Week In Review - 1/11/2010

I have a lot of words to write so let's just get to it.  No time for love, Dr. Jones.

WHO WAS AWESOME

1.  Gopher basketball.  If you are like me and consider the Purdue game not a failure and actually a pretty good effort you have to consider this a pretty good week in Gopher hoops after they spanked Ohio State 73-62.  Although I'm pretty sure I overrated Ohio State by a good margin, I also think a lot of that had to do with the Gopher defense (and the fact that there wasn't a full moon so we got more of a Scott Howard Evan Turner than a Teen Wolf Evan Turner).  I was baffled by Turner.  I have no idea if he just isn't all the way back or what, but I really wasn't impressed.  His 19-8-7 stat line looks great, but he wasn't in control of the game the way I expected and made some really poor decisions (4 turnovers) and basically just seemed completely baffled by the Gophers double-team press thing.  I thought I'd be blown away.  Instead I was disappointed.  I'm guessing it's similar to how Mrs. W felt the first time we were "together."

Anyway, I'm not here to talk about things like that, and you shouldn't be so interested, perv.  Let's talk Gopher awesomeness.  Blake continues to be completely unconscious.  At this point there literally isn't a single shot he could take that would upset me.  He could pull up from 40 feet on a 2-on-1 break and I would applaud.  I've never seen anything quite like this run he's on.  And he only needs the smallest window to get his shot off.  It's hard to not love him at this point.  Plus he's white.  Everybody loves white people.

Speaking of white people, everybody needs to get back on the Ralph Sampson bandwagon with me.  There is a huge difference when he is in there compared to Colton.  I live Colton, but he's no Ralph.  One will end up being a good center, the other is already good and could end up being a star. Join the fan club now folks, we might be all full up by season's end, and you don't want to miss out.

2.  Garrett Gilbert.  It's a horrible name, no doubt, but Gilbert looks like he might end up being a hell of a quarterback down at the U of Texas after getting thrown into his career in the most high pressure way possible.  When Colt McCoy pinched his nerve in the National Championship game and decided not to risk his NFL prospects and sold out his team by not even trying to come back in, it was up to Gilbert to do something.  He was a bit uneven, and ended up throwing four interceptions and completing just 15 of his 40 pass attempts, but there was something there.  He made some excellent throws against a very good defense, and would have had better numbers but Longhorn receivers dropped at least three balls and their running back was directly responsible for one of those picks when he decided not to hold on to a shovel pass.  Don't forget that he also managed to throw a couple of TDs and not only kept Texas in a game they shouldn't have been in but actually had a chance, however slim, to win (a chance derailed by a big time missed block).  If he can do all that as a freshman with only 27 pass attempts coming into the game, I'd look for big things from him next year.

3.  Louisiana Tech.  I've tried to avoid spotlighting these guys because I figured I was a bit too attached after watching them play Utah State in person last year and falling hard for Magnum Rolle as if I was Ben Stiller and Rolle was that one chick in that one movie, but it's probably time to point out that La Tech is dominating fools all over the place.  Ok, dominating fools is maybe a little strong considering they have a loss to Arizona on their record, but they are now 3-0 in the WAC and that includes wins over both league favorites, Nevada and Utah State, and the win over the Aggies was a 22-point massacre earlier this week, mainly thanks to Rolle.  Magnum (tell me that isn't a sweet name) dominated the white guys USU trotted out in the paint to the tune of a 22 point, 14 rebound performance and is now leading the WAC in blocked shots at 2.6 per game.  And he's not alone, guard Kyle Gibson (not the Twins' pitcher) leads the conference in scoring and wing Olu Ashaolu is third in rebounding and put up a 21-board effort earlier this year against Houston.  With that weak non-conference schedule the Bulldogs will probalby have to go pretty damn near undefeated to secure an at-large, but it's suddenly looking like it might be possible.

