Time to get a little mad about MARYLAND

Alrighty, the football season isn't scrapped, but it's waning. And let's be real for a second - Maryland is a basketball school. Gary Williams may be half the man Friedgen is (who isn't?), but he definitely has something the Fridge doesn't: A ring.

As I mentioned a few days ago, thus far, Maryland is out of the top 25 (not terribly surprising) and has garnered only one vote in the coaches' poll (mildly surprising). Is this really a bad team?

When I look at Maryland, I see a team with a potential conference superstar (Gist). I see two guards with experience that can take turns at the point and both were in the top-10 ACC in assists last year(Vasquez and Hayes). Gary Williams has said that the only reason Landon Milbourne didn't play last year is because D.J. Strawberry was the player ahead of him and Gary wanted him in all game. I see a deep bench, starting with Boom Osby and Jerome Burney and going into our freshmen, many of whom should contribute right away (Dupree, Tucker, etc.). Plus, we have the MVP of last year's Capital Classic coming here in the spring semester who could also potentially give an extra shot in the arm to our post game, should we need it.

The concern is defense. We lost Strawberry and Ibekwe, our two best defensive players last year. But... I think overall, we should be OK. Gist was the fourth-leading shot blocker in the ACC last year. A lot of are big men are defensive players that need to develop scoring around the basket (another area of concern, should be addressed by Dupree). Also, Greivis led the team in steals in conference play last year with 21, and Hayes managed to grab 13 as well. Add in Milbourne, who reminds me of Strawberry anyway. Ok. Problem addressed.

But these guys are young. Are two seniors and two sophomores enough to lead this team? I'm going to say yes. Everyone knows how intensely competitive Greivis is. Gist gets better every year: FG%, 3-pt shots, FT%, blocks, steals, even assists! Check the bottom. Everyone who is starting really deserves to start. We're deep. Now we have NCAA experience. The guys got a taste last year, I'm sure they're eager to get back.

Terp fans, really get excited, you're gonna like this season.

Go Terps!!!




Extra note: BIG SCOOP

I was walking to late night at SoCo diner and I ran into Marissa Coleman and Crystal Langhorne. I noticed that Langhorne has a brace on her left foot. To my knowledge, no one has reported that Langhorne has an injury, but if she does, and it costs her court time, the Terps are down an All-American and a key player from the 2006 national championship squad. In other words: That ain't good.

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

VICTORY!


Yes, I realize I am insanely lucky. (Seriously, Bobby Kielty? Bobby Kielty?)

I'll stop smiling sometime next month.

NOTE: Jon Papelbon is insane.

The longest play ever run in a football game

I still can't believe that happened.

Other notes:

- The Patriots are currently winning 38-0 in the 4th quarter (Oops, make that 45-0, they just scored). They just got called for a false start and Tom Brady clearly said, "You gotta be f***ing kidding me!" This is why America hates this team.

- About the Maryland game yesterday... I was really upset. I hate the fact that James "I guarantee it" Davis opened his mouth against us and backed it up. Even though he played really well, he didn't defeat us by himself - our defense looked as slow as they ever have and the offensive calling and execution was uninspiring. I know people are certainly quick to crucify Friedgen, but I think people are always saying that, no matter who the coach is. Maybe Chris Cosh should check his job security, however. Word is Henderson called out the defense this week.

- Thanks, BTDub, if you got to come out to the women's volleyball game today. It was wicked close, but Duke did win 3 games to 1. Good match, though. The Terps biggest weakness seemed to be defending the little teardrop shots over the front blockers.

Look for a tender dedication to the Sox/Pats later tonight by Kevin, a new post tomorrow talking basketball, and hopefully a new feature that should be really exciting. Go Terps!

Yes, Gregg Easterbrook Is A Moron

I've been wanting to write about this monstrosity by Gregg Easterbrook, noted anti-Semite, for a while, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Let's start off:

Argument for the Indianapolis Colts as paladins who carry the banner of that which is beneficent: Sportsmanship, honesty, modesty

OK. The Colts most certainly are honest. They generally display decent sportsmanship - no better, no worse than the rest of the NFL. Honest? I would agree. Modest? Really? Peyton Manning's commercials are only broadcast 6,000 times every Sunday.

devotion to community, embrace of traditional small-town life, belief in higher power, even love of laughter

Devotion to community? What is Easterbrook talking about? Embrace of traditional small-town life? Indianapolis has a population of almost 800,000 and is the 13th biggest city in the country. Besides, most of the players are there because either: A. the Colts drafted them or B. the Colts offered them more money. This isn't knocking on Indianapolis or the Colts, but it's just a statement of fact. Love of laughter? What is he talking about? Manning's funny commercials, maybe?

