The Journey Not the Destination

Savor the journey, not the destination. But what if you never reach the destination?
That is the question plaguing me as Syracuse embarks on a legacy-defining NCAA tournament.
By almost all accounts this is the best regular season in Syracuse history. 30 wins before the conference tournament (that tied a record, even when you include postseason games), a .968 winning percentage, the longest run at #1, it's been a remarkable year.
And they way they've done it has been even more spectacular. First there have been the on the court challenges. The team lacks a singular star, a go-to player. But that has been part of the joy, watching a different player emerge every night. It wasn't just Kris Joseph and Scoop Jardine. Some days it was Dion Waiters or Brandon Triche and even CJ Fair emerged as a go-to scorer. And on those rare occasions when Fab Melo was dominating a game on defense (Seton Hall) it was thrilling to watch how far he had come in only one year.

Early in the season Syracuse was blowing everyone out, which is a lot of fun if you are a fan, no worries at all, just enjoy the show. Then they got into a rhythm where they would start slow, and go on huge runs (NC State, South Florida, Marquette) and then coast to victory. Other times the coasting didn't quite go as well, and SU ended up in some nail-biters (Georgetown, Louisville, UConn). But maybe those were the most impressive, when they were able to get a defensive stop they absolutely needed, or nail a big 3 to answer an opponents run despite shooting only 1 of 15 from downtown to that point (just an example).
Maybe in 30 years I'll only remember that, the wins, the teamwork, the camaraderie and I'll forget all the other stuff.
Maybe I'll forget that this season began under the cloud of a potentially horrific child molestation scandal that cost longtime assistant Bernie Fine his job. Maybe I'll remember that the only loss came when Fab Melo was not playing, but I won't dwell on the fact that he missed 3 games for academic issues. And maybe this new scandal emerging now (players failing drug tests and not being disciplined according to University guideline) won't amount to anything. Maybe it will be huge and rock the program to its core.
Surely none of that will matter when I look back in 30 years at the greatest regular season in school history if it leads to a national title, but...


What if the Orange don't win the national title? They happen to be having the greatest regular season in school history at the same time when Kentucky is equally as good if not better (their one loss came by one point on a last second shot). What if SU plays 5 great games and matches up against a more talent Kentucky team in the final game (again) and loses (again)? What if SU plays North Carolina in the Final Four and for the first time in school history loses a national semifinal (we're 3 and oh, dontcha know)?
Would those be disappointments, but acceptable ones?
What if SU faces a spunky Wichita State team in the Sweet 16 and gets shocked by the Shockers? It would be the third straight year getting knocked out by major upset. And what if God forbid (pooh pooh pooh) Syracuse became the first one seed to lose to a 16 seed in the first round?
Would that ruin all the great things this team has accomplished?
I don't know the answers to these questions I've posed and I hope I never need to find out.

Results-Oriented

There's a saying in poker, and it applies to all areas of life, it's called being "results-oriented."
It means that you judge decisions solely (or heavily) based upon how they work out. This is a very foolish thing to do in poker and in life as well. Results are based on so many other things that happen after your decision, you can only evaluate your decision based on the information you have at the time.
Right now the Redskins know that they have been starved for years for a franchise quarterback. Peyton Manning is 36, of questionable health and very expensive. Ryan Tannehill of Texas A&M (who the Redskins likley could have gotten if they kept the 6th pick) is far from a sure thing.
Robert Griffin III is fast, strong-armed, fearless and tons of fun to watch.



The Redskins did what they needed to do to get him.
Now let's get back to being results-oriented. Did the Redskins give up too much for him? Maybe. But NFL teams have a chart where points are assigned to each pick in the draft and if you want to acquire one pick, you have to come up with a combination of picks of greater value. The Redskins also faced a climate where several other teams, including Cleveland were likely to be aggressive in going after that number 2 pick.
Unlike poker, where you get thousands of trials for each decisions to smooth out variance, the NFL stands for Not For Long when you are the coach or GM of a losing team. And unlike poker where once you put your chips in you can't affect the cards, in the NFL you can do things after the decision is made to make the decision look better.
The Redskins can coach RG3, they can acquire good lineman and good receivers to assist him. They can create a game plan to help him develop. If they do those things right, this trade will look great 10 years down the road, no matter how many picks they forfeited.
But if he turns out to be a bust, then this is a bad trade, no matter how many picks the critics thought they should have given up.
But sitting here today, I think it is a great trade. It is a bold aggressive move to remake the franchise into a contender for years to come. And I defy anyone, right now, to tell me the Redskins chances for future success are better with 4 nebulous draft picks over the next 3 years, than they are with one Robert Griffin III.

