tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69511476852037334182008-07-16T18:17:19.151-05:00WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comBlogger45125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-35042218356243900962008-07-10T06:46:00.003-05:002008-07-10T07:05:26.768-05:00

Temperatures are up, vacationing students are laying around pools and lounging in front of TVs, baseball is in full swing and the Arnold Palmer (ice tea and lemonade) is the drink of choice. However, in gyms across America something else is happening...sophomore and junior basketball players are becoming leaders. The college coaches are precluded from working with their players during these

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-70121346324051593682008-06-23T10:29:00.004-05:002008-06-23T11:14:13.380-05:00

The world lost a great one last night. George Carlin has been pointing out the adsurdities of life for over 50 years and he was a great voice of reason in the comedy field. Unfortunately, he passed yesterday of a heart attack at aged 71. He will truly be missed. Not only was his comedy always cutting edge and outstanding, but he also had some very poignant messages about life. A couple of

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-88203154488006602722008-06-04T11:18:00.000-05:002008-06-06T12:44:16.036-05:00

I have been rollerblading for a couple of seasons and have tried a variety of blades during that time. If you are looking for a new pair of boots, I highly recommend the K2 Moto Mens inline skates. I have been out on my new pair about 15 times this season so far and they are excellent. I personally skate on the 84/80mm wheels, but they also come in a 90mm version. The most important attribute

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-22682763654296643402008-05-03T11:55:00.000-05:002008-05-03T12:04:09.700-05:00

I really like Tom Crean and I think he is just what Indiana needs a coach with a lot of integrity and gritty record of success. In his first major move with the university, he has maintained that integrity by standing by Dan Dakitch's decision to kick Armon Bassett and JaMarcus Ellis off of the Indiana team. While this decision will make year one ugly to watch, it shows the university's resolve

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-64182191233820004612008-04-19T23:32:00.000-05:002008-04-21T19:55:13.555-05:00

Does anybody else feel like this years playoffs feel like the NCAA tournament. With the parity (in the West) and influx of young players, these playoffs are starting off very exciting. Many of these series look like they could go to 6 or 7 games and there are sure to be a lot more excellent individual performances. Here are some observations from the first games of the playoffs: -- The

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-62821144419097922572008-04-18T10:09:00.000-05:002008-04-18T10:17:55.154-05:00

While I am mainly a college basketball fan, I am really excited for this coming NBA playoffs. There has been a changing of the guard in the NBA over the past 3-4 years and I really like the young batch of players that are both entertaining and respectful of others and the league. Lebron, DWill, CPaul and Howard are a few of my favorites to watch among this new young group of stars. There

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-11231567661956816052008-04-04T08:33:00.000-05:002008-04-04T08:39:43.174-05:00

Doh...in the wrong tournament. Before the season began, I picked two sleepers teams (not ranked in the pre-season Top 25) that I thought could make the Final Four this year, Ohio State and Clemson. Congratulations to the Buckeyes, who won the NIT Championship last night. They had an up and down season, but their run in the NIT proves they had the talent. They gelled a bit late in the season

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-34744838246956103612008-03-28T20:08:00.000-05:002008-03-28T21:55:14.549-05:00

Simon on Sports has a hilarous post on that abomination that Bruce Pearl calls an offense at Tennessee. Nice work Simon -- "uncontested threes are for pussies". Its amazing to me that Indiana wants to interview this guy. Well at least they will have plenty of time to now. I have mentioned before that I hated Tennessee wild, out of control offense. Well it was executed perfectly last night.

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-30954912735437833722008-03-25T09:57:00.000-05:002008-03-25T10:49:48.309-05:00

What a great first weekend of the NCAA tournament!! Loved having 3 double digit seeds still in the tournament. Congrats to all of the Sweet Sixteen teams and especially the big surprises; Davidson, Western Kentucky, Villanova and West Virginia. BTW, nice job on the poll readers. You guys said the 3 teams (seeded 2-4) that were most likely to miss the Sweet Sixteen; Wash St, Vandy and Duke.

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-68040060898699901112008-03-22T09:51:00.000-05:002008-03-22T10:18:30.034-05:00

I ended up 2 for 3 in the first round bets, winning with Xavier and Purdue and losing on St. Joes unlikely loss to Oklahoma. Xavier was not pretty and I was definitely sweating out the first half 9 point deficit to Georgia, but in the end Xavier's defense and depth was too much for Georgia and they won by 12. Tougher round coming up and I frankly don't see a lot of games/lines that I like so I

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-13653848448314357322008-03-18T21:20:00.000-05:002008-03-19T10:20:34.824-05:00

Let's first get the obvious stuff out of the way first. My Final Four - UNC, Georgetown, Texas and UCLA. I think UNC is going to win the NC over UCLA. Sleepers for the Sweet Sixteen: #11 seed St. Joe's St. Joe's beat Xavier twice in the past two weeks. They play very good defense and they are a good road team. Meanwhile, Oklahoma is limping into the tournament. While they have a good

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-18963433461512583352008-03-13T10:17:00.000-05:002008-03-20T09:16:34.066-05:00

I saw a post on celebrities supporting their bubble team on Epiccarnival.com and thought it would be interesting to expand the list of celebrities and the alma mater they will be rooting for during March Madness. Please feel free to comment in any others that I have left off (limit it to likely tourney teams and non-bball celebs since we all know where they went): Willard Scott (weatherman) -

