Sunday, June 27, 2010

The Chase

The old cliche says 'the thrill of the chase is always better than the catch.'

In South Africa, the U.S. soccer team was that guy you couldn't help but root for, chasing after the girl of his dreams, the one he had never gotten before and no one thought he could. It all starts against England. He proves he has some game. The big man on campus slips up and gives him a chance.

Against Slovenia, he thinks he's defeated, that she doesn't really like him. But he doesn't give up. He showers her with unexpected gifts until he gets to go on the first date that to his detriment is ruined by an annoying friend.

Then, it all comes down to Algeria. It's do or die. He knows he has to make a move or she'll forever forget him, and he'll be relegated to the back of the line, behind Jock A and B. So, he continues to chase, knowing this is it. Heart beating, he misses some chances, but in his last gasp of desperation, it happens. He defies his doubters. He kisses the girl, in that cliche movie scene, seemingly perfect moment.

He's ecstatic, goes home and cries tears of joy. Maybe he has finally made his mark. It feels like ultimate victory. But then, there's the day after...

They pass by each other crossing the green and all her friends laugh. Shoot, maybe he wasn't as cool as he thought.

Later on, she's by herself. They exchange a smile and a glimmer of hope radiates through him again. It's not over. But he still has to make a move. He can't just sit back and wait now. Summer's near and the school year is almost over.

She has some extra time after class and they talk. She abruptly tells him, 'no.' He doesn't want to believe it. Keeps searching for answers 'til the very last second, when she says 'I have to go now. You're a nice guy though.'

The nice guy had his moment. But he still didn't get the girl. He'll never forget the feeling of jubilation, when he was on top of the world, when everyone was watching and talking about him.

He'll always wonder what could have been. If he spoiled the best chance he may have ever had. It was almost all chase, very little catch. But boy, was the chase a thrill.

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

On the Fringe

June 23, 2010 - South Africa - Football - United States of America v Algeria FIFA World Cup South Africa 2010 - Group C - Loftus Versfeld Stadium, Pretoria, South Africa - 23/6/10..USA's Landon Donovan celebrates scoring their first goal.

It's not too often you hear Americans talking about soccer and tennis...let alone both on the same day.


Today, they provided Americans with captivating sagas, with two of their own involved.


It took 91 minutes for Landon Donovan to net a dramatic goal and finally break through for the U.S. soccer team in dire straits.


It took 10 hours for American John Isner and Frenchman Nicolas Mahut to reach 59 all in the fifth set at Wimbledon. Yes, that's right, 59-59. It looks more like the end of third quarter score of a 2005 Spurs/Pistons game than of a set in tennis. The previous record for most games in a match: 112. These two have played more games, 118, in just this fifth set. They've eclipsed the previous record for longest match by more than three hours. And they haven't even decided a winner yet.

June 23, 2010 - Wimbledon, United Kingdom - epa02218604 John Isner (R) of the USA and Nicolas Mahut (C) of France talk with an official (L) during their first round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 23 June 2010. John Isner and Nicolas Mahut made tennis history at the Wimbledon Championships as they set a new record for the longest Grand Slam singles match ever.


They'll continue on tomorrow. The U.S. soccer team will continue on to the round of 16 to face Ghana.


And today both sports moved from the fringe of America's cultural gravitas to the fore front. Contrary to popular belief, Americans don't hate soccer. They don't hate tennis. There just needs to be that compelling pull to draw widespread interest.

It's June 23rd and we're not talking about one of the big four. We're talking about a couple of the ugly stepsisters. But beware soccer and tennis...the clock could strike twelve at any minute. Brett Favre is due to throw a football around at a high school, a perfect game could spring to fruition at any time, July 1st is looming and goodness knows LeBron James is going to get more invites to citywide parties than my sister to graduation parties.

Friday, June 18, 2010

Checkered Past

Today is not the first time U.S./Slovenia referee Koman Coulibaly has made some baffling calls. NY Times blogger Jeff Z. Klein lays out today's and past troubles.

