SB Nation - Ira Newble

Next on the Chopping Block: Miami. Oh.

Rodger Sherman — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 16:46:07 -0000

(copy-pasted this intro from the old site:

Four times this year, and, well, every year, NU plays an out-of-conference opponent. The question arises: who are these guys? Some people only want to know who they are in a football sense, but, to truly understand our opponents on the gridiron, you have to know where they come from, so football strategy can wait. I plan on getting to know these universities a little bit better with posts on each college, mainly with info gleaned from their wikipedia pages.

This week's victim (or not): Miami University.

Where: Oxford, Ohio. You've probably heard of Oxford in relation to Miami, and probably never heard of it for any other reason. That's because essentially, uh, it's all they got. The town was founded in 1809, same year as the college, and has 21,000 residents, including school students, and, uh, 14,000 students attend the school's Oxford campus.So. It's basically a school.

Size: As noted, 14,206 students (approximately 1.72 Northwesterns) attend the Oxford campus, but an additional 4,000 go to branches of the school elsewhere in Ohio, and 150 or so go to a weird branch of the school in Luxembourg, bringing the full count to 18,863, or 2.3 Northwesterns.

Stadium: Currently, the RedHawks play at Yager Stadium, a soulless lump of bleachers built in 1983 to replace Miami Field, the second-oldest college football stadium in the nation, built in 1896 that seated about 8,000. Of course, I've never been to either, or even seen photos of the original field, but, man, did you have to raze the 80 year old stadium to build a bunch of metal bleachers that looks like every other bunch of metal bleachers in the world? Just sayin'.

Mascot: The RedHawks. One word. Capitalized H. What's a RedHawk you ask? Why, it's a hawk that's red, something which doesn't exist in nature! Why is their mascot the RedHawks? Well, until 1997, they were the Redskins, after a 1928 student nicknamed the team "the Big Red-Skinned Warriors", which would have been a pretty beast mascot. But, as always, political correctness got the best of Miami, and in '97 they strapped on their creativity boots and changed the letters "S-K-I-N" to "H-A-W-K" and hoped nobody would notice.

For the record, the official name of the mascot is "Swoop", which is a brief google check reveals is also the mascot of the Philadelphia Eagles, Utah, Eastern Washington, Emory, and recent NU opponent Eastern Michigan. I find few things more depressing than the changing of unique symbolism to represent your sports teams to boring mascots that everybody the hell else has, so, congrats, Miami, you've hit the friggin jackpot of boringness.

Mascot if I ran the school: To be honest, the Redskins is actually a little to racist for my tastes, despite my aforementioned love of unique, slightly politically incorrect mascots. I'd go with the Hurricanes, just to throw everybody off.

Notable Alums: In terms of non-sports, the school has produced Benjamin Harrison (he was the president) Chung Un-chan (the current prime minister of South Korea, which is just weird, cuz, like, why would he go to the middle of Ohio to go to school) and Nick Lachey (the guy who did it with Jessica Simpson before Tony Romo.) It's actually a pretty long, surprisingly relevant list of people.

More importantly, the school has produced three people considerably more important to my life: ex-Cav, Laker and Sonic Ira Newble, who, surprisingly, isn't a Jew, but rather a man of questionable race with dreads, who will be most remembered by me not for his ball-playing, not for his intense involvement with Darfur - he was the guy who got everybody on the Cavs besides LeBron to sign a petition, which caused a stir at the time - but for this awesome photo of him kicking Mike Dunleavy in the face. I've looked at this photo many times to try and figure out how it happened, no dice.

Important basketball alums include current free agent gunner Wally Szczerbiak, whose name I actually didn't need to look up, and Ron Harper. Harper lived quite possibly the greatest life of any human ever, when you think about it. He was pretty good at basketball - actually really good, he averaged 23 and 11 at Miami in his senior year, forchrissake and is the all-time Miami leader in points, rebounds, steals, and blocks, which is damn impressive if you ask me - but parlayed this into a life in which he accomplished pretty much everything I could dream of. First off, arguably least important, he won five World Championships with the Bulls alongside MIchael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, which is a good start. More importantly, he was featured as a representative of the Clippers in the best video game of all time, NBA Jam, assuring himself immortality in awesome video games. More importantly, he was name-checked ("Roc-a-fella like Shawn Carter, more game than Ron Harper") by one of the top three rappers of all time, Big L, in this posthumously released song with Tupac, (who, for the record, isn't top three all time. Debate me if you want.) But most importantly, Harper was the subject of an entire episode of the seminal TV show "Kenan and Kel", arguably the best show of all time. I'll let the wikipedia summarize said episode:

