Ben Wallace-Wells has an interesting piece at TNR about Ben Roethlisberger and the NFL and the question of image. He recounts a story involving NFL commissioner Roger Goodell from Sports Illustrated:
The lug in question was Ben Roethlisberger, the Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback, who had been accused of rape for the second time in a year, in this instance by a 20-year-old college student in Georgia. Arming himself for the conversation, Goodell had talked to two dozen other players, including other Steelers. "Not one, not a single player, went to his defense," Goodell told Sports Illustrated. The vanity of the quarterback is that he is such a beloved leader that his teammates forgive even his transgressions.
Big Ben, as they call him, is definitely a thug and a cad. From later down in the piece:
One evening last March, this small-town icon was in a Milledgeville, Georgia, bar to celebrate his twenty-eighth birthday. He walked up to a young woman with whom he'd been flirting ("all my bitches, take some shots!") with his penis hanging out of his pants, according to the handwritten account she gave police later that night, and led her into a bar bathroom where he raped her. Her friends tried to get into the bathroom, but Roethlisberger's private security team barred the door. When she finally left, she went outside with her friends, searched for the first police car she could find, and told the officer she'd been raped. Charges were eventually dropped, after the victim declined to pursue the case, but the moral contours of the situation, from the court documents, seem as stark as those that condemned Mike Tyson?and sent him to prison.
Of course we have only the woman's word, but in any case he's not exactly a prince.
Wallace-Wells weaves this into a larger narrative about "caveman" behavior in the league, and certainly with regard to such a violent game it's an easy charge to make. And for those of you who don't know, the question of "cheap shot" tackles and needlessly aggressive hits (helmet-to-helmet, say) has been under sharp scrutiny this year.
There's no question that the league has a very male cover-up culture. That Roethlisberger received only a four game suspension shocked me. He should have been suspended for the entire season, including post-season play. A full year in solitary. Others would get that message for sure.
All that said, I'm just not sure there's a sociopath problem in the NFL any greater than in any other high-end line of work. There are probably as many rapists per capita among Wall Streeters or corporate leaders (that is, men with money and power, like pro football players) as among NFL players. My guess would be more, in fact. And NFL players are widely known for their charitable work with disabled children and what have you in the cities where they play. And finally, a high percentage of them are quite religious.
There are a lot of things about NFL that bug me. It's kind of a - and I used this word extremely loosely and figuratively, okay? - neo-fascist organization. It demands complete control over everything it touches. There was a story a couple of years ago that the league forced sideline photographers to wear a new kind of vest (to identify themselves as media), and the level of detail was just insane. If neo-fascist is too strong for you, then let's just say it's very 1984.
But as for the players, I maintain continually that the vast majority of them are surprisingly decent people. The Steelers' quarterback ain't one of them. Go Packers! If you watched my video, you know that I predicted Green Bay 30-28, but that was mostly because I can't possibly be comfortable predicting that Roethlisberger will win another Super Bowl, although unfortunately I suspect he might.
What are your predictions? And what are you going to eat? I think I've settled on Italian sausages (turkey, to cut down on the fat) with broccoli rabe and provolone cheese and lots of fresh sauteed garlic on ciabatta bread. It's an oily and messy sandwich with the rapini tumbling out all over the place, and man is it delicious.
It might be hard to recall, since Butler coach Brad Stevens has been in the limelight for three straight weeks now, but there was a time, not so long ago, when he didn't wear glasses.
Yeah, like last month.
Stevens' high-school-math-teacher look has gotten him a lot of attention during the NCAA tournament, but it's not a fashion statement he's making, the glasses are for medical need.
On Feb. 26, during the first half of Butler's senior day against Loyola, Stevens' vision got blurry and he started to worry. He began to ask assistant coach Matthew Graves about the time left in the game and Loyola's personnel. When everything around him became undefined, Stevens knew he needed a hospital.
Stevens walked off the court with about two minutes remaining in the first half and his wife, Tracy, drove him to Dr. John Abrams, who diagnosed him with a corneal edema and placed him on bed rest.
"Right now, I can't see and my eye feels like it has a thousand scratches," Stevens said in a statement released by the school after that game. "My vision got progressively worse as we were getting ready to start the game, and by the final media timeout of the first half, I could not see the other end of the court and everything in front of me was blurry." Stevens' told Victory Firelight, an independent Butler news website, that the blurred vision started when he woke. Stevens said he put his contact lenses in and thought the blurriness was the lens settling on his eyes. But as the day progressed and his vision got worse, Stevens became concerned. However, with it being senior day, and the Horizon League tournament the only other guaranteed games the Bulldogs had left on the schedule, Stevens didn't want to miss one of his final moments with his seniors.
"Basically what it sounds like happens is, your eye gets swollen and it feels like there's a bunch of cuts on it ? and there's this cloud, this smoke screen, that just envelopes it," Stevens told the website. "The first thing it does is throw you back into perspective pretty quickly because you don't know what's going on. And secondly, the last day you would have ever wanted to miss was that one. So it was hard, really hard."
Stevens returned to the court for the Bulldogs' first Horizon tournament game sporting his new specs to protect his eye. A month later, the glasses have become a part of Stevens' mystique. They make him look smart (not that he wasn't smart before) and they make him look a touch older than his 34-year-old boyish good looks would suggest.
With Stevens' increased media exposure, his glasses have become a trending topic on Twitter at #bradstevensglasses.
Even the players embrace them because they haven't lost while he's worn them. They've become a totem for the Bulldogs' unexpected run to the Final Four as a No. 8 seed.
"I think he should keep wearing those all through the tournament because they're obviously bringing us luck," senior guard Shawn Vanzant told FOX 59 Sports. "Everybody thinks Brad's a good-looking dude, so I think that helps him, too."
