Wednesday Thoughts....

--Can they fire Mike Anderson yet?

--Amen here. Be careful what you wish for, in jettisoning Mr. McNabb, Philly....Especially when your only other options are a college QB and a backup with two career starts.

Weekend Wrap...

--Well, everyone had to see it coming. After becoming the worst team ever to receive a one seed in the NCAA tournament, then getting the easiest draw of any one seed (and becoming the only top seed to make the Final Four), the zebras ensured good television ratings for next weekend with some horrible officiating down the stretch against Baylor.

First, the atrocious block/charge call that took the ball away from Baylor was bad, but then the fact that Duke hit the go-ahead three pointer right after that was even worse. Next, with the game all but wrapped up for the Blue Devils, Jon Scheyer can't handle the contact on a foul and swings an elbow at two Baylor players. No call there, but when one of the Baylor players says something to a Duke player right afterward, instant technical foul.

Total joke, game over. Duke weasels its way to its first semifinal since 2004. If you can't earn it, rig it.

--Speaking of horrible officiating, PYB spoke to someone who officiates Big 12 and Pac 10 hoops. They get $925 a game, travel is covered AND they get a per diem. This is what they pay the worst officials in college basketball? $925 a game, and he said he works three or four games a week if possible. We are definitely in the wrong line of work. That is an easy income of $40-50,000 of incremental income for doing a bad job, must be nice. We will be applying soon, very soon.

--Not sure which is more confusing here.....how Santonio Holmes goes down the same road as Ben Rapelisberger by getting in trouble for the second time in a year? Instead of laying low after his weed arrest last year, he busts some chick in the face w/ a cocktail glass. Or when did Anshonoe become a name? Or how the hell do you pronounce Anshonoe? We thought Anshonoe was one of the battles of the Civil War...

--The Poor Man's Ostertag is headed to the NBA. Apparently, playing in the league no longer requires hands, footwork, jumping, coordination or agility.

--The flameout everyone knew was coming happened Sunday night, as the NU women ended it's blip-on-the-radar screen 'dream season' by getting blasted by Kentucky. Should be about 2025 before we hear from them and all the 'die-hard' bandwagon fans....anyone else remember Heavy P & the Boys from the mid-1990s?

--NU baseball loses two of three at home against Oklahoma....can they fire Mike Anderson yet? Hopefully five seasons of continued regression will prove enough.

TW

Down in a Hole

-How far has NU baseball fallen? From celebrating CWS berths and conference championships, to celebrating hot streaks and scoring outbursts against the likes of South Dakota St., Houston Baptist and Northern Colorado. Sad. This weekend's series against Oklahoma is a huge swing game in the season, as the Huskers have blown big games against UCLA, Texas, Rice and Fresno State. Will they hover around .500 and underachieve all year, or finally show some balls and move toward a succesful season? Either way, Mike Anderson should be gone...

-If you're ever in Tucson, don't play this course. It sucks. Tricked-out hole layouts, perfect drives end up in the desert and shitty conditions to boot....Luckily, PYB only blew $70 for a twilight instead of the full $109.

-Game of the tournament last night, as Kansas State downed Xavier 101-96 in double overtime. Good fundamentals, star players putting up big numbers, clutch shots everywhere, made free throws....PYB thought it was 1993 again for a bit. The only downside, which plagues 90% of games, was the shitty officiating. The best game we can remember since Arizona-Gonzaga a few years back. Sorry to all of you who had the second-half under of 78.5.

Between the Hedges

-Nice fucking start Syracuse. Off to a 12-1 deficit with at least 5 turnovers and 4 bad shots....pig central....

-10:34 mark: Make that 6 turnovers...and only a 13-6 deficit now.

-After a shoddy finish to an unwatchable half, Syracuse trails 35-25. Butler looks like the better team.

-Washington up 20-16 with 5 minutes remaining in the first half, in another unwatchable game...and UW's best player picks up his 3rd foul on a bullshit call.

