That isn’t to say that I’ll be voicing fully formed thoughts; I use writing as much to figure out what I think about topics as I do espousing fully-formed opinions. I’ve been messing around with tonality, and for where I am in my evolution as a writer, consistency in content is every bit as important as consistency in tone. The act of putting keystrokes to monitor is something I’m not doing enough, at least not enough to really feel comfortable doing so. Branching out and covering different topics gives me more avenues to practice, if nothing else.

How I got here is as much a function of where I started. In its original release, this blog was supposed to be an outlet for James and my thoughts about college sports – football in particular driving most of our work at Left Field Bluffs and what I’d guess was a false start or two before LFB that have since been lost to the sands of time. What – and where – I’ve been posting content has changed drastically since this was started. For one, I’m now a full-blown writer on Rocky Top Talk, with the occasional paycheck(!) and future 1099 to show for it. I still have my Fantasy College Blitz gig. I’ve had a couple of one-shot opportunities at other sites, too. When it comes to college sports, I’m golden. For that matter, I’ll even be in print shortly, which is a weird enough experience for me that it’ll probably warrant its own post at some point. Those other opportunities and venues were a large part of why my posting here died for as long as it did.

On some level, what I have here is unique – it’s basically whatever the hell James and I want to do with the site, really. We had designs on podcasting, but editing audio files is more tedious than I’m willing to deal with. On another level, I have literally no idea how people find the site other than whatever links I throw out there, which – on a good day – puts readership at 25 visitors. As a result, if I do what I want here, who cares? The focus is expanding, and if I cared about pageviews here then I’d just encourage people to not click through on content they don’t care about. At the end of the day, it’s our venue, so whatever.

It all fell apart in three games, one against Washington and the next against Tampa Bay, then one a month later against Buffalo, and what remained was a husk, playing out the string without having the ability to raise up the beige flag of indifference. These seasons happen, although they’re not normally that sudden and that severe – at one point, the Penguins’ AHL affiliate relocated to Pittsburgh in practicality if not in name – and so the question wasn’t if the Penguins would have enough, it was when they would cease to have enough. From the time Crosby went down, the Penguins grabbed 15 extra points (that is, overtime losses or shootout wins), including a remarkable stretch of four shootout wins in a row. This team wasn’t going anywhere of note, and bowing out to Tampa early was about the best that could’ve happened for a team that was half Penguins and half Baby Penguins. Wilkes-Barre should be proud.

From the time it was clear that the season wasn’t going anywhere, it was about Crosby getting healthy in time for next season. That hasn’t gone according to plan, to say the least. There are more than a few months to finish healing up, but concussions are in general scary and bewildering, much less getting two in a row. The symptoms that we knew about were painful enough to hear about; experiencing them had to be near-unbearable.

Crosby was – and is – supposed to be the next Mario Lemieux for the Penguins, the standard-bearer of hope, the guy who has a bang-up, no-doubt Hall of Fame career, who stakes his claim as one of the best to ever play the game. At his peak, Crosby is the kind of player that demands that kind of attention, the type of player who forces his opposition to take great lengths to stop him – and this season, the kind of player who didn’t really give a shit if everyone was selling out to stop him because he’d just do what he wanted anyway. This, amazingly, was The Leap, or Another Leap, or The Big Leap. This was his best season to date, and the Hart Trophy could’ve been shipped to Pittsburgh via ground in March to just save the NHL some money had he, you know, still been playing then.

Instead of Mario v.2, I’m now having painful flashbacks to Eric Lindros. Lindros was a great player by nearly any measure, but he’s a poster child for What Could’ve Been Had You Kept Your Damn Head Up, Dummy. Later in his career, Lindros became synonymous with concussion-like symptoms, and absent any other evidence to make me think Crosby will recover other than time (because performance sure as hell hasn’t made me think otherwise so far), I’m left to wonder if this was the only glimpse we’ve had of what could’ve been. Lindros could’ve been so much more than he was, even if what he was ran rampant over the league during his peak.

Sure, Crosby will return, and he’ll continue to be the face of the franchise, and he’ll in all likelihood be one of the best players in the NHL again next season. But if he regresses from where he was this season, we’re left to wonder what could’ve been. And every time he goes down and stays down for just an additional second, our breath will catch. That’s going to be

Crosby’s near-term fate, until he knows – and we know – that he’ll be okay. (Or what passes for okay in a league and a sport where flying around on small pieces of metal on a slick surface are the very bare requisites for competition.) The path to greatness is littered with the bodies of those who didn’t have the drive, or the opportunity, or the body to make it. Up until this season, Crosby had all three. If he only has two of those going forward, we all suffer.

And yet, I feel somewhat like an imposter. Premier League football came to me late, and I’m a City fan less out of some long-held belief in the sky blue, Maine Road (and now Eastlands), and giant inflatable bananas and more because United supporters frustrate me to no end and this was the most direct way to inflict some free torture. This isn’t to say that I’m ignorant of City’s history, although “learn as you go” may be the more apt phrase to use. I know some stories, but not all of them. That’ll come in time, I figure.

Regardless, I don’t feel the burden of 35 years being lifted. Part of that is, among other things, it’d be impossible for me to feel a burden of that length, as I’m younger than 35. The rest of it has to do with when I even found the Premier League. Pain was watching the inevitable second-gear play against Tottenham last year before Peter Crouch mercifully ended the idea of suspense – Crouch redeemed himself this year, of course – but missing out on Champions League play isn’t exactly the same as relegation, is it? Pain was watching Wayne Rooney somehow contort his body to send a screaming bicycle kick into the far corner, a shot that was absurd, indefensible, and will be replayed for the next 25 years. Pain was Atkinson time (where 6 minutes turns into as long as United needs to take 3 points), from blowing the Arsenal game before it started (I still direct my anger towards Mark Clattenburg for making that call, even though it needed to be made). Those are moments, sure, but they’re moments from the last two years, not 15 years, or 25.

Maybe that’s a function of the teams I follow, though. I don’t follow teams that have constant success – my first like had an archetypical little brother complex, my first love moved after a systematic dismantling I still get pissed over seven years later – so the idea of following United, Liverpool, Barcelona, Real, and the like isn’t that appealing. In order to feel like trophies and championships mean something, there needs to be space between said championships. Heartbreak isn’t a string of finishes that read 1, 1, 1, 2, 1, 1, 3. It’s relegation, it’s consistently wiping out, dying on the vine, not quite having enough. That’s why, in essence, I chose City (and I’m a little annoyed that it keeps coming down to City v. Spurs, because I want to be neutral toward Spurs but they’re in the way right now).