Referee Koman Coulibaly of Mali shows the yellow card to Slovenia's Bostjan Cesar during a 2010 World Cup Group C soccer match against the US at Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg June 18, 2010.  REUTERS/Brian Snyder (SOUTH AFRICA - Tags: SPORT SOCCER WORLD CUP)

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Seven

Later tonight the Celtics and Lakers will square off at Staples Center in game seven of the NBA Finals. There's always a special aura to these seventh symphonies, where everything is on the line and a champion will be crowned. It could have been a boring series, a boring playoffs, but once it is game seven of the championship series, you have to tune in.

So it got me thinking, what are the best title deciding game sevens? I'll keep it in my lifetime, only back through the past twenty years, and it's only those that were for the trophy. There have been just 13 of them since 1990...here are the seven best:

7. 1994- Rockets 90, Knicks 84
John Starks has a disastrous night (2-18 FG, 0-11 from three), as Hakeem Olajuwon scores 25 and wins the title for Houston and the Knicks' championship drought continues on.



6. 1994- Rangers 3, Canucks 2
The Rangers win their first championship in 54 years, with the Garden going crazy and captain Mark Messier scoring the game-winner.




5. 2005- Spurs 81, Pistons 74
In a low-scoring affair tied at 57 going into the fourth quarter, Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili turn it up to overpower the tight Detroit defense. 


4. 2009- Penguins 2, Red Wings 1 
Max Talbot scores both Penguins goals and Marc-Andre Fleury staves off a last-second Detroit onslaught to win the Cup on the road. 



3. 1997- Marlins 3, Indians 2, 11 inn.
Cleveland's heartbreak continues. Jose Mesa blows a one-run lead in the ninth, then Edgar Renteria's 11th inning single scores Craig Counsell, paving the way for the Florida fire sale. 


2. 1991- Twins 1, Braves 0, 10 inn. 
Nine innings isn't not enough for either side to notch a run on the scoreboard. The Twins' Jack Morris pitches 10 scoreless innings, then Gene Larkin finally breaks through with the title-winning hit and game's only RBI. 

1. 2001- Diamondbacks 3, Yankees 2
It's the night the Yankees' dynasty ended in the desert. The seemingly invincible Mariano Rivera looks mortal, giving up the game-winning bloop hit to Luis Gonzalez...and it's a fall classic finishing in November. 

Tonight will be another one of these nights. Game Seven, title at stake. 

Appreciate it. We don't get too many of these. And if we're lucky it will be a special one, one that lives on in lore on lists like this down the line.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The newest way to get LeBron to come to your city...

RAP. 

My friend recently showed me Vitamin Water's new 'The Choice is Yours' campaign. It's a three song mixtape with some ridiculously cheesy lyrics and hooks related to LeBron. 


Some of the lyrical brilliance: 
- "You don't have to thank me nah, just bank me, and your favorite baseball team's the Yankees" 
- "I can see you in New York doing your thing with Stoudemire or Bosh, gonna get you that ring"
- "Cleveland just ain't it, Miami got a nice beach, New York is filthy, United Center box seats"


And Chip the Ripper even raps as if he is LeBron in one of the songs... 



Monday, June 14, 2010

3/4

Not explicitly sports-related but a tribute to one more year of college passed and the people in any realm that make it worth it...


Yesterday, I met someone from OU's Class of 1970. He was walking around Perkins Hall, reminiscing. He had lived there...in the 1960s. 40 years later, a lot has changed on campus, in the world. But the funny thing is, as much as things change, they also stay the same. The carpet is dingier, walls chipped, ceiling worn but his room 104 is still there. The same wooden wall units are there. And though a new set of fresh faces enter these halls, this campus each year, one even more significant things holds true...memories are made.

Each year, we come in with dreams, dreams that evolve over the course of our time here. People argue over the difference between evolution and creation all the time. But really, we create the foundation for our own self-evolution. We evolve into the person our surroundings create for us. 

Dreams are something we all know about. It's a two-pronged word. They're our subconscious musings when darkness betakes the day. They're our wildest hopes that we wish on the night's luckiest star will come true. And these two conceptions of the word share a lot in common.

When we enter into sleep, it's a world of the unknown. There lies your wildest dreams but also worst nightmares. What you get, you never know, nor can you control. 

