK, so, we read ahead of time that the Chinese diver He Chong is the best diver in the world. So, no matter what his performance is, even if he separates his legs, makes a splash, goes in crooked and veers to the left on his dive, we will give him perfect 10's (this actually happened!). I can imagine a study that would prove this very easily: how many 'ranked' #1 athletes in judged events end up winning, versus how many 'ranked' #1 athletes win in timed events. Even though it should be easier to repeat in a track / swimming event, I imagine that the judged performance events will show greater consistency between ratings before the match, and actual performance. Further, I imagine the variance between judged events and timed events is much smaller.
4) Blatant anti-Americanism / anti-Canadianism. The poor Canadians just get the burden since most people think of them as our northern states. With much of the world despising the U.S. for our foreign policy over the past 8 years, perhaps we will be better off once relations are repaired. But the IOC is taking shots at the U.S. as well: discussions of removing baseball, despite its popularity throughout Latin America, Japan, and the U.S. - because the big names are not there (I don't see how this is different than soccer!?) The IOC is also discussing the removal of softball, due to the American dominance in the sport. Nevertheless, fringe / outdated sports such as fencing, equestrian, synchronized swimming, and the "modern" pentathalon stay on the agenda. Seriously, I would place a bet that more people play Ultimate Frisbee globally, than are modern pentathalon, or synchronized swimming "athletes." Speaking of which, why don't we try to get Ultimate as an Olympic sport??? There are 10 club teams in Berlin, and over 50 in Germany alone, and there is already a bi-annual world championships, with teams from 19 countries represented! Its also considered to be the fastest growing team sport in the world!
Either way, the IOC and the judging here is bordering on offensive. When the controversy arose over the age of the 12-14 year old Chinese gymnasts (who look like they're 8), the IOC decided that because their passports say they're 16, they must be 16. Look at them. And consider the facts that:
a) their old coach said they're not 16;
b) they magically produced a new, revised passport, when old passports said they were younger than 16; and
c) Did anyone consider the idea that the Chinese government could make a new passport for these girls declaring them whatever age they want?
Seriously, the incompetence. The incompetence extends beyond judged events and age discrepancies: the umpires and other referees in the Olympics really make U.S. umps and refs look fantastically competent. Today's baseball game between Japan and the U.S. required a conference among umpires to confirm that there were 3 outs in the inning (despite the scoreboard clearly displaying the correct situation).
Further, the ability of athletes to gain passports to whatever country they would like to play in the Olympics is jeopardizing the legitimacy of the sport. You should have to be a citizen for 5 years of a state before you can compete. You should not be able to decide in May to be a citizen of Georgia, and then compete for them in August at the Olympics. I'm telling you, we should all start trying to become Olympic swimmers from Djibouti.
One last point of complaint: Why can't the U.S. be more competitive at sports we should be good at?
1) Handball: We don't even have a qualifiying team. We have so many athletes who would be good at this sort of sport. We need a Jamaican bobsled team type of initiative, where we recruit former collegiate quarterbacks, wide receivers, and running backs, and I'm sure we could destroy the pansy European teams in this sport.
2) Field hockey - especially women's. Don't we have college teams throughout the country? Most countries don't have collegiate sports at all!
3) I'm sure I could think of a few others.
Saturday, August 16, 2008
Watching the Olympics in Europe
The following article is from our European correspondent, Hoosierfan, as he lives in Europe during this summer.
Moving to another country, especially when you don’t know the language, is a little bit like walking out of a atomic bomb bunker and being in the future. It also feels a bit like the awful movie Encino man, where you wake up after being frozen for a thousand years.
For example – take a trip to the grocery store, where you have to have a 1 Euro deposit, inserted into the handle of the cart in order to unlock the chains on it, and you have to purchase each plastic bag for your groceries. Plastic and glass bottles all have a 20 cent deposit, and since I have no idea how to return them, I just give them to the homeless.
I’ve been attempting to follow the Olympics on Eurosport TV. It’s really irritating when they dub over the English interviews in German. Even the broadcasters actually speak English, since its an EU-wide channel – but they dub over them in German. Sometimes, they don’t show actual races, they just show the last 3 seconds of a race, or they show these “highlights” of fans, each shown in 1-2 second clips, separated by a really irritating graphic and sound effect. They also love to show post-race celebrations, and medal ceremonies, without actually showing the races. It’s really horrible – there is just no good way to describe it.
I attempted to go to a sports bar to watch the U.S. – Greece basketball game. I was told that the only game they were showing is Lithuania – Russia. They also were showing the women’s swimming preliminaries of the 800m (where Katie Hoff and the other girl didn’t qualify), the 200 fly, and all kinds of other really boring irrelevant swimming prelims.
