Redskins Go Back to the Future With Haynesworth Signing

Signing big-time free agents doesn't work. There's a historical precedence for this, not just in the NFL, but with the Redskins themselves. They've done this before. Dana Stubblefield, Bruce Smith, Deion Sanders, Marc Carrier, Jeff George, Adam Archuleta, Brandon Lloyd, Jeremiah Trotter -- and those are just the names I wrote without stopping for a breath. I'm sure I'm forgetting at least three other stars who came to Washington with high expectations and a huge contract but left with nary a playoff win to their credit. Building through free agency just doesn't work.

The one notable exception was when Reggie White signed with the Packers. He transformed the Packers defense, turned Green Bay into a viable destination for NFL stars and helped everyone's favorite quarterback win a title. But that's it. Drew Brees is looked at as the second-best free agent signing in the history of the league and, while I'm a huge Brees fan, all he's brought to New Orleans in three years is one playoff victory and a total record of one game over .500, not exactly the stuff of legends.

With the signing of Albert Haynesworth, all those stories about the Redskins trying to buy a title will come back into play, even if they really haven't tried to do that in a couple of years. No huge free agents have signed in D.C. since Joe Gibbs' first offseason, as the team tried to build the proper way; through the draft. Now Gibbs is gone and Cerrato and Snyder are holed up in their offices (I often imagine they make forts in there with couch cushions) and figuring that the only way to compete is to throw loads of money at guys they see on ESPN. But after last year's collapse and their failure to recognize that the past few Super Bowl champs have built through draft picks (none of which were named Fred Davis) and the occasional free agent signing. (Think Plaxico.)

I don't care about the enormity of the contract. Some will say it might hurt the Redskins cap-wise, but if there's one thing the 'Skins front office is good at, it is circumventing the NFL's salary rules. From 2000 to 2004, Len Pasquarelli wrote at least two columns per year claiming the Redskins cap situation would be untenable and they might not be able to field a team. (He actually wrote that once, but I'm too lazy to find the link.) But that's never come to fruition. They're always fine.

Instead, I'm more worried that Haynesworth is going to do exactly what everyone expects: coast after receiving $34 million. Snyder isn't a good judge of character, mainly because he doesn't care. He thinks on-field play comes from talent, not hard work. And because Haynesworth has talent, he figures it's natural that said talent will manifest itself in Washington.

Unfortunately, Haynesworth's two All-Pro seasons have come in the two years before free agency. His best season, 2008, came at a time when he knew there would be $30 million guaranteed on the table if he performed. Now that he has that money, what will he do? If there were odds for this in Vegas, the betting line would favor Haynesworth becoming a bust rather than a continued All-Pro, sort of like the sudden transformation DeAngelo Hall made when he signed a record-breaking contract with Oakland last year.

I won't get started on that signing. Hall played really well last year and, in theory, him and Carlos Rogers starting in the secondary with a new nickel corner (please don't let it be Fred Smoot) should be OK. But Hall is volatile and has underperformed after getting big money within the past year. When he came here, there was no doubt he'd play well and get Dinny to give him a huge contract in the offseason. Hopefully he and Haynesworth will want to prove they're worth the money. But all that guaranteed dough doesn't help matters.

At least the Hall signing caused the 'Skins to show Shawn Springs the door. When he was on the field, Springs was good to great. But he rarely was. Word is that he tweaked his hammy while cleaning out his locker.

Hallelujah? Nats to Fire Bowden, Hire Sabermetrically-Inclined GM

From Rob Neyer via Baseball Prospectus:

The Nationals, according to multiple industry sources, are strongly considering firing general manager Jim Bowden and replacing him with Blue Jays assistant GM Tony LaCava.

Bowden has been implicated in a bonus skimming scandal in the Dominican Republic and is reportedly being investigated by the FBI. Jose Rijo, the former major-league pitcher and a special assistant to Bowden, has taken a leave of absence in wake of the allegations.

LaCava is highly regarded inside the game and has interviewed for GM jobs with the Pirates and Mariners in the last year-and-a-half. Commissioner Bud Selig reportedly has given Nationals president Stan Kasten permission to hire LaCava without interviewing minority candidates because of the special circumstances of a change of GMs being necessitated after spring training has started.

