January 2007 - Posts
The Iowa men's basketball team was down by 11 points at halftime Wednesday night. You could almost hear the stampede of footsteps in the snow of fans heading to Carver-Hawkeye Arena to line up for NIT tickets.
But then the Hawkeyes did what they needed to do in the second-half to perhaps salvage their season, and they beat Michigan in Ann Arbor. By the way, if you want to hear what real disgruntled basketball fans are like, listen to Wolverine people have to say about their coach, Tommy Amaker.
Iowa didn't exactly beat North Carolina, Duke or Florida, but it was a road win over a Big Ten team not named Minnesota, Northwestern or Penn State. Which makes it a very good win. What it also did was - yes, I'm going to go there - stoked hopes of the Hawkeyes making a run at an NCAA tournament berth.
Has this man's head spent too much time stuck in a snowbank, you ask. Well, yes. But that has nothing to do with this. I see the Hawkeyes' remaining schedule, and see the potential for six wins in the final eight regular-season games. That would leave them at 10-6 in the Big Ten, 18-12 overall. That, coupled with finishing the season strong, should do it. Whether anything less than that would seems unlikely.
So let's look at what's left:
Saturday: Indiana at home. Iowa's next Game of the Year. The Hoosiers are 6-2 in the league. But their lone conference road win was at Penn State. The Hawkeyes have to win this one for this premise to make sense, so ... WIN
Feb. 7: at Minnesota. This is always a dangerous game for Iowa, as witnessed just last season when an inferior Gophers squad stung the Hawkeyes. But this year's Gophers don't have Vincent Grier. WIN
Feb. 10: at Wisconsin. Sorry, but the Badgers don't lose at home. LOSS
Feb. 14: Northwestern. The Wildcats don't win on the road. And rarely at home. WIN
Feb. 17: at Michigan State. I'm not convinced this season's Spartans are particularly good, but since it's at East Lansing, MSU will have its usual homecourt edge against the Hawkeyes. LOSS
Feb. 21: Purdue. No way should Iowa lose this game. WIN
Feb. 28: at Penn State. This is in the same category as the game at Minnesota, but by this point the "inexperienced" Hawkeyes should be plenty experienced enough to get a road triumph over an inferior foe. WIN
March 3: Illinois. These aren't the Fighting Illini players of Bruce Weber's glory days of way back when. You know, two years ago. WIN
There you have it. Six wins in the final eight games, 10-6 in the Big Ten, and an 18-12 record to take to the Big Ten tourney. Is that so hard?
The Super Bowl, America's reason for being, is also a big deal for wagerers. Yes, Indianapolis is a 7-point favorite over Chicago, blah, blah, blah. But the real betting action is resolved long before the final score is determined.
For instance, the over/under on the time it takes Billy Joel to sing the National Anthem before Sunday's game is one minute, 44 seconds. Go with the under. Joel will surely be aware that America is tired of prima donnas who turn the anthem into something longer than Meat Loaf's "Paradise by the Dashboard Light." Which is a very long song, for those unfamiliar with Mr. Loaf.
You can place bets at some Internet sites on which team gets the first quarterback sack, the first first down, the first penalty, the first blown-out knee. You can bet on which team is the first to use a coach's challenge. You can bet on which team has the first field goal. You can bet on whether or not either team converts a first-down on fourth-down. You can bet on - wait, I was typing this during a "Seinfeld" on television, and Jerry just told George that he could read the sports section if his hair was on fire. That was after George complained about how boring he was, and that he's not interested in anything, but he can always be interested in reading the sports page. It warms a sportswriter's heart.
The over/under on the number of Indianapolis players who will make a catch is seven. The over/under on Colts tight end Dallas Clark's receiving yards is 50.5. The over/under on Chicago quarterback Rex Grossman's rushng yards is 1. Yes, 1. The over/under on the number of Mediacom subscribers who curse Sinclair Broadcasting for pulling affiliate KGAN (and thus, the Super Bowl) off of Mediacom is 21,973. It's only 21,972 if I'm not included.
You can get 900 to 1 odds on Indianapolis scoring 2 points and only 2 points in the game. But you can only get 12 to 1 odds that the Colts will score 50 or more points. If you can find someone who will let you bet that Indy scores between 2 and 50 points, take it.
