And the #1 overall pick is..... KEVIN DURANT

With the #1 Pick in the NBA draft…. they choose….. Kevin Durant.

Well at least that is what happened in my basketball draft a couple days ago. And was the right choice.

But that got me to thinking about some arguments with the pops about the same topic. The 2007 NBA Draft; when Greg Oden went first overall to Portland and Kevin Durant was picked by the, then Seattle Supersonics at #2.

And this is why it was the right way to go although it hasn’t turned out that way, just yet.

There is no doubting that Oden was an absolute beast in college. He only averaged a little more than 15 points, and 12 boards a game but he had the ‘Shaq’ effect going for him. And still does. He can block shots, rebound and get people talking about his freethrow shooting. Not to mention he’s one of the truly funny people there is. (case in point: the ESPYs) He led his Ohio State team to the finals and only fell to Florida in the end.

Kevin Durant was the Naismith Player of the Year, which is a feat for anybody but a big time accomplishment for a freshman. He averaged 25 ppg and 11 rebounds on a very young Longhorn team. He was on in primetime many more times which showcased his talents. But they lost in the 2^nd round of the tournament. And the next year, Michael Beasley came in the Big XII and eclipsed all his stats and we see what has he done in the league?

And what Portland needed wasn’t as important as what they didn’t need that year. Brandon Roy was one of the up-and-coming superstars of the league. He’s one of the youngest second tier scorers in the league. And he didn’t some kid coming in and taking all of his touches. Not to mention Outlaw and Alridge (who is still one of the most underrated players in the league) are young and fit the same mold as Durant.

Who was to know Durant was going to turn out like he did? Nobody. But I hope he averaged 35 PPG, 10 RPG and 8 APG and I take home the glory of ‘Fantasy League Champion’.

Dr. Lou Got Me Thinking

So let me start off by saying I just read John Feinstein’s article about the Nave-Notre Dame game. I did not realize that the Mids mopped the field with the Golden Domers, with a final score at 38-17. And the way Navy, and well also Army and Air Force, play is the way college football is supposed to be play.

But let me get to the thing that really got me thinking. The Lou Holtz comment.

Lou may have a worse lisp than Sylvester the Cat but he knows his football. He is the only coach to EVER lead 5 teams to bowl games. He is the only reason Notre Dame returned to the promise land long after Knute Rockne retired. And he is the only reason they continually bring in big time names, to this day.

And okay, he’s biased. Yes, I completely understand that and he may be to a fault on how biased he actually is. But you know who he’s rooting for every Saturday when the teams take the field in South Bend. And that I can appreciate.

Unlike Joel Klatt…. He is a bad announcer, he does color for FSN and takes over the broadcast with his not so insightful insight and anti-comical timing. But the thing that really rubs me the wrong way is that he’s unbiased or even against CU most of the time. Come on guy, the only reason you are doing this broadcast is because you are a CU alum. You were a Buffalo. Some us still remember you leading us to a Big XII title and then Fiesta Bowl lambasting at the hands of Joey Harrington. Joey Harrington of all people, but we forgave you. The execs at FSN would not, in their right mind, put you on any game that doesn’t involve CU. You’re just too bad. So root for CU just a little, come one Joel.

Did I mention I like the Dr. Lou part of College Football Tonight on ESPN and when Holtz gives speeches like they were his team. He is one of greatest college football coaches of all time... that should get some comments.

And The Beat Goes On

‘Big Hitters’ once referred to Slammin’ Sammy Sosa …and Luis Gonzalez. And there we were, Matt and I, arguing over whether that ball went over the gutter or not.

But now the term refers to head hunters turned football players. The ones that stalk the middle of field looking for the little youngster that doesn’t know any better. Those that make their living by getting fined $5,000 at a time. The ones that in 10 or 15 years down the road no one will remember who they were, but neither will they.

And with the new-er rule in place… nothing will change. James Harrison was debating retirement after several big hits on Sunday. The two little receivers getting hit are a little rattled but it probably won’t stop them going over the middle. He was fined 75K. And everyone moves on.

