Dave Sez

Can't Stump The Schaub

Don't look now, but former Virginia quarterback Matt Schaub is having an incredible preseason with the Atlanta Falcons. Backing up the paper mache Michael Vick, Schaub has had back-to-back games with 3 touchdown passes and no interceptions. In the first of those two games (his second overall), he completed 16 of 19 passes.

As a point of comparison, Philip Rivers and Eli Manning, the two rookie quarterbacks that everyone is watching, threw for exactly 0 touchdowns, 4 interceptions and one fumble in their last preseason games.

In fairness, that game was Rivers' first and Schaub wasn't too hot in his first game either, but then little was expected of Schaub. You may remember that last year, he was the second best quarterback in the ACC behind Rivers. While Schaub had a very good season, Rivers clearly was better, winning all the major conference awards. The year before though was just the opposite. Rivers had a great junior year, but Schaub was even better and Schaub went on to be first-team All-ACC and ACC Player of the Year. His senior year got off to a rough start when he was injured early in Virginia's first game and missed most of three games. He still went on to have a very good year and finished his college career as the second most accurate passer ever (behind Tim Couch of Kentucky).

So, anyway, back to the NFL. Like I said, Schaub passed for 3 touchdowns and no interceptions in each of his last two games. You want to guess how many times the great Michael Vick has done that in his entire NFL career? Never. In fact, Vick has never thrown three touchdown passes in a game, period.

Don't get me wrong, I know that this is preseason and it doesn't really count. Real games are different, but still. It looks to me like Matt Schaub has shown that he belongs. And since he's playing behind a very fragile player, he might just get to prove that earlier than anyone thought. And for the Falcons, that might not be such a bad thing.

Joe Must Go?

The SportsProf has an excellent article up about why it's time for Joe Paterno to plan to leave. When he's on, the SportsProf is as good a sportswriter as you'll find, and he's on here.

As for the topic, I agree with him. I wish JoePa would recognize that his time is over and hand over the program to a younger man. No one wants things to get ugly there. The university and alumni have been and will probably continue to be very accepting of whatever he does, but it's not fair to them to keep this up. His teams just aren't as good as they used to be, and his age must be killing them in recruiting.

Monday Night Failure?

Once again, I'm jumping on a topic merely weeks after the story breaks! In this case, I'm all over the recent news that ABC is considering junking Monday Night Football, because it's losing an astonishing $150 million a year. One hundred and fifty million! That's insane!

The real reason I bring this up now is because the SportsProf has a very good article about this very issue.

Say What, Bill?

I've linked to a lot of Bill Simmons articles here. You might call me a fan. He's a great writer, a rare combination of funny and knowledgeable. In yesterday's Mini-Cowbell (that's the name of his column) though, he had an aneurysm.

With that said, I will never, ever, EVER figure out why LeBron wasn't playing 30-to-35 minutes a game. There is no answer. There will never be an answer. With the way Larry Brown inexplicably buried LeBron and Carmelo -- his best athlete/passer and his best shooter -- it seems curious why he didn't want the No. 1 and No. 3 picks in the 2003 Draft to succeed in Athens. Until you remember that he's coaching the No. 2 pick from that same draft.

I can only assume that he got hold of a bad batch of Sourpatch Kids. I mean, really Bill. Don't you think that if Larry Brown wanted to prove something about Darko Milicic he would have actually played him some? Do you really think he'd jeapordize the gold medal for something that petty? That's weak.

100 Best Seasons

ESPN's 25th anniversary lists have gotten more than a little tired. What's next, the 25 most outrageous arrests or 25 best postgame showers?

Anyway, some of the lists are actually pretty good and fun to read. This is one of them. It's their 100 best individual seasons from the past 25 years. It's some good reading and it will bring back some fond memories.

I can't think of too many ones they missed. Off the top of my head, I'm thinking about Rocket Ismail's season at Notre Dame when he returned all of those kicks including one that would have won the national championship if not for a questionable holding call.

Duke Lands Top Prep QB

I know this isn't new news, but it's pretty interesting. Duke recruit Greg Paulus enters his senior year of high school as the top-rated quarterback in the country. Could be a huge boon to the woeful Blue Devil football program, right?

No.

Paulus is going to Duke for basketball only. Pretty funny, huh? I wonder if it keeps football coach Ted Roof up at night? Think he's just a wee bit jealous of the success of Coach K? Krzyzewski is not only completely overshadowing the football program, but he's landing better football recruits!

Jeremy Bloom, My Favorite Ex-Buffalo

You remember Jeremy Bloom; he's the exceptional athlete who is not only a world-class skier, but a member of the University of Colorado football team? Well, ex-member. He was recently told by the NCAA that he could no longer accept skiing endorsements and maintain his football eligibility. His endorsements are the only way he can afford to pursue his skiing, so to give them up would be to give up skiing. Mind you, a college football player can legally play professional baseball, but evidently taking your money from a sponsor is different than taking it from a professional team (who in turn makes money from sponsors). The sad thing is that Bloom obviously played football just for the love of the game, although he was very good at it.

Well, don't be bitter. Jeremy isn't. In fact, he wrote a nice little article thanking the NCAA for all they taught him.

And yes, my last paragraph and Bloom's article are dripping with sarcasm.

Marathon Man

For each of the past two Sundays, I've been fortunate enough to have a little time in the house with the Olympics on. Each day, they showed a marathon, live and in full. Last Sunday it was the women and yesterday it was the men. In each case, the race was much more interesting than you would think 2+ hours of running would be.

