Overall, the Rams have been a pleasant surprise so far in this young NFL season. Even after a heartbreaking loss at Tampa Bay a couple of weekends ago was a tale of two halves, the team has shown some promise and the crowds at the Edward Jones Dome continue to grow larger and louder.
Yet, there is still something missing.
Well, they realistically could improve on a few positions, but all signs are starting to point toward a big one: wide receiver.
Sam Bradford as quarterback is the real deal. Once Peyton Manning decides to hang it up, I can see Bradford blossoming into the top five quarterbacks of the league behind Aaron Rodgers, Drew Brees, Ben Roethlisberger, and Matt Ryan. Bradford is calm, poised, and mature far beyond his age of 22. He is the future of the team and if Mr. Pujols decides to leave the Cardinals, St. Louis becomes Bradford’s city. Still, he needs a solid home run hitter to chuck the ball to in the end zone.
Let’s hope next spring we hear NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell say “With the [whichever pick] in the NFL draft the St. Louis Rams select wide receiver from the University of Georgia, AJ Green.”
A healthy Danario Alexander and Donnie Avery to compliment the best wide-out in college football split either side of Bradford sounds pretty good doesn’t it?
Just this week, Mel Kiper listed Green as his number two pro prospect behind University of Washington quarterback Jake Locker.
I may be biased being a die-hard Georgia fan, but he really deserves it.
Although he is just a junior and said two weeks ago that his four game suspension earlier this year made him feel as if he owed it to the Bulldog faithful to play his senior year, it seems someone who could rake in around $30 million as a rookie would very likely come out early.
Money talks.
Green would be the best receiver the team has drafted since they selected Torry Holt sixth overall in the 1999 draft. I do not mind Donnie Avery, but I feel Green has a better skill-set and more of an ability to stretch the field, which the team desperately lacks right now. He also brings the ability to go up and grab a jump ball that the five foot-eleven inch Avery can’t. Green is listed at six foot-four, I have met him and can tell you that is selling him short. If you have not had the chance to see his touchdown catch a few weeks ago against Colorado, take a moment to check it out.
The Rams have missed on nearly a dozen draft picks in the rebuilding years after “The Greatest Show on Turf,” but I think the fans are breathing a sigh of relief with Bradford and even the play of OT Rodger Saffold. The team is pointed in the right direction, but as a fan I could only imagine how much greater they could be with that big time receiver and you can never have enough of them, especially with a quarterback with the potential of Bradford.
The only problem is, the Rams may win enough games to pull themselves out of the Green sweepstakes. Raise your hand if you predicted that three months ago.
Just got off the phone with coach Kalish. Currently working on putting this together in story form, but figured it needed to be broken in list form as well. You heard it hear first!
Aug. 21 vs. Loyola-Chicago (exhibition) 2:30 p.m.
Aug. 27 at Saint Louis University (exhibition) 7 p.m.
Sept. 1 vs. Western Illinois 7 p.m.
Sept. 4 vs. Belmont 7 p.m.
Sept. 10 at Southern Methodist 5 p.m.
Sept. 12 at Tulsa 2:30 p.m.
Sept. 17 vs. Cleveland State 7 p.m.
Sept. 19 vs. IUPUI 3 p.m.
Sept. 24 vs. Dayton 7:30 p.m.
Sept. 26 vs. Memphis 2:30 p.m.
Sept. 30 at Illinois-Chicago 7 p.m.
Oct. 3 vs. Oral Roberts 2:30 p.m.
Oct. 9 vs. Bradley* 7 p.m.
Oct. 13 at Evansville* 7 p.m.
Oct. 16 at Eastern Illinois* 2 p.m.
Oct. 20 vs. Central Arkansas* 7 p.m.
Oct. 23 vs. Drake* 7 p.m.
Oct. 23 –ALUMNI GAME– 4 p.m.
Oct. 30 at Creighton* 6 p.m.
Nov. 6 vs. Missouri State* 7 p.m.
Since this is my last blog for the semester, I figured I’d change it up a bit. This weekend, Dynamo Pro Wrestling (a local promotion) will take over Pevely, Mo. for the first time.
The company started out as a training facility for aspiring wrestlers, while running shows under the name “Central States Wrestling.” Since its beginnings, Dynamo Pro has evolved and expanded and will begin running shows in Pevely, Mo, as well as returning to Glen Carbon at the venue formerly known as The Game.
The following will be a list of seven reasons why you should take a break from studying (or just get out of Edwardsville!) and witness Dynamo’s first show at The Banquet Center.
Road trip: Everyone enjoys a road trip every now and then. You can’t deny it. And even if you do loathe them with a burning passion, it’s only an hour. So suck it up and head to The Banquet Center. It’s right off the highway!
The Ego Express: K.C. Karrington and “Spoiled” Steven Kennedy haven’t teamed up in months, so making the trek will allow you to witness their return of sorts. Plus, Kennedy is an SIUE Alum. If you won’t go for the wrestling, at least support a former cougar.
“The Rebel” Jeremy Wyatt: Easily one of the best independent stars in Midwest, Wyatt is scheduled to take on Trent Stone. See video for further reasoning:
Too much studying is bad for your health: Yes, I know it’s finals week, but you don’t need to bury yourself in the library or your dorm room the entire weekend. Get out, de-stress and enjoy some quality wrestling. NWA Missouri Champion “Spitfire” Davey Vega will defend his belt against the Central States Wrestling Champion Mark Sterling. What better way to get stress and finals off of your mind than by watching a couple class act, professional and talented wrestlers battle for a prized belt?
Money in the Bank: Tickets for the show are only $10 and $8 in advance. That’s a better bargain than any other form of entertainment on a Saturday night. Head over to Dynamo’s MySpace page for more info on the advance rate.
Getting out. Literally: This show will be held outside at The Banquet Center. Bring a pair of shades, sit back, relax and enjoy the show—and the sunlight.
Early start time: Doors open at 4:00 p.m. and the show starts at 5:00 p.m. With an early start time, you can’t use the say something else is going on! So, stop making excuses. Get a group of friends (heck, you can all chip in for gas if it’s that big of a deal) and make the drive to Pevely. Dynamo is waiting.
This week is going to be a change of pace for the WWE diehards because when I turned on RAW I saw R-Truth and flipped to TNA. (I can’t stand R-Truth…I don’t know why!) But, I must have changed the station during one of TNA’s better moments because I witnessed Samoa Joe’s return to TNA.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an avid fan of TNA, and I don’t follow them regularly. However, Tazz and Mike Tenay made Joe’s return sound like a big deal. I could be biased because (for some reason) I like Tazz as an announcer, but something in the way he carries himself and projects his voice makes him believable.
I will admit though, when Joe made his way down to the ring, in a surprise return, I could not help but have WCW flashbacks. A tag team match…A mystery partner…If a Bash at the Beach turn would’ve happened, I would’ve flipped back to RAW. But it didn’t happen. For that, I commend TNA booking; it honestly surprised me that they did not try to recreate that moment.
It has been done so many times in wrestling, where a company tries to revisit an angle, but instead of making it fresh and exciting, they recreate, identically (but horribly) the same interaction that drew heat five to 10 years ago.
With the Shawn Michaels/Vince McMahon angle from a few years back, McMahon “screwed” Michaels like Michaels did to Bret Hart at the 1997 Survivor Series. Trying to recreate the same atmosphere from 1997 was impossible—even McMahon knew that—but he went ahead with the angle anyway. From my perspective, all that did was anger true wrestling fans like a slap in the face.
But back to what TNA did right. It almost seemed like they teased fans with a Bash at the Beach replay, only to give them what they wanted but never expected. The surprise return coupled with Joe’s quick exit following the match leaves questions to be answered. Since this was the first time Joe has been seen since he was kidnapped weeks ago, (I haven’t watched TNA in months, so this kidnapping thing is news to me.) this strategy seems like it could actually work out. Joe returns to the Impact Zone, helps Team Hogan (Jeff Jarrett, Abyss and Rob Terry) defeat Team Flair and walks away without a word to any of team members.
In the very small amount of knowledge I have of TNA, Joe is one of the better wrestlers there, and I believe his return—and the angle in which he is returning—could help elevate TNA’s position within the “Monday Night Wars Version Two.”
Very few times do the fans actually see what they want to happen, rather than what the corporation wants them to see. TNA’s booking did an excellent job, let’s just hope they’re able to keep that momentum going, and maybe I’ll be able write about TNA because I truly want to, rather than a lack of anything worth my interest in WWE.
by Jason Frazier, Alestle Reporter This week’s edition of the Timeout Awards is highlighted by a couple of first. This marks the first time a UFC fighter makes the list, and we get our first repeat offender. So let’s start dishing out Timeouts, shall we?
I am a huge fan of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I make it a point to catch every Ultimate Fighter episode on Spike TV and watch every PPV. I have mostly been satisfied with what I have seen until last Saturday. Anderson Silva, the so-called pound-for-pound best MMA fighter, decided to be best pound-for-pound clown in the world.
Silva got the wrong impression that somehow the people in attendance and PPV viewers paid to see him dance around and taunt his opponent Demian Maia. He forgot to do one thing during the fight, and it’s a key element in UFC: fight. Saying he upset UFC president Dana White with his actions is an understatement. White refused to hand Silva his title after he won the fight by decision. He also had these choice words for Silva.
Anderson Silva may have lost the respect of his fans and his boss but at least he earned the first Timeout for an MMA fighter.
Maybe Silva could have cleared the octagon for next two Timeout recipients, who desperately wanted to tear each other’s heads off. Vinny Del Negro and John Paxson reportedly got into a shoving match. This wouldn’t as big of a problem if they didn’t both work for the Chicago Bulls. Del Negro, the Bulls coach, and Paxson, the team president, got into a heated argument over the playing time of Bulls forward Joakim Noah.
Instead of uniting and rallying their team for a playoff run, two of the guys in charge of the team are trying to dish out haymakers to one another. Great way to lead by example, Del Negro and Paxton. Fortunately, your team made the playoffs while you two were training for your UFC bout against one another. Timeouts to both of you.
The last guy on the list probably deserves a Timeout Lifetime Achievement Award. I’ve written this blog for a little over a month, and he is getting his second of what will probably many more Timeouts to come.
Seattle Mariners outfielder Milton Bradley was at it again, when he visited one of his former teams, the Texas Rangers. Last week he flipped the bird to Rangers fans after catching a foul ball in the corner. There is not much more to say about this, but Milton Bradley is a low-class individual. It’s not like this is a one-time, minor incident. Bradley’s career is full of despicable tantrums and tirades. This is a guy who injured himself arguing a call with an umpire. Milton, congrats on being the first two-time recipient of a Timeout Award.
When WWE started having guest hosts on RAW, I thought that maybe some good could come of it. But after seeing the train wreck that happened with Jerry Springer and then David Hasselhoff’s atrocity Monday, I know that no good can come from guest hosts.
Sure, they jolt ratings on occasion, but, more often than not, they add no content to the show, other than ridiculous gimmick matches that make me want to watch TNA’s version of Monday Night Nitro. There are strong enough storylines going right now, being that they’re still fairly fresh off of Wrestlemania, that trying to incorporate the guest host into the storylines is ridiculous.
Most of these guests are outside the realm of sports entertainment (Yes, I realize that’s the point.), but attempting to involve them in angles or create mini-angles that lead to the host making the main event match is a waste of time, especially with RAW being live. The only relief when the guests are on the screen is the moment when Santino Marella waltzes in unannounced.
However, with the Hoff, Marella became a part of the spectacle as he refereed the catastrophe Hasselhoff called the Baywatch Babe Triple Threat Match.
From what little wrestling was involved in the match, the only diva that added any ounce of credibility was Gail Kim—and all she did was clothesline Jillian Hall out of the ring after Hall broke up a pin attempt.
Regardless of the matches The Hoff put together, his “Hoff” jokes got old about two minutes into his entrance, and the same goes for the announcers referencing the jokes throughout the night. Guest hosts add nothing to the show except for ratings, especially if they are only there for one night.
The only way I can see any type of logic with guest hosts is if one stays around for an extended length of time as part of an angle and develops a character within the show. But I don’t see that happening anytime soon.
For the time being, RAW has angles that are enticing enough to keep fans interested without bringing in a random celebrity every week for a ratings boost. I can’t imagine that Hasselhoff really gave WWE that much of a surge. He’s David Hasselhoff. What can he offer the WWE other than a used up catchphrase or tagline that causes eyes to roll and songs that nobody can remember the lyrics to?
This week was a huge week in sports. We had an exciting NCAA championship game, Tiger Woods returned to golf, Donovan McNabb traded, and NHL and NBA playoff races heated up as well. What more could a sports fan ask for? I almost forgot this week also marked opening day for MLB, where every team including the Royals has postseason aspirations.
In honor of opening day, I am going to have an MLB edition of this week’s Time Out awards. Although the season just started, some have already found a way to earn a Time Out.
First in the batter’s box to earn their Time Out is Boston Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz. Ortiz started the season 0 for 7. Now I’m not giving him a Time Out for his two-game lack of production; I’m not that harsh.
When confronted by media members regarding this, according to ESPN, Ortiz responded with this following profanity filled tirade.
“You guys wait ’til [expletive] happens, then you can talk [expletive]. Two [expletive] games, and already you [expletives] are going crazy,” Ortiz said. “What’s up with that, man? [Expletive]. [Expletive] 160 games left. That’s a [expletive]. One of you [expletives] got to go ahead and hit for me.”
What happened to the cool and calm Ortiz a.k.a. Big Papi? I understand why Papi was a little irritated, but he could have handled it in a more professional way. Big Papi needs to stop acting like the Big Paranoico (Paranoid); if you play in a big market you have to be prepared to be scrutinized.
Its hard to disagree with a MLB legend like Hank Aaron when he says he sees something special in a young player. Aaron laid lofty expectations on Atlanta Braves rookie outfielder Jayson Heyward after his opening day homerun.
“He can certainly bring the excitement back, not only for Atlanta but also for African-American players,” Aaron said. “We do need to have many, many more Jason Heywards.”
Aaron isn’t the only one singing the early praises of Heyward, it seems as a majority of baseball writers are already trying to induct him in the Hall of Fame.
So Hank Aaron and fellow Jason Heyward bandwagon riders take a Time Out for the pre-mature praise on this promising player. It seems as if Heyward has a lot of tools to become a good player, but let’s give him a chance to have a career before we declare him the best baseball player ever.
My last timeout goes to the only Cardinal player I’m having issues with so far this season. I’m not going to completely throw him under the bus, since it’s so early, but Jason Motte, I need you to get it together.
Motte’s stat line so far reads an ERA of 27.00, WHIP of 6.00, and 1 loss, with the one loss coming in the Cardinals first loss of the season. Motte came in the game in the ninth inning with the score tied 1-1, and then threw a fastball in upper part of the plate to the Cincinnati Reds Johnny Gomes. Gomes deposited it over the fence for a walk off victory for the Reds.
Motte, the Cards long term success this season depends on you. Hopefully a Time Out will motivate you to get your act together.
That closes this week’s edition of the Time Out awards this week. Until next week; coaches, players, and all those involved in the world of sports be nervous, because I am on the lookout for those who deserve a Time Out.
The other day it became Facebook official, I am now a fan of The Morel Mushroom.
Morel season is something that every spring for two or three weeks becomes somewhat of an obsession at the Cowell ranch. For a month prior and weeks after, going mushroom hunting is something my dad will not stop talking about. He is crazier about crawling around briar patches with the intent of finding fungi that I am. Even fishing takes a backseat when the middle of April comes around.
Morel Mushroom
That being said, I am still my dad’s son. So over time, mushroom hunting was going to become a passion for me whether I wanted it to or not.
On a more positive note, just the pure fact of walking around in the woods for a while getting away from school and work is something that I look forward to. Nevertheless, mushroom season is like having a three-week holiday to a lot of people.
The Illinois State Morel Mushroom Hunting Championship used to be held just a stone’s throw away from my hometown. Yes, there used to be a competitive state championship event held for hunting morel mushrooms. Since the tournament used to be so close, I have even participated in it before.
And for what is normally looked at as a recreational experience, there were some hunters who used to compete to win. Mushroom hunting is serious to some people. Yet kind of like fishing, my dad told me at a young age that mushroom hunting is about having fun. If you aren’t going to have a good time then don’t go.
There are a keen list of websites to check out if you are an avid ‘shroomer or even just curious to know more about morels. One of my favorites is www.morelmania.com, a website that I check daily nowadays to see where people are starting to find mushrooms. Earlier today while looking at the website I noticed there have been people picking morels here on campus. So they aren’t far away people. But good luck trying spots to hunt. Most people are smart enough to keep quiet about where they find morels.
I could go on all day about morel mushroom hunting, especially at this time of year. But I will cut my story short here.
While it is still a little early up north where I am from three hours away from SIUE, Southern Illinois should be starting to get into the thick of things here soon when it comes to finding morels. Best of luck to those who plan to spend the next few weeks finding morels!
A couple weeks ago on RAW, John Cena chose Randy Orton as his ‘mystery tag team partner’ for a match against Batista and Jack Swagger. I know that Legacy is practically non-existent, but my initial reaction was still, “Uh…Orton and Cena? Teaming up? How is this possible?”
Legacy’s demise is an important part of the transition of Orton’s character, but to throw him in a match with the top babyface seems a little sudden. Maybe it’s WWE’s way of showing that Orton is on the verge of a turn, since it seems like he’s been teetering for the last few weeks or so. Obviously, the pairing was a hesitant one with an air of mistrust and tension, but the fact still remains—one of the best heels of this decade teamed with someone who is supposed to be (despite the Cena-haters) one of the top faces of this decade.
This goes without saying, but I am not a booker or storyline writer. But throwing a top heel and a top face together so soon seems like it could hurt Orton and his character’s direction. A similar situation occurred a few years ago when Orton was unceremoniously eliminated from Evolution. He left the group and did a complete 180, going from an up and coming heel to a face whose fire died out too quickly. WWE needs to prevent that from happening again, especially with the quality of talent they are dealing with in Orton.
Though it appears WWE is doing a better job this time around by creating a distrust when Orton and Cena tagged, I still see Orton’s character working better as a heel.
It’s not that he can’t pull of being a face, because with his talent, he could pretty much do anything and get over, but he just has the kind of personality where he’s so easy to hate that fans love to hate him.
Everybody, whether they’re wrestling fans or not, have someone or something—whether it’s a TV show character or a sports team—that they hate because it’s fun to do so. For example, fans one One Tree Hill love to hate Dan Scott because the big, evil man who ruins people’s lives. But without him, the show wouldn’t be the same. As much as fans would have liked it initially if Dan Scott was killed off, they would soon realize that they’re villain isn’t there to antagonize and create havoc.
The same thing goes for wrestling. If you take one of the best heels out of his element and have him cater to the fans, being the good guy and doing what’s right, people are going to resent that they’re evil was taken from them. Many people, myself included, use wrestling as an escape from the drama, pain and heartache of life, and as odd as it sounds, the bad guy has to stay in this fantasy world to keep things moving along, to keep us coming back to see who will try to knock him off of his high horse next.
One of the important things about wrestling is that the fans are kept happy. If fans love to hate Orton, why take that away from them? Orton can separate himself from Legacy, and because he is so good at what he does, he can still come out of the feud looking strong without a turn.
From my perspective, fans would hate him even more if he came out Legacy as an even cockier, more arrogant heel. So, Orton needs to stop teetering, and give the fans what they want.
Baseball season is officially underway and the St Louis Cardinals kicked off the 2010 season with a bang, beating division rival Cincinnati 11-6.
In Albert Pujols’s first at-bat of the season he sent one careening over the wall. He would add another later to go along with home runs by Yadier Molina and Colby Rasmus. The Cardinals put up 12 hits against the Reds.
The Cardinals looked sharp and came out like they had something to prove. The players must still have a bitter taste in their mouths from the playoffs last year, but they have put it all behind them to focus on this season. They seem to be the unanimous favorites to win the NL Central, and they look more than capable, though it is extremely early.
The Cardinals pitching was solid for their first outing. Carpenter went six innings, giving up five hits and two earned runs, both on home runs. The bullpen came out flat, but I think that Franklin will pull them all together when he gets warmed up. I just hope that he shakes off the later part of the season and post season he had last year.
In the end I do not think anyone is going to remember what happened opening week (except a few years down the line when Jason Hayward is a star), but wins matter, and come August, the Cards are going to want as many as possible.
In Rams news, rumors were flying around earlier in the week about a trade for Washington Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth. Apparently the Redskins tried to move Albert with the Donovan McNabb trade, but the Eagles didn’t want him. Haynesworth is a big footprint on the Redskins’ payroll this year, and apparently his lack of effort isn’t impressing new head coach Mike Shanahan.
The rumor stated that the Redskins are interested in Rams defensive tackle and former first round pick Adam Carriker. The Redskins are switching to a 3-4 defense and Carriker fits that system much better. Haynesworth has said he wants no part of the 3-4 and is very displeased with the decision.
ESPN’s Adam Schefter denied the rumors today, and since he is very close to Mike Shanahan, you have to believe the rumor is dead. Haynesworth would be an instant upgrade to the Rams’ defensive line and would remove all interest of Ndamukong Suh with their first round pick in the draft. The Redskins just paid Haynesworth’s big roster bonus, so they have almost $21 million tied up in the defensive tackle, so you can not see them letting him get away cheap.
All signs still point to the Rams going Sam Bradford with the number one overall pick April 22. I’ll try to keep up with all draft rumors I hear about leading up to draft night.
There is a common thread in life between music and sports. Humans live vicariously through these things and become emotionally attached, although we are without direct involvement in their existence. Why is it we hear a song and suddenly mentally crawl into a different time, space or feeling experienced in life? Why do we live and die with each missed free throw? This certain psychological figment is transfixed onto our existence and for some reason or another we cannot imagine ourselves without these things. It is just one of the fascinating phenomenons in life. Where the hell am I going with this? It all has a point, I promise.
Monday marked the end of college basketball season. SIUE has not been playing for over a month, but yesterday we reached the climax. For those in Durham, North Carolina as well as millions of people scattered throughout the country with an unmerited emotional attachment fueled by the existence of runaway bandwagon superiority in the world of sports this was a special moment. Those clinging onto emotions based on financial implications waiting at the end of a broken bracket pool felt the love too. The Duke Blue Devils won the national championship.
Duke unquestionably was the better basketball team in Indianapolis Monday night riding a robotic fundamentally sound scheme against the Butler Bulldogs, taking home the wooden plank of excellence with a 61-59 victory.
