Tejas

Well, I'm here in Dallas, stuck in a crappy hotel all by myself. You know what that means, drunk blogging. There's no better way to waste time. You know what they got in Texas? Steers and Queers. And I ain't seen no steers.

Since I'm by myself I figured I'd have a nice steak or prime rib dinner to charge the company, but this place is surrounded by nothing but chains. Not even an Outback. So instead of some crap like Chili's or Crapplebee's, I headed over to the local Buffalo Wild Wings because it's always good and they have trivia (which I dominated). Coming down here I almost wore my Baylor hat, which I picked up because they are the sleeper basketball team of 2008-2009 TM, but thought better of it because Texans are crazy. I didn't some good ole boy in a ten gallon hat that says Texas A&M on it gettin' all up in my business. Plus, if stereotypes have taught me anything it's that all Texans carry guns and aren't afraid to use them. And I don't carry my gun anymore to travel, not since that little incident, so it wouldn't have been a fair fight. That's just stress I don't need.

I did enjoy the two dudes right next to me who ordered a big ole basket of boneless wings to share - and then shared the sauce too. Hello queers. Again, I didn't even dare look sideways at them since they probably had guns, too. With pink and/or rainbow grips, but still, they kill equally well and I have no burning desire to die. But it was cute. Anyway, on to the whatever.

- I had so much trouble finding a place to by beer and fill the tub as seen in the picture above. I went to a couple of grocery/convenience stores and nothing, and my handy GPS said there wasn't any place with Liquor, Bottle, Spirits, or Wine all that close. I finally gave up and went to the nearest place with 'Liquor' in the title, and wouldn't you know it, I think I'm in a dry city/county. As soon as I passed signs that said "Welcome to Dallas" (technically I'm staying in Irving) there was a big ass liquor store on the left and a big ass liquor store on the right. Dry counties are the suck.

- Speaking of things, on my way to the airport today there was a truck that was transporting fireworks next to a big old gasoline truck. That could have been explosive. (get it)

- Anyway, on to sports related things, this Delmon Young thing really has me intrigued. I hate to give up on him, particularly because the throw-ins is a big win for Tampa. Harris/Bartlett is pretty much whatever, but the Pridie/Morlan thing is a killer. Pridie is essentially worthless, while Morlan is still a top prospect, and he's awesome in OOTP. I fully expect him to be closing for the Rays one day. With that said, trading Delmon is pretty much giving up and admitting it was a shitty trade. Although, Sidler''s guy JJ Hardy has me really intrigued. I don't want to spoil his upcoming post - allegedly - but I really like that idea.

- By the way, in case you're curious about former Twins in the playoffs:
C - AJ Pierzynski
1b - David Ortiz
SS - Jason Bartlett
3b - Mike Lamb
LF - Terry Tiffee
Cf - Torii Hunter
RF - Casey Blake

SP - Matt Garza
RP - JC Romero
RP - Grant Balfour

Almost a full team. Just need a second basemen. Give 'em Eckstein and this team's taken the title.

- Funny story. So the other day I came home from work, and from my next door neighbors house I heard people talking in Spanish. I was like, I didn't know they moved. Then, the next day, I heard it again. I looked over, and I noticed that they were having their roof redone. By Mexicans. My neighbors are having their roof redone by Mexicans. I felt guilty and I'm not really even sure why.

- It seems the WNBA gave out their awards today. I'll be sure to blog on that at a later date. Make sure to remind me if I forget.

- So here's what I think about this Justin Cobb signing. I'm sure he's an excellent player and I totally trust Tubby, but I'm still a bit nervous. The fancy pants Daily Gopher interviewed his high school coach, and this is what troubles me: He doesn't attack the basket as much as I would like. His coach said that. Now, that was sandwiched in between a whole bunch of complimentary quotes, but it's still there. I'm under the impression that coaches will pretty much do nothing but talk up there players. Like, if you asked Rick Rickert's high school coach about him, he would say, "Good judgement. Tough guy. Awesome tough inside defender. Definitely will never float around the perimeter and forget about the paint. Hates the NBA. Hates Australia." So I'm a little bit nervous about that quote. But mostly I just wanted to make that Rickert joke, so shut up.

- On another Tubby note, he paid a nice little in home visit recently to 6-8 New Hampshire Center Andrew Fitzgerald, a four star player and Scout's #14th ranked center, who also ranks #100 overall on the Rivals 150. Adding a player like that to the already loaded 2009 class takes the Gophers into top 10 territory. Now, before you get all erect, Fitzy has a lot of heat on him, and plans to take a visit to Louisville later this month, so the odds on Tubby landing him after jumping into the fray so late aren't super terrific (the opposite of the odds that my server at BW's wanted on me - I mean, she called me sweetheart for pete's sake), but if Tubby can get him it would be a major get. A little inside info: He attended Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. The Gopher football coach is Tim Brewster. It's pretty much a lock.

