SCREW YOU ESPN – and notes on today’s game

I hate ESPN. I am now officially going to CBS for all my sports needs. They have turned into the cool kid at school who uses his popularity to make his friends look better and marginalizing if not making fun of those he doesn’t like. I could point out all the ways that ESPN has refused to be an objective news source and has blatantly blacklisted all MWC teams for backing refusing to sign a contract with them (note: CUSA and Memphis knows exactly how I feel), but I will simply use one example:

UNLV v. Kansas game preview

Not one mention of UNLV in the game preview.

SCREW YOU ESPN. YOU AND ALL YOUR EAST COAST BIASED, UNC/DUKE SYMPATHETIC, GAWD AWFUL ANALYSTS (except for you Doug Gotlieb, you’re cool).

Now for some game notes:

– How cool is it to see Larry Johnson wearing red rooting for UNLV?

– Listened to Lon Kruger talk with Doug Gotlieb on The Herd yesterday. Seriously, is it possible to excite Lon Kruger? The guy is stoic and laid back at the same time. He is inspiring and boring all at once. This guy is amazing.

– Seven years ago as a college freshman I hapened to be in Chicago for the first round of the NCAA tourny. Before the UNLV/Tulsa game I talked up the Rebels to a large crowd at the Downtown ESPNZone (SCREW YOU ESPN), then proceeded to watch Bill Banyo be absolutely out coached by Bill Self. Well Mr. Self, that isn’t Bill Bayno on UNLV’s sideline anymore.

– ESPN is a member of the Communist Party and a Nazi sympathizer. Just thought it should be mentioned.

– Bill Self replaced Lon Kruger at Illinois.

– Ten years ago Kansas defeated a Lon Kruger coached Kansas State en route to a National Championship.

– For date night last night I took Vicky to a sports book. It was her first time. In order to ensure that she would care about today’s game as much as her husband she put 10 on UNLV straight up.

– In order to ensure myself that I would care about the game more than my wife I also put 10 on UNLV straight up.

– Guys, if you want to have the most fun in your life, take your wife to a sports book. Give her no instructions and sit back quietly and enjoy her asking the pissed off man at the counter 25 questions about making a 10 bet on a 13 point dog.

– ESPN hates black people and is the largest conglomerate of underground dogfighting.

matt

note: so I don’t get sued by an overcompensating bully of a alleged sports network – all references to ESPN have not been confirmed and probably aren’t true.

CHEATING!!!

Hey so remember when teachers told us is school that when we were cheating we were only “cheating ourselves.”

Turns out they were right. I can vividly remember cheating on all my major grammar assignments in junior high and high school. I had to relearn what adverbs and pronouns were in college. And right now (GOD BLESS WIKIPEDIA) I am teaching myself a class on syntax.

In following the examples of how we did it in school. I have created a glossary, written out the definitions and examples, and am trying to memorize them. Some examples of my glossary include:

– noun
– pronoun
– infinitive
– gerund
– predicate
– direct object
– indirect object
– predicate noun
– predicate adjective
– participle
– adverb
– article
– demonstrative nouns
– prepositional phrases
– antecedent

Dammit!!! I should have listened.

matt

Mountain West Conference – Day 2

So normally I don’t like to acknowledge women’s college basketball, but in light of EXTREME circumstances I feel obligated to.

CONGRATULATIONS COLORADO STATE MEN AND WOMEN

Looks like both the women’s and men’s teams took a cue from the San Antonio Spurs and mailed in the regular season and only show up for the playoffs.  While neither team managed to win a single conference regular season game (0-32, yeah 0-32), they are a combined 3-0.  Last night the Lady Rams (wait isn’t a lady Ram a sheep?) CSU Sheep defeated 12 ranked Utah. Perhaps an omen for BYU tonight? Let’s hope not, that will hurt our RPI. So for the first time ever on this blog: go COUGS!?!

Today’s Match-ups:

Colorado State vs. BYU (-18.5) @ 12pm

Air Force vs. San Diego State (-5.5) @ 2:30pm

Texas Christian vs. UNLV (-13.5) @ 6pm

Utah vs. New Mexico (-4) @ 8:30pm

Here are my picks, feel free to add yours Ryan.

Colorado St. +18.5
– This game will be close, CSU will be all geeked up after their first win in over 20 games, and BYU will come out sluggish. The Sheep Rams will run out of steam around the 8 minutes timeout in the second half and loose by 14-15.

Air Force +5.5
– Once again I bring up Steve Fisher’s quote from yesterday: “We’re going to put in a
whole new offense and hopefully that will trick them a little bit.” I would take Air Force even if I had to give up points. They will win by 12.

UNLV -13.5
– Don’t tell me UNLV doesn’t have chip on it’s shoulder for everyone bad mouthing the tourney, plus we own TCU. Rebels by 25.

New Mexico -4
– This is my absolute lock for today. New Mexico is playing out of their mind in both the half-court set and the transition. They will neutralize Plaisted and easily beat the Utes by 17.

matt

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March Madness hit my office

I just received the following email from Senior Management:

In support of the UNLV Rebels competing in the Mountain West Conference basketball tournament, employees may show their spirit and wear jeans and Rebel or red shirts for the rest of this week.