Speaking of pointless preliminaries shown on TV: props to Stany Kempompo Ngangola, of the Congo, who finished seconds behind the other 50M swimmers. Ngangola finished at 35.19, which is, I estimate, a good 10 seconds slower than decent U.S. high school swimmers, and a good 14 seconds off of the top preliminary times. Do the dictators of these countries get up and say: "All right folks – can anyone swim? We need someone for the Olympics!" I also really wonder who the genius is at Eurosport who decides they should show guys thrashing around in the water, practically drowning, rather than showing a handball match, a soccer game, or the U.S. - Greece basketball game.
I also wonder why do the swimmers, after they are finished, duck their mouths into the water, and gargle pool water that they know all the swimmers pee in? Michael Phelps – I’m watching you.
Germany is a place of very different standards. First of all, they love sausage. And I’m not just talking about blood sausage, veal sausage, pork sausage, or curry pork sausage. Germans love to be naked. Whether it is frolicking naked at the park… or going to co-ed naked saunas (apparently bathing suits in saunas are forbidden!)… or taking their clothes off in clubs… they really don’t mind being naked. For example, when going to play ultimate Frisbee, Germans, who travel by bike, will arrive in jeans and a shirt. They proceed to get completely naked, changing into their athletic wear. When they’re done, they will get completely naked again, and then change back into jeans – just to ride their bikes home. Apparently, it’s not OK to be wearing dirty, sweaty clothes in public (even while riding a bike or taking the subway), but it is completely OK (perhaps even encouraged) to be naked. Anyhow, coincidentally, Germans all think Americans are very prudish. I've been told that the nudist culture really got going once the East Germans joined up. The further east you go, the more they love to be naked.
The other bizarre thing is that I see so many European men wearing purses, wearing eyeliner, wearing Capri pants, eating sausage, and frolicking naked… and it's funny because in America, there's a greater chance they would be considered gay. But here, it appears that wearing Capri pants and having a purse is just part of being European.
Moving to another country, especially when you don’t know the language, is a little bit like walking out of a atomic bomb bunker and being in the future. It also feels a bit like the awful movie Encino man, where you wake up after being frozen for a thousand years.
For example – take a trip to the grocery store, where you have to have a 1 Euro deposit, inserted into the handle of the cart in order to unlock the chains on it, and you have to purchase each plastic bag for your groceries. Plastic and glass bottles all have a 20 cent deposit, and since I have no idea how to return them, I just give them to the homeless.
I’ve been attempting to follow the Olympics on Eurosport TV. It’s really irritating when they dub over the English interviews in German. Even the broadcasters actually speak English, since its an EU-wide channel – but they dub over them in German. Sometimes, they don’t show actual races, they just show the last 3 seconds of a race, or they show these “highlights” of fans, each shown in 1-2 second clips, separated by a really irritating graphic and sound effect. They also love to show post-race celebrations, and medal ceremonies, without actually showing the races. It’s really horrible – there is just no good way to describe it.
I attempted to go to a sports bar to watch the U.S. – Greece basketball game. I was told that the only game they were showing is Lithuania – Russia. They also were showing the women’s swimming preliminaries of the 800m (where Katie Hoff and the other girl didn’t qualify), the 200 fly, and all kinds of other really boring irrelevant swimming prelims.
Speaking of pointless preliminaries shown on TV: props to Stany Kempompo Ngangola, of the Congo, who finished seconds behind the other 50M swimmers. Ngangola finished at 35.19, which is, I estimate, a good 10 seconds slower than decent U.S. high school swimmers, and a good 14 seconds off of the top preliminary times. Do the dictators of these countries get up and say: "All right folks – can anyone swim? We need someone for the Olympics!" I also really wonder who the genius is at Eurosport who decides they should show guys thrashing around in the water, practically drowning, rather than showing a handball match, a soccer game, or the U.S. - Greece basketball game.
I also wonder why do the swimmers, after they are finished, duck their mouths into the water, and gargle pool water that they know all the swimmers pee in? Michael Phelps – I’m watching you.
Germany is a place of very different standards. First of all, they love sausage. And I’m not just talking about blood sausage, veal sausage, pork sausage, or curry pork sausage. Germans love to be naked. Whether it is frolicking naked at the park… or going to co-ed naked saunas (apparently bathing suits in saunas are forbidden!)… or taking their clothes off in clubs… they really don’t mind being naked. For example, when going to play ultimate Frisbee, Germans, who travel by bike, will arrive in jeans and a shirt. They proceed to get completely naked, changing into their athletic wear. When they’re done, they will get completely naked again, and then change back into jeans – just to ride their bikes home. Apparently, it’s not OK to be wearing dirty, sweaty clothes in public (even while riding a bike or taking the subway), but it is completely OK (perhaps even encouraged) to be naked. Anyhow, coincidentally, Germans all think Americans are very prudish. I've been told that the nudist culture really got going once the East Germans joined up. The further east you go, the more they love to be naked.
