WIAC Preview Two-a-days Part 4: UW-River Falls

UW-River Falls

Fast Facts:

Head Coach: Matt Walker; 4th season (1st at UWRF); 22-8 (overall) / 0-0 (UWRF)

Starters Returning/Lost on Offense: 7/4

Starters Returning/Lost on Defense: 8/3

Starters Returning/Lost at Kicker: 2/0

Returning All-WIAC: Taylor Edwards (Sr., RB, 2009-Second, 2010-First); Greg Klingelhutz (Sr., All-Purpose, 2009-First, 2010-First)

2011 Schedule

2010 Recap:

Coach Jon O’Grady’s swan song was a sad tune but definitely ended on a high note.  All three of the Falcons’ non-conference games were against teams that eventually in the Playoffs.  The Falcons then dropped their first 6 conference games but did defeat UW-Eau Claire 45-43 in their final game of the season and Jon O’Grady’s final game as head coach.  Taylor Edwards rushed for over 1,000 yards and 6 scores and averaged over 100 yards rushing per game. Greg Klingelhutz meanwhile averaged just under 150 all-purpose yards per game.

2011 Outlook:

Matt Walker takes over at the helm for the Falcons this year and does have some returning talent.  Edwards and Klingelhutz are back as is B.J. Letourneau who played in 8 games at the Quarterback position last year splitting time with Ryan Luessenheide who is out of eligibility.  Walker has an interesting background.  He played Football and Baseball at SCAC power DePauw University in the late ‘90s, managed a baseball team in Crawfordsville, Ind. From ’97-’05 and was the head baseball coach for DePauw from 2001-2009 and an assistant for the football team from 2000-2005 before taking over as the Head Coach from 2006-2009 where he went 22-8.  Last Season, he coached Tight Ends at Butler.  Walker now takes over one of the more maligned programs in the WIAC.  The Falcons have won 6 combined conference games in the past 4 seasons.  The O-line is young featuring mostly sophomores but back is Joe Gotmer who was an All-WIAC honorable mention last season. Klingelhutz is now a DB but the 3 of the top 4 rushers are back from the ground based Falcons.  2 of the top 3 receivers are also back in John Wahlstrom and Brady Hannigan.  On defense the Falcons return 8 of their top eleven tacklers from 2010.  While the number of returning players in encouraging for the Falcons, the fact still remains that quite frankly those players haven’t played all too well.  The Falcons will look to turn that experience into wins in 2011.

Big Question:

What effect will the changes in the coaching staff have on this team?

Coach Walker has an impressive resume and brings a new energy to the team.  He also brings new offensive coordinator Jake Wissing.  Wissing worked under Walker at DePauw and has a reputation for producing a strong run game which is one thing River Falls has had going for them the past few years.  The thing that remains to be seen is if the Falcons will continue with their old-school power running game or set-up a more modern pro-style look.  Unfortunately this video doesn’t offer any clues.  We’ll just have to wait to find out.

Player to Watch:

Taylor Edwards

Edwards has posted back-to-back 1,000 yard rushing seasons and unless there is a drastic change in scheme I see no reason why he can’t get a third.  After the league had a bevy of talented running backs last year the group has thinned a bit and Edwards, in my opinion, is behind only UWW running back Levell Coppage in the race for the best back in the league.  Edwards is a powerful back that looks to run guys over and has success doing it.  He will hope to be more than just the lone bright spot on a bad team this season.

Bottom Line:

River Falls returns a large number of players but not necessarily all that much talent.  Coaching changes can be tough and one of the team’s best players has to deal with a position change in his final year. This season will likely be another struggle for the once proud program. It’s hard to believe that the Falcons have 18 conference titles, good for 3^rd place in conference history.  At this point or the Falcons there is nowhere to go but up.