When the Penguins won the Cup in 2009, it wasn’t that season. Heck, I only vividly remember three points from that playoff run: Max Talbot shhh-ing the raucous Philly crowd after Dan Carcillo was dumb enough to fight him when the Flyers were up 2 goals in Game 6, the two goals in 30 seconds in Game 7 against the Caps (and the ensuing, is-this-really-happening giddiness as 2-0 turned into 5-0 turned into 6-2, dropping the Capitols’ playoff record against the Penguins to approximately 1-156), and Marc-Andre Fleury shuffle-jumping across the crease with 6 seconds left in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals to desperately deflect one last shot into the corner. It wasn’t about 2009, though; it was as much about 2002 and 2005 as it was 1991 and 1992. The direct and obvious link between Crosby and Lemieux was tantalizing, sure (and the psychological effect Crosby’s concussion is having is another issue entirely), but bombing out matters just as much as the moments of success.

I don’t have those moments with City. Winning the FA Cup is nice (and I’m sure the Old Trafford ticker will find something new to complain about until next season), but that cathartic release just isn’t there. If anything, it was a harbinger, the sign that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I just don’t remember much of the tunnel. So be it.

Let’s not rehash the hideous details here, but Crompton didn’t get to start every game of the 2008 season, as backup QB Nick Stephens got …well, he got the kind of playing time you’d expect from a team with an offense that showed up DOA to the first game of the season.  The head coaching staff rolled over pretty severely at the end of the season – really, “severe” is the only word you can use to describe jettisoning Phil Fulmer – and the next roll of the dice came up snake eyes.  Of course, Lady Luck didn’t actually reveal that roll until the end of the 2009 season.

Lane Kiffin came in with Jim Chaney, Monte Kiffin, Ed Orgeron, and a host of promises and awkward moments that have been covered past wit’s end halfway across the ‘net.  What we care about for the purposes of this story is that he stuck with Crompton in the starting role; Crompton was entering his senior season.  Sure, Nick Stephens was an upperclassman, but he had spent enough time as an understudy to Crompton that it wasn’t the end of the world to sit behind him for one more season.  On top of that, Crompton was the more talented of the two.  So Crompton would start in 2009, Stephens would assume the starting QB role in 2010 and the year of the QB reckoning would come in 2011.  Well, that was going to happen if Kiffin wasn’t able to recruit a blue-chip QB or two and hand them the reins as a redshirt freshman.

Say what you will about Kiffin and his crew, but the one thing he’s been able to do – and been very successful at – is recruit.  (Some would say that’s all he does.)  Giving a crew like his a goal like this is about as simple a task as you can imagine.  Ed Orgeron took the hint and started hitting the road, but it didn’t quite work out for Tennessee like they were expecting.  Jesse Scroggins was the first major target along with Tyler Bray (with Jake Heaps tossed in at the side).  Heaps left the picture early to BYU, but Scroggins was in the picture and the main target.  That worked out well for the Kiffins; Scroggins committed to USC in July, and Tennessee came into the 2009 season with no answer to a 2010 backup QB.  In-season recruiting is always such a tricky proposition.  Fortunately, Tyler Bray committed to Tennessee in late September.

Somewhere in this time frame – honestly, I forget the timeline at this point – some fairly aggressive JUCO recruiting was taking place, resulting in Nick Lamaison enrolling in time for the spring semester.  Tennessee’s QB performance during the season progressed as nice as you’d wish; after a rough first few games, Crompton matured into an inexplicable dynamo, confusing most of the football-watching nation in the process.  This was a great sign for 2010 – if Jim Chaney could do this for someone who looked as lost as Crompton did in ’08, surely Nick Stephens would be even better next season.  Crompton ended up drafted.  He ended up drafted!  The kid who couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn or read defenses to save his life in 2008 is going to get a chance with a NFL franchise.  Surely Nick Stephens can pull a 58% completion percentage in ’10 under the same tutelage, right?

Well, these things don’t always work out like you’d expect.  The Kiffin Medusa left to go coach the QB they missed out on in Knoxville (Jim Chaney stuck around) and Derek Dooley came in.  With Dooley came JUCO Matt Simms – and later, Nash Nance.  That’s a total of 5 QBs on scholarship – or at least 5 relevant QBs on scholarship.  Spring practice came and went, and as spring practice went so did Nick Stephens.

Of course, that’s simplifying things a bit.  Stephens struggled during the spring, eventually getting dropped down the depth chart behind the true freshman Bray and Simms.  Once Stephens realized he’d be a backup during his last season, he decided that was the end of his career at Tennessee.  As these things go, that’s probably a fair assessment; I think he had an opportunity to jump back up the depth chart, but realistically Stephens would be in the same situation he was in during the ’08 and ’09 seasons – primary backup.  For a guy that had to have felt that he’d paid his dues, waited for his chance, and learned everything that had been asked of him getting shuffled down to the emergency QB slot was it.

After the chaos of the last two seasons, it’s set in stone that the starter for Tennessee will open the season taking a total of zero snaps in orange.  Of the four prospects, Lamaison is the least exciting.  Lamaison was a useful cog back in 2009 when there was no immediate answer to the backup QB issue, but for now the position battle has passed him by.  At this point, he’ll likely inherit Stephens’ spot as third on the depth chart.  Nash Nance wins the battle for best name among the QB prospects (really, I’ve been seeing his name for months and I want to flip one of the N’s for a V – Vash Nance or Nash Vance feel like they make more sense); unfortunately, he’s also the clubhouse leader for Most Likely to Redshirt.  Nance isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination, but he’s fortunate enough to be a true freshman he gets a year to learn the system.

That leaves two legitimate contenders for the starting role – Matt Simms and Tyler Bray.  Let’s talk about the guy who gives me hives first – after spending the better part of the last eight years mocking Chris Simms’ performance in the 2001 Big 12 Championship Game, I’m not sure how I feel about being in a position to cheer someone with that last name.  Simms may be a perfectly capable QB, and on some level I like the idea of playing a guy who’s at least seen college athletes, but on the other hand I know I’d like him way more if his name was Matt Smith.  In terms of raw recruiting chops Simms profiles similar to Nance (which posits well for Nance come 2011), but clearly there’s a superior ability to accept instruction, read defenses, and perform as compared to Nance.

