Illinois, Jamar, and the Chief

Jamar Smith

Another tidbit of information in the continuing Jamar Smith saga. Bruce Weber released a statement today that Jamar will be taking the rest of the season off. Read into that what you will. I have been in a few small car accidents, none serious, none with any injuries to anyone involved. Right now, all of the factual information available can be explained in a direction that makes things look awful for Jamar, or in a direction that looks very favorable. Every piece of sinister looking information can be fairly easily explained away. A lot of key facts simply aren't yet in evidence.

I have never suffered a concussion, so I can't speak to how I've ever reacted to one. I've heard all sorts of stories about people sustaining concussions, then continuing to act fairly normally, only to end up completely unable to remember the events immediately following the injury. It kind of reminds me of Dwight on that episode of the Office where Michael cooked his foot. Anyway, I'm not sure we'll ever get the whole story unless there's a trial.

But what has really bugged me about this whole thing are the people who cite "whispers" and "sources I know". Look, I know we all want to know what happened, but what we think we know now isn't going to change what has already happened. What results are message board flame wars where it becomes primarily about being right, regardless of the real world consequences for those involved. I know, because I've been in positions where I've wanted the Angels (for example) to win, not because them doing so made me genuinely happy, but rather just to show up more pessimistic Angels fans who had been really pissing me off.

As I said above, there are a hundred different things that may have happened that night that we simply don't know about yet, and as someone who's never been in Jamar's position, I can't really speculate as to how I would act under similar circumstances. And if I can't speculate as to how I would act, I certainly am not able to do it for anyone else. So I suggest we sit back, let the investigation proceed, and comment on the facts as we know them when we know them.

Chief Illiniwek

Now, about the Chief, as some of you have probably heard, the University of Illinois announced today that Chief Illiniwek is pretty much done as a symbol of the University. There has been outside pressure to make this move for a long time, and almost as much inside pressure to maintain the status quo. I'm not sure which straw broke the camel's back, so to speak, but keep in mind that the N.I.T. utilizes home sites for early round games, and if this Illini team is going to play in the post-season, right now, that looks like the mostly likely destination. As long as the Chief was dancing, Illinois was not going to host a post-season competition.

Personally, I've never had particularly strong feelings about the Chief one way or another. I'll be honest, I like going to football and basketball games and watching the Chief perform. It was an exciting spectacle, and most of the crowd really got into it. But it's not going to kill me if/when they get rid of him.

My position is pretty simple. I'd like to think that if I were Native American, I wouldn't be offended by the Chief, but I can't say for sure without being in that position. And I realize that it appears to be a small minorities of Native Americans who have expressed anger with the Chief. But there are lots of mascots out there. There's a choice between having a mascot that offends very few people, and a mascot that offends no one. Isn't the choice to offend no one pretty obviously the right one? This isn't about being politically correct. It's about not being an asshole. Granted, I didn't grow up in Illinois. I didn't grow up with the tradition, and I'm glad I got a chance to see the Chief while I was in school. But if UCLA felt they needed to change their mascot, or if UCR decided that it was no longer going to be known as the Highlanders, I've gotta think I wouldn't be particularly outraged. I certainly wouldn't stop donating money to UCR. Hell, I stopped doing that a long time ago!

So to sum up, it seems like a decision that was inevitable, and it's not really going to bother me either way. I'm not so sure why people are apoplectic about it, but people get crazy about weird stuff. Whaddya gonna do?

Thank God for Darren Collison

Is there any question now why UCLA lost against West Virginia? Aaron Afflalo had the bigger numbers last night (and take nothing away from Aaron, who played a very fine game), but Darren Collison was the difference in last night's 67-61 victory at Arizona State.

With 11 minutes to go, the Bruins trailed by 10 points. They had scored five points in the half to that point, both coming on jump shots by Michael Roll. UCLA got four points in one possession on a layup by Alfred Aboya --> foul --> missed free throw --> offensive rebound --> dunk by Josh Shipp. That started an 18-2 Bruins run, and directly preceded 11 straight points from Collison, including three 3-pointers. After an Afflalo three pointer capped the run, putting the Bruins up by six, it became a free throw fest for UCLA, and they got the job done at the line to preserve the victory.

Collison's 18 points were a career high, but the difference in the game was the lift he gave the Bruins during that run. One of those threes came as the shot clock expired, and it gave the Bruins the lead. What could have been, SHOULD have been a fruitless possession, turned into a three point lead, and the Bruins never looked back.

Josh Shipp was disappointing, and it's becoming a trend. His only field goal was the dunk, although he did hit some big free throws down the stretch, and added 6 assists. But he was 1-5 from the field, with three rebounds and four turnovers. Maybe he's not completely healthy. Maybe his hip is bothering him. But he needs to step up. I hope he wasn't just looking past this game. If he can't get up for a game against his brother, that's not a good sign.

Still, the Bruins got back on the winning track. ASU is not very good, but they aren't awful, despite their winless Pac 10 season to this point. The Pac 10 is very good, and they've lost a ton of very close games. But the Bruins are going to need to play much better to beat an Arizona team that's much better than it has shown this season. And with the season they've had, nothing would lift their spirits more than a win over UCLA. Coming off their loss to U$C, they're going to be very hungry.

A Flat Out Embarrassment...Almost

Right now there's 11:35 to go and UCLA trails the worst team in the conference by eight. They not only deserve to lose this game, hell, I'd drop them out of my top 25 right now, regardless of what happens against Arizona on Saturday. This is probably the most pathetic "effort" I've ever seen.

Update - OK, so they pulled it out, thank to Darren Collison, and good free throw shooting down the stretch. More to come later.

Jamar Smith News - With Update x2

Updated below - See point #2.

New article with a few (emphasis on "few") more details about the accident. To sum up, Jamar has been charged with improper lane usage, whatever the hell that is. Brian Carlwell has been upgraded to fair condition, and word is that after a full recovery, his basketball future will not be affected.

In the age of the internet, this sort of stuff is inevitable, but what I find really pathetic is the speculation and insinuation, based on what we know at this point, that Jamar did anything wrong. Message boards have speculated about everything from Jamar being drunk (which is certainly a possibility) to him driving home and hanging out in his apartment while a neighbor called the police. That last one is my favorite, since it was essentially presented as fact, regardless of the fact that it was invented out of whole cloth.

As of the time of this post, here's what we know, with my editorial comments in italics:

1. Jamar was driving with Carlwell in the passenger seat. They were headed north on first street, south of the Assembly Hall, and south of St. Mary's street. Near where the accident is said to have occurred, the road bends to the left and back to the right, while also climbing slightly uphill. The was some snow and ice on the ground, though to this point, we don't know if or to what extent that was a factor. Jamar suffered a concussion, which was treated that night. Carlwell suffered a severe concussion, and was treated in ICU. He remains in the hospital, in fair condition, as I write this
2. After the accident, Jamar Smith drove home, the corner of First and Curtis Road, a little under two miles away. Someone then called the authorities for help. We don't know whether it was a neighbor, a friend, a passerby, or Jamar himself who made this call. To the extent that someone else made the call, it's possible it was done at Jamar's behest. It's equally possible that it was done without any direction from Jamar. WCIA reported that "a call was made", and the Champaign County State's Attorney has said that she does not know who made the call. *UPDATE* - Per the Chicago Tribune Associated Press, as reported in the Chicago Tribune, Kent Brown, U of I's Sports Information Director, is saying that Jamar made the call. To quote the AP:

   Brown said Smith called an ambulance from the complex.

   Take that for what it's worth. **Further Update** - Per the Sun Times, sources say that Jamar did NOT make the 911 call, and now Kent Brown has backtracked. So either he spoke too soon (or lied) the first time, or the AP reporter misquoted him. So now we're back to a question of who made the call, and under what circumstances. In addition, the article states " The investigation is intent on determining why Smith didn't call 911 on his cell phone." This implies that there was a cell phone in the car at the time of the accident, and it's the first report I've seen indicating that. Still, I'd urge caution before speculating, as there are all sorts of reasons that he may not have called, both good and bad.
   
3. Authorities responded to the call, and it took them 15 minutes to extricate Carlwell from the passenger seat. For those wondering why Jamar might have left his friend in the car, a good reason may have been that it was impossible for him to get him out without a lot of help.
4. Jamar has been charged with improper lane usage, and the State's Attorney has said that more charges MAY be forthcoming. That also means that more charges MAY NOT be forthcoming, but that they aren't closing the book on that until they complete their investigation. A prosecutor makes that statement so that the press and other idiots don't assume the investigation is complete. It looks a lot better to say what was said then to say "we aren't charging him with anything else", only to bring more charges a week later. It's standard operating procedure. A blood test was conducted at the hospital, and the toxicology report has not been made available to date. Jamar Smith has retained counsel.

That's it. That's all we know for sure. A lot of noise has been made about leaving the scene of the accident, as if it would have been preferable for them to just sit there, in a low traffic area, late at night, on a night in which there was poor weather (fewer travelers), instead of going for help. The hospital where Carlwell is currently recovering is about 2.5 miles away, on Lincoln and University. I'm not sure if that was the nearest emergency facility, or if they even have an emergency facility. I spent three years in Champaign, and I have no idea where and which hospitals have emergency rooms. So for people saying "why didn't he just drive to the hospital", he may not have known which one to go to, and that's before contemplating the fact that he'd just been in a major accident and sustained a concussion of his own.