On November 1, 1997, Ron Harper appeared in the Nickelodeon sitcom Kenan & Kel, in the episode titled "Foul Bull". In the episode, Harper, as a Chicago Bull, slips on some orange soda and gets injured, and all of Chicago is angry with Kenan & Kel, who try to apologize.

To sum up, Harper managed to be on the best basketball teams of all time, in the best video game of all time, in the rap songs of a guy who had some of the best lines of all time, and in hands-down the best show of all time.Move aside, Dos Equis guy. That's a life well lived.

UPDATE: turns out somebody uploaded this entire episode of Kenan and Kel to youtube. I just watched the whole thing. Here's the thrilling conclusion:

I highly suggest you watch the whole thing. Phenomenal acting and screenwriting. It's easy to see why this was my favorite show as a kid.

Current NFL Players: The RedHawks have a measly four guys in the pros. One of them is this guy named Ben Roethlisberger, I think he plays for the Steelers.

Difference between the amount of times Miami (OH) has made the NCAA tournament and the amount of times NU has: 17. Yeah, not bad. Ron Harper holds a lot of records, but that doesn't mean everybody else who ever played here was a chump. The team has been to the sweet 16 four times, and went to the tourney most recently in 2007. Meanwhile, Northwestern, in case you haven't heard, has never been. Ever. Not once. Not even once. That noise you hear isn't me passionately sobbing, no, not at all.

Elsewhere in Miami sports: Miami likes ice: the Redhawks lost in last year's national championship game, and they're one of 13 schools to have a D-I football, basketball, and hockey team, which is why they just built a $34 million dollar hockey arena. Odder, though, is the school's dominant synchronized skating team, which has been in the final four of the past two World Championships,

tidbits

So, uh, Miami of Ohio? The hell is that all about?: "Miami" refers to an Indian tribe that used to live in Michigan and Ohio, which gave its name to two rivers - the Great Miami and Little Miami - in southwestern Ohio. Unfortunately for people who like things that make sense, there's a city named Miami in Florida you might have heard of. The two are unrelated etymologically, for the record, but, either way, they're both named Miami. Anyway, the big Miami has it's own University, called the University of Miami. It was founded 115 years after Miami University, but still, people refer to that one as "Miami" with no additional specifications, or even "the U" because, um, it's a university? But poor Miami University generally takes on the title "Miami of Ohio" or "Miami (OH)" when referred to by members of the outside world. However, the official name is just "Miami University." But nobody's ever going to call them that until Oxford, Ohio has 2 million residents.

But Fitz went here!: Miami calls itself the "Cradle of Coaches" and rightfully so. A preposterous amount of football coaches have either attended or coached at Miami, including Bo Schembechler, Paul Brown, Weeb Ewbank, Jim Tressel, Ron Zook, John Harbaugh, Sean Payton, and others, plus OSU's basketball coach Thad Motta. Of Evanston-centric appeal, Miami produced NU coaches Ara Parseghian and Randy Walker. The 0-5 start for new head coach Michael Haywood isn't exactly setting him up to enter the pantheon, plus, he went to Notre Dame, so, really, he's hopeless.

Miami plays home games on Fraturday: Six frats and sororities were founded at Miami, and five have their headquarters in Oxford which is why the Wikipedia chooses to call the town and college the "Mother of Fraternities." From what I've heard, the fact that a bunch of frats were founded there doesn't exactly make it a awesome place to go, though, so that's all the analysis I got.

Anyway, unlike the past two days when I said "I'll have a post up later" and then didn't, today, I'll actually have a post up later. So get ready, and, sorry about my chronic lying to you the past two days. Also, I know you guys don't like these posts, but, guess what, I'm still doing them. Deal with it.

