27 June 2008
The not-so-definitive word from Chron sports hacks
Chron writers can't seem to decide whether the Astros clubhouse is toxic:
Toxic time for Astros, and that's bad (Jesus Ortiz, Chron Baseball , 06/18/2008)
If you've spent a few minutes in the Astros' clubhouse these days, you'd feel bad for the boys.
"It's real bad in here," a player told me as soon as I got into the clubhouse Tuesday to try to get an unbiased opinion to the comments I read in the paper Monday from Roy Oswalt and Cecil Cooper. "It's not going to get better."
What? I was both stunned and saddened. How did it get this bad, this quick? This toxic?
Afterward, I sent a few close friends and family members who care about the Astros this text message: It's really toxic in here.
Toxic clubhouse environment? Winning will fix everything (Richard Justice, SportsJustice, 06/27/2008)
I've heard that phrase mentioned several times over the last few days. There are people claiming the atmosphere is poisonous, that dramatic changes need to be made.
I don't believe this to be true. I'm not in there enough to really know, but that's my opinion based on what I've seen and heard. It's very difficult for any member of the media to make that kind of assessment. I asked some players I trust and others that are in the clubhouse far more than me about this.
They don't buy it, either.
Justice isn't in there enough to know, except he still knows. Okee!
At least those are two different staff writers with different perspectives. Here's Fran Blinebury, who offers two contradictory perspectives on Joey Dorsey within a few hours:
Au revoir to Batum. Bonjour Greene and Dorsey (Fran Blinebury, Courtside, 06/26/08)
As for Dorsey, when he's good, he can be very, very good. Yes, he's another undersized player on the frontline for a team that already has Landry and Hayes. But Dorsey's bulk and quickness could compensate for his lack of height.
Rockets trade 1st pick Batum for Dorsey, Greene (Fran Blinebury, Houston Chronicle)
"We think Joey Dorsey was the best defensive player on the best defensive team in the country this year at Memphis," Morey said. "We think he plays much bigger than his 6-7 height with the size of his body and his aggressiveness."
The 24-year-old Dorsey was a key member of the Memphis Tigers who finished 38-2 and lost in overtime to Kansas in the NCAA title game. He averaged 6.9 points and 9.4 rebounds.
Dorsey has prototypical size, strength and athleticism for the NBA power forward spot.
6-7 is not prototypical size for an NBA power forward -- it's short! It's something Daryl Morey admits two paragraphs before Fran Blinebury writes that "prototypical size" nonsense. And it's something Blinebury seemed to admit last night, when he called Dorsey "undersized."
Bizarre.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/27/08 21:20 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
18 June 2008
He's no MJ
Old Man Joy (Joe Posnanski)
And then I started hearing people actually comparing Kobe Bryant and Michael Jordan.
I should say up front that I honestly do not know how many people were making this comparison … maybe it was only Mark Jackson on TV and a few annoying people trying to cause a stir — sort of the way sports magazines of my youth (with original names like Inside Sports and Sport) tried to spur reader reaction by having these ridiculous headlines on their covers like, “Why Wayne Gretzky is not the best player in hockey” or “Why the Seattle Mariners are going to win it all” or whatever. So I don’t know if this Kobe vs. Michael thing is real or just something to talk about or a strawman to knock down. I really don’t know.
I do know this: Just the thought that anyone was even having this argument made me surprisingly angry.
Yeah. What the great Posnanski said. All of it.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/08 22:33 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
Chron beat writer shocked to discover sour clubhouse
Toxic time for Astros, and that's bad (Jesus Ortiz, Chron Baseball Blog)
If you've spent a few minutes in the Astros' clubhouse these days, you'd feel bad for the boys.
"It's real bad in here," a player told me as soon as I got into the clubhouse Tuesday to try to get an unbiased opinion to the comments I read in the paper Monday from Roy Oswalt and Cecil Cooper. "It's not going to get better."
What? I was both stunned and saddened.
Of course. Because surely Drayton McLane had been telling him everything is swell. And what Mr. McLane tells his PR man on the Chron staff is usually regarded as the last/only word on the matter.
Kudos to Richard Justice for raising questions about what's going on in the clubhouse (yeah, we can compliment the guy when he makes a good point).
