Tuesday: Green flag on honesty
EXCELLENT COLUMN TODAY BY JENNA FRYER OF THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on the Denny Hamlin fine, which you can read here. I think it expresses what many of us have been saying about the message the fine sent. Here’s how it begins:
What a great NASCAR race that was at Las Vegas! The new Gen-6 car sure put on an amazing show, one for the ages, for sure.
That’s the kind of effusive praise we should expect to hear from drivers the rest of the year, right?
Anything short of that could lead to another shut-up-and-drive fine like the one levied last week against Denny Hamlin, who was popped for $25,000 for having the audacity to give an honest answer when asked to assess NASCAR’s new car after its second race.
BINGO. WHY EVEN BOTHER ASKING ANYBODY ANYTHING if they’re not allowed to answer honestly? If I’m a NASCAR reporter, I’m not printing a single word anybody says about how great the new car is, because drivers have effectively been muzzled — regardless of whether Hamlin winds up having to pay his fine or not. And if I’m a NASCAR fan, I’m not believing any praise I hear for the car, either. Nice job, NASCAR.
WHICH BRINGS US TO VIRGINIA TECH’S ERICK GREEN, who we’ve talked about all year and you guys discussed at length yesterday. After making first team All-ACC yesterday, Green told reporters this about the prospect of winning ACC player of the year today:
“I’ve always heard they won’t give it to me because I’m in last place, but I think it’s called player of the year. I hope I get it. I think it’d be a well-deserved thing for me to get it, but I think people look at winning. And there’s nothing wrong with that.”
Pretty honest assessment, no? There are some other quotes in Berman’s story that could be construed as a little on the cocky side, but I loved them. He’s candidly making a case for himself. It sure beats the standard “I only care about the team; individual awards mean nothing” stance many athletes feel they must take to avoid criticism, even if we know they don’t mean it (for what it’s worth, I think Green cared deeply about the team’s performance this year).
ANYWAY, I VOTED FOR HIM, and I know several others (Berman included) who did, too. I figure Shane Larkin and Mason Plumlee will split votes from voters who believe a winning team must be part of the award recipient’s resume, but I guess we’ll find out today.
AROUND THE HORN
-Doug has a UVa basketball notebook that explores the team’s burgeoning ability to block shots.
-Michael Vick has to cancel his book-signing tour after receiving threats of violence from people angry about his dog-fighting past. Protesting violence against dogs by promising violence against humans; wow, that’s not hypocritical at all.
-Sports Illustrated reports that Notre Dame is will join the ACC next year, with the Big East taking a vote on the issue and making an announcement this morning.
-Ex-Hokie DeAngelo Hall offers to restructure his deal to help the Redskins get under the salary cap, but the team opts to release him instead.
-Gio Gonzalez will get the ball tonight as the U.S. opens second round play of the World Baseball Classic against Puerto Rico (8 p.m., MLB Network).
-The Northeast Conference (7 p.m., ESPN2) and the Horizon League (9 p.m., ESPN) will crown champions today. Also, the Big East tournament opens in New York.
NAME THAT TUNE
-Forgot to credit Desert Hokie for nailing yesterday’s (Spies Like Us, Paul McCartney). Nicely done. Here’s today’s:
The main attraction, distraction
Got ya number than number than numb
Empty ya pockets son, they got you thinkin’ that
What ya need is what they sellin’
Make you think that buyin’ is rebellin’
From the theaters to malls on every shore
The thin line between entertainment and war…
March 12, 2013 - 8:34 AM
The protests of Vick remind me of practically any modern-day protest…it almost always involves some sort of action detrimental to the message or that is completely hypocritical. The environmental and animal rights groups are the worst…often bringing about physical damage and harm to the environment and animals to make a point. Real classy.
Indeed that was a great article about the Gen6 car. I like the looks of the new car…the cars look much more similar to the production models, rather than a generic car with stickers replicating certain vehicle elements. The CoT was terrible in every regard. Over time, I hope they can refine the new Gen6 cars to be better, and they should. But it is true that the hypersensistivity of Nascar is off-putting. They keep trying to control the brand too much and whitewash the image of the sport into something that disconnects itself from its roots…and that goes to the heart of why I don’t follow it like I once did. I watched a lot of the Speedweeks at Daytona, some of Phoenix, and none of Vegas. The weather is warmer, and I’ve got too many competing interests on a Sunday now to sit and watch a race.