You can bet on who will score more points Sunday, the Colts or the Cleveland Cavaliers' Lebron James. You can get 100 to 1 odds on Prince falling off the stage during his halftime performance. You can get 34 million to 1 odds if you bet that Gloria Estefan will score a touchdown during the game.
The odds that somewhere in America a dozen people will get together and do their taxes during the game? There are no odds on such a thing. That would be silly.
Some dope hijacked the Hlog and forecasted an Iowa win over Wisconsin in men's basketball Sunday.
Whether that was a put-on artist or a basketball bonehead, I haven't a clue. ... OK, that part about not having a clue is honest and accurate.
The thing is, the Hawkeyes did everything it needed to do to upset the second-ranked Badgers. They played sturdy defense, they took care of the ball, they hit the boards hard against a big team. All things considered, it was one of their better games. Except that the Iowa wrestling team might have shot as well.
Iowa shot a bone-chilling 28 percent from the field, and that's the name of that tune. Kurt Looby had the same number of baskets (three) as usual scoring leaders Tyler Smith and Adam Haluska. Looby used three shots to get his three hoops. Smith required 17, Haluska 18.
At halftime and after the game, chitchat among Iowa press mopes was to discuss whether Wisconsin was really the second-best team in the U.S.A. The consensus answer was no, that the Badgers would have a rough go of it against a North Carolina or Florida or Kansas or UCLA in the NCAA tournament. But even if that's a fair assessment, so what? Wisconsin is 7-0 in the Big Ten, 21-1 overall, and has wins at places (Marquette, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa) where visitors don't often emerge with smiles. That's a veteran, tough, smart, talented, well-coached team.
Wisconsin isn't a SportsCenter "Top Ten Plays of the Day" type of squad. It is the type of club, though, that basketball coaches at all levels would sit back and enjoy watching and using as good examples for their teams.
Jason Bohannon of Linn-Mar went to Wisconsin. Seeing how he seems like a really bright young guy, I'm guessing he knew exactly what he was getting into.
Let's check the numbers.
Wisconsin's men's basketball team has won 16 straight games, is 6-0 in the Big Ten, is 20-1 overall, and is ranked No. 2 in the nation. OK, then it makes perfect sense to assume the Badgers will win at Iowa Sunday afternoon.
So I'm picking Iowa.
Why? Homerism? Shock value? Nay and nay. This simply feels like one of those trap games. First, every college basketball team loses at least hree or four games a season. It didn't used to be that way, but no one blitzes through conference seasons unbeaten and takes records of something like 29-1 into the NCAAs. Wisconsin is going to lose a Big Ten game sooner or later, and when it happens it will be on the road.
Second, this will be the most jazzed a Carver-Hawkeye Arena crowd gets for a game all season. The opponent is marquee, it's on CBS, and it's one of those defining moments in a season for a team. I have now just used "trap game" and "defining moment" in consecutive paragraphs. That's a nice run on modern-day sports cliches. Can "work-ethic" and "impact player" be far behind?
Third, there's something about being the road team in a noon game that doesn't sit well. The Badgers will have bussed into Iowa City Saturday night, then will eat breakfast Sunday morning before going to Carver. Breakfast, bus legs and basketball don't go together.
Fourth, Rick Reilly has a column about Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan in the latest Sports Illustrated. It isn't the same as the SI cover jinx, but it's a rule that if a columnist sings someone's praises, that someone will look very mortal the next time he or she has a game.
Fifth, Iowa needs this win so very, very much. If it loses this "defining moment" before a capacity crowd, it's going to be very difficult to get people to care about this team the rest of the season. The Hawkeyes are 11-9 overall, 3-3 in the Big Ten, but the only good team they've beaten all season was Michigan State at home by two points. If Iowa wins this game, its contest at Michigan Wednesday night is meaningful back home. If the Hawkeyes lose, maybe some of you will be more inclined to watch NBC's terrific "Friday Night Lights" than the Iowa game.
I won't be watching Iowa-Michigan, but that's because I'm a Mediacom subscriber and I don't get Sinclair Broadcasting station KGAN-TV in my home. Hey, FCC, when it's time to renew television stations' licenses, does that "serving the public interest" deal really factor into things? I'm guessing not.