Come on, football season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/18/08 21:05 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
16 June 2008
Fun stuff from Richard Justice
You can't make this stuff up:
He made a huge mistake by hiring Charley Casserly, and his strength--trusting his people--became a weakness in those years. He was in a new business and had trusted Casserly to lead the way. Trust me when I tell you that Casserly can be very persuasive. I was probably more duped than McNair by this guy.
You don't get many win-win deals. McNair has done a good job rebuilding one franchise. If he's responsible for rebuilding two, he ought to get a parade.
Rebuilding?
The Texans franchise has yet to have a winning season. That it is rebuilding so soon is not really something to celebrate.
Ah well, fun stuff. I just hope pointing that out doesn't provoke another bizarre email or radio outburst from the insecure major daily sports columnist. Because frankly, I think those outbursts are kind of bizarre.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 06/16/08 21:47 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
16 April 2008
Why some people call them lOSUr (cont'd)
Source: Holder interviews UMass' Ford (Daily Oklahoman)
STILLWATER — Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder has interviewed Massachusetts coach Travis Ford, a source has confirmed.
[snip]
Holder also interviewed Southern Illinois coach Mike Lowery, who turned down the Cowboys.
Travis Ford accepts job as OSU men's basketball coach (Andrea Cohen, Daily Oklahoman)
STILLWATER — Travis Ford has accepted the job as Oklahoma State's next basketball coach, several sources confirmed Wednesday evening.
[snip]
Ford, 38, just completed his third season at UMass. The Minutemen went 25-11 this season and played in the championship game of the NIT. From 2000-2005 Ford coached at Eastern Kentucky, where he compiled a 61-80 record. In eight years as a Division-I coach, Ford's record is 123-115.
Nothing against Ford, but his teams seem to compete for the NIT, and his career win percentage (51.6%) isn't as good as Sean Sutton's (57.3%). Hard to see why you push the Suttons out... for that. Well, except for the whims of the possibly-demented millionaire in charge of lOSUr athletics these days.
Oh, and those Boone Pickens millions that were going to secure Bill Self? Apparently, the allure wasn't even enough to secure the coach from Southern Illinois. Ouch!
That's some athletics department that Pickens and his lackey AD are running there in Stillwater.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/16/08 20:45 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
11 April 2008
Why some people call them lOSUr
Holder says he's regrouping (Andrea Cohen, Daily Oklahoman)
As Bill Self took a stage in Kansas to announce he will stay in Lawrence, questions about Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder's whereabouts swirled around Oklahoma.
Was the AD already in Nashville working on Plan B? What about a flight scheduled from Stillwater to Minneapolis?
In reality the AD was in his office, sitting at his desk, nursing a bit of a broken heart.
[snip]
"I told him he broke my heart, and I'm serious about that,” Holder said. "So I'm gonna have to kind of regroup and get over that, the loss, first. Then figure out where to go from here.”
"I think from my point of view I put a lot of energy and thought into the moment of truth with Bill Self when I sat down with him last night. I think at the end of the day I had myself sold on him coming to Oklahoma State but I couldn't sell Bill Self on coming to Oklahoma State.”
Self Rejection Is Big Punch (John Klein, Tulsa World)
Kansas coach Bill Self said Thursday that Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder did an unbelievable job in trying to woo him back to his alma mater as men's basketball coach.
It is doubtful anyone associated with OSU believes Holder did an unbelievable job.
Self is being nice. OSU fans aren't likely to be so forgiving to an athletic director that raises ticket prices, pushes a legendary OSU family out the door and then fails to land the only coach that could sooth the bitterness.
Self's rejection is a devastating blow to OSU basketball. It won't do much good for Holder, either.
Holder fires Sean Sutton and alienates the Sutton family and then fails to get the only coach that would have united the OSU fan base.There is no coach out there even close to what Self would have done for OSU.
Now, the Cowboys will have to settle for someone far less.
There is no way to spin this into a positive for OSU. The next coach will be no better than a second choice and you still have the Suttons unhappy about what happened.
If OSU could not get Self, Sean Sutton should have never been fired.
Boone Pickens and his little (unqualified to be AD a major university) buddy Mike Holder have absolutely bungled this whole basketball situation, for all the reasons laid out by Klein.