On the other hand, Bray is clearly the most talented of the group.  Sure, he may have the mobility of a Weeble – which will be a problem this year – but Bray is the choice for the future.  He has height but resembles a beanpole; in a perfect world Bray is the kind of guy you redshirt behind a capable senior and force-feed the guy until he gains 25 pounds.  (Even with that 25 pounds he’d still weigh less than Lamaison, FWIW.)  This is just about as far from a perfect world as you can get, and the unfortunate question for Dooley is if Bray has enough strength to handle the grind of a college schedule.

The one issue we haven’t talked about yet is protection; not only is the QB situation a mess, the offensive line might actually be in worse shape.  Most of the guys with functional starts (or any starts) are gone, and depth is going to be a major concern.  On the plus side, most of the line is likely set save center, but …well, set doesn’t necessarily mean good or experienced.  Dallas Thomas and Ju’Wuan James should slot in as tackles with JerQuari Schofield and Jarrod Shaw as guards.  Of those four, Shaw is the only upperclassman – heck, he’s the only guy who’s not a freshman.  Fortunately, the center competition involves a sophomore and a junior, so the line isn’t entirely freshmen.  Whether the line meshes is a huge key to the season; the fortunate news among the line is that they were all in for spring practice.  James Stone may jump in as depth, but …well, of the seven guys listed in this paragraph, only three of them have had the fortune to come back to Tennessee for a second season.  Putting a quarterback – any quarterback – behind this offensive line and asking them to win games is going to be a tall proposition.  It’s a fool’s errand to hope that offensive line health will hold throughout the season, but it’s the case here.

Whichever QB makes it to the opening game of the season may very well not make it out of the opening game.  Quite frankly, the odds that a crucial QB skill list for 2010 Tennessee includes “take a hit” are pretty high.  As a result, while Bray is certainly the most talented of the crew – and absent game experience, it may as well come down to talent or a coin flip – there’s a risk with putting a guy out there who can be snapped like a wheat stalk.  Maybe putting one of the JUCOs out there is the right path (and I’ll ignore the true long-term strategy, which is to redshirt Bray, let Nance get the crap knocked out of him, and then get rid of him at the end of the season; don’t run your actual football teams like I run my NCAA ’10 teams, kids (unless you’re Nick Saban).  It’s less mean when you’re doing it to memory than when you’re doing it to people) for now, and once the offensive line gets a chance to gel and improve you let Bray take the reins.  This also gives him time to see and break down film from college games.

Then again, there’s something to be said for allowing a true freshman to learn on the job.  Opportunities like this at major schools don’t come along every day, and if Bray is the kind of talent that Tennessee thinks he is there’s a very real line of thought that lends itself to letting the kid take his lumps.  Erik Ainge ended up doing pretty well for himself after getting thrust into the fire as a true freshman (including getting himself a SEC East crown his senior year) and besides, it’s not like Bray would end up with a full-blown 100% of the snaps in that scenario.  He’d be protected when it makes sense to protect him – in blowouts, off injuries, and the like.  If Simms and Bray are as close as they appear to be right now, then there’s no incentive to play for this season.

As painful as those words are for me to write, this year wasn’t going to be good and we knew that going into it.  Heck, we knew that going into the Kiffin regime, too; the way the line played out last year was 2009 was learning the system, 2010 was rebuilding, and 2011 was contention.  With Dooley running things, now Tennessee has compressed learning the system and rebuilding into the same year.  Next year will likely be rebuilding too – it’s tough to build a foundation when you tear a house down, start to rebuild it and then notice you’re building on a sinkhole halfway into construction.  It’s a minor miracle that recruiting has done as well as it has; Dooley deserves credit for pulling together one heck of a class given the offseason chaos.  This kind of problem would be glorious were it not for the backdrop it was laid against and the massive pile of questions at half the other positions on the field.

Simms is the safe choice – pedigree, knowledge, experience.  Two years is a lot of time to learn the game, and more than that I’d bet Simms has a better grasp on how to learn the game.  Bray may be a film rat for all I know, but Simms has had more time to know how he absorbs information.  Heck, I didn’t figure that out at all my first three years in college – knowing what to do is easier than knowing how to see what to do.  I’m pretty sure Bray knows what to do, but does he know how to see?   Again, I’m not sure if Simms has had exposure to advanced schematics (thanks again, Charlie Weis) at the JUCO level, but I feel pretty safe in saying that Simms has probably seen more of the stuff he’ll see in SEC play than Bray has.  More importantly, he’s seen more of it.  Has he seen copies of Saban’s defensive schemes, or has he seen the Mustang package?  (Please tell me he’s seen the Mustang package.)  Probably not, but he might get it sooner.

As much as I’m loathe to admit it, that kind of pattern recognition matters a lot to coaches.  Simms simply has to have this knowledge base because he doesn’t have the physical gifts that Bray does.  There’s no other way for him to be this close in the QB competition otherwise – and yes, that pedigree does mean he’s learned how to do things like break down defenses and watch film, or at least I’d guess he has (whether he learned it from Phil or Chris is another question entirely; let’s hope he learned it from Phil).

There’s always the idea of a QB rotation, which seems like the worst idea of the bunch.  Neither option here is great for this season, so when absent a good option, taking two mediocre ones and chucking them together smells less like a good idea and more like football Frankenstein.  If they had disparate talents I’d understand somewhat (although as we’ve learned recently, running QBs now play in the slot and young “dual-threat” QBs can be effectively reworded as “guys who can run but don’t have either the accuracy or the power to play QB at the college level, but they can get a snap from under center”) as that was part of the intent behind the well-meaning Brent Schaffer / Erik Ainge platoon in 2004.  However, all the guys in camp are classic pocket passers, and while one of the guys may be able to bust out a 4.8 40-yard dash on occasion, that won’t let them escape from the DE who runs a 4.59.  The mad scientist in me looks at the dearth of QB talent and the mess of RB talent (Tauren Poole, David Oku, Toney Williams) and wonders if we can’t just stick two RBs in the backfield, teach one of them how to take a shotgun snap, and run zone reads 15 times a game.  It’d keep the QB crew safe if nothing else.

