The SoapBoxers

Lin-Sanity!

I guess I finally have to write about it. Just when you thought Tim Tebow was the biggest story ever here comes Jeremy Lin. The Knicks are much improved since the emergence of Lin, and the only thing more impressive than his statistics on the floor in his first ten games is the price of one of his Rookie Cards on eBay.

Lin is the first notable Asian-American player to make a splash on the NBA scene. No doubt due to his ethnic background he is garnishing a ton of interest from overseas as well.

Our Monarch of the Soap Boxers, Kosmo, even wrote TWO article about Jeremy Lin last week (Jeremy Lin Reminds Me of Kurt Warner and ESPN Apologizes for Calling Jeremy Lin a Chink) and that is saying a lot from Kosmo who is totally a baseball and luge guy…I don’t EVER remember having him taking any interest in NBA basketball.

Lin-tunity!

This has been a perfect storm for Lin, He has bounced from the Golden State Warriors to the Houston Rockets with stops primarily in the D-League (the phrase used to coin the developmental league for NBA players)

The Knicks scooped him up this year and Lin found himself at the right place at the right time. Many injuries to key players on the team, a lack of fire or desire or whatever you want to call it but bottom line is the New York Knickerbockers were not winning games.

Enter Jeremy Lin – and things turned around. Since February 4th when he was inserted full-time into the lineup, he has been on fire. The only notable deficiency really at this point – and Lin admits it himself – is that he is turning the ball over too frequently.

Lin-ning!

The Knicks were beat at home last night against the New Jersey Nets, and it appeared to be due to two main factors. First, a number of players that have been out of the lineup were back in action including Carmello Anthony and Baron Davis. Matter of fact it was an injury to Davis that really propelled Lin into the limelight and gave him his chance. Secondly, some red-hot shooting by Deron Williams of the Nets.

Lin-stoppable?

The Knicks looked like a team trying to find a rhythm, which is not unusual this year. The offense that the Knicks run – if you want to call it an offense, is primarily spreading the floor on the half court and allowing for pick and rolls, drive and dishes and pick and pops. Sorry for the basketball jargon here, but basically think of what they do as similar to the Dallas Mavericks offense….a lot of guys that are great one on one players and great shooters so they try to space out the defenders as much as possible.

One of the keys to running an “offense” such as this is familiarity with each other, and keeping proper spacing on the floor. Last night it was apparent with Anthony as well as Davis in the Lineup that this was out of sorts to a large extent. This should improve as they team plays more together with actual game minutes.

Also teams will be better now that Jeremy Lin has played a few games and will begin to try different strategies against him defensively. It will be interesting to see how he continues to refine his game in the upcoming weeks.

Lin-spensive!

Those who read here regularly know I also follow the sports card and memorabilia marketplace. Of course with the instantaneous popularity of Jeremy Lin, there are some folks trying to snap up his scarce rookie cards as well as make a quick profit.

There is a Jeremy Lin 2010-11 National Treasures Prime Patch Auto Jersey numbered to just 20 of 25 made that is currently bid up over $20,000 and the reserve price is not yet met!  Safe to say the seller that has a reserve higher than that amount is Lin-sane and the fact that someone has bid it up that high already is Lin-credible!

Until next time…Stay Classy Palo Alto, California
 

 

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Phil Mickelson picked up his 40th career PGA tour win this past weekend at AT&T Pebble Beach Pro Am. He made putt after putt while pocketing a smooth $1,152,000 for his efforts.

The media has touted this as a Phil versus Tiger deal. Yes it is true that they played in the same group on Sunday. Yes it is true that Phil played a much better round than Tiger as well. Phil played better than everyone to be exact, coming from 6 shots back to win on Sunday.

Mickelson shot a 64, highlighted by two par saving bombs to keep his round going. His 64 was three shots better than any other golfer in the field on Saturday.

 Tied for 9th All-Time

Phil moves into a tie for 9th place of all time behind an extremely impressive lists of folks on the all-time wins list:

 
Phil has always been a very popular player among the golf fans. He is very outspoken, very personable and appears to be very genuine. He has done a lot of work with Special Olympics, and even brought attention to cancer when his wife Amy was diagnosed and going through treatments a couple of years ago.

