During last week’s Tennessee-Vanderbilt game, ESPN’s color-commentator Jimmy Dykes went on a brief but impassioned rant about the state of the SEC. Seemingly without provocation, Dykes took exception to the lack of national respect given to SEC teams. He rhetorically asked the audience if they really believed that the quality of basketball in the SEC is inferior to that of the more heralded conferences, specifically the ACC and Big East. If we did believe this to be the case, Dykes said, then we are crazy. He vouched for the caliber and athleticism of SEC basketball players, and cited Tennessee, Florida, Kentucky, LSU, and Arkansas as teams that should be considered as good as any non-SEC team in the country.
Dykes’ tone was generally unpleasant and overly confrontational, but he raised a fair question. This college basketball season has revealed the overall quality of the ACC and Big East conferences, which has in turn taken publicity and ranked spots away from a declining SEC. Dykes questioned the very classification of the SEC as “declining.” Let’s check the validity of his complaint
It behooves us to begin by looking at the college basketball rankings themselves. The ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll includes no SEC teams in its top 25. Florida and Kentucky missed the cut, receiving 59 and 50 votes, respectively. The AP Poll has Kentucky slotted at #24, with Florida falling out of the top 25 (small consolation for this shellacking). Neither poll shows any votes for Tennessee, LSU, or Arkansas. Dykes would be unsurprised by these findings, and would probably point to them as further evidence that the SEC is getting less respect than it deserves. Now that we know the current landscape of respect, let’s take a look at each team Dykes mentioned in his argument. Read the rest of this entry »
Today, former Hornets, Nets, Raptors (kind of) and Heat center Alonzo Mourning retired from professional basketball. Mourning left a wonderful career in his wake. In 15 seasons, Mourning averaged 17.1 points, 8.5 rebounds, and 2.8 blocks, all while shooting 52.7% from the field. During his peak, which lasted roughly from 1995 to 2000, Mourning was a game-changing force on the court. He blocked shots at an astonishing rate, while altering countless others. He was fiery, physical, and passionate. This is what the vast majority of professional basketball fans will remember about Alonzo Mourning. Indeed, it is all true.
My memories of Mourning are considerably more mixed. They are tainted, inevitably, by the fact that I am a Knicks fan, and Mourning spent much of his years with the Heat. I am not sure how much this penetrated the national sports consciousness, but from 1997 to 2000, the Knicks and Heat really, really hated each other. It was not a rivalry perpetuated solely by fans. This was genuine and personal contempt for one another amongst the players and coaches. Any rivalry that gets its own Wikipedia page must be legitimate, must it not? Read the rest of this entry »
Tonight’s Tennessee-Vanderbilt game had few pleasant moments for Commodore fans. AJ Ogilvy was held to seven points on 1-6 shooting. Two promising freshmen fouled out. The team played no defense. It was an ugly game. There is, however, a demographic for which the game was even less pleasant: fans of accurate geographical and ethnic terminology.
As was probably inevitable, broadcasters Jimmy Dykes and Brad Nessler turned their attention to President Barack Obama’s inauguration. Ruminations on the historic nature of the day ensued, followed by the team throwing it to sideline reporter Jeannine Edwards. Edwards then filed what is simultaneously the greatest and most discouraging sideline report of my young life:
“I talked to Vanderbilt center Festus Ezeli – who is from Nigeria – before the game about Obama’s inauguration. He told me that it isn’t as big of a deal to him as it is to most people, because all they have in Nigeria are African-American presidents.”
There was a pause. Then, my friend, couchmate, and fellow Vanderbilt graduate incredulously says “African-American presidents?”
I am insatiably curious about who is at fault here. Did Ezeli actually say “African-American”? Or did he say “black presidents” and Edwards replaced it with the seemingly safer but completely inappropriate “African-American”? Forgive me for my skepticism, but I would bet that Edwards dropped the ball on this one. I have a hard time believing that the African-born Ezeli would call his country’s presidents “African-American.”
