Friday, December 30, 2005

geaux tigres

I hate that the crazy Cajuns spell Go as Geaux and I pronounce the X whenever I see it that way, so it sort of comes out Gucks ... and then just to be obnoxious I say tigres. These are things that keep me entertained.

So the LSU game was a blowout, 40-3. With 5 or so minutes left in the 4th, Miami had 13 plays for 0 yards and four 3 and outs in the second half.

There was an extraordinarily long halftime, so I flipped over to college hoops on ESPN 2. University of Ohio at Kentucky and for most of the game, Ohio had the lead. Until the final two minutes, Kentucky hadn't had the lead since the middle of the first quarter and had made only one free throw for the night.

Some interesting stats in this game, that unfortunately evened out in the final minutes. Without the last 3 minutes or so, this was a fairly ugly game for Kentucky. Tubby Smith had to make some serious adjustments for Ohio and Ohio coach Tim O'Shea's plan to stay with the Wildcats to the end actually seemed to backfire. His team was in, or dominated, most of the game and gave it away in the closing minutes. Up by as many as 9, Ohio did a great job of stealing and made Starks look like a playground hooligan. Midway through the fourth quarter, Kentucky had 18 offensive rebounds that led to 22 points. Ohio had 9 boards for 10 points and Rondo was a full 1-3 from the floor. Kentucky couldn't get any penetration in the paint.

It was like March Madness early and I couldn't help but pull for the upset, switching to the game full time, once it was obvious LSU had it in the bag. Ohio may not have come out with the W but they put up a pretty good blueprint for any team to contain Kentucky. Interesting to see if Tubby adjusts and if other teams pick up on this.

Couple of early game observations...

First some background.... so I'll admit to being a homer, but I've been out of state and been to a few other team's games and I still hold that Wisconsin fans are the most creative, most vocal, most obnoxious and meanest fans out there.

When I went to my first LSU game, I was pumped up by all the locals. 90 some thousand fans, this will be great, I'm thinking.

But I have to say, frankly, they kind of suck as fans.
Every "cheer" is initiated by the band. And there are only about 3 of them. As I'm sitting here watching the game and I can hear the band loud and clear and it just reminds me how sad it all is. LSU has this great opportunity, and I feel like it's totally wasted. These are great fans. And they're entirely led by their band.
We have the first down song. Any time the team gets a first down we hear "bum - bum bum bum. GO TIGERS!" There's also "bum. bum bum bum. bum bum buuuuummmm. (repeat) bum bum bum bum." and another that I wouldn't even begin to try and write, but I'll admit does accompany a fun dance. Besides the fight song, that's all she wrote.

Sad times.

The "meanest" cheer is the first down song, which ends in "kick their ass"

I'm a fan who likes interaction. I like variety. I like attitude. I like being rude. I like anything that demeans the other team. Screw it, it's Saturday morning and you've got 90,000 drunk kids together. I want to hear some foul language. Shouting "Tiger Bait" and anyone in opposing colors just doesn't do it for me.

For chrissakes LSU, live up to your potential. You're drunken southerners. You get days off of school for Mardi Gras, which doesn't even happen in your city. It's such a shame to see such wonderful potential go to waste.

Secondly, since it looks as though Green Bay is out of the Bush 2006 running, I'm thinking Skylar Green is a smart move. We need help at so many positions and this kid is incredibly versatile. His use as a return man alone would make him a good pick, but I think this kid looks like a Desmond Howard type opportunity. The kid is a game-breaker whenever he has the ball in his hands - whether he's a returner, receiver or back. He's taken a couple of direct snaps in this game where he is the only guy in the backfield. It's obvious he's going to take the ball and yet he's still ending up with 6+ yards. Clearly, the Pack has multiple needs and a triple threat like this would leave some open picks to rebuild our sad, sad, sad defense and O-line.

Hey Fightin' Tigers

Long day of being sick, so not much of an intro. I haven't looked forward to a game as much as this one for most of this season. If this isn't a good matchup I'll be seriously disappointed

The best I can do is...


