Time Out Awards: the Blues, the Eagles and Florida coach Meyer

Jason Frazier, Alestle Reporter

by Jason Frazier, Alestle Reporter

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.

IHSA should consider SIUE to host championship

T.J. Cowell, Alestle Sports Reporter

by T.J. Cowell, Alestle Sports Reporter

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.

Back to outdoors next week, I promise.

Boating accident survivor to pen book about experience

T.J. Cowell, Alestle Sports Reporter

By : T.J. Cowell, Alestle Sports Reporter

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”.