EAST TENNESSEE MEDIA

TSWA Award-Winning Kevin Barnard

March 10 2010

If you’ve read my bio at any point you’ll notice that today (March 10) is my wedding anniversary. My lovely wife and I have been married for three years. We have 29 more to equal the length that my mother and late father were married. Of course, our vows said ‘til death do us part so that is my intention…hopefully the Lord will allow the two of us to be with other on this rock for a lot more than 29 more years together, that is unless He decides it’s time to come back for His church.

Anyway…not to get into too much of a theological rant, here’s some topics I’ve been sitting on.

Maybe next year…

William and Mary’s men’s basketball team is one of the original Division I teams and they have never participated in the Big Dance. They were in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game this past weekend…and were summarily dispatched by regular season champion Old Dominion 60-53.

The Tribe is 22-10 with wins over Richmond, Maryland and Wake Forest. Nice wins, but I’ll be shocked if they get in with that resume over the likes of Mississippi State, Ole Miss or Florida. Their RPI is better than that of the Bulldogs, but not the Gators or the Rebels. However with three wins over top 30 RPI teams their resume is a lot more compelling.

There are four other original Division I teams besides W&M that have never made the tournament field: Northwestern, Army, The Citadel and St. Francis (NY).

Conference geography

We’ve all heard some of the hair-brained ideas for some conferences in the coming years for expansion; like the Big Eleven…ERRR…Ten making a grab for another team to make it a 12-team league as well as the Pac-10 trying to add two teams. The Big Ten would like to add Texas…as would the Pac-10. That ain’t happening folks.

Thinking of how the leagues would look, the trip from Seattle to Austin is a long one for starters. From Minneapolis to Austin is pretty much a boring drive down I-35 through Iowa, Missouri, Kansas and Oklahoma (with the occasional toll in Kansas and Oklahoma and the split routes on either end in Minnesota and Texas), but from State College, PA to Austin is a haul.

Then there’s the ACC. Miami to Boston is a long way up I-95…and it’s also boring once you get away from the ocean while in Virginia and parts of Maryland. But how about the Summitt League, whose corners include Oakland, MI, Shreveport, LA, Cedar City, UT and Fargo, ND? That’s a mid-major conference that has serious travel expenses. Not to the same extent probably like the WAC does with everyone having to make a trip to Hawaii every other year in football or every year in hoops…or in the other direction having to go to Ruston, LA.

At some point I hope the schools will take a serious look at the geography and find a way to fix things in their leagues. Louisville and Notre Dame are nearly in a north-south line from each other along I-65 and US 31, but Providence is waaaaaay over in Rhode Island and not close to anyone really except Connecticut in the Big Least. The same goes for Marquette, who is pretty much close to DePaul and Notre Dame…kinda…but not anyone else.

Tournament thoughts

n I’m going to say that Kansas, Kentucky, Syracuse and Purdue will be the 1-seeds. I think Duke is very much overrated, as is the rest of the ACC this season and I also see Ohio State choking in the Big Ten tourney. Villanova and/or West Virginia could make things interesting as well.

n I see the Vols advancing to the SEC semis before losing a close one to Kentucky. That should be enough to keep the Vols as a 4-seed, but there is the argument that they could be a 3-seed…who else beat the No. 1 team in the country (at the time they played them) twice?

n Some really nice stories in the Big Dance would include New Mexico…excuse me…No. 8 New Mexico and the “Steve Alford to the Desert Southwest effect” on the program. There probably hasn’t been this much excitement in Albuquerque since Bugs Bunny missed his left turn there. Don’t you think the alumni at Indiana are ready to open the checkbook to get their local legend back to the Midwest?

n Also the Wofford Terriers will be dancing for the first time in school history after edging Appalachian State in the SoCon title game. Wofford is only in their 15^th season in Division I play. The Terriers denied former Vol head coach Buzz Peterson a chance to get the Mountaineers back to the dance in the first year of his second stint in Boone.

n ETSU was the 5-seed in the Atlantic Sun tourney, but managed to win the title and return to the field of 65. The Bucs knocked of the 6-seed, Mercer, in the title game.

n An at-large bid for Coastal Carolina is probably out of the question despite a sterling 28-6 record. The Chanticleers’ RPI ranking however is 135…that’s not going to get you an at-large.

n The Big XII looks to get seven teams in the field. The Pac-10 will be lucky to get their conference champion in. Cal is unranked, but has 21 wins and has a current RPI ranking of 20. So long as they don’t lose the tournament they should get in. Arizona State has 22 wins and is the regular season runner-up to Cal, but their RPI is 54. That’s lower than Washington at 51, who comes into the Pac-10 tourney with 21 wins.