Don't they look excited? -MCT CAMPUS
For those of you relishing in Satan’s excellence after Sunday without a degree from Duke, or a membership card in the Cameron Crazies, I am not afraid to call you out for ruining March Madness. Consider this, there are 347 teams in Division I basketball. around 70 of them live in the “power conferences.” The whole “mid-major” discussion and comparison to “Hoosiers” brought on by Butler’s not-so-surprising run to Indianapolis (They were ranked No. 11 in the pre-season) is based on one thing many people seem to be missing the point on. It is all about money. Duke spends $9 million on men’s basketball annually. Butler spends around $1 million, and does not play scholarship football like Duke does, so the majority of its athletic budget is actually tied up in basketball. Duke is not Goliath from an enrollment standpoint by any means, they have an undergraduate population in the 6,000’s, while Butler’s enrollment runs about 4,200. SIUE is bigger than both Duke and Butler combined, yet Duke has the resources to continually be a basketball powerhouse. The same goes for teams like the University of Illinois, whom is heavily fanned upon on this campus just because of the State connection. I have never understood the purpose of getting behind the man. The man who brings us all down. College basketball needs a revolution. There has to be some way for the sport to evolve past the shadow cast upon it in the name of greed. Butler almost gave us this. Gordon Hayward was an inch away from revolutionizing the status-quo of the NCAA twice, but his efforts provided futile, and the nation encountered a wide range of emotions as a result of his missed Larry Bird base-line floater, and the half-court shot that grazed off the backboard, the front of the rim and its rear before slowly descending onto the paint in the lane. That shot was suspended in mid-air for what seemed to be 10 minutes, although it ended in a blur.
Gordon Hayward of Butler (20) shoots over Brian Zoubek of Duke (55), but misses in the final seconds of the NCAA Final Four championship game at Lucas Oil Stadiuim in Indianapolis, Indiana, Monday, April 5, 2010. Duke defeated Butler, 61-59. (Mark Cornelison/Lexington Herald-Leader/MCT)
We almost had the “Hoosiers sequel,” as politically incorrect as it was on the first reference to this year’s Butler team as the millionth. “the Butler had almost done it, if the Clue reference wasn’t just as dull. While the Bulldogs covered their faces in shame underneath their uniforms, complete with the Horizon League emblem, the Blue Devils did exactly what we expected them to do. Point their first to the sky, walk onto the court victoriously, like they were supposed to do and if they felt like cracking a smile, one or two of them did it for a second. It wasn’t the bedlam we would expect from a national championship celebration, but rather a pompous right to superiority being fulfilled. When you have silk uniforms with your logo meticulously shining through with pillars on the back of it, when you have the resources to give your head coach a net-worth of $12 million, when you can have any player in the nation under your control for at least a season you are expected to win. Duke reacted like a team expected to win a national championship, and you know what? they did it. $8 million bought them a one-inch advantage on the court against Butler.
As far as the game went, Duke showed they were capable of imposing their will on Butler if they really wanted to. They did not. The Blue Devils, were able to easily post up and hook the ball down the hole. They could jump at an inbound pass and tip it in with little pressure. They controlled the boards in the second half, after the Bulldogs rushed to every loose ball in the first half to hold a 7 rebound advantage. The Butler team we saw Monday played with more heart than any basketball team I have ever seen. Duke went through the motions and did what they were supposed to do. Yet, $8 million still only bought them an inch, but that inch was all-important in bringing a championship to Durham, and a big “take that” to the North Carolina Tar Heels, last year’s victors and the Blue Devils biggest rivals.
The line in Hoosiers goes “let’s do it for all the small schools that never had a chance,” For me emotionally, this was SIUE playing for the national championship. Butler represented us all. Every team in the Ohio Valley Conference, including Murray State, whom lost to Butler in the tournament’s second round. It was for Murray State. It was for SIUE. It was for Morehead State, Austin Peay, Tennessee Tech, Tennessee State, Eastern Illinois, Southeast Missouri State, Eastern Kentucky, UT Martin and Jacksonville State. It really was. It was for the Atlantic Sun, the Atlantic Ten, the Summit League, the Big West, West Coast Conference, the Sun Belt, the Big South, the Missouri Valley Conference, the MAC, the MEAC, the SWAC, the CAA, the Ivy League, the America East Conference, the Big Sky, the Southland, the NEC, Patriot League and all the Independents. Butler’s run was that important. The Horizon League was not the only conference being represented by Butler in the championship.
The day before the championship, Easter Sunday, I decided on a whim to go to Indianapolis to embrace some of the Final Four atmosphere. The Goo Goo Dolls were playing a free concert at White River State park. Although I had to be back by Monday morning, and was unable to get a true feel for the Butler culture and the true emotion of losing a championship, I did get a pretty good feel for their fan base, which extends beyond its tiny undergraduate population. This was not a bandwagon situation, a basketball-crazed city got behind one of its small college basketball entities and joined along for the ride. IUPUI became Butler fans. All of the University of Indiana’s extended branches in the city became Bulldogs as well. It was really a special moment for the city, as blue poured throughout the park, as I payed $9 for a beer donning an SIUE shirt, representing everything Butler stands for. When a random person driving down the road honked their horns at me yelling “go Butler!” or “go dawgs!” I replied enthusiastically with the same. We were in this together. I was even asked by someone what my shirt said by two people, one of which was a 12 year old flirting with me (gross) and another a student from Butler. “Well, we are SIUE, we are new to Division I, you haven’t heard of us yet, but you will.” I tell this to myself all the time. The Cougars are rising, and have everything as an institution to be special. Right now, no one outside of St. Louis really knows who SIUE is. Not everyone buys into the notion of supporting mid-major college athletics. At the OVC tournament, I ran into a journalist who had no idea who was favored in the semi-final match-up between Eastern Illinois and Murray State. He was not revoked his credentials and no one physically assaulted him, although I thought about it more than once.
The sad thing is you have to do something special like Butler to be recognized in the canyon of college basketball. You have to be in that category with Butler or George Mason to be recognized. As much of a shame as it is, the finances don’t always favor notoriety. I could not help but thinking throughout this concert how high these Butler fans surrounding me really are at the moment. I was not thinking about the endless flow of marijuana vapor clouding the air, but rather the emotional high they hold as flag bearers. As a united force crashing the big dance. Also, I thought about the heart break and silence felt throughout Hinkle Fieldhouse, Lucas Oil Stadium and that very park I was in Sunday night following Hayward’s shot that went awry. The emotions of 50,000 people singing along to “Iris” Sunday night, the emotions of a missed buzzer-beater, they all share the same values that make these things special to the millions of people who find it important. Some people say “what’s so great about watching a bunch of people fulfill athletic dreams you are not directly involved in? Sports suck.” It’s the way people come together. It’s the Michigan State fan coming out to a concert freshly painted in green with a spartan hat despite his team losing to the home-town team the night before. People would fight for their team, some would die for their team, and Butler represented Indianapolis and all the mid-majors of the world to the best of their ability Monday night. There are no second chances, no what-ifs about Hayward’s final shot falling or a few whistles going the other way. There is still a gray area between charging and blocking. Everything Butler did is motivation. Here may be gone, but tomorrow is bright. November may be seven months away, but penetrating into the college basketball spotlight doesn’t seem to be as much of a challenge as it was 3 weeks ago, all thanks to Butler.
For the most part this past week, it seemed as if the sports world had taken my advice, and avoided doing anything worthy of receiving a Time-Out. But not everyone heeded my advice.
My first Time Out goes to the NCAA committee for contemplating expanding the men’s basketball tournament from 65 teams to 96 teams. Expansion is usually a good thing, but in this case I don’t think so. The NCAA tournament is one of the most marketable, anticipated sporting events, why fix something that is not broken?
You already have a number of hopeful Cinderella’s in the tourney now, who have little chance to win the tourney. Why water it down with even more teams of that nature? How does the NCAA expect college students to afford extra travel expenses to show their team support for longer amounts of time? If you want to know why this will probably happen, it’s easy. Money from increased ticket revenue, TV contracts and other money generating factors is why this will take place. The people benefitting from this money are not students spending work-study money to show school spirit or the players spending extra time practicing instead of studying; it will NCAA officials. They truly deserve a Time Out.
The next Time Out goes to Cleveland Browns’ defensive tackle Shaun Rogers. Although football season is nowhere near, Rogers found a way to get a Time Out. Rogers must have been hiding under a rock the last 10 years, since he didn’t know airports have heightened their security since 9/11. He thought it would be cool for him to bring a loaded gun on a plane. He was arrested shortly thereafter, a surprise to Rogers but not to anyone else. Rogers can accept his Time Out in whatever jail he currently is in right now.
When we are at MLB games, some of us get seats down the baselines and have ambitions of catching a foul ball. I think we fail to realize how dangerous this can be. Winthrop University professors Robert Gorman and David Weeks have gone back and documented 52 deaths from foul balls hit into the stands.
“It’s amazing to me that there aren’t more, to be honest, foul balls can zing off a bat at more than 100 mph,” Gorman said.” Even if the fan is paying attention, that’s not much time to duck or get out of the way. And for the fan that is glancing at a scorecard or a cell phone or has his or her hands full with a hot dog, forget about it.”
MLB is finally looking at addressing this problem by putting nets up to protect fans sitting behind the dugout and along the baselines. I’m giving MLB this Time Out for just now considering addressing this potentially dangerous problem.
That closes this week’s edition of the Time Out awards this week. Until next week; coaches, players, and all those involved in the world of sports be nervous, because I am on the lookout for those who deserve a Time Out.
Coaches, scouts, managers, assistants, and whoever else could make it from all 32 teams in the NFL made their way to Norman, Oka. last Monday to watch somebody throw a football 63 times. Before you say “what a waste of time” I should clarify that the man throwing the ball was former Heismann Trophy winner and top quarterback prospect Sam Bradford.
Bradford threw a scripted 50 passes and an additional 13 to his Oklahoma teammates, the first time Bradford has thrown in front of the public in almost six months. As most college football fans know, Bradford injured his shoulder in the second game of the season and came back three weeks later only to re-injure the same shoulder after a 300-pound defensive lineman drove Bradford into the turf. Bradford ended his season early and underwent surgery to repair the shoulder.
James Andrews, known as the authority when it comes to joint and ligament injuries to athletes, performed the surgery and has since given Bradford his stamp of approval. Andrews says Bradford’s shoulder is healed and is well ahead of the curve as far as his physical therapy goes. No questions have arisen about Bradford’s health since the end of the season, and his strong pro day performance has seemingly answered any other questions about the strength of the shoulder.
The St. Louis Rams hold the number one pick in the draft and have a colossal hole at the quarterback spot. Bulger is old, injury prone, and has a heavy contract, Kyle Boller is going to be looking for a job outside of the NFL, and Keith Null can be a solid backup. The Rams have needed a franchise quarterback for awhile, and Bradford could be the answer.
Many fans will clamor for top defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh, but a team as bad as the Rams needs the hope that a franchise quarterback can bring. Steve Spagnuolo and Billy Devaney were both in Norman to watch and speak with Bradford.
Bradford completed every pass he threw at the pro day and looked good doing it, throwing with zip and accuracy. His footwork was solid and showed impressive drop-back abilities. While it is important to emphasize the fact that it was not against a live defense, everyone was impressed with how strong Bradford threw the ball. Gil Brandt, considered a godfather of modern scouting, called the workout the best he had seen since Troy Aikman in the 90s.
A pro-day shouldn’t guarantee the number one spot for Bradford, but it should wrap up all the questions that needed to be asked about the health of his shoulder. All it comes down to now is whether or not the Rams decode to take the plunge and take their franchise quarterback at number one; something they haven’t done since the 1960’s.
Back again with this week’s edition of the Time Out Awards, where I recognize those who provided a shining example of what it takes to be a loser on or off the field.
This week has produced a long list of nominees ranging from teams choking in the NCAA tournament (*cough* Kansas *cough* Syracuse) to pitchers in spring training blowing their chances to be the fifth starter. (Yeah, I’m talking to you Rich Hill.) Only three are worthy enough to receive a Time-Out.
The first Time-Out is a little difficult for me to give out, but I have to give it to the St. Louis Blues. After the playoff surge they made at the end of last season and starting the season with two wins against Detroit, many Blues fans thought this was going to be a special season. Well, it has been especially disappointing, due to inconsistent play and struggling at home.
The Blues are still mathematically in the playoff hunt, but it appears bleak that’s two consecutive losses to Nashville and Detroit, the team they are chasing for the eighth and final playoff spot. It will take a miraculous effort to close the eight point gap with only seven games left to play. Hopefully, I’m wrong, but for now I have to give a Time-Out to the Blues and their playoff hopes.
As an aspiring journalist, this following situation really irritated me. The second Time-Out is going to University of Florida head coach Urban Meyer. Meyer must have not gotten the memo that not all journalism has a biased undertone.
Meyer uttered this tirade at Florida Sentinel reporter Jeremy Fowler: “You’ll be out of practice — you understand that? — if you do that again… I told you five years ago: Don’t mess with our players. Don’t do it. You did it. You do it one more time and the Orlando Sentinel’s not welcome here ever again. Is that clear? You’re a bad guy, man. You’re a bad guy, If that was my son, we’d be going at it right now.”
Apparently, Fowler is the worst guy in the world for accurately telling a story and properly quoting Florida wide receiver Deonte Thompson in his comments contrasting current Florida Quarterback Jeff Brantley to former Florida quarterback Tim Tebow.
“You never know with Tim, he can bolt. You’ll think he’s running, but then he’ll just come up and pass it to you. You just have to be ready at all times. With Brantley, everything’s with rhythm, time. Like, you know what I mean, a real quarterback,” Thompson said in the story.
Meyer needs to stop trying to coach reporters and coach his players on their media interaction. Sorry if this makes me a “bad man,” but Urban Meyer deserves this Time-Out.
I know many NFL organizations would praise a quarterback who has led them to five NFC championship games and one Super Bowl, but not the Philadelphia Eagles.
The Eagles coach Andy Reid gave indications that the team is open to trade talks involving quarterback Donovan McNabb. This is nothing new for McNabb. He is in the center of trade talks every year, despite putting up Pro Bowl caliber numbers and leading to this franchise to post-season success never achieved before McNabb dawned a Eagles uniform. A Time-Out goes to the Philadelphia Eagles front office for the lack of respect and gratitude the Eagles have showed McNabb.
That wraps up this weeks edition of the Time-Out awards, until next time players, coaches and front office don’t blast reporters or lose crucial games. If you do, you just might earn a Time-Out.
Flowers are blooming, rain is pouring, and here at SIUE the geese area attacking. It’s springtime, and you know what that means: baseball season is right around the corner.
St Louis Cardinal fans have a lot to look forward to this season. A fairly active off-season has bolstered the batting order and smoothed out the pitching rotation. The talent level on this team is high, and the players are poised for a run at the central.
Additions such as Matt Holliday, Felipe Lopez and Brad Penne are solid moves for a Cardinals team that has a knack for being conservative in the off-season. These acquisitions aren’t guaranteeing a contention with the Yankees quite yet, but the Cardinals are easily the most improved team in the NL Central.
The recurring theme for the Cardinals during spring training has been injuries. Pujols’ back is out of whack, Molina’s oblique is strained, and many other players are missing time with ticky-tack injuries.
Fans may be concerned with the fairly lengthy injury report, but before you get panicky, you must realize it is March 26. These guys have had a long off-season after playing 166 games last season. I don’t know about you, but if I had to play 166 games of baseball in a seven-month span, I would want a lot of rest, too. Naturally if these players have been sitting on their couches since October, they may be a little out of shape.
Pujols has played more games than anybody the past nine seasons. The anti-inflammatory shot he is taking is just to keep him healthy enough to work through the injury during the spring. Come opening day, Pujols will be back to being the best player in the bigs. The man played with a horrible elbow injury during the same season he hit a career high 49 home runs.
Even with the solid offseason additions, the Cardinals are far from a perfect team. It is going to be difficult for any team to take out the growing powerhouse that is the Philadelphia Phillies. However, after them, I think it is a very competitive race at the top of the National League, a race I think the Cardinals could win.
The division is weak as ever. For the first time in awhile I foresee the Pirates being a bigger threat to the Cardinals than I do the Cubs (even if cutting Milton Bradley was addition via subtraction for them). And this is coming from one very pessimistic Cardinals fan.
If Cardinals fans want to worry about anything, it should be the hole at third base or the fact that Jaime Garcia is coming back from Tommy John surgery to be our fifth starter.
I will first off apologize for my unforeseen absence last week, school sometimes gets in the way of the super-bloggage and all. Anyways, there are a few different things to talk about in the world of sports, and as always I will try and keep things are SIUexciting as possible with limited outside commercial interruption.
In retribution for my horrid acts (and since I am in class right now…We are posting a little early!)
NCAA follow-up
I will start with some college basketball, previously on the Alestle Live Sportsblog, I pimped a number of mid-majors poised to make some noise in the NCAA tournament.
I did not fill out a bracket (which confused a number of people I talked to about the tournament) and it made the whole damn thing that much more exciting! (kudos to the midmajority.)
My big surprise, Siena was a dud, but other mids thrived. Butler is still playing basketball in the Final Four (with Murray State, my other potential sleeper NEARLY knocking them off in the second round, after a big last-second win over Vanderbilt(all praise Danero Thomas))
Cornell, Northern Iowa and Saint Mary’s made the Sweet 16, Old Dominion knocked off Notre Dame and I came away from the first few rounds of the tournament with my head held high.
Everyone at SIUe needs to get behind Butler, and support a fellow mid-major in the Final Four.
This sadly concludes my season talking about college basketball on this blog until we get some off-season SIUE news. I cannot wait until November. Hopefully we can crack the top-300 in the RPI.
NEXT!
The BOOT GOT BACK!
The regular season does not kick-off until September for SIUE soccer, but Kevin Kalish and company are not taking the off-season lightly. Last week, SIUE battled one of the newest professional soccer teams around, AC St. Louis to a 0-0 draw at Korte Stadium, and the fun will continue Saturday, as the Cougars take on Saint Louis University at Soccer Park in Fenton, prior to ACSTL’s game against the MLS Kansas City Wizards to revive one of the greatest rivalries in college soccer history.
And no, that is not a joke.
SIUE against SLU is one of the biggest rivalries in the history of college soccer, and since 1995, it has been collecting cobwebs.
The two teams battled throughout the 70’s and 80’s for the illustrious “Bronze boot,” (for some reason, google doesn’t bring up much about the rivalry, STLsoccernet has lots of stories though if you read through the forums.)
As a matter of fact, the 1980 game featuring the defending national champion Cougars brought 20,000 plus to old Busch Stadium and to this day remains the highest attended collegiate soccer game in US history.
SIUE against SLU is a BIG DEAL, even at this juncture in the season. The pre-season.
The SIUE soccer team is officially a full-fledged Division I program, carrying the fast-track label for SIUE men’s sports through the transition process – competing in the Missouri Valley Conference. The team did fairly well during its final season of the transitioning phase, and now since SIUE is back in the top tier of the sport, the rivalry will be re-born. I am waiting on a call-back from Coach Kalish to write a feature on the traditional rivalry, so I don’t know about the status of a fall resurgence, but SIUE’s sports information highly hinted towards SLU being on the regular season schedule, going as far as calling this game “A prelude to the boot.”
No word on whether or not an actual boot will be involved in the festivities Saturday, or once the two teams tangle again in the regular season.
A question that comes to my mind when calling this match-up a true rivalry deals with the level of competition between these two schools and the fire involved in calling it a rivalry. Believe me, it won’t take long for SIUE to get back on par with SLU in soccer, and competing towards the NCAA tournament. SIUE is historically such a good program with national championship tradition in a St. Louis market obsessed with soccer. Local players really have two options: SLU or SIUE.
Coach Kalish was recently interviewed for the previously vacant SLU coaching job, and he is an alumnus of SLU and member of SLU’s all-mid-century team.
You have a coaching sub-plot, regional ties, an already existing recruiting rivalry and long-term history to back it up. Right now, the SLU people have the “what’s in it for me” attitude, since SIUE has yet to re-establish itself to its previous heights. That will come.
Personally, I think it is going to be hard to get the student body behind the soccer team to its fullest extent, because well, it doesn’t get the media attention and it just isn’t basketball. This isn’t the 70’s, but things are looking up for the team, so if you have a chance to get out to Soccer Park Saturday you should. The game starts at 5:30, and afterwards an MLS team plays! We don’t have one of those yet, so it should be loads of fun. Heck with beer it’s the most fun you will ever have! Tickets are $10.
Balls, Bats and Cougars
SIUE’s other fast-tracked team, softball is struggling. This year’s team has played enough this year to earn the tag of being an inconsistent bunch, as the record shows at 16-16. No 40 win season this year. I find it hard to get my head around this team. One night, they beat a Big Ten team, the next they get shut out by Northern Illinois. It seems like the runs come in bunches, and the droughts do as well. Never a good combination. Lots of time to figure it out still, in another “independent” season.
The baseball team is finally starting to come around a little bit from the mound, the offense is always there. You can count on SIUE to score 10 runs a night but unfortunately, half the time it’s safe to bet they allow 20. SIUE earned two consecutive wins over the weekend against Tennessee Tech, 11-8 in extra innings and 12-4. SIUE is finally back home April 10 against UT Martin, a place where they have a combined staff ERA of 0.50…in two games. Life on the road is tough.
Today’s Holy $#!* realization
On a non-sports note, this is a special, exciting, unforeseen and miraculous thing happening on campus April 1, and it should bring a tear of joy to all of our collective eyes.
AFTER 45 YEARS OF BEING THERE FOR NO PARTICULAR REASON AND BEING WELDED SHUT THROUGH THE CONTINUOUS SCIENTIFIC EFFECT OF WEATHERING, THE BACK DOOR TO LOVEJOY LIBRARY IS OPENING!
NO. WAY.
i’ll catch you later, say hi on the Twitter Monster @allanjlewis!
Though I love watching the angles and matches unfold for Wrestlemania itself, the anticipation of waiting to hear who the latest nominees are for the WWE Hall of Fame is much more important to me.
I’ve heard from many people in the industry that WWE’s hall of fame is only in Vince McMahon’s mind or that the reasons for the inductees are politically motivated. That may be so, but the achievements of the wrestlers and managers (ignoring the fact that celebrities somehow manage to find a way into a WRESTLING hall of fame), cannot be discounted just because of how the hall of fame is viewed.
Almost every wrestler or manager inducted deserves to be there for one reason or another, especially this year’s inductees of Stu Hart and Gorgeous George. Those two men are, in my opinion, the most deserving. Gorgeous George practically set the stage for the heel gimmick in pro-wrestling, without which Ric Flair and Buddy Rogers, among many others, may not have had the success they did. His feminine ways outside of the ring intertwined with his masculinity in the ring made him the man fans loved to hate.
Stu Hart is a staple of wrestling, more so in Canada than America, but his legacy and legendary tales are known world-wide. Hart grappled throughout his entire life, ran Stampede Wrestling in Calgary for a number of years and ‘ran’ the infamous Hart dungeon. Though I feel that Hart’s induction is politically motivated due to Hart’s son, Bret, returning to WWE for Wrestlemania, the honor is justified.
I’m sure people will disagree with me thinking Gorgeous George and Hart are deserving, but when the WWE Hall of Fame inducts people like Pete Rose and William Perry, it’s refreshing to see quality individuals given the respect they worked for years to earn.
Despite all of the mind games, backstabbing and corruption that take place in wrestling, I truly believe that, if nothing else, the wrestlers inducted into this hall of fame deserve to have the honor bestowed upon them.
