Eastern Finals

6 consecutive years now for the Pistons in the Eastern Conference Finals. 6 years ago I was still student-teaching, living in a crappy apartment in Allendale and looking forward to Moosehead Thursdays. Now, I'm living in a semi-crappy apartment in Cincinnati and looking forward to the Office on Thursdays.
At this point, I would rather the Pistons play the Cavs over the Celtics. At one point in Game 4, the Cavs had West, Szerzerabiak, Pavlovic, Varejo and Wallace on the floor at the same time. Yikes. That ain't exactly the 84 Celtics.
At this point, neither team's bench is very deep, but the Cavs really lose an important piece in Boobie, an aggressive, quick shooter who had a great series against the Pistons in last year's playoffs. Tonight's game could be an interesting one...I wouldn't be surprised if the Celts give BronBron every shot he wants while trying to limit everyone else's open looks. I also don't understand why the Cavs don't get Ilgauskus going more offensively. They should be able to stretch the Celts out better if the Z--Man gets it going on the block.
Barkley said the winner of the Jazz and Lakers wins the NBA title. I would severely disagree with that statement. I believe the teams are so evenly matched in the west, there is no way you can definitively pick a winner at this point in the playoffs. What I do know is that the Conference finals are going to be incredibly intense and filled with plenty of Spurs' cheap shots, Chris Paul alley-oops, redonkulous stare-downs from KG, and plenty of Flip-Mode facial tics while Rip gives up plenty of perimeter jumpers after half-hearted attempts to double-team the ball.

R2

A very solid 2nd half for the D in tonight's game. Billups had the type of game expected (and needed) from him in his matchup against the Orlando point guards. I also liked putting Tey Tey on Hedo and not Lewis--that shows the respect (or lack thereof) the D has for Rashard Lewis. Dwight Howard is still a broad-shouldered one-trick pony--he can't shoot FT's, he is a BAD face-up post player outside the paint, and is not a great passer. Detroit went zone, put bodies between Howard and teh rim, and closed out effectively on shooters. And I honestly like Herrmann getting some good 4th quarter run and getting under the skin of the Orlando players.
It wasn't all roses and candy in the first half, though. Detroit stood around a TON in the second quarter as they tried to post Dice against Hedo repeatedly, with Rip attempting to throw the entry pass instead of Stuckey or Chauncey. Dooling and Hedo got to the rim rather easily at times. Also, while Maxiell had a great second half, he is not a great screen-roll player; Detroit attempted to get Howard away from the rim by getting Cram Maxx in some screen-rolls, which didn't work out well in the first half. Second half, Cram did a great job of moving from the weakside and making plays.
All in all, a very good series opener; especially considering Boston is staring down a game 7 tomorrow while the LeBrons rest up. It was also great to see everyone favorite Dookie, Redick, in the game late and squeezing off a bunch of inconsequential 3's.
I'm excited to watch the Hornets-Spurs series. I think the Lakers beat the Jazz; but I'm not sure about the Spurs getting past NO.

Stuff

My quick and dirty thoughts (I don't get to say that enough) on the Pistons first-round playoff series.

**I hope this is the same type of great coming-out party for Rodney Stuckey as it was for Tey-Tey in his first playoff series, also against the 76ers. In that series, it was Prince's defense against Iverson which carried the Pistons to the Finals. In this series (and for the entire playoffs, for that matter) it may likely be Stuckey's offense which will prove to be essential for teh Pistons to advance. I hate to admit it, but Simmons' NBA podcast this week was spot-on in that the Pistons have suffered from a misplaced sense of security in some of their bad playoff losses over the past few years. That Cavs series last year was brutal to watch, especiallya s they seemingly gave less than maximum effort for long stretches at a time.

Hopefully the extended rest the starters got down the last 10 games of the season will prove to be beneficial for this year's playoff run. Stuckey, Cram Max, Ratliff, and Hunter all provide very different but vital things to this team as reserves and here's hoping they continue to be productive.

**I think the Pistons cruise in this series, as long as Tey-Tey and the boys contain Iguodola. The 76ers have very little scoring in the paint and are one of the worst 3-point shooting teams in the league, which is NOT the way to beat Detroit. The Sixers try to play uptempo and get a ton of points in the paint and from midrange jumpers. Detroit should be able to get a lot of easy shots at the offensive end while not expending a ton of energy on defense.

