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FOT Community => General Discussion => Topic started by: Josh on March 05, 2013, 01:15:45 PM

Title: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 05, 2013, 01:15:45 PM
(http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/5231/undertaker04p.jpg)

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 05, 2013, 01:16:34 PM
Paul D, you are barred from this thread. Stay out.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 07, 2013, 12:31:52 PM
Rest in Peace, Paul Bearer.

(http://www.wrestling18.com/images/55/paul-bearer-78.jpg)

(http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSeUgh9mJt4Hpun78MbrUMiha12z9Ak_cTtcXtytpDoMFghvTRq)

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JljKvEv17x0 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=JljKvEv17x0#)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 07, 2013, 01:57:37 PM
Your Hurricanes blew it Saturday. No pun intended, but yes pun accepted.

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 07, 2013, 03:47:36 PM
What's up b'coat? I'm not much for college hoops but I've kept an eye on Indiana (since I live in Bloomington now) and Miami (dear alma mater) this season. Indiana seems soft inside and I can't see them in the Final Four. They're also very inconsistent which may reflect on coaching. Crean always seems on the verge of sanity. The 'Canes got hot for awhile there and were extremely lucky in their run, but they were never true contenders in my mind. They're better than they looked at the beginning of the season when star guard Durand Scott and big man Reggie Johnson involuntarily missed time due to suspensions stemming from the NCAA's inquiry into the wheelings and dealings of rouge booster Nevin Shapiro, who remains incarcerated at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atlanta. I'm a fan of Larranaga but they were punching above their weight with the number two ranking. I doubt they can climb back to a #1 seed in the tournament so I don't think they'll advance beyond the Sweet Sixteen. On the other hand, North Carolina is getting hot at the right time and they seem poised for a run in the ACC tournament. What do you think? I'm starting to follow pro tennis more closely so if you want to talk BNP Paribas Open let me know.


All the Best,
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 08, 2013, 11:59:27 AM
If Carolina wins two NCAA Tournament games this was a successful season (and even that's unfair). They lost four NBA players. We are a spoiled group of fans.

It frustrates me that even in their worst years, with no really good players Duke wins 26-30 games, and, occasionally, as in 2010, a national title. I don't want to fully examine how much that frustrates me.

I think Larranaga was a steal for Miami - everyone else thought he was going there to slip into a paid retirement. If you look at their ACC road games leading up to the Wake Forest loss, the wheels were barely staying on. Didn't they lose to Florida Nonexistent earlier in the season? They were living off having absolutely smashed two callow UNC and Duke teams in Miami. Those were good wins but not national champion-making by themselves. They're senior-led and solid, but I think picking them for a Final Four bid would be a mistake.

I don't "do" tennis, as our friend in Jamaica would say, though I did stay up watching an extended battle between Ferrer and another Spaniard during the Australian Open.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 08, 2013, 01:18:21 PM
Are you all trolling me with this topic?

1) I know Taker's going to keep the streak alive, particularly in the wake of Paul Bearer's passing, but I am going to completely believe going in that CM Punk will steal this. I'm eagerly awaiting Punk and Heyman's character assination of Paul Bearer this Monday night and hopefully they'll interrupt the in-ring 10-bell salute like total jerks. Justin Credible did that once for Tommy Dreamer's grandfather at ECW Arena and it nearly exploded into a riot -- one of my all-time favorite live wrestling moments.

2) My beloved La Salle Explorers are a win or two away from locking up a NCAA Tournament bid. I could not be more worried/excited/etc. If they make it, they're a guard-oriented team capable of beating anyone when they shoot the ball. America will fall in love with Ramon Galloway, the team's lone senior who has been on SportsCenter a whole bunch for crazy ass dunks and also has range from anywhere within half court. And, yes, he shoots from that far out regularly.

3) La Salle played a Reggie Jackson-less Miami team in December. La Salle ended up losing by almost 20 but that score's deceiving. We were up at halftime and, in fact, had a 12-point lead at one point in the game. Miami exploded in the second half and we couldn't close out any possessions since the Explorers are awful at rebounding. But it was a VERY competitive game for about 33 minutes or so.

Miami's good but not Final Four good. But no team is this season.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Racan on March 09, 2013, 11:51:48 AM
It's been a while, wrestling cohort! I agree that Undertaker will likely keep the streak alive, but if anyone were to beat him at Wrestlemania, I'd love it to be CM Punk. That said, he'll probably have to carry the match, as usual, and should look great, regardless of a loss.

Best wishes with La Salle, Gregg. As a resident of British Columbia, I've been following Gonzago with baited breath. Should be an interesting tournament this year!

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Eric Fishlegs on March 09, 2013, 05:21:43 PM
It's been a while, wrestling cohort! I agree that Undertaker will likely keep the streak alive, but if anyone were to beat him at Wrestlemania, I'd love it to be CM Punk. That said, he'll probably have to carry the match, as usual, and should look great, regardless of a loss.


There's nobody on the roster who can carry Taker to a  better match than Punk will which is probably why Taker agreed to work with him. And Taker is so over that everything he does will get a huge pop from the crowd so i have high hopes for this match. This could be Taker's fifth classic Mania match in a row.

Part of me thinks it would be genuinely tasteless for Punk to interrupt a 10 bell salute for Bearer, I also get the feeling that Paul Bearer would really get a kick out of it.