The fact is, nobody knows after this short time if Sean Sutton is a Big-12 caliber coach or not (for that matter, it's not clear if Mike Gundy is a Big-12 caliber coach, but he apparently has the Boone Pickens seal of approval in a way that the Sutton family did not). He certainly lost games at Gallagher-Iba this year that the old man would not have. But he might have grown into the job, and probably deserved a couple more years to prove himself given the fact that his family restored OSU basketball in the nearly two decades it was under their supervision.
Let anyone forget what the Suttons accomplished at OSU, here's a reminder:
When Eddie and Sean Sutton arrived at Oklahoma State University in 1990, Cowboy basketball had been to one NCAA Tournament in 25 years, had zero NCAA wins in 25 years and Gallagher-Iba Arena seated 6,381 and rarely was full.
[snip]
The Sutton era ended ... with the force-out of Sean as head coach. Three straight NIT appearances mark the end of the Sutton era, but the first 15 years were glorious.
Thirteen NCAA Tournaments. Six Sweet 16's. Three conference tournament titles. Two conference championships. Two Final Fours. And a glittering arena that seats 13,611 and was packed on many a winter night.
Eddie Sutton coached the Cowboys; Sean was point guard on his dad's first two teams, then returned after a year's absence and was his right-hand assistant for seasons.
"This is a great job,” OSU athletic director Mike Holder said while relieving Sean Sutton of that very post. "That's in part due to the Sutton family.
It's almost entirely due to the Sutton family.
OSU may find the right coach to get them back to where they think they belong, but the notion here is that despite the Boone Pickens millions, there's no reason for that program to expect to be in the Top 25 as often as it was under Eddie Sutton. Tossing all of that history aside for personal reasons may not turn out to be the best decision OSU has ever made.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 04/11/08 22:20 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
16 February 2008
Tubbs on today's college hoops
Tubbs says today's low scoring games are a yawner (Scott Wright, Daily Oklahoman)
If scoring gets much lower in college basketball, Billy Tubbs believes the Food and Drug Administration will have to get involved.
"They're going to have to put warnings on these games,” the former Oklahoma coach said. "Warning: Watching this game could make you drowsy.”
The days of Billy Ball — which regularly produced 100-point games — are mostly a thing of the past. And not just at Oklahoma but all across the country.
Scoring jumped immediately after the addition of the 3-point line in 1986, but it has been in a downward trend over the last 17 years, falling nearly seven points per game since 1991.
When Texas Tech hosts Oklahoma at 3 p.m. today in Lubbock, Texas, the game will feature two teams that, on average, score fewer than 71 points per game and allow fewer than 66. Their last meeting was a 63-61 OU victory in Norman.
And similar scores are being posted nightly throughout college basketball. Games like that are becoming hard to watch for the old run-n-gun coaches of the 1980s and ‘90s.
"If you can't score 60 points in a basketball game, you ought to quit,” Tubbs said. "Who wants to see it? There are games that get down to the last three minutes, and they're exciting, but they're boring as hell for the first 47 minutes.”
Even the teams that try to run the floor today don't produce points the way Tubbs did at Oklahoma — or Jerry Tarkanian at UNLV or Nolan Richardson at Arkansas. The biggest difference is that the current teams are using defense to get the ball back and set up their offense, where the teams of the past used defense to get easy points.
It's the difference between scoring with jump shots and scoring with layups.
Those high-flying Tubbs' teams at Oklahoma were really fun to watch (as were Tark's and Richardson's teams, and even Tom Penders' teams at Texas).
I had lost interest in college hoops before TP came to Houston for exactly the reasons described by Tubbs -- so many teams just play a gawdawful boring style of ball. As much as it pains me when Lanny or Fluff clangs a crazy three pointer from well outside their range with only 8 seconds run off the shot clock, I'd rather have that than some variant of the run-out-the-shot-clock-weave as a team's main offensive set.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/16/08 12:48 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (0)
03 February 2008
TP gets #600, Kevlar completes his staff
Tom Penders notched his 600th career victory last night, on the road against Central Florida.
Congrats to TP!
Up next: Tulsa, at the Hof.
In other UH news, Kevlar completed his staff with the addition of offensive coordinator Dana Holgorsen, formerly of Texas Tech. Holgorsen learned the Hal Mumme/Mike Leach offense from both Mumme and Leach, so you could say he knows as much about it as anyone not named Mumme or Leach (or maybe Morriss). This is a really nice staff Kevlar has put together. UH football should be fun this fall.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/08 21:52 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
Wow
Despite the low scoring, that was a GREAT Super Bowl.
