EDSBS Roundtable

I'm going to participate in this one because yes, I do like talking about myself. And I'm getting paid to do it. Gotta love blogging at work!

1. Education. List the region of the country you were born in, what universities you attended and at least one other you would have attended if your alma mater didn’t exist.

I was born in Henderson, KY. Let’s just call it Louisville. My degree is from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, to clarify to any Sparties who immediately reply “Dearborn doesn’t count!” to anyone who says they went to U of M. And either way you didn’t get in...) If I didn't get into Michigan, I probably would have gone to Oakland or something for a year and tried to transfer. I'm not really sure. Michigan is the only place I applied.

2. Sports Affiliations. List your top 10 favorite teams in all of sports in decending order. For instance, your alma mater’s football team may be number 1, but perhaps there is a professional team that squeezes in before you get to your alma mater’s lacrosse team.

1. Michigan Hockey
2. Green Bay Packers (though this is more like a 1A)
3. Bryan Herta
4. Michigan Football
5. Detroit Red Wings
6. Detroit Pistons (4-5-6 are all on the same plateau as well)
7. We’ll lump the rest of the racers I like in here… Tony Kanaan, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick and Jeff Gordon
8. Michigan Basketball
9. Michigan Non-Revenue sports
10. Louisville Cardinals Football and Basketball
and like Spinal Tap, this one goes to 11...
11. Texas Longhorns Football (thanks to the Rose Bowl story which I’ve told many a time)

3. Movies. List the movie you’ve watched the most, your favorite sports related movie, the movie you secretly love but don’t like to admit it (possibly a chick flick or b film), and the movie you were (or still are) most looking forward to from this summer’s season.

Most watched: It’d pretty much have to be either Swingers, Rounders, Frequency or Eurotrip
Fave sports movie: Miracle, Mystery Alaska, Rounders, The Mighty Ducks, Days of Thunder all could potentially make the cut depending on my mood. Driven did not.

Shame flick: Bring It On...Kirsten Dunst AND Eliza Dushku? Yes please.

I’m adding a category here…

Movie you hated that everyone else loved: Napoleon Dynamite. Absolutely the biggest waste of two hours and eight dollars ever. I laughed twice. Seriously.
Wedding Crashers is right up there as well. It was ok, but not nearly as funny as everyone seems to think...

4. Music. List your favorite band from middle school, high school, college and today. Also, as with the movies, include the song you secretly love but don’t like to admit. If Nickleback is involved in any of these responses, please give a detailed explanation as to why, god, why.

Middle school: The Rembrandts, Yeah Friends theme!!!

High school: Crowded House (yes the “Hey now, Hey now, Don’t Dream it’s Over” band) Still love em. There aren’t any singer/songwriters finer than Neil Finn.

College: Kasey Chambers

Shamelove song: “4ever” by The Veronicas. Actually, I own that cd and it’s one of my favorite albums I’ve bought this year. I can’t stop listening to it. Every song is just so damn catchy!

5. Books. Favorite book you’ve finished, worst book you’ve finished and the book you really should read but haven’t gotten around to it.

Favorite: The Bone Collector by Jeffery Deaver—Millions and millions of times better than the movie. Everything by Deaver is just gold. “Kill Me” by Stephen White, “Blue Ice” by John Bacon, and the entire Prey series by John Sandford are right there.

Worst: “The Obscene Diaries of a Michigan Fan”—too many leaps in logic, WAY too much hearsay. I pretty much thought I was buying mgoblog in book form. It just wasn’t what I expected.

Book we should read but haven’t: Probably that book about broadcasting that my girlfriend bought me. She’s gonna snap if I don’t read it soon. Too many good books all came out at the same time though! I have to get through those first!!

6. Travel. Favorite city you’ve ever been to and the one place you still must visit before you shuffle off this mortal coil.

Fave city: Toronto. I love everything about that place. And yet strangely, it’s Green Bay, Wisconsin that has me missing it.