The only scenario I see for the Pac-10 to get two teams is either U-Dub or ASU winning over Cal in the finals and the Bears getting an at-large.

n I will do my bracket later on, but right now I’m leaning towards Kansas winning their second title in three years.

More basketball

BARNARD’S BOTTOM 27

321. Pepperdine (7-24); the Waves, best known for producing Doug Christie (whose wife beat him up on occasion while he was with the Sacramento Kings) and baseball, lost a home game to California Baptist; an NAIA school.

322. CSU-Bakersfield (7-22); the Roadrunners topped Idaho State on the road. That gets them slightly ahead of the Bengals.

323. Stetson (7-22); the Hatters’ signature win is over ETSU, who will be in the Big Dance. That’s something for them to build on. That is enough to counter a big loss at SC-Upstate.

324. Southern Utah (7-22); the Thunderbirds picked up wins over NAIA juggernauts University of the Southwest and Wayland Baptist…the victims list the “wins” as exhibitions.

325. SE Missouri State (7-23); the Redhawks did beat SIU-Edwardsville, but split with UT-Martin. Another win was over NAIA dynamo Williams Baptist college.

326. Idaho State (7-22); the Bengals had wins over Division III Colorado Christian and NAIA Montana Tech…MT’s mascot is the Orediggers…nice!

327. Delaware (7-24); the Fightin’ Blue Hens (gotta love that mascot!) had more downs than ups, but played tough against some teams that should get at-large bids…and they won their pillow fight with Penn at the beginning of the season.

328. North Carolina Central (7-22); of the Eagles seven wins four came against non-Division I foes: NC Wesleyan, Tennessee Temple, Carver Bible College and Newport News Apprentice School…what? Was Sisters of the Poor and Blind not available?

329. Albany (7-25); the Great Danes got four of their seven wins over fellow fluffies Alcorn State, Penn and a sweep of Maryland-Baltimore County. They also pushed America-East regular season champ Stony Brook enough in the conference quarters to where Boston U. knocked off the Seawolves.

330. Howard (7-25); the Bison weren’t the cellar dwellers of the MEAC, but they had the worst overall record. They did win three in a row at one point, but that was after they opened the season losing 14 of their first 16.

331. Florida International (7-25); the Golden Panthers aren’t very good in any sport at the moment. I guess hiring “Zeke” Thomas to coach is going to be a work in progress. They won back-to-back games in November to improve to 2-3, but really tanked it at the end losing nine in a row to close out the year. Even more embarrassing for FIU was being swept by arch-rival Florida Atlantic.

332. SC-Upstate (6-23); the Spartans were really snake-bitten this season, losing 11 times by less than 10 points. Nine of those losses were at the start of the season when they lost 15 of their first 16 contests. Ouch!

333. Grambling State (6-20); the Tigers are best known for football anyway. When you count an exhibition win over an NAIA school you’re pretty bad.

334. Pennsylvania (6-22); the Quakers tied with Brown and Columbia for fifth in the Ivy League with a 5-9 record in league play. That should tell you all you need to know about blue bloods and basketball folks.

335. Presbyterian (5-26); formerly members of the SAC, the Blue Hose are finding things difficult in the land of Division I athletics. They finished dead last in the Big South this season, but managed to win on the road at Southern, giving them the advantage in this poll for pillow fighters.

336. Wagner (5-25); after the Seahawks completed their season the AD fired the head coach, stating he wanted to go in a different direction…DUH! You knew it was looking bad for Mike Deane when he lost to NJIT, who went winless in their first two seasons in Division I…and they were the lone win for Bryant this season…

337. Texas-Pan American (5-26); the signature win for the Broncos this season was on the road at UT-Chattanooga…wow, that really sucks for the Mocs.

338. Southern (5-25); the Jaguars didn’t qualify for the SWAC tournament…not that it would’ve mattered anyway. Of their five wins, two were over Alcorn State…more on that in a minute.

339. Dartmouth (5-23); the Big Green’s big wins came over Division III Lyndon State (VT), Columbia and St. Francis (NY)…there’s a reason why the Terriers have never made the NCAA Tournament.

340. Toledo (4-28); how bad were the Rockets? 19 losses in a row from mid-December to late February that could’ve easily been 21 straight if not for a blocked shot in the final seconds against Indiana-Purdue Fort Wayne…yikes!

341. UT-Martin (4-25); I love Pat Summitt, but if the brainiacs that say she should coach the UT men the next time the job is available I’ll simply say “her alma mater needs her worse than the Knoxville crew.” The Skyhawks were D-III not that many years ago and of their four wins one was over a D-III opponent (Westminster, MO) and another was over an NAIA opponent (Harris Stowe, MO)…they did beat SIU-Edwardsville however so…

342. SIU-Edwardsville (5-23); the Cougars have wins over Hannibal-LaGrange (an NAIA school who lists the loss as an exhibition) and Robert Morris, IL (Springfield)…the latter is a member of the USCAA, whose membership includes Hiwassee…yes that Hiwassee, who apparently is now a four-year school. Losing to UT-Martin by double digits was pretty bad though.

