Monday: Danica wins pole — what does it mean?
IF POLES WERE CROWNS, RYAN NEWMAN WOULD BE KING. We probably should establish that right now. Qualifying is a very small part NASCAR these days. Nappy will tell you that newspapers used to devote huge stories to whoever won the pole. Now, most relegate qualifying results to notebooks. Qualifying first guarantees you one thing: the opportunity to start first. The finish is up to you, and it is a much greater challenge. Just ask Newman, owner of 49 career poles and 16 Cup wins.
REGARDLESS, DANICA PATRICK WINNING THE POLE FOR THE DAYTONA 500 IS A BIG DEAL. You don’t need me to tell you that. Just flip on your favorite sports talk radio show today and see how long it takes the host to mention NASCAR. I’m guessing not long. ESPN Radio was talking about it this morning. Kornheiser and Wilbon will take their turn tonight (after plenty of cramming, I’m sure). NASCAR must be drooling.
FOR ONE THING, EVERYTHING AT DAYTONA IS BIGGER. Fox devoted three hours of live coverage to the time trials yesterday. That must mean somebody is watching those. I don’t really see the point, given that only two people lock up starting positions and the rest have to get their spots through the Shootouts (which I will watch), but it’s Daytona. They show ‘em.
AND PATRICK GOT IT DONE, becoming the first woman to qualify higher than ninth for any Cup race. For a Cup rookie whose average finish in 10 Cup starts last year was 28th, yesterday’s effort delivers a jolt of credibility. The hype will flow all week, and deservedly so. The rest is up to her.
SPEAKING OF HYPE: Does anybody know how old Michael Jordan is? I’m too lazy to look it up.
LOOKING AHEAD: After falling 93-81 at North Carolina on Saturday, Virginia has another tough trip tomorrow night when it heads to Miami. The Hurricanes stayed unbeaten in the ACC last night by defeating Clemson 45-43. Yep, you read that score right. Halftime score: 18-16, Tha U. Apologies to “over” bettors.
DUKE ON THE WAY: I’m not telling you that you should believe in moral victories; I’m just telling you that I do. Particularly with teams such as the Hokies, who aren’t playing for much the rest of the season. More than anything, I want to see signs of life, and I saw them at N.C. State on Saturday,even though Tech lost in overtime. Seeing them Thursday when Duke comes to Cassell? Well, I’m not counting on it, but I’ll be looking anyway.
NAME THAT TUNE
Ya know Moe, I’ll probably get ten years
So just give me beers till they get here
Yeah I know the sun is coming up
And y’all are probably get ready for closin’ up
But I’m tryin’ to drown my soul
I’m tired of this life on a dirt road
Everything that I love is gone
And I’m tired of hangin’ on…
February 18, 2013 - 8:16 AM
AM,
I would like to see signs of life from Coach JJ. We had 7 foul shots at NCST? Would have been 3 without the technical and intentional foul at the end. Outscored them 38-26 in the paint, but they shoot 6 times as many foul shots with nary a peep from JJ. He needs to fight for the boys. Same thing happened against UNC. I believe this disparity is partly explained by him seating on his hands while the other coaches cry bloody murder on every single possession.
Test to see if this is working.
Good. Anyway, a receiver does an end zone dance after catching a touchdown pass do did Danica do a pole dance yesterday? If so, I missed it.
…so did Danica…
AM I loved your column yesterday, especially the apart about SI. Something that has been really bugging me lately is ESPN’s push to make you become an insider. More and more, the articles you want to read on ESPN.com require an Insider subscription.
Not only am I not getting a subscription, I’m also taking my sports information searches elswhere. If I want a score I check ESPN. If I want a story/report, I check anywhere else. Unless it’s NASCAR.COM. That has to be one of the most useless websites for a major sport anywhere. NASCAR.COM is usually one of the last places I go for NASCAR information. I’m guessing they don’t have that much invested in the site.
Danica wins the pole. Well, besides the endless possibilities for bad jokes I have to say that it is a big deal.