If anything, I think the fact that Erick played on such a “non-supporting” team should indicate how dominant he was. When you play a teams like UNC & Duke, you’re not going to be able do any double-teaming, but every team tried to double team Erick, and his worse games (scoring wise) would have been considered good games for other players in the league. When a player from a major conference leads the nation in scoring for the first time in 19 years,and is in the top 8 in every major category, if he doesn’t win POY, it speaks volumes of the media bias for that conference.
And I believe that’s No Shelter, Rage Against the Machine. Always good for the standard rotation on Pandora.
Congrats to JMU for winning the CAA tournament & making the big dance.
It’s actually pretty cool to think that JMU, Liberty, and VCU are all in the tournament, and that’s still with the possibility of a UVA bid. That’s a lot of state representation right there. Also, JMU had a guy on their team named “Andre Nation”… Am I the only one that thinks that is a pretty sweet name?
On the Tech side, as much as I hate to say it and it shouldn’t be, it’s unlikely that Green will get the nod as ACC POY. Does he deserve it? Oh yes, he’s twice the player Larkin is. Look at with what the guy is surrounded with! But once again, if you don’t win then no one notices individual play because no matter how good your play is, it’s not good enough to win. That is a crime.
I actually saw last night somewhere that even Green wasn’t a unanimous first team selection. In fact, Plumlee was the leading vote getter on that ballot. How is that even possible? Some of the NC writers clearly vote for their players and do not pay attention to actual talent. Unreal.
Michael Vick paid his due to society according to the laws of the land that were applied to his case, so people should accept that and move on with life.
Let him live his life, and the protesters live their small lives, if they have one.
Jesus said let the person without sin cast the first stone.
Funny how our country is all about second chance and the animal right folks don’t get it. Vick paid the price for it. He acknowledged that repeatedly and have been working hard to atone for his crime, and the animal rights people just won’t let it go. They are the worse. They pretend to have standard but when presented with fact, they get hysterical and get worked into the same witch-hunting frenzy that made Salem famous.
Amac, I like brutal honesty, even if it makes peos hem and haw about it. Those are the stuff that gets the old brains cells fired up and start thinking- rationally or irrationally, depending on the make up of a person’s personality.
I’m glad you linked that column, AMc. I read it yesterday and was a little disappointed that it was really the first column I’d seen where the author exhibited no fear of the NASCAR overlords.
Denny Hamlin did nothing wrong. ‘Boys have at it, but don’t talk about it’ wasn’t the phrase uttered back when NASCAR was desperate to repair ratings. Oh, that’s right, three years later, and they’re still desperate. That’s what happens when you squeeze the character out of a sport and only produce commercially driven robots. Right, Jeff Gordon & Jimmie Johnson?
The worst part of this is – for those who follow NASCAR without becoming lemmings to it, we all know what will happen. For the next few years, Hamlin will not catch a break during inspections or ‘timely’ cautions no matter whether he pays the $25K fine or not.
Denny Hamlin dared to speak against the Great Oz, and the France family never forgets it when one of their field workers bows their back. he’ll be slapped down, and all the NASCAR mouthpieces will look the other way while it happens. In many ways, it really is like WWE fantasy wrasslin’.
Since we are talking about honesty, I will say that I have no problem with what Erick Green said in his interview. He was telling the truth. I also have no problem with what he has said in his post game interviews this season. He was only telling the truth. I couldn’t even imagine his frustration this season, as goal oriented as he is, to give it your all and the team losing like it has this season. Whether it has been poor coaching or poor playing from his teammates that has caused them to lose you can’t fault Green’s efforts.
Speaking of “wrassling,” I remember going to a gym to do some weight training, and there was a ring in the back of the gym where semi-pro and amateur wrasslers were practicing their moves. They all were in collusion with one another in what moves they will make, and how it’s going to go about. I mean, folks really think that WWE is real wrestling, but if they want to see real wrestling, they should visit local high schools and watch. Oh right, folks prefer to be enterained and would cheer lustily at the theaterics of wrassling.
It’s the same with NASCAR. I, for one, don’t think it is real racing at all. If they wanted to do a real race, why not do it like the Tour de France? Hmm?
If NASCAR want a real race, then why not make it a regional race where they have to go from city A to city B and then to city C instead of running around in the same track for three mind-numbing hours?
If Notre Dame football will start playing five ACC teams a season starting in 2014, what does that do to the schedules and opponents the ACC schools have already set? Are the league and the Irish going to announce a five team rotation far enough in advance to allow the schools to adjust their schedules without having to scramble at the last minute?
Nascar has worked a bit too hard to homogenize their product and make it corporate-friendly. In essence, in trying to increase its appeal, they removed a lot of what made it popular to begin with. They have removed some unique and historic tracks from the circuit and replaced them with cookie-cutter D-ovals. They penalize the outspoken and rowdy drivers, yet have that whole laughable ‘Have at it’ mantra. They foist generic car templates into the sport, and then scramble to change things when manufacturers threaten to leave the sport (Chevy’s response to the CoT).
