Ok, the NFL draft is over can we get back to our regular programming. I don't know if it's just me, but I really can not think about football in April! Obviously, I'm in some sort of minority because so many million people watched the draft. I can understand the college football players, along with their friends and families watching but the general public, what's up with that? You can easily read the paper the next morning or online to see what team chose what player. You can even get a whole freakin analysis. I don't see a reason to sit for endless hours in front of the boob tube watching to see the players chosen. Obviously, I'm not too keen on the whole watching of the drafts, doesn't matter what sport. But, what happens in the draft, I'm very interested in.

So, the big topic, Eli Manning. As a NY Giants fan, I must say that I'm glad we got him but I don't like what we gave up to get him. I do not think he is ready to be QB full-time and if he does play all the time, I think it will be like David Carr playing for the Houston Texans. I would really like it that Eli become an "apprentice" behind a veteran QB to learn. And then gradually start playing more. But, I probably won't get my wish. I'm really frustrated at how the Giants are just booting Kerry Collins out the door, yeah Kerry should probably ask for less money, but does he really deserve less money. If he wasn't injured last year, the Giants could've easily been above .500 and not only was Collins injured, plenty of our marquee guys were injured. The Giants didn't play with a fully healthy roster most of last year, so it hard to say that the QB was responsible for the horrible season. I still believe Collins is a good QB and that the Giants should try there best to retain him. Not only is Eli going to scrutinized this season but what new coach Tom Coughlin does will be highly scrutinized. If Eli works out Tom will be a hero, otherwise he will have a short tenure in NY as well as Eli.

I have purposely not talked about the debacle if Eli wasn't traded to the Giants b/c I feel it's a moot point. The fact that people are upset at Eli's and his family selfishness is valid. But, it's a moot point...get over it.

On another note, those who are thinking about going to big time universities, should probably read Beer & Circus. Very interesting book, although the author does tend drone on a bit. I'm able to look at this book from a different perspective because I have graduated from a university and subsequently can appreciate the education I got much more. I also feel that I could've gotten a lot more out of it too.

I just finished reading a John Feinstein book, A Season on the Brink. The book is about Bob Knight while coaching at Indiana University. Anyone who follows college basketball has an opinion of Bob Knight. You either despise him or think he is awesome. The reason I picked up this book is that I wanted to know more about Bob Knight. Up until I read the book all I knew about him was the incident that lead to his firing at Indiana University. As you can pretty much ascertain, I didn't really think too favorly of him. While reading the book, there were moments I was close to tears when reading about his generousity and loyalty. There were moments where I thought he was close to being the meanest SOB on the planet. In the end, I have learned more of Bob Knight and I must say I respect him for being a very loyal human. I don't necessarily agree with his coaching tactics, but I can't really say too much since I've never coached. Do I think he is a genius at what he does, YES! What also was portrayed in this book is how he has adapted to the changes in basketball. At one time he only played man-on-man defense, didn't allow junior college players and wouldn't recruit players outside the mid-west. If you looked at his Texas Tech team there was definitely some zone defense and junior college players. Many would think that he is old school type of coach, but he has definitely kept up with his younger contemporaries. My feeling is that you will learn lot about basketball from Bob Knight, but you better have a real thick skin otherwise you will just wilt from his never-ending criticism/yelling/mind games.

As an end note, it was noted in the epilogue that Bob Knight did not like book, which was quite understandable. How many people enjoy reading all the bad stuff about them.

The following books are on my bed side table to be read:
Beer And Circus by Murray Sperber
The Odds by Chad Millman
Raise the Roof by Pat Summitt with Sally Jenkins
Eragon by Christopher Polini
Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

Spring & Summer are good times for me to catch up on reading b/c I like reading outside in the beautiful weather!

Ratings, Ratings, Ratings...

