Plus/Minus

+ Today I finally started to make a dent into the Visual Identity Guidelines that I am writing for the College. Got a good workout in without a knee or ankle hurting for no reason. New Brothers in 3-Z podcast is up. Great job Trent.

– Reading the WVU message boards I realize how much of a bunch of whiners WVU fans sound sometimes. It is depressing to go there. I mean all the University has done over the past year in the 2 major sports is go to 2 Sweet Sixteens and win a Sugar Bowl, but you go there and people are whining about football recruiting, and where is John Beilein going? I can see how other schools fans hate us, all we do is complain.

Basketball all over the place

So the first round of the NCAA tournament is over. It was an exciting round, and a ton of good basketball games.

My tournament started at Buffalo Wild Wings (BWW) in Parkersburg, which is different than the past 6 years when we watched the tournament at Damon’s here in Marietta. Now I was wondering how this experience would go, because as long as I have been taking the first 2 days of the tournament off to watch games, no place has gotten the whole routine of getting the maximum amount of games on their TV’s correct. Well this was no exception.

I had reserved the “back room” at BWW for the first 2 days of the tournament, but I also knew that we would have a smaller amount of people join us the first day. Well it was Tom and I the first day and we had 2 other people who we knew were coming out, and we felt that since I hadn’t paid a reservation fee for the 2 days (a bonus move by the GM at BWW) we should take up the room for just 3-4 people.

That move was stupid. We sat in the main dining room and for the first 45-60 minutes we were forced to watch one game on 4 TV’s, and spent the rest of the time trying to get the others changed. At one point Renea called me and I asked her how many games did she get at home, and she had 2 different games on our 2 different CBS stations. I was sitting at a so-called sports bar and was worse off than I would have been at home. Pathetic.

So anyway we finally moved to the “bar area” later in the day, in time for the second round of games and got to have 3 TV’s in front of us with different games, and over our shoulder behind us we got the fourth game, so that wasn’t so bad. I don’t mind having to swivel and turn to catch another game, because most of the time I am just happy that I have access to all of the games.

So needless to say Thursday was not a very good day. This seems to be typical with a rookie bar hosting a lot of people for the first time on a March Madness weekend. Too few servers on duty, the TV’s not properly calibrated, and a general feeling like they had no idea that people would be there to watch basketball.

Friday was the exact opposite. We got and used the “back room” the server (which was a male and understood the TV’s and the fact that we wanted a different game on every TV) was excellent. The back room had 4 TV’s and each was on a different game, and if it wasn’t he made sure it was. When we got there it took about 3 minutes to get our drinks and another 5 for him to take our order. It could have been the best set-up ever to watch games. The only thing that could have been better was the set up of the room. It was a long room and the TV’s were spread through out and were hanging from the ceiling, and the chairs (for a 5 hour afternoon) were a little uncomfortable after 3 hours. But you could stand up, walk around the room, and hold conversations with other people with out yelling. It was a great setup and even if I had had to pay the $20 reservation fee I would have done it in a second. It was worth it.

Duke

I read my brother Adam’s blog today and it got me thinking why do I like Duke as much as he and most of the college basketball community apparently hates them.

I am slowly realizing that I am in the minority of fans that like Duke. And definitely in the Zundell family and among my friends I am the only one that cares for the Blue Devils.

I met Coach K once and heard him speak at a coaching conference in Cleveland, and I have read his books, (which if you coach a sport you have to read). I like Duke because I realize that that is what college basketball is all about. Playing hard, playing with passion, playing with a terrific understanding of the fundamentals, playing as a team. All of those things, as a former player and coach, I respect and understand how hard they are to come by and put together.

Does ESPN’s love for them annoy you? YES it annoys the hell out of me. Does Dickie V’s apparent man crush on J.J. Redick Coach K, and any Duke player for that matter make you want to puke? YES. Are some of their players annoying? Of course, but you know what? You would LOVE them if they were on your team. Who wouldn’t want a J.J. Redick, or Sheldon Williams, Shane Battier, or Grant Hill on their team? You would LOVE it if your team played with that passion and desire every game, and who wouldn’t give whatever it took to get a Coach K clone (this is why his assistants are always in the running for head coaching jobs)? Who wouldn’t want the crowds, the atmosphere, and the tradition of Duke?