Belief in higher power, however, is the good one. First, it somehow implies that Brady, whose father almost became a Priest, according to Moving the Chains, Charlie Pierce's excellent book about him, is an atheist of some sort. And oh yea... Tony Dungy's faith makes him hate gay people (or at least support those who do).

Through prior years of postseason frustration, they never complained or pointed the finger outside their team.

Really, what about when Dungy tried to get the rules changed so his small receivers could get around that Patriots' stronger DBs?

Their players are active in community affairs and don't carp about being assigned to a nonglamorous Farm Belt city with an antiquated stadium.

Funny, Easterbrook doesn't offer any proof for the claim that they are active in community affairs (I don't doubt that they are, I just doubt that this is any different than most NFL teams). Also, maybe they don't complain about their stadium because they're getting a new one.

Their coach, Tony Dungy, smiles in public and answers honestly whatever he is asked: He never yells at players or grimaces at bad plays and, when defeated, doesn't act as though it's the end of the world. Although religious, Dungy said on the night he won the Super Bowl that God doesn't care about football games, which shows perspective.

OK, first off, it's good to know that Dungy doesn't think God cares about sports. But that doesn't show perspective, it just shows he's not insane. But not being insane shouldn't be praiseworthy. Smiling in Public? What is Easterbrook smoking? What does that have to do with anything? Also, I would hope that a coach would grimace at bad plays and be upset if the team loses - it's their job to win football games.

The team's star, Peyton Manning, stands for love of family, constantly appearing in public with his brothers, father and mother.

Maybe, that's cause, I don't know... HIS FATHER AND BROTHER ARE ALSO NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE QUARTERBACKS. If Brady's family was famous, I'm sure they'd be on TV all the time, too. I mean, Brady lives three houses down from two of his sisters.

Manning is happily married and a major donor to a children's hospital. Manning spends a lot of time at children's camps and events, and he constantly makes fun of himself.

These are all very laudable things, but unless Easterbrook follows Peter Singer, there's nothing inherently wrong with Brady not doing this stuff. There's also nothing wrong with being married. But Easterbrook's comment implies that there's something wrong with the fact that Brady's not married, which means that something is wrong with half of the United States.

Argument for the New England Patriots as scoundrels in the service of that which is baleful: Dishonesty, cheating, arrogance, hubris, endless complaining even in success.

First of all, in case you forgot, Easterbrook's really smart! He uses words that no one knows the meaning of, like baleful! Dishonesty and cheating, OK, I'll take it. Arrogance? Hubris? Really? Cause the rest of the media has spent the past half-decade talking about how humble the Patriots are. So, you know, you guys should all get together and work that out. Thanks.

The Patriots have three Super Bowl rings, but that jewelry is tarnished by their cheating scandal.

Really? Cause there's a lot of evidence provided for this charge, right? People had mentioned stuff about this before the Jets thing? What? They hadn't? Oh, well then.

Their coach snaps and snarls in public, seeming to feel contempt for the American public that has brought him wealth and celebrity. Victory seems to give Bill Belichick no joy, and defeat throws him into fury.

Throws him into fury? Belichick has never gone Parcells or Pinella on a member of the press. He always just seems exasperated - not angry - when he deals with them. Belichick doesn't show joy after individual victories because he doesn't care about individual victories, he cares about the Super Bowl. Belichick's only crime here, if he has one, is being super-competitive.

Belichick and the rest of the top of the Patriots' organization continue to refuse to answer questions about what was in the cheating tapes -- and generally, you refuse to answer questions if you have something to hide.

This is Easterbrook - who also writes about politics - confusing two worlds. If a politician refuses to answer questions, he probably has something to hide. Sports teams pretty much always refuse to answer questions that aren't about the team's next game. Sorry, Belichick is not Richard Nixon.

