Hate Me For All The Things I Didn't Do For You

This post goes out to Joseph Halbert, Bill Simmons, ESPN, and everyone else who's hated on Rick Barnes...
WTF? Seriously, where's all the hate coming from? With the exception of a few bloggers on Burnt Orange Nation, I haven't heard anyone write anything positive about what Barnes has done for the University of Texas basketball program. I'll be the first to admit that he's not the greatest coach of all time, or that he's even that great of a gameplanner (not sure if 'gameplanner' is a word, but if you watched yesterday's no-show by UT, you know what I mean) but really, what else does the guy have to do to get some love in this world? Texas has been to the Big Dance each of the last 10 years, a school record, and in the past seven years, Barnes has led Texas to five Sweet Sixteens (UT is one of only three schools to accomplish this feat. Kansas and Duke are the others-you may have heard of them), two Elight Eights and one Final Four. Also, everyone forgets this, but one of those Elight Eights should have been another Final Four. In 2006, Texas lost in OT to LSU, after the Horns converted only half of their free-throws down the stretch. They make those freebies, they win in regulation and advance. (And yes, maybe I'm still bitter becuase I picked Ty Thomas in the first and last annual Strip Final Four, and ended up sitting on the couch naked and mad at life, but that's another story for another blog.) Also, this year he led his team to victories at UCLA, against Tennessee at a neutral site, and Kansas at home (That's two number one seeds and one number two, for those keeping score at home) On top of that, he won the Big XII regular season title only one season removed from losing the best player to ever wear the burnt orange. Anywho, that list in itself is a pretty good indicator of what Barnes has done for the program in his decade at the 40 Acres. Take into account that the last two overall #2 picks in the NBA draft were former Horns, and that the amount of Horns in the League has grown dramatically since Barnes has been at the helm and will continue to do so, it's pretty obvious that Barnes and his staff are fairly good at player development. Add into all of this the fantastic quotes he gives to the media ("Pooooooooorr Aggie"-Directed at Acie Law losing to KD for all of the POY awards last year, "If y'all don't treat us right, we'll just buy you out and go back to Texas. We're rich, you know."-Spoken, tounge-in-cheek, to the Arkansas media two weeks ago at the beginning of Madness, and "I told John that we were just giving them free-throw practice, since that's what they need to work on."-Said after yesterday's game, when Texas went into foul mode with five minutes left in the game, in hopes of closing the gap. Memphis, of course, went something like 30-34 from the line, rendering the strategy moot.) and Barnes becomes not only the most successful coach in UT history, but is also the most entertaining.
A few weeks ago on Burnt Orange Nation-a blog I highly suggest for Longhorn fans-there was a debate on who you'd rather have, Mack Brown, or Rick Barnes. Now I understand the hate that each of these two get from both Longhorn fans as well as the rest of the country, and in all honesty, I think that most of it, especially the hate directed toward Mack, is deserved. However, just the fact that a UT-athletics website would even consider preffering the basketball coach over the football coach is, until Barnes came to town, unthinkable. Again, I'm not saying that he's the best coach ever, just the best coach ever at UT. Just a quick look at where the program was ten years ago to where it is now, and I don't see how anyone can claim that Barnes sucks or isn't a good basketball coach.

