The state of NCAA sports.

College sports are big time business! If you question that, consider yourself uninformed! Colleges are chartering jets around the country, building new and always bigger stadiums, athletic centers, dormitories, student centers etc. with the guise used being that it will benefit, "not only" the student athlete, but the entire student body and community as well. Along with the underlying philosophy from Field of Dreams of "If you build it, they will come."

And people clap and cheer and like a goof ball at a political campaign rally while believing what they're told. The real reason is winning. Everyone wants to win! Winning is fun. Winning begets winning. Winner's are cool. Winner's are what everyone wants to be!

Why?

Because winning is like life and death, it's like being pregnant or not.....

You are either a WINNER! Or you are a loser! There's no in between.

However, besides the fun that is winning, there's something else winning brings.... money! For NCAA teams playoffs, or in the case of football the BCS means money for the school. The bigger the bowl game, the bigger the money; the bigger the money, the bigger the city, the nicer the hotel, the nicer the restaurants, the bigger the payday, for the winner and the loser. Also, the more exposure. Free advertisement for the universities.

Every year, NCAA champions in basketball and football show an increase in enrollment the following fall semester. Everyone likes to be a winner.

But at what cost?

Student athletes all over the country every year are handed useless degrees. Schools all over the country are building facilities they cannot afford or fill with fans. Schools all over the country are not being held accountable for their actions.

What's more, many schools are holding coaches accountable for things in which they have no control over.

A few weeks ago, Dennis Felton was fired as the head coach of the University of Georgia Men's Basketball program. Felton was a very successful coach at the University of Western Kentucky. He took the Hilltoppers to multiple NCAA tournaments by winning regular season and tournament championships in the Sun Belt conference. He was hired at Georgia after Jim Harrick was found to be in violation of numerous NCAA regulations.

Felton had been successful, and had run a clean program. However, he faced a steep uphill battle at a school with very little previous basketball success, even during the days of it's best player, Dominique Wilkins. But despite scholarship restrictions, Felton began the arduous task of rebuilding the program. Having coached against Felton, I could think of few better choices.

Facedwith limited scholarships, old facilities that were not very appealing to new recruits, and a perennially tough SEC conference schedule, Felton made strides. Putting in an entirely new system, playing sometimes no more than 7 players, and last season winning 4 games in 3 days (not a typo they played twice one day) to win the SEC tournament championship advancing to the NCAA tournament.

It appeared as Felton had the program headed the right way. What's more, it looked as if the University was finally making a commitment to the program buy building a new $30 Million dollar practice facility. However, beginning this season Felton had 6 freshmen and 3 more sophomores. That is incredibly young. On top of that, they only had a single 4th year senior. Now, some will argue that because of players leaving for the NBA, the NCAA is younger, and players like Derrick Rose have taken teams to the NCAA Final Four as freshmen.

Well, Georgia doesn't have any recruits like Derrick Rose, the stellar guard from Memphis last season. One reason they don't is they don't have the basketball history or facilities that Memphis does. However, what some of the experts won't realize is that despite the young and gifted Rose, Memphis had a veteran ball club that provided them the necessary leadership to get to the Final Four. When a team has 9 first and second year players, that indicates a lack of leadership unless they have a very good upper class, which Georgia does not. The reason they don't can be traced back to the Harrick caused NCAA sanctions.

Because of their youth, Georgia was struggling this year. At 9-11 and 0-5 in the SEC, Georgia athletic administration decided to terminate Dennis Felton mid season. That was a terrible mistake that was based more on the emotions of a small, but financially generous fan base, and not on someone knowledgeable about the collegiate sport environment. Coach Felton was not given the opportunity to make this team better over the course of the season and defend his SEC tournament championship. Last year, they got better over the course of the year, and ended up being winners. They were not given the chance this year, and that makes no sense.

Firing an NCAA coach in the middle of the season is indefensible unless the coach is found guilty of breaking NCAA rules of a serious nature or he is guilty of behavior unbecoming to the University. Otherwise terminating a coach before the end of the season only serves to hurt the program and more importantly the players. One of the assistants obviously has to take over. An assistant who's input and ideas was used in the program that was deemed not adequate by the administration. Therefore, when the Athletic Director states that they are moving the program in the right direction, be clear that that is a nonsensical stereotypical catchphrase they are using because they are not articulate enough to explain or defend their decision, which again is really made by a handful of financially influential boosters.

Firing Felton before he had a chance to significantly improve the program was a terrible mistake, firing him or any other coach mid-season is inexcusable! Mike Gottfried Of the University of Alabama was fired a few weeks ago as well. He had been at Alabama 11 years, and frankly, the program was not improving. I don't have a problem with Alabama's decision to fire him as, but again, doing it mid-season does not accomplish any significant objective that will improve the program.