Somewhere in this mess of words there’s an answer for who to start and how to make it work.  I’m not sure I know what the answer is, though – at this point there have been so many doors shut that it’s tough to tell which doors didn’t get locked.  Simms or Bray will be the starter for the first game of the season, but after that it’s anyone’s guess.  Heck, it’s anyone’s guess if they’ll succeed.  The only thing I feel pretty confident about right now is that I won’t have to write this piece again next year, and for that I’m thankful.

It’s such a weird conglomeration of events; LeBron is, at worst, the second-best player in the NBA – who’s bound for free agency.  There’s a whole mess of subplots involving Cleveland and their history, their tortured fanbase, and all that assorted chaos that I’m really not too concerned about right now.  It’s much less that for me and more a story of redemption.  ESPN has gleefully taken up the mantle seeing LeBron out of Cleveland, and me being me (don’t make me link back to the whole mess of Mike Leach / ESPN finger-pointing from around New Year’s) I can’t help but think the stinkbomb dropped in Game 5 is going to prompt …well, I don’t know.  Anything and everything’s in play here, and if we’re headed for a 50/15/10, I want to see it.  God help us all, I’m actually excited for basketball.  And I figure if I’m crazy enough to actually watch basketball, I might as well preserve it for posterity.

Pregame: The keys to the game are apparently defense and rebounding.  Either Pat Summitt is now coaching Boston (it’d probably be a step up) or John Madden is now announcing basketball.

8:10 PM (10:00 left, 1^st quarter): Boston’s opened up hot; Cleveland is running their offense through James, but the looks he’s taken haven’t been great.  He looks a bit rushed so far.  If you want better analysis than that, come back during football season.  I don’t know shit here.

8:15 PM (7:30 left, 1^st quarter): It’s hard for Shaq to maneuver in the interior with a gigantic fork stuck in his back.  After bricking a bad shot with a move that could charitably be described as herky-jerky (and accurately described as god-awful), someone fails to clear the interior and Boston gets an open slam.  TO, Cleveland.

8:25 PM (4:00 left, 1^st quarter): Hey, Paul Pierce has two fouls.  LeBron’s got a couple of steals so far, although I haven’t seen a ton of him so far.  After one of said steals, LeBron spends a few seconds attempting to chew out the ref.  Somehow this works – Tony Allen commits an off-the-ball foul on LeBron, which: what?  The Boston crowd seems to have fallen into some vague level of hatred I’d classify as “less than Matt Cooke walking into anywhere in Boston”.

8:26 PM (3:30 left, 1^st quarter): Players wandering back toward the play after getting caught out of position and waving their hands around wildly never ceases to get old.  Thank you, Anderson Varajeo.  Also, LeBron’s stuffing the stat sheet so far – of course, this includes a couple of turnovers.  It almost looks like he’s trying to do it all.

8:30 PM (3:00 left, 1^st quarter): I just realize I saw Brian Scalabrine in a suit.  Score!

8:32 PM (2:10 left, 1^st quarter): Has Cleveland always run isolation plays for LeBron, or am I just noticing all the isolation plays?  It’s not a bad idea necessarily, but it gets old in a hurry.  Also, holy crap does Varajeo know what he’s doing on the defensive side of the court?  Every time I look at him he’s out of position.

8:34 PM (1:00 left, 1^st quarter): I think I just saw LeBron bounce it a defensive board off the glass before coming down just because he could.  I know I just saw him pick up his second foul – weak call, but it makes up for wondering what the hell happened to Tony Allen earlier, so whatever.  Also, I’ve read so much about how subpar NBA officiating is that I’m used to it, even though I’ve never watched it.  Weird.

8:37 PM (10.7 seconds left, 1^st quarter): Mo Williams just burned a good 15 seconds off the shot clock before a shot clock violation.  Boston has a chance to end the quarter up 8…

8:39 PM (end of 1^st quarter): …but a missed fallaway by Pierce just means they’re up 3.  LeBron’s looked decent so far, but it feels less like he’s taking the game over to me and more that he’s pressing.  Again, it’s a layman’s eye here and while I have a general sense that he owns the Cavs, he’s wrested control of the game away from everyone – and yet the Celtics seem okay with that right now, too.  It’s interesting, and in a way that I can’t quite put my finger on.

8:45 PM (11:00 left, 2^nd quarter): Rajon Rondo just dominated not only his defender, but – wait for it – a horribly out of position Anderson Varajeo!  Beautiful under-the-hoop scoop layup by Rondo with a foul.  Just in case that wasn’t embarrassing enough, someone (Jamario Moon?) whips something that we might call a shot against the backboard – Boston fast break, Ray Allen jam, plus-1.  Boston up 8 and LeBron’s back in.  Not that it helps – another miss and now Tony Allen’s into the action.  Boston up 10.

8:50 PM (10:30 left, 2^nd quarter): LeBron responds with a nice drive, drawing a foul on Tony Allen (his 2^nd) and converting the free throw for a three-point play.  Also, I just realized that Tony Allen’s open layup was thanks in part to Anderson Varajeo!  What a gamer.  Why’s he on the court, anyway?

8:53 PM (9:00 left, 2^nd quarter): ‘Sheed with his third foul – and a T to boot.  Good timing there.  Also, LeBron just hit his 5^th TO of the game – Cleveland’s at 10 for the game.  Paul Pierce “charges” (some yahoo called it a “college call” – only if you’re Ted Valentine, son) and now he’s got three, too.  Also, Varajeo has somehow woken up.

8:58 PM (7:30 left, 2^nd quarter): I’m getting entranced by Rajon Rondo; he just whipped out this absurd 20-foot run into a nice layup.  Just blew by half the Cavs.  Not to be outdone, Mo Williams dribbles into chaos, drops a low outlet pass and Cleveland picks up two in return.  The refs then swallow their whistles while LeBron (miss) and Rondo (make) take about 150 steps between them.

9:00 PM (6:00 left, 2^nd quarter): Varajeo out of the game; announcers compliment his play.  I contemplate my own mortality.  Meanwhile, Rajon Rondo is leaving smoke marks whenever he dribbles the ball and the crowd has finally come alive – at least to the extent they’re going to.  Really mediocre crowd so far; I’ve heard much better in college.

