FIVE MO' THINGS, 1/8/13
1) Shin Soo Choo. Doesn't even need a bat to make solid contact. Perhaps in Cleveland, Drew Stubbs will switch to using a wooden spoon. Couldn't hurt.
(Thanks to Brent for passing along)
2) Tide Rolls. Yep, I picked Notre Dame. Yep, Alabama is college football's dynasty, winning their third "national championship" in four years, none of their "title game" victories coming by fewer than 16 points.. Yep, Nick Saban still comes across as a soulless, joyless man, with less personality than your average radio exec.. And yep, it works for him.
Congrats to SEC Guy, who's undoubtedly being as insufferable as always at wherever you work this morning. I know he is at our office.
The BCS "National Championship Game" continues to fail to live up to the hype. Last night's 28-poinyt blowout was the fifth out of fifteen decided by 20 or more points. Five others have been decided by at least ten. In the BCS era, there have only been two certifiably "good" "championship games," OSU/Miami and USC/Texas.
It's not a complaint, and I don't know that you could do anything to make the games more competitive. But I've gotten to the point where I've come to expect beatdowns in "title games" instead of classics.
Maybe the new playoff changes that. Hope so.
3) UC lost. At home. Again. The level of concern should be somewhere between total panic and being completely unconcerned. Yes, as Paul Daugherty points out, the Bearcats have plenty of time to figure some things out, they have a good record, a nice resume, plenty of good, beatable opponents in front of them, and despite Notre Dame's shredding of it, they do play high-level defense.
But last night it was evident how deep Cincinnati's offensive troubles really are.
The Irish's offense is pleasurable to watch. There's crisp passing, movement without the ball, and near-perfect floor spacing. They rarely got off a contested shot, the primary reason why they hit seven straight threes at one point.
UC's offense is almost the exact opposite. There's a bunch of dribbling, some purpose-less passing, and often a contested shot. Throw in the fact that few Bearcats can create their own individual offense, and you've got a team that's going to either have to tweak its offense to get their best shooters better looks, or win games by relying on their defense, which isn't a completely foreign concept for this program.
At some point, they're going to need big buckets to win big games. And I'm not sure how they'll get them.
4) Shaq Thomas. I want to see him play more. The shooting wasn't great (2-6), but I'll take every bit of the minutes he gave the Bearcats last night. He's got the most unique skill-set on the team, and he's one of the only guys capable and willing to drive to the hoop.
5) Mike Brown. I'll criticize the Bengals' owner for a lot of things. Saturday's playoff loss is not one of them. We didn't spend much time these last two months talking about the owner, so why spend this week talking about him?
If we're not going to hand Mike any credit for 10-6 and a playoff spot, why be lazy and immediately start hammering him when the season ends?
The Bengals lost because of the offense's inefficiency, because of their inability/unwillingness to give the ball to their best playmaker, and because they've failed to truly establish an identity on that side of the ball. Very, very little of that has anything to do with the guy who occupies the owner's office.
But Wait, There's More....
-Like AJ McCarron's girlfriend. I know, chances are you've already Googled her 278 times since last night, but I wouldn't be fulfilling my obligation if I didn't post a pic....
Even if you've spent all day on The Google trying to find images of Katherine Webb, you're only half as creepy as Brent Musberger.
-And there's the draft. No, I'm not getting into which player the Bengals should draft in April, because I have no idea whom that player should be. But why would anyone be closed to the idea of the Bengals selecting a quarterback at some point. Not in round one, not with either of their two second round choices, but what's wrong with having as many options as possible? And what's wrong with creating a little competition?
No, I'm not saying that Andy Dalton shouldn't be the starter, but why not look at upgrading the talent on the depth chart on your team's most important position?
-CincyJungle.com. The always-solid SBNation-based site has a good rundown of the Bengals' impending free agents, dividing them into three categories: players they must re-sign, players they should at least consider re-signing, and players they should say goodbye to. I'm onboard with most of their analysis.
-The Knicks. Totally schooled by the Celtics last night. They want to be the Celtics. Losing their cool isn't the way to accomplish that.
-The Dragon Fly Foundation. This organization benefited from the Marty Brennaman head-shaving in August, then again from the Santa Ono shaving after the UC game last night. We had the ladies who founded this organization in studio with us yesterday. When you think the world is being overrun by miserable, evil, people, spend some time with them. Then help their cause.
-Here's your Solid Parent Of The Day. Somewhere, my dad is hearing about this and smiling.
-More day baseball! As pointed out by Jeff Wallner yesterday, the Reds have five Saturday home night games. The rest either start at 1:10, 4:05, or 4:10. This is a win. Day baseball > night baseball, especially on the weekends. Even in the summer. And particularly if you enjoy watching a game then heading out on a Saturday night.
-Speaking of summer, I want it to get here. Soon.
-We've got a radio show today starting at 3:04 on ESPN1530. Joe Reedy stops by at 4:04. We'll work some college hoops in, in addition to having plenty on the Bengals. Stay hydrated until then.