The highlight of John Darnielle's WTF? interview was him discussing what kind of heel he would be if he turned. He had clearly put some thought into it and it's always nice to find a kindred spirit.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 13, 2013, 12:00:56 AM
Thanks for chiming in, everyone. Greggulator, this is the fourth streak-related poll. Thanks for that article on e-fedding. I feel lucky I didn't find that when I was in high school or it would have completely consumed my life.

I don't see the Undertaker coming back from injury a month before WrestleMania just to put over someone who's already one of their biggest stars.

By the way, Wikipedia claims that Gordon Solie passed away in New Port Richey, FL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Solie).
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 18, 2013, 11:42:55 AM
Congrats on your Explorers, currently getting 1.5 against Boise State. TruTV with Jim Nantz and Clark Kellogg with the call from University of Dayton Arena.


And go 'Canes.
(http://cdn1.sbnation.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/9943585/dydbmyz.0_standard_400.0.gif)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 18, 2013, 12:41:38 PM
A begrudging congratulations to the Hurricanes. They were the class of the ACC this year, and the only reason they're not a #1 seed is that their uniforms don't say UNC or Duke.

Although nearly every one of their losses is inexplicable.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 18, 2013, 03:57:33 PM
Thanks everyone for the congrats. I know I'm in my mid-30s and I should not derive happiness from the success for teenagers who play basketball. However, I love basketball and I love my school. My closest friends are from that place. And my education there was a large contributing factor to any professional and/or creative success I've ever had. It's such a weird college -- I spent my years drinking 40s on the hood of abandoned cars, went to sleep to sporadic gunfire, got to see The Promise Ring and a bunch of other great bands for free with the 15 other kids with any music taste who went there and in general just had an awesome experience. On top of it, I also have a MA from there and worked on campus for a few years so I got to see it from an adult perspective and grew to like it even more.

The team hasn't been to the NCAAs since 1991. I started in 1995 so they never went to the tournament since my tenure began. They used to be a power (national championship and NITs and Top 10 rankings) before falling off. Then in 2004, the worst happened -- three kids were kicked off the team for two separate sex crimes incidents and the men's and women's coaches were fired for hiding it. It was awful. We got killed in the local media (largely from Steven A. Smith) who were pissed that we fired a basketball coach who gave good quotes yet overlooked the fact that he broke federal laws by not reporting an alleged rape. One of the players, BTW, is current San Antonio Spur Gary Neal. So anytime you hear "Towson State grad who transferred from La Salle" -- that's the story why. And no one in the press wrote too much about the former coach Billy Hahn's repugnant behavior on the witness stand where he said nonsense like "Girls spread their legs for players". He's human garbage to the fullest degree.

Making it even crazier, our current coach has been building to this in fits and starts. He had a really great recruiting class a few years ago that was built in an interesting way -- he assembled a team largely comprised of guys between 6'5" and 6'8" in height, all of whom could play any position. His argument was that it's hard to get good big men or guards at the A-10 level but good swing guys fell through the cracks. They were set to do damage their senior year when they added a Top 50 recruit big man. Low and behold, four starting players tore ACLs or other season ending injuries so they fell apart.

The next year, the sophomore stud center turned into a total head case. He was an awful ballhog and teammate and used to scream at the coaches and the like constantly. I hate ripping on any college kid but this guy was just bruuuutal. He got kicked off the team/transferred at the end of the year to West Virginia... whose main assistant coach is now Billy Hahn, who grabbed this kid just to stick it to us.

This team is so much fun and great. Their star is a kid named Ramon Galloway. He grew up right within walking distance from the school which is one of the worst neighborhoods in Philly. He has had as rough a life as a 22-year-old kid can have. He went to South Carolina initially to get out of Philly. However, his grandfather who helped raised him needs a liver transplant so he got a waiver to come home. On top of it, his dad's blind from being shot in the head (yet goes to every game). He has two brothers in lock-up for drugs/guns/etc. There's also an unknown thing going on with his mom right now.

He is the nicest kid. It's a small school and I know a bunch of people who work on campus who have either taught him or interacted with him. They all say he's great -- shows up and participates in classes, is really funny, intelligent, etc. He's also really appreciative of the college and the fact he gets to play in front of his family (who take up most of an entire section of our gym).

I'm partial, but I think he's the most underrated player in the country. He has a game that's patterned after James Harden. He has range from anywhere within half court (and frequently shoots from that far out). He's also absurdly athletic and has a few ESPN SportsCenter Top 10s. He loves defending and also can pass. We played Iona this year and he had 21 points by halftime and zero in the second... but doled out 11 assists.

Yesterday was awesome. I was on campus for the announcement. We were literally the last team selected. It was a total nightmare but came together. I'm still flying high.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kormodd on March 18, 2013, 06:22:02 PM
By the way, Wikipedia claims that Gordon Solie passed away in New Port Richey, FL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Solie).

It's a pretty big pro-wrestling town.

(http://www.afro-squad.com/images/acw11.jpg)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 18, 2013, 06:28:59 PM
My story is very similar to Greggulator's. I am a fan of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Three of the four years I was at UNC, they did not win National Championships - thus, we didn't get to go build bonfires on Franklin Street except after ACC titles and wins over #1 teams.

