COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY - MIKE IN DA

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COMMENTS FROM THE PEANUT GALLERY

Written by: Mike in DA
Date posted: 4/5/2011

SR610 SPORTS TALK HOSTS ONCE AGAIN SHOW THEY DON'T KNOW MUCH MORE SPORTS THAN THE AVERAGE GUY!

On Monday’s show (4/4) on SR610, Josh Innes and Rich Lord were talking about NBA coaches that came out of the college ranks to be successful in the NBA. They named several who coached in college, but none who were successful. Hey guys, that’s why they have the Internet when you’re sports-knowledge ignorant, especially in drive time.


You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that Naismith Hall of Famers, Chuck Daly (Boston College and Pennsylvania) and “Dr. Jack” Ramsay (St. Joseph’s), not only were successful college coaches, but also won NBA championships with the Detroit Pistons (2) and Portland Trailblazers, respectively.

 

I even e-mailed the info to Josh, but he never passed it on to the listeners and I was on hold for about 2.5 hours, but they never took my call.

Once again, SR610 continues to show us their laziness, ignorance, and straight-out rudeness to its listeners.

SHOT COCK VIOLATION NOT CALLED BY REF WHO SEEMS TO LIKE WHAT HE SEES!

UCONN COMES THROUGH FOR US!

Honesty and candidness tend not to dominate the commentary associated with televised sports. When last night’s tournament championship game went to halftime, I wondered how the studio analysts were going to talk around the fact that we had just seen a truly ugly half of a basketball game (especially if you were laying 3.5 with UConn, like we were and down by three at the time). Surprisingly, they did not talk around it at all. They said it was a poorly played half of a basketball game and that it was surprising to find that level of play in a final game. Props to all of the folks who did halftime last night.

I watched my first NCAA tournament championship game in 1950 when CCNY beat Bradley. I have not missed a televised championship game since then except when I was in Vietnam (LEWCLA won that year). Now, I will not pretend to be able to recall each and every one of those games; but I will agree with the studio analysts last night by saying that UConn and Butler played a game where mistakes dominated every phase of the game.

Butler shot only 18.8% for the night and while it would be wrong to say that UConn played inept defense, the reason for that horrid shooting percentage had lots more to do with missing open shots by everyone Butler put on the floor. Butler’s best shooting night came from Chase Stigall who shot a less-than-sizzling 3 for 11 from the field.

The NCAA basketball tournament does not necessarily produce a winner that is “the best team in the country”. It produces a tournament champion, which is the one that has played the best over the course of six (or seven in the case of a First Round Game) single elimination games. There is a difference between those two things and the fact that the tournament champion is not always the best team in the country does not detract from the tournament. In fact, it enhances its value in years when an obvious second-tier team rises to win the tournament. Like this year.

In the John Wooden days, the tournament champion was also the best team in the country. The same was true when UNLV was on its national rampage and when Duke dominated things in the Hill/Hurley/Laettner era. That was not the case when NC State won under Jim Valvano or when Villanova beat Georgetown. Moreover, those “upstart victories” make the tournament even better than it would be if it were more predictable.

UConn is not the best team in the country this year. After all, they lost nine games in their own conference. What is indisputable is that they have played the best basketball in the country since March 8 and that is why they are crowned as the national champions. Congratulations to the Huskies.

NCAA FINALS REBOUND RECORD IS BROKEN!

April 4 (SP) - The UConn-Butler NCAA Championship Game was so exciting and well-played it even has some history to show for it: most rebounds in a title game with 91.

“Wow. I knew something unusual was happening out there on the court,” said Butler head coach Brad Stevens, “and now this record proves it. We are very disappointed to lose, but at least we were part of history. I guess.”


Despite the loss, Stevens’ Butler squad led the way in creating rebound opportunities by missing 52 field goals and six free throws.


“They really dominated us on the missed shots,” said UConn head coach Jim Calhoun. “It wasn’t even close. But we managed to beat them in almost every other statistical category and it showed up on the scoreboard.”

While UConn’s players got to cut down the nets as NCAA champions, Butler will also receive a memento from the game: the rims and backboards.


“They were damaged beyond repair from all of the bricks they threw up, so we can’t use them anyway,” said Reliant Stadium court manager Jeff Tidway. “So Butler is getting the rims — most of the paint is chipped off — and also the backboards, which have a number of hairline fractures.”


UConn’s Kemba Walker says the biggest history for him in the game will be winning the championship.


“I guess it was a great game for fans who love rebounding and stifling defense, but I don’t really care about the aesthetics,” he said. “I just wanted to win. But as the game went on, I got the sense Butler wanted to set the rebounds mark. They seemed to be going out of their way to miss shots.”

AIRPLANE BANNER SAYS: "DODGERS STILL SUCK!" - (FROM SF GIANTS FANS)

FROM THE HMW MAILBAG!



JO and Tommy YaYo left comments for Lamont Mann’s 3/29 article, "JOSH INNES ON FIRE AND UNLEASHED By LM" (http://sheltonmedia.blogspot.com/2011/03/josh-innes-on-fire-and-unleashed-by-lm.html):


From JO: “Still not a fan of Josh. He tries to come off as a hard ass in this interview, but then resorts right back to being a dumbass on his show. His hypocritical ways don't set well with me. He gets all pissy when someone disagrees with him and plays the whole, "What? I'm not entitled to my opinion?" role. Then when he disagrees with a caller’s opinion he acts like his is the only one that matters. I don't think there is anything he could do to make me like him.” END.


From Tommy YaYo:“The guy in the middle of Rich and Josh looks extra ‘Fruity.’" END.

FYI - Dude in the middle is Josh’s friend, roommate, and the show’s producer, Ben Nance. He’s definitely not “fruity”. Fruity people aren’t that obnoxious and arrogant, but his lip prints might be on Josh’s rear end.