When ESPN.com blogger Keith Law was asked abotu LaCava he said, "going from Bowden to LaCava would be like going from Austin Kearns to Albert Pujols." Enough said.

Fire Jim Bowden has more on the (hopefully) new Nationals GM.

Report: Albert Haynesworth to 'Skins

A writer for the Houston Chronicle reports that the Redskins will sign Titans All-Pro Albert Haynesworth once free agency begins on Saturday:

My source tells me to look for a contract that could break $100 million with an average of $15 million to $16 million per. My guy is almost never wrong and Dan Snyder gets what he wants.

Of course they will. Haynesworth is a two-time All Pro and is widely considered one of the best DTs in the game. If he does indeed sign, he will undoubtedly come to Washington and completely suck.
Over the past two seasons, the 27-year old has 14.5 sacks. In his first five seasons he had 9.5. Now, sacks are secondary in evaluating Haynesworth. His strength is in defending against the run and his mere presence should theoretically make the Redskins' defensive ends more effective. So, some would say that with those improving sack numbers, Haynesworth has become a more complete player and is a great pick-up. Others could speculate that he manned up over the past two years knowing he was set for a payday in 2009. And I say, Dana Stubblefield.
The scuttlebutt has always been that Haynesworth takes plays off and he's frequently injured (never playing more than 14 games in a season and only suiting up in 13 or less in four of his seven seasons). He seems like exactly the sort of guy who will be content to cash his check and let himself go. If he was going to go to the Cowboys or Giants I'd be afraid. But years of watching free agents come to Washington with hype and leave as busts makes me completely ambivalent to this possible deal.

Tiger Returns on Wednesday

I'm really, really excited about Tiger coming back. That's it.

Great commercial. And at the :47 second mark, Anthony Kim laughs exactly like my buddy Ki. It must be a Korean thing.

Courtesy Devil Ball Golf

And My Night Picks Up: Bowden Investigated for Skimming Signing Bonuses

From Melisa Segura at SI.com:

A federal investigation into the skimming of signing bonuses given to baseball prospects from Latin America is looking at Washington Nationals general manager Jim Bowden as far back as 1994, when he was GM of the Cincinnati Reds, according to a baseball executive familiar with the investigation.

Two sources inside baseball say that a long-time scout in Latin America, Jorge Oquendo, 47, is the man who links the FBI's investigations of Bowden and his special assistant Jose Rijo to that of former Chicago White Sox senior director of player personnel David Wilder. Last May the White Sox fired Wilder and two Dominican-based scouts after allegations surfaced that they had pocketed money earmarked for player signing bonuses. Oquendo worked for Wilder in 2006 and 2007, as well as for Bowden with the Reds in 1994 and again with the Reds from 2000 through 2003. Oquendo left Cincinnati in 2005, two years after Bowden was fired. (Bowden became Nationals GM in 2004.)

Delightful. Whether it's true or not (and we all know it's true), Bowden's got to be a goner. You could see that if you read between the lines of Stan Kasten's quotes last week. Maybe he'll be able to get a job somewhere in Cincinnati.

Refs, Duke Combine to Top Wake Forest

Wake showed a lot of moxie coming back from 22 down at Duke to cut the game close. But the refs, Gerald Henderson's jump shot and some timely mistakes did in the Deacs. It's a good loss and I'm pretty pleased with the effort.
As for Duke, all you need to know about them is that in a game in front of the most rowdy Cameron crowd all season and in which Wake turned the ball over 18 times, Duke still needed every late call to go their way and a career night from its best player to win. Right now, I think Dino Gaudio has to feel better about his team than Mike Krzyzewski does. (Except for Chas McFarland. He's officially worthless.) And that's not sour grapes or anything. I truly think Wake showed that it can make a deep run in March with the way they played tonight. Duke's prospects look shaky, at best. The plugged the hole in the ship tonight, but the ship still be sinking.

