Chris Roberts (Bradley Senior Shooting Guard) has been selected to appear in the NCAA Dunk Contest this Thursday. You can see the www.bradleybraves.com article here. This is fitting as Roberts is an incredible athlete and otherworldly dunker of basketballs. If you follow that link be sure to watch the entry video Bradley sent to the competition. It includes some of my favorites, including both Chris's SportsCenter 1B ranked tipslam in this year's MVC tournament and his awesome one-on-one drive and reverse slam against Drexel in the ESPN bracketbuster. It doesn't have another of my favorites from the CIT tourney last year when Roberts teleported in to tipslam something from well outside the paint.
Chris is absolutely electric when it comes to playing above the rim, and the best dunker I ever saw at Bradley. Let's all tune into ESPN Thursday night and cheer Chris on. I think he could actually win the thing.
Tuesday, March 30, 2010
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Butler Did It!
Well, Butler did it! They beat K-State. I wanted to think it was possible, or even likely, going into the game. Butler had, after all, put down Syracuse who was my tourney favorite. But watching K-State earlier in the tournament I kept thinking they were a very complete team with a couple of players who might just kill you at any time -- Denis Clemente and Jacob Pullen.
Butler played very well in the first half, albeit turning it over too much. They were monstrous on the boards and got themselves a lot of second chances. The Wildcats looked exhausted for most of the first half. Hard to quantify, I guess, but they had that moving underwater look that my mom used to accuse me of sometimes when I was playing Little League. The second half was a lot tougher and Butler actually increased their rate of turnovers. Pullen and Clemente, who Butler had neutralized effectively in the first half, laid down some pain. Bulldog Matt Howard started missing free-throws and I started to get nervous. All's well that ends well, though, and this one did. Gordon Hayward of Butler remains an awesome talent and likely future NBA contributor, displaying excellent decision making, shooting, and ball-handling skills for a man of his height. Shelvin Mack also played a great one (and may also have a future in the NBA)... And all of that summed up to a nifty Butler victory including a great last 4 or 5 minute run by Butler to seal the thing.
Butler will take on either Michigan St or Tennessee (game in progress right now) in their Final Four matchup. Either team is beatable for Butler (and both teams not as good as Syracuse of K-State), and Butler may even have the logical edge in what will amount to a home game for them with the Final Four being played in Indianapolis. Could it happen? Could we see a midmajor (true blue, too, coming from the very middling Horizon League) in the NCAA final? Could they even win there against a questionable Duke squad or a recent bulldozer of a Baylor team? You can bet I'll be watching with rapt attention.
Butler played very well in the first half, albeit turning it over too much. They were monstrous on the boards and got themselves a lot of second chances. The Wildcats looked exhausted for most of the first half. Hard to quantify, I guess, but they had that moving underwater look that my mom used to accuse me of sometimes when I was playing Little League. The second half was a lot tougher and Butler actually increased their rate of turnovers. Pullen and Clemente, who Butler had neutralized effectively in the first half, laid down some pain. Bulldog Matt Howard started missing free-throws and I started to get nervous. All's well that ends well, though, and this one did. Gordon Hayward of Butler remains an awesome talent and likely future NBA contributor, displaying excellent decision making, shooting, and ball-handling skills for a man of his height. Shelvin Mack also played a great one (and may also have a future in the NBA)... And all of that summed up to a nifty Butler victory including a great last 4 or 5 minute run by Butler to seal the thing.
Butler will take on either Michigan St or Tennessee (game in progress right now) in their Final Four matchup. Either team is beatable for Butler (and both teams not as good as Syracuse of K-State), and Butler may even have the logical edge in what will amount to a home game for them with the Final Four being played in Indianapolis. Could it happen? Could we see a midmajor (true blue, too, coming from the very middling Horizon League) in the NCAA final? Could they even win there against a questionable Duke squad or a recent bulldozer of a Baylor team? You can bet I'll be watching with rapt attention.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
No Dice for the Panthers
Had to catch the game at the local sports bar as network TV decided the concurrent Duke-Purdue game was a bigger draw in this area. Met a buddy and had some food and a couple of pitchers of Bud Light. Northern Iowa played well, and led fairly convincingly at the half. They're a disciplined, tough team that plays stout D and doesn't make too many mistakes. Thing is, for whatever reason, they struggle on defense as soon as the second half opens up. Michigan State closed the 7-point halftime gap in what felt like about 35 seconds, and while UNI managed to keep up for the rest of the game their defense went from monstrous to porous... For no good reason I could see. Ran out of gas, I guess. Plus, Korie Lucious' awesome dribble spin-move fall-away jumper with about 90 seconds left was a red-assed shot but a real back-breaker too. Tom Izzo's got MSU all coached up and solid as usual. They've got 6-seed Tennessee tomorrow. I like Sparty and Izzo a lot better than the Vols and Bruce Pearl, so I'll be pulling hard for Michigan State.