So, today's spiel is all about Television Ratings, not the parental guide ratings but the number of viewers watching a particular show. We are constantly hearing that there are fewer people watching particular sporting events compared to last years sporting events. For instance, this year's ratings for the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship was lower than last year's. The reason I'm talking about this today is I read an article in the Washington Post about the new tennis series. Sally Jenkins wrote the article and a major point in her article is how Tennis has messed up because they made stupid business errors and therefore not getting the tv ratings it supposedly could. I find this not to be a one-to-one correlation as Sally Jenkins tries to tell us. Every major sport has seen a decrease in ratings and it's also unfair to compare one sport to another. I am constantly peeved at how the broadcasters and journalists are always saying hockey isn't getting the same ratings as football. Well, duh! Each sport has its own fan base, and obviously every sport would like everyone to follow it, to get the higher ratings which some how equals more revenue. But, get real people. We don't even have sport journalists that like every sport, and these are the people who are really into sports. Why should the sport execs or whoever think that sports should get high ratings consistently? I'm not quite sure that they have realized that people have many options these days in watching tv and can make it even broader. Many people have found things to do that is not related to watching tv. I'd really wish we would get away from this ratings bullsh*t and focus on how competitive sports are. I can understand people not being able to catch every single sporting event on tv and planning on just watching the championship. I guess really what I'm frustrated about is how much business has affected the sports world. The media has just become obsessed with money and we are losing our focus on the talented men & women that play sports.

So, in regards to tennis trying to get higher tv ratings, good luck. I think first you should try to get your players more interested in sport, as Sally Jenkins mentioned.

My life lately has been relatively boring, not much going on. I read the following article on Apple Laptops and noticed that Apple upgraded my laptop, iBook 12'' with the price remainging the same! If I only waited a little bit longer to buy my laptop...but in actuality, do I really need the extra GB. I've already got the G4 Processor, but one thing I realy wish I have is the dvd-burner. At the time I bought my laptop, only the PowerBooks offered the dvd-burner but I did not want to spend an extra $500 just for the burner. This is the problem with technology, no matter what you buy it's outdated 3 months later.

Regarding sport news, I must admit I am a Maurice Clarett hater. I really like the fact that most NFL players have graduated from school. Yeah sure, we all make fun of their degrees but there are football players that are taking "real" classes. I think it was Craig Krenzel that was majoring in Molecular Genetics...this is definetely not an easy major. He also was the quarterback for Ohio State. Did I mention that he led his team to the National Championship? So, why am I repeating stuff that pretty much everyone knows? Well, Maurice Clarett was also on this team and helped the Buckeyes to win the National Championship. If Clarett had his way, he would be in the draft along with his fellow teammate or should say ex-teammate since he did not play at all in in 2003. Supposedly Clarett has been in college for two years, but from the extensive reporting of the past year, I doubt he's gone to too many classes. I don't think Clarett is ready for the NFL, one year of college football will not help him in the NFL. Unfortunately there really isn't a minor league system for football, sure the guys can go to Cananda or NFL Europe, but majority of the NFL players are being drafted from college. Those with the most experience will have a better chance of playing in the NFL. I don't know why people are trying to push Clarett into the NFL. Tell him to take his time, learn the sport more and maybe grow up a little. I am always baffled by people who choose going to the Pros over a free education.

And who says smart guys can't play football, here's an interesting article.

We will end this post with a quote:

"I think undergraduate signings are a disgrace. Kids don't belong in the sport. They're not emotionally or physically developed enough. They should bide their time and then come into our sport. For them to get some court to say, 'OK, he can do it,' it's a bad deal for the public at large." -- Outgoing Baltimore owner Art Modell, who officially ceded his franchise to Maryland entrepreneur Steve Bisciotti last week.

So, I promised to tell you guys if I got excited about either the Masters or the NHL playoffs.

Well, I got excited about 1 of 2.

I watched Sunday at The Masters for the first time...saw the 2 hold in one's on the 16th, Ernie Els faboulous game and of course Phil's win. And of course I got real excited when Phil won, so I believe I will watch the Sunday at the Masters again.

Don't know if I'll ever get into NHL playoffs.