Rule #1 about a championship competition in college sports: It has to be announced before a season starts.
Rule #2: It must be something the NCAA, a conference, or memeber schools devise on their own.
It was announced this week by KFXA-TV that a Big Four Championship trophy will go to the winner of Saturday night's Northern Iowa-Drake men's basketball game at Drake. UNI and Drake were both 2-0 against Iowa and Iowa State, something that has never before happened, by the way.
The TV station just happens to be airing the UNI-Drake game. And, it holds broadcast television rights to both UNI and Drake games.
"We recognized the unique opportunity to stage a championship game after Drake and UNI each swept their respective games with Iowa and Iowa St.," said KFXA general manager Joe Denk. This is a meaningful mid-season game in the Valley race."
That would be truer if Drake didn't have a 2-8 record in the Missouri Valley Conference.
Here's the deal: Had there been a Big Four Championship competition in place before the season began, this might mean something. But waiting until all the results favored the two teams you broadcast before coming up with such a championship is bogus.
Making matters less credible is the fact that Drake and UNI play each other twice. The Bulldogs still have to visit Cedar Falls. Why is the game at Des Moines the one that matters in this Big Four hoop-de-doo, but not the one at UNI?
So if you watch the game Saturday night, enjoy. But don't take that Big Four championship stuff seriously. It's a game UNI needs to win to maintain hope of winning the Missouri Valley title, and it's one Drake needs to win to stop skidding. That's all it is, and that's plenty.
Now, if one of the two teams sweeps the other, then it can be called the state champion. And we won't need a television station to tell us.
Am I a bad citizen for watching the Southern Illinois-Northern Iowa men's basketball game instead of the State of the Union address?
Does Chris Berman act that way at home?
Have people who don't like the NBA ever watched Steve Nash, Dwayne Wade, Tim Duncan, Lebron James, Gilbert Arenas or Dirk Nowitzki?
Have people who like the NBA ever watched the Isiah Thomas-coached New York Knicks?
Wouldn't it be fun to hear a coach say just once "We're not counting on any leadership from our seniors. I'd just as soon have the freshmen step up and run things. These seniors of mine are kind of immature."
Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I'm 64?
Has a 30-second timeout ever lasted only 30 seconds?
Why does Greg Oden look as old as Forest Whitaker?
Why are the Iowa Cubs in baseball's Pacific Coast League? Why does Las Vegas have a team in the East Coast Hockey League? Why is North Korea in Conference USA?
What does the Golf Channel show on days when it's raining?
Deal or No Deal?
For the first time in 37 years, it's an All-Midwest Super Bowl. Chicago and Indianapolis. I like that. Especially since it's on the heels of an All-Midwest World Series between St. Louis and Detroit.
Although, anyone who's been to Detroit knows it's no more Midwestern than Philadelphia or Phoenix. Or Bangkok.
Chicago: City of broad shoulders, hog butcher to the world, that toddlin' town. Home of Oprah.
Indianapolis: Uhhh ... that place where they have that big race?
On the other hand, Indy has Peyton Manning and Chicago has Rex Grossman. So while Chicago may have a lot more to offer as a tourist destination, you have to like Indianapolis' chances to be holding a championship parade in a couple of weeks.
Tight end Dallas Clark of Iowa was major for the Colts in their 38-34 AFC title win over New England. Clark fits that Iowa stereotype that gives a lot of us a lot of pride. He came from a tiny Iowa town called Livermore, walked on to the Hawkeyes' program, learned a new position, and became an absolutely superb player.
Another ex-Hawkeye, safety Bob Sanders, had every chance in the world to brag on himself last week when he was the featured player on an AFC title-game teleconference that was piped to sportswriters and broadcasters across the country. He fielded question after question, but without a single ain't-I-great moment, though he was more entitled than most players given the way he made his presence felt in Indy's playoff wins over Kansas City and Baltimore.
Clark and Sanders were great fun to watch at Iowa when they helped the Hawkeyes do a lot of winning, and are still great fun to watch now that they've moved two states to the east. Now they get to start in the most-watched football game of the year, and the most-watched television program of the year. Good for them.
Obama picks the Bears
True to his Chicago roots
Is he leaning Right?