343. UMBC (4-26); the Retrievers won’t be sending Christmas cards to the folks at Binghamton anytime soon. The America East champs from 2009 dropped out of this season’s tourney and forced Maryland-Baltimore County up a spot to the seven-seed, where Vermont promptly pole-axed them into the off-season.

344. Fordham (2-26); the Rams scored 100 points against Duquesne…and lost by 11 points. They became the first Atlantic-14…ERRR…Atlantic-10 team to lose every conference game in 17 years…now that’s impressive. That move to fire their head coach after a 1-4 start really panned out well…

345. Alcorn State (2-29); the Braves opened up the season on a tear…losing their first 24 games before getting over the hump against Mississippi Valley State. They were three points from running the table in reverse.

346. Marist (1-29); former Indiana Pacer center Rik Smits’ alma mater sandwiched their one win (72-66 over Manhattan) between an 11-game losing streak and an 18-game bender. The Red Foxes were competitive in roughly half a dozen other games.

347. Bryant (1-29); the Bulldogs’ 53-51 win at Wagner kept them from being 0-30.

Now then…on to other things…

Carl Edwards gets what amounts to a slap on the wrist for causing Brad Keselowski to go airborne at Atlanta. Folks I don’t know what it will take for NASCAR to police its stars better.

Three races on probation is nothing. Seventy-five Cup points is a penalty that will be felt all year long. Three races on suspension is pretty much a knockout blow for Edwards’ title dreams.

Either way so long as there are articulate, charismatic drivers in the sport these days you’ll not see any harsh penalties handed down. Get used to it.

Fare thee well Nomar

As it should be, Nomar Garciaparra retired as a member of the Boston Red Sox. He signed a one-day contract with the club he started with then announced his retirement from the big leagues. In 14 years he played for the Sox, Cubs, Dodgers and the A’s.

I didn’t realize he spent last season in Oakland…tells you how relevant he’s been lately.

Now the real question…does he have enough of a resume for the Hall of Fame? His career batting average is .313, but he has less than 2000 hits, fewer than 250 homers and also less than 1000 runs and RBIs. His fielding percentage is decent, but his time at first base helped the numbers go up. When he played at third or short he had less than stellar numbers defensively.

My guess is no way on the first ballot…probably not even the first five or 10…he might end up having to wait on the veteran’s vote.

Reds’ Cactus League observations

The new digs might be nice, but the Reds aren’t faring well to start the 2010 exhibition season.

The Indians have already won a pair of split squad games over their in-state nemesis and are 4-0. Cincinnati is 1-3 with the win being over lowly Kansas City.

In what will likely be his last year in Cincinnati, Aaron Harang is off to a slow start in the preseason. He was roughed up for three earned runs in an inning and a third.

The big buzz is around Aroldis Chapman. The left-handed Cuban defector won his spring debut and hit triple digits on the radar. Control will be the issue early on, but later in the year the opposing teams will have lots of notes on him. Much like a couple of year ago when Edinson Volquez came over in a trade for Josh Hamilton and dominated National League hitters for his first four months Chapman will have to get used to being touched up for some runs on occasion later on.

Looking for a show?

Like my colleagues on this site I am a big fan of Burn Notice. I’m a little puzzled on the concept of doing seven-episode mini-seasons, but I’ll take it. The show rocks.

So while we wait until the summer for the next batch I’d like to recommend Human Target on Fox. It’s an adaptation of the DC Comics comic book and graphic novel of the same title. 

February 17, 2010

Friends, I turned 38 yesterday (February 16) and a lot of things have been going on in my mind in the last few days. I have seen quite a few ups and downs in my time on this rock and I was really thinking I should get out some of the thoughts.

We’ve seen a terrific Super Bowl recently, a buzz-killing NASCAR race and I personally have seen more snow than I’ve seen since the infamous “Blizzard of ’93.” So taking all of those things (and a few others) let’s look at what we’ve seen to this point.

The recovery process for the University of Tennessee football team

Lane Kiffin left us in a lurch…kinda. At least he left, which is a good thing for the UT program in the long run, but not so much for AD Mike Hamilton, who stands to be the one getting the heave-ho at the next opportune time by the athletic board.

Enter Derek Dooley. I, like a lot of you, said who? I figured the last name meant he was connected with the Dooley coaching family that has been a tradition in the South over the last 50 years. In three weeks he managed to salvage a top 10 recruiting class (by some services) and has worked to completely shed the aloof, arrogant, devil-may-care attitude of the last head coach and his staff, who by the way had signature wins over the worst Georgia team in a quarter century and Ohio University, who won the MAC’s Eastern Division…in addition to STILL having a sub-.500 record.

