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At the Intersection of Sports and Culture

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College Hoops: The Stage is Set

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College Basketball is here and, thanks to the NBA, the stage is theirs for the foreseable future. I have trended away for NCAA hoops these past few seasons, usually waiting until March Madness rolls around and the conference tournaments begin before consuming copious amounts of basketball. So while the NBAPA decertifies, and players wait by the docks to catch the next steamship overseas, basketball fans have little choice but to delve into some early season college basketball live from exotic locations like New York City, Maui, Puerto Rico, Anchorage, and Uncasville, Connecticut.

I for one am always surprised by the high quality of several early season marque matchups. If college football programs were to adopt a similar path – tough, early season out of conference scheduling – then we may have a BCS Championship Game featuring teams with two losses apiece. Of course, the CFB season is much shorter than the CBB marathon, therefore a single loss is much more damaging to a football team’s chances at a championship. Yet another reason to eliminate the BCS in favor of a true postseason playoff in college football.

Here are a few quick observations from Tuesday night’s Champions Classic live from Madison Square featuring Michigan State/Duke and Kentucky/Kansas:

i – I’m happy for Coach K. Passing his mentor Bob Knight for the most wins all time is an impressive feat to say the least. Since the demise of Joe Paterno at Penn St., a few cynical twitter voices – are there any other kind – have wondered when the skeletons will emerge from the squeaky clean Duke program. If there are any cracks in the Krzyzewskiville armor, however unlikely, I highly doubt they rival anything close to the evil emerging from Happy Valley.

ii – Michigan St. still plays with a little chip on their shoulder. Their play has always modeled the gruff exterior of head coach Tom Izzo who has found great success by recruiting the mean streets of Flint and Detroit. Spartan opponents can usually expect a wayward elbow or two.

iii – Another Plumlee? Pretty soon the sports world will be run by Plumlee’s, Pouncey’s. and Pelini’s.

iv – It’s impossible for me to watch Kentucky without wondering how exactly Caliparai acquired this fresh crop of talent. The scars of two vacated Final Fours still linger as skeptics continue to wonder how it is so easy for the Wildcats to reload after losing so much talent year after year to the NBA Draft.

v – If you’re a current NBA player, one of the good things about the lockout is that now you have a chance to watch your alma-mater play in person. On a slightly different note, wouldn’t it be something if the NCAA all of sudden allowed NBA players to regain years of college eligibility? Where would LeBron go? Ohio State? And what team would be favored to win it all? UConn? Kentucky? Texas? The possibilities are endless.

view from MSG courtesy of @thechiver

Unguarded But Not Untouchable

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After watching Unguarded I felt like I should have known more about Chris Herren before sitting down to watch the ESPN Films documentary. After all, Fall River isn’t too far away from New Hampshire and he did only graduate from Durfee 3 years before my senior year of high school. If Al Gore had invented the internet back in 1994 I would have been able to follow his meteoric rise and humiliating descent with a bit more regularity. But I rarely read the Boston Globe and wasn’t ever invited to travel on an AAU basketball team with the likes of Scoonie Penn, Wayne Turner, and the Curley brothers.

I first remember hearing the name Chris Herren when he started his amazing run at Fresno St. Back then, the Bulldogs were featured quite prominently on ESPN2 primarily because of their famous coach Jerry Tarkanian and also because the WAC monopolized the 12am tipoff like they worked for the power company. Tark’s Fresno State teams always felt like they had a little Running Rebel in them, impart because their star guard Chris Herren had tattoos before Chris Anderson and bleach blond hair before Eminem.

I can remember talk of Herren being a high draft pick but that there also being concerns of baggage related to earlier run-ins with the law and drugs. When he was traded to the Celtics in 2000 it barely registered with me but mostly because Boston was in the midst of the Rick Pitino years and as we can all remember “Larry Bird is not walking through that door”. And then, more trouble and drugs and eventually Herren moved his game overseas and became somewhat of a footnote or a cautionary tale on the price of small town fame and addiction. It wasn’t until watching Unguarded that Chris Herren’s life came in to focus and I can now truly appreciate his story.

