|
 |
| Friday, September 1, 2006 |
The “new approach” has failed at the FIBA championships.
The best the United States can hope for is yet another bronze medal.
Greece used a sizzling stretch of shooting across the middle two quarters to turn a 12-point deficit into a 14-point lead, and beat the Americans 101-95 Friday in the semifinals of the FIBA World Championship.
The Greeks (8-0) can add a world title to the European championship they won in 2005 with a victory over either Spain or Argentina in Sunday’s gold medal game. Those teams, also undefeated, met in Friday’s second game.
The Greeks — with no current NBA players on their roster — danced in a circle at halfcourt after their victory over an American team put together after a series of recent failures.
Well, those Dream Teams sure ain’t what they used to be.
How you can be done in by inept three point shooting when the line is so much closer than it is in the pro game confuses me, but then again, the US team hasn’t made sense in a while. We are the dominant basketball country, but cannot get to the finals in international competition.
Of course, we leave the field with our typical lack of sportsmanship:
The U.S. hasn’t even played for a world championship since winning the last of its three titles in Toronto in 1994. Mike Krzyzewski — who was looking for gold after winning bronze with the 1990 team — and a few American players walked to midcourt to congratulate the Greeks, while most of the U.S. quickly headed to the locker room.
Yeah, real classy guys. Way to embarass us again after an embarasing loss. We have not deserved to win the championship for years, and this confirms that. It reminds me a bit of England and soccer: as one of the top soccer playing countries, England cannot win a World Cup. Of course, in England’s case, it is a bit more understandable when you factor in the fact that there are two or three other world leagues on par with them. The NBA is the premeir basketball league, so we don’t even have that excuse.
Now we wait for the Olympics, when everyone is paying attention to the team again, to see if the US can rebound from this and actually win gold again. They play for bronze on Saturday.
|
| Friday, September 1, 2006 |
Jerome Bettis is doing well at his new job: he’s not spared the Steelers so far.
First, it was the “Cowher is going to retire” kurfluffle, where Bettis told his crew that Cowher is thinking of going to leave after this season. While Cowher denied it, the rumors still swirl, and will continue to do so until Cowher signs an extension.
Now, Bettis is saying that the Steelers likely won’t repeat:
Jerome Bettis, television analyst, doubts that the Steelers can repeat as Super Bowl champions because of an unsteady offense that already misses Jerome Bettis, brutish halfback.
“This is a totally different football team now than we had when we went on that run,” Bettis said yesterday in an NBC conference call to promote the Miami-Steelers opener that kicks off the network’s “Football Night in America” coverage Thursday.
“The question is: Are they capable of repeating? … That remains to be seen yet. But it’s not the same team. It’s going to be a work in progress. It’s going to be very, very difficult for them to repeat. They’ve got their hands full.
“They may have to rely on Ben Roethlisberger’s arm a lot more than they have the prior two years. … I’m not certain about the running game, how consistent it will be churning out the tough yards.
“Obviously, with myself not being there, that poses a question.”
…
“Looking at the roster, you’d say Duce Staley … would have to fill that [power back] role.”
“If he makes the team,” interjected fellow NBC analyst Cris Collinsworth.
“Exactly,” concluded Bettis.
We hate to admit it as Steeler fans, but he’s got a point: I said as much last night. They are a very different, unproven team on offense. The defense should be OK, but the offense has a lot to prove, espicially the running game. Don’t be surprised to see them struggle out of the gate. I doubt they will go 6-10, but they aren’t going to be on the same roll they were last year either, and will have to feel out a new role in order to repeat.
|
| Thursday, August 31, 2006 |
Sale of Pittsburgh Penguins in trouble? (KDKA)
More than a month has passed since a Connecticut real estate developer signed a letter of intent to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins.
There’s been no sale as of yet.
KDKA Investigator Andy Sheehan has word that the deal may be in trouble.
Sam Fingold won exclusive negotiating rights to the Penguins when he offered $175 million dollars to buy the hockey club.
The deal has hit some major snags and tonight there’s serious doubt that Fingold and the Penguins will ever make the deal.
