Goodbye (For Now)

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It has been quite a ride the past 18 months or so. From the most serious of posts to the most hilarious, it has been fun writing on this site and sharing my opinions with the rest of you all. It has been great to express my "creative" side through this medium and something that I might come back to in the future. However, with RJS being more than 90% written by me, and since I have been busy with graduate school this past year, I have not had time to write my inspired (maybe) and insightful (sure, why not) posts. Perhaps when the school year ends and I have my M.S. in hand I will be able to return to post on this site. Until then, and until new people want to help out, I have to call for a RJS hiatus. We are only the latest in great things to take such a break. I would name others, but no reason to drag others into this. The sports world is full of very opinionated folks so I doubt this website taking a break will make people cry, although if it does, I'd like to know and personally apologize. To my Bruin readers out there, which is probably like 95% of my fanbase, stay strong. Especially this week with U$C and St. John's Lizard coming to Pauley. To everyone else, take care. It's been real.

much love,
Ran

Cal Time!

I wasn't going to let it get to me this time around. I wasn't going to partake in the trash talking. No, not this year. Heck, I am not even in California. I'm in New York. I thought I could do without getting riled up about this game, but I can't. Whether it is my friend rocking his Cal student section shirt to our graduate school class yesterday, or reading the message boards online, I just have to say something. I'll preface by saying I have the utmost respect for Cal as an academic institution. They are the #1 public school in the nation and have been. Heck they gave birth to UCLA 90 years ago. However, Cal fans seem to forget their former Southern Branch has overtaken big brother by quite a lot since. We don't have to count the higher applicant pool (10,000 people difference), or the lower admission rate (the theme of the last 10 years). Maybe how Cal's three biggest rivals (Stanford, U$C, and "little" brother) have the most national championships. But this week that doesn't matter. It's football. No reason to sweat over how Cal inspired Sons of Westwood, the colors, or even the name of UCLA. All of those are true Cal Bears, we know. So let's do a quick guide to how to make an annoying Cal fan who is trying to talk trash about the UCLA program shut up.

Cal fan: We have been so much better than you this decade.
UCLA fan: You have been better than us. You would consider this your best decade in sixty years, yet if you total the amount of conference wins you barely beat us. You also have a 6-4 against us and the same amount of Rose Bowls as us. And that is what we call a decade to forget.

Cal fan: When was the last time you guys played at home in January?
UCLA fan: Not since 1999. Which happens to be 40 years after your team did. And just to make something clear, the Washington schools, the Oregon schools, U$C, ASU, and your arch-rival Stanford have appeared in the Granddaddy of Them All. That's be 8/9 other conference foes.

Cal fan: No one likes UCLA football, it's like half full.
UCLA fan: Last year after a 4-8 season and a 7-6 season we had 66,000 people. Yes, that's roughly 72% of the capacity but still 5,000 more than Cal averaged in an era where fans in Berkeley have some optimism. How did the 90's attendance figures go for you?

Cal fan: Cal football has a rich tradition.
UCLA fan: If by rich tradition you mean no Rose Bowl since Jan 1, 1959, and a losing record against Stanford, U$C, and UCLA. In fact, all of those schools has at least 10 more victories in the head-to-head match-up. So if that counts as rich, yes. Very rich.

105 points, say WHAT?

Look out Big East, here comes Corey Fisher. The guard from Villanova recently did his>best impersonation of Wilt Chamberlain at a summer league game by not only breaking the century mark but by doing so by five points, although when you score that much I suppose that's somewhat statistically insignificant but still... wow! According to The Hoop Doctors, he scored 105 out of the 138 points his team scored, which accounts for a cool 76% of his team's offensive production. Yes, when a team scores 138 points in a 40 minute game it probably means that defense was not the top priority for the opposition, but you still got to love Fisher's performance. A player has to be really darn good to be able to nail 23 three pointers on a "mere" 28 attempts (82%). Who in the world can do that in practice? Probably a few of those professional guys, who get paid to play ball. This is an amateur who did this during a game, which has to mean his legs and wrists were getting tired. Especially after he allegedly scored 72 of the points in the first half. This is the middle of the summer, not conference season. No way is he in that amazing of shape to not have to try really, really hard to score so much. Finally, if you were on the other team, would you let some one drop triple digits on you? I know I wouldn't, and I'm not a competitive basketball player (sometimes, not always). So Corey Fisher, congrats. That is one heck of a performance, simply amazing.