Since I left, the program's results have been, in a word, mixed. National titles in 2005 and 2009, yes, but there was also a losing season and a total of two NIT bids. During several of those years, fewer than three UNC players were drafted in the first round - sometimes only one! On a number of occasions, it seemed before the ends of games that officials were going to call more fouls on UNC than their opponents, although this never actually happened against anybody but Duke. It's also difficult having to endure being only Dick Vitale's second favorite team.

I went to school with Rasheed Wallace.  Some of you may have heard of him - a hard luck young man if ever there was one. So giving and decent, and he's had to put up with so much shabby treatment.  And Jerry Stackhouse, despite a long NBA career, doesn't seem to have made enough money to retire.  I believe he's playing in a notorious cocaine-and-ironic-mustache-infested American city.

Won't you please share some emotional energy for the tough athletic times I've had to endure?
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: dave from knoxville on March 18, 2013, 08:06:24 PM
Put your bracket in my group! Password is Chikoo http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/90534/invitation?key=485d9805697f3378 (http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/group/90534/invitation?key=485d9805697f3378)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: CSW on March 19, 2013, 09:04:01 AM
Wait, is this a professional wrestling thread or an amateur basketsball thread? I'm confused.

I haven't watched any WWE since last years Wrestlemania - I assume I'm not missing much as they'd been in the crapper for a while before that, if I am let me know - so I'm not up to speed on whats the what and whos getting a push etc.

That said, I do know that Punk was champ for a long ass time and a loss to UT at mania ain't gonna hurt his career and the length of that reign will have earned him a few jobs to do.

Plus whats in it for UT to lose the streak at this point? I'd think that he can wrestle 1 match a year against his pick of the best talent WWE has to offer for as long as he can hack it physically without ever losing the streak. Given his career he's earned it and the last 5 years worth of matches have been great and enjoyable etc but they are a minor buzz kill because the fun of wrestling is supposed to be not knowing who wins isn't it. So i'm a bit conflicted about it.
 
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 19, 2013, 10:54:18 AM

Plus whats in it for UT to lose the streak at this point? I'd think that he can wrestle 1 match a year against his pick of the best talent WWE has to offer for as long as he can hack it physically without ever losing the streak. Given his career he's earned it and the last 5 years worth of matches have been great and enjoyable etc but they are a minor buzz kill because the fun of wrestling is supposed to be not knowing who wins isn't it. So i'm a bit conflicted about it.

Every year I go in knowing the streak won't end but every year I find myself belieiving it's going to end. The Shawn Michaels/HHH matches were so awesome at conveying that "OH MY GOD" feeling. I just go in completely suspending any disbelief I have. I'm 100% certain Punk's going to get that feeling, too, since he's pretty much at an all-time great level of performance by now.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 19, 2013, 11:24:01 AM
Wait, is this a professional wrestling thread or an amateur basketsball thread? I'm confused.

It's a fun, all-ages thread for cool peeps! Thanks for joining the convo!!
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: CSW on March 19, 2013, 12:01:49 PM
Every year I go in knowing the streak won't end but every year I find myself belieiving it's going to end. The Shawn Michaels/HHH matches were so awesome at conveying that "OH MY GOD" feeling. I just go in completely suspending any disbelief I have. I'm 100% certain Punk's going to get that feeling, too, since he's pretty much at an all-time great level of performance by now.

I wish I could find that level of suspension for my disbelief. This is perhaps why I've lost touch with wrestling though.

Specifically to this matter though, if ANYONE was gonna beat UT it was HHH with his influence/stroke (again, not that he'd need it to cement his HOF career)


It's a fun, all-ages thread for cool peeps! Thanks for joining the convo!!

Totally, I like a gentle bit of wrestling chat with sensible people. I know less than nothing about college any basketball and as an overseas FoT I find the concept of university sports being a big deal faintly implausible. I mean I know that they are the farm leagues for the pros, and I understand how college sports and drafts and everything works but still. Just have minor leagues or something, or like low tiers of professionals like European soccer leagues. 

Serious Q: Are these guys all they could be as college athletes or would they be better players - and thus better prepared for the big leagues - as amateurs in an imaginary NBA Division 2 or Division 3? I'm not trolling I promise. Just wondering!
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 19, 2013, 01:00:23 PM
It's a fun, all-ages thread for cool peeps! Thanks for joining the convo!!


(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/301240_4598448723219_1418118249_n.jpg)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kormodd on March 19, 2013, 02:08:50 PM
Anything goes at this point, I guess.

(http://cdn.smosh.com/sites/default/files/ftpuploads/bloguploads/wtf-japan-funny-wrestling.gif)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 20, 2013, 01:13:32 PM
Desktop publishing rules. Using the Pubic Library? Ha!

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 20, 2013, 04:00:14 PM
It's a fun, all-ages thread for cool peeps! Thanks for joining the convo!!


(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/301240_4598448723219_1418118249_n.jpg)

Yep. That is a 100% La Salle thing to see. It's such a bizarre combination of weirdos who would masturbate in a shower and uptight Catholics.

I never lived in St. Hilary so that wasn't me.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 20, 2013, 04:55:36 PM
CSW --

This is a dissertation!