That’s what happens in this league. Unlike other sports these players, especially the ones on the defensive side of the ball, are just robots in helmets. They are interchangeable. They are Madden players that you and I have created.

If James Harrison had retired people would have felt the ripple, but only a small one. Another Steeler would have filled in for the former Defensive Player of the Year and the team wouldn’t have suffered that much.

Just like Domonique Foxworth and Shawn Merriman. A former Bronco, Foxworth, was a sub-par player on a sub-par team before moving to the Baltimore Ravens. Then at the beginning of this year he tore his ACL, and people were talking about this being a huge hit to the Ravens D. Are we talking about the same Domonique Foxworth that couldn’t cover a cold bowl of spaghetti? And Shawn Merriman was once the most ‘feared’ defensive player in the league. He can’t play and the Chargers chances of stopping anyone goes down exponentially, right? Wrong, they lead, LEAD, the league in total defense.

So although the rule may be good for the game, it won’t change a thing. People will continue to throw their bodies around and players will continue to get hurt.

AND THE BEAT GOES ON…. Da-da-dum da-dum da-dah.

Weekend in Review 10/16

At least 2 people have already come up to me asking, “Where is the WEEKEND IN REVIEW, its already Tuesday Dr. Pure?” So without further ado here is the much acclaimed Weekend In Review…

- CU only dropped 3 spots in the polls; from 63 to 66. This is not because the Buffs are playing well, by no means is that true. But the teams we’ve already- some we’ve beat- are getting better. Our SOS, Strength of Schedule (that’s for you mom) is going through the roof.

o Hawaii beat the #19 Nevada.

o Georgia has won 2 games in a row. They are slowly playing their way into the mix in a week SEC East division race. And their only losses this year, other than the one they dropped against CU, have come against South Carolina, Arkansas and Miss St. All of the those teams are ranked.

o Mizzou looks unbeatable. This past week they went into College Station, possibly the toughest play to play in the Big XII and dominated. They jumped 10 spots in the polls, from 21 all the way to #11 in the Nation.

- I got a lot of response from the ‘Buffs Are Back’ blog. But I’m sticking to my guns on this one. Baylor was probably a game CU shoulda have taken care of business but they didn’t. I’m not going to make excuses, other than saying that Josh Hartigan and Jimmy Smith didn’t play substantial minutes in the second half due to injuries. Just another setback for a good Buffalo defense. Young players are going to have to step up if the Buffs want to go to a bowl game, and more importantly, make me not sound like a total idiot at the end of the year.

- Tebow scored. Yay!

- I don’t even care about the Broncos anymore. Nay, I don’t really care about the NFL.

- I had a great talk with Russell Cunningham about many different things. I thought they were so good that I should share them on the blog.

o One, was the possibly changing of the guard with CU and Buffalo football. If we end up relieving Hawkins of his duties this year I think the program will be up in the air more than ever. Mike Bohn, the AD here at CU, is also in his last year of his contract and has been orally nominated as a candidate for the Athletic Director role at Kansas. KU is his alma mater; I don’t think he can or will pass that up. So the bigger question is who replaces the AD? And the top candidate or the only name being thrown around is Bill McCartney. I don’t think he would fit as coach, too much has changed in his 16 year absence from the game. But put him at AD and that would work. So what he only knows football, he’ll be just a face of the school and have people surrounding him to help with decision. A direct quote from our conversation is, “Don’t you think someone wants to be a Coach for the Duke football team because they get to be around Coach K? I think so.”And if we pass him up, and have another awful AD, the time that elapses will be too much for CU to go back and hire McCartney. And just remember this is a man who left football in his prime to go do something with the church. Bringing back this type of character is a good thing.

o Next, conference realignment. This had to do with the BCS, in which everyone knows I love, but I won’t get into that. With the travel patterns of all college sports demographic don’t really matter anymore. It’s a matter of being in a conference that is a good fit academically and athletically. TCU doesn’t have a hill let alone a mountain being in the MWC. Where is South Florida Location? Tampa, Florida. I’m no expert but Tampa isn’t even close to southern Florida. So the Buffs going to the Pac 12, isn’t a bad thing. ‘But as stupid as it sounds, I’m going to miss going to Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.’ I’m going to miss the hardnosed football that exists in the Big XII. But the move had to be made.

