12 UNC Players Suspended

"Six North Carolina starters -- defensive tackle Marvin Austin, cornerback Charles Brown, cornerback Kendric Burney, wide receiver Greg Little, defensive end Michael McAdoo and defensive end Robert Quinn -- have been declared ineligible for Saturday's season-opening game against No. 21 LSU for "violating school and/or NCAA rules," the university announced Friday.

Six other players also will be withheld from the game while the NCAA's two-pronged investigation continues. Those six are: tailback Shaun Draughn, defensive end Linwan Euwell, safety Brian Gupton, tailback Ryan Houston, safety Da'Norris Searcy and safety Jonathan Smith.

The total number of games those 12 players are expected to miss has not yet been determined, as the NCAA investigates possible improper contact with agents, along with allegations of academic misconduct (ESPN)."

Sucks for UNC they have a really good team, but it looks like this could be a lost season. I am really pissed I couldn't get money on this game. I was staring at the line yesterday when it was sitting at -7 1/2 for LSU. I tried to put a bet in but by the time I did the line was gone. Sucks, because that would've been easy money. Anyways, LSU is going to take no mercy and kick the shit out of this UNC team.

College Baseball Tourney Implements "Pitch Clock"

Remember in April when umpires complained about Red Sox/Yankees games lasting too long? I don't recall many people objecting. Well the Southeastern Conference has tried something to keep game lengths from getting out of hand: a pitch clock.

How it worked:
A clock in centerfield ticked from 20 seconds once the pitcher got the ball back from the catcher. The clock only ran when there were no runners on base. The batter had to be in the box with 5 seconds remaining. A violation by the pitcher would result in a ball added to the count. A violation by the batter would add a strike. There was also a 108 second clock that ran between innings.

How well it worked:
Excellently. There were no violations. Average time of game at the tournament was reduced by 15 minutes compared to the year before. Part of that was due to excellent starting pitching, but most of it was apparently due to the rushed pace brought about by the clock.

Could it work in the Majors?
I don't think so. The idea of clocks and baseball is irksome. It just doesn't feel right. And you'd never get the players to agree to it. College baseball can push players around, and the kids will hustle for the clock. Major Leaguers would push the limit of the clock, then bitch when penalized a strike or a ball.

But I do think the Majors could do something to make the games a bit shorter. Rather, to keep them from extending too long. But clocks aren't the answer. Limiting batters to 1 time-out per plate appearance, limiting catchers to 1 mound visit per inning (not counting visits with coaches), and cloning Mark Beuhrle. Those are the answers.

-The Commodore

3 Vols Players Charged With Attempted Armed Robbery

"Three freshmen Tennessee football players, including highly touted wide receiver recruit Nu'Keese Richardson and starting safety Janzen Jackson, were charged with attempted armed robbery Thursday morning. Richardson, 18, and Jackson, 18, along with defensive back Mike Edwards, 18, and companion Marie Montmarquet, 22, were charged after a report of an armed robbery at a gas station in an area known as "The Strip" at the edge of Tennessee's campus (Sportsline)."

What a bunch of fucking idiots. You have a free ride through college and you throw it all away to steals some money from a fucking gas station? Sorry, that's retarded. This is really going to hurt this rebuilding program, and it is too bad because I like Kiffin a lot, but this is something that could set back his plans for the Tenn program.

The SEC Has the Right Idea

We've seen a lot of bad officiating lately. The umpires in MLB's playoffs have been horrendous. And there's been the usual malarkey in the NFL. Well the Southeastern Conference has taken a stand against poor officiating.

"Referee Marc Curles’ crew called a personal foul on Arkansas defensive lineman Malcolm Sheppard in the fourth quarter as the Gators were rallying for a 23-20 victory. The league said there was no video evidence to support the call. The same group of officials called the LSU-Georgia game earlier this month, which included a late unsportsmanlike conduct penalty the league said shouldn’t have been called." (Yahoo!)

The SEC has suspended the officiating crew until November 14th's games. That's 2 weeks of suspensions. I think it is a brilliant move, and can set an excellent precedent for other leagues to follow. Suspending refs for one bad call is lame, but when there's a pattern of similarly atrocious mistakes, then action should be taken.