Free throws attempted by Duke (prior to late intentional fouls): 26
Free throws attempted by Wake: 14

P. McCracken Only Made JV

This only tangentially deals with sports, but it's non-tangentially hilarious, so enjoy:

Becker, a long-heralded FOTB, had an off day from work and decided to take in some television. After a "Law and Order SVU" marathon he decided to switch over to the ION Network to watch "Quantum Leap" because no off day from work is complete without a littleScott Bakula. Let's let Becker take over:

It's the episode where Sam leaps back into the body of a high school quarterback. I like it when Sam leaps into high school kids because it stimulates internal debate over whether or not it would be inappropriate for him to hook up with the head cheerleader (who, by the way, is begging for it). On the one hand, Sam Becket is approximately 40 years old. On the other hand, he's leaped into the body of a 17 year old and must act age-appropriate lest he wants to raise suspicion that he's an impostor, traveling through time and righting history's wrongs. What if this head cheerleader girl and the guy who he leaped into (who had no say in the matter) were meant to be together and would have had a son who would become a doctor and cure cancer. However, because of Sam's possibly misguided moral issues, he ignores her advances and instead she ends up dating some other guy causing the world to suffer as a result. Anyway, that's just one of the many reasons why the show is so good. I really wish people would watch with me so that I wouldn't have to debate myself.

Long story short - one of Sam's teammates has a hilarious name. (see picture).

And that, my friends, is why Becker is an FOTB. (By the way, great mustache on that dude also. He sort of looks like John Waters.)

Update: Yes, because this post really needed an update ... Look at the name on the other locker. It ends in VERS. It's possible that it's AVERS. I'm betting that J. Mehoff was throwing passes to H. Beavers. Oh, "Quantum Leap" set designers, you mischievous scaps.

Jim Bowden Screws Up Again ... And, An Announcement!

That 16-year old prospect the Nationals gave a $1.4 million to a few years back? Yeah, he was 20. It never made sense that Jim Bowden wanted Esmailyn Gonzalez anyway, seeing as how he never played for the Reds.
The Gonzalez signing was mentioned in that FBI investigation into Bowden and Jose Rijo. They apparently paid him twice the signing bonus of any competing team. Hmm... Nothing fishy about any of that!
For what it's worth, Rijo solidified his idiot credentials with this quote about the not-19-year old.

Asked if he sought documentation at the time of the signing, Rijo said, "[Heck] no. That's not my job. That's why the major league has an investigation. Before we sign [a player] he has to go through them... You see a document, but you're going to see a, you know, a real or fake one either way. But that doesn't matter. It has to go through Major League Baseball before you can get the player signed. They do their investigation; they do everything."

It's not your job? Actually, I think that is, basically, exactly what you're freakin' job is. As the man on the ground in the Dominican, it's up to Rijo to get the scoop on the kid. Would it not be his job to know if Gonzalez was on steroids or cocaine? If he was a wife beater? If he had a penchant for getting DUIs. (Oops.) I mean, if he was 36 years old, Rijo wouldn't have been interested. So why does he think he's in the clear because Gonzalez was just not young enough to be nearly as good a prospect as he once was.

* This was the lead story on the official ACC web site today:

For reals? Virginia Tech's 1973 NIT Title? Does Seth Greenberg bitch about not making the NCAAs that year too? I mean, Virginia Tech was 30 years away from joining the ACC at the point! (Rest of diatribe deleted after realizing that it didn't necessarily mesh well with the next item.)

* Speaking of the ACC, if you're a subscriber to ACC Select (and if you want to watch the Wake Forest-Georgia Tech game tonight, you better be), check me out this weekend and next when I'll be calling the ACC Swimming Championships for the site. My buddy Russ and I did some work for them during Maryland's soccer and volleyball season, but because Russ has "a job" that involves him working later than 3:00 (like myself), he can't do this one with me and I'm flying solo.
Update: It looks like ACC Select will provide FREE coverage of the aforementioned ACC Swimming Championships. So, please watch. Clicks, whether they be here, there or at Yahoo!, warm my soul.

Did The Washington Post Indirectly Out Seth Greenberg As A Cheater?

