One of the things I like about minor league baseball is the fact that the teams have some t-e-r-r-i-b-l-e names. I don't like the names as much as I like the cheap tickets and beer served in the bleachers, but I still find them quite entertaining. Still, I have to wonder what the owners of the Giants' AA affiliate in Richmond were thinking: I give you the Richmond Flying Squirrels.
Remember a month ago how the rumors started flying about the NCAA men's basketball tournament field potentially getting expanded to 96 teams? Today the news hit that there would indeed be an expansion, but it would be to 68 teams and not 96 teams. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that there's a very high probability that the NCAA deliberately "leaked" the 96 team number so that when the true expansion hit everyone's reaction would be "Only 68 huh?" and not, "Jeez, 68 teams will totally dilute the field and make this thing a crapfest!"
PR flaks around the world are smiling.
Just saw a Tweet from WXII that Wake Forest head basketball coach Dino Gaudio is stepping down. Supposedly there's a 4:30 press conference today so I guess we'll know more at 4:35.
Update 2: The Journal's Wake Forest beat reporter Dan Collins blogged it.
Update: Now WXII site is saying Gaudio was fired.
I know this comes as a shock (not) but in today's Wall Street Journal it's revealed that of all the schools in this year's NCAA tournament field Wake Forest is the greatest underachiever over the last, oh, 25 years or so. Basically Wake is to March Madness what Ryan Leaf was to top NFL draft picks.
Dutch Olympic gold medalist speed skater Sven Kramer provides the best start to an interview in recent memory.
Dan Collins uses a little blog space to look at how Wake Forest is doing at the halfway point of the ACC conference schedule. His tool to measure them is the ACC Stats page and I agree with his assessment:
This is not a pretty team. Teams that miss a bunch of shots and turn the ball over rarely look good, at least not until the game is over.
But defense and rebounding statistics reveal effort. And it’s hard to argue that any team in the ACC has given more effort so far this season than Wake Forest.
Dan doesn't dig into the other ACC teams, but after watching UNC the last couple of weeks I'll offer one observation that I think the stats clearly back up: right now the young Tarheels can't guard their own shadows. That's not really shocking given their relative youth (most young college players don't defend well), but they better learn how to defend soon or it won't just be a long season, it will be a long couple of seasons.
Esbee links to the trailer about the History Channel show filmed at Bowman Gray last summer and set to debut this coming Sunday. Looks entertaining and I'm sure it will be the kick in the pants I need to finally get me out to the track next summer. I feel somehow un-Winstony for living here five years and not getting out there even once. This despite the fact that a friend of mine who goes there religiously once described the atmosphere thusly (I'm paraphrasing): "It's great. There are all kinds of women there wearing halter tops and no bras, and they really should be wearin' bras since their tattoos get all distended." If that's not a ringing endorsement I don't know what is.
Here's the trailer. Show debuts on the History Channel at 10 p.m., Sunday, January 10.
Remember how bad you felt when Wake lost to William & Mary? Well, this might help you feel a little better. The current RPI rankings have William & Mary at #2 in the country behind only West Virginia. Wake is ranked 29 and Duke, at #3 is the only ACC team with a higher RPI.
As a George Mason alum I'm intrigued that the CAA has three teams in the top 40: William & Mary at #2, Virginia Commonwealth at #14 and Old Dominion at #39. The ACC only has Duke and Wake in the top 40, but it has NC (49), Clemson (50) and Florida State (51) just below. Sadly my alma mater, the boys who were seconds away from beating Villanova (15) at the beginning of the year and played Georgia Tech (65) tough, yet managed to recently lose to Radford (89) by 27 points, is ranked #131.
I grew up in the Washington, DC area during the '70s and '80s and I was a big fan of all the pro sports teams there. As hard as it may be to remember now, the Washington Bullets were one of the premier NBA teams in the '70s and one of my fondest memories is of my Mom letting me stay up past my bedtime to watch the Bullets' decisive win over Seattle in game seven of the 1978 NBA Finals. I idolized all of the Bullets and to this day I can remember sitting in the Cap Center watching Elvin Hayes knock down one of his patented fade away jumpers, Wes Unseld hammering guys on the blocks and Bobby Dandridge adding a lot of flair with his all court game. And of course I thought Abe Pollin, the team's owner, had to be the greatest guy in the world for putting this incredible team together.
Pollin also owned the Washington Capitals and over the years the Bullets sank into consistent cellar dwelling status and the Caps became a winning franchise. In the mid-90s Mr. Pollin decided to move the teams from the Maryland suburbs to downtown DC. Amazingly he built the then-named MCI Center with $220 million of his own money and he produced a jewel of a facility that became a central part of the revitalization of that part of downtown. Let me repeat: he built it with his own money.
Mr. Pollin was loyal to a fault, keeping people in jobs long after most owners would have cut them loose, and he expected loyalty in return. When he didn't get it he wasn't afraid to wield the ax (just ask Michael Jordan). All in all he seemed to me to be an old-school owner who did things his own way, and although he didn't have any championships to point to after 1978 he earned the respect of everyone in Washington and throughout the sports world. He wasn't perfect and was known to play hardball, but in the end he was a tremendous asset to his community.
I love watching tennis and I'm a big fan of Roger Federer's. He's made some amazing shots (one backhand in the fourth set tiebreaker of the 08 Wimbledon final comes to mind), but the shot he hit yesterday against Djokovic was absolutely stunning. Enjoy:
Befuddled 