At $175 million dollars, the Penguins shocked the hockey world by fetching a sale’s price that hockey insiders thought they would never reach.
Now it appears the insiders might have been right all along.
The soap opera continues. Interestingly enough, the NHL wants to keep the Pens in Pittsburgh:
In recent weeks, the NHL has made it clear that it does not want the Penguins to leave Pittsburgh and would block such a move if there is a viable plan to build a new arena.
Of course, that’s been the whole issue over the past few years: the Pens, no matter how hard they try, cannot get anyone to finance the new arena. The only party to come forward has been the Isle of Capri casino, which would build an arena if they get a gaming contract in Pittsburgh. However, they are one of many possible gambling groups vying for a Pittsburgh license, and chances are that only one or two of the companies will get one. The state and local governments have promised a plan B, according to the article, but I’ll believe it when it happens.
|
| Thursday, August 31, 2006 |
Willie Parker inks nice new deal (KDKA).
Pittsburgh Steelers’ running back Willie Parker has just inked a new contract with the team.
KDKA’s John Steigerwald reports that the four-year contract is worth $13 million with over $3 million of it guaranteed.
This is a decent deal, and it signals what has been suspected for a while: Parker is the new go to guy for the Steelers running game. I hope that the Steelers can adjust to featuring a “fast back” as opposed to a “power back”, which has been what they have done for many years. Parker did very well, but that was with a beefy and dependable third down back in Jerome Bettis. Should the Steelers be unable to establish Duce Staley, Dan Kreider, or any of their other backs as a legitimate third down back, I think they will struggle. That, coupled with the Hines Ward injury, makes me a bit uneasy about the Steelers offense to start the season. They need either the recievers or the running game to be firing on all cylinders, and at the moment, there are gaps in both. Next week is going to help us see how well the Steelers will defend their Super Bowl title.
|
| Thursday, August 31, 2006 |
Joe Paterno ties record for coaching longevity.
When Joe Paterno runs out of the Beaver Stadium tunnel on Saturday afternoon to kick off another Penn State season‚ he’ll officially equal a record for coaching longevity established 74 years ago.
Predictably‚ Paterno said he knew nothing about the impending milestone until asked about it during Tuesday’s teleconference.
When his Nittany Lions open the 2006 campaign against visiting Akron‚ the 79-year-old coaching wonder will begin his 41st season stalking the sidelines for Penn State‚ joining another football legend – Amos Alonzo Stagg – as the only major college coach to serve so long at one institution.
Stagg spent 41 seasons at the University of Chicago from 1892-1932.
That is simply an amazing run, and puts Paterno in the company of a simply amazing coach. Let’s take a look at Stagg’s accomplishments:
He is credited with numerous innovations‚ including the huddle‚ the lateral pass‚ the man in motion and using a tackling dummy in practice.
…
“I’m in good company‚†Paterno said.
“When I was a younger coach‚ (Illinois coach Robert) Zuppke had a book out and Stagg had a book out. They had a great impact on the game and I read those books‚ but I never met (Stagg). I met his son when he coached at Susquehanna‚ but I never met the dad.â€
First off, that is an amazing list of accomplishments for Stagg. However, staying with any program for that long is amazing – and I am certain that when Paterno was starting, reading the book written by Stagg to learn about coaching, there is no way he thought he was approaching that record. Paterno will certainly go down in history as one of the best coaches in college history, and definately one of the best of this era (Bobby Bowden being the other standout). It is impossible to imagine Penn State without him, considering that Paterno had been coaching almost 20 years when I was born. I have known no other Penn State coach, and have no idea who will come next.
|
| Monday, August 14, 2006 |
Various Pittsburgh media outlets are reporting that the Bus has found somewhere he ISN’T greeted with roses in the streets – Cincinnati, where fans still feel bitter over losing Palmer to a Steeler hit in the playoffs last year, and then going on to win a Super Bowl. He just made his first appearance as an analyst on NBC’s football coverage.
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. Bettis doesn’t think Cowher is returning next year. Via WPXI:
He wasted no time making a prediction about coach Bill Cowher and Cowher’s future with the Steelers.
