Pete Rose's Big Choke Job

Just want to point out here that not only did Brett Favre, the Pete Rose of football, make a horrible throw in the NFC championship game, but it was a horrible decision as well, as 3 out of the 4 receivers on this play were open, and he threw to the one who wasn't. Nice quarterback, guys.

Ok, that's the biggest I can get it on this thing, go here for a bigger version.

Either way, nice QB.

Still Going

Dammit that sucked, but I still have a bunch of beer, and thanks to my sports package I can still watch UCLA/Oregon State and St. Mary's/San Francisco, the last two chances I have to try to salvage an absolutely horrible gambling day. I'll keep drinking and posting and try to not kill myself.

- I guess it's a testament to how far the program has come, in that I care so much and actually believe in this team. It was clearly a huge mistake. They play tough defense, and they hustle on both ends, but they just don't have the players (thanks Monson). Even Nolen and Hoffbauer looked like freshman tonight. Give a lot of credit to Ohio State's defense, they basically stifled the Gophers the whole way.

- I always considered Jamar Butler a shooting guard, and even though he went off tonight for 27 points and 9 assists, he also turned it over five times. I maintain he's still a shooting guard forced to play point, Gopher shredding aside.

- Looks like Tubby has given up on Shamala and Payton, and I think that's the right call. I think Shamala can contribute against certain teams where his lack of athleticism isn't a liability, but I'm not sure where you can play Payton. At first, I was thinking that some of the combinations Tubby had out there tonight were horrible coaching decisions, but after thinking about, there aren't that many good players on this team at all, so you're going to end up with bad combinations no matter what. However, I still think having Nolen and Hoffbauer in the backcourt together against a defense like Ohio State's for ten minutes is a mistake.

- UCLA/Oregon State isn't on yet because Oregon and USC are in overtime. I'm guessing this is much more better. Except it wasn't because USC blew them out in overtime and won by 9.

- In case you're wondering about that YMCA league that Dusty Rychart is playing in in Australia, here are the other people who play in that league who are interesting: Derrick Alston (also known as "The guy from Duquesne on NBA Live 95"), Larry Abney (Fresno St), Mike Chappell (Michigan St), Ebi Ere (Oklahoma), Orien Greene (Flordia/UL-Laff), Rod Grizzard (Oklahoma), Shane Heal (giggle), Julius Hodge (NC State - and he got shot), Nick Horvath (Duke), Alex Loughton (ODU), Kirk Penney (Wisconsin), Rick Rickert (Rickert and Rychart reunited), Joe Shipp (Cal), Wayne Turner (Kentucky).

- Ebi Ere and Kirk Penney are the top scorers in the league (Rickert = 16th), Rickert is also second in rebounding, while Rychart is ninth in rebounding and first in offensive boards. Told you in was a YMCA league. Also, Orien Greene leads in turnovers and is second in fouls. He should probably be an accountant or something.

- San Fran is down 25 and Oregon State is hanging with UCLA. It seriously looks like I'm about to go 2-8-1 tonight. Not good times.

- Ferris Bueller's Day off was a great movie. I wonder how many poor kids got named Ferris after that.

- It seems the name Ferris has never ranked in the top 1000 boys names, ever. So I guess not that many. Rico was 664th most popular in the 80s before dropping out of the top 1000. I expect that number to rise soon.

- You know what puts a whole weird spin on Ferris Bueller's Day Off? The fact that the principle takes off his whole day to try to track him down, including breaking in to his home, and then that actor turned out to be a chomo. Weird.

- Back to basketball. These are the people who play in France with Mike Bauer: Chevy Troutman (Pitt), Alan Wiggins (San Fran), Justin Doellman (Xavier), Tony Skinn (GMU), LaVell Blanchard (Michigan), Terrell Everett (Oklahoma), Vince Grier (I didn't know he landed in France), Marcus Slaughter (SDSU), Marcus Sommerville (Bradley), Sam Clancy (USC), Zabian Dowdell (VA Tech), Brandon Heath (SDSU), Theron Smith (Ball State - was going to be an NBA star until hurting his knee two straight years), Taj Gray (Okla), Je'Kel Foster (Ohio St), Terence Dials (Ohio St), Antonio Graves (Pitt).