The other bizarre thing is that I see so many European men wearing purses, wearing eyeliner, wearing Capri pants, eating sausage, and frolicking naked… and it's funny because in America, there's a greater chance they would be considered gay. But here, it appears that wearing Capri pants and having a purse is just part of being European.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Yearning for Mike Davis...
Editor's Note: This article is brought to us by Hoosierfan...
By all means, I was never a huge Mike Davis fan. I saw him for what he was - a good recruiter, a coach that didn't make very great game decisions, a coach whose teams underperformed. His teams had difficulties in-bounding the ball. They ran an 'NBA-style' offense where everyone would stand around and wait for Bracey Wright (who wasn't all that good) to shoot. Notably, Sampsons' teams would later have the same offensive ineptitude. Davis didn't get along with the media, he always had a scowl on his face, he wasn't a good public speaker, and he was often the victim of rural-folk Indiana prejudices.
By the 2005-06 season, Davis was on the hot seat. The Hoosiers had missed the tournament in 2004 and in 2005 for the first times since 1995. This was also the first year he'd have all of "his guys". His 2004-05 star recruiting class (DJ White, AJ Ratliff, & Robert Vaden were no longer freshmen (Josh Smith, who bypassed college and went to the Hawks, and James Hardy, who left to focus on football and will be drafted this May, were also part of the class). We had Marco Killingsworth - a hired hand to help us advance far into the tournament. When the Hoosiers lost 5 games in a row, Davis had lost all respect with the fans. I was disappointed - I felt that decisions of the program's future should at least wait until the end of the season. Davis was bought out of his contract, effective at the end of the season. Meanwhile, despite missing an injured DJ White - the players, fiercely loyal to Davis, rallied around him, finishing the season strongly. They advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament, losing to Gonzaga. I, among others, wondered if the best candidate to replace Mike Davis, was Mike Davis.
Meanwhile, Vaden transferred to UAB with Davis, and a variety of other Davis recruits eventually transferred out. Joey Shaw is headed to Nevada, AJ Ratliff eventually dropped off the team, and who knows what happened to the seven-foot sweet-shooting Ben Allen?! (further research shows he has signed with Saint Mary's).
In comes Kelvin Sampson, the savior of Indiana basketball, who received a slightly warmer than tepid reception. People were wary of his cheating resume, the possibility of bringing sanctions with him, and his reliance on JC transfers. But, he brought Eric Gordon. No more be said. Eric Gordon - the future savior of Indiana Basketball. Yada yada yada - we all know what happened.
I have since heard the yearning for Mike Davis. He was clean. He could recruit, and he brought no sanctions. Look at that 2004-05 recruiting class - if only we had Robert Vaden now (22 ppg) - he could hit shots in the clutch. If only Ratliff had continued to follow the projection of his career. If only Josh Smith hadn't spurned Indiana for the NBA and James Hardy hadn't been so good at football. Mike Davis wasn't a great coach, and he needed serious PR help, but he was also unlucky. DJ White was injured that last year (as well as the year before) - yet we advanced to the 2nd round of the tournament without him. With DJ White healthy that year, who knows what we could have achieved... Mike Davis, who brought the UAB team to a 22-9 record this year, who came within 1 point of defeating Memphis, and placed 2nd in Conference USA, could have led IU to greatness this year. Or maybe not. But certainly better than (not) having Sampson.
By all means, I was never a huge Mike Davis fan. I saw him for what he was - a good recruiter, a coach that didn't make very great game decisions, a coach whose teams underperformed. His teams had difficulties in-bounding the ball. They ran an 'NBA-style' offense where everyone would stand around and wait for Bracey Wright (who wasn't all that good) to shoot. Notably, Sampsons' teams would later have the same offensive ineptitude. Davis didn't get along with the media, he always had a scowl on his face, he wasn't a good public speaker, and he was often the victim of rural-folk Indiana prejudices.
By the 2005-06 season, Davis was on the hot seat. The Hoosiers had missed the tournament in 2004 and in 2005 for the first times since 1995. This was also the first year he'd have all of "his guys". His 2004-05 star recruiting class (DJ White, AJ Ratliff, & Robert Vaden were no longer freshmen (Josh Smith, who bypassed college and went to the Hawks, and James Hardy, who left to focus on football and will be drafted this May, were also part of the class). We had Marco Killingsworth - a hired hand to help us advance far into the tournament. When the Hoosiers lost 5 games in a row, Davis had lost all respect with the fans. I was disappointed - I felt that decisions of the program's future should at least wait until the end of the season. Davis was bought out of his contract, effective at the end of the season. Meanwhile, despite missing an injured DJ White - the players, fiercely loyal to Davis, rallied around him, finishing the season strongly. They advanced to the 2nd round of the NCAA tournament, losing to Gonzaga. I, among others, wondered if the best candidate to replace Mike Davis, was Mike Davis.