If you have ever been successful, you have been hated, and if you have been lucky enough to be hated (yes I just said that and you know what I am talking about), then you remember that feeling and how much you loved it. They hated you because you were good, you were the best, and you beat them often. That is what it is like to be Duke. They are hated because they are good. It’s that simple.

So hate them. Root against them. Wish for their players to break arms and legs while going in for a layup. Laugh at their Crazies, traditions, coaches, and the tents outside Cameron. They love it.

Truth is, we all wish to be that good and that hated.

Plus/Minus Today

+ I entered my picks on many web sites in an attempt to win large prizes and enormous amounts of cash. Also I am now happy that Arby’s is serving 100% all natural chicken. (I just want to know what did they serve before?)

– Cold as crap today, how in the hell does it go from being 80º on one day and then 30º the next. I hate the weather here.

Bed-Time Blues

I know I have wrote before about The Adventure of Owen in Sleeping, so I will continue with an update on the progress.

Well it’s not going well . . . he continues to throw a grade A class hissy fit when we leave him in is room at bedtime. It’s more that he is calling for “MOMMMMMMIE” than anything else. He wants Renea to lay in the room with him until he falls asleep.

Now he’s not dumb, he knows that Renea is not coming back after we say our goodbyes, but he is VERY persistent. He knows (based on the previous 28 months of his life) that if he cries loud enough and long enough Renea will give in and come back up to lay with him.

Now we have been doing this new way of laying him down for about 2-3 weeks, letting him throw a fit and hoping that he realizes that we won’t give into him. You would think that after all of this time he would start to realize that it’s not working, the screaming, the jumping up and down in the crib, and even the crying isn’t resulting in the desired outcome, which is having Renea come in and lay on the floor until he falls asleep.

The thing I keep hoping about this behavior/personality trait is he will be a one-track mind, nose to the grindstone, hard working, persistent, S.O.B. when he gets older. At least that is what I keep telling myself as the screaming and crying continues.

Theory Time

After writing my blog yesterday about the WVU women’s basketball game against UConn I was reminded of a theory I have about women’s college basketball in general.

I theorize that you can take the NCAA Division III women’s national champions and pit them against a Division I women’s team ranked between number 5 and lower (by lower I mean 6, 7, 8 etc.) and I think it would be a very competitive game, and it might even be a win for the D-III team.

The difference between the great D-I players and the great D-III players is not as big of a gap as you may think, certainly not as wide as on the men’s side. See, the best of the best high school players all go to a handful of D-I programs, like UConn and Tennessee, and the rest of the programs in the country get good players but not the huge difference makers like the elite programs, and the difference between the quality player at a middle of the rankings D-I program and an elite D-III program is not that great.

Now I am not saying that any D-III program can beat a D-I program, far from it, I know how bad some D-III teams can be, but I have also coached against the D-III national champions and I have witnessed the type of well run offenses and accurate shooting that would allow a D-III team to compete with a D-I program.

The biggest problem the D-III school would have would be guarding the post of a D-I team. 6’6” girls don’t go to D-III schools, and the match-ups in the post would be the biggest problem. Guard wise and forward wise it would be pretty close, and the post problem could be solved with the implementation of a zone, rather than leaving the post players one-on-one.

Offensively, a great shooting D-III team would/should be fine on the offensive end of the floor, a motion offense, or something that would pull the post out from the basket would work well and would free up the middle of the floor for cuts to the basket.

All in all the difference is not that great, and on the right night I really feel that it could be a pretty good match-up. Now lately the big talent is starting to go to other schools (like Duke, UNC, Maryland, Ohio State and Rutgers) so more teams are competitive at a high level, and soon I believe that my theory will have no merit as more good players go to more teams, but as of right now I still believe in my theory . . . now if there was any way I could prove it.

Bleeack

My wife Renea is sick. She has some sort of flu, with body aches, a cough, and a sore throat, and by the looks of her I hope that Owen and I aren’t the next ones to suffer from this sickness. Now the bad thing that never occurred to me until later today, is that I have a real shot at getting this next.