Song of the Week

"Remedy" - Tarralyn Ramsey
Another song I have searched for years to find on youtube and it finally popped up. Tarralyn Ramsey is a wonderful gospel singer but this song doesn't seem to have any references to God in it. Though I am often confused if the singer is singing about Jesus, or a cute boy down the street.

Mutiny on the SS Bounty

The New Orleans Saints have been accused by the NFL of having a bounty system in place. They had a pool of $50,000 and payoffs were made for inflicting game-ending injuries on targeted players, including Brett Favre and Kurt Warner. "Knockouts," in which a player was knocked out of the game, were worth $1,500 and "cart-offs," in which players had to be helped off the field, were worth $1,000. Payments doubled or tripled for the playoffs.
Gregg Williams has admitted to running the ring and he may have been doing it in previous jobs with the Redskins and Bills as well.
Here’s why this is a big deal:
Player safety is an important issue for the NFL. The league can’t say it is serious about protecting its players if it allows teams to maintain a program offering incentives to seriously injure opposing players. And the players look very hypocritical here. They want lifetime unlimited health care, but they also want to be able to go out and there and kill and maim each other. And complain about any changes designed to make the game safer. The league admittedly is serving two masters trying to profit from the violence inherent in the game while also trying to make changes to protect the players.
Here’s why this is not such a big deal:
I doubt it had any appreciable impact on the way the players played the game. They will always play the game aggressively; they will always hit the quarterback and hit him hard. But it would be foolish to risk a 15-yard penalty and a huge fine to blatantly try to injure someone in order to pick up a $1500 bounty. The goal is just to create an aggressive attitude, to demonstrate how important it is to be physical. I don’t think anyone really did want to serious injure another player.
But it does set a dangerous precedent. Say Brett Favre or Kurt Warner suffered a serious career-ending and life-alerting injury. And then it came out that a player was paid to deliver such a blow. Wouldn’t the team and the league be on the hook for a huge amount of money?
And the worst part of all of this is that the Saints were warned. Tom Benson told GM Mickey Loomis to stop this practice and presumably the news was spread throughout the organization, and then ignored.
I expect a season-long ban for Williams, 8 games for Sean Payton and a million dollar fine plus the loss of a 1st round draft pick for the organization.
The question that keeps popping up is whether Bounty-gate is worse than Spy-gate. I can’t pick one. Spy-gate is worse for the integrity of the league because competition was affected. But on a moral level it’s a lot worse to purposely try to injure someone than it is to cheat at a game.

I Don't Want Scoop to Leave Either

A young fan crying because he doesn't want his favorite player Scoop Jardine to graduate



The young fan encapsulates one half of the Syracuse fan base. The half that loves our scrappy point guard and chants his name (they're not booing they're saying Scoop) after a big play.

But there is another group, that thinks Scoop is poop. And not the good kind. Jardine has become one of the most controversial players in Syracuse history.

I think a lot of the hatred for Scoop arose during a tough stretch last season. After an 18-0 start the team lost 4 in a row. Because Scoop played poorly, particularly at the end of those games, he was accused of point-shaving. The Scoop haters believed this and have hated him ever since.

The more fair-minded among us have noticed that Scoop has been on the only 2 Syracuse teams in the last 30 years to get a 1-seed in the tournament. Sherman Douglas, Pearl Washington and certainly not Gerry McNamara were the never point guards on a top-seeded Syracuse team. Scoop Jardine was, twice.

Jardine makes some bad plays, all college players do. But the fact is, in the past three seasons, he has never an assist-to-turnover ratio below 2. Scoop takes some bad shots, they all do. But this season his FG% is up to 48%, and not coincidentally he is taking 2 fewer 3-point attempts per game.

Jardine is a good not great player. He makes bad passes, he takes bad shots, he shoots poorly from the line (49% this year, down from 83% as a freshman) and he doesn't play aggressive defense.

