Haven't made an entry in awhile, so I've got tons to talk about.
- Finally found an apartment for school next year up at Nova. It's in Devon, which is on the Main Line, and it wasn't too bad of a deal: $540 a month, and probably around $675 when utilities are added. I'm just really glad that its pretty much all over with regards to apartment-hunting.
- Ozzie Guillen called Jay Mariotti a fag. I don't see what the uproar is about, I despise Mariotti.
- Nova got Corey Stokes for the class of 2007, which was a huge get. The recruiting class next year could be possibly top 5.
Phillies lost another one to the Brewers last night. After starting the month off so well it's pretty much back to the same old shit. They're going to be far behind the Mets and Braves if they keep this up, and hopefully the axe will finally fall on ol' Cholly. Meanwhile, Jim Leyland has the Tigers in first place, but the Phillies get stuck with that fucking idiot Cholly instead of him. ::Sigh::
Reports coming out of Kansas City say that if the Royals don't get the Braves assistant GM, then they're going to talk to Ed Wade of all people. The Royals ownership must want to run off the rest of their fanbase...
Big win on the recruiting trail for Nova this week as they got a committment from Scottie Reynolds, a 4-star guard that had originally committed to Oklahoma, but got out of his committment once Kelvin Sampson left. Nova beat out Michigan for Reynolds, who could possibly start at PG next year if Kyle Lowry stays in the draft. Also, 4-star guard Jeff Jones from nearby Drexel Hill, PA backed out of his committment to Maryland for the class of 2007 recruits, and Nova is thought to be a player in that race. Personally, I think Corey Stokes (highly touted NYC recruit, has size to play the 3 along with the 2) is a more important get than Jones is, but we'll see.
Searching for a place to live at Nova next year is quite the chore. I've been using my free time on weekends to head over to the area looking for apartments or condos that could be considered cheap housing, which is pretty much an oxymoron on the Main Line. I think I found something decent though in a building called Radnor House Condos, which is basically housing for law students, other grad students, and professionals. Looks pretty nice, we'll see what happens.
Picked up a good book today about the Big 5 called "The Big 5-0, The 50th Anniversary of the Philadelphia Big 5" at the local Barnes & Noble. Very good read about the history of the Big 5 teams in the city (Nova, Temple, Penn, Saint Joe's, and LaSalle) and the games between them. Also talks about the old traditions of streamers being thrown after the first basket and the rollouts. The rollouts would usually be something witty, unless it was something from Saint Joseph's, which in that case it would be something dumb. Of course Nova had some of the best, including the classic "Patrick Ewing Can't Read This" rollout from a game against Georgetown in the mid 80s. Definitely worth the $25 if you're a college hoops fan, but it's really only avaliable in PA, NJ, and DE bookstores, but I'd imagine that you could get it online somewhere.
Speaking of the retards from City Avenue(SJU), I'll do an entry soon about Nova's rivalry with them, and how SJU basically is little brother to Nova, which pisses them off a great deal, which is pretty funny.
According to an article by Andy Katz on ESPN.com, the Big East is going to sign a new television deal, apparently one of the richest in the history of college athletics. Most of the new deal centers around basketball, as ESPN and CBS will expand their coverage of Big East basketball, which I guess will make up for the new Big Ten network being launched for Big Ten college sports, including basketball.
There was also a blurb by Katz that Pitt's Aaron Gray's decision whether to stay in the draft or not will heavily influence the number of TV appearances that the Panthers will have next year. If he stays, Pitt is likely to be on national TV more, and if he doesn't, it means less appearances. I imagine that the teams that are considered contenders for the conference title (UConn, Louisville, Syracuse, Georgetown, Nova, Pitt) are going to get more of their games on national TV than ones that aren't.
I've been finally forced back into going to the gym regularly after seeing how pudgy I was in my graduation photos. The beer gut that I had before is starting to disappear, and I'm starting to get more toned in my arms, chest, shoulders, and legs. Definitely looking good on that front, but I'd like to get the abs toned more.
I came to the realization today that my summer job is pretty fucking boring. Since I'm the senior member of the summer help (college kids), I basically run the 5-6 man group, which ends up with me telling the kids under me what to do, then napping the entire morning, having lunch, going for rides in the trucks that my work has, then zoning out until it's time to clock out. I can't complain though since I'm making 10 dollars an hour to do nothing all summer long.
Summer money is going to get blown pretty quickly considering the stuff I have to get for next fall (suit, Septa pass, security deposit for apartment, likely first month's rent as well if the Graduate PLUS loan money gets stalled.) Hopefully my car keeps running well or I may have to stick up a bank or something to cover expenses.