The Ones That Got Away

Even with forty career wins, Lefty is more often remembered for the ones he didn’t win.

There is no doubt that Mickelson will go down as one of the most popular golfers of all time. His swashbuckling style of play over the years is part of what endeared so many fans towards his camp, but in the end that is also what ultimately may have caused him not to win a few more tournaments.

He has finished in second place at the U.S. Open an astonishing 5 times. He also has two other 4th place finishes to his credit in that tournament. He has never been ranked as the #1 golfer in the world, primarily as he has played a large part of his career during the same span as Tiger Woods.

Mickelson was selected to be inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame this year for his career efforts. Players on tour are not eligible until they are at least 40 years of age. Mickelson turned 40 this past year and was basically immediately voted in through the selection process.

Congratulations Phil. This is a great achievement and here is hoping that you add a few more wins to your tally this year.

Augusta is just seven weeks away…..

Until next time

Stay classy Carmel, California!
 

 

Top recruit Dorial Green-Beckham. Image by Getty Images via @daylife

Sign On the Dotted Line

The best quote of all time in my opinion can be tied to recruiting. Former Oklahoma Sooner coach Barry Switzer once said. “It’s not about the X’s and the O’s, it’s about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s. Essentially meaning, I don’t have to be as good of a coach if I have superior talent.

Signing day is over. Now it is time for the chat rooms from all the schools from Oregon to Miami to gripe about the guys that got away (and for Bret Bielema to complain that Urban Meyer is poaching players) , and laud the praises for the recruits that were landed.

Too much time and attention is given by the media, the fans, and the message boards about recruiting classes. Grades are arbitrary. They are handed out based on film, a few people’s opinions, and some tangible measurements such as height, weight, “reported” speed and the like.

5 Star Treatment

Recruits are given a “star” rating by recruiting services. The two most respected are Rivals and Scouts. Both of these services came into prominence for rating football recruits around 2002. Prior to that there were a myriad of services, including a “straw poll” vote from the coaches so to speak. So before 2002 it is tougher to put an exact rating While these for some part are a shot in the dark, it is still likely the best thing out there in helping to determine the viability and talent of the athletes that are being brought into a program.

But it is far from an exact science. Let’s look at the facts from 2011 as an example:

• 47 College Football players at the Division 1 Level were named to one or more of the various “All-American” teams.
• Of those 47 players – 7 were 5 star rated by the recruiting services.
• 18 of the 47 were players that were rated 3 star or lower on the 5 star system

So this would appear on the surface that chasing the “4-star” player lands yours best odds (it is almost half of the total All Americans this year) but what this is really saying is that recruiting is still a crap shoot.

Which Came First?

Often times the more big name schools that get interested in a player, the higher the perceived rating will go as now suddenly there is the logic that “This guy must be good if Alabama, USC, Ohio State, LSU, and Oregon are after him” where if the same player is being chased by schools perceived as not as strong in the football arena they are not likely to get as many stars. You won’t see a 5 star guy being chased by just schools like Toledo, Iowa State and Idaho.

So it begs the question. Does the rating given to an athlete dictate which schools are chasing a player – – or does the schools that are interested in a particular player dictate their “star” rating?

Kind of like asking which came first the chicken or the egg?

What Do The Experts Know?

I recently read an older article on SI.COM ranking the top 15 recruiting classes of all time. As you scroll through the list a number of them won’t surprise you on the surface. The reason they are on this list of the top 15 recruiting classes of all time is that the teams were exceptionally talented and ending up having tremendous success.

While it is now a 2 year old article it points out some interesting teams that had success.

More interesting is that the 1992 class for Nebraska – which is mentioned as basically the top “modern era” football recruiting class of all time was not viewed very highly at all during the time it originally took place. In 1992 the various recruiting services at the time had the Nebraska class as high as 5th best in college that year to a low of 18th best recruiting class. You would think to finish 2nd on an ALL TIME list you would have been a slam dunk #1 ranked recruiting class in 1992.