City we need to go to: Sydney, Australia. I have to get down under at some point in my life. Preferably while Shane Nicholson, Kasey Chambers, the Finns, Mark Seymour, Dave Dobbyn, The Veronicas, Mick Thomas, Paul Kelly, The Whitlams, and The John Butler Trio are all touring...

7. What do you love most about college football in 20 words or less?
The years come and go, but Sparty’s still our bitch. Oh, and the renewed hope each summer.

You Want to Tell Him or Should I???

First off, prayers going out this afternoon to Northwestern Football Coach Randy Walker's family and friends, and the entire Northwestern community. He passed away waaay too soon.

Next...I didn't realize that if I wanted to boost the number of hits on this site, all I had to do was make fun of a dorky little kid that happened to be wearing a PSU jersey and get Brian to link it. The three biggest days of hits this site has ever had all in a row, and frankly it's not close. Poor kid.

This is old news by now, but I can't resist commenting on U of M's new basketball recruit that Tommy Amaker offered a scholarship to without having ever seen him play. After committing, the kid had this to say:

“Oh man, it’s crazy; this is something I’ve dreamed about ever since I picked up
a basketball,” he said. “To play in a packed house in front of 20,000 fans
screaming with every game on ESPN, it’s going to be incredible.”

Ummm....errr......well if he wants to play in front of 6,000-8,000 fans on Comcast Local, I guess we're the school for him. Does he think he committed to the Pistons?

I hate this time of year.....

The Wings' Draft

It's hard for me to be overly critical when I haven't seen a single player that we took. But from reading different reviews of the draft, having seen the draft rankings, and looking at organizational needs, I have to bitch about a few things here.

First off, if there's one area where the Red Wings are lacking in prospects, it's on defense. Factor in that Lidstrom and Schneider are getting up there in years, Chelios is way beyond getting up there in years, and Fischer is completely done in all likelihood and it's evident there's going to be a huge need for defense in the coming years. So what do we do last night? Pass on Chris Summers, Nigel Williams, Jamie McBain, and Brian Strait. Because USA doesn't have a history of putting out defensemen or anything (I think they have something absurd like 14 of them in the NHL currently). And we pick one defenseman in the entire draft, with our last pick. And he's small. It does my heart good to know that in 3 years, our defense corps is going to consist of Brett Lebda, Derek Meech, Nik Kronwall, Kyle Quincey, and me. Way to plan ahead guys...because if there's one thing we're going to need more of, it's undersized centers! Because they've worked out so well for us in the playoffs.

They drafted a forward in the second round that was unranked by a lot of scouting services (but he's Swedish so he rules and I want to see him OMG Shirtless!!!), and was something like the 172nd ranked European skater by the report I read. And they took him in the second round? Even if you think the kid is potentially a player, isn't there something to be said for making value picks? Or have I just watched too much of the NFL draft?

Then they follow it up with a goalie in the third round that was also not among the 18 European goalies ranked by the NHL Scouting Services. Who did they pass up to get him? Joe Palmer. Because USA doesn't put out good goalies either. But again, he's Swedish so he's awesome.

I understand they've had a pretty good track record of pulling players out of Europe, but holy crap! Chances are, if the guy isn't ranked by the ISS, you don't need to go grabbing him in the 2nd or 3rd round.

I'm becoming very very scared of this upcoming season. From the looks of things, it seems that all this "Expect some big chances" talk was just that. Talk. Now we're hearing things like "If Shanny comes back, we're looking for a fourth line forward. And we need a defenseman but he's going to be more of a role player. And we need a goalie." But it appears they're dead set on bringing Osgood back for another year (could happen as early as tomorrow). Holland has also said that he wants both youngsters (Howard and Liv) in the AHL.

So it appears that we're looking at a Biron/Osgood combo that just might not be any better than what we had last year, with no major changes to the roster itself. How does that saying go? Those who fail to learn from the past are doomed to repeat it? I'm not hitting the panic button just yet, but this weekend--between losing out on Luongo who we apparently never made an offer for, and having a disappointing draft--doesn't bode well for the future of this team. These are not encouraging signs I'm seeing....