You've of course heard by now about the controversy in yesterday's race. Brazilian Vanderlei De Lima (no, he was not being played by Jason Alexander) led for most of the race, running out to as much as a 45 second lead over a large pack. With about 3 or so miles left and his lead down to about 30 seconds, De Lima was jumped by a crazy Irishman. The nutjob pushed De Lima to the side of the road before spectators and security freed him. De Lima lost some time, probably 5-10 seconds, and also his composure, at least for a bit. Shortly thereafter, Stefano Baldini of Italy and then Meb Keflezighi passed De Lima. De Lima settled for the bronze.

That's where the controversy comes in. Brazil is asking for the IOC to award De Lima a gold medal as well, saying that he likely would have won without the attack.

I disagree.

First, some background on De Lima. He's 35 years old and this is his third Olympics. In Atlanta eight years ago, he finished around 45th in the marathon. Four years ago in Sydney, he finished around 72nd. Clearly, he was not a favorite in this race. What he tried was a common distance race strategy for less-talented runners - go out early, build a big lead and try to hang on. The idea is that the more talented runners will let you go and try to run you down at the end, but they may not be able to make up enough ground. If you wait and try run with them the whole way, they'll outkick you, so you try to win the race early. A good friend of mine used this strategy successfully in high school, narrowly beating his arch-rival in the indoor mile by holding him off after building a big lead.

The problem for De Lima is that he was running out of gas. Baldini and the others were gaining on him at the time he was jumped. When Baldini did finally pass him a short time later, he blew by him. Baldini ended up beating De Lima by a minute and 16 seconds. You can't claim that all that time (plus the 29 seconds that he was behind at the time) is attributable to De Lima being pushed to the side for a few seconds. Additionally, American Keflezighi beat De Lima by 42 seconds.

To his credit, De Lima didn't seem bitter at all. When he entered the stadium for his last two laps, he looked positively ecstatic. He made airplane arms and beamed, incredibly excited to be winning a medal after two Olympics of finishing way back in the pack.

So, let's not tarnish a great race by muddying it up with post-event politics. Baldini won fair and square and De Lima ran a great race and finished third. There's nothing to be ashamed of in that. Plus, De Lima gets to be a hero in Brazil, and that can't be bad.

Olympic-Sized Thoughts

I haven't really written much about the Olympics yet, but it not because I'm not watching or don't care. It's quite the opposite. Watching the games at night has taken away some of my time and I've built up so much to say that it's a bit intimidating. To help me out a bit, I'm not going to write anything here about how the US Men's Basketball team should have been better and I'm not writing about the Paul Hamm situation with gymnastics. I'd like to avoid writing about gymnastics at all, but it is the Olympics, so I do have a little something.

I should say up front that I love the Olympics. I know that some say it's just a big commercial event filled with hypocrisy and cheating. I won't argue that those issues aren't real, but for me they don't really take away from the games. For the vast majority of athletes there, these games are the pinnacle of their sporting lives. Actually, if you consider how much time these people have spent training and competing, it's not an exaggeration to say that the Olympics are the pinnacle of their entire lives. The games only come every four years, so for many athletes they get only one shot. If they fall down in their preliminary heat or come down with an ill-timed cold, four years or more of training could be washed down the drain. These people wake up at dawn and run 10 miles while their friends sleep. They go to their jobs with regular people, and then go out and train while their coworkers are at happy hour. Most don't earn any extra money for competing; they do it for the love. They long ago learned that they had a special talent and they want to see how much they can refine and improve their ability. The Olympics aren't just their chance to show people what they can do, but they're a chance to compete against the best in world and see how they stack up. While they may have trained in relative anonymity in Akron for four years, they get to see how they compare to others who have been doing the same thing in Oslo or Beijing.

One thing that gets me every time is a medal ceremony. I love seeing someone up on that stand watching their flag and listening to their anthem. On top of the tremendous personal pride they must feel for realizing their dreams, they get a jolt of nationalistic pride as well. I get choked up just watching on TV. I can't imagine what it must feel like to actually be standing there.

One sport that doesn't quite fit into that picture of anonymity I drew above is men's basketball. For the most part, those players are pros making a lot of money, especially those who play in the NBA. Like I said, I'm not going to beat up on the US team; that's been done enough. Instead, I'm going to focus on the good part of the US losing three times and taking the bronze. Back in 1988, we sent a team of college players for the last time. That team was led by David Robinson, but lost in the semifinals to the Soviet Union before taking the bronze. That loss shocked Americans, so we decided never to send a team of college players again (by the way, that team finished the Olympics with a record of 7-1, while the 2004 pro team finished 5-3). The international teams had gotten too good. In '92, of course, we sent the Dream Team (and will people stop calling other teams that name? No one dreamed of a team with Lamar Odom and Richard Jefferson and no one dreamed of the US Softball or women's soccer teams either. Enough already.) and they steamrolled the competition. In '96 and 2000, we won gold again, but with narrower and narrower margins. This year, the dam burst. We can make all the excuses we want, but the bottom line is that the world has caught up. It caught up to our college kids 16 years ago and our pros now. And that's a good thing. It makes the games that much more interesting. If we're no longer a shoo-in to win, then the games will be more fun. Players can go knowing that they can impress us. The prevailing attitude a few months ago was that a win was expected (and boring) and a loss unacceptable. I don't think anyone thinks that any more. The other countries can play and that's not gonna change. Maybe basketball will become like soccer, where dozens of countries have a chance to be the best. Doesn't that sound like fun?

