FIVE MO' THINGS, 2/18/13
1) Thursday's UC Watch Party. 
I swear, watching the Bearcats on Thursday night against UConn will be fun. Probably because beer will be involved.
It's getting frustrating. And while I've come to accept that the Bearcats are very offensively limited, watching them brick 13 free throws and miss 20 threes against Georgetown on Friday night was maddening. Once again, UC held an opponent to a manageable point total, at home, and lost. UC might still have a March in run them, but the number of home losses this season - five - is alarming, and simply too high for a program that's looking to take a leap.
The problem is,not much of what's plaguing this team is really going to get fixed. Yes, the Bearcats will have a chance against almost anyone, either in the regular season or the postseason, because they do defend, but their offensive ineptitude makes them vulnerable against anyone, making a deep run in the NCAAs unlikely.
When the threes fall, UC has a chance. When they're not, they simply cannot score, and those problems are exacerbated by poor free throw shooting. On a given night, both the threes and the free throws might be falling, but their formula for winning, at least offensively, has thus far proven unreliable since the New Mexico game.
But let's not take the NCAA Tournament berth for granted. UC's margin for error has shrunk a little, and while I still think this team make the Dance without sweating out Selection Sunday, the Cats have some work to do. Three of their final five are on the road. Four of those games are against formidable opponents. UC does not want to be 20-11, 8-10 heading into the Big East Tournament. I'm optimistic enough to think that in at least one of those games, the threes will go don, the Bearcats will defend well enough to win, and they'll be able to rest easy come March 17th. But that NCAA bid, which we've spent most of the season assuming was a given, is right now far from a lock.
2) Kentucky. Yikes. Full disclosure, I didn't see much of it, because of the XU/UD tilt. But wow. So much for rallying the team around an injured player, and shutting up the naysayers (or in today's parlance, the "haters") who think the team's postseason chances are cooked. Instead, let's go out and lay one of the biggest turds - against a mediocre opponent - in school history.
I thought that what John Calipari did late in the '10-'11 season erased whatever lingering doubts there were about his coaching chops, and I didn't think people credited Calipari enough for fostering the great chemistry that last year's national title team had all season. But a coach has to figure out a way to get his team through adversity, and this being Cal's first major test with a season-threatening problem, he failed.
3) Homer Bailey's deal. He only gets one year, not the multi-year deal many hoped for or thought he'd get. I wouldn't have given him the years either. The Reds have major raises with players already under contract to account for, Homer has had one successful, injury-free, full Major League season, and he's under team control beyond this year anyway. And a long, long-term deal could come at the expense of better, pitchers. We'd all like for Homer to have a big 2013, and we'd all like for him to be with the Reds for years to come, if he's pitching well. But if you are willing to live with the inevitability that they won't be able to keep all of their good players, Bailey might have to be the guy they let get away.
4) NBA All-Star Weekend. I hate being Old "Everything was better 25 years ago" Guy. But the NBA All-Star Game, and the festivities around it, used to be better 25 years ago. Back in the '80s, the Dunk Contest was why you made friends with kids who had cable. (OK, I had cable, it's probably why people made friends with me) This weekend, I DVR'd it, tried to watch it yesterday morning, made it through maybe ten minutes. The game itself, I paid a little closer attention to, at the very beginning and in the closing minutes. But it still wasn't very entertaining. I don't watch the All-Star Game expecting to see intense, lock-down, defense, or extraordinarily crisp basketball, but I'd like for the game to be mildly more appealing that what we get from it almost every year.
5) NFL experts like Michael Johnson. The guys at CincyJungle post about a back and forth between Pete Prisco and Albert Breer on Michael Johnson, whom Pete says is the number one guy on the market. I know the Bengals have a lot of important decisions to make, but rarely have they had a player at his peak approaching free agency for the first time. They can't let this guy get away, especially with no guarantees that guys like Geno Atkins or Carlos Dunlap are her for the long-term. We'd like for the Bengals to keep them all, but that's very, very, unlikely. The Bengals would hedge their bets, and ensure that they'll retain a guy who's been a cornerstone of a very good defense, by doing everything they can to get a deal done with Michael.
....But Wait, There's More....
-The Air Sex National Championships went down this weekend. Here's a recap in case you missed them.
-Don't jump into a cactus. Ever.
-I think it's pretty a pretty genius move by NASCAR to fix the Daytona 500 qualifying, allowing Danica Patrick to sit on the pole. (Make your own joke here) Now, more people will watch. Last year, it was an exploding truck. This year, it's Danica on the pole. Shrewd moves, NASCAR.
-This is an excellent column on the fan relationship with coaches. I too, want to watch sports like I'm nine year-old again.
-One day, I want to see a player hit back.
-Recently, I've been talking a lot about my favorite Reds hat, how dirty it is, and my fruitless attempts to find a new one. I bought this hat in 2010 at the '47 Brand Store at GABP. A few years of wear and tear and sweaty summer Reds games have taken their toll, to the point that I can no longer really wear the hat. The inside of it would make the Carnival Triumph look clean. I've looked all over for a new one, on the internet, at stores, at team shops, to no avail. I've gotten a few emails asking me what it looks like. Here it is, in a picture from 2011....
If there's a reader who finds this hat, new and unused, and can get it to me, there will be a reward. This hat will net you two tickets to a regular season professional baseball game played at a taxpayer-funded stadium in downtown Cincinnati. (I'm not sure I'm allowed to mention the name of the team when doing this). The seats will be in the Moon Deck. (I think I'm allowed to say that.) Make it happen. Here's my email address if you find it.
-We've got a loaded radio show today on ESPN1530. We'll have a preview on the blog right around 2:30. Here's a weird guy.