That is the weekend in review. I am out.

BIG Week in CUSportsMag

Last week I went crazy with CUSportsMag. I did 2 packages and 2 highlights.

Here they are, WHATCA THINK???

Here's a golf package I did that focuses on Emily Talley...


The highlight of the Heather Farr Invitational...


The club field hockey package...


And finally the soccer game vs Iowa State...

A Matchup For the Ages

Not far down the road the 2010 MLB Season will be recognized as the ‘Year of the Pitcher’. And no more do we see that fact then now, with only 4 teams left. On the 4 teams there are a combined 6 Cy Young Awards. The #1’s on the AL side have a combined 36 wins, the NL 37. Six starters in the ALCS have more than 10 wins, 7 on the NL side have double figures.

But as my second-go-to team the Phillies are going to make it out of the NL. Just too much offense, although the Giants rotation looks devastating there are some chincks in their metaphorical armor. And on the other side I just can’t find myself rooting for the Yankees. I can see it now, the Rangers move on to the World Series and FOX will zoom in on Nolan Ryan crying tears of joy.

And what a perfect way to end the year than a Game 7 in Philadelphia matching up Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay. I’m giddy just thinking about it. Roy Halladay has one postseason start and one postseason no-hitter. Cliff Lee shut down a dynamic Tampa team, only giving up 2 runs in 16 innings and 21 strikeouts. Not to mention the fact t the Cliff Lee was a member of the team a year ago that came up just short of winning a World Series.

Thursday, November 4^th. For the World Series Title. Cliff Lee and the Texas Rangers vs Roy Halladay and the Philadelphia Phillies. I know I’ll be watching. Will you?

Weekend In Review

Busy does not come close to describing the weekend that I had. 5:45 wake up call on Friday to go watch and shoot women’s golf, CUSportsMag later. Then early morning Saturday to make it to the noon kickoff of a CSU v Air Force football game, CU vs Mizzou game after a 2 hour drive. No time to sleep in because I had to do film field hockey then women’s soccer right after. Then I went into the wee hours of the night on Sunday to finish homework. But here are some thoughts I came up with along the way

-Damn You CU. Who can you blame? Hawkins, probably. Hansen, probably deserves some of the blame. But not the defense. The defense gave up 16 total yards on the 3 first drives. You cannot do much better than that, you need to have an offense than can capitalize on your good play. And it wasn’t all the offenses fault, but they didn’t and have yet to give the defense a break. And I do not take back a single thing from the ‘Buffs are Back’ post from last week. I think all my ideas were right on the money. It got 4 stinking comments, that’s A LOT. People are talking about CU and that’s a good thing. We weren’t supposed to win at Mizzou, but if we could have put a touchdown on the board in the first quarter or just the first half I think it would have been a totally different football game.

-What is this… monsoon season??

-Alex Smith, SF 49ers. We, well some of us, were watching the Sunday Night Football game with the 49ers and Philadelphia. And through the white noise (WAIT I HAVE A FUN FACT ABOUT THAT) all I kept hearing was the fact that Alex Smith was washed up. That he couldn’t hang in the league. Collinsworth, who can be, at times a great color man, was ripping him apart. And apparently the Coors Light commercials aren’t fake cause it seemed like Mike Singletary was drinking some of Collinsworth’s haterade. He yelled at his quarterback after was a bad, unfortunate play, but not a stupid one that nearly every other playmaker would have made in the same situation. Other than a pick and that fumble he got ripped for he played an outstanding game.

-I don’t even care about the Broncos anymore.