1. Yes, its about the car but you still have to drive it.
2. Yes, no guarantee of victory but name one driver who prefers to start off the pole.
3. If it wasn’t an advantage why would they race for it?
I will still search for Sports Illustrated. I dislike ESPN and I dislike Bleacher Report. I still love the RT.
See your IT dept has been at it again, I had to backdoor it to get to your blog. We always knew Danica could drive fast, now let’s see if she stops playing nice and starts trading paint. On BB glad to see Woods potential as a shooter, defense needs work. Eddie finally got enough points to off set his turnovers and Brown still struggles. The disparity in foul shots was hard to overcome. Shame Green missed front end of 1-1 and lost ball in OT. It’s all about the bucks OG. Most product searches now take you to a subscription website for the complete picture.
Now my comment is awaiting moderation. I have a 16 year old grandson that’s looking for some extra money if your IT people need help.
Lakers owner Jerry Bus passed away today. It will be interesting to see if they use this as motivation to play better or as an excuse for why they lose. I suspect the outcome of the season will have a lot to do with how this story is written.
Duke will be an interesting test. Which team will show up? The deer in the headlights guys or confident shooters. Duke will play well. One clunker against Miami is all Coach K will allow. Be nice to see a full Cassell; but, if Tech couldn’t fill it against UVA, my guess is a couple of thousand empty seats.
Yanking of Barksdale ten seconds after a time out in the NCST game was embarrassing. This is not a well coached team. Hopefully, the team and JJ will get better. I don’t think I would want to play Tech in the ACC tournament. One of these nights (or days) the tumblers will fall, and Tech is going to light someone up.
Well, looks like the comments are back on. I’m thankful for that. I tried to post a comment earlier telling you guys that people were working on the problem, but I couldn’t post either.
The best part of Danica taking the pole is that we’re less inundated with the Dale Jr media hype. At least the media hounds are chasing a different rabbit for a while.
Did anyone see the highlights of Kobe blocking LeBron twice during the All Star game? That’s one old dog that still bites, not just barks.
The Hokies are coming off a moral loss, while Duke is smarting from their loss to UMd. Think Coach K will have his guys dialed in? We’ll see how much fight the team has on Thursday. The midweek 9:00 pm game time guarantees there will be a lot of empty seats. In the last few years, they’d be full for any Duke, UNC, or UVa game. I think the fanbase has checked out this season, though.
Nice new look to the blog. I tried commenting earlier, but there must have been some bugs getting worked out.
I went down to Raleigh on Saturday. I thought the team played hard, one of the better performances since early in the year. Hopefully that same bunch will show up on Thursday.
AMcF,
Why was VT’s story in the game with NCSU relegated to page 10 of the paper yesterday while UVA was front page? Both were losses. yeah, but why the insignificant treatment by the RT?
When Danica does something IN A RACE on a track (besides cause a wreck or get collected in one) wake me up and I will take notice. Right now I have seen little or nothing in results on the track to see any reason to take notice.
The only Indy car win she ever had was won on fuel economy, the only NASCAR win, well, eh, that hasn’t happened.
Those of you who draw starting position 1 in your race pools better not plan to cash in any chips. I am betting she will be like Loy Allen Jr. and a footnote at best to what actually happens in the race.
Jordan is 50, born in 63 in willmington nc. I live near there now. Wished I had known tech was playing baseball there,over the weekend, although it was cold and windy here on Sunday. Hope they continue to have a good season.
So they`re saying the game tying layup by Eddie shouldn`t have. Maybe the officials were making up for State shooting 43 foul shots and us shooting 7. Give JJ credit, he had Tech ready to play against a pretty good team in a hostile venue. At the last Duke game at Tech I didn`t have a problem with Dell sitting behind the Duke bench in support of his son. Since his picture and jersey are in the rafters, however, I could have done without him wearing a Duke shirt.. I don`t guess we have a “”Johnsonville” outside Cassell but it would br nice if they could figure out a way to let students in to fill the empty seats.