That last aspect kind of reminds me of Justin Medlock. For those that don't remember, last year, UCLA's place-kicker, Justin Medlock, was in an accident where he rolled his SUV. He *had* been drinking, and the vehicle was found, with the injured passenger inside (Hannah Jun of the golf team), but no Justin. It looked really bad. Turns out, he either didn't have or couldn't find his cell phone. He was near an off-ramp, and had run down to a gas station to call for help. The attendant saw the blood and freaked, and Medlock ended up running down the street to get help. So everything may not be as nefarious as it seems. There's no reason for, and no excuse for, jumping to conclusions.

The bottom line is that there are scenarios that we can dream up that don't turn out very well for Jamar (or Brian, for that matter, since I'm going to assume that if Jamar was drinking, it's equally likely that Brian was as well). There are also scenarios in which the instant facts make perfect sense with virtually no wrongdoing, outside of less than perfect driving in poor weather. I want to believe the best, but I understand that there may be details that don't reflect well on all involved.

So how about we do this: Let the professionals do their jobs, and wait for all the facts to come out before we convict anyone.

Jamar Smith Watch 2/13/07

I've had some fun at the expense of Jamar Smith and his shooting slump this season. Well, not fun so much as I've just sort of taken out my frustration with him in this space. But I've never stopped rooting for him.

Well, Jamar Smith and Brian Carlwell were in a car accident last night. Both were injured and Carlwell is in critical condition. Pretty much every player on the team has been hurt this year. Strange season.

Get well soon, Brian and Jamar.

Update: Carlwell has been upgraded to serious but stable condition. Jamar has evidently been cited for illegal lane usage, whatever the hell that means. The Illini don't play against until Saturday at home vs. Northwestern.

Apropos of nothing, the accident occurred on First street around the intersection with St. Mary's, just south of the Assembly Hall. That's about a block from where I used to live second year, on First just south of Gerty. Assuming the arrow on that picture is close, but not 100% accurate, the accident could have happened right where that little curve in the road is. The road also goes slightly uphill there, and when there's snow, it could be a little treacherous. I actually got into an accident at that same corner on the first day of second semester during my second year, also a snowy day (I hit the brakes and didn't stop, bumping the car in front of me).

Light daytime blogging

I'm at a client location for the next couple of days, so while I can screw around a little, I can't screw around as much as I normally would while in the office. As a result, blogging will be light for the next day or two.

Lost Weekend

Sorry. Had company in town. Trips to and from the airport. Went to a concert. All sorts of drama there. I'll try and catch up later sometime, but that's why there's nothing here on either the UCLA or Illinois losses.

Jamar Smith Watch - 2/7/07

For reasons I can't get into, I missed the Illinois game last night (that's a nice way of saying I forgot it was on). The Illini won at Northwestern, another "must" win if they're going to make the tournament. Their schedule really is easy down the stretch, and assuming they don't royally fuck things up, they should finish 9-7 in conference. I'm still not convinced that it will be enough.

Sean Pruitt had the big numbers with 13 points and 15 boards. Warren Carter added 17 and 8, and Rich McBride poured in 15 points on 5-11 shooting, all from beyond the arc, to go along with 6 assists.

As for Jamar, well, it appears that last week was an aberration. He's back to being Jamar ver.2.007. Last night's numbers:
1-6 from the field;
0-3 from three point land.

That gives us Conference numbers of:
17-76 (22.3%) from the field;
8-59 (13.6%) from three.

That's a drop of only .6% from the field, which means basically two things: 1) We're far enough along in conference play, and he's taken enough shots, that one game doesn't affect the numbers a ton; and 2) He's missed a whole bunch of shots, such that missing a bunch more doesn't change things much.

Keep shooting, Jamar. They've got to go in sooner or later.

U$C 65; UCLA 70

We've seen this all season. UCLA's opponent starts fast, but the methodical Bruins cut into the lead, keep the game close, survive a couple of spurts and win the game, which was kept close by a flurry of three pointers from the women of troy. South Central actually played a very a good game, and both Gabe Pruitt and Nick Young are terrific players, but at Pauley, a short bench just isn't going to be enough to beat UCLA.

I'm usually fairly quick to call out the officials when UCLA or Illinois loses a close game, but the fact is that home cooking is as much a part of college basketball as zone defense and undershirts. It's always been that way, and it's something that the road team has to deal with. That said, there was a large discrepancy from the free throw line, and UCLA took advantage of it, shooting over 77% at the charity stripe. If I were a trojans fan, I'd be upset about two calls in particular:

1. The technical foul on Lodrick Stewart: I think the refereee misinterpreted the outburst. I don't think Stewart was upset with the foul called on Shipp's layup (which wasn't called on him). But the fact is that it's virtually an automatic call when you slam the ball into the floor and don't catch it on the bounce. It wasn't a smart play, and I think if he had it do again, he'd clearly contain himself. It turned into a five point play and was probably the difference in the game.
   
2. The intentional foul call in the final minute: They may be upset about that call, but for once, the officials got it exactly right. I rewound and watched that play a few times, and Alfred Aboya spends about 20 seconds covering about 150 yards in the front court, running in circles away from defenders until he finally had his jersey yanked. I kind of hoped he'd run into the back court just to see if one of the $C would have chased after him.

Late in the game, there was an inbounds play where $C was going to foul right away. Tim Floyd was about 10 feet out onto the floor in the corner where UCLA was inbounding the ball. He seems to spend a lot of time on the court. I was kind of hoping that the player inbounding the ball would throw it at him, not to inflict pain or anything, but just because I want to see what would be called. It would have to be a technical, right?

Anyway, the player of the game for the Bruins was pretty clearly Darren Collison, who poured in a career high 17 points. The numbers don't tell the entire story, particularly the two assists against six turnovers, which admittedly looks pretty bad. But he was the only Bruin who was able to penetrate, and he did so for a couple of layups. On the defensive end, I thought LRMAM played an excellent game, in addition to collecting another double-double (11 points and 10 boards). Alfred Aboya had a nice 20 minutes as well, going 4-4 from the floor. And finally, Russel Westbrook gave the Bruins a nice lift early in the game when they were struggling against the zone. He was able to penetrate once for a short jumper, and again on a play that led to an easy Aboya layup.

The Bruins aren't going to win many games in which they make only two of seventeen three pointers, but the good thing is that there aren't going to be too many games where they shoot threes that poorly. This was not a textbook performance. They essentially partly because of their defense, and partly because of their ability to get to the line and make their free throws. But the mark of a good team is the ability to win games when they aren't at their best, and the Bruins proved last night that they have that ability.

Tough road trip on tap for next week coming off Saturday's game at West Virginia (which I may not get on TV). They had to McKale to play Arizona, who is looking for a big win coming off a series of losses. And they can't overlook Arizona State, who isn't very good, but gave Washington State all they could handle last week. A sweep in the desert should solidify their position at the top of the standings.

The Avery Trade

I know I'm a day or so late on this. I liked Sean Avery, and I enjoyed watching him play. It was nice to have a guy on the team that everyone else hated. But I'd say I was pretty much in the middle of the road on Avery. I didn't hate him after he did stupid things, and I'm not heartbroken that he's gone. I think he has a chance to be a fairly skilled player. He's a great skater, and he's shown some skill at times, but I thought that over the last 25 games or so, he looked very average to me.

My problem with Avery wasn't that he couldn't cut it on the ice. My problem with Avery was that he was a dick. Any time I saw him interviewed, he wasn't just serious, he was completely humorless. I'm not sure how you can play that style and not have sense of humor off the ice. He seemed like a guy who really disliked the media, which is stupid, because he played in the one market where there was very little media scrutiny of his antics. The last time I heard him interviewed was the morning show on KLAC when he was interviewed by Fred Roggin, and TJ and Tracy Simers. Roggin's a season ticket holder, and TJ is a known hockey curmudgeon, but he's also a known joker, and the way to react to his slights is to make fun of him right back. But Avery seemed to generally get upset. And quite frankly, he sounded like an ass. In contrast, Chris Pronger was much more laid back and much funnier when he was on the program.

Again, I really liked Avery on the ice, but the fact is the guy got a lot of ink, and for a guy who is a press magnet, I don't think he was a very good ambassador for the Kings organization.

As for the return, I don't see Jason Ward being on the next good Kings team, although he is fairly young. Marc Andre Cliche is the big return. He's a 19 year old currently playing in Lewiston of the QMJHL along with Kings goaltending prospect Jonathan Bernier. He's got a decent scoring touch, but his real value is as a defensive center who excels on the penalty kill. He's supposedly a great character guy as well, which is one of the reasons he was selected to play on Canada's junior national team. Jan Marek is the final piece, a 27 year old skilled Czech forward who's putting up about a point per game in the Russian League. Sounds kind of like a Kai Nurminnen or Jaroslav Bednar type guy, both of whom were semi-productive during their brief stints in Los Angeles. See the video below. The guy's got some skill, and if Lombardi can get him over to North America, the Kings could really have two pretty good scoring lines next season.

So the rebuild continues. We'll just have to wait and see who's next.