While killing some time the other day, I decided to pick up this month’s edition of “Heartland Outdoors” magazine and check it out. Although it has been ignored in the backseat of my car the past few weeks, I hung onto the publication after picking it up and glancing through it at an outdoor’s show I attended. I figured I’d hang onto it in case it had some articles that would spark interest into my outdoors blog. Well it paid off. I didn’t have to look very far to find something that I thought was attention-grabbing.
A new study, according to HunterSurvey.com, showed that more than 77 percent of active hunters and range shooters have taken their kids hunting. This study must have taken some time to do because this article listed off fact after fact relating to parents taking their sons and daughters out hunting. Notice I said sons and daughters; about 10 percent taught girls about the sport. More than 34 percent of adult outdoorsmen said they have taken both boys and girls out to hunt. Studies showed the most popular species of game sought after were deer. Smaller game (like squirrels and rabbits, I presume) were also popular.
These facts reminded me of the countless times my dad has taken me fishing over the years. My older brother was more of the hunting type in my family, so if I ever went, it was with him (Granted, I didn’t shoot anything because I did not have a FOID card.) Walking in the woods and finding mushrooms in the spring is about the only kind of hunting I do with my dad.
However, fishing started when I was just over a year old, and now the hobby has turned into somewhat of an obsession for my family and me. I’m sure most of us have seen the commercials and other sources of advertisements that encourage us to mentor the younger generation in experiencing the outdoor life. Let me be the first to tell you that by taking a kid fishing (or hunting in this matter), will sprout memories that will last a lifetime for both of you. The quality time spent together is something positive that will come out of it as well.
Now that I go to college three hours away from where I grew up, in a county that has two stoplights, I don’t get to see my family as much as I would like to. Whenever I am home I try to spend some time with them. Nowadays, when I fish or hunt with my dad, I cherish every bit of time we spend together because someday we won’t be able to go anymore. For now, I will enjoy the times we get to hang out. The relativity of this article to my own personal life was what really caught my eye. Enjoy spending time with those who you care about and like spending your days with, because someday you might not be able to. But the memories that you make with them will last a lifetime.
—
“Soon after I embraced the sport of angling I became convinced that I should never be able to enjoy it if I had to rely on the cooperation of the fish.” Sparse Grey Hackle
It’s that time for the weekly Time-Out awards, given by me to those athletes who have been sub-par on and off the field in the world of sports. Let’s start by giving out the first Time-Out in response to something near and dear to my wallet.
Like many this time of year, I made a monetary investment into an NCAA tournament pool, hopefully for my picks to bring my investment back with some extra cash. The Georgetown Hoyas men’s basketball team receives a Time-Out for possibly turning my investment into a donation. Georgetown was the definite favorite in their game with Ohio University Bobcats, which they lost by the score of 97-83.
Georgetown deserves this Time-Out for three reasons. First, Ohio, which only made the tourney because it got hot and somehow won the MAC tourney, hasn’t won a NCAA tournament game since 1983. Second, Georgetown had such a great performance in the Big East Tournament, you would think they would have a better showing in the Big Dance. And last but not least, they cost many people, including myself, a chance to win some cash.
The next Time-Out goes to Texas Rangers manager Ron Washington, who tested positive for cocaine for last season. In a press conference on Wednesday, Washington said, “I did wrong, and I take responsibility for that, and I’m sorry.”
Although Washington did openly admit to his mistake, I still have to give him a Time-Out because as the leader of a team, you can’t allow yourself to get in a situation like this. Washington is in charge of making important on the field decisions for his ball club. How can the Rangers trust him to do that when he can’t make important off the field decisions for himself?
Every golfer on the PGA Tour not named Tiger Woods is the recipient of this week’s final Time-Out. Woods announced he will end his hiatus from golf April 8 at the Masters. Shortly after, Las Vegas odds makers deemed him the 3-1 favorite to win the Masters.
I don’t think there are any golf courses at the sex rehab clinic Woods has been at, so he hasn’t had much time to practice. Somehow he is still the favorite. I think Woods is the greatest ever to play the game of golf, but maybe the crop of golfers he is playing against are just not very good. Phil Mickelson, Sergio Garcia and the rest of the tour might not be the favorite to win the Masters, but they definitely win this Time-Out award.
That closes another edition of the Time-Out awards for this week. Athletes, coaches, and front office personnel: put your best foot forward and don’t make me give you a Time-Out.
(This blog only works if you press play on this video and keep reading.)
I have never been good at filling out brackets. Ever since middle school, I have been entrenched in the Madness and find this to be a special time each and every year. I remember taking the full-page bracket printed in the Edwardsville Intelligencer, tacking it on my basement wall and coming home from school just to watch basketball in surround sound from three in the afternoon until midnight, filling it out as each game goes final.
My eighth grade teacher and a few of my high school teachers would even take time out of the school day to turn the opening round games on. It is safe to say March Madness is an American tradition, something everyone young and old can relate to and bond over.
This time of year, basketball is the hallway locker talk, water cooler talk and rocking chair talk. Everyone wants to know who is going to pull off the upsets and cut down the nets to “one shining moment.”
When it comes to the all-american office pool, everyone participates. In 7th grade we were selling brackets for $5 under the table with $60 payouts. Women who have no idea about basketball even buy in to cubicle competitions. Some have their husbands do the work for them, because for some reason they believe they can tell the future and others flip coins or decide using the ever-popular mascot-battle-royale technique.
Mountain Hawk beats Jayhawk. It’s the more effin’ cool variety of hawk, and probably has claws. Kansas’ mascot looks too happy anyways.
Done, and done.
Only once in my life have I actually placed in one of these bracket competitions. In 2004, I got second, pairing Georgia Tech against Connecticut for the national championship with the yellow jackets taking home the plaque.
People thought I was nuts. “Georgia Tech?! are you out of your mind? No, Jarrett Jack is the man, and he was, carrying GT all the way to the final, where they lost to the number one team in the nation. Since Connecticut was the favorite, everyone picked them to win the whole thing, and thus I came in second because I picked the right upsets.
That doesn’t happen all the time, because the whole damn thing is so random, the office secretaries have just as good of a shot at winning as Joe Lunardi.
It has always been my nature to cheer for the little guy. The whole mid-major philosophy I have began when I started following college basketball. After looking at past tournament brackets, I came to the conclusion this was in 2001.
The 2001 NCAA tournament was a good one to start with too.
This was the year Butler and Gonzaga emerged as 10 and 12 seeds to reach the second round and sweet 16. Holy Cross nearly knocked off Kansas. Nine years later, look at what Butler and the Zags have become. They are power teams in non-power conferences. Everything has to start somewhere.
In 2002, the little guy became more local, and in 2007 the little guy I had such admiration for as well as it’s former coach became public enemy number one. (I actually began to dislike this particular coach when he moved to a bigger in-state school but cracked a joke with him about my sports reporter’s starstruckedness when we visited his current school to watch SIUE play, so he’s an alright guy.)
OH! that guy!
And those are the Southern Illinois University Carbondale Salukis.
SIU’s sweet 16 run included defeating Bob Knight’s Texas Tech team and coming from behind to beat Georgia before UCONN dropped them from contention.
This really bummed me out. Carbondale, I am embarrassed to say was now my team, and I didn’t even know who they were until that tournament.
This season, I am not competing in a pool of any sort. Sure, I have filled out a bracket just for fun, but my predictions are way too bold to be considered for any prize money, and I don’t want Murray State to cost me any money. I am a supporter of mid-major basketball to the extreme. I am really fascinated by the way the majority of Division I basketball teams go unnoticed by the entire country. People see Wofford on the bracket and wonder who they are, even the majority of national basketball analysts are clueless to where the heart of college basketball lives. Sure, Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina are special places. They have great fan-bases, tradition and are damn good at playing the game a majority of the time. They are not the only ones out there, and the NCAA tournament brings this into the limelight. The power six conferences (Big XII, Big Ten, SEC, Pac Ten, ACC and Big East) only account for 73 of the 347 D-I schools in the nation.
The fact is there is a hell of a lot of good basketball elsewhere (someday, SIUE will be included in that list).
Upsets happen. New heroes are born and college basketball is as much a part of me as it is something I want to work with for a living.
This year’s NCAA tournament will be no different, and by Saturday everyone will be complaining over who ruined their bracket, a right these schools relish having. When the brackets were revealed Sunday, I was discouraged to see Florida and Wake Forest sneak in. Give me William & Mary and Wichita State any day.
Last night, we had the play-in-game. The biggest atrocity in sports. Arkansas Pine Bluff defeated Winthrop and will advance to play Duke in the real bracket. Will they win? Probably not. A 16 seed has still never defeated a No. 1. Could it happen? There is the possibility, and that is what is so special about college basketball.
Instead of acting like an expert and telling you who WILL win their opening round games or even who SHOULD win, I will write about who COULD win.
Vermont: As I said, and everyone knows, a 16 seed has never won a men’s NCAA tournament game. The Catamounts provide the biggest chance in a while, facing Syracuse in the first round. I may be dreaming, but look at what we have here. The Orange are the most vulnerable of the top seeds. They lost an exhibition game to D-II LeMoyne at the Carrier Dome. Granted, this was an exhibition game and LeMoyne’s Super Bowl. Syracuse was playing to avoid injury and probably didn’t care too much. They overlooked LeMoyne. Vermont beat Syracuse in the 2005 tournament as a 13 seed. Vermont was 25-9 this season and 12-4 in the American East Conference and beat Rutgers. Under-seeded Cornell beat them by only eight. Marques Blakely is good. If Syracuse over-looks Vermont like they did LeMoyne history could be on the agenda.
Murray State: Here at SIUE, the Racers are a team we should be familiar with. They laid a 30 point beatdown on the Cougars at the Vadalabene Center and another lopsided win against us at home. I have seen this team play three times in person, the game at SIUE and twice at the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament and they are GOOD. This is a 30 win team, one of only three in the entire country. Sure, they didn’t play an SEC or Big XII schedule, but they won 30 games. I don’t care what league you are in, that is hard to accomplish. This team is not a one-man show either, the Racers are deep. Ivan Aska, B.J. Jenkins, Danero Thomas, Tony Easley and Issiah Cannan all average in double figures at around ten points per game. THAT IS FIVE DIFFERENT PLAYERS. Top it off with Issac Miles throwing in 9.5 points. Cannan hit a half-court shot from his knees. Murray can run on anyone, and is a very strong and athletic team. Put them up against Vanderbilt in San jose, and you have a TRUE neutral court match-up. The Racers are as dangerous as they come.
Oakland: This is a 17-1 team from the Summit League and winners of 21 of 22 games. They are hot, hot, hot! Point guard Jonathon Jones led the nation in assists last season and this is an attacking team. The Golden Grizzlies average over 76 points per game, and have a center averaging 17 points and 11 rebounds. Oakland lost games this season by more than double-digits to Wisconsin, Memphis, Syracuse, Kansas, Oregon and Michigan State, but those games were long gone in the early non-conference schedule. Their recent winning ways should bring confidence with them to the dance. Look for them to push Pitt for 40 minutes, and potentially bust some brackets.
Cornell or Temple: Jay Bilas said during ESPN’s bracketology special Cornell should have been a No. 5 seed. I don’t know about that, as Cornell enters the dance as a 12 seed against another dangerous mid-major in Temple. This is going to be one of the better first round games on the agenda. Here we have two of the best three-point shooting teams in the nation, and two very experienced teams. This is the game everyone is singling out as a an annual “12/5 upset” more or less because of how evenly these two teams stack up. Cornell owned the Ivy League. Why is Cornell so sexy in the eyes of everyone around? Well, they beat Alabama and gave Kansas a scare. Syracuse beat them by 15, but Cornell is the team carrying the torch nationally for the little guy. Cornell’s big problem is rebounding. Jeff Foote grabs eight boards a game, but they really don’t have any inside presence outside of him. Cornell lives and dies with the three point shot. Temple beat Villanova, Virginia Tech and Xavier. This is a very interesting matchup between two very good teams. If Temple gets past Cornell, they could be a sleeper to contend for the Final Four. Seriously.
Wofford: I mentioned these guys earlier, and as a 13 seed playing against a streaky Wisconsin team they are going to be interesting to watch. The Terriers were 26-8 and reside in the Southern Conference. This team played a very tough non-conference schedule and made a few believers, including me the two times I saw them play on TV. They opened the season losing to Pitt by one. They then beat Georgia and destroyed a non-D-I school 81-39 before two close road losses to Bradley and Illinois while the Fighting Illini were still nationally ranked. Michigan State beat the Terriers 72-60. Fact is, this team can stick around and play against superior competition. In their league, they only lost one game: a two point loss to the College of Charleston. They will not be intimidated by Trevon Hughes, John Lauer and the Badgers. Both of these teams like to slow down the tempo. Wofford averages 61 points per game, Wisconsin just 56. Expect this game to be won in the 50’s. Anything higher and the Terriers are likely on top. Both teams shoot around 44 percent each game, but Wisconsin is superior at the free-throw line, so the Terriers need to keep Wisconsin away from the stripe.
Utah State: Whoelse is excited for this aggie-riffic showdown and finds it not the least bit ironic the WAC regular season champions were paired with Texas A&M? I’m not, I know how the committee rolls. Anyways, this is another dangerous bunch not everyone is familiar with. This team rolled through the WAC. They lost two conference games all season, against New Mexico State, (who beat them again in the WAC tournament finals) and Louisiana Tech, who knocked off Murray State as well. They avenged both of those losses in later match-ups. Out of conference, the Aggies really didn’t do anything too impressive. Their best wins were against Wichita State in a bracketbuster game which likely busted the Shocker’s at-large hopes and kept their own alive, and Morehead State. Both sets of Aggies score about the same amount of points per game, but USU’s game hinges primarily on defense, allowing 59 points a game. They have a guy named Pooh scoring eight points a game. I’m sold there.
Siena: Ah, Siena. (notice how they are underlined.) I am picking the Saints to roll ALL THE WAY TO SPORTS BUBBLE STADIUM AND CRASH THE DANCE BABY!!! (Totally deserved ALLCAPS for its randomness.) Okay, so Siena is not the strongest mid in the field, but they got a damn favorable draw in the tournament. Look, Siena is experienced. The last two seasons they have been in the second round of the tournament. They know what it is about, and experience is one of the most dangerous intangibles a team can have this time of the year. They are building a MEAC supremacy. They lost to Temple by four, (we can call that a good loss if there is such a thing) but lost decisive outcomes to Northern Iowa, Butler and Georgia Tech. Really, this isn’t a smart team to ride to the Final Four, but look at their draw. They get Purdue in the first round. Purdue with Robbie Hummel is one of the five best teams in the nation. Purdue without Robbie Hummel is as Big Ten as Iowa. The Boilers were a mess in their Big Ten semifinal loss to Minnesota. They were absolutely humiliated. With four minutes to play in the first half, they had six points. They went into halftime with 11. What happened to Minnesota in the conference title game against Ohio State? They were blown out. If the Saints get past Purdue they get the winner of Texas A&M/Utah State. Another winnable game. In the sweet 16 they are looking at Duke, unless a tanking Texas team or Louisville manages to find their way past the Blue Devils. At the bottom end of this bracket is Villanova (I guarantee they are knocked off by this point) and potentially Richmond, St. Mary’s or Old Dominion. The road is paved with gold for Siena. Alex Franklin and Ryan Rossiter will be big for Siena, as will be controlling the tempo and spreading the ball around and scoring underneath, with Siena averaging 14 assists per game.
Old Dominion: The Monarchs could be more dangerous than Siena. Look. At. The. Schedule. ODU played everyone. They beat Georgetown, and I’d bet money on them doing it again if given the opportunity. They beat Long Beach State, the second best team in the Big West by 39 points. They lost close games to Missouri, Richmond, Dayton, George Mason and Northern Iowa. Their worst losses were by 14 and 12 points respectively to Mississippi State and Virginia Commonwealth. Look, college basketball is all about how well you match-up with a team. Different styles dictate the play and some teams are better than others head-to-head but not on paper. ODU has the potential to be one of those teams. The Colonial Athletic Association is a tough conference to play in night in, night out. VCU, George Mason and William & Mary can play some ball. Notre Dame is better WITHOUT Luke Harangody and are over-seeded after a nice run in the Big East Tournament. ODU has the CAA’s player of the year, Gerald Lee and are tough defending and rebounding the basketball. Notre Dame on the flip-side is not a defensive team. ODU is not the best three-point shooting team out there, but inside the paint they are deadly.
Richmond or St. Mary’s here is your other mid-on-mid match-up, this one pitting a No. 7 against a No. 10. Like the Temple/Cornell contest, these are two dangerous teams from two of the best non-power conferences. Richmond is not only scary because they are nicknamed the Spiders either. They play in the Atlantic Ten, and have used their vicious bite to knock of Mississippi State, Florida, Missouri and Old Dominion this season. Out of the West Coast Conference, Saint Mary’s has always been second in power behind Gonzaga, but are quickly starting to make a name for themselves as another legit contender from the WCC. The Gaels downed the Zags 80-61 in the conference championship, after losing two earlier in-season contests to them. They routed New Mexico State, the WAC conference tournament champions 100-68 to open the season followed up by a 81-58 win over San Diego State, another tournament team. Vanderbilt beat the Gaels by two in Nashville. This game pits two very dangerous teams against each other. St. Mary’s has Omar Samhan, who is an absolute beast. The dude puts up 20 points and 11 rebounds every time out. That is insane unless your name is LeBron James, and then it’s a minuscule performance at best, but for college that’s hella good. Look at Mickey McConnell and Matthew Belladevoda and what they are able to pitch in, and you have a good college basketball team. This is also a team averaging 80 points a game. Offensively, it is hard to find any team capable of matching up with the Gaels. Their weakness lies on defense in the paint, and this is where Richmond comes into play. They can score too, with Kevin Anderson and his 17.8 per game leading the way. By the way, St. Mary’s is number one in the nation defending the three, with opponents shooting 17 percent from beyond the arc. Richmond can keep teams at bay too, at 24 percent. Both teams are near the bottom of college basketball turning it over, so whoever is able to hold onto the ball and play defense will take this one. It could become a track meet.
SIUE: just kidding.
Enjoy the tournament, games get underway at 11:00 Thursday. Good luck to all the bracketeers out there, I have a feeling you may need it this year.
Again for the second week in a row, I am going to steer away a little bit from the normal outdoors blog. But since it is March Madness, and basketball season as we know it (at least at the high school and collegiate level) is drawing to a close.
And since SIUE athletics is still in a transitory state of Division I, we will branch out to high school hoops. But still we are going to incorporate some SIUE business here.
The other day the Illinois High School Association hosted super-sectional games across the state to determine who will play for the big prizes of boy’s high school basketball, at least at the small school level.
In a week or so from now (probably by the time you read this), the bigger schools will be fighting to see who gets to play up in Peoria for championship gold.
I am sure that most of you who are reading this know how the high school basketball postseason works. First you have regionals, where fields of about six or eight teams battle to see who the best in their area is. From there, the winner of the regional advances to the sectional games. At sectionals, winners from four different regionals battle one another to see who’s got what it takes to keep their seasons alive.As you would guess it, the winner of the sectional championship moves on to the super sectional.
Now we are down to business. When I was a senior in high school a few years ago (2008), the IHSA broke up the traditional two-class system for championships to four classes. (On a side note, I believe this takes away from the credibility of high school sports. Competition is watered down and rivalries are ruined, but that is a whole other subject.)
Teams who advance to the super sectionals are just one win away from greatness, playing at state at Carver Arena. Carver Arena is located in Peoria, where the Bradley University Braves play their basketball games. The Peoria Civic Center itself is home to plenty of other venues but once again I am getting too off subject.
Nowadays, host sites are for the super sectionals are typically held at other universities. Included in that list is Illinois State University (Normal) and Northern Illinois University (DeKalb) for smaller schools and the University of Illinois-Chicago at the Class 3A and 4A level. Now here’s the part where SIUE, more specifically the Vadalabene Center come into play.
I think it would be awesome if SIUE would host a super sectional (like we used to back a few years ago), whether it be for small schools or big schools. Since the Metroeast is home to some bigger high schools when it comes to enrollment, I would think it would be more ideal if this were to happen that the Vadalabene Center would play host for a 3A or 4A super sectional game.
I am not absolutely sure if the sites that play host for super sectional events have contracts or if they put their names in for bid to host these events, but it should be something that should be looked in to. Sure there would be some work to be done (managerially and perhaps financially) but it would be a great way to get SIUE’s name out there. We are after all trying to make a name for ourselves. Who knows, it could even draw high schoolers to our institution.
I would even venture as far to say that SIUE and its Vadalabene Center would serve as a better host site than some of the other current schools that are hosting these endeavors. The four current host sites for the Class 4A supers is are all up north, with only one of them not being in the Chicago area. The way I see it, why shouldn’t SIUE host a super sectional at least for the bigger schools. It is not fair to your Edwardsville or O’Fallon High Schools to travel two and a half hours to play one another this late in the season. I am not saying current hosts aren’t doing a good job, but as much as I still love high school hoops, it would be cool to see a few games played here.
As the earth randomly reaches a paradox creating an impulse to change our clocks ahead an hour, a page also turns on the college basketball season, and chapter three begins to unfold.
Tomorrow, the NCAA selection committee crawls out of its cave and tells the world which schools will be dancing.
The most exciting hour we spend annually with Greg Gumbel will be here before you know it, as the NCAA’s corporate sponsors tell us what is up.
I love it.
Tonight, in Orem, Utah, a different feeling of March Madness took place, one where a team SIUE is very familiar with became a champion. The University of South Dakota defeated Houston Baptist to stake claim to the Great West Conference title, and an automatic bid into the CollegeInsider.com Tournament.
Now, there is nothing innately special about the CIT, but for USD, it is a big stepping stone at the base of its transition. The Coyotes and SIUE are connected at the hip in joining the D-I ranks. Both teams started the long five year process in 2007, but took different routes. USD started with a more experienced team, while SIUE started with a young core. Last season, SIUE had one senior; John Edmison. this year it was four, but Aamir McCleary will be the only one with hard to replace numbers. The Coyotes, at 22-9 will graduate their two top players after this season, in Steve Smith and Tyler Cain.
While SIUE ended their year abruptly at 5-23 and as a probationary member of the Ohio Valley Conference, USD parted from the traditional field of teams competing as independents to join the Great West; a conference also in a transition stage.
Unlike the other 32 conferences, there is no automatic bid into the NCAA tournament at stake in the Great West, and there will not be for some time. What started as a football-only conference expanded to include all sports in 2008, and to become a home for the homeless.
There is really no time-line in place for the NCAA to grant the Great West a bid into it’s tournament, or fully recognize it for what it is, a D-I conference. For the schools competing in it, everyone from Cal-Poly to Chicago State to NJIT and all three of SIUE’s transitional counterparts, USD, North Dakota and Seattle it allows these Independents a small glimmer of post-season aspirations being fulfilled.
This is the very reason South Dakota joined the Great West. It gave them something to play for this season, and they made the most out of it. I am not alluding to any notion of SIUE having affiliation with such a conference, having joined the OVC, and having a secure home once it is primed and ready to compete for the dance. South Dakota’s Great West title just gives me that little feeling of “man, that would have been nice,” as the case probably should be.