- You know who was a really underrated all-time video game superstar who never gets any play; Yves Racine. Go go Speed Racine.

- On TV at the place tonight, since there's no actual sports tonight, was a replay of the Vikings game (nice special teams, geniuses) and an NBA preseason game between the Celtics and someone. You know who is going to take the NBA by storm? Bill Walker. Just dominant. He ended up scoring almost a point per minute tonight, which, by my calculations, means if the Celtics play him an entire game he'll average nearly 48 points per game next season. Take that Wilt. All he has to do is beat out Darius Miles for the spot. And, as much as I love Darius and his award winning performance as "Basketball Player #2" in Van Wilder, I really think he can handle it. I just came up with an awesome nickname for him. Sky. Bill "Sky" Walker. God that's hot.

- So some weirdo wanted more pictures of Wonderbaby. Fine. Here you go:
Please don't be a perv, guy.

- So I checked out the Brewers prospects, and they do have a couple of SS's in the top ten. Nobody way awesome though, so it might be a little tougher to pry Hardy away than I thought. Again, I want him to blog on this more than I, so that's all I'll say. I would love to have JJ Hardy over here.

- As much as I hate to admit this, I watched the Sex in the City movie recently, and let me tell you it is even worse than you could have imagined. Imagine the most high maintenance girl you know. Now imagine her PMSing hard. Now imagine being locked in a car with her for two and a half hours when she's had a bad day at work and "just wants to vent." It's like that but worse. Way worse. The movie has everything that should never be in a movie. It's a sad movie about sad women being sad, and sad women love watching it because it makes them feel better about their own sad situations and has a happy ending so they think there's hope for their sad selves. I don't even want to get into the fact that Mrs. W loved it.

- And you know what else? That show was actually pretty good for the first few years. It was funny situations acted out by fairly decent characters and wasn't too bad and their were some boobs sometimes. Then, in the last few seasons, the characters mostly just became caricatures of themselves and they were forcing characters into situations rather than having funny situations to begin with. I had a lot more to say here but now I realize what exactly it is I'm writing about so I'm going to just stop.

- Also, I've seen every episode. Shut up.

- What's way better than that is a little movie called Saved. I can't recommend it highly enough. It pokes fun at religion in a very fun way that is not offensive for the weirdies out there. It stars an awesome Rockin' Talkin' Macauly Caulkin, along with Mandy Moore, the underrated Patrick Fugit and Heather Matarazzo (lesbian), and the super hot and underrated Jena Malone. I'm sure there are plenty of you who won't find Jena Malone attractive, but for those who are intelligent here you go:If you don't see it, I can't help you.

- I'm currently reading Case Closed by Gerald Posner, a big ole exposition about the JFK assassination. I can't recommend it enough. How much do I know about the JFK thing? That he was killed in Dallas by Lee Harvey Oswald, and there are questions about what exactly happened, right. I was there too, but this goes into so much more. It's really quite illuminating.

- Dodgers, Rays.

- I was watching some Cowboys/Bengals replay at the bar tonight, and I decided for the sake of the Cowboys (and my fantasy teams) that Tony Romo should just throw to TO and Witten every play.

- The 2008 NBDL draft will be on November 7th, and will be televised on NBA TV at 7pm EST. Sweet. I might need to watch this. Last year's draft featured first pick Eddie Gill, and have zero idea who that is. Other first round luminaries included Jelani McCoy and Darvin Ham, leading me to believe the NBDL is not working out as hoped, since these guys are like thirty. Other first rounders of note would be Kevin Kruger and Kevin Pittsnogle, which clearly means the NBDL draft is the biggest joke ever. Later round picks of note include nobody. I can't wait for this year's draft, when Lawrence McKenzie, Tom Coverdale, and Shawn Respert are picked.

- Seriously though, I would watch this. I'm actually kind of excited.

- I got nothing. Here's some pictures I saved and have no idea when I'd ever use so take a gander:

Crazy roun' here.

I've been very busy with no chance to write, so I apologize to those of you have been refreshing tens of times per day, hoping against hope that there is a new post up. It would be great if Snake, Dawg, or Sidler would type something, anything, but alas, no such luck. Thoughts on some recent happenings:

- So that US Open was kind of a good time, huh? Got a whole lot of people interested in golf, if only for the weekend. On Monday my boss actually pulled the whole office (all five people) into the conference room to watch the end on TV - of course, I already had it up on the computer, but I joined them for office harmony's sake.