Tomorrow I'll look at UW-Eau Claire and UW-Oshkosh 

WIAC Preview two-a-days Part 3: UW-Stevens Point

UW-Stevens Point:

Fast Facts:

Head Coach: John Miech; 24th season at UWSP; 152-78-2
Starters Returning/Lost on Offense: 7/4
Starters Returning/Lost on Defense: 6/5
Starters Returning/Lost at Kicker: 1/1
Returning All-WIAC: Jered Fohrman (Sr., Kicker, 2010-First); Joe Mleziva (Sr., DB, 2010-First); Justin Ourada (Sr., Center, 2010-Second)

2010 Recap:

In my opinion the Pointers were the WIAC’s most overachieving team last season.  They finished 7-3 on the season with one loss coming at home in the first game of the season to West Coast power Williamette.  Point’s 2 conference losses both came on the road, at Eau Claire in overtime to start conference play and at Whitewater.  Point managed to stay within two touchdowns of the Warhawks which is something that few teams can boast.  They did all this despite losing their leading passer from 2009 and using a converted wide receiver at quarterback as well as losing their leading rusher from 2009 as well.  They were also missing key defensive pieces from 2009 in leading tackler John Jones and Bryan Blum.  Despite those loses the defense was still a strength for the Pointers as Joe Mleziva, Peter Peterson and Mat Lunder had great years.  It also helps to have a guy that made it into NFL camp in Jared Jenkins who caught 67 balls for 946 yards and 10 TDs in 2010 after catching 80 passes for 1210 yards and 12 TDs in 2009 with Jared Beckwith at the helm. Jenkins was also the team’s All-American punter in 2010 averaging 44 yards per punt with 13 inside the 20 and 9 that went 50 yards plus.  The Pointers rode Jenkins and their defense to a successful season in 2010.

2011 Schedule

2011 Outlook:

Some pundits have tabbed Point as a team that might challenge Whitewater this year and the Pointers are ranked 23^rd in the nation by d3football.com. I, personally, am not so optimistic.  The Pointers will have their third different Quarterback in 3 years.  Tyler Wolf and Casey Barnes are two candidates for the job and my guess is the nod will go to Barnes who started last year against Williamette but was pulled in favor of Jake Swank.  After that game Barnes only threw 3 passes in a game going 2 for 2 in mop-up duty against Albion and 0-1 against UW-Oshkosh.  Wolf attempted 2 passes last year against UW-Lacrosse and went 0 for 2 getting picked off once. Obviously quarterback is a position of concern for Coach Miech.    Not only that but the Pointers need to fill the void left by not only Jared Jenkins but the teams number 2 receiver in 2010 Anthony Aker.  Those 2 accounted for 1,484 of Point’s 1,895 yards through the air and 15 of the team’s 20 passing touchdowns in 2010. The Running back situation is a bit murky.  The Pointers roster doesn't have Keith Ingram listed but this article has Ingram in the mix. So, that really leaves me in the lurch as to my ability to make a comment. The rest of this preview will go based off the information from the Pointer roster, i.e. no Ingram. The O-line does return 4 starters plus a two other guys who made a combined 4 appearances last season.  On defense Joe Mlezvia is back as a grad student and has been one of this team’s top three tacklers in the past two seasons and earning All-WIAC honors last year. Other returning contributors include Curtis Krump, Skylar Stecker, Kody Morgan, Colton Zimmerman, Cody Seibel, Dan Wall, Ethan Firgens, Ryan Marnocha, Colin Johnson, Brad Davis and Greg Peterson. In case you weren’t counting that means Point returns 12 of its top 18 tacklers from last season.  This along with the losses on offense makes it pretty obvious what type of team Point will be this year which leads me to my big question.

Big Question:

Will the offense improve enough by October 29^th to give the Pointers a chance to knock-off Whitewater?

It’s going to be baptism by fire for this offense as the Pointers see the flip side of their favorable home schedule last season.  Their first game is in Salem, Oregon against a Williamette team that beat them last year. In all, the Pointers only play 4 home games this season and have 3 of their first four and 3 of their last 4 games on the road.  While I would say defense tends to travel better than offense it is going to be very tough for this defense, as good as I think it will be, to carry this young offense especially on the road.  But I thought the same thing last year and the Pointers ended up in 2^nd place in the conference when all was said and done.  In order for this team to succeed the offense will need to grow up fast.


