Friday, February 6, 2009

Dude, that game sucked


I came to work and saw gray smoke coming from one of our stacks. "That's not normal," I said to myself. It was a poor mixture of diesel, oxygen, and GT bball fan tears burning in one of our steam boilers. In a semi-depressed state, I contacted Utilities and told 'em to pump more O2 into the boilers.

All I said to my buddy this morning in reflection of last night's loss in Tallahassee was, "Dude, that game sucked." To which he affirmed.

GT has been outscored 587 to 545 in ACC play (-5 ppg margin). We've lost four games by two possessions or less out of the seven ACC losses. If we lock down our turnovers and get maybe 2-3 more clean shots a game, we're talking about more W's on the board. But that's a huge "IF" this season, eh? If only we could pump more oxygen into the GT bball team and things would clear up. It's a sad state right now. I'm ever optimistic about our sports because I'm a positive-thinking realist. College athletics to me is about being happy when things are good and not being down when things are rough. We'll see though.

Discussion is welcome on FSU-GT game. Discussion is also welcome on any other item of GT-ness.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Thursday News Musings

Recruiting

We filled our holes and did what we needed to do. We also finished with 14 in-state. The most in 15 years. The highlights of our signing class involve huge 344 pound hoss JC Lanier followed by hyped Indiana quarterback Jordan Luallen. And yes, we kept Stephen Hill!

Coley Harvey speaks of Paul Johnson's "calmness" through the signing day process. Honestly, CPJ has that attitude where he just lets everything slip on by as if he is oblivious. But he knows, and when the time is right, he'll take his vengeance on ya.

Terrence Moore gives Paul Johnson "mad props" for handling Donte Aycock. That kid had every chance to not lose his scholarship here. Sucks for him.

From the article:

“I reiterated that to him, ‘Don’t get on that plane, Dontae,’” said a calmer Johnson, recalling the moment on Wednesday from an Atlantic Station hotel. “His high school coach went and told him, ‘Don’t get on that plane, Dontae,’ and he did. So when he chose to do that, he was telling me he didn’t want to come to Georgia Tech anymore. So we moved on.”

Too bad … for Aycock.

Then again, Aycock was perfect for Johnson’s unique offense. It features the triple option, which means Johnson needs a certain type of player. You also have Johnson’s unique personality, which means he needs a certain type of player, too. It’s the type of player who understands what Aycock didn’t. Which is, you better listen to what Johnson says, because he will be true to his word.

Which means you should to.

No wonder Aycock’s high school coach, Brian Turner, keeps shaking his head. Not over Johnson, but Aycock. “[The Tech coaches] were pretty upfront the whole time,” said Turner, in his seventh season at the same Tampa high school that his father coached long enough to become the winningest football coach in Hillsborough County history. In addition, Chamberlain High has “about 100” coaches recruiting its players each year with many reaching BCS schools and NFL teams.


Basketball

Yes, the season continues onward. We must play again. Time to improve and win an away game.

Tomahawk Nation previews the game.
Larry Harstein of the AJC discusses here.
The ACC/SEC Blog previews here.
And finally here is a random ACC Recruiting Blog discussing Paul Hewitt's recruiting "woes" and our lack of ability to bounce back from NBA defections. It's not too deep.

A discussion of season tickets

So, I'm getting season tickets for the first time. I didn't purchase last year for a few reasons:

1) I had little to no free cash.
2) The home schedule SUCKED.
3) I live 260 miles away.

Now that the schedule has improved and my current fundage has improved, I'm getting tickets. Do you all see this as wrong? I did attend all of the road games except uga last year so I don't consider myself a terrible football fan.

What are your plans for season tickets? Or do you buy single tickets depending on when you're in town? Anyone prefer road games to games at BDS?

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

The Return of the King

[I won't ask you to bear with me, but yes, sports will be involved... eventually]

[Also, Winfield tried to change my title. Not happening.]

Yes, it's been a while.
It's a long story. After a certain bowl game, both of my parents were murdered by a bum with a gun. I spent the next 15 years in the care of the family butler, a troubled soul that longed for revenge. I eventually fled the country, found myself in a Chinese prison, and was rescued by a mysterious, bearded man who told me to fetch a rare flower and find him in the mountains. He then trained me in the ways of the ninjistu, but I could not sell my soul by killing a detained (albeit guilty) man. I then returned home, determined to protect the innocent from the wicked.

