As May has gone, my beard has gone too, per tradition. During this time, our Padres improved their record ever so slightly, going 10-18 in the month of May (as opposed to 7-17). We picked up a couple of series wins and a few series losses, but more importantly, we got Quentin back (even though we're 0-3 with him thus far). Since he's come back, he's hit 7/12 with 3 doubles and 3 home runs. There was a point in May also, that we were in FOURTH PLACE!

via 64.13.248.103

Fourth Place! FOURTH PLACE! THE PADRES ARE IN FOURTH!

So can we conclude that this was a successful May? Not particularly, however this won't stop me and others (most likely) from doing the May Beard in the future.

Why am I posting on the 1st of June? Because on the last day of May, we want to see how epic your beards got (voluntarily of course) and whether or not you styled it something awesome on the last day. So without further ado:

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Guess what y'all? It's halfway through May. Though our boys are 6-7 on the month so far, those 6 wins are much more than we were achieving through the first 13 games of April (3-10, anyone?). We're slowly getting our groove, having a two series wins on the month and and going 2-3 on this past road trip (our 2 wins coming against a certain Roy Halladay and Steven Strasburg). I personally kept this baby going even through a seminar talk yesterday (no shaving! still single...) and I have faith that we're going to keep improving no matter what! So here's my beard:

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The Insight Bowl is getting a new name due to their sponsorship with Insight Enterprises ending. So here's your chance to have a little fun with a new name and corresponding sponsorship. I've given a few examples here so you can get started:

The Big Mack Bowl sponsored by Texas HC Mack Brown (note, the Big XII rep will always be Texas)

The Sedona Bowl sponsored by the city of Sedona

The Pirate Bowl sponsored by Mike Leach and Disney

The Animal Bowl sponsored by PetSmart

The Fly Whenever You Want bowl sponsored by US Airways (note, this bowl will be played in the US Airways center: Arena Football Rules)

The Peter Piper Pizza Bowl (special halftime guest Yanni)

The Sky Mall Bowl (this would have my favorite gift sets for the players)

The Coldstone Bowl (note: instead of using footballs, players must play with football ice cream cakes)

Let's see how many wacky and clever names come up...the winner will get bragging rights (and if you like you can submit your idea to that sponsor and see if they take you seriously!).

Cleverness and silliness are encouraged, however if you have a serious bowl name/sponsor throw it in!

Apologies if I'm stepping on anyone's toes here by fanposting this first.

As a community, we here at Gaslamp Ball have started a coveted tradition: the May Beard. Our very own matthewverygood started this tradition officially/unofficially (not really sure) in the spring of 2007 (See this post). Since then, it has gone from him, to many people lurkers and non-lurkers alike, both men and women (if they so choose, we don't discriminate) kids and adults.

So how does one grow a May Beard? I'm glad you asked. Here's the guidelines, posted by the man who started it himself a couple of years ago:

Here's the guidelines that I abide by, but you can do whatever. Just grow something. Maybe you'll like it.

• Light grooming is allowed, especially if you need to because your shaggy appearance might get you fired from your job or make your girlfriend or wife find you less sexy.
• Don't like beards? That's fine. Mustache it up then!
• Ladies, you can join too. Be creative. I won't judge you.
• Need some tips? This site has the goods.

Shaved Yet? I am:

via fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net

Alright guys and gals: LET'S DO THIS!

The First Round of the NFL Draft is tonight at 8 PM EST (or 7 PM CST, 6 PM MST and 5 PM PST, including Arizona). The biggest question is who's going where (which is what the NFL Draft is all about!), and as a MWC blog community, we get to speculate even more, specifically the question: will anyone from the MWC get drafted in the first round?

Depending on where you get your daily sports news, the top 10 picks are essentially set but the first round isn't quite yet. We all know that the first pick of the draft will be HHHHNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNG...

.

..

...

....

(speculation and snark continue after the jump)

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The 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket and field has been announced, and the New Mexico Lobos will receive a 5 seed in the West region. New Mexico's first opponent will be the Long Beach State 49ers, and they will play on March 15 at 2:10pm MST in Portland, Oregon. If the Lobos win their first matchup, they will face the winner of No. 4 Louisville/No. 13 Davidson on March 17.

The Lobos earned the 6 seed by sharing the regular season title and winning the conference tourney. They finished the season 27-6.

