Now What?

The NFL is finally over. Baseball Spring Training doesn't start for another month (and who really cares anyways?). Baseball itself doesn't start for another 2 months. The NBA and NHL are in their dog legs, just end the seasons already lets get to the playoffs. March Madness is one month away still. So, that begs the question: what the hell are we supposed to do for the next month? Yes, we can watch Hockey and Basketball, but again, nothing too dramatic is likely to happen. College Basketball is fun to watch, but really, I'm gearing up for the conference tournies and the big tourny. Aside from this month being one of the coldest, it is also the worst for sports. So, now what?

Super Bowl!

Good morning, everyone! I'm heading in to work my customary Super Bowl Triple, 11am-1am, so if you're in Bloomington, go ahead and order some pizza. (And don't forget to tip your driver).

For the record, I have the Saints by 1, let's say 27-26. On a failed 2 point conversion.

Also, Indiana vs. Northwestern is at 2 today. I think I'm rooting for the Wildcats again this year, because they have a shot at the NCAA tourney, but it's a tough call.

Enjoy the game, and don't overeat. Or do. Whatever.

Rod Marinelli the Bears New Defensive Coordinator

So, "Rodimus Prime," as someone on the Chicago Bears Message Board calls him, was named Defensive Coordinator today. Funny how inept this organization is. The Bears could have hired both Martz and Marinelli the day of the press conference, but refused to. I don't know whether or not Hot Rod is going to be a good DC, I sure hope he is, I just don't get the Bears.

The Chicago Bears are worth around 1.5 billion dollars. What organization worth that much money do you know of that runs its business so ineptly? If the Bears weren't backed by the NFL and instead had to fend off other competitors, like any other normal business, they probably would have crumbled.

What has it been, 6 weeks? To hire the same people everyone knew you were going to hire day 1? Jesus! If I were Virginia McCaskey I would resist dying everyday simply b/c I knew that as soon as I died George was gonna give me the back of his hand!

Is Tony Dungy the Most Overrated NFL Coach of All-Time?

I just read an article about Tony Dungy predicting the Colts to beat down on the Saints, which I disagree with, and it got me to thinking: Is Tony Dungy the most overrated coach the NFL has ever witnessed?

Well seeing as how I only have a very limited knowledge of NFL coaching, I cannot make a real good argument for ever. But I do think he is the most overrated coach of this era. Yes he came in and gave life to the once lowly Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but he couldn't take arguably the best defense of the early 2000's to a Superbowl, let alone win one (yes I know, the Ravens were the best D of the 00's). I mean let's really break this down.

Dungy with the Bucs:

6-10 in 96
10-6 in 97
8-8 in 98
11-5 in 99
10-6 in 00
9-7 in 01

Record with Bucs: 54-42 (.562)
Average finish in NFC Central: 2.5 Take your pick either second or third place
Year after Dungy left: Bucs went to Superbowl and won it.
Year Before Dungy Arrived: Bucs went 7-9 and finished last in the division (really? shocking).

Then, somehow, he gets a gift of a job with the Colts after this very mediocre performance.

Record with Colts:

10-6 in 02 (2nd place)
12-4 in 03 (1st place)
12-4 in 04 (1st place)
14-2 in 05 (1st place)
12-4 in 06 (1st place)
13-3 in 07 (1st place)
12-4 in 08 (2nd place)

Record with Colts: 85-27 (.833)
Average Finish: 1.28 (or first place)
Year before Dungy arrived: 6-10 (4th in AFC East)
Year after Dugny Leaves: Colts are PLAYING FOR A SUPERBOWL

Overall Record: 139-69 (.668)

Look, after a great coach leaves your team is supposed to get worse. Yet somehow, every year after Dungy has left the teams he left have gone to the Superbowl. He could only win one Superbowl with perhaps the best QB of all time and he may have been the reason that the Colts could never beat the Patriots during their run. I honestly believe that he has cost Manning some Superbowl wins. Without Manning, Dungy would be like all of the other coaches that were on his staff: employed and then fired. This of course is excluding one: Lovie Smith (who, notably, should have been fired this year). It seems to me that Dungy just landed in the best position of all, on teams with exceptional talent.