I've been reading a book called "One L" by Scott Turow, which is about his experiences as a first year law student at Harvard. The students basically act like little bitches throughout the book, complaining about the Contracts professor getting pissed at a student that wasn't prepared for class and writing an angry letter to the administration about it. There's also the common "rich hippie lecturing everyone about the plight of the poor ", the super-competitive people, people complaining about B's in law school after getting A's most of their lives, it's all there. The Contracts professor is extremely entertaining throughout the book, so it's a good read based off him alone.
Here's the entry I promised in an earlier blog about the Holy War:
VILLANOVA VS. SAINT JOSEPH'S
This rivalry is part of the Philadelphia Big 5, but it'd still be one even if there was no Big 5. The two schools are both Catholic, but they're very different. For starters, Nova is not even located in Philadelphia, but rather in the Main Line suburbs (the affluent part of the area, people like Allen Iverson and Andy Reid among others have gigantic houses there.) Saint Joseph's is closer to the city, but is basically on the borderline of the suburbs. This hasn't stopped SJU people from claiming that "We're true Philly!" even though Temple, Penn, and La Salle are much more based in the city.
A lot of the rivalry is based off each schools' image based off the past. SJU was seen back from the 1950s to the 1970s as the school where the blue-collar Catholic kids of the city would go to college at, whereas Nova was the school of the upper class of Pennsylvania, along with a good amount of kids from New Jersey and New York as well. It's changed a lot since then, basically since SJU and Nova pretty much cost the same to attend now. Once again, that hasn't stopped the SJU people from claiming that all Nova kids are rich while they're the kids from the other side of the tracks, when the reality is that whenever SJU kids try to use that, it's basically the pot calling the kettle black.
As compared to the other Big 5 games, the intensity is ratcheted up much further, thanks to what the two schools' fanbases see each other as. SJU fans see Nova fans as arrogant, claiming that Nova fans put their program alongside Duke (which is untrue, SJU delusion at its best). Meanwhile, Nova fans see SJU fans as jealous of Nova being in the Big East (extremely true, every SJU person I talk to whines about Nova being in the Big East) and the 1985 national title (Well duh, if I were an SJU fan, I'd be jealous too considering their 2004 team, their "best team ever" only got to the Elite Eight.) But there's another divisive figure in this rivalry:
Phil Martelli.
John Chaney may have been more hated by the other Big 5 school fans, but Martelli is quickly rising up the ranks. Chaney at least had the respect of the city fans, whereas the fans see Martelli as a media whore. Basically, he has to get on every sports program on CSN and CN8, and it's gotten really annoying. The Nova and Temple fans have even dubbed him "Shill Martelli" for it.
Another thing that makes this rivalry is the delusional, crybaby SJU fanbase. They did have justification to complain about GoonGate in 2005, but then they got their panties in a bunch about the behavior of Temple students during the game between SJU and Temple this year, crying about Temple students chanting "Fuck The Hawk" and "Fuck Martellli" when their students chanted a sexually explicit epitaph at John Chaney during their first meeting at the Palestra. Then comes their inferiority complex towards Nova, which shows leading up to the Holy War, which they treat basically as their Super Bowl, which if they lose they're in a 3 month long depression for. You haven't seen a bigger group of crybabies, whiners, and basically idiots until you've seen the SJU fanbase. They even whined to the Daily News during the tournament this year about Nova getting more coverage than them. Well no shit considering that Nova was a #1 seed in the NCAAs and SJU was in the NIT. They still, according to my Temple friends, whine incessantly about GoonGate, and probably will for another 40 years.
To close, the rivalry is fun, simply for the car-wreck factor of SJU. When the tournament comes, I'll root for any other Big 5 school in it (Temple - especially since I'm a fan of Fran Dunphy, Penn, and La Salle), but not SJU. If they were to luck their way into a #1 seed again, then get bounced by a #16 seed, then there would be ritual suicide on City Avenue, but of course preceeded by whining about how Nova was probably responsible for it.
I'm going to try analyzing the coaching changes at the schools in the 6 BCS conferences and see who I think made the good hires and who may have struck out.
