Bracket Busters!

It is what it is. SIU will visit Butler University in a midwestern non-wealthy inter-conference battle of basketball supremacy on February 17. Mark your calenders, this is the heavyweight match-up of the nobodies everybody will be watching during ESPN's BracketBusters event. Kyle Welliston says this will be great, brutal basketball. Someone will be legitimized.

Fox Sports on SIU

More praise for Southern Illinois Basketball in particular, and the tough Missouri Valley Conference in general from Jeff Goodman on FoxSports.com.

The Bracket Buster Television Event will be upon us soon. It will take place on Saturday Feb.17th. SIU will have to go on the road to play this year, and the match-ups will be announced on Jan. 30th. The Salukis opponent will come from the following pool of teams:

Montana, Northern Arizona, Coastal Carolina, Cal Ploy, Cal State Northridge, Long Beach State, UC Santa Barbara, Delaward, George Mason, Georgia State, Hofstra, Northeastern, Virginia Commonwealth, Butler, Illinois-Chicago, Loyola (Ill.), Wright State, Youngstown State, Fairfield, Marist, Niagara, Rider, Siena, Akron, Buffalo, Eastern Michigan, Northern Illinois, Toledo, Western Michigan, Oral Roberts, Morehead State, Samford, SEMO, UT-Martin, Tennessee State, Tennessee Tech, Bucknell, UNC-Greensboro, UT-Chattanooga, Boise State, Fresno State, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico State, San Francisco

This fan's belief is that the opponent should be either Butler or Nevada. No other team on that list has the national profile nor the apptitude of the Salukis. On the road, SIU would be an underdog against either of those two teams, and give a very good idea just how far SIU could go in the NCAA Tournament come March. A match-up with either George Mason or Bucknell would have some significant mid-major cache as well. Any other match-up would seem to be a step back from a schedule that has SIU currently ranked 9th in the RPI.

Thanks (and source for Bracket Buster teams) goes to Rob Crow and The Dawg Blog.

By the way, after Saturday's eyepopping 20 point blow out at home of Missouri State, SIU beat Drake by 10 points at home tonight. Now the Salukis must go on the road on Wednesday to play Evansville (if SIU is to win the MVC title, they must win this type of game), then at a rejuvenated Creighton on Saturday. Then on Tuesday Jan. 23, SIU hosts Northern Iowa in an important contest broadcast on ESPNU at 9:00pm ET. It's a tough couple of weeks, for sure. But that's what happens when your conference is rated 4th in the country.

Chicago finds big-time basketball 300 miles to the south

In today's Chicago Tribune Reid Hanley writes about Southern Illinois Saluki basketball player Bryan Mullins and focuses on the program, and not just on another player from Chicagoland. Yet another major-media validation of the success of the men's basketball program at the state's second-largest university. With SIU's recent national presence, this man from deep Southern Illinois finds this kind of casual acceptance of the program from the big city fulfilling, and leaves me with a very warm and tingly feeling all over my body. SIU is in for a fight this year in the Missouri Valley Conference, and our record will not be nearly as impressive as it's been over the last six years. But come March, this will be our toughest, most tested team since Walt Frazier and his Salukis won the NIT in 1967 - when the NIT really mattered in college basketball. The Valley is extremely tough this year. I live in Pac-10 country, and the best conference is here - out West. But the quality and competition of the MVC validates the 3rd or 4th best conference rankings we are getting right now. A Valley team in the Elite 8 is no longer a Cinderella story - it's now an expectation.

This Blog is on the Juice! revisited

Yesterday's rant about how steroid use in baseball is so offensive while NFL players are rewarded for using the stuff has been validated. I knew I wasn't the only one upset about this, but I am humbled to say Jim Capel has now covered this double standard far better than I did. Some nice info about the Baseball Hall of Fame voting there as well.

How geeks get high

You've been blogging for the past 6 days straight. You're overloaded with html mistakes, meta-tag fatigue, and google reader burnout. You've linked to so many other websites that just scratching your nose opens a new tab in Firefox. Well, now you are ready to relax, take some time for yourself, and tune out. How? Well, just get high. Yep, just get high. You don't need papers, privacy, or some bud. All you need to do is go to "The World's Highest Website". The Byrds only got '8 Miles High'. This is about 40% higher. Some people just need to get out and get some sun on their pasty skin!

