Tuesday: Sports flurries
(Early travel to Miami on Wednesday. Be back with you Thursday)
Hope everyone’s staying warm and safe out there. On with today’s goods:
Luther Maddy has outperformed his recruiting ranking for the Hokies.
Andy has a feature on Hokies defensive tackle Luther Maddy, whose improved footwork has made him a much-needed force in the pass-rushing game.
STAR TROOPER: Maddy was a two-star recruit coming out of high school, which is the lowest star rating there is (one-star prospects simply aren’t ranked at all). I like this quote from him. “I know everybody says stars don’t matter, but you don’t want to be a two star. You know what I mean? Two stars don’t look good. Then again, stars don’t matter.”
THREE BENCHED CAVS: Mike London announces the suspensions of Lovante Battle, Jeremiah Mathis and Henry Coley because of a violation off team rules. Daquan “Da Da” Romeero takes Coley’s place as the starter at outside linebacker.
RELEASE THE HOUNDS: From Doug’s story: “Virginia held its ‘Weenie Bowl,’ an annual bye-week scrimmage for players who are being redshirted, and London said the defensive units intercepted two passes and had a fumble recovery in that exhibition.”
PANIC BUTTON: Redskins coach Mike Shanahan calls Sunday’s game against Carolina a “must-win.” All previous games were not.
MEANGELO: Speaking of the Redskins, ex-Hokie DeAngelo Hall is scheduled to meet with Roger Goodell after taking off his helmet and berating officials in the waning minutes of a loss to the Steelers. ESPN’s Dan Graziano says the Skins have no reason to keep Hall.
YOU COMPLETE ME: Alex Smith connects on 18 of his 19 pass attempts to lead the 49ers to a 24-3 romp of Arizona in Monday Night Football. The lone incompletion? Dropped by a wide-open receiver.
TIP TIME: The NBA season opens tonight with three games on TV around here: Wizards-Cavs (7 p.m., CSN), Celtics-Heat (8 p.m. TNT) and Mavs-Lakers (10:30 p.m., TNT).
FLOWER AMONG WEEDS: The only NBA previews that ever interest me are those written by Blog Crowd veteran Travis Williams, who this year has compared each team to a Halloween treat. I am somewhat encouraged that my Bullets have been upgraded to Gobstobber status.
I DO KNOW ONE THING… about the NBA, and it’s that Amare Stoudemire is always injured. And he is again.
MORE HOOPS: The presason AP All-America team is Indiana’s Cody Zeller, Creighton’s Doug McDermott, Murray State’s Deshaun Thomas, Lehigh’s C.J. McCollum and Michigan’s Trey Burke. Nice to see some of the mid-major guys get some recognition before March Madness.
NAME THAT TUNE
Title’s in here. We’re looking for the artist.
Wanna be a ballah, shot callah
Twenty inch blades on the Impala
A callah, gettin [sexual relations] tonight
Swisher rolled tight, gotta sprayed by Ike
I hit the HIIIGHWAY, making money the FLYYYY WAY
But there’s got to be a BETT-ER WAYY!
A better way, better way, YEAH-AHHHH
October 30, 2012 - 8:38 AM
I loved Travis’ NBA preview, even if I don’t watch that much NBA anymore, but reading through it just is a delight. Travis also encouraged and inspired me to start my own sport blog where I may just post weekly thoughts on sports.
Interesting that 2 star DL recruits can be ‘coached up’ by the Hokie defensive staff, while 4 star OL recruits continue to flounder year after year.
As for MeAngelo, he is statistically among the worst in every single category in the NFL for his position. Another telling factor is that it took forever for any other Redskin to come pull him away from the officials. That tells me his teammates don’t mind seeing him get in trouble, as they either don’t care about him on the team or they just don’t like him. That’s been his pattern everywhere he’s been, all the way back to VaTech, where he was poison in the locker room.
Honored to say I do not know that “tune.”
I think it’s time to part ways with MeAngelo. You can tell it’s all about him and very little if any about the team. From celebrating making tackles on plays that give up first downs to ridiculous outbursts and worse than anything getting burned like toast every game I would be happy to see him go.
Surprised you didn’t mention that Dan Radakovich, the AD at GaTech, is moving to the same position at Clemson, replacing Terry Don Phillips. Radakovich recently oversaw the construction of GT’s new basketball arena, which is a really innovative showcase for Bumblebee hoops. Also, it came in at a pretty low price for a complete reconstruction. All that remains from the old Alexander Memorial are the roof trusses.