If the Bulldogs defeat VCU on Saturday and go on to win the national championship on Monday, there's no doubt the glasses will be at the forefront of the celebration. They might even have to be enshrined next to the national championship trophy for their contribution to yet another amazing Butler postseason run.
Download Video: MP4 WebM Ogg HTML5 Video Player by VideoJS Ramon Hernandez is your Opening Day hero. The Reds' catcher drilled a John Axford pitch the opposite way for walk-off 3-run homer. Not a bad start to the season. The Yankees and the Braves won, too, but we'll have more on those games tomorrow. [...]
It was an outsider, a team that wasn't good enough, a team that should have been replaced by the likes of Colorado or Alabama, which were both on the NCAA tournament committee's "snub list."
VCU heard the complaints, the comparisons, the criticisms. The Rams internalized them and during each of the five games they've won through the NCAA tournament, including Sunday's 71-61 win over Kansas, they've let all of that negativity fuel them to victory.
"Our guys are playing with a definite chip on the shoulder after what was said about us by the media on [Selection] Sunday night," coach Shaka Smart said during his press conference earlier in the week. "This group is extremely competitive and anytime they are challenged, they're going to respond and that's what we're seeing right now. They have a high level of energy and communication on both sides of the court. They are playing unselfish basketball and most importantly they're playing loose and having fun. All that breeds from playing with confidence, which our guys are doing right now."
Sunday was no exception.
Kansas had successfully intimidated its Sweet 16 opponent Richmond and thought it could do the same thing to VCU. VCU guard Joey Rodriguez told the media after the game that during a captains meeting with officials before tip-off, one Kansas' Morris twins offered him some parting words: "The run ends here."
Rodriguez told him, "We'll see."
The lowest remaining seed in the tournament wasn't going to be intimidated because it was playing with house money. It had no pressure and had nothing to lose. The Rams came out loose, played tough defense and started hitting 3-pointers like that guy named Jimmer.
Kansas was stunned, unorganized, intimidated. Everything the Jayhawks thought little VCU would be feeling was exactly what Kansas was projecting. Even in the second half, when Kansas went on a run to cut the lead to four, VCU dug in its heels and wouldn't let go of the lead. No matter how much Kansas pressed, VCU never wavered, never freaked out, never wilted. It made key shots and stops when it had to, and never let Kansas control the game. "I believe in these guys," Smart told CBS sideline reporter Craig Sager after the game. "They've never wavered in their hard work and their resiliency. We knew Kansas was going to make a run in the second half, but we never gave up that lead and our guys kept fighting."
VCU has won five games to get to the Final Four, the first team to ever accomplish that feat. It's only the third No. 11 seed to make the Final Four, but neither George Mason (2006) nor LSU (1986) made it to the final. Unlike those teams, which lost to No. 3 Florida and No. 2 Louisville respectively, VCU will face one of its own in the Final Four. A mid-major showdown against No. 8 Butler might not exactly be a ratings booster, but it will guarantee that at least one team outside of the Big Six conferences makes the final. It's almost fitting since VCU has managed to defeat a team from the Pac-10 (USC), the Big East (Georgetown), the Big Ten (Purdue), one from the ACC (Florida State) and now one from the Big 12.
If VCU wins, it would the lowest seeded team to ever appear in the national championship. In 1985, No 8 Villanova won it all.
VCU and Butler are the highest combined seeds to play each other in a Final Four.
Regardless of the outcome, VCU has already proven its critics wrong with an amazing run that no one thought was possible out of a team that finished fourth in the Colonial Athletic Association and probably wouldn't have made the tournament had it not played in the finals of the conference tournament.
But counting the Rams out would also be a mistake They've been underdogs all tournament, including an 11�-point dog against Kansas, and found a way to win. Expect more of that attitude that has defined this team on Saturday.
"I'm just so happy for all of our guys and all of our fans, just everyone who believed in us all the way," Smart told Sager. "We had to win five games to get here, but we did it."
Al Golden made it a personal mission when he became Miami's head coach in December to "uphold the legacy" by bringing former 'Canes back into the fold, and apparently now by embracing a few gems of classic "U" wisdom:
How accurately can you judge someone's smile if you've never spent a minute with them? That's what Nolan Nawrocki of Pro Football Weekly did. Because of the massive interest Nawrocki generated yesterday with his brutal portrayal of the potential No. 1 pick in next month's NFL draft, the writer held a conference call today. [UPDATE: [...]
ANAHEIM, Calif. ? Shortly after Arizona stormed back to take the lead with six minutes left in its Elite Eight showdown with Connecticut, Kemba Walker told Jim Calhoun the last thing you'd expect a star player to say with a trip to the Final Four on the line.
Instead of calling for the ball, Walker said UConn should put it in the hands of a freshman.
Of course, the freshman was Jeremy Lamb, the sleepy-eyed but cold-blooded guard who has emerged as the most trusted member of Walker's supporting cast. And Lamb made Walker look smart for putting the ball in his hands, delivering when the Huskies needed him most just like he had in Thursday's narrow victory over San Diego State.
On the first two Connecticut possessions out of the timeout Lamb sank jump shots assisted by Walker to enable the Huskies to reclaim a one-point lead. He later choked off a passing lane with his long arms, swiped the ball and finished with a two-handed dunk, capping a 10-0 run that gave Connecticut just enough breathing room to escape with a 65-63 victory.
"Jeremy was big-time today," Walker said. "Honestly, we needed everything that he did for us. He did everything perfect, one, he scored the baskets for us. He got big stops. He grew up today."
If Connecticut's previous Final Four teams were veteran-heavy juggernauts that expected to make deep NCAA tournament runs before the season, this Huskies team certainly doesn't fit that mold. Many thought Connecticut might miss the NCAA tournament for a second straight season since Walker's supporting cast consisted mostly of freshman who had talent yet weren't certain to make an instant impact.