The other great aspect of what we saw from men's hoops is that the international game is pretty damn fun. They mix up defenses, they cut, they pass and they can shoot. It's basketball the way it should be played. Actually, it's basketball as it's still played in college, but with better players. I think the NBA could learn a thing or two. Zone defense don't mean the end of offense. Hell, these Olympic teams were routinely scoring over 90 points in a 40 minute game! One key difference from the NBA is the amount of hand-checking the refs would allow. The NBA has become a defensive league in large part because of the ever increasing amount of hand-checking. The Pistons started that trend and Pat Riley's Knicks and Heat took it the next level. As teams started grabbing and holding more, refs started allowing more of it. Otherwise, they'd be blowing whistles left and right. It's time for that to stop. Cut back on the hand-checking to give the offense some room to maneuver. At the same time, allow real zone defenses to force teams to acquire pure shooters. Believe me, no one is going to play a zone D for too long against a team that can shoot, but it's great to have that option to mix things up and penalize teams that can't shoot.

As expected, NBC showed a lot of coverage of men's basketball. I didn't mind so much, because I like basketball, but at the same time, in the Olympics I often want to see the other sports. I want to see the sports that you don't get to see too much elsewhere. Overall though, I thought NBC did a really good job this year, certainly better than in years past. Their use of the cable channels really helped, as they could leave the corny melodrama on the main channel and focus on actual competition on CNBC, USA and MSNBC. Also, it seemed like they showed a little less gymnastics this year. It used to be that you got the impression that gymnastics was the only sport in the Olympics, but they were more selective in what they showed this time. Maybe it's just because Tim Daggett annoys them too.

Speaking of gymnastics, man what a screwed up sport. How can it be a true competition when the results are in the hands of judges? I think the fact that they feel the need to show the nationality of each judge pretty much tells you what you need to know. If the judges' nationalities are relevant, the implication is that they are playing favorites. Politics comes in to play. Don't think that wasn't at least part of what South Korea was trying to pull. They knew they might not get the All-Around gold for their guy, but they might get some sympathy points in the individual competitions. It's a joke. One of the eternal themes of the Olympics is supposed to be no politics. How is that possible in sports where the outcome is entirely controlled by judges? While I respect the hell out of the gymnasts themselves, I think the sport needs to go (and take diving and boxing with it). For a sport to be fair, the winner needs to be obvious - who gets there faster, goes farther or scores the most points. Your music selection and reputation should have nothing to do with it.

One thing about the Olympics is that you get to see so many different sports at the same time. You see sports predicated on endurance, strength, speed, swimming, jumping, team play, aim, etc. Each different sport requires different talents and skills and therefore different body types. Sprinters are small-to-average height and muscular. Distance runners are short and lean. Swimmers are tall and wirey. Gymnasts are tiny and strong. Sometimes those body types line up nicely with the gene pool of some ethnic group or region. In track, the sprints are dominated by west Africans while the distance events are dominated by east Africans. There are hardly any world-class Asian sprinters. Diving however, is dominated by the Chinese. Romanians seem to make great gymnasts and weightlifters. Almost every sport shows some of this pattern, and I find it fascinating.

I think this partly explains why the US does so well at so many sports. We are a nation of immigrants. We have people from every nationality and ethnic group here. Need gymnasts? We have former Romanians. Need sprinters? Plenty of west Africans here. Obviously, America's wealth and love of sport are just as significant to our success, but you can't discount our diversity. That's just one more reason to feel pride when our anthem is played. It's like a celebration of the melting pot.

This has gotten long, so I'll wrap it up with a mention of one of my favorite moments. Rulon Gardner had just won his bronze medal match. Obviously, he wanted to win the gold, but I'm sure he was proud with the bronze. When he won though, he showed no emotion at all. He was exhausted, but I think it was partly the big, tough guy attitude. Real wrestlers don't preen and they don't show emotion. Just after the match though, as he had said he would, Gardner walked to the center circle and sat down to take off his shoes. He intended to leave his shoes in the center of the ring to indicate that he was retiring. (Seeing the rituals and cultures that are part of so many non-mainsteam sports is yet another intriguing part of the Olympics.) So anyway, Gardner is sitting there unlacing his shoes (wrestling shoes have a long laces) and he starts breaking down. This big, strong guy who maintained his stoic demeanor while winning his medal was crying. The thought that his career was over was too much. It summed up what competition is all about - putting everything into your sport. You don't do it for the money or fame (that Gardner became famous as a Greco-Roman wrestler is about as long a shot as there is), you do it for the love of the game. He was giving up his love. It got a little dusty in my house about then.

So yes, the Olympics maybe do have too much commercialism, too much politics and too much cheating, but it's a hell of a lot of fun. I can't wait for the Winter Olympics in 2006.

Email Of The Week

A friend of mine (you know him as pope ttb xxx from the Sports Shack) sent me a great story today. I thought I'd share.

I know baseball is not very high on your list, but here's a hardball story even you'll like. Most of us revere Dock Ellis as the man to pitch a no-hitter on acid, but my favorite baseball story is this:

May, 1974 -- Ellis single-handedly decided to break the Pirates out of their emotional slump, announcing that "We gonna get down. We gonna do the do. I'm going to hit these motherfuckers."

True to his word, in the first inning of the first regular season game he pitched against the Reds, Ellis hit leadoff batter Pete Rose in the ribs, then plunked Joe Morgan in the kidney, and loaded the bases by hitting Dan Driessen in the back. Tony Perez, batting cleanup, dodged a succession of Ellis' pitches to walk and force in a run.

The next hitter was Johnny Bench. "I tried to deck him twice," Ellis recalled. "I threw at his jaw, and he moved. I threw at the back of his head, and he moved." At this point, Pittsburgh manager Danny Murtaugh removed Ellis from the game.

