Random Thoughts from the Weekend

1. Akron got screwed and there's nothing they can really do.

2. Except be pissed the hell off.

3. I find it ludicrous that there's only one MAC team in the NCAA tourney and I'm just flabbergasted that only Toledo made the NIT. The MAC has consistently produced good teams, good players and has been competitive in the post season. BTW- my Big Ten does not deserve six teams. Not even a little.

4. Pluto has an amazing stat: Akron is ranked 7 in the top 25-mid major poll. The first 6 went to the NCAA and numbers 8-11 went to the NIT. This makes no sense.

5. Also, I figured that one of the tournaments would've scheduled Akron just on the off chance that LeBron would show up.

6. I was at the MAC Quarterfinals and I watched the Semi's and the Championship game, you cannot tell me that only two of those teams deserve to go on.

7. By the way, just letting you know now, but Akron's Jeremiah Wood is going to tear up the MAC next season. He has a polished low post game, he's 6-9 or 6-10 and he's coming off two ACL injuries. And I have to say, his court vision is what impressed me the most; he consistently saw his teammates from the low block throughout the tournament and made the right pass to get it to 'em. Honestly, he he was the best player on Akron, including Romeo Travis.

8. But I have to say, the most impressive player I saw in the MAC Tourney? Tournament MVP, Miami's Tim Politz. Talk about playing basketball the right way; he can finish with either hand, he had a variety of low post moves, he can shoot, he's a great rebounder and every time Miami made a play (on offense or defense) number 50 was in the middle of it. He had 25 and 10 against Ohio in the quarterfinals. In the semifinal game against Toledo, he shot a Walton-esque 11-12 from the floor. He shot 75% for the tournament. Not bad for a 6-6, chubby white kid.

9. Is it any surprise that the two players I come away gushing about both have polished low post games? Nope.

10. You want to know why I love the post game so much? No, well, I'm gonna tell you anyway. First of all, it's not just because of how I play (though that is certainly part of it). If you ever get the chance, watch some of the Houston Rockets and Hakeem Olajuwon during their title runs. Hakeem was unstoppable. The Rockets ran a pretty simple offense: dump it down to The Dream and let him kick some ass. If they double him, be ready to cut to the hoop or hit the open 3. Repeat. Am I simplifying it a tad? Sure. But you get the point; having an effective low post game makes everyone better. And the Rockets are the only team that I can remember that tried to feed the big man every time. Even now with Yao (or back in the day when Shaq was on the Lakers), the Rockets go through long stretches of time where they don't even look his way- this I do not understand. The Rockets of Hakeem ran the offense through the low block- he was their bread and butter and they knew it.

11. Anyways, when you grow up always being the tallest kid on the court, seeing a center dominate the way Hakeem did might affect the way you practice just a bit. Of course, I stopped growing in 8th grade...

12. Also, anyone remember how much Jordan dominated in the post during his late title runs? Just sayin'.

13. Back to college hoops- I've been entered in multiple pools and I have yet to fill out my bracket(s). I think this year I'm just going to do one bracket and enter it all the pools. I've done multiple ones before, but I always confuse myself watching the games. "Wait, which team do I want to win? Who helps me in what pool?" Gonna keep it simple this year.

14. Also, rule for the Tournament: you always root for the upset. I don't care what your bracket says, you alway root for the lower seed to advance.

15. Unless your alma mater is a playing. You can't go against your own school (let's go Bucks!).

16. Stupid liberal media.

17. Stupid Sean Hannity.

18. Stupid fiscally irresponsible liberals.

19. I try to keep this blog about sports (specifically Cleveland sports) and I only go into politics once a week in this column (cause this is a personal blog). I assume if you don't agree you just ignore these weekly links and get to the sports/music goodness. That's great. But go read this.

21. Now, I know it's all about Hollywood liberals and all, but how come whenever conservative actors run it's totally cool?

22. There's a reason why we take polls.

23. The "Definitive 200" my ass. I know I'm a Beatles fanatic and all, but you can't tell me that there's 109 albums that are better than Rubber Soul. Sorry. Nope.

