Page 2470 of 2957

Wilbon loves Skins’ choice of Zorn

The Redskins recently hired Mike Zorn to be their next head coach and Michael Wilbon of the Washington Post lauded the hire in one of his recent columns.

Virtually every big-splash acquisition over the last seven years, whether it was a player or a coach, has turned out to be, well, overstated. A great many times Snyder has gone out and gotten exactly the guy he had in his sights, from Deion Sanders to Al Saunders, and watched it fall somewhere between disappointing and disaster. You cannot fault Snyder one bit for effort.

And that brings me to Jim Zorn, newly and somewhat surprisingly now the head coach of the Redskins. Nothing the Redskins have done in Snyder’s tenure has had less fanfare than the announcement of Zorn as coach.

It might be the best thing that’s happened to the franchise in a long time. If any franchise could benefit from a hire with no hype, with no fanfare, with no overstatement about what he’s going to do and how he’s going to do it, it’s the Washington Redskins.

The hiring of Zorn was a head scratchier to many, but as Wilbon points out, there’s no sense making a big splash-hire if it’s only going to backfire three years later. The Ravens, Falcons and now, the Redskins, have all made hires that have been less about style and more about substance. Obviously only time will tell if these teams made the right decisions, but it’s nice to see organizations get back to hiring good football people instead of good headline material.

Pitino’s Patience Pays Off

Quietly, Rick Pitino has labored at putting Louisville back together this season. After the miraculous recover of David Padgett and the return of Juan Palocious he has the Cards headed in the right direction. His constant disciplining of Derrick Character seems to be paying off as the big fella finally seems to be listening to the voice of reason.

Yesaterday’s win over Georgetown puts the Card squarely in contention for a high seed and a chance to win the Big East.

Speaking of the Big East, a couple of schools that could be looking for coaches as the end of the season are St. John’s and Providence. Although Tim Welsh has worked miracles there, the natives are restless. Norm Roberts was asked to come in and clean up the mess left by Mike Jarvis. Roberts has done a great job repairing the damage, but a longtime neglect by the administration leaves the Johnnies on the short end of the facility battle.

Losing a Coaching Generation

Basketball writer Hoop Weiss has a great article about Bob Knight and the end of an era. While some younger coaches are in it for the fame and glamour, there are a few still in it for the right reasons. A couple of them, Matt Painter (Purdue) and Sean Miller (Xavier) are in it for the right reasons and having great seasons.

In fact Xavier just got another big win today over St. Joe’s and looks to be a very high seed come tournament time.

Purdue and Indiana Stake Their Claims

The road is supposed to be a tough place to play in the Big Ten. Well, Purude went into Wisconsin and gave the Badgers only their third home loss since Bo Ryan’s arrival 7 years ago. Then today Indiana visited Ohio State and gave the Buckeyes a setback.

Matt Painter has the youngest team in the country, but you would have never known it if you watched how they handled themselves in Madison. Robbie Hummell scored 21 points and the Boilermakers became the first team in 35 games to shoot over 50% against the Badgers. Painter is quickly distinguishing himself as one of the best young coaches in the country.

Today Indiana was led by my Big Ten MVP, DJ White, who scored 21 points and grabbed 13 rebounds enroute to a 59-53 win in Columbus. Eric Gordon scored 15 to aid White. Every time the Buckeys got close the Hoosiers got a big play from White, Gordon or freshman Jordan C rawford (who for my money is better than his over hyped brother at Kentucky). Crawford had 8 points, 6 rebounds and 7 assists without a turnover.

The next three games will tell the tale of the tape for Indiana as they host Wisconsin, Michigan State and Purdue in their next three outings. I believe Kelvin Sampson will have his troops ready and loaded for bear.

McNamee claims he injected Clemens’ wife, too

Brain McNamee, the former trainer of Roger Clemens, is now claiming that he not only injected Rog, but his wife Debbie, too.

McNamee told congressional investigators he injected Debbie Clemens with HGH — at the seven-time Cy Young Award winner’s direction — before the couple posed for a 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition photo shoot, a lawyer familiar with his testimony said Friday.

Clemens’ lawyer, Rusty Hardin, warned Friday that this situation will be the “second edition of the Duke (lacrosse) case” and that “any of you who got on the bandwagon about Roger taking steroids is going to be embarrassed.”

I’ll heed the warning Rusty, but right now I’m going to believe the guy that saved used syringes just in case his proflic client screwed him sometime in the future (like now).

« Older posts Newer posts »