Dick’s trumps In-n-Out

Burgers…

My girlfriend and I were having a small fight. Then we just started having a deep conversation. At some point we decided that we hadn’t had us some Dick’s in a while. So we drove on up and scratched that itch. Oh yeah, Dick’s is only located in Washington State, and we live in Eugene, Ore.

That’s right, drove 4 hours for a fast food burger, and then drove 4 hours right back home.

Anyway, I’ve never done that for an In-n-Out burger, and don’t imagine I will any time soon. Admittedly it’s a much longer drive to the nearest In-n-Out, but I stand by my claim.

Also, I’ve never had White Castle. Perhaps I should drive out to the Mid-West just for one of those.

It’s alive…

I’m definitely on a video binge right now… Dwayne is like Charlie Chaplin in this video.  Doesn’t say a word, but delivers the laughs.

Steve Nash Center for Kids Who Can’t Read Good…

I know this has been out for a while, but I just watched the 2nd video, and I feel like Steve Nash should get credit in fantasy sports for not taking himself too seriously in real life.

Blaze: the Green Ranger’s return

Blazer fans can still remember 3 years ago like it were 11 days ago.

Portland, Ore – We didn’t exactly know who Kevin Pritchard was, except that he was the Player Personel guy that had just stepped in as interim Head Coach for the fired Mo Cheeks. Nate McMillan was in his first year as Blazer coach. Sebastian Telfair had come thru the fire to lead us to the worst record in the Association with the help of the newly signed $84 Million man Zach Randolph. And Darius Miles was having Microfracture surgery.

In other parts that we were less aware of:

Seattle, Wa – Brandon Roy was beginning his Pac-10 Player of the Year, Sweet 16, All-American senior year.

Austin, Tx – LaMarcus Aldrige was returning from freshman surgery staking his claim to Big-12 Defensive Player of the Year.

Indianapolis, In – Reigning National High School Player of the Year Greg Oden, the first Junior since LeBron James to win National Player

Head of the Pack

As a follow up to my perfect preseason conference predictions, I figured I’d let you all know who will be walking away with the individual awards at the end of the year.

Just like my conference predictions, I’ll start out at the top. The league MVP this year, like the past two years, will come from the eventual league champ, UCLA. Darren Collison is my pick for a few simple reasons. According to the past couple years, winning matters for this award and Collison will do more of it than other worthy candidates. Once again he’s a preseason all american and he’s a ball dominate point guard. He also spearheads the smothering defense of the Bruins.

Freshman of the year could be a real battle. Isaiah Thomas is probably going to put up a lot of numbers at UW. Klay Thompson might not put up huge numbers, but will be a key contributor at WSU. Demar Derozan will almost certainly lead the league in highlights. But to find the best of the bunch, you have to go back to Westwood. Jrue Holiday is not only the most talented freshman in the league, he might be the best player in the league. He has a chance to lead UCLA in scoring, assists, and steals if DC starts giving up the ball. Simply put, he’s just better than the rest of the freshman, so he gets my vote.

For defensive player of the year I decided to stay in L.A. Except this time I’m going across town to the Men of Troy. With UCLA playing so well over the past few years, a lot of people haven’t noticed the steady improvement at USC. One of the most overlooked and underappreciated players in the league is Daniel Hackett. At 6’5″ he’s a big point guard, and has been one of the better defenders since he left high school a year early to play at SC.

Here’s my breakdown of the all conference teams.

1st Team
Darren Collison
James Harden
Jon Brockman
Daniel Hackett
Jrue Holiday

2nd Team
Chase Budinger
Taj Gibson
Taylor Rochestie
Jeff Pendergraph
Patrick Christopher

3rd Team
Isaiah Thomas
Jordan Hill
Demar Derozan
Tajuan Porter
Aron Baynes

Freshman Team
Holiday
Thomas
Derozan
Michael Dunigan
Klay Thompson

@ the Yard

The Fall of Western Athletics?

About three weeks ago I was anxiously awaiting news about UCLA’s media day since UCLA football had once again failed to live up to their early season glory (clearly everyone who knows me knows I knew this was about what to expect this year, but still).

Back to hoops though, there may only be two teams in the Pac who are even as good as they were last year. UW SHOULD be better than last year, but they’re relying on a 5’8″ two guard to be their savior. However, they still have Jon Brockman and Q-Pon, though enigmatic, has huge upside and this is the year he has to put it together. ASU returns everyone of note (which is basically James Harden and Jeff Pendergraph) from a team who got snubbed from the tourney, but they have no difference making recruits which makes it hard for me to buy into a team who hasn’t actually done anything yet.

The best team in the league is

Blaze Nation: Middle School Break-up

Dearest Steve Blake,

Listen, I’ve really had a good time during our off and on relationship these past 4+ years. But I think we both know this isn’t going anywhere anymore. We can see that we’ve just been going through the motions lately, and I think it’s best for both of us if we just cut things off before we get too invested, and then all of the sudden one day we’re just two people stuck where we both don’t want to be.

Look, you deserve better than this. I’m not committed to you anymore, but I do think the world of you and I think you should have a fan that wants to want you.

DEPARTMENT OF WORTHLESS ANNOUNCEMENTS

Just a short little write-up while at work:

Romeo Crennel wants everyone to know that starting Brady Quinn was his idea, and not the fans’.

He “felt like we needed a different dynamic on the offense”.

Say what you will Romeo, but obviously you’re going to come out and say that it was your decision.  What a worthless press conference.  No coach is going to call a press conference to say: “I’m really feeling the heat from these fans.  I gotta go with their gut instincts on this one, and bench my pro-bowl signal caller.”

“Sure DA had only thrown 1 int in his last 4 games, but when the fans started chanting ‘Bra-dy, Bra-dy’, I knew that Derek was the dynamic of our offense that was sputtering, it wasn’t League leading drop artist Braylon Edwards, our porous O-Line or our cardboard cutout tackling on defense making us play 1-dimensional catch-up all game long.”

Way to show your intelligence Cleveland fans.  Maybe it’s time to get ready to start chanting “Cliff, Cliff, Cliff” when Brady Quinn flounders, and the American League comeback player of the year could line-up under center this season, tossing long balls to Grady Sizemore.

Blaze Nation: baby steps

Yup, like Bill Murray in ‘What about Bob?’

I just want to say that sports experts are idiots. I hate jumping to conclusions, but it might just be accurate to call them all morons. No one (and I do mean absolutely no one) jumps to ridiculous conclusions like the media. PDX’s boys lost opening night to the Lake Show by 20. And instead of looking at obvious reasons for a less than stellar showing, everyone on PTI, Around the Hord, ESPN NBA Fastbreak, and even the home shopping network was quick to write these Blazers off as too young, not ready to contend, and a couple of years away.

Really? We couldn’t possibly have had a poor shooting night? It couldn’t be that we featured a lot of new players that are still learning how to play together? We might be young, but not too young.