**That last sentence is a good thing, and hopefully they'll also be able to use that rest to full advantage in Round 2 against the winner of the Cleveland/Washington series, which promises to potentially get ugly with some junk-talking from both teams occurring over the past few days.

Hope the Fun Run went well today.
Hope the cow frees itself soon.
Hope Al's Acres are growing well.

These are the kinds of days I miss home---talk of going to Tiger games, Pistons playoffs, golf, etc. Plus, I get to ref tomorrow! Yay! 7th and 8th grade boys games don't exactly excite a man on a 75-degree April Saturday afternoon.

Something worse than Lav-Mus

I CANNOT believe I didn't remember what was coming today in the Big 10 Tourney....The Semi's and Finals aren't televised by ESPN..but rather, CBS.

Soooooo....that means S & M moves over for the soul-sucking Billy Packer and his partner in crime, Jim Nantz. Gone are silly nicknames, comparison of schools' bands, and, well, humor.

In the booth will be lots of stern faces, no criticism of any coach or player EVER unless they talk to a ref, references to Big Ten Champions from at least 4 decades ago, and absolutely no mention whatsoever from B. Pack about teams from mid-major conferences. Just like Helly says--if you don't want it to exist, then it simply doesn't. Unfortunately, Packer enjoys taking this theory nationally.

So, in conclusion, we're sorry, our bad for the previous post. If you have any questions, please direct them to the brick wall.

Lastly--here's things that I hate worse than Billy Packer.

Snow
Back pain
Soccer
Any commercial involving Kyzezshwski or Vitale
Anything else involving Vitale
Manu Ginobili



That's it, that's the list.

Lavs and a Burger

This will be short and sweet.
Steve Lavin and Brent Musberger need to stop. I mean, just stop it. Right now.

The Big 11 conference tourney semi-finals are today. MSU-Wisconsin, followed by Minnesota-Illinois. That means more S & M (Steve and Mus) yukking it up courtside at Conseco together.
Musberger, in the 80's, was a STUD. He did a ton of great NBA games. Lavin knows his stuff. I just think his hair product and affinity for inane nicknames gets in the way of the game, and both guys simply have no use for pronouncing names correctly (or even the same way the other guy does). With the guys at the mike, their banter is a bit tough to take sometimes, and I think I can write the script for both games.

In Game 1, there will be roughly 17 references to Brian Butch calling him a "Polar Bear", more than a few conversations about Drew Neitzel's toughness, Drew Naymick will be called "Big Red", at least 3 references to how one of these teams is going to try to "knock out the Cinderella team coming from the 2nd semi-final game", they will certainly talk about how "Bo Ryan gets the most out of his players", and Lavin will somehow talk about UCLA at least twice. Let's hope they somehow work in a U.P.-Izzo talk (Did you know Izzo and Mariucci are friends?)

Oh, and you can bet the ranch that Ohio State's bubble profile will be worked into the conversation. I'm just glad OSU isn't playing today so S & M can't butcher Kosta Koufos's name anymore, and I don't have to hear Lavin refer to the "O-Hawk" again.

The second game will show Blake Hofberger's high school shot while he was on his back at least twice, with the potential of a "kooky" shootaround re-enactment of both shots, possibly involving his Minnesota teammates and/or Erin Andrews. Definitely some tounge-bathing from S & M on how great Tubby and Bruce Weber are (and they are, I agree). They'll be tired, so a second-half conversation will take place discussing either a trip to Las Vegas, In & Out Burger, or Lavin's hair, or some combo of all 3. Also, there will definitely be some awkward flirting with Erin Andrews.

What won't be talked about (but should be) are the following--Kelvin Sampson, is Eric Gordon ready for the NBA, how the heck Illinois finished behind Penn State in the Big Mediocre this year, if Northwestern will ever finish in the top 4 of the league standings or ever make the NCAA Tourney (they never have, you can look that up), why the center floor design was created to look like a logo from the 1972 World's Fair, and if any Big Ten team will be playing on the 2nd weekend of the tournament.

Syracuse should be IN!!

Okay, I really truly don't mean that at all...just wanted to get you riled up.

The Big East Dilemna. Does playing in a 16-team conference mean more to a (mediocre) at-large team than playing in a traditional-sized conference?