4.  Wisconsin.  You know what pains me?  Writing this.  But it's time we all step back from our completely justified hatred of the neanderthals who reside in the world's worst state and acknowledge not only that the team is good this year, but also that Bo Ryan might be a really good coach.  I mean, Tubby still owns Bo, but Bo might not be that bad considering this year's version of the Badgers has almost no talent but still managed to beat Purdue this weekend.  The Badgers are now 3-1 in conference play, and have two of the toughest challenges out of the way.  With wins over Maryland, Duke, Marquette, and Purdue in their pocket and a relatively easy schedule the rest of the way, it looks like the gay-ass Badgers will almost certainly be in the tournament once again.  At least Trevon Hughes is fun to watch, because none of these other guys are (and now it sounds like Leuer is hurt pretty badly, so maybe no tournament after all, but I can't bring myself to count Bo Ryan out - unless he's facing Tubby).

5.  Manabu .  First the story:

DANIA BEACH, Fla.—A man was being credited with tying the 77-year-old world record for catching the biggest largemouth bass. The International Game Fish Association announced Friday that it had confirmed the 22-pound, 4-ounce fish caught by Manabu Kurita. The Florida-based group said Kurita caught the fish July 2 on Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake.

Kurita's fish tied the record of George Perry, who caught his bass on Georgia's Montgomery Lake on June 2, 1932.  Kurita used 25-pound test line and a live blue gill

And now the picture:

Holy.  Effing.  Crap.

Although using a live blug gill is kind of BS if you ask me. 




WHO SUCKED

1.  Paul Hewitt.  You know, he may be a hell of a recruiter there at Georgia Tech but he sure as hell can't coach.  The level of talent at Tech the last few years has been almost as good as anybody:  Anthony Morrow, Thaddeus Young, Chris Bosh, Jarrett Jack, Will Bynum, and noted gun enthusiast Javaris Crittenton, but his team's have done nothing due to his mismanagement.  Now he might be wasting yet another top level talent in Derrick Favors, who his incredibly talented and is porbably the best player on the team, but is getting just 8 shots a game despite shooting 58% and being the most talented big man in the ACC.  A team with Favors, Iman Shumpert, Gani Lawal, Mfon Udofia, D'Andre Bell should coast to the NCAA Tournament, but instead with Hewitt at the helm they lose to the world's crappiest team (and their in-state rival) Georgia.  Of course after the one year he managed to luck himself into the Final Four he was rewarded with a giant ass contract, so the Jackets are pretty much stuck with him.  Shame.  
[NOTE:  I wrote this before the Jackets picked up a huge win by beating Duke on Saturday.  A more respectable and responsible blogger would probably delete this and type something else up, but I already did a lot of work here so just deal with it.  Once game doesn't mean Hewitt doesn't suck - Favors still only got 6 shots.  And a Georgia Tech fan I know said about that game,  
"They won that game in spite of him.   FT shooting bailed Hewitt out for wasting all our timeouts again. Could have used one with just under a minute left when trapped underneath Duke's basket. Instead give up the easy dunk and put them right back in it.
GT would be just fine if we just played street ball and let the talent determine the results."   

So I'm sticking with "sucks."]

2.  Cincinnati.  Freaking DWG Jinx strikes again, and suddenly the Bearcats are a big ole barrel of suck nation, losing both of their conference games this week to crappy Pitt and terrible Seton Hall to fall to 2-2.  I'm not ready to totally write them off quite yet or anything but I mean, come on guys, what the hell?  Pitt sucks.  Seton Hall sucks.  How are we going to cash in on my 200-1 bet if you dickheads can't even beat bottom middle-tier Big East teams?  And when, exactly, does Lance Stephenson plan on becoming Carmelo Anthony?  Six turnovers against the Pirates isn't going to get it done my friend.  And four points against CS-Bakersfield (a Cincy win sandwiched between the two shameful losses)?  Carmelo would have lit a team like that up for forty.  I'm getting awfully close to dumping them as my second favorite team and jumping on the Ole Miss bandwagon, and lord knows I don't want to do that.  Just beat St Johns and Notre Dame this week and we can all be happy.