While I love Cassell, it would be cool to think that when the time comes to replace it, something similarly innovative could be constructed at a reasonable price. Just as long as Jim Weaver’s eventual replacement from outside the current athletic department is cutting the checks, there is always hope.
Anyway, the new GT basketball arena, the McCamish Pavilion…
http://gtmccamishpavilion.com/index
http://georgiatech.scout.com/2/1225864.html
Couldn’t agree more on Hall. He was gifted when he was a Hokie but always about himself. His signature play was a beaut (the ball he flipped out of a Miami WR’s hands and took back for a TD) but did we (and does anyone else) really need his baggage? I don;t know for sure but I am willing to bet he will be coming soon to a bankruptcy court near you.
I don’t get why the ESPN guys keep jumping Alex Smith. True it took him some time to get really good but that seems to be a problem of ever changing systems as much as a problem with him. He looked good last year and looks terrific this year. So he doesn’t throw for 0000′s of yards. He has a tight spiral, accuracy and he’s quick on his feet. His system is more controlled than some others but thats on his coach.
Hard to know how good Maddy really is. Some games he’s just a force and some he’s not. He looked spectacular against GT but I believe they had 2-3 guys on Gayle. Certainly he is an asset.
Who really cares about the NBA? OK, I like the Spurs and even go once in a while but I miss them about the same as I miss the NHL.
Considering our Hoops outlook I am eager for Spring Training and next September.
And I sure hope those guys who pooh-poohed the value of the forcasters raising the alarm about Sandy “get it” now. Certainly some lives saved and damage mitigated. You can;t prove a negative but the attention was certainly deserved.
CR, I heard about the new AD at Clemson, and then the question came on Twitter was if it put coach Paul Johnson on the hot seat starting this spring with the new AD that’s yet to be named. Personally, I think if Paul Johnson don’t improve the defense next season, he’s out. His offense has the ability to score points and be in the top 5 of leading the FBS in rushing yard category, but the defense has always been their weakness for years.
That was why I picked against GT in the Labor Day’s match-up. Because they lacked the discipline to finish off a game, Tevin Washington’s penchant for tossing game deciding interception near the end, and the fact that Bud Foster was one of the few, few DC in the country to limit the Bumble Bees’ offense.
While Weaver has done wonders by bringing in the money to build the new basketball practice facility and some renovations to the athletic complex, I think he is a lousy HR person. I think it may be time for him to retire. He is suffering from a diease, and he just look flat out old. He should get to enjoy what’s left of life and spend them with his family.
ZMan, the Hokie hoops season is going to make people look back fondly at our football season, if that tells you anything. I’ll be surprised if we win five games – we’ll play 20 – after Christmas.
Get off it Zman, none of us pooh-poohed the value of warning the populace. Those that give a d… get it the first time. Unfortunately the constant 24 hr reminding didn’t get through to the 1000′s trapped in Conn after being constantly told to evacuate.It played out all over the NE and is still playing out. I feel for them because it’s not over after the storm leaves. It’ll take years for them to recover and some never will. Many will just walk away. The dealings with FEMA, insurance co’s, contractors, local governments, and the opportunists that come in to make a quick buck and leave. We had tree removal “experts” come into the area proclaiming they would be millionaires by the time they left. Then you have the personal tragedies of death and injury that you never can recover from. If you haven’t lived it, you can’t imagine it.
cr, Cassell is a dump. I’m suprised the recruits don’t take one look at that place and run for the hills. If Tech does ever decide to truly commit to basketball and build a new arena, I’m not sure where they would put it. Maybe they could chop down a couple more of those unnecessary trees.
Did anyone else watch the OU vs. ND game Saturday night. I thought it was interesting that the stadium sections were either all red or all white. I wanted to know how this was accomplished without giving out t-shirts to everyone attending. I was told the school put out the information for those in even sections to wear red and the odd sections to wear white. The results were awesome from the blimp view. Have any of you been to a game like that? I know a lot of the ACC schools try the white out or the maroon effect but I think this coordinated effort was much cooler.
Anyone on this blog want to do an ESPN fantasy basketball league? I’ve never tried basketball before but it could be fun, particularly in a Year Without Hockey. I’m looking at a Thursday evening draft this week, if any times are available. Drop me a line at ryan.pry@gmail.com
oh, I wanna be a baller! cause ive already got a bad impala!!
crooked, you nail MeAngelo, hit it right on the head. He could be a great player, he’s a freak of an athlete, but he does seem to have a strong ability to sour a team. I could say more about him, but I can’t. I know somebody that deals with him off the field, just can’t go into it.
You also hit another important point, on Maddy being ‘coached up’ as a 2 star, yet the 4 star OL guys flounder. That’s just the VT M.O. It doesn’t matter what side of the ball they are on.