This is the 3rd season of the mega-sized Big East, as the league added Marquette, Cincinnati, Louisville and South Florida prior to the 2005-06 season. Those schools have various degrees of success, both in and out of league play, since becoming part of the Big East. Louisville and Marquette are national powers, Cincy is in the early stages of the rebuilding process, and S. Florida has been in the bottom four of the league standings for all 3 seasons.

Adding those to premier programs like Georgetown, UConn, Pittsburgh, Villanova and Notre Dame leaves a league which is incredibly top-heavy; which, again, being 16 teams, should take place.

Over the past two seasons, the league is 18-14 in the Tourney, including an 8-6 record in the first round. In comparison, the Big Ten is 12-12, 8-4 (1-7 in the second round), the ACC is 13-11, 9-2 (3-6 in 2nd round), and the Big 12 is 10-8, 5-3.

Obviously the Big East should get more teams in, having more teams in the league, but they have a better winning % than those other leagues. Simple stats, such as that one, may indicate a strong league top to bottom. Or they may just be a 2-year snapshot and not enough of a sample size to demonstrate the league's strength.

Now, I'm not advocating taking the 9th place Big East team over the 6th place ACC team as a blanket statement. I believe a team's body of work must be considered on a yearly basis, regardless of conference affiliation, if they are a bubble team. A great example of this was on Sportscenter tonight. They put the "resumes" of South Alabama and Villanova next to each other. USA's RPI--37. Nova RPI--56. USA--Strength of Schedule--119. Nova--50. Numbers aside, USA has a number of victories against teams likely in the tournament and is 3-2 against the current RPI top 50. Nova is 4-6 against the Top 50.

Despite the losing record, does it help Nova to play twice as many games against Top 50 teams? I believe it HAS to help you. Playing in a league like the Big East really illuminates your strengths and weaknesses. I believe that type of schedule can both harm and hurt your team, especially early in the season. If a team like Nova can handle adversity within the Big East schedule and succeed late the in season, that speaks well of the team's mental toughness and ability to get better.

For example, Nova lost 4 straight games in late January, 3 on the road. Rather than throw in the towel, they rallied to win games in February against tourney-bound teams Marquette, UConn, and West Virginia. They did lose to Louisville, Syracuse and a 2-point buzzer-beater at Georgetown in that late stretch, but gaining that level of mental toughness during that schedule simply has to be beneficial....IF a team accepts that challenge and works to get better every day. And I'm not saying that S. Alabama shouldn't make it. In fact, I think they SHOULD make it this year. Further, I'm not necessarily saying Nova is a lock; they have played up and down and struggled against teams with size; however, they are tourney-tested and have a great coach in Jay Wright.

Here's another example. Let's say the Big Ten next year accepts (regional non Big East schools for the comparison) Butler, Iowa State, WMU (won their division of the MAC this year) and Drake. Butler and Drake are LEGIT, tough-minded teams who run great offensive systems. This would give the Big Ten (likely) 8 tournament teams this year. Wouldn't playing each of those teams just once (and 2 of those games taking place on the road) help, say, a middle of the road team such as Ohio State in the same way that it helped Villanova?

Or would it HURT OSU in the same way that it hurt, say, SYRACUSE this year? Playing that kind of schedule would take away a couple of lesser nonconference opponents off the OSU schedule, put a little more emphasis on conference play, and put a even bigger priority on playing well in a bigger league in order to have a better at-large resume and a better seed in what would be an even more competitive Big 16 tournament. On a year-in, year-out basis, would that hurt or help teams? Again, I simply think that must be applied to each team separately, rather than applying it across the board to every team.

Hopefully I didn't surprise or shock anyone by using logic, rather than saying something like, "THE BIG EAST IS AWESOME! 16 IS BETTER THAN 10!!" It's tough for common sense to permeate through the level of screaming and Vitale at this point in the year, I know. I really didn't give a definitive answer to the question because I don't believe there is a definitive answer. Every team can always point to a game (or games) and blame themselves for not making the tournament.

I think there are some years where the Big East, in its presently constituted form, will have deserving teams miss the tournament because of the schedule they must endure within the league (Syracuse last year). I also believe that some years, the 16-team grind may wear some teams down and possibly drag the league's overall quality down. I also believe that the teams who finish near the top of the league standings should be extremely tournament-ready, and the numbers in the first 2 years of this format prove that out.

Teams from the Big East who gain a 1st thru 4th seed in the field of 65 are 12-4 , including a perfect 8-0 on the opening weekend. In comparison, Big Ten teams are 8-5 (5-4), ACC 10-6 (9-3), and Big 12 9-5 (7-2). Those numbers would seem to indicate that really good teams playing more games against really good teams helps.