2009 NBA Draft Coverage: In Sam Presti We Trust (Thunder GM)

Mr Pappagiorgio — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:00:21 -0000

As we inch closer and closer to the 2009 NBA Draft, I thought it would be fitting to make very clear of one thing, In Sam Presti We Trust. The moves he's made since joining the organization have been cold and calculated as he attempts to completely rebuild this team, for the long haul, and from the ground up. He hasn't been afraid to trade superstars (Ray Allen), walk away from pricey re-signings (Rashard Lewis), or even walk away from completed trades involving stud players because his future became a little cloudy after Thunder trainers evaluated him (Tyson Chandler). He did all that and more, much more, in just 2 years since being hired by the Sonics. Its a pretty long list that you'll see after you make the jump.

Sam Presti became the General Manager of the Seattle Sonics on June 7, 2007 and since then, not only has he made those tough decisions/big deals listed above, but he's also turned over nearly the entire roster. Just take a look at these names: Ray Allen, Andre Brown, Desmon Farmer, Danny Fortson, Mickael Gelabale, Andreas Glyniadakis, Rashard Lewis, Randy Livingston, Johan Petro, Luke Ridnour, Mo Sene, Chris Wilcox, and Mike Wilks. In addition to those guys, Earl Watson, Nick Collison, and Damien Wilkins were also on the roster when Sam Presti took over the club, however, before the end of the summer, or before the trade deadline next year, its not out of the realm of possibilities for one, two, or even all three of those guys to be moved. Of the three remaining Pre-Presti players, only Nick Collison figures to be around past next year, at least in our estimation.

We've all been exhausting ourselves discussing what the Thunder will do with their #3 pick in next weeks draft, and while all the possibilities are intriguing, one thing we can bank on is that Thunder General Manager Sam Presti will undoubtedly make the smartest move for Oklahoma City with respect towards building this team for the future. He and his staff are looking at all sorts of players, and discussing potential moves with all sorts of teams. By the time the Thunder officially make/trade their pick come draft day, you can trust that the staff will have done their homework, carefully plotted out their move, and figured out the best way to make the most of our draft choice. It could come by using the 3rd pick to select a guy like James Harden (Which we love), Hasheem Thabeet, or even a guy like Tyreke Evens (whom you'll likely be hearing from, fictitiously of course, this week in our continued "My Name Is Series"). Or perhaps it could come by trading that third pick away, possibly with expiring contracts (Earl Watson anyone....please?), or with draft picks, and could be used to add a veteran player from another team in addition to dropping down a few slots and drafting a player like Stephen Curry to help maximize the value of our 3rd overall pick.

Whatever the case, In Sam Presti We Trust, and In Sam Presti You Can Trust. If you don't believe us, just take a look at the entire history of moves he's made since joining the club. Its quite a long list, especially when you consider he only took the job just a little over two years ago, but one thing is for sure, he isn't afraid of wheeling and dealing. So take a few minutes, look over this list, form your opinion about any/all of the moves he's made, and let us know if you Trust in Presti as much as we do.

Also, it's recently been announced that the state of Oklahoma will be releasing a limited edition State specific Nickel for use in the state of Oklahoma only, as part of an advertising campaign to raise awareness about our professional basketball team. The tails side is of course the Thunder logo, but the heads side features our very own Sam Presti, with the words In Sam We Trust. You can see the head side of the Nickel below Presti's transaction history on this post. Of course this is all complete malarkey and isn't actually true, I just had to make something up so that my post header made more sense, or cents. I mean not everybody would have made the connection between In Sam We Trust and In God We Trust which is most commonly found on all forms of American Money. And no, in no way does this post, or post title have anything to do with God or Religion, its just my new catch phrase for anytime someone posts or makes comments in reference to our wunderkind general manager.

Sam Presti's Transaction History (2007-09) Seattle Sonics / Oklahoma City Thunder

(Transaction History From HoopsHype, although any links contained inside stay in the SBNation Network)