The Reciprocal Relationship

Some relationships in life such as higher velocity -> higher momentum, lower resistance -> lower voltage used, and higher SAT scores -> higher chance of getting into college are called (directly) proportional relationships. Others such lower radius -> higher force are called inversely proportional relationships, or reciprocal ones. Well, we can now add another one of the type. When adrenaline goes up intelligence goes down. This one should be rightfully credit to U$C Fullback Stan Havili. Mr. Havili decided that such theory, which many Trojans might consider analogous to Einstein's theory of relativity, justifies breaking the cheekbone of a teammate in practice. Really Stanley, really? Just because emotions run high, doesn't mean breaking a bone in a teammates body is justified. There are plenty of other ways to be competitive without having to break a bones. You can trash talk, get in their faces with dumb jumping, or even to light shoving. I'm sure that there are many other ones you can do, but those three are the ones that come to mind. The bottom line is this, when emotions run high, don't break someone else's bones, especially of that someone happens to be the guy who come Saturdays will wear the same colors as you.

But hey, when the "school's" motto is FIGHT ON! can you really blame ole Stanley?

Georgetown Girls

It seems like Laker players are all over YouTube these days. First it was Ron Artest and then it was Shannon Brown. But since Ron Ron is much more ridiculous and actually "raps" in his video, I'll focus on that. Plus, since it is closely related to college, all the more reason to blog about it. For those who have not seen the video yet, here it is:

I really wish I knew where to start about critiquing this fine piece of music (and video). So here we go:

1. According to basically everyone, Ron Artest attended St. John's university, which happens to be a Big East school, just like Georgetown. Since when do rappers talk about girls from schools in the same conference? Well aside from the fact that most rappers never attended college, like zero percent of the time. So this seems a little ridiculous. What's wrong with St. John's girls? Too New York for Ron Ron?
2. Georgetown girls are not nearly that hood, unless of course they play on the women's basketball team. Last time I checked, Georgetown costs like 40-50k per year and is also a fine academic institution (ranked #23 on US News's ranking) so no way will Ron Artest and his homie Killa Kyleon picked them up from some place that looks like the inner city.
3. I don't think that the overall Georgetown female population hangs out around strange rappers wearing a "hoed out" #21 jersey. Sure, Jason Clark happens to wear it nowadays but who cares? Why not rep' someone much better like Greg (Craig) Monroe? How about literally anyone else on the 2010 team? The video was released that year, was it really that hard to find a more relevant jersey?
4. This is not really a new point, just a summary. All the Georgetown girls I met when I visited back in March look and act nothing like the ladies in this video. Yes, they like to party with NBA players (Shelley, I know about Roy), and yes, they are fine looking, and most importantly, have a good time. Here is how I would have portrayed the Georgetown girl: alcohol drinking (at Rhino's), hard studying, sombrero wearing, girl. Probably rocking some gray shirt that doesn't make them look too slutty, but maybe not. Who knows.

And the Next Contestant is...

Well the news today make the SEC seem even sketchier than college aged men listening to Miley Cyrus. A 4th school was contacted by the NCAA about a possible agent connection with a player (or more). Clearly, this is no good news for the SEC, nor for the NCAA. However, it is nice to see the organization many consider weak actually be proactive about a serious issue. Now it is just time to see what actually happens in terms of findings and possible sanctions. This will be an interesting rest of July and month of August! Can't wait (for the season to actually start that is).

P.S. The 4th SEC school is Georgia.