Of course, this is all a moot point when the bracket hits this weekend, which is why college basketball is a great sport at EVERY level. You are either in or out, and you either advance or die. It's pretty simple. But what has happened to your team before you land on that seeding line has a direct effect on how far your team travels.

Day 3, in reverse

This was the least newsworthy day of the week, on the heels of playing games on both days preceding this one. Both games were bad double-figure losses, with minimal effort at times during both outings.

Basically, it began at 9:00 in the parking lot of the resort. Our head coach found a flat, 150-yard stretch of pavement, upon which our kids ran a dozen timed sprints. Only one kid brought a water bottle, and 2 of them wore their swimsuits under their shirts. Apparently they didn't expect to actually run after being on the business end of 3 double-figure losses in the 5 previous days.

From there, we took them to the basketball court, where we went through about a 45-minute sprint workout with some yelling taking place. One kid puked afterward all over the place, and some of it got on our coach's leg.

Afterward, we released them for the day. For many of the kids, it was their first time ever seeing a jet-ski in person, which was quite wierd for me, having been around them for most of my life.

Our dinner, provided by our friends at Island Times, was Subway. I was supposed to meet them at 6:00 in the lobby. I arrived at 5:40 to find our food on a table in the lobby with no one around it. Luckily, it was not stolen by any hungry tourists.

The next few entries will get funny/sad/busy once again.

Day 2, in reverse

Our last full day on the island was a rather interesting one, as I'll try to illustrate below...

6:45--One of our players leaves for home, having had a grandparent pass away earlier in the week. Her travel debacle will be detailed in the next blog.
9:15--Supposed to leave for a practice at a different gym than the one we played our games at. However, we had 6 different players late for the taxi.

9:50--Arrive at the BCB Middle School on St. Thomas, where we were to practice from 10:00-noon. Walk into a rubber-floor 80-foot floor gym with 4 hoops and approximately 392 kids running around.
Luckily, the PE "teacher", Avery, ended up being one of the best people I met on the island. Avery says that the tournament director never called him to confirm the practice time. And, needless to say, the Island Times people failed to tell us that the gym would be the worst gym that we would ever walk into. However, Avery is gracious enough to clear the gym of most of the kids and let us practice, which, due to the poor floor, consisted essentially of running and more running.

The "best" kids were allowed to stay and watch us practice. It was a rather eye-opening talk with some of them afterward. The kids were absolutely mesmerized by pre-wrap. Many of them had never seen anyone get their ankle taped. The boys' favorite player on our team was our only left-handed player....apparently being left-handed is considered to be lucky in the Virgin Islands.

Our practice was cut short by roughly 45 minutes for a reason that every US team has to deal with--a steel-drum band began setting up for a school assembly.

12:15--Get back to resort to eat lunch, which was KFC. It was honestly one of the 2 best meals I ate all week long on the island. For some reason, the St Thomas KFC has french fries for a side item, and the gravy comes in styrofoam shot glasses.

1:50--Leave for a shopping excursion to St John, another one of the Virgin Islands. We had to take a ferry across the gulf to get to the island.

4:15--Leave island early. Very bored. St John was a very small, extremely expensive island.

5:00--Find out that some of the other kids not very bored, as five of them got temporarily lost in the woods of the National Park on the island en route to the beach.

7:00--Kristen and I had a nice, relaxing dinner in the upscale restaurant on the resort. This was the best meal I had all week.

8:45--For dessert, one of our players comes to our room complaining of foot pain. Turns out she stepped on what we believed was a sea urchin. She went directly to an Urgent Care facility when we got back from our trip from Hell the next day and found out that she had a rock and some glass in the cut.

Our head coach rooted around inside of her heel with various objects to try to get the rock out, including a nail file, a small metal implement designed to do Lord knows what, and a fingernail clipper.

We sent her away in tremendous pain after an hour of digging away inside her heel.

10:40--Ended the night by going to the pool and watching a lot of white people dance awkwardly.

Sawing a travel log

In reverse fashion, I'll attempt to somehow bring to life through the magic of words our trip we took to teh Virgin Islands with our team...specifically, we played two games on the island of St Thomas while staying in the Wyndham Resort and Spa on the island. I'm going to start with the last day because it seemed like it lasted about 3 days.