The recruiting classes in the two year both before and after 1992 were ranked even lower. Nebraska won National Championships in 1994, 1995,and 1997.

Many players that are recruited never pan out. Some get hurt, some don’t adjust to college life well, some are as good as they are ever going to be the day they step on campus, some get in trouble, some can’t make grades.

Just as many are unheralded people that mature and develop well once they enter college, get good coaching and get stronger and faster and more confident.

Recruiting is definitely an inexact science. In the winter months it is yet another thing that keeps us focusing on football….at least until Spring practices begin.

Until next time, stay classy Cibolo, Texas

I did learn three things watching the National Championship game last night.

1. Brent Musburger likes to use the phrase Honey Badger more than I like to eat Beef Jerky (trust me on this one…I am a big fan of beef jerky)
2. No one outside of Alabama or Louisiana really even wanted to see these two teams play again in a bowl game this year.
3. Another over hyped, super boring, BCS National Title Game.

Yawn…..

Did anyone outside of Alabama or Louisiana really even want to see these two teams play again in a bowl game this year.

Matching up teams that have already faced each other in the same season always seems to be a recipe for disaster – at least in terms of creating an exciting bowl game to tune in and watch.

It has happened plenty of times before. Oklahoma and Nebraska in the Orange Bowl on New Year’s Day 1979, Miami and Florida State faced off a few times in bowl games to see who could have the most unsportsmanlike penalties called on their team.

This year was no different. All that was proven is that Nick Saban had his team better prepared, better coached and more confident and it showed last night.

Somewhere Mike Gundy is wondering how the Oklahoma State Cowboys would have fared.

I realize the Cowpokes blew a game to lowly Iowa State on the Road earlier this year. But I am sure they would have generated more than 92 yards of total offense which was the output of the Bayou Bengals.

Many folks in SEC country will say that these two teams have stellar defenses, and that is what wins championships, and that is why neither team can score touchdowns against one another in what becomes a punt, pass and kick competition without the passing.

While it is apparent that both teams are loaded with talent on defense, Jordan Jefferson is not a good passer. LSU was unable to even move past midfield until late in the 4th quarter. Alabama quarterback A.J. McCarron had a career game mainly due to a fine game plan that had him frequently rolling out of the pocket and completing short passes. This appeared to get him confidence early.

Bama threw the ball early and often at Heisman Trophy finalist Tyrann Mathieu. Unfortunately for the basically home crowd LSU fans, Mathieu was basically unable to make any significant plays in the ballgame defensively.

I guessed I also learned that honey badger don’t care that elephants are dominating his football team.

Oh well, as most all college football fans say everywhere else but in Alabama….

There is always next year.

Stay Classy, Tuscaloosa.

First we will start in the NFL, where the last of the playoff spots were sorted out. We learned a couple of things in the NFL this weekend.

1. Terence Newman is even worse than most Cowboys fans in my office thought. I have heard complaints about his lack of ability to cover himself with coat before stepping outside on a cold day, but he showed this weekend against the Giants that he simply is not very good.
2. It appears Tebow Time is over.
3. Matt Flynn just made himself some serious money looking towards next year.

Bowl Games

The College Bowls took seat front and center yesterday with the traditional January 1st bowl games moved to Monday due to Sunday and the NFL.

Worst game of the day had to be Penn State versus Houston. Neither team really wanted to be there but the fact is Houston has an offense and Penn State does not.

The best game of the day is up for debate, but my vote goes to the Oklahoma State win over Stanford. I would still have loved seeing Oklahoma State avoid the upset against the Iowa State Cyclones and be playing for it all due to their ability to score in bunches.

Better yet, how about a Cowboys versus Ducks matchup. I am after everyone would be handed 3-D Glasses to view the newest uniforms rolled out to each of these two teams, watching the actual game would remind anyone in their early 40’s of the glory days of play Super Tecmo Bowl. I would give the edge to Oregon in a shootout. 84-80.

Worst of the Worst – from Bowl Games

You have GOT to feel badly for a pair of kickers yesterday. First off Georgia Kicker Blair Walsh….While he became the Southeastern Conference’s career scoring leader with a field goal in the second overtime, he missed a 42-yarder in the first overtime and then had a 47-yard attempt blocked on the final play of the game.

