COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA

COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA
Gate posted: 3/20/2011

NFL COMMISSIONER ROGER GOODELL'S LETTER TO NFL PLAYERS




PEARLS OF WISDOM?

Over the past year, University of Tennessee basketball coach, Bruce Pearl, has had his share of problems. In September, he acknowledged making inappropriate recruitment contacts and then provided false information during an NCAA investigation into the matter. As a result, Tennessee imposed sanctions on Pearl and his entire staff including $1.5 million in salary reduction over the coming five years and a delayed retention bonus. His off-campus recruiting is also restricted completely through September 2013. In November, he was suspended from coaching in his team's first eight SEC regular season games. Tennessee is still awaiting word from the NCAA on what violations they may impose on the Tennessee program.

So last Friday (3/18), after Tennessee (19-15) got blown out in the second half to Michigan, 75-45, for its eighth loss in the past dozen games, Pearl was asked by CBS’s courtside reporter and Michigan grad, Tracy Wolfson, if he thinks he coached his last game for the school.


He answered, “I hope not.” Then a few minutes later Charles Barkley during the post-game studio show told us that he’s a big Bruce Pearl fan and that Pearl has done a fantastic job at the school, but because he’s made some recent mistakes, he’s got to be fired.


If people should get fired for making mistakes, how come Charles is still working on TV. Charles thinks everyone should be answerable for their actions, but he isn't.

OVERDONE ANNOUNCING?

Once again, we have an example of hysterical forced screaming. Below is Gus Johnson providing it on TNT on Friday (3/18) during the last 30 seconds of George Mason’s 61-57 win over Villanova.







A REAL BRACKET BUSTER!

For those who have been following the Crier's suggested bracket pool, he lost one of his Sweet Sixteen teams on Thursday (3/17) when Louisville lost to Morehead State at the buzzer, 62-61. However, Rick Pitino’s boys shot less than 50% from the foul line (7-16) for the game, which was the real killer. The next day in Michigan’s blowout of Tennessee, Michigan did not make one foul shot (0-1), as they attempted only one. I’m sure ESPN later had some kind of informative graphic on SportsCenter that Michigan tied the record for fewest free throws made in a tournament game.

FLUB OF THE DAY


Brien Straw and Greg Koch are having their own bracket pool on the SportsRadio 610 website for the greatest Houston athlete of all time. They did a pretty decent job of getting a good field and their seeding of the athletes was okay.

However, this is more a popularity contest than anything else as seen by some of the voting results.

If voters were very knowledgeable, Babe Didrikson, Carl Lewis, Gordie Howe, and George Blanda would end up in the Elite Eight, but I know that will never happen. For me, it’s Babe vs. Carl Lewis in the finals.


I looked over the field of 32 (second round) after it was pared down from 64 and saw some spelling flubs:


Mike Munchack (Munchak)
Rudy Tomjonovich (Tomjanovich)
Bruce Mathews (Matthews)
Sheryl Swoops (Swoopes)
Hakeem Olajuon (Olajuwon)


And Chad H. brings up the fact that Mike Munchak showed up twice in the pool: “Mike Munchack holds two spots in the tournament, huh. Not only that, but he’s seeded different each time…a 3-seed in one region and a 6-seed in another. Well done, Munchack!” END.

It looks like this flub has since been corrected.


On Saturday’s afternoon show (3/19) on SR 610, Greg Koch when talking about TCU moving to the Big East, he said it was just the football team that was moving. Wrong! It’s moving all its sports to the Big East on July 1, 2012.

How about Greg calling Josh Innes by the name of Josh Ellis?


And Brien telling us that that Reliant Energy is paying about $5M per year for naming rights at Reliant Stadium. He was half-right. It’s $10M per year through 2032.


How about Greg asking Brien if he was surprised that the Heat beat the Lakers at home last week (3/10)? Brien said that he had picked the Heat to win. So what’s the big deal; the Heat were favored by a deuce.


How about Brien getting on the phone an hour before a conference championship game last Saturday (3/12) with Marc Vandermeer, that Marc, John Lopez, and Mike Meltser were going to broadcast from the Merrell Center in Katy? Brien didn’t even know the name of the tournament (Southland Conference) though SR 610 promoed the heck out of it all week.

When taking names from callers for nominees for the greatest Houston athletes, when a caller mentioned the great Olympic volleyballer, Flo Hyman (6'5" tall), Greg thought it was a trick being played on them similar to goofball names like Mike Hunt or Buster Hyman.

Though this is not a flub, I consider it as one, as it is a flub by exclusion. Though I may have missed it, I haven’t heard any local sports talk about the investigation going on by the IRS of the Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowls or the one going on by the state of Arizona over “criminal” activity of the Fiesta Bowl Committee that the PG talked about in the March 4 PG (www.sheltonmedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/comments-from-peanut-gallery-mike-in-da_04.html).