Sports Guy's NBA Weekend

You may have read a while back that Bill Simmons was going to host an entire weekend of NBA TV, picking all the games. Well, here is his schedule, complete with descriptions. If the NBA's not your thing, you can skip this one.

I wonder how he remembers some of these games from 1980 so well? He was ten! At that age, I was just becoming aware of the concept watching sports on TV.

Check out the love he gives to Ralph Sampson and the 1986 Rockets who went to the finals.

Rollie Follies

Gregg Doyel gives a pretty good rundown of the rise and fall of Rollie Massimino. Of course, everyone remembers the great run his underdog 1985 Villanova team had, eventually winning the national championship against prohibitive favorites Georgetown.

Later, it came out (in a memorable Sports Illustrated cover story) that one of the stars of that team, Gary McLain, was routinely high on cocaine that season. Massimino ended up leaving 'Nova to go to UNLV to take over for Jerry Tarkanian. Frankly, anytime someone takes a job at UNLV, it sends up red flags. Rollie lasted only two years with the Rebels, getting fired after it was discovered that he had an illegal contract.

Massimino eventually turned up at Cleveland State, another school with a sordid history. Just like at UNLV, he did nothing to clean up the school's rep, getting run off after only moderate success on the court and tons of bad news off of it.

Now, the NCAA is looking to pile it on, investigating claims of academic fraud at Cleveland State.

And after all that, Gregg Doyel defends Rollie. He compares him to Jim Valvano, another coach who everyone seemed to love despite his rather lengthy list of misdeeds as a coach. It seems that to many, including Doyel, a good (or cute) personality offsets shocking faults in personal ethics.

In fairness, Gregg Doyel is usually pretty good in calling out bad behavior, but in this case he's defending the wrong guy.

(Thanks for the link, Yoni)

Duke Gets Boateng

Remember just a day or two ago when I mentioned that the ACC had landed seven top fifty prospects, with six to Duke and UNC? Well, eight top fifty prospects, with seven to Duke and UNC.

This is getting almost ridiculous.

Pack Picks Rivers' Replacement

NC State coach Chuck Amato named Jay Davis as the starting QB to succeed Philip Rivers. Davis is a redshirt junior, so he's been around long enough to learn the offense. Even better, he saw how Rivers ran it for the last three years. State has a ton of talent at the skill positions, so the potential is there for Davis to have a very good year. Could he pull a Tee Martin? Who knows, but the pieces are there. State after Rivers is the classic setting for the Ewing Theory. Rivers was individually brilliant, but the team never really won much of significance. Maybe now, with more all-around talent and less reliance on one player, they'll put it all together.

But then, Davis is just as likely to struggle. We'll see.

Valvano Running

If Duke over Kentucky (see below) was the best college basketball game I've ever seen, NC State over Houston was the second best. I remember the ending vividly. I should have hated NC State for how they broke my Ralph Sampson and Virginia-loving heart twice in the previous two weeks. They were impossible to hate though, the way they scrapped and fought and seemed to always get the breaks at the end of the game.

In that game, the perfect Cinderella met the ultimate Goliath (I'm mixing the hell out of those stories, but you know what I mean). Run and gun and win versus shoot and fight and scrap. It's games like that that turn people into sports fans.

Remembering The Shot

As part of ESPN's 25th anniversary celebration (have you heard anything about this? They're being so low key about it!), they are running down the best plays in that 25 years. Not surprisingly, Christian Laettner's shot against Kentucky made the list at #17. We've all seen the replay a zillion times, but if you remember, it was just the last play of an incredible game. It was the best basketball game I've ever seen. I can still clearly remember where I was and who I was with when I saw it, even though none of us were Duke or Kentucky fans.

I'm going to post another link in a second to an ever higher-rated ACC play. I bet you can guess what it is.

Update: The SportsProf vividly remembers this game, because he had tickets and skipped it. Maybe the SportsProf is really Robin Williams from Good Will Hunting.

ACC Basketball Recruiting Going Well

Any concerns about the ACC's shift to a football conference haven't affected basketball recruiting. At least not yet. So far, the ACC has landed seven of the top fifty players for next year. Six of those seven have picked Duke and North Carolina. Something tells me that no matter what the ACC does, those two giants will continue to be basketball dynasties.

Fighting Fire With (Euro) Fire

I've read a couple of articles like this one that put forth the idea that the US should build its next basketball team using non-NBA pros. The idea is to go get the Americans that are currently playing in Europe. These guys are doing quite well and are much more familiar with the international game.

I like the idea, but I don't love it. It's a temporary solution. Let's face it, the world is catching up with us and we exclude the bulk of our best players, we might be able to win for a little while, but not for long. They'll pass us. The one cool thing about this is that it would bring back some guys we may have forgotten about, like Randolph Childress and Dante Calabria. And can you believe that David Rivers is still playing? How old is that guy?

Long Hair Danger

Cumberland County recently voted to outlaw certain hair styles for high school athletes. The styles that are no longer legal include dreadlocks, cornrows and long hair.

Cumberland officials say that this has nothing to do with race, but is a concern over the safety of the competitors.

Uh huh.

Yeah, you can hardly open the sports page these days without hearing about yet another horrendous dreadlock-induced injury. It's about time someone had the courage to make it stop. Bravo, Cumberland County. Bravo!

NC State Has Pack Of Backs

With the additions of two highly rated running backs, NC State suddenly has a surplus of quality running backs. Since running back is probably the easiest position to play as a true freshmen, both expect to play right away. Obviously, that can't happen, at least not the number of carries that each guy expects, particularly when there's an incumbent like TA McLendon. It'll be interesting to see what happens. All the preseason happiness could fade quickly once guys start getting itchy to play. I wouldn't be surprised to see one of them move to receiver.

