A class act.

Seeking to become the 4th womens Division 1 womens basketball coach to win 900 games Rutgers basketball Coach Vivian Stringer is one of the best coaches in the country. Everyone remembers the comments made by radio talk shock jock Don Imus about the Rutgers basketball team but Stringers contribution to womens basketball is tremendous. A terrific coach and recruiter Stringer built the University of Iowa program into a solid Big Ten contender. She led the Hawkeyes to a final four appearance and did it the right way. She is a class act and has influnced so many people in such a positive way she deserves not only recognition but congrats from everyone involved in college basketball.

Bring on the madness.

I watched some of the NFL combine this weekend and thought about the fact it wasnt real football. Daytona managed to miss my television the sport is one left turn away from obscurity in my world. My college hoops team is faultering not because of lack of talent but because they really are afraid to lose. I should be depressed but im fine with it because SPRING is just around the corner. March madness and tournament brackets are in the not too distant future. Gonzaga North Carlina State and Miami are on my college basketball watch list and i cant wait for March 17 and the unveiling of the matchups. Basketball and springtime is a combination that always makes life better. Bring on the warm and bring the madness!

NCAA needs a change.

It would be easy for me to start ranting and raving about the flu or cold weather but that is just too easy. I have been a college sports fan all of my life and i still do not understand the NCAA and its ridiculously vauge and stupid rules. There have been scandalls throughout NCAA history but never any reasonable explanations for any of its actions. Random slaps on the wrist for certain schools and heavy handed punishments for others make no sense to anyone.. Vauge terms such as lack of institutional control are spoken of by the NCAA without any real explanation as to what the terms actually mean. I believe its time for an independent investigation of the NCAA and its governing bodies. The current NCAA is hiding behind the complexity and corruption that happens when there is no institutional accountabillity anywhere within the organization. The future of college athletics may be in doubt if something doesnt happen in the not too distant future,

Spartan tough.

Do the names Adreian Payne Keith Appling or Derrick Nix ring any bells? They may not be fimiliar names to most sports fans but they do tell me a college basketball fan something about a great college coach.There are more famous coaches who get more publicity or their pick of all the elite high school basketball players but nobody is a better coach. Michigan state has a record of 22-4 this season and I think this might be Coach Izzos best coaching job. His teams are tough and physical and play excellent defense. He has had his share of stars in East Lansing but no matter the star quality of the Spartan squad they usually contend for a conference title.  My vote for 2013 Coach of the year in college Basketball is Tom Izzo.

Show me Cinderella.

Channel surfing through a Thursday night i need a college basketball fix. March madness is around the corner and i need information about some obscure teams that might surprise in the tourney.Of course you can count on the ESPN network to give you lots of information about all things basketball right? No not really. The two teams that i run into are PUKE i mean Duke and U Conn.Man im tired of Duke being on 12 times a year and the love affair with all things HUSKY is annoying. This is a year where no dominant team is surfacing can we please see somebody different? We all know coach wonderful is the greatest thing since John Wooden but ive seen his team enough, The East coast bias in the media will never go away but im hoping the balance in college basketball will allow me to see a  real Cinderella win a championship.

Who are these guys?

Im feeling my age i was watching the NBA all star game and i realized that i dont even know half the all stars in the game. There are in fact whole teams that i have no idea about and that is very depressing. BJ Augustine ....George Hill .....Paul George ......Roy hibbert.... Danny Granger. Who the heck are these no names? The same can be said about alot of MLB players. I know the teams i see on the cable in the summer but as far as anybody on the Seattle mariners I know 1 player Felix Hernandez. The years are now blending together into a haze and players that i followed back in the day now have sons playing in the majors.The list of names I mentioned earlier are all members of the Indiana Pacers a team that could challenge for an NBA title. Its time to read up and meet a whole new NBA before Seattle goes sonic the Nets move back to jersey and the Lakers get good again.

Good television.

I was watching friday night fights this week and realized that Teddy Atlas is absolutely terrific. He doesnt talk about himself and he doesnt care about anything on camera except the fight he is watching. He has an educated opinion about something he actually knows about......boxing. It is a treat to hear somebody with some actuall knowlodge about their sport talk directly to the television viewer about the sport he loves.No gimmick no speaking louder than the other guy to get his point across just a conversation about a fight. Two hours well spent on a network that usually rots my brain in less than 15 minutes.

Kareem the dream.

Today was Jordans 50th birthday and let the asss kissing begin. Could Mikey still play?? His fans just automatically assume that im going to bow down and admit that the gambler and failed baseball player was the second coming of superman. I still say NBA officials told mike to go away for awhile untill his gambling was swept under the rug. We dont need mikey the degenerate gambler tarnishing the NBA and its rebuilt image. The national sports media jumped on the opportunity to compare Mikey and Lebron. Whos bettter?? Neither one of the two would get my vote for best player. And i know all the Jordan worshippers will gasp and question my sanity. But Jabbar was better. In a league where defense and physical play were emphysized Jabbar scored 38000 points grabbed more rebounds and was an unstoppable player. Kareem had 6 MVP awards and was a part of six NBA championships.He also won  3 consecutive NCAA titles at UCLA. Kareem scored 5000 more points than mikey in a defensive minded league that allowed hand checking and NO free trips down the lane without paying a serious price. Clyde Frazier was another great clutch player that i believe was the best point guard to ever play in the NBA. Bird is my choice for best clutch shooter and Bill Russell gets my vote for toughest and best defender in the post . This is a generation that doesnt like defense and loves stats and offense. I say to all you Jordan ass kissers if your going to consider all time greats try and get past your space jam hero worship and take a look at true greatness.