College sports is a 100% unique American phenomenon. You could probably make an argument that college sports are more popular than their pro counterparts. The NFL and NBA get better TV ratings but pro teams are only based in our biggest metropolitan areas. The most well regarded college programs with gigantic followings in different sports are places without big cities for the most part-- like the University of Kentucky or Alabama.

Our NCAA tournament is the equivalent of the FA Cup. It's a knock-out tournament where it's one game and you're done. There's something like 350 colleges that can qualify for this tournament (it's called Division 1 -- there's smaller divisions for schools that don't put a huge amount on athletics). The regular season whittles the teams down to 68 candidates for the national tournament which we call March Madness.

There's about 30 conferences which breaks teams apart based by size and prestige. The most well-known conferences are the Big 10 (gigantic Midwestern colleges like Michigan and Ohio State), the PAC-12 (big state West coast schools -- UCLA in Los Angeles is the most successful college basketball team of all-time), the SEC (Southeastern Conference),the Big East (traditionally a combination of private colleges in the northeast with a handful of state schools -- teams like Syracuse, Georgetown and Connecticut are traditional powers) and the ACC (Atlantic Coast Conference which has Duke and North Carolina, but of whom annually compete for the national championship and have campuses about 10 miles from each other).

However, like I said, there's something like 30 conferences. There are a lot of smaller conferences based on regionalism and the like. For instance, my school La Salle is a tiny Catholic university in Philadelphia. We play in the Atlantic 10 conference which is comprised of a lot of similar colleges (small, Catholic schools and state schools without gigantic athletic budgets) in the northeastern US. Our conference is a step down from the large conferences.

The most well-known conference is the Ivy League which has Harvard, Princeton, Yale and the like. These schools, of course, are known for their academics but they still compete against the big boys.

Then there's even smaller ones like the America East which have really small, lesser known colleges.

How do you become one of the 68 teams?

It's simple. If you win your conferences tournament at the end of the year, you qualify. That leaves roughly 38 "bids" open for the rest. You get those bids courtesy of a panel of college athletic directors who determine who the 38 best candidates are. Most of these are no-brainers: Duke might not be have won the conference tournament but lost three games all year, so they qualify. However, it becomes a big contest when you get to the final handful of teams.

The big debate is always between who deserves it more: Schools from the big conferences who are mid-tier teams or schools from the smaller conferences who fared well but didn't play as tough schedules?

There are also always a handful of teams outside of the big conferences that are really good. For instance, the most well-known of these teams is Gonzaga, a Catholic school in Washington state. They've become a nationally regarded powerhouse over the past decade and are the number one team in the country right now.

La Salle this year was selected as the last team to qualify. This was the first time they qualified for the national tournament in 21 years, so that explains my ridiculous excitement. We're playing in a play-in game (it's a technicality -- just ignore it) tonight.

March Madness is only surpassed by the Super Bowl in terms of capturing American sports hysteria. All of the games in the tournament are held within a three week period. The first two days of the tournament are on Thursday and Friday. Games start at noon. People literally take vacation days off to watch these games. There's been studies done which talk about how significant workplace production drops during days of the tournament.

The magic of the tournament is exactly like the FA or League Cup. It creates "Cinderella" stories annually. Basketball's a lot like like soccer in that coaching strategies and different styles of play can mitigate the talent advantages a giant has. There are upsets every single year in the tournament.  There are also a bunch of miracle finishes every year.

There's also been a recent trend of schools that aren't in the major conferences who advance very far into the tournament -- it's like if Wigan or Crystal Palace made it to Wembley. Virginia Commonwealth (a state school in Richmond, Virginia best known for its arts program -- the members of GWAR all met there) was a controversial pick to enter the tournament and was the last team selected. They ended up making it all the way to the Final Four. Butler made it to the national championship in back-to-back years recently. They also nearly beat Duke one year on a miracle shot at the buzzer (imagine if Crystal Palace hit the crossbar from 45 yards out in extra time).

There are also a lot of people who like college basketball more than the NBA. The NBA is a much better type of basketball. The NBA has the best athletes in the world playing in their athletic primes. But there's a lot of NBA games where there will be something like 12,000 people in a 20,000 seat arena. College arenas are smaller and most of the fans are between the ages of 18-22, which is to say they're drunk as hell. I would say college basketball has the atmosphere most like European football in American sports.

As far as why I love my college basketball team despite being in my mid-30s -- My school had something like 4,000 students. I had classes and lived in dorms with basketball players. I actually was friendly with a few of the players on the team. It's really easy to keep track of the current players since they'll talk to fans before and after games. They're also literally kids -- they still have fun playing basketball and have a lot of energy, whereas it's a job for NBA players. I also live 10 minutes from the campus and tickets are $10. So I get to see a decent level of basketball for $10, with my friends who I went to college with, and sit about 25 feet away from the court with a lot of fun chants and songs. Or I could go to see Philly's NBA team, pay $35, sit in the upper tier of some soulless arena, be subjected to non-stop dance music and see the team not care. (Which is a 76ers trademark.)

There are so many indelible moments the NCAA tournament has left on the American sporting psyche.

These include: The Duke/Kentucky game from 1992, widely considered as the greatest college basketball of all-time. Christian Laetner's shot at the buzzer is probably only right behind "The Miracle on Ice" (our upset of the Soviets in hockey in the 1980 Olympics) in memorable sports moments.