Some discussion about the above topic is more important than a lot of the nonsensical stuff we hear locally on air. This could lead to the possible downfall of the BCS system. To prove that there has been little discussion on this topic, one morning about two weeks ago I brought it up on the “two-minute drill” on SR610 and Marc Vandermeer and John Lopez who normally throw in a quick comment after the caller’s quick hit, were both silent, as though they didn't know what I was talking about.


Even the always reliable Bob Berger on KGOW 1560 two Thursdays ago (3/10) when talking about the NCAA Tourney at the time, said 13 of the 37 automatic bids had been already filled. Actually, there are 31 automatic bids and 37 at-large berths.


Rich Lord showed some more of his lack of sports knowledge for someone in his position. When talking about retired single-digit New York Yankee uniform numbers, Rich who is a Yankee fan, said that #9 has never been retired. Please note that in 1984, #9 was retired in honor of Roger Maris, a year before he passed away.



And Rich is not that familiar with some of the other post-season basketball tourneys, as he called the CBI.com tourney the CBS, CSI, and whatever acronyms he could come up with, but the right one.

How accurate and timely are the SR610 traffic reports when there is no mention of a big traffic jam on Highway 59 right outside the station’s studio and there was no mention of it by the traffic reporter one day this past week?

I can go on and on telling you about all the misinformation and nonsense you can get from our local sports talkers.  



TRU TV GETS RESPECTABLE FOR THE FIRST TIME!

In 2008, the respectable Court TV became truTV whose regular programming consists of a bunch of staged, low-class type reality shows, such as “World’s Dumbest (fill in the blank)”, “Top 20 Most Shocking (fill in the blank)”, “Speeders”, “Disorder in the Court”, “Hardcore Pawn”, “Las Vegas Jailhouse”, “Operation Repo”, “Conspiracy Theory with Jesse Ventura”, etc., etc.

So last week, when the network showed the NCAA Tournament games, it marked the first time in three plus years that it had what you can consider legitimate primetime reality show programming. In case you missed it, last week’s Butler-Old Dominion game was preceded by Busty Heart smashing cans, a baseball bat, and a melon with her breasts.






In case Busty (nee Susan Sykes - 46H breasts) looks familiar to you, she demonstrated her "talents" on the third season of "America's Got Talent" in 2008, and received three unanimous "No" (XXX) votes from the panel.

CRIER’S CORNER



BASKETBALL ACTION


Yesterday’s Record ATS: 4-4


L - LA CLIPPERS* (-12.5) over CLEVELAND
W - MEMPHIS* (-9) over INDIANA


NCAA


St. Pete Times Forum - Tampa, FL
L - UCLA (+5) over FLORIDA


Verizon Center – Washington, DC
W - BUTLER (+8) over PITTSBURGH
L - CINCINNATI (+3) over CONNECTICUT


Pepsi Center – Denver, CO
L - GONZAGA (-1.5) over BYU


NIT
W - NORTHWESTERN (+4) over BOSTON COLLEGE*


CIT
W - BUFFALO (+1) over WESTERN MICHIGAN*


Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 546-329


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

NBA



NEW JERSEY at WASHINGTON* (TOTAL OVER 194)
The Wizards snapped a three-game losing streak in Newark in early January by basically putting the clamps on what is an anemic Nets offense. Washington held the Nets to 34% from the floor, forced 17 turnovers, and won by 20 despite the fact that John Wall was invisible with only five points. WASHINGTON, 108-106


MINNESOTA* (-3.5) over SACRAMENTO
The Wolves might be a slightly better scoring team than the Kings and despite the force known as Kevin Love, the Kings can pound the glass only if DeMarcus Cousins doesn’t take possessions off. When a team turns it over 19 times like the Kings did in a nine-point loss in November there is only the mirror to blame. The Californians might phone it in. MINNESOTA, 113 – 101


HOUSTON* (-6.5) over UTAH
Despite playing a game 24 hours earlier, the Utah Jazz beat the Rockets in OT in January in light of the fact they only shot 4 for 19 from long range. Three members of the Jazz, Paul Millsap, Al Jefferson, and Deron Williams all had double/doubles, but they will miss Williams this evening. The thing about the Rockets is they play hard every single night. HOUSTON, 110 – 96

COLLEGE HOOPS



NCAA


Quicken Loans Arena – Cleveland, OH
GEORGE MASON (+11.5) over OHIO STATE
SYRACUSE (-4.5) over MARQUETTE

Time-Warner Cable Arena – Charlotte, NC 
WASHINGTON vs. NORTH CAROLINA (TOTAL OVER 159.5) 

BOK Center – Tulsa, OK
ILLINOIS (+8.5) over KANSAS


United Center – Chicago, IL
NOTRE DAME (-5) over FLORIDA STATE




NIT
WICHITA STATE at VIRGINIA TECH* (TOTAL OVER 131)
KENT STATE (+5) over FAIRFIELD*




MIKE IN DA

HMW