Player to Watch:

Joe Mlezvia

Mlezvia is a very good player and an absolute ball hawk.  Over the past 2 seasons he’s had 174 tackles, 6 tackles for loss, 2 sacks, and 7 interceptions with 174 return yards on those picks.  He has come up huge time and time again and I expect the same from him this year.

Bottom Line:

This team will go as far as their defense can carry them this year.  While the game against UWW is a big match-up, the Pointers cannot look past UW-Stout on October 8^th.  That game will feature to similar, defensive minded teams and will likely determine who has the best shot to take down Whitewater and at the very least who will finish in 2^nd in the conference with a possible playoff berth on the line.  The season will likely hinge on the development of the offense to take some of the burden off the defense.

Extra Point:

Here is a link to a video of Point’s intrasquad scrimmage on August 20^th, for what it’s worth.


Part 4 will be out later today and will feature the UW-River Falls Falcons.

WIAC Preview 2-a-days part 2

UW-Stout

Fast Facts:

Head Coach: Clayt Birmingham; 2nd season at UWS; 6-4

Starters Returning/Lost on Offense: 6/5

Starters Returning/Lost on Defense: 8/3

Starters Returning/Lost at Kicker: 3/0

Returning All-WIAC: Tyler Butzler (Sr., OL, 2010-Second); Ryan Pearcy (Sr., LB, 2010-First); Richard Marteney (So., Kicker, 2010-Second)

2011 Schedule

2010 Recap:

In their first year under Clayt Birmingham the Blue Devils went 6-4 overall and 4-3 in the WIAC good for 3^rd place in the conference.  Stout was 2^nd in both total offense and total defense in 2010 behind only eventual national champion UW-Whitewater.  Stout started the season with a heartbreaking loss in overtime to Black Hills state of South Dakota due to a missed extra point by Ryan Howg.  The Blue Devils won their next 2 non-conference games and beating UW-River Falls to start the conference slate.  They then dropped back-to-back games to UWW and Stevens Point.  In that game against Point the Blue Devils thought they had it won when it appeared as though Billy Rosenthal returned a interception for a touchdown but he was ruled down on the catch and Stout could not move the ball on offense and suffered a heartbreaking 27-21 lost to the Pointers.  After a bounce back win against Eau Claire the next week Stout dropped a game they should have won against UW-Lacrosse.  Down by 7 late in the game the Eagles converted on 2 fourth downs and a 2-point conversion for the win on a 76-yard drive in the final minutes of the ball game.  Stout would rebound and finish the season with wins against Platteville and Oshkosh.  In all Stout was 2 breaks away from a pretty special season.

2011 Outlook:

In the Blue Devils’ season preview video two things stood out to me.  First was this team’s confidence, all they players spoke to the talent of the team. Second was the acknowledgement of a higher level of maturity.  That to me is huge for this team.  Their losses to both Point and even more so Lacrosse were about a lack of focus and maturity in my opinion.  If this team has that on top of the talent they have coming back they will be very dangerous and might just be able to knock off Whitewater.  They return their top 3 tacklers on defense and their Quarterback Ross Carey who had the fewest interceptions of starters in the league last year with only 3 picks with 15 TDs and over 1,800 yards passing.  This defense is deep and experienced and will be the strength of this team in 2011.  The offensive line also looks to be a strength boasting 5 seniors anchored by 2010 All-WIAC selection Tyler Butzler.

Big Question:

How will Ross Carey adapt with losses at the skill positions on offense?

The Blue Devils lose 8 of their top 9 receivers from last season and starting running back Craig Warminski who gained over 1,000 yards on the ground and rushed for 8 TDs as well. Daniel Vyvyan is the returning lead rusher with 120 yards last year.  One of those 8 receivers is actually Tight End and safety blanket Patrick Mengelkoch.  Mengelkoch was Carey’s go-to-guy last year catching 48 balls for 655 yards and 4 touchdowns.  Antawan Walker is also gone and he led the team in touchdowns through the air with 7 in 2010.  So that leaves tight end Josh Peterson as the lead-returning receivers with 7 catches for 78 yards and no scores.  If Peterson can become Megelkoch 2.0 and Stout can find a running back or more likely running backs to replicate Warminski’s productivity, this could be a special season.  If not Stout will likely in a lot of low scoring affairs.