Other related items:
St. Mary's got their heads kicked in by Baylor, so mid-major hopes are down to the Butler-Kansas State game today. That'll be a tough one for Butler, but I think Butler's legit, so we'll have to see how it goes for them. If they can get through K-State, they'll have to play the winner of MSU-Tennessee, either of which are winnable games for the Bulldogs. Also, if they can put down the Wildcats, then Butler will have homecourt advantage with the Final Four being played in Indianapolis. It seems as ridiculous as George Mason making the Final Four in '06, but I can see Butler in the NCAA Championship.
Also, be interesting to see if UNI can hold on to 2nd year coach Ben Jacobsen now that they're out of the tournament. He just signed a 10-year contract with them that has him making ~$450K/year, but none of that stops a BCS conference team from swooping in and offering him a $1M+/year deal. He's a young guy and appears to be an excellent coach, so I wouldn't really blame him for taking a bigger job and getting a shot at the best talent and annual appearances in the Big Dance.
Other related items:
St. Mary's got their heads kicked in by Baylor, so mid-major hopes are down to the Butler-Kansas State game today. That'll be a tough one for Butler, but I think Butler's legit, so we'll have to see how it goes for them. If they can get through K-State, they'll have to play the winner of MSU-Tennessee, either of which are winnable games for the Bulldogs. Also, if they can put down the Wildcats, then Butler will have homecourt advantage with the Final Four being played in Indianapolis. It seems as ridiculous as George Mason making the Final Four in '06, but I can see Butler in the NCAA Championship.
Also, be interesting to see if UNI can hold on to 2nd year coach Ben Jacobsen now that they're out of the tournament. He just signed a 10-year contract with them that has him making ~$450K/year, but none of that stops a BCS conference team from swooping in and offering him a $1M+/year deal. He's a young guy and appears to be an excellent coach, so I wouldn't really blame him for taking a bigger job and getting a shot at the best talent and annual appearances in the Big Dance.
Friday, March 26, 2010
Bad News Braves
It's already been a tough, up-and-down, season for my Bradley Braves. A couple of days ago a sophomore point guard, Eddren McCain, abruptly left the program. It's not all that uncommon, and I'd figured it was because he got little playing time in the latter half of his second season (having lost the starting role he'd played himself into in the second half of his freshman year). However, rumors started running around that he'd not just left the team, but left the school... It would make no sense to leave campus in the middle of a semester, and as it turns out, where there's smoke there's fire. He was arrested a couple of days before leaving the team on drug-related charges based on getting arrested with his stripper girlfriend. Reported on the Peoria Journal Star website here.
It's too bad. He'd seemed like a good kid, and had a real tough life up to the time he'd come to Bradley. The couple of times I ran into him he seemed like a shy but nice young man. I'm sure it's easy to get yourself into trouble like this, and I hope he managed to find his way out of trouble.
It's not the first drama or legal issue we've had on the team, and I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect the coach to be able to head all of this stuff off... But I'm sure with some of the problems we've had the coach had little he could do other than kick him off the team for charges as serious as these are.
It's too bad. He'd seemed like a good kid, and had a real tough life up to the time he'd come to Bradley. The couple of times I ran into him he seemed like a shy but nice young man. I'm sure it's easy to get yourself into trouble like this, and I hope he managed to find his way out of trouble.
It's not the first drama or legal issue we've had on the team, and I'm not sure it's reasonable to expect the coach to be able to head all of this stuff off... But I'm sure with some of the problems we've had the coach had little he could do other than kick him off the team for charges as serious as these are.
Sweet Sixteen Action - Pt 1
If you're a fan of mid-majors or basketball in general, it's been a great NCAA tourney so far. There've been several great games already...
Take, for example, the Xavier-Kansas St. game last night. I missed the middle half of regulation while changing my viewing location from Old Chicago to my house but got home just in time to see Xavier force an overtime despite having fallen behind with about eight minutes left. The teams stayed neck and neck through the first overtime period with Jordan Crawford hitting a purely ridiculous 35' foot 3-pointer with 4 seconds left on the clock to send the game to a second overtime. I was pulling for the mid-major, as always, but K-State took care of business (in particular Jacob Pullen and his awesome beard) and the game finished 101-96. A huge game for Crawford (32 points, but 3-12 from 3-pt range), but probably a better game for Terrell Holloway who had 26 points (on 4-6 shooting from 3-pt range, and 10-13 on FTs) and 6 assists. Big man Jason Love also turned in a double-double for the Muskateers with 11 points and 15 rebounds. For K-State Pullen (and beard) was the hero with 8-- two dagger threes and a pair of free throws-- of his 26 points coming in the 2nd overtime.