-By the way, the Syracuse v. Butler refs are terrible. UW 29, WVa 27 at halftime.

-The Cuse starts off the second half with its 13th turnover. Butler looks like the team with the vaunted zone defense. The Orange won't win this game.

-Rautins with a three to start some false hope. 35-30 Butler.

-40-39 Syracuse after two more threes. Can Butler withstand the rally or will they fold?

-Syracuse get up 54-50 then gives up a game-losing 11-point run with shoddy defense, turnovers, bad shots and constant butterfingers...Perhaps the worst performance by a #1 seed in at least a week. And the worst refereeing performance...

-Meanwhile, the refs in the WVA-UW game are doing their best to steal this honor...as the Mountaineers roll out to a 13-point lead. Glad PYB hit WVA 2H -4.5.

Thursday Thoughts...

1. How many ways can we rewrite this story before the season begins? PYB has the count at about ten already. Spring football sucks...

2. Sweet 16 Picks
Initial thoughts, not final, because there are too many favorites. Final picks will differ:

Kentucky -8.5 (because everyone besides the rubes in KY wants the Big Red to win)
Washington +4 (because WVA can't score)
Syracuse -6 (because Syracuse showed up last weekend)
Kansas State -4.5 (because Xavier is overrated)
Michigan St. -1 (because the Big 10 sucks and will win)
Ohio St. -4.5 (see above)
Baylor -4.5 (because Baylor's big men can alter Samhan's game)
Duke -8.5 (because the tournament's rigged and Purdue is bound to fall)

From the Department of...

What the fuck ever...

Texas #5? Florida #3? North Carolina #1? Quit trying to make a splash by delivering wack statements...

Detroit Rock City

Good article here....probably the same reason Omaha hasn't produced a decent player since 1992.

Weekend One Recap...

1. PYB nailed this one, not that it was a surprise. The Jayhawks checked in with their annual second-round choke job and checked out of the NCAA basketball tournament. No heart, no balls, no scoring. Kansas was completely dominated by Northern Iowa all game, and only got within two points late in the game due to the desperate pressure they applied.

Not sure why that same sense of urgency wasn't there from the tip, but it wasn't. The best part was watching KU panic with 15 minutes remaining, taking bad shots time after time and forgetting to box out 16 times as UNI dominated them on the offensive glass. Bottom line, when refs bail you out all regular season, your team won't be tourney tough.

2. Kudos to the NCAA selection committee for screwing St. Mary's, Gonzaga and UNI on their seeds. Two of those three were rated all season. The committee's lack of foresight (and rigging the seeds for Duke) caused its supposed #1 overall seed to lose in the second round. Then they forced a top-15 Gonzaga squad to play a #1 seed two hours from its home campus in round 2. Not smart. And somehow Texas got an 8 seed, when the Horns hadn't beaten a good team in months.

3. Thanks to ESPN for hyping the Big East all year. From all the propaganda the network spews, you'd think the conference were actually NBA divisions. Then fans got to witness Georgetown getting blasted by Ohio, Pitt get outclassed by Xavier, Notre Dame lose to Old Dominion and Villanova get owned by St. Mary's.

4. Thanks to the selection committee's David Stern-esque rig job, Baylor is the biggest obstacle between Duke (the worst #1 seed in NCAA history to date) and the Final Four.

5. Thanks to Juice for this totally unrelated entry...

6. On another unrelated note, Tiger Woods blessed us all with his first interview since his scandal began. He said he starting banging whores, because he had quit practicing Buddhism. Huh?

Sunk Cost...

Why is this guy making $12.25 million in 2010? Is it the 4.72 career ERA? The fact that he hasn't had a winning record since 2004? The 4-15 record in 2008?

Embarrassing....

Well I guess someone has to break Brady Quinn's embarrassment record for the NFL Draft. Tebow should be there well into the third round, unless some GM is intent on prematurely losing his job. Is it just us here are PYB, or is the rope-course side-step dropback new to the NFL QB's repertoire? Absolutely fucking laughable that ESPN is trying to get this guy drafted on propaganda alone, nothing else.

http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/draft10/news/story?id=5003533

Three Years....

and two playoff flameouts later, Lou gets a clue.