South Dakota will be leaving the Great West after a short stay to join the Summit League and come back to the same level as SIUE next season.
One more Independent year, one year to taste the conference and then game time.
Personally, I will admit, the OVC is not my conference of choice for SIUE, and I would have preferred the Summit League, to rejoin an old rival in IPFW, as well as regional competition like Western Illinois, IUPUI, Oakland and UMKC. It just makes a little more sense to me for a Midwest school to play in a true Midwest league rather than the deep-southern roots of the OVC.
I realize the OVC has teams like SEMO, Eastern Illinois and even Murray State with similar academic and geographical profiles, but my trip to Nashville kind of made me wonder where we fit into the OVC landscape.
Who knows, a few years down the road the Missouri Valley may be calling for expansion, and I’m sure Saint Louis University and a more established SIUE program would be at the top of the list. Some post-season play this year would have been fun, but that’s what the next week and CBS is here for. To keep us occupied for the time being.
That’s all of my random thinking for now, sure to be more tomorrow when the bracket is unveiled, on the NCAA’s website they have a really cool Selection Committee game you can play, so consider this bracketology with me. The only problem with this, and it is something I am willing to admit: this season I have only really watched mid major basketball. It’s kind of shocking, but I only know who John Wall is because ESPN tells me. I don’t care. You want to know what I think about Wofford? sure, I can tell ya. Kentucky? no chance.
In fact, here is a story from the OVC tournament in Nashville. I was live-tweeting the championship game, and these punk Morehead State fans behind me were heckling me in deep southern accents (maybe the reason I don’t like the OVC?) “Hey, how’s Calipari’s twitter looking?” Me: I don’t know. Them: Calipari is the biggest Tweeter of all time!” Me: Wouldn’t know.”
They probably thought I was a moron and have apparently never heard of this thing called “new media” and live tweeting college basketball, but truth of the matter is, in general, I probably know more about college hoops than them. In fact, I know I do.
😉
So, just for fun, this is what my bracketology looks like right now, notice how Witchita State makes my cut and Illinois does not. Poetic justice for Lunardi, Billy Packer and the whole lot of big conference robots out there.
It is hard for me to imagine a place where the NHL is not understood, or appreciated, but that is the case in many U.S. markets staking a claim in the league. Such is the case in Nashville, Tenn. a place I would characterize as a small big city, with deep southern roots.
The NHL came to Nasvhille in 1998, when Craig Leopold made a formal request to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to grant the city an expansion team after a failed attempt to lure the New Jersey Devils from their current home to play at the brand new Nashville Arena.
After Betteman received a heroes welcome from the Nashville faithful, the city was granted its team, as was another Southern counterpart in Atlanta, as well as two more traditional hockey markets, Columbus and Minnesota.
An interesting fact about the Predators: the logo pre-dates the team name. Leopold unveiled the logo, (which was inspired by a fossil found buried beneath downtown Nashville) at a ceremony, and later whittled down 75 possible nicknames for the franchise down to three: Ice Cats, Predators, and my all-time favorite: Fury and Attack! (Can anyone imagine a professional sports franchise named the Fury and Attack?! Talk about awesome.)
Nashville had to sell 12,000 season tickets before the inaugural puck-drop in 1998, to ensure the franchise would have an avid fan-base behind it from the beginning. This proved to be difficult in a market like Nashville, because hockey is such a foreign thing in the south. The closest NHL franchise to Nashville prior to the league’s 1998 expansion was the St. Louis Blues.
Despite four consecutive playoff seasons in the middle of the last decade, and a solid hold on a post-season birth this season, Nashville continues to struggle as a hockey market.
Now, nothing I am writing about has not been said before. It is a proven fact Nashville has not been a die-hard hockey community throughout the Predators 12 year existence. Despite their relative success, overall, Nashville has not become a hot-bed for the sport. There are a number of die-hard fans who support the team in droves, but it isn’t like what you will see in Canada, or even St. Louis for that matter.
In 2007, Jim Baisile, who was recently in the news trying to move the Phoenix Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario did the exact same thing in Nashville, and even had a deal in place to move the franchise. Betteman even let a potential Predators sale go as far as allowing Hamilton to start selling season-tickets for its soon to be hockey team. Leopold had reached a tentative agreement with the Hamilton group, and declared the 2007-2008 season safe for Nashville, but deemed the future of the franchise unclear. Balsille’s season-ticket drive in Canada reportedly angered NHL owners, and Betteman urged Leopold to back out of his deal with Balsille. Then, a group of Nashville buyers joined forces to solidify an ownership group, a season-ticket drive was held at the arena and Nashville made a strong case to keep its team, selling over 750 full-season-tickets and attracting more than 7,500 fans. Long story short, it’s 2010 and the Predators are still in Nashville.
I arrived in Nashville around 6:15 p.m. on Thursday night. The Predators were scheduled to face-off with the Los Angeles Kings at 7. Since I was going about this business-trip for the Ohio Valley Conference basketball tournament solo, I planned on purchasing a single-ticket (which are readily available, and in Nashville Thursday night’s are college nights, so $10 with a valid college ID gets you in) confusing the hell out of the person at the ticket window over where SIUe is, and going about my business of catching a hockey game. While waiting in line, a weird looking gentleman wearing a Predators jersey with a ponytail, approached me and asked if I just needed one ticket. I responded with something like “yeah, I’m in town on business, decided to check out a hockey game,” (I feel really damn professional when I say I’m ‘in town on business’ as we all do, a certain amount of internal gratification comes with it.)
“Well, I have an extra one, it’s in the lower bowl, you can have it if you want it…only problem is you’ll have to sit next to me,” he said, showing me the ticket and game-day program.
“I’m a St. Louis Blues fan, I don’t know if that is a problem,” I joked with him.
“Hey, no problem, he said,” as he handed me the ticket and I became excited about saving $10 and not supporting a divisional franchise.
Once I had my ticket scanned and entered the concourse area, I tried to find a concession stand with Bud Light. The second great thing about these ‘college nights’ in Nashville, or really anything having to do with attending a sporting event in a struggling market is the promotional aspect. Through the end of the first period, 24 ounce draft beers were available for half-price, or $3.75. These same servings of ambrosia are sold for $9 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, so it was something I had to take considerable advantage of.
After getting my need for a frosty beverage satisfied (a 6 hour drive taking the scenic route through Tennessee will do that to ya) I located the section on my ticket, 102 and tried to spot row GG. When I think of row GG, I think it comes after A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J,K,L,M,N,O,P,Q,R,X,T,U,V,W,X,Y,Z,AA,BB,CC,DD,EE and FF. It just automatically registers that way. So, I look around, wearing my Blues hat looking like an idiot, before I realize, Oh, ROW GG IS THE FIFTH ROW FROM THE FREAKIN’ ICE.
I like this. I like this a lot.
So I took my seat and got down to business with the characters around me, trying to figure out exactly what Nashville hockey is all about. The crowd at Bridestone Arena that night actually filled out quite nicely, something you can attribute to the team’s success this season, positioned in seventh place in the Western Conference, or their opponent, the Kings coming into the contest in the fifth spot.
Marshall, the pony-tail man said this was not a typical crowd for a Predators game, and accredited the success of the recent Olympics to the turnout, with Nashville skating two Olympians in Shea Weber of Team Canada and Ryan Suter from Team USA.
As the national anthem ended, I explained to him some of the traditions at St. Louis Blues games, how it felt weird to end the anthem with cheers instead of an echoing and resounding and the home of the ‘BLUUUUUUUUUUES,’ this already two double-beers deep.
Then with the starting lineups I became accustomed to my first Nashville tradition, well, one copied from previous and mainly college hockey civilizations, such as Cornell University.
(PA announcer) “For the Los Angeles Kings, starting at forward, number 23 Dustin Brown (crowd in unison) “SUCKS!”…and so on and so forth until we get to “coaching the Los Angeles Kings Terry Murray “HE SUCKS TOO!”
A little childish and boring, but that is what fans in Nashville do.
There is more suck to go around too. The Pred’s score a goal? HEY [Kings goalie Jonathon] QUICK! YOU SUCK!
It’s actually kind of impressive to get 13,000 people to go in on that.
This night for me was really about sharing hockey between two entirely different cultures of NHL fans. The experience in St. Louis and Nashville is completely paradox from one another.
The two people behind me were in on the season-tickets, and Marshall the dude with the ponytail goes with them all the time. They were joking a lot about “giving their tickets to a Blues fan,” but it was all in good fun. They knew someone who had just moved to Nashville from St. Louis, and sent him a picture message of my hat, to let him know a fellow Blues fan was invading Predator territory.
They are, however, two entirely different territories.
Power Plays.
Marshall and I agreed both our team’s power plays suck. We also both agreed we have equally stupid, yet awesome things our fans do to get fired up for the man-advantage. In Nashville it’s the fangs. I couldn’t find a video on youtube of it, but think of the “hook em horns” hand gesture with the horns positioned farther down and hands bobbing up and down.
In St. Louis, it’s the “ameren UE PowerPlay dance!” which I will assure you has made like the wave across the Scottrade Center since this video was posted.
So, after three or four beers, either one, I taught the Nashville fans our Powerplay dance and just for fun, did it myself. It couldn’t hurt them, being ranked 28th in the league on the advantage.
They really enjoyed it. Or so I like to believe.
The Predators won this game 4-2, and so indeed, the Kings did, suck. Hockey is still trying to become a part of the southern culture, and after 12 years, Nashville is still trying to do all it can do to introduce a sport on ice where SEC football reigns supreme. Will it happen? Maybe. It is all a matter of the town continuing its efforts to embrace one of its two professional sports franchises, the other being the Tennessee Titans. The team does have its die-hard supporters, in people like Marshall and big-name celebrities, such as Taylor Swift photographed in the media room celebrating Predator goals. It may be too late to say “it will be a matter of time” before Nashville becomes Smashville, but it is what it is. If hockey cannot make it in Nashville now, with the Olympics revitalizing the entire country’s appreciation for the game and a competitive team, it will not happen. The Predators, however remain an important part of the new NHL, and the cuture of Nashville.
For the past two days I have seen a lot in Nashville, Tenn., thinking towards the future and what is in store for SIUE at future Ohio Valley Conference Tournaments.
Three of the four semi-finals yesterday were close, Eastern Illinois and Austin Peay closed out their opponents in the second half to advance on the women’s side, while EIU gave Murray State the fight of their life in men’s basketball. Morehead State had no trouble whatsoever with Tennessee Tech, in a game where the off-the-court action was much more entertaining than the game itself.
I’ll break down that story for you. The Morehead State student section was located behind the baseline to my left. Right behind me, was a drunk (and when I mean drunk I mean HAMMERED NOT EVEN FUNNY DRUNK) Tennessee Tech fan. You can imagine this being pretty entertaining during the latter portion of a 30 point blow-out.
Morehead State is known nationally as sort of a laughingstock due to its name. Everyone acts 12 years old when they hear Morehead. Now what makes this even better is their students have the same dirty minds as the rest of us.
It’s one thing to be like “Go Morehead” but “WE WANT…MORE HEAD!” is a little different.
Anyways, drunk TTSU fan was getting verbally destroyed by the Morehead fans and eventually started screaming I LOVE MORE HEAD! I WANT MORE HEAD! He had a little dance-off with Beaker.
Makes me wonder how I personally put up with SIUE blowouts, 30 points doesn’t seem like all that much when we play, but last night felt like a complete bloodbath.
The Murray State/Eastern Illinois game was one of the best basketball games I have ever seen. EIU came out with a purpose and nothing to lose, while Murray on the other hand, with their No. 303 strength of schedule, RPI over 60 and no eye-catching wins basically has to win this thing to get to the dance. Eastern, of course had to do the exact same thing, because at 19-12 there is no way in hell towards getting an automatic bid, but for Murray it was a little different. After the type of season they have had so far, they are the team EXPECTED to be in the NCAA tournament. The NIT resembles failure.
The crowd was 90 percent Murray fans, 5 percent neutral fans and 5 percent Eastern fans. It’s a little bit of a drive from Charleston, so its understandable.
The Panthers fought for 40 minutes. They were down by one at half-time and kept the game close throughout. They even led in the second half. The later the game moved along, the more and more I thought EIU would be able to pull the upset. It did not happen, but they have nowhere to hang their heads but high after the effort they gave against a really good ball-club.
The bracket’s are set, right now the pep bands are rocking and Austin Peay and Eastern Illinois’ women’s teams are on the court about ready to get this thing started. The EIU men’s team just walked into the gym as well and took a seat in the student section. That is really nice to see.
Tonight comes the epic showdown everyone has been anticipating since the beginning of the season. Morehead State and Murray State. the Eagles took down the Racers for their first OVC loss this season Feb. 25. Morehead, at 23-9 is essentially the only team in this conference capable of beating them on ANY given night. Last night, it was Maze Stallworth scoring 24 points and Kenneth Faried, quite possibly one of the best mid-major players on the planet with 10 points and nine rebounds to oust Tennessee Tech. Tonight they will be essential to getting Morehead State back to the dance. Remember, they were a 16 seed a year ago and have more tournament experience than this current group from Murray State. No doubt coach Donnie Tyndall will have them fired up for this one. I’m excited, are you excited?
ESPN2. 7:00.
So, Nashville is a pretty great town and all the people are nice. There is a certain southern twang in almost every locals voice, and that’s kind of disturbing, but other than that I am enjoying myself.
I came down a day early to catch the Predators game right here at Bridgestone Arena. While waiting in line for a ticket, a guy came up to me and asked if I just needed one, and I did. I ended up scoring a free ticket five rows from the ice. Beer was half-price too for ‘college night,’ so I took advantage of that.
Later on in the night, I went to a bar with a great live band. Seriously, if you are ever in Nashville there are some awesome cover bands. The one Thursday at a place called “The Stage” on Broadway played everything from Journey to Love and Theft. Today for lunch, I went to a place right across the street from the arena with a 3-piece cover band playing, the lead singer was actually originally from St. Louis, which was fun to note. A beer, a water a fish sandwich and off to right now.
So, about the truck stops…I didn’t want to get a hotel and spend $80 bucks to sleep for 2 nights. So, instead I enjoyed a two night stay in the luxurious Saturn Suite at the Pilot Hyatt, or so I like to call it. The one thing that sucks about truck stops is the weather. Here in Nashville, the days have been nice, but the nights have been chilly. I swore I was going to get hypothermia and by the time I woke up I was drenched in sweat because the sun was beating down on me. I came out alive, and hookers? just an urban legend.
Here is a photo from my pre-game shoot-around at Bridgestone Arena, I’m out for now, Women’s championship about to tip-off
Good morning Cougar nation! Welcome to today’s Word.
Working on no sleep today should get interesting, especially with Ashley Bey’s senior night over at the VC later on, but we should be able to make it through. Five hour energy rules.
Anyways, I am excited for tomorrow’s paper, the sports section is going to be HUGE with lots of variety. We even have tennis and golf in the mix!
Tomorrow is also exciting, because I will be heading down to Nashville to cover the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament for the online side of the Alestle. Looking forward to sleeping at truck stops and breathing college basketball for 48 hours. There may be a little bit of hockey mixed in as well, I am going to try to get down in time for the Predators game tomorrow to sit in the nosebleeds and talk to random people about hockey in the South, all the while wearing a St. Louis Blues hat. Hopefully they understand, not like we’re playing them.
I will be writing recaps for all four games Friday, as well as the tournament finals Saturday on the main page, blogging about my experiences on the blog and tweeting scores and random tidbits on the old Twitter.
So, if you are so inclined, and want to read about basketball and give me a reason for driving 700 miles I would appreciate it! In all seriousness though, it should be fun.
The pairings for the neutral-court games in Nashville were decided last night, with all eight opening round games in the OVC taking place. (4 women, 4 men)
Here are the semi-final match-ups if you do not like clicking links.
OVC Women’s Semifinals
No. 1 Eastern Illinois vs. No. 4 UT Martin (12:00)
No. 3 Austin Peay vs. No. 2 Morehead State(2:00)
OVC Men’s Semifinals
No. 1 Murray State vs. No. 4 Eastern Illinois (6:00 ESPNU)
No. 6 Tennessee Tech vs. No. 2 Morehead State (8:00 ESPNU)
So, as far as the women go, the seeds stood up, and on the men’s side Tennessee Tech pulled the 68-65 upset over Austin Peay, while Murray (84-51 over Tennessee State) and Morehead (87-54 over Jacksonville St.) won their quarterfinal match-ups handily, which was expected.
The women’s side is intriguing, mainly due to the fact that the league is flat out terrible. Whoever wins this thing is going to the NCAA tournament, regardless of what Eastern Illinois did in the regular season (it really wasn’t much.) The Panthers ended their season 22-9 (16-2 OVC) and are currently projected as a a No. 16 seed by ESPN women’s Bracketologist Charlie Creme. Undoubtedly, whoever wins this tournament will have to deal with the likes of UCONN, Tennessee, Nebraska, North Carolina or Stanford and get crushed. What a prize it is.
For Murray State on the men’s side, they really have no other choice but to win. The Racers were perfect in the OVC until Morehead edged them by three on Feb. 25. Murray comes in to the OVC tournament with what many “experts” are considering to be a less than qualified resume for an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament.
Here is what the selection committee will see two Sunday’s from now if Murray fails to take home the OVC crown.
RPI: 69
Strength of Schedule: 278 (what you get playing SIUE twice, sad, but true)
Big Wins: None.
Bad losses: 83-72 (Western Kentucky)
Notable losses 70-75 (California)
Murray has not gotten any attention on the bubble, but earned two votes in the last coaches poll, and could go on to win 29 games while potentially missing out on the dance. If that happens, Murray could become one of the poster-children for a potential 96 team tournament expansion, which in my mind works to use mid-majors against their will. Teams like Murray should be opposed to expansion, because it would allow in more crappy big schools with .500 records to go along with them, but an appearance could save a coaching job down the line.
It has a good side and a bad side. It would be a shame if Murray missed out, but Morehead is tough and has been there before.
Keeping with the OVC theme, next year’s tournament format will be changed to give the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds a bye into the semi-finals (like the Horizon League and West Coast Conference do. Seriously, why try letting anyone beat Butler or Gonzaga? It aint’ happening.
Under the new format, the three and four seeds are placed in the semifinals, and the remaining qualifiers duke it out in an opening round.
Sure makes for a looooooooong road to the NCAA’s for the underdog, but it prevents those pesky 13-17 teams from making the dance and making Selection Sunday hell.
The new tournament is going to be at the Municipal Auditorium, rather than it’s current home, Bridgestone Arena (the Sommet Center randomly decided to change it’s name.)
For SIUE, men’s basketball season is over. It’s a faded memory. It’s incredibly sad. I don’t like this.
Following the Cougar’s final game at the VC, a sloppy 10 point win over an NAIA school, Lennox Forrester, Aamir McCleary, Stephen Jones and Mark Yelovich addressed the media in a very emotional press conference.
It was the most honest I have seen this team all season, and I applaud them for that. I know they worked hard and I know the transition is rough. We have a young team, perfection was not even a question with this group of guys, they just gave us something to talk about.
The first words out of Yelovich’s mouth were somewhere along the lines of: “We weren’t very good,” and his sentiment is one that was obvious, but something that made me think.
Transitioning to Division I is damn hard.
These guys go out, play the most unbalanced schedule in the country, against a number of over-matched teams and NEVER have the opportunity to play what is a meaningful game in the immediate picture we see.
They talked about motivation, they talked about traveling from Edwardsville to North Dakota to Minneapolis to Los Angeles to Fullerton to Fort friggin Wayne and back to Edwardsville. That is a 5,700 mile trip and some serious jet lag.
It is hard to stay focused on the main goal: which in SIUE’s case is to compete, or attempt to compete while trying to build towards a future they will not see as players. It is about pride and about the FOUNDATION.
I have seen the word ‘foundation’ tossed around all the time with this team, and it is defiantly relevant. We are building to the future. The wins/losses are not going to steer potential recruits away at this point. SIUE is in a decent place right now as far as moving forward with its current plan, and really, we are ahead of many past transitional schools.
Right now the record means nothing. We can’t do anything with it, so who cares. Winning is great, but right now SIUE just needs to compete and focus on the bigger picture, so we are capable of doing some damage down the road.
Just think about it in comparison to SIUC.
The Salukis were in the Sweet 16, then made a few more NCAA tournaments and tanked. Enrollment in Carbondale is down, as is the basketball team. I would even go as far to consider Evansville rebuilding with Marty Simmons to be a situation in the Missouri Valley with more upside.
Now look at SIUE. The trends in sports are going to start to mirror enrollment, and education. With St. Louis next door and the media attention the Cougars will receive (albeit as the fourth most popular D-I school in the market, which is BS considering Mizzou and U of I are like 3 hours a pop away) along with newer facilities and this ‘foundational vision,’ we have hope.
The recruits look good, and Forrester said we should be a little better next season.
Now, we have no idea how Mike Messer, Gerald Jones and super-human-playa Alex Brown will do fresh out of high school, but anything is possible.
Think about the wonders the weight room could do for LeShaun Murphy’s game.
I still HATE the word “transition” and still expect wins, but really, there are bigger and better things ahead than what we are seeing now.
As far as next year, Forrester divulged some schedule information, so I will share.
SIUE will play in the Las Vegas Invitational: opening with road games at two college hoops powers, in Indiana and Northern Iowa. From there, SIUE will go to Vegas for a few neutral court contests.
Other eye-opening road games include Iowa, Illinois State, Murray State and Morehead State.
The Cougars will host Murray and Morehead as well.
Time for some congratulations.
Ashley Bey. The senior plays her final game tonight when the Cougars host Cal-State Bakersfield at the Vadalabene Center. Bey, one of the best basketball thief’s in the nation and an SIUE record-holder deserves your support, as does the entire team ending a long, winding season.
Ben Bishop. The guy who throws heavy things went to nationals and placed 10th. Good job.
SIUE wrestling. Eight guys are going to Nationals. That’s awesome.
And a head-scratcher.
SIUE golf coach Kyle Viehl resigned. What makes this even worse is the timing. The golf team resumes with the spring portion of its schedule March 8.
That’ll do it, hope to get some feedback while I’m in Nashville!
Normally I would write about fishing or something related to the outdoors. But for this week, I have decided to branch out a little bit from the ordinary. A few days ago, while reading through my own outdoors newspaper source, I came across a column about Nick Schuyler.
On March 1, 2009, a little over a year ago, Schuyler was reported as one of the four men missing after their 21-foot fishing boat was reported lost in Clearwater, Fla. The U.S. Coast Guard searched for Schuyler and his comrades for a few days before eventually surrendering their search. A private search of the missing quartet’s family and friends was also organized.
Just when all hope had about been lost, the vessel was found far from shore, wrecked and overturned. Upon finding the missing watercraft, Schuyler was seen clinging to it for life. His shipmates and friends were all missing and are now presumed dead.
The three men who have lost their lives in this incident include Oakland Raider linebacker Marquis Cooper, free-agent NFL defensive lineman Corey Smith and William Bleakly. Bleakly was a teammate of Schuyler’s, both played football at South Florida University.