#17 Ralph, the problem with ‘letting students in to fill the seats’ is that the students don’t always fill the seats they’re already allotted. Not to mention, for the last several years, the students that cared enough to cross Lee Street could often get free tickets from people trying to give them away or at the most pay $5 for a regular ticket. Instead, they prefer to go downtown & spend way more than that on beverages. Sure, the students want to come see Duke, UNC & UVa. So do the adults who pay money for tickets. I’m talking about all the other games. The students add enthusiasm to the games, but they also take the team for granted far too much in the non-glamour games. because of that, I don’t see the point in rewarding them for that lack of overall interest.
@18 cr, I was thinking more of “rewarding” the team for still playing hard despite what has to be a disappointing season for them. Plus, two player of the year candidates going against each other-Green deserves all the support he can get.. i see your point but I would make an exception in this case.
Aaron, Why so you think Maryland is leaving for the Big 10? Prestige? More money? Seems like a lot of travel and tougher competition. Can they be any better then middle of the pack in football and basketball?
#10 DH, Barksdale got yanked 10 seconds after the half because he was standing flatfooted and let a pass go past him and out of bounds. I agree with others that JJ needs to show a little fire, The guys are tired from playing shot handed this far into the season. An excited coach would help.
#19 Ralph, understood, but the team played their best game of the year in Raleigh. The 2500 students that show up on Thursday, assuming the students fill their allotment, can still provide a great experience for the players if they’re motivated to do so.
As for Erick Green’s shot at POY, it’s minimal. Not because he’s not playing well, not at all. It’s because his team is 11-13. That won’t get him the award. Nobody votes for a guy on the last place team in the conference as POY. With the season Green is having, he’s not even getting ANY mention nationally as breakout player or surprise player of the year. Jay Bilas listed a half dozen guys – including one from VCU – who made his list. One of them, Bilas dismissed because his team had just lost three games in a row. Think about that compared to Green, whose team has lost * in a row and counting. Green should get All-ACC, and one of the 3rd team All Americas or so, but that’s it. That’s just the way it is, and if he were on another team, we’d agree with that philosophy.
Mike Schmidt won MVP one year on a last place team. What would we be without him. And unlike Pete Maravich or some others I could name, Green actually sets up his teammates and passes. If anyone could hit a shot I think he would be pretty solid in assists, too. I don’t care much about Bilas. I see allot of Bobby Hurley in Green. he almost never loses the ball on the dribble. Quicker than bigger guys. Faster than small guys. Passes to the right spot. Makes shots from everywhere. I sno ball hog.
With guys like Paul and Parker doing well and a whole bunch of aging guards, I say Green is a first rounder and will do well in the NBA.
Danica on the pole at Daytona is, and is not, a big deal. Just like Aaron points out, winning the pole isn’t much of anything, but she is giving NASCAR a shot in the arm it needs.
What it tells me, more than anything, is that Tony Stewart is possibly headed to being the current dominant car owner, by having such good success with the new car design, by putting his whole fleet in the top of the times.
It will generate a little bit more excitement for the race, but not that much. If she would win, it would be much bigger.
Some limited comments about VT hoops, but here is what I see. JJ is now SG, without the defense.
That run, gun and fun offense hasn’t been seen in a while, the one that got him to 7-0. I thought the mantra was to shoot within 10 seconds of the shot clock starting? Well . . . that is over.
At the same time, people would grill Seth for yanking a guy for a mistake, taking away their confidence, having them ‘look over their shoulder’ fearing retribution. CJ Barksdale would probably like to question how things are different since he got yanked within 10 seconds of the start of the 2nd half against NCSU for a careless turnover.
I thought the coverage of MJ’s 50th was pretty cool. Call it hype if you want, but the guy is the best to play his sport. At the same time, it was very nice to see some of the Dr. Jerry Buss coverage, too. He was part of making the NBA relevant, for a while, when MJ was. Now, it is pretty much a joke – it does still exist, doesn’t it?
Anyway, happy Prez day to everybody. What a useless holiday.
And, what is it with the IT geeks? Can people not leave something that works alone? First it was the captcha code, now this new format that won’t work. Do these nerds not test anything?
#22 Zman, wrong on Mike Scmidt. He won three MVP’s and the worst his team finished was 2nd in their conference. When the vote comes out for ACC POY, you can snipe at me then. I’ll be happy if I’m wrong and Green wins. You could always look at any neutral media to see whether Green is in the discussion in the mean time.