The team's star, Tom Brady, is a smirking celebrity-chaser who dates actresses and supermodels but whose public charity appearances are infrequent.

Easterbrook - who puts up photos of attractive cheerleaders in all of his articles - is criticizing Brady for dating attractive women. Also, Manning's wife isn't some horrible creature from the deep. Also, notice how he doesn't say that Brady doesn't give money to charity, but just says that his "appearances" are infrequent. Meanwhile, if Brady did make frequent charity appearances, Easterbook probably would have criticized him for only giving to charity to make himself look good.

That constant smirk on Brady's face reminds one of Dick Cheney; people who smirk are fairly broadcasting the message, "I'm hiding something."

Yes, Brady is definitely Dick Cheney. 100% the same person. Brady clearly has a strong view of executive power. Or maybe Brady is just happy. Who knows?

He then proceeds to criticize the Patriots for running up the score - a fairly legitimate complaint, but then brushes aside the fact that the Colts did the exact same thing a few years ago.

They, after all, are the ones who admitted to systematic cheating.

This is simply untrue. The Patriots never publicly admitted to anything - although by not appealing the commissioner's decision, they sort of did. And it was ONE GAME. One game is not systemic.

(Belichick) and his team have been praised, praised, praised, praised, praised, praised, praised, praised, praised, praised, praised; criticized when it was discovered New England had engaged in what commissioner Roger Goodell himself called "a calculated and deliberate attempt to avoid long-standing rules designed to encourage fair play and promote honest competition"; then -- after about a week of criticism -- praised, praised, praised.

Maybe this is because the rest of the media realizes that it's not a big deal. Every former NFL player who analyzes for ESPN has blown it aside and moved on. Why? Either cause it wouldn't give a team that much of an advantage or everybody does it.

Should New England continue on and win the Super Bowl without a major attitude shift toward nice-guy behavior -- and should the year end without the NFL's ever explaining what New England evidence it destroyed or why -- there could be a huge amount of cynicism about this NFL season. Cynicism doesn't sell a sports product, nor is it what the NFL should be marketing to the young.

Really, I'm pretty sure people are still watching the NFL, jerk.

Most interesting is that Easterbrook continues his odd obsession with insulting the Patriots despite the fact that ESPN ombudswoman LeAnne Schreiber calls him out in her column and the fact that the rest of the media has moved on.

The New Mr. Irrelevant

Today, I'm proud to announce that the men's basketball team has the unwavering support of Mr. Irrelevant.

I'm not talking about the last person to be picked in the NFL Draft, or the NBA Draft. No, I'm talking about a guy way more special than that.

Recently, the first coaches' poll came out ranking the D-I men's basketball teams. Ok, UNC is No. 1, Duke is No. 11, NC State is No. 24 (Why?) ... wait, where's Maryland?

Well ... all you have to do is to look at the bottom of the page, WAY down in the "Others Receiving Votes" section... at the very end. The last team. With one vote.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!!!

We love you, Mr. Irrelevant, oh faceless supporter of the tradition of Maryland basketball. Like the song by the band Journey, you've never stopped believing in our potential. As we rise up in the polls, never will we forget your unflinching and unwavering vote. The first one is always the most important.

In fact, I think all of you readers should listen to "Don't Stop Believing" and read this column over again.

Wait, there's something else. Read the poll page again. At the very bottom of the page, when they list the panel of head coaches that vote... who is that? Great Scot! Gary Williams? Umm... well I'm sure it's not him. He probably didn't vote for, uh, his own team.

Oh boy.

What Can I Say?

The man pictured below is part man, part beast, part god, and all clutch.



Seriously, What can I say that isn't apparent from the box score? Beckett was brilliant (30 of his first 32 pitches were fastballs between 95 and 97 MPH, he struck out the first five batters of the game), the offense was spectacular (13 runs, with everyone chipping in) - hell, when Gagne came in, I wasn't even nervous.

(IRONY NOTE: Gagne means "to win" in French, well actually "gagner" means to win, but you get the idea.)

Seriously, what more can I ask for as a fan?