24. Speaking of the Beatles, the Fab Faux (the best Beatles tribute band ever) will be playing shows in NYC of the 'Beatles album that never was'. Meaning, they are going to play songs from John, Paul, George and Ringo's first solo releases. Now, I've burned that mix CD a number of times myself but it never felt right because of how different each song was produced. Paul's first album was basically made up of demo tapes while George had Phil Spector's Wall of Sound behind him; there's just no cohesive feel to it. Well, the Fab Faux will be playing the songs not in their original styles but with a Beatles flavor; they're going to try to recreate what the other three would've brought to each other's work. I hope someone will be recording this.

25. FYI- The Fratellis' Costello Music is released today. Go buy it (I'm currently in love with the last track 'Ole Black and Blue Eyes').

26. So apparently while we were getting our butts whooped in the church league (sup guys) Hudson experienced an earthquake. 3.6 on the Richter scale.

27. I'm telling you, I love the Dane Cook backlash. A lot.

28. 30 Rock took a shot at Dane Cook in their episode 'The Source Awards'. That episode was brilliant and also has a Wayne Brady presence:


29. What am I? A farmer?


30. I'm not a real big fan of the Jamal Lewis signing, but at least one NFL exec says he's not done. Does Lewis know something about the Browns' line that we don't?

31. I brought up Branson Wright's 'Hey, Branson!' column and I think that we can all agree that it sucks. Here's my favorite Q&A:

Q: Hey, Branson: Why is it that you answer " Hey Branson!" questions with such curtness all the time? I feel like a lot of people have valid questions and concerns about the Cavs, and you seem more annoyed than helpful. Do you even enjoy having this column? - Greg Boose, Chicago

A: Hey, Greg: I enjoyed it until you asked that question.

HAR!

32. Speaking of crappy Cavs columnists, what the hell is this guy doing on Swerbs?

33. As for the good Cavs reporters, Windhorst has a blog post up from the weekend and it's full of good nuggets. Like this one:

In the final minute again on Saturday, LeBron went to the basket twice to tie the game. This is remarkable because he'd already hit two 3's to get the Cavs back into the game. One month ago, I would've put cold cash on press row he would've taken a 3 in Detroit down two as I watched the play develop. After he made the 3s in Milwaukee, I might've gone double or nothing because he was making them. Excellent display of intelligent poise.

He's exactly right. Early in the LeBron and the Cavs would get Kenny Lofton syndrome after they'd make a couple 3s (for those that don't know, whenever Lofton would hit a home run early on, especially in the first inning, it was a sure bet he'd be swinging for the fences the rest of the game- to his, and the team's, detriment). I was worried that their comeback versus the Bucks would fizzle out because it started off by them drilling a bunch of 3s. To their credit, they didn't fall in love with it

34. I didn't think twice about Varejao's last second 3 in the Pacers game. But people got upset and the Cavs actually issued an apology. Can the Pacers really be bitching about another team's conduct? How is that allowed?

35. It bugs the hell out of me that the Suns get more love than the Mavs. They just won 17 games in a row (they lost the other night), where's Bill Simmons's column slurping the Mavs? Instead, we get Eric Neel's column about how he can't love them. Boo.

36. Carlos Boozer returns to Cleveland on Saturday night, but don't be expecting a recap of the game until sometime on Sunday. I'll be seeing these guys that night in Columbus but I plan on watching the game (extremely hungover) sometime Sunday morning (hooray for DVR!).

37. It's too bad we won't be seeing Greg Ostertag Saturday night (is he retired? Hurt and on another roster?)

38. This happened on my birthday. Pretty cool looking.

39. Something clever (I like to end this on somewhat even/round/factor of 5 numbers so this could be considered a wasted spot. Oh well. Also, I'm not sure when I last got one of these finished on Sunday night/Monday but I'm working on it)

40. Music: I've been listening a lot to The Mountain Goats this past week. I guess the style could be called highly literate folk/indie rock. I'm really digging The Sunset Tree, so check that out.

This Year from The Sunset Tree (I'm not sure how I feel about the video. The sound is a bit off and I'm not sure what's going on. But the song itself is really good)