We Are! Penn State!

I hope this kid is home schooled, because he's just done for....



The uhh....Star Wars kid is on line 2.

This Doesn't Surprise Me

This....is ESPN. This....is a phone service that no one is buying. The Wall Street Journal reported today that fewer than 10,000 people have signed up for Mobile ESPN through the month of May (it launched in February). I'm pretty sure that works out to one person signed up per every three showings of the commercial. While ESPN may be surprised at the low numbers, I for one am not. As an obviously huge sports fan, I checked out the website to see how much this little flip-phone from heaven would cost me when my Cingular contract expires in a year or so. Right then, it became evident that no one in their right mind would sign up for this service.

Why you may ask? Because the cheapest plan they had was for something like $39.99 a month. For 200 anytime minutes--and by anytime minutes they mean night, weekend, everything. Because nights and weekends weren't free. The next level up was for 400 anytime minutes, which included free night and weekends. But it was $70 a month! Yeah I'm gonna go ahead and stick with the family plan....

In light of the fact that more people attend your average New Jersey Devils Stanley Cup parade than have signed up for Mobile ESPN, it looks like ESPN has lowered their prices on it. Now it's a much more reasonable $39.99 a month for 400 anytime minutes plus unlimited night and weekend.

Now, I'm not gonna lie. I'm back to thinking, "Hmmmmmm...."

In other news, it's a sad, sad day at the University of Michigan. The White M-Cards are officially no more.

Per an email I got today: "This e-mail is a reminder to faculty, staff, and students that if they are still carrying a "white" Mcard that these cards are no longer valid. The cardholder must go to an ID Issuing Station (locations can be found at www.mcard.umich.edu/stations.htm) and have their card replaced with a "yellow" Mcard."

RIP White M-Card.

And Sidney? When you come to visit Michigan's campus in a couple weeks, no trying to talk Jack into going pro if the Hurricanes decide to trade him for Pittsburgh's #2 pick. Seriously, that's not cool. You've got Malkin now, just wait another year or three.

And prospective 2007 hockey recruit Jeff Petry has decided that he likes cows better than National Championships and has committed to Michigan State.

A Commit Confirmed, More on Our New Goalies

More good stuff from Bob Miller on The Yost Post today, courtesy of Paul Shaheen's Research on Ice.

In Paul's article, he mentions that future goalie Bryan Hogan may defer his enrollment until 2008, which alarms me slightly. He seems to very much want to play for the Wolverines, his goaltending coach is Michigan's goalie coach Stan Matwijiw. But at the same time, Bryan Lerg also said he was thrilled to be a Wolverine and he's wearing Green and White after deferring for a year. If Hogan blows up in the USHL this year, which isn't all that unlikely, I'm still not calling him a lock for Michigan if either of our goalies take a strangle-hold on the starting job this year. I've seen this happen too many times.

Some happy comments about Hogan from the article though:

"He really developed into one of our league's elite goaltenders by the end of the year," says Lincoln head coach/GM Steve Johnson, who helped introduce us to Hogan back in March (Hogan's Hero, ROI March 23, 2006). "As the year went on, he understood the pace better, he got stronger, more confident, and we relied on him very heavily. He did an outstanding job."

And about Chad Langlais, whose commitment is now official:

"He's highly skilled, but can play it tough as well," says Johnson of the left shooting Langlais. "He anticipates very well, and know how to jump into the play."

But apparently he makes defense his top priority still. Love seeing those guys described as "highly skilled".

I also didn't realize this, but Jeff Petry is from Orchard Lake St. Mary's originally. That's gotta be in our favor, unless he decides that "it's more of a business down there" or something.

I've been having way too much fun on the Letsgowings.com board tonight. People want to start Osgood next year for some reason. I'm doing my best to fight the good fight and quash that idiocy.

It's Official

Jenks is gone. Damn.