You have got to feel even worse for Stanford freshman kicker Jordan Williamson, who missed 3 kicks – including one at the end of regulation to win the game and again another miss in overtime. On the game’s final drive, he reminded me of the pitcher throwing a no-no late in the game, he was all by himself, basically excluded from the rest of his team on the sidelines. He looked nervous to me on television, but he is only a dreshman, so hopefully he will bounce back.

Worst of the Worst – is two of the Marquee players in the Capital One Bowl, Alfonso Dennard and Alshon Jeffery get into a slugging match on the sideline and both players are thrown out. Not a great thing to do on the national stage, in your final game of your college career

An even Bigger bomb was dropped by the Capital One Bowl who selected Jeffrey with their MVP award for the game.

I am sure he was chosen for his “Hail Mary” catch right before halftime, which definitively turned the tide and the momentum of the game in South Carolina’s favor. However, giving an award to a person ejected from a football game for fighting with another player sets an exceedingly poor example, no matter how big the player’s impact in the game. You can’t select that person as the winner of an award on individual merits in this fame based on principal alone.

Boo Capital One….

Until Next Time, Stay Classy St Matthews, South Carolina.

As we finish the penultimate week of NFL play, many of you, like me, have been declared World Champions of the World…at least in your Fantasy Football pools among your friends and office workers (ok so I won 2 of my three leagues and got taken behind the woodshed in the semi-finals of my other league…but who is counting)

Playoff Scenarios

The playoffs in the NFL are mostly set. 5 of the 6 teams in the NFC are already in. It is down to playoff seeding of most of the teams, and the steel cage grudge match in the NFC East known as the Cowboys versus the New York Football Giants to decide which team makes it to the next stage.

Dallas is a fickle beast. Their Quarterback, Tony Romo is hurt early in the game this week against the suddenly red hot Eagles, No Romo…No chance. We saw this movie last year in Big D.

The Giants made a hot early start, then fell on their sword for a few weeks, now climb back into it again.

I give the edge to the Giants. Main Reason. The Cowboys secondary is…..(say it with me….Horrible) I predict a high scoring game but the Giants will win in the end by 3.

The AFC is not quite as clear but. The Broncos, Titans, Jets, Bengals and Raiders are all still alive for playoff spots and a myriad of scenarios could potentially play out. I won’t even attempt to name all of the division winning and potential who makes the wild card scenarios here in the AFC, but suffice it to say, that if the Denver Tim Tebow’s lose to the Kansas City Orton’s this week, then the studio analysts better be on their game. The Broncos losing starts a large cascading effect of possible scenarios. Of course even if the Broncos win, there are still a multitude of Wild Card possibilities.

Playoff Favorites

As we look forward into the playoffs, right now it would appear that the Saints, and Packers are the class of the league offensively. Green Bay is beat up on the line of scrimmage, and that makes it hard to go deep into the playoffs. The Saints are clicking as long as they are at home and playing on turf. The Niners are still the Rodney Dangerfield’s of the NFL getting no respect. They are by no means flashy but they just win baby.

Everything has to go through Title Town, and I think the offense is good enough to make that happen and return to a Super Bowl for the second straight year. Bottom line is Lambeau, January, Cold. The dome and warm weather teams have a hard time in those elements compared to the local boys in green and gold

In the AFC is this the year of the Raven? I don’t see anyone else making a serious push except the old standby, Steelers. Brady and Company have not been able to win a playoff game in what seems like a decade. Fortunately he is in New England and not Dallas so no one constantly brings this us or throws him under the bus on this fact. The Ravens are my pick, but my gut tells me the Steelers will be there again.

Stat of the Week

Amazingly there are 5 quarterbacks who are likely to finish in the top 15 all time in terms of most yards passing in a season. Drew Brees already has set the season mark, passing Hall of Famer Dan Marino last night.

Tom Brady is likely to surpass Marino’s old mark as well, and Aaron Rodgers would have an outside chance if he plays and the Packers decide to try and score a bunch in week 17. Eli Manning and Matthew Stafford also will end the year likely in the realm of 4800+ passing yards.