I still say Tiger was faking a little. Seriously, I wish I had it on tivo so I could go back through and see what the results were each time he acted like he was in pain vs. when he didn't. I bet there would be a pretty interesting pattern there. And for every Pat Forde, who advises those calling Tiger a drama queen to shut up (um, Pat, have you ever ready any of your own articles?), there's a Retief Goosen who backs up my opinion. And who would know better than another golfer? In any case, seeing as Tiger is shutting it down for the year, my decision to not pick him in fantasy golf last week to save a start is getting worse and worse.

Lastly on golf, for those out there calling Tiger a poor role model for throwing his club in the sand after a bad shot, get a grip. I could write pages and pages about the stupidity of that opinion, but I'm tired, so I'll just say if you are upset at Tiger for throwing his club, you are a freaking moron.

- Speaking of morons, how about the whole Kobe/Jordan debate? I know 8 billion people have written up this angle already, so I won't waste your time any more than I already am. Actually, if you're reading this, you're intentionally trying to waste time, so I'll say a bit.

Now, the legend of Michael Jordan has grown since his retirement, and memories have a tendency to color things in the best possible light and build legends into greater and greater icons over time, but when people say, "Jordan would never get blown out by 40 in the Finals" or "Jordan's teams would never blow a 24 point second half lead in the finals", they're right. And it's not because of his "force of will." What the hell does that even mean? You can't will a team to do anything unless you have magic powers like Harry Potter or Jesus. You can, however, inspire a team due to your leadership. Make no mistake, Jordan could be a jerk at times, but he also commanded respect from his teammates. With Kobe, he's a jerk all the time, and you get the feeling his teammates all hate him - and probably his kids too. Jordan matured, so it's not like it's too late for Kobe to mature into a competent leader, but he's got a long way to go.

Hey, I just flipped on the Twins' game and saw Delmon Young chase the first pitch of the at-bat - which was outside - and hit a weak groundball. Weird.

Anyway, I'm clearly in the "happy for KG" camp, as opposed to the "F KG" camp, so I'm pretty happy for him, weird, rambling, semi-coherent interview aside. Not to mention Pierce and Shuttlesworth. The worst thing ever is the idiotic Minnesota fans calling into radio shows saying how if we could have kept Ray Allen instead of trading him for Marbury this could have been our championship. Hey idiots, two problems - 1. They'd still be missing a Paul Pierce, the #1 reason they won the title (KG was the #1 reason they got there, Pierce why they won), and 2. they never wanted Allen, he was going to be traded to Mi-lee-wau-kay (Algonquin for "the good land") from the get go. If the Wolves were going two guard, they were going with Kerry Kittles who, like most Wolve picks, is out of the league.

- The NBA Draft is right around the corner (please pick Jerryd Bayless) and, as usual, there are some very bad decisions being made. Some of the worst would be CJ Giles (Oregon State), Kalen Grimes (Missouri), Reggie Huffman (UAB), Shawn James (Duquesne), and Walter Sharpe (UAB) - none of whom are likely to be drafted at all. Two very curious decisions are Luc Richard Mbah a Moute from UCLA, Davon Jefferson of USC, and Bill Walker of Kansas State. Mbah a Moute has decided not to withdraw his name, despite no assurances of being drafted at all. Mbah a Moute has been a quality player for UCLA, but needs another year to shake of injury concerns and hone is offensive game. Jefferson had an awesome freshman season, playing with OJ Mayo, but did not distinguish himself enough to be lotto material. After a poor showing at the Orlando predraft camp, he's looking like a second rounder and should have pulled out and given himself a year to improve. Walker hurt his knee in a private workout for the Hornets, and remained in the draft nonetheless. He missed most of the year two seasons ago with a knee injury, recovered and played well last season and was looking like a late first round selection. Now, having not played in Orlando and having only two private workouts, he's almost certainly going to slip into the second round based on injury concerns. Another year with K State, with him being the man, could have vaulted him into the lotter if he could have stayed heatlhy.

There were some smart players who pulled out, including Antonio Anderson, Chase Budinger, and AJ Abrams, who will all have the chance to prove they are big time players and improve their draft position. Other good choices were Derrick Caracter of Louisville (needs to show more consistency and discipline), Ty Lawson (needs to show he can shoot), Robert Vaden (better ballhandling skills), and Lester Hudson (play against better competition).