- And the French league is broken up into three divisions, and Bauer starts for a team in the upper division, so he's doing fairly well. I'd also like to let you know that the team he plays for is called Nancy. Insert your own joke here.

- I'd love to tell you how Grier is doing, but again, it's a pay site and I'm not paying just to get his stats. I can tell you he's starting for an "A" League team.

- Oh, that picture up there is some cheerleader at a Russian basketball game. I searched for "European Basketball Cheerleader" and she came up.

- I still think it's weird that Lorenzo Mata changed his last name to Mata-Real. I wonder if his mom just bitched at him constantly or something to add it.

- 29 points with 14 minutes left for Darren Collison on only 10 shot attempts. That ain't bad.

- I think Darren Collison might actually be Earl Watson, come back for four more years. Seriously.

- Oh, I forgot to mention that Mike Chappell holds the all-time record for points in a game in Dusty (and Rick's) Australian league with 44.

- He Got Game was a pretty damn good movie.

- Have a shot at 3-7 rather than 2-8. That would be good. Don't F me UCLA.

- Sweet, UCLA covered to put me at 3-7. What a horrid streak. I'm going to watch Varstiy Blues and pass out.

- I just want to add, I love everything about this movie except the ending. PUKE n RALLY!

Minnesota 88, NDSU 56

Eat it Bison.

I actually feel a little embarrassed that I was worried about this team. I guess the crappy Gopher football team has me conditioned to be worried about NDSU automatically. In this case, there was no need. NDSU wasn't much different than Riverside, and Winkelman and Woodside were like any other pair of decent players on a bad team - they score because they have to. Woodside was blanketed pretty well by Nolen whenever he was in there, with Nolen even taking it right from him when he was bringing it up the court at one point. He was a slow, good shooting white kid. Basically the kind of guy I would have loved a few years ago, but have been cured and recognize that he really isn't very good. And Winkelman was pretty much completely unnoticeable. Yet, because nobody else can score on that team, they still ended up with 16 and 17 points, many of which in garbage time.

On the Gopher side, Al Nolen continues to impress. He knocked down 3 of 4 threes he attempted, had five steals, played great defense, and ran the offense well. I was always nervous for next season, wondering who would play point if Nolen didn't work out. Now, granted we haven't seen him play in the Big Ten yet, and he did struggle against FSU (so did everyone), but I'm officially not worried about PG next season anymore - except for the backup.

Kevin Payton should really just transfer and make everybody happy, himself included. He looks lost most of the time when he's on the court, and he has zero semblance of an offensive game whatsoever. I don't know what's wrong with him, he averaged 22 per game in high school with a high of 51, but he should probably go ahead and try to figure it out at UM-Kansas City or something, not in the Big Ten.

Lawrence Westbrook, or $LDUB, played only fifteen minutes but scored 11 on 5-7 shooting. I'm starting to get a crush on him.

Danny Coleman scored 15 points, had 8 rebounds, and 4 assists. Sounds like a pretty good line, and if you hadn't watched the game, you'd be pretty impressed. Don't be. Coleman hasn't developed at all. Against this team, he should have completely controlled the game, and he most certainly didn't. He floats around, looks lost half the time, and just seems kind of out of it. If the Gophers are going to do any damage in the Big Ten at all, Coleman really needs to step it up, good stat lines only go so far.

McKenzie had 11, played a pretty solid overall game, Tollackson had 8 with four rebounds and four fouls - the fact that he couldn't stay out of foul trouble against NDSU is very worrisome. Also, there's hustle, and then there's stupid hustle. Tollackson at one point tried to dive to knock a pass away, missed by five feet, and the guy went in for an easy layup. Just play defense. Hoffbauer had 10, and keeps gaining confidence, which is good. He still can't play defense. Shamala got poked in the eye and for some reason the game stopped for like 20 minutes. I think it was a moment of silence for his eye. People love white people.