We jump into each year with a world of unknowns, preconceptions, points of stress that occupy us before the sandman takes us away to sleepy time. Once you enter, anything is possible. Sometimes you don't want dreams to end. Others you wake up with a cold chill. Sometimes it's the greatest moments of your day, some so simple, carefree, that you don't want to end. Others are those nightmares, the ones that leave you apprehensive, unsure. 

It's a long way away from 1970 now. But what held true then still holds true today. Meeting that man who will finally now get to walk, 40 years later (there was no commencement ceremony because of the Kent State riots), I realized that as much as things change they do stay the same. We still have dreams. We still have apprehension. We still make memories that live on for decades in these same confines. 

And still, when you look up into the night sky, you see a bunch of stars, marvel at their wonder. All of you are those stars that provide light in the darkness, guidance through hard times, glimmers of hope that you sometimes take for granted.

These brights spots light up our lives. And they take their reign while we fall into sleep. These stars fuel our dreams. Make them come true. And each one is so very important. You all are those stars, all part of a constellation so wondrous to behold. 

Thursday, June 10, 2010

LeBron Lunacy

It seems like every day there is a new bit of LeBron Lunacy. Some new crazy story that seems more ridiculous that the last. There could probably be a whole blog for this but I'm going to try to keep tabs with the funnier items here.

From today's circus vault comes an article that reads like something out of The Onion. It's all in jest but the Knicks and Nets are not the only "New York teams" vying for this summer's top free agents...

Monday, June 7, 2010

Perspectives on NCAA Academic Reform

The past few years have brought about academic reform on college campuses and programs big and small, BCS and non-BCS. But is it really reform? While there has been progress, the system still shows disturbing discrepancies and presents challenges for the coaches and athletes at its heart.

The Academic Progress Rate, APR, and Graduation Success Rate, GSR, measure the performance of collegiate programs’ student-athletes. The APR was instituted to expand upon GSR, now looking at semester-by-semester progress rather than just by graduation.

The three main components of the reform process, according to the NCAA, are student success, campus responsibility and increased accountability. The NCAA claims the APR provides a much clearer picture of the academic culture by its inclusion of “eligibility, retention and graduation.” The people that work or have worked within the system everyday can provide their own unique perspectives on it.

The Former Athletic Director’s Perspective 
Todd Turner worked closely with academic issues in his time as athletic director at the University of Vanderbilt and University of Washington. He served as chair of the NCAA Management Council's Working Group on Incentives and Disincentives tied to academic performance. He thinks the reform has made a positive impact.

“It changed the culture of athletes and academic success on campus. They are held accountable for it. Coaches take it with them wherever they go. They leave one school, go to another, they have a bad APR, it goes with them,” Turner said.

A sincere focus must be placed on academics and students coming to college to learn. If it is not, coaches know there will be consequences.

“I think they definitely feel compelled to spend more time on the academics. This is the first time the NCAA has applied any kind of academic measure that could impact your competitive success. That’s what has changed the culture,” Turner said.

While Turner notes the impact it has had, it wasn’t the reform he and the group he worked with initially wanted. The original proposal he worked on developing at Vanderbilt was based on the foundation that if a student is not determined in good academic standing, you couldn’t replace a student until their class would have graduated.

“That’s real simple. It became more complex with the ideas of retention and progress toward a degree,” Turner said.

Working toward that reform was difficult all along with resistance from those who favored the status quo.

“It caused a lot of consternation on the part of coaches, particularly basketball coaches. They were really upset. I met with them several times as a group, along with Myles Brand to try to explain what we were doing,” Turner said.

Turner and other reformers got the Southeastern Conference to begrudgingly support their concept of reform nationally. But it was tabled in favor of the ‘5-8 rule.’ For basketball, it said you could only give eight scholarships over a two-year period and then five within one year. Once the APR and academic reform was made in 2004, this was no longer necessary.

He faced many challenges in trying to create the best and most fair system of evaluation as the chair of the Working Group on Incentives and Disincentives.

“Part of the struggle on our APR committee was we tried to find incentives as opposed to just all disincentives and we just continually struck out with that, arriving at the point where the best incentive is to not get a disincentive,” Turner said.

You do not see any incentives in the APR because the research showed there was no solid way to incorporate them.

“The reason they didn’t like the idea we proposed at Vanderbilt was because it didn’t appear to them there was any way to get incentives. Everything was a disincentive. But at the end of the day, after we did all the research, nothing was developed that could be an incentive. That was one of the issues,” Turner said.

