This game called Basketball

Apparently SU plays a sport called Basketball and is pretty good at it. So I watched on OAA last night. Here are my thoughts:

JB
This team has to be a nightmare for him. Nine deep. The "SU Fs" are true Frosh. We dont have Zone players. The pieces dont fit his style at all. He will have to coach differently and do much more coaching than he is used to. Otherwise we will be on the bubble again.

AO
He looks to be in better shape. He is still a big time threat on O. His only question is on D. I like him a lot better in Man than in Zone. And he will do better on the boards in man as well.

RJ
IMO he needs to be getting PT. This team has plenty of O weapons, we need help on D. And RJ provides that. The guy is a good fit on O as he seems to be our best finisher. On D he can rebound and he can block shots. Overall he may be a bigger factor than AO. Sure AO is much better on O, but with RJ we are much better on D, whether we play Man or Zone. AO is a better player but RJ is a better fit for this team. I would like to see a 24-16 split in PT with these two. Having AO only play 24 mins keeps him fresh. RJ playing 16 mins allows for us to utilize his shot blocking on D. And please no RJ as a F in the Zone. It just wont work. If he is to play any PF it needs to be Man D. And it should be against bigger teams where he will do well. Also moving him to PF hurts depth at C.

SW
He was active around the rim on O. Which is a good sign. I can see him getting a few mins here or there. I prefer he RS and fully develop. BTW did you see him dribble during his FTs? He was basically touching the ground.

KO
He is a nice role player to have. The only problem is we have no depth at F so he will get more PT than he should and may even start. As the year goes on we will see less of KO.

KJ
He looks to have skills but he had issues with ball handling last night. Hopefully this is just first game nerves. As the year goes on I think he will eat up more and more of KOs mins.

PH
Here is a guy who just plain and simple doesnt fit this team. His best position is G but we have too many bodies there. He is a good rebounder for a guy his height but struggles against taller players. This is a huge concern since he will be our PF at times. Even UCSLA with their smaller players were able to board against PH. The guy is a force at G, but worries me at F. He did show he could knock down the 3 which is good. Well as long as he doesnt fall in love with it. I have a feeling he will. JB needs to keep on top of him. Also PH has to already hold the record for most times stripped going to the basket. How can a guy as strong as him not be able to finish? It makes no sense that he is either stripped or fouled. We never see an And 1. As to D he is much better off playing man, which is supposed to be his specialty. While he is better at man, his man skills are very over rated. He is supposedly a shut down defender. But last year he didnt show it and was beat a few times last night as well. PH has the potential to be a force. It is up to JB to use him find a niche for PH and to keep him in check.

MJ
I like this kids game. If he can add some strength he can play F in the Zone. But right now he may be better off as a G. Kid looks to have the best 3 pt shot on the team. I can see him getting a few mins here and there at the 2/3.

ED
I am not sure if it was the injury or his personality that held him back. I remember watching him play in HS and he played a lot like yesterday. Does he feel like this is JFs team and is just letting the game come to him? Or is the injury holding him back? I was worried that ED wouldnt be able to play as many mins this year but he played quite a bit last night. I also worry that he will be sore for the second game in Sat/Mon splits. He is still our second best 3pt shooter even with the injury. And he is the best at getting to the hole. Although he struggled to finish last night. If we need a big shot he is the guy I want taking it, although he may never see the ball with PH and JF on the floor.

AR
I was disappointed with his play last night. He played the way he has in the past. Which conflicts with the practice reports we all here. AR is a nice role player. A good player to have on your team. But unless he is a different player in practice than he is in games, the people with a crush on him are waaaay off. He is a guy who should be getting 16 mins a game. Unless he is hot. He is the type of guy who will go 2 for 8 one game, then 5 for 8, followed by another 2 for 8. Sure .375 from 3 is good but it is inconsistent. He can be great one game but is a black hole the other two. Also he isnt a good ball handler and struggles big time in Man D. He needs to be in the Zone, which doesnt fit the rest of the team.

