teke184

I'm not sure... at least they went to 7, which is more than can be said about the 2006-2007 Mavericks. It would certainly be one of the bigger disappointments of all-time. I'd personally find it hilarious that 99% of the commentators in the known universe agreed that the Hornets would get bounced in the first round due to playoff inexperience, yet they've moved on but the "sure-thing" bet Celtics could get bounced by one of the worst playoff teams, record-wise, in NBA history.

They've got Andrew Hatch, a transfer from Harvard, who was on the team last year as the 3rd string QB. If Perriloux hadn't been re-instated by the SECCG, he'd have started against Tennessee instead. They've also got Jarrett Lee, a redshirt freshman who was highly recruited out of Texas, and an incoming freshman who was highly recruited as well. As far as LSU's *need* for QBs goes, it's not as great as it would be for other teams, IMHO. The engine of LSU runs off running backs and they have a BIG stable of them that they've returned from last season. LSU's QB only needs to be a Trent Dilfer style of "game manager" in order for the team to win... Historically, LSU won their two titles with less-talented white QBs (Matt Mauck and Matt Flynn) who were game-managers rather than with their more-talented and more-athletic predecessors (rocket-armed QBs Rohan Davie and JaMarcus Russell).

I just looked up the SWAC history and realized why I couldn't place them... They're the last team to join the SWAC, in 1999, which was after I stopped caring about who belonged to the conference.

The current rumor at the ESPN site has him transferring to Alabama A&M. I don't know anything about that team, but the school sounds like a HBCU (historically black college/university).

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA Oh that is just hi-fuckin-larious. (I apologize about this, as a Longhorn fan I can only laugh and laugh) If you still want him, you can have him... he just needs to sit out a year for a transfer. However, I'm thinking that he'll probably end up at a Louisiana-based I-AA school so that he can start immediately. Maybe Southern U., if he wants to stay in Baton Rouge, or either McNeese St. or Northwestern LA if he wants to play on a I-AA tournament team. (SWAC schools like Southern don't play in the I-AA tourney because they make too much money with games like the Bayou Classic (Southern vs. Grambling at the Superdome), the SWAC Title Game, the Heritage Bowl, etc. They compete for the Sheridan Poll title, aka the "Black National Championship", instead of the I-AA title.) BTW, my initial thoughts of his dismissal being grade-related are supposed to be wrong. The current rumor, which no one will confirm because it will impact his NFL draft prospects, is that he failed three drug tests. EDIT- Scratch that... WAFB 9 (CBS Baton Rouge) and ESPN are reporting that Perriloux failed a drug test. There goes my "no one will confirm it" comment.

According to various media reports, LSU coach Les Miles has kicked uber-prospect QB Ryan Perriloux off the team. The story appears to be that Perriloux wasn't doing what needed to be done to participate in football at LSU (likely skipping classes and/or failing out, as this should be spring semester exam week at LSU). This was something long in the making, at least since he and two of his buddies got into a brawl with bouncers at a club managed by some people I know from HS during the off-week before the Alabama game. At least this happened *BEFORE* the season and not *DURING* the season, which is what I expected given that this guy is a chronic dumbass.

Well-played, Kobe.

What did Stockton do, then, to deserve his lack of Finals success? Deal smack while at Gonzaga? Guilty by association? That's like saying Shaq and the rest of the Lakers got punished because Kobe screwed that hotel clerk in Colorado, not because Kobe's head got too big or because they over-relied on veterans like Malone and Payton off the bench instead of young guys. Well...that team did have Karl the 13 year old impregnator Malone on the team (and now that I think about it, Cheryl Fords mom was 13 too when she got pregnant with Malones child. He was only 17 at the time. Then when he was around 19-20, he got ANOTHER 13 year old pregnant....ASSHOLE) and Kobe "He is a hero for going to his RAPE trial and coming back and playing" Bryant on the team. If karma doesn't fuck that team over, who does karma fuck? Idiots like Jay Williams and Kellen Winslow II, as well as guys like Bobby Hurley for some reason.

What did Stockton do, then, to deserve his lack of Finals success? Deal smack while at Gonzaga? Guilty by association? That's like saying Shaq and the rest of the Lakers got punished because Kobe screwed that hotel clerk in Colorado, not because Kobe's head got too big or because they over-relied on veterans like Malone and Payton off the bench instead of young guys. It was said in jest. I know, but I want people around here to qualify their exaggerations. Say "Malone is a despicable human being" and leave it at that. Don't go down the "God fucked over 14 other players because Malone couldn't keep his cock in his shorts" route.