6 Degrees of Separation - NCAA Crusade Style

Since a new school has been added to the apparent crusade the NCAA is on against agents infiltrating college football, I figured why not try to link up all these schools thus far that have been targeted. So far according to my records, those schools are North Carolina, USC, Florida, Alabama, and of course, U$C. Without further ado, here we go:

1. Alabama beat Florida for the SEC title while in the process dethroning it from the Nation Championship.

2. USC's coach, Steve Spurrier, is Flordia's former coach and Heisman trophy winner.

3. UNC has 13 players investigated, with the main player being good friends with the one being questioned at USC.

4. UNC's Herman Davidson hails from Long Beach Poly, where he was teammates with four current Trojan players.

5. All four of those players were recruited (at least initially) by current Seahawk and former Trojan lier Pete Carroll.

6. Pete Carroll recruited Reggie "Show me the money" Bush and coached him for his three seasons in the Ketchup and Mustard.

There you go, a bit of a stretch, but sometimes you have to put a bit of an effort to implicate and connect all bad things to U$C. But just a bit, not too much effort, there's no need to try that hard to achieve it.

USC Being Investigated for Violations

Except this time it is the real USC, South Carolina. And unlike the Trojans, they will not be playing dumb and avoiding investigators. There is only one player currently in question according to The State. The reason the NCAA even got to him is because he is good friends with the main player under investigation at UNC (not to be confused with either USC). While it is not a good sight to see so many schools being investigated (now Florida is too), what the NCAA is doing is trying to clean up the sport as much as it can. Does it mean there is a huge problem in college football? Probably not. However, no reason not to get the few bad apples out of there before the reputation of a school and the sport is shattered. Additionally, it is nice to see the coach who's player is being investigated not deny anything, but rather be proactive. It also doesn't hurt that in the process he takes a shot at Pete Carroll. Good for you Steve Spurrier! Maybe Spurrier should be the one writing a book about winning forever. After all, he won a Heisman and a National Championship that haven't been taken away from the record books like the former coach of the "other" USC.

More Underaged Drinking at Notre Dame? So What?

I just did my daily browse through Yahoo! Sports blogs, and came across a blog post about more college kids getting arrested for partying and drinking even though they are under the legal age to drink (21). To be honest, the only reason this is any news is because one of them is Nate, the son of Notre Dame and 49er great Joe Montana. Yes, when someone breaks the law it should be taken seriously, but not be blown out of proportion. Yes, this is not the first time Notre Dame has had to deal with this due to a recruit dieing from alcohol related reasons and Jimmy Clausen "broing it up" at the Beer Olympics (pictured below).
Do any of us really think those cops that made the arrest didn't drink as college underclassmen? Let's be real. The vast majority of college-aged "kids" drink and have some sort of social life. Not only that, but why make a big deal about what people do in their spare time? This party was not in the middle of summer camp, regular season, or even bowl game prep. So why scrutinize college kids for having a good time, especially when no one was hurt, no brawls broke out, and nothing Notre Dame football related was impeded due to this transgression. Sometimes athletes are held to a double standard saying they should not act like any other kid having the college experience. I would say that during the season or camp they should definitely not forget the reason why they are getting a scholarship and focus only on school (unless they are U$C athletes, in which case school is not part of the equation) and contributing their talents in the best way to the football team. But this is July, it was a house party, and they simply broke a law. Let the police deal with it, and move on. This happens all the time, and if no one gets hurt there is no reason to make a big deal out of it.

Who is Sponsoring World Cup Teams?