- It's nice to see Cristian Guzman back in the metrodome, the same place that destroyed his soul and his game back in the second half of 2001. What a complete fall off the map. And the Nationals signed him in 2004 for four years, $17 million. He managed to play 142 games his first year with them, and hit .219/.260/.314 on his way to an OPS+ of 53 (almost identical to last year's Punto), the worst among regular players that year. Then missed all of 2005 and 75% of 2006 with an injury - all while makeing $4.2 million each year. And guess what, he's in a contract year now, so of course he's hitting .316 with some power, and will likely be the Nationals' All-Star representative. In a contract year, imagine that.

- What is up with the roller bags for laptops now? Seriously, it's gotten to the point where people can't even carry a laptop bag on their shoulder? I get it for girls, since they have a purse and what not, but for dudes? Come on guys, get it together.

- Finally, since I know you want it, here's the latest picture of baby W.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh, how cute.

Night Hoops

- Michael Beasley is just sick. He can pretty much get to the rim whenever he wants. He is officially who I hope the Wolves get with the #1 pick.

- Bill Walker is really disappointing in the couple K-State games I've seen. Maybe it's the injury I don't know, but I really thought he'd be better.

- So K-State was beating Oregon all game, then gave up three straight wide open 3's (Oregon hit all three), turning it over twice, and now gave up an offensive rebound for a Duck layup and are down by 6 with 6 minutes left. Seems about right for them from what I've seen.

- Aaron Rodgers looks EXACTLY like Brett Favre in the shotgun, all the way down to the mannerisms.

- Great game. Oregon and K-State trading baskets over the final minute and a half Until the Ducks' big white foreign center gets three offensive rebounds of his own misses until he's fouled, going to the line down 1. If he's like every other big dopey white center, they're just hoping he makes one at this point.

- New rumor: Santana to Boston for Crisp, Buchholz, Lowrie, and Michael Bowden. Buchholz instead of Lester is huge. Bowden is a pitching prospect ranked slightly lower than Masterson, but that trade off is worth it to get Buchholz instead of Lester. If this is on the table, pull the trigger now. Also, as far as Yankee deals go, I have zero to less than zero interest in Melky Cabrera.

- Makes one, and Jake Pullen goes flying down the court completely out of control and gets called for a charge, and we're heading to OT.

- Geez, USC is on TV again? Against Oklahoma this time. I wonder if Mayo will care.

- Beasley is awesome, but he can't seem to keep the big goofy white guy, Maarty Leunen, off the O-boards.

- TaJuan Porter looks like he's about 5-2, but he's quick as hell and a great shooter - and Leunen fouls out on one of the dumbest, ticky-tackiest fouls you'll ever see. That won't help.

- K-State is 5-12 on FTs in the game. That just fits in with the rest of their philosophy of running around like idiots with no plan on offense and being unsure of where to be on defense.

- Unreal. Oregon up 3 with six seconds left, shooting two FTs, miss both, KState rebounds and goes the other way. Throw it to Andre Gilbert on the wing who immediately drives and goes up for the dunk, realizes they are down 3, and tries to kick it out, but it's too late, and Oregon wins by 3. This team is an absolute basket case. It's like a whole team of Kevin Clark's out there (did I already use this joke?)

- 3 first half fouls on Taj Gibson for USC - that is not good. He might be their best player, depending on Mayo's motivation on each particular night.

- OU's Blake Griffin, another excellent freshman, should be able to go to work with Gibson out. Except instead of posting up, he just chucked up a three and airballed it. I swear so many of these players are total idiots.

- Mayo gets all the press, but fellow freshman Davon Jefferson should get more attention. He has 12 already with four minutes left in this game, and scored 20 against Southern Illinois. Mayo is 1-7, and their up 8 anyway. I might be becoming a believer in this USC team.

- OJ Mayo's favorite current NBA player is Steve Nash. I can honestly I wouldn't have guessed that in 100 guesses.

- USC stomping 29-18 at half, and Gibson's been on the bench for most of it. Blake Griffin sucks.

- Since this game is so incredibly boring, here's a quick rundown of the Gophers opponent on Saturday, the UC-Riverside Highlanders:

They're 2-4, with a 1-point win over one of the worst DI programs in the country in Idaho and over something called Hope International. They lost to Gonzaga by 36. They only have one guy averaging more than 10 ppg and nobody with more than 5 rebounds per, and score only 59 points per game as a team. In short, they suck. Gophers 79, UCR 51.

- Longar Longar is tall. Gophers didn't need him though.

- OJ Mayo is every bit as good as advertised, especially when he's aggressive, but aggressive within the flow of the offense. Nobody on Oklahoma can stop him.