Loyola-Marymount's run. Loyola's a small Catholic school in Los Angeles. They became this ridiculously good team in the early 90s. They did this by playing the craziest style of basketball we've ever seen -- imagine if a soccer team won every game by a score of 11-8. That was how they played. They were really popular. However, one week before the national tournament began, their best player (Hank Gathers) had a heart attack in a conference game and died minutes later. His teammates decided to carry on. Hank's one weakness as a player was free throw shooting and he decided to try shooting left-handed in order to get better. His best friend on the team, Bo Kimble, decided to shoot his FTs left-handed in honor of Hank and made every single one. Loyola came within one game of making the Final Four, losing to eventual national champion UNLV.

Those are just a few. There are literally dozens more.

As far as the development system goes --

That's a huge debate basketball nerds are currently having. A few years ago, there was a rash of NBA teams drafting players right out of high school -- LeBron James being the most famous of the lot. However, there were always a few guys who came out of high school who were nowhere near ready to play at that level and flamed out. The NBA then instituted a rule saying you couldn't get drafted until you played either one year of college basketball or one year of ball in Europe or elsewhere.

(This also helps the NBA's marketing -- you watch kids in college and know who they are when they become pros.)

The NBA does have a minor league called the NBDL which is about 10 years old. It's only been in the past few years where NBA teams actually started using these to develop players, and even only a handful of teams do that. The league isn't that great -- most players who are just below the NBA level go to Europe or China where they can make a lot of money whereas the NBDL pays really low wages.

A handful of players have left high school and gone right to Europe. The most well-known is Brandon Jennings on Milwaukee, who played in Italy for a year before joining the NBA. He's a decent enough player but not a star. Everyone else who has done this hasn't made it to the league.

The other thing that college has that the NBA doesn't is coaching. The coach of the NBA's dream team is actually the Duke head coach -- he's that well regarded a tactician and developer of talent. There are a lot of other college coaches held in that same level esteem. There's an argument to be made that players are better off going to college to get coached by great coaches. How great the coaches are is a viable question but that's sort of the point.

The recent trend, though, is that if you're a top-level high school player, you'll go to one of the national powerhouse teams. And then after your freshman year, you'll move on to the NBA. This, though, has created a ton of parity in college basketball -- smaller colleges like La Salle now have experienced players of a somewhat lesser talent level going up against big colleges that have star freshmen who don't have experience.

Sorry for the lengthy thesis! But I hope that explains some of it.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: gravy boat on March 21, 2013, 10:41:14 AM
Thanks everyone for the congrats. I know I'm in my mid-30s and I should not derive happiness from the success for teenagers who play basketball. However, I love basketball and I love my school. My closest friends are from that place. And my education there was a large contributing factor to any professional and/or creative success I've ever had. It's such a weird college -- I spent my years drinking 40s on the hood of abandoned cars, went to sleep to sporadic gunfire, got to see The Promise Ring and a bunch of other great bands for free with the 15 other kids with any music taste who went there and in general just had an awesome experience. On top of it, I also have a MA from there and worked on campus for a few years so I got to see it from an adult perspective and grew to like it even more.

The team hasn't been to the NCAAs since 1991. I started in 1995 so they never went to the tournament since my tenure began. They used to be a power (national championship and NITs and Top 10 rankings) before falling off. Then in 2004, the worst happened -- three kids were kicked off the team for two separate sex crimes incidents and the men's and women's coaches were fired for hiding it. It was awful. We got killed in the local media (largely from Steven A. Smith) who were pissed that we fired a basketball coach who gave good quotes yet overlooked the fact that he broke federal laws by not reporting an alleged rape. One of the players, BTW, is current San Antonio Spur Gary Neal. So anytime you hear "Towson State grad who transferred from La Salle" -- that's the story why. And no one in the press wrote too much about the former coach Billy Hahn's repugnant behavior on the witness stand where he said nonsense like "Girls spread their legs for players". He's human garbage to the fullest degree.

Making it even crazier, our current coach has been building to this in fits and starts. He had a really great recruiting class a few years ago that was built in an interesting way -- he assembled a team largely comprised of guys between 6'5" and 6'8" in height, all of whom could play any position. His argument was that it's hard to get good big men or guards at the A-10 level but good swing guys fell through the cracks. They were set to do damage their senior year when they added a Top 50 recruit big man. Low and behold, four starting players tore ACLs or other season ending injuries so they fell apart.

The next year, the sophomore stud center turned into a total head case. He was an awful ballhog and teammate and used to scream at the coaches and the like constantly. I hate ripping on any college kid but this guy was just bruuuutal. He got kicked off the team/transferred at the end of the year to West Virginia... whose main assistant coach is now Billy Hahn, who grabbed this kid just to stick it to us.

This team is so much fun and great. Their star is a kid named Ramon Galloway. He grew up right within walking distance from the school which is one of the worst neighborhoods in Philly. He has had as rough a life as a 22-year-old kid can have. He went to South Carolina initially to get out of Philly. However, his grandfather who helped raised him needs a liver transplant so he got a waiver to come home. On top of it, his dad's blind from being shot in the head (yet goes to every game). He has two brothers in lock-up for drugs/guns/etc. There's also an unknown thing going on with his mom right now.