Zman. Comment #22 “And unlike Pete Maravich or some others I could name, Green actually sets up his teammates and passes.”
Facts:
Erik Green – 122 career games, 307 assists (2.5 assists per game).
Pete Maravich – 83 career games, 425 assists (5.1 assists per game).
Green could only dream of being in Maravich’s class.
@21cr. I meant player of the year in the ACC-no chance nationally, I agree. Who votes for that? Coaches? Sportswriters? Maybe they`ll take into account that EG leads the nation in scoring despite being double teamed while Plumlee is teamed up with McD All Americans. You`re tight, I am prejudiced.
Funniest Facebook post on the qualifying (so far, anyway) had a picture of Danica & Gordon’s cars and said “First time two women have ever qualified on the front row of a NASCAR race!”
My take on POY: if you remove Plumlee from the Duke lineup (remember, they already lost arguably a better post player to injury), Duke still probably wins 80% of their games. How many games would VT have won this year without Green? (Hint: very few). In other words, which one is more valuable to his team?
#26 Ralph, that was what I meant as well – ACC POY. The media votes on that. Factor in Green’s team being in last place, as well as the other likely candidate coming from the state of NC in Plumlee, and that’s why you’ll see the votes go elsewhere. It would be great if Green did win, but it would be surprising to see the vote go against historical precedent.
Only way Green wins POY is if Tech goes deep into the playoffs. And, have to admit, I’m not sure when the voting is. If it’s before the tourney, then it will be Plum, Larkin, then Green. Green is a offensive force on a team that is all they have. Which makes it all that more remarkable. He’s not a great defender, however, I think a lot of that aspect of his game is an attempt to keep from fouling.
Agree with Rick, you see a player, other than Green, make a mistake and the first thing he does is look to the bench to see who is going to replace him. That 10 second 2nd half replacement of Barksdale was just sad, and unfortunately predictable. I guess Barksdale didn’t realize that a mistake had been made, and JJ had to go out on the court to hold him accountable. The more I see of this guy, the less I think of him as a coach. Yeah, I know, I have to give him more time.
I don’t think JJ is excessively pulling players for making mistakes, if he were the games would be twice as long for shuttleing players in and out. I can hear the halftime conversation; JJ “CJ pay attention out there, your making too many mistakes”. CJ ” Yes sir coach, I got it”. Ten seconds into half makes turnover. You know the rest.
Nothing.Means nothing,probably only thing she will win in NASCAR.
The voting is finalized prior to the ACC tournament. If I had to list a top four candidates, I’d say Plumlee, Shane Larkin, Joe Harris, & Green.
Rehab – Bartender song
#27 CVC, nice use of facts to provide the proper perspective. Even Green’s best average is lower than Pistol’s career average. Let’s not forget, Maravich’s LSU team also went to the NIT Final Four his senior season, back when the NIT was still a big deal.
Put Green on the First-Team All-ACC, but he’s not a POY candidate for the reasons cited. It’s kind of like MVP voting. Why would an MVP be on a last-place team? That team could finish last without that guy as well as they did with him. Same deal for the Hokies and Green. VT is in last place with Green, and they would be the same without him.
Danica being on the pole doesn’t do much for me regarding Nascar. But, I did watch some of the Bud Shootout, or whatever it’s called now, and I do like the new Gen6 car look, a lot. It’s nice to see some recognizable features off the street cars the race cars are modeled after. The Fusion looks especially sharp and aggressive to me, actually. That alone might get me watching a couple races, just because the cars look like cars again, and the racing action was far more exciting than it has been.
UVA dropping a tough one at UNC doesn’t drop them from tourny consideration, in my mind. Road games are hard to win as it is…and a road loss to a good team isn’t a killer. Sure, a win would have boosted them a bunch, but the loss doesn’t hurt them. What will hurt them is losing 2 of the last 3 home games and the road games at BC and FSU. They need 4 more wins to feel good about their chances. They can afford to lose at Miami tomorrow, and to Duke on the 28th…but no more than those.