Now my only question is: can I call in sick Monday with Runnin’ Rebel Fever?

Things are a bit different than we we went to school huh Ryan?

matt

Breaking down the Mountain West Tournament

My favorite quote is Dave Rose’s. BYU/UNLV is definitely turning into a great rivalry. I have made notes in blue throughout the CAPSULES.

Mar. 12, 2008
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

MOUNTAIN WEST CONFERENCE MEN’S TEAM CAPSULES

(1) BRIGHAM YOUNG

• RECORD: 25-6, 14-2 MWC

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: Louisville

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Lee
Cummard. The 6-foot-7-inch junior guard, averaging 15.8 points, 6.6
rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, was voted MWC co-Player of the Year.
He was the only player in the conference to rank in the top 10 in nine
statistical categories during league action.

• FAST FACT: The Cougars are the first team to win back-to-back outright Mountain West regular-season titles.

• COACHSPEAK: “As far as playing UNLV in the championship game on their home floor, that’s what we hope happens.” — Dave Rose
(And that is exactly what each fan is also hoping happens.)

 

(2) UNLV

• RECORD: 23-7, 12-4

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: San Diego, UNR, Minnesota (Ouch!!! Don’t think this won’t be brought up a gagillion times to the Selection Committee. Also of note, until last night San Diego was not on that list.)

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Curtis
Terry. The senior point guard led the conference in assists with 5.9
per game in league play. The Rebels were 7-0 in games in which Terry
scored at least 15 points. (See, I think Joe D, Double R, and Big Matt will be the keys. Curtis and Wink are both clutch so they will show up big time. How these three step up will be what gets us over the hump.)

• FAST FACT: At the Thomas
& Mack Center this season, the Rebels posted double-digit victories
over Brigham Young (70-41), New Mexico (79-60) and San Diego State
(68-58). (I still don’t get why other teams hate the tourney being on our court? Seriously though, if a team like New Mexico is able to beat us on Friday do they not think that the Selection committee will consider that a road win and extremely improve their resume. These are the things that the coaches know, but aren’t saying.)

• COACHSPEAK: “I think the conference tournament will be outstanding. There are going to be some really interesting matchups.” — Lon Kruger (Listen I love Coach Kruger like I love my yet to be fertilzed child, but you are never going to see him make quotes like Dave Rose. He will just stare at you!!!)

 

(3) NEW MEXICO

• RECORD: 24-7, 11-5

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: San Diego, Texas Tech, New Mexico State (Hey look! They got the recent “San Diego” boost as well.)

• PLAYER TO WATCH: J.R.
Giddens. A transfer from Kansas, the senior guard led the MWC in
scoring (18.3) and rebounding (8.3) in league games. He was the only
player to record two 30-point outings in conference play, including a
career-high 36 against Wyoming. (Um, yeah, Giddens scares the hell out of me right now. This guy is on another level. If we play them on Friday I’ll be watching like a chick watches a scary movie, holding on to Dustin’s arm and all.)

• FAST FACT: The Lobos tied the school record for regular-season wins shared by the 1977-78 and 1995-96 teams.

• COACHSPEAK: “I
think it’s very, very important for our league to really look closely
at what we’re doing with our league tournament. The league tournament
needs to be at a neutral site. Right now, it’s not fair to the other
eight teams in our league.” — Steve Alford (Shut your pie hole Steve Alford. We both know that you cannot beat BYU, even on your home court. You would lose to them even if the conference tourney were in the Pit. And we all know, as I stated above, that New Mexico benefits from the tourney being held at the Thomas and Mack Center more than any team. Doesn’t a win over UNLV on their court this time of the year essentially make you the second MWC team in the tourney and send UNLV to the NIT? Holy crap, that’s true. I just peed a little.)

 

(4) SAN DIEGO STATE

• RECORD: 19-11, 9-7

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: San Diego, Sam Houston State (Seriously, is there a MWC team that hasn’t beat San Diego?)

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Lorrenzo
Wade. A Cheyenne High School product, the 6-6 junior was voted
first-team all-conference after finishing league play as one of three
players to rank in the top 10 in scoring, rebounding, assists, blocked
shots and field-goal percentage.

• FAST FACT: The Aztecs
are looking for their 20th victory, and the 25 teams that won at least
20 games all advanced to the postseason in the first eight seasons of
the Mountain West.

• COACHSPEAK: “We’re going to put in a
whole new offense and hopefully that will trick them a little bit.” —
Steve Fisher, whose team scored 49 and 43 points in splitting two games
this season against Air Force, the Aztecs’ quarterfinal opponent in the
MWC tournament. (Um, Steve, a little late in the year to be putting a “whole new offense” in, don’t you think? If you haven’t put it together by this point…well, at least you did succeed in tricking this guy.)