9:05 PM (5:00 left, 2^nd quarter): Mo Williams is the only reason that the Cavs are in this game.  All over the place scoring (16 points so far), although he has the same curse LeBron has – 2 assists, 2 TO.  Bonus: Shaq shooting FTs!  When you watch basketball once a decade like I do, it’s good to know that still blows.

9:08 PM (4:00 left, 2^nd quarter): Ugly sequence; Shaq pulls down an offensive board, pivots twelve times on both feet (no call), puts up a bad shot, only Mo Williams comes back to pull down the offensive board, slices back in once he controls it, and Shaq ends up getting the two anyway. That was fun; now let’s never speak of it again.

9:18 PM (1:30 left, 2^nd quarter): Hey, NBA refs call lane violations!  Of course, Garnett was under the rim when that shot went up, so it was a little obvious.  Meanwhile, the announcers are openly talking about LeBron going to the Knicks – it’s cool guys, the game isn’t tied or anything like that.

9:20 PM (42.4 left, 2^nd quarter): Tony Allen just whipped a dunk where he angled at about 30 degrees before bombing that in, and NOW the crowd’s actually alive.  Of course, a couple of missed threes and a Cleveland possession or two later and there goes the crowd.

At halftime (51-49 Boston): It’s a very even half so far.  LeBron’s still on mathematical pace for a triple-double, but he kind of went dormant in the last few minutes once the game got close.  That’s in part because Mo Williams is carrying the scoring burden, which makes me think that either Cleveland’s going to crater or LeBron’s going to step up.

On the other hand, I’ve been very impressed with Rajon Rondo’s athleticism.  He’s damn near unstoppable in space, and while I’m not sure he’s been the best player so far, he’s been the most noticeable one.

9:44 PM (10:30 left, 3^rd quarter): Cleveland’s come out strong, running off five straight so far before LeBron goes to shoot two.  He had a nice dish to Anthony Parker in the corner for three right before this possession.  1-for-2 from the line, but Boston recovers by going to Garnett for a fallaway two.

9:46 PM (9:00 left, 3^rd quarter): And Garnett does it again.  Antawn Jamison (who’s been getting owned by Garnett) launches up a terrible three in retaliation.  That’ll show ‘em.  Meanwhile, that might’ve been the best possession of the Cavs’ last five, since it didn’t result in a turnover – unfortunately for them, they keep that up for the next couple of possessions, and Mike Brown is forced to call TO.  Boston’s up 2 now.

9:54 PM (7:00 left, 3^rd quarter): We’ve entered the herky-jerky portion of the game; lots of fouls on both sides, missed shots, and so on.  Fortunately, Kendrick Perkins and Shaq go at it and earn double technicals.  Meanwhile, I’m contemplating watching MLS.  LeBron rewards my patience, launching in with a nice layup (rimmed out), then ripping the board out of Perkins’ hands before whipping it back to Shaq for a free two.

9:57 PM (6:00 left, 3^rd quarter): LeBron just skies in to take a board off a FT; this doesn’t sound like much in print, but he came from 35 feet away to get that.  This feels like he’s warming up, I hope.  Meanwhile, he’s got 12 boards to go with his 13 points.

9:58 PM (5:00 left, 3^rd quarter): Anderson Varajeo!   Of course, Garnett still drains the shot but at least he tried there.

9:59 PM (also 5:00 left): That was a “New York Knicks” chant there, wasn’t it? I thought I heard that correctly.  And yes, it was directed at Varajeo, how’d you know?  I’m working up a pretty good hate train for him – at least it reads that way.  Really, he’s just like a big goofy mascot to me.

10:02 PM (3:30 left, 3^rd quarter): Boston’s gone on a mini-run (sparked in part by Varajeo walking around complaining that he’s bleeding) and they’re now up 9.  We’re in danger territory here.

10:06 PM (3:00 left, 3^rd quarter): Boston really should have momentum here, but a LeBron steal off a deflected pass followed by a fuck-the-open-man-I’m-getting-two drive and a foul has turned the crowd on its head.  I keep on waiting for it, and it keeps on almost happening, but he’s forcing it.  Meanwhile, Boston’s taking what comes to them and they’re now up 12.  It’s not game yet, but we’re closing in on it.

10:09 PM (1:30 left, 3^rd quarter): The announcers keep on going on about how LeBron just needs to take over, and here’s the thing; he’s trying to.  But he’s trying too hard – he’s trying to grapple with the game that’s just not coming to him.  I think he can take over still, but he needs to be a bit smarter and a bit more patient.

10:14 PM (end of the 3^rd quarter): Tony Allen did a good job shutting LeBron down on the Cavs’ previous possession, playing patient and stripping the ball when the opportunity presented itself.  He’s rewarded by getting an opportunity to brick a couple of free throws, which he does admirably.  But he picks up another strip on the last shot of the quarter.

At this point, Boston’s up 9 and I’m not sure Cleveland can come back.

10:20 PM (11:45 left, 4^th quarter): Is Rajon Rondo even aware of half the things he can do?  Because the things he does are staggering – he just dropped a one-handed bank shot in with no real effort.

10:25 PM (9:30 left, 4^th quarter): LeBron just hit back-to-back threes.  Cleveland’s back in this after all – down 4, the crowd is silent, and Boston’s taking a TO.

10:30 PM (8:30 left, 4^th quarter): Flip side of the coin – LeBron dribbles it off his foot, Rondo with an easy 2.  Meanwhile, Anderson Varajeo is fucking up offensive opportunities – Paul Pierce drains a three after another miss and Boston’s up 9.  If this is rope-a-dope, it’s working.

10:35 PM (6:30 left, 4^th quarter): One of the announcers has started sounding like Dick Vitale.  Meanwhile, ‘Sheed hits a three, another Cleveland turnover, and Garnett kills the break with a vicious dunk.  Boston by 14, and …well, this might be game.  LeBron’s trying to take over – and he’s closer than he’s been.  But his teammates are god-awful right now, missing open shots galore.

10:42 PM (4:00 left, 4^th quarter): Antawn Jamison: 1-8.  He’s gotten three good looks from LeBron.  Boston’s still up 14; we’re in game over territory, so I’m closing this up.

LeBron played …decently.   I can’t fault him too much for not making a ton of the massive defensive pile the Celtics threw at him, but the nine turnovers set the tone to 22 Cavs turnovers.  The weird thing is given his line – which certainly wasn’t bad at 27 points, 19 (!) boards, and 10 assists, with a few steals and a block thrown in there – he wasn’t comfortable with owning the game.  I’m not sure if he just can’t do it or he was hamstrung by his team, but Boston was more than content to let LeBron try and do everything and just throw bodies at him.  By all rights, LeBron should’ve had 15+ assists, but Cleveland’s inability to make open shots doomed them.