What a Glorious Morning

It's about five degrees below zero right now. I thought that temperatures that cold didn't really exist in nature, like it was always some sort of joke that I didn't get when people talked about the temperature being below zero. But nope, they exist alright. My eyeballs, the only part of my body not covered up during my walk to the train, froze briefly, I'm pretty sure. But don't worry, tomorrow it's supposed to get all the way up to nine.

But none of that matters, because it's a beautiful day. The Super Bowl is over, meaning I don't have to hear about football for about a week, at which point ESPN and other "news" sources will start dissecting the draft, and better yet, the Bears lost, which means I don't have to deal with insufferable Bears fans for the next God knows how long. Believe me, I hate the Colts, too, but I'm not surrounded by Colts fans.

Of course, I feel bad for some Bears fans, the ones I consider friends (at least until they read this post, I guess), but most of them are also White Sox fans, so it's not as if they haven't had a championship in 90 years. I don't think I have any friends who are both Cubs fans and Bears fans, so those people can eat it.

Saturday in Review

Illinois

This game was a lot closer than it should have been for about 25 minutes until the Illini pulled away in the second half. Minnesota is awful, and Illinois only resembles awful on occasion. The usual suspects did the damage for the Illini, with Pruitt, Carter, and McBride all in double figures. Chester Frazier did not play due to injuries.

But the story of the game, by far, was the fact that Jamar Smith didn't totally suck for the first time in a month. After Wednesday's game, his numbers in Big 10 play were:
11/60, 18.3% from the field;
5/49, 10.2% from three point country, and that's only because he was just bad in their first conference game, instead of brutal.

After the Minnesota game, his numbers are now:
16/70 (22.9%) from the field;
8/56 (14.3%) from beyond the arc.

It was actually nice to see a few shots fall for him. Maybe he'll gain some confidence for the stretch. He'll need it, and so will the Illini.

UCLA

This game was over before I even saw any of it. Fox College Sports didn't click over until the U$C-Oregon game ended, and by that point, UCLA already led 15-5, and they didn't look back en route to an 82-35 win. They got 76 minutes and 32 points from their bench, primarily because all of their starters were done by the ten minute mark of the second half. You generally don't see too many all out slaughters like this in conference play, but it provided a nice rest for their starters, and some much needed experience for their bench, especially Nikola Dragovic, who got a later start to the season, and could become a key cog in a game or two when they really need an extra shooter or a few fouls.

Speaking of size for the Bruins, Kevin Love dominated Mater Dei last night down in Santa Ana, scoring 36 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. And this wasn't just a top recruit against another high school. Mater Dei starts about four guys over 6' 7", and brings a seven footer off the bench. Taylor King, who decommitted from UCLA before choosing Duke, did not look good, held without a field goal in the second half. Kevin Love is going to be a very good player at UCLA

Kings

Finally they were on the right side of an ass-kicking. It's useless to speculate on where they could have been with good goaltending all year, but it's fun to watch them play with a decent guy in net.

UC Riverside

Holy crap! They beat Cal State Fullerton! I have no idea how that could have happened, but damn, that's two straight for the Highlanders. And CSUF is no slouch. They were in first place in the Big West, and beat UCR by 40 at Fullerton. Larry Freaking Cunningham scored 34 points in the second half!

According to the article, Bobby Brown, Fullerton's point guard, Cousy award finalist, and arguably the best player in the conference, threw down an alley-oop which tied the game, and got T-ed up for taunting. UCR scored the next six points and never looked back. Word of advice, Bobby. I know you're very good. But dude, you're in the Big West. And you had just dunked a shot that tied Riverside in the second half. That, son, is nothing to get excited about. Let that be a lesson to ya. No one comes into UCR's house and shows the Highlanders up...except pretty much every other team that's been there this year.

First conference win for the Highlanders in 13 months. Then again, they did play UCLA tougher than Oregon State did.

Oregon 57; UCLA 69

Well, that was a little more like it. The big difference between this game and the Stanford game was the Bruins came out with a sense of urgency at the beginning of the second half. On Sunday, the Cardinal went in down by 12, but came out and controlled the game from the beginning of the second half, and the Bruins could never stop the bleeding. Tonight, UCLA came out and scored the first nine points of the second half, opening up an 18 point lead that they would never relinquish. Oregon got as close as nine points following a UCLA turnover and a Josh Shipp botched dunk, but the Bruins responded by scoring eight of the next ten points, and never looked back.

Four UCLA starters finished in double figures, as they utilized a balanced attack against a small opponent. Aaron Afflalo led the way with 17, while Collison added 12, Shipp 11. But the player of the game for the Bruins was probably LRMAM, who had his best game in a while, with 15 points and 12 rebounds. He also played excellent defense. Marty Leunen had 18 points in the game at Euguene. The Bruins defense cut that in half tonight, and Malik Hairston, missing from the first tilt, was vitually a non-factor with eight points and three rebounds.

Both teams run the floor so well defensively that transition wasn't really a big factor. On top of that, UCLA had a large enough second half lead that when the opportunity to run presented itself, UCLA often wisely pulled the ball back out. For a game that featured a lot of half court sets, the Bruins shot a blazing 57%, holding Oregon to only 37%. That was the difference.

So for the moment, the Bruins are all alone at the top of the conference, a place they'll likely be going into next Wednesday's game against U$C. They currently sit one game ahead of $C, Oregon, and Washington State, who delivered another blow to the mildcats tonight in Tucson. I think the Cats will rebound on Saturday against Washington, mostly because Washington isn't that good, but lose that one, and U of A could drop below .500 in the Pac 10.

*Note: stats are based on preliminary box score, which is probably inaccurate, and subject to change.

Best Barbaro Comment

I think this pretty much sums up all of the Barbaro nonsense:

It's not even a heartwarming story, if you think about it. Someone took a horse, trained it to run fast, and during the course of exploiting its ability to run fast for the purpose of gambling, fatally crippled it. Yay, America!

That's it. There really isn't anything else that can be said.

See also: This TJ Simers column.

How many think Barbaro was heroic, or just doing what his human handlers wanted him to do? Or, had no choice what he was doing after being anesthetized? If we're going to start looking upon horses as if they have human qualities, then shouldn't we stop sticking a bit in their mouths, tying their tongues in place before races, gelding or loading them with steroids?

Dear Boston, you are offically all a bunch of pussies

Here's a fairly representative comment from a Boston Globe editorial:

Perpetrators of terror hoaxes can anticipate prison sentences of up to five years if apprehended.

Note to dumbshits: This wasn't a terror hoax. It's not like they left suspicious looking packages around town. It's not like anyone phoned in a bomb threat. They were freaking lite-brites fer chrissakes! Boston is scared to death of Lite-Brites. See if you can identify what's wrong with this sentence:

But Turner's ad gimmick, undertaken in 10 cities from coast to coast, affected tens of thousands of people in the Greater Boston area. Businesses lost customers. Commuters lost time. Even more serious, first responders from local, state, and federal public safety agencies were called away from their legitimate duties.

Gee, you'd think if they had done this in ten cities coast to coast, maybe some of the other cities would have lost their shit too. But maybe those cities aren't populated and run by a bunch of freaking morons.

But it's hardly surprising if others who weren't in on the gag were suspicious. As a rule, first responders are left little choice but to assume they are facing a legitimate threat.

The amount of stupid in this editorial is really starting to hurt my brain. Let's look back in human history. How many terrorists have planted bombs around major cities and put BIG FLASHING LIGHTS ON THEM?!?! I'm no terrorist, but it would seem to me that you'd want to make your bomb inconspicuous. Let's take a quick break from simply dumb and move to something more disengenuous:

A visibly angry Menino said he would ask the Federal Communications Commission to yank TBS's broadcasting license for what he called "an outrageous act to gain publicity for their product."

Shorter Mayor Dipshit: We were exposed for being the total dumbshits that we are, and for that, someone must pay. No one exposes my complete and total idiocy to the world without paying some sort of price!

But for the ultimate in stupid, I mean we're talking the hall of fame of stupid, we have to go to our friends over at Little Green Fascists and Anchor Baby. I'm sorry, but I can't go back there for fear of becoming completely retarded.

"For those who responded to it, professionals, it had a very sinister appearance," Coakley said. "It had a battery behind it and wires."

Boston, in the future, if you're not sure if what you're looking at is a bomb, please consult Res Publica's soon to be growing reference. But if you're still not sure, here's a tip: That thing with the light up numbers on it next to your bed? It's probably a clock radio. I know it might have batteries in it and wires coming out of the back, but do not, I REPEAT, DO NOT blow it up. Do not call the authorities.

From Dictionary.com: Terror:
1. intense, sharp, overmastering fear: to be frantic with terror.
2. an instance or cause of intense fear or anxiety; quality of causing terror: to be a terror to evildoers.

It's cliche, but yep, they've won. As long as people are as stupid as they appear to be in Boston, the terrorists have won.

Here they are, rocked you like a hurricane.

Their Race is Hundreds of Years Beyond Ours

Bitchin'. Boston went crazy over a bunch of Mooninite lite brites that were left all over town to promote Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Yeah, we've seen that. The glowing. It's great.

The discovery of a series of suspicious objects on bridges, near a medical center, underneath an interstate, and in other crowded public places have set off a wave of bomb scares across Boston, snarling traffic and subways across the city.