LSU Fight Song

or...

Hey! Fightin' Tigers! Fight all the way!
Hey! Fightin' Tigers! Win the game today!
You've got the know-how, You're doin' fine
Hang on the the ball as you hit the wall
And smash right through the line.

You've got to go-o-o-o! for a touchdown
Ru-u-un! up the score!
Make Mike the Tiger stand right up and roar. (ROAR! !! !!)
Give it all of your might as you fight tonight,
And keep the goal in view,
Victory for LSU!!!

T
I
G
E
R
S

TIGERS!

also

GEAUX TIGERS
KICK THEIR ASS!

Finally, I'd love to see Ryan Perrilloux get some snaps. This kid was beyond impressive to watch in high school, so I can't wait to see what kind of transition he makes to college ball. The fact that he sits the sideline is a big disappointment. No doubt Russell was the right choice, but it would be great to see this kid making an immediate impact somewhere, not riding the pine. He's a game maker.

It's possible we didn't see this kind of defensive matchup all year.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Damn you Santa!

Why oh Why didn't I know about this before Christmas? Now my holiday season is ruined.

Also, I'm sure I'll go to hell for this, but I the mental images this evoked are indescribable and funny as hell.

And also

I don't think it's possible for the Jayhawk on the floor of Allen Fieldhouse to be larger. And he has buckles on his feet.

University of No Opportunity

UNO - The University of New Orleans - is currently playing Kansas on ESPN 2. You'd think Kansas would be kicking their ass, and sadly for Kansas, they are not. This is some of the ugliest basketball I've seen in awhile. With 5 minutes left in the first there are a combined 15 turnovers. The website doesn't say how many steals, but I'll estimate about 11. UNO is 5-23 from the floor, while Kansas is only marginally better at 9-22. The announcer just informed us that UNO has scored 2 baskets in 8 minutes and yet Kansas is only up 23-13. What happened to the Kansas of Yore? Wasn't it just a few years ago that I was watching Heinrich and Collison walk all over Marquette at the Superdome in the Final Four? What happened to the fast break offense that no one could stop? I know I don't usually keep up with teams like this until March, but I swear, I didn't think it was possible for a team like the UNO Privateers to make Kansas look so bad.

I'm also watching the Holiday Bowl and I'd like to come out here and now saying that I hope Oregon gets their asses kicked. I'm quite frankly sick of listening to the whining about how they were left out of the BCS and I'm sorry, but they didn't deserve it.

I absolutely hate the PAC 10. I don't see this as a viable conference and I'd love to see USC play some of the top teams out of the Big 10, SEC and Big 12. As much as I hate to admit it, USC is a good team, and they'd win a lot of games. But I think that there's absolutely no way that USC would be an undefeated team if they played in another conference.

In addition, three barely there wins over 3 much lower ranked opponents doesn't do much to make me see the Pac 10 (or Oregon) as a viable, competitive outfit. Maybe I'm a homer and maybe I'm biased, but I think the Rose Bowl will be more than a little interesting. I can't wait to see how USC holds up against a viable opponent. We all saw the Notre Dame game and if thats the best they can do against a 9th ranked team... My biggest fear is that they trample all over Texas because we'll never hear the end of it.

One final thought on USC. They cannot threepeat. Should they win the Rose Bowl, they will NOT have won three straight. Sure, they finished first in the final AP poll at the end of the 2003 season. However, there's that pesky nonsense about LSU, not USC, being awarded the fabulous crystal ball accessory flair. It's both ironic and moronical for ABC "the official broadcasters of the BCS" to be touting USC as a threepeat champion when the BCS does not sanction the AP championship. And by calling USC a threepeat champion, are they admitting that they messed up in 2003? Are they subtly saying that, hey, maybe this BCS stuff isn't so great, because clearly, in retrospect, USC is a good team, so maybe we should have put them in the Sugar Bowl? And with that retrospective thought process, do we keep LSU in the Sugar Bowl or does Oklahoma get to stay? With the deductive reasoning that shows that USC has turned out to be pretty good, so they should have played, don't we keep LSU? They ended up ranked in the top 10 again this year whereas Oklahoma is unranked and playing in the Holiday Bowl.