It may not be the perfect system but Turner is pleased with what has come about.

“It could always be made better. I wish it was a little bit easier to administer and simpler. I just think it’s been a positive cultural change for collegiate athletics. It’s ground in the tradition of intercollegiate athletics, which supports the academic development of students,” Turner said.


The Academic Services’ Perspective
At Ohio University, Jason Kelly works each day to make sure the program and its student-athletes are meeting the standards they must. Kelly is the assistant athletic director and the leader in coordinating academic prerogatives.

“I tell recruits we do three things. One, I am a liaison between the faculty and staff on campus and the student-athlete. Two, I want to make sure that you’re eligible each and every quarter. Three, and most importantly, I want to make sure that when they walk into this university, that their moms and dads know they’re going to walk out of here with a degree,” Kelly said.

His department works to ease the transition for student-athletes, who must not only deal with moving up from high school to college but are also thrown into demanding athletic schedules.

“We have a class first quarter of their freshman year called Student-Athlete Experience, where we go over time management, study skills, they take tests on NCAA rules, so they understand what they have to do, what they can’t do,” Kelly said.

For those students that thrive, there is recognition.

“As a department we’ve set up this program called the Athletic Director’s Honor Roll. It’s about 250 names of students who all have above a 3.0 the previous quarter. We all try to do things as a department and then each of our coaches does things,” Kelly said.

The department as a whole also rewards the cream of the crop, what it calls the ‘400 Club.’ These are student-athletes who received a 4.0 GPA for a given quarter. They are recognized with a t-shirt that says ‘Ohio University 400 Club.’

There have been some very impressive student-athletes at programs at Ohio University. The volleyball team earned a public recognition for the 2009-2010 academic year, ranking in the top 10 percent of volleyball programs nationally.

In his position, Kelly is around coaches who not only have to be winners on the field but also in the classroom. He sees the effects it has on them.

“No coach wants to be an embarrassment to their university. No coach wants to lose practice time, and that’s one of the penalties. No coach wants to lose scholarships,” Kelly said.

He also sees how student-athletes must deal with the pressure.

“It’s very difficult. It’s so time-consuming. The amount of class they miss, how tired their bodies can be from the rigors of a season, the rigors of practice, and still having to be successful in the classroom. It’s stressful, they’re tired, but they take it very seriously,” Kelly said.

While much has been made of one-and-done college athletes, such as Derrick Rose and John Wall, Kelly believes that the rule only helps student-athletes.

“Any time at college makes you a better person, makes you more mature. I mean you’re getting educated in your dorm room. There’s so much education to be gained through college and it doesn’t all come through going to the classroom. It comes through socially, learning how to get along with different people,” Kelly said.


The Student-Athlete’s Perspective
‘Dumb jock’ is a stereotype Ohio University kicker Matt Weller is used to hearing as a football player.

“No matter what, you’re going to have those stereotypes but you need to do what you have to do to not fall into them and keep your grades up and perform well on the field too,” Weller said.

But Weller works hard to defy that stereotype. The redshirt freshman ended his first year at school with a 3.2 GPA. Now with classes becoming more difficult, Weller must not only work harder but also utilize the resources around him.

“I work a lot with the tutors recently because the classes are starting to get harder. The tutors are available, so I’ve been taking advantage of them and it’s been helping out,” Weller said.

As a student coming into college, there are numerous challenges. Most freshmen students have to deal with the typical academic and social adjustments. But athletes also must deal with the time commitment to their sport.

“It took about two quarters to get used to the practices and going to class and having to study. It was a pretty tough adjustment those first couple of quarters but after that it’s just a matter of routine and sticking with it,” Weller said.

Student-athletes must also balance credit hours along with travel and practice schedules. During their season, they take fewer hours but then must make that up sometime down the line. Many will take 12 hours in-season and then make up for it down the line.

“That’s a nice thing to have a lighter load in the fall, especially when you’re traveling and having so much practice time everyday,” Weller said.

Coaches also sometimes get a bad wrap in academic aspects. Weller has seen them as nothing but helpful.