Congratulations to the Bucknell Cheerleaders! I saw them at the Patriot League Tournament and they are truly awesome. So awesome in fact that Matt & Dolan had to get a picture with them! Yours truly was behind the camera.



Check out Spicher's website...it's finally been updated. Can definetely tell he borrowed his design elements from Matt's old website!

According to Norton Anti-Virus I have zero viruses...for thos who were wondering.

I knew there was a reason I was paranoid about viruses: Intego issues Mac OS X Trojan Horse warning

The first paragraph of the article:

Macintosh security specialists, Intego on Thursday issued a security warning to its customers for the first Trojan horse to affect Mac OS XDubbed MP3Concept (MP3Virus.Gen), the Trojan horse exploits a weakness in Mac OS X where applications can appear to be other types of files, according to the company.

Read the article to learn more.

So, last night I got paranoid about virus protection for my laptop. I did a bunch of searching and the .mac account comes with virus software called Virex made by McAffee. But, I opted to get the 15 day trial version of Norton Anti-Virus and I started scanning last night. Little to say I paused it aftetr 45 min and it wasn't even half way done. Apprently on my mac hard drive there are over 200,000 files. Good news though, no viruses yet.

Today I'm watching Will & Grace, haven't seen this show in a few months.

I will probably be the one who is excited by this but I got my work VPN (virtual private networking) to work at home. Which means I get to do work at home!

More news relating to work is that I'm going St. Louis for work from April 26-May7. Should be exciting. If anyone knows anything good to do in St. Louis let me know.

Supposedly I should be getting excited about The Masters and the NHL playoffs. I'll let you know if my excitement level rises.

Go Islanders?

UConn women won...not a big surprise. It is cool that both the men & the women won the national championship. It is not cool the riots that went on in Stoors, CT. I still have no understood why people feel the need to flip cars over, demolish stuff when their team win. What is the point? Are they trying to prove something?

Well, now that the college basketball season is over, I won't have too much to talk about. Keep track of the site for various thoughts and ramblings.

I may learn that there are more things out there that college basketball...highly doubt it.

TV shows to resume or start watching since college b-ball is over

O.C. - must thank B. Hepp for introducing me to this show
One Tree Hill - the commercials had basketball in it, definetely was going to start watching this show
Baseball (really doubt this will happen)...ESPN keeps coming up w/ stupid story lines. Clemens un-retiring will be pitching tonight, Maddox pitching back in Chicago, Bonds breaking Mays record...and the list goes on.
Bachelor w/ NY Giants back up quarterback Jesse Palmer...potentially could be interesting to see what big of fool he is

Don't know what else will be on TV...definetely predicting a decrease in TV viewing. Must find new things to do.

For those who are interested, my mouth has gotten less swollen from the wisdom teeth extraction. Right side is still in a little bit of pain. Get to see the dentist again this Friday, hopefully it will go well.

Top 20 Men's Basketball for Next Season

Keep in mind, I have no idea who will be declaring themselves for the draft or staying in school. So, these rankings could change by next October.

1. Kansas
2. Duke
3. GA Tech
4. UConn
5. Wake Forest
6. Wiscosin
7. Illinois
8. North Carolina
9. Syracuse
10. Maryland
11. Oklahoma
12. NC State
13. Mississippi St
14. Pittsburgh
15. Stanford
16. Louisville
17. Arizona
18. Cincinnati
19. Gonzaga
20. Kentucky

Well, UConn men won. Wasn't really much of a surprise. GA Tech disappointed me by not producing the offense I know they are capable of...result was UConn winning and me going to bed at halftime.

Tonight UConn women will try to match the UConn men. As much as the world thinks that Tennessee is the best team to be able to beat UConn, I think they are wrong. Tennessee will not be able to match up with the offensive talented team that UConn is. Tennessee defense will not be able to contain the Huskies. So, do not be suprised when UConn builds a huge lead like they did in the semi-final game. I wish Pat Summitt and her Lady Volunteers the best of luck. Hopefully the Lady Volunteers will find some players who can shoot the ball well.