-Twig

Mammoth Fan Watching

Tonight was quite an historic night, as I completed the Mammoth Reliant Stadium quad-fecta. You might be wondering what the Mammoth Reliant Stadium quad-fecta is, and well, dear reader, I'll tell you. The MRSQF, as it will from here on be known as, is the feat I comleted this very evening. This feat is something that I seriously doubt anyone in the history of Creation has ever atempted, much less accomplished. The MRSQF is the fact that I've been to Mammoth Reliant 4 times, each time for different sporting events. This past December, former roomate Garrett Oakley and I went to the Texans/Broncos game, giving me my first taste of Mammoth Reliant. In February, the Jig and I went to the USA/Mexico soccer 'friendly' at the Mammoth, which was quite possibly the most intense three hours of my life. Just two weeks ago, the in-laws-and I went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, which was quite enjoyable, especially with our frontish row seats. I mean really, we almost got bull slobber on us during the bullriding contest. And finally, tonight, the wife and I made the three-minute train ride to Mammoth Reliant in hopes of scalping tickets for the South Regional Semifinals of the NCAA Tournament which, as you know, pitted the Texas Longhorns and the Stanford Cardinal in the first game, and the Memphis Tigers and Michigan State Spartans in the nightcap. I had almost our entire grocery money for the month in my pocket, and to our luck, the first people we ran into had two extra tickets for the evening. Also to my good fortune, the tickets were in a decent location, and the couple was offering them for face value, which is always nice when scalping tickets (side note: at work today, I looked at buying tickets online, and tickets in the exact spot we ended up getting were $30 more than we got ours) So, feeling good about saving a little green, we went to our seats. They were in the corner of the court, on the front row of the second deck.
As you all know by now, the game went almost as well as any UT fan could have hoped for, with the Horns leading basically the whole game, and playing well on both ends of the court. After the first game, we stuck around to watch Memphis and Michigan State, to see what UT's Sunday opponent looks like. Well, as you also probably know by now, Memphis looks goooood. We ended up leaving at halfime with the Tigers leading by 30. The end of the first half looked a lot like a slam-dunk contest for the Tigers, and if Texas isn't able to keep them off the boards and running without abandon, Sunday could be ugly. However, if Texas can get physical with Memphis and control the tempo, I feel alright about their odds.
Also, as we were leaving the apartment earlier this evening, I was so excited to complete the MRSQF that I forgot to bring the camera to provide visual proof that we were there. Near the end of the Texas game, I built up enough courage to ask the lady next to us (A Memphis fan, the wife of the dude that sold us our tickets. His parents were going to go but couldn't make it, much to our benifit) if she would take a pic of Kayla and I and email it to us when they get home. It was a bit of an odd request, but she was happy-I think-to do it, and so hopefully in a few days I'll be able to post the picture here to show that this is in fact a true story, and not a bunch of gibberish. Well faithful readers, that'll be it for me tonight, I'm pooped from completing the five month, mentally and physically grueling MRSQF, and need some sleep. Over and out.

-Twig

I'll Take This One

Yup, you were right B, I've got this one...
In the comments section the other day, Justin Scott brought up the possibility of Adam "Pacman" Jones signing with the Cowboys. Personally, I love love love love it. The Boys need secondary help, and he would be an immediate asset in the defensive secondary. Also, I don't know if it was just me, but it seemed like the Cowboys had about seven different punt returners last year, so he would solidify and upgrade that area as well. As far as the whole character thing goes, ummm, does anyone really care? Honestly, why would the 'Boys (read: "Jones, Jerry") start worrying about character now? They had a couple years there in the late 90's, when the team was in a rebuilding mode, and they stayed away from possible bad apples, even going as far as not drafting Randy Moss in 1998, fearing that he would get in trouble and hurt the team's image even more. Fast-forward 10 years, and the 'Boys currently employ Terry Glenn, Terrell Owens, Tank Johnson, and probably a few more crazies I'm missing. Basically, Jerry's banking everything on performance and not worrying too much about how the guys act. A major factor for this thinking is probably related to the tough stance Roger Goodell has taken with player misconduct. Pacman, Tank, and the rest know that if they're involved in another off-field incident, they could be out of the league for a very long time, if not for good. Because of this, any team can take a chance on these guys, sign them for a cheap, short-term contract, with most of the money coming in performance and behavior bonuses. If they get in trouble after all of that, the team lets them go and doesn't take a huge hit salary cap wise. All this to say, go for it Jerry. Take a shot, sign him to a small contract, and let his butt go if/when he slips up in the least.

Some quick thoughts on the Rockets/Kings game from Monday night:
-Say what you want about the team, but the Rockets have a great fan base. I'll be the first to admit that I don't have a ton of NBA arena experience, but the "Red-Rowdies" are always loud, obnoxious and supportive of the team, something that a lot of NBA teams can't say.

-Even in a fairly boring game, sitting next to the lady-wife is very entertaining. I mean, who else would say, in a professional sporting event:
"Forget Reggie (Bush), Shane (Battier) is my new favorite (most attractive) pro athlete."
(And yes, I did come close to vomitting/cursing/gouging my eyes/causing a general rukus when that statement was made. I mean, I'm fine with Kayla thinking a famous celebrity/athlete is attractive, I'm not haughty enough to think I'm better-looking than some of these dudes, but really? A USC alum was bad enough, but now it's a Dookie? At this rate, Kayla's next celeb crush is gonna be some random Yell Leader, or Adrian Peterson. Uggghhh.)

"Why is Clutch (the Rockets mascot) green tonight?" Actually, Kayla, that was a very astute question. Why was Clutch green?

Speaking of the Rocket Power Dancers, aka 'Girls who are just a tad too classy to be strippers, but not classy enough not to dance in front of 30,000 people in underwear and tube tops':"If I had free unlimited tanning, hair extensions, and plastic surgery, I'd look like that too. Fake hoes."

"That guy looks like a jerk. I don't like him, he has evil eyes. Mean face, mean face, mean face."
Refering to Kelvin Martin, the best scoring option for Sacramento, who in my opinion, had a very pleasent face and is probably a delight to be around.

