I'm Back...Again

Ok, I'm back again. I'm starting to think that a weekly post might be completely doable. Who knows, we'll see how it goes. For now, though, let's get to it.

• When I was growing up, Rutgers football was a laughin stock. You wouldn't admit to liking them because the reality was, there was no way you could like them. It wasn't that they were bad, they were terrible.
  
  In 2001 when Greg Schiano was hired to be their new head coach, I was stoked. The truth is - I was excited because he is a Bucknell alum. That was it - I knew nothing of him besides that he was the Miami DC at the time. I always assumed that if he was successful in his first few years that he would leave for a bigger program and he never did. Even when the Miami and Penn St jobs became available, he didn't bite.
  
  He turned the program into a winner and actually made it cool to support Rutgers. When they beat Louisville on national TV a few years ago I openly bragged about being from Jersey. It was a great moment - one that I never thought I would see. Anyways, in his 11 years in Piscataway, Schiano was 68-67. In his past 7 years, he had 6 winning seasons, 5 bowl victories and a .629 winning percentage.
  
  I have nothing good to say about Schiano. And yet, I can't help but think that his decision to become the Tampa Bay Bucs coach is bad one on so many levels. First, college coaches never succeed in the NFL. And most of those who have tried are/were better coaches than Schiano. Second, Rutgers is now in a really bad positoin. They are coming off a 9 win year when they predicted to finish last in the Big East. They have a good recruiting class and have kept the best two Jersey high schoolers in state. They suddenly had some positive momentum AND were playing in a depleted Big East. Winning the conference would not have been sexy, but it would have gotten them a BCS birth. Now, a week away from Signing Day, Rutgers is without their coach. That sucking sound you hear coming from jersey is the sound of rival programs sucking out the talent. The timing just sucked. You can't fault him for taking the opp, but wow, it could have come at a better time.
  

• When I was in college, I would occasionally stay up to watch the midnight WCC game between Gonzaga and Pepperdine (who at the time was their big rival). I really loved those Zags teams. Now I love that I don't have to stay up until midnight to watch them anymore - thank you West Coast!
• Bucknell is now 6-0 in the conference with only one test remaining. I'm not gonna say what I'm thinking, because I'm sure you know what it is.
• I feel like the Winter X Games were a competition put together to simply make Americans feel better about themselves. I mean, seriously, freestyle snowmobiling? What other country than the US would that be popular in?
• Jeff Parke got his first cap for the US Men's National Team on Wednesday. He came off the bench for 35 minutes of action. I don't think that he is in their long-term plans, but definitely deserved a look. Good for him.
• Here is some news that I know you are unaware of. In an attempt to get younger, the Seattle Storm recently traded Swin Cash and Camille Little to Chicago for the 2nd pick in the WNBA Draft. There is a very good chance that Delaware's Elena Della Donne will be the pick. She is leading the nation with 29.8 points a game and can do it all. It would be an amazing pick...or would it? Della Donne signed with UConn after being the top ranked recruit but only stayed on campus for 2 days before going home. Some people called her a spoiled quitter with emotional problems. The real reason was that she missed her family and her sister Lizzie who is blind and deaf and has cerebral palsy. It truly is a great story. I respect her for that and think she is probably a quality person. BUT, if living in Connecticut was too much for her, how the hell would she handle living in Seattle? I'm not sure that the Storm can take that chance.
  
• I have not watched Sportscenter since Sunday. I simply don't want to watch the Tyree catch or listen to all the hype surrounding the Super Bowl.
• UW hoops picked up a nice win on Thursday. It wasn't as convincing as most Dawgs fans would like, but at the end of the day, it is a win. I really like what Seferian-Jenkins has brought to the team and if they can just get CJ Wilcox back to full strength then suddenly they will have a bench. They still have long road ahead of them if they want to make the tourney, but finishing 7-3 down the stretch (13-5 overall) might get it done.
• Last year, the NHL thought outside of the box and came up with the very creative idea of having two captains pick their teams for the All-Star Game. Even though certain players and GM's spoke out against the idea, it was one that was met with very positive reactions from the fans. I was certainly one to applaud the idea, but now a year later it seems old and boring. I don't know what it is, but after watching 2 minutes of the Fantasy Draft last night, I was ready to go to sleep. Maybe it was the lame attempt to bring in some hot blond to discuss what was trending on Twitter or maybe it was seeing hockey players in suite, but something was just wrong. Oh wait, I know what it is. I just can't get behind something where Erik Carlsson and Jason Spezza were the first two picks for one of the teams. I understand that these two fine gentleman were teammates of the Captain and I understand that they represent the hometown team, but come on. That just throws credibility out the window. I want the captains to put together the best possible teams, not to be loyal. (an interesting fact - Alfredsson then picked another teammate in the 12th round. Apparently Milan Michalek doesn't mean as much to Alfredsson as the other two...)
• Have I ever told you how much I love Maria Sharapova?
• I don't have tons of time to discuss all the new international signings in the MLS, but I definitely see a positive trend. In an effort to improve the quality of their roster, MLS teams are really hitting Central and South America hard these days. While some may say that it is unfair for the league to be poaching talent from the Colombian League in light of the countries financial problems (6 signings alone this year to go with established stars like Fredy Montero, David Ferreira and Jhon Kennedy Hurtado), but the simple truth is that soccer players will go where the money is. MLS can't afford to lure rising European talent, but it can certainly flex some muscle in this part of the world. Getting the big names like Beckham, Henry and Keane might be good from the publicity side of things, but it is going to be young players from North, Central and South America that really improve the quality of this league. I am very happy about this.
• Let me see if I have this right. Victor Martinez is out for the year, so the Tigers decided to sign Prince Fielder...for 9 years?!? Forget 5 years from now, he hasn't even played a game yet and it is a bad contract. Oh well, at least he isn't in Pinstripes.
• By the way, the Mets signed ... um, they signed ... hmph. They signed no one. They trimmed about $50 million off their payroll.
• To follow up from before, from 1987 to 1997, aka my informative years, Rutgers won an average of 4 games a season including 0-11 in 1997. Now that I actually did the math, it doesn't seem too bad.
• Speaking of not seeming too bad, I looked at realtimerpi.com today and found out that none of UW's losses this year were against teams with RPIs>100. Yes, amazingly, St Louis (42), Nevada (72), South Dakota St (66), and Colorado (69) are all below 100.
• Let's get this Tim Thomas controversy out of the way. I won't lie - I had no problem with Theo Epstein skipping his version with Bush a few years back, so I'm not overly objective on this one. I have two issues. First, how can you say this isn't about politics and then rail on the politicians and big government? Second, sometimes you just have to do shit that you don't want to. That's life. You and your teammates were being honored for something you accomplished together. The president of the US was taking time out of his amazingly busy schedule to get together. If you can't give the president sometime, at least go with your teammates to be honored. You might never get that moment back.
  

Ok, I'm out. Have a great weekend and enjoy the pro Bowl. Oh, speaking of Pro Bowl, check out my post from last year when I gave Roger Goodell some ways to fix it.