 

(5) AIR FORCE

• RECORD: 16-13, 8-8

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: None

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Tim
Anderson. The senior guard was named MWC Defensive Player of the Year.
The Falcons led the league in scoring defense (57.3 points per game)
for the sixth straight season.

• FAST FACT: The Falcons, 0-8 all time in the MWC tournament, have lost 15 straight opening-round conference tournament games.

• COACHSPEAK: “Before
this season, I don’t think anybody thought we would have three teams
deserving of an NCAA bid and this conference would be as strong as it
is top to bottom. Next year, I think it will be unbelievable.” — Jeff
Reynolds (It’s never a good thing when the coaches comments before the conference tourney includes the phrase “next year”. It’s also not a good sign that the team playing them thinks the only chance of victory is to change their entire offense 30 games into the season. The Mountain West Conference: where self-defeating quotes hapen.)

 

(6) UTAH

• RECORD: 16-13, 7-9

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: California, Utah State

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Luke
Nevill. The 7-1 junior center from Australia averages 15.0 points and
6.5 rebounds per game and is shooting 54.6 percent from the field.

• FAST FACT: The
Utes’ sixth man, senior guard Johnnie Bryant, is their No. 2 scorer at
14.2 points per game. Bryant started all 30 games as a junior and made
27 starts as a sophomore.

• COACHSPEAK: “We feel we can play with anybody. We’ve put ourselves in position to win a lot of games that we haven’t won.” — Jim Boylen (Alright, second place for the most self-defeating comment goes to Jim Boylen. On a side note, no one at UNLV wants to see Luke Neville for a third time.)

 

(7) TEXAS CHRISTIAN

• RECORD: 14-15, 6-10

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: None

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Kevin
Langford. The junior forward, who graduated in December with a degree
in sociology, averages 13.1 points and 5.2 rebounds per game.

• FAST FACT: Ten
different players have started at least one game for the Horned Frogs.
Only Langford and senior guard Brent Hackett have started all 29 games.

• COACHSPEAK: “They
have interchangeable parts and they are able to put up great defensive
pressure.” — Neil Dougherty, on UNLV, which beat TCU twice by an
average of 15.5 points per game. (Joe D. playing center and C. Terry running point aren’t examples of interchangeable parts. Rather and example of fitting square pegs in circle holes, and a coach hitting a hammer as hard as he can to make them fit anyway.)

 

(8) WYOMING

• RECORD: 12-17, 5-11

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: Colorado

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Brandon
Ewing. The junior guard was the MWC scoring leader as a sophomore. He
ranks second in scoring in all games this season, averaging 16.8
points. He ranks fourth in conference play at 16.2 ppg.

• FAST FACT: The
Cowboys were the No. 7 seed when they reached the 2006 tournament title
game, losing to top-seeded San Diego State in overtime.

• COACHSPEAK: “When
you’re playing your rival for the third time, it’s really difficult.”
— Heath Schroyer, whose team beat Colorado State by 15 and 10 points
this season.

 

(9) COLORADO STATE

• RECORD: 6-24, 0-16

• KEY NONCONFERENCE WINS: Portland State

• PLAYER TO WATCH: Marcus
Walker. The junior guard led the MWC in scoring in all games, averaging
17.2 points. In conference games, he finished No. 2 at 18.1 ppg, three
total points behind New Mexico’s Giddens (293-290).

• FAST FACT: The Rams’ 17-game losing streak, which includes a home loss to Oklahoma Panhandle State, is the longest in school history.

• COACHSPEAK: “I want to put this season behind me, but I fight that urge. I want to give the kids the best shot to win.” — Tim Miles

The play in game between CSU and Wyoming is tonight. UNLV takes on TCU tomorrow night. And yes, all my life consists of school and college basketball right now.

matt

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Senior Day – Curtis Terry and Corey Bailey

It’s senior day for two former walk-on’s.

Big props to one of the all-time great Rebels: Curtis Terry. You will never see him make anyone’s list of all-time UNLV greats except maybe mine. Curtis has meant so much to this UNLV program. He walked on with Coach Kruger and has been an intricate part of the rebuilding of UNLV basketball. He put us in the Sweet Sixteen with two clutch baskets against Wisconsin last year and has been unsung in playing out of position while leading UNLV to a possible return to the NCAA Tournament this year. THANK YOU Curtis, it has been a pleasure to watch you play. You have brought honor and respect to this program. You will be missed.

Corey Bailey (center) decided he was tired of fixing air conditioners in Florida and somehow walked on the UNLV basketball team. In his first year getting solid minutes last year he couldn’t make an open shot to save his life. But after spending sometime with a sports psychologist in the off-season he has regained his nickname “Buckets”. Corey has been a solid shooter all season, giving us an added mid-range scorer. I think it was vs. New Mexico at home that he made his first six shots. Like Terry, Bailey exemplifies the character of the UNLV rebuild. While numerous egocentric scholarship players have been kicked off the team, guys who work hard like Corey continue to contribute to the DNA of a team that, win or lose, a fan is proud to call his team. Thank you Corey for all you have done, you will be missed.

matt