Mickelson's lost weight
He's in fighting trim and yet
Tiger isn't sweating
NASCAR green flag soon
Lots and lots of left-hand turns
Ample carnage, too
Barbaro mending
His medication reduced
Was he on horse pills?
A team's quarterback
Can't fumble in an airport
Michael Vick's a dope
Beckham to L.A.
A kick for U.S. soccer
Try to make me care
Ali's 65
Great footwork, deadly power
Butterfly and bee
Iowa lost to the Fighting Illini in Illinois' Assembly Hall last week. Iowa lost to the Hoosiers in Indiana's Assembly Hall Tuesday night.
It's mid-January, and the Hawkeyes still haven't won a true road game all season. That's not good.
That first-half of the Hawkeyes-Hoosiers game was brutal, ending with Iowa behind, 29-17. The teams picked up the pace after halftime. Well, Indiana did. Iowa followed later. Much later, as it turned out. The Hoosiers won, 71-64.
Brent Musburger was screaming and laughing the whole game. Unlike many viewers, I like Musburger. But he was weird this night. Weird and giddy. Really giddy. Didn't he realize he was in Bloomington, Ind.? But I kid Bloomington.
If you needed your palate cleansed from the Iowa game, the Texas-Oklahoma State game on ESPN2 was the ticket. It was the first time I've seen Texas 6-foot-9 freshman forward Kevin Durant. It won't be the last. This kid is sensational. Durant came into the game averaging 33 points over his previous three games and 23.7 over the season. He bumped that average upward with 37 points in the Longhorns' 105-103 loss to the Cowboys in triple-overtime. He may already be the best freshman in Big 12 history.
The Big Ten could use a super freshman like Durant. Wait, it has one. His name is Greg Oden (www.gregoden.com, www.gregodenonline.com), and he plays for Ohio State. Which hosts Iowa Saturday night. If Indiana big man D.J. White could do to Iowa what he did Tuesday (10-of-13 from the field, 23 points, 12 rebounds), what 7-foot Oden do on Saturday?
The horror. The horror.
Next Sunday is the best football day of the year. It used to be New Year's, until they moved most of the blockbuster bowl games to Jan. 2, 3, 8, and probably 17 through 29 in the future. The Rose Bowl is still on New Year's. Those old sentimentalists in Pasadena are still weeping with joy because they actually got a Big Ten/Pacific-10 matchup this year.
But this Sunday, when the AFC and NFC title games are held, is the best. It's relatively little of the sideshow insanity of the Super Bowl, and more just four teams slugging it out to get to the "ultimate" game. One of the two games will even be played outdoors in the Midwest.
If it wasn't for the fact that I'm a Mediacom cable subscriber in Cedar Rapids and don't get CBS affiliate KGAN thanks to Sinclair Broadcast Group yanking the station from Mediacom, I'd watch both games Sunday. So, like Sunday's New England-San Diego game, I'll have to catch the highlights (lowlights, if you're a Chargers fan) of the AFC championship contest on the late-night news and read about it the next day in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, the newspaper with the new-look Web site that you should go to early and often each day.
But back to Sinclair. If I haven't said it lately, thanks a lot, Sinclair. What kind of advertising rates does a local station charge when its ratings are an asterisk? Just asking.
Everybody but Chicago Bears fans seem to be pulling for the New Orleans Saints to beat the Bears Sunday in the NFC title bout. Because, you know, it would do so much for the people of New Orleans. But I'm guessing that win or lose, those in New Orleans who got wiped out because of Hurricane Katrina will still have a bit of a struggle even if the Saints reach their first Super Bowl. Something tells me all those people with Saints tickets were the ones with enough money to make their personal hurricane recoveries a little easier than those of the city's poor folks, many of whom got displaced and are probably never coming back.
What about the poor people of Chicago? They're still trying to recover from that deal a few years ago when Mrs. O'Leary's cow set fire to the whole city. They need an NFC title to help them get past that.
The poor people of Indianapolis need their Colts to beat New England in the AFC championship because it would give Colts quarterback Peyton Manning a chance to collect some product-endorsement opportunities. Manning's only been in what seems like 100 commercials in the last year. He needs more.