Actually, that's the story of Batman Begins. Sorry, my life isn't quite that awesome.

Yes, I've been on hiatus, but for good reason. Between school starting again (the biggest reason - I need to dropkick this semester in the scrotum) and for other happenings in my life, I've had to focus on other things. I'm getting older, and I know this because I'm becoming my biggest critic. I've also learned/reinforced some other values/dictums in my life. Two of the ones that stick out can be summed up in quick bits of wisdom.

1. Busy is not productive. In fact, being busy is usually directly at odds with being productive.

2. Doing something easy is usually bad for you, or isn't worth your time.


I finally broke down and began to read Timothy Ferriss's book, The 4-Hour Work Week. I won't recommend reading or not reading it, because no one reading this blog probably gives a damn. However, I will say that he does a good job stating the obvious. Most of the book is essentially about staying on task and avoiding interruptions. I did take a piece of his advice, and began to only check my email twice a day. My God, the difference! I thought I was acting like a grown-up by reading my e-mail all the time. I had a rough time juggling everything I was trying to do last semester, and Ferriss is right - your e-mail is probably your single biggest distraction. It is absolutely awful for productivity. Of course, I always felt connected, and always knew what was going on, and always had new information about where to be or what to do or what is funny careening into my eyeballs all of the time, but I couldn't focus on a damn thing. In the very short time that I have stopped checking my email accounts multiple times (read, continuously), my productivity level has skyrocketed and my stress level has taken a dive. It's great.

I'm telling you this because I want to apologize. I had a lot of posts that sucked (at least I think they did, because they were lazy), mainly because I was busy trying to do homework, study for a test, read something, call somebody, carry on a conversation, reading/writing an email, etc. when I was trying to blog. My bad.

The second part is actually part of the reason I couldn't bring myself to write anything for a while. Have you ever noticed that people who have GPS systems usually can't drive worth a shit, much less get to where they are going any more efficiently? Or how people who only watch cable news are usually the worst at describing the platforms and implications of said platforms of political candidates? That is basically how I feel about everyone (excluding Orson and Dr. Saturday, because, well, they do what they do better than anyone else) who had something to say about the National Champions, namely, who should be crowned the holder of the MNC. Put anyone who talked about how a playoff works better, and anyone who typed the words "let them prove/settle it on the field." [As I am typing this, I'm specifically avoiding checking to see if either I or Winfield or Bird ever said this. What can I say, I love it when people call me out in the comments, so much so I basically give them a proverbial lay-up.] Rereading the same, tired, boring "there should be a playoff, the corporations are evil" articles really left a bad taste in my mouth. It didn't make me hate football - it just made me hate talking about it.

If you came here in the past couple of weeks wanting to read what I had to say about Utah, Florida, Southern California and Texas, I'm sorry. Maybe I'm not cut out for being a CFB blogger. Maybe being willing to ruminate (as in the physical, chew something that has already been chewed like a freaking cow) the same tedious topics with the ridiculous, cookie-cutter (and usually easily refuted) dialogue really IS a requirement for successful blogging. We'll see. Maybe in three weeks, I'll never post again (that's definitely not the plan).

Hopefully you'll come back over and over again, and I can give you something to read that you haven't seen before. I'm not promising I'll always be unique, and I'm not promising that most of my post topics won't overlap with other blogs. However, I'm going to try my best to not take the easy way when it comes to writing. Hopefully, you will be able to tell.

Signing Day Open Thread

Here is The Hive's Signing Day Thread

Here is the AJC's GT Signing Day Page

Much more later today/tonight.



Tuesday, February 3, 2009

So Long Donte Aycock

Paul Johnson just Jagodzinski'd your ass.


per the AJC

“Auburn called him on Thursday and offered him on Friday,” Chamberlain coach Brian Turner said. “He was told [by Georgia Tech coaches] that if he took the trip [to Auburn over the weekend] the scholarship would be pulled.

“He went on the trip and, I guess, he’s going in a different direction now.”

Turner said he and his staff advised Aycock to keep his word to Tech.

“We’re very disappointed. We don’t like our kids to do that. We want our kids to honor their commitments. [Tech] gave him every opportunity to not do it.”