Also, if you sit next to me at the game please take note of a few facts:

1. The Gophers do indeed commit fouls. They also will travel, double-dribble, and lose the ball out of bounds from time to time. This is not a conspiracy, the refs are not out to screw the home town team. Yelling at the refs will not change the fact that they made the right call. My favorite is when you can't see the play at all because it's on the far end of the arena, but you're convinced "That god damn ref is just trying to screw us."

2. I'm not sure which look you're going for with that mustache, but somehow you managed to nail both 70's porn star and child molester, all in one. Bravo.

3. Stop yelling "pass the ball" constantly. I actually agree that in a motion offense, the ball should keep moving most of the time. However, when it gets dumped down low, or they call an isolation play, or someone gets the ball with a mismatch, they can take some time and make a play on their own. This is called "offense."

4. You suck and I hate you.

8 Reasons to Laugh at UND

I thought I would break this out in prep for this weekends Gophers vs North Dakota series. It will shed a bit more light into why the majority of the hockey world hates UND and everything related to their hockey team. Plus the Gophers still suck so I don’t want to write about them splitting with F’ing Michigan Tech.

1) One of UND’s Official School colors is Pink (that is not a joke).

2) At one time UND’s mascot was a flickertail. A flickertail is basically another type of Gopher. I think this explains all Sioux fans obsession with all things U of MN. This also shows their utter lack of creativity. Not only did they steal the people of the Dakota Nations pride but the also stole their previous mascot from the U of MN and their logos from the Chicago Blackhawks and Notre Dame. Nothing like a college promoting plagiarism. "WWWWW, You could publish your college hoops top 50 in Grand Forks and know one would care."

3) Their #1 donor to the school is a known Nazi sympathizer and they named their arena after him. No need to list this dirt bags history, just do a google search on Ralph Englestad and you will know all you need to know about the schools #1 fan. "I wonder if they would also take money from Hitler?" I am guessing "Yes" as long as he donated in cash. Here is a good link to read up on North Dakota’s biggest shit bag http://www.aistm.org/engelstad.htm

4) Black Uniforms. Nothing piss’s me off more than teams that wear black uniforms. Especially a team and school that is suppose to be so rich in tradition. Schools like St. Cloud State, Mankato State, Utah State and SW Arkansas State are suppose to wear black uniforms, not teams with tradition. Stick to your school colors of Green, White and Pink. The "Kids" aren’t going to flock to the stores to buy UND apparel anyway so quit trying to be "hip".

5) School name. I know this is an obvious softball, but come on already. If the Indian Tribes and NCAA want you to change you name, just change your f’ing name. You are wasting thousands if not millions of dollars fighting for a name that means nothing. Here is an idea, take the millions of dollars you are going to spend fighting this lawsuit and put it back into your college for something useful. You also come off looking like a bunch of honkies when you defend the use of the name. I really could careless either way, I am just sick of hearing about it. It’s just a name people, let it go and change your school’s name so the rest of the midwest can have some peace and quiet. Your making my ears bleed. Honkies!

6) Green Bay Packer History lessons. Great, your cute little team has won 7 national championships. When was the last time you won again? People don’t care about titles you won in the 50's and 60's unless they where a live in the 50's. You sound like Packer fans but not as intelligent. At least the Packers have the most championships in their given sport. There are teams in UND’s own league with as many titles as they have.

7) Inferiority Complex for the U of MN. If UND was a women this would be her biggest flaw. UND’s fans have such an inferiority complex towards the University of Minnesota that even when they accomplish something they still have to compare it to something the Gophers have done and make sure everyone knows their accomplishment was just as important. UND fans have to relax and remember your school is located in America’s Arm Pit. Accept that You are always going to play second fiddle to every school you participate against, especially the U of MN. Someone out there thinks your school is beautiful, You just need to find that special someone and be happy!

8) Fans. Look at the picture at the top of this post. That sums everything up without saying a word. Until that guy is out of your fan base you have nothing to say about other teams fans. Lame-ass Flag Guy looks cool when compared with this chomo. That guy even messed up what a mullet is suppose to look like. How many little kids lives have been destroyed by that monster? Also, what in the world is his friend thinking? I don't care if my buddy saved my life, I still would not be seen in publiuc with anyone looking like that.