A few other quick observations from Unguarded:

1) Who knew scoring drugs was so easy? It’s one of the scarier realizations in the entire film. If you want to catch a fix, the dope is going to find you. Some of us would probably end up looking like Larry David in Curb Your Enthusiasm when he buys some “medicinal” marijuana for his father who is suffering from glaucoma. But the way Herren describes the process makes it seem like such a simple endeavor.

2) Antonio McDyess and Nick Van Exel, two of Herren’s teammates during his rookie season with the Denver Nuggets, were legit team leaders. I always thought Van Exel was a hothead and was therefore quite surprised to hear Herren describe how these two basketball veterans lived good, clean lives off the court so as not to tempt their addiction addled rookie point guard. Couldn’t see Kenyon Martin or Carmelo Anthony doing this today.

3) Chris Herren is an impressive public speaker. He has a resounding presence and credibility when he stands before a group of kids and recovering addicts. I would not be surprised to hear or see his career as a public speaker/coach take off after more and more people watch this documentary.

Finally, as Herren said, being a recovering addict is a day to day proposition. By the end of the documentary, as he was staring into the bathroom mirror, I got the sense that it would much easier for him to fall back into a life of drugs than it is for him to stay sober. I hope Chris Herren keeps clean and continues to share his message with others. It’s an important story, one that we can all learn from and appreciate.

view from Hinkle Fieldhouse courtesy of @shmos 

 

The Idiot’s Guide to Conference Realignment

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Recently, I’ve had a lot of people ask me, “hey Jon, what do you think of all this crazy conference realignment happening in college athletics right now?”. Pause Ok, so maybe nobody has asked me about all the crazy conference realignment in college athletics right now. But that doesn’t change the fact that realignment remains a topic of conversation for passionate sports fans across the country even though amongst my immediate circle of friends it ranks somewhere in between the new season of Dancing With the Stars and the Poker Ponzi Scheme.

So Oklahoma and Texas bolt for the Pac 12, bringing Oklahoma State and Texas Tech along with them, while Mizzou heads down to the SEC, Rutgers and UConn make it 16 in the ACC, and the Big East is left picking up the Big 12leftovers. There has to be enough football money to go around. Last time I checked, the ESPN family of networks was airing almost every single college football game including Gardner-Webb/Wake Forest and UCF/Florida International.

My take is quite simple. As a product of a DIII athletic conference where college presidents will not allow their football programs to play enough games to qualify for post season play because the extra weekends would “interfere” with a student/athletes academics, I really don’t understand what all the fuss is about. I mean, so long as there are enough chairs for every school to sit down on when the music stops, shouldn’t we just simply allow the process to proceed?

The only thing that really bothers me is the thought of no Big East basketball championship in Madison Square Garden. Those 5 days in early March are one of the highlights of my annual sports calendar. And sure, I can see the ACC tourney relocating to the Big Apple but Duke/Pitt just doesn’t carry the same gritty nostalgia as Syracuse/Georgetown. I for one love hearing from curmudgeons like Jim Boeheim who believe AD’s should just leave well enough alone.

And finally, the way the Big East is headed, maybe the conference will be lucky to play a tournament in the Providence Civic Center let alone MSG.

view from Toledo/Boise St. courtesy of @bigrupe57

Whitey Bulger and the 2011 NBA Draft

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Living in anonymity. That’s what repugnant Boston mobster Whitey Bulger had been doing for 17 years until his capture in Santa Monica late last night – special thanks to Jack Nicholson for breathing new life into the search – and that’s what the majority of picks in the 2011 NBA Draft will be doing for the foreseeable future. To borrow a line from Major League, “who are these f*%$ing guys?. Are any of these picks destined for stardom or do we have nothing more than a bunch of back of the rotation guys who will struggle to earn consistent minutes in the NBA? We’ve heard of Kyrie Irving. We know the charming story of Glens Falls, NY native Jimmer Fredette. But Jan Vesely? Tristan Thompson?

In times of column crisis, I typically turn to my wife for inspiration who, like the majority of casual sports fans, couldn’t be bothered to tell you the first informative thing about this NBA Draft or any of the players involved. I gave her the names of the presumed top ten picks, without any sort of backstory, and asked her to tell me who she thought these “people” were.