He is the nicest kid. It's a small school and I know a bunch of people who work on campus who have either taught him or interacted with him. They all say he's great -- shows up and participates in classes, is really funny, intelligent, etc. He's also really appreciative of the college and the fact he gets to play in front of his family (who take up most of an entire section of our gym).

I'm partial, but I think he's the most underrated player in the country. He has a game that's patterned after James Harden. He has range from anywhere within half court (and frequently shoots from that far out). He's also absurdly athletic and has a few ESPN SportsCenter Top 10s. He loves defending and also can pass. We played Iona this year and he had 21 points by halftime and zero in the second... but doled out 11 assists.

Yesterday was awesome. I was on campus for the announcement. We were literally the last team selected. It was a total nightmare but came together. I'm still flying high.

Watched most of La Salle's game. That is a fun team to watch. They push the pace and pass well. That guy Garland had a great game. Don't know much about Kansas State but if they get past them, and they face potential opponent Wisconsin, La Salle should run them off the court with their small-ball style. This is based purely on emotion -- I hate Wisconsin basketball.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on March 21, 2013, 11:38:14 AM
That's a huge debate basketball nerds are currently having. A few years ago, there was a rash of NBA teams drafting players right out of high school -- LeBron James being the most famous of the lot. However, there were always a few guys who came out of high school who were nowhere near ready to play at that level and flamed out. The NBA then instituted a rule saying you couldn't get drafted until you played either one year of college basketball or one year of ball in Europe or elsewhere.

The main reason behind the NBA minimum age rule (which I still don't understand how it is even legal that an employer can discriminate based on age) is team owners were throwing huge sums of money to untested kids out of high school who, like Gregg said, didn't pan out. The owners didn't trust themselves to stop doing it so instead of getting better at player evaluation they instituted a minimum age requirement. And it sets up this even more perverse system than existed before in the college game with one-and-done players basically killing a season playing for free in college and hoping not to get injured like Nerlens Noel whose knee exploded last month. Pro team owners save face, colleges earn money, and the player assumes all the risk.

In general players would be much better off in a true development system (a major part of why the U.S. stinks at soccer is that players are on college teams with restricted practice time), but the collegiate system is too ingrained in basketball and American football. Baseball and hockey have true minor league systems with several tiers which co-exist with their collegiate counterparts.



Have you guys ever seen any of the Pro Wrestling Guerrilla videos?



And this thread has over 400 views and only 13 people have voted.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: CSW on March 21, 2013, 11:50:25 AM
Gregg, that was an incredible good and earnest response. I fell much better informed now. I thank and applaud you for taking the time to do that. Cheers!

My initial response is somewhat captured by Josh's further response, in that if they player flames out, that's likely on the owner/scout/coach side of things rather than the players age.

So can someone talk me though the Mania card now please? Am I missing something on how the World Title match is a drawer? Del Rio and Swagger never seemed to me like much more than mid-card guys. 1 (DelRio) can talk and can't go and 1 (Swagger) can go but can't talk.

Why did they bring Lesnar in to not have him be a top tier guy?
Why do they think a repeat of last years Cena/Rock shitfest will draw again (did it even draw last year?) And if it will draw anyway, why make it a title match?

Mostly: should i buy this show if I haven't watched since last year?

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: CSW on March 21, 2013, 12:22:04 PM
Fuunily enough I just came across this which alos summed it up pretty well:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/21/the-ncaa-tournament-is-a-reminder-that-the-economics-of-college-sports-is-bonkers/ (http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/03/21/the-ncaa-tournament-is-a-reminder-that-the-economics-of-college-sports-is-bonkers/)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 21, 2013, 01:34:04 PM
There's one huge downfall to liking college sports and that it's essentially slavery. The NCAA is literally a billion dollar industry. However, the student-athletes don't get paid for their services. Most of them get scholarships, which isn't a bad thing when you consider tuitions, but it's still crazy. They have crazy schedules for practices and the like. They have to travel and give up holiday breaks and summers. They aren't able to work while in school. And when you factor in that there's somewhere between 3,000 and 4,000 top-level college players and then only about 60 slots for the NBA draft AND they have to compete against foreign players, it's an even crazier system.

There is also a horrific amount of cheating in college sports. Teams get players by recruiting -- coaches essentially beg students to go to their schools. Athletic departments also usually have "booster clubs" of alumni who donate money to help defray costs for running teams. The national power teams have booster clubs that are worth fortunes. There's all sorts of stories at kids at the bigger schools getting cars or having their family members given cushy no-show jobs and the like. There's also aggressive coaches at the smaller level who will do absolutely anything to climb the rung to bigger schools and a bigger payday.

One of the biggest scumbags in American sports is John Calipari. He got his start coaching at the University of Massachusetts in the 90s. They were never anything much and then, when he took the reigns, they were a championship contender (led by Marcus Camby). He then left for the NBA to coach the Nets where he was a total disaster. Once he was in the NBA, it came out that Camby was essenitally paid to go to UMass and had women provided to him during recruiting visits and the like. UMass was heavily sanctioned (they had to vacate their wins during this era, which means they had to give back a lot of money) and hasn't returned to prominence. Nothing happened to Calipari.

A few years later, he ended up getting hired by the University of Memphis, who are a very good program if inconsistent program. He brought them incredibly close to a championship -- literally a shot away. Their best player was Derick Rose, now of the Chicago Bulls and a former NBA MVP.  Then it came out that Rose didn't take his college entrance exams and a few other things happened w/ other recruits and Memphis had to vacate their wins, too.