The other game I paid close attention was the Butler-Syracuse contest. I'm unabashedly a secret Butler fan... They're an obvious illustration of mid-major success, and frankly everything I want Bradley basketball to be. The school itself is quite similar. The city Butler's in (Indianapolis) is a bit bigger, with a basketball-relevant difference being that Bradley has a much richer history. Plus, they play their home games at the venerable Hinkle Fieldhouse (Hoosiers anyone?).
So whatever the situation I'd've been rooting for a an upset of Big East Syracuse (though Boeheim at least took the trouble to offer a great deal of respect to Butler in his pre-game comments)... But this'n was especially sweet for me. As it happens, my family hails from roughly "Out East." Both of my parents were born and raised in or about the coal mining town of Scranton, PA. Scranton's not so far from New York city so many of the citizens of Scranton are fans of NYC sports to varying degrees. I think Syracuse was maybe historically popular among Scrantonians (despite Scranton being heavily Irish and totally Catholic and Syracuse's historical nickname, The Orangemen, a reference to the Protestant equivalent to the Provisional IRA in "The Old Country"), but became very popular when the only notable basketball player that I know of to have come from Scranton, Gerry McNamara, had a very successful career there culminating in a NCAA Championship alongside Carmelo Anthony.
As the story goes, I happened to run into some of my Scrantonite cousins in St. Louis while my crew and I were in action for the Missouri Valley Conference Tourney Destruction Tour 2010. After the Thursday night play-in games were concluded we met these cousins and consumed a few million beers. We got back to the hotel and took in some sports center when one of the cousins opportuned to inform me that the MVC tournament didn't mean much because not one of the teams playing in the tournament would ever win an NCAA game (this despite regular sweet 16 appearances by MVC teams-- requiring at least two wins in the tournament). I let him know that I thought that was pretty typical Arrogant East Coast Bullmularkey, and then took my revenge by (most likely unfairly) bashing the crap out of Gerry McNamara and his basketball legacy. As Butler beat the crap out of Syracuse in the first half and held them off in the second for the win, I couldn't help but wonder if my cuz thought Butler was an example of a team that wouldn't win tourney games. Thanks, Butler, for validating a pointless drunken argument, and somehow proving that Gerry McNamara was nothing special. GO BULLDOGS!
Speaking of mid-major, by the bye, how the hell can Xavier be considered one? I know they're in the lowly A-10 and therefore midmajor in the minds of ESPN pundits everywhere, they've made the NCAA tournament nine out of the previous ten years (2009-2010 included), and in that period made it to the Sweet Sixteen four times, and the Elite Eight twice. I think I need to consider if Marquette is the cornerstone of my dream midwestern high-major basketball-only conference (unfortunately you'll have to hear my babble about this a lot in coming blogs), or Xavier.
We've gotten one mid-major into the Elite Eight with two left with a shot. I'll be pulling for St. Mary's to upset Baylor and of course, for MVC pride, a big Northern Iowa victory over the Kalin Lucas-less Michigan State. I think Michigan State will prove a tough opponent for the plucky Panthers of Frostbite Falls. They play a not-dissimilar style, and Tom Izzo has faced the MVC enough to know it's not a pushover conference. He's also one of the very best coaches around and far too professional to let his team come out unprepared. It should be a good game to watch, and I don't expect anything like a blowout for either team. It is hilarious to listen to various sports authorities suggesting that the way to beat UNI is to press them since Kansas gave them some trouble with pressure at the end of the game... As if no one in the MVC ever presses... As if UNLV didn't try to press UNI for pretty much the entire game. We'll have to see how it turns out, I guess.
Take, for example, the Xavier-Kansas St. game last night. I missed the middle half of regulation while changing my viewing location from Old Chicago to my house but got home just in time to see Xavier force an overtime despite having fallen behind with about eight minutes left. The teams stayed neck and neck through the first overtime period with Jordan Crawford hitting a purely ridiculous 35' foot 3-pointer with 4 seconds left on the clock to send the game to a second overtime. I was pulling for the mid-major, as always, but K-State took care of business (in particular Jacob Pullen and his awesome beard) and the game finished 101-96. A huge game for Crawford (32 points, but 3-12 from 3-pt range), but probably a better game for Terrell Holloway who had 26 points (on 4-6 shooting from 3-pt range, and 10-13 on FTs) and 6 assists. Big man Jason Love also turned in a double-double for the Muskateers with 11 points and 15 rebounds. For K-State Pullen (and beard) was the hero with 8-- two dagger threes and a pair of free throws-- of his 26 points coming in the 2nd overtime.
The other game I paid close attention was the Butler-Syracuse contest. I'm unabashedly a secret Butler fan... They're an obvious illustration of mid-major success, and frankly everything I want Bradley basketball to be. The school itself is quite similar. The city Butler's in (Indianapolis) is a bit bigger, with a basketball-relevant difference being that Bradley has a much richer history. Plus, they play their home games at the venerable Hinkle Fieldhouse (Hoosiers anyone?).