Meanwhile, Vaden transferred to UAB with Davis, and a variety of other Davis recruits eventually transferred out. Joey Shaw is headed to Nevada, AJ Ratliff eventually dropped off the team, and who knows what happened to the seven-foot sweet-shooting Ben Allen?! (further research shows he has signed with Saint Mary's).
In comes Kelvin Sampson, the savior of Indiana basketball, who received a slightly warmer than tepid reception. People were wary of his cheating resume, the possibility of bringing sanctions with him, and his reliance on JC transfers. But, he brought Eric Gordon. No more be said. Eric Gordon - the future savior of Indiana Basketball. Yada yada yada - we all know what happened.
I have since heard the yearning for Mike Davis. He was clean. He could recruit, and he brought no sanctions. Look at that 2004-05 recruiting class - if only we had Robert Vaden now (22 ppg) - he could hit shots in the clutch. If only Ratliff had continued to follow the projection of his career. If only Josh Smith hadn't spurned Indiana for the NBA and James Hardy hadn't been so good at football. Mike Davis wasn't a great coach, and he needed serious PR help, but he was also unlucky. DJ White was injured that last year (as well as the year before) - yet we advanced to the 2nd round of the tournament without him. With DJ White healthy that year, who knows what we could have achieved... Mike Davis, who brought the UAB team to a 22-9 record this year, who came within 1 point of defeating Memphis, and placed 2nd in Conference USA, could have led IU to greatness this year. Or maybe not. But certainly better than (not) having Sampson.
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Blogging Live from Friday's Games...
Editor's Note: One of my friends, let's just call him "Hoosierfan," decided not to do anything on Friday except watch games and send emails to me while I was working to update me on the action. He agreed to let me post his account of what transpired on Friday afternoon, along with some of my own editorial comments.
From: Hoosierfan
To: Gutsy Goldberg
Subject: Referees Support Tennessee
Date: Fri, 3/21/08, 2:17PM
First of all... Davidson is really good, and I wish I had picked them. They're doing quite well against gonzaga, but - gonzaga has to play at north carolina (which is much closer to Davidson), so Gonzaga got the shaft.
American, on the other hand, should be beating Tennessee, but there have been 12 "steals". By "Steals", I mean, the tennessee guy grabs the American's guy arm and takes the ball away, and then they call the american guy for a foul! Of course, the announcers don't even comment on it - they say - "Wow, those American guys have to figure out how to not turn the ball over."
Subject: Refs Blew the Drake Game in Regulation
Time: 2:50PM
The refs blew it in the drake- W.Kentucky game (and the announcers support
the refs, of course - its like part of the contract to air the games);
With 20 seconds left, tie game, WKY ball. WKY guy drives along the baseline, a drake guy throws himself in front of him, and somehow draws a charge. It should have been a blocking call, or no call. Definitely not a charge. This call helps to get the game into overtime.
Subject: W. Kentucky buzzer-beater!
Time: 3:09PM
Holy crap! WKY hit a buzzer beater from like 30 feet to win with 2 guys in the guys face! (Editor's Note: This was all part of the refs screwing up the game in regulation. It was part of their plan clearly).
From: Hoosierfan
To: Gutsy Goldberg
Subject: Referees Support Tennessee
Date: Fri, 3/21/08, 2:17PM
First of all... Davidson is really good, and I wish I had picked them. They're doing quite well against gonzaga, but - gonzaga has to play at north carolina (which is much closer to Davidson), so Gonzaga got the shaft.
American, on the other hand, should be beating Tennessee, but there have been 12 "steals". By "Steals", I mean, the tennessee guy grabs the American's guy arm and takes the ball away, and then they call the american guy for a foul! Of course, the announcers don't even comment on it - they say - "Wow, those American guys have to figure out how to not turn the ball over."
Subject: Refs Blew the Drake Game in Regulation
Time: 2:50PM
The refs blew it in the drake- W.Kentucky game (and the announcers support
the refs, of course - its like part of the contract to air the games);
With 20 seconds left, tie game, WKY ball. WKY guy drives along the baseline, a drake guy throws himself in front of him, and somehow draws a charge. It should have been a blocking call, or no call. Definitely not a charge. This call helps to get the game into overtime.
Subject: W. Kentucky buzzer-beater!
Time: 3:09PM
Holy crap! WKY hit a buzzer beater from like 30 feet to win with 2 guys in the guys face! (Editor's Note: This was all part of the refs screwing up the game in regulation. It was part of their plan clearly).
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