So here's hoping for a Chicago-Indianapolis Super Bowl. Call it Midwest provincialism. They could play the game in Gary, Indiana, instead of Miami. OK, bad idea.
But there hasn't been an all-Midwest Super Bowl since Kansas City beat Minnesota in Super Bowl IV. We're up to Super Bowl XLI, so that was XXXVII Super Bowls ago. Or 37 years, if you're not an ancient Roman. A Chicago-Indy matchup would beat the heck out of recent pairings like Pittsburgh-Seattle, New England-Carolina, or Tampa Bay-Oakland.
But if it's New Orleans-New England, I'll still watch. Oh wait, CBS has the Super Bowl this year, so I won't be able to get the game in my house. Thanks a lot, Sinclair.
"Props to Kansas."
That's my favorite quote of the college basketball season. Only because it came from Iowa State big man Jiri Hubalek of Prague, Czech Republic. That was after the Cyclones' 68-64 overtime loss to the sixth-ranked Kansas Jayhawks Saturday at Hilton Coliseum.
It's funny to hear foreigners use American slang. When a Czech is giving props to anyone, it doesn't sound quite the same as if it were coming from, say, Cyclone forward Rahshon Clark of Queens. It reminded me of the old Saturday Night Live sketches when Steve Martin and Dan Aykroyd were two wild and crazy guys.
Props to both teams, actually. Kansas and Iowa State combined to give 45 intense minutes of ball on a wintry Saturday on the Iowa prairie. Whether Kansas is deserving of its No. 6 ranking or not, I dunno. It's a real good team. But it didn't save its best for Iowa State. Which was understandable, since the Jayhawks were darn near perfect three days earlier when they blew No. 9 Oklahoma State out of Lawrence, 87-57.
Kansas is big, and man, can it ever find ways to penetrate. It plays some wickedly good defense, too. It has over 125 more turnovers forced than assists allowed. In contrast, the green-but-growing Cyclones have over 30 more turnovers than assists this season.
Kansas is a team without a single senior. Iowa State has just one senior who plays much, backup big man Jessan Gray. So this probably won't be the only entertaining KU-ISU game of the next few years.
Maybe when Kansas is playing at Ames in 2027 or 2047, U.S. Highway 30 between Cedar Rapids and Ames will be all four-lane. I've driven in quite a few parts of the nation. One of the most tedious drives anywhere remains Cedar Rapids to Tama and back. When freezing rain is part of the trip on that two-lane that leads back to home, it makes a sportswriter think this:
Props to the Interstate.
I didn't see the Iowa-Illinois basketball game Wednesday night. I have Mediacom cable. I'd sided with Mediacom in the battle with Sinclair Broadcast Group that it can't win until Wednesday. Until, that is, a Mediacom technician was supposed to come to my house between 1 and 4 p.m. to show me how to get the free antenna Mediacom gave me Tuesday to work with my television/VCR/DVD/dishawsher. The Mediacom person never showed. So now Mediacom and Sinclair both hold the same spot in my heart as tofu and spiders.
Illinois won, Iowa lost, and the Hawkeyes can't go 16-0 in the Big Ten as a result. This was one of those games that could have given Iowa a bit of separation from the rest of the bottom nine teams in the conference. Or, to be kinder, the teams not named Wisconsin and Ohio State. But by losing on the road to an Illinois team that had lost at home by 20-plus points to Ohio State, the Hawkeyes remained in the quagmire.
Iowa hosts Minnesota Saturday. Try to make me care. The Gophers are lousy. If Iowa doesn't win, a line from a Tom Petty song called "Learning to Fly" will be fitting. The rocks might melt and the sea may burn.
The Nebraska-Iowa State game was on TV in Cedar Rapids Wednesday night, though, and the Cyclones are somehow 2-0 in the Big 12 after their home victory over the Cornhuskers. ISU looked pretty undermanned in December when they went 0-3 against in-state teams, and they'll probably look really undermanned Saturday afternoon when they host Kansas. But they played Ohio State tough at Columbus, and they've shown no fear of deficits in Big 12 comeback wins over Missouri and now Nebraska.
The Kansas game will undoubtedly be a return to cold reality for the Cyclones, but Hilton Coliseum ought to be all charged up Saturday all the same.