Of course, as often as McLendon gets hurt (and he's already missed some practices), having good backups is a must.

Local Track Legend

St Augustine's track coach George Williams is a bit of a legend. He has built an unlikely dynasty at the small DII school, winning multiple national championships and producing several world-class runners and jumpers. Williams is currently serving as the coach of US Track & Field team at the Olympics.
He seems like a really good guy and it's good to see him get some national, and probably international, attention.

UNC Gets Big Man

UNC seems set to get a commitment from 6'9" Tyler Hansbrough, the #3 rated basketball recruit this year. UNC is also in strong running for Richard Hendrix, the #2 recruit. That would be an outstanding class except for the fact that highly rated big men rarely go to college anymore. Carolina may have gotten guys who are too good. We'll see.

Head Of Cabbages

Several years ago, I read somewhere about how to properly pronounce the last name of Maryland guard Saruna Jasikevicius. It said that it rhymes with "head of cabbages," which is about right.

Well, ole Cabbage Head was on the telly again today looking pretty much like he did last time I saw him in the 2000 Olympics. Back then, he was draining threes left and right and nearly led Lithuania to a titanic upset, missing a three at the buzzer. This time, the upset took, with Jasikevicius leading the way with 28 points, including about a million in a row in the fourth quarter to erase a small US lead.

Seeing Jasikevicius and former Wake star Darius Songalia on Lithuania got me thinking about the ACC presence on the floor. Lithuania had those two players and the US had three, Tim Duncan (Wake Forest), Stephon Marbury (Georgia Tech) and Carlos Boozer (Duke). Those two ACC Lithuanians however played for a total of eight years, the same as the three US players. Useless info? Sure, but it's interesting.

BTW, the US does have a huge contingent on the US bench with Larry Brown and Roy Wiliams from North Carolina and Oliver Purnell from Clemson. Given how their team has played though, that is hardly a compliment to the conference. No, I'm not really blaming the coaches, but you can't really say they've done all that great either, can you?

A Little Boy's First Baseball Game

The SportsProf wrote a great piece yesterday about taking his son to his first baseball game. As a father of two small boys, this one touched me.

I'm not really a baseball guy, but you can't deny the father-son connections in baseball. I don't know why it's that way, maybe it's because the pace of the game allows for more bonding. Either way, it makes me wish we had a major league team here that my boys could watch.

I actually took my sons to a Durham Bulls game on Father's Day, but both are still too young to get too much out of it. Considering what the Triangle has to offer (and my wife's allegiances), I'm guessing that our father-son sports bonding is going to happen at UNC basketball games.

Chris Hates Expansion

I've gotten tired of ranting about ACC expansion. Before I started this site, I bitched to my friends in endless streams of email vitriol. Here on Dave Sez, I've belittled John Swofford enough times that I've just grown tired of it. I can't muster the energy to say it all again.

Thank God for Chris Chase. He does it for me, and he's a much better writer. In particular, Chris is pissed about the ACC basketball schedules that just came out. We all knew it wouldn't include a full round-robin schedule, but it was still tough to see it for real.

The Right Way

I post a lot of links and write a lot of words about the seedy side of youth basketball. You have shady AAU coaches, shoe representatives, college coaches, and all sorts of other sycophants hanging all over these kids. They teach them all the wrong things about life without managing to teach much in the way of basketball skills.

Well, here's a coach and a team that do things the right way. I'm sure there are hundreds or thousands of youth coaches around the country just like Peter Singer, the coach of this under-12 youth team. I'd love for my sons to play for a coach like this some day.

Cotchery Catching On

When wide receiver Jerricho Cotchery was playing at NC State he never seemed to get much national attention, despite leading the ACC in receiving two years in a row. Well, now the NY Jets are figuring out that they got a pretty player with their fourth round pick.

Carmelo A Troublemaker?

The US beat Australia today in the Olympics (sorry if that's a spoiler) 89-79. What I found interesting in the Yahoo! write-up were comments from Larry Brown about Carmelo Anthony and LeBron James.

About Anthony, who played only 2 minutes, Brown said "I don't need a guy who doesn't want to buy in. How you play, how you practice and how you act determines how much you play." That doesn't sound good. It's somewhat surprising considering that I've only heard great things about Carmelo's personality. Maybe the fame and pressure are getting to his head.

The other curious quote was about how LeBron James listens to Brown - "he has a hard time looking at me sometimes because of how he might be perceived by certain people, but he listens to everything I say." Was Brown saying that James has to pretend not to be listening to keep looking cool? Who is watching James like that? His posse? Are Cleveland coaches around who might resent Brown coaching their guy? It's pretty strange.

Give Coach Brown credit. Despite his rep, he's obviously pretty flexible. That kind of crap would drive me nuts.

ACC Basketball Schedules

The ACC released the basketball schedules for the upcoming season. As the News & Observer points out, there will be 31 games that start at 9pm or later. That sucks. I understand that it's good for TV and all that, but you have to keep kids involved. Not to mention how difficult it can be for fans to go to weekday games that don't end until after 11. I guess there are still 140 or so games on at better times, but I don't like how there are more and more late games.

The schedules for all 11 teams are available from the link above.

Ahmad Brooks Missing Practices

Star Virginia linebacker Ahmad Brooks has missed two consecutive practices for personal reasons. Neither the team nor Brooks' family is saying what the issues are. No one is saying for sure whether Brooks will be back for the first game of the season on September 4 against Temple.

The sophomore Brooks is the centerpiece of an outstanding UVA linebacking corps that some magazines have touted as the nation's best. Brooks was a freshman All-American last year.

