SB Nation User Blog: Graysnail

Who wants recruiting violations? I do!

Graysnail — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 11:57:44 -0000

Who wants recruiting violations? I do!

It's preliminary at this point, but the "hostesses" remind me of Hooters, for some reason. Oddly appropriate, since I heard about this on SportsCenter this morning and the first commercial into the break was for? Hooters.

Not sure how serious this is, though.

Bryce Brown, Brian Butler, and NCAA Basketball

Graysnail — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 01:24:14 -0000

Bryce Brown, Brian Butler, and NCAA Basketball

So my thoughts on the Bryce Brown thing ran too long to fit anywhere here, so I stuck it somewhere else. The upshot: it's not about Bryce.

More food for thought from one of our stalwart members at RTT. Rec'd. -- hooper

The SEC's Media Policy Isn't That Big a Deal

Graysnail — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:27:47 -0000

So while the SEC's new policy on media certainly seems rather Draconian on its own merits, it's more than likely that nearly everyone here won't ever deal with it. Joel and hooper have pretty heavily alluded to it already with their first volley on the subject, but here's the thing: even with the policy parts that directly relate to ticket holders, this policy isn't created to stop fans from enjoying the game at the game. Honestly, it reads to me like it's not even about the fans.

First off, what I'll term the anti-Twitter rule (the line against real time updates) has a hazy middle ground with respect to media sites that may not have attendance at each game - I'm thinking specifically of the Yahoo Sports line, but there are likely others. Most of the minor media sites won't have this restriction at this point in time; since they don't fall under the media's umbrella as the SEC defines it, they'd have to fall under the tickets - if they fall under anything at all. If they don't, the only way the SEC would do anything about it amounts to a thought-police brigade that's way more time and effort than it's worth.

On a related note, I suspect the SEC's rather harsh limitations on what they will and won't term full-time media will be rescinded, possibly after this season. Quite frankly, the first major paper in the Southeast that has to go to a part-time reporter covering the SEC will pretty much end this. (For example, I can't think the folks in Starkville or Tuscaloosa will be too happy wiith only part-time Mississippi State or Alabama coverage.) In the meantime, we'll lose out on new sources of writing and opinions, provided those with part-time access just don't turn to internet media and/or blogs entirely. For myself, this actually won't change how I obtain the majority of my information, since I'm currently at least partly reliant on other people screening links to find articles that I'd find interesting; I suspect I'm not the only one who falls into that category. In the meantime, this rule will funnel information through the major sports media outlets - CBS, ESPN, FOX, etc. - which really isn't that much different than the way things are now, provided you don't live in the Southeast (which I don't; keep in mind this is the perspective of a partial outsider).

Sadly, the ticket rule prohibits those awesome psuedo air-raid sirens that have gotten popular at soccer games over the last few months - fortunately, Texas can still use them to produce something like crowd noise, although I'll forgive them if they're unfamiliar with that too. Other than that, there's really not that much that changes with the new rules from a practical standpoint; as long as you aren't a complete idiot about it (i.e., standing on your friend's shoulders to take a clear pic of the new scoreboard) you'll likely be fine. Given the relative slow-moving mass as it relates to actually tracking new media (read: Twitter), there's no practical way they can even check to see if people are uploading news items, pictures, videos, etc. unless they also have agreements with cell phone carriers they're not telling anyone about - and I doubt they care that much. Again, the worst thing that'll happen is that you get kicked out of a game, which sucks but isn't the end of the world.

At the end of the day, the SEC's just trying to steer how their games are transmitted. There really isn't much in there that will functionally prohibit anything that's going on now for 99.5% of people; it's just defined better. Small media kind of takes it in the shorts here, but a) I suppose that's the price they pay for ESPN's machine and b) small media is nimble - they can get around it much faster than larger outlets can. As for the rest of us, we'll be fine.

I Figured Out What's Grating Me With the Morley Dismissal

Graysnail — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 01:14:45 -0000

I Figured Out What's Grating Me With the Morley Dismissal

Yes, it's a self-referential link, sorry. I needed a venue to express what was bugging me with the Morley (and now Langley) dismissal(s).

Tennessee "@" Auburn: Baby's First Tournament Disappointment

Graysnail — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 01:43:47 -0000

Well, this was bound to happen. Tennessee ended up folding to Auburn, bowing out of the SEC tournament in the semis. All told, Tennessee likely finishes up 11-6 against SEC teams this year, which isn't great by the standards we're used to, but certainly isn't bad. That's also good enough for a 22-10 record, which doesn't look great at first glance but keep in mind the schedule they had.