None of the suspicious objects have been determined to be actual bombs. It was not immediately clear if the incidents were connected or part of some elaborate hoax.

Yeah, turns out they were Mooninites the whole time. The Bostonians were not excited to see them. The Mooninites forgot all about Boston's needs. They were too busy fulfilling their own.

What's hilarious is that this all broke today, even though fulsome noticed this almost two weeks ago in San Francisco.

Jamar Smith Watch

He was 0-2 last night, both shots from beyond the arc, in Illinois' 57-50 victory over Michigan State. The win gives regains some measure of bragging for me from my dad, a Michigan State grad. Whoopee. My team happened to suck a little less that night than his.

Anyway, since the Michigan game in early January, he's now 5/46 from the field (10.9%), and 2/35 from long range (5.7%). I don't think it's very easy to do worse than that while still actually trying to score. We're talking about a slump of historical proportions here.

Speaking of awful shooting, the two teams combined to make 36 of 94 shots last night, which is right around 38%. In addition, the Illini reached new depths by missing 15 of 31 free throws. It actually seemed worse than that if you were watching the game. Sean Pruitt was a Lorenzo Mata-like 5-14 from the line, except that, mercifully, Mata doesn't get to the line that much, probably because unlike Pruitt, he occasionally passes out of the post, something I haven't seen out of Pruitt in a while.

Anyway, a win is a win, and at least Chet Frazier played well (6/8 for 17 points). The schedule down the stretch is ridiculously easy, so they could actually end up with 19 wins and a record above .500 in conference. I'm guessing, though, that they'll lose at least one if not two sure win type games (either against Minnesota, Northwestern, or Penn State) due to poor free throw shooting. Just a hunch.

I Never Know What to Call These Posts

Just catching up after a day or two off:

UCLA

I really didn't have the heart to write about the choke against Stanford yesterday, and I don't really have much of a heart to do it today, either. But a couple of things stand out. First, all of the concern about the Bruins failing to get off to fast starts seems a little misplaced. It clearly didn't help them against Stanford. Their "slow" starts have been a function of playing with a consistent effort for 40 minutes while their opponents come out guns blazin' before eventually wearing out. I don't know if the Bruins wore out, or if their lack of options inside with all of the big guys in foul trouble killed them, or if Stanford was just getting away with things physically on the defensive end. Maybe it was a little of all three. But either way, they just really tanked in the second half. They couldn't get stops when they needed to, and they couldn't get baskets when they needed to.

Stanford is a tough matchup for pretty much everyone. Very few teams have that much size. I thought the Bruins handled the Stanford big men pretty well in the first half, but despite the fact that they're all about 6'10", it's pretty clear that right now there's a big difference in ability between Mata/LRMAM/Aboya and Wright/Keefe. Chalk it up to a learning experience, and get ready for Oregon on Thursday.

Kings

They finally dealt Craig Conroy, who hadn't really done much of anything this season, in exchange for Jamie Lundmark and a couple of draft picks. I like Conroy, mostly because he's American, but he made virtually no impact on this team after having a pretty good season last year. He'll be reunited with Jerome Iginla in Calgary and maybe he'll regain his scoring touch.

As for the return, the Kings get cheaper, and they get primarily a second round pick next year when hopefully the draft will be a little deeper than it is this year. It also give Lombardi and the staff a little more time to scout on their own in preparation for that draft. And lord knows the trade can't possibly make the Kings any worse.

Illinois

Geez, who cares at this point? I think the biggest outstanding question is how low can Jamar Smith's shooting percentage go? They get Michigan at home tonight. It's already the worst season since '98-'99, and it can't possibly get worse than that, so they're kind of in limbo right now. Unfortunately, unlike '99, there's no Corey Bradford to lead them to the conference championship game.


Mazarin

This is a really good song.

Pregame thoughts on Stanford

I hope the outside shots are falling, because I don't think the strategy of getting them into foul trouble is going to work in their gym. UCLA has going to have be hitting from the outside, or it could be a long game. Those Lopez twins scare the hell out of me.

Update: Pretty much like I expected. It wasn't necessarily the Lopez twins that did the damage, but there's no question the Bruins were totally homered. You simply can't have a strategy that relies on getting guys in foul trouble on the road, because it just doesn't happen in pretty much any conference in America, and more often than not, it's your own big guys that are going to be sitting down. Oh well, get ready for Thursday.

Illinois 4; Purdue 29 - everything else after that was irrelevant

Note to the Illini: You may not want to dig yourselves 25 point holes like that. They're tough to dig out from.

Not much else to say about this one. Purdue rolled. Teague was on fire the whole game, and the Illini got their collective ass handed to them.

Jamar Smith since the Michigan game:
5/44 from the field (11%); 2/33 from three (6%). If it's his ankles, sit him down and let him heal. It doesn't really matter anymore.

And finally, good job representing the Pac 10, Arizona. Don't worry about giving up 92 points while only scoring 64. From what I hear, Arizona's offense is so great that they don't have to worry about defense on every possession.

UCLA 62; UC Berkeley 46

Another slow start from the Bruins. They seem to have gotten into the habit of taking their opponents best shots in the first ten minutes before letting things settle down, at which point the Bruins take control and don't look back. That's not unexpected. Teams get up to face the Bruins, as they should. When you're a top five team, you have to expect teams to come out fired up. To their credit, the Bruins never seem to look rattled. When Ryan Anderson hit a 30 foot jumper while the shot clock expired, or when he went he lost the Bruins defense and was rewarded with an uncontested dunk, the Bruins didn't panic. They play a steady game, at their pace, and eventually they wear their opponents down and come out on top. They did it against WSU. They did it against Arizona. They did it against ASU. They did it against U$C.

They have a knack for knowing when to pounce, and when they found themselves down by eight points roughly 10 minutes into the game, they went on a 7-0 run over the next few minutes, and ended up outscoring Cal 20-8 over the final 10 minutes for a four point half time lead. They continued the trend in the second half, eventually stretching the lead out to 15 points before calling off the dogs with five minutes to go.

Aaron Afflalo was yet again the Bruins' best player, scoring 25 points, with 20 coming in the second half. On the defensive end, he gave Ayinde Umbaka fits (unfortunately for Ubaka, an intestinal virus hampered him as well), holding him to 0 points on 0-8 shooting and only two assists. Josh Shipp was the only other Bruin in double figures, adding 12 points, coming mostly on twisting, driving layups and put backs. LRMAM, Lo Mata, and Al Aboya cleaned up the glass, with 11, 8, and 8 rebounds respectively, with 10 of those 27 boards coming at the offensive end.

On the other side of the floor, Cal got decent performances from freshman Ryan Anderson and sophomore Theo Robertson, who finished with sixteen points, many coming on uncontested dribble drives from the perimeter, as the Bruin D got caught too far away from the basket a time or two.

Another solid performance, with the game never in doubt after the first 20 minutes. They're guaranteed a split on a tough road trip, and head to Palo Alto on Sunday to attempt the sweep against Trent Harris' Cardinal, led by the shot blocking Lopez twins, Brook and Robin. Stanford hammered U$C last night by 15 on the strength of Brook Lopez's triple double (18 points, 11 rebounds, and an astounding 12 blocked shots). If they can close the Bruins down on the interior, it could be a long night. UCLA is a guard oriented team, but that doesn't mean they're perimeter oriented. They'll need to get to the basket to be effective, and that could be tough against a team that blocked an incredible 19 shots last night against the Trojans. On the other hand, Stanford turned the ball over 20 times last night, and if they can't take care of the basketball, the Bruins will look to get out in transition, and that could be a key. Maples is always a tough place to play, but getting a sweep up north would be a nice step towards another Pac 10 championship.

Austin Stories

So the other day I had images from this old MTV sitcom called Austin Stories stuck in my head. Did some checking around the web for old images, interviews, etc. and came across this site. Also found out that the DVDs are being sold on eBay by Howard Kremer, one of the creators/stars of the series, so on a lark, I decided to buy a copy. It's run was only 12 episodes, and MTV cancelled it before it went into its second season.

The verdict: I'd put it in the pantheon, the exclusive company of Arrested Development and the Office. Seriously, it's that good. It's quirky, intelligent humor, which isn't to say it's too highbrow. It just means you have to be kinda smart to appreciate it, which means it wouldn't appeal to roughly 98% of the viewing public, at least not in a world where Two and Half Men is the #1 comedy in the country.

Fortunately, for those of you who were never exposed to this show, Youtube has the first episode in three separate parts. Enjoy. Then go buy the DVDs. You can even get them autographed by Howard.

Luc Robitaille

I didn't mention it, but the Kings retired Luc's #20 on Saturday night. Normally that would lead to a longer post like the one I just wrote for Erstad, but I kind of already did that for Luc when he broke the team goal scoring record, so I'll just link to it here.

As for the ceremony, I'll admit that I teared up a few times, but that's probably because I was a little drunk already.

Also, Kopitar is just freaking incredible. Watch the second goal in the hilight reel. Just awesome.

Darin Erstad

Pending his physical, Darin Erstad is off to the White Sox. Part of sort of doesn't care, considering I may not be able to watch much baseball next year, and though I could watch the White Sox fairly often, doing so, which requires listening to Hawk Harrelson and Darin Jackson, would probably result in me being forced to blow my brains out. So chances are that's not going to happen.

