Friday, March 26, 2010

DE-FENSE!! DE-FENSE!! DE-FENSE!!

Let's talk about defense.

***WHEN IS DEFENSE NOT NEEDED?***
When the other team keeps throwing the ball away. Syracuse was described on the ESPN highlights as "Sloppy Joe." I couldn't agree more. A couple of times, they looked like they were throwing the ball to a 'ghost' player, someone who wasn't even there. The offense didn't really click, either. The Orange is not a 'walk-the-ball-down' team, they run-and-gun. It's one thing to get beat when you're playing your game and the other team just happens to win. It's an other when you're not in sync at all. It's too bad. They were a great team and should have gone further but they can still be proud of their season.

***WHEN IS DEFENSE NOT NEEDED? PART II***
A reader writes:
"Chad, You may not like Coach Cal but show me in black & white writing where he has NCAA violations charged against him. there are coaches out there coaching now who have put programs on probation and I don't hear them getting bad mouth like Cal does. Why ? Is it because he is at KY ? Remember, what you say about Cal will come back to haunt you." ...Anonymous
I wrote about this in the last 2 postings. Both times I stated that there was no proof of Calipari's knowledge of wrongdoing. I merely used his name as an example of a suggestion I felt may help keep coaches from breaking the rules. You have to admit that twice programs have gone on probation for offenses that took place while he was the coach (U Mass & Memphis). Do you honestly believe that this is just bad luck? To paraphrase and old expression, "Where there's smoke, there's Calipari." This is why I dislike Coach Cal. Bobby Knight may be a rude, sarcastic snob with a vicious temper, but he ran a clean program and his players graduated. If you look at the third picture on the right, you'll see he is one of Vod's candidates for...
...And I like Kentucky.

***BUSTER OLNEY CAN FINALLY TALK ABOUT IT***
As previously mentioned, Buster mentions Vanderbilt in all (or at least most) of his columns. It took him almost a week, but Vandy is back (sort of). Says Buster in today's column:
"The NCAA tournament is dead to me since Vanderbilt was knocked out. Dead to me, I tell you."

***ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE YET, GARY?***
Gary Matthews, Jr. wanted out of the Angels because he wasn't getting enough playing time. You'd have to say Mike Scioscia knows what he's doing, since the Angels are a perennial pennant contender. So Matthews gets traded to the Mets over the winter, definitely a team needing help. So what's happening now? We aren't even out of spring training and the Mets are already shopping Matthews. Doesn't look too good, Gary.

***OKAY, HE'S NO BABE RUTH, BUT...***
Bob Eucker claims that he, too, went to a hospital and promised a kid he found there that he would hit a home run for him that night. Things didn't go too well when Bob struck out 4 times and had 2 passed balls. Bob said later, "I heard the kid had a relapse and they blamed it on me. I found out afterwards he was an outpatient anyway."

I caught some grief because I don't like John Calipari. How much grief am I going to catch because I put down Duke and they're still in it, at least till tonight.

CP-

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