And now ... poker, NFL playoffs, Iraq, stem cells, Donald Trump, Rosie O'Donnell, Barbara Walters, Barack Obama, Brooke Burke, Erik Estrada, global warming, recipes, "24."
That was to get those words here so people who have them in Google Alerts and other such gadgets will get directed to this site and give it hits. I'm all about the hits. Which is why you should continue to look here to see how to win a trip to the Super Bowl. You won't find it, but keep looking. I need the hits.
When Ted Ginn Jr. took the opening kickoff for a touchdown Monday night for Ohio State, I jokingly e-mailed a friend to remind him that C.J. Jones did that for Iowa in the Orange Bowl four years ago, and Iowa lost by 20 (it was 21, actually) points. So Florida was going to win by 20 over Ginn's Ohio State team.
I couldn't have dreamed that I was shortchanging the Gators, who went on to annihilate the Big Ten's best, 41-14.
Couple that with Michigan getting pasted by USC 32-18 a week earlier, and you have the Big Ten decimated, destroyed, obliterated, in ruins. All right, not literally. But man, oh man, oh man, oh man.
All the whiners who thought it should have been an Ohio State-Michigan BCS title game were mum Monday. Had USC beaten UCLA in its regular-season finale, it surely would have gone on to wipe out Ohio State in the BCS championship. The Michigan-OSU regular-season finale was a classic. But it turns out it wasn't the two best teams in college football after all, just the two best teams in the Big Ten.
How teams can change in one year. Iowa played Florida in last year's Outback Bowl, losing by a touchdown. Hawkeye fans will always wonder what would have happened had the on-sides kick the Hawkeyes recovered late in the game not been overruled by a dubious offside penalty.
But Iowa proceeded to go 2-6 in the Big Ten this year, 6-7 overall. Florida, meanwhile, wins the national title. The two teams really weren't that far apart on Jan. 1, 2006, were they?
Southern Mississippi played in the GMAC Bowl Sunday night, a fact that probably woin't turn up in high school history books. Nonetheless, it's true. The Golden Eagles featured a punter/kickoff guy named Britt Barefoot. He wore shoes while going about his duties. Not everything works out perfectly.
Sunday marked the first time in 26 years that both New York NFL teams played playoff games on the same day. The Jets and Giants both lost. Yet, New York carries on today. Why? Because it still has Rosie O'Donnell and Donald Trump. They complete us.
I was at Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids the other day and saw a car in the parking lot that had a personalized Iowa license plate that said "SATAN." Honest. I found this disturbing. I mean, shouldn't we all be a bit concerned if the Prince of Darkness is driving and shopping among us? But let's assume it's just a human being who owns the car with that plate. Did the staff at Department of Motor Vehicles at least raise an eyebrow when the person requesting that plate came in that day? Don't you have to draw the line when a license plate is, you know, demonic?
The Air Force men's basketball team is 15-1. But Air Force is considered a "mid-major" program. Hmmpf. I, for one, am glad the nation is defended by mid-major Air Force than "majors" who call themselves names like Gators and Ducks.
I had to see it to believe it, so I had my television on KGAN, the CBS affiliate in Cedar Rapids, at midnight Friday. Sure enough, Channel 2 went black. Actually, it went blue. Black or blue, it's a fight Mediacom subscribers like myself have lost. We now are without a CBS affiliate, a first in my lifetime.
That means no New England-New York Jets football game on Sunday, not that I was going to watch it anyway. But it also means no AFC Championship game in a couple weeks, and no Super Bowl in a month. Oh, no NCAA men's basketball tournament, too.
Why? Because Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc., the owner of KGAN, as well as KDSM in Des Moines and 20 other of its stations around the country that were carried by Mediacom, wanted beaucoup bucks from Mediacom. The two sides never reached an agreement before last night's deadline, thus 800,000 of Mediacom's 1.3 million subscribers are affected. Including me. Which is why I care.
Sinclair says blah, blah, blah, and Mediacom says blah, blah, blah. But while I haven't met a cable company yet that would win any humanitarian awards, and won't hold my breath to wait for my Mediacom bill to get reduced a few bucks because KGAN is no longer offered (though it certainly should), this Sinclair outfit is something else. In 2004, Sinclair refused to allow the eight ABC stations it owned to broadcast an airing of a Nightline tribute to the 721 U.S. soldiers killed up to that time in the 2003 invastion and occupation of Iraq, calling it a "political agenda designed to undermine the efforts
of the United States in Iraq." Both supporters and opponents of the war got ticked off at Sinclair for that.