But he has been a major player, the point guard, on the best three-year stretch in school history. He has helped restore SU to national prominence. And he makes little kids cry.

That's Why They Say Please Remove Your Caps

Brian McKnight and his two sons were about to sing the National Anthem at a NASCAR race this weekend when one of his sons got a friendly reminder from someone in the crowd.



Almost as noteworthy as someone screaming "take that shit off your head" was the fact that one of these kids goes by the name Broken Robot BJ.

Let the Jews Play

The good boychiks at the Robert M Beren Academy in Houston made the semifinals of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools, but almost didn’t get to play in the game.
Because it was scheduled for 9pm on a Friday, and the Orthodox Jewish players wouldn’t play on Shabbos.
The assholes at TAPPS refused to reschedule the game to accommodate the poor Jews. They said that all schools joining the conference accept that Sunday is the official day of worship. Earleri in the playoffs, schools did alter schedules so the Jews didn’t have to choose between the game and their religion.
Former Knicks Jeff Van Gundy, called TAPPS officials to advocate for the Jews.
“I called because when you’re the head of an association like this, the only thing you should worry about is doing right by the kids,” Van Gundy said. “This decision has nothing to do with the kids. I feel like they made a mistake and they don’t have a vice president of common sense who will tell them that this is silly and it’s O.K. to change your mind.”
Well, they still have changed their minds but they got overruled. Beren got an injunction and rather than fight it TAPPS agreed to move to game to before Shabbos.
I like rules as much as the next guy, but sticking to them blindly, just because they’re rules, is usually the wrong thing to do. Especially when kids are involved. These kids did nothing wrong and they deserve their chance to play for the State title. I’m glad they’re getting it.

Song of the Week

"Very Special" - Debra Laws and Ronnie Laws
You know I love a male/female duet, even when the lyrics don't make sense.
"You need me and I need you
Love and us is very special"
What the fuck? It's even weirder because Ronnie and Debra Laws are not a married couple, they're brother and sister, collaborating on a love song.

Clever Marketing

They may not have written a good script for “Cars 2” but they certainly knew how to cash in on it. In the theater while watching that scene, Mrs. Poop and I immediately knew that each one of Mater’s clever disguises would be made into a toy car. And sure enough, on a recent trip to the Disney Store Mama Poop and I saw the various Maters on sale, 2 for $10.

We got him Vampire Mater since Mrs. Poop loves “Twilight”



And Taco Truck Mater since I like tacos



We both thought Materhosen was cute, but Mama Poop refuses to buy a German car.

At Home...Shooting Free Throws

We knew someone was going to come up with a Jeremy Lin tribute song to the tune of "Jeremy" by Pearl Jam.
The clever writers at "Late Night" came up with this gem and it was beautifully performed by Jimmy Fallon.

3000 Words

The Montreal Canadiens wore #8 Gary Carter jerseys during warm-ups to salute the former Expos catcher



A clever Star Wars-inspired picture that literally tells an entire story without a single word



These three Ole Miss teammates should not sit next to each other

Unintelligent Design

Your brain is protected by your skull.
Your heart is protected by your breastbone.
Your lungs are protected by your ribs.
And your testicles are just hanging there.

Song of the Week

"We're In This Love Together" - Al Jarreau
I know this isn't jazz to hardcore jazz aficianados, but I do love the smooth, jazzy sound. And the inflection in his voice.

Lin Can Last

I’ve been accused of pouring water on Lin-Sanity because of my post last week pointing out holes in Jeremy Lin’s game that could eventually lead to the deflation of the Lin bubble. While that wasn’t my intent (as always, it was to provide fair and balanced, hype-free analysis), I understand how it came off and want to now assert my true feelings about Lin-sanity:

I FUCKIN LOVE IT

It’s been at 10 years since I’ve been this excited about the Knicks. As I’ve gotten older and married and had kids, I have sacrificed the Knicks. There have been some years where I barely even watch Knicks games. But since Jeremy Lin has emerged the Knicks have become my favorite team. I have seen almost every game in its entirety. That’s doesn’t make me a front-runner since I’ve kind of been there all along.

As the Knicks have lost 2 of their last 3 games some people are now expecting the Lin Train to fall off the tracks, but I’m not among them. Here’s why:

Lin is smart. He knows how to play the game. As he gains more experience he will better be able to differentiate the chances he should take and those he shouldn’t.