Still, there's no denying Darin Erstad's place in Angels lore. In 2000, he put together one of the finest seasons in Angels history, hitting .355/.409/.541 with 25 homers, 39 doubles, and an amazing 100 RBIs from the lead off spot. In that season, against the Yankees, he provided one the most memorable moments in the team's regular season history when he saved the game by making an amazing catch in left field in the bottom of the tenth before slamming the eventual game winning home run in the top of the 11th (props to Mo Vaughn, whose two out, three run homer off of Mariano Rivera in the top of the ninth sent the game into extra innings).

But no single at bat was ever as important as his eighth inning lead off home run in game six of the 2002 World Series against the Giants. The Angels had already cut a five run lead to three in the previous inning. But they still had a two run deficit to contend with, and with one swing of the bat, Erstad crushed a 1-1 change-up over the right field wall, and gave everyone just a little more hope. I want go so far as to say it gave the outcome an air of inevitability, but suddenly the Angels trailed by one with the heart of the lineup coming up against a depleted Giants bullpen.

His enduring image in an Angels uniform? For me, it would have to be watching him settle in under Kenny Lofton's fly ball to right center that ended the 2002 World Series. 29 years of Angels fandom (for me, anyway), culminated in that one moment.

It's a cliche to say that Erstad was "scrappy" or "a gamer", but honestly, I can think of very few players who fit that description better. There was a never a time when he gave less than everything he had. He rotated between three different positions, winning gold gloves at two of them, because that's what the team asked him to do. Not every major leaguer would do that. And players like that are invaluable because sometimes you need that flexibility to move pieces around the guys who can't or won't move.

Darin Erstad, along with Tim Salmon, epitomized the 2002 Angels. He'll always be remembered fondly by Angels fans, not only for the way he represented the Angels on the field, but off the field as well. I wish him luck on the South Side.

Indiana 43; Illinois 51

Imagine that. Illinois actually WON a game in which they had a second half lead. For those still holding out hope that the Illini have a chance to play in the NCAA tournament game, this was pretty much a must win. Pay not attention to the fact that they beat an overrated Indiana team (any national ranking for Indiana is an over-ranking). The Illini had to beat a ranked team, and they had to prove to themselves that they can close a team out when leading in the second half.

Remember when the Illini were fun to watch? Hell, even when they had a rotating line of butchers at small forward earlier in the decade, they still had exciting guys who could bring you out of your seat. This year's team is just kind of boring.

As the score indicates, the Illini did it with defense. They held Indiana to only five points in a fourteen minute stretch that started halfway through the first half. They held Indiana to 20 points in the second half, and six of those were in the final minute when the game had already been decided.

Sean Pruitt had big night on the boards with 13 rebounds to go with his ten points. Rich McBride has responded to the criticism by catching fire lately, adding 15 points last night, including a couple of big three pointers that stretched the lead out to eight points, a lead they would never relinquish. Fortunately, he has stepped up as Jamar Smith continues to slump, due in no small part to his injuries. Since going 6-14 for 17 points against Michigan on January 3rd, he's been awful, 11% from the field, and 7% from three. he's four for his last 37, including just 2-28 from beyond the arc. Ouch.**

The Illini shot 65% from the line, roughly on par with what they've done all season. Warren Carter was 6-6, but Sean Pruitt (who only shot three free throws), was 0-3, while Chet Frazier was 3-7. Any wonder why they've had a hard time holding leads?

I wouldn't call this a signature win, but it is a stepping stone. Perhaps they can build on it and go on a little run. If Jamar Smith gets his stroke back, and McBride keeps shooting well, and Randle gets healthy, they have a chance to go on a winning streak that could put them in tournament contention. But they pretty much need ALL of those things to happen.

**I swear I didn't read Mark Tupper's blog before I posted that. Seriously. But it's word for word what he wrote (although I wrote 'beyond' and he wrote 'behind') so I'll change it.

Following up

About a week or two ago, I posted about a piece I read concerning Major League Baseball's negotiations with DirecTV to make them the exclusive outlet for the Extra Innings package. Looks like they've reached an agreement.

Major League Baseball has decided that it doesn't want my business unless I use the television company that they've chosen. And so, I won't be a consumer of Major League Baseball anymore. That could change come May, of course, but I'm not getting DirecTV, and I'm not going to spend a full season watching MLBTV, so chances are, you won't be reading much about the Angels here anymore.

At least I'll be able to get to bed at a decent hour.

Wisconsin 71; Illinois 64 and Arizona 69; UCLA 73

Big Ten

Pretty predictable result. Quite frankly, I thought Wisconsin would roll, and Illinois made it a lot closer than I expected. They were victimized by some poor officiating, two calls in particular, but even more so by their own inability to make free throws. They shot only 60% from the line, and it seemed like every time it mattered, they could never do any better than one out of two. That was huge down the stretch.

The refs didn't help. They took two points off the board for Illinois when Brian Randle jumped to catch an entry pass and bounced to the rim for the basket and the foul. The ref inexplicably ruled that the foul was on the floor, which was interesting considering he was on the floor for about a tenth of a second. Later, with Wisconsin leading by only two and under a minute to go, Marcus Landry of Wisconsin drove the basket and ran over Brian Randle for an offensive foul. Only, somehow the basket was allowed to count. He rose, hit Randle, released the ball, yet still got credit for the basket instead of having waved off. A two point lead was stretched to four, Randle made only one of two, and that was that.

Good game for Sean Pruitt who had 19 and 14 against only one turnover. Another 0-5 for Jamar Smith, who let's face it, if this is all due to his ankles, he needs to be out of the lineup until he's healthy. On his last few shots, he missed everything. It's been really ugly, and either way, he's hurting the team right now. He's trying hard, but he just doesn't have it. Randle finished with 8 points, and seemed to lift the Illini when he started to assert himself down the stretch. He's turning into a poor man's Frank Williams. He sit out the first 30 minutes, and in the last 10 minutes, he makes you think "where the hell was he in the first 30 minutes?!" Oh well, the descent continues.

Pac 10

Boy is there egg on my face after I said Arizona would probably win. I forgot that they're loaded with guys who a) can't play defense, and b) struggle against teams that actually can play defense (UCLA, U$C, Wazzu....guess who three of Arizona's losses have come against?). A certain Cat fan once said "Defense is overrated; especially if you shoot 60% from the field." I've really only watched Arizona's last three games (48% against Oregon, 38% against U$C, and 39% against UCLA) so I guess I would have to watch a team that consistently shoots 60% to test that theory. Keep in mind that UCLA was missing its best interior defender as well.

Mustapha Shakur (11 points - six of which came in garbage time when the game had already been decided, 8 assists, 3 turnovers) showed why after four years, he remains one of the most overrated point guards in college basketball, as he was pretty much completely owned by a sophomore who wasn't supposed to be anything more than a backup this season (Collison had 14, 7, and 2). Juwann McLellan has gotten so bad that Lute is wishing he had kicked off a kid earlier in the season only so that he could reinstate him to replace McLellan. I'll give credit to Ivan Radenovic, who I actually noticed in the second half for the first time in his four years at Arizona.

A lot has been made of UCLA's "struggles" against zone defenses. Teams play zone defenses in an effort to make it difficult to get the ball inside (which often helps protect their own big men from foul trouble). The idea is to force your opponent into jump shots, and make the guards beat you. If teams want to play a style that dares Collison, Afflalo, Roll, Westbrook, and occasionally Shipp to beat them, well, good luck with that.

Deserving of recognition for UCLA:

• Alfred Aboya was only 1-4 from the field, but he grabbed 11 rebounds, including six on the offensive end, and made all of his free throws.
• Michael Roll was only 3-9 from beyond arc, but finished with 13 points and a nice assist on the interior after breaking down the defense.
• And of course, Aaron Afflalo was the player of the game yet again, going 9-14, including 3-6 from three, for 22 points. In addition, he held down Marcus Williams to 11 points., who finished with 11 points 4-12 shooting, and turned the ball over four times.
  

Not really a must win for UCLA, but it keeps them atop the conference standings along with Oregon, who is clearly the no worse than the second best team in the conference, and can prove they may very well be the best at Pauley next month. And of course, it's always good to see crybaby Lute lose again. It's off the Bay Area next week for two tough games against good teams from Cal and Stanford. It's another solid test from a conference that's loaded with good teams.

ASU 50; UCLA 60

First things first, as I type this, the idiot Arizona announcers are doing the U$C - UA game. U$C took seven seconds in the backcourt. The announcer says "U$C only has three seconds to get the ball over the mid-court line". Ya know, if you're going to broadcast games in a power conference, you should know the rules. Only the shot clock doesn't re-set. If you take four seconds to inbound the ball before calling a time out, you still get another five seconds after the time out. Similarly, if you take nine seconds in the back court before calling time out, you get another ten seconds to get the ball over the time line. Play by play guys should know that.

Now, on to the UCLA game. I've come to the realization that the reason I hate watching games against teams that play zone defenses is because I root for the two teams in the country that seem to have no clue how to play against a zone defense. It's a slow tempo, pass it around, use the clock type of game, which really isn't all that fun to watch. For now, Arizona State has to play that way. Honestly, I don't know enough about Herb Sendek to know if that's his style, but for now, we're stuck with it.