Walker has received most of the publicity for his clutch shots and scoring barrages, but a big reason the Huskies have now won nine straight postseason games in 19 days is the maturation of the freshmen. Lamb has emerged as a capable secondary scoring option, Roscoe Smith has helped Alex Oriakhi clean up the defensive boards and point guard Shabazz Napier has helped take some of the ball-handling burden off Walker.
"This unique group of young guys have just given me a thrill beyond compare," Calhoun said. "Emeka Okafor is in our locker room right now and his team was a powerful, older team that rolled through. We had one tough game against Duke, but won a national championship and that was special and the first one was obviously very special. But our march in the past nine games, I haven't experienced anything like this."
The Huskies wouldn't still be playing without Lamb, now averaging 18.25 points per game in four NCAA tournament victories. He finished with 19 points on 7-for-9 shooting against Arizona, seemingly providing a huge basket whenever Arizona was in the midst of a run.
The soft-spoken Lamb acknowledges what he's accomplishing hasn't truly hit him yet.
"I don't like to think about where we're playing and how big the stage is," Lamb said. "Right now, I'm just having fun playing basketball."
The way Calhoun sees it, Lamb owed him for some past heartbreak. Rolando Lamb, Jeremy's father, sank a last-second jumper in the second round of the 1984 NCAA tournament to propel Virginia Commonwealth past Calhoun's Northeastern team.
Said Calhoun, "I told him he owed me one and he certainly has paid me back 10 fold."
The course of the season showed that if Michigan was going to make the Frozen Four they were going to do it one way: narrowly. If you need a number, during the course of the UNO broadcast they put up a stat showing Michigan's record in one-goal games was 10-3. That's just how they do.
That record is now up to 12-3 after history's greatest video review and the Joe Howe show (wsgs Joe Howe's Posts) and if there was ever any chance we remembered this hockey team as the weird one that kind of reminded you of Ron Mason that's gone now. This team isn't trying to win games ?1 to ?2 but you'd be forgiven if sometimes you thought they were.
It's working, though. I spent the second intermission Saturday thinking about Buffalo, when Michigan dominated Minnesota for two periods but didn't put enough of that domination on the scoreboard to prevent Minnesota's rally from tying the game; Michigan lost the game and Al Montoya's brain in overtime on one of those bizarrely frequent OT goals that comes from almost the goal line on the left side of the net*. I spent the third period thinking about how beautifully boring it was until Red channeled into Lloyd Carr by slipping Jeff Rohrkemper out there for a power play shift. He was immediately punished for punting from the 34 by a Rohkemper boarding penalty and nine seconds later CC fumbled a puck into the net. Everyone braced for a storm. That storm was a single pea-sized hailstone. The most nervous moment after that was a bunch of players rooting for the puck on the boards with the goalie out and twenty seconds left.
Michigan had outshot their opponent 43-22, played a game universally acclaimed as their best of the season, and won 2-1 because Scooter is an animal and pucks that come off Lee Moffie's stick will hit the post and go in even if they have to deflect off three guys to do it. There is a natural inertia pulling them towards narrow wins you're uncertain about; even now that they've reached the Frozen Four there's a feeling they don't really match up with a North Dakota.
There's also the feeling they just might, though. Because what the hell, Michigan's 11-1 since the line shakeup after Michigan's dismal 0-3 stretch against MSU and Miami. Season goals slipping away and faced with the question of how to get the most use out of some good forwards who never, ever score Michigan put together a vintage Todd Marchant checking line and let anyone who might put the puck in the net forget about guys like Jaden Schwartz.
This has been remarkably effective. If the announcer didn't bring his name up every time he wasn't making a joke-type assertion about the "hockey hotbeds" of California, Texas, and Arizona, the viewer could have forgotten about Jaden Schwartz. Lingering irritation at Matt Rust's bad OT penalty against UNO evaporated as his line erased Schwartz, Schwartz, and Schultz with a healthy assist from Jon Merill at his most subtly awesome. The Schwartzes got their goal on a four-on-four scramble; everything other than that was frustration. In the second period they started jawing and shoving people because they were getting nothing. This was one day after they turned defending national champs Boston College into a lump of smoking carbon.
I watched North Dakota pummel two teams, one of them not even in the ECAC, this weekend. I remember Michigan's last two not-very-competitive matchups against them. I have considerable doubts that Michigan will beat them since they're by far the best team left standing. Doubts about doubts come when you close your eyes and see Jon Merrill gently shepherding you, the puck, and a hockey team into a deep, peaceful sleep as Matt Rust obscures the face of North Dakota Hobey finalist? oh? you know? what's his name.
*[Almost certainly an artifact of my introduction to college hockey but they seem to happen all the time: Josh Langfeld's championship winner, the Vanek goal (at 1:00) that put Michigan out in Buffalo, and ND's winner against Merrimack were all bizarre nothing shots from the same area of the ice that took the goalie by surprise.]
A Tiny Window Of White Bullets
Scooter!
Also the other two goals but mostly Scooter!
You do not have a twitter account that concerns itself with Michigan hockey if you didn't tweet "Scooter" followed by one to three exclamation points after his goal, which was completely unbelievable even as it was happening. CC does not have the greatest defensemen in the world but holy crap where did that come from?
Monster faceoffs. Michigan both faced and received extended periods of 5-on-3 time in the first period, and during both they got clean, critical faceoff wins. Moffie's goal was a direct result. The lack of a CC goal on their terrifying PP was greatly aided, as well.