JF
When he plays within himself he is one of the best Gs in America. When he tries to do too much he hurts the team. JB needs to stay on top of him. If JB allows free reign, JF will frustrate everyone in Orangeland. I am not sure if the dribbling into crowds, off balance 3s early in the shot clock, and dumb passes stem from him being bored, or if he just thinks he is capable of more than what he is. If he shows maturity and leadership this year, SU will make a run in the NCAAs. If he doesnt, then the NIT is a reality. Also the floater needs to go. GMac had a better floater. JF needs to realize his job is to get others points and only take points when they present themselves. If he tries to be a scorer, it will cause headaches. His desire to be "the man" may distract him from being a winner.

King Ottos Konclusion

I have felt all year our struggles are mainly coaching, more specifically on D, and the fact that we were a young team. So it was no surprise to me that SU beat UL. For awhile I expected a W but changed my mind last second because GRob is our HC after all.

O
CB continues to have a great year. He really will be missed. Going forward I like our depth on O. The only issue is that we have no star power. That could change if Mike Williams comes back or DC3 finally gets healthy. Also someone could break out. I am not expecting any of that but even so we still should have a decent O. Certainly good enough to get us to a Bowl game. I will also say that MB has done a great job with the OL. When was the last time you yelled about Chavers? That alone is a miracle. Then we have a good running game and have let up a lot less sacks.

D
While the O has shown improvement, the D hasnt shown much. Yes they looked better against UL but they still have been bad all year. The only other acceptable game by the D was a Pat Whiteless WV team. Thats not nearly good enough. As to the future I can cut and paste the same about the D: Going forward I like our depth on D. The only issue is that we have no star power. Well except for LB. That is the only area of concern. I like Smith at one LB spot. After that we have to hope that Stenclik and Battles can step up. Even so Depth would still be an issue. The LBs will keep SU from being a good D but a DC with a brain will make this group good enough to be Bowl bound.

Some other observations from the game:

-7pm starts are bad for attendance on 'Rents weekend. I overheard several families talking about dinner plans that would prevent them from attending.

-Maggies for some reason opens 3 hours before start time on game days. I had planned on going there for 2 for 1 drafts and watching FLA-UGA but the place was closed. Several other people walked by and pulled on the locked door. This makes sense for noon starts (yes they open at 9am, been there/done that), and even 3:30 starts. But 7pm starts you are turning away people.

-Anyway I ended up at Chucks. Note to the staff there: using webs to decorate for Halloween is ok. But putting it over the TV screen to make the picture worse is retarded.

-Otto dressed up for Halloween. He was Palin, Zorro, and Batman, who my drunk friend Erog thought was Megatron (see below).

-Drunk people in my section wanted to actually rush the field and had to have security turn them away. I did see one kid a few sections over being dragged off by security after making it to the field. What has become of SU?

-The Dome is frickin cold when no one shows up. I have been hot before for BBall games with a foot of snow outside. But when you have 759 people in an empty Dome it gets cold. Even the dance team had to put on their warmups the second half.

-A friend of mine (lets call him Erog) got wasted and I am sure will have his Irish heritage taken away from him. They will disown him after this. I am not sure how much he had to drink but it couldnt have been more than 10 tops. At the bar he seemed a little out of it as he was saying that the bar tender had nice shoulder blades and was serious.

Anyway I went up to the Dome ahead of my friends to use the head. Well when the 3 others in my party showed up without Erog, we wondered WTF happened to him? Not long after after ULs second drive of the Q, he finally shows up. When asked where he was he said he was walking around the Dome and couldnt find our section. This was because we was walking around the upper deck! BTW he has been in the same section since 2002.

So he finally joins us with his BK fries and burger and SU starts to play well. He is drunk but is able to stand and cheer so no worries. Then the 2nd Q started and he began to sit and shut his eyes. We werent sure if he would make it the whole game. And he wouldnt. When SU scored on the 4th down with 2 mins left in the half, we all went nuts and turned to celebrate with Erog. But he wasnt there. None of us saw him leave he just disappeared. We looked for him but there was no sign of him.