Clearly I'm taking this a little overboard, but I'm just saying that it can't be both ways. But I love the thought of the bass ackwards BCS basically admitting they scewed up and they probably don't even realize they've admitted it. I wonder whose ass they'll be kissing next year at this time.

Wisconsin Hockey

The Men's hockey team remained at the top of the rankings this week, heading into the Badger Hockey Showdown this weekend in Madison.

The Women's hockey team is currently ranked 3rd.

The Showdown features Wisconsin, Western Michigan, Northern Michigan and Wayne St. In a press conference Monday, hockey coach Mike Eaves addressed the lack of big names in this year's tournament

"It is more difficult every year to get teams because of the number of tournaments that are out there and the commitments already set up. I'm excited about these guys coming in. Western Michigan has beat Ohio State and Northern Michigan is always a feisty team. We're going to be challenged right away and that's good. I think when players look at that and they know those things, that will get them excited."

I'll be there for the finals on Saturday night. I'll report my findings when I return.

In other Wisconsin news, Bret Bielema's final turn as defensive coordinator for the football teams sees him asking Lombardi award semifinalist, lineman Joe Thomas, to play some Ironman football at Monday's Capital One Bowl.decimatedted defense was made even thinner in the final game of the season against Hawaii when freshman Travis Beckum sustained a knee injury. Thomas started practicing defense shortly thereafter. He's made one other appearance on the defensive side of the ball, ironically against Auburn, in the 2003 Music City Bowl, when Thomas was a freshman.

No entertaining news today, but it's a busy day at work. I'll be back Tuesday, bored and cruising the net for more entertaining things to share with you. Plus, there' s the all sports madness of the Badger Hockey Showdown, the Packer game at noon Sunday, the Capital One Bowl followed by the Fiesta Bowl, which looks to be an interesting matchup.

First post nonsense

Ok, I'm 24, I'm in Milwaukee, WI. I lived in New Orleans for 6 years and my heart is still there. I have a journalism and spanish degree that I'm not at all using. I miss writing and I miss covering sports.

I'm a big University of Wisconsin fan - football, hockey and men's bball, in descending order of importance. I also keep up with LSU football, since my school didn't have NCAA athletics. Marquette and UWM basketball are also on the radar.

Clearly, I'm also a big Green Bay Packer fan. Can't be born here and avoid it!

I'll watch a college game before a pro game any day of the week. I'll watch hours of college basketball and never turn on an NBA game. I'll attend any college football game, but I'm always going to contend that nothing compares to a Wisconsin student section. I can (and do) watch any college football game that's being aired.
I've played soccer since I was 4. I played NAIA soccer in college, but that doesn't really count, as most people don't even know what the NAIA is.
Fox Soccer Channel is always on my TV, but I don't necessarily have a favorite EPL team. I just love to watch the game.

Bowling, Croquet, Badminton, Curling and Wiffle Ball are underrated sports.

Cute sports are those that don't get mainstream love, those that you can play while drinking (and really wouldn't play if you weren't). My life goal is to actually start the magazine from "Dodgeball" : Obscure Sports Quarterly. I actually wrote a column about such sports, before the movie ever came along.

I suppose that's all you need to know from me. I'll link to lots of other sites, but you probably already read them. If you don't, you should. Check out:

www.edsbs.com - Every Day Should Be Saturday, an excellent college football blog
www.journorock.blogspot.com - Alabama fan (we'll forgive him) and Journalist
http://chriswesthoops.blogspot.com/ - Everything Wisconsin hoops
http://1000movies.blogspot.com/
http://tigersmack.com/index.php - LSU sports
http://mgoblog.blogspot.com/ - Michigan ... well written and we have to know what the enemy is about
http://deathvalleysaturdays.blogspot.com/ - Not updated recently, but good LSU coverage
www.sioncampus.com - Fabulous links and good information

So there's the intro ... onto to some Bowl Week goodness