Clare escape. To recap the thing I kept talking about during the game: after a tough shift in which Pateryn and Clare got caught in the zone forever, allowing the Schwartz line to get out against them and some other random non-Rust forwards, Red pulled Clare out of the lineup for more than a period. Pateryn took shifts with the second pair D to give guys a break. Clare returned about halfway through the second and actually got some PK time a bit later, which I guess makes sense because your breakout on the PK is slapping the puck down the ice. I saw him out there a couple times in the third, as well, but his minutes were minimized.
All this invites questions about Burlon's availability. He's got two weeks to recover from his strep and penicillin reaction, so I imagine he'll be in the lineup. Losing 15 pounds is kind of a lot, though, and I wonder how effective he'll be.
RNG in full effect. Hockey's vaguely weighted plinko system was a little more random than normal this time around: FF participants are two three-seeds, a two, and a one. One seeds went 2-2 in the first round, bringing their record against fours to 11-9 the last five years. That goes beyond "anything can happen" into "your excellent season gets you nothing."
What's wrong? I don't think you can blame the Pairwise. The "better"* ranking system, KRACH, already updated for the weekend's results and still has Yale a #1. The only difference between KRACH's top seeds and the PWRs is putting Denver above Miami, and there's a fair chance that wasn't the case before the events of the weekend.
You can blame insular schedules. Yale's nonconference schedule consisted of single games against CC, Air Force, Cornell, and Vermont and an "Ivy Shootout" against other ECAC members. The only evidence we had that Yale was a top seed other than their ECAC schedule was a 5-1 win over a .500 WCHA team and a 2-1 record against Atlantic Hockey?yeah, they'd already lost to first-round opponent Air Force.
This vapor-thin trail coupled with some other ECAC nonconference games convinced the ranking systems the conference didn't suck despite years of evidence to the contrary. The last ECAC team to make the Frozen Four was Cornell in 2003 and that last to win a title was Harvard in 1989.
That only explains perpetually disappointing ECAC #1s, which are rare. The rest of it is on a tournament format which has #1 Miami play #4 UNH in New Hampshire in a single-elimination game.
*[FWIW, KRACH is mathematically pure but has a tendency to go nuts about nonconference results. In certain years it would put up to eight WCHA teams, some well below .500, into the field.]
Abandabuildings. It was no surprise to see literally every seat in the upper bowl in St. Louis empty. We wondered if a couple of friends had actually made the trip despite stern clucking about teaching the NCAA a lesson, and I said "if they did they'll be on TV because they'll be the only people there," and midway through the second there they were. Even the NCAA's comically generous numbers only show 55% capacity.
Every year we get sterile half-full buildings as teams get shipped halfway across the country and fans have to deal with the possibility they'll get on a plane to see their team play once, or if they're lucky play twice and make the Frozen Four and then you've blown your budget on regionals already. Insert usual rant about using home sites here.
The good news is the NCAA has not selected regional sites past next year. In the past sites have been selected three to four years out, so that's a clear sign this failed format is on its last legs. Last year there was a report out of Grand Forks that change was coming, with home sites and "super regionals" of an undetermined nature.
The bad news is that once again the CCHA has no regionals within hundreds of miles of it?the closest is in Green Bay as the St. Louis regional moves to St. Paul. At least Michigan's getting out of that rinky-dink operation, and as a bonus the failures of its commissioner* now directly benefit it.
*[Seriously, what has Anastos done since 1998 that a lump of quartz couldn't? The CCHA has gone nowhere, and has clearly become the region of the country that either gets screwed over by the committee or can't scrape together a bid that makes any more sense than having a regional in St. Louis.]
I am Jack's total lack of surprise. The crew doing the Yale-UMD game that chucked Yale's best player out of the game for a clean open-ice hit were from the CCHA. Yale's coach was infuriated enough afterwards to lead his presser with "the game was taken away from us." Yet more reason to be happy we're getting away from the league?hopefully most of the refs don't follow.
Everyone in the shot including Scooter is thinking "WTF?"
Yost Built recaps the game with gusto. Not so sure that "this is the year" since North Dakota is terrifying but Mark Burns is. Hunwick:
?I think they did have a few pretty good shots early on,? Hunwick said. ?But this is an opportunity to play for the Frozen Four. I think I made a couple good saves. It?s pretty easy to stay in the game when you?re playing to go to the Frozen Four. They didn?t really get anything going too much until they got into the power play. Once they got into the power play, I really had to be sharp.?
Seriously, that power play was terrifying. That first period five on three was awful.
After VCU's shocking 71-61 upset of Kansas to send the Rams to the Final Four, Rams' fans took to Broad Street in Richmond, Va., to party like it was, well, never.
Never had VCU, a team that, according to college basketball analysts, wasn't even supposed to be in the tournament made it to the Final Four. But with the win over Kansas, VCU's fifth win of the tournament, the Rams were thrust into elite company and their fans crowded the streets in celebration.
"I got a picture sent to me where you can't walk anywhere on Broad Street right now," guard Joey Rodriguez told media after the game. "It's exciting. I'm sure everybody is going to be out there waiting for us, and I can't wait to get out of here. Sorry guys."
There were no burning of couches or toppling of cars, just good-natured whooping and hollering that went on for hours and culminated with everyone -- at least as many people as VCU's Siegel Center could hold -- piling into the gym to await the team's arrival back to Richmond at 1:30 a.m.
And when the team was introduced into the gym, it was like the beginning of a Justin Beiber concert. The cheering was deafening as the players filed into the gym wearing their Southwest Regional championship T-shirts and hats. Some still had pieces of the net tucked into their hats and behind their ears, and Jamie Skeen, who was named the region's MVP, was still carrying the game ball, which was awarded to him by coach Shaka Smart after the game.
"All the people that didn't believe in us on Selection Sunday, what are they saying now," Smart said to the crowd. "We beat USC, Georgetown, Purdue, Florida State and now Kansas. Here's the best part, we ain't done yet!"