-The Commodore

SEC Breakdowns

2009 SEC Standings
EAST CONF. W-L OVERALL W-L
Florida 7-1 13-1
Georgia 6-2 10-3
Vanderbilt 4-4 7-6
South Carolina 4-4 7-6
Tennessee 3-5 5-7
Kentucky 2-6 7-6

WEST CONF. W-L OVERALL W-L
Alabama 8-0 12-2
Mississippi 5-3 9-4
LSU 3-5 8-5
Auburn 2-6 5-7
Arkansas 2-6 5-7
Mississippi St. 2-6 4-8

Last year the SEC of course won the National Championship and I expect nothing less from them this year. So here is my top 5 SEC Teams.

1. Florida

I hate to admit it, but it would not surprise me in the least if they won the National Championship this year. I will be rooting against them all year, but they got Tebow, Spikes, Etc. all back and are in position to do it again.


2. Alabama

The Tide was a surprise team last year and really over achieved. Let's face it, this team is probably a better team without John Parker Wilson behind center. They have my boy Julio Jones who had some off season surgeries but will be fine and ready to dominate any cornerback put on him. They will have to replace Andre Smith, Antoine Caldwell, Marlon Davis, Nick Walker, and Travis McCall but when you have stars like Julio Jones, Mark Ingram, Mike McCoy, and Roy Upchurch, you should still be very competitive.

3. LSU

Not only did LSU have one of the best recruiting classes in 2009, they also found a reliable QB in Jordan Jefferson. Last year, the incompetiance at the quarterback position was as bad as Louisiana's politics (Zing), and ultimately doomed the Tigers to fight uphill all year. However, with LaFell coming back and stud freshman Rueben Randle joining the party, Jefferson will have plenty of Targets. Also, Charles Scott coming back is huge as well.

4. Mississippi

This team has potential to do pretty good in the upcoming season. Ole Miss is ranked No. 20 on the AP poll, and was the only team in the NCAA to defeat Florida last season. Ole Miss will be led by QB Jevan Snead and WR Dexter McCluster. I don't expect Ole Miss to come close to winning the SEC, but they will have a lot of competitive games.

5. Georgia

Georgia lost pretty much everyone, but they did have a good enough recruiting class this upcoming season. I'm not sure who is going to be taking over the helm at quarterback from Matthew Stafford, but they do have enough athletes on the offensive end to stay in some games. They also have a really good Defense to hold the fort down.




P.S. Florida is so gay

John Wall commits to Kentucky

"John Wall has committed to play at Kentucky next season and given John Calipari another one-and-done point guard to help run the dribble-drive motion offense that turned Derrick Rose into the NBA Draft's top pick a year ago (Sportsline)."

Say what you want about Calipari, but the guy can recruit. Wall is by far the best PG coming out of high school, and most people think he will be the #1 pick in the 2010 draft. It sucks that Kentucky will most likely only have him for a year, but he should ease Calipari's transition into Kentucky. He is a bigger PG (6-4) that has drawn a lot of comparisons to Rajon Rondo, but with a better jump shot. Anyways it will be interesting to see this kid playing in the SEC next year...

Oh yea, this is the same guy who was arrested a couple weeks ago for breaking an entering....the new Kentucky Thugcats?

Updating Stories From Yesterday

Barry Bonds:

Bonds might have fallen into some luck as the Judge that is controling his case may not allow the positive steroid tests into the trial. I don't like it, but I understand it, since any good lawyer would be able to say that they may have been tampered with during their stay before/after the raid. The judge did go on to say that she will allow the recorded conversation between Anderson and Hoskins.


Kiffin:

DP and I loved the tirade Kiffin went on saying that Meyer tried to cheat to steal one of their recruits and still lost. Apparently the SEC did not find it as funny as we did, as Commissioner Mike Slive came out and reprimanded Kiffin saying...

"Coach Kiffin has violated the Southeastern Conference Code of Ethics," Slive said. "SEC Bylaw 10.5.1 clearly states that coaches and administrators shall refrain from directed public criticism of other member institutions, their staffs or players. The phone call to which Coach Kiffin referred to in his public comments is not a violation of SEC or NCAA rules. We expect our coaches to have an understanding and knowledge of conference and NCAA rules (Sportsline)."

At that point Kiffin backed down. Nothing will really come with this, but there will be some awesome storylines in the SEC this year.