Though this is not directly related to college sports, it is somewhat related. There are always discussions about whether a school should stay with a particular company or switch to a rival one. This was discussed here in regards to Adidas schools. So who are Adidas teams? Nike teams? Puma teams? or anything else for that matter. It is time to examine who is the dominating apparel provider in the world of (not-American) football.
Adidas:
France, Spain, South Africa, Argentina, Mexico, Greece, Paraguay, Germany, Denmark, Slovakia, Japan, Nigeria

Nike:
United States, Slovenia, Brazil, Portugal, Holland, Serbia, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand

Puma:
Algeria, Switzerland, Uruguay, Italy, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Cameroon


Others:
Honduras, North Korea, Chile, England

Clearly, it is a three horse race between Adidas, Nike, and Puma as I mentioned above. Puma has a huge stronghold on the African continent as the only country which is not representing the German company is Nigeria, which is rocking the gear of another German company (Adidas). As far as the two real giants go, the cake goes to Adidas in the world of football. As if having the rights to outfit referees and provide the official ball weren't enough, they are represented through 12 countries, compared to 9 of Nike.

It's (essentially) Official: Utah to Join the Pac

So it was announced earlier today that Utah will be the 12th member of the Pac-10 conference (or soon to be known as the Pac-12). Personally, this isn't that big of a deal because aside from a solid football team that has done well in the MWC and bowl games, and a basketball team that was solid in the late 90's, there is nothing much to it. They have some other nice programs and what not, but that aside, big deal. Plus Utah is just an absolute boring place. But hey, at least they hate BYU, and so do I. That being said, the big question here is how the conference will not divide itself to accommodate all the teams. You have to go with a North-South alignment because East-West would mean one eight team division and a four team division. The big question with a North-South division is who goes in the North and who goes in the South. Do the Bay Area schools go with the South to keep California together, or do Utah and Colorado and their bad weather and actual Northern location go in the North? Personally, I would like to see the California schools stay together and play in a division with the Arizona schools. Those are all much closer together and culturally make sense too. And again, they are closer geographically. The new ski schools should play with the other cold climate schools in Oregon and Washington because it will save on travel and make for a lot of cold games that no one wants to actually play in if you are for California or Arizona. I also saw somewhere an alignment that would split each natural rivalry which is probably insane idiotic and does not make any sense from a fiscal and logistic stand point. However, I am not Larry Scott or any of the ADs of the member schools, so we shall see what happens. In the meanwhile, we can all just wait and write and read more banter about this.

Pac-16? Not Happenin'

First, I am back! These past couple of months were filled with so much writing for school that I got so disillusioned that my blogging had to take a backseat. Either way, it is summer again and time to return to blogging about the happenings of college athletics. For weeks now, the raging topic of conversation has been conference expansion. We've all heard about it. School A will bolt conference X and will join conference Y thus leaving conference X is utter shambles. A, X, and Y have taken on many names recently and while some of these rumors have been true, many have been proven to just be a tease. What's hilarious is that many rumors that have been about East Coast schools, such as some ACC ones jumping to SEC, have taken a back seat to West Coast rumors. I'm shocked no one has mentioned how this is the first time ever that there's a reverse East Coast bias going on in the mainstream media. Since this blog is all about the West Coast we will examine the A, X, and Y pertaining to this side of the Mississippi.
The rumors that came to fruition last week when Colorado accepted the Pac-10 invitation to join its conference while Nebraska bolted on the old Big-12, for the new Big-12 (formerly known as Big-10 with 11 teams). This was believed to be a huge step towards turning both the Big-10 and Pac-10 into 16 team megaconferences. However, at least for the Pac-10 that will not happen. Today Texas turned down the Pac-10 invitation to join its conference, and Oklahoma and Texas A&M announced that they will stay put and try to keep the Big-12 together, as a 10 team conference. Personally, as a UCLA and Pac-10 enthusiast, I am happy about this. It for sure would have been cool to play those guys on a regular basis, but realistically, having a gigantic conference isn't that great. It creates tons of imbalance and weird scheduling problems and a lot more travel than the current format. Plus, having two eight team conferences seems pretty silly. With regards to recruiting, sure, it could have helped land a few top Texas prospects, but who's to say that the Plains schools won't come to California and nab a few prep stars as well? Also, some Pac-10 schools are already scheduled to play schools from the Lone Star state, so no big deal. In the end, the conference will probably stay with eleven or maybe nab one more (lets hope its a good catch) and hopefully put on a newly formed championship game.