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-22541068703738919372008-03-08T22:34:00.000-06:002008-03-08T22:45:06.620-06:00

Absolutely these were two of the best teams in the country (btw, I have been on Duke's bandwagon since they were unrated early in the season). Absolutely this game was loaded with some of the most talented college hoops players in the nation. Absolutely it was an incredibly hard fought battle by both teams. And in the end, I think the best team won tonight. However, the real story here was

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-78750833537808812142008-03-07T09:01:00.000-06:002008-03-07T09:12:00.272-06:00

Congrats to Badger fans on landing Diamond Taylor, a top recruit for 2009 out of Chicago. Taylor plays on a talented St. Joseph's team (home of Isiah Thomas, Demitri McCamey at Illinois and Evan Taylor of Ohio State). While not currently rated in the Top 100 by Scout.com for the class of 2009, I would expect that to change over the summer. He has great athleticism and a silky smooth outside

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-84473628618815266672008-02-27T22:35:00.000-06:002008-02-27T22:44:57.419-06:00

No sooner had Week 16's Blogger Poll been posted and it become irrelevant with Tennessee's loss last night to Vanderbilt. That must be the shortest reign at Number 1 in hoops history -- less than 24 hours. The race to a National Championship remains wide open with at least 8 teams that have a legitimate shot at winning it. I believe those ten are (in my order of probability): North Carolina

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-45526871092100479412008-02-22T19:38:00.001-06:002008-02-22T20:03:37.724-06:00

In the breaking story on ESPN about the Indiana/Sampson settlement, the story cites an anonymous donor that contributed $550,000 of the $750,000 settlement to induce Sampson to go away quietly and waive any potential litigation. Could the donor be Mark Cuban, internet billionaire, Dallas Mavericks owner and fanatical IU alum. If you don't know the Cuban story, he and a friend originally started

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-81901067803824192452008-02-22T08:27:00.001-06:002008-02-23T12:04:20.918-06:00

I remember also being an impetuous, headstrong college student and some of the grave errors in judgement that it led to. CBSSports.com is reporting news out of Indiana this morning that the players, when informed of Sampson's firing, said that "if coach goes they won't play". Talk about stupid immature behavior. I understand loyalty, but he broke the rules. The University feels it needs to

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-59489485462082017412008-02-13T13:29:00.000-06:002008-02-13T14:53:47.782-06:00

The wheels are coming off the bus in Bloomington. The NCAA released its notice of allegations to Indiana University last week and that report was released to the public today. In the report, it is alleged that IU coaches including Sampson made over 100 telephone violations involving multiple recruits and misled IU about the nature of the calls and violations. Now IU finds itself in the

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-17235225177669971812008-02-04T10:00:00.000-06:002008-02-14T23:36:48.733-06:00

Congrats E-Trade, you blew away the competition this year. Probably the funniest ad in 10 years!!

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-57398945015862831682008-01-26T15:45:00.000-06:002008-01-27T09:51:00.480-06:00

Time for a mid-season assessment and a little who's hot and who's not. We all know that Memphis, Kansas, UNC, Duke, Tennessee and UCLA are playing great basketball, but what lesser known schools are making some waves and who has cooled off relative to expectations. Who's Hot UConn - I have been talking about UConn for a couple weeks now. Yes they have 5 losses but they are playing great

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-67281199763591455192008-01-23T14:55:00.000-06:002008-01-23T15:02:32.838-06:00

I was recently invited and voted in a weekly bloggers poll on the Top 25 NCAA hoops teams. Thanks to Gabby at March to Madness for all his hard work in compiling the poll. Unlike the AP Poll, we get to discuss (or argue) about the final outcome and then tweak it as necessary. There was a lot of debate after the compilation this week, which highlights the wide open nature of college basketball

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-13903677624697627892008-01-20T08:20:00.000-06:002008-01-20T08:41:11.761-06:00

There was a cornucopia of college hoops yesterday with many of the top teams falling to unranked teams. There will be a lot of movement in the polls this week. Congrats to Maryland and USC who pulled off upsets over UNC and UCLA, respectively. I watched the Maryland upset and they played like one of the top teams in the country. Now if someone could only explain to me how this team lost to

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-23622712867935019182008-01-17T19:43:00.000-06:002008-01-26T16:29:28.589-06:00

I have written before about Hoops Dynasty, the coaching simulation game where you coach a DI, DII or DIII hoops team against other human and sim coaches. You recruit players, set an offense and defense, develop a practice plan, plan your game strategy and play your way into the National Tournament at the end of each season. The game is a lot of fun and will give you new appreciation for DII

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-54776434135158043892008-01-12T15:20:00.000-06:002008-01-12T15:27:56.047-06:00

Never thought I would have heard that one. Great shot, great game and great win for the Hoyas over UConn today. Couple observations in this one: 1. The vaunted UConn/Georgetown Rivalry of old is back!! These are two great programs that had been down for a few years and it is great to see them both back. 2. UCONN may be the most underrated basketball team in the country. They are very good

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6951147685203733418.post-47179273496685118292008-01-11T23:43:00.000-06:002008-02-14T23:35:09.127-06:00

I had not fully jumped on the Erin Andrews bandwagon, but I am driving the bus now. Thank you to March to Madness for this shot.

WeirdRashhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04354612284707099273noreply@blogger.com