Which leads me to turnovers, which many people feel will be his undoing, I don’t.
His turnover rate is high, but not unreasonably so, lower than Steve Nash and Rajon Rondo. And his usage rate is high, higher than most point guards who dribble upcourt, pass the ball and get out of the way. Given his involvement in the offense, his rate of turnovers, while problematic, is not fatal.

Also, Lin gives away fewer possessions with bad shots than most guards do. He’s basically shooting 50% from the field. And here’s my favorite thing about him, his judicious use of the three-pointer. He knows it’s not a strength, so he only shoots when he’s open. And he’s made 11 of 24 in the past 7 games.



This is the perfect system for him. D’Antoni needs a dynamic point guard to run his offense and Lin is it.

He has good running mates. Both Stoudemire and Anthony are good mid-range jump shooters who can play pick and pop with him. Chandler and Fields are unselfish players who don’t need the ball to be able to contribute.

For all these reasons I am hopeful Jeremy Lin will have a long and successful career as the Knicks point guard.

I’m not yet optimistic enough to predict a championship, but don’t accuse me of being a killjoy, because like I said earlier, I FUCKIN LOVE LINSANITY!

Welcome to Heaven, Gary Carter

One of my favorite memories of childhood with Master Bates.



It's a shame no one has put that home run with the TV call up on youtube because Steve Zabriskie punctuated it beautifully with, "Welcome to New York, Gary Carter."

Gary Carter, a true class act through and through.
The 86 Mets are obviously my favorite team of all-time and Carter was an integral part of that team. He got up with 2 outs in the 10th down 2 runs and started the Game 6 rally.
As I grew up and learned more about the jerks who were on the 86 team I learned that Carter was actually pretty hated by most of the other players. They though he was too clean, that he was putting on an act for the TV cameras, and that he was always talking with reporters so he could get more favorable coverage.
I think the truth is Carter was just a really nice guy who loved his wife and his kids, and on that team he was the oddball.
But in heaven, where Carter is going, there are plenty more like him.
And even when cancer had him down 2 runs, 2 strikes in the 10th inning of a World Series elimination game, Carter never gave up. But this time, he lost.

Song of the Week

"Domino" - Jessie J
Every once in a while I fall in love with some young bubblegum pop queen. I guess it brings out the kid in me.

Crack is Wack

The news shouldn't have come as a surprise but to many it did. Whitney Houston dead at the age of 48. An autopsy has yet to confirm it, but Houston may have drowned in the bathtub due to a combination of drugs and alcohol she had taken. For years Houston abused her body with drugs and it finally caught up to her.



While I feel badly for Whitney Houston, all that talent, all that money and unable to find happiness, I'm not saddened by her death. And I certainly don't consider it tragic. Her own horrible choices led her to this.

But unlike Michael Jackson, Houston hurt no one but herself, so it is a little less unseemly to celebrate her talents while mourning her passing.

Here is Houston at her best, in 1991 at the Super Bowl, singing the National Anthem:



And of course, we can always thank Houston for being the inspiration for this bit of classic comedy, from Randy Watson:

Lin-Sanity

It's been nearly 40 years since the New York Knicks have won the NBA title. It's been ten since they have even won a playoff game. That is the reason for the sudden Lin-Sanity that is sweeping the tri-state area.



It all started against Nets when Lin played 36 minutes. He had only one game with more than 10 all season to that point. Amare Stoudemire missed the next game, Melo got hurt and Lin took over leading the Knicks to four-straight wins.
His amazing stats:
vs. Nets: 25 points (10-19 FG), 7 assists, 5 rebounds
vs. Jazz: 28 points (10-17 FG), 8 assists, 2 rebounds
vs. Wizards: 23 points (9-14), 10 assists, 4 rebounds
vs. Lakers: 38 points, (13-23), 7 assists, 4 rebounds

Those are absolutely incredible numbers: 28.5 ppg and 8 apg on 57.5% shooting. But there are several reasons why I don't expect this to keep up.