Also, can the Big XII and Big 10 just like swap logos or something? Seems to be the simplest solution to me.

The Limits of Heckling

Earlier today as I was doing my daily browsing of sports website, I came across a pretty entertaining piece on Yahoo! Sports. The subject? JJ Redick. The story? North Carolina fans heckling him even though he's been in the NBA for four years now. This was music to my ears because as anyone who's read this blog can tell you, I hate Duke. Since Mr. Redick was the face of the Blue Devils for four years earlier this decade, I cannot help but spite him. However, I couldn't help myself but feel sorry for the guy. He was saying how in college, aside from all the cursing that has been thrown his way, people started calling out his family.

I'm sorry, but you cannot start yelling stuff about a player's family unless it is relavent. When is it relavent? When their sibling played the sport. For example, UCLA fans chanting "Josh is better" at Jarren Shipp or Cal fans yelling "Joe is better" at Josh Shipp. If a player's family has nothing to do with the sport, don't involve them. Furthermore, if people make reference to a family member's sexual orientation, race, marital status, or whatever it may be, is a clear no no. Along those lines, making sexual references at a 12 year old sister? Really? Come on guys. It's ok to poke fun at the friend with the hot friend, but if she's not old enough to drive, you shouldn't even joke about it. That is what disturbed me by watching Redick's video. I mean, having people tell you to "F off" is one thing, but talking about sex with your 12 year old sister? That's just really sick. At that point the fun and games end and ground control really is needed. Actually, control is needed probably once family member references/names are mentioned.

Adidas Schools

This is a post I have been meaning to write for about a week or two, and UCLA's recent renewal of its deal with Adidas was the final straw. Below is a list from the Big-6 conferences of those teams that are currently in partnership with Adidas as its main sporting supplier.

ACC:
NC State

Big 10:
Michigan
Indiana
Wisconsin
Northwestern

Big 12:
Kansas
Nebraska
Baylor
Texas A&M

Big East:
Louisville
Notre Dame
Cincinnati
Seton Hall

Pac-10:
UCLA

SEC:
Tennessee
Arkansas
Mississippi State

As you can tell, some conferences have very weak representation with Adidas (ACC & Pac-10) while others such as the Big 10, 12, and Big East have a fairly strong representation. It seems like Adidas does well in the Northeast and Midwest regions of the country, as well as a pretty good job in the South and Plains. Clearly though, it needs to ensure it uses its lone school in the West properly, because losing it somewhere down the line would be devastating to it. Lets hope the people at Adidas realize that.

Of Course I was Wrong...

As the West Virginia game against Duke was approaching the painful end for everyone who doesn't go to the school in Durham, I realized that my bracket will officially go up in flames. What's worse is that I knew that once the final buzzer sounds my mom will have a better bracket than I do, and that's plain embarrassing. Then the game ended, and my mother promptly called me to make fun of me. Being the good son and great sport that I am, I hung up on her right away. I couldn't help but bare the thought that not only did I lose to my mom, who's main source of college sports knowledge comes from Regis Philbin, but that Duke has a chance to win its 4th National Championship. It is well documented how no one likes Duke because of they feel like they are entitled to everything, even though they have a worse history than rival North Carolina. Could you imagine if they actually won the whole thing and were the defending champs? Preppy kids with popped collars of pastel colored polos will rejoice in what may be the most white-washed celebration in college basketball history since Kentucky's racist teams won in the 1950's.
Speaking of white-washed events, this Monday's final as my friend pointed out to me, would be the most vanilla final in recent history. Duke usually plays 3-4 white guys on the court at all times. Butler does its best to counter with playing around 2-3 white guys, depending on Matt Howard's foul situation. The only way it could get whiter is if Stanford or any Ivey League school was facing off against Duke. No matter how diverse (or not) the game in Indy will be, one thing is for sure. It'll be the world against Duke, and everyone knows that as its probably been reiterated on every sports media outlet. As much as I would love to see Coach K and his band of whitiest come out on the losing end, I think that they are too experienced and talented to crumble under the ferocious Bulldog defense. Then again, let's hope that I am wrong again, just one last time.