It has now been confirmed that Schuyler will be reminiscence the experiences of the tragedy in a book. Although I do not do much reading outside of the sports page, I might actually check this book out when it becomes available. In this book, Schuyler will recall the past memories of his friends, those he lost. Schuyler is also expected to talk about what exactly happened the day of the accident. The book will be titled “Not Without Hope”.
Over the past few years, Asian Carp have all but overrun Illinois waterways. For many boaters and fisherman alike, sportsmen have been directly affected by the presence of the invasive species.
I could sit here and type all day about what Asian Carp are, what they eat, and why we don’t want them in our waterways but I am sure we have all heard about them before.
A big conservative issue in today’s society is the threat of these invasive species reaching Lake Michigan and spreading throughout the entire Great Lakes region. Perhaps the last hope for keeping the Asian Carp is the electric barrier on the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal, which connects the Illinois River to the Chicago River and Lake Michigan.
Many think the money going into researching the Asian carp invasion should be used for other reasons. Currently there is a Viral Hemorrhagic Septicemia (VHS) virus that has been loitering in the Great Lakes since 2003. The VHS virus is a deadly fish disease that affects over 50 species of freshwater and marine fish in the northern hemisphere.
Since VHS has not yet been identified to affect humans, there is argument that current funding used for anti-Asian Carp efforts should be redirected in order for more research to be done on the VHS virus. If utilized properly, there is belief that VHS can be used as an ally in fighting the invasive species.
Overall, I believe the efforts are right in trying to stop the invasion of Asian Carp in the Great Lakes, but I do not there is any stopping them now. This situation has reached too far and eventually they will get through the barricades and nets of biologists trying to prevent them from where they are going.
Although the efforts of preventing Asian carp (bighead and silver carp to be more exact) out of the Great Lakes still appear effective, the species have now taken over most Illinois River systems. Since it is all but too late to stop Asian Carp in these places, population control can now be described as: “If you can’t beat ‘em, eat ‘em”.
One of the few positives of having Asian carp around is the profitable fish market that is becoming due to their arrival. Asian carp can reach weights up to 80 or 100 pounds and eat about 40 percent of their body weight in plankton every day. There is about 14 cents to be made for every pound of fish caught.
If Asian carp do get past the electric barriers located just south of Chicago, there is little that can be done to stop the invasive species from passing through the Chicago River and entering Lake Michigan. Although the preventative efforts are in good-heart and seeming effective for now, it is just a matter of time before the species reaches the Great Lakes. Although it would bring another profitable fishing market, it would kill another industry that is sport fishing. Here’s to hoping that I am wrong.
“The two best times to fish is when it’s rainin’ and when it ain’t,” ~Patrick F. McManus
I will be covering the Ohio Valley Conference semifinals, men’s and women’s in person, in Nashville Tenn. to get an idea of what is to come for the Cougars. Credentials got approved today. Expect lots of blogging, lots of descriptive narrative junk and all kinds of excitement. Not to mention game recaps you won’t get anywhere else! well, maybe the associated press or somewhere, but you get the idea. March 5 and 6, mark those calenders!
Once a month, I am going to take a step back from the crazy world known as WWE and showcase a local wrestling company in the area. This month, I’m taking a look at one of the up and coming promotions in the Midwest, Independent Hardcore Wrestling.
At the company’s latest show, “Spoiled” Steven Kennedy nearly caused the fans to riot with his heelish antics and pure hatred for anything other than himself, while Brandon Aarons had every fan in attendance rooting for him to beat Kennedy to win the IHW championship.
That night was also a tribute show for Zachary “Napalm” Porter. Porter was a wrestler in the area who was recently murdered. Through a silent auction other fundraising, raised $600 for Porter’s children.
IHW had its first show in 2007 then fell off the map until June 2009. Since its resurgence, they have consistently had a jam packed crowd in the Dupo, Ill. VFW Hall.
The owner of the promotion, Mephisto, has brought in WWE Hall of Famer “Cowboy” Bob Orton, Mickey Knuckles and Ian Rotten. Current Shimmer and NWA Women’s Champion MsChif was on the promotion’s first card back in 2007. Additionally, he features many wrestlers from various promotions across the area, giving young, fresh talent opportunities they otherwise might not have received.
Some of the most heated feuds in the Midwest have stomped through IHW. The Submission Squad, consisting of Pierre Abernathy, Gary the NightOwl and Evan Gelistico waged its heated battle against the Hooligans, Devin, Mason and Neil “Diamond” Cutter. They tore through the crowd, and—living up to the promotions name—got hardcore in their attempts to brutalize each other the greatest extent possible.
Most recently, the team of B.A.B.E.WATCH, Brandon Aarons and Brandon Espinosa, has begun to fall apart. Egos and cockiness split the two in nearly every promotion they work for, and IHW was no exception.
Not every match is perfect, and some wrestlers do put on better matches than others, but that is to be expected at any show on the local level. Having been to quite a few local promotions, I can honestly say that regardless of if you love or hate the wrestlers, at IHW, they will force a reaction out of you.
Not a whole lot to talk about this week, so upside down smiley faces across the board if you were expecting 3 billion words again. It’s probably not going to happen because there wasn’t much basketball this week aside from the women’s big win against Oakland City in their sweet pink uniforms. But we’ll see how it goes; we play other sports, too, and I might get carried away.
First off, I am going to plug some work I did earlier in the week for the mid-majority, while the website’s author, Kyle Whelliston (a.k.a total badass blogging/journalism role model I met once) is taking a break from college basketball to cover the Olympics. Basically, he asked readers to submit essays on their non-power conference schools and why they are important to the world of college basketball, so here is my little rant in convenient link form – (my school – SIU Edwardsville)
I am interested to hear any fan stories you may have as basketball season winds down, so if you are one of those die-hards, share your experiences in comment form, or something.
End of self plug.
The big question I have right now in SIUE athletics goes something like this. Is it time for the softball team to panic?
Now, not so fast, the Cougars have only played three games this year, but they sit at 1-2. I wrote last week about this team’s youth potentially being a stumbling block as the season plays out, and while Sandy Montgomery isn’t going to hold any excuses and likely expects another 40 win campaign, it isn’t looking like the Cougars will be crashing the national rankings anytime soon, but that can change.
Here’s why youth could squander a big year: we have seen it before.
Look no further than SIUE volleyball. The Cougars were a .500 team their first year against D-I competition, which is very impressive for a team built during a D-II era. They lost two key contributors from that team to graduation, and had to start all over. Instead of a proven record-setting setter in Mallory Clements, they had to go with a platoon of freshmen. They won three games.
The softball team graduated it’s big gun on the mound in Caitlin Colosimo, as well as a few starting position players.
Not everything is doom and gloom, because Erika Taylor fills the ace role nicely. If she can lead the front-end of the rotation and keep putting her numbers from last year up, which she has done this season with a two-hitter against Western Kentucky everything will be fine from that perspective, the other two pitchers still have to be relied on to provide innings and outs, something they did not do against Samford, with Ali Downing giving up seven runs (five earned) in six innings, and Lindsey Coleman giving up three in her lone inning of work. There is no question about Taylor leading the staff, but she needs help.
Run production throughout the first three games has been at a premium, and this is where SIUE could run into trouble down the road. The Cougars offense produced just one hit in their 4-2 loss to Lipscomb and managed one run in their shutout win over WKU.
It is going to come down to offense and defense for SIUE, and again, it’s too early to tell anything. Lots of games left to be played and plenty of time to grow and make ammends.
We will see.
Other than softball, there isn’t a ton to talk about with SIUE sports. The first pitch of baseball season is Friday. Men’s basketball breaks out a 10-day break that seems like it has been going on forever to play North Dakota again Thursday, hopefully having learned from their mistakes, and the women beat Oakland City, as I mentioned, which really isn’t worth any analysis in victory, as the MIGHTY Oaks are a mediocre at best D-II school and we were a heavily over-matched opponent. I will say this though, it is nice to see new faces and the younger players continually stepping up and providing big numbers for SIUE, with Courtney Kenner scoring 21 in the game.
Told you today was going to be brief.
Let’s step off campus and have a few random thoughts on the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics:
The Olympics are awesome.
The U.S. Men’s hockey team got underway in preliminary play Tuesday, with a 3-1 win over Switzerland. I’m happy with the way St. Louis Blues property David Backes scored, and Eric Johnson played solid on defense and find it hard to be cheering for Patrick Kane of my hated Blackhawks, but it’s all in the name of the red, white and blue.
Women’s hockey – Draw teams out of a hat for the bronze game and just play U.S.A vs. Canada for gold tomorrow and stop wasting our time. I’m already sick of 18-1 and 13-0 bloodbaths already. This isn’t hockey, this isn’t fair. I want U.S.A/Canada NOW!
Figure skating – Seriously, I have no idea who is winning or how you lose unless you fall flat on your ass. These athletes are phenomenal, with how they toss each other around like beanbags and catch them and do all this crazy stuff I couldn’t do on dry land.
Curling – Fun to watch, er, i guess, but still don’t get it.
Ski Jumping – The most dangerous thing ever invented, yet awesome.
Luge/Bobsled/Skeleton – Some of the most exciting Olympic action out there, and something I would love to do once in my life. It is sad to note however, the story of Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritisvilli and his fatal crash. The guy was living his dream of becoming an Olympic athlete, and you never want to see anything like that happen. Ever. Goes to show how dangerous this sport really is.
Cross Country skiing sucks, but biathlon is awesome. Adding a sniper rifle automatically makes skiing long flat distances exciting.
It is 51 degrees in Vancouver. Way too balmy for summer Olympics. Bring them to St. Louis, Eh?
Speaking of St. Louis, watch out for Saint Louis University as the college basketball season winds down. The Bills have four straight wins, an aussie import, a great point guard and a spot on the bubble as we head towards March. At 16-8 coming out of the always tough Atlantic Ten, it wouldn’t surprise me if they make the dance. Their win over Joe Pott’s Dayton Flyers on Saturday was huge.
Lindenwood University is applying for membership with the NCAA and hoping to leave the NAIA for Division II. Apparently, they want to trade land for the Family Arena in St. Charles as a home venue. Good for them I guess.
Congratulations today go out to the SIUE Gold hockey team, qualifying for the MACHA playoffs, with an 11-3-1-1 record. They open up quarterfinal play Friday with who else? Saint Louis University in Peoria.
That just about wraps up this abbreviated edition of the Word.
Between the Vadalabene Center and Cougar Village awaits a piece of paradise for avid outdoorsmen. It is called Cougar Lake, and it is an unnoticed part of campus that should be utilized more.
Even the name, “Cougar Lake”, gives the impression that it is an overlooked, underused part of campus. Don’t get me wrong, the folks at Campus Recreation do more than their fair share of getting students involved. Whether it is promotions or hosting events, out of any of the colleges I have seen, SIUE is one of the best at trying to get their students involved.
This past fall I started to use Cougar Lake and what it offers more. Whenever I was out there, it would be just my buddies and I. In a way it was kind of peaceful, reminding me of the simplicities of the country, where I grew up. But in another light it was weird to go out there two or three times a week and see nobody fishing out there but a few of us.
I know not everybody is interested in the outdoors, but for those who are, Cougar Lake is about as good as it gets for a college campus. When you are at Cougar Lake, one would never guess that on the other side of those trees and brush, there is a “premier metropolitan university.”
On the other hand, I believe there are some things that are being done well, or rules that should be keep. For example, swimming is not allowed in Cougar Lake. If swimming was allowed, there would be too much liability and lawsuits waiting to happen. This rule needs to be kept.
Another thing, Cougar Lake allows no boat motors, or a “no wake” policy. This too gets a thumbs up from me. However, trolling motors (at least for the Club Bass Fishing team) are permitted. With the atmosphere we are dealing with, anything bigger than a trolling motor will affect Cougar Lake in a negative way.
The size of Cougar Lake is just about perfect if you want to rent one of the canoes, row boats or paddle boats that are offered by Campus Rec. In order to use watercraft on Cougar Lake, they must be owned by the university and used during sponsored events or approved rentals only.
Yet according to the website, Cougar Lake Marina is only open from April 10 to May 2. While it is almost impossible to make everybody happy, it is tough for those of us who would actually want to go out and enjoy what Cougar Lake has to offer in just a three week span, especially when that tenure is so close to final exams.
Even if fishing isn’t your thing, Cougar Lake has a pavilion that is available for rent, perfect for barbeques and get-togethers. The pavilion also has picnic tables, a water hydrant, a grass volleyball court and horseshoe pits surrounding it. There is also a low ropes course close by that offers a variety of programs over the course of a semester. But again just like Cougar Lake in general, the low ropes course needs to be advertised better.
Perhaps the best advertised and most utilized part of Cougar Lake is the outdoor pool (another reason why we don’t need to be swimming in the lake itself). When open, access to the outdoor pool is free for students. Over the summer, students not taking summer classes can buy a season pass for $20, which is dirt cheap.
Overall, with the collaborative of the good folks over at Campus Rec, Cougar Lake is headed in the right direction with a good variety programs and activities being offered. They just need to be utilized more by students. A good place to start would be to have a Bass Fishing Tournament in the spring as well.
“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” -Henry David Thoreau
The arena is drenched in pink today at the Vadalabene Center as the Cougars are participating in the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association’s effort to raise awareness for breast cancer. Nearly everyone in the arena has donned the free pink t-shirt given away tonight. Even the Cougars are wearing them as warm-ups, along with pink shorts and headbands.
Tip-off is in 15 minutes, when the Cougars will take on D-II Oakland City. The Mighty Oaks are 7-13 this season.
Pink ties, balloons, shorts, socks, headbands, uniforms and polos are everywhere. Even Cory the Cougar is strutting around in a pink uniform. The American Cancer Society is here, as are campus organizations, to join up and raise awareness today.
Good attendance here today at the VC from students and alumni alike.
Starting lineup for SIUE – Duncan, Bey, Meade, Herrod and Berry.
Cougars not shooting well, but the five rebounds have given them a bunch of second chances. Just 2-2 here so far at the VC.
This game is in slow-motion compared to the game against Eastern right now. Cougars are getting open shots, and it looks like it’s surprising them because they look tentative.
Ten combined turnovers in five and a half minutes. Both teams are not executing well.
Both teams shooting 28 percent from the floor, but Cougars are dominating the boards 13-2. It’s 9-5 SIUE.
Cougars speeding up the pace of the game, now it’s looking like the Eastern game. Bey is really pushing the ball up the floor, it hasn’t been overwhelmingly successful but it’s better than the first five minutes. This is the style SIUE likes to play.
13-7 halfway through the first, time flies when there are no TV timeouts. Still poor shooting from each squad, 25 percent for both teams.
Just realized the refs have pink whistles. It’s everywhere.
I don’t know if SIUE is playing at Oakland City’s level, but it seems like they are adjusting to the other team. Although, the Cougars have had several lay-ups rim out and this game should have a wider margin than 13-8. Only scorers for SIUE are Duncan (6), Kenner (3), and Berry (4).
Bey has three steals already – she has had at least five steals in her last four games.
Cougars are passing the ball better, but they still are having a hard time hitting their shots – they’re 9-32 from the field. Melia Duncan is keeping that as respectable as that can be – she’s 5-10 for 11 points so far.
Kenner hits her second three, putting the Cougars up by 11. Its 26-15 right now.
SIUE starting to pull away as they start hitting their layups. Although, it does help when you win the battle of the boards 31-14.
Kenner has developed into a really good three point option for SIUE. She’s 3 of 5 from behind the arc so far and looks to be a really good shooting guard next year.
AT HALFTIME: This game is a good indicator of the Cougars transition to D-I being the right idea. They started out incredibly slow and out of sync, and they’ve steadily improved. Despite not playing at a level where they have and where they should, they are up by 19. The Cougars have out-rebounded 32-16, caused 18 turnovers and started to take control of the game.
SIUE had eight fast break points, thanks to Ashley Bey. She has played as more of a point guard this game – she has looked for the open player rather than the shot today.
Five minutes into the second half, Cougars still up by 14, Oakland City is playing a bit better. They’re just getting out-hustled by the Cougars though.
Cougars are passing the ball much better, Bey is leading the way with eight assists. Oakland City has drained all three of their three-point shots, and it has kept them within 14. 52-38 SIUE with 11:23 left in the second.
Margin still about the same – SIUE leading by 16. Raven Berry has really stepped up here, she has 19 points today.
As small as SIUE has looked against some D-I teams this season, that is how Oakland City looks compared to the Cougars. Berry is just controlling the paint on offense and defense.
Bey threads the needle with pass through two defenders to give Berry an easy lay-up. Then she turns around with a steal and two of her own. She has been a tremendous player here for SIUE.
72-54 SIUE with three minutes left to play. Everyone on SIUE has played at least 10 minutes today.
Kenner nails two straight three-pointers. She has 21 points, all from seven threes.
Just when Cody Rhodes had his chance to prove to the wrestling world (not the ‘WWE Universe’!) that he can hang with Randy Orton in a competitive match up, Sheamus’ interference ruined Rhodes credibility.
Sure, Rhodes won the match, but it is not about if he won. My issue is with how he won. Rhodes’ victory Monday night did little to prove he is worthy of a shot at Orton, or the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. Sheamus’ distraction cheapened Rhodes’ so-called accomplishment.
Remember when Orton got a clean victory over Shawn Michaels last week on RAW? Orton caught Michael’s after the ‘nip up’ with a quick pin. As the heel, winning the match clean established Orton’s dominance without making Michaels look weak or unworthy of facing the “Legend Killer.”
Orton’s win mattered. It made him appear stronger as a heel, and made the fans hate him even more, because he etched out a win without cheating. Thus, proving his depth of talent goes deeper than calling on Rhodes or Ted Dibiase Jr. for help. In addition, Michaels’ credibility rose because he took everything that Orton dished out and just happened to come up short. Everybody wins—the fans and the wrestlers involved.
As far as Rhodes is concerned, how is someone causing a distraction during a heel v. heel match up going to elevate either man in the ring? Sure, Rhodes seems to be teetering on the cusp of becoming a face, but until he officially turns, the casual wrestling fan sees two members of the same faction going at it and a heel interfering in a heel v. heel match wouldn’t make sense to that casual fan.
Yes, Sheamus and Orton have issues to settle. And yes, Orton has issues with Rhodes. I understand that. But at what point will the interference become so seldom that it actually means something when it happens? The more run-ins there are, the less important they become. In effect, cheapening the win for strong competitors like Rhodes.
Also, Sheamus attacking Orton after the match ruined what little bit of respect Rhodes could have gained from getting the pinfall victory. It is easy to see that they are trying to get across two storylines in one match, which I understand and like. However, the fact that it distracts from Rhodes’ victory frustrates me as a fan.
When something outside the realms of the traditional match up occurs, such as the typical run-in, feet on the ropes or pulling the tights for leverage, it looks like the competitor who won is too weak to get a win for himself.
Sure, Rhodes emerges from the match with the upset victory, but at what cost? Did he really get an upset? Wouldn’t it look better for Rhodes if, say, Orton went for the RKO, Rhodes countered, had Orton reeling, then hit him with the spinning facebuster to knock him out? Rhodes then capitalizes on Orton’s misfortune and covers him, in the middle of the ring. One, two, three.
That would solidify Rhodes’ status without losing face for Orton, who just couldn’t handle his protégé that night. Fans are happy, Orton’s anger after the match shows his heelish antics and Rhodes walks away one step closer to title contention. Everybody wins.
Lots to address this week, we have basketball to break down, a few new sports starting their seasons and all kinds of fun and exciting things.
Here it goes again!
Let’s begin the week talking about softball. Yeah, I know we almost had a snow day yesterday and it’s -325 degrees outside, but believe it or not Friday the Cougars begin their attempt at an encore to last year’s 40 win season, competing in South Alabama’s tournament, featuring a cast of mid-majors in hosts South Alabama (Sun Belt), Lipscomb (Atlantic Sun), Samford (the school SIUE is replacing in the OVC, now members of the Southern Conference) and Western Kentucky (Sun Belt).
(Sean Roberts-Alestle) Senior 3B Lauren Zembruski will be important to SIUE if they are to keep pace with last season's 40-10 mark.
I am a little hesitant on predicting how Coach Sandy Montgomery’s team will fare this season. The Cougars were outstanding last season. The softball team is our athletic department’s pride and joy. They are the 2007 Division II National Champions, and last season proved they were not just a transitioning DII juggernaut prone to a rude awakening at the next level. SIUE received votes in the National Top 25 poll, and knocked off two ranked teams on their way to a 40-10 record. 40-10 is impressive for anyone playing the schedule they took on last season, but to do it in their first year was nothing outside of special.
Could this year be a repeat or something different? Well, we will see how it plays out on the diamond, because I honestly have no idea. SIUE lost five seniors, while returning just two. There are MASSIVE shoes to fill for the Cougars, especially on the mound. Caitlin Colosimo was a monster. Check out this line: 19-4, 22 complete games, 10 shutouts a 1.00 ERA, 152 strikeouts, 20 walks and 174.1 Innings pitched.
It’s not just her numbers Montgomery has to somehow find a way to re-produce, but her ability to eat a ton of innings and relieve the rest of the pitching staff. A lot of trust is going to go to junior Erika Taylor to fill the ace role, a spot she should be able to naturally fill, after posting her own earth-shattering numbers: 17-6, 1.22 ERA, 17 complete games, 3 shutouts, 144 strikeouts in 143.1 innings.
Junior College transfer Ali Downing and Freshmen Lindsey Coleman round out the pitching staff.
Offensively, SIUE has four of their six biggest weapons returning to the squad, most notably Lauren Zembruski, the team leader in batting average (.373) Home Runs (7) RBI (39) walks (32) and on-base percentage (.497.)
Taylor and Zembruski are going to be the cogs in the SIUE machine this season. Chaleen Rumpf, The only senior on the team outside of Zembruski will also play an important part in the Cougar offense, with her career .331 batting average.
SIUE has a young team this year, and the inexperience on the roster is the only thing keeping anyone from penciling in another 40 win season and perhaps cracking the top 25. There are eight sophomores and four freshmen on this team. The majority of the sophomore cast saw playing time last season, and that added experience will be important. The past success of the program undoubtedly gives Montgomery a little more flexibility when it comes to recruiting, along with the program’s fast-tracked status allowing it to compete for championships next season. Freshman Samantha Stanicek comes to the team after being named one of the top high school players in the state.
Following up on last year is going to be a tough task, but this is a confident bunch. We’ll see what happens.
On the slightly bigger field of similar shape with a mound instead of a circle is the SIUE baseball team. They have a little bit more time to prepare for the unseasonably early beginning of the college season, opening up against the team they closed last season against, Central Arkansas on the road.
(Sean Roberts-Alestle) Senior Outfielder Mike Hurt and the SIUE baseball team...will they improve on last season?
The Cougars will be spending a lot of time in Arkansas early on, playing two against UCA with Creighton sandwiched between before a three game series at Arkansas Little-Rock.
If I had to pick an SIUE team to break out of last season’s funk in 2010, it is this one.
Coach Gary Collins knows what he is doing. The man has 944 career wins coaching SIUE baseball.