As enamored as the fans were with the team, the players were equally as captivated. Several of them took video with their phones of the scene from the stage to savor the moment that no other VCU basketball players had had before.
VCU players are humbled by their fans. From packing the gym in the middle of the night to being a small, but loud, contingent against an army of Kansas fans in San Antonio. Smart and his players have maintained all along that the fans are the only ones who have believed and that belief has helped carry them through the tournament.
"I think we was all very thankful," VCU guard Brandon Rozzell said after the game. "Our fans stuck with us through everything this year, and as well as through this tournament. Even when Kansas' fans got loud and the arena was loud, our fans were right there in that section still cheering us on. They were the loudest and we could hear them and they motivated us to keep fighting."
The Internet has spoken, and Jacob Tucker has been granted his rightful spot in the college slam dunk contest later this week in Houston.
The 5-foot-11 guard from Division III Illinois College went viral earlier this month in his pursuit of a spot in the competition. To date, his video audition has received more than 2.6 million views on YouTube, and now he and his supposed 50-inch vertical leap will represent the little guy ? in more ways than one.
The competition will be fierce, as he'll be jockeying with Pitt's Gilbert Brown, St. John's Justin Burrell, Memphis' Will Coleman, East Tennessee State's Justin Tubbs, San Diego State's Billy White, Cincinnati's Darnell Wilks and UNC Asheville's John Williams. None of them stand shorter than 6-foot-3.
Tucker doesn't care.
"I feel with the dunks I have practiced and the dunks I have in my arsenal, I have a chance," Tucker said. "I'm not going to leak them out. I will say there's a couple dunks you haven't seen me do before or some you've never seen before."
Tucker earned his way in by winning a Facebook fan poll, in which�the public voted for one non-Division I-competitor to join the contest. He beat out Lee University's Larriques Cunningham in a landslide, nabbing 88 percent of the vote.
The contest will air Thursday night on ESPN2 at 9 p.m. ET.
When you first read Auburn coach Gene Chizik's pledge to remain on guard against "energy vampires" that threaten to waste his valuable time and verve, you probably thought he was making the term up. What is an "energy vampire," anyway? A talk radio host? A random blogger? An actor with lightning for fangs?
In fact, the concept of an "energy vampire" was pioneered by the famed dentist turned celebrity "hypnotherapist," Dr. Bruce Goldberg, to describe an "unhappy lot" of people who "seem to drain the energy of those unprotected people around them" by various means. These are "well-meaning, normal people" who are nevertheless inclined to launch "premeditated psychic attacks" to bolster their own life forces at the expense of others'.
"You will observe this process at work in any public gathering," Dr. Goldberg writes, and so Gene Chizik has, having carefully observed and documented examples of each of Goldberg's five types of energy vampires throughout his career:
The Ethereal Type: LES MILES, SEC West rival. Dr. Goldberg says: "Existential terror is the predominant issue of an ethereal type. Most often these troubled souls have been tortured to death in previous lives for their metaphysical beliefs or practices. Their only escape was to leave the body, so out-of-body experiences are the norm with them today."
"The result of these inclinations is both withdrawal and aggression. They become aggressive and angry when forced to function on the earth plane. Their psychic attack on you is rarely premeditated, but nonetheless you must protect yourself from these individuals."
The Insecure Type: MARK MANGINO, former Big 12 North rival. Dr. Goldberg says: "The main issue with insecure types is nurturance. These souls have been through many incarnations during which there simply was not enough food or love to go around. They usually were abandoned at some time in their present life, and fear it will happen again."
Common traits of the Insecure Type ? Feeling that everyone around them is draining their energy; their response is to suck the energy from others to compensate. ? Compulsive, classically overweight and susceptible to addictions of all kinds. ? Energy needs and nurturing requirements that will never be satisfied. To solve this deficiency, they must persist in draining the energy from others, creating a vicious cycle.
"Never stand directly in front of this person. Do not make eye contact with him or her, if possible. Encourage them with words, but do not offer to do things for them. Remember these individuals live in constant fear of rejection and abandonment. Do not let your pity for them be a basis for you being their next victim."
The Paranoid Type: NICK SABAN, nemesis. Dr. Goldberg says: "Paranoid types are soldiers still trying to win a war that no longer exists against an enemy that has long since perished. They do not trust anyone.� Everyone is their enemy and life is their battleground. Fear is everywhere and an ingrained part of their personality makeup."
Common traits of the Paranoid Type ? Inability to admit defeat: To lose for a paranoid is to admit that they are bad. ?�Hard workers, obsessive-compulsive, usually quite healthy physically. ? Never enough time for them to accomplish their various goals.
"Paranoid types are seductive, but are incapable of long-term relationships. They insist you agree with their often-distorted view of the world. In reality, they want you to argue with them. This way they can win the argument and prove to themselves that they are good and you are bad. Never argue with this person. Refrain from making eye contact with them. Lower and soften your voice when you speak to them, and change the topic to something pleasant."
The Passive-Aggressive Type: LANE KIFFIN, fellow SEC coaching hire, class of 2008. Dr. Goldberg says: "Invasion and being controlled is the chief concern of the passive-aggressive type. During several past incarnations, they experienced being controlled and trapped in situations, and prevented from being able to express themselves in ways they wanted to. They may have been slaves, prisoners, or been victimized by religion or governments."
Common traits of the Passive-Aggressive Type ? Lacks autonomy. Constantly strives to involve other people in their lives. ? Lives in the now, and never plans or thinks about the future. ? Self-expression is unknown to the passive-aggressive type. "This type of individual creates an internal world of unclear, undifferentiated fantasies and ideas, with fear at the core of this world. They imprison themselves and project loneliness, desperation, and resentment toward everyone they contact. It is impossible for them to express anger."