UCLA hit the shots they needed to hit, played the defense they needed to play, and despite trailing for a majority of the game, eventually pushed it out to a 12 point lead before winning by ten. Darren Collison led the Bruins with 16 points, inlcuding a couple of threes. And big ups to LRMAM who grabbed 15 boards in this one. He's been hurting, so it's good to see him get back to his strengths, which is pulling down rebounds.

I don't quite understand his thinking, but a couple of times in the second half, UCLA settled for what really were bad shots late in the shot clock (a product of the zone defense they were facing). Don McLean, UCLA's color guy, noted after they made two that those were shots they could have gotten early in the shot clock, thereby forcing the tempo. Well, sorry, but no shit. They can get bad shots at just about any point in any game. Notice that he didn't make a similar comment after they chucked up 30 footers at the end of the shot clock. The reason they don't take those shots after five seconds is because they're working (or possibly praying) that something better opens up. This isn't rocket science.

U$C beat another team looking ahead to their matchup against a top three team yet again, which means Arizona will show up hungry on Saturday. Actually, I wouldn't be surprised to see Arizona win, so long as they don't rely on a good second half from Ivan Radenovic, who seems to find new ways to come up small in the final ten minutes every year. But UCLA is due for a home loss, and Arizona has already choked away three conference games, so the law of averages says they have to win sometime. Then again, UCLA seems to come out big against good teams, except for maybe Oregon. Should be a good one.

More Stuff

Illinois

They beat a bad Minnesota team last night by 12, and they looked really good at times, but they also looked pretty bad at times. Richard McBride continued his resurgence, or maybe it's just a surgence, by going 3-7 from beyond the arc, but Rich being Rich, those were his only nine points. Warren Carter also had a nice night, finishing with 17 points, 11 boards, and five assists. Sean Pruitt was not as good. Seven points on 3-10 shooting with five turnovers. Get used to that. Minnesota realized that whenever the ball went in to Pruitt, it wasn't coming out, and even triple teamed him at times. If he can't get off against Minnesota, it could be a rough year for him until he learns to pass out of the double team. A slaughtering at the hands of Wisconsin awaits.

Angels

Boy, they get some really stupid letters at the LA Times, don't they? Here's a sampling:

• Q: I enjoy watching Vladimir Guerrero. The man has so much natural talent. Has he shown any frustration in the last few years with the Angels' inability to make the playoffs?
• A: Well, first of all, they've made the playoffs in two of his three years in Anaheim. Second, seeing as how he came from a team that used to win about 10 games per year, he's probably handling it pretty well.

• Q: Why on earth would the Angels trade Scot Shields? The guy is clutch, he's as reliable a shut-down reliever as there is in the major leagues. Getting rid of Shields, in my opinion, would be a huge mistake.
• A: The Angels haven't traded Shields, and by all accounts, they aren't "trying" to trade him. Listening to offers is not "trying". And as good as Shields is, he's not exactly Mariano Rivera. He is, in fact, 17-18 over the last two seasons. Those numbers are skewed because he comes into a lot of games when the Angels lead, i.e., games he can't win, but can lose. Still, that's a lot of losses for such a great pitcher. I love Scot Shields, but he's had his issues over the last couple of seasons.

• Q: Because Joe Saunders seems to be a six-day pitcher, why not use Bartolo Colon as a spot starter until Saunders can be a five-day pitcher?
• Joe Saunders struggled late in the season, after pitching more innings than he ever has, on normal rest, and was lights out on extra rest. That doesn't necessarily make him a "six-day pitcher". It makes him a guy in his early to mid 20s reacting to his largest workload ever. How about we let him mature a little bit before we label him a "six-day pitcher".

Lakers

Great quote from head coach Phil Jackson after last night's big road win over the Spurs

"We value a road win, especially against a team like this," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said, before adding a dose of caution. "You know that line in that movie, 'Let's not start patting each other on the back quite yet.'

I don't think that's the quote you're thinking of, Phil. I think you're thinking of this one.

UCLA

Tonight at home vs. ASU. Let's hope they don't get caught looking ahead to their game against underwhelming Arizona. Also, it would be nice if Josh Shipp were healthy so that we could see Shipp guarding Shipp (his little brother Jerren).

While I'm back on the subject of music...

...It's getting to be good concert season again, and there are finally a bunch of good acts coming to town. So far I'm set to see:

The Shins at the Congress Theater:



The Apples in Stereo at Subterranean:



And the Walkmen at Schuba's:

More music

Just found this on Youtube. Geez, check out the hair on Mark Gardener. This is a very non-shoegazer song by a very shoegazer band.

A Rare NFL Post

Trust me, there are a million other places you can go to read about yesterday's games, but really, what the hell was McCree thinking on that fourth down interception/fumble in the Chargers/Pats game? Seriously, doesn't everyone learn in third grade, while playing football at recess, that you knock down the pass on a fourth down play?

Of course, that was just one of a shitload of mistakes the Chargers made, but at this rate, the way all of the remaining playoff teams are playing (except maybe New Orleans), the Super Bowl is going to a contest to see which team can out-suck the other.

Conrats to Yutaka Fukufuji

The first Japanese born and trained player in NHL history got into his first NHL game today, making a brilliant save on Eric Brewer, before allowing a power play goal later in the period.

The Kings lost again, 6-5 to Andy Murray's St. Louis Blues. Anze Freaking Kopitar added a couple more assists, and congrats to him for his anti-climactic naming to the NHL young stars game (which actually may field a better group of players than the all-star game). Lubo Visnovsky will be the Kings sole representative in Dallas at the All-Star game.

Honestly, this might be the best we can hope for from the Kings this season. An exciting, entertaining game that puts them one step closer to the number one overall pick, or something pretty darn close. Also, it makes it more obvious that they'll be sellers at the trade deadline. The future is bright.

UCLA 65; U$C 64

Nailbiter, eh? I've gotta say, I thought this was a strange game. Usually, when a team erases a nine point deficit late in the game, they do it with a good sized run, or at least a stretch of five minutes or so where they are clearly and unequivocally the better team. I never got the feeling that UCLA put together that kind of run, but the scoreboard disagrees. I'll be honest, when Darren Collison hit his two consecutive threes, cutting a 10 point lead to 4, I thought the Bruins were back in it. When U$C ran the lead back out to 10 shortly thereafter, I thought the game was over.

But somehow, the Bruins found a way to claw back, slowly cutting into the lead, getting another three from Collison, a layup from Al Aboya, a three from Russell Westbrook, a Lo Mata layup, then a bunch of free throws. Next thing I knew, the game was tied, and Aaron Afflalo was knocking a three to give the Bruins a three point lead. A couple of Mata layups later, and the lead was up to six before U$C hit a couple three of their own, and got a gift from the Pac 10 refs in the form or a four point play for Nick Young. That set the stage for Afflalo's heroics, as he moved the free thrown line, and knocked down the game winning jumper.

Big win on the heels of the Oregon loss. And with the week off, and Josh Shipp's absence, this gives Shipp over a week and a half to heal for the homestand against Arizona. Some observations coming out of this game:

• Courtesy of my dad: Tim Floyd arguably spends more time on the floor and out of the coaching box than he spends in it. And lord knows, he spends more time on the floor than half his team. Speaking of which;
• U$C could have problems in the second half of the Pac 10 season if they continue to give most of their minutes to only six players. Especially on the road. That's a lot to ask from your starters this early in the season.
• I'm going to repeat what I wrote after the Illinois-Squawk game: Next year, I'd like to see college basketball make it a point of emphasis to stop calling defensive fouls, and start calling offensive fouls, on players who kick their defenders while shooting three pointers. Nick Young got a four point opportunity, giving U$C a last minute lead, basically because he kicked Darren Collison. I'd still like someone to tell me why in the hell that's a defensive foul.
• U$C whines more than any team I've ever seen about calls that don't go their way. It was unreal. They got 95% of the marginal calls, and they whined about every single one that went against them. Must be the thug mentality around which U$C has built its athletic programs.
• I'm not going to tell Ben Howland how to coach, but he typically uses his time outs after made baskets starting around the nine minute mark. Until Lo Mata learns to make free throws, he may want to start saving those until the end of the game so that he can switch Mata on for defense and off for offense. College refs aren't going to start enforcing the intentional foul rule anytime soon, so either deal with the hack-a-Mata, or sub more wisely.
• Galen Center? Meh. Didn't seem like a big home court advantage to me.

I hesitate to call this a big win, but the fact is that they avoided what would have been a huge loss. Nice gutcheck considering the deficit they faced in the second half while in foul trouble and without one of their top scorers. Time to get ready for their real rival when Arizona comes to town. The good news is that they won't have to worry about facing a team that plays defense (and to give U$C credit, they are a good defensive team). I'm still not sure Arizona has figured out that there are two rims on a basketball court.