7:30--Awoke to head to the downtown shopping market.
8:00--Took the island "taxi", which is basically the Silver Lake sand dune open-air 15-passenger truck, to a shopping market. My personal highlight was haggling with the local merchants over pricing, including nearly getting a purse thrown at me. Didn't purchase anything, but enjoyed being asked roughly 3,000 times if I wanted my hair braided.
10:00--Returned to hotel room to finish packing for the trip, only to find one of our players still suffering from a heel injury after stepping on a sea urchin. I'm not making that sentence up.
11:00--Soaked in some last-minute rays at the pool.
11:12--Put my shirt back on, much to the relief of the people at the pool.
1:00--Left for the airport. This should have been a 20-minute drive.
1:15--Roughly 5 minutes away from the airport, saw a major accident on the only main road on the island from our hotel to the airport. At this point, we actually went back toward the hotel and began a circle tour of the island.
We had a great driver who knew we couldn't be late for our flight, so he began a drive that I can only describe as harrowing, treacherous, and panic-inducing. I was (un)lucky enough to sit in the front seat at a window. This means that I basically always had a body part hanging outside the vehicle as we took one hairpin turn after another while traversing some seriously steep hills.
2:18--Arrived in one piece at the airport to find our bags, which were taken by a separate van, laying on the curb awaiting our arrival, which was one of about four thousand issues we would have with the people responsible with running this tournament.
2:25--Began the incredibly ardous process of going through security for our flight, which was to leave the island at 3:50.
2:26--Found out that our flight was going to leave early (3:35). Began shoving toddlers in order to get further ahead in line.
3:20--After purchasing the single worst hot dog I have ever eaten in my life, was shouted down by a flight attendant who claimed that we needed to hurry up and get on the plane even though one of our players was still in TSA custody. Turns out that person was a 55-year old woman.
3:36--Got on plane to find out that we were leaving early because we had to fly to Puerto Rico. Was not told by ANYONE involved with United Airlines (Comic Book Guy voice--WORST AIRLINE EVER) that we were going to Puerto Rico.
3:55--Upon arrival in Puerto Rico, one of our players asked if Puerto Rico was a part of Mexico. Immediately consider a career change.
3:59--Ask a different player what they know about Puerto Rico. They think it's another part of the Virgin Islands.
4:01--Place a call to the education department at MSJ.
4:43--Leave PR for Dulles Intl Airport in DC.
8:05--Arrive ahead of schedule in DC to see that our flight to Indy is scheduled to leave on time at 9:45
8:20--Find out flight is delayed 35 minutes. The gate attendant, who didn't exactly use the English language as much as he abused it, stated, "The flight is delayed because fog is around the air at the Indy airport."
8:23--Eat as many Auntie Anne's pretzel bites as it takes to forget about it. Final total--34 bites, 4 packets of sweet mustard sauce.
9:58--Board plane. Our tickets won't scan. Gate attendant asks, "Where place did you go from with these tickets?"
10:09--In what I can only describe as the single scariest moment of my life, the plane's power completely goes out as stewardess (excuse me, PERSON, begins safety talk). That's right---the plane's power completely went out. Person's response? "This happens all the time."
10:10--Try to figure out another profession which can re-name itself whenever it wants to. Cannot come up with one, but resolve to call garbagemen "individuals" from now on.
10:19--Find out that the smaller planes at Dulles work off of "secondary power" while boarding and if engines aren't fully fired before exiting the power grid, the plane fully blacks out.
10:20--Attempt to black myself out by hanging myself with my earphones.
10:32--Plane loses power twice more. Small angina attack suffered by multiple people on board.
10:47--Still awaiting takeoff, the pilot states that the onboard steering computer hasn't fully come back to "operational status"; thus, we are returning to the hangar.
10:59--Stumble back into the United terminal with a surly lot of travelers.
11:30--Re-assess meaning of life.
11:50--Reboard plane.
12:17--Pilot comes on and states "once we get up in the air, I will fly it like I stole it."
12:19--Absolutely no joke; someone asks the PERSON if the pilot has flown before.
2:20--Arrive in Indy and pick up luggage; get on charter bus with a driver who steadfastly refuses to A) drive without swerving for no reason, and B) will not drive faster than 66 MPH at any time.
4:45--Get to MSJ. Hold the shortest and quietest team meeting in program history.
5:35--Go to sleep.