Did anything happen to Calipari? Of course not. He ended up getting hired by the University of Kentucky, which is as huge as it gets in college basketball, where he makes a few million dollars a year. They won the national championship last year with pretty much a team of all hotshot freshmen. The number one draft pick, Anthony Davis, went to Kentucky.

If college basketball sounds bad, youth basketball in America is beyond slimy. Traditionally, how it works is this -- you either go to public school based on your town/neighborhood or a private school. It still does work like that in a lot of cases. But now there are all these schools that pop up that are created solely for basketball players. They're usually run by some scumbag looking to get a deal with some sneaker company. And, yes, high-end high school teams get endorsement deals from shoe companies.

There's also what's called the AAU system which is even shadier. This is high school basketball outside of high school -- summer league teams the the like. There are absolutely NO rules in this system which should tell you how parasitic that is. A lot of these coaches broker deals where they get paid in exchange for sending their charges off to certain colleges.

It's not uncommon for top level high school players to go to a bunch of high schools in order to get the best chance to play in college. Even traditional public schools aren't above this -- kids will move in with another player or a motel or whatever in order to play at a top level high school.

There's absolutely zero chance this will ever change. The NCAA (like all our sports leagues) have exemptions from anti-trust regulations. The NCAA is also run by college presidents who are a very, very powerful entity.

That's the downside of college sports. There's a lot of upside but a ton of guilt that goes along with it if you have any sense of dignity.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 21, 2013, 01:38:45 PM
And thanks for the La Salle well wishes. Last night was so ridiculously awesome. Their guards are great and as good as anyone in the country. They're severely weak in the front court and essentially only have one big right now because of an injury. Any team with quality size is going to take them but until then who knows.

On top of winning the game, it was the 150th Anniversary of La Salle yesterday. They've been ALL OVER the local media. Being in the play-in game was pretty awesome because they had the entire day to themselves. If they go on any sort of run, I can see them becoming the local darling very quickly.

It's really great to see. I'm obviously very attached to my school. I've got a few degrees from there and worked on campus for a few years. I also help out w/ some alumni stuff here and there. The place has always been a bit apathetic. But I e-mailed w/ a history professor of mine (specialties: British politics, Orwell, baseball -- SO awesome) and he said this gave the entire school a gigantic self-esteem boost.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kormodd on March 21, 2013, 02:46:31 PM

And this thread has over 400 views and only 13 people have voted.

People are too busy filling out their fancy March Madness brackets to get involved in what's really going on, I guess.

Is the Undertaker back to doing the original Undertaker gimmick or is he still doing that American Badass biker thing? I was a big fan of the Ministry of Darkness and the subsequent Corporate Ministry, and Vince McMahon revealing himself to be "The Higher Power" of the Corporate Ministry might be my favorite moment in all of wrestling. It was a Monday Night Raw that will forever be etched in my memory, and it took me days to recover from McMahon's surprising heel turn. "IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME!!! YOU ALL BOUGHT IT, HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER!!!"

The Higher Power of The Corporate Ministry is revealed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXhMSOLJKM#)
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 21, 2013, 08:23:57 PM

And this thread has over 400 views and only 13 people have voted.

People are too busy filling out their fancy March Madness brackets to get involved in what's really going on, I guess.

Is the Undertaker back to doing the original Undertaker gimmick or is he still doing that American Badass biker thing? I was a big fan of the Ministry of Darkness and the subsequent Corporate Ministry, and Vince McMahon revealing himself to be "The Higher Power" of the Corporate Ministry might be my favorite moment in all of wrestling. It was a Monday Night Raw that will forever be etched in my memory, and it took me days to recover from McMahon's surprising heel turn. "IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME!!! YOU ALL BOUGHT IT, HOOK, LINE, AND SINKER!!!"

The Higher Power of The Corporate Ministry is revealed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXhMSOLJKM#)

The Taker is back to the original gimmick. It's not quite as supernatural -- no lightning or anything -- but he's still the deadman. The feud w/ CM Punk really picked up the Raw where they celebrated Paul Bearer's life after death. CM Punk stole the urn and hit Kane in the head with it. Pretty awesome, old-school stuff.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 22, 2013, 01:26:02 PM

The Higher Power of The Corporate Ministry is revealed (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcXhMSOLJKM#)


I barely understand any of this, but that's a great video.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: buffcoat on March 22, 2013, 05:20:58 PM
Congrats, Greggulator.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: gravy boat on March 22, 2013, 05:28:33 PM
Congrats, Greggulator.

Seconded. Great game.  Jerrell Wright was Laetner-esque. The A-10 is Reagan-84'ing this tournament.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: fonpr on March 22, 2013, 08:15:53 PM

I barely understand any of this.
Seconded!
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 23, 2013, 01:39:58 AM
Thanks, guys. I really appreciate it.

I can't even begin to explain what this feels like as a sports fan. You've probably heard by now about how La Salle hasn't been in the NCAA Tournament since 1991. I went to probably every home game when I was an undergrad (and for the first two years, our games were played about 10 miles from campus and I didn't have a car) and 85% of their home games since I moved back to Philly in 2004.