The Robot Type: URBAN MEYER, once and future champion. Dr. Goldberg says: "The main issue of robotic types is authenticity. They are denying their true self. During previous lifetimes, they had to keep up the appearance of being perfect in order to survive. They were most likely in charge of running things, as they probably are now."
Common traits of the Robot Type ? Constant fear that something is missing and life is progressing without them. ?�To deal with this reality, robot types try to become even more perfect. ? High-paying job, good reputation, perfect spouse and family, appearance of perfect health. "The more inauthentic they act, the more meaningless the world appears. Others envy their lifestyle. People come to them with their problems. The robot types never attain satisfaction from life, and come across as a blank. They function as if on automatic pilot and are often removed from your conversation."
Clearly, Gene Chizik has succeeded in his field because of his recognition that these five types of psychic parasites must be identified and dealt with accordingly, or a psychic attack upon his and his team's wellbeing is inevitable. And also his recognition that he can achieve a brief hypnotic effect in opponents via Trooper Taylor's towel.
Study of fabled enforcer Bob Probert's brain highlights risks to NHL and NFL stars
Punch-ups are common in ice hockey matches, an almost obligatory part of the entertainment for spectators. But university researchers fear such brawls have damaged the brain of one of the game's most famous enforcers.
The Boston University report adds ice hockey to a list of sports with a strong risk of sustaining brain damage after examining the brain of Bob Probert, the Canadian who established a reputation in the NHL as one of the best enforcers, winning most of more than 200 fights on ice.
Researchers found he had suffered from the degenerative brain disease chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).
He died last year of a heart attack at 45 and his wife, Dani, donated his brain to the university, which is conducting research into brain trauma in sport. The findings will add to growing calls in the US for sports to minimise the risk of brain damage, especially among young athletes in sports such as American football.
Probert, who played with the Detroit Red Wings and the Chicago Blackhawks, built a reputation on his fighting ability, though he was also a skilled player.
Chris Nowinski, co-founder of the non-profit Sports Legacy Institute, which is working with the university, said: "We are only beginning to appreciate the consequences of brain trauma in sports. Early evidence indicates that the historical decision not to discourage contact to the head was an enormous mistake, and we hope aggressive changes continue to be made to protect athletes, especially at youth level."
The only other hockey player who was studied was also an enforcer and also suffered from brain trauma. Nowinski acknowledged that further study, saying that Probert could have received brain trauma from incidents outside of hockey, such as a car accident.
The university's Centre for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy has studied the brains of 40 former athletes, of whom more than 30 have shown signs of CTE.
Probert said her husband wanted to donate his brain after learning about the research: "His sole motivation was to make sports safer for our children."
CTE, which was referred to as "dementia pugilistica" because it was thought to only affect boxers, is a progressive brain disease thought to be caused by repetitive trauman, including concussions or subconcussive blows, the university said.
In recent years, there has been more interest in the risk of brain trauma in American football, in particular whether safer helmets can be found.
?Meet the new boss. Confirming the growing buzz out of Missouri's spring practice, redshirt freshman Tyler Gabbert ?�younger brother of outgoing Tiger quarterback Blaine Gabbert, soon-to-be No. 1 overall pick in next month's NFL Draft ?�has officially joined heir apparent James Franklin as a co-starter on Mizzou's quarterback depth chart. The younger Gabbert doesn't come with quite the recruiting hype of his older brother (a former five-star prospect in 2008) or Franklin, the top backup last year as a true freshman, but he did clearly outplay Franklin in a weekend scrimmage and has the proverbial momentum at his back. [Kansas City Star]
?In other depth chart news…Notre Dame has wasted no time erasing all evidence of suspended star Michael Floyd from the program, mentioning him just once ?�under the "talent lost" section ?�in the 13-page spring practice prospectus handed out to reporters on Tuesday. There's no timetable for Floyd's return following a weekend arrest for drunk driving (the Associated Press headline in that link should read "Indefinite suspension is indefinite"), but the Irish are moving forward as if one of the nation's deadliest downfield threat won't be back at all ? and with his fate in the hands of the university's Office of Residence Life, he may not be. "Whether there is an injury or somebody is not with us, our focus is strictly on the guys that are here," said coach Brian Kelly. "We're preparing our football team through skill development and unit consistency around the guys that are here." [Chicago Tribune]
In Miami, some semblance of order has been restored with senior Jacory Harris' reascension to the top of the depth chart at quarterback, replacing career backup Spencer Whipple, who was listed as the starter to open the spring as a kind of motivational ploy by new head coach Al Golden. Temporarily demoted 2010 starters have also been reinstalled at wide receiver (Travis Benjamin and LaRon Byrd) and safety (Ray Ray Armstrong). [HurricaneSports.com]
Meanwhile, USC is struggling just to fill a depth chart: The Trojans kicked off their first spring session Tuesday with 19 injured and otherwise absent players, and quickly lost a 20th, tailback Marc Tyler, who pulled up during drills with a hamstring injury. With two scholarship linemen out and another limited to snapping the ball on 7-on-7 passing drills, SC will essentially be working with six bodies up front when it puts on pads later this week. [Orange County Register]
?The truth comes out.Iowa has completed its internal investigation into the heavy workouts that sent 13 Hawkeye players to the hospital with a potentially serious muscle disorder (rhabdomyolysis) in January, with no particular surprises for anyone who's followed the story. Among the committee's findings:
? The committee is "as certain as possible" that the rhabdo symptoms were in fact the result of a "strenuous squat-lifting workout" on Jan. 20, which also led to "serious muscle injuries" in players who weren't hospitalized. ? The 13 players "were in no way responsible for their own injuries," i.e. had not made them susceptible with any variety of risky substances. ? The heavy workout regimen on Jan. 20 had been used before, specifically in June 2004 and December 2007, with no ill effects. (Though, unlike the January incident, neither of those cases came on the heels of a three-week break.) The workouts were also not intended to "punish" anyone, though a strength coach did say at a Jan. 18 meeting that they would determine "who wants to be here."