Iowa 70; Illinois 74

I'm not going to do a long post about this one. I've pretty much given up hope on Illinois making the tournament, and I really couldn't care less about the NIT, but I have some observations on the parts of the game for which I stayed awake:

• College basketball is virtually unwatchable when one or both teams are playing a zone defense. Every possession is 30 seconds of throwing it around the perimeter until someone finally jacks one up. And it's not just bad teams that react that way. What's funny is that in the second half, even with a zone, Iowa still got torched on the inside.
• Next year, I'd like to see college basketball make it a point of emphasis to stop calling defensive fouls, and start calling offensive fouls, on players who kick their defenders while shooting three pointers. Adam Haluska basically kicked Warren Carter, who was standing still, on his way down from shooting a three pointer, and was rewarded with three free throws. Haluska is a flopper, and was repeatedly either bailed out by officials, or allowed to take four or five steps at a time, and that was in Champaign. I don't think he'll even have to dribble the ball in Iowa City.
• Brian Randle was particularly active and effective in the second half run that built up Illinois' biggest lead, be it on defense, or while dishing (a team high six assists) and dunking on the offensive end. He has to be that good every night for the Illini to be competitive.
  
• As good a win as this was, the Illini were a couple or Warren Carter misses away from a loss. Jamar Smith was non-existent, going 0-7 from the field. Trent Meacham was just as bad at 0-5. Fortunately, Rich McBride picked up the slack, going 5-11 from the field for 15 points. They got 48 points from their starting front line, which is kind of a surprise against a zone team, but they're going to need to be better from the perimeter if they want to compete.
• Apparently trash talking is now grounds for a technical.
  

In roughly a five minute stretch in the second half, Illinois scored seventeen points. They showed how good they can possibly be. The question is whether they keep it up over more than five minutes at a time. That might be enough to beat Iowa at home, but it won't be enough to finish in the top half of the Big Ten, and it won't be enough to make the NCAA tournament.

Moonlighting update

Not the TV show. A couple of posts from yours truly are up over Song of the Day.

Also, while you're over in Bullsieville, check out all of the "Tucker Carlson is Batshit Crazy" stuff over there. Long story short, Tuckwad goes to video store. Store clerk (Chuckles) says "hey, TC came into my store, he's a crazy wingnut" on his blog. Tuckwad goes nuts and gets guy fired for no apparent reason. Oh, the power of being a minor celebrity. All of the relevant links compiled by Plover.

A Digression

First things first, Maury Brown brings up the DirecTV issue on his own non-subscription required blog with a few more excerpts over here. Primer discussion here.

JenJen (sorry about those Buckeyes), was incredulous yesterday over the possibility that I could tire of baseball if I can't get the Angels on television routinely. I was going to respond with another comment, but it led me into a larger post, so I figure I'd respond with a new post.

First, in response to Jen's comment, I'll probably never stop enjoying going to baseball games and whatnot, but if I can't get the Angels on TV regularly, I'm going to lose a fair amount of interest. It's inevitable, which brings me to my larger point. I don't know if any of the rest of you feel the same way, but as I've gotten older, I've found that I've gotten more interested in the teams that I root for, and less interested in the specific sport in which that team plays. For example, I read a ton of news stories about the Angels, and I visit most of the Angels blogs regularly. I watch every game I can, and listen to those that aren't on TV (assuming I'm not playing golf on a weekend). But I can't sit through a baseball game on TV if the Angels aren't one of the teams playing. I can't sit through a hockey game on TV if the Kings aren't playing. I used to be up to date on the scoring leaders and standings in the NHL. Now, I have no idea what divisions most of the Eastern Conference teams play in, and I'm still a little unclear on some of the Western Conference teams. And I say this as someone who watches pretty much every Kings game.

There are reasons for this, of course. In hockey, the unbalanced schedule means the Eastern teams rarely play the Kings anymore. The proliferation of the net has made a hell of a lot more information available about specific teams and players. A lot of the effort that went into following leagues and other teams has gone into following prospects in pro sports, and recruiting in college sports. I'm less interested in other teams because I know less about them because I don't follow them as much because I follow my own teams more.

Like I said, maybe I'm the only one experiencing this, but it seems I like sports less, but my sports teams more, than I did 15 years ago. Of course, that could change if I can't watch those teams play regularly anymore.

Angels Blogging Could Become Pretty Much Nonexistent

According to Maury Brown, the business of baseball guy over at Baseball Prospectus, I could be seeing a lot fewer Angels games this year. MLB is in...well, I'll let him tell it:

John Orerand and Eric Fisher of the Sports Business Journal have reported that MLB is in advanced talks with DirecTV to make the satellite television company the exclusive provider of MLB Extra Innings. While Extra Innings was initially only offered on DirecTV in 1996, the package has been available on cable since 2001, and on Dish Network since 2004.

In other words, yours truly could become one of those shut out of the Extra Innings package, and I'm not switching to DirecTV just to get the baseball or hockey (also in negotiation) packages. Apparently regional telecasts on Saturday afternoons which screw out of market fans weren't enough for MLB. They'd rather grab the quick buck and sell-out to DirecTV, thereby alienating me and probably a bunch of other fans.

Of course, I could go back to getting MLBTV, or getting the radio package, but having tasted the Extra Innings package, I'm more likely to just scrap the whole thing and stick to reading news reports in the Times until I tire of baseball completely.

So if you stop by in April looking for my take on Angels news, and you don't see anything, that's probably why. Or, it could just be laziness.

Over the Weekend

Illinois

Umm, these guys aren't really going to be very interesting to write about this season. They're pretty bad so far. I still think they have the talent to turn it around, but as Mark Tupper has pointed out, they have yet to find someone who want to be a leader, and it doesn't help that their senior backcourt senior isn't very good. I'll admit, I thought Weber was going to turn McBride into a very good player, but he's been a disappointment for most of his career at Illinois, at least in my opinion. So who will it be? Well, my guess is no one, but if anyone can do it, it's Brian Randle. He has the ability, but so far he just doesn't have the fire.

As for Saturday's debacle, I didn't really see it. It was on at the same time as the UCLA - Oregon game, and once I saw what the score was after about 10 minutes, I decided it would be a waste of time. Sorry.

UCLA

Had to happen sometime. Give credit to Oregon. They played extremely well, especially without Malik Hairston (speaking of that, maybe I just changed the channel every time it came up, but I didn't hear his injury mentioned once by the broadcasters - more on them later). Aaron Brooks played the game of his life, while the Bruins played without a doubt their worst game of the season (only including games against actually decent teams), and still had a chance to win or tie at the end. I've only seen one team in the last 20 years or so that I really thought could go undefeated, and this team wasn't it. Better to get this one out of the way on the road.

And while I'm on the subject, it should be interesting to see what kind of record U$C ends up with in the conference season. So far, thanks to the way the Pac 10 schedule works, it looks like they're either going to get teams that are looking ahead to UCLA (like Oregon and Washington), or teams that are drained from having just played UCLA (like Washington) (like Oregon State - see update at bottom). Of course, if they keep winning, that might change. And they'll get to test themselves against UCLA this weekend.

As for Barry Tompkins and Dan Belluomini, interesting exchange in the second half when LRMAM picked up his third foul. Howland sat him down, and brought him back on shortly thereafter, prompting Barry and Dan to comment that Howland was taking a chance bringing him back in with three fouls. A minute or two later, UCLA brought the ball down the floor, and a cross-court pass was knocked out of bounds by Oregon. Howland took LRMAM back out of the game. Somehow, Tompkins or Belluomini got convinced that there was a foul, and it was on LRMAM (his fourth). One proceeded to convince the other, and as a result, they were very shocked when Howland brought LRMAM back out a minute or two later with, in their view, four fouls. Finally, after figuring it out, they blamed it on a scoring mistake. Sure, guys. Whatever you say.

Angels

Nothing, really.

Kings

Nice 3-2 win over Detroit on Saturday after a dreadful first period. Before the season started, I said that the Kings would need more goal scoring from the blue line. Last year they had about 40 goals from defensemen, and about a third of those were from Joe Corvo, who's obviously gone. I said they'd need closer to 55 this year to be competitive. About halfway through the season, they've got 26, so they're ahead of last year's pace, but behind the pace I said they'd need to be at. Of course, a few more goals from the defense wouldn't make this team much better considering they have a hard time keeping it our of their own net.

Regardless, the Kings used two goals from defensemen to come back from a two goal deficit to tie the game before Michael Cammalleri got a good bounce on a power play for the decisive margin late in the third period. Lubo Visnovsky got his 13th of the season on a rush up the right wing, and Rob Blake tied the game on a fortuitous bounce from a Brian Willsie pass through the crease (though it still required a nice finish from Blake).

As for that power play goal that won the game, the man advantage was created by another jaw-dropping move from Anze Freaking Kopitar. He beat a man coming out of the Kings zone, pulled an incredibly timed pull and drag move at the blue line, smartly getting the puck into the zone before dragging it around a poke-check and splitting the defensemen for a great chance that probably should have been a penalty shot (he was a step behind the defense with a clear scoring chance - nothing in the rules says it has to be a clear break from the blue line). The kid is 19, folks. He's worth the price of admission.

*UPDATE - Nestor links to a Trojan Times article where Oregon State coach Jay John agrees.

"Me"

Jack Motherf***ing Johnson. Is it any wonder Kings fans already freaking love this kid before he's ever played a game for the franchise?

But Johnson, a sophomore at Michigan, came through big-time for the U.S. in the 2-1 shootout loss in the semi-final on Wednesday when, twice facing elimination in the tie-breaker, the big defenceman beat Canadian goaltender Carey Price both times.