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The 2012 NCAA Tournament bracket and field has been announced, and the UNLV Rebels will receive a 6 seed in the South region. UNLV's first opponent will be the Colorado Buffalos, and they will play on March 15 at 7:57 pm MST in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If the Rebels win their first matchup, they will face the winner of No. 3 Baylor or No. 14 South Dakota St. on March 17.

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In an attempt to figure out this whole mess of a dissolution and reemergence of Mountain West and Conference USA merger (which I will give silly names until there's an official name for it), I've decided to look at the potential expansion candidates based on media markets and regional/national appeal. Follow me after the jump to see where we go:

via www.utexas.edu

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I know it's still a full NINE DAYS until Fan Fest, but it's always good to plan ahead. Are we planning any sort of meetup there like we did last year and the year before? It's always fun to meet up with the GLBers (because my "real" friends don't like to go to these sorts of things) and commune with the best group of baseball fans there is.

If we do meetup, I'll be the one in either the striped jersey (though I may look for ANOTHER ONE) or probably one of the elite few who would have the LOST retired numbers shirt on. I may or may not have people with me, and may or may not have a camera which would result in people getting there pictures taken to show my parents at home that i do indeed have friends, even if they are from a Padres blog.

Anyway, Cheers people!

greekpadre

We've already seen these two teams play once, which resulted in easily a top-10 game of the year in MWC play. The NCAA tourney is definitely in view for both of these teams (unless something goes horribly wrong), with the expectation that both will go very deep into the tournament. Obviously, a national championship would be the ultimate goal of both of these teams, but the question remains: who needs the Championship more? Follow me after the jump to read my take on both teams, the universities and their respective cities.

via upload.wikimedia.org

via www.wildnatureimages.com

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Well, this season has been interesting...scandals, upsets, rematches, duds of the centuries. And in all of this, I forgot to finish up the Uni-obsessed history articles! However, fear not fashion fans, I shall finish this.

I know it's been awhile and some of the newer readers may not know what this little project is, so here is a description:

While we're in the off-season, it's nice to know about some different things. I've decided to take on the grueling task of researching each MWC's team (and future MWC team) uniforms and helmets. Uniforms are one of the defining characteristics of a team (as well as gameday traditions and mascots), and as someone who takes pride in trying to obtain as many jerseys of my favorite teams as possible and also obsessing on how each team dresses, I think knowing the history of each teams uni and where they're headed is important. If you have some information that i missed and you would like to share, email me at pontiaka@live.com or cjhondros@gmail.com (when you do so, put Uni-obsessed in the title so I know what it's about). I'm going to make the posts as often as I can.

Wondering where the previous breakdowns were? Click if you dare:

Air Force Academy

Boise State University

Mountain West logo (do you really want to? I don't)

Ready? No? Well too bad, TCU is about to get uni-analyzed.

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The Wyoming Cowboys are off to a hot start in Men's Hoops going 8-1 on the year. They face a tough Colorado squad tonight at 7 PM MST. Follow me after the jump where I will show you how the Pokes got to where they have thus far.

via www.greenwichtime.com

Wyoming playing hard in their 66-49 win

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The Wyoming men's basketball team started off with a decent first week with wins against Western State and Northern Colorado.  They couldn't finish the job against Green Bay falling 52-44.  Guard Francisco Cruz has taken leadership of this team so far, averaging 16.7 PPG and 5.7 RPG.  It's interesting to note that Arthur Bouedo and JayDee Luster have become potential 3 Pt threats.  Leonard Washington, Luke Martinez and Adam Waddell have become solid contributors as well nearly averaging 10 points a game.  The question to be asked now is, what to make of this team?  With no difficult test coming up until Colorado, this team could go undefeated the next few games.  On the other hand, the loss to Green Bay shows that this team could be in for difficult times.  I fully expect this team to go at least 3-1 this week with games against South Dakota, Portland State, University of Maryland-Eastern Shore and Louisiana Tech.

via www.washingtonpost.com

Women's BB recap after the Jump

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Hey all,

It's been quite a while since I've written anything, and I figure I better get this story up before my next adventure happens (BSU vs. SDSU? I'm in!).  Follow me after the jump so you can re-visit the game and city like I did:

Okay fine! This is a pic from my parents' house! WHAT MORE DO YOU EXPECT FROM ME? I LOVE FREE LODGING!