Weekend Wrap...

1. Nebraska women choke in the B12 semifinals. Shocking.

2. Quote of the weekend, from NBC's Johnny Miller: "That ball landed on the green and stopped like it hit a cow pie." Huh?

3. After West Virginia slogged through the Big East tournament, 'experts' are calling for them to make the Final Four. If the Mountaineers could score, I might agree. Too bad they can't.

4. Thoughts on the brackets/seedings:
-Kansas is the supposed #1 seed, but gets the toughest bracket. When will the Jayhawks pull their yearly choke job?

-Northern Iowa gets fucked. Rated all season and gets a nine seed.

-Meanwhile, Texas hasn't beaten a good team for weeks and gets an eight? Money talks.

-Gonzaga. See Northern Iowa. Bullshit.

-Wisconsin a four seed. What are we missing? Thought you had to be good to get a 4.

-Washington wins the Pac 10 tourney and gets an 11 seed? Please.

-New Mexico a three seed.. Ha ha ha ha

-Vanderbilt a four seed. Who?

-Duke...One of the worst #1 seeds ever gets the play-in game winner? Huh? The Cal/Louisville winner should beat them.

Below are some Vegas spreads, proving how watered down and shitty college basketball is. Now, with talk of expanding the field of 64, the NCAA is going to fuck up the last good thing in college sports:

Tennessee -3 over San Diego St.
Notre Dame -2 over Old Dominion
Vandy (supposed four seed) -3 over Murray St.
New Mexico (supposed three seed) -9 over Montana
Xavier (six seed) +1!!! vs. Minnesota
Texas A&M -3 over Utah St.
Purdue -4 over Siena (Betting Siena, BTW)

A Cheater Unlike Any Other...

1. Of course Tiger Woods is going to return to golf at The Masters....the only place where the gallery is controlled in Gestapo-like fashion and can't call him out for the fraud that he is. Coward. Scared to answer questions when he plays like shit, scared to hold a real press conference and answer questions when 'apologizing' for all his slut nailing, scared to stand in front of his fans and answer for stealing all their money the past 13 years. Coward.

2. Ramblings of a madman, but 100% true when talking about today's pussified player...

Thursday Thoughts...

1. PYB would like to congratulate the NU basketball team and Doc Sadler on their 75-60 win over Missouri yesterday. Despite costing PYB a good chunk of change, the Cornhuskers dominated the game on a day when they could have packed it in and got an early break on spring break (See Oklahoma). Unlike the Sooners, despite having some awful games, NU didn't totally quit on its coach, showed some balls and went out and got the win. Can they test Texas A&M today? They certainly did in College Station in their first B12 game this year. We shall see, but this team is always one game away from almost beating a Top 10 team or losing by 20 to a shitty team. Who knows. No line from Vegas just yet, but 9.5 is the early guess.

We can't offer further analysis, as we were stuck in a customer meeting at work. Fear not, we did find time to throw more money away by betting the second half via text message. But looks like Doc stuck to a tighter rotation and benched the guys who can't make layups or free throws. Good start.

2. PYB would like to note the further decline of college basketball officiating. How it can decline from the awful state of the last 25 years is beyond comprehension, but it has happened. The Big 12 has the worst officiating in the nation, somehow worse than the Big 12 football officiating---which is amazing in its own right.

That being, the Seton Hall v. Providence game Tuesday evening was the biggest job of referee grandstanding in recent memory, as officials rattled of six to seven HORRIFIC calls that helped Providence nearly come back and tie a game where the Friars trailed by 29 points midway through the second half. Clearly taken over by the emotion of the Madison Square Garden crowd, the referees made bad call after bad call, hamming it up to the delight of the fans. Call the game, stay out of the way, you're not that good at your job, high school principals shouldn't ever be cocky, and nobody likes you. Three main pet peeves stand above the rest:

--The continued trend of college referees allowing NBA-like continuation on three-point plays

--The fervor with which the fat slobs signify the basket good in said three-point play, as if they were a fan of the team that will now be going to the free throw line, or an obese umpire ringing up a batter against whom he holds a ten-year grudge.