-Air Force is a good program. They along with the other military schools have been from a long time. And you wouldn’t think it, but the fan experience at the game was great. Since the Air Force is the Air Force they could show off a little with their flyover and parachuters. The flyover was so cool. They had the standard tilted V formation by once they passed over the stadium they went straight up. It was one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen, they literally went straight up into the sky until it hurt my eyes to look anymore. Oh, and the football game was good too. The option is quite possibly my favorite offense in all of football. How do you beat a fast, athletic defense? Slow them down, make them think. And it works, if Air Force didn’t barely lose in a tough place like Norman they could be en route to an big bowl game, or even undefeated.

Big XII Basketball Polls Are Out

The first BigXII basketball polls came out earlier this morning, just under a month before the official start of the season. This in and of itself show just how obsessed people are with football. Not more than 15 minutes after Alabama raised the trophy in Pasadena people were speculating who would be ranked where. It also tells us how unimportant these initial polls are.

The team predicted to be atop what was the toughest/deepest conference in America a year ago is Kansas State. Then the rest fall in line like so… Kansas, Texas, Baylor, Missouri, Texas A&M, Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, COLORADO, Nebraska, Oklahoma and finally Iowa State.

First, let me tell you what happened last year. Blake Griffin just got selected by the Clippers and the program looked to be on the rise. They were ranked #11… in the Nation, and third in the conference. That didn’t last very long; they finished with a total of 4 wins inside the conference and 13-18 overall. The Bears from Baylor saw a preseason poll of being #10 and finished 3^rd in conference. And the Buffaloes would have been picked 13^th in the BigXII if given the opportunities to the voters. But after a good season the Buffs had a chance to go to the BIG DANCE if they played well in the BigXII tournament. We finished 8^th in the conference, and everyone ahead of us had 20 plus wins.

So is being picked #9 in the preseason something to be concerned about? Nope. But I would hope that the voters aren’t just picking names out of a hat. Here’s what I think…

KSU deserves to big on top. The only player they lose from a solid Sweet Sixteen team is Clemente. They might be slightly overrated but don’t tell that the Coach Martin. The Purple Mob Boss will get more out of his players than most others.

Kansas just refills their lineup with top ranked prospects. Josh Shelby, the #1 recruit in the Nation, is coming to Lawerence. They lose Henry, Aldrich and Collins; all 3 are starters. Unless the Morris twins go ‘Lopez’ on us, Morningstar stops drinking, and Shelby turns out to be the next thing since Tyreke Evans the Jayhawks will be good but not that good.

Texas lost Pittman and James. They have a top ten recruiting class, but what’s new. Jai and Balbay in the backcourt could be two of the best, and most diverse backcourts in the conference and the Nation.

Baylor’s head Coach Drew finally outdid his brother and his shot way back when for Valpo. But Ekpe Udoh and Tweety Carter are gone, it doesn’t look good. They are falling star of the conference.

Mizzou is more about the system than it is about its players. But it returns their 3 top scorers and can press the pants off any team it plays. The Tigers can make another run into the tourney just like in ’07.

All of these teams should be ahead of the Buffs although I don’ think the order is complete right. But here is where my discrepancy starts.

The Buffs go here. The return all but one of our starters. Cory Higgins and Alec Burks are players. They both demand the oppositions best defender and are likely early round picks. The rest of the team is really young and did improve tremendously this last year. Also Shannon Sharpe, not the football player, is just raw talent waiting to explode. He reshirted last year after blowing out his knee on a dunk. Did I mention that he is pushing 5’10”? And after surgery he still can get up and is probably the best dunker on the squad. Tad Boyle just needs to stay out of the way, and only really needs to make sure none of the key contributors foul out.

A&M is ahead, but they lost the top three scorers and are really young. Oklahoma State lost James Anderson and Muonelo. The best player they have returning is Page, a white guy who can shoot. Not JJ Reddick. Texas Tech is the only team that scares me; they return all of their scores. Their only issue is size, but good for them, and well us, that the college game is ruled by quickness and guard play.