Pick, UConn winning.

as promised here is the picture of me...no i'm not chewing tobacco!

Oh, my picture is off the Bucknell website...there was my 5 minutes of fame. They replaced me with some modern art picture (yawn).

Also, I watched the women's final four and trading spaces home free. LSU really made Tennessee sweat and probably deserved to win. If they just protected the ball in the back court...who knows what could've happened.

I'm kind of bored of seeing Tennessee vs UConn in the championship game. The women's game is a lot more than these two teams. Yeah, Tennessee had 3 remarkable wins but they sure are looking like they will get blown out by UConn once again. I doubt they will keep the game close. But, I will still watch the game to see maybe Tennessee can pull off the improbably and beat UConn. Keep your fingers crossed.

Well, my face is looking a little better. I have some pictures of me, the right side of my face is puffier, kind of like I'm chewing tobacco. When I get the pictures off my camera, I'll post it here. I went to see the Cherry Blossoms in DC, they are definetely beautiful. Then I walked over to the Jefferson Memorial, first time I've ever been there. It was really windy though, so I went home pretty quickly. But, I definetely enjoyed the time outside my house.

Well, I watched the GA Tech/OK State game and I did not think GA Tech would get the win. They really surprised me with their offense and not so much their defense. I heard that they are a great defensive team but they sure showed me some great offensive minded players. If they can keep offense rolling, we will be watching a great game tonight.

I only watched the first half of the Duke/UConn game, the stupid meds for my wisdom teeth made me real tired. The two early fouls on Okafor were dumb and I was really surprised Duke didn't build a large lead w/ Okafor out of the game. I read all about the second half and I really wished I watched the game but I'm glad Duke did not win!

Tonight's game is pretty late, but hopefully the meds will let me stay up.

I actually want both teams to win, but really GA Tech b/c no one expected them to be in. Even though they are in the ACC, I just think these are a bunch of great guys and would love to see them win. I also want to see Ben Gordon & Okafor to win b/c they also deserve the cherished prize. Look to see GA Tech get quick fouls on Okafor and then Luke S. dominate the inside game.

My Pick...(drum roll please) GA Tech

Wisdom teeth are out...right side of my face looks like a chipmunk/dough boy/michelin man/nutty professor. Yesterday was not a good day, turns out I get nauseaus from laughing gas. According to the doctor, it took them 30 min to extract the four teeth but then I was puking for an hour and a half. And the when I got home and took the pain meds, those made me nauseaus. So, a day later I'm just taking alleve and icing my cheeks.

Final four tonight.

Have we heard enough of Okafor's injuries? I think the Duke/UConn game will be very exciting. Whoever makes the last run of the game will win. I definetely think it will be a game w/ mediocre defense and a lot of players trying to make the best play of the game. Although, we keep forgetting about the other game that will be played today. Georgia Tech/Ok St will also be an exciting game. Look for a fast paced game, lots of running up and down the court. Each player for Georgia Tech will need to play their best game of their lives.

Hopefully I won't be too gone to watch both these games...

NIT Championship game Tonight.

Rutgers vs Michigan

My Pick, Michigan will win.

Tommy Amaker is a great coach, unfortunately he's at a school that has had many disruptions is the past 20 years. If they can finally get away from the scandals, this program will grow. Unfortunately, this year there are no big game players to elevate the team to the big tourney. Watch them next year, they will definetely be an improved team. I have no doubt that they will contend with the other Big Ten Teams, also they are only losing 2 seniors. If any of the under classmen declare for the NBA draft they are making a huge mistake.

Rutgers needed the semi-final game to go into OT to beat Iowa State. Whereas Michigan handily beat Oregon (which in the preseason the basketball prognosticators thought were going to be a cinderella team!) in their semi-final game. I don't see Rutgers being disciplined enough to play well against Michigan. They will try to play an up tempo scrappy game and not much defense. Michigan will just pick apart the defense. Rutgers is lead by two great freshman, hopefully they will make it an interesting game.