--The double-whistle three-point play, where the official blows the whistle once, signals the basket good, and tweets his fucking whistle again to draw attention to what a solid call he's making. Fuck you. One whistle, arm down, go get the ball.

2. Is there a bigger douche than this guy? The fan who wears his team's gear to a tournament where his team is playing, but is not playing that day? Ahem, fagot KU fans...Strutting around their hometown arena with the swagger of Biff from Back to the Future....Not sure which is more funny--the fact that they act like the 1990s Bulls because they own the Big 12, or KU fans' total lack of humility, knowing the perennial choke job that awaits them a week later in the NCAA Tournament.

3.--Best friends on one....

How Does One Join this Organization?

And how the hell do they have annual awards? Looks like all the dough wasted on his space-age helmet wasn't worth it. Cost per tackle was probably more than $5,000. Such a shame, as his mug shot sparks memories of fellow badass LBs Ray Lewis, Mike Singletary and of course the immortal Dick Butkus...

Click...

Tebow 3:16

Can someone remind us why we're still talking about Tim Tebow playing QB in the NFL? He was a flameout at the college all-star games and everyone knows he has no future at the position. Hopefully, Tebow is going to unveil his new 'snap-taking motion' at the Florida pro day, so he doesn't fumble seven times this go around.

Bye Bye Mike...

Two more thumpings by UCLA last night. The Bruins are rated 14th, and hardly a pushover, but are just the team NU used to dominate just five years ago. The Cornhuskers are 3-6 after nine games. They've played decent competition, but the same old problems are there.

No hitting, as witnessed by a .274 average. No power--four HRs. Consistently inconsistent pitching, with a 6.66 ERA and at least three blown saves. And most importantly, no guts to close out the tough wins.

See ya Mike. Glad NU baseball fans get to watch another spring full of shit baseball, when the change should have been made two years ago. However, Anderson's Solich act of stringing out a few more good seasons with the prior coach's players won him enough goodwill to ruin 2010 for all.

At least golf season is near...

Free Drinks at The Q After a Win??

Nice demographic...

Rapelisberger Back in Action...

Twice in a year. Where there's smoke there's fire...

Cellar Dwelling...

Another bad loss for the Nebraska basketball team last nite brings more questions about what direction, if any, the program is going. This time, the Cornhuskers helped Colorado snap its 36-game road conference losing streak by allowing the Bluffs to shoot 61% from the field and 12/17 from downtown.

For us here at PYB, the reason for the 2-13 conference record clicked in last week. Sure, when a team plays eight players in their first year with the program, there will be some struggles with offensive chemistry as players find their roles and the coach settles on his rotation. But what should always be consistent, or somewhat consistent, is defensive effort.

No matter how bad NU was offensively in past seasons, they could most times stay close by busting their asses on defense. This year, it's been pathetic from day one...most likely because the players are still too young to understand team defense entirely and also because they don't yet take pride in it. The younger the player, the more concerned he tends to be with getting his shots, his reps, his 'glory'.

No blocked shots, few steals and the worst three-point defense of any team in recent memory. NU couldn't even stop its shitty non-conference opponents from dropping 10 threes a game. Did Doc Sadler forget how to teach defense? No. Did he fail to instill the importance of defense in this group's collective mind? Maybe. But if they won't listen, those aren't players who will ever succeed in the Big 12. Give them one more year, and see what happens.

