Five Minutes for Blogging (Dec. 24)
Greetings.
Hope you are all set for Christmas.
And a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone.
I’m going to fiddle with a new format here on the blog. Basically, it will work like this: each day (or many days) I’ll post five quick opinions/comments that will require about five minutes of your reading time.
And then you can respond accordingly. And I will try to mix in some non-sports stuff, too.
I’ll still write longer-form “Extra Points” blogs when needed but wanted to spice things up a bit and have more fun.
Anyway, here are my five for today, and feel free to hit me with a five-minute penalty for blogging.
But keep it clean.
1. NO EXCUSES FOR MIZZOU: I don’t want to hear that the Tigers are young and inexperienced. I don’t want to hear that getting thumped by Illinois will be good for them. The 75-59 loss to Illinois was a terrible performance, and it was another setback to the program’s credibility. Missouri fans had anticipated seeing an improved team, one ranked 25th in the AP poll, one that could stand up and defeat Illinois after an eight-year losing streak. And it seemed that coach Mike Anderson had finally established traction. Maybe he will as the season goes on. But on Tuesday night at Scottrade, we saw much of the same old thing. Poor shot selection. A frantic set offense that had no discernible purpose. And a vulnerable half-court defense that was easily, almost comically, shredded by the Fighting Illini. Sorry, no positive spin here. No free pass. Just an awful night for Mizzou. Period.
2. APOLOGIZE TO BRUCE WEBER: After a transition period, he’s got Illinois headed in the right direction, and Illini fans have to be thrilled by the number of outstanding and heralded recruits that are on the way. Weber and staff have established a terrific recruiting pipeline, so the Illinois fans who turned on Weber because of his allegedly weak recruiting should step up and admit they were wrong. As I am doing right now. Coach: I didn’t think you could recruit like this. I was wrong. My apologies.
3. HERE’S A WORD TO DESCRIBE THE CARDINALS: Cheap. This covers all of the code words and phrases that already have been offered, such as “low-hanging fruit,” and “patient” and “keeping the powder dry.” No, what all of this really means is the Cardinals are cheap until they prove otherwise. No one is asking them to throw money around like those crazy Steinbrenners, but when Khalil Greene is the big offseason acquisition (so far) after the organization promised an “aggressive” approach … well, that’s sad.
4. I WON’T GO ANYWHERE THIS NEW TOM CRUISE FILM, VALKYRIE: Why does Cruise always play himself in movies? Cruise plays a character that’s a German officer , but he speaks the entire time with a perfect English accent as if he’s sitting in the VFW Hall on Big Bend? Huh? Same with Kevin Costner; every film Costner makes he plays the role of … Kevin Costner. It’s old. As for this one … let me see if I get this straight: Cruise hopes to pep his career and warm up his image by doing a film RELEASED ON CHRISTMAS DAY that features a bunch of guys in Nazi uniforms? OK. He must be getting PR advice from Plaxico Burress.
5. WHY DIDN’T THE RAMS SIGN THIS GUY? The Pittsburgh Steelers, who have as good a chance as any AFC team to play in the Super Bowl, just signed a player off the Rams practice squad and put him on their active roster. No one is saying that offensive tackle Jason Capizzi is the next Dan Dierdorf, but if he’s good enough for the Steelers, then why didn’t the Rams keep him around, as part of their 53-man roster, and keep the big fella in play for training camp ‘09? The offensive line is the Rams’ weakest link, remember? Confusing, to say the least.
Thanks for reading.
-Bernie
Your an idiot Bernie.
Cheers
A
Whether Valkyrie is any good or not - why should Cruise speak with a phony German accent ? OR even a real one ? He is supposedly speaking in German to other German speakers, not some show-biz bunch of German imitators. I wouldn’t want the role played as if he were Sergeant Schultz.
Still no Crab Soup recipe…Dang it Bernie and your secret recipes.
The Cardinals have a high enough payroll. Tony needs to stop trying to gimmick his way to the playoffs.
You are right about Anderson. He has the players to run his “system” and it got exposed last night. Unfortunately I don’t think there is a backup plan.
By the way, nice blog.
If the Cardinals’ offer was not good enough why hasn’t Fuentes signed with the Angels? Who are they bidding against? If the Angels offer is that much better why hasn’t he signed? Who is in the bidding war. I thought it was the Angels and the Cardinals and no one else. Are the Angels really not interested, if they want him and need him the same line of bs could be said about the Angels. What have the Cardinals done wrong?
As a fan of both teams, with a nod to Illinois, who collected much of my tuition money, I hope that the series can reach a more competitive state in the coming years. I have been to 15 of the last 17 games and watched the other 2 on television, and the series has just gotten down right dull the past 7 years. I would rather the game be played tightly and a close Illinois victory than these blow outs the past few years. I hope that Mike Anderson can get the team to forget about the game last night and continue to build on what they’ve accomplished this year so far. Coach Anderson is a quality person and does have good coaching skills, plus the team is immensely likable and watchable, I am rooting for the Tigers and for Coach Anderson to bring more recruits and success to the team and make MU a consistent competitor in the Big 12 again. As good as it is to have the football team doing well, the heritage is the Basketball team and that seems to have been forgotten here of late. One thing that Weber has done every year before the Braggin Rights game is to show clips to the current squad from past teams and past games vs Mizzou as well as clips from former players giving their recollections on the game itself. It has really given the players a sense of ownership and pride in their role and responsibility in the series. I think Coach Anderson should do the same thing with his guys in future games, too. There is alot of great footage out there with Norm and several past players that could give great testimonials about classic games vs Illinois. Go Illini and Go Mizzou!
“Cruise hopes to pep his career and warm up his image by doing a film RELEASED ON CHRISTMAS DAY that features a bunch of guys in Nazi uniforms? OK. He must be getting PR advice from Plaxico Burress.”
That’s a gem right there.
Bernie,
Not trying to be a jerk, but you yourself have stated you would wait and grade the Cardinals once their roster is set during spring training. I, myself, believe that would be the fair thing to do. The market is essentially “frozen” and I know that you know that.
Mo’s apporach I think will turn out to be the right one. If not, I’ll speak out…but not now.
I didn’t think that Mizzou’s shot selection in the Braggin’ Rights game was all that bad…I just think that they shot poorly.
Besides that they blew some easy buckets under the basket.
In comparison I thought they shot the ball real well from the perimeter against Stetson, albeit a lesser opponent.
On the other hand, Illinois shot the ball lights out and when a team does that against you the only recourse you have is to match them which of course the Tigers couldn’t do.
But as far as the press defense, I’m afraid of what the rest of the Big 12 is going to do to it.
Bernie Said: APOLOGIZE TO BRUCE WEBER: After a transition period, he’s got Illinois headed in the right direction, and Illini fans have to be thrilled by the number of outstanding and heralded recruits that are on the way. Weber and staff have established a terrific recruiting pipeline, so the Illinois fans who turned on Weber because of his allegedly weak recruiting should step up and admit they were wrong. As I am doing right now. Coach: I didn’t think you could recruit like this. I was wrong. My apologies.
But still an average coach. Like Mr. Pinkel and Brad Smith he took the juice out of Juice Williams by designing a game plan around a pocket quaterback which Juice isn’t.