Despite the timing of the termination however, a greater number of schools are making coaching changes with very little in the way of prudent decision making. Athletic directors, who are rarely held accountable are making decisions that coaches cannot control, and often disagree with, put the specific programs into difficult situations with regards to being consistently competitive.

The University of Southern Mississippi fired Jeff Bower after last season. Bower had been the most successful coach at a single school, over the same period of time, for longer than any football coach in the NCAA other than Joe Pa and Bobby Bowden. Yet despite poor facilities, low budget, and a non-BCS conference, Bower was apparently suppose to compete annually for a BCS bowl. The ignorance of fans and administration combined with expectations based on that ignorance has gotten out of hand. It's more out of hand than the spending. In fact, it's partially driving the spending.

I predict that in collegiate football, after Joe Pa, and Bobby Bowden retire (or die as the case may be) there will be major reform in the NCAA before we see another coach at a school for 20+ years. In basketball it's not much better, coaches are no longer expected to build a winning program that graduates players and is competitive. They are required to get to post season play every season. And the NIT is only acceptable between NCAA trips. Billy Donovan may be at Florida for the rest of his career, Coach K, Gary Williams, and Roy Williams will be at their respective schools until they retire. Jim Calhoun and of course the venerable Jim Boheim of UCONN and Syracuse out of the Big East, possibly John Thompson III at Georgetown will finish their careers at their current schools. Then you have a handful of lower level division I programs that because they can't afford better coaches, are not committed to the basketball program, or perhaps the AD and coach are close friends have a few coaches that aren't in danger of losing jobs. Those are becoming fewer and fewer every year though. However, for the other 300 Div. I schools in the country, unrealistic expectations and a lack of proper commitment to the program will cause a lot of coaches to have 3-6 year jobs, again until there is reform in the NCAA.

Fans watch the NCAA Basketball Tournament every year and cheer for the yearly Cinderella. It's one of the greatest things annually in sport. We can always count on a Cinderella! And they start wondering why their team can't be one. Well, perhaps they can, but understand, many of those schools are Cinderella after that coach has done a great job at that school for 4-8 years! And that's the best they can be, is a Cinderella. However, after two years of rebuilding from a typically senior laden team that was the Cinderella and not becoming a perennial NCAA team (turning the corner is the catch phrasing often used) over the next two years, that successful coach will typically find himself looking for a job within 2-3 years.

Unreasonable expectations based upon ignorance of reality.

That's the state of the NCAA today, driven by money, and fueled by people in power who have never been on a sideline. Without NCAA reform this trend will continue, student athletes will be the victims, rivalries will fail, and the quality of the product, in football and basketball will continue to deteriorate to the point not being worth the money that revolves around it.

Attention waitresses!!!

The number one profession of single mothers in this country is, has been, and will continue to be waiting tables in restaurants. They are not paid minimum wage as it is assumed and expected that the tipping for their performance by their clientele will supplement their wages sufficiently. I have eaten in restaurants all over the country, I eat in restaurants regularly, therefore I feel qualified to say.... Most waitresses (or waiters) suck! And if you're a waitress reading this, then I'm glad you're offended! I want you to prove me wrong. I enjoy tipping generously for good service, but I honestly can't remember the last time I had exceptional service in any restaurant.

This is a typical interaction with the waitress (or waiter) in a typical restaurant:

1) Welcome, blah blah blah, can I take your drink orders while you decide what you would like? They take the drink orders, and leave to retrieve them.

2) Here's your drinks, have you decided? They take your order.

3) They brings rolls, salads, appetizers, etc., and perhaps refill someone's tea, water, or other beverage. These first three interactions happen generally in about 10-15 minutes.

4) Brings food..... at this point, most people have been in the establishment for at least 20 minutes, perhaps 45 minutes, yet waitresses regularly bring the food, and do not even look at beverage glasses to see if a refill is needed. If they do and retrieve more water or whatever, they will immediately return, before the potatoes have even been buttered and ask how everything is! Don't you have to cut into a steak before you know if it taste good?

5) More and more often, the next time the waitress returns, she asks if you would like desert, and if not, then she has the check ready to hand to you, if you want a refill you have to tell her, and if your food wasn't cooked properly, then you either ate it or went hungry.

FIVE interactions, all of which were necessary in the exchange of information or purchased product. That's poor training from management, poor waiting by the waitress, and just dumb and illogical if you are working for tips!

I would actually argue for an additional 5 interactions in which the waitress simply checked to see if things were ok, and if she could refill any beverages. I might drop a $50-$100 tip if any waitress ever annoys me with checking to see if things are ok, just because!