Player to Watch:

Ross Carey

The fate of this offense relies heavily on Carey’s ability to step-up his game from game manager to playmaker.  Not that Carey has been bad or that the game manager tag should be taken as an insult.  He was just behind Nate Wara last year statistically in the passing game and could maybe get himself into the best QB in the conference conversation with Wara and Matt Blanchard of Whitewater.  But how he will deal with being the focus of the opposition’s game plan will go a long way in determining how Stout’s season goes.

Bottom Line:

I expect good things from Stout this year.  Would Coach B love to have some more skill players coming back? Sure he would.   However, games are won and lost in the trenches and Stout is strong on both sides in that area.  It is also been said that defense wins championships and Stouts defense looks to be championship caliber this season.

Tomorrow I'll take a look at Stevens Point and River Falls.

TTFN 

WIAC Preview 2-a-days Part 1

For this week leading up to the beginning of the NCAA Division III football season I will be previewing one of the nations higher profile conferences, the WIAC.  Much of the notoriety of this conference comes from back-to-back National Champion UW-Whitewater Warhawks but the WIAC is more than UWW and a series of also-rans. The WIAC is a deep and talented conference.  Throughout this week I will take a look at 2 teams a day Monday-Thursday and then on Friday I will take a look at the conference as a whole and make my predictions for the season.  So let’s get things started with who else but the 6 time defending conference champs the UW-Whitewater Warhawks.

UW-Whitewater:

Fast Facts:

Head Coach: Lance Leipold; 5th season at UWW; 57-3
Starters Returning/Lost on Offense: 5/6
Starters Returning/Lost on Defense: 5/6
Returning All-WIAC: Greg Arnold (Sr., LB, 2010-Second); Matt Blanchard (Sr., QB, 2010-First); Levell Coppage (Sr., RB, 2008-First, 2009-First, 2010-Player of the Year); Kris Rosholt (Sr., Punter, 2009-Second, 2010-First)

2011 Schedule

2010 Recap:

Last year the Warhawks went 15-0 and 7-0 in the WIAC en route to their 6^th straight conference title and 2^nd consecutive national championship.  They were driven by a powerful running game with a trio of running backs that rushed for over 3,500 yards and 38 touchdowns on the season.  While Coppage, Anderson and Stanley were great talents the Warhawk O-Line really made that kind of production possible.  Aaron Rusch stood out a Wide Receiver catching 88 balls for over 1,000 yards and 14 touchdowns.  Matt Blanchard was the team’s Number 1 Quarterback but missed significant time late in the season due to injury and Lee Brekke was forced to fill in.  Blanchard threw for over 2,000 yards 21 TDs and had a completion percentage of 72.4 with only 1 INT.  The Warhawks scored 40.2 points per game and only allowed 11.8 ppg.  The defense allowed a miniscule 1.7 yards per attempt on the ground.  UWW’s opponents gained just over half of the yards that the Warhawks gained.  Obviously this was one of Whitewater’s best years even for its standards.

2011 Outlook:

UWW is looking to make it 7 consecutive conference titles and will likely meet up with Mt. Union again in the D3 championship game (AKA the Stagg Bowl).  I personally see no reason why this team won’t make it 7 in a row.  Levell Coppage is an extraordinary talent and might rush for 2,500 yards plus this season with his backfield makes from last year, Antwan Anderson and Booker Stanley, having run out of eligibility.  Blanchard is back and has a year of starting under his belt.  The defense returns starters at every level including 3 defensive backs.  All of the Warhawk’s specialists return for the 2011 campaign.  This looks to be another great year of Whitewater football.

Big Question:

How will losing 6 starters on each side of the ball affect the Warhawks bid for a 3-peat?