The only thing I'm nervous/worried about is going to Colorado - some of the Red Sox players really don't like the cold, although if it didn't effect them last night at Fenway, I doubt it'll be that much worse at Coors. Also, how do we play Lowell, Youk, and Ortiz at the same time? I think, assuming the series goes five games, each one should get one day off - Lowell first, then Youk, then Ortiz. Regardless, we'll have a killer bat coming off the bench each time. Another option would be to play Youklis in right for J.D. Drew. Youk has played left field in the past and I think he could pull it off, although I doubt Francona will want to risk it.

Game 2 tonight in Boston - this World Series could be over before it started.

Dumbledore - The Fallout

This is great. It's easy to tell that Dan Abrams is probably insulted by the idea of having to even cover this story. But you can catch a couple snippets of Mr. Knight, trying very hard to break through Dan Abrams' constant interrupting, saying things about "sexually confused boys" and "coming down with STDs." Oh goodness.

Now that Dumbledore went all John Amaechi on us, are we going to have to get a reaction from Snape or Hagrid? How do they feel now about all those times in the locker room before Quidditch games? We already know how Tim Hardaway feels about it.

I think it's pretty crazy about the uproar relating to a fictional character's sexuality. It's not as if she wrote it directly into the book; readers can believe whatever they want. All Rowling was saying was that when she wrote the book, in her mind, the character was gay, and frankly it makes more sense that way in the general plot. Grindelwald, back in the day, was a pretty handsome guy, I hear.

Has anyone called Sean O'Donnell yet?

In other news:

- Tuesday Morning Quarterback on ESPN posted a great column about the parallels between the Colts v. the Patriots and Good v. Evil that I know will drive Kevin crazy.
- This really should be first. The wildfires are officially a crisis. It's crazy to me how things go on for a while and hardly anyone hears about them until, one day, the media blows up. Same thing happened with Katrina. I feel bad for the Chargers, but I think football is a pretty low priority, compared to what else is going on.
- So nowadays, with $240 million, you can buy a little itty bitty percentage of Facebook. At least that's what Microsoft did. It's interesting to me that the price seem to be soaring sky high. Google bought YouTube last year for $1.65 billion, and now Facebook is valued at around $15 billion. How much profit is everyone making off of online advertising? That much?

By the way, if you all thought it was raining today, I assure you, it was not. Just a drizzle.

Jin Soo, We love you...

There was a monumental event last week in Maryland sports history last week, but I doubt that many of you fine readers know about it unless you bother to follow Maryland basketball recruiting. For the year 2009.

I'm referring to, of course, the oral commitment from Jin Soo Kim, a 6-8 native South Korean.

Yes, you read that correctly. Asians play basketball. They're in the NBA, and now they're in American colleges.

According to Kim's cousin (not the most reliable source, as a disclaimer) Jin Soo may be the first-ever Korean-born Division I basketball player. Read this article for a little more about Kim.

I remember the feeling I got when Yao Ming was drafted into the NBA: Pride. And I feel the same way about Kim. I'm even more proud that I go to the school that he will attend. I'm even more excited that I'm going to the college that he wants to attend.

This university recently reported that 17 percent of the school is composed of Asians, making them the largest minority group on campus. Sometimes Asians are seen as the "not minority" minority, but I think the fact that there are breakthroughs like this happening all the time shows how much further Asians still have to come. For example:

- Every Asian player is described as "weak" or "needing more strength." Guaranteed. Look it up.
- Many Asians that are successful in this country are post players. I know there are Asian guards that can handle a basketball.
- The NBA is recognizing the potential of Asia in the talent market, but D-I colleges are still behind. Other universities should follow Maryland's example, or go above and beyond like the University of Memphis.

Until then, I see this development as a happy beginning.

-As a player, Kim sounds like a pretty decent shot. His stroke has raised the eyes of Gary Williams and NBA scouts alike. It helps that he's in prep school, so we can see how he stacks up against players in this country.

-Another note with more immediate ramifications: Gus Gilchrist, a 6-10 center and 4-star recruit will be enrolling at Maryland in January. The decision will come down soon whether he will play next semester or simply practice until next year. Incredibly, Maryland fans may already have gotten a good look at the young Gilchrist at the Capital Classic in April when he scored 24 points and earned the MVP award.

Two 4-stars for the class of 2008? That ain't too shabby.