Still, as some of my colleagues have pointed out, Dooley has a 17-20 record in three years in the WAC. However he also won a bowl game and had a winning season in Ruston, where it’s been a rarity since they moved up to Division I-A…ERRR…FBS in the 1989 season.

So let it be known that this writer is closing the book on Lane Kiffin…for now. When he and USC AD Mike Garrett both end up in the unemployment line in the next 2-3 years I might give the folks on the left coast an “I told you so.”

NASCAR’s Super Bowl stuck in neutral for most of the day

I didn’t get to watch the race (my in-laws are non-racing fans and my wife thinks it’s extremely redneck…which she’d be wrong about), but I did listen in a time or two. I heard the discussion from the MRN broadcast about potholes on the track.

You know, NASCAR is a multi-billion dollar enterprise and these track owners and corporate partners have a lot of people coming to see the races and all the events leading up to it. To hear that it was last in 1980 since Daytona was repaved is mind-boggling.

I’ll be the first to acknowledge the lousy state of the economy, but for those who have invested millions of dollars in Sprint Cup cars and the folks who save their money and vacation time to travel to central Florida in mid-February for the start of the season to get a race that takes six hours to complete is pretty bad. The culture these days barely allows for folks to go to sporting events that take three hours.

Here’s hoping the folks at Daytona International get to work as soon as warmer weather comes in and the track is in better shape for the July race.

Hell freezes over

The long-time voice of the New Orleans Saints, Jim Henderson, said so…

The Saints then proceeded to take down the Colts in the Super Bowl, giving the team formerly known as the Aints their first title in franchise history. I think the city of New Orleans should thank San Diego for casting off Drew Brees in favor of the petulant Philip Rivers…if they haven’t already. I was rooting for the Colts, but I was really happy the Saints won. They were the team I rooted for until Peyton Manning was drafted by Indianapolis…and will be the team I root for when he retires.

The NBA…it’s desperate

I have long been disenchanted with the state of professional basketball. The NBA All-Star game this past weekend was yet another reason that I can’t stand the product these days.

Commissioner David Stern pimped out his game featuring the best of the best to Jerry Jones’ and Mark Cuban’s egos. Playing in front of over 100,000 fans at the billion dollar home of the Cowboys (who have won exactly one playoff game since their mid-90s glory days) and watching little defense be exhibited. Not that defense is the name of the game in any professional sport, but the East let the West have a shot to win after basically dominating most of the way.

No longer is the NBA fan-tastic. It’s beyond desperate.

Reds move spring training out west

The Cincinnati Reds will begin spring training this week in Goodyear, Arizona. It marks the first time since after World War II that they’ve been anywhere but Florida.

Some folks think that the Reds will be a contender this season in the Central. Perhaps, but I’m more interested that they have a winning record for the first time in 10 years.

What’s all the hubbub about?

Olympic skier Lindsey Vonn modeled for the 2010 SI Swimsuit edition (which by the way with their body paint section leaves little to the imagination anymore…it’s like soft-core pornography) as did snowboarder Hannah Teter. The good thing about this country is women have the right to pose in swimsuits if they so choose. Some in the media think it creates controversy.

This is not Lisa Harrison being offered half a million by Hugh Hefner to pose for Playboy sans clothing folks (which she declined), these are bikinis and one pieces. If these ladies are comfortable in their own skin then let them do what they want within the limits of good taste, which admittedly has different meanings for a lot of people.   

Snow…and lots of it

Over the course of the month of February the Cincinnati area has had over two feet of snow. I last saw that much snow in March of 1993 while still in Rutledge. I think it was mostly drifts after the first 15 inches, but it sure was a lot.

The other night on Facebook I made a comment about the global warming hacks…and I meant it. The whole thing is a scam. Nature runs in cycles. Case in point: the locals up here say that the last 10 years has seen some snow, but not to this magnitude. Also consider that when you look at the record temperatures when you’re watching the nightly forecast that the record highs and lows vary from one to the other and sometimes vary for decades in between.

If you don’t believe me ask a neighbor in his or her who’s at least in their 60s. If that doesn’t help here’s a link to check on the information dispelling the myth that is global warming.

http://www.ourcivilisation.com/aginatur/moregw.htm

Whether you vote Republican, Democrat or Independent makes no difference to me, but when the global temperature goes down 0.13 degrees Celsius according to the more-accurate satellite-based measurements as opposed to up 0.4 degrees Celsius based on computer-generated models then someone is “padding the stats.” And regardless if the government could fix the “crisis” it would be minimally effective at best. A couple of hundredths of a degree ain’t much folks.

That’s my political rant for the winter season. 

Grainger High Grizzlies