The $100,000,000 question is where LeBron goes from here, but that’s an issue to be dealt with at another time.  Or, if you’re ESPN, to be dealt with every 10 minutes from now until July 1^st.

Nats Triple Play

Capitol Punishment

Nationals Inquisition

Those of you who are aware of foreshadowing are probably smart enough to figure out where this is going.

Look, I understand that from a purely financial standpoint, you want to sell seats.  The Nationals aren’t any good, and with the rise of hockey (and the associated zombie bandwagon fans I’ll probably disparage later – hey look!  It’s a Caps tattoo sleeve!) the Nats get to compete with the Wizards for the title of third-most followed team in the DC area.  DC’s more transient than most, so you’re going to have a larger than typical away crowd at most games.  That’s just how it goes.  There’s a fine line between dealing with transients and implicitly encouraging them, and most of the rage comes from the Nationals having a festival on the far side of that line.

Take the email exchange here as an example.  (And, for the purposes of this argument, I’m not going to reference Stan openly asking Phillies fans to come support their team in DC – this was last season.)  Where do you see any mention of “we might’ve wanted to be careful about making sure we limited out-of-town group sales” or “the atmosphere at Opening Day wasn’t supportive for our Nationals” or “man, that was totally fucked up”?  I don’t see any evidence of contrition, and as frustrating as it is to see a ton of Philly fans storm the home park, it’s equally frustrating to have upper management respond with “hey, sucks to be y’all”.  Whether or not that was the intent, that was the interpretation.   People are pissed.

It seems to me that it’d be a good idea to make sure that the fans you have converted don’t decide things aren’t going well.  Hell, I was a straight-up holdover from the previous incarnation of the franchise – I’m as close to caught as you can get, and this makes no sense to me at all.  It’s OPENING DAY – it’s not hard to sell out Opening Day.  You know why it’s not hard to sell out Opening Day?  BECAUSE IT’S OPENING DAY.  Sell group tickets to Phillies fans for the rest of the games for all I care – Opening Day was one of two times all season that the Nats will get a good percentage of the nation’s eyes.  (The other will be Strasburg’s first start, whenever that is.  And even that will be the baseball diehards, and they’ll turn away once he leaves the game.)  It’s not like the Nats are known as anything other than a crapbag franchise, and when people tune in and get treated to CBP Southeast, the impression you leave fans with is twofold:

- The Nats don’t have many fans

- Front office doesn’t particularly care about this fact

Here’s a protip: local fans can figure that out as well.  Are you sure that second message is the one you want to be sending?

-          Jason Marquis is a heavy groundball pitcher (although likely not as heavy as he was in 2009) whose 2009 numbers were helped thanks to a low HR/FB rate – in Coors, no less – and a .291 BABIP.  Both of those – especially given the Nats’ infield defense, figuratively anchored by 3B Ryan Zimmerman and literally anchored by “1B” Adam Dunn – aren’t likely to improve, and this is a guy who was touted as the Nats’ #1 starter.  This is a guy who doesn’t strike people out and hasn’t had an ERA under 4 since 2004; this guy is an ace?  This is the guy who can turn around the Nats’ pitching woes?  The only thing working in Marquis’ favor is that he doesn’t get injured; the advanced readers have already determined that a guy with a 4.48 career ERA who doesn’t get injured sounds exactly like an innings-eater.  The Nats have decided to make an innings-eater their #1.  What?

-          Matt Capps is a decent, but not good reliever – who is the Nats’ de facto closer.  Amazingly, a 5.80 ERA is a step up from last season’s bullpen and the walking firebomb of Joel Hanrahan and Mike MacDougal; note that this isn’t a statement saying Matt Capps is good.  HIs peripherals are decent, but relievers with decent peripherals are pretty common, and I’d rather have ’08 Capps (who didn’t walk anyone) than ’09 Capps (with the highest walk rate of his career).  Nothing to be excited about, since he got non-tendered by the freaking Pirates of all people

-          Adam Kennedy?  Oh boy; he’s again, a decent but not great second baseman, the kind of guy you don’t pay a ton for if you can’t find anything else better.  The problem here is that, quite frankly, this team isn’t doing shit in 2010; why pay money for a guy when you have someone (in this case, Ian Desmond) who might not be any better than Kennedy, but is under team control?  How does Kennedy end up as the starter?  This signing would’ve made a heck of a lot of sense had Desmond been the starter and Kennedy been the primary MI backup – 400 ABs isn’t bad – but that wasn’t the case.

-          Pudge Rodriguez at this point shouldn’t occasion comment, but while I’m slagging the free agent signings it’d be remiss to not say anything since he will be a Hall of Famer at some point.  Of course, those seasons happened a while ago and at this point Pudge is the near definition of a warm body, which isn’t actually a half-bad idea given Jesus Flores’ current and likely future spot is at DL.  Still, he’s also a 38-year old catcher which means there’s a good chance he’ll spend at least part of the year slotted at DL2, at which point you’ve dropped a fair chunk of change on the modern-day equivalent of Crash Davis.  Oh boy.

If you’re trying to build a fanbase – which, given how long the Washington franchise has been the Washington franchise, seems like a good idea – what do these moves do?  (And if someone says “well, they tried to sign Teixiera last season”, for shame – he’s not on the team, and this isn’t horseshoes.  If you pat the franchise on the head and say “aw, at least you tried”, what kind of message are you sending?  Get the signature and we’ll congratulate you for spending money.)  Sure, people have heard of Rodriguez at least, but he was that guy who was awesome with the Rangers back in the ‘90’s and – hey, lookit this calendar I have over here.