And as it turns out, those old annoying Dolphins effers get to pop the champagne after all.
That must suck to go perfect till the last game.
Ah well, nice to see an NFC East team win the thing if the 'Boyz couldn't pull it off.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 02/03/08 21:09 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)
30 January 2008
UH-Memphis
#1 Memphis rolls into a sold-out Hofheinz tonight.
The Coogs desperately need a win at least once against Memphis this season if they hope to secure a tourney bid. Unfortunately, that's going to be a tall order, as this Memphis team is really good.
A rocking Hof may give the Coogs a shot. Since the sellout was announced yesterday, it seems like the place is going to be as full as it has been in a while. I guess that means we'll head over a little early tonight and hope for the big upset.
Go Coogs!
UPDATE: As expected, Memphis remains undefeated. The Coogs couldn't get enough shots to fall to make it a close game, but I liked a lot of what I saw from UH (which sounds odd when describing a double-digit loss on your home court). When that Memphis team gets on a roll, it resembles an NBA team. They are just wicked good.
The UH fans that abandoned ship with four minutes left sort of typified Houston sports fans (bleh). But maybe some of the big crowd will make it back out for entertaining ball the rest of the season.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/30/08 14:46 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)
19 January 2008
Penders coaches #1000
Tom Penders is set to coach his 1,000th college game this afternoon, when UH takes on UTEP at the Hof.
The game should be a pretty good battle between the two teams that are likely to fight for second place all season in CUSA.
Since CUSA is probably, at best, a two-bid league this year, this is a really important game for the Coogs.
I hope our fickle fan base hasn't already bailed on the team, after the performance against Arizona.
I'm hoping to sandwich a bunch of chores around the game before taking off on another long weekend trip (and escaping cold/wet/dreary Houston for just cold).
UPDATE: The defensive-minded Coogs got the win, although it got a little more exciting at the end than it needed to.
And Coog basketball fans got the shaft, with a doubling of parking prices (presumably for the 6pm East/West Shrine game, although the parking attendant only grunted and shrugged when I asked) and only two ticket doors open on the Holman side of the Hof (meaning slow entry on a cold day).
Sometimes, Dave Maggard's gameday operations really earn the name Cougar High.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 01/19/08 08:42 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (2)
19 December 2007
Roger, then and later
On his Feeding the Monster blog, Seth Mnookin posts links to photos of Roger Clemens in an Astros uniform, versus early in his career with the Red Sox. I've combined those images into one for purposes of comparison:
Photos don't say anything about how Roger's transformation (which seems much like the transformation of Barry Bonds) took place, of course.*
* The PubliusTX.net reader representative advised us to add that disclaimer, lest Mr. Clemens' high-priced legal/PR reps decide the blog was somehow defaming the incredibly transformed pitcher.
UPDATE: Pallilo posts this amusing photoshop.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/19/07 09:55 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)
14 December 2007
Mack punked by Stoops again?
So, as noted previously re: the UH coaching search, at one point Dave Maggard had narrowed the list to Mike Haywood and Jack Pardee.
Haywood had the support of UT's Mack Brown (and Vince Young).
But Michael Murphy indicates in his blog comments that a phone call from Bob Stoops to Dave Maggard put Kevin Sumlin back in the running for the UH job.
Did Bob Stoops punk Mack Brown again? :)
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/14/07 10:34 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (3)
13 December 2007
Twists and turns in UH coaching search
Tuesday, word trickled out from UH that Dave Maggard had narrowed the coaching search to Mike Haywood and Jack Pardee.
By Wednesday afternoon, KBME-790 was reporting that the list wasn't so narrow after all, that TU offensive coordinator Gus Malzahn was not completely out of the running.
Later Wednesday, the Chron's Michael Murphy and KRIV-26's Mark Berman were reporting that Haywood was out, and OU co-offensive coordinator Kevin Sumlin was back in the mix, along with Pardee.
Haywood may be the next great thing, but I'm not sad that he's out. He's been on several elite staffs and has a reputation as a recruiter, but it seems like he's mainly been a position coach (Charlie Weis is generally thought to run the offense at Notre Dame). That's a gamble, although he could well turn out to be an excellent head coach (think of a certain tight ends coach for the Dallas Cowboys who became a successful head man at Oklahoma State, and then moved on to his current job at LSU).