Cornhusker to Ringhawker

Lawrence Phillips, the girlfriend-beating, former Nebraska star and NFL flameout recently sold one of his Big Eight championship rings to a Las Vegas pawnshop. For $20. Twenty dollars!

The pawnshop turned around and sold the ring on eBay for $1700.

Who could have guessed that Phillips would have fallen so far? He seemed like he had such a good head on his shoulders.

UNC Basketball Preview

InsideCarolina.com has a little preseason look at UNC's basketball team, including comments from Roy Williams about almost all the players.

My favorite part is the comments about Melvin Scott. According to Coach Williams, Scott just needs to shoot a little better, not turn the ball over and play better defense. Is that all?

The Terrapin Defense

Remember that South Park where the Johnnie Cochran-like lawyer uses the Chewbacca Defense? "If Chewbacca lives on Endor, you must acquit!"

Well, now it seems that playing football for Maryland also means that you must acquit. A judge hearing a case against Terrapin receiver Gregory Powell told him, and I quote, "you are guilty as sin. I'm not going to find you guilty."

Did I mention that the "trial" was in Ocean City, Maryland?

Evidently, the judge felt that being suspended from the Maryland football team was just too tough a punishment for this guy. I guess that actual criminal punishments were also too severe. So, he got nothing.

Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey.

Blue Optimism

It's amazing the optimism that new Duke coach Ted Roof seems to have conjured out of thin air. The Duke football program has been profoundly bad for a long while now, so it's jarring to see people so excited about their season.

Roof did coach in five games last year and Duke did look like a completely different team after he took over. They managed two wins, but the teams they beat were an inconsistent Georgia Tech and the completely collapsed Tar Heels. In fairness, Duke did play both Tennessee and NC State close as well.

The thing is, it's not unusual for new coaches to light a quick spark and get surprising results. It's sort of the coaching version of the Ewing Theory. The hard part is making it carry over to the next season. Duke still has nothing approaching the talent of the other ACC teams, except maybe Wake Forest. If Roof can get a .500 season out of this team, he deserves all the accolades he can get.

Big Mistake

If you've never checked out Fanblogs.com, you should. It's a well done site about college football. I've been reading their site (via RSS) for a while now and have linked to their articles several times.

Well, evidently they aren't quite as professional as I thought. What was it Groucho Marx said, "I wouldn't want to be in any club that would have me as a member?" It seems that I'm in their club now. They've asked me to contribute to their ACC coverage. There goes the neighborhood! ;-)

Dave Sez won't be changing any. I'll still be posting everything here. Stuff that's football-related will also be posted to FanBlogs. They'll just have to do without my Russian Ostrich jokes.

BTW, "mega-blog celeb?" They must have me confused with someone else.

ps. I do agree that everyone could use more cowbell.

Russian Ostrich

I admit it; I watched the Olympic Ritualized Child Abuse and Tumbling competition last night. For a while, I was thinking that the anorexic Russian star, the one who's been in the last three or four Olympics, was the same one that John Tesh used to breathlessly call "The Belarussian Swan." Remember that? He said that over and over. Anyway, it's not really her.

Still, I have a nickname for her. The Russian Ostrich.

Or maybe the Russian Stick Bug:

Darryl Dawkins On Race And Olympic Hoops

Wow. This is a stunning interview. Darryl Dawkins makes a lot of interesting points, but frames it in the very uncomfortable premise that black basketball players are too flashy and white players play team basketball. He thinks the US Olympic team is too black.

If you remove the race labels, and just go with individualism versus team play, it makes a lot of sense. Unfortunately, he's pretty clear in what he's saying. Give it a read.

UK Rivals

This is pretty interesting. A Kentucky tee shirt listing its two biggest rivals (the bad and ugly to UK's good) has Louisville and Duke, in that order. That implies that the Wildcats consider Duke, a very irregular opponent, their biggest rival, bigger even than in-state enemy Louisville. And neither of the two is a conference rival.

I guess Duke hatred is really catching on!

Apres Rivers?

There have been a zillion of these articles and I've avoided linking to any of them. I guess it's time. NC State still doesn't know who their next quarterback will be. They have a lot of talent at the RB and WR positions though, so it may not matter too much as long as he's halfway competetent.

Simmons vs. Klosterman

ESPN's otherwise awful Page 2 is running a great feature today. It's a running series of emails between Bill Simmons and Charles Klosterman. You're thinking to yourself "Charles Who?" You're right. You have no idea who he is. Trust me though, this is great funny stuff. He's a perfect foil for Simmons.

edit: They added a Part 5 after I posted this. Part 5, the last part, ends with Klosterman saying that the perfect addition to the US Olympic hoops team would be JJ Redick. Talk about pissing off the Duke haters! The truth always hurts the worst.

Everything I Know I Learned From Television

I learned a couple of interesting things from my television the last couple of days.

Michael Phelps Is A Loser
Can you believe this guy? He was supposed to win 8 gold medals and he's already lost twice. Bronze is for losers. It matters not that he lost his last race to the guy that is possibly the best swimmer ever. Actually, the two guys who beat him hold between them the ten fastest times in history in that race, and sure Phelps swam his personal best, an American record even, but still ... the bottom line is he lost. Loser.

The Seahawks Are Contenders
On SportsCenter this morning, they had a little bit with Sean Salisbury called Contender or Pretender. When asked about the Seattle Seahawks, Sean told us that the Seahawks are contenders if they can manage to earn home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. So, just to clarify Sean, you're saying that we should consider a team as a contender if it manages to have the best record in the NFC at the end of the regular season? Brilliant!