Recurit them while they're young?

Lane Kiffin is making the news again, and this time it’s by recruiting a 7th grader. According to this article (linked below) from ESPN by Ramona Shelburne, 13 year old David Sills committed to play for USC when he graduates high school……in six years. This brings up an issue I have with college recruiting today in basketball and now football. We have heard stories of basketball coaches offering 8th graders scholarships and now it’s in football. The problem I have with this is that to me it seems like your putting pressure on a young kid to make a decision at a young age. How many decisions did you make that would make an impact in your life at age 13?

Another problem with coaches doing this is you don’t know if that kid will be good at the next level. For example, a kid on the 8th grade basketball that is 6 feet tall is obviously going to be good considering everyone around him is maybe 5’4’’ 5’5’’. Sills is said to be 6 feet which is tall for a 7th grader in my mind of course he’s going to look good. What if these kids don’t grow, that 6 foot basketball player may only grow another inch or two and becomes over matched by the time he is a senior in high school, doesn’t look so good now does he.

The other problem with recruiting this early and having them commit early is that these athletes still have time to change their minds. We see it all the time with IU football recruits, a good recruit that commits when he is a junior and by the time he is senior he realizes that better schools are recruiting them so they go their instead, or they just decide they don’t want to go to IU anymore. We see these athletes change their mind constantly (Jeremy Finch). It was tough enough for non athletes to make a decision on where to go for their education. What if these coach stop recruiting for this one position cause an athlete commits as a junior and the coach thinks he’s a lock, that athlete could change his mind and now the coach is stuck with nothing (Bruce Weber).

The point being is that there is a problem with recruiting an athlete when he is young and sometimes really young as it is in this case. Recruiting an athlete for any sport men’s or women’s (however I’ve never seen this problem in Women’s collegiate sports) that just became a teenager is wrong in my opinion and needs to be addressed by the NCAA. My way of fixing this is maybe making a rule where you can’t start recruiting (by this I mean showing interest) a kid till maybe after his/her freshman year and can’t offer a scholarship till he/she is a junior in high school. That is just my opinion, anyone else have any thoughts about this?


http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=4888515

MF's Post of the Year

Some of my personal favorites...

BEST PICTURE (my article division): Kevin Shaffer, new Bears tackle.
BEST ARTICLE NOMINEES:

My Number Nine Sports Moment - March Madness YogiStyle - Not only was this an awesome day, but I had fun writing about it. Someday, we'll go back and finish that Top Ten Sports Moments list.

Five Reasons to Love the NIT - Back in the day, when I wasn't too lazy to put a ton of hyperlinks into my articles.

New Years Day Live Blog - Seriously, this was one of the tougher things I've done in writing. I have a ton of respect for people that live-blog games on the regular.

IU All-Decade Team - Classic 'research project' type piece that got my inner history major going.

The Armchair Superstar Mock Draft (collaboration with Snuffles) - We need to do more of these. Too bad the Bears decided they don't need or want any more draft picks, ever.

Tom Crean Year One in Review - My first piece as a B/R featured columnist for IU basketball.

Anyway, enough memory lane. I honestly don't know which one of these to pick!

A couple more favorite pics...

Purdue Gives Hope for Indiana

Indiana and Purdue had a game that makes this rivalry so much fun. Purdue is clearly the better team, but played a back and forth game with the upstart Hoosiers. I know it was a frustrating loss for the Hoosiers, but hope is just on the other side of the floor.

Matt Painter took over in 2005, he played out Keady's players and then started bringing in his own great recruiting classes. These teams were young and talented but couldn't put it together. Now look at them, they are all upper classmen and making big plays in big moments.

This is going to be the Hoosiers in two years, everyone is good, but not too good to jump to the NBA. This team is going to grow up together and learn from tough losses like this. In two years, I fully expect this IU team to be making a Final Four run just like i expect this year's Purdue team to do the same.

I have talked to my Dad about games like this. It's frustrating to loose them, but we have to remember, they are young and inexperienced. These games are no where near as frustrating as the Marco, DJ or Eric games where we knew our team was better then they were playing.

Don't be down Hoosier fans, hope is on its way, and we can look to our biggest rival for hope.