Of course, later that same year Sinclair ordered all of its affiliates to preempt prime-time programming to air a documentary critical of U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry two weeks before the national election. Protests resulted in a more balanced news program being aired.
I'm not going to air a dirty laundry list of some of Sinclair' s actions over the last several years, because you can easily find one elsewhere on the Internet. If you live in an area with a Sinclair station, ask yourself if that station's news operation has improved or worsened since Sinclair's takeover. I know the answer where I live.
For the last several weeks, KGAN ran a large scrawl at the bottom of its programming, offering people a rebate if they switched to DirecTV. Which is why I can't and won't do it. I'll get around to getting some rabbit ears to pulling in KGAN at home. In the meantime, I'll miss seeing David Letterman's show and "60 Minutes," though I just pretend that I'll miss "60 Minutes" to try to sound like a smart guy. But it's not like CBS is showing "The Office" or "Lost" or "Friday Night Lights" or any of the best prime-time shows on television these days, and it sure doesn't have anything to compare to the best series HBO has to offer.
Just writing this makes me feel pretty foolish, because there are so many real outrages in the world that need drums pounded for them. But when you yank the Super Bowl and NCAA Tournament and the Masters out of my house, you invoke an old Merle Haggard lyric. You're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.
Oh, it just occurred to me that KGAN is the self-titled "Home of the Hawks." That means Mediacom subscribers in Cedar Rapids and other parts of Eastern Iowa won't have access to a large number of University of Iowa men's basketball games. Maybe the Hawkeyes should offer rebates of their own, to try to get television viewers to instead attend their games in person.
Just trying to help. And now, we return to our regularly scheduled programming.
Finally, the Iowa men's basketball team had a double-digit lead in the second-half of a game that meant something, and didn't let it get away.
Thursday night's 62-60 win over Michigan State was critical for the Hawkeyes in more than one way. Not the least important, they didn't do what they did against Arizona State and Northern Iowa when they let leads of 12 or 13 points completely dwindle away as they groped down the stretch. MSU pared a 13-point deficit to two, but this time the Hawkeyes were the car salesmen who didn't let the customer leave the lot until a sale had been made, a deal closed.
OK, that metaphor is kind of ridiculous.
But this was a game Iowa absolutely, positively had to have. That may sound a bit like overkill since it was only Game 1 of a 16-game Big Ten season. But everyone in Iowa knew what really was at stake. If the Hawkeyes lost this one, on top of dropping six nonconference games to teams that include UNI and Drake, their image would be one of a team not especially worthy of our attention.
That's sort of been the case, anyway. Over 4,000 tickets went unsold for this game, for the game, for the game that began Big Ten play for the Hawkeyes. Michigan State isn't Penn State or Northwestern. It's a time-proven national college basketball power. It's a drawing card, even if it lacks much resemblance to Tom Izzo's many fine teams of the last decade. For one thing, these Spartans don't run. Shannon Brown and Maurice Ager are gone, long gone.
Never mind that, though, this was Michigan State-Iowa at Carver, and 4,000 tickets weren't bought. Even though that hasn't happened since, well, certainly not since Carver-Hawkeye Arena opened 23 Januarys ago. What would have happened had Iowa not won this home game, and fallen to 8-7 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten? What kind of gate would Iowa have had for its next two home contests, against (yawn) Minnesota and Penn State? Not good, that's what.
The many who are pessimistic or apathetic about Steve Alford's program would have written off the conference season as a lost cause with a homecourt defeat in the opener, especially when the first four in-league games were all won by home teams. Those fans who no longer see the need to pay the $25 price for an Iowa ticket as it is would have been further alienated by a loss.
Defending your homecourt against Michigan State doesn't make you a Big Ten contender. It doesn't even make you a good team. But it was something positive, something tangible. It's just one game, and it was just holding serve at home. But it beat the bejeebers out of the alternative.
"Ohhh, needed that,'' Iowa Athletic Director Gary Barta said in a CHA hallway after the game. Ohhh, yes he and his men's basketball program did.