“I really think this is the last year for Coach Cowher in Pittsburgh. I talked with him after the season was over and he was really a different coach, a different guy,†Bettis said.
I suspected as such. Cowher has done just about everything an NFL coach can do – he’s won at every level. The only thing left is winning back to back Super Bowls: other accomplishments after that point are either icing on the cake, or so unattainable that it isn’t worth staying around just to see if you are the guy to do them unless the circumstances are JUST right.
NC State may soon have a be-jawed atheletic director, if the rumors are correct.
Gene Wojciechowski has more, if you are interested in reading more speculation.
|
| Monday, August 7, 2006 |
Len Pasquarelli reports that the College of Owners has assembled in Chicago for the secretive balloting process meant to pick the successor to Pope – I mean Commisioner Paul Taglibue. Roger Goodell is still the favorite, and we could have a new Commish by tomorrow.
I was just entertained by the balloting procedures implemented by the owners:
By a unanimous 32-0 vote, NFL owners on Monday adopted the following resolution, which establishes the procedure for electing a commissioner, with balloting possibly beginning as early as Tuesday afternoon:
Whereas, the ability of the league’s membership to reach a decision to select the next commissioner may be enhanced with specified procedures, be it resolved that:
1. The initial rounds of voting will be conducted by secret ballot;
2. If no candidate receives the necessary 22 votes on any of the first three ballots, those three ballots, at a minimum, will include all five candidates nominated by the search committee;
3. During the voting process, it may become evident that additional voting procedures should be implemented in order to reach a membership consensus; and
4. The commissioner, in consultation with the search committee, will weigh membership views and determine whether to follow procedures such as (for example) the following:
a) dropping the candidate(s) with the fewest votes from one or more subsequent ballots;
b) implementing an open roll-call vote;
c) having the full membership rank the candidates in order of preference; and
d) other similar procedural steps.
You mean this isn’t set in stone already, by some arcane, secretive procedure? Where’s the Catholic Church when you need it?
|
| Thursday, August 3, 2006 |
Most fans of a Super Bowl winning team aren’t speculating on the next head coach. But then, most Super Bowl winning head coaches don’t refuse the standard two year contract extension offered by management that they have always accepted up until now. Also, most Super Bowl coaches haven’t been in the NFL as long as Bill Cowher, and don’t feel like they are done yet, where it seems that the Super Bowl is a cap on a long and fruitful career for Cowher.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reports that Ken Whisenhunt is the heir apparant in the Steel City.
Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers’ Whisenhunt heir apparent to Cowher?
Thursday, August 03, 2006
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Maybe it was because a demonic highlands sun had turned the floor of Saint Vincent’s natural amphitheatre into a microwave, and maybe it was that 80-some Steelers each seemed at that moment a viable candidate for spontaneous human combustion, but as offensive coordinator Ken Whisenhunt left the practice field in the merciless daylight yesterday, the prospect of being somewhere else seemed like an appropriate question.
“You know,” someone mentioned, “you could be spending this week at the Napa Valley Marriott Resort and Spa, summer home of the Oakland Raiders.”
“Instead of beautiful Latrobe?” quipped the o.c.
The Steelers’ gifted play-caller came within an oft-chronicled Al Davis compulsion of being the head coach in Oakland the week after Super Bowl XL, with only the eccentric owner’s chronic inability to dismiss himself totally from the football operation likely sending Whisenhunt back into the arsenal of one William Laird Cowher.
Ken Whisenhunt — Is he the heir apparent to Bill Cowher?
Click photo for larger image.
“I don’t think about it now,” Whisenhunt said.
Fair enough, but if he did think about his own career path, rather than merely the innovative ways in which he’ll probably coax another 5,000 yards from this Steelers offense in 2006, those thoughts would be ricocheting through a very different context than the one he inhabited in February. At that time, no one knew the correct interpretation of Cowher’s comments on the morning after Steelers 21, Seahawks 10, to wit: “The rest of this week I’m going to sit back and reflect for the first time on this football team, on this season, and on what we were able to accomplish. You’re taught with other players never to reflect when you’re in the middle of something, and I really like to practice what I preach. But I can tell you, this I’m going to do a lot of reflecting and enjoying every minute of it.”