Fast forward now to the 4th Q. I was going to the bathroom and saw a janitor type guy cleaning. You never see that and I thought I wonder if he was cleaning up after Erogs puke? Well I would find out later on that this was very very likely the case. After the game I finally got a hold of Erog on his cell phone. He said he was driving and was halfway home. He had puked and decided to leave.

What is the lesson to be learned here? Dont let your friends get amrried and have children or they wont be able to handle their drinking.

Computer Rankings

I used a Supercomputer (my brain) to rank the teams:


10. UGA (-5)
9. Boise St (+1)
8. Okie St (+1)
7. USC (NC)
6. OU (-2)
5. Texas (-4)
4. Fla (+2)
3. Texas Tech (+5)
2. PSU (+1)

1. Bama (+1)

My Top 10 HC List

Each week I will update my list of Top 10 choices to replace GRob. I will only use guys who I think we have a realistic chance of getting.

10. Bud Foster (-3)
9. Mark Whipple (-4)
8. Glen Mason (-2)
7. Mike Locksley (NR)
6. Turner Gill (+2)
5. Al Golden (+4)
4. Skip Holtz (NC)
3. Chris Petersen (NC)
2. Gary Patterson (NC)

1. Tommy Bowden (NC)

Dropping out Chip Kelly (10)

TATTOO: Louisville Cardinals vs Syracuse Orange

Welcome to this weeks Team Against Team: Trivia and Obscure Observations (TATTOO). Facing off are the Louisville Cardinals and the Syracuse Orange. This weeks TATTOO is an Orange Bird:

Born on Date
Louisville: 1798 vs SU: 1870
Ottos Edge: Louisville… nearly 100 better just like the game will be

School known for
Louisville: Medical field vs SU Journalism
Ottos Edge: Louisville... who discovered a vaccine that is 100 percent effective against cervical cancer, were first to implant a self contained artificial heart, had the first successful hand transplant (creepy for Halloween), and were also credited with developing the Pap smear test, the first civilian ambulance, the nation's first ER, and the first blood bank in Louisville.

Also known as
Louisville: Pizza U vs SU: Cuse
Ottos Edge: SU... Cuse can order pizza while in the house

GPS (Location)
Louisville: Louisville vs SU: Syracuse
Ottos Edge: SU… NY beats out Kentucky

Mispronounced
Louisville: Louie, Louis, Loua vs SU: Sira, Sara, Ques
Ottos Edge: Push… lets get it right people

City named after
Louisville: King Louis XVI of France vs SU Siracusa, Sicily
Ottos Edge: SU... off with their heads

Some other notes about Louisville:
-the city owns a steamboat (Belle of Louisville)
-the city was 70% under water from the floods of ‘37
-the largest building will be Museum Plaza Tower a 62 story building set to be completed in 2011

Sticking with Kings…

State is
Louisville: a Commonwealth vs SU: an Empire
Ottos Edge: SU… one day the SU empire will strike back

But NY is not part of an Evil Empire…

Tom Cruise
Louisville: grew up in the city (Louisvillian as they call themselves) vs SU: born in the city
Ottos Edge: Push... having him born in your city is nothing to be proud of, but Louisvillian sounds like villain, maybe that is what made Tom evil?

Now to cruising in cars on the…

Road way
Louisville: Spaghetti junction (where I-64, I-65, and I-71 meet) vs SU:Erie boulevard
Ottos Edge: SU… nothing is good about traffic nightmares

Speaking of food…

Let's put the women and children to bed and go lookin' for dinner (Cuisine)
Louisville: Exotic vs SU: Normal
Ottos Edge: SU… I love food but wont even touch half this stuff. I will stick with the salt potatoes and Dino ribs. Look at this stuff:

Hot Brown- open faced sandwich of turkey and bacon covered in mornay sauce and baked till crisp
Burgoo- stew of veggies and lamb
Frog legs
Fried brain sandwich- calves brain on bread
Derby pie- chocolate and walnut tart in pie shell with pastry dough crust
Benedictine- condiment made from cucumbers and cream cheese
Bourbon ball- crushed cookies, corn syrup, pecans mixed with borubon and coated with powdered suger
Beer cheese dip

