Sports

Ryan Perrilloux will no longer be able to defend the national championship title. The prominent face of the 2008 LSU team will never take a snap for the Tigers after getting dismissed by Les Miles. He had numerous run-ins with the law in 2007 that included a nightclub fight and trying to use his brother’s ID to go riverboat gambling, but he didn’t make amends this Spring by missing team meetings and practices. Failing a drug test was the last straw and now LSU needs a new quarterback.

Jamar Hornsby, a Junior safety at Florida, has just been dismissed by Urban Meyer for using the gas credit card for 6 months of a woman who had been killed in a motorcycle accident.

In other Gator news, Florida defensive lineman Matt Patchan was shot in the shoulder in Tampa last Friday. No details have been released yet, but when you have a bullet in your arm it doesn’t usually mean you were just “at the wrong place at the wrong time” in a library or at a church function.

Two Mississippi State players, Michael Brown and Quinton Wesley, have just been given suspended sentences for firing guns into the air on campus back in March and were dismissed from the team and kicked out of school.

In Nick Saban land, Freshman defensive tackle Jeremy Elder was kicked off the team following his arrest for allegedly robbing two other students at gunpoint a couple of months ago. At least eight players have been arrested from the Crimson Tide since Saban was hired.

I’m sure we can all agree the Southeastern Conference is the pinnacle of collegiate football, but boy, there have been several “personnel problems” recently that make the SEC look bush league off the field. We hear the college presidents get on their soap boxes and push sportsmanship rules on players and fans alike, and anointed the conference as the “Standard of Excellence”. Sure the SEC has excellent teams in every sport available to our amateur athletes, but that excellence hasn’t exactly been evident in newspapers and websites lately.

To be fair, the media loves to share negative stories more than they do heartwarming ones, so we fans don’t get to hear about the generous and altruistic Kelin Johnson’s of the world often enough. So for argument’s sake, I am basing all of this negative attention on SEC football relative to the number of “big sports stories” lately. And I know SEC football players aren’t the only troublemakers in the world of college football, but when you have this much bad press lately, it makes the conference look a Michael Vick prison league.

welcome sports fans to the quick-hit thoughts for tonight’s game between the dawgs and the razorbacks. I’ll keep you updated on what’s going on with posts after the first half and at the final buzzer. feel free to tell me what you thought of the game:

1st half:

Georgia going into full court pressure early. i like the aggressiveness coach Felton is taking. Shows that he wants to win big tonight

The poor shooting from the perimeter continues for Georgia. they need to get better at shooting from the outside to have any real shot at winning in the SEC. They’re to eager to take a shot without looking at their options early

The rebounding game needs some serious work. they’re getting beat on both boards on easy rebounds

Billy Humphrey is making it look easy. he’s a great scoring 2 guard, and has been great in the starter’s role, is fast off screens and has phenomenal touch on his long range shots. his defense still needs a minimal amount of work, but he more than makes up for it on offense.

Georgia seriously needs a big man who can draw double teams. their poor shooting would be greatly aided by a big man who can draw constant double teams and clear up the perimeter for Georgia’s shooters.

Chris Barnes is a phenomenal freshman. already he has a block, a massive dunk, and he looks like he’s about to tear someone’s head off constantly (in a good way). He’s playing with grea energy, although he still needs some work on his mechanics in the pivot.

leading scorer with 7 minutes in the first half: Dave Bliss…who’d have thought? he’s playing a great game. strong on the boards, fighting for every board and fighting for every single point he can get.

georgia has 8 turnovers in the first 14 minutes. most of them off very bad decisions and passes. its a recipe for trouble if they can’t change it soon.

georgia has a big hole in the low post. Arkansas is getting big points simply lobbing it to the low post.

The Dawgs’ big men need some serious work on their low-post offense. They can’t work under the basket without dribbling the ball or falling into defensive traps.

half time score: Dawgs 34, hogs 27.

back with more in the 2nd half.

So it seems every year this is the thing to do for anyone who knows anything about the BCS. to rant against it or for it, and to basically say that its worthless before we become the strongest supporters of it as soon as our team reaches a high enough spot to get one of those BCS bowl games. Here goes nothing…

First off, one of my biggest problems with the BCS is the fact that it doesn’t take into account scores in games, just wins/losses. This is huge. How are you going to justify to me the fact that kansas winning against baylor 100000 to 6 is worth more than Kentucky beating LSU by 7 points in what was probably one of the best games of the year, or that USC winning after a miracle by their special teams against ARIZONA is worth more than Florida losing by 3 points to Auburn, who happen to have one of the best defenses in the country. A win is not just a win, its that simple. You can’t count a walloping of a doormat team the same way you count a triple-OT win against a ranked opponent. you just cant. True, the walloping looked more dominant, but the close wins show what a team is really made of, not how bad they can beat up on subpar competition, which leads me to my next point….

How is OSU ranked ahead of USF (just pretend you’re reading this column before tonight’s loss against Rutgers). How is this even a matter of discussion???? OSU’s schedule so far has been ranked 58 in the nation, while USF’s is ranked 9th! notice the slight difference? how about this, USF’s opponents are a combined 27-18. OSU’s? a whopping 23-25. USF has beaten auburn on the road, and West virginia at home, and just lost to a resurgent Rutgers who were carried on the back of one of the best powerbacks in the country, while OSU’s only legit win was against #23 purdue. See where I’m headed with this? LSU has one of the toughest schedules in the country. they had to play florida, kentucky, and have to play auburn in consecutive weeks. that’s three consecutive top 25 teams in 21 days, if you’re keeping count. Besides those games, they’ve already played Va. tech and South Carolina, and still face games against alabama and a physical arkansas team. put OSU and LSU on a neutral field. Who’d you pick? honestly?

Another big problem for me is the harris poll. When someone like mr. Eddy Crowder (Former Colorado Coach) can say something like this, and I quote “I haven’t even seen a brief highlight of [USF],”and then went on to say about why he’d vote LSU over USF right now: “They’re better stabilized … They’ve been there, done that for 100 years.” it makes you think about how objective these polls really are. The harris poll is made up of a bunch of ADs and retired coaches, and you can bet the vast majority are pretty much as subjective as Mr Crowder here, so how can you expect a fair poll?

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should get rid of the BCS, because for the life of me I couldn’t think of a better alternative, but I’m saying that when a computer and a guy who’s never seen footage of the #2 team in the country are the ones making the calls for the rankings, maybe we need to ask ourselves what’s up?

His eyes were bloodshot. He was clinging on to dear life, it seemed. He sat on the bench slouched on his chair. The coach fired of instructions and plays, but he was in a daze. The buzzer sounded. Michael Jordan stepped up and continued to pummel the Jazz with a barrage of shots and drives to the hoop. His final line: 38 points, seven rebounds, five assists, three steals and one block. I’ve always had that image in my mind of Jordan finally collapsing into Pippen’s arms when the game was in hand, seemingly about to faint on the court. It would be remembered as the “flu game”. One of MJ’s greatest performances. One of those instances where a player goes from man to legend in 48 minutes. Bird had his treys, magic had the hook, Dr. J had his dunks, Wilt had his 100 points in a game.

The greatest players in history all have defining moments. Situations where the odds are against them, when its impossible to win. Yet it seems by almost will-power alone they put their teammates on their backs and carry them to the finish line. These guys could go into a 10th gear when necessary, but played in 5th gear all the time. Jordan, Bird, Johnson, Dr. J, Wilt, Havlicek, ‘Nique, Hakeem, and Lebron? Hold on for a minute. Now I’m not saying James isn’t a freak of nature, which he is, or one of the best natural talents in history, which he is, or even one of the best 5 players in the league now, which he most definitely is. But unlike so many other people, I’m not ready to Crown him.

His signature game 5 against the Pistons was an instant classic. James literally carried the Cavs to the finish line, scoring 25 straight and 29 of the Cav’s last 30 points starting in the fourth quarter, and ending in the 2nd OT. The other point in between? A free throw. James has definitely shown that he has that fifth gear that all the greats were seemingly stuck in, but I haven’t seen him stay in that fifth gear for a consistent period of time. This season he practically mailed in almost half the season, before turning it on to make the playoff run, and then turned it off again at the start of the pistons series until he turned it on again for games five and six.

Against the spurs, however, it was a different story completely. James looked flustered and out of place. His shots weren’t falling, he was making rookie mistakes, and he made almost as many turnovers as assists (six TOs to 7 dimes). On the other hand, battle-tested Tim Duncan was going about business as Usual. The big fundamental’s line was 24 points, 13 boards, 5 blocks, 2 steals, and 1 assist (on 10-17 shooting). Clearly, the teacher was still the teacher in this situation. Duncan was James’ perfect opposite. Duncan did everything he had to on both sides of the court. James, on the other hand, couldn’t get it together.

I’m not writing James off. Before everything’s said and done LBJ will be one of the greatest players in history, but I’m just not ready to say he’s the greatest yet. He still has ways to go, and he still needs to get stuck in 5th gear for a long while before I’ll reconsider.