Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
The best weekend of games in basketball history just ended and has set up a great Final 4. 3 of my 4 original picks made it to St. Louis, with only Wake Forest going down. How are you doing in comparison? I thought so.
I've been on Michigan State's bandwagon all year, as I had them as one of the top 4 teams at the beginning of the year. (With Illinois, Georgia Tech, and Oklahoma State) Here's a paragraph from my pre-season preview:
"The ACC has 7 teams in the Top 25 and should be create a war every night on Tobacco Road. The Big 12 and Big 10 are improved, with 4 teams in each league who could be Sweet 16 squads. The SEC is usually the most underrated conference in America, but this year I just don't see any of their teams in the Final 4. The Big East doesn't have a National Champion-type club, unlike the past 2 winners, UConn and Syracuse. The Pac-10 is soft and until they start playing more physical, the league is going to suffer in the tourney."
Oops on the Big 12, but the rest of my selections are looking good. In regards to this weekend, I'm sticking to my pre-tourney pick of Illinois over North Carolina, but I wouldn't be surprised if any of the teams win, as there's not a weak one in the bunch. Below are some observations from the past weekend.""
Michigan State has more guys who look like NFL prospects than any roundball team I've ever seen. Chris Hill looks like a better-looking Pete Sampras. On that subject, Sampras looks like Curious George. It should be noted that Pete is married to the gorgeous Bridgitte Wilson, so he ain't exactly living the organ grinders life.
Just because it didn't go to overtime doesn't mean that the North Carolina/Wisconsin game wasn't of the same quality. It was amazing to me that the Badgers were able to stay close, despite playing in the 80's. Alondo Tucker continually took the ball to the hole, which is something I'm sure Tom Izzo has noticed in his game film.
Duke plays an exciting brand of ball, plus has some really quality people on their roster, but I just can't root for them, for some reason. When giving awards to the smallest mouth and tiniest ears in basketball, I present to you Mike Krzyzewski and Shelden Williams, respectively.
Arizona played the best 36 minutes of basketball in this year's tourney. Who would name their child Channing Frye? Speaking of names, with a roster including Channing, Salim Stoudamire, Hassan Adams, Mustafa Shakur, and Isaiah Fox, the Wildcats have a team that sounds like it was made up by a Hollywood screenwriter. If there had been a script written of the Arizona/Illinois game, it would have been rejected as too impossible.
I'm guessing it was no big deal to the team's fans, when the Mountaineers and Cardinals were all tied up after regulation. It's been said that a tie is like kissing your sister, which is a long-standing tradition in West Virginia and Kentucky.
More like the worst 4 minutes.
Interestingly, Michael Wilbon has a memory of an equally interesting weekend in NCAA B-ball, back in 1981.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A8072-2005Mar28.html
That difference is 'teamwork'. In football, hockey, ....errr...soccer... and as we have just witnessed, basketball there is an integral aspect of teamwork in those sports that just isn't there in baseball. The fact that an offensive line operates as a unit much like the starting five for the Illini (Go Illini!!) acts as a unit rather than a collection of individuals creates much of the bullshit writing about baseball that makes me want to jab screwdrivers in my ears everytime Tim Kurkijainakiun or Hawk Harrelson speaks.
Let me explain:
Even though baseball is a team sport, hitting or pitching is pretty much an individual action. Defense in baseball can be at times a team affair, but generally is usually performed on an individual basis as well (OK, some leftfielders need help hitting the cut-off, but they shouldn't need it).
My point (and I think I have one) is this: Baseball writers/commentators/team legacies watch the NCAA and see how sometimes a team can rise above it's individual talents and be more than the sum of its parts (shout out to Bucknell!!) and then THEY GO AND TRY TO APPLY IT TO MLB TEAMS LIKE THE WHITE SOX WHO WILL SOMEHOW HUSTLE A FREAKIN" EXTRA 150 RUNS WILL SOMEONE PLEASE SILENCE HAWK........ahem, sorry about that. MLB is more like high school golf, sure there's a team, but what really matters is how good they each can golf, not how well they collaborate on golf strategy.
Aside:
Most people know that AJ Pierzynski is a Grade A Asshole. Can anyone explain to me what Hawk Harrelson means when he says that you should 'consider the source' when you hear Brett Tomko talk bad about AJ?? Brett Tomko?? In my world Tomko has zero reputation of any sort, much less that he's the kind of guy to rip someone for no reason.
I don't get it.
They remind me of the early '90s Expos, with Marquis, DeLino, Moises, and Archi.
I've probably watched the final 4:00 minutes of the Illinois-Arizona game about 15 times. The last minute about 40 times, and the Deron Williams shot that tied the game about 100 times. I think the only thing I've watched more (thank you, TiVo) are the important moments from games six and seven of the 2002 World Series (which are still saved to my TiVo).
And how cruel is this? I'm an Illini alum (law, 2001), and my dad is an MSU grad, so I grew up rooting for the Spartans. I can still win the office pool, for a cool $1,100. The only way I can win? Louisville has to beat Illinois AND Michigan State (whom I also have in my final four).
But I guess my tone was off. Hey, congratulations on coming in second in your picks.
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