All the teams below that don’t scare me or really anyone else. And as this is the last year for the Buffs to make some noise in the BigXII they are looking good. CU hasn’t been to the Tournament since 2002 but this year, much like football looks promising.

Buffs are BACK

All is good in Boulder, and it feels to right. The Buffs have a chance to compete for the Big XII North title, and the opportunity to go to the Dr.Pepper Big XII championship game in the final year we are here is a real possibility.

Let’s go through this… Mizzou is the first-come first-serve big test of the year. The Buffs always have trouble with the Tigers, and CU hasn’t won on the road since ’07. But we are coming off a big win, even if it was against 1-4 Georgia. SEC is still SEC, Mississippi St would have been a bowl worthy team the last 5 years if they didn’t have to go through the SEC. Also Mizzou has bigger issues than us. A week after they play us they go to College Station to play once ranked Texas A&M, a tough place to play. The week after that they have #6 Oklahoma, then #7 Nebraska the next week. They’ll look past us faster than a teenage McDonald’s cashier with Pamela Anderson at the end of the line. Kansas St is 4-0, and have yet to leave the Little Apple. They are different team with Snyder at the helm, but they get to come to Folsom where the Buffs tend to play better. We get them, ISU, Texas Tech and Baylor at home; all should put the spread in our favor. Kansas on the road should be interesting. They can be okay, and they can be awful. Either way we should take care of them easily. Oklahoma is Oklahoma, especially in Norman. And then when we play, now #7 Nebraska they could be undefeated in the National Championship picture. Wouldn’t that be the sweetest game, to be playing for revenge… to ruin their National Title Hopes… for the Big XII North title… the last time we play them in what will probably be a long time with the conference switches… and if that’s not enough, its Nebraska.

I got really excited above. That probably won’t happen. We won’t play like we did against Georgia, it’ll be tough to get ‘8-year-old kid eating Pixie Stick on Christmas Eve’ hyped like that. But if we play the way we are capable we can do it.

Now some more Buffs talk. If you watch the game, how pretty was that first drive?? Took 8 minutes off the clock, all runs except one play, had a little ‘knock them in the mouth’, ‘we’re gonna be here all night’ mentality. I loved it. Stick to the run and we’ll be fine; forget about style points.

And some more. Rushing the field wasn’t the classiest move ever but hey we needed it. The students that go to CU haven’t seen 4 quarters of play by the Buffs in a long time. And we all need something to feel good about. (But even better that most of the players weren’t into it. BJ Beaty didn’t leave the sideline to be in the mob. Tyler Hansen simply walked off the field, well as much as you can being the starting quarterback after a big win and being mobbed by drunk co-eds. That was nice to see they had perspective in the midst of it all.) It was the first time since 1979 the Folsom saw an SEC team, kinda historic. But if we rush for a win against Baylor I’m gonna change my mind.

Lots more stuff. The strategy to go for 2 was s head-scratcher. Luckily we got it. But what if we hadn’t converted? Not to mention, on the last Georgia drive all they needed a field goal to win, but if it had been a tie game the Bulldogs would have been content to keep the ball on the ground and let their strong-legged kicker give it a boot in the high altitude. It was also the first time we showed the swinging gate all season, why show this trick play so early. Teams are going to be ready for it because they know we are willing to do it at any time. But that may be a good thing, and I can’t complain much more… we made it and won by 2.

Even more. They honored the 1990 National Title team over the weekend and I bet they could still compete with this team. They are as big as all of the current team. Hagan and Bienemy could run the be the starting 1-2 punch on most any team now. Okay, maybe not but that would be cool and I’d love to see what the spread would be. (As they were coming out of the tunnel there were only 2 types of players. One was the ‘Oh man, why is this guy running out with the 1990 team, they should strap it up right now. 20 years isn’t a long time, he’s still in football shape.’ And the other one, ‘Okay, 20 years is a really looooong time. This guy looks like he needs a beer.’

What can you say, it’s a fun time in Boulder. It’s an even better time when the football team is playing well. Keep it up.