1) Carmelo and Amare will be back eventually. When they come back they will demand the ball and they will clog up the middle taking driving opportunities away from Lin.
2) Teams are going to start to lay off him and make him shoot from the outside. That might be a weakness. Even during this amazing stretch, he has made only 3 of 14 from 3.
3) He's reckless. There are several ways this can manifest itself. First off, he could get hurt. Second, he makes a lot of wild drives resulting in some crazy layups, most have been falling, maybe that will stop. Third, he makes a lot of turnovers, 17 in these 4 games. An assist to turnover ratio of nearly 2 is decent, but if his teammates' shots stop dropping, his ratio will.



4) Nothing like this ever lasts very long. If Lin were the most heralded point guard prospect ever, it would still be implausible for anyone with so little experience to be performing at this high level. The only question remaining, is when he returns to a more normal level of performance will he still be a good NBA point guard, or is his natural level something closer to serviceable backup?
5) If this keeps up we're going to have to put Papa Poop in the Lin-sane asylum. He has the most severe case of Lin-sanity I have ever seen. And he hasn't even been able to watch all the games because of the dispute with Time Warner Cable and the Knicks. After every game he messages me the stat line, followed by a bunch of exclamation points. A few more games like this and he'll end up in a straitjacket that looks like this:

In the Zone

For years the old school baseball fans and media have decried defensive statistics, saying you can’t judge defense with numbers. Well you can, if the numbers are derived from watching and analyzing every single play in every single game, which is what statistics like Range Factor and Ultimate Zone Rating do. And now similar metrics have been applied to basketball.
Please read this amazing article from Sports Illustrated’s Luke Winn. He charted every play of Syracuse’s first 11 conference games (before Georgetown) and 4 non-conference games. The results are fascinating and I will encapsulate them here for those too lazy to read the whole thing.
Fab Melo is a great defender. Not only does he block shots and grab rebounds, he takes a lot of charges, three times as many as anyone else on the team. This creates turnovers at a higher rate than most big men. Baye Keita is a big drop-off when Melo is not in the game, because he fouls a lot. But the biggest reason SU struggled without Melo is because of Rakeem Christmas, who is the worst defender on the team.
Kris Jospeh is the best of the forwards defensively, he does everything well, challenge shots, force turnovers, but he’s not a good rebounder. This has been a huge problem against bigger opponents, and a lot of the responsibility to fix it is on Kris Joseph. James Southerland is a better defender than you might think, but he fouls too much. CJ is just Fair.
Dion Waiters is the best of the guards, by a wide margin. He forces more turnovers and challenges more shots, resulting in a lower shooting percentage against than Triche, and especially compared to Jardine. Opponents are almost twice as likely to make a shot against Scoop as against Waiters. And Scoop almost never fouls the shooter, because he doesn’t get out on open shooters.

Glad They Got Those Academic Issues Cleared Up

The return of Fab Melo (after a 3 game absence, due to reported academic problems) resulted in a return to the dynamic fast break offense Syracuse displayed during its 20-game winning streak to start the season.
Melo's blocks and the misses he forces often lead to fast breaks which result in easy points. So even though Melo scores only 6 points a game, he does a have a big impact on the offense, because he creates better scoring chances.
After some brief struggles to start the game, SU returned to its dominating ways, playing as they did before Melo left the lineup. They were fast-breaking and turning in awesome dunks, including one incredible dunk from Michael Carter-Williams, followed very closely by a good one from Dion Waiters.



For a few games there I was a little worried about the team’s title chances because the outside shooting was so bad. But if Melo is around he seems to make it easier for everyone.
But now Syracuse goes into a stretch where the schedule gets tougher. 5 of the last 7 games are against teams in the RPI top 30. I don’t expect to win them all, but even two losses, and another in the Big East Tournament would still give SU a good shot at a 1 seed in the tournament, not #1 overall, but a solid #1.
As for me personally, I ordered my tickets for the New York City Alumni Club, Big Apple Orange. The tickets were being distributed at Stout, an Irish bar half a block away from the Garden. The bar was incredibly crowded, even for 11 on a Saturday night, except it was 11 on a Saturday morning. The food was good, I had the delicious steak and eggs.
Our seats were not great, in the 400s, but we were in a section of all Syracuse fans. It seems liked the entire arena was a Syracuse section though. I would put the ratio of Syracuse fans to St. John’s at 3 to 1.
That explains why after the game Derrick Coleman was being mobbed on the 7th Avenue plaza. You could tell that he wanted to get going, but he was very gracious to shake hands and take pictures with all who were interested.