“They’re on top of you with grades. That’s one of the first things they ask when they have meetings, is how your grades are, before we even talk about your performance on the field,” Weller said.

While he relishes his opportunities as a Division I athlete and looks forward to the future, Weller knows that an education is a must.

“Like anybody else, I’d like to be able to go to the next level and be able to be paid to play the sport. I’m staying realistic and hopefully the performance will speak for itself and allow me to do that. But if not, I’ll have the education needed to get a job,” Weller said.

Trends and Issues
The NCAA touts progress and rising numbers in its academic reform. The APR is calculated on a scale of 0-1000. According to four-year APR averages from 2004-2005 to 2007-2008, just 9.5 percent of schools fell below an APR of 925. In the last APR released in 2009, 90 percent of teams scored more 925, up from 88 percent the year before.

While overall trends show improvement since the Knight Commission’s reform was put together in 2004 and enacted beginning with 2006 season, there are still glaring disparities between races and genders. A 2009 report from the University of Central Florida's The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport (TIDES) shows that 21 of the 67 schools that reached bowl games graduated less than 50 percent of their players, up from the year before. Only four schools had black players with higher graduation rates than white players.

A 2010 study done by TIDES looks at Academic Progress/Graduation Success Rate of Division I NCAA women’s and men’s basketball tournament teams. It compares that of white and black players. On the whole, women’s teams far surpassed men’s in the results. The study states that “white male basketball student‐athletes on tournament bound teams graduate at a rate of 84 percent versus only 56 percent of African‐American male basketball student‐athletes. White female basketball student‐athletes on tournament bound teams graduate at 90 percent compared to 78 percent of African‐American female basketball student‐athletes who graduate.”

The differences in success between races and genders are striking. Reform has brought about positives but has still not addressed this issue. However, Todd Turner does not believe it is a fault of the system.

“The methodology is gender and race neutral. The main thing is a performance and preparation issue. Women do better and minorities tend to do less,” Turner said.

Thursday, June 3, 2010

Armando Galarraga, Jim Joyce and Perfection

"Nobody's perfect."

It’s what Armando Galarraga said in his post-game interview.

On a night when everything Galarraga did on the mound was perfect, it was a terrible instance of imperfection that shattered his perfection.

Umpires make mistakes all the time. There are tons of bang-bang plays every night across the majors, whether it is stolen bases, plays at the bag, plays at the plate. Umpires make a lot of right calls but they also miss a decent amount too.

With 26 straight outs and at the precipice of perfection, Jim Joyce was at his most imperfect. As Armando Galarraga caught the ball and stepped on the first base bag before the Indians’ Jason Donald reached it, Joyce made the wrong call.

There’s no other way to say it. Joyce said it best himself. “I cost that kid a perfect game.”

It’s hard to be perfect. It’s a word we use a lot. There is the pursuit of perfection in making a product, the perfectionist in school or the workplace who needs everything to be just right, infomercials that claim their product can give you the perfect body. It seems there is a constant societal need to be perfect, rather than understand and accept our imperfections.

No one is perfect all the time. Our triumphant instances of perfection are rare. Even more rare is a bunch of people all being there at the same time.

Wednesday night, Galarrrga reached one of those atypical times when he was about to complete a perfect project. As he stepped on that bag and the fans cheered, he had to think he was there.

But then imperfection reared its ugly head. And it did it at the worst possible time.

Jim Joyce will be forever remembered for this call. He messed up. But at least he has the dignity to admit it.

Yes, Armando Galarraga should be in the record books as the 21st man to pitch a perfect game. But he will not be, and Joyce should not be demonized for this call.

He made a mistake, on an extremely important call. You don’t discount that. It's bad for all parties involved in the game and baseball itself.

Galarraga said nobody’s perfect, but he was on Wednesday. He knows it, Joyce knows it, and anyone that saw the highlight knows it. It is a split-second spell of imperfection that keeps it out of the record books. Think of how many moments of imperfection we have in just one day. It’s not the first, and won't be the last time, something imperfect gets in the way of something perfect coming to fruition.

Wednesday, June 2, 2010

The Year of the Cat

It's been a fun sports year here at Ohio University. A bowl trip for football, continued success for volleyball and men's basketball's magical run. Here's an awesome BobcatTV production chronicling some of the year's best shots...