If it’s real draft “analysis” you’re looking for, head here, here, or possibly here. Otherwise, enjoy this totally unscientific breakdown of the 2011 NBA Draft presented by my wife.

#1: Cleveland Cavaliers – Kyrie Irving, PG Duke

“Don’t you mean “Kyle” Irving? I went to grade school with a Kyle Irving. He was a bad seed. It has been my experience that certain names fit certain personalities and I have never met a “Kyle” or “Brandon” or “Zach” that I could trust.”

#2: Minnesota Timberwolves – Derrick Williams, PF Arizona

“Isn’t there a Derrick Williams playing in the NBA? It feels like there is a Derrick Williams playing in the NBA.”

#3: Utah Jazz – Enes Kanter, C Turkey

“Oh, got this one, he’s that Republican Congressman who always seems to be lurking behind John Boehner during those creepy announcements from Capital Hill.”

#4: Cleveland Cavaliers – Tristan Thompson, PF Texas

“Reminds me of Brad Pitt’s character from Legends of the Fall. Do you remember when we were trying to come up with names for our son and I suggested “Tristan”? Such a dreamy name.”

#5: Toronto Raptors – Brandon Knight, PG Kentucky

“Wasn’t he a member of the New Kids on the Block? Or was it the Backstreet Boys? Either way I’m kinda hoping for a boy band revival. Never did get to see N’Sync live.”

#6: Washington Wizards – Jan Vesely, SF Serbia

“Harry Potter’s BFF and Hermione’s future husband. Speaking of Harry Potter, you better do one of those Plodding through the Previews posts for The Deathly Hallows: Part II.”

#7: Sacramento Kings – Kawhi Leonard, SF San Diego St.

“Doesn’t sound like anybody I know. I don’t even know how to pronounce Kawhi”

#8: Detroit Pistons – Bismack Biyombo, PF Spain

“The King of Zamunda. Maybe I think this because Coming to America has been on all the time recently. Great movie although I feel that it has become a bit underrated recently.”

#9: Charlotte Bobcats – Kemba Walker, PG Connecticut

“Point guard of the National Champion UConn Huskies. I’m not completely ignorant to all things sports.”

#10: Milwaukee Bucks – Klay Thompson, SG Washington State

“Why is it not “Clay” with a C. I have never understood why parents change the spelling of fairly traditional names like Staci, Rodger, and D’Brickashaw.”

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So there you have it. Thanks to my wife for being such a great sport and enjoy the 2011 NBA Draft live for Newark, NJ. That’s right Newark, NJ. Enjoy!! 

view from the 2011 NBA Draft courtesy of @prucenter

 

Bracketscapes: Houston, Texas

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Houston, Texas – Reliant Stadium (Final Four: April 2&4)

Why your dad likes Houston: Because every dad born during the Baby Boom wanted to be an astronaut when they were kids.  Thanks to JFK, my  dear old dad wanted to fly when he was younger only to have his dreams derailed due to poor eyesight. (Be aware that my dad also credits his poor eyesight for ending any chance he ever had of playing in the NFL.)

Signature Food/Drink: With its surprising proximity to the Gulf of Mexico, Houston has some of the finest seafood in the continental US. (Although since the BP disaster I am sure many local Houston eateries have been forced to adjust their menus.) For drinks, it’s tough to uncover an abundance of local craft brews so I am willing to bet that the people of the “Outer Loop” appreciate a good Bud Light while the fine, privileged folks of the “Inner Loop” enjoy themselves some sarsaparilla.

College Basketball History: The city of Houston has a fine tradition of college basketball. The University of Houston boasted one of the best, most prolific programs during the early 1980’s. In 1982-83, Phi Slamma Jamma made it all the way to the National Championship game only to be upset by Jim Valvano and the North Carolina State Wolfpack. That Houston Cougar team featured two of the NBA’s Top 50 players in Hakeem Olajuwon and Clyde Drexler.

Bracket Predictions: Butler over VCU. UConn over Kentucky. Butler over UConn. (And the final score won’t even come down to a Gordon Hayward missed half court shot.)

view from Reliant Stadium courtesy of @RiceSportMgmt