Last year, the Cougars were 15-39. It wasn’t the most illustrious year of Collins career, but as with every team here (besides softball…knock on wood), it was marked by the typical transitional growing pains we have seen across the board. With just six home games on the docket, it was also a grind associated with constant life on the road.
In my short time covering this team at the end of the season, one glaring weakness was apparent.
Pitching.
SIUE did not have any.
Opponents outscored SIUE by 120 runs over the course of the season, but the Cougars certainly had an ample amount of offensive firepower. They just let down too many runs.
The stat of the season last year: SIUE was 7-5 when scoring more than 10 runs in a game.
They allowed opponents to score more than 10 runs 13 times, losing all 13.
The team’s combined ERA was 7.01 and opponents hit .323 against SIUE pitching.
This team has it’s offensive weapons, in seniors Micheal Hopkins, Mike Hurt and Adam Eggemeyer. There is a good cast of role players complimenting them as well. Offensively, the Cougars are healthy after an injury-riddled 2009.
SIUE will score runs, it is just going to be a matter of keeping them off the scoreboard.
Looking to the spring is nice, but it’s time to talk about what is going on RIGHT NOW…and probably what a majority of our readers are here for, COUGAR BASKETBALL!
Courtesy of my phone...classy, I know.
First up, the men. I will be the first to admit I have been a little frustrated with this team. I love college basketball, and I love SIUE basketball even more. Let’s hold off on the frustration for a bit, because I have a feeling my constant regurgitation of the team’s problems are getting tired and the proof has been made evident through countless performances.
The two games SIUE played this week were against teams going through the same process we are, in South and North Dakota. USD has owned us throughout the maiden voyage, holding a 4-1 mark against SIUE, (2-0 this season, 2-1 last season, with the Cougars coming back from 17 down last season at the Vadalabene Center for its first “Division I*” home win.) This season, there was little doubt when it came to who was going to get the win in Edwardsville. USD was just the all-around better team on both ends of the court, and held an apparent advantage on the low-post with the combination of Steve Smith and Tyler Cain.
The senior duo combined for 13-19 shooting and 30 points with 14 rebounds and along with the rest of the Coyotes, torched SIUE inside, where they owned a 39-32 rebounding edge and 54 points in the paint, an area where even with a rebounding advantage, SIUE has had trouble scoring. The low post has not been generating any offense for the Cougars all season long, and that area has really put a burden on this team, not being able to work the ball inside out while running the offense. USD’s low-post presence undoubtedly helped their shooting numbers, creating easy buckets and an astronomical 65 percent mark for the contest.
SIUE’s offense, meanwhile struggled, connecting on 39 percent of their field goal opportunities, and shooting just 5-23 from three-point range. They went into their typical NBA Live panic mode after a few empty possessions and fired up too many perimeter shots in a feeble attempt to get back into the game, obviously creating more empty possessions.
There were positives early on. The Cougars were moving the ball much better in their offense, creating a few easy back-door opportunities with Stephen Jones running the point in the absence of Aamir McCleary, but at times they maybe made an extra pass or two, passing up on a look and ending with a mistake.
Mark Yelovich scored 18 points, but was only 8-22 shooting in the game, I thought maybe he was pressing a little too hard without McCleary at his side, but I do agree with what Coach Forrester said after the game, in trusting Mark to take his shots when he has the chance. It was just one of those games where nothing went right, as has been the case offensively for awhile.
I want to make note of this though: SIUE is a young basketball team, with a strong cast of freshmen and sophomores. South Dakota, meanwhile started their transition with an experienced basketball team and in turn, is currently playing with juniors and seniors. Without Cain and Smith, SIUE would have had a fighting chance, but the combination of Nikolo Bundalo, Zeke Schneider (who I will note, has improved since early on this season) and Dob Mavrak (whom I feel Zeke has in turn, passed on the depth chart due to his improvement) was just unable to compete with the experience and talent the Coyotes had at their disposal.
Sunday, SIUE continued their shooting funk, going 27 percent from the field against the other Dakota, the North one.
Yelovich tallied 18 points, and as a team the Cougars just managed 50 in a seven point loss against the patient Fighting Sioux and their Princeton offense. SIUE had 27 rebounds, and was 5-22 from three-point range, you know the story. Cougars will be Cougars.
The outcome of this game was difficult to stomach, because victory was a distinct possibility for the first time in awhile, if you don’t consider the win against Robert Morris for more than it was worth. The Sioux were 4-17, SIUE 3-20. It was an even-matched game, and with the full support of McCleary and LeShaun Murphy, out of the lineup for various reasons, the outcome could have been different. The back end of the bench, Dane Church, Alex Newlin and Desmond Young saw action early in this one, which comes as a surprise being a competitive game. This team has got to be physically drained at this stage of the schedule, creating more opportunity for these guys. Not to mention the injuries.
The pieces will come together. I just keep telling myself this. It will be okay.
The SIUE women also had a rough week, but considering the competition, all in all, it wasn’t bad. They played the first-place team in the Ohio Valley Conference tough at home, and endured a tough road game at Miami of the ACC, in battle of schools nicknamed after vowels.
Thursday’s game against Eastern provided a fantastic barometer to gauge the future of SIUE women’s basketball with, and all in all I am okay with the final result, a 74-63 loss to Tony Romo University.
SIUE fought of an early 14 point deficit, and trailed by six at the break, while Freshmen Michaela Herrod had the biggest game of her career, scoring 20 points.
With the Ohio Valley Conference having a horrendous year on the women’s side, and putting SIUE’s youth into consideration, we can assume the Cougars will improve as the transition period progresses, and the pieces will fall into place when an NCAA tournament bid is on the line.
Speaking of the OVC’s weak women’s league, ESPN women’s Bracketologist Charlie Cremecurrently has EIU tabbed as a 16 seed. No complaints here.
Miami is on the bubble, at 16-7, they need as many wins as they can get to try and sneak into the NCAA tournament in the always tough ACC. Anytime SIUE plays a power conference school, no matter the sport or gender, it is a good experience, and the Cougars held their own against a very good team, losing 85-60, with Herrod once again coming up big with 20 points.
Up next for the women is Oakland City Saturday at the Vadalabene Center, it’s the pink game for Breast Cancer awareness, so if you are not partaking in the Mardi Gras craziness in St. Louis I encourage you to go to the VC for a few reasons.
We are going to win, It’s Oakland City.(7-12, DII)
It’s for a good cause.
Free T-shirts!!!!
My job advertising is done.
Time to close out with a few random tidbits and things of that nature.
The SIUE track teams, whom I would have blogged about in a little greater detail if this wasn’t already too long and straining your eyes have one more event to close out the indoor season and are on an absolute tear. Every time they compete, someone is setting some kind of record, and that is all good news as we prepare to wait out until the spring, and track without a roof. Ben Bishop has thrown heavy objects farther than everyone else in all five tries inside, while Kayla Brown, Aftan Noon and company are up to their old tricks.
The SIUE women’s tennis team is off to a strong start, posting a 6-1 win over OVC rival Southeast Missouri State at the Edwardsville Y!M!C!A! Saturday, sweeping doubles and winning five of six singles matches. Good job.
I clicked onto siuecougars.com the other day and found out we are having a pep-rally for the Men’s basketball Bracketbuster game Feb. 20 against Cal State Fullerton. Intrigued, I clicked on the link to find out the pep rally is taking place in FULLERTON. I asked the Alestle to get me on a plane, but that was to no avail.
As far as the Super Bowl goes, I picked the Saints, and the Saints won. Still, football expert, I am not. Go Rams!
You want something to watch on TV Thursday instead of going out? I’ll suggest Moreahead State vs. Eastern Illinois in OVC men’s action at 8 p.m. on ESPNU and St. Mary’s vs. Gonzaga at 10 p.m. over on ESPN2.
In honor of softball/baseball starting up, and the awesomeness of George Knox, I’ll sign off with this, enjoy the show!
I’ve seen numerous fans and reporters get riled up because they have to play SIUE, an independent school without a conference. They play us and in return get a game where their team doesn’t benefit.
Such is the case with one Eastern Illinois writer.
Apparently, you think we’re “an easy team” to beat. Never mind the Cougars have held their own in the Ohio Valley Conference – which Eastern is leading – and then some. They’ve won three of their five OVC games, including beating Morehead State, who is 10-2 and second in the conference.
Help me understand how this “could be a useful warm-up game.” Jacksonville State (twice), Tennessee Tech (twice), Tennessee Martin and Southeast Missouri State all lost to Eastern by the same margin or worse that SIUE did.
Believe me, Eastern was fighting SIUE off the whole way. This wasn’t a warm-up game for anything.
If you wanted a warm-up, meaningless, cupcake game, you might have played, oh I don’t know, someone like Brescia – a NAIA school so small I’m not even sure they have a Web site for their school. Eastern beat them 110-28. That’s a warm-up game.
SIUE hung around despite having Raven Berry and Ashley Bey, two of the teams top scorers, on the bench after fouling out. Berry played a total of 17 minutes because of foul trouble.
The real argument they make is that SIUE doesn’t count for a conference victory, just for a mark in the overall record. Having a game in the middle of conference play renders the Cougars meaningless to Eastern Illinois.
First of all, it doesn’t really matter when the non-conference games are. For mid-majority schools, and especially the OVC, overall record means nothing unless you have three or foul total losses. You aren’t going to make the tournament as an OVC member unless you win the conference tournament or pull off a near-undefeated season. It doesn’t matter when the games are, they’re all “pointless”.
Worrying about a player getting hurt in a “pointless” game is pointless. Whitney Champlin had a concussion is practice, forcing her to miss the Eastern Illinois game. Should we stop players from practicing, those don’t even go into an overall record. What a waste of time.
Here’s where I try to help our future Ohio Valley Conference schools understand. We are coming next year. Our victories will count against you. This is just a “warm-up” of how tough we will play you every game next season.
Fishing is my life, and one of the things I really miss about home.
Last year, the Illinois High School Association officially recognized bass fishing as an activity, with sectional and state events that provide young people with lifelong memories.
This year’s marks the second running of the event. A total of 226 teams have entered their names to participate in the IHSA Bass Fishing State Tournament. This number is up from the 199 schools who competed a year ago.
Schools interested in entering the tournament had to register online by Nov. 1. When accepted, schools are allowed to enter either one or two boats. All boats must have at least one registered student, but no more than three students listed on the boat roster. Only two kids can fish to a boat at one designated time.
Last year, if boats wanted to exchange students, they would have to go back to the loading docks and switch them out. Needless to say, that would make for a long day, but all the moving back and forth meant less time with your line in the water. You can’t win if you don’t catch fish.
This year, the IHSA has worked out the appeal to provide transportation to boats that want to rotate kids in and out. That way there is more fun to be had and less hassle to deal with. To me, this is a step in the right direction because it shows that people are starting to put more thought into the event. This leads to me think the program is headed in a positive direction.
Speaking of boats, I’m sure somebody reading this (out of the four of you), is wondering who provides the equipment for these kids. The students are responsible are compelled to provide their own poles, artificial bait and nets themselves. When talking boats, most schools have boats provided to them by the local community. Bass Fishing Clubs have also been known to donate boats and coaches for the event.
Of all the schools entered, sectional tournaments are first held with area schools competing for a chance at state, an event which is held at Carlyle Lake. Unlike other IHSA programs, Bass Fishing has only one class level. Which means no matter how big (or small) a school is, everybody competes against each other. This could be considered positive or negative. If you ask me, the IHSA should keep the event one class.
Schools are also obligated to have at least one adult oversee the program; I guess you could call him a coach. Since the students are not allowed to run the outboard motor during the events, the coach has that duty. The adult has to be approved by the local school board as the team leader. However, since the IHSA board considers bass fishing as an activity as not a sport (at least not yet), they do not have to be recognized to meet the sport coaching by-law.
Insurance-wise, because we all know there’s people out there who will worry about this stuff, the IHSA is obligated to what their Web site calls “general liability” for both the section and state tournament events.
When I was young, my dad (the guy who has taken me fishing more times than I could ever count) told me that if I couldn’t have fun fishing, then there was no point in doing it. No matter how you look at it, a lot of fishing is just luck. Granted there is some skill and technique required to doing it. Participants and the IHSA need to remember, if it isn’t going to be fun, then there is no point in doing it. Some people tend to forget that.
If you ask me, the addition of adding Bass Fishing as an IHSA tournament is a great idea. It gives kids opportunities that they might not have otherwise. Anyone who enjoys fishing as much as I do knows the memories that it gives us.
Illinois may have crooked politicians and what not, but we were the first state to have Bass Fishing as an officially recognized high school activity; that says something for us.
“And I love fried chicken and bluegill fishin’ and outlaw women and I wouldn’t change if I could…”-Rhett Akins
When Shawn Michaels eliminated his friend and tag team partner, Triple H, from the Royal Rumble on Sunday, he looked poised for victory. But fate had other plans. His title dreams went out the window faster than Marty Jannetty flew through the glass window on the Barber Shop.
Some could argue that the Showstopper just cannot stop the show anymore, or that Mr. Wrestlemania has simply lost ‘it.’
Or, perhaps, the sudden reemergence of Bret Hart to RAW has put Michaels back in the state of mind he was in during the time of the Montreal Screwjob — cocky and arrogant, but a hell of a wrestler.
Undertaker turning down Michaels’ challenge for ‘Taker’s WWE championship at Wrestlemania has gotten to the Showstopper. As much as fans did, or wanted, to hate the Heartbreak Kid, not even the most anti-Michaels fan could deny his charisma and skill. The same can be said for the Undertaker. And there lies the problem.
Mr. Wrestlemania vs. the undefeated streak. Round two.
But on Monday Night RAW, fate gave him another chance. Michaels faced “The Legend Killer” Randy Orton, with the winner earning a spot in the Elimination Chamber at the No Way Out Pay-per-view. Just when it looked like Michael’s tormented soul could be put to rest, Orton caught Michaels by surprise.
A distraught Michaels walked to the back with a troubled mind. Why couldn’t he pin Orton? Why, every time he goes for the gold, is it just out of reach? Why has it been so long since he held a championship? Why do the blood, sweat and tears he puts into every match amount to nothing more than blood, sweat and tears?
Just as when Michaels was breaking out on his own and making his mark in WWE, he had to prove to everybody why he was the best. He had to make everyone else believe his own hype. He had to go above and beyond the best there is, the best there was and the best there ever will be.
And so the scenario presents itself again. Hart’s presence brings back Michaels’ desire to prove himself to other wrestlers, but most importantly, to the fans.
‘Taker’s undefeated streak, in addition to Hart, fuels Michaels’ desire even further. The inability to recapture the high points of his early career, in addition to ‘Taker shutting down the chance for Michaels to end the streak, makes Michaels a disheartened man—unable to grasp what he so desires. Renewed respect. Renewed belief. But more than anything, renewed championship glory.
Eleven minutes to tip-off and I’m going back to the tried and true live blog. I don’t believe this game is cast on TV, so I’ll continue to be as descriptive and informative as possible.
The Cougars are 3-1 against Ohio Valley Conference teams this season, but Eastern Illinois is No. 1 in the conference with a 10-1 record. It will definitely be a battle for the Cougars, and a good indication of how they stack up against the top teams in the conference.
From the eye test – Eastern is big. Much bigger than the Cougars. It’s not like its been different than any other game this season though – SIUE knows they have to press and push the basketball. Six minutes to tip-off, stay here for (near) play-by-play.
Starting line-ups –
Eastern has – Wyss, Nixon, Sims, Kloak and Pressley
SIUE – Duncan, Stahlberg, Bey, Meade, and Herrod
One big thing before tip-off – Eastern has four, count em four, players averaging over five rebounds this season.
Eastern off to a 5-0 lead. Both teams are taking good shots, but SIUE can’t convert.
SIUE converts on a couple fast breaks – they’ll need to continue that tonight. Duncan drives on another to draw the foul. The Cougars are definitely pushing the ball up the floor and playing tight defense. They already have three steals in five minutes.
Bowles and McCleary providing some heckling against Eastern’s free throw shooter, but to no avail as they convert both.
Perfect encapsulation of this team – Eastern had a 3-1 fast break on Kenner, she forced the pass and Bey hustles down the court and tips the shot for the turnover. This team never gives up on a play.
Despite the hustle, SIUE is down 17-6. They’ve made a few mental error resulting in turnovers. Part of that is Eastern is just really good.
Is anything as American as the Dash for Cash? I can’t think of anything.
Cougars still down 20-8, but they’ve come back from bigger. Still plenty of time left – 10 minutes left in the half.
Both teams have scored most of their points in paint so far. Eastern has two three-pointers, but that’s been it.
Annd….Kenner hits one from outside. SIUE has had open shots, but Kenner’s been the only one to drain one. Eastern has been playing good defense inside. They haven’t allowed anything, whether closing off the lane or a hard foul.
Six steals for SIUE, with five players in on the action.
Michaela Herrod is so aggressive on offense, tonight it has paid off for four points. She doesn’t miss a chance to take a shot.
Meade hits a three to close the gap to 28-23. The Cougars have clawed their way back into this game. They’ve taken some punches, but they always struck right back. SIUE getting scoring from nearly everyone on the team – only Affourtit doesn’t have points, but she hasn’t taken a shot yet. SIUE has forced 11 turnovers.
Three minutes left in the half – Cougars within four. SIUE in double digit steals already.
16 points for SIUE off of turnovers – this is keeping them in them game. They have out-hustled Eastern all game so far. Eastern has just shot much better – 66 percent.
34 seconds left in the half, Panthers still in front 33-27. They have shot extremely well, with several mid-range jumpers falling their way.
SIUE with stifling defense, forces a shot clock violation and Duncan just misses a last second lay-up. SIUE has a ton of energy, hopefully they can keep it up in the second half.
Weird stat – SIUE has 14 rebounds to Eastern’s 18, but the Cougars have 10 offensive rebounds.
Duncan is 0-5 from behind the three-point line, but she’s hitting everything in warm-up right now. If that can carry over to the game, SIUE will be right in this.
Two minutes in, Cougars still playing hard, Eastern still shooting well. Not much has changed. Eastern increasing their lead a bit to 12, as they hold a 41-29 lead. SIUE needs to really clamp down here.
Levens takes a timeout, and a good one. SIUE is overexerting themselves, forcing bad passes and playing too fast. Eastern with a 43-29 lead.
Eastern is now in the bonus, SIUE has been called for seven fouls in under five minutes.
This has just turned into a track meet now, and Eastern is in control. They’ve dumped a couple of lay-ups in to push the lead to 14.
Ashley Bey is putting everything on the line right now. She missed a steal and picked up a foul, hitting the floor in frustration. She’s trying to take the game into her hands, but they just haven’t hit their lay-ups.
Like I said before, Michaela takes charge as much as Ashley does. She hit a lay-up and one to keep the game from getting out of hand. SIUE is shooting 30 percent to Eastern’s 62 percent right now.
Cougars getting a little hotter, they’ve almost got the gap to single digits. Eastern hits a lay-up though and brings the gap to 14.
Eastern’s continuing to work the inside, working the high-low to their advantage. They’ve got the size to do it.
Ashley Bey fouls out as she trips up on a fast break. Six and a half minutes to play and Eastern still ahead 63-48. The Cougars are going to have a bit more trouble keeping up their pace with Bey out, she runs that quick offense well.
Every time SIUE gets it to 10 or 11, Eastern answers. The Cougars just can’t seem to get over the 10 point hurdle. Eastern is just crashing the paint right now, and they’re getting the calls.
3:51 and the last media timeout is underway. Eastern is leading 67-55 and SIUE has the ball. If they can convert here it will be big. The Cougars are shooting much better in the second half – 42 to 30 percent, but Eastern is hitting 57 percent of theirs. Cougars need to get a few keep rebounds to stay in this.
Duncan smacks into a Panther and is a slow to get up, Kenner hits a three! Cougars are now in single digits. Bey fouling out may have been a blessing in disguise. They’ve slowed down a bit and are hitting shots.
Raven Berry has fouled out as well, putting two of the three leading scorers on the bench.
Michaela Herrod is absolutely lighting it up right now. She has 20 points and leading the Cougars in scoring right now.
1:12 and Cougars down by 10. Ref calls possession for Eastern – except he’s 40 feet from the play.
Men’s basketball team doing their best Barkley impression. “Kenny that was tuurble.”
Time winding down, Eastern will pull this out 74-63.
Good morning sports fans, time for another exciting Wednesday, and you know what that means (or you may not, because this is only the second installment of this particular blog…) THE WEDNESDAY WORD! So, let’s get at it.
Normally, I start out by talking about theSIUE men’s basketball team, but spare that for later on. Let’s talk about the ladies first, because they are actually worth talking about.
Much of what I have to say was talked about in great lengths on this very blog by my colleague and residential women’s basketball beat master Aren Dow last week, but I cannot help but re-emphasize what he had to say in my own words. Their performance Tuesday night and within the Ohio Valley Conference where they are 3-1 gives additional incentive.
This team is feisty. No game is over until 40 minutes of basketball have been played. If the SIUE men’s team is down 10 points with 10 minutes left in the second half, chances are they are going to lose the game by 30 points, and I will get very angry and throw things across the room.
With the women, not so fast, Charlie.
Tuesday was not one of those nights like Witchita State,Valpo or UT Martin. The scoreboard read close throughout, and in the end, the team with more determination and desire for a win was going to get it. It was not one of those games decided by sheer skill, but rather one where mental basketball would win out. SIUE did everything right to get their sixth victory of the season.
Ashley Bey provided the senior leadership with 12 points, 6 assists, 5 steals and 5 rebounds.
Melia Duncan provided the sharpshooting from both inside and outside the three-point circle, scoring 18 points (7-12 from the field, 3-5 from three), nearly matching her career high of 20 set not-so-long-ago in the South Dakota game. The girl can straight up ball.
Raven Berry gave SEMO fits inside the paint and ended her night in double figures with 12.
All in all, the Cougars showed why they will be serious OVC contenders in the coming years, and when the going got tough, they were able to hold a death-grip on their lead until the final buzzer sounded.
The Cougars were out-rebounded, but it didn’t seem to matter because they were on the ball like hawks the entire game. With their opponents ironically donning the name Redhawks, SIUE forced 24 turnovers and capitalized off of them for 26 points. The turnovers gave SIUE 12 more opportunities for field-goals, and while the shooting percentage was relatively low, (40 percent) they were able to make up the difference with their solid defensive presence leading to easy buckets in transition on the other end.
So, all in all, a great effort for the women, I will make my way out to more of your games in the future because your performance has sold me.
I feel as if the next section in this post deserves it’s own blog post, but it is Wednesday, so I cluster it all together, so STOP. Clear your head and get ready to read about the SIUE men’s basketball team from an objective, non-sugar coated, non “Oh, it’s a transition year” bullcrap approach.
I will start with the following: Cougar basketball has been in my life for a long time, going back to when I was a kid, which makes this team even that much more important to me. I cannot say enough of how proud I am of SIUE going forward and making the decision to play D-I ball the first year of my education here. If we didn’t go D-I, I would have transferred out a long time ago, and would not be having as much fun with my job as I am now.