Why did I not think of that until now? Well, it might have been the 10+ previous years where out of all the times she has gotten sick, I maybe have turned around and caught exactly what she had between 8-12 times. Not bad for 10+ years of marriage. (I guess that doesn’t say much about how close we are.) I don’t get sick very often, and when I do it is usually a day or so. I just don’t ever see myself as sick, nor do I do things to prevent me from getting the sickness, I just hope I haven’t screwed myself on this one, cause the way she is acting, it’s a doozie.

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Going along with the sick theme, I watched, what I could bear to look at, the WVU women vs. UConn in the Big East Championship game. If there has been an uglier game played . . . I have seen it, I helped coach the Marietta College women’s team a few years ago, and so with ugly basketball I am an expert. The game had no flow, WVU has this center that when she touched the ball in the paint she didn’t miss, so of course they never gave her the ball on the low post, noooo that would make way too much sense. It was poorly coached, poorly officiated, and poorly played. It was like watching a car wreck in progress, you know what is going to happen, but you can’t look away, but I did manage to watch a taped 24 while the game played in the little corner of the screen with my picture in picture, I felt, as a Mountaineer that I was obligated to watch the game, I just feel it didn’t warrant big screen consideration.

But you have to see it again

This line has been used on me many times over the past few months about bad movies, or should I say movies I think are bad and that people think I need to view a second time to truly appreciate how they go from a crap film to Oscar nominated in that second viewing.

I am of the opinion that if a movie sucks the first time you see it then it will suck the second time you see it. Believe me, I don’t need to see Napoleon Dynamite again to know how bad it is. What am I going to learn from watching it a second time? Unless under some sort of influence things that weren’t funny the first time are still not going to be funny the second time.

Why would I ever watch a movie that I hated the first time again? Why? No there is no good answer to that. There is no way, just for the fun of it, that I would ever sit and watch Donny Darko, Anchorman, or Cry Baby again. Never. These movies had a shot the first time I wasted 2 hours on them, and to me, they didn’t warrant a second chance. People get second chances, restaurants get second chances, movies . . . no.

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Kirby Puckett passed away today at age 45. One of the best baseball names of all time, Kirby Puckett. Can't get a better baseball name than that.

I wasn’t a big Puckett fan, although he played the game with passion and enthusiasm. All I remember is that 1991 World Series against the Braves and games 6 and 7, bringing the Twins back to beat the Braves. I was a Twins fan that year.

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Did anyone notice that the winners of the Oscars for best male (Philip Seymour Hoffman for portraying Truman Capote) and female (Reese Witherspoon for playing June Carter) were portraying real people. Is this acting or just impersonating? I don’t know for sure. Are we more impressed because they got these people right rather than someone portraying an original character?

Don’t you wish some days . . .

there was no one around that you have to talk to.

you got paid what you were worth, just for that day.

you didn’t have to deal with morons.

that it was 85 and sunny instead of 35 and rainy.

that everything that is “cluttering your life” was gone.

that you were on vacation at a beach somewhere drinking a tropical, alcohol filled drink, rather than sitting at a desk.

that you could work on one project start to finish, without interruptions.

that the people that really irritate you would not come by the office today.

that you could spend the whole day with your son in the park.

that you could spend a whole evening with your wife, just catching up, eating wings and drinking your favorite beer.

that you were 6’4” instead of a generous 5’9”.

that your metabolism never slowed down and was still working at a 20 year olds’ pace.

that if you had facebook.com and myspace.com when you were in high school and college so that you wouldn’t have lost touch with so many of your old friends.

that you could win the lottery and buy that Slurpee machine you always wanted.

that every Friday was “Play 18 holes of golf” day.

that the lawn mowed its’ self.

that you actually knew what was wrong with your car and you could fix it yourself.

that someone would say “thank you” for a project that you did for them at the last minute.

that instead of telling you what’s wrong with them, once they would ask you how you are doing.

that you and your brothers all lived in the same town again.

that you had your 1978 hairstyle back.

that you knew what the future holds.

that you could stay home all day and play video games.

that your blog was always this easy to write.