February not my favorite.

February has got to be the worst month of the sports year. College hoops are in full swing but home teams win 80% of the games and who really cares about basketball polls?? Pitchers and catchers are reporting to spring training WOW!!! just in time to start a painfully long and BORING spring training. The NBA and NHL are grinding on without resolution and football is a distant memory. Wrestling golf and soccer dont ever matter and tennis is in the offseason. What should i expect from a month that celebrates a rodent seeing or not seeing a shadow and a made up holiday that punishes men randomly for not buying women something they will complain about in March. Hang in there sports fans March madness is around the corner and opening day in baseball will bring some relief.

Wrestling out of the Olympics?

The IOC has decided to consider dropping Wrestling from its list of events. I  live in a state where wrestling is important and people are completely shocked!!! Im not one of those people. I participated in wrestling in jr high and have attended the iowa state wrestling tourney. This is a wake up call for the sport of wrestling.The additude that some fans and coaches have about people outside of the sport is less than welcoming. Their additude is that if you dont like our sport you can leave it. Well now that the olympics has decided to leave it maybe that additude will change. Instead of  acting exclusive and snobby about promoting the sport guys like Gable and Brands will promote the sport with more of a positive upbeat feeling. Im not losing any sleep over this decision but maybe this decision will ultimately help the sport.

Hawkeye football.

Tomarrow is national signing day in college football and my favorite team the Iowa Hawkeyes are in a very fimiliar place in the recruiting wars.They find themselves right in the middle of the pack. The Hawks recruiting class according to Rivals.com is rated 52nd out of 125 division 1 schools. Looking at the current roster Iowa has a solid  returning core of players and the future seems to be not without at least a glimmer of hope. Coming off a 4-8 season the doom and gloom faction of Hawkeye rooters will sound the alarm and scream to replace coach Ferentz. They may be calling for a change but i might remind them that  the program has rebounded on two other occasions and their is no reason to believe it cannot happen again. There are 3 types of Iowa football fans within the fan base. The first type i will call the old school hawk fans who remember the period of non winning between roughly 1962 and 1980 when Iowa did not have a winning season. They appreciate winning and have lots of patience when dealing with losing seasons.The second type of fan believes that whatever the program does is NEVER good enough. When Coach Ferentz led the Hawkeyes to 3 consective seasons of a top 10 national ranking they glibly responded with the statement he makes enough money he ought to do that every year. The third type of fan is the bandwagon fan who quickly jumps on and off the bandwagon and calls a season a failure if the team doesnt win at least 8 games. They believed that after Iowas success under Ferentz that iowa had turned the corner and had become Ohio state. That is ridiculous. The program realistically can compete and become a solid top 20 team in the nation again if we stay the course with kirk and his new staff.  Iowa is not an elite school in terms of recruiting but it can return to its former level of success because Ferentz is the best coach in the country at developing talent and coaching a style of football that is a proven success.

Show the game!!!

Attention: To all people who are  covering the video portion of a basketball game. Please learn how to cover a basketball game. When the ball is in play DO NOT show me the crowd. DO NOT show me the cheerleaders. DO NOT feel you have to show me a coach unless he is screaming throwing a chair or punching a referee. DO NOT feel you have to show the back down the floor shot of every player who scores in the game. I just saw him score. DO NOT feel the need to pan the person you are talking about during the telecast i do not need to see him or her. The philosophy of todays camera people is to try and put the audience at the venu. This a moronic idea. IF i wanted to be at the game i would have purchased a ticket. I am in my livingroom watching the basketball game.  What i want to see when i am watching the game on my 32 inch television is ................THE FRICKEN BALL.....THE BALL being dribbled the BALL being passed .....The ball being thrown off the coaches Head and most importantly THE BALL going through or not at the basket. I do not need to see any angle other than the angle that allows me to see the BALL. what i care about is  the winner or loser of the basketball game. I DO NOT care about mothers fathers aunts uncles horses dogs frogs or any other member of the animal kingdom. Please if you can keep the future programming promotions off the telecast untill a timeout or at halftime it would be deeply appreciated. And one last thing could we please keep the conversations about the game and not the social lives of the broadcasters  thank you!!!

Good not great.

All season long all I heard from the media and fans was how GREAT the 49er defense was. They were NEVER great. Great is a word I hear alot from alot of people around the sports world but i seldom see it. The Niner defense is solid up front and is tough but their secondary is BAD. Richard Dent walked the trophy out toward a ravens team that was determined and tough but was NEVER great. I know greatness and dominance when i see it and there has not been a great football team in the NFL since the steelers teams of the 1970s. The Bears defense of 1985 was a great defense. The word great is thrown around by journalists who try and build drama during times when greatness is rarely seen. The word great is thrown around by fans who cannot except the parity that defines todays NFL.

The football gods have spoken!!

The Super Bowl was terrific! However for journalists like Jim Nance and little Bob Costas the Ravens have now written themselves into sports history as this years team of destiny!!!!! The ravens were unstoppable and fate has determined  that Ray Lewis a hero of legendary status will now ride off into the night sky with his just reward.  The gods of football have spoken!!! Good Lord the football game was not determined by fate. Ray Lewis and his teammates were not star crossed and their destiny was not determined by some cosmic romantic notion anymore than Jesus intercepted a 49ers pass. Can we please just attribute what happens on a football field with what happens in a football game?? I watch football because i love football not because i wanna see if God turned the lights off at the Superdome. The Ravens won the the game because they scored more points than the 49ers and i am ok with that.