PYB also has received more calls for Doc's job from fans who are generally supportive but say they're losing faith. To all in that camp, keep in mind that NU is the only Big 12 school that hasn't at least broken ground on a practice facility (Yes, teams used to do just fine without them 15 years ago when hoops was actually watchable, but such is life in the pussified world of college sports we're now stuck with), and then ask yourself these questions:

1. Who would replace Sadler that would be any better?

1a. Who would actually take the job if NU axed Sadler this early?

2. Wouldn't giving Sadler two more years to develop his freshmen and sophomores be better than blowing up the thing prematurely, and then starting from square one? Bottom line is: making a change will keep NU in the cellar for three or four more years.

3. Does anyone think that if Doc can't do it, anyone can?

4. When was the last time Nebraska produced a LEGITIMATE top-tier Division I recruit from its high school ranks? 1992 with Erick Strickland and Andre Woolridge? 18 years.

5. Have the fans done their part by filling up the Devaney Center on a regular basis?

6. Has Doc really had time to get the ship righted? Barry Collier was a fucking joke and Sek Henry was Doc's only first-year recruit---a last minute offer when he left UTEP and brought Henry along.

That being said, Doc does have his warts. His player rotations are a complete fucking mystery. Christian Standhardinger goes for 25 and 8 in his first start on the road, then plays 12 minutes the next game at home? Bear Jones and Quincy Hankins-Cole get a 'one-game' suspension for 'missing study hall' then play a total of three and five minutes, respectively, over the next two games combined? Brandon Ubel, who is barely Division III talent, keeps racking up big minutes and embarrassing the program with every stumble and turnover? Brandon Richardson was the closest thing NU had to a scoring guard with good ball handling skills and smooth moves, but through misuse has lost most of his confidence?

The next main gripe is the shitty schedule. Wouldn't NU fans rather see some big names come to the Devaney once in a while, even if it meant a couple blowout losses here and there. Wouldn't they rather see where the team matches up compared to some of the big boys in the nation. Sure, there's the bullshit excuse of "teams won't play us in a home & home"....so pull a Gonzaga and go there. Better to have tried and lost than to have just beat up on the likes of SC Upstate, UMKC, UTPA, Chicago State and Jackson State. Take a lesson from the baseball and volleyball teams, who earned reputations as Top 10 programs by playing the best, any time, anywhere. Hopefully the exposure will land a recruit....one recruit....who could get NU over the hump. You never know unless you try.

So, where does NU go from here? Keep Doc, let him try to mold the freshmen into players and competitors and warriors on the defensive end. If he can't do it, we'll know in two years. But patience is a must, especially for a team at NU's level, with few competitive advantages. For the time being, all of you fans who aren't confident enough in yourselves to root for your team win or lose....well you can jump on the women's team bandwagon for now. The rest of us will just feel embarrassed for you.

Draft Experts Blow It...

Now can we all admit that draft experts are just paid to choose one player over another just to create controversy? ESPN = The Devil that is and will ruin sports.

Gerald McCoy gets 23 reps at 225? Just terrible. And since when does a 300+ pound DT running a sub-5.0 40 and logging a 35.5" vertical "not blowing away the scouts"? Just because two no names had more 225-pound reps? See Tony Mandarich.

Only two more months of this overhype until draft day..

They Vote on this Shit?

Don't forget Bob Harstad's 16 point and nine rebound performance! The MVC should just be glad it's a conference and skip voting on meaningless awards...

Well, maybe PYB is wrong....look at the kind of hot poon Kyle Korver has landed after being voted tops in Arch Madness history...

All Aboard the DykeWagon....

Two more ridiculous articles, which will make the NU women's second-round choke in the NCAAs sweeter yet....

One...
Two...

Femme Fatale....

Bigger femme wear.....Rickie Fowler's bonnet, Camilo Villegas' skin-tight Juan Valdez embroidered sweaters or Davis Love's limp wristed Polo collection?

Prick of the Day...

Brandel Chamblee--For his self-appointed ascension to the moral authority of golf. Whether it's telling the rest of us lemmings that Tiger Woods' apology was adequate or criticizing every shot during tournaments as if he were Johnny Miller...