Finally, because we leave no stone unturned here at Fan Interference, I can most assuredly tell you that all of Nigeria’s national leaders have been Nigerian.
EDIT: If you dare, you can venture into the ESPN conversation for this game to verify that I am not making this up. Look at the second comment made at 10:30. Then leave quickly before your brain cells start deteriorating.
While I hope a great many of you find the information in this post as hilarious as I did, I recognize the amount of people who will actually do so is quite small. The group is probably limited to (a) Vanderbilt basketball fans or (b) nerds excited by assist-to-turnover ratios. I, unfortunately, fall into both of those categories.
So does one of my college friends, who fifteen minutes ago told me to go to this page, and look at center Festus Ezeli’s assist-to-turnover ratio. Dutifully and giggling uncontrollably, I obeyed. I came upon Ezeli’s name in the leftmost column, and scanned to the right until I came upon that fateful number.
1 : 25
I guffawed for about a minute straight. I let the total ineptitude and failure that that ratio represents wash over me, and then I laughed some more. That ratio is terrible. My friend said jokingly “he probably has only had one assist all season.” He was right. Ezeli had one assist against the University of South Florida, and that is it.
So, next time you think one of your team’s players turns the ball over too much, remember that it could always be worse, because Festus Ezeli could be on your team.
Time for me to watch Tennessee-Vanderbilt, while keeping a special eye on playmaker extraordinaire, Festus Ezeli. Go ‘Dores.
It just occurred to me that an incident from the recent Wake Forest-Clemson game might have caused increased blog hits. During the game, Wake Forest’s Chas McFarland dove into the crowd to save a loose ball and fell on an awkward-looking stick of a student. Then some sort of bizarre, ungainly body-slamming happened. Here, just take a look for yourself:
I’m still not sure why all major sources of this video describe the incident as the fan tackling the player, but that is not my point. My point is that this incident has resulted in many “Wake Forest Clemson fan interference” searches in recent days, and because of my unbelievable prescience, traffic has been way up. Also, having Keith Law link to me might have something to do with it.
In any case, thank you, awkward-looking Clemson student. Your check is in the mail.
I stumbled upon this bit of news from Yahoo! Sports’ Jonathan Littman last Wednesday, the day it broke. After reading the column, I would have bet my considerable fortune that this would be pasted all over ESPN and other major networks for days, since traditionally that is what happens when any bit of news regarding Barry Bonds breaks. I was disappointed, however, to see the days pass with no mention of this revelation.
If you opted not to click the link, I will be charitable and summarize the column for you, even though you really need to read it for yourself. It has been revealed that the main drug Bonds has been accused of using – THG or “The Clear” – was neither categorized as illegal by the Justice Department nor banned by Major League Baseball when he testified in front of a federal grand jury. Read that again. The centerpiece of the case against Bonds, the entire premise of the perjury charges against him, the reason sportswriters and baby-boomers of all occupations have been given free reign to blast him – that central assumption no longer qualifies as true. Someone finally read the 30,000 page document and discovered that the thing Bonds took was not a steroid, and therefore not illegal or banned. And it only took $55 million dollars of taxpayers’ money for this fact to emerge. Read the rest of this entry »
Sometime around 1:30 yesterday afternoon, as the Georgetown-Duke game was about to tip off and the Notre Dame-Syracuse affair came to a close, my friend and I articulated a common sentiment. We decided there was no excuse for any self-proclaimed sports fan to miss such a day of basketball. The usual exceptions applied; employment, family obligations, and medical issues counted as excused absences. But given the cold front sweeping across half the country and the exceptional lineup of games, my friend and I decided that any unoccupied sports fan worth his salt would be firmly planted in front of the television set for at least one contest. Yes, this was quite obviously self-congratulatory, but we were too busy enjoying the day to confront the vain nature of our proclamation.