The Washington Post is running a fantastic three-part series on the fall of Maryland basketball. It's definitely worth the read, as Eric Prisbell examines how Gary Williams and the Terps fell so far so quickly. (It's basically what people we've been saying all along -- bad recruiting.) Good stuff, even if I thought the first article was a little too critical on Gary for not getting guys like Scottie Reynolds. (There are a dozen guys that major programs "should" have had.)
In Friday's second part, there was a very interesting section that is either very revealing or a sign that I'm reading way too much into it:

In recent years, Williams has displayed a "total unwillingness to engage third-party aspects in recruiting, and that eliminates so many kids from consideration," said a recruiting source intimately involved in the AAU scene who considers Williams one of the nation's best coaches. "If the situation looks anything less than high school coach, kid and parent, Gary doesn't even mess with it. It is so commonly known that he doesn't like AAU guys. It is almost impossible to think he can invite one into his office, have a meaningful conversation and repair the relationship."

It is easy to identify people who are in a recruit's inner circle, Virginia Tech Coach Seth Greenberg said, but it is difficult to decide if you want to "deal with that person, if you don't know the person, if that person has different loyalties. It is the same with high school coaches."

Williams believes he lost at least two local players because of cheating and cited three other cases in which cheating took place. Williams declined to detail his allegations because he would be "run out of town."

Paragraph #1 -- Gary doesn't engage in dirty tactics
Paragraph #2 -- Seth Greenberg quote about dirty tactics
Paragraph #3 -- Prisbell mentions Gary's belief that certain coaches have been cheating

Coincidence? Perhaps, although the ordering of those paragraphs does seem a little strange.

Friday's piece sort of plays out with a storyline of "why AAU basketball is ruining the game". This quote is ridiculous of a whole number of levels:

Said Jeff Bowden, a Baltimore AAU coach: "I have never been formally introduced [to Williams]. And you can quote me on that. Whatever people perceive from that, it is what it is. But I have never met the man in 12 years.

That about sums up the whole deal right there. Some bitter dickhead coach hates Gary Williams because he's never been "formally introduced" so he probably steers the young men he's supposed to be mentoring to a situation that may not be best for them so that he can have the non-existent upper-hand in a battle that one side isn't even fighting. What a joke. I love the "you can quote me on that" line. Oh really, Jeff Bowden? Can he? You, Jeff Bowden, grant your permission to have a grandstanding line printed in the paper? Why wouldn't you let yourself be quoted?! Because it might make Gary Williams, the guy with the NCAA CHAMPIONSHIP RING, not talk to you more than he already doesn't? And what's with the "formally introduced" line. Is Gary the freakin' Queen of England?
Good thing the NCAA is able to put a leash on these AAU coaches though. Keep up the good work.

I've written on this site at least a dozen times that the main reason I always thought Gary couldn't recruit is because it was impossible to picture him kissing the ass of 18-year olds who think they're God's gift to everything. This article shows that I was on the right track, but that it's Gary refusing to suck-up to crooked AAU coaches who are more interested in promoting themselves than mentoring basketball players that is the real issue. And I'm totally fine with that. Good for Gary. I just hope he can get some better underrated high school talent like Juan Dixon and Lonny Baxter so he can prove that one doesn't need to cozy up to the Curtis Malone's of the world in order to be successful. (And that's another thing the article doesn't mention; all this stuff about Gary not talking to AAU guys was true in 1999 when he recruited Juan and Blake and Wilcox.)
I'm ranting. The AAU stuff sets me off. Gary has never been shy about taking his shots (he loves digging at Jim Calhoun, one of the dirtiest of the dirties). I hope, one day, Gary will burn even more bridges and start naming names. He can soldier on as a maverick in a dirty recruiting world, but unless he does something to change the landscape, it will seem like Gary is just a burned out, disillusioned coach.

Another Wednesday, Another Wake Blowout

I think it's safe to say that Wake Forest isn't a well-coached basketball team right now. Because no well-coached basketball team gets blown out by N.C. Freakin' State. Jeff Teague had two shots in the first 27 minutes. That's on the coach. One hundred percent. State threw junk defenses at the Deacs and they had no idea how to counter. A box and one? A triangle and two? I knew Wake couldn't play against zone defenses, but I had no idea it was this bad.
Wow.
I did something tonight I haven't done in years: I turned the game off. And I was much happier for it.
With 12 minutes left in the game, Tracy Smith had ten - TEN - offensive rebounds. Wake, combined, had five.