Patrick Ewing, anybody?

What did Stockton do, then, to deserve his lack of Finals success? Deal smack while at Gonzaga? Guilty by association? That's like saying Shaq and the rest of the Lakers got punished because Kobe screwed that hotel clerk in Colorado, not because Kobe's head got too big or because they over-relied on veterans like Malone and Payton off the bench instead of young guys.

What did Stockton do, then, to deserve his lack of Finals success? Deal smack while at Gonzaga?

What, like there was anything ELSE to do in Ruston, LA, on a Saturday night in the early 80s... [/sarc]

In Avery's case, there had been friction between him and the front office throughout the year and there had been an incident in the past week showing he'd lost the team. In the case of Avery and Cuban's tension, at least part of it was over Cuban wanting Brandon Bass to get more minutes (which worked out well when Bass got in during the playoffs) and I think another part of it was over the failures of the team to achieve after the Kidd trade.

Not a big surprise there... Avery's coaching acumen was questionable at best, which contributed to the Mavs getting the shit knocked out of them by the 8th-seeded Warriors last year and not being particularly competitive against the Hornets this year. I'm wondering what else Cuban will do, though, since most of the roster was ineffectual during this series, with only Dirk and Brandon Bass showing any significant success. With half the roster, including Devean George and Juwan Howard, scheduled for free agency this year and Jason Kidd having only one remaining year on his contract, they're capable of doing a significant turnover of the roster in a short period of time, should they find talent to replace them.

You have to be willing to put people in to eat the fouls in order to do that. D'antoni didn't seem willing to put anyone but his top 8 guys on the court and at least 3 of those top guys (Shaq, Amare, Diaw) had 4-5 fouls late in the game. Also, from what I'm hearing, D'antoni walked because he didn't feel he had management's confidence behind him. Who goes to Phoenix, Avery Johnson?

Blame Mr. "Offensive Genius" Brian Billick, not the Ravens players. It's not like Bart Scott went batshit and handed the game to the Dolphins... that was the game against the Patriots he did that in.

That would have been funny to watch... I think he'd have been there one week before Jason Kidd tried a player revolt to get him canned.

New Orleans is icing a series win while Jerry Stackhouse is walking his ejected ass back to the Mavs' locker room. (He got his 2nd T of the night by slapping the ball out of Paul's hands after a foul, then getting into it with David West after that.)

New Orleans is 4:10 away from knocking out Dallas. Detroit is smacking the 76ers around.

I see that happening as well, with Larry sticking around for about two years to turn Okafor and that bunch into a decent contender for the 7th or 8th slot in the East playoffs. He won't get a world-beater out of that team, but he'll at least pull them out of the East basement. (Chicago and/or Indiana will take their place there soon.)

If Simms gets signed, you can go ahead and count on a large number of "Got Spleen?" signs appearing in the stands.

Avery's job was questionable considering that the only game in this year's playoffs that seemed competently coached was #3, which was the only game they've won in the series. Something like this helps fuel the notion that Cuban not only needs to fire Avery, but probably clean house on his roster as well. The only players from the current roster I'd definitely keep are Dirk and Brandon Bass... everyone else has played like crap in this series and should be moved, if possible. (Kidd should be dumped ASAP, but few teams will take his contract.)

In other news, the Dallas Mavericks held a players-only practice yesterday after Avery Johnson and the coaching staff canceled regular practice in preparation for their flight to New Orleans. This is being taken as a sign that the players have officially lost faith in Avery Johnson, which should be a sign to Mark Cuban that he's got some work to do in the offseason. No one has said which players were the ring-leaders in this, but a lot of the speculation falls squarely on Jason Kidd, who was involved in a player-revolt against Byron Scott several years ago in New Jersey.

This has been noted by the AOL Fanhouse, who think that KG shoving the ref, plus Perkins and Williams leaving the bench, could add up to suspensions for all three. Doing so would likely give Atlanta a win at Boston, meaning that the Celtics would need to win one in Atlanta and one in Boston to advance. As far as Byron Scott goes, the man got a well-deserved award.