TRANSACTIONS:
SEASON 2008-09
March 31 2009 Signed guard Shaun Livingston. March 1 2009 Waived forward Joe Smith. February 20 2009 Waived center Saer Sene. February 19 2009 Traded forward Chris Wilcox to the New York Knicks for forward Malik Rose and cash. Traded a conditional 2009 first-round pick to the Chicago Bulls for guard Thabo Sefolosha. February 17 2009 Traded forwards Joe Smith and Chris Wilcox and the draft rights to forward DeVon Hardin to the New Orleans Hornets for center Tyson Chandler. The trade was voided the following day. January 7 2009 Traded center Johan Petro and a second-round pick to the Denver Nuggets for guard Chucky Atkins. December 31 2008 Signed center Nenad Krstic. December 30 2008 Waived center Steven Hill. December 22 2008 Signed center Nenad Krstic to an offer sheet. November 22 2008 Fired head coach PJ Carlesimo and assistant coach Paul Westhead and named Scott Brooks interim head coach. November 4 2008 Signed center Steven Hill. November 3 2008 Waived guard John Lucas. October 21 2008 Waived forward Derrick Byars and center Chris Alexander. October 16 2008 Exercised the contract options on forwards Kevin Durant and Jeff Green through 2009-10. September 29 2008 Signed guard John Lucas, forward Derrick Byars and center Chris Alexander. September 11 2008 Re-signed center Robert Swift. August 27 2008 Signed guard Kyle Weaver. August 20 2008 Waived forward Donyell Marshall. August 13 2008 Traded guard Luke Ridnour and forward Adrian Griffin to the Milwaukee Bucks for guard Desmond Mason from the Milwaukee Bucks and forward Joe Smith from the Cleveland Cavaliers. August 11 2008 Traded a second-round pick to the Charlotte Bobcats for the draft rights to guard Kyle Weaver. July 18 2008 Signed guard CJ Miles to an offer sheet. July 4 2008 Signed guard Russell Westbrook and forward DJ White. June 28 2008 Tendered a qualifying offer to forward Robert Swift. Draft 2008 Selected guard Russell Westbrook (4th overall pick), forwards Serge Ibaka (24th overall pick) and Walter Sharpe (32nd overall pick) and centers Trent Plaisted (46th overall pick), Devon Hardin (50th overall pick) and Sasha Kaun (56th overall pick). Traded the draft rights to forward Walter Sharpe and center Trent Plaisted to the Detroit Pistons for the draft rights to forward DJ White; traded the draft rights to center Sasha Kaun to the Cleveland Cavaliers for cash. May 8 2008 Named Troy Weaver assistant general manager.
SEASON 2007-08
April 13 2008 Signed forward Ronald Dupree for the remainder of the season. April 3 2008 Signed forward Ronald Dupree to a 10-day contract. March 24 2008 Signed guard Eddie Gill to a 10-day contract. March 11 2008 Signed guard Mike Wilks to a second 10-day contract. February 29 2008 Signed guard Mike Wilks to a 10-day contract and waived forward Ira Newble. February 21 2008 Traded guards Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West to the Cleveland Cavaliers for forwards Donyell Marshall and Ira Newble and forward Adrian Griffin from the Chicago Bulls; waived guard Brent Barry. February 20 2008 Traded forward Kurt Thomas to the San Antonio Spurs for guard Brent Barry, center Francisco Elson and a 2009 first-round pick. October 26 2007 Exercised the contract options of centers Johan Petro and Saer Sene through 2008-09. October 22 2007 Waived guard Jermaine Jackson. October 1 2007 Signed guard Jermaine Jackson. September 27 2007 Named Paul Westhead assistant coach. August 29 2007 Named Bill Branch director of pro player personnel and Gerald Madkins and Frank Ross scouts. August 23 2007 Named Scott Brooks, Mark Bryant and Ralph Lewis assistant coaches and Brian Keefe player development assistant. July 20 2007 Traded a future conditional second-round pick and cash to the Phoenix Suns for forward Kurt Thomas and the first-round picks of 2008 and 2010. July 11 2007 Signed forward Rashard Lewis and traded him to the Orlando Magic for a conditional second-round pick and cash. July 5 2007 Named PJ Carlesimo head coach. July 4 2007 Signed forwards Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. Draft 2007 Selected forwards Kevin Durant (2nd overall pick) and Carl Landry (31st overall pick overall pick), center Glen Davis (35th overall pick). June 28 2007 Traded guard Ray Allen and the 35th overall pick to the Boston Celtics for guards Delonte West, Wally Szczerbiak and the 5th overall pick.

Like this post? 2009 NBA Draft Coverage: Hello, My Name is series (Click on a player card to view article)

Then check out more from our BDTStatistics Series (Click on a player card to view article)

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