ODDS AND ENDS:

1. The women will crown their national champion tonight without the presence of UConn, Stanford, or Tennessee. Congratulations to the women’s teams at Notre Dame and Texas A&M for getting to the final game and providing some new faces to a championship competition that has been much too exclusive over the past 20 years.

2. Shaka Smart will stay at VCU next year after he turned down an offer to coach at NC State. The Wolfpack has been less than relevant in the ACC basketball picture for over a decade. The job at NC State might just be a career-killer and Shaka Smart may have just lived up to his name by turning it down. Young coaches looking to build their career need to move to places where they can win, not just to places in bigger conferences with bigger paychecks.

3. The NY Knicks have made the NBA playoffs for the first time in seven years. When Amare Stoudamire signed on with the Knicks, he said that he was there to change the fortune of the team and he has delivered on that prognostication in his first season. As of this morning, the Knicks’ record is 38-38 with six games to go. The last time the Knicks finished a season above .500 was in 2001. If you do the math, that's ten years.

4. Sherrie Daly was John Daly’s fourth wife. I read recently that she has written a book that is about to be released. In it, Ms. Daly supposedly reveals details of her hubby's sexual antics and other stories about the wild side of living on the pro-golf tour. In it, she specifically tells about a course in Memphis where tour golfers would receive sexual favors on the course near the 16th hole. I would never have suspected that John Daly would associate with or even marry someone who might be even remotely capable of writing a book.

CRIER'S CORNER 

BASKETBALL ACTION



Yesterday’s Record ATS: 1-0

NCAA FINAL (at Reliant Stadium, Houston, TX)
W - CONNECTICUT (-3.5) over BUTLER

Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 593-360


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):

NBA



NEW JERSEY* (-5.5) over MINNESOTA
Nets forward, Kris Humphries, can rebound. He is not to be
mistaken with Dwight Howard or Blake Griffin. but he is fifth in the league in pulling down the boards. Now, wouldn't you know it, dude ain’t playing tonight because of an injury. Does that mean we knee-jerk it and take the points with road dog Minnesota? No way, Jose. They’re the worst team in the Western Conference with nothing to play for, and the Nets have lost four straight home games and need to give their fans something, anything, even just a win against a weak opponent. Missing one low-profile good rebounder never hurt anybody. Somebody else will do just fine with the minutes. Travis Outlaw? Branan Wright? Anyone? NEW JERSEY, 104-93


HOUSTON* (-9) over SACRAMENTO
The pros vs. the Joes here. Well, it may not be that bad, but the Kings are so young that some of them don’t know how to be professional. On top of that, their team is likely to move to SoCal, so that is in the minds of players and the front office. The Rockets are looking to sweep these youngsters off the map for the fourth win against them this season and they have blown them out by 13, 9 and 22. HOUSTON, 115-98


BASEBALL



Yesterday’s Record ATS: 1-0 (+2 units)
TEXAS RANGERS (-155) over SEATTLE MARINERS


Cumulative Season Record ATS (excludes “pushes”): 8-4 (+6.4 units)


Today’s Action (for reading purposes only):


SAN FRANCISCO GIANTS (Bumgarner) -125 over SAN DIEGO PADRES (Harang)


Tonight in California, we have a battle of the “saints” as the Giants take on the Padres in San Diego. The Giants are coming off an intense, tough series vs. the rival Dodgers and will be looking to take out their frustrations on San Diego. We are sure the Padres did not forget what happened to them last season, as they blew a lead to these same Giants, but this is a far different team than the one
that lead the NL West for much of the season. With big bopper Adrian Gonzalez gone, this team has just about no weapons on offense. When Will Venable, Chase Headley, and Orlando Hudson are your best hitters, you are generally not in a good place. They did fight hard against the Cardinals, but outside of Albert Pujols and Colby Rasmus, their lineup isn’t looking so hot either. You can usually count on the Padres pitching to hold up, and we are sure the bullpen will be solid, but their starting pitcher today, Aaron Harang, is a major question mark. Harang is a huge guy at 6-7 and around 260 pounds and he does not seem to be aging well. Harang was beset by a multitude of injuries in 2010 and based on how he looked in the spring, we are not sure his poor results have been purely related. The Giants were far better vs. righties last season and they should be able to get a nice road division win today.


LA ANGELS (Weaver) Pick ‘em over TAMPA BAY RAYS (Niemann)


Jered Weaver gave us everything we had hoped for on Opening Day for our inaugural win here last Thursday and we are happy to back him once again today. Weaver went 6 1/3 innings without allowing a run and he struck out six. Today, he travels to Tampa to face a Rays team that just got swept by the feisty Orioles. The Rays lineup is in total flux. With Carl Crawford and Carlos Pena already gone, the Rays have now also lost Evan Longoria for a few weeks. What was already a mix and match lineup now has much bigger problems. The Angels have hit righties better in the past and should be able to handle big Jeff Niemann today.


ATLANTA BRAVES (Lowe) +110 over MILWAUKEE BREWERS (Gallardo)


Things have not exactly been going well for the Brewers thus far and it doesn’t look to get much better today. Whether it was the walk-off loss to the Reds on Opening Day or the crushing game winning homerun yesterday by Dan Uggla, the Brewers have to be frustrated. Unfortunately for them, they face sinkerball supreme Derek Lowe today. The Brewers struggle against normal righties, but pitchers like Lowe thrive on overly aggressive, impatient swings. Few teams are as desperate for a win as the Brewers and that plays right in to our hands. Yovani Gallardo looked great in spring, but this Braves lineup has done well vs. righties recently and should be warmed up and ready to go four games in to the season.



MIKE IN DA

HMW