Until Next time, stay classy Bend, Oregon!

It is that time of year to re-cap what has happened in the sports world in 2011. Although you may not agree with some of the items here, or have your own “Top 10” Here is the Johnny Goodman Top 10 Sports Stories of 2011.

Until Next Time….Stay Classy Sergeant Bluff, Iowa.

The Bowl Lineups are all set. This year we have 35 glorious bowl games until we then have to wait around for the NFL playoffs. Once the NFL gets out of the way, it is a whole bunch of dead air space until we hit the time known as March Madness (sorry Hockey fans, I am just not buying the NHL)

As always ESPN tries to make mountains out of molehills and stir up the pot before the over hyped BCS Selection Show, that was on Sunday evening. Did anyone really thing that Oklahoma State was going to leapfrog Alabama and take on Louisiana State in the BCS Title Game? Yawner here for me, I am not sure I would watch this game other than it is the only game on that night. To me, bowl game rematches are about as exciting as pulling staples out of large stacks of paper.

Large paper stacks make me think of one of my favorite sponsorships for the Bowl season this year. It has got to be the TaxSlayer.com Gator Bowl. I mean when I think of Football, I think of an accounting service with a supercharged name like TaxSlayer.

A general rule of thumb is that if someone has to do an internet search to see what the heck the sponsorship is, you need to be spending your money somewhere first other than on a Bowl Sponsorship. For those who are wondering, The Belk Bowl between Louisville and North Carolina State is some sort of retailer down south apparently. A northerner like me has never heard of this company. I guess that is why they are pitting two “southern” schools against one another – further optimizing their revenues.

Apparently, Meineke has downsized as now instead of being called the Meineke Car Care Bowl, as in the past – it is now the Meineke Car Care of Texas Bowl. This just furthers my conspiracy theories that the Republic will continue to seek to leave the union and become independent once again. First the Longhorn Network, then the hanging on by the skin of your teeth to keep the Big XII together, and now this. What do all of the other Meineke outlets think about this. It is OUTRAGE I tell you!

Another one I had to look up on line was the BBVA Compass Bowl, which matches up SMU and Pittsburgh. I learned that BBVA is in fact not really the name. It is the accepted “trade name” of BBVA Compass Bancshares INC. I think for truth in advertising, the bowl should therefore be renamed the BBVA COMPASS BANCHARES INC dba BBVA Compass Bank Bowl. Does the NCAA have no input on truth in advertising? Do you think ESPN wants this potential mess of false advertising on their network? At the very least this would give this bowl a runaway lead for the longest bowl name by far which would be way more exciting than this game is going to be for anyone to watch outside of Mustang or Panther fans.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not mention the Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. Not because of the name, but because of the situation involving the bowl game. Illinois Coach Ron Zook is fired. On the other side UCLA Coach Rick Neuheisel is fired, and better yet, the Bruins are technically not bowl eligible (as they have a sub .500 record) as they are currently 6-7 on the year. If they lose this game, which I think they will, they will end the year at 6-8. EEEEEESSSSHHHHHH! The NCCA gave them an exemption to go to a bowl game with this record as they were forced to play in the first Pac 12 title game match-up – because the USC Trojans are on probation and not eligible to play this year. A true genius move by the NCCA.

Good luck in all of your office pools. Stay tuned next week for the Johnny G Bowl Prediction Show.

Until next time – Stay Classy Edmonton, Alberta Canada

It all started in the Rocky Mountains with the phrase. “I have no plans to leave Utah”

But somehow this honest man forgot that statement that was made and ended up moving to Gainesville Florida where he coached the Florida Tebow’s to a National Title.

He indicated there were health issues. He indicated he was leaving coaching for good to take care of his health and spend time with his family.

“I have given my heart and soul to coaching college football and mentoring young men for the last 24-plus years and I have dedicated most of my waking moments the last five years to the Gator football program, I haven’t even thought about anything after that, other than I’m a Gator and I’ll always be a Gator.”