Thank you Sean.

And thank you television.

Iran Go Home

An Iranian athlete (Judo) elected to forfeit his match instead of fight an athlete from Israel? Digraceful. Iran's delegation backing him up? Shameful. Iran picking him to carry their flag in the opening ceremonies? Despicable.

Dan Wetzel is exactly right. Send the whole country home. Kick 'em out until they get an clue about what it's all about.

Hodge Stay At Point Guard?

Mike DeCourcy says that Julius Hodge should stay at point guard for NC State. That's funny. Hodge has never really been State's point guard. Oh sure, he handles the ball a lot and even brings it up the court a lot, but he's not a point guard. Those duties were shared largely by Hodge, Scooter Sherrill and Ilian Evtimov last year. Sherrill brought the ball up a lot and Evtimov ran a lot of the Princeton-like offense.

Hodge is and has always been a wing player with pretty good ball-handling skills. He isn't a point guard. There's a difference.

Another interesting tidbit from DeCourcy's article is the nugget that Matt Doherty did some coaching at the ABCD camp this summer. He coached a center named Andray Blatche. According to Doherty, Blatche was "easily frustrated" by the competition. Hmmm, a Doherty-coached player who was frustrated. That sounds oddly familiar, doesn't it?

A Train Wreck

Everyone sort of knew this was coming, but it made it no less shocking when it happened. The US basketball team was absolutely embarassed by Puerto Rico today, losing by 19 points. It was disgraceful. It felt like watching one of those Faces of Death videos.

I won't go on too big of a rant here, because I already did it in the Sports Shack. Check here to read it.

One interesting point that nervesmiffs brought up is that not one player on this team was in the top 50 in the NBA in three point shooting. Not one. Incredible.

Hey, but we have four of the top seven (and 7 of the top 15) turnover leaders!

Charlie Don't Surf

Good luck to the people in Florida. I don't envy you at all right now. I remember a very long night in my house about five years ago when Hurricane Fran came through Raleigh. That was barely a Category 1 by the time it got to us. I can't imagine riding out a Category 4. It must be terrifying.

Let's hope it spares the Carolinas, although it looks like it won't. It's current track shows it heading back over water where it will probably gain steam before giving us a butt-kicking.

The Amazing Ronald Curry

I was very surprised earlier today to read that Ronald Curry had climbed the depth charts to be the #3 wide receiver for the Oakland Raiders. He's behind only Jerry Rice and Jerry Porter. Just a few days ago, the #3 spot was held by the great Tim Brown. From Tim Brown to Ronald Curry? How did that happen? When did Ronald Curry become a wide receiver?

You may remember Curry from his days at UNC, where he was the starting quarterback and, for a time, also the starting point guard. His football career was uneven, disappointing even, but he did graduate as the Tar Heels' all time leader in passing and total offense.

How did he end up on the Raiders as a receiver? He clearly wasn't good enough in college to be drafted as a quarterback. So, why did the Raiders draft him? According to head man Al Davis, "we drafted him based on his high school football, which was outstanding." Whoa! They drafted him based on his high school production? High school? How often does that happen in the NFL? And how does a guy in Oakland know enough about a high school player from Hampton, Virginia that he decides to draft him four years later without a position?

Well, let's get in the way-back machine and revisit the high school career of the fabled Ronald Curry.

Curry attended Hampton High School in the Peninsula District of southeastern Virginia. This area is a football and basketball goldmine, turning out such stars as Allen Iverson, Alonzo Mourning, Joe Smith, Lawrence Taylor and Dre Bly. Curry took Hampton by storm, starting at quarterback as a freshman. Hampton lost once his freshman year, and then never again until after he left. Three straight Virginia class AAA Division 5 state championships, and the games were rarely close.

Curry wasn't just a regional or state star, he became a national figure. He was voted first-team all state QB four times. He was first-team all-state as a defensive back and kick returner three times each. USA Today voted him as the 1st team All-American quarterback twice; he was the first junior ever picked for the position.

Coaches everywhere flocked to see his games. He was compared to Charlie Ward, but with John Elway's arm. Bobby Bowden called him (and still does) the greatest high school football player he'd ever seen.

It turned out he could play a little basketball as well. Curry was twice voted the state player of the year, leading Hampton to the state title as a junior. As a senior, he was a Parade and McDonald's All-American, with McDonald's selecting him as their player of the year (he even won the McDonald's dunk contest and game MVP honors).

If the wins and awards aren't enough, how about his numbers? Staggering. Here are a few:

• Finished with career totals of 8,212 passing yards and 11,519 total yards, both state records


• Had career totals of 90 passing TDs, 74 rushing TDs and 22 return TDs


• One of every 8 pass attempts in his career went for a touchdown


• One of every 5 rushes in his senior year went for a touchdown


• Intercepted 8 passes in his senior year

Curry was such a blinding light that other talents in his district went largely unnoticed. Another talented quarterback at a rival school happened to be in the same class as Curry. He too was a gifted athlete, but he was never as good as Curry. While lots of schools wanted him, he waited until after Curry decided where he was going before making his own decision. It is rumored that he wanted to go to Virginia, but since Curry was also considering the Cavaliers, he waited. When Curry picked Virginia (more on that later), the young quarterback picked Virginia Tech. Finally out from under Curry's shadow, he did all right for himself. Yes, while he was never even picked first team all-district, it turned out that Michael Vick was a pretty good player too.