Going further, does Eric Bruntlett make you excited?  How about Mike Morse?  What about the decaying corpse of Cristian Guzman?   The fabled youth movement is either injured (Jordan Zimmermann, last seen having his best season at any level before visiting Dr. James Andrews –see you in 2011, kid; Jesus Flores, last seen on the side of a milk carton in Viera, FL), not ready (Strasburg, Drew Storen to a lesser extent, Chris Marrero, repeat as necessary) or not actually a movement (Craig Stammen, come on down!), leaving the team to pin its hopes on …who, exactly?  Zimmerman is coming into his own, and Josh Willingham and Adam Dunn at least act like a competent offensive core, but Dunn gives an amazing amount of his offense back on defense (last season: -36.3 runs below replacement in the field); even if he upgrades from a defensive black hole to merely a singularity that’s not necessarily good except if everything looks a little bit red when you put on your glasses.  Nyjer Morgan had his best season ever at 29, and Elijah Dukes still hasn’t been consistent enough to matter.  Everyone else has gaping holes in their game (most of which manifest in the form of being unable to recognize four pitches outside of the strike zone in a single at-bat) which I’m sure won’t be an issue at some point this season.

There just doesn’t seem to be much of a direction for this team right now, and watching to see where things go from here quite frankly isn’t that exciting.  This team is headed more or less in a circle this season, to the point where there’s a very real likelihood they’ll rush the best prospect this franchise has seen since Pedro for the purposes of selling a few additional tickets.  2010 doesn’t make a damn bit of difference; don’t act like it’s pivotal.  I’d be less pissed if GM Mike Rizzo had come out and said “we need some warm bodies to get up to a 25-man roster that won’t make MLB think about implementing relegation”, because at least it’d be honest.

South Carolina’s offensive line has spent most of the year practicing the swinging gate play without actually moving; their 33 sacks allowed on the season is a wee bit subpar, to put it mildly.  I’m not typically a fan of blasting an offensive line as a unit, but the rushing attack (3.6 yards per carry) really isn’t doing a whole lot to make me feel any better; sure, it’s not like South Carolina has much in the way of running backs, but since sack yardage counts, you have bizarre things like Stephen Garcia getting 100+ carries at a little over a yard a pop and junior RB Brian Maddox only getting three a carry.  Sure, freshman RBs Kenny Miles and Jarvis Giles did decently at 5 yards per carry apiece, but balanced against the rest of the team, it’s not going to sway too much.   There’s help on the horizon, but it didn’t really show up this year.

With that being said, WR Alshon Jeffery was a very welcome surprise for the Gamecocks.  As a true gas-pumping freshman, Jeffery emerged as the best receiving threat on the team any way you slice it, leading the team in receptions, yards, and TDs.  If anyone’s going to talk about South Carolina’s dangerous offense (and not be on some kind of mind-altering drugs), that danger begins – and ends – with Jeffery.  The rest of the offense is strictly padded-pillow routines.  On the other hand, defensive danger is real; both Eric Norwood and Cliff Matthews are pass-rushing beasts, and Norwood himself is an absolute terror; I’m of the mindset that neutralizing him is less of a possibility and more of a dream.

On Connecticut’s side, it’s about as pedestrian as you can get.  They’re Generic Bowl Team – slightly above average for their conference in most cases save for an obvious weak spot (in their case, pass defense) and a random specialty (they’re deadly at the return game, 9^th in the country in kick returns with 4 return TDs on the season).

Based on that, let’s go for some kind of wholly unimpressive result – I’ll pick Connecticut in a slight upset to the tune of 17-12.

- Some current players have come out against Mike Leach and his treatment of players.  In addition, Texas Tech coach Lincoln Riley has flipped sides, now coming out against Mike Leach.  This is a change of heart from his previous defend-the-Leach

- Adam James came out with the video response to Trapped in the Closet; quite frankly, if someone hasn’t reposted this video yet as a response to Trapped in the Closet I’m going to be very disappointed in the YouTube crew, but that’s neither here nor there.  Regardless, this claims to be shot while James was locked in the closet by Leach and is shot with his cell phone.

- From the background-info department, some emails were leaked involving Texas Tech brass talking about Leach’s contract extension.  It looks like most of the discussions were relevant to the negotiations, but it’s a good insight as to TTU’s management viewpoint of Leach at the time of negotiations.

- Leach has done what you’d expect from him – launch a howitzer at Texas Tech.  This story has some of the highlights, most notably Leach’s intent to file a lawsuit.  The New York Times (last seen lobbing potential recruiting violations Tennessee’s way) was able to land an interview with Leach that kind of steals the thunder out of half the points I was planning on making, but there you go.

At this point, we’ve passed the point of absolving one party of blame.  It’s weird, but given the chance to take the high road, pretty much everyone’s opted to dive into the gutter and party.  Let’s go back to the bullet points for the breakdown of the relevant parties.

- Mike Leach: Well, he did pretty much start this by even putting himself in a position to treat a player inappropriately in some fashion.  Since then, things have spun at least somewhat out of his control, as the other parties have elected to go on the attack.  Leach’s reply was more or less what you’d expect from him; man the cannons and start launching invective.  That’s probably not the best way to avoid controversy, but considering the man’s going to be filing yet another lawsuit against his now-former employer, I find it hard to be surprised at this.

- Texas Tech Administration: So far these guys aren’t making out too well, to put it mildly.  The decision to fire Leach for the equivalent of lack of institutional control is contingent on Lech failing to execute a couple of clauses in his contract; however, by the same token they had already made the decision to fire him prior to the hearing of Leach’s injunction.  That in it of itself wouldn’t be a big deal, but the leaked emails seem to show a pattern of tolerance at best for Leach; I wouldn’t go so far as to say they were waiting for him to screw up, but there’s a chance they had the termination letter drafted right after he signed the contract.  They’re not doing a whole lot as of the last couple of days, since it’s mutated into a James v. Leach story.

- The James family: As a sympathetic figure, they’ve done a remarkable job swinging public opinion.  I’m not totally sure I understand the point of releasing Trapped in the Closet 2: Electric Bugaloo at this point in time; Leach is already fired and the only thing they gain by this is saying “hey look, this actually happened!”  Instead, they kicked up questions about video authenticity (which nobody is really touching, since that’s a quagmire) and there’s another issue that we knew was going to pop up at some point – Craig James and ESPN’s involvement.

I’ve been very reluctant to comment on ESPN’s involvement in the Leach story until I saw how they were going to react to it; so far it’s been solidly behind the James family.  This would be somewhat expected, but I’ve really taken issue with their trotting out Craig James as a football analyst for this story.  The man has a very real, very personal connection to the story – and that’s fine; the man needs to play Adam James’ father here, not an analyst.  If you want him on TV, that’s fine, but don’t ask him to offer insight as to what Leach did or how he acted since word of this began trickling out.  If you’re going to solicit opinions, don’t solicit only the opinions of players who wanted him gone; I can’t imagine that all the players under Leach resented him and didn’t want to play for him.