- For those waiting for an update on DePaul's (aka Dumpster College) Will "Wheel" Walker, he's had 5 points and 2 points in their last two games, once of which was a loss to North Carolina A & T. Seriously. Nice school.

- USC wins 66-55 and completely controlled the game against a good Oklahoma team. I'm very much a believer in this team. And Blake Griffin sucks.

- Lastly, here's this week's football picks, with a 1-0 start to the week:
St Louis -3 vs. Atlanta
Washington -5.5 vs. Buffalo
Minnesota -4 vs. Detroit
Tennessee -3.5 vs. Houston
Jacksonville +6 @ Indianapolis
Miami -1 vs. NY Jets
KC +6 vs. San Diego
Philly -3 vs. Seattle
SF +3 @ Carolina
Cleveland +1 @ Arizona
Denver -3.5 @ Oakland
New Orleans -3 vs. Tampa
Chicago +1.5 vs. NY Giants
Pitt -7 vs. Cincy
Baltimore +20 vs. New England

Season: 83-82-10

This Solves Everything!

In the pioneer press:

The football Gophers will wear white shoes in their opener against Bowling Green on Saturday night, instead of the black shoes they have worn for years, because coach Tim Brewster emphasizes speed and believes white shoes project a faster image.

Hasn't even coached one game, and is already making positive changes in the program. Thanks for the info Charley Walters!

ALSO: Bill Walker says he's ready to go for the season in this article:
"I'd say I'm back to 100 percent," Walker said. "My running and jumping is back to normal. (The knee) came back slowly, and I just steadily got my explosiveness and my quickness back."

Sweet.

ALSO ALSO: I was searching for Nathen Garth inside info, and I stumbled across his My Space page. Not really a whole lot of inside info here, other than the fact that he really, really likes God. No word on if he believes Jesus rode dinosaurs.

Walker gets Redshirt

There are few teams/players other than the Gophers that I am a fan of, and will likely get a more than average amount of coverage at Down With Goldy. Kansas State, and Bill Walker, happen to fit that category, so I was happy to see this blurb from Dick Vitale (you can imagine him yelling it at you):

• Kansas State got a positive ruling when forward Bill Walker was given a medical redshirt year after playing in just six contests last season. Walker suffered a ruptured ACL in his left knee during the January 6th game against Texas A&M. He averaged 11.3 ppg. and 4.5 rpg. in those six games for Kansas State. Because of the ruling, Walker gets to team up with Michael Beasley as freshmen this season.

So Walker can play five years now instead of four. Except, this is most likely pretty pointless because I don't see any way Walker stays four more years. I think he most likely would have gone pro after last season if he hadn't injured his knee.

That injury really sucked because I was traveling with my brother down to Iowa State the very next weekend, and we had tickets to watch the Cyclones/K-State game and then stupid Bill Walker got hurt like a little baby and we didn't get to watch him and that sucked.

But he's still awesome.

Also awesome: Edgar Sosa, Paul Harris, DJ White, Rico Tucker, Chase Budinger, Tyler Hansbrough, Mike Taylor (he got kicked off the team, but is still awesome), Sean Singletary, Derrick Caracter, CJ Anderson, everyone on Memphis.

Not awesome: Scotty Reynolds

Huggy Bear

One other thing, regarding Bob Huggins jumping from K State after one year to take the job at West Virginia.

Is it kind of crappy, him leaving K State after one year, particularly after having promised Bill Walker he'd be there with him? Yeah, sure it is. Not only Walker, but also Michael Beasley, who might be the best incoming freshman next year. As well as the fans and administrators at K State. But come on Wildcat fans, you can't be that shocked. This is Bob Huggins we're talking here. He's not exactly the most stand-up, loyal guy in the whole world. Did you really think he was going to build a program at K-State over the next ten years? When you were basically the only school who was willing to hire him? Now you can go get a younger coach, maybe one who will stick around and try to build a program instead of just looking for another quick job.

With all that said, however, I still think Huggins shouldn't be villified here. It's not like he came to K State, promised to stick around and build the program forever, and then took some random job. He went to school at West Virginia, played at West Virginia, and was at assistant at West Virginia. I've read he still roots for the team, and considers himself a fan. I think it's pretty clear that this is his dream job. I can't blame him for taking it. I'm pretty sure if my dream job came along and was offered to me, I'd jump at the chance too.

Oh, and Bill Walker and Michael Beasley, I'm pretty sure Tubby can make some room for you on the team, if the whole K State thing doesn't seem right for you anymore.