Frank Beamer (and staff) just can’t control the prima dona players, can’t do much with them. Look at that 2003 team with MeAngelo, Kevin Jones, Marcus Vick, and a host of other very solid (VT like) players, like Jeff King, Adibi’s, Grove, Vincent Fuller, etc, etc.
That 2003 team had far more long-range talent on it than the 1999 team, a bunch of NFL starts in it, and Frank lost control of it, because of division created by guys like MeAngelo. That was also the season of Frank’s less than finest moment, when he slapped Wilford up side the head, if I am not mistaken, and until this year, the last non-10 game winner.
Here we have a defense that was supposed to be one of the best ever, and look what it has done.
The personality of the coaching staff, at that time, was they definitely did more with less, and less with more. Too many changes since then (despite the fallacy that it never turns over – it has changed significantly) to get a feel for it, but it seems like they are doing less with whatever they’ve got now.
The current status of the ACC in general and football in particular has already affected the BB recruiting in the 757 area. We just had a kid commit to Indiana and he is one of several that have committed to Div I schools outside of the ACC. This use to be a fertile area for the ACC in BB but the kids are looking elsewhere. With friends and relatives spread all over the country, my feedback is the ACC is a laughingstock in major sports. On that note, I guess we are going to see how patient the UVA fans are with London. If the season ends as badly as it looks for UVA, I think he may be feeling a little heat next year.
O’Greg, I don’t think you can say that Cassell has an impact on basketball recruits, calling it a dump. Their interest will clearly lie in the practice facility, because that is where their time will be spent.
To say Tech can’t succeed in basketball because Cassell is a dump is like saying Duke shouldn’t because Cameron is a dump – because it really is, compared to Cassell.
The people sitting in the stands are the ones that have to be tolerable of the venue, not the players. Go back to what Gene Hackman pulls in Hoosiers, he gets out a tape measure to show his guys the basket is the same height off the ground, the free throw line the same distance away, when they get to the big, fancy state championship location.
Tech has no reason to build a new basketball coliseum. Blacksburg is never going to move closer to the major VT alumni population areas, so seating here, like at Duke, isn’t ever going to skyrocket, not even if Tech is as good as Duke. Just like Dookie alums don’t concentrate in Durham, Hokie alums do not concentrate in Blacksburg, or really even Roanoke – not enough to build anything bigger than exists.
On your question about people wearing the right colors to look good on TV – some schools can pull it off, some can’t. Some school’s fans would follow somebody on to a busy highway if you asked them to.
Some do lay out t-shirts for people to put on. Tech does it in basketball, in the student section, sometimes, but the whole white out, maroon out, blue out, black out – whatever color – it is just silly to me.
OG, a friend of mine is an OU alum, living nearby and who has season tickets. Information was sent out to people requesting that they check their ticket assignment lcoations to determine which color to wear. She re-posted that information on Facebook a couple days before the game. The effect certainly was pretty darn cool.
It’s not as ‘fun’ as Halloween candy, but it’s much more nutritious for the mind – ESPN 8 p.m. tonight has a new 30 For 30. Ghosts of Ole Miss. It’s definite viewing.
Here is an article written about the topic originally that is very thought provoking…
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=mississippi62&num
Rick H, I agree with the color effect for football. The last one I went to, the Orange Effect, there were a bunch of folks still wearing maroon shirts to the game, and some even had on white, but they were far and in between that the orange was the most dominant color in the stands. It was neat to see it on TV (via ESPN3 replay), but I think somewhere along the way, Tech has lost its identity.
Somebody on this blog made a good point a while back that Tech built its reputation on getting the maximum out of walk-ons, underrated players, Luther Maddy is the poster child of it IMHO, and a sprinkle of talented athletes, Tyrod as a poster child of that also. I think the whole thing has been boiled down to the entitlement attitude.
I think that is a problem all across the country with children being brought up that they are the center of the universe, and when they get to college, they are often in for rude awakening and have more trouble than being productive. Am I saying that all players are that way? Absolutely not. There are a few players on the current squad that are exmplary students, Logan Thomas, for example, or last year with David Wilson who wore shirt and tie to every classes. I can’t recall the last player who donned the Hokies’ uniform to wear a shirt and tie to classes.
Am I suggesting that the Hokies’ staff revisit their recruiting philosophy? I don’t think so. They are bringing in some some serious talents for the 2013 and 2014 classes, so I don’t think that’s the problem.