And to wash it down…

Drinks
Louisville: Bourbon vs SU: Beer
Ottos Edge: Louisville… that will put some hair on your chest

Bourbon is in Mint Juleps that are drinkin at…

Most exciting 2 mins in sports
Louisville: Kentucky Derby vs SU: time before FB team trails and the game is over
Ottos Edge: Louisville… whose band plays my old Kentucky home at the Derby

Staying with Horse Racing…

Oldest race
Louisville: Derby 1875 vs SU: Travers 1864
Ottos Edge: SU… the Travers is the oldest of them all

Another name for a horse is a Bronco…

Denver Bronco Great
Louisville:Tom Jackson vs SU: Floyd Little
Ottos Edge: SU… TJ gets points tacken away for not sacking Berman yet

While we are on sacks…

Sack Master
Louisville: Dumervil vs SU: Freeney
Ottos Edge: SU... he terrorizes the NFL as well

Freeney plays for the…

Colts Great
Lousville: Johnny Unitas vs SU: Marvin Harrison
Ottos Edge: Loiusville... the best field general of all time

Sticking with WRs…

Miami Dolphin Great
Louisville: Mark Clayton vs SU: Larry Csonka
Ottos Edge: SU… and an all time great

I am the Greatest…

All time great athlete
Louisville: Cassius Clay (native) vs SU: Jim Brown
Ottos Edge: SU... Brown was great in several sports and I think he coulda beaten up the Louisville slugger too

Often marking greatness are trophies…

NCAA FB Award
Louisville: Johnny Unitas Golden Arm Award vs John Mackey Award
Ottos Edge: Louisville... QB is more important than TE

Sticking with QBs…

Younger Brother
Louisville: Jay Gruden brother of John was QB at Louisville, Arena League HoFer, and current Orlando Predators HC vs SU: David Bavaro brother of Mark
Ottso Edge: SU… nothing beats a Bavaro

Best QBs
Louisville: Johnny Unitas, Browning Nagle, Chris Redman, Dave Ragone, Jeff/Brian Brohm, Stefan Lefors vs SU: Donovan McNabb, Marvin Graves, Don McPherson, Wilmeth Sidat-Singh
Ottos Edge: Louisville… Johnny U could win by himself

Johnny used to battle…

Giants CB
Louisville: Sam Madison (current) vs SU: Will Allen (ex)
Ottos Edge: Louisville… he has the ring to prove it

Remaining with the D…

NT Ted
Louisville: Washington vs SU: Gregory
Ottos Edge: Louisville... Washington is a mountain

Bobby Boucher (best current defender)
Louisville: Earl Heyman vs SU: Art Jones
Ottos Edge: SU… my mama says Heyman is the devil

Other Footballers
Louisville: Ernest Givens, Deion Branch, Frank Minnifield, Ray Buchanan, Kerry Rhodes, Otis Wilson, Bruce Armstrong vs SU: Rob Moore, Donovan Darius, Ernie Davis, Keith Bullock, Joe Morris, Jim Ringo, David Tyree
Ottos Edge: SU… Skill Position U

So called FB players…

Kickers
Louisville: David Akers vs SU Gary Anderson
Ottos Edge: SU… is he still playing?

From kicking to…

Stomping
Louisville: the bird at midfield vs SU: the Dome
Ottos Edge: SU... stomping the Dome is fun, stomping the bird results in an ass whooping

While we are there…

No one, and I mean no one, comes into our house and pushes us around (Home Field)
Louisville vs SU: Dome
Ottos Edge: SU… no place like home

Stadium named after
Louisville: PapaJohns Pizza vs SU: Carrier AC
Ottos Edge: SU… I cant live without AC and could do with that “pizza”

Draws 35k fans
Louisville: St Xavier/Trinity game vs SU: in a good year
Ottos Edge: Louisville… FB is foreign to CNYers

Someone who we all wish was foreign to us…

Head Coach
Louisville: Kragthorpe vs SU: GRob
Ottos Edge: SU… he has a winning record against Kragthorpe

Staying with HCs…

Turned the program around
Louisville: Howard Schnellenberger vs SU: Coach Mac (or GRob in a negative way)
Ottos Edge: Louisville… we atleast had prior greatness

As seen by our FB history…

First year FB
Louisville: 1912 vs SU: 1889
Ottos Edge: SU… what took them so long?

