No, that’s no my bracket…..but it might as well be. I too had Kansas winning it all, facing off with Duke for the national title. But wow oh wow, what a miserable March it’s been for the tourney pool geeks! Did you all hear the statistic, that out of 5.9 million people who entered the ESPN.com contest this year, that a mere TWO people actually picked the Final Four contestants!?!
Wait a second…..TWO!?! That reminds me of the Bob Uecker line in Major League, during a broadcast wrap-up when he says “the Indians managed two hits tonight….
Two hits?! Two g%$&@#N hits!?”
Anywho, the sun shines on the underdog’s you-know-what for 2011. I know some out there have harped on college basketball and what it’s become with all the early entries to the NBA draft. And how it is reminiscent of an apartment complex full of young people all waiting to move on to when they can buy their own house (the NBA). But I guess 2011 has shown that with the early entries and parity everywhere you look, that there is at least HOPE out there that if you can make the dance, anything can happen. That used to be simply lip service, that the underdog might get their day in the sun and pull an upset or two along the way, but in the end the superpowers will flex their muscle and Cinderella will get sent home. But clearly that trend started to fade with George Mason a few years ago, and of course Butler last year. Now if you are a hoops nerd, come March you get that invite, you are definitely alive!
Now what the ‘dogs do to the ratings? That’s another story. Having no one’s or two’s even make it to the Final Four, you have to wonder what the general interest level will actually turn out to be. There was a report that the first weekend of the tourney actually had good ratings, but that was when there were so many teams still playing, AND they were on multiple networks. This last weekend, things reportedly returned to normal. The real proof will be what happens this coming Saturday-Monday. At least the majority of the country has heard of Kentucky and UConn? We’ll see what happens.
Moving on….
I have been on the road the last three weeks due to real-life work stuff, and it has given me a great chance to do some reading with in-flight wifi on those seriously long flights from Seattle (it’s amazing how you realize how isolated we are up here once you get out in the real world and travel around to different time zones!). But one of the things I noticed late last week that may have been lost in all the NCAA/NIT hoopla was Ted Miller’s ranking of the “Pac-12 three-headed monsters”. And believe it or not, WSU wasn’t last in something! I know, right?! But in fact, Miller likes the combo of Jeff Tuel, Marquess Wilson and Logwone Mitz so much, he has them at #5 in “three-headed-monsterness”:
5. Washington State
QB Jeff Tuel, RB Logwone Mitz, WR Marquess Wilson
The skinny : Lookie here! The Cougs on a list! Wilson ranked second in the conference as a true freshman with 83.8 yards receiving per game, averaging a strong 18.3 yards per catch. Folks who pay attention know Tuel can play. Mitz was the Cougars’ second-leading rusher.
I know, #5 out of 12 teams isn’t exactly stop-the-presses material. But still, when you’ve been down for so long, even slightly above mediocrity is cause for celebration! And the teams in front of WSU, I don’t think any of us could argue – Stanford with Luck, Taylor and Owusu at #1, Oregon with Thomas, James and Tuinei at #2, Arizona with Foles, Antolin and Criner at #3, and USC with Barkley, Tyler and Woods at #4.
Now, some teams were removed from the rankings altogether, because you simply don’t know what their three-headed monster will look like once everything settles in (UW, Utah and Cal with question marks at key spots). UW fans might have a legit bitch here, because Chris Polk and Jermaine Kearse are coming back for what could be huge seasons, regardless of who the QB actually is. But hey, for now some preseason love for some good young skill guys at WSU? I’ll TAKE IT.
Meanwhile, did you all see the gruesome details that came out of the University of Iowa’s “situation” with their football players a few months ago? If you recall, 13 members of Iowa’s football team had to be admitted to the hospital after some winter weight training sessions. Bloguin’s newest Big 10 blog, “Delaney’s Dozen”, has the details:
Last week, it was confirmed that the 13 Iowa players suffered from a rare muscle disease called Rhabdomyolosis. This disorder is triggered by too much exercise and can impair kidney function. What happens is the overexerted muscle breaks down and floods the blood stream with the protein myglobin that negatively affects the kidney.
The Los Angeles Times reported that an independent panel of experts reviewed the case and determined drugs were not involved and the onset of the disease was caused by overexertion.
So, what happened was that Iowa strength coaches pushed the players so hard, that they actually had muscle fibers break down so much that they got muscle proteins into the blood stream? People who work out regularly understand that you gain size and strength by breaking down the muscles, pretty much tearing them up and then the gains come when the body rebuilds itself from the damage you have inflicted on the body. And everyone understands that these programs have to push these athletes to the limit, often times working them harder than they ever thought they could work, in order to achieve success. But wow, they definitely crossed the line here. One report I saw said that Iowa strength coaches made some of the players do 100 squats with 50% of their maximum squat amount. Now that’s fine with a few sets of 10, but 100 squats with that much weight? Clearly they didn’t get the results they were looking for!
I’m sure all strength and conditioning coaches, including WSU, were paying attention when this story made the rounds. It’s probably every strength coaches worst nightmare, but it’s such a fine line. You want to push them as hard as they can go, make them break through mental barriers and have them achieve more than they ever thought possible. But in the same breath, there has to be limits to what the human body can endure. How do you decide what is whining and/or bitching about working out, and what is a legit physical problem? I’m just glad we have a coaching staff that likely knows what they are doing. Among some of Coach Wulff’s duties from 1994-1997 was a strength coach at EWU, on top of his offensive line duties. And Dave Ungerer has some experience there as well, early in his career. And of course, Darin Lovat has a good reputation, and has been a D-1 strength coach for 14 years now. I like to think we’re in good hands here, but hopefully all programs can learn and adjust to what happened at Iowa.
So, are you headed to the spring scrimmage on 4/16 in Spokane? We’ll be there, ready for some fun. We are hoping to have the RV with us, but we are still trying to find out the details (will Joe Albi allow RV’s that day? We just don’t know right now). If you are there, stop by and say hello.
All for now. Enjoy your Monday, and as always, GO COUGS!
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