Update: Deacs came back to cut the lead to 2, and had a chance to tie the game with 20 seconds left. James Johnson missed a three, Gary Clark was mugged on the rebound and got a bloody nose and lip as a result courtesy Ben McCauley, but of course there was no call. And why would there be? Before Wake started to foul with 30 seconds left in the game to extend it, they had 23 fouls to N.C. State's 15.
Enjoy the NIT and 4H conventions, State fans.

Update x2: Jeff Teague finished the game with two shots. Two. Shit, I just took three shots and that was in, like, 90 seconds. And he had two shots in 40 minutes. Those junk defenses should only work for short stretches. Instead, the lack of imagination in Wake's offensive sets allowed that crap to be effective all night.

A-Rod's Still Lying and Why The Tejada Thing Stinks

1) Why does nobody seem to care that A-Rod IS STILL LYING??! He's obviously still lying, right? (That last question was rhetorical.) Let's look at the facts: He lied for (at least) eight years and then only came clean when his back was against the wall. And now we're supposed to take his word for it? For as with-it as the press likes to claim it is, they're just as gullible and stupid as most people. He's still lying, people. And he didn't confess, he caved at gun point. There's a big difference.

2) My buddy Horo sent me an excellent email today:

i compiled a pretty ridiculous list of potentially 'roiding rangers from '01 to '03. how stupid is everyone for not realizing this.
Ken Caminiti. Rafael Palmeiro. Ivan Rodriguez. Gabe Kapler. Juan Gonzalez. Kevin Mench. Ruben Sierra.
and the All Roid Rage List: Kenny Rogers. Rick Helling. Carl Everett.
and kevin mench has a GIANT F(REAKING) HEAD. ridiculous.

3) As my Uncle Stephan could tell you, I was all over McGwire being on 'roids in '98. I ranted about it endlessly. But that was due, in part, because I hated McGwire. It should be noted that I didn't say similar things about Sosa.

4) Here's my problem with the Tejada thing: Obviously, you can't lie when you're under oath. Everyone should have learned this from Bill Clinton. It's never the crime, always the cover-up. Thusly, I have no sympathy for Tejada or Clemens or Bonds or Marion Jones or any of them. However, I can empathize for this reason: The testimony of those people was supposed to be sealed. In almost every circumstance, however, the allegedley private information was leaked to the media by someone on the inside. So, if you're Clemens, the grand jury room (or whatever) isn't the private forum it's supposed to be. As a result, if you tell the truth, you're screwed because it's going to get leaked and your reputation is ruined. And if you don't, it's perjury. Again, no sympathy (they only had to lie because they took steroids), but I understand.
More ridiculous is the double standard in place here. Tejada is investigated for lying and will go to jail as a result. But nobody is searching for who leaked the sealed A-Rod results, or who gave out the Clemens info. If it's important enough to put Tejada in jail for lying, it should be important enough to find whoever leaks information and to put them in prison too. The court system can't operate if the vows made by the government aren't upheld.
That being said, Tejada's an idiot.

5) Finally, I agree with Thomas Boswell and disagree with Mike Wise (shocker) about what should happen with the list of the other 103 guys who tested positive in 2003. Wise is completely wrong if he thinks that releasing the list is the only way to cleanse the game. That list only contains the names of the 103 people who had 'roids in their system when they were tested in 2003. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a comprehensive list of who cheated and who didn't. The only thing that releasing the list would do is cause more discussion about who managed to escape a positive result. Or what if that list is released and Bonds, Clemens, Sosa or Palmeiro wasn't on it? (Which would be likely.) It just proves that the list is but a small sample.

6) I'm pretty sure David Ortiz was on the juice, but I still don't think Manny was. His body never changed, his numbers stayed consistent and he still has the same opposite field power he had in '03.

