The Random Questions featuring Jamie DeVriend, Patrick Johnson and Norman

The random questions are back. Just like Andrew Wiggins committing to Kansas, they are very important. I'm joined this week by my good friends Patrick Johnson, formerly of Big East Coast Bias fame, Jamie DeVriend of the great USF site Voodoo Five and my good pal Norman from the St John's blog Rumble in the Garden.

I asked the guys questions on a variety of topics such as college basketball rule changes they would make, the NBA, annoying athletes and very tall buildings. Before we get into the questions, let me publicly thank Jamie, Patrick and Norman for taking the time to answer my questions. Be sure to follow them on twitter. I'm sure a lot of you do already but if you aren't, what are you waiting for?

A quick key, Jamie will be JD, Patrick PJ and Norman will be N. Questions are in bold. Simple.

I've watched a lot of the NBA playoffs the last month or so and I've greatly appreciated the style of play compared to college. I've always thought it was silly to compare college to the pros since, hey they are pros, but my question is what do you prefer, college basketball or the NBA?

JD: I don't really care for one over the other and don't understand why anyone should have to choose between them. You can have great games in both and you can have horrible games in both. Although you'd never see anything like Robert Morris over Kentucky in the NBA, so I guess college is better in that respect.

PJ: I prefer college basketball to the pros. The atmosphere with students and the brass band is completely different (and better) in my opinion. You really feel like you can impact the game in the crowd at a college event. One of my favorite basketball moments was watching an unranked LSU (my undergrad) team defeat then No. 1 ranked Arizona at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in 2002. The student section rushed the court after the win and the scene was put on the schedule poster for the next season.

N: Well, duh, college! Or else I'd write a Knicks blog! The college game is definitely more variable, in some ways less predictable (but in some ways just as predictable as the NBA). Sure it's silly to compare – they're very different games with different accepted practices – the NBA is much more about the individual and quick actions (that are often well-schemed out) whereas the college game is often about slower-developing plays, stalls, and team play.

I like college's style of play. I like the deliberateness. I like the defense and the sloppiness. The players could use more skill, and the rules could be more conducive to a freer-flowing game, but I love the passion and grit of the game. The NBA has a higher level of play – the defense in the Indiana/ Knicks series is pretty awesome, for example, and the ability for these players to take and make jump shots from all over is refreshing. But the NBA's regular season is completely boring and too long. Teams are out of it by mid-year, and even the playoffs lack some drama until the later rounds.

Separate question, do the lack of rule changes to a hurting college game disenchant you at all? The rule that needed to be changed was the shot clock. The only rule that was changed was if an offensive player is taking off to jump, that's an automatic block instead of a charge. What rules would you add or subtract if you had the power?

JD: I disagree that the shot clock needed to be changed, because that would just lead to teams with no offensive imagination pounding out five fewer seconds on the clock before taking a bad shot. The rule I want to see changed is to let teams move the ball into the frontcourt on timeouts at the end of games. Take the Ohio State game in the round of 32, when Aaron Craft hit that dagger 3 with like half a second left. Was there any way in hell that Iowa State was going to come back and tie the game? Of course not. But we still had to have a timeout and watch the Cyclones try and set up a ridiculous play from full court that had no chance of going in. Let them inbound it from the frontcourt, like they do in the NBA? Now you have a shot.

On the flip side, I want the NBA to adopt the one-and-one at the free throw line. That would be a lot of fun late in games.

PJ: The rules in the college game don't bother me half as much as the refs. Out of frustration, I knew them by name watching SEC and Big East games and got to know their quirks and biases. One rule I would instate is that if an offensive player purposefully jumps or runs into a defensive player trying to draw a foul and then attempts a shot which has no reasonable chance of hitting the rim, it's not a defensive foul but instead a turnover. I hate those plays and the fact that some guys make a career out of them. It's not real basketball to me.

N: I like the shot clock as is. Shortening the shot clock with the same rules just makes the game slightly more ragged. I would find a way to discourage the bumping of players off the ball… or some other rules to get more movement in the game towards the basket.

Bob Stoops made some weird comments about the SEC when he basically said "So what they've had the national champ and a lot of top 10 teams recently, those 10th-14th place teams in the standings blow." Instead of reacting to those comments, put yourself in Bob Stoops' shoes and try to come up with reasonable justification for that statement.