The Final Four, F $C!

Although U$C is not playing in this year's final four, and in fact they haven't played in one in over fifty years, the title is still fitting. Somewhere out there a Trojan semi-pro team is playing, so no reason not to wish them defeat. Trojan bashing aside, it is time to bash on the teams and players playing in this year's F4. To be perfectly honest, I really do not want to bash on too many teams nor their players because I do not have beef with them. Unless of course you play for the "other" prestigious school that dons four letters on its jerseys. I have made the point countless of times about how much I despise the Blue Devils. To be honest, it's not like I have anything against their players. In fact, I would have loved to see Singler and Scheyer don Adidas True Blue and wear a superior set of four letters (guess what does are?). My problem with the Dukies is their smugness and general belief that they are the best in life. I will outline a few points that should once and for all rid Dukies and Dick Vitale of their excessive pride.

1. The Yankees of college basketball. They only have three NC's and rank behind numerous other schools on the all time list. This makes them like the Phillies of college basketball. Except no one likes them.

2. Coach K is the greatest thing since bread came sliced. Again, no. He is a HoFer and all, but no way is he the greatest coach to coach student-athletes. His 11 Final Fours match the titles John Wooden won at UCLA. Also, Tom Izzo will probably catch up to him at some point. He has 6 in 12 years. Coach K has 11 in 30+ years.

3. Most hardcore fans. Well, they have awesome fans. But Cameron Indoor is smaller in capacity than the Galen Center so of course when you have a good team there'll be high demand. Add to that the small amount of resources (seats) and you basically only show the most hardcore of fans. I would say they are not as great as Kentucky, UNC, and Kansas fans who have arenas much larger that always sell out.

4. Everyone loves us that's why we are always on TV. Dukies, you are on TV because the ACC has an amazing TV contract. Since the ACC with the exception of UNC (and Maryland sometimes) is fairly average of course you are going to be on TV a lot. You know who else is on TV a lot? UNC and Maryland. Not to mention the entire Big East and Big-12. Actually, everyone is on ESPN all the time except the Pac-10. Still feeling special?

With those four reasons for Duke's Final Four appearance I will make a prediction on the outcomes of the national semis. Don't be surprised if I am completely wrong, but feel free to congratulate me when I am right (which probably won't happen):

Michigan State 65, Butler 59.
West Virginia 75, Duke 65.

Only if it Happened on April Fool's

UCLA and Pac-10 fans alike got treated a couple days ago when two basketball coaching vacancies were filled. One was hyped for a few days while the other was pretty much news when it happened. One was of a slimy lazy coach, while the other was of a crazy and off-court slimy coach. One involved a former UCLA coach and the other a Southern Cal coach. So what does this have to do with April Fool's? Well, had those two coaching vacancies been filled today rather than on Tuesday, no one would have believed either one.
Any sensible basketball fan knows how Steve Lavin is a lazy bum who lucked out by inheriting a talented team, used that to recruit more good players, but only made it to the Elite-8 once. He is the guy that Baron Davis referred to when saying his UCLA teams deserved a banner in Pauley for having made the tournament despite not having a coach. Tim Floyd on the other hand, has gotten good performance out of his teams at times when no one would have expected them to perform well, but this was partially because he had ineligible player(s) and allegedly paid lots of cash to a handler of O.J Payo to get him to come to South Central. So when UTEP hired him, people were kind of shocked. Who wouldn't? The guy's reputation is down the toilet and rightfully so. To be fair though, he was only out of coaching for this past season. Lav has been out of coaching since he got fired from UCLA in 2003. So when St. John's hired him, it was kind of surprising (along with what I already wrote about). The good thing for UCLA fans is that they signed a home-home series with the Johnnies beginning next year. Personally, I hope next year's game is in NYC because I will probably be there for graduate school and would love to rock my UCLA gear at a game.