The best racing action takes place at local tracks, where the drivers and crews are people that you live next to, who tinker in their garages in their spare time and suit up on the weekends because they love to race. The equipment isn’t, the teams aren’t equal, and the driver talent levels aren’t equal…but for the most part, the drive and desire to win is.
And that’s what has been lost. Too many teams are focused on presenting a positive corporate-friendly image to the sponsors. They focus on running a clean race, recording solid finishes but not taking risks to win races. Others focus simply on running enough to get some money to fund other ventures or teams. Quite a few are simply happy to stay near the top and make the Chase, then start trying to win after almost 3/4 of the season is gone. It’s just not the sport I grew up watching, and despite occasional efforts to get back into it, I just can’t.
I am amazed. I just read some of the comments from yesterday, and either some of these guys did not watch Erick Green much, or are just blind. I saw a guy who tried to share the ball, (I believe he averaged about 16 shots a game), and who always encouraged his teammates when they made a good play (few and far between). This is a guy who is in the top ten in many categories in the ACC, and who could have possibly led the league in assists, if anybody else on this team was a consistent shooter. A guard who averages over 4 RPG, are you kidding me? To me, this is the most telling statistic of how hard and unshelfishly he plays. He is not running out trying to cherry pick baskets. He is doing whatever it takes. Other John and Crooked Road must have never played this game, because stas almost never tell the whole story. In this case, they most certainly do not.
While I agree with EG regarding the consistent lack of effort shown by this team, I agree that should be addressed behind closed doors. Although, I do not believe EG “threw anybody under the bus” who did not deserve to be called out in some fashion.
This guy is one of the best players in the country, and deserves every consideration for ACC Player of Year without a shred of doubt. It is not the best player on the best team. It is the best player in the conference. Any way you slice it, he is right there. I would take this guy on my team anytime, anywhere.
Notre Dame to join the ACC effective July 1. Notre Dame basketball will play home-and-home ACC games against Boston College and Georgia Tech along with two other ACC schools to be determined. Notre Dame also will play one game each against the league’s remaining 10 members.
#12 89H, Notre Dame is not joining the ACC football schedule next season. They are joining the ACC basketball schedule. I didn’t listen to the press conference, but I would imagine they will join all sports except football, when they’ll join in 2014. As you questioned, it’s too late to reschedule the football for 2013.
With Notre Dame in the ACC’s fold, I think John Swofford should be working the NBC studio to make a deal to have some ACC football games broadcasted, and making it attractive to Notre Dame to give up football independence. Am I smoking? No. I don’t do drugs.
In fact, I think the ACC should make a partnership with CBS, NBC, ABC, and the subaffilitates so they can have a spread of ACC games instead of catering to ESPN’s every whim! I have stopped using ESPN’s channels because of the constant blackout rules of theirs and found some ways to watch games without using ESPN. Take that you evil empire!
Good for Denny and Erick. Some other honest answers I`d like to hear. “Coach, how do you see the match up next week?” “We`ll beat `em. They aren`t coached worth a damn. I can`t believe they`ve won 8 games this year.” “Coach, how about those fans today?” “They were great today but they are front runners. If we lose next week They`ll want to run me out of town.” “What happened with you and the 42?” “He wrecked me and I`m gonna` put him in the wall next week. That ain`t just racin`.” “Coach, how do you pull out a victory in the 2nd half?” “We have to score more points then they do.” Mr. Weaver, what direction do you see do you see the basketball programs going.” “They have no choice but to go up.”
“We’ll be taking the rest of the season in clusters of three, and here are the teams we will beat without even really trying …”
“It isn’t what it is.”
Or – ‘We were IN whack all day’,
Or even – ‘They weren’t really flying around out there, those guys were really slow and small.’,
Or perhaps – ‘ That Western… Eastern… Southern… Uhh… I don’t even remember who we played. Just as long as it wasn’t JMU, we knew we’d win.’
And the #1 thing you’ll never ever hear – ‘Three or four blocks wouldn’t have won us the game out there today. They would have whipped us no matter what we tried…’
The really great news about Notre Dame coming in next season is that our basketball team has at least a 50% chance of finishing in the top 15 in the ACC. Of course, all bets are off in 2014. We might drop down a slot.