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This letter is in 2 parts: First, a personal thank you for beating the Stanford Cardinal and the cocky QB known as Andrew Luck.  Second, a question about campus and downtown (I haven't been there since 2000).

Thank you so much for beating the overrated team that is Stanford.  People who read this statement will look at me and say "yeah, but you're beloved overrated Donkies just lost to TCU."  Yes I know, but having been to 2 road games already with a 3rd coming up, I knew this team shouldn't be in a BCS bowl (they're a good team this year, but not a great team).  That being said, you managed to make Andrew Luck essentially single-handedly lose the game for the Cardinal (2 pics, 1 of them being a pic-6, a fumble for a TD etc...).   And yes, LMJ should be easily in the top 5 for Heisman candidates (even with missing 2 games).  Also, thank you for continuing to have the best looking unis (for the most part) in the Pac12.  Worst uni matchup had got to be last night: ASU vs WSU.

Now on a completely different note: my sister is looking to go to UO for undergrad.  She will DEFINITELY GO if the scholarship money comes (duh).  My questions are these, how has Downtown and the campus changed in the last 10-15 years (Google Earth can only show me so much).  Where are good places to eat (is TrackTown Pizza still there?) and so on and so forth.  For those of you asking why I'm not forcing her to go to BSU, it's because this is where she really wants to go, she was born there (although Boise is her second choice).  Comments below are appreciated.

Once again, my profound thanks and Go Ducks,

greekpadre

For reasons unknown, we have been recording the podcasts, however it keeps slipping our mind to post and link it to the site.  So without further ado, here are the podcasts from Sunday and Wednesday:

Week Nine Review

Week 10 Preview

As always we bring up the important expansion rumors and keep up well with the games.  It's almost like listening to a radio version of The Mtn. without the hassle of cable companies!  In other news, the Idaho State Board of Education has approved Boise State to jump ship to the Big East if they choose to accept (Funny story is the lone vote against it happened to be a University of Idaho graduate, does the Potato hate really run that deep?).  Other things to consider if you're still reading this:  UNLV suspended 5 players this week for some sort of disciplinary issues, we could very well be looking at more of a blowout than initally expected.

Hey all,

After a week hiatus, I'm back just before tonight's thrilling game to give the uni-roundup from last week.  So without further ado, here are the candidates:

Boise State vs. Fresno State (from Friday 10/7)

via www.palmbeachpost.com

More after the Jump

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For those of you who weren't following me on twitter, I drove up from my humble abode to the heart of the San Joaquin Valley.  My adventure started by swerving through LA traffic around mid-day, continued through the Grapevine until I got to California's armpit: Bakersfield.

More tales of terror after the jump:

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I've been off the ball with my "weekly posts."

If you went over to MWConnection, I'm having a hard time keeping up over there too.  It's called grad school, and it SUCKS.

On to this week where we will be playing another one of our "rivals," Fresno State.  Fresno State has some good players, and some decent players, and some mediocre players.  Which means we should be able to utterly dominate them.  Which also means I may be in trouble after the game is over...

Fresno State has an excellent offensive minded coach in Pat Hill.  Problem is, most teams have figured out Hill's schemes.  This is because Pat Hill was a center, so his mindset is to always win the battle in the trenches no matter what.  Also, Pat Hill and I share schools:  he played for UCR from 70-73, i'm here now (and they have no footbaw team). So in honor of Pat Hill, I shaved my beard to have handlebars:

via fbcdn-sphotos-a.akamaihd.net

via assets.sbnation.com

Okay so not really:

via www.threadbombing.com

There was no point to that, so back to some predictions:  Idaho will lose, SDSU will beat TCU, Air Force will beat ND.

As for our little dandy of a game friday night, I'm predicting a 52-10 beatdown in the Valley.  And I think I'll be fine as long as I'm not smug about the win.

You can follow me on twitter for game updates and hopefully some entertaining pictures (it's my username), and i'll be doing post writeups next week.  And now a poll about my adventures:

Back again with another crazy round of uniform matchups around the Mountain West Conference.  Vote in the poll below for your favorite matchups and watch today to see which game strikes your fancy today.  That being said, here we go!