Those are facts. Facts that make tearing this team apart come out of keyboard strikes in the name of love, and with hope.
SIUE men’s basketball is at a young time in it’s adult life, and there are hurdles not even Kayla Browncould jump. Fact is established, enter emotional tangent.
My grandparents were season ticket holders for the longest time during the Division II era, until Cassens and Sons stopped giving their employees a ridiculous amount of free tickets. I saw IPFW’s last visit to SIUE as members of the Great Lakes Valley Conference. I was there for the Jack Margenthaler days and seven win D-II seasons. I remember the beginning of the Marty Simmons era, along with the turnaround, the elite eight and the call to Evansville. I remember Wendy Hedberg before her volleyball assisting days, leading the women’s team to the NCAA tournament, and Misi Clark cementing her place in the SIUE record books, much like Ashley Bey has been doing lately. In the day, the women were the story, and some similarities are emerging here on an entirely different level.
It pains me as much as anything to watch this team lose, because I was an SIUE fan long before I was a student.
Flashforward to the present.
When you think of Southeast Missouri State basketball, what comes to mind? Is it those NCAA rules they broke in 2009, or that pristine 2-26 record last season to accompany their 339th position in the RPI? Perhaps it was the Cougars 70-69 overtime victory capped by Aamir McCleary’s buzzer beating layup last season.
The first two hold true. SEMO still sucks. They are a 7-15 team. They are improved, but it is still a fact. Anthony Allyson, Sam Pearson and Cameron Butler have grown up a little as juniors, to help SEMO win a few games, and freshmen guard Derek Thompson has put together a good season, but SEMO is still SEMO, while SIUE has went the opposite direction. Tuesday’s 68-49 loss in Cape exemplified this to almost the same degree as the women’s victory did to legitimize their recent success.
The Cougars are not losing, they are getting blown out. A 19 point-loss in college basketball is characterized as a blowout nationally, but here at SIUE we have grown accustomed to 30, 40, even 50 point losses over the past two seasons to make 19 not seem sobad.
A19 point loss is a 19 point loss, and that, my friends, is a blowout.
Tuesday wasn’t SIUE reaching rock bottom in the OVC: that deed occurred in the form of a 16-point loss to 3-17 UT Martin, a team which almostlost to D-III Westminster. Everyone in the conference seems to be taking part in SIUE’s introductory roast.
We were all optimistic about this year. Hell, I wrote on here we would win 11 games, largely due to a number of teams on the schedule coming out of the OVC, Summit League, Atlantic Sun and Independents with low RPI’s. I never factored us all of a sudden, becoming one of them – if not worse than them, but it is happening, it can be saved – but it is happening.
The level of concern comes into play when finding a solution to our misfortunes. I am sure the coaching staff is not in the dark about the problems shaping up. They are the most knowledgeable people in the world when it comes to their team and their players, and should be able to find ways to correct things.
Sometimes it’s simple. We can’t rebound?Box out and fight for the basketball. We shoot too many three-point shots without the shooters to do so consistently? Don’t shoot 25 of them a game. We don’t have the big guys to feed at the post? Get a little more movement in the offense, set screens and find the open man, and maybe create opportunities for the big guys on back-door cuts. We need a firecracker in the lineup? Play LeShaun Murphy.
It’s hard for the fans not to get frustrated to a large extent with this team, because we want to win now. Like I have said before, the players are trying their asses off, but there is only so much they can do with the skills they posses. You have to have the athletes to get the job done, and right now, to put it blatantly, we don’t.
Did Princeton complain about being the little guy in the Ivy League in the 1930’s? No. They perfected their own offense: one that has evolved over generations and would work perfectly at SIUE. The kicker is, it worked.
Needless to say, As far as SIUE basketball goes, here are my feelings: in musical form.
Somewhere, in my ramble there was a basketball game played to trigger all this built up emotion. Let’s talk about that!
The officiating, as I noticed watching the game on pixelvision and as Alex Helton reiterated as we vented frustrations on the Red Storm Facebook Group following the game played largely into the hands of the host Redhawks.
Mark Yelovich was called for a technical foul early in the first half, one purely fueled by emotion, something this team is desperately lacking. When I think of a technical foul, I think of Bob Knight throwing chairs, not a player pissed off at themselves for missing shots they usually drain. Players are going to clap their hands and yell “$#!+” or “$*#%” in situations like that. This is not middle school basketball, and just because it’s the OVC doesn’t mean everyone has to be a Southern gentleman. It happens.
The referee who whistled Yelovich for the technical, Kevin Mathis, is actually the king of technical fouls. Some D-I refs go a year without calling one. Mathis has called 13 violations this season alone in 29 games, and he has had 32 players foul out under his watchful eye. Since 1996, Mathis has issued 165 technicals.
Mathis’ call put the wheels in motion, and set the game up in SEMO’s hands. It was just a 7-3 game at the time, and although SIUE managed to keep the game close into the 20’s, it clearly set the tone for what was soon to come. Forrester benched Yelovich for a lengthy time, and the bench tired out. Once Yelovich stepped back onto the floor, he was pressing. Yelovich wanted to take the game into his own hands, and as the best player on the floor he has the right to do that. He took shots when he had the opportunity to pass and create open looks. For my money though, I’ll take Yelovich on a fade-away jumper any day.
The technical call had the eyes of the officiating crew squarely situated on number 33 in red. Yelovich earned his second foul with 9:02 left on the clock, and another trip to the pine. In a minute’s span in the second half he received three and four. Number five came when the Cougars desperately needed him on the floor trying to recapture momentum on the offensive end, where he dished the ball off while contested beneath the basket to avoid drawing a charge, and was whistled for it anyways.
A number of off-the-ball offensive foul calls on the Cougars also played into the hands of SEMO, and despite both teams drawing an equal 23 fouls in the game, SEMO earned the more important whistles.
As harsh as I have been, the Cougars have managed to correct a few issues and come away with some positives.
They out-rebounded SEMO 34-32. This coming after doing the same to Murray State (44-31) in a big loss earlier in the week. SIUE even had nine on the offensive end, so it appears the boards are starting to be a little kinder to the Cougars.
It all came down to exactly what happened against Murray, and why the Princeton offense, again would be helpful to this team. SIUE had six assists the entire game and shot 30 percent. Those are the only two telling stats in the boxscore. The 20 turnovers played a huge factor, but the Cougars forced 15.
No fast break points and a huge disparity inside the paint were factors, but that was namely because the Cougars operated at a mythological pace and took too many bad shots from the outside, going 4-20 from beyond the arc, with Cody Rincker going 3-7 and Anthony Mitchell 1-1 to make up the other. Not everyone is Cody Rincker from that territory.
Speaking of Rincker, he turned in a career game, with 13 points, and made all four of his free-throws, the first he has attempted all season. Yelovich was the only other player in double figures with 10.
So, what does SIUE take from this game?
They need McCleary healthy. His presence after going down with a hip injury against Murray State was sorely missed, as was Yelovich’s, spending the majority of the game benched with foul trouble. They need to take good shots, and not shots for the sake of taking shots. They need to take better care of the basketball. In hindsight, the things that went wrong were minor mistakes, but those are what separates great teams from good teams, and good teams from bad teams.
A 30 percent night from the field will not get it done no matter how many rebounds you pull down, no matter how many minutes your best player plays. Adjustments can, and will be made.
We will get through this together, Cougar Nation. I promise.
Time for some random tidbits to close out this exhaustive essay:
The NCAA Is apparently talking about upgrading it’s Division I tournament from the 65 team format we all know and love to include 96 teams. Nothing is imminent at the moment, but it all rests on the NCAA’s contract with CBS Sports, and it’s contract with the NIT. Money is a huge player in the decision-making process here.
There are more teams competing at the D-I level now than ever before, in fact, there are 347 of them, including the newest foresome SIUE, South Dakota, North Dakota and Seattle. You can argue with more teams comes a bigger need to install more teams into the NCAA but it shouldn’t work like that.
A quarter of the teams in the country should not be dancing. It would make the first round a meaningless carousel of erasing mid-majors, and weakening the importance of a bid. Arizona,Kentucky or Georgia finish 18-14 in a year and don’t get a bid? Too bad. They don’t deserve it anyways. Best case scenario for the NCAA’s is to eliminate an at-large bid and stop singling out lower tier conference winners in the play-in game atrocity, or make a day out of it and add 3 more games so teams can fight for those 16 seeds. 31 more teams pushes it all too far.
ESPN is starting to anger me more than ever before. I love sports analysis as much as the next guy, but they could do a documentary on Dwight Freeney’s leg or Kobe Bryant fighting adversity and resiliently taking down the Lakers scoring record… Oh, and for the record: the Lakers lost. Who beat them? An OVC alum! So congrats to Lester Hudson, formerly a UT Martin Skyhawk with the Memphis Grizzlies for attempting, yet failing to shut the worldwide leader up.
Speaking of Freeney, there’s this thing Sunday, I don’t know if you have heard about it, but it’s called the Super Bowl. Who ya got? I’ve got the Saints.
Join me while I blow off sociology class with an SIUE Twitter party exxtravaganza!! Live links to the game are available here and you can follow my extremely exciting Twitter here. LIVE from PECK HALL! IT’S GOING TO BE A BLAST!!!!
The Ohio Valley Conference has announced the conference’s pairings for this year’s Bracketbuster event, sponsored by ESPN, and as I stated a little earlier, the Cougars will be traveling to Fullerton, Calif. to take on the Titans of Cal State Fullerton. The game will be played Feb. 20, and as a part of the whole bracketbuster deal, Fullerton will be coming to the Vadalabene Center in a return game next season, or so it is supposed to pan out.
Here is a little bit to know about the Titans.
They are 10-10 overall, (4-4 Big West Conference,) with their biggest win being a 68-65 overtime victory over UCLA on Nov. 17. Fullerton is winners of their last two games, beating UC Irvine and Cal State Bakersfield. They are three games behind Pacific in the conference standings in fourth place.
Perhaps a negative omen for SIUE, the Titans have controlled their home court all season long. They are 7-1 at the wonderfully named Titan Gym.
Fullerton is 5-5 against teams with RPI’s over 200. SIUE comes into Bracketbuster announcement day with an RPI of 314, the Titans at 211, so kind of a surprising pick on ESPN’s part, considering there were worse teams designated as home squads out there for the Cougars to match up with, in Gardner Webb (307) and Manhattan (223.)
It is however, no surprise to me we are going to the West Coast, kind of the normality for lower tier midwest teams in Bracketbusters.
Fullerton leads the Big West, averaging 77.3 points per game, (99th in the country) 36 rebounds a game and 14 assists. They also let down an average of 70 points per game, (234th in the nation) so really, not the most defensively minded team out there.
Here are really all the Fullerton stats you would ever want. I fully endorse statsheet.com. It’s awesome.
Listed below are the other OVC bracketbusters – Murray State will know their opponent at 4:30 when ESPNU announces the TV games. No matter what, it is going to be a VERY important game for the Racers, with an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament potentially on the line in the future.
I never thought I would blog about the NBA again. I’m not sure what it is about it this year, but I can’t stop watching the NBA, and the NBA’s Dunk Contest is coming up on Feb. 13. As participants go, you have Nate Robinson, Gerald Wallace of the Charlotte Bobcats, the Lakers’ Shannon Brown (who mentioned who would win even if MJ was in it), and the Dunk-In winner of either DeMar DeRozan or Eric Gordon.
Krypto-Nate Robinson:
Two time NBA Slam Dunk Contest winner (2006, 2009)
Is listed as 5’9 with his shoes on
Vertical leap of almost 44 inches
Shannon Brown:
not a big fan of the Lakers, but this guy is from Maywood and even was teammates with Dee Brown at Proviso East High School.
Illinois Mr. Basketball in 2003
Played his college ball at Michigan State (woo Big Ten)
Gerald Wallace:
One of the most versatile guys in the league
2010 marks his first NBA All-Star appearance
2002 NBA Slam Dunk Contest runner-up
DeMar DeRozan:
Will face the Clippers’ Eric Gordon in a dunk-in at halftime of the NBA Rookie Challenge. This marks the first year doing this. The winner of that face-off is the final participant in this year’s contest.
On tape, one of the most impressive dunkers in the NBA. This guy is so raw.
2009 Pac-10 Tournament MVP for USC
Only 20 years of age
Eric Gordon:
2007 Indiana Mr. Basketball
2008 Big Ten Freshman of the Year, also made first team All-Big Ten that year
2009 NBA All-Rookie Second team
Check out the website see highlight reels of all of this year’s dunk participants. From what I have seen, Wallace and DeRozan look the most impressive heading into this year’s endeavor.
So, congratulations to Dunson, I wish you never left SIUE, but am happy for you moving forward with your collegiate basketball career.
Dunson had narrowed his choices down to ASU, California, UCLA, Illinois and Oklahoma State, before making the decision. ASU made their offer to the guard yesterday.
Dunson recieved limited playing time at SIUE after transferring in from UT Chattanooga, making his debut against Loyola Dec. 22, 2008. Dunson averaged 6 points and 2.2 rebounds a game for SIUE last season, and his career high point total as a Cougar was 15 against Oakland City. He scored 120 points in a Cougar uniform, and transferred to Wabash Valley, a junior college this season to up his recruiting stock. Dunson has been averaging just over 11 points a game for WVC.
Here are a few of Dunson’s SIUE highlights, complete with an awful soundtrack.
After starting out 2-15 for the season, the SIUE women’s squad has come out with victory in three of their last five games, including their lone win on the road. The Cougars most recently bested future Ohio Valley Conference foe UT Martin, bringing their imaginary conference record to 2-1.
I unfortunately missed the game because of a little thing called class, but caught a few highlights on Channel 10 to see the Cougars in action. They looked the same as they have all year – resilient and determined. No matter what kind of funk this team gets into, they never give up. Whatever Coach Amanda Levens is selling to her players, it’s working. And recently, it’s producing wins.
Here’s a list of the deficits they’ve closed (or almost closed) in the second half this season
Valparaiso – down 19, closed to within six (1:11 left)
Wichita State – down 21, closed to within five (0:34 left)
Northern Kentucky – down 7, won by three
Eastern Kentucky – down 21, closed to within three (0:57 left)
UT Martin – down 8, won by three
The two words encompassing the resiliency of the Cougars – Ashley Bey. She will take the game into her hands when she needs to, whether to sacrifice her body to draw a foul, up her outstanding defense and/or find the open shooter. You can tell the team feeds off her energy as well. Ashley doesn’t seem like a strong vocal leader, but her play does enough to rally the rest of the team around her.
Bey only has a few games left as a Cougar, but she is making every one count. Her stat line in the UT Martin is plain ridiculous – eight points, nine rebounds, seven steals and six assists. When UT Martin crept to a three point lead with five minutes left, it was Bey who had two consecutive steals and assists to permanently give SIUE the lead.
The team’s recent success, I think, it mainly due to the team improving as a whole. Besides Bey, Sydney Stahlberg and Whitney Champlin, every other player is a freshman or sophomore. Besides Bey, Melia Duncan, Madison Meade and Kate Affourtit, everyone on the team was brand new playing for SIUE.
In the first few games of the season, SIUE ran the high-low from Bey to Raven Berry seemingly every other play. It was for good reason, that was how they scored much of their points. This team has evolved since then, Duncan has a killer three-pointer when she finds her shot and Michaela Herrod is a valuable post presence.
Tangent on Duncan – Levens talked after the South Dakota game about how Duncan doesn’t know how good she really is. Which you can see. Melia will put up 20 and say afterwards, “I guess I had a good game.” She is very humble about her game. She’ll make the extra pass sometimes, even if she is open. The game against South Dakota showed her potential – 7-10 shooting and 3-4 behind the arc (the lone three-pointer was a last-ditch shot as the shot clock ran out). The ceiling is awfully high…
Of course, it doesn’t hurt SIUE to play teams similar to them either. Winning on the road against Wisconsin, Northwestern and Wichita State just isn’t realistic, playing teams in OVC gives a better gauge of where this team is.
Right now, it doesn’t look too bad.
They’ve lost some close games and gave up a few leads, but as I said before they can pull the same trick. All three of their games against OVC schools have been extremely close – all have been decided by five points or less. Is it any coincidence all three games were won by the home team? Probably not.
Where we are, I like seeing that.
I get a sense, even though we are in our transitional phase, we aren’t playing like it. SIUE is competing at a level where we can compete with any other school in the conference. They’ve beat four D-I teams, which is already three more than last year. That’s all you can ask for from this team. In time, the Wisconsin’s and Northwestern’s will become more of a match-up.
The rest of the schedule (besides Miami (FL) and the Robert Morris exhibition), is a great schedule for the Cougars to end with some noise. Every school is either in the OVC next year or an independent school like we are at the moment.
To win three or four more games would be absolutely fantastic. We have the toughest OVC team at home in Eastern Illinois, all other OVC schools are on the road. The Cougars have come within five points to winning a D-I game on the road this season, and to win one or two would show the progress made this year.
The two-hour drive to Southeast Missouri State (their next game – Tuesday at 5:30) is actually the shortest drive to any other school in the OVC. (I think Eastern Illinois loses by 11 miles or so). Make the trip if you can, and cheer on the young, talented team. You won’t be disappointed.
Murray State is a very good college basketball team. They are the class of the Ohio Valley Conference, and have a decent shot at an at-large bid in the NCAA tournament if they fail to win the conference tournament in Nashville.
SIUE, well, that’s a different story, and when the two teams met at the Regional Special Events Center in Murray, Ky. Wednesday night, well, let’s just say things got ugly.
I had a dream last night I would like to share, passing out shortly after game time and sleeping for 15 hours, and for some reason I thought it was real. real, that is until I actually checked my phone. I have ESPN text alerts for SIUE. Every time the Cougars tip off, reach halftime or a game goes final, they tell me about it. In my dream, I got a text: MURR 90 SIUE 88.
About 10 this morning I checked my phone for real and it read: MURR 86 SIUE 49.
That sounds about right.
Not having the liberty to watch the game, I have to break it down statistically, to find out exactly what happened. SIUE played a great first half against the Racers at the Vadalabene Center, before the ordinary second-half hangover hit and the scoreboard had them down 30 in the end.
Like I said, Murray State has a great all-around team. They are ranked No. 8 among midmajors, and sport a 19-3 record, as winners of their last ten games, and boy did they show SIUE who owns this conference.
Murray was hot, shooting 58 percent from the floor. No one is going to beat a team shooting that hot on any given night. They were also 7-13 from beyond the arc, which provides an example to SIUE.
A three-point shot doesn’t count for three points unless it goes down the bucket.
Aamir McCleary went down with a hip injury in this game for the Cougars, early in the first half. His presence was inevitably missed, because he is one of two players on this team we can usually count on for a good game. If he played the entire game, we are probably looking at a 28 point loss, as optimistic as that may seem.
Anyways, lets go inside the numbers.
Nikola Bundalo got his second career double-double in this one (12 points, 11 rebounds,) a performance they have desperately needed from him night in, night out as the Cougars have struggled from the inside all season long. This is encouraging, wish we would have seen more of this from the big fella’ throughout the year.
SIUE OUT-REBOUNDED THE RACERS 44-31 INCLUDING 23 ON THE OFFENSIVE GLASS.
Why the all-caps? This is a huge moral victory and head scratcher. Why? We found a new way to lose.
If anyone told me the Cougars strength was inside the paint and they got a double-double from Nik and out-rebounded a team by 16, I would have thought they won. Oh contrar.
SIUE was actually outscored inside the paint 50-18 and scored zero on the fast break, to 25 for Murray. Moral of the story? TURNOVERS.
SIUE had 17 of them, which really isn’t a whole lot, it’s what the Racers did with them and the way they took care of the basketball. Murray only had eight.
The Racers also scored 25 points off those turnovers, a ridiculous amount, and got 40 point from their bench.
The Cougars depth was nowhere to be seen again, they had 20 points off the pine with McCleary missing a big chunk of time. SIUE did not score a single point off the bench in their loss to UT Martin.
Stat of the night: Assists. Murray had 25, to SIUE’s 10, contributing to their fast break scores and points in the paint. Really hard to lose a game with 25 assists, that’s unselfish team basketball at its best. Speaking of unselfish team basketball, how about Murray having three players in double-figures and another four with eight points. Their leading scorer for the game only had 13.
The Cougars lost to team basketball last night despite a better effort inside than we are used to seeing.
The 27 percent shooting and 5-18 from three were factors too, and the offensive rebounds don’t mean anything if you can’t capitalize on them, which SIUE did not, as is justified by their low shooting percentage, and 10 second chance points. 23 offensive rebounds were turned into five baskets. That just doesn’t cut it.
All the analysis for now, SEMO up next, they are improved from a year ago, when SIUE beat them in overtime on new years eve.
In three days, 30 men enter the ring at the Royal Rumble. The sole survivor earns a shot at either the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. Last week, Big Show, John Cena, Shawn Michaels and Triple H all claimed that they would win the Rumble.
I predict that either Michaels or Triple H will win — regardless of whether they enter number one, number 30 or anywhere inbetween. If Michaels wins, he’ll try to break the Undertaker’s undefeated streak as well add another title reign to his already impressive resume (assuming that ‘Taker defeats Rey Mysterio at the Rumble). If Triple H wins, McMahon’s prized possession of a son-in-law gets a taste of gold, yet again. Either way, DX splits (hopefully!) and the comedy act is no more. I can’t be the only one sick of seeing two of the best wrestlers of the day stuck in comedy skits…can I?
The debacles going on in the title hunt on RAW have Randy Orton and Sheamus, the WWE Champion, going crazy. Orton challenges Sheamus for the belt Sunday, and with Legacy seemingly back on his good side, there’s a good possibility of Orton getting a win.
As far as the pending breakdown of Legacy, I love the bait and switch tactic of Cody Rhodes and Ted Dibiase Jr. appearing to betray Orton one week, then redeem themselves the next.
On the ECW front, Ezekiel Jackson challenges Christian for the ECW championship. Jackson has had William Regal on his side for some time, so the deck is stacked against Christian. But here’s hoping he retains.
World Heavyweight Champion the Undertaker will put his belt on the line against the ultimate underdog, Rey Mysterio. As much as I enjoy watching Mysterio and seeing the underdog win, I expect ‘Taker to come out on top and head to Wrestlemania to defend his undefeated streak.
Michelle McCool will finally have to face up to her insults and childish ridicule of Mickie James—with the Women’s Championship on the line. James has her chance for the ultimate retribution. With any luck, James will wrestle (emphasis on wrestle) the title away from McCool.
Locally, Lethal Wrestling Alliace (LWA) put on their first “No Restrictions” show Saturday in O’ Fallon, Ill. “The Rebel” Jeremy Wyatt versus the returning Billy McNeil and “Future” Donovan Ruddik (the 6’9” Monster) taking on Ring of Honor start Tyler Black were, by far, the two best matches of the night. Almost every bout spilled to the outside where wrestlers crashed into steel chairs and the solid, brick wall — one of the many perks of being an indy wrestling fan, fleeing from wrestlers as they battle through the crowd.