It’s been interesting to see ESPN adopt the role of pro-James; on some level, they’ve gotten scooped for some of the juicier Leach comments (NYT was able to land the phone interview with Leach, not ESPN, although I imagine Leach isn’t in a forgiving mood to ESPN) meaning the best stories they’re getting are the pro-James stories.  Whether those are the stories they’ve chosen to lead with I’m not sure, although they do have an interview with a trainer up that refutes James’ accounts.

On some level, I’m not really surprised this has happened.  ESPN is a nasty position to try and attempt neutrality when it employs one of the involved parties; on top of that, the main contradicting party isn’t granting them access, interviews, or anything resembling news.  As a result, they’ve been reporting stories that validate the James’ family viewpoint; the trainer story has been the first real story that refuted James’ viewpoint so far, and I imagine that’s there in part since a) the trainer was able to give ESPN an interview and b) everyone else has been reporting contradictory information.

At this point we’ve passed the realm of forgiveness, and we’re heading down the path of not being able to support any of the involved parties.  Maybe that’s the lesson here, and the only thing we really need to do at this point is just watch the carnage.

However, it’s a bit odd to see Arkansas here.  When we last left the Razorbacks at the beginning of the season, they had to deal with a tough schedule including road games at (what we thought were) the top four SEC teams; they’d have to nearly run the table to have a shot at a bowl game.  Sure enough, that’s what they did, dropping a shootout loss to Georgia early in the season before Joe Cox went in the tank but winning the rest of their games.  Sure, the skins of South Carolina, Troy, Texas A&M, and Auburn aren’t great skins, but those teams are within Arkansas’s peer range, and going 4-1 against their peers is about as good as it gets.  With this schedule, 7-5 counts as an accomplishment, and it’s a credit to Bobby Petrino and the coaching staff that they were able to get it done against this nasty schedule.

Petrino’s teams thrive on two things: a strong-armed quarterback and a power back to provide most of the rushing attack.  Ryan Mallett fits that first description perfectly; not only do NFL scouts salivate over his 6’7”, 238-pound frame (who needs stats when you have projectables?), but the kid had a pretty decent year, too.  As he goes, so do the Razorbacks; 4 of his 5 worst performances came in losses, including all of his sub-50% completion percentage days.  As long as he was over 54%, his team won.  (His 29/7 ratio and average of 9.3 yards per attempt don’t hurt matters.

As a result, the WR corps excelled; Greg Childs led the teams in receptions, yards, and TDs.  Remarkably, of leading WRs Childs, Joe Adams, and Jarius Wright, there was only one game where one of them had over five receptions (Adams, at Alabama), which shows the amazing balance they had in the passing game all season.  Remarkably, TE DJ Williams never got on track in the passing game save against South Carolina (helped in part by a huge end-of-half reception where South Carolina just straight-up sucked at tackling); while Williams is a legitimate receiving threat in theory, it never was really capitalized on.  It’s probably more a function of having four quality receiving threats than a statement against Williams.

What about the power running game?  Well, that had some issues; the team struggled to find a consistent running threat all season, as Michael Smith never really got on track before injuries set in.  Depending on the week, any one of Broderick Green, Ronnie Wingo, or Dennis Johnson was filling in as the primary back.  Green also doubled as the end-zone back, leading the team in carries and accounting for over half the Razorback TDs on the ground.  Thank these guys for Arkansas being second in the nation in red zone conversion percentage (and being fourth in the country in TD percentage).

On the other hand, East Carolina’s managed to fly under the radar for most of the season; I imagine most people wouldn’t have expected the Pirates to end up at 9-4.  The main reason they’ve stayed off the radar is they lost to most of the decent teams they played out-of-conference, looking unimpressive in games against West Virginia, North Carolina, and Virginia Tech.  Fortunately, the rest of the season ended up in the win column (save a bizarre road loss to SMU, fueled by a punt-block TD and an interception return TD) including a tough win over Houston in the conference championship game.

Most people, when pressed to name something about East Carolina they’d actually know, will come up with QB Patrick Pinkney and RB Dominique Lindsay.   Lindsay is legitimately quality, racking up over 1,000 yards and 5TDs on the season after struggling early on (including missing a couple of games at the end of September).   Pinkney, on the other hand … well, Pinkney’s the kind of guy people know because he’s stuck around forever.  He’s a low-risk passer who has a decent completion percentage, but not a whole lot else going for him (14/10 TD/INT, 6.7 yards per attempt); on the plus side he’s not prone to huge swings, having one outstanding game (vs. UAB) balanced against a couple of stinkbombs (vs. Appalachian State, at West Virginia).  Dwayne Harris and Darryl Freeney are the WRs of note; TEs aren’t really used except as additional blockers.

The premiere matchup for this game will be Arkansas’s offense against East Carolina’s offense.  Generally speaking, the better QBs did pretty well against the Pirate D (and even the not-better QBs; seriously, Jarrett Brown completed 77% of his passes?), which doesn’t bode well.  With that being said, East Carolina does have the ability to completely shut down teams’ running games; it was only when teams had success in both facets did East Carolina really get into trouble.  Based on that, I’d expect Arkansas to have success against the Pirates; they probably won’t need to average much more than 3 yards per carry to get the job done, and their path for success – pass down the field, punch it in on the ground – bodes well against an East Carolina team not well-fitted to stop it.  With that being said, players abound on the East Carolina D, from DE CJ Wilson (and DT Linval Joseph) to FS Van Eskridge, CB Emanuel Davis, and LB Jeremy Chambliss.  Don’t think Arkansas’s going to run roughshod over these guys.

I haven’t mentioned the other side of the ball yet for one reason: it’s kind of unassuming.  East Carolina’s good, but not great; Arkansas’s passable and maybe good in the right game.  Whatever.  Special teams trends slightly toward East Carolina, but not enough to really break the game in their favor.

Arkansas should have the edge here, but it’s close.  East Carolina likely won’t get blown out, and I can easily see this game in a 14-10 range at halftime before Arkansas drops an early 3^rd quarter TD to effectively end the game.  Pencil in Arkansas for something like a 38-27 win.

(stats provided thanks to CFB Stats)