If there is one thing that UWW fans have to worry about this season it is the team’s losses to graduation. The Warhawks lose two 1,000 yard receivers as well as their starting tight end.  Those same players caught 27 of Whitewater’s 33 receiving touchdowns. On defense they lose 3 starting linemen, a linebacker and 2 DBs one of which was the team’s best defensive player and leading tackler in Lane Olson and the other lead the team in interceptions in Matt McCulloch.  In my opinion the biggest losses are on the offensive line. 4 of the 5 starters from 2010 are gone including All-Americans Robby Ustruck and Matt Weber.  As I said before last year’s O-line made those 3,500 rushing yards possible and also allowed only 8 sacks on the season.  I’m not saying there’s trouble in paradise but I’m sure all of this at least a small concern to Coach Leipold and his staff.

Player to Watch:

Levell Coppage

As I wrote above Coppage is a sick talent.  D3football.com has a great feature on him as well. He has rushed for over 2,100 yards the past 2 years and that was with the also talented Antwan Anderson with him in the backfield.  Coppage is good enough to make up for the losses on the O-line and has a legit shot to earn the 2,400 yards he needs to become the NCAA’s all-time leading rusher regardless of division.  That means Coppage has a real chance to end up with more rushing yards than this man.

Bottom Line:

At the end of the day despite their losses Whitewater is a team the reloads.  I’m sure there are very talented players who have been waiting and practicing hard to get their chance and they’ll get it this year and they’ll probably succeed.  If Coppage and Blanchard were not on the team or get injured I could see this being the year UWW would get knocked off.  But since that is not the case I can only conclude that UWW will win the WIAC and appear the Stagg bowl, again.

Part 2 will be out later tonight and will feature Wisconsin’s Polytechnic University, the UW-Stout Blue Devils.

TTFN

The Hiatus is over. Ready to go for a great fall.

Don't say I didn't warn you.  I told you my posting might tail off, especially in the summer and unsurprisingly it did.  But I'm back from camp and ready to hit on some of my favorite sports and topics heading into the new school year. Here are just some quick thoughts on the events that took place this summer.

• The NFL lockout was lame
• The NBA lockout continues to be troublesome
• I picked both the NCAA basketball and NBA Finals champions correctly at the beginning of their respective playoffs.
• The Badgers got Russel Wilson, awesome.
• The Brewers are absolutely rolling right now, thanks in large part to their pitching.
• The Packers look great.
• All in all Wisconsin sports are at an all time high in my opinion.
• The Little League World Series is the work of the devil.  Seriously I hate it.  It is exploitative and boring.  I have no interest in watching 12-year-olds from Louisiana and Venezuela play baseball against each other.  They haven't even hit puberty yet.  It really is the worst programming on ESPN.  The only time I will ever care about the LLWS is when Hawaii is playing and that is only because one of my best friends is Hawaiian and loves that team.  I have not watched 1 minute of the LLWS and I intend to keep it that way.

That's all I have for now.  I will be previewing the season for some UW-Oshkosh teams as well as looking around the entire WIAC for football.  I will also probably look at UW football and the Packers seasons as well.  I might post more about the Brewers but it's really hard to post about something that happens pretty much every day and about a team where the story is the same day in and day out. Which in this case is great because they just keep winning.  Honestly, I'm waiting for something new to happen like Carlos Gomez or Rickie Weeks coming back from injury and September 1st when rosters expand.  Until then Brewers baseball will somehow be both exciting and boring at the same time.  I might take a look at the state of the NCAA as well.  As always however I'll write about what I want when I want because I can.  Hope you had a good summer, I know I did and I hope for a great fall as well.

TTFN

How the American Dream relates to our role models and the rise, fall and possible rebirth of local sports.