7) I liked to it above, but Tom Verducci's article on SI.com is an excellent read. He echoes what I said yesterday: that A-Rod never admitted to anything and that Peter Gammons' interview was, for all intents and purposes, terrible.

Purple-Lipped A-Rod and the Lame Excuses

* On the surface, A-Rod came off pretty well in his interview today with Peter Gammons. (Except for the fact that he looks like an Oompa Loompa. Seriously, his lips look like a corpse from CSI.) The headlines will scream that he "came clean" and in soundbites, which is all most people will see, he seemed to answer questions with sincerity. In reality, he didn't say a damn thing.
A-Rod kept on the Boras-approved talking points, repeatedly bringing up "the culture of baseball at the time", the amount of illegal drugs at GNC, never hearing about steroids until he got to Texas, etc., but the most "revealing" moments of the interview were anything but. (My favorite part is when A-Rod looks off-camera and changes the direction of his sentence. Undoubtedly, Scott Boras was lurking in the shadows giving him the "change it up" hand motion. He looks over about three times in the interview, the final time with a "please tell me this is over" expression.)
A-Rod didn't say he took drugs from 2001 to 2003; Gammons did. A-Rod said "that sounded accurate." A-Rod didn't say which drugs he took, he said he didn't remember. And the apology was delivered with the caveat that the steroids were taken because of all the pressure A-Rod felt after signing a $252 million contract.
For real? He wants sympathy because he signed a deal for a quarter-billion? This is where Boras led him astray, I think. It would have been fine for A-Rod to have admitted and apologized, but to delived lame reasons makes the whole thing seem phony. He took the 'roids because he's an egomaniac who didn't want lesser talents eclipsing him. I don't blame him. I don't blame any of them. It was legal in the sport because it wasn't illegal. And when a guy like Ken Caminiti is winning MVP awards because he's obviously on the juice, it had to be tough to abstain. Just don't make up stupid excuses and expect sympathy for it.
It should be interesting to see how this apology plays. Why anybody would believe anything A-Rod says is beyond me. With the way he evades answers, he could be a politician. The non-answer of Gammons, "why did you lie to Katie Couric" question was artful. A-Rod said, "I wasn't even being truthful with myself." (Gammons treated A-Rod with kid gloves, phrasing questions easily and not asking follow-ups. This is why Boras chose him, I suppose.)
I think Boras did A-Rod a disservice by setting up the interview and, likely, setting the talking points. It comes across as rehearsed and insincere. And the way A-Rod kept referring to Sports Illustrated's Selena Roberts as "that lady" comes across as very Clintonian.
By the way, the one person who has to be feeling really good right now is Michael Phelps. His saga has been forgotten. (It's great to see that Kellogg's is getting a lot of flak for acting holier-than-thou in their dumping of Phelps. It's especially funny because Kellogg's had been planning to let all their Olympic contracts expire anyway, but they felt the need to pontificate instead.)

More on Phelps and How A-Rod Ruined Baseball

Excellent, especially the end:

* The news about A. Rod is slightly disappointing. I can't stand him and I'm looking forward to him collapsing under the scrutiny (like he does every October -- except for last one). But the fact that even he wasn't clean is a sign that baseball records have become completely irrelevant (as opposed to mostly irrelevant). It takes away the greatest part about the game: the ability to compare numbers between generations. Sure, every decade had its anomalies: the '20s were the deadball era, the '60s was a pitcher's era, the '80s was speed-based, but the steroid era renders the most sacred marks in the game obsolete. Jackasses like Sosa, McGwire, Thome and Palmeiro populate the once-sacred homerun list. Babe Ruth's best seasons look pedestrian next to the silly numbers Bonds put up in 2002. And now the presumptive heir to Bonds' tainted home run title is dirty too.
Everyone is culpable, from Bud Selig to Gene Orza to Donald Fehr to owners and players too. It's sad, but there's no going back now.