So, back to the recruiting of Ronald Curry. By the fall of his senior year, it was widely believed that Curry was down to three schools, Virginia, Florida State and North Carolina, possibly in that order. While he was pegged as a football star all along, his basketball skills had grown so that everyone wanted him for that as well. Football coaches certainly didn't want to share him, but they knew they'd have to. Even though it was believed, at least locally, that he was a much better football prospect, the sheer momentum of his legend inflated his national rep as a basketball player. It might have affected Curry's own opinion of himself as well. There were actually rumors that he might skip college for the NBA (incredibly, there were similar rumors that he'd skip college for the NFL, even though that isn't even allowed).

Of course, the recruiting circus was getting to be nearly unmanageable. In an effort to end it all, Curry announced early. In September, just before a Thursday night ESPN football game between Auburn and Virginia in Charlottesville, Curry announced. He was going to be a Cavalier. The word spread quickly through the stadium and fans didn't seem to even care that their team lost that night. The home state savior was on his way.

Or was he?

As time passed, it started looking less and less like a sure thing. Curry didn't sign at the first available date in February. Shortly thereafter, Virginia fired basketball coach Jeff Jones after several mediocre seasons. Meanwhile, the rumor mill was spinning like mad. The big rumors centered on the pressures of Nike. Nike had coincidently decided to sponsor Hampton High School's athletic teams during Curry's years there. As his high school basketball coach Mike Smith said, "I've never seen [Curry] with anything but Nikes on his feet."

Curry liked Nike. Nike liked Curry. Virginia wore Reebok.

North Carolina has always worn Nike.

In late March, Ronald Curry held a press conference to announce that he was not going to Virginia after all. He would be attending archrival North Carolina. As you might imagine, this didn't go over well in the Commonwealth. Curry instantly became enemy number one for Virginia fans who took every opportunity over the next four years to boo Curry and call him names like Benedict Curry. Unfortunately for Curry, there was plenty for fans and rivals alike to boo about.

Curry's college career didn't live up to expectations. How could it have? He would have had to win national titles in both football and basketball while simultaneously serving the crowds with loaves and fishes.

His basketball career lasted only two seasons. He started a bunch games as a freshman, but never looked comfortable. He played too fast and wild, never learning when not to drive to the basket. He'd either have his shot swatted or he'd try to kick it out and would hit someone in the fourth row. Also, it was discovered that he couldn't shoot. To make matters worse, a much less heralded classmate who was also on a football scholarship turned out to be a better basketball player. Julius Peppers was a better football player too.

Curry's college football career, as I mentioned above was pretty mediocre. He started for most of his four years and had moments of brilliance. Unfortunately, he played for three different offensive coordinators in his four years. He also ruptured his Achilles tendon in his sophomore season and never seemed to fully recover. He seemed slower, but that may have been a byproduct of a loss in confidence and/or confusion over his ever changing offensive schemes. His biggest weakness turned out to be accuracy. While Curry has a cannon of an arm, he never learned how to throw a ball under 30 yards. Screen passes went either over the bench or bounced twice. A mitigating factor is that Curry's teams were pretty sad. He had little talent to work with and often seemed to do best when things broke down and he'd have to just run.

So, the legend ended in college. Ronald Curry would not become the greatest American athlete of all time. He would not be the next Bo Jackson or Deion Sanders or even Danny Ainge, playing in two professional leagues.

It appeared that college was where his story would end. He certainly wasn't a good enough college QB to be considered for an NFL position.

But, it turns out all that high school hype had some lasting value. NFL guys, or at least Al Davis, knew Ron Curry and what he was once capable of. He didn't just play QB in high school, he played a great defensive back, he returned kicks, heck he even punted. So, Davis took a chance, thinking he'd use Curry in the defensive backfield. Instead Curry is now slated to see a lot of playing time at wide receiver. The next Slash. Watch out for the reverse option pass! While he couldn't throw a screen for a squat, he sure as hell could throw a bomb.

Ronald Curry has gone from untouchable star to disappointing underachiever to semi-anonymous NFL everyman, looking to make (remake?) a name for himself.

While I was one of those Virginia fans who was crushed when he spurned my Cavaliers, I hope Ron Curry makes it in Oakland. Through it all, he has always seemed like a good guy, a guy who got caught up in something that he just couldn't quite handle. He finally seems to be in a place where he can just be himself. He doesn't have to live up to his own legend.

I just hope they wear Nike in Oakland.

Bliss Is Ignorance

Dave Bliss makes me sick. The stuff he pulled at Baylor was reprehensible. He violated multiple NCAA rules, including paying players. He brought in unsavory characters to play on his team (at a Christian school, no less). He covered up drug use and positive tests by his players. And then, the big one, he tried to get assistant coaches and other players to paint the murdered Patrick Dennehey as a drug dealer.

Now, he says he's sorry.

Please. Spare me.

He tries to say that basically, this is the ONE time that he made bad decisions in his life, the only time in his 30 years of coaching. Uh huh. Look, you don't pull stuff he pulled without being a snake through and through. The man's a snake. Period.

Go away.

Just Say No

I don't think I've ever brought up this issue. I'm not sure why, as I have a problem with it. Why on earth did NC State hire CJ Hunters as an assistant strength coach?

The guy was kicked off the US Olympic team just before the 2000 Olympics after failing four drug tests. Four! So, yeah, the guy is huge and was a world class shot putter, so I'm sure he knows how to get strong. Unfortunately, like many world-class shot putters, it seems that his routine involves syringes.

Is that who you want teaching your college athletes?

Hunter claims he's innocent, which is laughable, but does claim that he personally injected his then-wife, Marion Jones with steroids. OK, so he claims not to have used them himself, but he had no problem giving them to his wife. Why would anyone believe he would have a problem shooting up college football players?

NC State doesn't need CJ Hunter.