SDSU vs. Michigan

via i.huffpost.com

More after the jump:

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Hey all, 

My friend and I talked about it last week.  We have 2 tickets to the BSU-UNLV game for November 5th 2011.  This post will be for anyone interested.  They are on the visiting side.  If you are interested email me within the next two weeks!  Seriously it will be a great time.  I'm sure other OBNUGgies will be there (maybe we'll do some tailgating) and you get to hang out with seemingly the coolest Greek on OBNUG (THERE'S NO DOWNSIDE).

For this opportunity, you can find my email on my profile page.  If you can't find it, try the bottom of the Mountain West Connection website.  If you're too lazy, just send a comment below and i'll find a way to email you.

In other news the week 3 roundup/week 4 LfR is backed up (stupid studying) and I'll try to have it up ASAP (for those of you who actually care)

Cheers!

Greekpadre

Hey all, back with another round of Uni wrapups.  Vote for your favorite matchup in the poll below.  Lets look at The Good, The Bad and The Never Should Ever Be Worn Again:

Boise State vs. Toledo:

via i.huffpost.com

More after the jump:

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We're back with another two questions for the public to debate about after we do.  Follow me after the jump and see what you think!

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Come one, come all to Live from Riverside, your weekly ramblings that steal other people styles successfully or go off into random yet thought provoking tangents.  If you're new to this post, WHY? WHY WOULD YOU PASS UP SUCH A GREAT OPPORTUNITY TO BE EDUCATED BY OTHERS? YOU ... I'm sorry that was my egotistical alterego acting up.  I will try to keep him down.

And off we go!

A reminder to all those who watched the dismantling in the Georgia dome in week one:

Yep that was from the DERP-fest WKU vs UK but it holds true as our boys took apart the UGA defense and to an extent, the offense.  Looking from last week, I still think Isiah Crowell and Aaron Murray will have very good seasons.

Your scientific word of the week, if you are curious to look it up is: Bohr Magneton.

For those of you who didn't see my score prediction in "Predict the Score," tonights match will end in a 49-21 hemorrhaging of points for the Boys in Orange and Blue.  KM will toss for 4 TDs no picks and probably 300 yds.  Rod Gilmore's fantasy points will dominate Joe Tessitore's.

For those officially keeping count, I have my tickets for UNLV, FSU and in the process of getting for SDSU.  UNLV will be the most probable place for taigate, so if anyone's interested in doing so, email me (my email is in the profile page).

Nothing made me happier to see the Fighting Sioux beating the Vandals at halftime.  What would have truly made me overjoyed is if UND had finished them off.

Biggest WTBW moment of last week: THE WHOLE MICHIGAN-NOTRE DAME GAME.  

/drops mic

Archer is back on! 'Nough said.  For those of you old enough to watch this show, please do.  I guarantee it is one of the funniest shows on air right now.

For those of you basketball fans, you'll be glad to know that Ike Okoye (Boise State F) has been having success in the European Basketball league.  He is trying out right now for NBC, a team in Germany.

A tale of two Venable Brothers: Winston joined the Chicago Bears undrafted and made the team.  He racked up a solo tackle in Atlanta last week.  Lets hope he continues.  Will on the other hand (didn't play for BSU, but this is my post!), has had a very solid year for the Padres this season, batting .250 with 7 HRs and 26 SBs.

Back to college football: I thought last night's game was a very poor performance by both teams.  That being said, i don't think LSU will lose the 3 spot, but they might lose ground on BSU, especially if the Broncos can have a very dominant game tonight.

I want Oklahoma to win on Saturday, but i want them to struggle.

'Bama we can't do much about, so lets hope they look poor.

And that's it for today!  Poll below, and gif of the day:

Aren't you all glad that I actually manage to get something up on time?  

This week, we ask the difficult questions (okay, not so difficult) and we dare to challenge the football gods (in saying that, I've captured your attention for at least 3 more seconds than you would of had reading this introduction).  Follow me after the jump, as we send our staff members into the debater's gauntlet.  Will there be a consensus of opinion?  Will someone make a bold and dashing statement?  Am I lying just to make you all read this?  Follow me

via i996.photobucket.com

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Hey all,

Back again, late again (but better than never) and ready to present the week 2 uni matchups:

The candidates:

TCU vs Air Force

via grfx.cstv.com

More pics after the jump:

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