Yesterday I finished my first week of summer camp for the year.  As I reflected on my week, before going to bed, I had an epiphany of sorts.  Through out the week my campers were talking about this guy named Tobuscus.  I don't pretend to be up on the latest pop culture fare (I basically only listen to music made before 1998, I watch mostly sports on TV and the only movies I'll watch in theaters are super hero movies) but I had no clue who this guy was.  This made the generation gap between myself and my campers abundantly clear.  I have often pondered in my quiet moments about how social media such as facebook and twitter has impacted the social relationships of my generation and the same holds true in its own way for youtube and people like Tobuscus.  My campers idolized this man but even after watching his videos I had no idea why.  So I visited his official website and read his "bio."  It confirmed what I had already thought, Tobuscus (AKA Toby Turner) was a comedian who made a couple "funny" videos and rode that success to some degree of fame.  The dude actually has an acting reel and I would say its mostly pretty bad. That does not matter though, because somehow he made it big.  Is that not the American Dream?  That anyone from anywhere can make it if they get a lucky break.  That dream is more realizable now than it ever has been before due to social and web based media.  I in no way fault or blame Toby for chasing after and fulfilling his dream, good for him.  What does concern me is that he is being looked up to by middle school boys.  Why would I want the youth of America to look up to him? What has he really done or accomplished aside from being famous? (I am using the terms fame and famous loosely in this article).  Maybe he has done some good things and I guess the same could be said for any comedian but the lack of filter from producer to consumer makes it so much easier to have an impact, positive or negative, on people's lives than ever before.  So how does this relate to sports? When I was growing up my role models, idols, heroes, whatever you want to call them were determined in large part by the TV.  Television is the dominant medium of my generation.  Growing up we watched the likes of MJ, Ken Griffey Jr., Brett Favre and Dale Earnhart and they became our heroes.  People in the media TOLD us who to like and force fed them to us. Conversely it was also able to pick and choose some of the better role models out there. Television allowed someone in Denver to watch his beloved Red Sox play the Yankees even though they were hundreds of miles away.  Television brought the world into our homes. Youtube brings our homes out into the world.  It allows people from all over to see what they want when they want it.  Just a few years ago if I missed an amazing play like this one pulled by my old high school baseball team the only media available to tell me what happened would be word of mouth.  Now I can watch that clip from a Madison TV station up in my house in Oshkosh.  It really is incredible if you think about it.  I mean without youtube only a hand full of people would ever know about one of the most incredible finishes I have ever seen in sports.  In my opinion the development of TV was a striking blow to local sports.  Ratings dictate reaching the largest audience possible meaning big cities. That then is who the networks pander to.  It is easier to reach that number of people in one area than the same number from across the midwest.  So networks show content that is appealing and relevant to people in big cities. When that is what is available, big time money making sports in large markets, that is what people consume and people care about.  It is a chicken and the egg scenario, does ESPN hype Duke/North Carolin because it is popular or is Duke/North Carolina popular because ESPN hypes it up (Being the good Catholic that I am I'd have to say both). In my opinion there really is no reason anyone outside of New York or Boston who is not a Yankees or Red Sox fan should give a blood nickel about any regular season series between those two teams.  If you love the game of baseball and love watching the game itself that's one thing, and that is not what I am talking about.  I am talking about the hype and coverage leading up to and following those games.  National games in and of themselves are really cool and if you are a local fan it is nice to know that people across the country get to see how good your team is but beyond the game it is just not necessary.  Much like the athletes I was told to like these are the teams and sports I am told to care about.  Now that doesn't have to be the case.  With the wide array of media available I can choose what I want to watch and who to care about.  I can see highlights of my local team, and so can someone in Tacoma.  Before Television, more specifically cable and satellite television, people cared about their local teams.  This is because of what I stated before, people will consume what is available.  Before cable television Oshkosh had a pro basketball team.  That was because people came to see the game and that was all that mattered, that is what was being sold, tickets to the game.  All there was to consume was the game itself and maybe some talk at the barbershop or at work but that's it.  No sports talk radio, no sportscenter, no youtube.  Just the game itself live or maybe on the radio, a summary in your local paper (which was all you got because you couldn't get the Wall Street journal online) and maybe some talk with your neighbors. Now people see big name franchises regularly on TV, radio and the web that is what they care about.  This nationalization of sports has nearly killed the local sports scene.  The web now offers new but different possibilities.  Listen, local sports will never be what they were but TV won't be what it was either.  With so many options one program will rarely if ever be able to grab as large a percentage of viewers as shows like M*A*S*H did back in the day. Niche marketing is the wave of the future.  People now are so divided, there are so few cultural touchstones, that now rather than trying to reach that large audience (although sports is the one place where this still survies so some degree) and be that larger cultural touchstone they try to be that for smaller subcultures, like Tobuscus is to the video game world. There doesn't need to be a large audience anymore just a niche, and hopefully local sports still have at least that. Like I said before youtube, and TV now in its own way, is bringing our living rooms out into the world.  Flipping through the channels this morning I had the option of watching Classic High School Baseball.  At one point in time that would have been thought to be inconceivable, what kind of market is there for something like that, but no longer.  If local sports and small universities, like my Alma mater UW-Oshkosh,  play there cards right and utilize this new media they might be able to experience a rebirth of sorts.  Personally I hope this happens.  I love local sports and I find it more compelling to follow a team and athletes in my community who might be less skilled or developed than  great teams or players who are miles away literally and figuratively.  High schools seem to be the the least affected by nationalization because of civic pride.  The high school quarterback might not be the hero he once was but I know that my sister as a stand out in high school and now at the college level had many little girls look up to her.  I hope that these other local sports, like minor leagues, home talent leagues and most of all small colleges are able to find a way to evoke the same kind of civic pride as these high schools.  Especially the colleges.  Because those great high school athletes you follow and care passionately about may go off and play at a division  2 or 3 school or maybe even a small division 1 school and then play in front of crowds smaller than the ones they played for in High School.  That just doesn't seem right to me. I would like to see a day when local TV stations broadcast local games live.  I'd love to see the Mallards, T-Ratts, Admirals and Wave on TV regulary. So while I'm not so hot on youtube making Tobuscus into an idol for our youth I do hope it provides an opportunity for those same youths to see Jared Jenkins, Jack Borski, Jeff Donovan, Luke Westphal, Christina Cahoon, Britta Peterson, DJ Marsh and Dane Seckar-Anderson because those folks worked hard to achieve their success and that is what the American Dream is really about.