Nobody really expected it to end like this, though. The first half sounded bad - nay, it sounded terrible. Kelley Cain landed on her knee badly in the first few minutes of the game and had to be helped off the court to the back. She needed a MRI; for some reason that I still don't understand, they had a machine in the arena. We'll come back to this. Angie Bjorklund picked up two early fouls and was on the bench for most of the first half. Shekinna Stricklen only had four points, and she's been a second half player the last few games. You hear all of that and you'd expect this game was over by the 10 minute mark, right? Far from it - Tennessee kept it close most of the first half and even went into the half up 5. Thanks go to Brewer and Manning for contributing most of the Lady Vols' 18 points off the bench in the first half.

Here's where that MRI machine comes into play again. Cain's MRI showed no serious damage, and she was back on the court to start the second half. Bjorklund could play again. Stricklen was due to do her thing, right? The bench wouldn't need to carry the team the entire game, so the Lady Vols were in great shape. Well, Auburn opened up hot - 11-2 run hot. And they really didn't cool off the rest of the game. That's why the final was 78-58; make no bones about it, DeWanna Bonner and Whitney Boddie pretty much dominated the second half and there wasn't much, if anything, the Lady Vols could do about it.

Were there things I would've liked to see? Absolutely; Strickeln looked lost most of the game (chestbump to wvvol, who was actually able to see the game, unlike myself or hoop), especially in the second half. I would've liked Bjorklund to get her 17 a little bit before the game got totally out of hand; she was the game in the second half. I would've liked the refs to swallow their whistles a little bit; 35 fouls is obscene in general*. I would've liked Cain to get a little bit more involved, but I can't fault her too much for it. I would've liked to see the Lady Vols be able to string together a full 120 minutes in three days instead of the 100 we saw. Still, these things didn't happen, and aside from Fuller (who's already got some jewelry from her time on campus), they'll get their chance next year. I'm disappointed, but you won't hear me complaining too loudly.

*There was a predilection for offensive fouls that I haven't even seen in streetball-offense men's games before; I recall at least 9 charges, and there might've been more. Amazingly, nobody fouled out on either team, although the Lady Vols spent most of the second half in varying degrees of foul trouble. I think the Lady Vols ended up with 5-7 more fouls called on them than Auburn, which - let's be honest here - didn't make a lick of difference with the final score. I was more annoyed there was no game flow.

At the end of the day, the Lady Vols did what we hoped they'd do in the tournament. They won the game they absolutely had to win. They made a statement to get back on the 5 line. They took a quality shot at one of the best teams in the country. At the end of the day, their legs just ran out. I don't know what that means for the tourney, but I figure getting a week-plus off to recover and getting those days between games can't hurt matters.

Now it's a waiting game; we suspect they'll end up as a 5, and I think that's a realistic hope. That means one neutral court game and one (likely) road game in order to keep the Sweet 16 streak going. They'll need to be ready; they should be ready. Let's see how they answer the bell.

ACC & SEC: Comparing Across Sports & Conferences

Graysnail — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 01:33:50 -0000

So this post is mostly inspired by the idea I had a few days ago. The premise: how do ACC basketball programs compare to SEC football programs? I'm thinking mostly over the last few years, not completely historical performances or anything like that. With that being said, extra credit for historical performance, fan temperament, and similarities between the ACC football program and SEC basketball program (I keep on calling this the counter-comparison). And yes, this will probably be a bit incendiary. Oh well.

In no particular order:

Alabama = Duke

This is the no-brainer of the group: a consistently (or "consistently", if you will) quality product on both ends. Some serious additional bonus points are awarded for the, um, polarizing nature of Nick Saban and Coach K(rhtrhduhhdoiski). More bonus points are awarded for the historical success of both programs, right down to the national titles and general belief by the fans that they should've won at least 3 times as many titles as they actually won. (In 'Bama's case, they just take credit for it anyway.) Even more bonus points are awarded for the fans' sense of entitlement and numerous rivals. And yes, even more bonus points are awarded for the relative ineptness of the Alabama men's bball team and Duke's football team. Yes, both those programs exist.

Kentucky = Florida State

Both mostly quality programs that haven't been up to their recent historical level of sucess. That doesn't stop the fans from thinking the team is three times better than what it actually is; this would extend to grumping about the coaches, but I think FSU fans have stayed quiet because there's nothing they can really do. We'll see what happens when Jimbo Fisher assumes the reins. Again, bonus points for the comparison between FSU's bball team and Kentucky's football team (both second-tier in their own conference but not terrible, both have hurdles (FSU: road games, Kentucky: Tennessee)).