Meanwhile, I look forward to Saturday in the UNI-Dome when Southern Illinois meets Northern Iowa, the two teams tied for the Missouri Valley Conference lead at 3-0. Now that's a big game.
Alabama fancies itself one of the elite programs in college football.
That's interesting, since it's had one winning season out of the last four,
and since Dennis Franchione bolted Tuscaloosa four years ago to take the
Texas A&M job after being at 'Bama for just two seasons, and since the Tide
haven't won a national title since 1992.
But they've gotten sick of mediocrity down there, and threw a $32 million package (plus incentives, of course) at Nick Saban, a job-hopper who preaches integrity. Except for
that part about breaking contracts and not fulfilling promises, anyhow. Oh,
and lying. Old Nick lied quite a bit recently.
If anything, Saban's return to college football illustrates that Iowa's
Kirk Ferentz may not make a return to the NFL himself. I used to think (and
write) that it was a matter of time until Ferentz left Iowa behind for the
right NFL spot. Now, I doubt it. Not when Iowa is willing to pay him $2.7
million or whatever incredible amount per year. If you're one game over
.500 in a 2-year span in the NFL, you've got one foot on a banana peel. At
Iowa, you get a built-in raise for taking your team to a bowl game, even if
you came from it with a 6-7 record.
Pete Carroll is king of the world as USC's coach, and seems to realize it.
He had two coaching gigs in the NFL, and neither ended happily. Now he's
the lord and ruler of a college football juggernaut, and life is good.
"It's more about an opportunity to do things the way you want to do it and
to have the freedom to do it,'' Carroll told the Los Angeles Times' T.J.
Simers. "I'm old enough so that's become more important."
"I've been through the (NFL) thing and I had enough of it. I didn't realize
how much fun it was going to be to coach college football. I just fell in
love with this thing; it's a blast here. That's what has changed over the
past few years. It's become a better situation. You look at Nick Saban, and
it's hard on those guys, man. It's a harder world there."
But the college game is getting harder, too. Minnesota fired Glen Mason
because going to Music City and Insight bowls wasn't enough. Oh, and
because Gopher fans were sick of him, too. Michigan State is on its third
coach since Saban left there (three jobs ago) in 1999. Saban, by the way,
only had one season better than 7-5 in his five seasons in East Lansing.
What will Alabama do if Saban can't one-up SEC powers like Florida,
Auburn, Tennessee and LSU, let alone Georgia, Arkansas, and Steve Spurrier's South Carolina? I think it will have no choice to fire Saban, and pay someone else a package of $100 million to lead the Crimson Tide back to
what it so richly deserves, a championship.
I'm liking Boise State more with each passing moment.
All is quiet on New Year's Day.
That's the opening line to an old U2 song called "New Year's Day." It was one of the first videos MTV played. The song was about political unrest in Poland or something heavy like that. All I know about the song is The Edge played a mean piano in it.
But this New Year's Day wasn't quiet. No sir, not quiet at all. Even though the BCS national-championship game isn't played until Jan. 8 for some perverse reason, New Year's had the game of the year when Boise State beat Oklahoma in overtime, 43-42. If you saw the game, you were probably all hollering out loud late in the fourth quarter and in overtime. If you missed it and you like college football, you're not off to a lucky start in 2007,
While Boise State grabbed the headline of the day, it was interesting that former Iowa player/assistant coach Bret Bielema capped a 12-1 rookie season as head coach of Wisconsin with his Badgers' 17-14 win over Auburn in the Capital One Bowl. It seems to me that going 12-1 in your first year of coaching and winning a Capital One Bowl is pretty good.
It's not as good as going 13-0 and beating Oklahoma in the Fiesta Bowl like Boise State's Chris Petersen did in his first year as a head coach, but it's a start.
At the Rose Bowl, Adrian Arrington of Cedar Rapids Washington caught a touchdown pass for Michigan in its loss to USC. It was Arrington's eight TD catch of the season. It occurred to me that someone from Cedar Rapids catches a touchdown pass in the Rose Bowl about, oh, once every 100 Rose Bowls or so.
Nothing changes on New Year's Day, Bono sang. Don't tell that to Boise State.