I think though, that UNC is probably safely in the tournament along with NC State at this point, with their weekend wins (not that NC State beating VT is anything helpful). But given their overall RPI and standing in the conference, plus the weak field, they’re in. UVA should be too.
The interesting team is Maryland. A solid home win over Duke and they’re in the mix. I think only 5 from the ACC make it, so it’s up to UNC, UVA, NC State, and Maryland to impress down the stretch. Maryland had by far the biggest win of the weekend from the ACC, and was in the worst position of teams with a legitimate chance at the NCAA’s. They also have the same problem as NC State: a weak schedule. But both Maryland and NC State play UNC, which is really their only remaining test. So, it will be interesting to watch the last couple weeks before conference tournaments begin.
To add to the discussion on Green…he might have more assists if his teammates actually could shoot worth a darn! But while he is clearly one of the best players in VT history (granted, they don;t exactly have a wealth of hoops talent to claim), he’s still only one of the top 5 or so players in the conference. I would have loved to see how this team could have done if the rest of the team actually kept producing. Would they be better than a 2-win team in the ACC? Absolutely. Would they be a top-5 team in the conference? Probably not. But they certainly wouldn’t be working toward a last-place finish. They’d probably have a decent shot at an NIT bit though, because there’s probably WVU, UNC, Maryland, and NC State that they beat with better contribution aside from Green. That would put them at 15-10 (5-7), and tied for 7th in the conference…and in decent shape to win 3 of the final 6, to finish 18-13 (8-10) which, would get them to the NIT with a player like Green on the roster.
#36 OJ, one correction – Erick Green is having one of the best seasons in Hokie basketball in terms of personal stats, but he is not one of the best players in VT history. One season for him doesn’t trump the 3-4 seasons of the real Hokie greats. Those guys did it for their whole careers, or at least every season after their first. Green posted two years of irrelevance, one average season, and this one great season. His freshman & soph seasons are remarkably similar to what we’ve seen from Marquis Rankin thus far.
That’s not to downplay this season, just to put it in proper context.
Zman | February 18, 2013 at 3:29 pm
I say Green is a first rounder and will do well in the NBA.
————————————-
Green would be eaten alive in the NBA and won’t be a first rounder. Book it.
Roll Tide!
CR, good point…I was thinking in perhaps a top-10 kind of range at VT, which he might barely eek into…but mainly because of this one season which stands out as one of the better seasons for any VT player that I can recall.
Top 10? Ayersman, Smith, Pardue, Combs, Bristow, Perry Young, Bimbo, Curry, Delaney….Green? Sure I left someone off who maybe should bump Green off who had only one great season, as OJ said, compared to 3 or 4 for the other guys. If he ends up leading the nation is coring, should Tech retire his jersey?
Nice list Ralph. I may bump off Perry Young and replace with Dale Solomon.
Somehow forgot about Soloman-he should be on there. PY might be my all time favorite Tech player so I might be kind of prejudice there. I was watching a spring football game and he walked by. Stuck out my hand and said I enjoyed watching him play. He said thank you as his hand wrapped around mine twice.
Ralph, glad to see you had Chris Smith, the epitome of a college player. Would start the season at 230# and end it at 190. An animal on the boards and around the basket, a nice guy and a cum laud student. He has since become a novelist. Saw him a while back and he is fighting the ravages of time as all of us are.
Nice article by Berman on Reggie Williams, who played for VMI a few years ago. Williams led the NCAA twice in scoring, had high rebounding and assist numbers for his team, yet never won his conference POY award. He was on a losing team both years. Also of interest is his NBA career. Good context.
http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/wb/320536
I doubt his jersey gets retired, but who knows…I’m not a hugely knowledgable person of VT hoops history, have they ever had a scoring leader on a national scale?
I had trouble posting yesterday, but as a huge Nascar fan, I want to offer some thoughts on Danica.
First, I think it’s great that she won a pole. I’ll echo everyone who said that it means nothing in the race, and she may not even have the lead heading out of turn 2 on Lap 1, let alone the trioval on lap 200. But more importantly, both Danica and Stenhouse offer some badly-needed “new blood” to NASCAR.