Among the committee's recommendations to the program: Reaffirm a commitment to abandon the workout in question; "develop effective timing mechanisms" for determining when a player has been pushed too far; and implement testing for the entire team in any case where multiple players are experiencing complications. [Des Moines Register]
Quickish is a new quick-hit, real-time service that tips you off to the best analysis of the biggest stories in sports. From Quickish's editors, here is a selection of the best proclamations and exclamations coming off Butler's return to the Final Four:
#Realtalk *What Butler has done is one of the greatest feats in college basketball history. If you don't love the Bulldogs, you don't love basketball. (ESPN's Pat Forde)
How Butler Did It (Oof: Sorry) *Butler outrebounded Florida, guarded ball screens better, stuck to game plan. Wins close ones. That's not just a team, its a great program. (ESPN's Jay Bilas)
Gordon Who-ward? *Butler reaching title game was incredible story. Losing lottery pick and returning to Final Four even moreso (Yahoo! Sports' Dan Wetzel)
Superlative of the Month *There has never been a two-year NCAA tournament run as good as Butler's. (The Daily's Dan Wolken)
History Made? *And by beating a No. 9 seed, a No. 1, a No. 4 and a No. 2, Butler survives the second-toughest gauntlet since 1985. Butler! (WSJ's Ben Cohen)
More Brad Stevens Love *John Calipari has 1 win vs higher seeded team in 13 NCAA tourneys. Brad Stevens has 5 in last 2 NCAAs (NYT's Brett McMurphy)
And this: *Someone should offer Brad Stevens one dollar more than the highest paid basketball coach in America. He'd still be underpaid. (Clay Travis)
And this: Stevens has shown he can lead a team to the Final Four with and without glasses. Not many coaches that versatile. (SI's Stewart Mandel)
Aaand this (definitely this): Here's my worst nightmare: Brad Stevens hangs around Butler for five years and then takes over for Coach K when he retires. (Yahoo! Sports' Chris Chase)
Would YOU pick against 'em? *All due respect to Kansas, but Butler might be the team to beat. Bulldogs impossibly keep finding ways to defeat more talented opponents. (Yahoo! Sports' Brad Evans)
Worth noting: Gus! Sadly, I think that was Gus Johnson's last game of the tournament. Thanks again Gus for making the Madness even crazier and fun to watch (NBC News' Chuck Todd)
And, finally, with the last word, the biggest Butler news of all:
Anytime the two highest-seeded teams remaining in the NCAA tournament meet in a national semifinal instead of the title game, the drumbeats to reseed the field prior to the Final Four inevitably sound.
The thought process is if the two best remaining teams can't meet until the title game, it's more fair and reduces the chances of the sort of anticlimactic finale TV executives dread.
First and foremost, reseeding would ruin office pools. Very few entrants even had UConn and Kentucky advancing to the Final Four, but those who did can't be expected to have projected they would be the two highest-seeded teams remaining and thus be on opposite sides of the bracket.
Even if you ignore office pools, there are other reasons not to reseed.
The seeds that the selection committee doled out three weeks ago are no longer representative of where these teams stand after four or five NCAA tournament victories apiece. Since VCU has defeated the likes of Kansas, Purdue, Georgetown, Florida State and USC, are the Rams clearly still the weakest of the four teams based on resume?
And while this year's Final Four features four different seeds, how would you decide who faces whom in a year when two of the last four survivors were No. 1 seeds? Or worse yet, when all four Final Four teams are the same seed, like when the four 1 seeds advanced to San Antonio in 2008?
Arguments over seeding make for good first-week fodder between Selection Sunday and tip-off on Thursday morning. By the time Final Four week comes around, the focus should be on the games, not on seeding.
?Yes, already. Rivals' rollout of the first five five-star prospects of the class of 2012 began Monday with Aledo, Texas, running back Johnathan Gray, a 5-11, 190-pound lightning bolt coming off a ridiculous 320-yard, eight-touchdown effort in a state championship game last December. Gray broke a 57-year-old state record with 59 rushing touchdowns as a junior, and isn't leaving anytime soon: TCU, Texas and Texas A&M are the early leaders for his services. [Rivals]
?Holding up our end of the bargain. As promised, the Big 12 is close to a new television deal with Fox that will triple its annual take from the network, though the projected bottom line still seems to fall short of the huge windfall commissioner Dan Beebe promised his wealthier members to keep them from bolting to the Pac-10 last summer: Even with a $60 million annual cut from Fox ? up from $20 million under the current deal ?�added to its contract with ABC/ESPN, the Big 12's total media pie will come to about $130 million a year to be distributed among 10 members, behind the $155 million-a-year deal the ACC recently negotiated with ESPN.
But the Big 12 is also in preliminary discussions to establish a conference-wide network featuring eight member schools ?�sans Texas, which has already contract with ESPN to produce a lucrative, all-Longhorn network, and Oklahoma, which has serious ambitions of following suit by year's end. With a larger cut from the Fox deal and the freedom to blaze their own media trail (an option that presumably wouldn't have existed in the Pac-10, with its own plans for a conference-wide network on the all-inclusive Big Ten model), UT and OU both stand to reap the kind of $20 million windfalls Beebe promised to keep them in the fold. At least, until they can do even better by dropping the conference altogether. [Sports Business Journal]
?Eh, it was still worth it.Georgia, fresh from self-reporting five minor recruiting violations from five-star signee Ray Drew's commitment press conference in January, has reported another secondary violation for creating a "game day simulation" in its (successful) pursuit of hyped running back Isaiah Crowell. As relayed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last month, coach Mark Richt once had Crowell look out from his office window onto UGA's new indoor practice field players lined up in an offensive formation ? only with the tailback conspicuously absent. According to Crowell's mother, Richt escorted them to the field, had Crowell assume the vacant position and began "painting the scene of next season's opener against Boise State, asking her son if he could see himself in that jersey and helmet, behind that offensive line, starting his career in the din of the Georgia Dome."