My first instinct is to open by saying “I’m tired of writing about Bert Blyleven.” That would be a lie, however. I do not believe I have ever written a word about Blyleven, much less an entire post. Yet it is my instinct because, to myself, I have said everything that needs to be said about the pitcher and his Hall of Fame candidacy. I have made and posted the forthcoming argument a thousand times in my head, so I have grown tired of it. You have probably grown tired of it too, and if you have not, you almost certainly will after reading this.
Bert Blyleven belongs in the Hall of Fame. There is no logical argument against this, which is what makes his omission so curious. He is a Hall of Famer by traditional analysis. He is a Hall of Famer by advanced analysis. And yet, by virtue of some wicked double-standard, he continues to fall short of induction. Despite procuring 62.7% of the BBWAA’s vote, some remain adamant and even offended that he would be deemed more worthy of induction than other contemporary starting pitchers (I’m looking at you, Jack Morris). These people are the impetus for this post, because I have grown tired of this argument, even if I have never had it with anyone but myself. Read the rest of this entry »
I have a secret that I would like to share with you. Once upon a time, when I was young and foolish, I was a fan of Duke basketball.
I am still ashamed of this. It is not because, like so many people, I now equate Duke with innate evil. I have no quarrels with Coach Mike Krzyzewski (you’re not going to believe me, but I spelled that right on my first try) and his ego. I have not joined the ranks of those who hate out of envy, who snarl out of insecurity, mock out of fear. I simply left for Vanderbilt University, and the Commodores became my team. You see, I had no real college team growing up in New York. I enjoyed seeing St. John’s do well, but the late 1990s/early 2000s Red Storm did not capture the public imagination like earlier editions. There were no Walter Berrys, Boo Harveys, Mark Jacksons or Chris Mullins. Instead, there was Ron Artest, Zendon Hamilton, Erick Barkley and Bootsy Thornton. It was a perfectly fine group, but it failed to capture the city’s attention. I rooted dutifully for them, but without passion. This brought me to Duke.
During my time as a Duke fan, I was subjected to the taunts and jeers of the non-Duke world. This was fair. Friends and family wondered how I could lay claim to this team. I couldn’t. Duke was in North Carolina and I was from Manhattan, which made me a by-the-book bandwagoner. I understand that more now than I did then. There was, however, one popular barb that never sat well with me. Invariably, after defending my misguided loyalty for long enough, my opponent would dismissively say “well, Duke players never make it in the NBA anyway.” This sentiment has been popular in the last ten years of my life. I have heard it from friends, family, fans, and analysts, even after becoming a Vanderbilt fan. It was the common last resort against an unwavering Duke fan: “Duke players never make it in the NBA anyway.”
At the time, I was pretty sure this statement was unfounded. After doing some research, my suspicions have been confirmed. First, I somewhat arbitrarily chose the 20 best college basketball programs of the past decade or so. Twenty because 15 was not enough, and 25 was too many. A decade because I am positive I have heard this myth for the last ten years, and less sure about the preceding years. Then I recorded the current and active NBA players that came from these schools. Finally, I took down each player’s key career statistics. These numbers will show that the Duke Myth is just that – a myth. Read the rest of this entry »
I will be posting something more substantial this afternoon, but in the meantime, I must share with you an amazing quote that my father shared with me earlier.
The culprit is Boston College’s basketball coach, Al Skinner. As most of us know by now, Boston College was upset by Harvard last night. This was particularly shocking because it was days after Boston College defeated uberteam and then-#1 North Carolina. Skinner, in his endless wisdom, knew this Harvard game was going to be a struggle:
“I tried to pre-warn them . . . We were capable of being this team and capable of being another team.”
My father summed this up more succinctly than I ever could have: “Aren’t all warnings ‘pre’? It’s not much of a warning if it’s a ‘post-warning,’ is it?”
I also enjoy that he “tried” to “pre-warn” them. Did he fail? What does a failed “pre-warning” look like? A successful one? I have so many questions. All I know is that this term has absolutely made it into the derisive section of my daily lexicon.
Posted by Kevin 
Posted by Kevin 
Posted by Kevin 