In hindsound, the auditory equivalent of hindsight that I just made up, it seemed that Cowher took a little too long getting from one end of the word “lot” to the other: “I’m going to do a lohhhht of reflecting.” But, of course, like hindsight, hindsound is 20-20. Or something.
Obviously, we all know about the big house the Cowhers have purchased near Mt. Pilot, [North Carolina], the maturing of the three basketballing daughters and the notion that the head coach might have reflected all the way to where, if he can’t see the end of his career, he can certainly see the end of the black-and-gold part. With negotiations essentially stalled on a contract extension for the Jaw, Whisenhunt goes from somebody’s-head-coach-before-too-long to the heir apparent in the Noll-Cowher lineage that’s made winning football and Pittsburgh virtual cultural synonyms.
Of course, this speculation intensified in Pittsburgh after Whisenhunt turned down an opprotunity to coach in Oakland. While that probably has a lot to do with Al Davis, one wonders if another reason he’s staying is because he suspects he is Cowher’s heir apparent. It would be a new focus for a Steeler coach – I don’t think they’ve hired an offensive coordinator for the top job in years. Of course, they’ve only hired two coaches period in about 30 years, so that’s not much of a sample size. He is the best liked offensive coordinator we’ve had in years, so chances are the fans would welcome him at first, and stick with him if the Steelers kept up their winning ways.
As for Cowher, chances are he will get involved in his alma mater, NC State. Head football coach Herb Sendek has to be a bit nervous, and the atheletic director, from what I’ve heard from NC State fans at work, has even MORE to be nervous about. With Cowher down the road and “out of work”, its going to put a crunch on those positions – perform or else we bring in Cowher. I think it likely that they’ll hire him in some capacity the moment he leaves the Steelers.
Despite all this speculation, Cowher is here through this season, and probably the next, so Cowher haters (all five of you who remain) will have to put up with him for that much longer.
|
| Monday, July 31, 2006 |
There are five finalists for the NFL’s top job: Roger Goodell, Cheif Operating Officer of the NFL and second in command, Gregg Levy, the NFL’s outside counsel, Frederick Nance, a lawyer from Cleveland, Robert L. Reynolds, vice president and Cheif Operating Officer of Fidelity Investments, and Mayo A. Shattuck III, CEO of Constellation Energy.
Goodell is the favorite, with Levy being a not so close second:
The closest is the 47-year-old Goodell, who remains a clear favorite — as he has been for the last five years or so, or since he was appointed chief operating officer, the No. 2 job to Tagliabue. Goodell, son of a former U.S. senator from New York, began his NFL career in 1982 as an intern in the league office, interned with the New York Jets for a year, and then returned to the league. He was appointed chief operating officer in 2001.
The other with an NFL background is Gregg Levy, who holds the same job Tagliabue held when he became commissioner — the league’s outside counsel. Because he is known by most of the owners, he is considered the most likely challenger.
Notably, none of the candidates have ever run a team, coached, or played in the league, although Reynolds has officiated at the college level. Nance was instrumental in bringing a team back to Cleveland and in getting their new stadium built.
Then, of course, there is this tidbit:
Shattuck’s contact with the NFL: His wife, Molly, who is 39, made the Baltimore Ravens’ cheerleading squad for the second straight year this season.
Now that is an interesting connection.
The new commissioner will likely be selected during the owner’s meetings taking place between August 7-9.
|
| Thursday, July 27, 2006 |
BOSTON — Free agent Kevin Pittsnogle signed a two-year deal with the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.
Pittsnogle, a 6-foot-11 center who is West Virginia’s career 3-point leader, was passed over in June’s NBA draft along with Mountaineers teammate Mike Gansey. Both played for the Miami Heat in a summer league, and Gansey signed a two-year deal with the Heat.
Nice to see members of that West Virginia team getting work in the NBA. With some molding, I think Pittsnogle could be pretty good. However, I know next to nothing about basketball, so who knows. If he does turn out to be a force in Boston, we will once again get to tell people that they have been Pittsnogled, which will be totally worth it.
Read.
|
|