Today was a bunch of great posts by Trevor. Gotta hand it to you. You hit all 3 on the head…NASCAR=boring…..till last 5 laps. The WWF is nothing like when Tommy Rich and Ric Flair went at it. And ND comming to ACC early is great-Might even help us recruit that any for players they shun.
cr – I noted the 2014 date in my post. But a lot of the schools already have full slates for some of the out-years…are they going to have to scramble? Virginia already has four non-conference games for 2014 and 2017…Tech for 2014 and 2016. I assume there has been (or will be) some coordination?
“Boy, Ron Cherry is a terffic referee today, making all the right call,” Said no one ever.
“It wasn’t the band fault that we false started. We had a miscommunication between the band director and the head coach,” Beamer said after the false start that doomed a promising drive in the loss to Clemson.
“That kid you are talking to right there?! He was beaten all day! He did not leave his nuts on the field, and it was all I had to do to keep myself from ripping them off!” Foster ranting after reporters wondered why Exum had a horrible day in the loss to Cincinnati.
“Upon further review, the call stands as confirmed, the wide receiver maintained possession of the ball, and it is touchdown, Hokies,” The head referee reported, confirming that Danny Coale did catch that ball.
“I’m going up to Avon and apologize to Greenberg. I made the terrible mistake in firing Greenberg. I’ll give him twice his salary if he comes back and give him all the leeway and money he needs to hire the best assistant coaches,” Weaver said during a press conference at the conclusion of the ACC tournament. “And better yet, I’ll retire at the end of the week.”
Erick Green, POY in ACC. I guess most writers agreed with my earlier post. Good for them.
Green player of the year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go Hokies!
Here’s the release on Green:
LEWISVILLE, NC (ACSMA) – Virginia Tech’s Erick Green (25.4 ppg), who led the ACC in scoring by a wide margin, has been named the ACC’s Player of the Year, in voting by the Atlantic Coast Sports Media Association.
Green received 38 of the 76 votes cast to easily outdistance runner-up Shane Larkin of Miami (23 votes). He joins the late Len Bias, as the only players to be named the ACC Player of the Year from a team with a losing ACC record.
Virginia Tech head coach James Johnson said, “I am extremely proud of Erick. This is an honor that is well deserved.”
Green has scored in double figures in a league-best 34 straight games and is bidding to become the first ACC player since South Carolina’s Grady Wallace (31.2) in 1956-57 to lead the nation in scoring.
Johnson added, “This young man has put in numerous hours and has relentlessly worked on his game to put himself in this position. To have the respect of the media and for people to recognize what he has done for this team, in such a tough conference against very good players and very good coaches, says a lot about Erick as a player. Erick is a great kid on and off the floor and the award couldn’t come to a better person.”
Duke’s Mason Plumlee finished third in the voting (12 votes), while Virginia’s Joe Harris received two votes, and Florida State’s Michael Snaer received one vote each.
White smoke is rising. Have the Cardinals reached a decision? Nah, that`s just for an announcement that Notre Dame is joining the ACC for the 2013-2014 season.
I see you guys all talking about Notre Dame, the Big East, and Erik Green. I’m not sure where you guys are getting this information from. I’m watching ESPN and they have all cameras covering the breaking news of a trade in the NFL. Something about a guy with headaches going to play for a pain in the but coach and a superbowl loser hiring a superbowl winner so he can show them what the ring looks like.
Best quote I ever heard from a coach goes back to my high school years. We had just beaten one of the local teams 42 – 0 and the RT asked the losing coach about the differences in the teams. He said, “Take away their 7 or 8 best plays and we’re just as good as they are.” Ya think!!
Congrats to Erick Green – he earned it. And it’s nice to see a non-All Carolina Conference player win one.
30 – a friend of mine, a VMI grad from the mid-’60s (I think) told me about a game in which, for some reason known only to God, the Keydets were playing Georgia. Predictably down big at the half, the coach was trying to rally his troops.
.
“Come on guys, they put their pants on one leg at a time, same as you do.”
.
“Yeah, but Coach, they’re size 48 pants!”
.
Don’t know if it’s true, or original, but it made me laugh.
Congrats to Green, well deserved. NASCARS problem came when they pushed to make racing equal and fair. What they got was inability to pass and boring. I root for Mark Martin, when he retires I probably will to. The only drivers now that will win are the ones whose crew chiefs can manipulate the specs (cheat) on a consistent basis. I had a cousin who was prominent in the current Nationwide circuit and it is amazing the little tricks they can come up with to get a few extra MPH’s out of the car.
# 11 Trevor – there are a few road rallies out there (Paris-to-Dakar, Baja) where racers get from Point A to Point B, but they’re wildly dangerous — you’re not on a closed circuit and are sharing the roads with the common folk. They’re also virtually impossible to televise.