The Phelps Suspension is a Complete Freaking Joke

I was wrong about the Michael Phelps story before I was right about it. First I thought it would blow over. But once it became clear that the press wasn't going to let it go, I figured the only logical thing to happen was for USA Swimming to suspend Phelps. They did tonight, with a ridiculous, token three-month ban that it is a self-serving joke and could piss off Phelps enough to say "the hell with you all, I'm going to the beach."
If I were Phelps, I'd be angry. He put himself in this situation, yes. And he can't control sponsors, who have their own interests to look after. (So, Kelloggs? We're cool.) But Michael Phelps is USA Swimming. And now they're going to treat him like dirt because Michael Wilbon won't stop leading PTI with his whining about double-standards? Step up, USAS. Defend your boy. Don't cave to the pressure and give him a slap on the wrist because you think that's what other people want you to do.
I'm done ranting. Poosted about this at Fourth-Place Medal tonight, so go check it out.

Well, That Happened: Wake Rocked By 27 At Miami

In an unprecedented move, I'm posting a "sky is falling" blog entry before the game in question is complete. That should speak volumes.

I'm baffled ... absolutely freaking baffled.
It's difficult to fathom how Wake Forest has fallen so far so quickly. Last week they knocked around the No. 1 team in the country. Since then, they lost to the worst team in the ACC and got man-handled by a Miami team that just lost to freakin' Maryland. Maryland.
It probably has a lot to do with the team's relative youth and all the hysteria that accompanied their wins over North Carolina and Duke. The immaturity of Chas McFarland can't be underestimated either. And the fact that Wake's offense can't seem to handle a zone is a big deal too. But there was something off about the whole team tonight. I don't know what it was, but it happened in the Virginia Tech game and, I assume, the Georgia Tech game. Are the players tired? (Dino had them playing a lot of minutes early in the season.) Is the lack of bench hurting? (Harvey Hale, David Weaver and Tony Woods provide little help.) Has Dino lost the team to visions of NBA riches and NCAA dominance? Are the little things that were trivial when the team was winning now hurting? (Turnovers and missed three throws.) Are the refs keeping Wake from staying in the game? (The Deacs would have lost if every call went their way tonight, but none of them did, so they lost by 20.) Is the team having trouble coping with getting the best shot from every ACC opponent? (Miami didn't care about playing Maryland, because Maryland is awful. But when formerly No. 1 Wake Forest comes to town, they treat it as a big game.)
Two plays summed up the action:
1) On a 3-on-1 break, Ish Smith passed up an open Jeff Teague and chose to go to take the rack against a bigger defender. He had Teague in step and it would have been an easy bucket. Ish even looked at him. But he passed him up.
2) LD Williams got nailed by a screen, which none of his teammates called out. Granted, it was a dirty-ass, illegal screen that the refs ignored. But still.
Dino never had a handle on this game either. The team was out of sync all night (maybe it had to do with the benching of McFarland), but even when they got down, Gaudio's timeouts still weren't putting a halt to the quick three-pointers with 29 seconds left on the shot clock.
Something is amiss in Winston-Salem and it's hard to imagine it's going to be a quick fix.

Frank Haith Is Bush League

The gentleman standing on the right side of the picture with his feet on the court is Miami basketball coach Frank Haith. He was clapping vigorously at the time this picture was taken. And, yes, he was clapping vigorously in the direction of Wake Forest guard Gary Clark, at the exact moment Clark was shooting a three-pointer. Just like an immature third-grader playing a rec league basketball game.
No wonder Miami basketball players play such dirty ball. They take cues from their coach.