Salukis lose on the Road

The Missouri Valley Conference is tough this year. Southern Illinois University's Men's Basketball team has now lost consecutive games, and suddenly finds itself at .500 early in the conference season. Last night it was a last second shot by Bradley that cost the Salukis. Last Saturday, SIU took it on the chin against a formidable Northern Iowa squad. Saturday's contest will be tough as well, as Missouri State comes to Carbondale. That's a good thing though, as SIU has the second best home winning percentage over the past six years (Gonzaga is first by mere percentage points). One of the many reasons why the Salukis will be seeking their sixth straight trip to the tourney this March.

The Valley is having one of the greatest seasons in its 100-year history. It still ranks as the fourth best conference in the NCAA's and will probably at least match last year's high of four teams in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament.

But at 3-2 in conference play the Salukis are faring much better than Duke in conference play. Duke is 0-2 in the ACC, with one of the losses to Virginia Tech, whom SIU beat earlier this season.

For more info on the great basketball played in the Missouri Valley Conference, check out The Valley Ledger.

Some Nice Pix

'What the Rain Can Bring'
during an Arizona summer
Pinaleno Mountains, AZ August 2006

'Bleak'
among the clouds at 8,000 feet during a thunderstorm
Pinaleno Mountains August 2006

'Mother Nature Always Makes a Grand Entrance'
in a meadow in the morning
Pinaleno Mountains. August 2006.

'Amongst in the Pines'
Pinaleno Mountains. August 2006.

Just a handful of photos I took during the last year. I also did the post-editing.
I think they turned out nice, but I do see the limitations of my old digital camera.
I guess it's time for an upgrade, just like every other bit of electronics I have!

This Blog is on the Juice!

I have a rant to make. It concerns the impact of steroids in the sports community. Just how exactly is Mark McGwire a pariah, and all of his career accomplishments vacated due to the suspicion of steroid use, while Shawn Merriman of the San Diego Chargers tests positive for steroids, serves a 4-game suspension, and is punished in the court of public opinion by being named one of the 25 best players in the NFL in the same season he was caught cheating? Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald calls it "A Different Ballgame".
How can any individual defend such a tortured double standard? How does an entire society answer for this?

All we have on Mr. McGwire is some terribly coached testimony in front of a congressional committee - no positive tests, no definitive proof, but no Hall of Fame. Steroids were not even against the rules of baseball when McGwire played. Mr. Merriman on the other hand, was caught - plain and simple. He knew, as everyone knows, steroids are against the rules in the NFL. He knew it was cheating, and he did it anyway and got caught. He also was singled out and rewarded for his underhanded behavior by being named All-Pro, and nearly winning NFL Defensive Player of the Year. Why? How can this be? Why is Major League Baseball being whipped on so bad that all its players are being labeled as cheaters simply by association and the era they played, while definitive cheating in the NFL is not just accepted, but embraced and congratulated. Add to it, my belief that the use of performance-enhancing drugs have a much greater effect on the game of football than baseball. In football - suddenly being bigger, faster, and stronger is absolutely a distinct advantage. In baseball, bigger, faster, stronger does not necessarily make one see, adjust, and hit an off-speed breaking pitch. More muscles do not help there.

As America has accepted the NFL as it's favorite game, and dismisses baseball as 'boring', baseball is being blasted as 'ruined', while football is 'a real-man's sport'. Does that mean real-men can cheat and lie and it's okay because it makes one more violent? America's fascination with the NFL appears to be all about the incredible violence. Not about the history, not about the legacy of the game - not to mention our very soul as a nation as it is in baseball. Maybe this weeks mystifying developments will awaken America to what it seems to know deep down - baseball is still America's Pastime, and is truly the sport that will always matter in this country. That is the only conclusion I can make out this terrible hypocrisy in our perceptions.

Now what?

Well, Saddam Hussein has hung.
We have rid ourselves of his threat to our well-being.
That's one down.

Now, what to do with Bush and Cheney?

Yeah, what?!!

I'm here. What do you want from me. Child support, taxes, office-pool money, Sports Illustrated renewals - you all just up in my grill wanting something all the time. When do I get to annoy?
Today.
It is the season for my angst to bloom.

It'll get funnier - I promise.