I didn’t think it would happen, but am very happy for Erick Green.
McFarling, Berman – you boys did good!
Tom L, racing for me lost a bunch of appeal following the death of Dale Earnhardt. I grew up watching him and loved his hard racing style and aggressiveness. There’s just not a lot of drivers willing to push the envelope that last bit to the edge…and like your thoughts on equalizing the cars, I’m just not sure that’s even physically possible with the setups they have. Part of what made the sport great was the crews bending and tweaking things to squeeze more out of the cars…but by creating such a rigid set of standard specs to begin from, there’s only so much wiggle room allowable which keeps the cars very closely confined in terms of performance outputs.
I really like the format for the World of Outlaws…the combination of heat races, awarded points for a top-5 qualifying time, etc make it imperitive to race in competitive fashion to make the main event…and reward drivers who run hard to finish well, so they can actually make the main. It’s probably not practical for Nascar, but it is entertaining to watch.
They do something similar in the Taco Bell 300 (or whatever it’s called now) at Martinsville for Late Model. Qualifying sets the top 22 spots in the field. Then there are 4 heat races in which the top-5 finishers advance to the main event. The driver I worked for had to make the race through the Heat C race, and was in line to make it by running 3rd, when he got passed both high and low entering turn 1, getting pinched by the guy to the top, ripping the nose piece of his car clean off. He wound up losing several spots as a result, and didn’t make the field.
Hokies540, I can top that quote.
One year, back in ’80′s or some time around then, the LA Dodgers had pulled one of off season ‘load ups’ on free agents and trades, spent a pile of money to stock the team.
In the first game of the season, they got beat, and some reporter, I would assume from LA, got all over Tommy Lasorda about the loss and the talent they had and asked him what the result of the first game of the season meant to him.
‘That just means we’re not going 162-0′ or something to that effect.
Just heard that DeAngelo Hall have signed with the Lions. They cut several veteran players and added one more diva to the defense already filled with a big diva.
89Hoo, Heard a similar story back in the 60′s. Some college team was getting ready to play UCLA, then lead by Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar). The coach said, “they pull their pants on one leg at a time”. Someone piped up and said, “Yeah, but they have one guy who pulls his up two feet farther than everyone else.” In those days some teams would practice with tennis rackets so shooters could get used to shooting over Alcindor.
I also remember when John McKay, coach of the awful Tampa Bay Buccaneers back in the 1970s, when asked what he thought of his team’s execution, said that he was for it.
Way to go Erick, congratulations.
While we’re talking stories, I remember an old SI article where the dimuative interviewer had asked Hakeem Olajuwan (how do you spell that guy’s name?) if there were any sport he wasn’t good at, and he said yes, he couldn’t swim. The interviewer expressed happiness at being better than him at a sport, and his reply was, “Yes, but I can wade out a lot further than you can.”
Any of you guys eating crow today over Erick’s honor? In my experience, it tastes ok, but it’s darned tough to chew.
OJ, our cousin and Dale were close friends. Hunted together, hung out together, raced each other until Dale wanted our cousins late model number(it was 3) to go with his Winston Cup number. Cousin said no problem, when I’m finished with it it’s yours. Dale went to NASCAR and guess who got the number. Relations were strained after that. Cousin was cut from same cloth as Dale, personable, hard give no quarter racer but stayed that way. After setting the speed record at Daytona for what is now the Nationwide cars he was leading the race and was intentionally put in the wall. He finished 7th I think and the racer who put him in the wall won. As they were interviewing him on TV the cousin walked up and cold cocked him in front of the camera, knocked him out and walked off. We figure that’s why NASCAR didn’t move him up. You’ve probably been around him if you’ve participated in the local racing scene. He was 6’4″, about 225#.
I agree Eric didn’t handle post game interviews very well – his comments did not help his team. Still excited for his win.
Congratulations to Erick Green!
Way to go EG!! You deserve it and a back rubdown for carrying your team for all season!!
Glad no one will see this because of the time and I will get crucified for it but here goes…………….. You know who is just as good if not better than ole ironhead? KYLE BUSCH !! He does things in and with a racecar no one else can do. The competition is a lot tougher know(although not as bad as when Petty was winning) than it was in #3′s day. Couple that with the fact Rowdy gets watched closer than ANYONE else in nascar whereas #3 pretty much could spin anyone whenever he wanted to( watch the Hendrick doc. on speed to see how many time he spun Bodine). Now I didnt dislike #3 so don’t think I’m a hater,personally and in time I think we will all agree that Kyle is the best out there. Too bad they did away with the IROC races so he could prove it!!! Have at it boys !