As NASCAR has lost its mojo over the past 6-7 years, many people want to blame it on the economy. Others say the racing is boring. While I’ll agree that the rise of the “cookie cutter” track has hurt things, the quality of the racing as a whole is actually much better than it’s ever been. The 2-wide restart rule, enacted about 5 years ago, has made tracks like Martinsville much more exciting (as Clint Bowyer’s ‘dive bomb’ on the last lap in 2012 proved), and the other rule modifications (lucky dog rule, wave-around rule, and green-white-checker finish) have made things much more competitive. Years ago, there were races where only a few cars would be left on the lead lap at the end of the race. That doesn’t happen anymore in Nascar. The best part of a NASCAR race is often the finish; compare that to a Formula 1 race, where the best part is often the start.
To me, the thing that has made NASCAR more boring has nothing to do with the product on the track. Simply put, the personalities have gotten stagnant and there has been too little turnover among drivers. When NASCAR was gaining popularity 10-12 years ago, we saw new groups of drivers entering the series each year. The “young guns” were more than just a Gilette commercial back then. They were brash, competitive, and often were not so “corporate”.
But then things got stale. Jimmy Johnson (Mr. Corporate) won too much. Dale Jr. didn’t win at all. And virtually NO new blood entered the series. Even this year, the Rookie of the Year battle is between only 2 drivers (Danica & Stenhouse). Fans have gotten bored with the same old group of guys on the track.
And much like basketball fans complain that the “AAU culture” has changed things in the NBA (so that rivals really don’t dislike each other anymore), the same thing has happened with NASCAR. It’s genuinely rare when you get the feeling that 2 drivers don’t like each other anymore, and when they act on it, the Corporate hand of NASCAR comes down hard on the “misbehaving” drivers so that they won’t do it again. Part of the blame is to ESPN and sports radio — if someone does something that isn’t politically correct, the non-NASCAR fans on sports radio blab on about it as if they have committed a huge Sin. But when NASCAR moves to clean that stuff up, they weaken their product to their fanbase. It’s a no-win situation.
So, getting back to Danica. She’s still a rookie. She likely won’t win a race this year, but she will be competitive on many of the tracks. She drives a Hendrick engine and has a top-tier team behind her. Heck, if Hendrick can make Dale Jr. competitive, they can make her competitive. But she’s not going to make the chase or anything like that. But in any event, she’s someone different to talk about, and this sport needs new blood.
#48 RP, I’ll add one other factor to the decline of NASCAR popularity – money. The France family et.al. went to the well too hard, and have essentially chased away their core customer base. Ticket prices are far too high, as well as the whole souvenir & ‘weekend experience’ deal. It costs an arm & leg to go for a race weekend now, and when you can enjoy it at home on a big screen, that’s hard to resist. The raceday experience is what makes it so great, but when that experience is so overpriced as to be out of one’s comfort level? People stop going.
One other factor is the ESPN-like obsession with only a handful of drivers. Basically, the top ten plus Dale Jr are the only ones shown during the televised racing. If you don’t like one of those guys, you can forget about following your driver on TV. Now, Danica can be added to the list with Dale Jr, regardless of where they finish.
I imagine the 500 will get high ratings, because of DP getting the pole. You can be sure the ratings will then drop and excluding the 500, be down from last year.
#49 CR – I agree with you, but I still get to 2-4 races per year, weather permitting. The difference now is that I never buy tickets ahead of time; there’s never a doubt that tickets will be available at (usually below) face value from someone at the track.
I think you’ve hit on something with the media’s obsession with a handful of drivers. Price doesn’t drive people away from NASCAR on television, but boredom sure does. Even when they get a somewhat tantalizing story (the Danica/Stenhouse relationship being the most recent), they spend 95 % of their time talking about that single story, to the point where we’re sick of it very quickly. I don’t think most of the racing media has a clue on what most fans actually want in coverage, but it may be due to (a) too much coverage nowadays, and (b) the fact that the same 10-15 reporters handle 98% of the coverage —– no reporter wants to risk a relationship with a driver, and nobody has a fresh take on things.