Nothing detest or annoys me more as a restaurant patron than to be eating, needing a drink of water or tea and nothing but ice is in my glass! What annoys me even more is when I have eaten most of my ice, and the waitress comes with warm tea, and fills my glass up, and walks away as it melts my THREE remaining ice cubes! I mean, should I consider her blind, stupid, merely incompetent, or what?

Another thing I detest is when another waitress or especially a manager gives me an EXCUSE! I hate frickin' excuses! I have more respect for heroin addicts than I do people who have excuses! I don't care if she's new! Give her one table and make sure she can handle it before you give her an entire section you idiot! How piss poor is your training program? Nor do I want to hear that you are short handed tonight. Because if you are fearless leader, get you an apron and get back there and cook, or put on a smile and you wait some tables! But don't give me poor service and an excuse.

Here are 3 tips for waitresses that will dramatically improve the tips you get, especially from someone like me:

1) Do whatever is takes to keep my tea glass filled! If you have to kill innocent women and children KEEP MY FRICKIN' TEA GLASS FILLED! That will almost double your tip right there!

2) Check back regularly! Not only to see if I need more tea, but to see if the food was cooked well (believe it or not, we can't tell until we have a chance to eat some of it), if we need more rolls, napkins, etc. Annoy me by checking on me!

3) Take a lesson from Carnegie's, How to Win Friends and Influence People. Smile! Everyone likes a smile! We came out to eat to forget our problems and the bad day we had, we definitely don't give a shit about yours! Act like you are genuinely interested in whatever goofy story or dumb joke we have to tell you, you don't have to like it, just act like you do. It will make me like you, and it's hard to stiff someone you like on a tip.

And that's it! Sure there are other specific nuances of the profession I have not touched on, and some things are beyond your control, but all of the things I have mentioned are well within your control, but the three things I mentioned are rarely executed by waitresses these days, therefore don't whine when your tip reflects it!

Ineptness in modern journalism....

I am currently watching CNN coverage of hurricane Ike as it is threatening one of the largest cities in the United States. I have family and friends in Houston that are staying, and I am hoping for the best.

However.....journalism in this country is reaching an all time low in competence. There are 22 men trapped on a freighter, literally right in the middle of the storm. I hope they survive! Rescue efforts have been unsuccessful as the conditions are simply too dangerous for rescue attempts.

CNN however, made contact with the crew. I didn't catch the name of the reporter interviewing the captain but, I wish to God I had, and if I can find it I will post it in an attempt to humiliate her in all of her glorious stupidity. One of the first questions this GOOBER asked these poor men trapped on this freighter was:

"Is there much wind or waves?"

You idiot! They are in a boat in the middle of a hurricane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What are you possibly expecting as a reply? 'Naaahh....It's pretty calm out here. '

She then asked them if they still had power. 'Nah, that's why we're using the tin can to talk to you with.'

I would really like to tell her, that no, they don't have power, the waves pulled out their extension cord!

Did she ever think to deduce, based on the conditions at hand that yes, there were indeed wind and waves. And yes the ship had power as ships run on GENERATORS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Then, when they switched back to the lead reporter on the ground in Galveston bay, he cut off an emergency management official mid-sentence in order to cut to another "update" on Sarah Palin, that despite being old news was simply pointless!

Yes, CNN I know that you and NBC are the Democratic party's OFFICIAL non-official PR representatives, and I know the democrats still have not developed a strategy on how do deal with Sarah Palin, but cutting in on an emergency management official in order to run a news "update" that has been talked about for 3 days is dumb! Perhaps I need to look up the producer's name as well.

So, If you did not evacuate, and are near Galveston, and need info from your local officials please tune into CNN.....that way you will know exactly what Sarah Palin had for lunch, and if her 17 year old daughter is having morning sickness or not.

Thank you CNN for excellence in journalism!

911

It's been 7 years today.

I was coaching basketball at the University of Southern Mississippi. We practiced at 6:00A.M. every morning. We had just finished the day's practice and I was leaving the coliseum to head to my apartment to get cleaned up in order to go to an athletic department meeting.

I got in my car, and turned on the Steve and DC morning show out of St. Louis. They were just getting reports of it, trying to confirm the reports, etc.

I got to my apartment, turned on CNN and was watching the coverage. At that time no one was sure that it was a terrorist attack. Some were speculating, but it was pure speculation.

Then, a reporter on top of an adjacent building with the Twin Towers in the background was reporting the known facts at the time. He broke the news as it was coming into his ear piece that another plane had indeed been hijacked. About the time he got the words out of his mouth you could see behind him the plane flying into the other tower. Then he turned around and realized what happened.

I quickly showered and returned to the basketball offices. No one there had heard anything about it yet, so we turned on all the TVs and radios available, and like much of the world watched the rest of the day in complete and utter non-belief.