The Michael Phelps Story Won't Die

I was wrong about the Michael Phelps story blowing over. It's now been five days since the picture came out and the fallout from the picture of him taking a binger is still the lead on PTI and SportsCenter.
There seems to be a rule for these types of stories: if the public interest is high, the story will go on. This doesn't necessarily mean that people are upset with Phelps (Michael Wilbon, aside -- seriously, what a ridiculous column), it's just that the story is interesting and because people are following it, a non-story becomes a big deal. This is why the Washington Post has published five separate columns about Phelps. It's likely not because editors think the story is important, but because they think readers think the story is important. It's a textbook self-fulfilling prophecy.
This whole thing reminds of the Don Imus controversy a few years ago (not the deeds themselves, but the way coverage of them unfolded in the media) in that the Imus thing kept building after it should have stalled because the media kept it in the spotlight. The Phelps story isn't going away for the same reasons. There is no outrage (Wilbon aside) but organizations and sponsors have to react like there is. And they will soon.
Speaking of Wilbon, when his boy Charles Barkley got a DUI he basically said, "Charles was wrong" and left it at that. And he dogs Phelps for three straight days for doing something far less destructive.
Granted, Phelps did get a DUI in 2004. In the reporting of that arrest this week, some (cough, Wilbon, cough) have made it seem like Phelps was an out of control drunk that night. But, he only blew a .08, a BAC that was at the legal limit and, up until a few years ago, would have been considered "sober". Still wrong? Sure. But let's not act like he was driving 125 in a school zone with a bottle of Jack at his side.
I don't understand why guys like Wilbon are getting mad at Phelps for "dishonoring" his sponsors. If they don't seem to care, why should Wilbon?

Final Super Bowl Thoughts

Peter King writes of the controversial final Super Bowl play:

The Kurt Warner fumble with five seconds to go actually was reviewed -- and upheld. There is no question that, cosmetically, replay assistant Bob McGrath, sitting upstairs, should have called for a booth review and let Terry McAulay see the play down on the field. But understand the mechanics of the way this process works -- and understand the process was aided by a penalty call on the field.

OH. MY. GRACIOUS. No, Peter. It was NOT reviewed. It was looked at by a guy who isn't responsible for confirming or disconfirming calls on the field. I heard Mike Greenberg spouting the same NFL-driven drivel last night on "SportsCenter." What's so difficult about this? A review can only be done by the referee. Bob McGrath can't review a play. He can only create a situation in which the play is reviewed.
The job of the replay assistant isn't to determine if it's a fumble or an incomplete pass. The job is to decide whether that answer is in doubt. And anyone who thinks it wasn't is either a moron or a liar.

* Also, let's quiet all this "greatest Super Bowl ever" talk. As I wrote immediately after the game, Super Bowl XLIII was awesome, but it takes more than a great fourth quarter for the game to earn "best ever" status. Those games need to be played crisply throughout and should have a team that didn't go 9-7 in the regular season.

Wake Forest-Xavier to Play Skip Prosser Classic

Very cool:

Wake Forest University and Xavier University have agreed on a 10-year basketball series starting next season that will be known as the Skip Prosser Classic.

Prosser was the head coach at Xavier from 1994-2001 and at Wake Forest from 2001 until his death in 2007. His legacy remains strong at each school.

The 10-year series will begin during the 2009-10 season with the first game scheduled to be played at Wake Forest. Over the course of the series, five games will be played at Wake and five at Xavier. The exact dates have yet to be determined and will be announced at a later time.

Find The Missing Team

An ESPN Sportsnation poll:

If only there were a team that had defeated two of the schools on the list this year. Hmmm....

That Was One Hell of a Super Bowl Finish

It wasn't until I watched the highlights on SportsCenter that I realized just how epic the finish was to Super Bowl XLIII. The Cards first TD, the three-and-out, the Cards punt again, pinning Pittsburgh back, the near-safety, the actual safety, the dart to Larry Fitzgerald, Big Ben eluding rushers on 1st and 20, the big play to Santonio Holmes to put Pittsburgh inside the ten and then, of course, the beautiful touchdown reception. I don't know if it was the greatest Super Bowl ever (last year's was better, I think, because of what was on the line).
Go to Shutdown Corner for more about the game. We had a great time on the live blog and I wrote post-game about the unfortunate officiating controversies that are sure to stem from the game tonight. (Seriously, how could they not at least review the final play? It will be interesting to see if that gets much play in the next 24 hours. SportsCenter is talking about it and Yahoo! Sports has a link to my post on the front page, but there's a chance that because the game was so great the absurdity of the non-review might fade into the wind, just like when there should have been four seconds left on the clock in the Pats-Rams Super Bowl after Adam Vinatieri kicked the go-ahead extra points. Instead they let time expire.)
I'm sad the NFL is finished but can't wait for college basketball season to kick it into great. Too bad the Deacs choked one away in Atlanta yesterday. That put a pall on the rest of my weekend. Dammit.