Take trip to Wood River for Metro East Championship Wrestling (MECW), where MECW Champion Bailey Mannix will defend his championship and others such as Markus Crane and Matt Mayday, formerly known as Krotch, will be in action. The show starts at 7:30 p.m. Saturday at the Knights of Columbus Hall.
Seems like it’s been forever since we have updated this thing, my apologies, got a little sidetracked with classes starting back up, but the Alestle started back up as well, no real excuses, no rest for the weary, that sort of thing.
All of that being said, there is a lot to talk about, so let’s get rolling!
The SIUE men’s basketball team has hit a rough patch. There have not been a whole lot of positives to write home about this season, there are various things factoring into this, and it has been a frustrating time for all of us who consider ourselves to be fans of the mighty Cougars. (Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t be a fan, because I’m a so-called ‘journalist,’ but the school gets tuition money from me too.)
The last column I wrote summed up what I feel this team is about, and since it ran the team has done nothing to make me change my mind. We suck.
It is hard to be rough on these guys. You cannot help but like our team, they’re a bunch of lovable losers, really classy guys and I’m sure all the losing has been taking its toll on them and incredibly hard to stomach. Going to Division I isn’t easy, and I do not like using it as an excuse because SIUE has so much going for it, being in the Ohio Valley Conference (No. 21 in conference RPI) and what not, having a great recruiting pipeline (St. Louis and Chicago) and becoming more and more a legit college.
Now I’m done being nice and ready to talk business.
Monday’s game shows us how far we have come, or not come for that matter throughout this process.
UT Martin entered the game dead-last in the OVC. At the Alestle, we count OVC games against SIUE in our newspaper’s OVC standings. No one else does. So, as it stands, the Skyhawks are 0-9 in real OVC play, and 1-9 in Cougar-included OVC play. They are 3-16 overall, with wins against the Cougars and a pair of non-DI schools, Westminster (Tenn.) and the pride of St. Louis, Harris Stowe. To put it lightly, losing to this team was really really really embarrassing. (notice how the expletives were replaced with the word ‘really?’…Really?
How bad was it? Picture us losing to the mess SEMO was last season or New Jersey Tech during their two-season long losing streak. Maybe picture what it would be like if SIUE lost to a D-III school…oh, that actually happened. Never mind. Through Sunday, SIUE’s RPI ranking sat at No. 318 out of 346 D-I schools, Martin at 335, so that number will inevitably drop.
A few telling stats from the boxscore, and nothing really out of the ordinary here.
Mark Yelovich and Aamir McCleary combined to score 38 of SIUE’s 56 points. Breaking out the good old calculator, we figure that is 68 percent of the team’s offensive total. Without these two guys on the floor the Cougars have zero pulse.
McCleary’s night could have been even better had he been knocking down his shots. He was just 6-18 from the field, 2-4 from three-point territory and knocked down two of three free-throws. He had five rebounds, tied for the team lead with who else? Mark Yelovich.
So, Mark and Aamir, you get a pass on this one.
SIUE shot 38 percent as a team, and the bench scored ZERO POINTS in 61 combined minutes. 30 of that went to the defensive efforts of Stephen Jones, while the freshmen LeShaun Murphy played just seven minutes, going 0-2 with one rebound. SIUE collected just 27 rebounds the entire game, to UT Martin’s 46. SIUE had just six on the offensive glass to 15 for UTM.
The Cougars again, took 24 shots from beyond the three-point line, making eight.
So, what is new?
Absolutely nothing.
There is really no point in analyzing this team because every single game they have the same problems, and if you read up on your Cougar basketball you can easily get a sense of Deja Vu. Wait, did they just take the game story from the Kennesaw State game and slap on UT Martin’s name instead? Seems like it.
A change in philosophy is really the only thing in order here. Lennox Forrester claims to preach to his guys about playing the game inside out, working the interior post and kicking it out to create open looks. Coach, how do you improve on rebounding? “well, I’ll tell the guys to box out and harp on it in practice…” yet, here we are, 20 games into the basketball season and the same things are happening over and over again.
Is it too late to switch things up and implement a motion or Princeton style offense to push aside the failed high post strategy? Probably.
Again, by no means do I want to be hard on these guys, but the smartest college basketball man I have ever met, Kyle Whelliston of the Mid Majority(who was in town for the Robert Morris game,) said it best trying to describe what he has seen from SIUE. He told me our guys have a real business-like approach to the game. Kind of like robots, they go out there, play basketball and that’s it. On a more awesome note, here is a photo of myself and his friend Bally.
Next time you watch SIUE, pay attention to their composure on the court.
I won’t go into detail about the Robert Morris game, but 92-71? Come on. They are in the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. I had never even heard of that before the game. Yes, there is a level of college basketball BELOW the NAIA and we witnessed it.
In other news (somewhat related,) there has been some off-the-court trouble-making on the part of SIUE recruit Alex Brown, which I did a little brief on a few weeks ago but alas, the juicy details regarding his suspension from the Herrin High School basketball team have emerged, in an article by the Benton Evening News.
At first I laughed, then I cried, and after that I wrote a View From the Sidelines column sharing my opinions on the matter for Thursday’s paper. Big decision looming for coach Forrester, his staff and AD Hewitt, and it could mean another scholarship becoming available during the off-season recruiting period if SIUE decides to act on the matter.
In my opinion, Brown, the Harts and the Hart’s mom; who inevitably attempted to take a bullet for her kids as all mothers of distressed teenagers do, are not giving away the whole story. There has got to be more than this, and it could cost Brown more than just half a high school basketball season.
Another intriguing SIUE basketball related note involves former Cougar guard Brandon Dunson.
Dunson left the Cougars after playing just one semester of basketball upon transferring into SIUE from UT Chattanooga for Wabash Valley, a junior college. It kind of upset me, to be honest because I was expecting big things from the kid. Apparently, people obviously more important than me feel the same way.
I didn’t understand the reasoning behind Dunson’s transfer to Wabash Valley of all places. Maybe Bradley in the Missouri VALLEY, but not WABASH VALLEY. The reasoning behind his departure is now apparent because bigger and better things await, and transferring to another mid-major right away for his sophomore season of eligibility means another long red-shirt period due to NCAA guidelines. Dunson is getting scouted HEAVILY by the likes of UCLA, Gonzaga, Arizona State, Illinois, Oklahoma State, USC and Nevada. The Gonzaga people seem to be excited at the prospect of having Dunson join their squad, and according to Dunson’s twitter page, all of the major schools looking at him seem to be eager for his services.
This is jaw-dropping news to me that he was ever that good. Dunson is averaging 11.5 points a game at Wabash, and looked to be an intriguing player to watch at the mid-major level, but never a guy playing half his season on ESPN. Looks like the kid has options now, good for him, but SIUE could sure use his contributions right now…(cough…play LeShaun Murphy more…cough.)
Men’s basketball is all the talk, because of the media coverage, but the women have been doing fairly well recently, as in not consistently being awful, and being winners of their last two home contests against D-I schools, something the men have yet to do over two seasons. Things are really looking up for Amanda Levens and crew, they could legitimately compete for the OVC regular season crown next season, with the conference on the women’s side shaping up horrendously thus far in 2010, (although it would all be for naught, with no trip to the conference tourney and what not.)
We have baseball, softball and tennis getting started up soon, hopefully we see a few positive story-lines come across featuring those teams down the road, because we need them.
Finally, I just wanted to end by congratulating the Southern Star Dancers on winning their competition this past weekend in Chicago. Good job.
Also, wanted to give a shout out to Alex Helton for his feedback on a few of our blogs, not hard to agree on any analysis of the Cougars, or headless chickens.
That’s all, keep your pant’s off the ground all you cool cats.
The Cougars blew another halftime lead and lost to UMKC tonight.
I was not happy about it.
Normally my job requires me to show no emotion or bias in supporting SIUE athletics. I am after all, a journalist. First and foremost though, I have a lot of pride for the Cougars, which I feel is okay since I am a student. Being christmas/winter/holiday break (whichever you prefer) and being a native of Edwardsville (and not having anywhere to go home for the holidays because, um, I’m already here,) I wanted to go to the Vadalabene Center tonight. I had two choices: be the journalist I am, providing some sort of game story recap on this very blog, attend the post-game press conference, get quotes and provide some live game blog analysis, or since the Alestle does not print over the recess from classes go to the game in an entirely different function. That of a fan.
And I chose the latter.
This was new to me. I could yell things at the other team and clap. it didn’t help the Cougars efforts being one of about ten students in the audience of 1,650 but being able to partake in the emotion and intensity of college basketball was something special for me.
It didn’t hurt that the marketing people chose me out of the deserted student section to participate in the Commerce Bank Dash for Cash at the first media timeout of the second half, they really didn’t have a choice. It was me or my friend who attends Illinois State. After the home opener Nov. 15 it was safe to say he was not stepping foot on that court. I got $93 out of it, not too shabby, considering I would have made about $24 covering the exact same game and having to do some serious “work.”
The Cougars jumped out to an early 9-0 lead while shooting over 60 percent from the field. Nikolo Bundalo opened things up with a nice hook-shot in the lane, Mark Yelovich tallied a mid-range floater, Denycko Bowles hit a three and Yelovich capped it off nailing another jump shot.
Things were looking good for SIUE. UMKC could not get a rebound if their scholarships depended on it and SIUE was doing a good job maintaining defensive pressure and forcing turnovers.
Then it got away a little bit and the tide began to turn. The Kangaroos fought off an 8-0 run of their own to get within one and after another Cougars run they got back into the game yet again and went into the locker room down two.
My first thought at the break was “here we go again.”
The same thing happened to SIUE at home against Lipscomb and IPFW. They led Lipscomb by eight at halftime on the road before getting pummeled in the second half towards a 20 point defeat. It is nothing against the will of the players, they just cannot play 40 minutes of solid basketball on any given night. You can bet on 20, but 40 is pushing it just a little bit.
It is all the mental things that cost the Cougars tonight, and I saw a direct correlation with SIUE’s volleyball team. Now, I am starting to talk like a sports reporter, but the problem with SIUE’s 2-27 volleyball squad was their inability to put together a solid match throughout. When opponents made runs the Cougars never had the intangible ability to shift the momentum back in a positive direction. Back to basketball, it is the same problem. It is all mental. You can contribute this to whatever you want, inexperience, coaching or execution. In my opinion, tonight’s loss was a combination of all three things.
Inexperience: When UMKC went on runs the Cougars confidence took a nose-dive and there was no way they would be able to kick it into overdrive. Chalk this up to having a young team.
Coaching: Kevin Stineman should not be starting basketball games. Nothing against him, but he is not what we need in the starting five even if Stephen Jones can’t go, which was the case today. There is no reason in my mind at least to play a defensive specialist in the starting lineup when you have scorers like LeShaun Murphy at your disposal. Sure, Murphy is a freshmen, but when he is on his game he has the ability to be the most electric player on the basketball court. Murphy is fourth on the team in scoring with 6.1 ppg in limited action. Stineman? 3.2 ppg. Bowles probably needs to get his starter tag removed as well, in favor of David Boarden. A starting lineup of Bundalo, Yelovich, Murphy, McCleary and Boarden sounds absolutely deadly in my mind. Stineman had two points to show for his 27 minutes on the court. Bowles put together a decent effort with a season-high ten points, but he has not proven to be a consistent answer for SIUE.
Execution: The Cougars take way too many three-point shots. You can attribute this to having virtually no interior game, but you have to try to get buckets however you can and the perimeter is not the answer. SIUE went 4-18 from long-range, and the second half was just a disaster from that point of view. It doesn’t help that there isn’t someone to depend as a garbage disposal down low to punish the inside and get some hard-earned points, but the Cougars need to find better ways to attack defenses. I don’t care if Dob Mavrik rebounds with one hand or if Zeke Schneider is still a work in progress. UMKC was switching up their looks a lot, and that proved frustrating, as they mixed and matched zone coverage with man-to-man throughout the second half. Execution was also lacking on the defensive end. SIUE sent the Kangaroos to the free-throw line 35 times, and they capitalized on 27 attempts. There’s your game. Nearly 43 percent of all of UMKC’s points CAME FROM THE FREE THROW LINE. It deserves to be capitalized and now spelled out, because it was FOURTY-THREE PERCENT OF ALL OF THEIR POINTS. You cannot do that and expect to win at any level of basketball. That, is how you win a basketball game shooting 38 percent from the field.
Rebounding was a little bit better for the Cougars, but UMKC is not a good rebounding team by any stretch of the imagination. They came in averaging under 30 per contest. They ended up holding the advantage 36-32 in this one, after SIUE got a little sloppy boxing out in the second half.
SIUE forced more turnovers than they gave up, 20-15, but it sure didn’t seem like it. Almost every time the Cougars had a critical posession the ball ended up headed the other way.
The last ten minutes of this game my hands were on my head and my heart was sinking with every missed oppurtunity or UMKC free-throw attempt. Yelling at UMKC’s Kurt Korver and telling him he’ll never be as good as his brother (Utah Jazz forward and former Creighton bluejay Kyle Korver) was also a highlight of this rare oppurtunity to just kick back and watch some Cougar basketball, just as I did watching the game against Purdue on ESPNU last week.
I would have traded my $93 in prize money for that first Cougar’s Division I victory on home soil, but it wasn’t meant to be, and now I’m left with a wad leaving people wondering where I’ve been and this blog entry highlighting the woulda coulda shoulda’s of tonight’s game.
As a fan I just have to keep reminding myself the wins will come, and one day we will be crowned Ohio Valley Conference champions earning ourselves an automatic bid in the big dance, and as a reporter I have to remind myself that one day in the near future I will have to ask Coach Forrester another tough question.
The SIUE Cougars return home tonight after a respectable showing against Purdue on national television a week ago (I thought it was respectable enough) to take on the University of Missouri at Kansas City Kangaroos. (Who according to a source are staying at the Marriot in Union Station for this game,) hard to imagine they spent Christmas there after their game a week ago at Saint Louis University, but that’s where they are. Probably liked it too much.
The Roo’s have played a rather pedestrian schedule. SIUE is their fourth oponent they will have played inelligible for the NCAA Tournament, the others being North Dakota, (W: 70-63) Houston Baptist (W: 102-87) and Central Arkansas, (W: 78-67) as well as two wins over Division two schools (Lincoln (Mo.) and Truman State.) UND, HBU and UCA are all bottom-50 RPI teams, and none of their wins really stick out.
All in all, UMKC is a very beatable team for the Cougars, who have moved up 21 spots in the RPI to 308 at 2-10 while UMKC enters at 4-5 and number 261.
Last time out, the Roo’s gave a much-improved Saint Louis University Billikins team a battle at Chaifetz Arena, going into the break tied at 25 before losing by seven. Trey McKinney scored 18 and had six rebounds to lead the team in an attempt to pull a major upset against SLU, a team which started the year hot outside of Atlantic Ten play with impressive victories over Nebraska, SIU Carbondale and Belmont.
Exactly a year ago, the Cougars beat the Kangaroos 77-71 at Kemper Arena behind a 24 point effort off the bench by Aaron Garriott, who is no longer with the team. As far as how tonight’s projected starters faired points-wise in that game to get an idea of what we may see tonight: Yelovich (9) Bundalo (14) McCleary (6) Jones (2) Bowles (2).
Last year’s UMKC squad went 7-24, and just 3-15 in the Summit, so they are looking to be a little bit improved this time around, and I expect they will be. SIUE’s record may not indicate it, but all signs point to an also-better squad than last season. Remember, SIUE was a couple of breaks from victories against Lipscomb, IPFW and Ball State.
It’s not horseshoes, and it’s not handgrenades, but there is no NCAA tournament at the end of the road, so almost gets an honorable mention today.
What should the Cougars be looking for tonight? Thankfully not Dane Brumagin, the senior forward who led the Roos with 34 points in last season’s game.
They have a trio of guys averaging in double-figures, Jay Coisnard is their biggest offensive weapon (14.2 ppg) with Latrese Mushatt (11.8 ppg) and Jones (11.1 ppg) following up.
The Kangaroos are not the most inept rebounding team, their highest glass cleaner averages just over 5 a game, the team just under 30 (29.9 RPG)
So a fairly even battle, Cougars have played the tougher schedule out of the two teams, and with this one at home it is going to be a real trap game for the Kangaroos. My money is on SIUE to move to 3-10 on the season, keep in mind UMKC may possibly be looking ahead to their game Wednsesday at Missouri.
Game time is at 7:00, hope to see a packed Vadalabene Center, I will be attending as a fan instead of a journalist for this one, first time I have been able to do that for a while, so I am looking forward to it and being biased.
Good afternoon everybody, hope break is going well, hopefully better than its been to the Cougars so far after a 79-61 loss to Loyola at the Vadalabene Center Sunday.
It’s back to the court today for Lennox Forrester and crew, and things don’t get any easier with the fourth best team in the nation waiting.
It’s tough to break down these guarantee games. We know SIUE is the definite underdog in this one, and likely the results will not be pretty. We will lose and the basketball program will get a big check for having the kahoneys to travel to West Lafayette.
After the Loyola game, Forrester was quoted in an article by the Alton Telegraph as saying “If we play like we did (Sunday) we will lose by 70 points.”
Unfortunately I have to attribute them because I was unable to make it out to the game, but it’s the same thing.
The Purdue contingent is not too happy about this one being on the schedule. I don’t blame them. SIUE comes into this one ranked #327 in the latest RPI ratings, Purdue is #8, a little down from their AP national ranking due to their strength of schedule. Purdue’s schedule is ranked 69th toughest in the nation up to this point, after playing the likes of North Dakota State (#280) IPFW (#263) Ball State (#220) and CS Northridge (#153). There is a lot of complaining over cupcakes in West Lafayette.
Needless to say, the Boilermakers have beat some decent teams. You don’t climb to the #4 national ranking doing nothing. They have wins over #11 Tennessee in the Virgin Islands, a win over Wake Forest in the Big Ten ACC Challenge and a nice victory over Alabama. SIUE is their final tuneup for Big Ten play, which begins against Iowa (a team I am convinced SIUE could beat, the Hawkeyes are awful) next Tuesday.
“purdue is going to kick butt tonight they r going to crush siue”
“This game is gonna be a blowout. Boiler up!”
“no matter how soft siu-edwardsville is, it’s hard to resist +41. it’s christmas time… certainly purdue will show some compassion?” (my favorite one!)
“purdue’s schedule needs some big boy games, enough of the playing high school teams.” OUCH!
“remind me again why this game is even being played?? I will be very disappointed if we ever schedule a team of this magnitude – or lack thereof – again.”
So, to conclude, the Purdue people are not really excited about this one.
So, who to watch for Purdue?
E’Twaun Moore (16.1 PPG) Robbie Hummel (15 PPG 7.3 RPG)
I would expect atleast 20 and ten from Hummel if Cougars cannot contain him. I would expect Yelovich to be matching up with him, expect Stephen Jones getting a lot of minutes for defensive purposes to guard Moore.
Keys to the game for SIUE:
1. Don’t try and run with Purdue. The Boilers average 78 points and SIUE CANNOT run with them. Try and slow things down in the half-court and get some open looks. With this offense it is not going to happen, but that is a way to keep this one somewhat close.
2. Rebounding. As usual with the Cougars, they are 2-0 when they out rebound the opponent, 0-9 when they don’t. They need to pay extra close attention to blocking out.
3. Don’t play like you did Sunday. Forrester said his team would lose by 70 points if this happens. They cannot play scared and have to come out with some swagger.
That’s about all for now, as I wait for my SIUE hoodie in the washing machine. Game time is 45 minutes away from Mackey Arena, and Buffalo Wild Wings for me. Hope to see you there.
For SIUE to secure a deal with Carbondale to put the Cougars on their basketball schedule is a massive achievement for the university. The Dec. 19 match is already generating buzz on both campuses – for different reasons – and is sure to be a highlight game for the Cougars this season.
The trouble with scheduling mid-majors is that, well, they don’t want to be scheduled. Those schools were in the position SIUE was in one time, and they are not looking to go back anytime soon. School like Carbondale and Illinois State have no interest in playing the Cougars; there is little upside. If they win, well, they were supposed to. But if they lose, that prompts angry questions from the fan base and later pops up on ESPN as a “bad loss” come March. And for mid-majors, they need every advantage they can get in as an at-large bid.
SIUE is not an attractive name for many of the neighboring universities like SLU, Illinois State and Evansville. Of course, they will schedule SIUE because they have the same problem the Cougars have – the U of I’s and Mizzou’s have no interest in losing to the mid-majors.
For SIUC, it is a little different; it does make some sense for the Salukis to schedule SIUE. It means a slightly larger crowd, which means more revenue for those games. And for the way the Saluki program is heading, they need any revenue they can muster right now.
But above all, this is huge for SIUE. This is the biggest thing to happen to the men’s basketball program since they announced the jump to D-I. Fielding a good basketball team is incredibly tough during the transition phase, and many familiar with the process expect few wins during its time.
But perhaps an even larger challenge to foster an environment fans can get excited about. When the product can’t sell it itself, you turn to atmosphere and rivalries. The former has been adequately met as the stadium’s facilities have been improved and a decent small-school atmosphere has been developed. There is finally a band back in the stands, promotions highlight games and a seemingly well-organized student fan section is underway.
Rivalries, though, take years to develop. You need familiarity, the memory of sweet victories and agonizing losses. You need stories for fans to talk about the time back, oh 15 years ago, where we stormed back from a double-digit loss to stun our rival. History does not come quickly with new schools, schools we haven’t played but a handful of times. And really, a rivalry cannot develop unless each team wins a few games. Geography only goes so far if the contest is one-sided.
But Carbondale is different. Many at SIUE seem to have this little-brother mentality when it comes to our sister school from the south, that they think they are better than us. Coming from Springfield, I had no idea coming in, but it’s clear that those who grew up in the area have a slight bitterness towards Carbondale. I myself have never made my way down there; maybe they aren’t so bad.
Either way, this drives revenue, especially for SIUE.
When Illinois State made their way to the Vadalabene Center last year for the Cougars’ opener, more than 3,600 fans packed the building. This past year, there was not one home game out of the 15 where the VC housed even 2,000 fans. That’s not an attractive number for ticket sales and concessions. And with the costs needed to transition up to D-I, it’s just another punch. For the university’s sake, they are probably just thankful they are dealing in basketball costs rather than football costs.
A four-year contract with Carbondale means they have two games with huge expected attendance figures. It means they have two games they can generate a marketing plan around. Remember the ‘BEAT ISU’ marketing plan from a couple of years ago? SIUE now has that small bump in revenue given to them on a silver platter. It doesn’t matter if the Cougars just have a small chance to come out ahead in the actual game.
By the time the contract ends, SIUE will have been a full member of the OVC – complete with a chance to upset a team or two in the postseason tournament and generate a little buzz. It’s the perfect set-up man until we hit the closer of whomever the Cougars can rough up (providing they can).
Wishful thinking in full force, this game with Carbondale should turn into yearly deal. Granted, it will take some time before the Cougars are on the Saluki’s level, but it makes too much sense for the two to create a little out-of-conference rivalry. The tension is already there and it will drive revenue.
Of course, that is if the Salukis want it that way.
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