The Legend of Tom Izzo

More often than not, I have been a total homer when it comes to discussing college basketball. On numerous ocassions I have discussed how much national championships are the most valuable thing you can measure a coach and/or a program by. However, in this post I will concede that such tough criteria is somewhat unfair. Why? Because some coaches just cannot be measured simply by looking at how many titles they have. Michigan State's coach Tom Izzo has "only" one national title since he took over the helm in East Lansing. With yesterday's thrilling win over Tennessee, he and his team have a chance to double up their amount of titles. Not impressed yet? Consider this fun fact: every upperclassman in Izzo's program has been to a final four. What is even more absurd is that he now has SIX appearances in the last twelve seasons. Not many coaches, let alone elite programs, can claim to have been to as many final fours as Coach Izzo has. Georgetown and Illinois? Five. Arizona and Syracuse? A mere four. All of those have been around for decades. Tom Izzo? For only a decade and a half.

The most impressive thing though about Tom Izzo's success is how he did it without dominating NBA prospects on a regular basis. The most talented team he has was the one who won the title in 2000, and a couple of those players are still in the NBA in Jason Richardson and Morris Peterson. The Spartans have been to multiple F4's since, yet barely have any players currently employed by NBA teams. I would find it hard to believe any top notch school can claim the same. Izzo clearly has done more with less than anyone else but has barely received any recognition about it. Sure, professional analysts who follow college basketball might give him praise but not as much as they would someone like Jim Boeheim (1 NC, 3 F4's) or Lute Olsen (1 NC, 4 F4's) and those coaches were coaches for over 30 years.

Brittney Griner is a Beast

For those of you who were not bored enough to watch the NCAA Women's Basketball tournament this morning, you missed out. It was a great block party. Seriously, it was. It was the first time all year I watched more than five minutes of a women's game that did not involve UCLA or Stanford and I was not too disappointed. Baylor trots 6'8" freshman sensation (and amateur boxer) Brittney Griner. Yes, she has the height of a guy who could play D-I men's basketball at center. This basically never happens. Usually women centers hover around 6'3" (give or take), so there is an inherent advantage for the Baylor freshman. Today against #1 seed Tennessee it was no exception. She did not have any mercy on the Lady Vols as she tallied 27 points and a cool 10 blocks. Oh by the way, that is no fluke for Ms. Griner. In the second round game against Georgetown, she had a smooth 14 blocks. Those numbers are plain ridiculous and should not be taken lightly. When was the last time we saw a center in the men's game that had such a height advantage with such dominance? Long ago. Ok ok, enough about the blocks! You know those 27 points I mentioned that she poured on Pat Summitt's crew? Eleven of them came from the stripe. In thirteen attempts. Coach Howland, can we get her to transfer and play for us? She has a better looking shot then any of our players, seriously.

Kentucky and Kansas Winningest Ever? Really?

Recently I heard about how Kentucky and Kansas are have the most wins out of any school in D-I history. Obviously, no one can argue with that fact. I even blogged about it. Nonetheless, hailing either one of those as the most prestigious would be ridiculous and shameful. Kentucky with all its winning, has only made 13 F4's while Kansas has the same amount. That ranks fourth behind UCLA, UNC, and Duke. And to put the final nail in the coffin, we all know that unless you win a championship, you are not the best. You can be one of the best, but not the very best. I mean, winning 35 games in a season doesn't bode as well when a team who wins say 33 beats you and takes the championship from you. In light of that factor, I have decided to do some very simple math. So simple even the Trojans might be able to follow (well, maybe). Kansas has 3 NC while Kentucky has 7. Add both of those up and you get 10. That'd be one less than what UCLA has. Sure, UCLA might have a couple hundred less wins than either of the previously mentioned schools, but at the end of the day, it has found a way to come up on top. To put it simply: