2012.02.14
Tuesday: Harris tests broken hand; New superconference not so super; A video you’ll love
MOST UNUSUAL VALENTINES DAY GIFT YOU’VE EVER GIVEN OR RECEIVED?
Mine’s below with the Name That Tune.
VIRGINIA HEADS TO CLEMSON TONIGHT, AND ALL EYES WILL BE ON Joe Harris, who fractured his left hand against North Carolina on Saturday. His streak of 55 games played could be in jeopardy, Doug writes. “It will be a game-time decision,” Virginia coach Tony Bennett says. “There’s obviously some swelling. We’re waiting for that to go down. It’s not an ideal situation. If there’s two positives, it’s first and foremost, you know how tough he is. … And, it’s on his nonshooting hand.”
-Game’s at 7 p.m. on ESPNU. Tigers are a 1.5-point favorite.
-Virginia Tech freshman forward C.J. Barksdale has a sprained ankle and is day-to-day. The Hokies visit Florida State on Thursday.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
-A little hot-stove Hokies for you. Andy has a Q&A with Virginia Tech defensive coordinator Bud Foster here.
-Conference USA and the Mountain West are combining to form one huge, hideous league.
BASEBALL
-The Oakland A’s sign Cuban defector Yoennis Cespedes. Below you’ll find the most ridiculous, fantastic publicity video ever recorded. The James Taylor soundtrack is…interesting. Warning: Some salty language when the rap part begins. (If you get bored, fast forward to the 19:24 mark, where for some reason our hero roasts a bloody pig):
NBA
-Three NBA games on TV tonight, but no Jeremy Lin, whose Knicks are at Toronto. Hey, it’s hard to argue with the intrigue of Memphis-New Jersey (NBA TV) and Portland-Golden State (ESPN). Ugh.
READER COMMENT O’ THE DAY
From Travis Williams: Did Nevin Shapiro really go to prison or did he just get grounded? It just seems odd that inmates are popping off emails like that. Maybe Kellen Winslow Jr. baked him a cake with an tablet on the inside or Devin Hester hooked him up with some Iphone cupcakes. I think people still do that, well according to cartoons. Either way, I need his Twitter handle.
I am a little confused too on this Chinatown thing. Isn’t that a good place? I thought they have like parades with those giant dragon things and throw fortune cookies and stuff? Sounds kind of awesome. Nevin’s sending mixed message I think.
HIGH SCHOOLS
-The basketball playoffs are underway. Get your scores, schedules and stories here.
NAME THAT TUNE
-In honor of Valentine’s day, a selection from sixth grade, when my girlfriend and I gave each other this exact same tape. Bonus points for naming the album:
Not a dime can’t a pay my rent
I can barely make it through the week
Saturday night I like to make my girl
But right now I can’t make ends meet, no
I’m always workin’, slavein’ every day
Gotta get away from the same, old same old
I need a chance just to get away
If you could hear me think, this is what I’d say
The song I think is Nothin’ but a Good Time by Poison…but I did not know the album name, I did have to look that up. I do not have this in my collection. But I did pick up CCR, Foreigner, and Kansas yesterday in the $5 bin at Walmart.
Comment by Other John — February 14, 2012 @ 8:22 am
Looked at the CUSA/MWC merger and decided that it is still less embarrassing than the expansion attempts of the Big East over the past year.
I can’t wait to see the travel budgets for this new conference, much less the schedule. The ACC patricians who howled at the ‘unbalanced’ schedule brought on by a 12-team conference would have their heads explode.
Comment by crooked road — February 14, 2012 @ 8:28 am
OJ, on your bargain music purchase – were they the cassettes or 8-tracks?
Comment by crooked road — February 14, 2012 @ 8:30 am
$5 bin is great. Got some Neil Young last month from the Clearbrook Walmart.
Comment by NewUVAFan — February 14, 2012 @ 8:50 am
I’m getting ready to send in my YMCA league basketball video to UVA. Unlike Paul Jesperson and Sammy Z, I can hit the rim on threes!
Comment by NewUVAFan — February 14, 2012 @ 8:51 am
Don`t wish much good for Sandusky but I hope he watches college basketball. If he was watching last night`s Syracuse Louisville game he got to read about every 5 minutes that he was now being accused of inappropriate behavior with his own grandchild. Followed closely by the fact that he needs a court order to even go out on his back deck. Enjoy the games, John.
Comment by Ralph — February 14, 2012 @ 9:01 am
haha CR! My wife actually had the Kansas album on 8-track while growing up, and played that one endlessly…she has good taste. I was hoping to find some Gordon Lightfoot…but it was to no avail. Also got Johnny Cash and Puddle of Mudd, I have some varied musical tastes.
Comment by Other John — February 14, 2012 @ 9:02 am
Cuse!
Comment by Uptheriver — February 14, 2012 @ 9:12 am
Open Up and Say… Ahh!
Comment by Donald — February 14, 2012 @ 9:15 am
O.J. with the score; Donald with the bonus. NUF — does that Neil Young album have “Whip My Hair Back and Forth” on it?
Comment by Aaron McFarling — February 14, 2012 @ 9:19 am
If Hawaii travels to East Carolina, how many days ahead should they arrive to get over their jet lag. Maybe they could set up an academic agreement where Hawaii could come in on the Sunday before and attend classes that week at ECU.
Can you say, “smacks of desperation”.
Comment by justafan — February 14, 2012 @ 9:20 am
OJ, the bands Kansas, Boston, and a few others always remind me of beach week down at Myrtle Beach after HS. Driving down Ocean Boulevard…
I wonder how much a ‘Frampton Comes Alive’ album would be worth now? I mean – one that wasn’t worn smooth from being repeatedly played?
Comment by crooked road — February 14, 2012 @ 9:39 am
Speaking of Neil Young, a friend was playing one of his CDs on a road trip and I heard a great song I had never heard before “Bound for Glory”-1985 but am not sure of name of album. I mean a song with Waylon Jennings, a dog, 18 wheeler and “a girl who has a different way of looking at life.” How can you go wrong?
Comment by Ralph — February 14, 2012 @ 9:46 am
Boston…one of my faves. I’m a big fan of rock from that time period, I grew up on it listening to 106.9 The Fox in Hampton Roads. Not sure on the Frampton album, but I have that on CD too, along with some Journey, Lynyrd Skynyrd, lots of Led Zepplin, Supertramp, The Moody Blues, Chicago, Electric Light Orchestra, etc. Don’t get me wrong, I also love the metal from the current era, but that classic rock…I agree, it’s road trip music.
I think my parents had most of that on vinyl too…no idea if they have it stashed somewhere in some old milk crates though…
Not too keen on the mega-conference. Can we restore some sanity to college football at some point? Or is it too far gone because of the money?
Comment by Other John — February 14, 2012 @ 9:50 am
Wow the super conference is really stupid. Now as much as I would hate to see it happen, part of me would like to see the ACC, SEC, Big PAC whatevers merge and form a new athletic association. Then the Big Least and Mountain USA could all get in the same Prius and drive straight to the NAIA.
Comment by Original Greg — February 14, 2012 @ 12:27 pm
And so the scheduling nightmare begins
http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/_/id/7574104/west-virginia-mountaineers-join-big-12-july-big-east-lawsuit-settlement
FSU still needs to find a replacement, which affects the ACC schedule. The entire Big East now needs to fill a slot on their schedule and there was talk about Syracuse facing Rutgers twice to make up for revenue lost from Rutgers losing the WVU game. I’m sure that this will continue to cascade through all of college football.
There’s an old curse, attributed to the Chinese but whose origin is unconfirmed: “May you live in interesting times.” My, we certainly do live in interesting times.
Comment by Donald — February 14, 2012 @ 12:37 pm
@ Aaron, Just when I thought you couldn’t possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this… and totally redeem yourself!
Comment by NewUVAFan — February 14, 2012 @ 1:04 pm
While it is a little late to do so, the Big East (or whatever more appropriate name it should have, maybe the Big Ego) should kick Pitt and Syracuse to the curb immediately, say “you’re out” and create problems for them and the ACC (because a schedule really couldn’t be put together that quick, unless one is sitting in the closet already done).
The Big East leadership is moronic for going along with, or insisting on keeping this fractured, dysfunctional set up. Is there any reason why they weren’t target practice for the other conferences (well, uh, the ACC, mostly) over the last few years? If they had any brains at all, and I don’t really think Tranghese or the new guy have half a brain between them, they’d have done something to really solidify the conference. Going through the multiple transitions they are about to go through certainly doesn’t nothing to establish their identity.
Instead, they’ve turned it into the laughing stock, until this latest Mountain USA joke, perhaps, in all of college athletics.
Comment by Rick H. — February 14, 2012 @ 1:16 pm
Might as well throw this one in here for you A Mizzle!
http://www.latenightwithjimmyfallon.com/video/neil-young-with-crosby-and-nash-party-in-the-usa-52511/1330151
Comment by NewUVAFan — February 14, 2012 @ 1:23 pm
The Mountain USA at least makes some sense if it works how I think it will based on what I heard the intention is. Assuming they can get to 24 teams:
Four 6-team divisions
Divisions A and B (old CUSA)only play each other plus 3 non-conference games
Divisions C and D (old MWC)do the same so there’s no Hawaii to Greenville, NC flights
Thanksgiving weekend
* A and B hold a conference semi-final (old CUSA championship game)
* C and D hold a conference semi-final
Championship week – A/B winner vs C/D winner
Comment by Donald — February 14, 2012 @ 2:14 pm
Incidentally, in reference to O.G.’s comment about the Big Pac ACC SEC whatever, if you leave out the Big East and the non-BCS conferences and invite Notre Dame and BYU, there’s 64 teams.
14 ACC
14 SEC
12 Big Ten
12 Pac-12
10 Big XII
02 ND + BYU
64
Split into four 16-team conferences or eight 8-team conferences and hold either an eight or sixteen team playoff…
Comment by Donald — February 14, 2012 @ 2:19 pm
AM – Just a quick bit for Wednesday. Note to VT bball coach Greenberg. Hank Thorns had 32 points in TCU’s upset over UNLV Tuesday night(8-12 from 3pt range).
Comment by Donald M — February 14, 2012 @ 11:41 pm
Note to revisionists – Hank Thorns looked afraid against ACC teams and had trouble crossing half court with the ball while at VT. He also wanted the offense structured around him, while doing all of that. What next, another Steph Curry spin?
Comment by abdnva — February 15, 2012 @ 8:37 am