-Besides being entertained by Kayla's comments, the main thing that stood out to me was how big Ron Artest was. Obviously, all the NBA players are pretty large dudes, but Artest is an absolute beast. The entire game, I kept thinking about how nuts it would have been to be in the Palace at Auburn Hills the night of November 19, 2004 when he went into the stands with bad intentions. Even more so, the guys in the stands who stood up to him had to have been completely crrrazzzzy. I can't imagine thinking it was a good idea to throw beer and peanuts at
Artest, and taunt him to the point of having him rush into the stands with the intent of beating me to a pulp. For those of you who may have forgot, I'll end with this YouTube video of that fateful night in Michigan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MY9cYZD0ME

-Twig

I Have Nothing To Say To You. Really, This Entry Is Garbage.

After a nice spring break the Twig is back, and ready to blog! Not sure about Jig, I think he's taking a month-long spring break, who knows. Anyway, I feel totally jipped (jiped? gipped?) from the Madness that takes place this time each year, because I was travelling to and from Pedernales Falls to go camping this past weekend. So, with the exception of Thursday, I've seen about ten total minutes of action, including all of the buzzer-beaters, overtimes, double-digit seeds winning, Duke losing, and other things that make March Madness so great.
Anyway, when we got home last night, we discovered that our cable is out. Again. For the third time in this still early year (Thank you, Comcast) It won't be too much of a problem, as long as it's back before Thursday, but still, for a product you pay for, it shouldn't be too much to ask that it, you know, work. Not really sure where that tangent came from, or where I was going with it, but there's not too much going on down here. That said, I'll go ahead and wrap it up, I can tell this entry is heading nowhere fast. Kayla, the padre-in-law, and uncle-in-law are going to the Rockets/Kings game, so if Ron Artest goes into the stands, or does something Artestesque, I'll hop on tomorrow with a much more meaningful post. Don't hate, regulate.

My fast smells like french toast,
Twig

That Is The Question

After yesterday's post, JAT reader Austin Henley brought up the issue of "To run over the catcher in a spring training game, Or not to run over the catcher in a spring training game?" This question, of course, stems from the controversy surrounding the New York Yankees and Tampa Bay 'Don't call me Devil' Rays. The questionable play happened this past weekend when a Tampa prospect, Elliot Johnson, ran over a Yankees catching prospect, Francisco Cervelli at home plate, breaking Cervelli's wrist. Normally, this play would be seen as just a hard-nosed, competitive effort by Johnson, yet Yankees manager Joe Girardi didn't see it that way. He thought it was a bush-league play, claiming that Johnson broke an unwritten rule by running over the catcher in a meaningless exhibition game.

Much debate has taken place in the four days since the play, and I'm a little late to the party, but here's my two cents anyway: As far as I'm concerned, if it were Jorge Posada behind the plate, and BJ Upton was the runner, then yes, that would be a bit unneccesary, as each of them are established veterans who will have no problem making their respective teams. However, the play in question involved a young, no-name player trying to make a tough play an possibly catch the eye of the manager. There's no guarantee that Elliot Johnson will make Tampa, or any team for that matter, so what choice does he really have? He doesn't have the credibility or leverage that an established player, such as A-Rod, Jeter, Manny, or someone of that caliber would, to take any play off or to ease up at the plate to avoid a collision. If Johnson had done that, it's possible that he wouldn't have even made the roster the next day, much less the entire season.

The other side of that coin is, if spring training is meaningless, Mr. Girardi, why is your catcher blocking the plate? Oh, that's right, his name is Francisco Cervelli, another no-name youngster just trying to make a team. Do you think Girardi would be fine with Cervelli standing idle as Johnson scored standing up since it's 'just spring training'? I sure don't. (Side note-It's 'just spring training' for established stars who have long-term contracts with their team. For young guys and marginal vets, spring training is the proving ground to show that they belong. It's basically a month-long job interview, not exactly something to be taken lightly.)

Also, on the way to work this morning, I was listening to 'Mike and Mike' on the radio, and they told the story of a similar play ten or so years ago. It involved the Yankees, a home-plate collision, and Joe Girardi. This time, though, Girardi was the catcher on the questionable play. His reaction then, even though it was in spring training? "It was a hard play, nothing dirty about it." Hmmm, my how a little bit of money, power, and name regognition change things, eh Joe?

-Twig

PS-This may be old news as I type this, but when I went to espn.com to look up the names of the players involved with the brawl, I saw that, in their rematch this afternoon, the Yankees beaned one of the Rays top prospects, and another Yank went spikes-up at second base, starting a bench-clearing brawl. Classy, guys...One more reason to hate the New York Yankees.