3.  Michigan.  We had our first "must-win" game for both teams in Big Ten play this season on Sunday between the Wolverines and Northwestern, and the Wolverines came out on the bottom, 68-62.  Northwestern needed to win because after a great start that included wins over Iowa State, Notre Dame, and Stanford they had started conference play with two losses (including a rout by Michigan State in Evanston) and really needed a win not only to avoid falling to 0-3 but also to get some confidence back.  Michigan was predicted to be an NCAA tournament team and was ranked #15 in the country to start the season but has been awful so far.  They had won back-to-back conference games to get to 2-1 in the Big Ten, and need to win every single game they should win, especially at home, to have the slimmest prayer at a tournament bid.  And, as I said a couple sentences ago, Northwestern won, essentially ending the Wolverines season and it's just early January.  You want to see disaster?  In a ten day span starting January 17th Michigan plays UCONN, Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan State.  Ouch.

4.  Washington.  If it seems like a Pac-10 team ends up in this section every week it's probably because they freaking suck, and after a disastrous week by the Huskies it's suddenly gone from a 2-team league to a one teamer and might as well be the WCC at this point.  Washington took a little trip down south to take on the combined 1-4 in the conference Arizona State and Arizona and walked out after getting killed twice.  On Thursday they got beat 68-51 by the Sun Devils after shooting just 36%, totaling just 8 assists, and getting beat on the boards 38-27 and then followed it up by losing to the Wildcats 87-70 after letting Zona shoot nearly 50% from there and getting killed once again on the boards 36-22.  It turns out this really isn't a good team.  I guess when your two best players combine to have a 1-to-3 assist-to-turnover ratio and you have zero post presence you aren't going to have much success.  Want a gambling tip?  Fade Washington the rest of the year.  The public is going to keep thinking they are good, keeping the line a point or two further in Washington's favor than it should be.

5.  Kansas City Royals.  I realize it probably seems a bit odd to have a baseball team in this spot, but there are reasons and said reasons are numerous.  Most recently, and this week which is what qualified them for this spot, they signed Scott Podsednik to a $2 million dollar deal with an option for another year at another $2 million, which altogether is about $3 million too much for a guy with a career OPS+ of 87 coming off a best since 2003 OPS+ of 98 thanks to a silly batting average on balls in play of .342 (league average is about .300 which means he had a very, very lucky year).

This follows up other excellent moves such as signing Jason Kendall (last year OPS+ = 72) for 2 years/$6 million (seriously, I'm not making this up) and trading for Yuniesky Betancourt (OSP+ = 67).  In fact, the Royals lineup this year could, very seriously, end up looking like this:

LF Scott Podsednik (2009 OPS+ = 98)
CF Brian Anderson (69)
RF David DeJesus (106)
1B Billy Butler (124)
DH Jose Guillen (80)
3B Alex Gordon (86)
2B Chris Getz (74)
C   Jason Kendall (72)
SS Yuniesky Betancourt (67)

Wow.  Just wow.  That's like four Matt Tolbert's, two Delmon Young's, an Orlando Cabrera, a Jose Morales, and a Mike Cuddyer.

Zack Greinke must want to kill himself.


Finally, I want to leave you with four discussion topics, and if you've read this far you might as well go a step further and comment on one of these:

1.  I watched Jennifer's Body this weekend (which I enjoyed the hell out of by the way), and found Amanda Seyfried far more attractive than Megan Fox.
2.  Dawger claims "Ohio State isn't even one of the top 100 teams in college basketball this year."
3.  Dawger claims "Cedric Benson is more of an MVP candidate than Philip Rivers."
4.  Dawger claims "Alan Trammell deserves to be in the Hall of Fame just much as Cal Ripken."

Thoughts?