Yep, always a Gator, huh??? I wonder what the Buckeye fans think of that comment.

And then from just weeks ago…November 11th of this year…. “I am very happy with my role at ESPN. I have no plans to return to coaching at this time.”

Yeah Urb, we get you loud and clear. No plans to return to coaching. Evidently you found four million reasons to change your mind in the next 3 weeks.

Like many other coaches in the game today, Meyer is smooth, he is polished, but he is a big fat liar.

You can name a host of others in the seats right next to him. Mack Brown – of the infamous, our own network does not give us a recruiting edge fame. Nick Saban who was never leaving LSU and then never leaving the Miami Dolphins. Bobby Petrino could fill up a book on stories he has told. Goodness knows what we might find out about Joe Paterno in the next few months in what he knew and possible covered up. Urb’s predecessor even got shown the door since he could not tell the truth at Ohio State.

Why do we, the fans and the general public, not hold these sports figures accountable for their blatant out and out lies to the media and fan bases? What the heck are these coaches telling potential recruits and the parents and families of these recruits when they are in their homes wooing them to come to the colleges that they represent. I mean it is a proven commodity that they openly lie all the time in the public forum. Do you think they instantly become honest behind the closed doors of that 4 or 5 star recruits home?

The fact is cheating is rampant in sports. There is too much money on the line. Too much fame, too many television deals and too many fans who simply don’t care about the cheating and lying as long as it helps their team win.

As for me, give me the controversial coach Bo Pelini of my beloved Huskers. He too often gets in hot water from the local and national media for being too honest – for speaking his mind too freely – for being too animated on the sidelines and he needs to be more calm, more cool, more in control. Or…do these same folks who constantly criticize him mean he just needs to lie to them more?

Wonder how long Mr Meyer will be at thuh ohio state. According to him it is one of his three dream jobs.

We will see how long it takes for that story to change.

Until Next time, stay classy Stillwater, Oklahoma!

I have been focusing on Pennsylvania State issues the last couple of weeks, so I will touch briefly on that today ( we will be on this topic I am sure for many months if not longer) but will also take time to hit some other sports highlights happening around the globe.

Mike McQueary conducted an interview with CBS the other day. He indicated in that interview that he did go to police – and spoke to the official in charge of campus policy….and that he “broke up” the alleged incident in the showers involving a young boy and Sandusky.

Sandusky in a separate interview maintains his complete innocence and that he was wrong in showering with boys, hugging them, and participating in “horseplay”

The New York Times has also reported another 10 victims alleging that they had inappropriate contact with Sandusky have come forward, and that police are further investigating these recent developments.

The saga will continue.

With all apologies to Kosmo, I will talk a bit about Major League baseball.

Justin Verlander was named the unanimous American League Cy Young Winner. He won the equivalent of the leagues Triple Crown for pitching. He led the American League in wins with 24, Earned Run Average with 2.40 and Strikeouts with 251. Only two other players have accomplished this feat in the modern era and gone on to win the Cy Young Award and the MVP award. They are Denny McClain and Vida Blue . Doubt that Verlander will win the MVP as the baseball writers today would think that voting for anyone other than an offensive player for MVP would be an atrocity.

Meanwhile down under in Australia, the President Cup Matches pitting USA golfers against members of the “world” (players not from countries that can play in Ryder Cup Matches for the European team) are getting ready to get after it.

One of the biggest controversies was Captain Fred Couples selection of Tiger Woods. Woods since all of his off the golf course issues, has been colder than a TV Dinner in isle eight at your local grocery store.

Woods showed a glimmer of light on the radar screen with a third place finish last week. To add some spark to the matches, he will be playing last in the Thursday Foursomes matches he will be paired with Steve Stricker and they will take on K.J. Choi, and (gulp) Adam Scott.

Scott has employed former Woods Caddy Steve Williams. There has been numerous words of attrition in the news, twitter, the golf channel and any other avenue possible between Tiger and Steve Williams. This will likely not turn into anything, but it adds some punch to the news story that the President Cup Matches need in order to be considered significant.

Good Luck USA in the Presidents CUP!

Until next time, stay classy, Ann Arbor Michigan.