10 Mascots more Dangerous than a Model A

From Bird:

I've been inspired after reading this article about mascots. I once read a Notre Dame blogger write about his account of GT's entrance including the Ramblin' Wreck storming on to the field. He said it was one of the most dangerous things he'd ever seen on a football field. First off, the Wreck never exceeds 10-15 miles per hour. It just looks fast. Secondly, you're in complete control of the vehicle, unlike many other mascots so...

I present to you 10 Mascots More Dangerous than the Ramblin' Wreck:

10. Costumed mascots with limited field of vision and short tempers.

9. Drunk driving mascots.

8. Birds of prey like Auburn's War Eagle. Hell throw that chicken at USC(e) in there, too. Do you really want to get your finger bit off by an eagle? Or eye gouged by a chicken with spurs?

7. Caged wild animals such as bears, tigers, lions, etc.. You know they've got some interesting insurance premiums for those bastards. Whenever I see a tiger on the field of play, I think about Naked Gun and the blooper reel including a tiger attack on an outfielder.

6. Texas Tech's Masked Rider. The horse has been killed or injured several times in game intros. The horse has also injured several people. Any other horse mascot should fall under #6 as well including UVA, Furman, Rutgers, FSU, USC, and any others I've forgotten.

5. Clemson, VT, and whoever else's cannons along with any other firearm wielding mascots. You only get two ear drums. Hearing merely fades, it doesn't grow back like a lizard's tail. This is a long term health hazard. An explosion hazard as well.

4. Dogs. Bulldogs, hound dogs, hot dogs. Get 'em off the field. We don't want rabies or tetanus.

3. Colorado's bison, Ralphie. Nothing safer than a WILD animal controlled by a bunch of rodeo clowns.

2. Oklahoma's Sooner Schooner. The 1993 crash is pretty terrifying to watch. The driver broke his leg in three places and the other passengers suffered bruises and lacerations.

1. Texas' Longhorn, Bevo. When I met Jim Kramer, he mentioned the only problem he had while on his college tour was Bevo the cow. Apparently, Bevo gored one of the trainers. Damn.

Anyone got any weird mascot stories out there?

Monday, February 2, 2009

USC (east) news that doesn't involve Pot

Zambolist Frederick II (also known as Zam or Buck) is leading the Gamecocks on a tear through the incredibly weak SEC. The 'Cocks or Coots (as Clemson fans like to call them) have won 6 of their last 8.

We all remember Zam as the innocent 2 guard thrown into point when Jarrett Jack departed early for the Portland Trailblazers. Zam became the Reggie Ball equivalent in GT bball. His dad convinced him to transfer to his alma mater of South Carolina and the rest is history. Zam's second in minutes now and averages around 16 points/game. I'd say his gamble paid off.

Was Zam right moving to USC? Or did he hurt himself/his team in transferring? Any opinions are welcome.

Super Bowl Weekend Recap


Happy Groundhog Day. Sorry to inform you all that there are 6 more weeks of effin' cold for anyone living above the Mason Dixon. I foresee two more weeks of chilly weather in SC then some back-sweat creating heat for about 6 months.

So Saturday afternoon was a nice bball experience. Went to my first ACC game this season. GT finally showed up for its first ACC game of the season. Here are my thoughts: We won on free throw shooting and a strong inside game. Mo Miller is the point guard even though Iman has the talent he's still more of a combo guard. Gani is damn good.

Afterwards, I stayed for a little bit of the Letterman's Game. Watched Dennis Scott and Deion Glover trade NBA threes for a bit. Marvin Lewis still has a ridiculously smooth shot. Jeremis Smith got in the crowd-pleasing thunder dunks while former walk-on David Nelson ran point. Pretty good stuff.

Concerning the Super Bowl, I thought it was a pleasant game. I wish the Cardinals could've had one more shot at the red zone but what can you say. Whiz said it best when asked about Fitzgerald takin' it to the house, "We left them too much time." The ACC/SEC Blog actually did a pretty good write up of ACC/SEC alum that were in the Super Bowl so check that out if you're interested in conference talent and conference vs. conference info.

What do you think about a longer winter? Have you ever tried groundhog meat? What's in store for GT BBall? Will the Cards resign Boldin or let their Super Bowl team dissolve in the off-season?