JD: There isn't any. It was stupid. The only point I want to make off his statement is how I'm done with SEC fans acting like they have some Lake Wobegon league where everyone is above average. Just because Kentucky played in the SEC last year didn't mean they weren't a God-awful football team. That's right, SEC, YOU HAVE TEAMS THAT ARE BAD AT FOOTBALL LIKE EVERY OTHER LEAGUE. And it's not because they have to play Alabama and LSU and Florida and whoever else. They suck on their own terms.

PJ: Stoops' league doesn't want to or can't expand in value past 10 teams right now and he's trying to deflect a perceived weakness. He knows full well the SEC has been better than his team in the big game (LSU and Florida) but doesn't want his conference to get overlooked for seeding when the playoff starts.

N: He's right. There are a lot of DePauls in the SEC – and it's even worse in basketball. There are SEC teams that are just happy to be at the table. Every league needs that, someone has to take the beatings, but… the SEC in football isn't all that interesting. There's Alabama and LSU or Florida and some plucky teams of ragtag waifs from the streets of blah blah blah and the farms of yada yada just trying to make an impact. But unlike in the movies, they don't win.

Who do you think is the most annoying athlete in sports? And why?

JD: Since Joey Porter retired, I'll say Marshall Henderson. Look, if you need some kind of douchey persona to get fired up to play, or if you have to be a rageaholic, then whatever. But if you don't have an off switch and you act like that when you aren't playing, then you're just annoying.

PJ: Most annoying athlete for me is Steven Lenhart of the San Jose Earthquakes. He's a good physical forward but takes getting under the opponents' skin too far and gets involved in dangerous plays that can get guys hurt.

N: I'd like it to be Jay Cutler, but he hasn't started lecturing on "parenting" and having a "way" and how we all need to find the version of God he's found, so I am sure there's someone more annoying. Like all of the St. Louis Cardinals. Or Tiki Barber. Or maybe it's Nate Robinson. Or on a positive annoyance side, maybe Kevin Garnett, Joakim Noah, Mario Balotelli, Clint Dempsey.

I had a Good Charlotte song come up on my itunes shuffle the other day because I bought the cd that had the song from Madden back in 2002 or 2003 and for some reason put it on my computer. It was very embarrassing because Good Charlotte was awful and I think I was doing a lot of drugs that ruined my mind back then. (Note: I was not doing drugs). That long lead up leads to this question, what song or album is on your itunes, or computer or whatever, that embarrasses you when it comes on?

JD: It's either this Ja Rule song I just deleted, or "Brand New Day" by Sting. I might delete that one too. I also bought a few queefcore songs back when we did our first basketball season theme on our blog, but I'm keeping those. (ED: Boo to Jamie for not naming names here)

PJ: Embarrassing song: "Lucky Star," Madonna. I own the Snatch soundtrack and whenever the song comes on I just let it play because I enjoyed this scene from the movie too much to skip it:

N: I know that song.

None of my songs embarrass me. I openly love the Spice Girls' "Spice Up Your Life". I'll play the New Kids' "The Right Stuff" without shame. Wait, wait. I know, either the Ying Yang Twins "The Whisper Song" or The Smut Peddlers' "Talk Like Sex". Both of those are way too gross to play in public. The Olsen Twins line in the Smut Peddlers' (the rap group, not the punk group) song… that's wrong. It was 2001 when that came out.

The spire for the WTC went up on Friday. The building is 1,776 feet high, the tallest in the western hemisphere. The Burj Khalifa is the tallest building in the world at 2,722 feet. There are videos of people sitting on top of it.

Tom Cruise just chilled on top of it with no shoes. Would you ever do that? Or did you get kind of sweaty palms just from watching the video like I did?

JD: I have a crippling fear of heights. Did you ever see that documentary "Man on Wire" about Philippe Petit, the guy who walked across the two World Trade Center towers on a high wire in the 70s? My wife and I saw it in a theater and just seeing footage of that on a 50-foot screen made me light-headed. So yeah, I don't think you could even get me into the Burj Khalifa, let alone up on the top of it.

PJ: I have no intention of ever sitting at the top of a tall building as in the videos. Much better things to do and eat in both of the cities where the buildings are too.

NO.

Thanks again to Jamie, Patrick and Norman for answering my questions. If you have any suggestions for who I should talk to in the future, or if you want to answer the questions yourself, drop me a line. Until next time.

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The Random Questions featuring Jamie DeVriend, Patrick Johnson and Norman

Alan Draper

Alan Draper

Alan Draper