In fact, when U.S. coach Ron Rolston was selecting his three shooters for the shootout, he said, "OK, we'll have Pat Kane, Peter Mueller, and . . ."

Johnson interrupted and said, "Me," startling his teammates.

That is freaking awesome. Can't wait to get this kid in a Kings uni. And the fact that he's American is just icing on the cake. I'm not exactly Mr. Rah-Rah America or anything, but I'll root for just about any player on any team (except the Ducks) if they're American.

UCLA 71; Oregon State 56

Didn't see it. Only those of you special enough to live in SoCal got this game. Instead, I got some lame womens' game and something about Texas football. Yippee!

Elsewhere, the bloom is off Oregon's rose after choking at home against $C last night, so Saturday's match-up loses some luster. But the Bruins should beware of team that wants to take out some frustrations. Also, Washington and Arizona played an exciting game. Props to Arizona on a big win. Maybe someday those two teams will discover that they're actually supposed to play at both ends of the floor.

Full Circle

Heading home today. Sitting at LAX right now waiting for my flight back to Chicago. I've been from Temple City to San Clemente, back to Temple City, up to Santa Cruz, back to Temple City the next day, down to San Diego the day after that (played Torrey Pines - North Course), back to Temple City, and now here.

Most disappointing moment? Realizing the parimutuel punched in an exacta on the 5 horse and the 10 horse instead of the 5 and 9, which I'd requested. Didn't realize it until I walked away. Had time to correct it, but the odds on the 9 and the 10 were virtually identical, so I figured "what the hell, it's probably a sign." It was. A sign that I'm an idiot. The 5 and 9 came in, and the $3 exacta would have paid me $180. I didn't bet anymore after that.

Dominance - Washington 74; UCLA 96

One early trend for the Bruins seems to be that they play down to their competition in games against non-marquee opponents. But in a matchup with more hype, they simply dominate their opposition. Such was the case against Michigan, and such was the case yesterday against 14th ranked Washington. The Bruins took the lead from the outset, forced turnover after turnover, most of which led to easy baskets, and put Washington in a hole from which they'd never see daylight.

Washington was able to hang around most of the first half, occasionally cutting the lead to around four, at which point the Bruins would run the lead back out to nine, and there were times that UCLA looked in danger of losing the lead, but with just under three minutes to go in the first half, they scored the last nine points of the first half, and the first six points of the second half for a 15-0 run that all but put the game away.

The Huskies responded with a zone defense that gave the Bruins trouble at times, but timely shots from Mike Roll, who finished with 15 points, and James Keefe brought Washington out the zone, and UCLA took over from there, adding another 12-0 run that slammed the door.

Aaron Afflalo played the game of his life, pouring in 20 in the first half, 27 for the game, while adding 8 assists and five rebounds. In addition, he hit all of the big shots when UCLA needed a shot in the arm. Darren Collison added 15, and almost had more assists (12) than points. In all, UCLA finished with an astounding 29 assists. Just Shipp finished with 13 points in limited time due to his sprained ankle, while LRMAM and Lo Mata each added eight more.

If this is how the Bruins are going to play against big time opponents, it's going to be a great year. Now they just need to come out with a little more fire against teams like Washington State. The next test is at Oregon on Thursday. Mac Court is really a brutal place to play, and the Bruins have yet to play a true road game, unless you really want to count Chaminade. How they approach that game will say a lot about their season.

Milestone

At some point today, this site had its 25,000th visit. Only half of those were from me.

Also, this is officially the first post I've entered a) while actually travelling, and b) from a Blackberry or other such mobile device. One of the benefits of a new job.

This also means I'll likely not see any of the UCLA - Wazzu game.

More travel

Heading up to Santa Cruz today, then driving back tomorrow, so posting may be lighter than it's been recently, assuming that's possible. And yep, still pissed about the Hillenbrand signing.

Well, thank God it's basketball season

Hey, at least UCLA played one good football game. Pat Cowan proved why he's not a real starting quarterback. And Stanford has to be pretty happy right now that they didn't hire Walker. Nice work on third down, defense. Utterly pathetic performance.

Angels Sign Hillenbrand

Seitz quits caring about Angels.

Seriously, management deserves to lose every game this season. These guys are fucking morons.

Traveling

I'm posting this from O'Hare, where my flight has been delayed for an hour and twenty minutes. I'll be back in the Southland tonight and hanging around until the 3rd, with a possible run up and back to the Bay Area. The bad news is that I waited too long to buy my ticket, and it's costing me a little under $700. The good news is that part of that includes a first class ticket on the way out, which is nice. Last time I flew first class it was because I missed my flight and had to go stand-by. Ended up a row or two in front of Keith Foulke and Bill Mueller on their way to Phoenix for the all-star break. Anyway, I'd be looking forward to the warm weather with more excitement if it hadn't been fairly warm here lately, though a little wet.

Big one for the Bruins, tomorrow. Michigan comes in with only one loss, though they haven't played a particularly tough schedule. Still, they've got some skill, and a lot of athleticism, especially Petway, who can jump out of the gym. Last year the Bruins constantly double teamed the ball in the post, and it was a very successful strategy, though they still needed a key late steal by Aaron Afflalo to seal the win. On paper, this year's game shouldn't be as tough, but the Bruins haven't exactly been firing on all cylinders for 40 minutes lately, and as poorly coached as Michigan is, it won't be as easy to put together big runs, the likes of which put away Sam Houston State and Oakland. A common explanation for the sluggish play in those games is that they've been looking ahead to Michigan and conference season. Let's see if they play like it tomorrow.

John Lackey Unfiltered

Baseball Prospectus has a new blog section called Unfiltered. I imagine you have to be a subscriber to get access to it. I'm a subscriber, so I get it. Anyway, the other day, Nate Silver did a bit on "The Most Underrated Pitcher in Baseball":

PECOTA says that he’s the 20th most valuable pitcher in baseball long-term, more valuable than Roy Oswalt, Dontrelle Willis, or Justin Verlander. He’s one of just eleven pitchers to post a VORP of 40 or higher in each of the last two seasons. He pitches in a major media market, is in the prime of his career, and has no red flags in his injury or health performance record. And yet, he’s never received a vote for the Cy Young award, never made an All-Star team, and has barely one-fifth the Google hits of Barry Zito.

Who is he?

Well, assuming you read the title of this post, you know who it is. It's John Lackey. Included in that entry are the ten other pitchers who hit the VORP requirement, and of those ten, Lackey's last two seasons have been at about the bottom of that list, behind all but Brett Myers. Anyone who's been reading this site a fair amount over the last couple of seasons is aware of my frustrations with John Lackey. I love the guy, and I think he's a great pitcher. But he's incredibly frustrating to watch. He's got a horrible habit of getting ahead of guys 0-2 or 1-2, then taking about 10 more pitches to finish guys off. As a result, he'll routinely hit the 100 pitch mark around the sixth inning. Now, Nate and I know each other fairly well. He's a Chicago guy, and we knew each other through Primer before he started writing for Prospectus. I sent him a quick email with my observations, and he did a little digging, resulting in today's post, which I'll excerpt with his permission:

...Lackey has wound up walking the batter 4.7% of the time that the at-bat starts out with an 0-2 count. That struck me as a high percentage...and in fact it is. I took a sample of 25 arbitrarily-selected starting pitchers,....[O]nly two of these pitchers walked the hitter more often than Lackey. [ed. note: the list contained all quality starting pitchers, ranging from Johan Santana at the high end of the ability scale down to probably Eric Milton at the low end]

Score one for our Angels fan [ed. note: Woohoo!]....

But is walking the hitter following an 0-2 count a bad thing?

Lackey’s OPS allowed following 0-2 counts if .405, which is a low number; the average for pitchers in this sample is .465....

It turns out that there is a correlation between walk rate on an 0-2 count and OPS allowed, but it’s quite weak (.26).... Lackey’s hyperaggressive strategy when ahead in the count might be frustrating to his fans and his managers, but there’s no evidence that it’s poor pitching.

That's a great point, and as I responded to Nate, my problem isn't so much that Lackey gets hurt more often than he should when he gets ahead, but rather that he sends his pitch count to a level that leads to Scioscia bringing the hook early than he might want to (and definitely earlier than I want him to). For what it's worth, I have no recollection of complaining about Lackey giving up too many two out hits (though for all I know, I may have complained about this before).

Considering the strength of the Angels bullpen over the last few seasons, early removal of a starter who is otherwise pitching well isn't the problem that it would be on a team with a crappy bullpen, so the net result is probably negligible. That doesn't make it any easier for me to watch him pitch. And ultimately (and this goes for Ervin Santana, too), if he could develop an ability to take advantage of those counts and save himself some pitches, he could add 2/3 of inning to his per game average. That's an extra 20-25 innings per year that he could take back from the pen. FWIW, his innings/start is pretty comparable with Zito, Willis, and Brett Myers, although he trails behind Brandon Webb, and that's before taking into account the fact that Webb plays in a league where he may occasionally be removed for a hitter even when he's going good on the mound.

It's nice to see some respect for Lackey from the new media, and thanks to Nate for digging a little deeper into the numbers. I'll continue to like Lackey, and I'll continue to get frustrated with his inability or unwillingness to put guys away earlier in the count, but if he keeps putting up seasons like he has the last couple of years, the frustrations will be fleeting.