Sunday, January 17, 2010

Belated Football Wrap

Like most football fans, I was able to observe a ton of games during the holiday season. Aside from the Alabama Texas National Championship game, I also watched the Orange Bowl and the Fiesta Bowl. In fact I was very fortunate to watch them from a small fishing village in Mexico...something I would highly recommend.

The first thought in my mind when I watched Boise State and TCU tee it up is "What in the hell happened to this game and where is Arizona State?" Why would anyone think that?

The Fiesta Bowl was originally created as a bowl game for Arizona State to play in because they were not getting invited. In those days it was a no win game for anyone playing the Sun Devils. If you beat them you were supposed to...but there was a very good chance you would not.

Arizona State played in and won the first 3 Fiesta Bowls beating Florida State, Pittsburgh with Tony Dorsett and Missouri. They also beat Nebraska to finish 2nd in the nation as well as Zero U-errr Oklahoma in the 80's when O-U had Marcus Dupree.

Now, when I see a good coach like Peterson at Boise doing well and Kirk LaFrenz at Iowa my thoughts are Why Cant ASU get this coach or a coach like him? Is ASU paying enough...I don't mean the coach, I mean the players. I mean, how hard would it be to recruit a kid when its Scottsdale, the 2nd best weight room in the country or a frozen corn field (Iowa)? How hard to recruit a kid at Sun Devil Stadium, on of the 5 prettiest sites in the country or Boise? How are they missing the boat? The school is literally a sleeping giant for the right coach. Last comparison...tanned girls in shorts, or frozen coeds eating bon bons in a freezing cold dorm room in the middle of nowhere. Maybe they get it right again someday in Tempe.
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With the coaching change at USC, maybe, just maybe, UCLA will awaken from a long nap. You could have two of he most NCAA violating coaches in the same city.
************************************************************************************ NCAA hoops is finally getting close to being relevant now that football season is winding down. If I have to watch on TV, I go with the pros all day long. Much more scoring, better players and coaches, and not some coach standing like a banty rooster prancing up and down the sidelines the whole game. However, going to a good college game live is great fun. At the start of the season I went to the Rice-South Alabama game in Houston. I had a great seat because nobody attends Rice games. South Alabama came from way back to almost pull off the game. They put on a press and Rice literally could not bring the ball up court. South Alabama has since beat Florida in Gainesville, which is always nice by me.

I was also fortunate to attend our annual game at Toyota Center. It was Texas A and M vs New Mexico. The Aggies' coach, Mark Turgeon, complained that they did not need to play a minor league team like the Lobos. New Mexico won. Go figure. The Lobos are coached by Bobby Knight protege Steve Alford. Again, a very entertaining game.
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At the start of the season the Houston Rockets were without Yao Ming and Tracy McGrady and would be without them the whole season. With that in mind, I didn't give them much chance of being much more than a lottery team. To date I have not seen an NBA team play much harder. Carl Landry is having a great season and Aaron Brooks while short is one of the 3 fastest players in the league. He put up 41 a couple nights back. While they will have some basic issues teams will have with a six foot five inch center (Chuck Hayes), I have to say I have not seen many better coaching jobs than the one Rick Adleman has done this year. In fact, you can also add Nate McMillan of Portland to the list as well. What he has done this year with all the injuries that have fallen on the TrailBlazers is nothing short of miraculous.
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Two blues artists that need to be checked our are Victor Wainwright and Barry Goldberg. Goldberg was Mike Bloomfields' keyboard artist for many years. Check out "Long Way to Go" by Victor Wainwright and "Middle of the Night" by Godlberg. Goldberg has a nice female vocalist from Kentucky. Both these groups just ooze with blues, rock, jazz and soul. Till next time.