One of my colleagues who coached women's basketball had a sister that worked at the Pentagon. Thankfully she was safe.

That's where I was. Please feel free to comment about where you were and what you were doing that day.

My girlfriend.......

Here is a picture my girlfriend. She is a Gibson Hummingbird and in my biased opinion the best sounding guitar on earth.

Playing with blog features here....sent this from my phone.....heh heh.....

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Olympics and the hypocrisy of the media.

In these 2008 Olympics world records (WR) in swimming have been dropping like drunks at 4 A.M. 25 WRs have been broken at these Olympics. That is the most since the 1976 Montreal Olympics in which it is now known lots of doping was taking place. Anyone remember the German women's team? If this were to happen in baseball, the home run record, stolen base record, RBI record, base hits record, strike out record, no hitter record, and shut out record would all be broken in the same year, by the same guy.

If this were to happen, they would probably publicly hang the offender outside of Yankee stadium. After all he would have to be using performance enhancing substances. Swimmers however, all apparently attend the same Sunday School classes together. They just went out and trained really hard, and their hard work payed off. By the way I have some land for sale......

First off, the media has blown the entire performance enhancing substance issue out of the water. For one thing, it is very debatable how much these substances can actually enhance performance. Secondly, as someone who has spent the better part of their life around athletes and coaches, I can authoritatively say that there is not one athlete in all of major league baseball that with proper diet and training, and without illegal substances could not improve their performance. However many have taken "performance enhancing substances" it has been in vain because they have not even utilized the effects of these substances to improve their performance to the degree in which they could have rather easily obtained with mere diet and exercise without said substances.

Baseball players are out of shape, most are fatter than they should be, few are as fast as they should be, and what conditioning they do perform is poor. Baseball coaches and strength coaches do as bad a job as any in any sport at preparing their athletes for the field. Therefore, when you have athletes that out of shape, performance enhancing substances are a mute point because they cannot help them reach beyond their natural potential, until they reach their natural potential.

Another misconception about performance enhancing substances is that it is mainly strength and power sports that benefit from them. This is incorrect. For years the biggest chemistry experiment on earth was a little event called the Tour de France. Five years ago the media would have called such an allegation ridiculous. Now we find out the only guy in the entire race that was clean was the guy that finished last in last year's race and he's still pedaling. What the media fails to realize, or is afraid to admit however is that of all exercise related research, 80% of it is performed on aerobic athletes and events such as running (not sprinting), cycling, and swimming. In addition, these are some of the dirtiest sports in terms of drug use. In Barcelona and Sydney there were even reports of swimmers injecting their glutes with helium in order to stay as high as possible in the water. Even Dara Torres' coach stated that the sport would never be compeltely clean.

Therefore, I propose that if we're going to write off a guy like Barry Bonds as a cheat, despite the fact that he has never tested positive for a banned substance, because he simply excelled, then we should likewise write these WRs off of the books for these Olympics.

However, as certain as I am that there were some swimmers in these Olympics that are on performance enhancing substances, I do not think they have made one bit of difference.

The "Cube" in Beijing is where all of the hoopla over Michael Phelps et. al. has taken place. There are two glaring reasons why records have been falling. The first is the pool in the Cube. It is 3m deep as opposed to 2m, and it is 10 lanes wide as opposed to 8 as pools in past Olympics have been. What difference does that make? The extra depth and width of the pool creates more space for water displacement. Greater displacement creates less drag on the swimmers body as it moves through the water.

On top of the Cube's affects....there are these super suits that the swimmers are wearing. These suits were first introduced just prior to the Sydney Olympics in 2000. Several teams complained because they did not have access to the suits, and that they created an unfair advantage. Well, they are all wearing them now, and 3 and 4 teams or swimmers at a time are beating WR times. There is only one WR that is older than the 2000 Olympics. Some records set in these Olympics have stood for less than 5 minutes. 14 times in 8 events, world records were broken by athletes or teams in an event who did not even win the event!

I am all for the saying that records are meant to be broken, but come on. I can win the triple crown in horse racing if they let me drive my Jeep.

Therefore, not to take away from the hard work and dedication of Michael Phelps or other swimmers, but I cannot see him as the greatest Olympian or Athlete of all time. He's good at what he does, and he has reaped the benefit of the best technology available, but unless the playing field was leveled for past athletes, I cannot acknowledge him as being anything other than a dedicated hard working swimmer who was very good, and carried himself in a way that was very respectful of himself, his family, and his country.

By the way....just to get back to the drug subject.... It will likely never come to light due to the ATP, but professional tennis is the dirtiest sport in the world when it comes to the use and abuse of performance enhancing drugs. It may never come to light, but it is. Sorry tennis fans.