I've warmed to the idea of Pardee a little bit, aside from the notion of David Klingler as offensive coordinator. It just doesn't seem like a good idea for a guy with no college coaching experience to be named offensive coordinator at a program with aspirations. If that's part of the deal, then I hope Maggard goes with another option.
The Sooner fan in me really likes the Sumlin pick, though. The guy enjoyed success running A&M's offense. And even though Kevin Wilson is truly in charge of Oklahoma's offense, Sumlin is, by all accounts, heavily involved. He's been around some very good coaches and should be able to put together a quality staff (and he already knows UH's strength and conditioning coach well, from their time together at Oklahoma, so he's not coming in to CUSA and UH totally blind). He's supposed to be a good recruiter, and supposed to be an energy guy. UH needs those things.
So, yesterday's news that Haywood was out and Malzahn/Sumlin might be back in certainly cheered me a bit. And hey, if Sumlin gets it, we can have Oklahoma/Oklahoma State proxy wars in CUSA between UH and Southern Miss (which just hired Oklahoma State's offensive coordinator)!
UPDATE: Put it in the bank -- Murph says Sumlin is the guy. Boomer Cougar, anyone? :)
Crossposted to Bad Sports
BLOGVERSATION: Lose an Eye, It's a Sport.
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/13/07 08:56 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (1)
05 December 2007
The madness of King Dave?
The news yesterday that UH is seriously considering Jack Pardee (think ancient!) as head coach and David Klingler (of no college coaching experience) as offensive coordinator officially marked the descent of the UH coaching search into Silly Land.
Strangely (or perhaps not so strangely), the move seems popular on CoogFans. Here is a sentence actually seen on that fine forum (and the poster was not joking):
I have no problem with Pardee because he is a proven winner, and with his age he will relate to most of our fanbase.
Here's the email I sent to a few friends about the comment:
Bring back a corpse who's been out of coaching years because most of our fanbase need wheelchairs, walkers, and oxygen to make it to games?
There's something for the marketing dept to work with. Hell, maybe we can swing a marketing deal with Viagra!
But Callie beat me with her response:
So, if Pardee goes 0-11 for the season, that'll be fine because he can talk
with the "fanbase" about what he uses for his achy joints?I think a coach who can relate to x's and o's is more desirable than a coach who knows the ins and outs of the Medicare system. They're not mutually exclusive, by any means. But I've never really cared if I have anything in common with a coach. Why does that even matter?
No wonder I haven't seen Maggard at any of the basketball games lately. I bet he's sick to death of this type of advice.
For a while, there was talk that proven head coaches like Jeff Bower and Chan Gailey might be interested in the job. I hear that former Iowa State head man Dan McCarney would be interested. Any of those three guys would be credible hires, if Maggard decides he wants a former head coach with a record of winning.
Likewise, the offensive coordinators whose names have popped up (Haywood at Notre Dame, Malzahn at Tulsa, Fedora at Oklahoma State) would be credible hires with strengths (Haywood has ties to Houston, Malzahn knows the conference and runs a high-octane offense, Fedora has ties to Texas and runs a high-octane offense at a BCS program that is clearly second in its own state to a storied program).
But a fossil who's been out of coaching for a decade who promises to bring in as offensive coordinator a guy who hasn't coached?
While we're living in Silly Land, why not also ring up The Bootlegger's Boy for the head job, and that Bed and Breakfast guy who ran the Raiders offense last year for OC?
One has to hope the new UH chancellor/president, who has been around a real football program that's on the rise, will veto this latest proposal from Silly Land, and King Dave will get on about the business of replacing Art Briles.
UPDATE: One of UH's conference rivals is interviewing a guy (Larry Fedora) with Texas ties and an innovative offense -- a guy who isn't on Medicare. UH should be after this guy -- and he should prefer UH, because UH has more potential.
UPDATE 2: To be fair, here's a thread on CoogFans that speculates on the coaching staff Pardee might be putting together. They are some guys with experience, and probably won't treat the job as a stepping stone. There is something to be said for both, although this route isn't my preference.
Crossposted to Bad Sports
Posted by Kevin Whited @ 12/05/07 15:39 | Sports | Technorati | Comments (4)
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