So whatever the situation I'd've been rooting for a an upset of Big East Syracuse (though Boeheim at least took the trouble to offer a great deal of respect to Butler in his pre-game comments)... But this'n was especially sweet for me. As it happens, my family hails from roughly "Out East." Both of my parents were born and raised in or about the coal mining town of Scranton, PA. Scranton's not so far from New York city so many of the citizens of Scranton are fans of NYC sports to varying degrees. I think Syracuse was maybe historically popular among Scrantonians (despite Scranton being heavily Irish and totally Catholic and Syracuse's historical nickname, The Orangemen, a reference to the Protestant equivalent to the Provisional IRA in "The Old Country"), but became very popular when the only notable basketball player that I know of to have come from Scranton, Gerry McNamara, had a very successful career there culminating in a NCAA Championship alongside Carmelo Anthony.
As the story goes, I happened to run into some of my Scrantonite cousins in St. Louis while my crew and I were in action for the Missouri Valley Conference Tourney Destruction Tour 2010. After the Thursday night play-in games were concluded we met these cousins and consumed a few million beers. We got back to the hotel and took in some sports center when one of the cousins opportuned to inform me that the MVC tournament didn't mean much because not one of the teams playing in the tournament would ever win an NCAA game (this despite regular sweet 16 appearances by MVC teams-- requiring at least two wins in the tournament). I let him know that I thought that was pretty typical Arrogant East Coast Bullmularkey, and then took my revenge by (most likely unfairly) bashing the crap out of Gerry McNamara and his basketball legacy. As Butler beat the crap out of Syracuse in the first half and held them off in the second for the win, I couldn't help but wonder if my cuz thought Butler was an example of a team that wouldn't win tourney games. Thanks, Butler, for validating a pointless drunken argument, and somehow proving that Gerry McNamara was nothing special. GO BULLDOGS!
Speaking of mid-major, by the bye, how the hell can Xavier be considered one? I know they're in the lowly A-10 and therefore midmajor in the minds of ESPN pundits everywhere, they've made the NCAA tournament nine out of the previous ten years (2009-2010 included), and in that period made it to the Sweet Sixteen four times, and the Elite Eight twice. I think I need to consider if Marquette is the cornerstone of my dream midwestern high-major basketball-only conference (unfortunately you'll have to hear my babble about this a lot in coming blogs), or Xavier.
We've gotten one mid-major into the Elite Eight with two left with a shot. I'll be pulling for St. Mary's to upset Baylor and of course, for MVC pride, a big Northern Iowa victory over the Kalin Lucas-less Michigan State. I think Michigan State will prove a tough opponent for the plucky Panthers of Frostbite Falls. They play a not-dissimilar style, and Tom Izzo has faced the MVC enough to know it's not a pushover conference. He's also one of the very best coaches around and far too professional to let his team come out unprepared. It should be a good game to watch, and I don't expect anything like a blowout for either team. It is hilarious to listen to various sports authorities suggesting that the way to beat UNI is to press them since Kansas gave them some trouble with pressure at the end of the game... As if no one in the MVC ever presses... As if UNLV didn't try to press UNI for pretty much the entire game. We'll have to see how it turns out, I guess.
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Why I Started a Blog
Because Dusty did!
That's pretty much the basic, check-in-the-box, reason. He mentioned he started one (link here), and when I tried to follow his, it gave me an option of starting my own. Done and done. I can't honestly say I'll keep this thing up or going, but the first step in testing my resolve is creating the blog in the first place. I'm going to avoid making it public journal for the most part and focus in on posting things that at least I'm thinking about that I'd like others to read and maybe comment on. I'll warn that the topics have the potential to be a bit all-over-the-placey since I'm interested in things like books, movies, games, sports, and in depth discussion of politics and international relations.
So that's pretty much it. Hope it's good and/or fun. Or as someone once deemed something I did at work, "great/adequate."
Side note: Please excuse our dust. I'll be horsing around with the layout until I'm happy.
That's pretty much the basic, check-in-the-box, reason. He mentioned he started one (link here), and when I tried to follow his, it gave me an option of starting my own. Done and done. I can't honestly say I'll keep this thing up or going, but the first step in testing my resolve is creating the blog in the first place. I'm going to avoid making it public journal for the most part and focus in on posting things that at least I'm thinking about that I'd like others to read and maybe comment on. I'll warn that the topics have the potential to be a bit all-over-the-placey since I'm interested in things like books, movies, games, sports, and in depth discussion of politics and international relations.
So that's pretty much it. Hope it's good and/or fun. Or as someone once deemed something I did at work, "great/adequate."
Side note: Please excuse our dust. I'll be horsing around with the layout until I'm happy.
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