Read Me

Today, sports will be taking a backseat for the Twig, because, let's be honest, there isn't too much going on in that area right now. Yes, March Madness and Opening Day are right around the corner, but as of Right Now-8:44a.m. CDT-It's pretty slow in the sports world. What I'm bringing to the table this morning is a topic that I've suddendly grown very fond of in 2008. That's right, we're talking books at JAT!! (Told you it was a sllloooowww sports day) My interest in books has peaked this year, as I made a new year's resolution that I may actually accomplish.

Three months ago, I made it my goal for the year to read ten books in 2008. Somewhere, Justin Scott is giggling, thinking, "Ten? Really? In a year? Dude, I've read ten books in a month before!" Well excuse me, smarty pants, not all of us are 'single' and in 'post-graduate school.' Here in the real world, we have responsibilities, such as providing for one's family, and...uh, blogging once a week. Anyway, I've knocked out four books so far, and I'm close to finishing the fifth, so it looks like ten for the year will be attained. The books I've read range from the supernatural-Dean Koontz's Forever Odd-to the wildly entertaining-Rammer Jammer Yellowhammer, by Warren St. John and 21:Bringing Down the House, by Ben Mezrich. (For those who haven't seen the previews on TV, the new movie 21, is based on the true story of a group of MIT students who learn to count cards while playing blackjack and make millions during their weekend trips to Las Vegas. From the looks of it, the book seems exponentially better than the movie will be, so I highly recommend reading the book first if you plan on watching the movie)

Last week, after finishing 21, I went to Barnes and Noble with Kayla and Bethany, and ended up buying the book I'm currently reading, Con Ed, by Matthew Klein, and my next book, Ugly Americans, also by Ben Mezrich, as well as a toilet reader, What Would MacGyver Do? True Stories of Improvised Genius, by Brendan Vaughan. After I'm finished with these, however, I'm not sure what my next read will be, which brings me to the point of this post. I'm running out of ideas, and need suggestions from faithful readers. I've heard great things about Cormac McCarthy, and have been thinking about getting something by him, as well as a few other possiblities, but I'm sure I'd be missing out on something great if I didn't consult the JAT community first. Thank you for your time, you've been fantastic as usual.

-Twig

Kickin Threads

You asked for it, and now you'll get it...That's right, another Twig's Top Ten!! Wooo-Hooo, feel the excitement!! This time around, I'll be posting and discussing my most favoritest basketball uniforms. While there are many unis I'm a big fan of, it seems like basketball teams-especially colleges-change their looks about every two years, so it's hard to play favorites for teams with classic looks. (For example, as much as you know I'd love to put UT at the top of any list, I'm really not feeling the new cloth they're rockin this year. Loved the previous edition, but not the current one) Because of this disappointing trend, I'm combining the NBA and college to come up with a top-ten or fifteen list. Read and be blessed...

San Antonio Spurs: Plain color scheme, mostly unchanged since the the days of the Iceman, and they're my favorite NBA team. Works for me.

UCLA Bruins: Pretty much the same since the hallowed John Wooden teams. Bonus points for the white "C" on the jerseys this year, celebrating UCLA's athletic programs 100 national championships.

Indiana Hoosiers: In my opinion, the Notre Dame of college basketball, at least uniform-wise. Very plain, no names on the back, recognizable to even casual fans. Plus they were the last to conform to the long-shorts era, rockin the booty-huggers as late as 2000. As far as I'm concerned, if Bobby K was still there, they'd still be showing some skin.

Boston Celtics: Possibly my favorite basketball uniform of all time. Green is a great color that, quite honestly, doesn't get utilized in sports uniforms enough. The uniforms look almost mythical by themselves. Negative points, however, for the horrible addition of the green jersey with black lettering the team introduced a few years back. As Charles Barkley would say, "Those uniforms are tuuurible."

UNC Tar Heels/Duke Blue Devils: I know it's a bit sacreligious to put these two together, but I feel about the same as far as their unis go: They were each better about ten years ago, but the changes they've made are subtle (more black for Duke, wide shoulders and less white for UNC) but overall, they've been pretty consistent, and remain a staple of college basketball.

Seattle SuperSonics: Since I left UT out, I now have an excuse to put KD in the blog. But I really do like the uniforms. Honest, I think they're classic. In related news, if you haven't read Bill Simmons' take on the atrocity that is the attempt to relocate the Sonics to Oklahoma City, go to espn.com and read up on it now. Or after you finish with this article, whatever.

Portland Trail Blazers: Another classic look from the Great Northwest.

Well faithful reader(s), I'd love to share more, but "American Gangster" is about to start, gotta run.

-Twig