The pitch worked (Crowell's mom told the AJC, "My baby was excited. He was ready to go."), but it will cost Richt in April, when he'll be restricted from making phone calls to recruits or parents for the entire month as a result of the violation. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]
?Decided Schematic Advantage, redux. New Florida offensive coordinator Charlie Weis says he's teased embattled quarterback John Brantley about spurning Weis' scheme at Notre Dame for Florida out of high school ? "Yeah, you came to run the spread ? that made a lot of sense. That was a great decision on your part." ? but Brantley remains atop the Gators' quarterback depth chart to open spring practice, and won't have to worry about sharing any more time with Trey Burton or Jordan Reed: They're listed at fullback and tight end, respectively, after taking snaps from Brantley as true freshmen in an effort to get more athleticism in the shotgun. Mega-hyped incoming freshman Jeff Driskel, an early enrollee, is listed third, for now. [Palm Beach Post, South Florida Sun Sentinel]
?I'm sorry.Ohio State coach Jim Tressel, appearing before a roomful of about 400 Buckeye fans at an annual luncheon sponsored by the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, received "a polite standing ovation" and formally apologized Monday "for what we've been through." It was Tressel's first public appearance since he admitted last Tuesday night to withholding information about possible NCAA violations last year, and ? unlike his initial press conference ?�actually included the word "apologize."
Elsewhere, the Columbus Dispatch wonders this morning if Tressel's original tipster, former Buckeye Christopher Cicero, violated attorney-client privilege by e-mailing Tressel with information about an ongoing federal investigation immediately after speaking to a client, tattoo parlor owner Edward Rife, who was under investigation in the case. But the paper doesn't get anyone to say on the record that Cicero did (or is specifically suspected of) anything unethical. [Associated Press, Columbus Dispatch]
Anytime the two highest seeded teams remaining in the NCAA tournament meet in a national semifinal instead of the title game, the drum beats to reseed the field prior to the Final Four inevitably sound.
The thought process is if the two best remaining teams can't meet until the title game, it's more fair and it reduces the chances of the sort of anticlimactic finale TV executives dread.
First and foremost, reseeding would ruin office pools. Very few entrants even had UConn and Kentucky advancing to the Final Four, but those who did can't be expected to have projected they would be the two highest seeded teams remaining and thus be on opposite sides of the bracket.
Even if you ignore office pools, there are other reasons not to reseed.
The seeds that the selection committee doled out three weeks ago are no longer representative of where these teams stand after four or five NCAA tournament victories apiece. Since VCU has defeated the likes of Kansas, Purdue, Georgetown, Florida State and USC, are the Rams clearly still the weakest of the four teams based on resume?
And while this year's Final Four features four different seeds, how would you decide who faces who in a year when two of the last four survivors were No. 1 seeds? Or worse yet, when all four Final Four teams are the same seed like when the four 1 seeds advanced to San Antonio in 2008?
Arguments over seeding make for good first-week fodder between Selection Sunday and tipoff on Thursday morning. By the time Final Four week comes around, the focus should be on the games and not on seeding anymore.
Virginia Commonwealth coach Shaka Smart was once the most accomplished history major in his class at Ohio's prestigious Kenyon College, so it's no surprise he appreciates the historical significance of his unusual first name.
Smart's father, a native of Trinidad, named him after the influential Zulu chieftain Shaka, who united much of Southern Africa under his leadership in the early 1800s. Since Smart's father didn't play much of a role in raising him, the VCU coach joked with reporters on Saturday that the unique first name was "the best thing my dad did for me."
"Shaka was a warrior, he was a tough dude, and my dad chose to name me after him," Smart said. "You may have seen the movie Shaka Zulu? That's who I'm named after."
It's fitting that Smart is named after a King known for uniting multiple African tribes since one of the VCU coach's best attributes is his ability to motivate his players to come together for a common purpose. Smart has done that extremely effectively during the NCAA tournament, reminding the 11th-seeded Rams every chance he has that nobody thought they belonged in the field and that nobody is picking them to win.
While peers picked on Smart by calling him "Chaka Khan" or "Shaka Zulu" when he was a kid, he insists he likes having a first name that never got confused with anyone else in his classes. In fact, he told Dan Patrick on Monday morning that it was his last name that received more abuse than his first.
"My last name's 'Smart,' so a lot of times people would say my middle name is 'Not' or something like that," he recalled.
Considering Smart was accepted into Harvard and Yale, graduated from Kenyon College magna cum laude in 1999 and has been a brilliant tactician in this NCAA tournament, it's probably safe to assume that joke hasn't been used in a while.
The Ethereal Type: LES MILES, SEC West rival.
The Insecure Type: MARK MANGINO, former Big 12 North rival.
The Paranoid Type: NICK SABAN, nemesis.
The Passive-Aggressive Type: LANE KIFFIN, fellow SEC coaching hire, class of 2008.
The Robot Type: URBAN MEYER, once and future champion.
Making the morning rounds.
? The committee is "as certain as possible" that the rhabdo symptoms were in fact the result of a "strenuous squat-lifting workout" on Jan. 20, which also led to "serious muscle injuries" in players who weren't hospitalized.