LSU Survives Auburn 26-21

As usual the game between LSU and Auburn came down to the final minutes, but this time the home team was not able to take home the victory. LSU QB Jarrett Lee and Brandon LaFell hooked up on an 18 yard touchdown pass with 1:03 left to lift LSU past #10 Auburn. Lee was able to overcome an awful first half to be able to lead LSU to victory. In the first half Lee threw a terrible interception for a TD, and it looked like he was not going to be playing the rest of the game, but then Andrew Hatch got hurt (actually looked like he didn't know where he was), so it was up to Lee to win it for them. #6 LSU always seems to be able to pull out these kind of victories, and their defense looks like it may be the best in the NCAA. It will be interesting to see how much respect LSU will be getting in the polls after this great win over Auburn at home.

-BMack

SEC Breakdown

Year in and year out the SEC has been the best conference in college football. People can bring up the Pac 10 B.S. however, SEC is where real college football is played. Every single week any team can beat anyone and this year will be no different.

1. Georgia Bulldogs
The reason I am picking Georgia is because they are simply the most complete team in the SEC. They finished 11-2 in a very tough SEC last year and have most of their playmakers back for this year. Matt Stafford is my favorite quarterback in this conference, and I believe he has the most potential to be a successful NFL star. Knowshon Moreno is also the real deal at runningback. In his first year he finished with 1,334 and 14 TDs last year and expect nothing less than 1,700 yards and 20 tds.

2. Florida Gators
I hate to admit it because I despise Florida, however, any team with Tim Tebow on it is an extremely dangerous team. The guy is the ultimate threat passing and rushing. OK that is all the good things I can say about Florida. I hate the Gators.

O.K. I have spent the past 30 minutes figuring out who is the rest. So here it is:
3. LSU: I am moving to New Orleans so I will be rooting for them. However, with the loss of Perrilouix(?) I don't like their chances.
4. Tennessee: Jonathan Crompton takes over for Erik Ainge, I have faith in him and runningback Arian Foster is a force.
5. Auburn: Too much competition for the RB position, and QB position. Too much uncertainty in those two spots is never a good thing.
6. South Carolina: Steve Spurrier has slowly put this team together.
7. Miss State
8. Arkansas
9. Alabama
10. Kentucky
11. Vandy
12. Ole Miss

Georgia's Unreal Turnaround

I just wanted to write in and say what a cool story the University of Georgia making the NCAA Tourney is cause they won their SEC Tourney. Georgia went 13-16 during the season including 4-12 In the SEC. At one point they lost eleven games in a row. Ok big deal right? Well it sticks out to me cause about a week ago I read this really good piece on them on ESPN that detailed how their coach was a virtual goner after the year because they simply weren't winning enough games, and how they built this 30 million dollar practice facility, all this stuff. Well, there is a lot of background stuff here. Seems the coach took over that weasel Jim Harrick, who got himself fired for the 2nd time from a college for creating a huge scandal of paying players money, arranging easy exams, etc. This was after he lied about expense reports at UCLA that got him fired, and how he left URI in the dust after being involved in a sex scandal with his secretary, among other things (how they got Lamar Odom deserves its own column). So they brought this guy Dennis Felton in as coach. He cleaned up the program, and actually implemented a new academic standard program for his players, making numerous tutoring and study hall sessions mandatory, as well as advisement sessions. In fact it was so stringent fellow coaches whispered in the SEC it would doom Felton cause it was too strict. Yet Georgia ran a good clean program, and actually made 19-14 last year and made the NIT. With four starters returning things looked really good. Yet, there two best players didn't make the cut to these new standards this year, so Felton booted them off the team. Two more went down with season ending injuries, and one more quit cause he felt he wasn't getting enough playing time. This left Georgia with 9 available players for the SEC Tourney. They then not only go out and win this thing, but yesterday had to play 2 games in one day and won them both, with the 1st game going into a grueling OT clash with Kentucky. Now they are going to the Tourney, and Felton's job is saved. Good for him, it shows doing the right thing in life sometimes gets rewarded. I don't know how far Georgia can go in the Tourney, but I am certainly rooting for them, how can you not? By the way, also root for Coppin State, the 1st 20 loss team to ever make the tournament, and at one point was 2-19!!!!!!!! Unreal..........

CCook