Arkansas = Clemson

Both teams are kind of off on their own, and they've developed some non-natural rivalries to pass the time. However, Arkansas would love to get Texas every year and Clemson is lucky enough to get South Carolina. Team-wise, both fans have a bit of a superiority complex that isn't really justified. Arkansas hasn't done much since Richardson left, and Clemson hasn't done much recently other than act like they're good. The counter-teams have some similarities too, although they've a bit more of a reach; both teams kind of start hot and then fade once the stretch run begins. Both teams managed to fight that recently, too.

Vanderbilt = Virginia

This one's pretty easy too. Both teams ...kinda suck, let's be honest. They have a pretty solid Vandy bball-Virginia football relationship as well, as both teams waver between solidly whatever and passing as quality depending on the year and certain advantages (Vandy, that home court: Virginia, however many pictures of opposing coaches Al Groh has that involve farm animals).

South Carolina = NC State

Both schools have normally pretty mediocre or just above mediocre teams in both sports, so that's not too hard to figure out. However, what sets these guys apart - NC State's miracle title aside - is both fanbases keep on attempting to shoehorn themselves into a conference rivalrty. In South Carolina's case, there's a fight with us and one brewing with Florida; NC State keeps on trying to shoehorn into the UNC / Duke rivalry (that's going swimmingly for them). South Carolina is more successful with this than NC State.

Georgia = Georgia Tech

Yeah, the Bulldogs are gonna love this one. Still, GT normally throws together a plus basketball team to go against Georgia's normally plus football team; it's probably a fair argument to say Georgia's football team is normally a little better. However, GT gets that back on the football side. Alternatively, Georgia also matches up well with Maryland for a few reasons (high quality fans, general overratedness of their respective squads, laughable opposites), but Maryland is a better match elsewhere and I couldn't pass this one up.

Florida = Wake Forest

This is a strange comparison, but don't look at the basketball/football portion of this. That competely doesn't match up. Wake normally has a top-tier basketball program (or close to it) and will throw together a national title run every few years or so when they get a special player. Florida's in kind of the same boat; it just looks bad right now because they have that plus player. I forget his name, maybe Gary Danielson knows. The fanbases don't match up well here either, but to be honest Wake's fanbase isn't going to match up anywhere with the SEC.

LSU = Maryland

Let's be honest - I'm giving way too much credit to Maryland's basketball program. I know that. The counter-comparison works well, though; both Maryland and LSU's programs put out better-than-expected products that make you wonder how in tarnation they just beat you. For the main comparison, Maryland can put out a quality product and both programs have a national title to their credit this decade (LSU has two, if you believe in that whole "BCS" thing). Bonus points: both fanbases are completely and totally insane and play in stadiums that are falling apart.

Mississippi State = Boston College

I'm not the biggest fan of this one either. My justification for this basically comes down to "oh yeah, both these guys are actually in their own conferences". Mississippi State is a little worse than BC across the board, but other than that this isn't too egregious. Quite frankly, neither of these programs is a good match for any other program. I briefly considered throwing MSU with NC State and BC with ....um ... yeah, I don't know. Arkansas?

Auburn = Virginia Tech

Look, we're running out of teams. We're left with an Auburn-VT comparison I don't really like that much, but they kind of play second fiddle in most cases. We're obviously forgetting Auburn's undefeated seasons over the last 15-20 years, and Auburn's a step above VT's basketball team. Tech obviously makes it back on the football field.

Mississippi = Miami

Miami is a nasty comparison across the board, as the SEC really doesn't have another historically quality basketball team other than Kentucky, and FSU is a much better comparison for them. Florida doesn't work too well, because the counter-comparison fails pretty badly. So we're left with this, which is pretty much a wholesale fail on the primary comparison but makes up ground on the similarity in the counter-comparison (football/basketball; both teams above averge but not notably so yet). They also get some pretty serious bonus points for causing controversy, Miami for all the reasons we know about and Mississippi for continually forgetting that the War of Northern Aggression is over.

Tennessee = North Carolina

And so we're left with this comparison. Both teams are historical powers that excel in driving everyone nuts. Both schools have (re)powering counter-programs, Tennessee with Pearl and UNC with Davis. Depending on the year, both teams can be a bit overrated with no shortage of opposing fans waiting to shovel dirt on their corpse. And hey, both teams have non-traditional colors that rivals like to mock, because sometimes that's all you have.

Vanderbilt @ Tennessee: We Can't Call Them the Baby Vols Anymore

Graysnail — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:50:28 -0000

Bumped to the top; such a gritty win deserves its time in the sun this evening. A big, hearty chest-bump to Graysnail for keeping tabs on the Lady Vols when the rest of us were out. Don't miss Will's BlogPoll ballot just because I trumped it.