Seton Hall (Bobby Gonzalez) - The Pirates after firing Louis Orr decided to go with the rising star in NYC college hoops, lucking out and landing Bobby Gonzalez after St. John's decided to pass on him a couple of years ago in favor of Norm Roberts. Gonzalez comes to Seton Hall after a successful tenure at Manhattan, finishing over .500 each year in league play, 3 regular season MAAC championships, and 2 bids in the NCAA Tournament, with the 2004 berth producing an upset over Florida. Gonzalez, a former assistant under Pete Gillen, is known as a great recruiter with several contacts in the North Jersey/NYC area, where Seton Hall gets most of its recruits, with a negative of having known to ride players and assistants very hard.
Analysis: Best new hire in the conference. Gonzalez brings a ton of energy into the Seton Hall program, which had been emitting uncertainty under Orr, thanks to his recruting prowess and his status as a top mid-major coach in the Mid-Atlantic area. He's already secured a couple of solid committments, so after this year which will be a young team, expect Seton Hall to go on an upswing.
Rutgers (Fred Hill Jr.) - Rutgers finally let go of Gary Waters, buying out his contract to start what had been expected since Hill had come on at the position of "Associate Head Coach" a year ago. Hill had prior experience as an assistant under Jay Wright at Villanova, helping bring in Nova's highly regarded 2002 and 2003 recruiting classes, and before that as an assistant under Tommy Amaker at Seton Hall. Hill's main expertise is recruiting, as shown by his role in bringing Randy Foye to Nova. He has never been a head coach before.
Analysis: This requires more of a wait-and-see approach. Hill can bring in talent, but has never had to run his own ship before and always had the advantage in recruiting of having a great "closer" (Wright and Amaker) with him to secure commitments. Hill took a major blow for next year when Quincy Douby announced that he was staying in the draft, so there is a possibility of Rutgers only having 8 scholarship players next year, and maybe only 7 if freshman Hamady N'Diaye is ruled ineligible due to getting his degree from a possible "diploma mill" school that the NCAA is cracking down on. Hill will also be fighting the Rutgers basketball stigma (No NCAA tournament berth since 1991, constant losing teams) and will be going head-to-head with top coaches in the conference (Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Rick Pitino, John Thompson III, Wright, Gonzalez) and in the nation (Hill lost a recruiting battle to Duke and Mike Krzyzewzki pretty handily for top NJ product Lance Thomas, leading to a meltdown on the Rutgers Rivals board.) The first 2 years are very important for Hill and Rutgers. If RU can make the headways, Hill can get talent and Rutgers may finally become respectable in the Big East. If not, then Hill will be just another example of a casualty in Rutgers basketball.
Cincinnatti (Mick Cronin) - Despite nearly making the NCAAs with the injury problems at Cincy along with being in the extremely tough Big East, Andy Kennedy was not retained as head coach, with Cincy going for Cronin, the head coach of Murray State instead. Cronin had a 69-23 record at Murray State, along with earning 2 NCAA tournament trips. Cronin also was the recruiting coordinator at Louisville, helping bring in a top 10 class which included Francisco Garcia.
Analysis: Cronin will have his hands full at a major program with high expectations, along with the toughness of the Big East. Cronin is a good recruiter, but will have to deal with new Kansas State head coach Bob Huggins working against him and UC for two of the top high school players in the country who are in Cincinnatti themselves, O.J. Mayo and Bill Walker. Cronin will also be working against Ohio State and Thad Matta for recruits. Kennedy really did get a raw deal here, he probably did as good of a job as one could expect after the Huggins ordeal last year. UC fans will have to be patient as Cronin gets settled into this job.
Next time: The new ACC hire, North Carolina State's Sidney Lowe and the only new coach in the Big Ten, Indiana's new head man Kelvin Sampson.
Ryan Howard won the HR derby last night, so that's one thing us Phils fans have to cheer about this year.
Bill Giles (part-owner of the Phillies) was saying moronic things in the papers today, such as "Brett Myers wasn't hitting his wife, he was helping her." Maybe Bill is just getting old....
I move to Pennsylvania in less than a month. Pretty exciting stuff, I just have to call Comcast now and see how much they're going to fuck me over with cable and internet fees, along with how much Peco will charge me a month for electricity. Once I get all situated, I'm going to try and get up to Lehigh and see the Eagles training camp.
A Septa pass for me to get to school and back is going to be $60 a month. Yeesh, better than driving though and dumping $90 per month into gas.
That's all for now, I'll try to get back on the "College Hoops New Hires" column when I can.
I'm on the board less and less now due to law school taking up most of my time, so this is likely my last blog entry for a while.
Phils are tied for the wild card, if they win this next series with the Marlins I think they can take it.
I was at Eagles-Giants on Sunday, less said the better.
PA is fine.
See ya.