All Time Wins
Louisville: 438 vs SU: 672
Ottos Edge: SU… it is sad what has happened to SU

National Championships
Louisville: None vs SU: One (1959)
Ottos Edge: SU… I would love to see another

Big East Championships
Louisville: 1 vs SU: 4
Ottos Edge: Lousiville… nothing like program building

Lambert Trophies
Louisville: 1 vs SU: 6
Ottos Edge: SU… since when are they NE?

Bowl Record
Louisville: 6-7-1 vs SU: 12-9-1
Ottos Edge: SU… last year broke a streak of 9 straight Bowls for UL

Rivalry Trophies
Louisville: Governors Cup (UK) and Keg of Nails (UC) vs SU: Schwartzwalder (WV)
Ottos Edge: Push… neither team can win the trophies

Head to Head
Louisville: 3 wins vs SU: 4 wins
Ottos Edge: Push… they will tie it up this year

Both schools are more known for BBall…

Famous BBall coach
Louisville: Denny Crum vs SU: Jim Boeheim
Ottos Edge: SU... JB has more wins and will have more championships when he is done

Rick Pitino
Louisville: Head Coach vs SU: Assistant Coach
Ottos Edge: Louisville... how old does that make JB feel?

Top 50 NBA player
Louisville: Wes Unseld vs SU: Dave Bing
Ottos Edge: SU... both were good but he is our guy

Freshman BBall phenom
Louisville: Pervis Ellison vs SU: Melo
Ottos Edge: SU… Pervis would be nervous if he had to guard Melo but that may have to do with cheap shots

Someone who must be hearing constant cheap shots…

Former Thursday night ESPN CFB guy
Louisville: Lee Corso (ex coach) vs SU Mike Tirico
Ottos Edge: SU... poor Mike has to be teased about this SU team

ESPN is part of…

ABC news
Louisville: Diane Sawyer (Good Morning America) vs SU: Ted Koppel (Nightline)
Ottos Edge: SU... he has better hair

Something that would be big news…

Breaking into
Lousiville: Fort Knox vs SU: win column
Ottos Edge: Lousiville… we should be able to break through in our lifetimes

Columns are used to build…

Homes
Louisville: large Victorian section vs SU: Mike Holmes
Ottos Edge: Louisville… ok that was a stretch

Speaking of Homes…

Politician
Louisville Chris Dodd (Fannie mess) vs SU: Biden
Ottos Edge: SU… he hasnt ruined our country, yet

While we are on Gov…

Louis Brandeis
Louisville: born there and his remains are located under the portico of Brandeis Law School vs SU: Sacco & Vanzetti mural on HBC (Mrs Sacco stayed at Brandeis home during trial)
Ottos Edge: Louisville… their connection makes sense

Sticking with building names…

BBall Practice Facility
Lousiville: Yum! Center after KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut parent company vs SU: Melo Center
Ottos Edge: SU… Louisvilel has sold out to fast foods

Louisville also has ties to UPS, who offers full tuition reimbursement to students who work overnight at Worldport, the companys air hub. Currently 75% of the workers there are students.

But that doesn’t leave much time for…

Edumacation
Louisville: Tier 3 vs SU: Tier 1
Ottos Edge: SU… gotta love the NBE

Hitting the books will lead to a good job that allows you to hit the…

Golf course
Louisville: Valhalla Golf Club vs SU: Atunyote Golf Club
Ottos Edge: SU… Turning Stone is up and coming, hopefully SU FB will soon be too

And finally the category of the week…

I love the 80s
1980s Redskins Great
Louisville: Joe Jacoby vs SU Art Monk
Ottos Edge: SU… about time he got into the HoF

And the TATTOO goes to...

The Syracuse Orange as they pull off a win for GRob