The absolute lowest point of the team came two seasons ago. Our team was filled with a bunch of unrepentant ballhogs who would bicker on the court and a coach who would have to be restrained from physically assaulting his charges. It was awful. The lowest moment came when we lost to Towson State, who then went on to lose like 35 games in a row or something along those lines.

I was just about ready to give up following the team. But I couldn't because I really wanted to have a moment like this. It's the best I've ever felt as a sports fan.

Jerrell Wright's great. Out of all the players to come up money at the FT line, he's the least likely candidate. He was the first player to come into the theater where they showed the Selection Show to celebrate with the students and alum. Afterwards, he was climbing a tree. My buddy is a professor and had him in class and said he's great -- a really big, sweet kid who is really funny.

BTW, you may have seen that guy in gold and glitter at our games. Since we don't have a huge fan base, everyone has been puzzled as to who this guy is. It finally go tunearthed -- he's an alum who is a Lieutenant Colonel for the Joint Chief of Staff.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on March 25, 2013, 05:13:59 PM
AND IT CONTINUES!

This has been one of the most fun weeks of my life. It really means so much to me and to my friends. I also could not have finished 2012/started 2013 in the absolute worst possible way. It was legitimately probably the worst couple of months of my life.

Things got better in a hurry in a lot of ways. I know sports are a finite thing and insignificant but this is really making me happy. I've felt like I'm 10 years old this entire week and I've got to do this with my best friends.

Rooting for a NCAA Cinderella Team is legitimately the best thing you could ever happen to you as a sports fan. It's superb.

The Southwest Philly Floater and Cousin Bern is the funniest thing ever. I've got a ton of friends from Southwest and I've hung out there a bunch. They collectively have the foulest sense of humor so the toilet ramifications are entertaining us non-stop.

Philly is really in love with this team. Sports radio is ALL LASALLE ALL THE TIME today. That has never happened. The staff of the school paper and the cable channel (I worked on both) were having trouble getting money together to hike it out to LA. The Phillies stepped up and are paying for a huge amount of the trip.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: nowah on March 25, 2013, 05:37:49 PM
Every year I go in knowing the streak won't end but every year I find myself belieiving it's going to end. The Shawn Michaels/HHH matches were so awesome at conveying that "OH MY GOD" feeling. I just go in completely suspending any disbelief I have. I'm 100% certain Punk's going to get that feeling, too, since he's pretty much at an all-time great level of performance by now.

He got me to believe that circa 2005 Jay Lethal and circa 2005 Roderick Strong could have beat him for the ROH World Championship even when everyone had to watch that stuff on massive tape delay. There's no question he'll be able to do that same kind of thing with Undertaker. Punk and Bryan Danielson are the only dudes I still check into WWE every once in a while for, just to see how they're doing.

Incidentally, ROH's Summer of Punk (http://www.rohwrestling.com/product/summer-punk-2-disc-set) DVD and the Joe vs. Punk (http://www.rohwrestling.com/product/samoa-joe-vs-cm-punk-collectors-edition-2-disc-set) set are really great if you're a big fan of the guy. His first collection (Second City Saint (http://www.rohwrestling.com/product/cm-punk-second-city-saint-2-disc-set)) is good too.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on April 01, 2013, 02:07:29 PM
725 views and 16 votes!

Less than a week left to have your voice heard!
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Greggulator on April 02, 2013, 01:00:52 AM
The end of Raw tonight was awesome. Heyman trolling the crowd with a Paul Bearer impersonation, followed by Punk dumping the ashes onto the Taker's fallen body is great. What an awesome little turn CM Punk is in this. BEST IN THE WORLD!

I love that they're setting it up that Taker just flat out wants to KILL Punk who is going to be doing any cheap bs he can think of to steal the match. The total opposite of the last few years.

20-1!
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kormodd on April 02, 2013, 01:27:35 AM
Still just 16 votes. Pretty disturbing.

I love how shameless wrestling is. This guy kicks the bucket, and they make his death a focal point of a feud. I haven't watched wrestling in years; have they ever used Owen Hart's death or Benoit's murder/suicide in storylines?
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Eric Fishlegs on April 03, 2013, 08:05:50 PM
Still just 16 votes. Pretty disturbing.

I love how shameless wrestling is. This guy kicks the bucket, and they make his death a focal point of a feud. I haven't watched wrestling in years; have they ever used Owen Hart's death or Benoit's murder/suicide in storylines?

No, but after Eddie died Randy Orton destroyed a lowrider and said that Eddie was burning in Hell.

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kid Pain on April 05, 2013, 09:04:41 AM
WEEKEND SCHEDULE:


Friday night: Ring of Honor Supercard of Honor show
Saturday: Shimmer at Noon, Chikara at 4 PM, both at Wrestlecon. Attempts for photo ops/autographs from Bobby Heenan and Scott Steiner in between
Sunday: Mania
Monday: Raw

Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Josh on April 05, 2013, 09:54:21 AM
WEEKEND SCHEDULE: . . .

Will Barry Horowitz be at Wrestlecon? How much for an autograph?
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kid Pain on April 05, 2013, 10:37:02 AM
It is my understanding that Barry Horowitz WILL be a guest at wrestlecon.
Title: Re: 21-0?
Post by: Kid Pain on April 06, 2013, 12:37:32 AM
DEM BOYZ