Lastly, congrats to Alex Fuller for a fine career. We're going to miss ya, dear. You've done Shelbyville, Knoxville, Tennessee and the University proud.

First, check the game thread for some onsite observations. This team grew up in a hurry; I'd say it took them about 15 minutes. The difference between the first and second half was stunning. After Vandy's 13-2 run to take the lead in the first half, Tennessee got tough and managed to hold it close into the locker room.

But that second half... that second half was something else. After the refs got done trying to influence the game, Tennessee pretty much took over. Took over in the paint. Took over on defense. Took over on the boards. Took over on the perimeter. This wasn't some temporarily hot 12-0 streak to win the game; this was legitimate.

Shekinna Stricklen dominated the second half with 15 points. Alex Fuller - getting the special treatment on Senior Day - dominated, pulling down an incredible 17-14 that would have people drooling if her name was Blake Griffin. Kelley Cain was a pedestiran 7-for-8 and 15 points. Angie Bjorklund hit 5 3s and had 17 on the game. Sure, there were only 9 points off the bench (including 7 from Glory Johnson), but I'm okay with that for now.

There were a lot of players coming into their own. Bjorklund ran the point for most of the second half, shifting Stricklen over to the 2. This was, um, a very good idea. (Sydney Smallbone started, I'm not sure why., maybe as a change of pace.) Bjorklund at the 1, Stricklen at the 2, Glory at 3, Fuller at 4, Cain at 5. I'm okay with this. How about you?

It might've taken 29 games for the Baby Vols to become the Lady Vols, but I think we can finally use that name now. It looks like their next two games will be Alabama and Florida. I'm not worried. Not anymore.

Make your own Live Game Thread: Vanderbilt @ Tennessee

Graysnail — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:30:47 -0000

So back in the game thread, Hooper asked if we wanted a live game thread for the Vandy / Tennessee game. Both wvvol and I declined, citing that if Hoop was going to be at a curling match (side note: curling was actually on TV here today, what on earth?) we'd lose 1/3 of our posters. However, I got a bit antsy, which means: hey look, here's a new gamethread!

We don't have lineups posted as of now, but I expect / hope we'll see the same lineup we had for LSU: Bjorklund, Stricklen, Johnson, Fuller, and Cain. These are our biggest players right now, and we might as well ride them while we can.

Shockingly, this game doesn't mean anything for the SEC tourney for either team. Vanderbilt's locked into the 2 seed and Tennessee can't do better than the 5. However, Tennessee needs this game for the NCAA seeding (and probably needs to eventually beat Florida in the tourney to have a shot at the 5 line). Plus, it's on national TV - ESPN2. What's not to like?

Totally unrelated to anything.

Graysnail — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 22:53:50 -0000

Has anyone else gotten redirected to the mobile site when loading this on a computer? That just happened to me and I had to manually redirect to the full site. I'll occasionally check out the site on cell phones and such, but this is the first time that's happened with a PC. Am I the onlly one?

[This is when I randomly type enough words to make this thing 75 words long. Are we there yet? How about now? We are? Excellent.]

Tennessee @ Ole Miss: A Game Recap Written Before the Game Was Over

Graysnail — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 02:50:53 -0000

Um, ouch. Let's not talk about this any more. Look, the first hafl wasn't too bad, but by all rights and standards the second half was completely terrible. Want a recap? Go find the post I wrote about the Baby Vols a couple days ago. Find it? Run a find-replace; convert "Baby Vols" to "the men's team" and "Duke" to "Ole Miss." The difference is we've come to expect more from this team, but hey, these things happen.

We'd like to thank Mississippi State, Georgia, and Vanderbilt for making sure that this trainwreck of a game we just laid up there doesn't actually hurt us in the standings. Without y'all, we wouldn't be where we are today ....which was exactly where we were last week. Awesome. This isn't going to do anyone any favors when they talk about the quality of SEC basketball (why yes, that is two teams from the even-more-down-than-normal SEC West and the 5th and 6th teams from the SEC East beating the top 4 teams in the East in succession).

Yeah, it might seem I'm giving this game short shrift, but you'd do the same thing if you saw the game. Don't believe me? Check the game thread. Trust me, it's better if nobody mentions this one agan. Reluctant game balls to Tyler Smith and Wayne Chism. The guard that destroyed us this time? Terrico White. The more things change, huh?

So this Saturday, we go into Rupp Arena needing a key win against Kentucky ... and you know what? We'll do better then. Lord knows it can't be much worse.