I think it’s more of a team chemistry issue, and as some already attritubted, players like DeAngelo Hall, can ruin that in a heart beat. Is there anything like that going on with the current team? I wouldn’t be surprised if it wasn’t.
Also, somebody mentioned the recruting of the 757. I think the secret of the 757 have already been out. It may be the ACC’s brand is getting sullied or it may be there is no more partialilty anymore. This year, the MAC conference is having an oustanding year, and last year, it was the MWC that was the BCS buster. In basketball, the Horizon League has been the Cinderella story. So, I think that with avenue of television and the internet, players are looking everywhere for an opportunity to have immediate playing time.
For OG & the others, my intent was not to promote the replacement of Cassell. It was to promote the mere concept that – by slinging away the cobwebs of ‘family’ inbred cost reductive mindsets, VaTech has the opportunity to progress when the opportunity presented itself. Next year, next decade, whenever.
Seth Greenberg somehow convinced Weaver to approve construction of the stellar practice facility. At some point in the future – NOT calling for it, just sayin’ – Cassell will need replacement. My point was that – here’s the part misers like Weaver will love – you can save LOTS of donor money by redoing the same site. That is, if you actually are audacious enough to look outside of the 24060 zip.
GaTech only spent $45 mil – less than the cost of the Lane west side expansion – to construct a new basketball arena on the site of their old one. It’s not about a larger arena, as those are for ego only in 90+% of the cases. It’s about a building that will last for a long time into the future while addressing the needs of something beyond the mid-1960′s.
I spoke only about the innovation that was developed by the Engineering-heavy school in developing their arena. Cassell reminds me of a poor man’s Palestra or Hinkle Fieldhouse. The same could be accomplished when the time came at VT that was accomplished at GT. Take the footprint, modify it slightly, and update the arena by several decades.
That’s the sole purpose for the mention, well, the primary purpose. The secondary purpose was to break the lazy train of – NFL, MLB, NBA, Hokie sports repetitiveness. Lots of stuff happening out there beyond the reach of the EZ Button. I find the new GT arena a source of inspiration for those guys, and envy them just a little bit. Same with Clemson’s new AD – a breath of fresh air from outside of the inbred ‘family’ shakra that creates the wet blanket over Hokie sports.
It’s Lil’ Troy – “Wanna Be A Baller”
crooked Road. I haven’t had great expectations for our hoops team since, like, Dell Curry. I agree with you about how good, or bad, we will be. I can;t say that I can think of any situation there that will make me look back on this football season fondly.
Unless, of course, we find a way to win the Coastal, the ACC and the Bowl game. har, har
ZMan, perhaps the worst possible thing for us would be to somehow upset F$U or Clemson in the ACC CG. That would require us to play in a BCS bowl and be subjected to the constant (correct) insights by analysts – Frank & Stinespring, analysts are people who are paid to watch game film and A-N-A-L-I-Z-E team and player performance. They’re a recent phenomenon, having only been around for 8 decades or so. I know you guys are SOO busy working on perfecting the ultimate offense & special teams – wait, Frank doesn’t coach that, right? – that you’re claiming to be unfamiliar with the concept.
Anyway, these guys would have 30 days to continue to tell the nation just how advanced our philosophies were, and I’m betting that might not help recruiting.
Knee jerk alert – I’m not hoping we lose, I’m just stating the obvious.
Rick you are nuts if you think top recruits only care about the practice facility. There’s a reason why kids are shown the arena they are going to play in and get to hear their name over the loud speaker or see their face on the jumbo screen. Comparing Cassell to Cameron Indoor is not even close. Camereon has banners hanging from the ceiling, Cassell doesn’t. Duke could play in a tobacco field and kids would want to go there because they win championships. Tech needs something more than a nice place to practice if they want to win.
Aaron, regarding today’s article about the fact a TV announcer said VT’s offense was outdated, I am really curious what ACC defensive coordinators say about VT’s offense, off the record. Can you get another ACC coordinator to tell you (or another RT reporter) what they really think of VT’s offense?
I can see why Frank Beamer would object to Todd McShay’s assessment of the Hokie offense because the truth always hurts. McShay isn’t saying anything that 90% of the Hokie fans have not been saying for 10 years. But Frank is in the same mold as Jo Pa and Brother Bowden. These guys are not going to change as long as there is a golden parachute provided for them. And a regular 10 game winning season will keep some of the critics away year after year but things are much different now, things are stale at VT football and something will need to change very soon.
Hmmm….how about a bad Halloween joke?
Why did the girl ghost slap the boy ghost? Because he tried to grab her… (wait for it)… boo-bies.
Greg, thanks for making my point even better than I could have.
