Tuesday Brain Dump
Well, after a brief hiatus, I’m back, and apparently, so is college sports news. Let’s get to it.
First off, college football is back. The first bowl game is tonight, the, and I hope I can get the name right, San Diego Country Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl. Man, I can never spell ‘Poinsettia’ without help. Anyway, the game features…hell, I don’t care. It features two college football teams, which considering how long I’ve gone without college football, is enough for me. Seriously, I remember there were several years in a row where I’d actually watch the New Orleans Bowl (back when it was the lead-off bowl), and I’d root for North Texas because I knew a guy whose girlfriend went to North Texas! That’s how little of an excuse to watch I’ll settle for at this point. Seriously, have you got something better to do? Christmas shopping?
Secondly, finals are over at Cal, which means that Cal sports are once again back in action. Specifically, tonight features the Cal basketball team in their first game since embarassingly losing their own tournament to San Diego. To help bury the shame, Cal takes on a sure-fire chump, something called Furman. Really? That’s the best you could do? Cal hasn’t played in 10 days, the Holiday Bowl is more than a week away, and most Cal fans will literally take almost any excuse not to watch the Poinsettia Bowl, but folks, this just isn’t it. Not only do I not expect the game to be close, or have any idea what Furman is or where they’re from, but lately, I struggle to care about Cal basketball. I mean, the Harlem Globetrotters have long proved that if you play entertaining basketball, you can draw crowds and be compelling even if the outcome is never in doubt. Ben Braun’s teams, well, they do just the opposite. I’m sorry, I think I’m going Christmas shopping tonight. Also, there might be a good rerun of ‘House’ on tonight. Never can tell with FOX.
As TwistNHook mentioned already, Stanfurd has a new coach, Jim Harbaugh, the 4th in 6 years. Sure, Stanford hired a ‘name’, but they hired a name that makes me go ‘What? He coaches football now?’ Seriously, I’m not sure about this hire. It could be that Stanfurd caught a rising star, but we just don’t have that much information on Harbaugh as a coach. His career record at San Deigo (a non-scholarship D I-AA program) is an impressive 29-6, but it’s a big leap from the Pioneer Conference (really? There’s a Pioneer Conference?) to the Pac-10. Some coaches make it. Some aren’t ready, or just aren’t good enough. And maybe he’s a good coach, but can’t get enough good players into school. We just don’t know. I will say this about the hire: at least they didn’t hire another retread. We may not know how Harbaugh will do, but that’s a darn sight better than the last two coaches. We already knew Buddy Teevens couldn’t coach when they introduced him at the press conference, and we certainly had to suspect that Pitt knew something we didn’t about Walt Harris if they were running him out of town on the heels of a BCS berth.
Finally, this has nothing to do with Cal, but I just had to mention that the second-ever outdoor college women’s basketball game was rained out. In the desert. Played in a retractable-roof stadium, where they just couldn’t get the roof closed in time. Seriously, people, there’s a reason we play basketball indoors. Hell, basketball was invented so atheletes could have something to do during the cold and rainy winter months. There’s no reason for this stupid gimmick. There’s also no reason, if you’re going to go through with it, not to look at the weather forecast and see if it might be worth it to close the roof! OK, I’m done now. Thanks for listening to the rant.