TTFN

A look at the NBA finals

So I got a chance to watch most of game 1 last night and basically that game reinforced all my thoughts about the series which are as follows.  When it comes to this series my heart says Mavs but my head says Heat.  It is not that I hate the Heat.  I like the Heat, I like LeBron.  I just like Dirk so much more.  I've been a huge Dirk fan since 7th grade and would love to see him win a title.  I love guys who generally play below the rim because I play below the rim.  While it is all but impossible for me to be a reasonable facsimile of what Dirk does, it is impossible for me to do what LeBron does.  That endears me to Dirk and makes me in complete and total awe of LeBron.  I do want Dirk to get a title but I wouldn't be that upset if Miami won, because I also want to see LeBron succeed.  At the end of the day I don't really know what level Dirk elevates to with one title.  I think he's around top 25 all-time already and he will really only pass the Malones and Barkleys of the world.  Jason Kidd might actually elevate more with a title but still won't end up as high as Dirk.  But the history of the NBA shows that Miami will win this title and many titles to come.  With the exception of the 1970's when a myriad teams won just one title one or two teams have dominated each decade.  The Lakers in the 50s, The Celtics in th 60s, skip the 70s, Lakers/Celtics in the 80s, Detroit as a transition into the Bulls dominated 90s (with the Rockets thrown in) and then the Lakers and Spurs dominated the past 12 years winning 9 of the 12 titles with the Heat, Pistons and Big Three Celtics winning the other three.  For all intents and purposes the Heat will likely be the dominant team of the next decade with the Bulls and Thunder possibly sneaking in there for a title or two.  Every decade has had really fine, good teams besides the ones that won titles (60s Lakers, 80s Pistons, 90s Jazz, 00s Nets) but it is winning the finals and even more so winning multiple titles that separates very good teams from great teams.  I think the Heat are a great team.

TTFN