The banners are what Duke has, Tech does not – and my point is this – Virginia Tech can be just as successful as Duke with Cassell.
Yes, the banners/winning are what Duke has going for it, but Coach K isn’t living forever, and we’ll see what happens after that, but Duke isn’t drawing players because of the place they play. Players don’t go there because of Cameron. The place is nothing more than a glorified HS gymnasium. There are high schools with better “bleachers” in it than that place – not to mention they stick the media in the rafters.
Perhaps Tech needs to offer more ‘special needs’ classes to basketball players, like Carolina has done? Maybe VT would be better off if we just cheated. The hammer will hit the Dean Dome – it is just a matter of when, not if. We are starting to see how UNC has done things, now. The basketball apple does not fall far from the football tree.
Cassell could probably work with an overhaul, but it would still be dated and small. But, in some ways, especially for a program with relatively mediocre following and no real longstanding success or history…like Tech, small can be a good thing. It can help create a more intimate, energetic atmosphere that can be intimidating for visiting teams and create a really solid home-court advantage.
I look to a fellow ACC program and what I’ve observed with them. I think NC State hurt themselves by moving their games from Reynolds out to the RBC Center. Sure, they got a nice, modern arena with corporate seating and a much larger capacity…but it lost the raucus, frenzied atmosphere of games at Reynolds (I attended several as a freshman there, the place was absolutely electric). The Dean Smith Center at UNC is also a bit cavernous and seems to lack some of that same sort of feel, to me anyway.
If VT does replace Cassell, it should be with a modern facility obviously, but I don’t think it should be substantially larger. Some box seating would be a nice addition and help give it a modern feel too. And it definitely should be on campus. Placing it in the same spot as Cassell could present some logistical issues because construction on a new facility would likely extend through at least 1 season, if not 2…so they’d have to look at playing games in Roanoke probably, since an adequate substitute venue doesn’t really exist within closer proximity.
Sure Rick, turn my comments about VT needing a new arena into a dig on VT. I agree with OJ, bigger isn’t always better. Miami built a great on campus arena that is really small but modern. UVA recognized U Hall was outdated and built a great facility but NC State made a mistake by moving off campus. The fact anyone actually thinks you can compare Duke and VT basketball from a recruiting standpoint amazes me. If VT had championships it wouldn’t matter but they don’t and Cassell is a dump.
Actually, the most egregious mistake schools make is building an arena that is too big, and thus needlessly expensive. My initial example that started the conversation was about GaTech. They built/rebuilt a brand new arena that was smaller than the old one, and get this – the new arena has no luxury boxes. ZERO LUXURY BOXES. Their reasoning makes sense, too. College basketball games take about 2.5 hours max, are played in the winter, and don’t promote lengthy pre-game social relations.
GaTech reasoned that the luxury box crowd wouldn’t be that interested because it wasn’t enough time to socialize. Instead, they provided a ‘club section’ which would provide a ‘luxury lite’ setting (my words, not theirs) Open arena seating, but also exclusive concessions.
That’s a tangent, but my original point was about the real attendance numbers for schools across the nation, and the logistical challenges for VaTech in increasing attendance, etc. Most people would be shocked to find out how low the % of capacity most schools produce.
VT’s reported basketball attendance numbers are phony when compared to the actual attendance. Weaver’s dept relies on paid attendance & assumes that all student tickets are taken. Actual attendance is less, of course. Here’s the amazing part – using estimates of actual attendance, the Hokies are actually doing better than most schools. Yep, that’s right. We’re above average.
We really don’t need a bigger arena. I mean, it could be 10K, but anything more than that – even 11K is a total waste. Anything from 8K-10K is where we need to stay. New A/V is really the key. If we kept Cassell, but spent only $3 million on A/V, we’d be a couple of steps above where we are now. The next step is about $50-60 million to replace Cassell on the same footprint. So you’ve got a big gap in there that could be closed by innovative, 2010′s thinking AD employees. Once we eventually acquire those employees – we don’t have them now, then we’ll be closer to the goal, at least.
Oh, also, GaTech built their stadium in 18 months, thus missing only one season. Construction started in March, and the arena is now ready, the following October/November. Whenever Cassell is rebuilt, under the scenario, the games could move to Roanoke, with VT students provided free bussing to the RVCC for the 16 home games. Actually, you could arrange the schedule to pick up some 1&1′s with name teams on away games, so that they return to help inaugurate the following season with some big name home game opponents in the first year of the arena. You might even dip to as low as 12 home games for the one season, before getting back to a normal schedule. The actual ‘loss of revenue’ from concessions & ticket sales is well under $1 million for the entire season.